The Gray Monk

April 02, 2009

Protestor or Terrorist?

The G20 Protests in London have gone down the route I expected. There is no such thing as a "peaceful" protest, any and every protest I have ever witnessed has turned into an excuse for the violent fringe to make trouble. But there is now a much more sinister element at work here, look at the pictures in any orf the papers or on the TV News and you see the protestors dressed in dark "hoodie" fleeces and with their faces hidden by masks. If they intend a "peaceful" demonstration, why do they feel a need to behave like the Mujahedin, Al Qaeda or the IRA's "soldiers" who routinely hid behind masks.

I do not believe in "gestures" which is what these mob marches and "protests" are and find myself very much in agreement with Bounaparte who famously surveyed a rioting mob in Paris and ordered that they be treated to a "whiff of grape shot". It certainly stopped the riot and it rapidly restored order. This is the problem with "protests" and "protestors" - they seek to force governments and elected bodies to change policy or ideology by riot rather than through persuasion or the ballot. Any government that kowtows to it is surrendering to the rule of the mob and that is one step away from tyranny and oppression of everyone the mob's incitors decide is "an enemy of the people". We live in a democracy, not perfect, but still a democracy. It has institutions and powers to address the needs and desires of the electors - and mobs have no place in such a society. Yet, since the 1960's (and most of our present government are of that mindset) the idea has grown up that governments can be forced to change any policy or to adopt the agenda of a small and usually very unrepresentative, but vociferous and frequently violent mob.

Mobs have never yet brought peace, fairness or justice, they bring anarchy and do immense damage to our society and the fabric of our instruments of wealth. What is more the most violent of these "protestors" are frequently unemployed and have no intention of being gainfully employed. They are parasites feeding off the generosity of the very society they attack. Gestures are one thing, letting my MP and his or her Party know what I think of any policy or proposal is another, but mob rule through riots and "protests", "peace camps" or any of the other plethora of Hippy generation claptrap is unacceptable.

Isn't it ironic that the organisers of these riots are dyed in the wool "socialists" on the extreme left who want to create a unitary party state ruled by socialism - their brand of course - the very antithesis of democracy and the least likely type of state to ever permit their antics.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 23, 2009

A long day

It's been a long day in what promises to be a very long week. As ever, it's not the work I'm being paid for that is making the biggest demands and though I normally give my time happliy, I have an incipient cold which won't go away and I'm tired. Sorry folks, tonight there won't be a post of any great interest.

Mind you, it could be worse, I could have the Press trying to make a storm in a teacup out of nothing as the Conservative Party now has. Its fascinating how much noise the Press are able to make over a simple musing. The Conservatives are not the government and may not be elected, so what the blazes is wrong with the Shadow Business Secretary using the words "an aspiration" in relation to a tax they want to change? It will be an aspiration until they are in a position to change it - but the left dominated press have had a field day trying to make political capital for their paymasters in Labour.

Its tiresome and its a sham. Crocodiles do not weep and the Press itself has nothing whatever to be self-righteous about. Now, I'm knackered, so its off to bed.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 19, 2009

Spam attacks

Twice yesterday MuNu seems to have been hit by Spam Attacks. For a while PixyMisa actually shut down comment acceptance on the whole of MuNu, yet the spammers still managed to get a few under the radar. I have to say though, that since PM fitted Fluffy the Spamhound, the spam has been much reduced. Its still a nuisance though.

Spamming should be uprated to major criminal offence - it is, in fact, a form of terrorism since my Doctor's system last night was running very slow due to attempts apparently, to hack into it. Fortunately it is almost hack-proof, and the source is a Far Eastern spammer. Why do they feel the need to do this?

Terrorism does seem to be about the only explanation.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 14, 2009

Why I hate Civil Servants

In these financially disasterous times everyone is vulnerable, none more so than those who have been made redundant. Such is the fate of one of my fellow MuNuvians - Practical Penumbra aka Suzie. She used to run a multiscreen cinema complex in her home state in the US. A little over a month ago her employer decided to close. Just like that, no warning and no consultation. Suzie has paid her taxes and contributed to social security as long as she worked, so now, she thought, it was time to sign on and get the benefits she is entitled too. Pity her employer fouled up the social security number for her contributions - not something she could or necessarily would spot. But enough for the bureaucrats who are supposed to "serve" her, to withold any payment.

This is why I hate Civil Servants. They are, without exception, parasites on any society, but thrive especially in any society which falls for the line that "management" is a matter of following a set of "rules" determined by - you've guessed - Civil Servants. The experience of Suzie at Practical Penumbra who was made redundant five weeks ago. Her claim for unemployment benefits is now being shuffled from in tray to in tray. "Enquiries are being made is all the answer she gets, yet, nothing is being looked at, the file is still lying on a desk somewhere (One of the parasites actually admitted that!) and it seems unlikely that there will be any movement in under six months if she is lucky. This is typical of the way the Civil Service handles their cock-ups. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, there is always some damned Civil Servant who will slavishly follow the "rules" and deny you what you have paid for through your tax while happily pocketing a huge amount of that same tax for doing absolutely nothing useful at all. As for actually doing what they are paid to do - forget it! As for admitting they may have got something wrong - forget it, Hell will be 10,000 years into an Ice- age before that is even likely.

I recommend that you read her story and weep. This is absolutely typical of every civil service I have ever had to deal with and I have dealt with several over the years.

In my career I have had to attend numerous meetings presided over by civil servants. The minutes never record the discussion, just that there was one, they never record a decision, because there never is one. By keeping it "corporate" they avoid blame of it goes wrong. The "Minister" is always the fall guy and always the excuse. I have lost count of the number of times I have been told it was "the Minister's decision", yet, when you confront the Minister (as I have done twice!) with the facts he turns to the civil servant and demands "why wasn't I told about this?" Of course they have had their revenge, I have been sidelined in my career and eventually retired without recognition, but I know where they are hiding the skeletons and one day I will have my moment, always assuming someone else doesn't get there first.

There is only one thing wrong with every civil service. It exists. There is only one way to cure it - make every civil servant responsible for everything they do wrong and that means all the way to the Permanent Secretaries right at the top. Make them responsible - if the Minister takes a fall they should go too! The list of things the civil service in the UK have destroyed, degraded to the point of uselessness or simply "managed" out of existence is long enough to fill a book. Those who have encountered the "Prince 2" system of Project Management will have rapidly (Unless they are a Civil Servant and therefore completely unable to identify reality when they see it) discovered that it is completely and utterly useless. A paper exercise which is so bureaucratic it does nothing except drive the project costs sky high and all technical staff involved to despair. Prince 2 has never delivered a project of any descriuption on time or on budget, yet it is the Treasury's ONLY permissable "Project Management System".

If the "Rules" do not allow you to do a job efficiently, don't think they can be amended. The "Rules", accroding to the Civil Servant applying them, were invariably "made" by the Minister, Parliament or - worst of all - the Treasury. B******t! They were usually written by the idiot you are talking too, or, if they were by some miracle "made" by any of the usual scape goats, they were merely signed by some twit who didn't understand them when they were shoved in front of them. Take my word for it, I have worked alongside some of these morons, their only problem is that their egos are so huge they can't see anything else and they are completely and utterly incompetent. Sadly it goes all the way downward as well. Human cloning? Just look at the Civil Service in any given country. Toe the party line, suppress all desire to actually do anything that serves the people you are supposed to be serving and you'll do very well indeed. Might even get a Knighthood out of it.

Suzie's experience of the American Civil Service is a case in point. The fact that she is trying to sort out a problem which has serious consequences for her (loss of home, etc.) just doesn't register with them at all. So what if their "investigation" of her case takes all year? It's only another benefit claimant. Another tax payer trying to take money back from the taxes they have paid toward the civil servant's pension scheme (Bomb proof) or the civil servants salary (also bomb proof) and which the civil servants of every society see as their right to spend, waste and withold as they see fit. The very term "Civil Servant" is an oxymoron - I have yet to meet any who are either civil or servants. In fact I know one very senior Civil Servant who is unqualified to do what he does, yet happily takes home an annual salary of £160k, looks forward to a pension almost two thirds of that (with a substantial lump sum commutation!) and whose contribution to the good governance of this country includes the delisting of Blue Tongue as a notifiable disease (You can't cure it so don't report it!), a hugely expensive computer scheme which is now running over budget and undelivered (from his previous post) and who will sit through every meeting with experts and then demand a single paragraph summary of the discussion with "a decision I can take to the Minister".

It is my belief that the Civil Service is a genetic defect. We should sponsor genetic research in order to identify the gene and eradicate it.

Pray for Suzie. Unfortunately prayers targeted at the death of the appropriate civil servant are unlikely to meet with Divine approval. Frankly, the Devil must be laughing his head off - Civil Servants are far more effective at driving people to despair than millennia of demonic activity. Pratchett is right - the Devil and demons don't have the imagination.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 12, 2009

Dishonoured Honours

Only the Labour Party could possibly think that the award of a knighthood to a man who supported the IRA terrorists murder campaign in Northern (And Southern) Ireland, supported Noraid which funded the IRA and did more to promote their "mythology" than anyone else for his efforts to promote "peace", was a good idea. It simply proves that the entire "Honours" system has now become nothing more than a way of rewarding the undeserving pop-stars and sycophants who fund Labour and their social engineering schemes and of insulting all the truly hardworking and self-sacrificing individuals who really do deserve the recognition.

Ted Kennedy's "knighthood" is intended to insult the Loyalist side of the Irish Divide and promote the Sinn Fein/IRA who are Labour's partners in the process. Labour hate the Loyalists with a passion born out of the rejection by the Unionist Parties of Labour's communist ambitions. The New Year "Honours" were stuffed with the undeserving, mainly Civil Servants who should be sacked for their incompetence and the damage they have done to our society, the public services they are supposed to deliver and our economy. Ted Kennedy is simply the most visible example of just how dishonourable our "Honours" system has become under this government of apparatchiks and closet communists. I am glad to see that I am not alone in thinking this either, several of our more serious journalists concur, though as expected, The Grauniad thinks its good. But then, you'd expect the British version of Pravda to think that.

Coming, as it does on top of the most recent murders of Servicemen and Police Officers by those Mr Kennedy and his family have done so much to arm and encourage, it really is insulting to everyone in Ireland and particularly to those who have genuinely sought peace. At least all sides in Northern Ireland know how to show Braown and the IRA their feelings, the silent vigils yesterday said everything.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 07, 2009

Green Lord?

I will confess to being very amused by the sight, on TV, of Lord Mandelson, Mr Blair's favourite EU Commissioner, disgraced MP and now Life Peer and chum of Gordo the Brown, getting a faceful of green custard. A pity it was thrown by a misguided "Green" protester, but I cannot fault her aim. Of course, she could now face charges under the Terrorism Act, but I rather think Lord Mandelson hasn't complained to the police - who have egg on their faces for the total failure of any protection squad member, or any of the many police present, to apprehend the llady and prevent the assault.

I suspect she will be "cautioned" for common assault and that will be that.

It couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. I wonder when someone will land one on the rest of this Party of thieves and thugs? Mind you, I have to admit a grudging respect for the man, his calm behaviour in the face of this assault and his subsequent good humour about it deserve acknowledgement.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 05, 2009

Incompetence in the Civil Service? It seems its official!

A major "Think Tank" report out today identifies a number of issues I have been banging on about for years as major problems with the Civil Service and recommends root and branch reform. Personally I think its far too late for reform - nothing but its total annihilation and replacement will serve to fix it. What can be done with an organisation that buys 8 Chinooks, then tries to save money by demanding "modifications" which mean the software necessary to fly the damned things has to be rewritten and can't be - so the helicopters still can't fly eleven years after we bought them! The Civil SErvants say that its the military changed the specification after purchase, in fact if the military spec had been followed by the Civil Servants to begin with the whole sorry mess wouldn't have arisen!

Then there's the debacle of the Passport Office computers which still don't work properly and the NHS has just written off £125 million spent on a computer system that could not be made to work, the MOD (again!) who ordered Eurofighters (Called Typhoons by the RAF) without the "chain gun" supposed to mounted in the wing (To save money) only to find that the plane won't fly without it - so we now have strike aircraft with chain guns fitted that can't be fired. The Civil Service was the invention of the 19th Century. The remarkable thing about it then was that it worked, mainly because it stuck to setting strategy and left the management to "then man on the Ground". It also had a preponderance of Oxbridge academic types running it who recognised that "big government" was not a "good thing". Then some damned fool gave them "management" responsibility for the day to day running of the government. And its gone down the pan from there.

The Report calls for the Senior Civil Servants to be appointed my Ministers and for their appointment to be restricted to three years. Good idea except for the "appointed by ministers" bit. It goes further however and calls for incompetence to be punishable. At present it is all but impossible to get rid of an incompetent or obstructive Civil Servant, and what is needed is a change in the law which allows them to be held responsible for their botches. Not before time, in fact, well overdue! Attend any meeting chaired by the Civil Service on any matter and you will be struck by the fact that no decisions are ever taken and no discussion is ever minuted. Just a heading and a set of initials and a note which usually says, "further investigation" or "deferred".

And the remaining thing that has to be smashed from the psyche is this - and I feel it merits capitals!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MANAGEMENT PROFESSION! MANAGEMENMT IS A FUNCTION OF EVERY ROLE AND EVERY PROFESSION - NOT A PROFESSION IN ITS OWN RIGHT!

That has to be struck from the Civil Service appointments and promotions Rule Book before there can be any hope of a return to the sensible practice of allowing the professionals to manage their profession and not to have glorified filing clerks and HR specialists dictating how rocket scientists, military professionals, fire fighters, police officers and health care professionals do their work!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 04, 2009

Disaster in Cologne

Work in Cologne has been going on for some time to build or extend the Underground Railway for the city. Today it appears that someone got something horribly wrong. The entire Historic City Archive building collpased into a huge hole in the ground which is directly related to the tunnels being constructed along the street in front of it. Two people are still missing, probably dead by now and the archives priceless collection of documents dating back to the reign of Kark der Grosse (Charlemagne to the French and Charles the Great to everyone else) now lie buried in the rubble.

Some pictures of the disaster can be found here.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 02, 2009

And I thought I was the only one ....

This post is worthy of a much wider audience. Sleeping Albion, an image of a sleeping giant from the poetry of William Blake, is the feature at the heart of the post on "Little man -what now".

He makes several excellent points and his words on the loss of our "freedoms' and the supine manner in which our majority have accepted the canards and slanders of the "liberal left" ex-hippies now running this once great country are more than just memorable. There can be no greater truth than the statement - "Opinions are dangerous," and the rest of the statement which reminds us that our present set of rulers do not, under any circumstances allow anyone to express any opinion which conflicts with the new "Truth" as they promote it.

Do pay this blog a visit and spread the word. There may yet be time for Sleeping Albion to awake and throw out these thieves of our identity and our freedom.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:46 PM | TrackBack

February 28, 2009

Blame games

It's interesting watching Whitehall (That centre of ultimate incompetence) and Westminster's denizens (The Centre of ultimate freeloading) accusing the banks and bankers of greed and incompetence. Firstly, the rogues among the banking community got away with it because the Regulatory body was being run on minimum intervention on the orders of Westminster/Downing Street and Civil Servants staff it. Not a Banking qualification or experience between either body as far as I can see.

Then when you look at the Boardrooms themselves you rapidly discover that these are also filled with parachutists - no Banking Qualifications there either, much less actual experience at Branch level.

Many more years ago than the Monk likes to remember he joined the staff of one of the then largest banks in the world. It didn't last, the Monk was not meant to be in banking and he moved on after a few years, but the interesting thing is this, at that time the Chairman of the Bank (Logo: Black Spread Eagle with coronets on each wing and its chest and the initials DCO under it) had worked in a Branch and actually knew what we, the numerous clerks actually did in the "Waste Department", in "Clearances" , "Remittances", "Bills" or "Securities". The likes of the gent now under scrutiny for his part in the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland and his £650k pension, have probably never heard these terms and wouldn't know how anyone actually did the work it involved anyway. In fact I doubt if any of them have any acquaintance at all with the operational side of any branch of any bank, let alone the ones they supposedly managed.

What Whitehall is eager to hide in all of this, and to an extent Westminster as well, is that the Cult of Management is at the root cause of this collapse. Gone are the days when, in order to be a "Manager" you had first to work your way up the particular branch of the particular profession to become one. Now any over qualified filing clerk waving an MBA can parachute into any profession and "Manage" the professionals. What rapidly happens of course is that the professionals very quickly find that their time is increasingly spent writing "Business Cases" or filling in forms for an ever increasing army of paper shufflers to discuss in meetings from which the professionals are excluded and never actually action. Westminster used to be filled with people who were bankers, industrialists, ex-military, police or fire fighters, doctors etc. Now it is stuffed with professional politicians who have never done a day's work in their lives and haven't got even the vaguest idea how the people they claim to be "serving" with their ill-judged and ill-written legislation are affected. Why? Because they are advised by Civil Servants and Trade Unionists, neither of whom would qualify as knowing anything about the reality of the work either......

So, as I said, its interesting watching Parliament, the Civil Service and their "advisers" and cronies blaming the banks. It distracts attention from the fact that they haven't got a clue on what they are talking about, can't do anything to fix it anyway because they broke it in the first place, and don't give a damn about the rest of us - because, boy, have they got the pension stitched up a treat! They daren't touch the big pensions the Boards are getting lined up for because that exposes their own scam. A full pension after only two terms in Parliament? A gold plated pension, medals and knighthoods after 40 years screwing the public as a Civil Servants? That's where we should be looking for a bit of "claw back" after all, its our money that pays for it and that is where the blame really rests.

Management is NOT an independent "profession" it is a function of professional activity. We would do well to re-establish that principle in all corporate activity, commercial, industrial and perhaps most importantly, in government at all levels.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 27, 2009

A winner for a long week

Sorry this post is so late folks, but its been a long a very stressful week. So it was a great piece of news to get a call from the Law firm I have been acting as "expert" for to tell me that the case has been settled out of court and that my report was one of the reasons for doing so. Everyone is happy - especially my clients as they walk away no worse off and without having to pay a very large contribution to the owners of the building that was lost.

Nice to know you're getting something right. Even nicer when you get the personal thanks of a high powered Barrister for your assistance "in this matter".

And so to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day too!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 26, 2009

Selling off the silver ....

So our esteemed ex- EU Commissar, Lord Mandelson, is trying to sell off the Royal Mail and offering all sorts of sweetners and "guarantees" to get it through that House of Perfidy in Westminster. The Royal Mail is in a mess precisely because this same bunch of dangerous buffoons allowed its profitable bits to be "cherry picked" in an earlier botched attempt by the Civil Service to "free up RM to focus on its core business." Well, guess who's behind this latest attempt?

You guessed, the Civil Service again. Show me one project the Civil Service have managed to deliver on budget, on time or indeed according to plan.

Royal Ordinance was "privatised" with guarantees that our armed forces would still have access to UK based production of their weapons and munitions. Well that lasted about five years and then, guess what, the bits were sold off and now all our arms and all our munitions come from outside the UK. The MOD was ordered by this government to close its hospitals and care facilities for wounded service personnel and give it all to the NHS - on the grounds that it would save money and the NHS would provide the specialised services and support. Guess what, the money has vanished into that well known Black Hole and the services for the military have failed to materialise - so now we have desperately ill and wounded men returning to be treated badly by ill equipped and ill prepared medical staff alongside Tom, Dick, Harry and Harriet and be abused by the Civil Servants this same shower of incompetents have put in charge. Ask the lad with his leg blown off and serious injuries who was asked by a "manager" to remove his uniform because it "upset" some of the layabouts in A&E where the "caring" NHS had dumped him.

Let's ask about the £165 million written off in an IT project the Civil Service has decided to abandon because it can';t be made to work and do what they were wanting. Or the £400 million overspend on building the Scottish Parliament.

The Royal Mail may not be the most efficient organisation in the Public Services, but it is a hundred times more efficient than anything else in Whitehall! The only reason this government can have for further selling off of the family silver is that they stand to gain from it. I wonder who is lined up for a Directorship on which Board in the buyers?

And here's a funny thought for the day. Napoleon fought and lost a war to take us over and conquer Europe. Lord Mandelson and his cronies seem to have done very well handing the country, its industry and its services over to Napoleon's successors. The bits they haven't given to the Brussels Bureaucracy they have sold to French Companies, Spanish Banks or anyone else with the right price and the right incentives. Perhaps that's why they are terrified to hold a referendum on our continued subsumation into the USE to be.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 20, 2009

Socialist Economics explained....

Labour Economic Policy Explained

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor and says, "I don't understand the Chancellor's latest plan to stimulate the economy. Can you explain it to me?"

The professor replied, "I don't have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I'll be glad to explain it to you." The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor's house. The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said,

"First, go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can." The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, "Follow me over to the shallow end, and then dump all the water from your bucket into it." The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times, and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, "Excuse me, but why are we doing this?"

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow end much deeper.

The student didn't think the economics professor was serious, but figured that he would find out the real story soon enough.

However, after the 6th trip between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become worried that his economics professor had gone mad.

The student finally replied, "All we're doing is wasting valuable time and effort on unproductive pursuits. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything will be at the same level it was before, so all you'll really have accomplished is the destruction of what could have been truly productive action!"

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, "Congratulations. You now understand the Chancellor's economic plan."

With apologies to the friends who have sent me several versions of this - most from the US explaining the Stimulus Bill. Trouble is it fits what is happening here to a "T".

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 19, 2009

Future perfect?

A friend has sent me this and its so close to the truth I have to share it with a wider audience!

A Prayer For The Future:

BROWN IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WORK.
HE LEADETH ME BESIDE STILL FACTORIES.
HE RESTORETH MY FAITH IN THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY.
HE GUIDETH ME TO THE PATH OF UNEMPLOYMENT.
YEA, THOUGH I WAIT FOR MY DOLE,
I OWN THE BANK THAT REFUSES ME.
BROWN HAS ANOINTED MY INCOME WITH TAXES,
MY EXPENSES RUNNETH OVER MY INCOME,
SURELY, POVERTY AND HARD LIVING WILL FOLLOW ME ALL THE
DAYS OF HIS TERM.
FROM HENCE FORTH WE WILL LIVE ALL THE DAYS
OF OUR LIVES IN A RENTED HOME WITH AN OVERSEAS LANDLORD.
I AM GLAD I AM BRITISH,
I AM GLAD THAT I AM FREE.
BUT I WISH I WERE A DOG
AND BROWN WERE A TREE.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 18, 2009

Things that go bump .....

The collision between HMS Vanguard and FS Triomphe in mid-Atlantic is a testament to the effectiveness of stealth technology as fitted to these ships. It also highlights the dangers of using it. As usual the "safety" police are screaming blue murder about the dangers of allowing nuclear powered boats to charge about in the dark - but they miss the point entirely. No one is supposed to know where they are, except those that sent them out.

It speaks volumes that neither ship was able to detect the other and that, as a result, they ran into each other. The French ship seems to have suffered worse than the Vanguard, though both will need dockyard attention. Conventionally the UK and our other NATO partners tell each other where our ships are patrolling - not in detail, but certainly in general. How much detail is imparted is an open question since the whole point of these ships is to assure annihilation of any attacker. And telling the French with their record of passing on information to the enemy ....

A tricky question this, and one which will run and run, especially as this Labour shower of peaceniks and traitors are already trying to find excuses to close down the navy anyway. The enquiry will be an interesting one!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 15, 2009

Freedom of speech? Not under Labour and the PC Police

The Daily Telegraph letters page made interesting reading yesterday, with many focused on the banning of Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP banned from entering Britain. The one that really stood out for me was that written by a Muslim Scholar which takes the same line as many of us in saying that banning Mr Wilders is a serious blow to the right of freedom of expression. The author makes the very telling point that criticism cannot be silenced by bans, it can only be silenced by intelligent and rational engagement. And therein lies the rub - Labour do not do "intelligent" or "rational" and certainly these are both alien concepts to anyone in the Polictically Correct lobby. Both operate purely on prejudice and try to pass their prejudice off as "morality".

The last ten years of Politically Correct dictat from Labour and their cronies in the Civil Service have seen our rights to freedom of expression and freedom of thought eroded on an unprecedented scale - in fact the last time anyone assaulted these freedoms to such a degree was under the heel of Cromwell and his Roundheads.

I confess that I would be much more inclined to give conseideration to the protests and strictures of the PC brigade if the loudest protesters were in fact operating on any sort of intelligent debate. As it is they twist information, make up new interpretations of ordinary speech and invent grievances. Many of the worst offenders I have encountered in this regard are not members of the ethnic minority they claim to be "defending", are not themselves disabled or connected to anyone who is, and cannot even check their facts before launching into misguided and ill-informed campaigns against things they have no understanding of at all.

I suggest that Political Correctness should be recognised by the medical profession as an incurable mental illness and anyone suffering from any form of it should be immediately "Sectioned" under the Mental Health Act, to be placed in a secure Institution for the most serious sufferers who pose a threat to society as a whole. Dr Al Qutob is right - this latest piece of Whitehall stupidity is a serious threat to everyone's right to express their opinion. It is not, and never will be, Whitehall's function to determine an individual's thoughts. The continued drive in this direction will guarantee that the BNP eventually enjoys the support of sufficient numbers to become a serious element in our political scene.

And they couldn't have a better recruiter than our present Home Secretary and her counterpart in the Foreign Office!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 13, 2009

So much for freedom of speech then ....

First it was the General Synod, the ruling body of the Church of England, voting to have an outright ban on any member, but particularly clergy, belonging to the BNP, and now its the Home Office refusing entry to a Dutch MP for his anti-Islamic views. As a spokesman for an Islamic Society that is trying to promote integration said on the Beeb this morning - now the Home Office have created a martyr for those who agree with him - and they have also made it more contentious by drawing attention to his views.

So is the problem with so much of the - probably well intentioned - political correctness that causes people to object and make a fuss about off the cuff remarks, views they don't like or jokes. Prince Harry is being sent on a "Race awareness training course" and has his record permanently marked as a "racist" because of a schoolboy jape, the Dutch MP is now a martyr to the PC view that seeks to suppress all contrary views to their own instead of engaging them and opening a debate and Carol Thatcher is now barred from the BBC because she remarked that someone looked like the Golliwog on the Robertsons Jam label.

I would be interested to know if the Dutch MP would have been refused entry to the UK if his film had been anti-Christian or "exposed" the Bible as warmongering. Probably not, its alright to denigrate and belittle everything Christian and Western, or, better still, Jewish, but heaven help you if you "offend" anyone of colour, of non-standard gender, or from an Islamic background.

I will be very interested to see if the Dutchman - and I can't recall his name - takes his case to the EU Commission and the Court of Human Rights. I think, under the "Its not a Constitution" Lisbon Treaty, he has a case. After all, it lowers all the EU Nations border controls in respect of any citizen of any of the nations within the EU. I firmly believe the Home Office was wrong to bar this man's entry. I think they have actually helped to publicise his views and given those who support them a martyr. But then, Labour have never been even remotely tolerant of anyone who does not agree slavishly with everything they chant. Engage in a debate? Try to persuade? Never, not their style - ban it, label it "Fascist" and use every tool in the box to make sure that any opposing view is strangled. I hope the Dutch gentleman does take us to court. I have a feeling that Whitehall will lose.

As for the Synod, well, its at times like this that I find myself thinking we should disband it and send all the funny-bunnies who use it as their own little "power base" back to their narrow little boxes - preferably under six feet of good English earth. I do not support the BNP, in fact I support no political party at all, but I regard it as everyone's RIGHT to express their views, to engage in political activity and engage in debate on those views and activities when challenged by an opposing view. But, like the present government, that is not the Synod's style either - "Ban it" they scream in four part harmony and go home feeling they have advanced the cause of the Gospel in so doing. No they haven't, they have simply given even more power to the view that the church has become an irrelevance in our secular society, alienating many who currently feel threatened and driving even more into the arms of the BNP.

As I said, Synod has once more shown itself to be an intolerant petty gathering of airheads. In short, an irrelevance to the Gospel. Like this government, in making such a stupid resolution they have shown themselves at one with the government - don't debate, don't engage, don't persuade - Ban It!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 12, 2009

Revelations of the other half?

The public vilification of the banks, banking system and bankers by our political lords and masters in Westminster and Whitehall has been revealing. Not least because the politicians and their worthless henchmen the Civil Servants, are obviously trying to cover their own tracks and push all the blame onto the bankers. Mind you, the bankers aren't doing themselves any favours whinging about not getting bonuses that are measured in multiples of salaries that most of us could not dream of earning in a lifetime of hard and dedicated work - often with responsibilities that are measured in the potential to lose lives. I'm afraid that the revelation that one of these "poor, hard done by" individuals earns £60k per MONTH was enough to have me spitting with rage. I never managed to achieve that figure per year, and sometimes was charged with protecting the assets this and other buffoons like him have squandered, risked or thrown away and given away to foreign investors.

Coupled with that was the revelation that not one of the bankers interviewed has a single Institute of Banking or any other body's qualifications in banking! All are MBA "generalist" managers who skip from one disasterous senior management position to another without any knowledge of what the company they "manage" does or how the staff who do it, actually achieve whatever it is. In other words, they can read a Balance Sheet and little more.

Just shows, I should have made a play for a different career - I too can read a Balance Sheet and the "Bottom Line". I suppose the only satisfaction is that the man who set up one of our biggest banks for a fall and was rewarded by Gordon Brown with the Chairmanship of the Financial Services Authority - fancy Civil Service speak for "bugger us - we don't know either" - has been forced to resign now that his role in the collapse has been exposed. Mind you, he'll probably be laughing all the way to the bank - his salary was large enough to make our eyes water and now he'll have some gold plated pension benefits due as well.

Ce la vie, as the French say.....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 10, 2009

So who needs sleep?

The last few days have certainly kept me busy, with a course to run with most of the students having a limited grasp of English plus the weather - well, life has been interesting. We haven't been able to do any of the outside exercises and as a result I have had to add extra lectures. OK, so the lectures take longer than normal to deliver because of translation and explanation problems, but its tiring. I'll be glad to reach the end of the week.

Now on that subject I've been looking forward to wlcoming some visitors to the Abbey from our link parish in Sweden, but have just found an e-mail informing me that I am about to receive a bundle (another one!) of "expert" reports from the legal firm I am advising in a multi-million pound lawsuit - and they want me to read them and prepare "headline" comments by the end of next week. There is only one problem - I have a job in Devon next week which will take up all of Tuesday and Wenesday and means going down there on Monday afternoon. It sounds as if I'll be sitting up with some rivetting reading ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 09, 2009

Australia burning ....

My sympathies go out to the men and women currently fighting the out of control wildfires in South Australia, Victoria and Southern New South Wales. With the toll now at well over 100 dead and rising - with may more remote towns still not fully accessed or searched, this will be far worse than the Ash Wednesday fires in the 1980's which, until now, have been the benchmark for this sort of disaster. The Victoria Country Fire Authority is well equipped and well motivated, but even with all its resources committed, the combination of heat, aridity and fire has overwhelmed them. It is soul destroying to spend day after day chasing fires that are no sooner brought under control than they break out and make a new run for it. It is even more so when your home, your community or your livelihood is destroyed or in the path of destruction.

I have no doubt at all that we will now see the well rehearsed arguments breaking out again over whether it is better to have small controlled burns regularly to clear the underbrush and maintain fire breaks - or - as the "green" lobby always argue - to stop all clearing and allow "natural growth". The truth is that Australia's bush has been subjected to bruning for more than 10,000 years of human activity. It was the manner in which the Aboriginal population cleared the bush and hunted down certain game animals and the vegetation has adapted to this. Many of the Euchalypts which make up the bulk of the natural vegetation now need fire to germinate their seeds!

No doubt we will be told endlessly by the same "green" lobby, that the fires are not the fault of a lack of contol of the vegetation, but of "global warming" and "man-made emmissions". Yeah, and the moon is made of green cheese don't you know.

Prayers for the fire fighters and for those who have lost everything, relatives, friends and children need to be offered by us all. I hope that the fires can be brought under control soon and that the debate on how to prevent it happening again can now occur without the usual "green" emotive chicancery.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 07, 2009

Difficulties in the snow

Yesterday's snow was something else in the North Cotswolds - around a foot of the stuff fell on us in a few hours. Getting my car out of the car park took the efforts of several Dutch Fire Officers, a colleague and myself. Once on the roadit got mariginally easier and I had to take the long way home via Bourton on the Water and Cheltenham. Snow drifts and icy patches made driving tricky, but once off the Cotswold escarpment - the snow all but vanished!

Snow lying "deep and crisp and even?" in the carpark. The rear of my chariot can be seen in the bottom right.

Today is cold, slightly damp and the snow is vanishing fast.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 05, 2009

Weather 1 - England 0

So far it seems to be a case of "Weather 1 - England 0" or certainly that was the overriding impression this morning as I tried (unsuccessfully) to reach Moreton in Marsh to earn a days pay. I got as far as Teddington Hands and gave up on being told that all the hill roads between me and the top of the Cotswold escarpment were all but impassable to anything without 4x4 capability. As I don't have a 4x4, giving up was the best option.

Listening all day to the traffic news it seems I made a wise decision, the early part of the day seemed to be filled with lorries skidding, sliding or jack-knifing everywhere and then the gritting trucks got busy again and the roads started to clear, but remained treacherous in all the key places I would need to pass through. So I have had the day at home, trying to catch up and field a range of things. It's been useful, even at the cost of a days pay, now all I have to pray for is that tomorrow isn't as bad, there is rain and some more snow predicted and the Highways Agency and the County Council - responsible for gritting - are running out of salt and grit. Apparently the accountants decided that holding stock sufficient for more than a few days was "uneconomical". What they forgot is that it takes several weeks to get more .....

Ce la vie. The paper shufflers will get away with it again and we pick up the price tab. At least the local kids have had a great day tobogganing in the Vineyards and on just about every slope they could find. There are several huge snowmen around as well and I can't remember when I last saw so many happy faces and so much fun being had by the kids in my area. Madam Paddy Cat ventured as far as the front door, spent several minutes staring at the white powder lying everywhere, ventured a paw into the drift at the door and declared her disgust, turned swiftly and found a warm spot next to the radiator.

Her message? "Wake me when its summer/dinner time!" I confess though, I've actually enjoyed the walk I took in it earlier. Tomorrow will be another day - sufficient unto itself.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:32 PM | TrackBack

February 03, 2009

Planetary displacement?

On my way to a job yesterday I listened to BBC Radio 4 and the discussion over the series of "wildcat" strikes which seem to have rippled out of the Total Refinery in Lincolnshire over the awarding of a contract by Total (A French based and owned company) to do some work on upgrading certain parts of the refinery to an Italian Contractor who employs only Italian workers. Given that this is more and more commonly happening, in fact is getting worse across the board as almost all our energy companies and certainly almost all our fuel suppliers are now owned by EU based companies, it is hardly surprising to find that men, laid off from these same company sites because the contracts their employers were working under have been cancelled, should feel aggrieved.

Total claims that the company they had contracted had failed to do what was required, the company concerned counter claims that they were not given a fair crack at the work because the requirement kept changing. This is a well-known and fairly common tactic when trying to break a contract to your advantage. The UK now has most of its industry foreign owned and offshore "managed" and UK workers are usually the first to be axed by these companies as they are not "domestic" as far as the new owners HQ and Board are concerned and therefore easier to dismiss. Total also claims to be paying the Italian workers the same rate as they would pay a UK contractor - but the truth is that labour "on costs" for workers domiciled elsewhere in the EU are lower than the cost of employing someone domiciled here - thanks to Gordon Brown's stealth taxes.

The UK now has almost 3 million workers out of work but our government claims that these men are "free" to do what the French, Italians and others are doing - bid for contracts in those countries and go there to work. What they will not say is how many UK based companies have succeeded in securing any such contracts. Its not that they don't try, many do and I have had some peripheral involvement in one or two myself - but the French will never ever give a contract to a British company if there is a French one that can do the job. Nor will the Italians. It isn't "protectionism" as Gordon Brown accuses us of trying to practice, it is simply looking after your people and making sure that if the skills exist in the area where the work is to be done, that that skills pool is used. You don't allow a company to "import" a complete workforce to do jobs where there are local people available to do it - you may award the contract to some EU company, but the proviso has to be that they use local labour. That is what the stikers are arguing for and though I do not generally support strike action and have never myself gone on strike (Often to my own disadvantage!) this is one time when I do think there is a legitimate complaint.

The EU "free" labour market is being ruthlessly exploited to the advantage of everyone except the native British. This is not the first time this has happened and as long as Westminster continues to ignore the inequalities - presumably because they have their pockets being generously lined by their EU chums and have vested interests in shafting every British worker as far as they can - our "competitors" will continue to exploit this loophole in the UK's interpretation of the EU Directive.

Listening to that prat "Lord" Mandelson and the Europhile Kenneth Clark refusing to recognise that there is a problem and defending an argument which is as far removed from what the strikers are complaining about as it is possible to be without actually speaking different languages - I got the impression that Westminster and Whitehall have been transferred to another planet. It certainly hasn't the same number of moons that circle the one I and the strikers currently inhabit.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 01, 2009

Climate change and the Obama roadshow ...

An item on The Gorse Fox alerted me to this most interesting item in "The Register", an American publication. IT reproduces a letter written by the man who headed the NASA team that has given us the hysterical "manmade global warming" and points out that the scientists behind that scam have manipulated the models and the data until it shows what they want it to show.

Frankly, it ain't science and it ain't as transparent as the eco-terrorists of Greenpeace, Fiends of the Earth and their cohorts like to claim. What's more it calls into question the real science which shows that we don't understand the mechanisms at work here and panders to the hysterical anti-science that is the mainstream media functioning on fear, gloom and bad news to sell their badly researched and badl written drivel.

Thansk GF for the heads up. I heartily recommend the read.

If Mr Obama and his "advisers" plan to use any of this garbage in formulating their policies I suggest they talk to the man who wrote this piece first. Otherwise they will simply enrich the fraudulent and give power to the eco-terror mob.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:39 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 30, 2009

Dangerous move

Today I am attending a Business Lunch with my MP, "The Right Honourable" Lawrence Robertson. OK, so I am a small "Sole Trader" in my field, but that does also mean that I am affected by the credit crunch among other thinbgs and some of my clients certainly know how to defer paying.....

I thought I'd go to this in case I get asked for a view on how the government and the economy is affecting me. I'll probably have to tone down my opinion somewhat, but I'm going anyway. I suppose, putting myself in the company of a politician is bound to be a risky affair, I have a penchant for saying what I see which isn't always the way they want to hear it. In fact usually it's not what they wanted to hear. Especially when it comes to taking everything they can out of my pocket to give to someone who isn't prepared to work all the hours I need to in order to pay my way in the first place.

So its probably a dangerous move going to this lunch. And it isn't "free" - it's being funded by the local Housing Association who get their money from .....?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 29, 2009

Government take notice!

Caught this on One happy dog speaks and I agree with her.

This should be a banner in the House of Commons and a compulsory notice on every MPs desk.

The government cannot give anyone anything without first taking it from someone else.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 27, 2009

Why the fuss?

The BBC and now Sky News are in the political firing line from every bleeding heart and it seems most of Labour's anti-Israel squad over their refusal to broadcast an appeal for donations for Aid to Gaza. Frankly, I think the Beeb got it right this time and the more I listen to the "angry young things" and the "representatives of the .... charity" the more convinced I am that they should stand by their decision.

Why am I so convinced of this? I suppose I should say thatI know how "Aid" can be abused once it becomes a political tool and in Gaza that is precisely what Hamas are doing. THe "Aid" and its distribution is controlled by their bully boys with the willing co-operation of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and all the other Aid Agencies - and they are dishonest if they deny it. "Aid" in Gaza is Hamas' way of controlling the population and ensuring that they, and they alone, get the credit for this "generosity." I have seen this happen in Southern Africa where "Resistance" movements to White Rule became the recipients of well meaning "Aid" programmes and drained it away from those it was intended to help in order to exchange it for guns, bombs and loyalty. There is a mountain of evidence that this is what Hamas is doing with it in Gaza, the bulk goes to them and their supporters directly, most is then "sold" on in exchange for weapons and what little remains is distributed to their foot soldiers in a form of "loyalty" bonus. I, for one, do not intend to make any donation to any "Aid" organisation that is working with Hamas.

As for the "Cease Fire" - well, perhaps the "humanitarian disasster" mongers in the Aid Organisations should listen closely to their Hamas chums public statements. First, to declare that they have "won a great victory" would be laughable if it weren't for the devastation their actions have brought upon their own people. Hamas, and Hamas alone must accept responsibility for the destruction - Israel would not have attacked Gaza and destroyed so much if they had not been attacked and provooked beyond reasonable endurance. Secondly all I hear from the Hamas spokesman is that they intend to attack Israel again with rockets as soon as they know Israeli soldiers are no longer where they can strike back.

Yes, there is a humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, yes, there is a need for Aid - but it should not flow into that area at all until Hamas has been disbanded, laid down its weapons and been charged with the humaitarian crimes they have perpetrated against their own people in their pointless and stupid "war" against their neighbours. Those screaming at the BBC should think carefully about their support for Hamas, it is, after all, a Terrorist organisatioin and receives its funding from some very dubious sources, sources the west is trying to defeat. To rush in with "Aid" and allow them to claim, however ludicrous the claim, that they have "won" and that the "Aid" is a result of their "victory" as they are doing is folly of the highest order - but then, the Left Liberal arm of the political spectrum is hardly renowned for being able to seperate fact from fiction in anything once their ideology has been determined.

I say again, the BBC and Sky News are right in their decision, though probably not for the reasons I would have used.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 26, 2009

Meetings, bl**dy meetings - and public transport!

OK, so I suggested yesterday that there might be some pictures from Mausi today, but I'm sorry to say I haven't had the time to put them up. In fact, I'm currently on a Great Western Train trying to get to a meeting in London by 10.00 and at current rate of progress I might be lucky to get there by 11.00

If I'm that late for the first meeting in Hammersmith, I've no chance of getting to the second meeting in the City iteself by 12.00! There's at least a half hour tube ride between the two - assuming of course, that the connections all run on time. And now, before my Dongle runs out of signal on this section. Adieu!

Tomorrow I have to be in Tenby in Wales early as well, but that will be dependent on the state of the M50 ......

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:09 AM | TrackBack

January 24, 2009

Democratic process?

I note with interest Ms Harman's latest tirade against the possibility of the BNP actually winning a seat in the European Parliament in June. According to her they need to win only 8% of the vote, very helpful of her, I would have thought, to put this into numbers. Now they actually have a target and know it can be achieved. Reading on the report of her address to a typical Left-wing Think Tank she does her usual tirade against the Right-wing "racism" she sees in everyone who doesn't subscribe to Labour's vision of a Britain divided into small "cultural groups" all living, so they claim, in harmony. What she refuses to recognise is that it is this very policy - which calls for the destruction of anything which might suggest that there is a "British" cultural heritage to celebrate and preserve - which is fuelling the rise of the extreme views espoused by the BNP.

The democratic system is "the worst form of government - except for all the others", according to Sir Winston Churchill, and one of its vagaries is that it will sometimes allow the election of people or parties who's ideology the majority would reject out of hand. If a party or ideology in government pursue a policy or ideology that is seen as a threat to their own security, happiness or ideology by a significant group of people, the reaction is to espouse or support any group which takes an opposite view, no matter how extreme. Labour used this process through the media in the dying days of the last Conservative Government to portray the Conservative Party as next cousins to the Nazi's and now they are trying to use the same tactic on the BNP. The tragedy is that with a recent survey of 14 - 19 year olds (of all racial groups) telling us that they do not feel that their group is a part of our society, the espousal of ever more extreme ideologies is almost inevitable.

Certainly the BNP is drawing its support from white British groups who feel that they are having their rights eroded or subsumed by a minority group deemed by the denizens of the Whitehall "Village" of Ideologues whose contact with the reality of the communities they claim to represent is, at best, minimal, to be "more deserving".

History, which Blair, Brown and the "Babe" Squad they have parachuted into high office claim to reject as "old news" teaches that democracy has a nasty habit of throwing up abberations when a government loses the trust of sufficient numbers of the electorate. Hitler, after all, only got a third of the electoral votes in 1933, yet managed to strong arm his way into the Chancellorship and within months had all but eliminated all the opposition parties. Labour did this in 1997, but now the glitz, as it did with Hitler, is wearing off and people can see the threat to their ambitions and position that the "multi-culture" vision brings. Hence the continuing rise of the BNP.

Something all our political leaders need to consider carefully is the fact that the further the "Centre" of the political spectrum moves to the Left, the more likely becomes a rise and swing to the right. That is politics, that is what brought Hitler to power. It brought Mussolini to power and it has brought many other dictators to power as well. Ms Harman can bleat all she likes about how unacceptable it is - but her party and her champagne socialism (She is, after all, the daughter of wealthy upper Middle class parents and has perpetuated her moneyed educational advantages by stealing places for her children at Grammar Schools her own Borough and Constituency had closed in favour of the Comprehensive Failure System).

The BNP will continue to gain strength, right alongside the Islamist Groups and other extremist minority movements, as long as our present political elite continue to pursue policies which see our industries, commercial enterprises and political structures sold off or handed over to minorities who seek to recreate the cultures they left behind, here in Britain. This is why so many young people feel "disconnected" from society, it is also why so many older people (though no one ever asks us) feel isolated and neglected, our contribution to society pushed aside and rejected and our pensions stolen to pay for Labour's folly and to support those they consider more worthy.

No Ms Harman, I'm not surprised to learn the BNP could win a seat in Strasbourg, what surprises me is that you are surprised. It's called democracy - but then Labour are strangers to that concept after all. Just ask Mr Brown about the promised Referendum on the EU Constitution.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:03 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 20, 2009

Battle of the Sound System

I am presently freezing quietly in Tewkesbury Abbey. There is a service going on in the South Transept so we have temporarily suspended work on the sound system which I put in hand in order to sort out some of the problems which arise basically from having tried to build a system in a piecemeal fashion. The original intention was fine, but it meant that we ended up with a system that had elements built in that were designed to compete with each other. Now we have in hand the process of identifying these and sorting them out.

And the first problem we have found already is that there is another part of the system which is not functioning and now we have to find out why. The remote sub-woofers are dead and they are an essential part of the "fill" sound. Located in the clerestory they aren't exactly the easiest to access, and should be least suceptible to damage, interference or failure - but, like the Ringing Chamber Relay - they've been and gone and died on us.

OK, so we have a lot of work ahead of us this week - but one way or another - this system will be sorted and it will be the best we can get when it is finished.

As Captain Picard so famously says on occassion. "Engage!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 18, 2009

A tribute to those who serve

Sometimes someone sends you something which you simply have to share, usually I forward these to my friends. Recently however, I got the poem in the extended post from a friend in Australia and, though it is mainly about Australian troops serving in Afghanistan, the sentiments in it sum up exactly what every Western Society owes to those Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women who serve on our behalf in all the world's trouble spots.

Do read on. I wish I knew who the author was .....

The Soldier stood and faced his God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

'Step forward now, you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Gospel have you been true?'

The Soldier squared his shoulders and said,
'No, my Lord, I ain't.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a dollar,
That wasn't mine to keep...
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears.

If you've a place for me here, Lord,
It needn't be so grand.
I never expected or had too much
But if you don't, I'll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the Saints had often trod.
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.

'Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell.'

~Author Unknown~

It's the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It's the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
It's the Soldier, not the politicians, that ensures our right to Life, Freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness.
It's the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag.

If you care to offer the smallest token of recognition and appreciation for our Armed Services Men & Women, please pass this on and pray for our men and women who have served and are currently serving our country and pray for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 17, 2009

Miracle on the Hudson?

The crash landing of the Airbus 320 in the Hudson River is a remarkable tribute to the Pilot and his crew. It is a remarkable tribute to the designers and builders of the Airbus as well. This is the first time anyone has succeeded in landing an airliner of any sort on water in one piece. To do it on the fast flowing Hudson, dodging buildings and bridges is little short of incredible. THat the aircraft remained afloat for the better part of a half hour is in itself a tribute to the buildiers, after all these things are meant to fly, not float and after being bounced onto the unforgiving surface of the rivver at something like 200mph it is surprising that it didn't shed panels, hatches and all the rest of its trailing underbody in the process.

As for the Pilot, there is only one thing to say. He was ex-military, a fighter pilot with combat experience. He knew how to deal with an emergency that can only come from combat training and experience. It speaks volumes that he maintained not just his cool, but also his sense of command. What a display of leadership, to calmly ensure that his passengers and then his crew were all out of the aircraft, to make a final check of the now sinking aircraft and then see to his own escape. Hero? The man is more than that, he's a role model that should be held up for every boy and girl to follow!

This is leadership and this is where those who call themselves "Managers" and promote the idea that they provide "leadership" will never be able to hold a candle to a real leader. THey simply don't know the true meaning of the word - or the price it sometimes demands.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 16, 2009

The creep towards the Communist State

The recent nationalisation of various banks should concern us for several reasons not least because the creep of socialism into every aspect of our daily lives has become almost unstoppable and because the inceasing burden of bureaucracy and the utter incompetence of those who are drawn to the parasitic jobs it creates will destroy all enterprise and strangle all wealth creating and wealth distribution as surely as the Soviet system did in the 90 odd years it was in force in the USSR.

The second is the passage below -

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more
and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing
them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt
becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of
banks, which will have to be nationalised, and the State will
have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism"

Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:26 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 13, 2009

Stalking and the Royals .....

The latest brouhaha involving Prince Harry exposes an ugly element in the British Press. The act of acquiring and then publishing something like a private video, letters or even a note is a betrayal when done to anyone, when it is done, as the News of the World regularly do, to cause deliberate damage to an individual who, like the rest of us, is human and entitled to the occasional lapse of sense, it becomes questionable. The paper claims to be taking a "moral" stance, but lets be honest here, how "morally" was this video obtained. You can bet that it wasn't handed over to the reporter without a sizeable chunk of "Coin of the Realm" being handed out.

You can also bet that if it had been a Minister or a member of the government it wouldn't have even been of any interest to the reporter. So where is the "moral" element in this? Frankly, this newspaper employs tactics to "get the dirt" on the Royals that, if an individual embarked on, would be declared to fall within the scope of the Act that forbids "stalking" with intent to cause distress or harm. If it attempted the same tactics against any member of the government the entire Security Service would be onto them like a ton of bricks - so why is it "moral" to attack a young man who is serving his country in ways and theatres that the reporter, the editor and frankly the owners of the News of the World haven't the balls to do themselves?

As for the politicians rushing to denounce him for his frankly silly choice of words, well, they're politicians and desperately trying to seize some sort of "moral high ground" out of it all to show their "anti-racist" credentials. All it does is prove that, when you live in a swamp, climbing on the back of a crocodile is hardly moral high ground. Many of these same self-serving and over ambitious twits have caused me and many others far greater offence with their insulting and often derogatory assumptions about my supposedly "institutional racism/sexism/masochism" than merely calling me names can ever do. Yet, although this happens now on an almost daily basis as some politician or another proposes some new "offence" in the use of language, behaviour or attitude toward anthing not conforming to the Nu Labour Vision of a society of incomptents running everything from the lofty headquarters stolen from the taxpayer in Millbank House, I am expected to simply put up with it. Their propagandists, however, have free reign to pry and sneak and use inuendo to degrade anything which dares to stand above the herd.

Frankly, the tactics the News of the World uses in getting these stories and the "moral outrage" the politcians exhibit is a case of the pot calling the saucepan names. They have no morals at all and all they hope to achieve is to divert attention from their own utter lack of moral code. The British Press and the Political Classes have obviously all decided that the Royals make great scapegoats for their own shortcomings. Convenient and morally immoral.

The biggest problem we all face today is that our entire society is being driven down a path in which morality has been redefined as the prejudices of the current chattering classes. Whatever they find "unacceptable" is now "immoral". Prejudice is not moral and never will be, yet it is prejudice against everyone better than themselves, more able, more fortunate or simply of higher social standing than themselves is now defined as a "moral crusade" to ensure that "moral behaviour conforms to the current prejudices."

As I said, I look at the press reactions and the politicians and all I can see is a bunch of moral deficients calling someone with far more talent and courage, names. Its sickening.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 10, 2009

Ceasefire?

Watching the news you could be excused for thinking that the Israelis are to blame for the lack of a ceasefire in Gaza, but, what did anyone expect when the UN passes a resolution demanding a ceasefire and the one side, Hamas, refuses to even recognise the rights of the other, much less the authority (Unless it suits them) of the UN? One sided ceasfires never work, cannot be imposed and do not bring peace.

The Demonstration today in London certainly demonstrated to me the naiviety of a large section of the British public and their patently anti-Israel sentiments. When you see placards being waved reading "Free Palestine" and the sub-title screams from Israeli Oppression, you do have to wonder what they believe would happen if the Israelis did withdraw immediately from Gaza and everywhere else, tore down their defences and disarmed. Do they seriously believe that this is all onesided and can be resolved by an Israeli surrender to terrorists? Certainly a hardcore of the protesters who smashed the Starbucks Coffee Shop window and used the furniture and cups, saucers, condments and other fittings as missiles against the police seem to think that their violence is justified.

It never fails to amuse me when I see these protests carrying the same anti-US banners that appear whenever there is an left-wing inspired protest about anything at all. GWB may not go donw in history as the brightest crayon in the mixed bag that the US has had for Presidents, but, unlike Nixon, his enemies have never managed to impeach him - and they've certainly tried everything including a Hollywood movie sold as a "documentary" on 9/11 but so distorted a presentation of the facts that only the completely ignorant, gullible or terminally left/liberal could possibly believe any of it.

If the majority of Palestinians genuinely want peace, if they genuinely want to negotiate, if the Arab world genuienly wants to put a stop to this violence and hostility the solution is in their hands, not the UN's, not the Rent-a-Mob that turns up everytime there's a protest against anything they regard as "oppression" or "elitist". All the Palestinians have to do is disarm and reject the men of violence who are Hamas. Disarm them, reject terrorism and deal with the terrorists. That will make the walls redundant, the blockades unecessary and the incursions in pursuit of terrorists redundant. If, as is so frequently said by the usual talking heads that is what the majority in Gaza really want - its in their hands.

Only when the terrorists are stopped by their own people will any ceasefire ever have any chance of coming into force.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 09, 2009

Quick the Aliens are attacking ....

An interesting event has sparked a UFO interest surge, almost enough to push the usual political propaganda out of the news. First came the sighting of a lot of unexplained lights over the midlands and then it was unexplained damage to a wind turbine in one of the wind farms that eco-nuts think can replace all other forms of power generation. It has made quite a stir and is certainly a strange one. The BBC has a good report on it titled UFO claim over wind farm damage.

The lopped off blades certainly look as if something hit them, or at least hit one of them and possibly it then hit the second. I guess we will have to wait to hear what really happened if we are ever told of course. No, I don't think it is little green men opr any other colour, shape or size alien, but I would like to know what has happened here.

In the meantime I suggest its probably down to an eco-warrior protesting about the damage to sea bird life using a Plasma Cannon .......

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 08, 2009

Godless society .....

So now we have the Atheist message, which, I note, is not definite. So perhaps they aren't sure either .....

I do agree with one aspect of their objection to the Christian adverts which warned that failure to "sign up to God" meant eternity in hell. For one thing that sort of Calvinist Protestant fundamentalism presumes, as Jonah did, that God is not loving or forgiving to those who, like Thomas Didimus, have their little doubts and reservations and maybe aren't quite so "black and white" in faith. Personally, I believe in a God who welcomes all comers, even those who may realise at the last moment that He is there and has been all along - attendance at Church Services is not some sort of guarantee of heaven, though it may help you to find the road!

On an amusing aside though, I note that the quote from Albert Einstein is supposed to imply that he didn't believe in God at all. His words were "I don't believe in a PERSONAL God..." But he also never specifically denied that there is one and lived and died as a practicing Jew. The truth is that it probably takes greater faith to be an Atheist than to bumbling along believing there may be a God. All that is truly demanded of believers is that they live their lives in accoprdance with the tenets of their faith - and that can be boiled down to two simple things -

- You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your mind and all your soul, and
- You shall love your fellow men and women as you love yourself.

Not too hard, even for an Atheist, surely?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:17 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 06, 2009

Biased media

I have, over the last several years, come to the conclusion that the British political establishment and the left/liberal controlled media are anti-Israel. That is certainly the immediate impression you get from every news report which always seems to emphasise the Israeli response to attacks on its citizens as "excessive" or "disproportionate" while dismissing the Hamas bombardment of Israeli homes, towns, farms and border posts as "minor incursions, justified by Israel's draconian actions." The latest Sky report on the bombardment gives this impression clearly, stressing the "suffering" of the Palastinians and dismissing the Hamas attacks - which actually number several dozen every day - as 'nuisance' value. Tell that to the Israeli dead and injured daily.

I recently had a conversation with a longterm friend, an erudite and very well educated man who quite shocked me in his vehement anti-Jewish views. So much of what he had to say is based on the spread of anti-semitic propaganda including the now freely circulating "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" that I found myself appalled, especially as my friend is a man whose career is based entirely on the assessment of evidence and facts and not on the acceptance of assertions, rumours and hearsay. Yet, here, obviously, he has a blindspot and a very real dislike of a particular group and faith. I find it all the more shocking as he is a practicing Roman Catholic and perhaps that is the clue to his vision since it is only recently that the Curia have announced that the doctrine that the Jews "murdered" Christ was no longer to be taught. It was very much this doctrine that allowed the abuses practiced against Jews in the 1930's and 40's to be acceptable to otherwise intelligent and decent peoples in France and elsewhere. Very disturbingly, and the demonstrations last Saturday in London lend support to this, is the fact that these views are widely held among the upper classes in London in particular and across the board among working folk. I spent a lengthy drive in a taxi having the taxi-driver expounding on how the Jews have "infiltrated" the West and "control" the banks, the legal profession and so on. I silenced him eventually by pointing out that his quotes from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were the work of pure fantasy and concocted by the Tsarist Secret Police to justify the Pogroms of the 1890's - and finally by suggesting to him that the spread of such views was, in fact, now a criminal offence under the Racial Hatred legislation.

Particularly distressing is the fact that our news media focus entirely on the Israeli response and there is almost no mention of the fact that the Hamas organisation has been smuggling arms into Gaza from Egypt for use in their daily strikes against Israeli civilians. Of course it is a tragedy when children of any race or faith are killed in these strikes, but you seldom see any reports of the Israeli children daily injured or maimed by the Hamas missiles and mortars - unless, of course, to the accompanyment of some "Save the Children" or other "Aid" agency worker justifying it as the "just" reward for Israel's "oppression" of the Palastinians.

Perhaps I have a particular bias myself, after all, I have been the target of terrorist activity, and for far too long I have had to listen to the apologisers who seem to be able to justify just about any attrocity as long as it the activity of their "freedom" fighters and not those of the "oppressor" - and the US should remember that they are seen as "oppressors" by everyone of the Liberal Left who sees the conflict in the Middle East in simplistic terms. Frankly I rejoice everytime a terrorist blows himself or herself to pieces, I just wish they would take their evil paymasters and encouragers with them instead of the innocent victims they usually target.

What sparked this tirade? Several things, but not least was a conversation with a friend whose job takes him to investigate terrorist activities in many different places. He confided that a recent scene blamed on the Israeli's was actually the result of an incompetent attempt to manufacture a Peroxide Based explosive. It demolished a block of flats, but the local police and Hamas operatives managed to "find" evidence of and "Israeli missile", pieces of a missile to be sure, but actually from several different missiles of different age and not of Israeli manufacture - yet the Western Media faithfully broadcast the "evidence" in the face of Israeli denial. Therein lies the real problem, the media simply do not want to know the "truth" of anything and simply don't believe any "oppressors" statements whether the evidence suggest its true or not.

Put simply, I am now of the opinion that this government is anti-Israel, that this is confirmed by the ease with which anti-Jewish propaganda is circulated and spread among the chattering classes who rule us and by the open bias of the media and the so-called "Aid" agencies that operate from here. The government have a vested interest in being anti-Israel, after all, it was a Labour Government that attempted to hand over Palastine to an Arab regime that had publically declared that it would drive every Jew into the sea. They have never forgiven the Jews for defying them and eventually winning a war the British Government of the time was confident they would lose. Every Labour Government since then has quietly encouraged the Palastinian cause and tried to undermine the Jewish one and the latest view is a prime example of this.

I find it incredible that the establishment as represented by our legal profession, our politicians and the financial sector can accuse the "Jews of Wall Street" for the collapse of the world's financial system. Can one of them please show me which wealthy Jew got Northern Rock into trouble? Or which wealthy Jew invented "Junk Bonds" or "Sub Prime Lending"? The vast majority of Jews I have had the privilege of knowing would not have gone anywhere near such shaky practices or investments since anything bad for business is bad for everyone.

OK, so I've set out my stall. Now I await the Thought Police and the Fatwas.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 17, 2008

The Arrogance of Incompetence

The publication today of a report by the Public Audit Office, since 2004 also responsible for Inspecting the Fire and Rescue Services for "efficiency", which claims that the public Fire and Rescue Services in the UK can save £200 million by using smaller fire engines and changing (again) the shift patterns demonstrates to me that the authors have no understanding of the purpose and function of a fire and rescue service and are therefore utterly and completely incompetent to even comment, never mind prepare reports for parliament, on the fire and rescue services.

As usual they claim that they have "consulted widely" and "sought expert advice" in preparing their report. Yes, as usual, they have consulted only those who agree with the outcomes that were written before the report was even commissioned. As with all such Whitehall reports, the outcomes are determined before the so-called authors are briefed and then they are directed to find the evidence that supports the outcome required. Anything which suggests a different outcome is suppressed or ignored and only that which supports the conclusion, however nebulous or untested, goes in as "proof". Let's face facts, in another few years the fire and rescue services will be so under manned and under equipped that we will be lucky if they turn up, and if the fire has spread beyond the first room at that point, contact your insurers and write off the entire building because the service will not have the manpower, the equipment or the resources to deal with anything larger than a small one room dwelling.

For the PAO to publish this garbage displays an arrogance that would almost beggar belief were it not matched by their ignorance of everything to do with the operation of a fire and rescue service. But then, what do you expect when qualified fire officers are being replaced up and down the country by ex-supermarket managers who are placed in charge of operations with no experience and no knowledge of fire fighting?

Mark my words, there will be a steep rise in fire losses and in deaths among fire fighters from here on - and the Civil Service and those parasites in Westminster will be to blame. I am not normally a "shroud waver" - but this simply cannot go unchallenged.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2008

Mugabe's fantasy .....

If anyone needed proof that Robert Mugabe is off his trolley, his latest fantasy has to be definitive. According to his Foreign Affairs Minister, the British Government is "waging a war of genocide in an effrt to re-colonise Zimbabwe" and has launched a "biological warfare attack" on the country. The Cholera epidemic currently killing off the population there is apparently the work of "British Agents".

The placard waving foot soldiers of ZanuPF obviously believe this garbage as they brandish their posers proclaiming "Brown's Germ War". Sadly, I have no doubt that many in organisations like Amnesty and the Civil Liberties/Human Rights mob will now spend inordinate amounts of time and our money trying to establish what the British Government and specifically our armed forces or MI5 might have done to "introduce" this agent. The simple truth is that with all normal health, hygiene and welfare services destroyed by that monster Mugabe and his cronies, Cholera and several more highly contagious diseases, always present in populations where housing is basic and sewage and water supplies can contaminate one another, are always present. With reasonable medical services any outbreaks are usually caught early and contained - but not where the infrastructure has been so badly degraded.

I confidently predict that before much longer an explosion in the vermin population will see bubonic plague make a re-appearance. Impossible you say? Its been eradicated? No, it is still out there, but control of vermin in towns has kept it at bay, Zimbabwe could well see the first major outbreak with rubbish uncollected and a burgeoning rat population. Ironically, our wonderful Labour Government and their cronies in local government have almost succeeded in creating the medieval conditions which gave rise to the rapid spread of that disease in this country with their attempt to force us into greater recycling - by reducing the rubbish collections from weekly to fortnightly. In Mugabe's Zimbabwe, he's gone one better, don't collect it and let the rats and the starving eat it. Certainly solves the landfill problem.

Mugabe and his cronies learned their lessons well from the Labour Propagandists who funded them in exile and supported them "morally and ideologically" here in the UK during the Smith UDI years and the Bush War. Propaganda need conatin no more than a kernel of truth for the vast bulk of those receiving it, to believe it. This has been the great success of the Communist and Socialist propagandists through the 20th Century - and Mugabe is an apt pupil. He has repeated the story of the "British want to re-colonise" Zimbabwe so often that there are people who now believe him. Now he has an outbreak of a vicious disease and he immediately screams - "See! I told you so! Now the British are trying to kill you all!" Smoke and mirrors works every time if you control the media and can spin the story any way you like. Sadly, a lot of his own people will believe this cr*p and some of them are right here in the UK.

The truly terrible part of all this is that British taxpayers put this arrogant lunatic into power. The very government he now labels an 'enemy' has done their utmost to defend him and excuse him right up to the moment they could no longer ignore his rapacious destrcution of the legacy he was given on a platter. And now we can do no more than watch him destroy his people and his country.

And Mugabe's fantasy will kill still more of his people before someone, somewhere, removes him and his vile henchmen from the scene. Wouldn't it be ironic if it was a simple bacterium that his incompetence has let looseamong his own people. Now that would be justice!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:23 AM | TrackBack

December 11, 2008

Something stinks in the State of ....

I suppose it is a very sad reflection on the society nearly forty years of socialist meddling and social engineering have created - and not just in the UK. The Civil Libertarians and Child Protection/Rights lobbies have created a "Youth Culture" and a disrespect for others and the law that is now straining the very fabric of our civilisation. Why am I saying this? Very simple, the son of my publisher was attacked at a friend's birthday party last Saturday night by three boys from his school and beaten into unconsciousness in the presence of witnesses. The attack was unprovoked and apparently fueled purely by "let's rough him up a bit." Apparently this is known as "Happy Slapping" and is often filmed on a camera phone so it can be shared with all their cronies. It put their victim in A&E for several hours in an unconscious state and even now there may be injuries that have not fully revealed themselves.

The Police have shown themselves remarkably reluctant to actually interview the victim or to get on with pressing charges of assault. Probably they are motivated by a sense that, as this will go to a "youth" court, there is little point - because "youth courts" notoriously try to protect the perpetrators and further victimise the victim - I have another example of that closer to home. To make matters worse, I am told that the parents of the attackers phoned the Headmaster of the school involved to ask if the father of the victim intended to press charges - not to find out what damage had been done or what injuries he had suffered. The only thing they are concerned about is protecting their violent offspring from the consequences of their actions.

All I can say is that if this was my son, the Chief Constable and the Chairman of the Police Authority would by now be facing angry demands for action, the Headmaster would have a letter from a lawyer demanding disciplinary action against the boys concerned and the parents would be receiving writs for "pain, distress and damage" arising from the assault. Yes, it would cost me, yes it would probably make me a lot of enemies and I have no doubt that there would be enormous pressure from the school and the police to "let it drop", but I am far to much like my Grandfather - cut one of mine and I bleed.

The news is full of these cases and we constantly have the politicians wittering on about more legislation and more "responsibility", but they are the very ones that have created this society of "do as you please - its your 'right'" amoing our young people. The sad thing is that these yobs will one day graduate from university, paid for by the taxpayers they abuse and scorn, and go on to become the next generation of parents raising yobs. All protected from the consequences of their actions by the police, the twisted legal system and the hand-wrining politcians.

Something stinks in the State of Cool Britannia - and it is easily identified. It is the complete loss of morality and values right at the heart of the political class and in Whitehall. Yes, it stinks.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 10, 2008

Vanishing armed forces ....

I recently bought a copy of the International Fleet Review, a journal that looks at naval forces around the world and almost boiled with rage as I read the editorial. The writer has done an excellent job of assembling his facts and they reveal the true cost of the last ten years of socialist liberal incompetence to this nation. Our once proud Royal Navy has been reduced from a fleet of one hundred and eighty four ships when Blair and his thieves took power to a force which will dip below 80 ships before any of the new ones on order come on line. Worse, in order to "save money" the Fleet Air Arm has been reduced to a helicopter force only and must embark RAF aircraft and pilots if it needs fixed wing fighters and bombers. They tried that in the 1930's and it is the reason the Navy had to start the war with the obsolete Fairey Swordfish "Stringbags" as its only operational aircraft. But Nu Labour and this coterie of Scottish and Welsh anarchists have no love of any "British" institutions and certainly no love of the Armed Forces - especially the Navy.

These cuts in manning and in materiele mean that as of this month, there will be no Naval patrol based at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Watch this space for a deal that hands the islands over the Argentina in the next few years the way these same treasonous morons have tried to hand over Gibralter to Spain against the wishes of the people of Gibralter.

The Navy is not alone in suffering these cuts. The Army has all but lost its Main Battle Tank capability, the RAF is reduced to mainly a transport role and even with the new Typhoon Eurofighters coming on stream is still woefully under strength and under equipped. The list is almost endless - and Labour refuses to increase the Defence spend which is around half the EU average. Face it, Labour HATES the military, it represents everything most Labour voters and most Labour MPs are not, disciplined, competent and proud. To the Labour Aparatchik that spells "elitist" and note how they have done everything in their power to make it impossible for the military to actually do their job. First comes orders not to return fire if attacked in the Shatt al Arab, then they are forbidden to intervene when a ship is seized by pirates. Our troops face charges of "murder" for defending themselves when attacked and killing any enemy or anyone supporting the enemy thanks to Cheri Blair's cronies in the "Human Rights/Civil Liberties" lobby who rush to bring charges of murder against the troops as soon as they are in a battle anywhere.

Maintenance of ships, vehicles and aircraft is all "contracted out" to private companies and even our armaments manufacturing has been sold off to foreign owners so that now our people have to rely on euqipment bought in from potential enemies.

It is a disgrace - and one that every Labour voter ought to take personal responsibility for. This country has been reduced to impotence by the self serving incompetents of the Labour Party - but they are not alone in this betrayal - the Conservatives must take at least a part of the blame for their cuts in the 1980's and 1990's to deliver the "Peace Dividend" that was supposed to flow from the ending of the Cold War. Have we seen "peace"? of course not - the end of the Cold War left the world in a more unstable and volatile state than ever - and the W*nk*rs of Whitehall and the Wastralls of Westminster continue to cut the Defence Budgets - in fact, our wonderful Prime Minister is vehement in his opposition to any funding for defence.

I wonder why?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 09, 2008

Human Rights - Was Mister Straw admitting he's got it wrong?

It seems that The Right Dishonourable Minister of Justice, none other than that great upholder of Britishness, Jack Straw, is "frustrated" with the way the Human Rights Act is providing a "Villian's Charter". Oh dear, oh dear. I wonder if there is irony in this? After all, Mister Straw was the one who, as Home Secretary, introduced this legislation in the face of warnings that it would create enormous problems within the British Legal system. Ironic too, that he is a member of a government that has eroded our ancient rights to freedom of speech, freedom of thought and privacy like no other democratic government in history - and, in fact, like very few of the world's most draconian dictatorships.

Under this government our ancient right to privacy has been removed, eroded by the Security legislation they have introduced, Child Protection legislation and so-called prevention of religious hatred legislation. We are monitored by forests of CCTV cameras, our use of everyday idiomatic expressions is criticised as betraying our racist thoughts by the PC Police, and even photographing your grandchildren can lead to your being subjected to a grilling from the Gauliters of the Child Protection movement - or worse - to your detention for questioning by the police. It says it all really when a photograph of a Pop bands CD cover on Wikipedia is decalred "Child Pornography" by some Whitehall Nanny and they attempt to block anyone in the UK from accessing it. Take your camera or your PC in for repair and the Thought Police will be going through its stored files (and the deleted ones) in search of evidence that you are a paedophile or a sexual predator and prosecution will follow - as a Chief Fire Officer has recently discovered when his laptop was stolen. On being recovered it wasn't given back to him - oh, no - the police searched through the files on it for any "unlawful" activity. He's now being investigated for offences involving the making of pornographic images .....

But Mister Straw is now proposing that we have another piece of legislation, one which will "balance" Human Rights with responsibilities. Oh? Really? And does Mrs Blair approve? After all, she is the one that insisted on us adopting this worthless Villian's Charter in the first place and she and her Chambers have done very nicely out of it thank you. So have various "Civil Liberties" lobbies and not a few terrorists. I think the question is not "Do we need new legislation to address the balance between rights and responsibilities?" but, "Do we need the Human Rights Act at all?" I think the answer is no we do not. Neither do we need all the nannying and "Big Brother" survellance - if our police were allowed to deal with yobs as they used to in the 1950's before the "liberal" "rights" mob perverted every aspect of the law, we wouldn't need the CCTV. Likewise, if crime were punished instead of rewarded.

The law in this country has been perverted to the point where the law abiding are no longer protected and the criminal has more rights than the victims. Its time to change that. Come to think of it its time to rid ourselves of this current crop of Pot smoking 1960's boycotters, hippies and "activists" who have spent a lifetime undermining demorcacy and now have imposed a "Big Brother" society that would horrify George Orwell and cause our forefathers who fought two world wars for this nations freedom to take up arms against them.

Perhaps that's why Gordon Brown has cut the Defence budgets and our Armed Forces to a parlace state of under strength and over committed exhaustion. He's afraid they might.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 16, 2008

Publishing update ....

Just as I was about to post today an email pinged in from my publisher. The pressure on the printers at this time of the year is impacting on the publishers. My book may now appear in print late in this week or early next. It will take another two to three weeks to appear on the Amazon site from experience and probably a week or more to appear on any other "online" book seller.

Oh well, at least the marketting will have gathered momentum by then - I hope. I guess I'm just a bit paranoid about this now, I've waited so long for this moment that I'm being very impatient, but I'm also very conscious of the cometition and when you have ventured as much as I have on getting this to the publisher in terms of time and effort, I'm naturally just a teeny bit anxious to see it actually selling and reaching an audience. Out of Time has done well without the big publicity machine behind it, with publicity I'm hoping that The enemy is within will do even better - and pull in some more sales for Out of Time in the process.

Well, back to reality I guess, I'd better get some more paying work done. Time to bank with the bank again, they seem to get ever so twitchy when they bank with me.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 14, 2008

A little excursion in search of a visa ....

Last week I took my passport to the Embassy of Kazakhstan to apply for a visa - their consular section which deals with this is open between 0900 and 1200 on four days of the week only. Second, the don't offer a "same day service" even for those of us who have to travel considerable distances just to get it.

Perhaps I should explain that to get to London from my neck of the woods takes a minimum of 2 hours by train - no one in his right mind takes a car into central London if you don't need to! - and to get there between 0900 and 1200 means setting out very early. My train leaves Evesham at 0754 and arrives in London at 0935 and then you have the Underground to contend with. OK, so you would think that, even given the restricted times of opening, it should be a doddle to get the visa, even if it means posting the visa and passport. Er, well, normally - yes.

But apparently not at this particular embassy. An envelop was provided, the requisite fee paid to ensure it was posted "recorded delivery" and, as it would arrive while I was away in Chester, I had even arranged for the postman to deliver it to a neighbour. All to no avail - the passport failed to show up. The Post Office denied all knowledge, the Embassy failed to answer emails or the telephone (Perpetually engaged!) and so, it was off to London this morning to confront the consulate and find the passport even if it meant refusal of a visa and a "diplomatic incident".

Surprise, surprise, a brief search by their staff turned up the passport in the original envelop, with the story that it had been posted, but returned by the Royal Mail as "undeliverable" the following morning. Hmmmm, my Postie is a man who knows the score and he denies ever seeing it. Notably I wasn't given the chance to see the front of the envelop. My money is on its not having been posted at all.

Never mind, I now have the passport and the visa. So its off to Kazakhstan for me next Saturday. Hi Ho, I do get to the strangest and most interesting places sometimes and this will be no exception - as long as Messers Putin, Obama and Bush don't decide to start WW3.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 09, 2008

A world gone by - thrown away by spineless politcians and bureaucrats ....

A friend in Australia sent me this some time ago. Having read it I decided it should be posted here on the date in the poem but other things prevented it. So here it is.....

The Anzac on the Wall

I wandered thru a country town 'cos I had time to spare,
And went into an antique shop to see what was in there.
Old Bikes and pumps and kero lamps, but hidden by it all,
A photo of a soldier boy - an Anzac on the Wall.

"The Anzac have a name?" I asked. The old man answered "No,.
The ones who could have told me mate, have passed on long ago.
The old man kept on talking and, according to his tale,
The photo was unwanted junk bought from a clearance sale.

"I asked around," the old man said, "but no one knows his face,
He's been on that wall twenty years, deserves a better place.
For some one must have loved him so, it seems a shame somehow."
I nodded in agreement and then said, "I'll take him now."

My nameless digger's photo, well it was a sorry sight
A cracked glass pane and a broken frame - I had to make it right
To prise the photo from its frame I took care just in case,
"Cause only sticky paper held the cardboard back in place.

I peeled away the faded screed and much to my surprise,
Two letters and a telegram appeared before my eyes
The first reveals my Anzac's name, and regiment of course
John Mathew Francis Stuart - of Australia's own Light Horse.

This letter written from the front, my interest now was keen
This note was dated August seventh 1917
"Dear Mum, I'm at Khalasa Springs not far from the Red Sea
They say it's in the Bible - looks like Billabong to me.

"My Kathy wrote I'm in her prayers she's still my bride to be
I just cant wait to see you both you're all the world to me
And Mum you'll soon meet Bluey, last month they shipped him out
I told him to call on you when he's up and about."

"That bluey is a larrikin, and we all thought it funny
He lobbed a Turkish hand grenade into the Co's dunny.
I told you how he dragged me wounded in from no man's land
He stopped the bleeding closed the wound with only his bare hand."

"Then he copped it at the front from some stray shrapnel blast
It was my turn to drag him in and I thought he wouldn't last
He woke up in hospital, and nearly lost his mind
Cause out there on the battlefield he'd left one leg behind."

"He's been in a bad way mum, he knows he'll ride no more
Like me he loves a horse's back he was a champ before.
So Please Mum can you take him in, he's been like my brother
Raised in a Queensland orphanage he' S never known a mother."

But Struth, I miss Australia mum, and in my mind each day
I am a mountain cattleman on high plains far away
I'm mustering white-faced cattle, with no camel's hump in sight
And I waltz my Matilda by a campfire every night

I wonder who rides Billy, I heard the pub burnt down
I'll always love you and please say hooroo to all in town".
The second letter I could see was in a lady's hand
An answer to her soldier son there in a foreign land

Her copperplate was perfect, the pages neat and clean
It bore the date November 3rd 1917.
"T'was hard enough to lose your Dad, without you at the war
I'd hoped you would be home by now - each day I miss you more"

"Your Kathy calls around a lot since you have been away
To share with me her hopes and dreams about your wedding day
And Bluey has arrived - and what a godsend he has been
We talked and laughed for days about the things you've done and seen"

"He really is a comfort, and works hard around the farm,
I read the same hope in his eyes that you wont come to harm.
Mc Connell's kids rode Billy, but suddenly that changed
We had a violent lightning storm, and it was really strange."

"Last Wednesday just on midnight, not a single cloud in sight
It raged for several minutes, it gave us all a fright
It really spooked your Billy - and he screamed and bucked and reared
And then he rushed the sliprail fence, which by a foot he cleared"

"They brought him back next afternoon, but something's changed I fear
It's like the day you brought him home, for no one can get near
Remember when you caught him with his black and flowing mane?
Now Horse breakers fear the beast that only you can tame,"

"That's why we need you home son" - then the flow of ink went dry-
This letter was unfinished, and I couldn't work out why.
Until I started reading the letter number three
A yellow telegram delivered news of tragedy

Her son killed in action - oh - what pain that must have been
The Same date as her letter - 3rd November 17
This letter which was never sent, became then one of three
She sealed behind the photo's face - the face she longed to see.

And John's home town's old timers -children when he went to war
Would say no greater cattleman had left the town before.
They knew his widowed mother well - and with respect did tell
How when she lost her only boy she lost her mind as well.

She could not face the awful truth, to strangers she would speak
"My Johnny's at the war you know , he's coming home next week."
They all remembered Bluey he stayed on to the end
A younger man with wooden leg became her closest friend

And he would go and find her when she wandered old and weak
And always softly say "yes dear - John will be home next week."
Then when she died Bluey moved on, to Queensland some did say
I tried to find out where he went, but dont know to this day

And Kathy never wed - a lonely spinster some found odd
She wouldn't set foot in a church - she'd turned her back on God
John's mother left no will I learned on my detective trail
This explains my photo's journey, that clearance sale

So I continued digging cause I wanted to know more
I found John's name with thousands in the records of the war
His last ride proved his courage - a ride you will acclaim
The Light Horse Charge at Beersheba of everlasting fame

That last day in October back in 1917
At 4pm our brave boys fell - that sad fact I did glean
That's when John's life was sacrificed, the record's crystal clear
But 4pm in Beersheba is midnight over here.......

So as John's gallant spirit rose to cross the great divide
Were lightning bolts back home a signal from the other side?
Is that why Billy bolted and went racing as in pain?
Because he'd never feel his master on his back again?

Was it coincidental? same time - same day - same date?
Some proof of numerology, or just a quirk of fate?
I think it's more than that, you know, as I've heard wiser men,
Acknowledge there are many things that go beyond our ken

Where craggy peaks guard secrets neath dark skies torn asunder
Where hoofbeats are companions to the rolling waves of thunder
Where lightning cracks like 303's and ricochets again
Where howling moaning gusts of wind sound just like dying men

Some Mountain cattlemen have sworn on lonely alpine track
They've glimpsed a huge black stallion - Light Horseman on his back.
Yes Sceptics say, it's swirling clouds just forming apparitions
Oh no, my friend you cant dismiss all this as superstition

The desert of Beersheba - or windswept Aussie range
John Stuart rides forever there - Now I dont find that strange.
Now some gaze at this photo, and they often question me
And I tell them a small white lie, and say he's family.

"You must be proud of him." they say - I tell them, one and all,
That's why he takes the pride of place - my Anzac on the Wall.

A memorial I hope to all those who gave their lives to keep our freedom and to build a better future - a future squandered and thrown away by the wastralls and spineless policticians of every Western nation who could only think of their own comfort, avarice and the power they have stolen from the men and women who gave their all for our freedom ...

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:27 PM

November 07, 2008

Sharia through the back door

In another blunder by a government that specialises in blunders, they have legalised Sharia Courts - by passing an Act with holes big enough to drive a double decker bus through it. Read the Timesonline article and mourn for the demise of Christian Western Britain.

Interestingly the same media circus that attacked the Archbishop of Canterbury for suggesting that elements of the Sharia could be used within our system, have remained extremely silent on this little issue. Equally interesting is that only one politician has so far denounced the development - but he isn't a member of the government.

So much for "One nation; one justice system." Watch this space, it could be the beginning of the end for the now fatally eroded "British Nation".

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Kazakhstan? Where's that?

Well, OK, I do have a vague idea. Somewhere behind the Himalayas and beyond the Caspian Sea. Sort of outpost on the Silk Road kind of place. Well, I'm due to speak at a conference there in a couple of weeks, so today I'm off to London to get the visa. I hope.

Blogging may be a little short today.

FOOTNOTE: Thought I'd posted this yesterday - but obviously was in too much of a hurry!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 03, 2008

The Dawkins Delusion

A commenter left a link to a very funny reworking of Gilbert and Sullivan's famous "patter" song, "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" and it is worth dropping by to have a read of it. The Emerson Avenger has obviously taken about as much of this pompous git's insulting our intellect and our faith as I have.

I do like his riposte though!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 02, 2008

There is no God but Dawkins ...

I'm getting a little tired of the media acclaim for the man who has to be the arch-bigot of our time, Richard Dawkins. The arrogance of this man is the only thing that surpasses his own ego. Now it appears we are also to be subjected to adverts emblazoning busses proclaiming that "There is probably no God". Well, is there or isn't there? Is it that Professor Dawkins is uncertain?

No he is certain there is no God, at least according to his "proofs" there isn't, but to stay clear of the laws against offending Islam and one or two other religious bodies (But NOT Christianity which seems to be fair game for every crackpot and ignoramus going!) the ads have to allow for "interpretation" and allow the possibility that "proof" may yet surface which changes Dawkins mind. Personally I'd say its unlikely, like most of his ilk they don't want a debate unless it agrees with their argument. Anyone who has watched Dawkins or any of his fellow travellers response to any attempt to present a counter case to their blinkered and gigotted view will know that they fall back immediately to sarcastic and ill-informed quotations taken completely out of context and without any consideration of alternative interpretations. Frequently they are misquoting and even mismatching and mangling two and even three different sources into one.

OK, so if you';ve read "The God Delusion" you might find it persuasive. Frankly I do not, simply because in every "proof" Dawkins advances there is a large element of the inexplicable. In addition, he fails to realise that he is himself falling into the oldest trap in the Book, be it the Bible, the Quran or the Kama Sutra. The absence of belief in God does not mean the absence of belief - belief and faith stemming from that belief is simply transfered to something else - in Dawkins case he "believes" in the "scientific proofs" he advances as "proof" that God doesn't exist, that this life is it, finished, comlete and total. Ergo, for Richard Dawkins, there is no God but Richard Dawkins.

There are now several ripostes to Dawkins available, perhaps the best is McGrath's "The Dawkins Delusion". Unsurprisingly in the light of an official campaign to denigrate all forms of Christianity by the Westminster government and their Whitehall W*nk*rs, none of these are getting the attention the obnoxious Dawkins gets from the BBC and their fellow left wing propagandists. Secularist Humanism is the government's unoffical line and the spate of attacks in the press, on television and in every Christian forum on the internet by socalled pagans and atheists (Who noticeably avoid going onto any Muslim, Budhist or Hindu Forum to insult their beliefs) one must conclude that there is now in operation an official policy of persecution of Christianity. Don't believe me? Just visit the BBC website and look for the Radio 4 Christian Forum.

It is subtle and so far doesn't go as far as the campaign against Judaism has been allowed to go with Synagogues regul;arly defaced or attacked and Jewish graves defaced and desecrated - but it is not a large step to that from this current position. And the real problem underlying it is that the incompetents in Whitehall genuinely do not understand the differences between faiths when they yammer on about "multi-faith" and tolerance. Worse, they believe the lies that Dawkins and his supporters peddle at every opportunity about Christianity having been responsible for all the wars in history, for slavery and for every form of bigotry they themselves display.

Frankly I find Dawkins offensive, I find his ideas and his abuse of science to support them offensive, but above all, I find his assault on my freedom to believe in a universal and omnipotent God deeply offensive. He may choose to believe in himself if he wishes, but let him and his supporters keep it to themselves.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:03 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 30, 2008

What's Gordon Brown got to laugh about?

Well, I don't know who put this on You Tube - but do pay it a visit, it explains just what is making Gordo laugh - and who he's laughing at. And this one is by a reputable economist who has provided proof that Brown was warned that his policies were heading us toward an inevitable bust!

Interesting that the changes Labour (Gordon Brown) made to our financial regulations are the single major contributing factor to this present BUST. Yup, Gordo's got a lot to laugh at.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:07 PM | TrackBack

October 29, 2008

Collapsing £ound

In all seriousness, the value of the pound sterling is falling dramatically - something our closet communists in Whitehall and Westminster must be relishing as they watch their goal of ditching the Pound and surrendering the last vestiges of our sovereignty. With Gordon Brown destroying the last vestiges of capitalism in our economy with his mismanagement of the remaining commercial and industrial activities still in British ownership it is a mere matter of time before we are returned to being the basket case of Europe. This is how Labour did it in the 1960's and they are busy doing it again.

Take a look at the realities of "British" business. Almost all of our merchant shipping is now owned and operated by foreign based companies. All our manufacturing industry is owned and operated by foreign based companies. We import most of our food and even our so-called "capital" is managed and "owned" by foreign owned banks.

I will make some predictions here.

1. The pound will vanish after the next election - which Labour will win by virtue of their gerrymandering and propaganda manipulations, and
2. The government will then start attempting to nationalise and centralise the economy in a communist style return to "Command Economics" . Jobs will vanish as the real owners pull their investments out of the country, something that is already happening as the government attempts to nationalise and take control of the banks - foreign money is running before the Whitehall W*nk*rs can get their hands on it.

And the last prediction, two thousand years of the English Monarchy will vanish as Brown and his greedy incompetents finally wreak their "vengeance" on England and dismember it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Stock market operations

Once upon a time in a village named Caveat Emptor, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching some of the few remaining monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man, nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 28, 2008

Overcrowded trains on the Tube?

Not any more. In a creative solution that leaves one almost breathless for the sheer "chutzpah" (A Yiddish word which is a lot more polite than the Anglo-Saxon 'B***ls') Transport for London have solved their overcrowding problem at the stroke of a pen. It proves that the pen is indeed far more dangerous than the sword, especially in the hands of career politicians and bureaucrats.

Its official, the tubes are no longer overcrowded in London. No, there are no extra trains and no extra carriages, nor are there extra busses or bigger busses. So how have they done it? Selective passenger arrangements? Nope. Restrictions on travel at rush hour perhaps? Nope.

Its so simple its breathtaking.

They changed the definition of "Overcrowding". It used to be 30 people standing in a carriage. Now, to be overcrowded, there have to be 60 standing .....

Spotted in a London Underground carriage - the next step in beating "overcrowding" perhaps?

As I said, breathtaking in its simplicity!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 24, 2008

Socialist asset grab?

One of the BBC Chatrooms is currently running a discussion forum which seems to be being led by smeone who is a form believer in communist central planned economics. Having read this idiots ranting, I'm afraid I failed to join the discussion - one which seems to be a revival meeting of the Socialist Workers/British Communist Party. All the usual arguments are being trotted out for tighter regulation, state control of wealth, industry, commerce and the distribution of jobs, benefits, wealth, education and everything else. It seems that there is always someone who believes that the unworkable socialist/communist system of "command economics" can be made to work and will, somehow, ensure a fairer political and economic system.

I can recall discussions when I was a lot younger, which centred on the idea of everyone being paid the same rate no matter what the role. I always seemed to be the one who pricked the bubble - by simply pointing out that there was no way I would accept responsibility for managing a factory if I was paid the same wage as the man who swept the floors. Inevitably I was always branded as "reactionary" and "weddedto an outdated and unfair system." Maybe, or maybe I was just being pragmatic.

Yes, the greedy MBA toting wide boys who have infested the Financial Trading Halls and the Boardrooms of once great and responsible companies have played fast a loose with the assets of their shareholders and investors. Yes, they deserve to be taken to task and, if appropriate, relieved of their lucrative positions, but not to be replaced by even more incompetent Civil Servants and politicians whose MBA's are from the same universities and the only difference between them is that the Civil Servants, in the former Soviet Union labelled the "Nomenclatura", are not sufficiently entrepenuerial to run a company. Take a look at their track record and how they have ruined almost every public service and preside over the wastage of vast amounts of public money annually. What makes anyone think this shower could possibly manage the instruments of wealth creation any better than the wide boys currently ruining it? As for their ability to distribute it more fairly? You have to be joking - they are no different from the idiots who have ruined the banks and will look after their own interests at every turn. The only beneficiaries under any socialist/communist economy is the Party Apparatchiks and the Nomenclatura themselves. And look what they managed to do to every economy they have ever managed.

We need to ensure that our socialist politicians do not make this recession the excuse to seize our assets and appropriate to themselves and those who have done nothing to earn it, what does not belong to them or to their sycophants. Already the Chancellor has nationalised three of the biggest banks, we should be alarmed by this - and those who continue to try to capitalise on the current difficulty should be cautious - lest they play directly into the hands of the asset grabbers.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 22, 2008

Selective sciences

I have always had some respect for the World Wildlife Fund or WWF, they did quite a good job on a number of fronts in my view, helping to save a lot of our rarer animals from extinction, the Panda, the Siberian Tiger and one or two other notables among them. But now I'm not sure what they are up too. Firstly, like Greenpeace and Fiends of the Earth, they have strayed into the realms of pseudo-science, and that I will not give money to support.

What has sparked this tirade? Well, I came across a little gem in the Daily Telegraph, a stunning photo that shows that the Arctic ice sheet has almost vanished. Or has it? Digging around I discovered that the Telegraph has fallen for a "new" report published by the WWF that says we are heating up the planet faster than even the most hysterical of the "Global Warming" pundits has previously foamed at the mouth over. Tim at An Englishman's Castle certainly has picked up on this as well, but the most telling information I found comes from Watts Up With That? and a fascinating piece he has on this issue.

Or you can go directly to the best photos of the Ice Caps available - at The Cryosphere Today. These are updated daily and show the extent of the sea ice and its thickness - and interestingly they show more ice than the Telegraph/WWF pictures show.

Now I'm not a suspicious man, but the fact that the WWF pictures show not a vestige of cloud suggests that someone has "cleaned up" the images - I wonder if, in the process, and all accidental like - a bit of ice got cleaned off the pictures as well?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 20, 2008

Credit crunch

The forcasts don't look good, in fact the latest suggestion is that, contrary to Whitehall's rose tinted visions from the Treasury, the UK economy is already in recession. This will be the second one I have had to survive in the last twenty years and it is probably all the more annoying because, if anything, the Whitehall w*nkers and their political chums in the Cabinet have ably helped to plunge us into it. Interestingly they now are crying that MORE regulations are required, when I am convinced that at least one of the reasons so much of our manufacturing capacity, not to mention almost all of our mainstay commercial activity, is now based "offshore" is precisely because the "regulation" in the EU has reached stupid proportions.

Yes, the financial sector probably does need a bit more commonsense applied in their dealings, after all most of the "trading" in the finance markets (as on the Stock Market) is little better than what one can find in any betting shop on the High Street. The stakes are higher and the odds longer, but its still no more than gambling on a monumental scale - and best of all, the traders win regardless of whether they lose the lot or not. Never bock the "House Percentage" is the maxim they need reminding of, but now that Mister Darling has Nationalised two of our biggest banks on the excuse that they have "borrowed" Public Money, I do not hold out a great deal of hope for anything more than financial stagnation of the worst kind. I know they haven't put Civil Servants on the Boards (Yet!) but the directors they have installed will be having their strings pulled by politicians. In short, the banks will not be allowed to respond to market demand, and everything will grind to a halt. And watch the Red Tape that will now erupt out of Brussels and the Whitehall back rooms.

I do not believe that "Public Ownership" is a solution to the spread of wealth, if anything the Century of Socialist/Communist Command econmics demonstrated by the former USSR and even our own dear Labour Party machinations in the 1950's and 60's should have proved that. But it seems that Whitehall is still in loive with the idea and the very last people who should have any say in the management of anything at all, especially something as important as the national economy, are the Civil Servants who are now being given control of it. If you want something to die on its feet, put some Civil Servants in charge of it. It may take a while, but they will kill it as surely as poison will kill a fit human being. Take a look at the record of Civil Service management of any nationalised industry anywhere, or any major project managed by civil servants in the last half century. I rest my case!

What is worse, the gullible among the voting public are falling for the line that the present PM is "the best man for the job os steering us through this crisis" - a ridiculous assumption precisely because HE has created the mess we are in. He inherited a recovering and sound economy from the Tories in 1997 and has squandered it. Under his Chancellorship our taxes have risen by the Treasury's own admission by 51% and our National Debt is now the highest it has ever been in all of our history. He has embarked on a policy of raising taxes to spend, spend, spend and when he couldn't get it from the tax pool he borrowed and borrowed. This is as bad as the Pre-Thatcher Labour Government whose solution to needing more money was to simply let the printing presses print as much as they wanted. That got this country into a financial crisis that put us under IMF management!

Yes, the Credit Crunch is the result of stupidty and greed in the Finacial Markets and among our top bankers, but they are not solely to blame, some of it must rest with the politicans who have created the climate in which that could happen. And you can be very sure that they won't be reducing their salaries or pension benefits anytime soon.

Snouts in the trough! We're alright Jack, we're inboard!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 18, 2008

A legal step too far?

If anything was proof that the legal profession will do anything if someone is paying is the case brought by a State Senator in the US against God, for "Threatening to bring widespread death, destruction amd terrorism to him and the people of Nebraska." Seems to me that he missed the target, it might have been better to sue the hellfire and damnation fundamentalists there who persist in preaching the anger of God instead of the love He so clearly displays. Perhaps the Judge who dismissed the case deserbes a pat on the back - but when you look at the reason for dismissing it, you wonder.

Why was it dismissed? Because God doesn't have an address to which the summons can be delivered.

In Britain this would be called a "vexatious suit" and the perpetrator sent down with a hefty fine for wasting the court's time. In the US apparently, or in Nebraska anyway, the Senator is considering an appeal.

I am reminded that a group of Rabbis, incarcerated in Auschwitz, tried God in a court they convened in the Camp, charging Him with failure to prevent the wholesale murder of the Jewish people in Germany and the occupied countries. After considering all the angles carefully they decided that the only verdict they could bring was "Not guilty" as "The ways of God are not to be understood by the minds of men, nor is His will to be questioned." A point made in the final Chapter of the Book of Jonah.

State Senator Chambers seems to me to be wasting both the court's time and the people of Nebraskas money in a stupid gesture to make political capital. He would not be my choice on any ballot were I a voter in his constituency. The legal system has better and more important things to do than waste time on self serving and self important stunts perpetrated by bigoted idiots.

Legal case against God dismissed

The plaintiff argued an omniscient God would know of the lawsuit
A US judge has thrown out a case against God, ruling that because the defendant has no address, legal papers cannot be served.

The suit was launched by Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who said he might appeal against the ruling.

He sought a permanent injunction to prevent the "death, destruction and terrorisation" caused by God.

Judge Marlon Polk said in his ruling that a plaintiff must have access to the defendant for a case to proceed.

"Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice," Judge Polk wrote in his ruling.

Mr Chambers cannot refile the suit but may appeal.

'God knows everything'

Mr Chambers sued God last year. He said God had threatened him and the people of Nebraska and had inflicted "widespread death, destruction and terrorisation of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants".

He said he would carefully consider Judge Polk's ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

The court, Mr Chambers said, had acknowledged the existence of God and "a consequence of that acknowledgement is a recognition of God's omniscience".

"Since God knows everything," he reasoned, "God has notice of this lawsuit."

Mr Chambers, a state senator for 38 years, said he filed the suit to make the point that "anyone can sue anyone else, even God".

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 15, 2008

Saving the world or a cunning take-over?

It is difficult to see what else the government of this and several other countries could have done in the face of a collapsing financial sector, but it must also set alarm bells sounding in every free citizens ears. Two of the UK's (and Europe's) largest Banks have now effectively been nationalised by our Chancellor. Hoorah! Scream all the Socialist Closet Communistas - at last! They now have control of the money supply and therefore the distribution of wealth. Frankly, that in itself, is enough to make all right thinking people want to emigrate immediately! What is their next move? Nationalisation of industry is out - they've destroyed what we had, so probably all commercial activity will now be targeted. After all, the Left wing of the Labour Party is still wedded to the idea that the State should control all industrial and commercial activity - only a very short step away from their having control over who gets employment and who doesn't.

The financial crisis needed to be dealt with, but is giving control of the banks to political placemen (I notice that even our ex-Communist Party associate Chancellor has not placed Civil Servant Incompetents on the Boards of the Nationalised Banks, probably the only sensible thing in this debacle) the right way to do this. I agree entirely that the "rewards" for irresponsibility needed to be curtailed and the reckless gambling with what is, after all, their customers money (And most Tax Payers - Mr Darling's favourite sound bite - are also customers of these institutions) so to give the Treasury any sort of say in commercial activity is far from ideal for either customer or taxpayer. How can I say that?

Easily, these are the same incompetents who have visited upon us the Bureaucratic waste of time "Prince 2" contract management which has never delivered anything on time or on budget. And worse, the entire Civil Service is unable to deliver anything on budget, much less specify anything so that it can be. Why? Because they are none of them practitioners of the things they purport to "manage" on behalf of the tax payer. They are "generalist" managers who specialise in nothing and leap from one "empire" of their own creation to another just ahead of whatever they have ruined in the last post being uncovered.

I am automatically nervous of any politcian or Civil Servant being given control over any instrument of the wealth of the nation. Both are anathema to me, because both are biased and both will misuse the power it gives them for their own narrow and self-serving ends.

And now I will make a prediction: Watch the Financial Centre that has been at the heart of this nations wealth and economic growth for the last thirty years vanish abroad. Where will it go? Why, to the "Free Trade" zones being set up all round the Gulf, unregulated and untaxed, they will move there and escape the strictures and restrictions of Socialist Europe and the politcians vain belief that they can generate wealth and distribute it more fairly than any other system. Mark my words, in the not to distant future our wealth will have vanished and we will be in thrall to the new world economic muscle that is being built up carefully in the Middle East. They know exactly how to attract the money men just as our lot of scheming politicians can't see the danger of telling shareholders (the Owners of the banks) that they won't get a dividend "because we won't allow this use of public money" or the even greater danger of allowing all the ownership of our commercial and industrial assets to be in foreign hands.

Prime example? British Airports Authority. It should be called Spanish, just as P&O Ferries is now owned by a Dubai based company and the QE2 has been sold to someone else in the Gulf ..... Don't even ask who owns the major shares in the banks - and it isn't the UK government!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 05, 2008

Prophetic writing?

I have recently reread a book called "Erewhon" by a gentleman named Samuel Butler. And before you all start reaching for your best seller lists, I had better explain that the book was published in 1872 and is a very clever political satire in the same spirit as those written in the 18th Century by Jonathon Swift, The title is in fact an anagram of "No where" and it is a sort of anti-Utopia tract, written, I think, as a riposte to much of the Utopian social writing of the period in which so much of our current socialist thinking is rooted.

Erewhon is set in a remote part of the British Empire, a land hidden behind a virtually impenetrable range of mountains. In contrast to our own society (or the Victorians for that matter!) it is a place where beauty represents health and prosperity, illness is a criminal offence and disability leads to banishment (if you're lucky!) or death (if you're not!). Children choose their parents and "bad" parents are punished - the definition of "bad" parents being decided by the accusations of their offspring. In short, it is a society which turns on its head all the norms by which any normal society would operate. Or does it?

Butler attacks the Ecclesiatical institutions and theology of his day robustly, but as I read through this again, I suddenly found myself wondering what he would make of the society we live in. The emphasis on "Children's Rights" comes very close to what he has written in fiction more than a century ago. So does the NHS farce which allows the wealthy to bypass the blockages and bureaucratic clap-trap the rest of us have to suffer not to mention the selectivity when it comes to the availablility of some treatments and drug regimes.

For all its age and the dating of some of the technology in which it is set, it is very readable and entertaining - but do look deeper. That is the scary bit.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:54 AM | TrackBack

September 27, 2008

Stupidity on the increase?

There are definitely times when stupidity should be a capital offence. The extended post gives an example of one such - a British (I'm ashamed to say!) woman who bought a live artillery shell in France, placed it in her hand luggage and then, when stopped by French Security staff at the airport, claims not to have any idea why it caused such a fuss!

I think the only thing that tops that story is the Russian ship, carrying thirty - you got it, count them yourself - tanks which has been captured by pirates off Somalia......

One can only hope that they are not fully equipped and haven't the ammunition with them, but don't count on it.

ITN - Friday, September 26 01:07 pm An entire French airport had to be evacuated when a British woman tried to board an aircraft with a bomb in her hand luggage.

Security guards spotted the 55-year-old had a World War Two shell, used in army field guns, in her case ahead of her Ryanair flight from Bergerac, in the Dordogne, to East Midlands airport.

The woman, from Nottingham, said she had bought the 37mm military explosive in a second hand shop as a present for her husband.

As more than 1,000 passengers and staff were forced to leave the terminal building, bomb squad officers took the shell to nearby wasteland and carried out a controlled explosion.

A French police spokesman said the woman, who has not been named, was questionned at the scene.

He said: "She told us she had no idea that taking a military shell through airport security would cause such a fuss. She said she bought the device in a second hand shop because her husband collected military memorabilia."

He added: "Checks were made with the tradesman she bought it from and her story proved to be genuine, so charges will not be brought and she was allowed to leave."

The flight finally took off 90 minutes late with the woman on board, airport officials said

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:22 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 19, 2008

Confused signals

I find the current Archbishop of Sydney a contradictory man. First, he rails against the Lambeth Conference, saying it refuses to make decisions, precisely what it was set up NOT to do. It is essentially a "talking shop" one which allows the views of all sections of the Anglican Church to be heard and not just those with an agenda to run. He defends his non-attendance by asserting that it was "To English Centric" and does not reflect the Church in Africa or elsewhere, a charge that falls flat on the fact that the African Bishops and leaders were not only there, but took a lead in the many workshops.

But the most contradictory aspect of his charge that Lambeth is "too England centred" is his own Archdiocese's insistence on adhering to the Canons, long since repealed or modified in England and everywhere else, governing clergy dress and vestments written for an English political setting in the 16th Century. Let's face it, the Diocese of Sydney makes many of the Methodist communities look like Anglo-catholics, and the reason is simple. They stick like glue to the Rubrics and Canons of the 1662 Prayer Book which was a major compromise in itself and led to a number of divisions within the Anglican Church at its inception.

The Anglican Communion has followed the model of the Early Church in which, contrary to Rome's claims, the Diocesan Bishops held all the authority in their own Diocese. We are a synodical church and though I do not agree with a great deal its Synods decide, I am, as a member bound by the enactments of the General Synod and the Diocesan and Deanery Synods. That is the ancient model and it has worked well throughout the history of our church. Lambeth is not the Roman Curia, nor should it be. GAFCON is attempting to replace Lambeth and become a Curia - a strange situation again for Dr Jenkins because, as a member of the Ultra-Evangelical wing of the church he is linking up with Ultra-catholics who can't bring themselves to accept the Papal Authority, in order to create an sort of Anglican Curia ....

As I said, this is a very confused signal. I hope our Lord can make sense of it!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:25 AM | TrackBack

September 17, 2008

Darwin was not wrong - the Churches agree

One for the record I guess, the Anglican Church has broken over a century of silence and said publically that they owe Charles Darwin an apology. The official statement says that the Church "misunderstood" and "misrepresented" his theory. While this isn't an "official" apology, it does, in fact, reflect the Churches "official" position on the Origin of the Species.

It is interesting to note that the Roman Catholic Church has long held the same view as has the Orthodox Church. All agree that there is nothing in the theory that conflicts with the Bible and Christian Doctrine or Dogma - a position not shared by some "Protestant" fundamentalist groups. Still, the bulk of Christianity is "enlightened" enough to accept the facts as science presents them.

spokesman for the Anglican Church says it should admit it wronged Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution is still considered anti-Christian in some circles, even as it's become a cornerstone of science.

"The Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still," Rev. Malcolm Brown writes on a church Web site marking next year's 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

"There is nothing here that contradicts Christian teaching," he says, adding that the church's "reaction now seems misjudged."

While the church didn't take an official stance against Darwin, its officials — in a widely publicized 1860 debate — made nasty arguments against his theory that species evolve through natural selection, the church says on its Web site. Today, some fundamentalist Christians argue that evolution can't co-exist with the biblical story of creation — a concept gaining new traction thanks to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who believes creationism should be taught along with evolution in schools.

Brown's statement, posted yesterday, reflects the church's position on Darwin but isn’t an official apology, the Church of England told the Associated Press. Pope John Paul II said in 1992 that the Catholic Church should say it was sorry for putting Galileo on trial over his assertion that Earth revolves around the sun.

Darwin's great-great grandson, Andrew Darwin, told Britain's Daily Mail on Saturday that he was "bemused" by the apology, which he described as "pointless."

"Why bother?" he told the newspaper. "When an apology is made after 200 years, it’s not so much to right a wrong, but to make the person or organization making the apology feel better."

Updated 5:05 p.m. Sept. 16: The Vatican says Darwin's theories are compatible with the Bible, and doesn't plan any apology like the one a Church of England spokesman suggests the Anglican Church should offer, Reuters and DPA are reporting. "Maybe we should abandon the idea of issuing apologies as if history was a court eternally in session," said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister. Darwin's theories, he said, were "never condemned by the Catholic Church nor was his book ever banned," according to Reuters.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:54 PM | TrackBack

September 13, 2008

Political meltdown?

Hardly, but it does seem that the present government has run into a few problems. As usual the extreme left of the Party is the first to break cover with their demands for "Windfall taxes" on everyone still managing to make a profit, but especially on the energy companies. Now, while I have some sympathy with the argument, I have to say its not as simple as a case of "mega-profit" flowing from high fuel bills. These energy giants now have very diverse activities and the supply of fuel for domestic and industrial users is actually quite a small percentage of where their income comes from. Besides which, all corporations exist only to make a profit for their shareholders and NOT for the benefit of the customer. In fact, in law (Made by the same morons who now scream for "windfall" taxes!) corporations are required to maximise the profits for their investors. The fact that they succeed in doinbg so is hardly a reason to criticise them, in fact, when they fail to do this the first to suffer are the workers most of the Windfall Tax advocates supposedly represent!

Labour has, as usual, enjoyed the fruits of the fiscal stability built by the last Conservative Government and, as usual, have shown their predilection for "Tax and Spend" - so much so that over 33% of my paltry pension is deducted in tax as is almost everything else I manage to earn now working for myself. I'm not allowed to be independent or to make a profit according to the communistas running Whitehall - that's not fair. I'm supposed to pay for the feckless and the terminally incompetent Whitehall apparatchiks and their parasite followers who have never done a complete days work. But even more interesting is how the Left of the Labour Party is suddenly emboldened by the propsect of being botted out of power. All the Old Labour mantras are being aired again, nationalisation, worker power, collectives and many other discredited ideas of the 70's are being bandied about as "back to our roots" becomes the warcry. And Gordon Brown is vulnerable, because he has never been elected as PM, he has never fought an election as PM and he is a Scottish MP ruling the English as head of HM Government. Nothing he does in Whitehall applies to his constituency in Fife. If nothing else gets him and his band of Closet Communists kicked out of power in England, it will be that.

The Civil Service is now so riddled with the Labour Apparatchiks that it will take decades to get this country back into the Black and deconstruct some of the bureaucratic crap that Labour has signed up to. Westminster has, under Labour, become increasingly irrelevant since almost everything they now debate is generated in Brussells by the totally unelected Commission and their Socialist Apparatchiks. The flow of tax money out of this country is phenomenal, particularly out of England which not only subsidises Wales and Scotland heavily - and we didn't mind as long as we had the illusion of being a "United" Kingdom - but now we subsidise Brussels and its parasites as well.

In its usual deceitful way the Labour Party has further complicated the situation by bringing in the Regional Assembly and Regionalisation through the back door. They lost the argument when it was put to voters who resoundingly rejected the concept of breaking England up into 8 independent Assemblies, but they had already put in place the expensive and unelected apparatus to run the Regions. Now they have to try and justify it in the face of opposition at every level. Do they pay any attention to the voters anger? No, but again, enter Old Labour and we hear them arguing that this brings "power to the workers" and enables local control over services. Really? Sounds more like the Soviet system to me - you'll take what we give you and like it!

Labour has a problem, a big one. They can only rule the UK if they retain all the Scoittish and Welsh MP's in Whitehall, but increasingly people are asking why they should. After all, the Scottish Parliament is now ruled by a Scottish Nationalist who wants total independence and to redraw the boundaries and seize some of the assets we have long held as common property. Nothing Westminster decodes affects Scotland, so why have any Scottish MP's in Westminster? The Welsh Assembly is acting more and more like an independent parliament, even challenging some of the Westminster/Whitehall legislation. If that continues, why have Weslh MP's in Westminster?

Blair opened Pandora's Box on this, now Brown must face the music - especially after signing away our sovereignty in the Lisbon Constitution which strips the UK Parliament of any pretence of Independence. He knew he couldn't get the voters to accept it so he lied - and now must face the music for that one as well. Personally I hope there is a challenge to his leadership - it may force a General Election and we can be shot of this bunch of 1960's pot smoking, guitar twanging, squatters, university sit-in architects, con-artists and Che Guevarra worshippers.

The downside of that is that we will only swap one lot of idiots for the other lot - and we won't be shot of the Civil Service which is the real problem in Whitehall.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2008

Collapsing justice?

The lengthy trial of the eight men accused of plotting to blow up airliners has been much in the news these last days. It seems that the jury could not, despite the evidence of videos declaring their intent, make up their minds that they actually meant what they said. To me this simply means what I have long suspected. Its time to scrap the jury system. It would seem that a section of the jury (and I suppose we have to remember that the trial lasted three months) lost track of the evidence and only allowed themselves to remember the defence teamns repeated question "Was there an intent to ....?"

The final piece that members of the jury decided supported this (the ONLY piece in fact) was the "proof" that none of the accused had actually bought a ticket to fly. Big deal, so because they were caught before they could do that, they are, according to at least six members of the jury, Not Guilty. As I said, time to scrap the jury system - you simply can't get anyone intelligent enough to serve on them anymore. Certainly not in cases like this one.

Of course, the Liberal press has gone to town declaring that the Prosecution "failed" because the evidence was "flawed". I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but some morons who serve on juries now insist on levels of "proof" that are almost impossible to achieve. Particularly when it is a case against anyone from a "disadvantaged" or "minority" background. The same idiots would convict and single white male of rape or pedophilia in the blink of an eye on far less evidence if the "victim" was from a minority group, so you see my case.

Time to scrap the juries and adopt the continental system.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:18 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 09, 2008

High tides ....

We are surrounded by water again. Though not as high a tide as in July last year, it is still unseasonably high. The Vineyards behind the Abbey are submerged, something we usually only see in the winter months, but at present we seem to be getting the remnants of the Caribbean's hurricanes. I know that is not the "fashion" among climatologists who claim that those storms have no connection with our, but they do follow a similar track and these are the ones that "blow themselves out" somewhere around the Carolina coast and then head off across the Atlantic following the Gulf Stream.

Today was spent in rain and wind out on the fire ground for a course in Fire Investigation (One has to earn the odd crust after all!) and the air temperatures and the humidity certainly put me in mind of the sort of conditions that go with hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. But then, I'm not a climatologist.

Ah well, I guess its time to find the waders again.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 30, 2008

Christianophobia?

The Vatican has now issued a statement in which it alleges that the world is in the grip of growing "Christianophobia". In the extended post is the BBC's version of this statement, which, considering their own contribution to this in the UK, is pretty mild. Personally I have felt for some considerable time that there is a concerted and active policy in the UK government and among the left/liberal intelligentsia that infest the corridors of power these days, to stamp out the Christian legacy and, if possible, the faith. Of course it is not overt, they cannot afford to be open about it, but Whitehall now has "targets" for "representation by other faith groups" alongside their targets for ethnic and female representation.

The BBC and other mass media seize every opportunity to denigrate any Christian initiative and the literary field is laden with "best selling" authors like Dan Browne whose "historical" "facts" are widly misleading to say the least. Downright wrong is perhaps a better way of saying it. Anything which makes any faith, but particularly the Islamic faith, look better than Christianity is seized on and blown up to "prove" that Christianity is the root of all evil.

Well, maybe the Vatican's having come out and said it loud and clear will make the anti-Christian movement in the UK a little more cautious. You may be sure of one thing -0 there will be loud protests of innocence from Whitehall and Westminster on this - but they are as guilty as sin.

ROME (Reuters) - "Christianophobia" is a growing problem around the world and it must be fought with the same determination as anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, the Vatican said on Friday.

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Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican's foreign minister, spoke in the wake of attacks against Christians in India that have left at least 13 people dead this week.

Mamberti, addressing a conference in northern Italy, said religious freedom was a vital part of international relations and human dignity.

"In order to promote this dignity in an integral way, so-called 'Christianophobia' should be combated as decisively as 'Islamophobia' and anti-Semitism," he said.

This week in eastern India, thousands of people, most of them Christians, have sought shelter in makeshift government camps, driven from their homes by religious violence.

Hindu mobs burnt more than a dozen churches and attacked Christians after a Hindu leader was killed.

Mamberti said the events in India made the issue of religious liberty today all the more pressing.

While Hindu groups accuse Christian priests of bribing poor tribes and low-caste Hindus to change their faith, the Christians say lower-caste Hindus convert willingly to escape a complex caste system.

Pope Benedict has condemned the violence against Christians in Orissa but also deplored the killing of the Hindu leader.

Italy's foreign ministry said it would summon India's ambassador to demand "incisive action" to prevent further attacks against Christians.

Mamberti said 21 Catholic missionaries were killed in the world in 2007 and lamented that the Christian population of Iraq was now down to about 500,000 from about one million before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Last month, Pope Benedict told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that minority Christians in Iraq needed more protection.

The Archbishop of Mosul of Iraq's largest Christian denomination, the Chaldean Catholics, was kidnapped in February and found dead two weeks later.

The Vatican has often expressed concern that conflicts in the Middle East are greatly diminishing the Christian population in the areas of the religion's birth.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:12 AM | Comments (1)

August 27, 2008

Harry Potter according to Bollywood?

I find it hilarious that an Indian Film maker can launch a movie entitled "Hari Puttar" about a ten year old from the Indian sub-continent who moves to Britain (allegedly!) and claim not to be trading on the "Harry Potter" name and franchise. Well, it's for Warner Bros to sort out through the courst - expensive though that may be. It will, no doubt be fun to watch - especially as Warner Bros are having to fight the case in Bombay.

In the meantime Warner's are about to launch the latest Harry Potter film - and I for one am looking forward to seeing what they have done with the Half Blood Prince.

Could the legal challenge be part of the pre-launch publicity? Perish the thought!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 26, 2008

President Brown .....

This was sent to me by a friend (Scottish - just to prove they have a sense of humour too!) this morning. Trouble is its so close to the reality of our political situation - and our American friends understanding of it from their media that it is almost documentary.

From our own correspondent

Gordon Brown flies into Washington, still an unknown quantity to most people in the U.S. despite his bizarre appearance on American Idol recently. In advance of the trip, profiles of the Prime Minister have been appearing in the U.S. This column tuned in by satellite to Eye-Witness News, Palm Beach , for a preview of the visit:

'Good morning America , how are you? This is your favourite son, Chad Hanging, reporting. The President of Englandland, Norman Brown, is arriving in our nation's capital this afternoon to meet with President Bush. But just who is this guy? Let's cross to our special correspondent Brit Limey.'

Hey, Chad . As you can see, I'm standing in the world-famous Trafalgar Circus, with the House of Fayed directly behind me.

So what can you tell us about Norman Brown?

Well, Chad , he has been President for some nine months now. He used to be Chancellor.

What, you mean he's, like, German?

No, that's what they call their Treasury Secretary over here.

And is he a Conservative, like President Tony Blair?

No, Chad . He's Labour. President Blair wasn't a Conservative, either. He only pretended to be.

So how did Brown get the job?

He just kept shouting at President Blair until he stood down.

But he won an election, right?

No, Chad , there wasn't an election. He did think about calling one, but decided against it because he was frightened he might lose.

How can you change Presidents without having an election? I mean, it's not like President Blair was assassinated.

That's just the way it works in Englandland. The leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Lords gets to be President.

So Norman Brown was elected leader of the Labour Party?

Negative again Chad , he did raise money and have a leadership campaign, but no one stood against him.

What, nobody? No primaries, no general election, nothing?

That's affirmative, Chad .

Let me get this straight. His party hasn't elected him, the country hasn't elected him, yet he still gets to be President. Sounds like a tinpot Commie dictatorship to me.

You could say that Chad . Norman Brown doesn't really like anyone being given the chance to vote on anything.

Someone must have voted for him, some time.

Oh, yes. He was elected to the House of Lords by his constituents in Scotlandland.

He's Scoddish, then?

That's a big Ten-Four, Chad.

So is he President of Scotlandland, too?

No, that's a guy called Alan Salmon.

Hang on, if Brown's from Scotlandland, how can he be President of Englandland?

That's just the way it goes in this crazy country, Chad . Brown can make laws for Englandland, but not for his own people in Scotlandland. Not that it matters much because Brown has signed away most of Englandland's lawmaking powers to unelected European bureaucrats in Brussels , Belgiumland.

That would be like stripping Congress of the power to make laws in America and handing it over to Mexico !!

I guess so.

How in the Hell did the people of Englandland vote for that.

They didn't. Brown wouldn't let them, even though it was a solemn promise in his party's manifesto the last time people were allowed to vote.

Couldn't the Supreme Court have stopped him?

Not really. The Supreme Court of Englandland is now in Strasbourg , you know, where the geese come from.

Isn't there any opposition?

There's a guy called Boris.

Sounds Russian.

I wouldn't be surprised, Chad . There are millions of Eastern Europeans living here now, mainly in Peterburl. Englandland has seen mass immigration over the past ten years, but no one voted for that, either.

What in the name of Ulysses S. Grant is going on over there, Brit? We're talking about the country which gave us Magna Carta, saw off the Armada, stood alone against Hitler and invented parliamentary democracy. How does Norman Brown get away with it? He must be one popular guy.

Far from it Chad . According to the latest opinion polls, he's the most unpopular President ever. His approval ratings are even worse than George Dubya Bush. There's talk about him having to stand down soon. He's already promised the job to some guy who works for him - name of Balls.

Say again, Brit, you're breaking up.

Balls.

You're damn right there, buddy.

As I said, a little too close to the truth of how Labour sees their Prime Minister and how little say we actually have over what our politicians do!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 24, 2008

Science and religion

Reading the New Scientist letters pages for this week has provided an interesting insight into the minds of those who refuse to see any value in faith and write God off as a "fantasy figure not worthy of scientific consideration". Having watched Richard Dawkins make a real meal of trying to "prove" that all life is an accident and not influenced at all by any form of God - his catch phrase was throughout "Who needs a god to do this?" - I have to wonder what those like him are afraid of. They make such desperate attempts to discredit any form of belief system, but particularly any form of Christian faith, that one has to ask, why are they so anti-God? Are they afraid that their "Reason" might not be enough and that "faith" based moral codes may, after all, prove necessary?

The letters page has a section in which the atheist lobby are attacking New Scientist for giving column space to a report on the Templeton Foundations plan to use funding to try and scientifically "prove" that God is real. Personally I can't see them succeeding since every "test" they can apply scientifically is probably not going to give the results it would get if applied to something physical. Secondly, what difference will it make to those who deny God's existence? Not a lot I would suggest since that lobby will simply fund a raft of new research to "prove" that the results of the first set of research was flawed. Those who will not believe in anything other than their own reason are as blinkered as those who will not accept that much of the Bible is allegorical and must be read in context with the society that created it if we are to understand it at all.

As for the argument advanced by many of the correspondents who rain abuse on any form of faith adherence at every opportunity, that mankind does not need faith to exercise moral and ethical restraint, I would say that there are any number of examples of utterly depraved science based attrocities that defy any form of ethics or morality to refute their argument. Two examples spring immediately to mind - the work of a Russian biologist who attempted to breed a human/ape hybrid in the 1920's as part of the Great Socialist attempt to brred competitiveness out of the Russian people and develop a "model" "worker". It failed, thankfully. The second is the experiments of Doctor Mengele and others on twins and on human beings to determine how much trauma a body could absorb before death occured. All in the name of science of course, and no doubt supported by a barrage of "reasonable" arguments. Like the famous Socialist mantra that runs "Some must lose out in any effort to improve the lot of the majority." Well we all know who the losers are usually - everybody but the "leader" making that "rationalist" statement.

Christianity as we practice it and as it has been abused over the centuries, certainly has its faults, but it has given us a moral code and a set of ethics which have shaped the modern wortld and will continue to do so. In one sense I hope that the Templeton Foundation's experiments do find the "proof" they want - if only to be able to say "Told you so!" the next time I'm confronted with an arrogant "Scientific Rationalist". Given the speed with which our scientific knowledge is changing the great "truths" of science and the lack of progress in actually understanding some of the most basic matters that run our universe - I ain't holding my breath!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 18, 2008

Even in the Grauanid now?

Every now and then someone manages to get noticed by the left wing mouthpiece that used to laud the Soviet system as "free" and "fair" - until even they could no longer ignore the bankruptcy of the Socialist Communist Model. They still refuse to recognise that Socialism is a bankrupt and bankrupting system, one which drags everyone down - except , of course, those who impose it, control through it, and have the levers of distribution in it. For those who don't know, the Grauanid is that well known Socialist newspaper which has the exclusive rights to all government job adverts. The Guardian got its nickname after a typesetter reset the banner in protest at proposals to modernise their presses.....

Under "Treasury Rules" ads for any Civil Service position or any position connected with an government department or agency may only be advertised in the pages of this socialist mouthpiece.

So it is with a little skepticism and some surprise that I learned that the tirade in the extended post was actually published in that newspaper. Their censorship of anything "Un-socialist" or "Non-PC" must have slipped badly that day - or perhaps it was far too intellectual for them.

IMMIGRANTS, NOT BRITS MUST ADAPT.

I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on the 7th of the 7th we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Brits. However, the disgust about the attacks had barely settled when the 'politically correct! ' crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.

I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Britain, Our population is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants. (The Danes, Romans etc.) However, there
Are a few things that those who have recently come to OUR country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of the Brits being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Britain's we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

We speak ENGLISH, not Indian, Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language! 'Land of Hope & Glory' is our motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

If the 'Union Jack' flag offends you, or you don't like our QUEEN, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY,Our land, and our lifestyle. Our Laws give every citizen the Right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so! But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our lifestyle our government, or our way of life, I highly encourage you. Take advantage of one other great BRITISH freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.

It is time for Gt. Britain to speak up.

The person who sent me this added -

Will we still be the Country of choice and still be Gt Britain if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries that came to live in Britain because it is the Country of Choice??????
Think about it . .

All I have to say is, when will they do something about MY RIGHTS? I celebrate Christmas, but because it isn't celebrated by everyone, we can no longer say Merry Christmas. Now it has to be Season's Greetings. It's not Christmas holiday, it's Winter Break. Isn't it amazing how this winter break ALWAYS occurs over the Christmas holiday? We've gone so far the other way, bent over backwards to not offend anyone, that I am now being offended. But it seems that no one has a problem with that.

This says it all!
This is an editorial written by a British citizen, published in a National newspaper He did quite a job; didn't he? Read on, please!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2008

The cause of family breakdown?

Now here's something that will get the PC Brigade up in arms I'm thinking. THE big revolution of the 1960's wasn't actually the Hippie movement or even the feminist movement, it was the introduction of The Pill. At last women had control over their reproductive cycles and could - ahem - 'enjoy' the same 'freedom' as men. But it seems that once again, modern medicine has messed up something without intending too. You see, according to the latest research into the field of human biological process, The Pill may be the reason so many men and women make bad choices when it comes to picking out their future husband or wife.

An paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of British Biological Sciences has revealed that our choice of 'mate' is governed by our noses which tell us who is and who is not genetically compatible with us. This is, apparently, especially the case with women, whose noses guide them to find a partner they can be compatible with. It seems that taking The Pill knocks out this built in Mate Sensor system and leads them astray! So, it seems that the contraceptive pill has freed us up in one sense, but has caused a possibly larger problem in another.

Could this be why so many marriages made since the 1960's have ended in divorce? One is forced to wonder, after all, modern medicine has caused an explosion of the human population around the world, directly exacerbating the strain on all manner of resources and increasing the chances of a major conflict in the not too distant future. It has also been suggested that this single development has done more to free women in our society from the biological constraints that have restricted their activities in a raft of occupations in the past, than any other. But now the question seems to be should we continue to mess around with our genetic programming in this way?

The trouble is that, like many other "wonder" inventions we have pulled from Pandora's Box - it cannot now be put back. The Pill is with us for the future - whatever the research says it is doing to birth rates, sexual orientation and a whole raft of social issues. Like the bomb, now we have it, no one wants to give it up.

PARIS (AFP) - Contraceptive pills taken by tens of millions of women around the world can disrupt the innate ability to sniff out a genetically compatible partner, a study released Wednesday has found.

Normally women are instinctively attracted, via their sense of smell, to men who have a dissimilar genetic makeup.

Overly similar gene profiles can result in difficulty trying to conceive a child, an increased risk of miscarriage and a weaker immune system, earlier research has shown.

A group of about 140 genes in an area called the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) -- which helps build proteins involved in the body's immune response -- also plays a key role in odour through interaction with skin bacteria.

How these genes are expressed can help determine which individuals, unknowingly following their nose, find us attractive.

A team led by Craig Roberts at the University of Newcastle, England, conducted an experiment to find out if taking the pill influences odour preferences.

One hundred women were asked to indicate which of six male body odour samples they found most attractive, both before and after starting to take the contraceptive.

The male scents were drawn from 97 volunteers.

"The results showed that the preferences of women who began using the contraceptive pill shifted toward men with genetically similar odours," said Roberts.

The research not only suggested that taking the pill could induce women to pick Mr. Wrong, but pointed to the potential to wreak havoc in couples.

"It could ultimately lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odour perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners."

Oral contraceptives combine two hormones, oestrogen and progestogen, to inhibit normal female fertility.

The study was published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 13, 2008

Greenhouse to Concrete?

A new technology has been developed and a California based company says it can turn CO2 into cement by simply bubbling the waste gas from a gas fired power station through sea water. You can read about it in Scientific American in the online version. It seems to me to be an emminently sensible way to go with this gas, after all, we need to meet the growing demand for electricity, yet the options for producing it are almost all polluting in some way. And according to Greenpeace we only have enough nuclear fuel for another 75 years.

Mind you we ran out of petroleum around 1940 if you believe the sort of "estimates" they usually run with.

It seems to me sensible to explore recapturing CO2 and converting it to cement. We need cement for the housing and structures our out of control populace demand and currently cement production requires the burning of limestone in order to produce the quick lime and slaked lime that goes into the raw cement mix. And that produces CO2! Now turning the CO2 into cement means no only less "Carbon Footprint" but it also means that we tie up the nasty stuff in a permanent bond that will keep it out of circulation.

Let's hope it works and, more importantly, that the bureaucrats and political a*s*h*l*s that usually delay or scupper any sensible solution don't get in the way this time.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 01, 2008

European coercion?

It seems that the Irish are being blackmailed by other EU leaders into holding a new referendum - one which asks "do you want to stay in the EU? If so, sign Lisbon! If not, get out!"

The argument coming from Brussels is that they must sign or leave because it is "undemocratic" of them to hold up the adoption of the Treaty. Undemocratic? Which other EU country has had a choice on this? It is reported that Her Majesty is herself furious over the fact that she has been obliged to sign an acceptance of the removal of British Sovereignty and its holus bolus handing over to the utterly unelectable EU Commission and their poodles in the Strasbourg "Parliament". Worse, our Foreign Policy and our Defence will now be run from Brussels - with no reference to our national interests at all.

If the Irish are blackmailed into a second referendum on the lines Brussels wants, it will be the final proof, if any were needed, that the EU is not democratic and is totally divorced from the wishes and desires of the people it claims to represent.

Open Europe

Europe

Jean Quatremer: Open Europe poll won't change minds of EU governments - they want the Irish to vote again

Under the headline "24 to 1" Liberation Brussels correspondent Jean Quatremer argues on his blog that "the recent poll showing that 71% of Irish people are opposed to a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has not had much impact in European capitals, since the wording of the question indicated that the vote would be on the same text. There is no question of that: either the Irish will be asked to adopt the Lisbon Treaty with ad hoc declarations responding to their concerns (like in 2002 for Nice), or they will be asked if they want to continue to be part of a Union that is governed by the Lisbon Treaty... This second possibility would clarify things: either you stay or you go, but you do not block Europe as a whole."

Italy has now ratified the Treaty, welcomed with a standing ovation in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome. Meanwhile, three countries have yet to decide on the treaty: the Czech Republic, which is waiting on a judgement by its constitutional court; Sweden, whose parliament will vote in November; and Poland, whose president has said he intends to wait until the Treaty's fate is certain before giving his assent.

David Quinn argues in the Irish Independent: "Here is why the Lisbon Treaty referendum was lost -- and if the Government does not address this, the next one will likely be lost as well: people are worried about the loss of sovereignty and national identity... the European Court of Justice, an institution of the EU, will gain immeasurably more power over Irish law if the Lisbon treaty and the accompanying Charter of Fundamental Rights is ever passed... We have to wake up to the fact that the more power we cede to judges, lawyers and other experts, whether they are based in Ireland or overseas, the less democratic we become. The heart of democracy in any country has to be the national legislature with its elected representatives, not the courts and the law library."

Coulisses de Bruxelles AFP European Voice BBC NZZ Irish Independent Quinn Irish Times Open Europe blog

UK faces looming electricity supply gap - families face £4,000 bill for renewables

A new report commissioned by the WWF and Greenpeace attacks plans to build new coal plants in response to Britain's looming electricity supply gap, predicted to reach 20GW by 2020. The report argues that if the UK meets its EU targets of sourcing 15% of energy from renewables (translating to 35-40% of electricity), together with a 20% improvement in energy efficiency, new coal plants will not be needed.

However, the FT notes that keeping the lights on without increased use of fossil fuels may not be possible if the UK fails to meet the EU targets - which all sides agree will be a struggle. Paul Golby noted in the Guardian yesterday that the necessary investment in renewables would cost the equivalent of £4,000 for every household in the country.

In the Guardian Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at the Earth & Biosphere Institute, University of Leeds, argues that E.on's use of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme "won't deliver real cuts, as its own business case shows".

FT BBC Guardian Golby Guardian Lewis

Commentators analyze the failure of the Doha round

Following the failure of the Doha round of world trade talks, fingers have been pointed as to who is to blame for the breakdown. Open Europe's Mats Persson had an op-ed in Swedish daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet, arguing that the global food crisis illustrates the need for freeing up trade in agricultural products and that the EU must bear part of the blame for the break down of the Doha talks.

Philip Stephens argues in the FT that "the French president's language betrays temerity. In spite of all its manifest strengths - economic, technological, cultural, political - France, it seems, cannot stand on its own feet. Europe's leaders must protect the continent from the ravages of globalisation...The collapse of Doha, however, speaks to the failure of both sides to own up to the world as it is. On the side of the rich countries, particularly the US but no less many European nations, there is a refusal to acknowledge that globalisation no longer belongs to the west."

Economist FT Stephens Independent Hari Sydsvenskan

City fears "reactionary legislation" from the EU will exacerbate the downturn

The FT reports on the hostile reaction from the City of London, and the banking sector in general, to the European Commission's proposed increase in regulation. "Proposed changes could greatly increase the cost of capital across Europe with detrimental effects far beyond the financial services industry", said Stuart Fraser, chairman of policy and resources at the City of London, which will today publish its forecasts. These forecasts are expected to predict the sector's contribution to the EU economy by 2009 will have fallen by 8.3 per cent from the 225bn euros ($350bn, £177bn) of last year. Fraser goes on to say: "The message we're trying to get across is that it's a very difficult environment for financial services. What we don't need is regulation that will exacerbate the downturn".

Fraser also has a comment piece in the FT where he compares Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy's approach to the current problems in financial markets as using the "proverbial sledgehammer to crack a walnut".

FT FT Fraser

Russia plans to form a Gazprom-style state trading company for grain exports, raising fears that Moscow will use food as a diplomatic weapon, according to the front page of the FT.

FT

Scottish sheep farmers fear that Commission plans to review existing transport legislation could pose a threat to their livelihood. The changes would cut driving times, restricting access to the Isle of Skye and adversely affect their sheep trade.

The Scotsman

Independent assesses the Conservatives in Europe

As part of the Independent's series, 'Preparing for Power', the paper has assesses the role Europe will play in a future Conservative government. The article notes that Europe is no longer the divisive issue it once was for the party. However, it argues that in opposition the party has not had to make the tough policy choices over Europe that it will have to face in government and implies that it will be difficult to live up to the expectations of the party's eurosceptics while in power.

The article argues that major problems for David Cameron over Europe include the opposition he will face from other EU member states in attempting to renegotiate the Lisbon Treaty and the UK's membership of the EU's Social Chapter.

Independent

EUobserver reports that almost 900 immigrants have arrived in Italy just days after the government declared a state of emergency over what it called an "exceptional and persistent influx" of clandestine immigrants.

EUobserver

John Torode: Turkey plans to annex North Cyprus

John Torode writes in The Spectator that new Greco-Turkish tensions in Cyprus are a real possibility. In light of the upcoming peace talks between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders, many now believe that Turkey has lost interest in a bi-zonal settlement, and is "bent on annexing the North". Former President Papadopoulos is said to have added fuel to the fire, by saying that the Turkish Cypriot leader Talet, is "Ankara's man." Furthermore, Torode argues that this outcome is likely to be accepted by the west, which wants to elevate Turkey as much as possible before its accession into the EU.

Spectator

The Irish Independent reports that the EU mission in Chad may be extended for up to three months.

No link

Ultra nationalist Bulgarian MEP Dimitar Stoyanov was one of the five Ataka sympathisers arrested on Wednesday. The arrests caused clashes between police and other Ataka supporters in Sofia.

Sofia Echo

Rosemary Righter has a comment piece in the Times where she suggests French President Nicolas Sarkozy's return to his reformist election promises is not only supported by the French public but may change the face of France forever.

Times Righter

Tisdall: EU needs common defence

In the Guardian, Simon Tisdall looks at the recent report on EU defence from the European Council on Foreign Relations. He argues, "with a less well-disposed Russia once again prowling around the neighbourhood, the need for a coherent, organised, collective European defence that is neither reliant on nor subordinate to Washington could become painfully obvious."

Guardian

UK

A new poll by YouGov in the Telegraph shows a 22-point lead for the Conservatives. The poll also shows that Labour would not perform much better under any other leader including potential leadership challenger David Miliband. A Labour Party led by Tony Blair however would only be 9 points behind.

Daily Telegraph

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 20, 2008

Far Right and Lambeth Conferences ...

I am increasingly aware that, in the eyes of the liberal/left dominated press to be either a Christian or to object to some part of the liberal left agenda is to be labelled "Far Right" and even "Fascist". The latest group to attract this label are a Flemish Group of teachers who have lodged an objection to what they see as the Islamification of their cities. They point out, reasonably in my view, that the over six thousand mosques built in the last twenty years in Europe have provided a focus for the Islamification of neighbourhoods with the European populations gradually being forced out or forced to live under Islamic rules. As this is evident to anyone who cares to take an objective look at several British cities - why is it "Far Right" to object to this? I wonder what they will make of the Italian Court that has ruled that it is OK to describe Romanies as "thieves and layabouts" - apparently on the grounds that they are.

Equally notable is the fact that the Lambeth Conference, which attracted a lot of negative press in the run up to it, has had almost no coverage that I can find since it began last week. Perhaps its because, after all the hype about the Anglican Communion being so divided it was about to fall apart, the presence of 650 out of 880 Bishops of the Communion rather spoils the image of a dying or fragmenting church? And even of the possible 230 not attending, some 60 of those are not there because they have retired or died or their Diocese currently have no Bishop. Given that Lambeth (Which is actually being held in Canterbury) is discussing some far reaching issues affecting many aspects of everyday life as well as some pretty thorny theological issues you might have expected some press coverage - but perhaps its too "far Right" for the luvvies in press and television.

That said, I wouldn't have the job of Archbishop of Canterbury for all the tea in China. He simply can't win. Unlike the Pope he has no authority outside his own See, he is simply the Senior Archbishop among equals. That is in fact, the model of the early church, the church before the Bishops of Rome declared themselves to hold the Imperial Authority over the Church. And not all Bishops agreed to accept that for at least six hundred years after Leo VI declared himself head. Poor Rowan frequently makes a lot of sense if you bother to read what he has actually said or written instead of the usual biased claptrap the press paraphrase it too.

At lest the Lambeth Conference is getting some important issues discussed. Whether the Church outside the UK, Europe and the America's will agree on all of them is a matter for God. I do note with interest that the extreme Evangelical Archbishop of Sydney who has absented himself seems to be alone in that stance as all his brother Archbishops and Bishops from the rest of Australia are here. Likewise, many of the African Bishops have turned up leaving only a few who have found other things to do.

So, being a Christian of the Anglican persuasion, I pray that our Bishops will find ways to keep the dialogue going, to keep the Communion in communion and to further the work of the Gospel. And if that makes me a member of the Far Right in the eyes of the media - so what. It is time Christians of all persuasions stood up and objected to the liberal left agenda of destroying Christianity by importing Islam.

There, now I have put myself out to the Far Right.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 19, 2008

An interesting admission ....

Has been made this week by our Chancellor of the Exchequer. He's admitted that taxpayers are "at the limit" of what we can bear. Oh dear, especially as the best estimates of what the government needs to take out of our pockets in order to pay for their continuing expansion of the Whitehall Wastrels and bureaucratic garbage suggests that our taxes should rise on average another 2% each. So will they reign in their spending? Of course not, our MP's have retained their slush fund that allows them to furnish second homes and pay the mortgages on prime property, they have given themselves a nice pay rise and the Whitehall Wankers have benefited because their pay is linked to MP's. Meanwhile Local Government workers (Bin men, teachers, etc.,) are on strike because councils are offering a below inflation pay rise and accuse their workers of "fuelling inflation". That's a bit rich coming from a bunch of parasites who rake in almost limitless amounts of "expenses" from the tax payer to supplement their incomes.

How can I say that? Quite easily, one Labour MP claimed expenses last year in numbers that took the breath away - and justified it by claiming that this was "correspondence" and "information to constituents" in the form of telephones, travel to constituency etc. From memory a six figure number was involved - on top of a "salary" of over £60k and a further £40k for "running an office". Now I don't know about anyone else, but running my own small business these days, I certainly can't claim back these sorts of numbers for staying in touch with my clients - and there's only a small proportion of it that can be offset against my tax. But even this only masks the bigger problem, the fact that this government has expended the Civil Service to make it the single largest employer in the UK - roughly 21% of all workers are directly employed by the Civil Service. And I am well aware of the charade that they employ to disguise this, by claiming that people who work for Government Agencies, certain "Public Services" and other "agencies" aren't Civil Servants. Yeah, right, and the taxpayer isn't paying vast amounts of money to employ "consultants" to do what used to be done by specialists in Whitehall. If Mister Darling really wants to save money let's see some real savings across the civil service where there is a now a culture which is protecting incompetence on a breathtaking scale among the senior managers of all departments.

Despite government claims, inflation at the moment is being driven by the price of fuel, just as it was in the 1970's. Again, despite the government's protestations, the fuel price is further inflated by their tax system which sees tax on tax to escalate the cost to us the users. The "enemy" on this is not the oil companies and suppliers, but the producer countries and our very own government.

I confidently predict that over the next few months we will see the following "campaigns" by this bunch of charlatans:

- we will be told that the Royals cost far to much and are extravagant,
- we will be told that the government cannot reduce fuel duty "because this would be contrary to an EU Directive";
- we will be told that Whitehall has to be further expanded in order to deal with the "world energy crisis"; and
- we will be told that we have to pay more in order to pay for the "green" energy developments this government is wasting money on.

In short, we can expect tax to continue to rise, costs to continue to rise and inflation to continue to rise - because Westminster and Whitehall cannot - perhaps dare not - admit that their own policies lie at the heart of this problem. In short, high taxes fuel the inflationary spiral by pushing everyone's costs higher. The so-called "green" taxes are nothing other than another deception since they hit the lowest paid and the non-political classes hardest.

It's time to call Whitehall to account - and their stooges in Parliament with them

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 08, 2008

Crisis? What crisis?

The recent spate of knife murders in London and elsewhere in the country are a tragedy, but one, which, with a little forsight should have been seen coming. In my own teenage years I always carried a knife, not for self defence or even because I wanted to look macho, but because it had many uses. With my sheath knife I could cut wood to make a fire over which to cook the meat and vegetables I had cut up using, you guessed, the same sheath knife. Every Boy Scout carried one, and to the best of my knowledge never dreamed of sticking it between someone elses ribs or into someone's arm, leg, neck or stomach. One didn't, the knife was a tool, not a toy; we were taught to use it properly and safely and even if we weren't carrying a sheath knife, we had a pocket knife with us for the same essential reason.

There was one other thing we were taught, sometimes with a well deserved clip on the rear end, which modern youngsters are not. We were taught to respect our elders, our fellow teenagers and to exercise self control or self discipline.

Today if I were to appear at a Scout Camp with the knife I still have packed away in the loft on my belt I would probably be arrested and charged with threatening the public safety or some equally nebulous formula. The proponents of "lets disarm everyone" fail to realise that it is not the weapon which is at fault. True, if no one had a weapon you could argue that no one would get hurt, but that simply isn't borne out by history or facts either. Usually it is the boy who isn't armed who is attacked. Reason? He's a soft target, unlikely to have the means or the skills to defend himself - so let's go for him. We banned guns after Dunblane, but what no one seems to be willing to admit is that there were several million guns in private ownership - yet one rogue owner is taken by press and politicians (And I am always suspicious of any politician who wants to disarm the public!) as proof that ALL gun owners are a threat to the public. One of the most ridiculous things I have seen recently is a statement by a police spokesman that a twelve year old displayed an "inordinate interest in guns". Of course the kid does, most boys are fascinated by things that make loud noises and look cool - and any news bulletin contains at least some shots of weapons in action in Afghanistan or Iraq at present. Video Games contain violent (and totally impractical weaponry) in abundance - but perhaps it is convenient to overlook that. Even more ridiculous is the woman who called out the Anti-terror SWAT team because she saw a kid in the street playing with a toy pistol. And I'm sorry, but any 'trained' police officer who can't tell the difference between a real weapon and toy needs to be retrained.

Yet, to return to my opening on knives and the so-called "knife crime" currently in the headlines we really do have to ask ourselves an important question. If the problem is the misuse of knives, why is it now becoming so accute when a generation ago it wasn't a problem? There are two possible answers, one is that the media now hype it a great deal more than they did, and the other is that our youth have no respect for each other or for law and order. I think that it is probably a mixture of both, with a great deal of emphasis on the latter though because we are now seeing the children of the 60's "Free Love" "Anti-discipline" generation - the children brought up on Doctor Spock's discredited theories which they now loudly and incessantly proclaim to be the only way to achieve peace and harmony.

Well, I know what my recipe for peace and harmony is, and I know what I al;so know that it cannot be achieved by derogating all responsibility to the Whitehall nannies, by banning normal usage of everyday items or by passing yet more laws restricting our rights. There has to be a sea change toward bringing up children to respect discipline, to know how to control their own emotions and to respect others they may encounter. We don't need more Whitehall and Westminster solutions, we need less restrictions on decent parents to do the job properly and less support for the criminally incompetent or criminally irresponsible which simply feeds their bad behaviour and perpetuates it into the next generation.

Crisis? Well we may have one, but, given that the media now hype bad news to the skies, how big a crisis? Given too that Whitehall has a magic way with bad statistics - keep changing the way they are presented or simply change what is measured or collected - and you simply cannot verify whether the situation is any better or any worse than it was. Personally I think there mnay well be a problem, not as big as the press appears to make it, but certainly a problem. But the problem is not the knives or the guns, but the people who carry them without a vestige of responsibility or any form of self discipline or, indeed, understanding of the consequences of not exercising it.

We have to re-introduce discipline into our world, or it will descend into a free for all in which only the lawless and armed will prevail. Tacitus wrote; Si vis Pacem; para Bellum.

If you seek peace; be prepared for war.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:53 PM | TrackBack

July 06, 2008

Erratic posting

MuNu seems to be having problems, I can usually get into the MovableType menu and write a post - but the "Save" button then is either missing or doesn't work.

Please bear with us, I hope to be able to resume normal service as soon as Pixy Misa and MuNu resolve the problem whatever it is! An example of what happens when you do manage to post anything is: -

Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@mt3.mu.nu and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.39 Server at mt3.mu.nu Port 80

I'd be delighted if I knew what it was ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:24 PM | TrackBack

June 29, 2008

Believable rumours

Recently e-mails have been circulating in Britain, and no doubt the rest of the world about various things the government here is up to. Or not up to as the case may be. The problem the government faces, and this applies whether it is a polictician or a civil servant speaking, is that we no longer believe anything they say. We know they lie on all the big issues, so why wouldn't they lie on all issues? Facts, when they are incovenient to the party or the civil service, tend to get buried in irrelevant data in the hope that no one will challenge them.

This is why it is so easy for rumours to become believable.

A few days ago I posted an item entitled The Islamification of Britain. I was provoked into writing that partly by a rumour e-mail claiming the holocaust was not to be taught in British schools, and partly by my very real understanding of the fact that there is a definite bias in Whitehall and Westminster against the Christian Church (I have to say not helped by the extreme Evangelical and "Catholic" factions constant contrariness and threats of splits). Muslim organisations are favoured on a wide range of matters when it comes to Community development, social aid and even promotion of their religious views, some of which, I have to say, are decidedly offensive to Christians and others. I know that the stated object is to create an "inclusive" society and to "redress the historical imbalances" but the consequences are something Labour needs to consider very carefully. In this bias they have created an isolation culture for the Church of England and other Christian communities and fostered an "Islam is superior" mindset among many uncommitted to either. And not just on this issue - Ms Harman's latest Bill is a classic case in point. No one in their right mind supports inequality whether it is based on gender, race or religion, but now she is promoting a Bill which will enshrine in law "positive discrimination" forcing employers to discriminate against white males.

Yes, I know that is not the intention - but it is the way it will be applied!

Likewise the legislation Jack Straw wants to ram through Parliament allowing the use of anonymous evidence. We already have that in Children's and Family Courts and it makes it ever so easy for a lie to go unchallenged and for justice to miscarry. Yes, I do know what Jack Straw is concerned about, some very serious crimes are going unpunished because witnesses are being "got at" and intimidated, but there must be other sanctions that can be used here to deal with the problem - like better protection and less 'fishing' by defence attorneys who make very good use of the law which requires full disclosure. That too was intended to ensure that justice was done, but the complexity of the bureaucracy that went with it in Whitehall has made it almost impossible for the police to do their job and stay within the requirements of the paperwork. Any slip, any ommission, and the defence can scream "mistrial". The more the government meddles, the worse it all gets.

So, back to my original premise, why are the rumours so instantly believable? Put very simply, the governing class has lost the trust of the voters on everything from Europe to crime. Government reports are invariably biased to support the ideology of the day and the outcome the particular minister or department wants. Statistics are invariably abused and used to blind people to the fact that they are, at best, biased by the method of collection and meaningless to anyone unless seen against a background of analysis of a wide range of influences. So no one believes anything in a Report, since the outcome is frequently contradicted by the reality experienced by ordinary people on the street. The view from Whitehall is invariably rose tinted by the rarified atmosphere and the special glass in the windows. The media have also lost our trust, we no longer believe what we read in the newspapers or hear on the radio or see on television. We know it has been edited and biased to reflect the view of the writer and editorial policy and in the absence of that trust bond, we are prepared to believe rumours, especially those founded on a kernel of provable fact - as was the holocaust story. That story has its origins in a report that stated one school was shying away from setting the holocaust as a project at GCSE level.

The masters of the Nu Labour propaganda machine have only themselves to blame. They have corrupted Whitehall (It didn't take much!) and they have turned so many rumours into "fact" (Remember the BIG scandal of the kid with "Glue Ear" who couldn't get instant treatment? never mind the thousands who still can't get treatments for life threatening conditions under the same Party that gave us that one!) over the last forty years that we should not be surprised when people believe the lie and ignore the fact.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:28 PM | TrackBack

June 28, 2008

A real Star dies .....

This morning I recieved the following from a friend and colleague. Clive and Star were well known, Star being the nicest natured dog I have met in a very long time. Star was the UK's first dog trained to detect the presence of a range of accelerants (Flammable Liquids) in fire debris and his phenomenal performance has contributed in no small way to the resolution of numerous fires. Star will be missed by all his friends and fans, but I'm sure he will be waiting for his handler and friend somewhere - squeaky toy at the ready, to go and find some accelerants ....

Star at work. He indicated a 'find' by sitting down and placing a paw on the spot.

Star 1995-2008 It is with great sorrow that I report that “Star” is no longer at my side. He had been my constant companion for almost 13 years and had enjoyed a wonderful life before his health finally failed. Star was much loved by so many and had made an indelible contribution to the world of working dogs. He will never be forgotten. Clive G.

Star lived for his handler - and together they have left an indelible mark on Fire Investigation as a whole.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:54 AM | TrackBack

June 26, 2008

We want a referendum Mr Brown

If you follow the progress of the Lisbon Treaty since the Irish rejection, you could be forgiven for thinking that the rest of Europe has been consulted and given a resounding "yes". At least you could if you didn't know that the rest of us haven't been allowed by our illustrious leaders to have any say at all.

I received the e-mail in the extended post from the Campaign Group lobbying for a a Referendum in Britain. It sums up rather nicely just how much our Leaders think of the electorates that put them in power. What they have forgotten is that we have never agreed to surrender our national identities or sovereignty.

We want a referendum Mr Brown, you gave us that assurance in the last election manifesto and you promised it right up to the moment you realised you had no chance of getting a Yes. What are you afraid of? Better still, what are you trying to hide?

Campaign News: 23 June 2008

1. EU leaders carry on with Lisbon Treaty regardless of Irish no vote

On 12 June, voters in Ireland rejected the EU Lisbon Treaty by 46.6% to 53.4% in a national referendum. Turnout was relatively high, at 53%.

However, despite the resounding no vote, EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week decided to press ahead regardless, agreeing that ratification of the Treaty should continue in other countries. They also agreed that Irish voters should eventually be asked to vote again, until they say 'yes'.

Despite claiming that they want to "respect" the Irish no vote, EU leaders across the whole of Europe have no intention of doing so. They are determined to press ahead with the Lisbon Treaty.

Here are just some of the extraordinary reactions to the Irish vote from Europe's leaders:

"They [the Irish] are bloody fools. They have been stuffing their faces at Europe's expense for years and now they dump us in the s***."

- Nicolas Sarkozy, French President (Times, 20 June)

"The Lisbon Treaty is not dead... It is imperative that they vote again."

- Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former French President and author of the EU Constitution (RTL, 19 June)

"I don't think you can say the treaty of Lisbon is dead even if the ratification process will be delayed."

- Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French Europe Minister (Reuters, 16 June)

"I am convinced that we need this Treaty. Therefore we are sticking with our goal for it to come into force. The ratification process must continue."

- Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Foreign Minister (Reuters, 14 June)

"Of course we have to take the Irish referendum seriously. But a few million Irish cannot decide on behalf of 495 million Europeans."

- Wolfgang Schaeuble, German Interior Minister (Deutsche Welle, 15 June)

"We think it is a real cheek that the country that has benefited most from the EU should do this. There is no other Europe than this treaty. With all respect for the Irish vote, we cannot allow the huge majority of Europe to be duped by a minority of a minority of a minority."

- Axel Schäfer, SPD leader in the German Bundestag (Irish Times, 14 June)

The Treaty "will be applied, albeit a few months late."

- Lopez Garrido, Spanish Europe Minister (Forbes, 15 June)

"The Treaty is not dead. The Treaty is alive, and we will try to work to find a solution."

- Jose Barroso, European Commission President (Press Conference, 14 June)

To see more, click here: http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/irelandbriefing.pdf

This is an extraordinary refusal to accept the democratic will of the people. Ireland has been the only country allowed to have a referendum on the Treaty, and has said no. By the EU's own rules, the Treaty can only enter into force if all 27 member states have ratified it. Therefore, the Treaty should now be dead. It is completely unacceptable that other countries are continuing to ratify the Treaty in the hope of forcing Ireland to vote again, under pressure from the prospect of 26 other countries having ratified it. EU leaders are proving once again that they are simply unable to take 'no' for an answer.

In protest, last week we went to the EU summit in Brussels and held up giant letters spelling out ''NO MEANS NO" in the colours of the Irish flag. The stunt was televised on all the main evening news bulletins, including the Channel 4 News, the BBC 10 O'clock News and Newsnight. To see a picture of the event, click here: http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/brussels-hearts-gordon.html

2. Petition against UK ratification gains 26,000 signatures in under a week

Following the no vote, we set up a petition on the Downing Street website, urging Gordon Brown to respect the Irish decision and stop ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the UK. In only 6 days, the petition received over 26,000 signatures, making it the fastest growing online petition. Click here to see it: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Abandon-Lisbon/

Many thanks to all those of you who signed our petition and sent it on to your friends.

Despite this, ratification continued, with the House of Lords last week voting in favour of the Treaty. The final stage of ratification in the UK will now take place once the Government has heard the verdict of Stuart Wheeler's court case, who is fighting against the Government's refusal to hold a referendum. The outcome of the case is expected this week.

3. What you can do now

Of all 27 EU member states, the Czech Republic is the only country which appears ready to accept the Irish no vote. Czech President Vaclav Klaus called the vote a "victory of freedom and reason" and said "ratification cannot continue", and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has said, "The Irish 'No' is not of a lesser impact for us than the French and Dutch 'No'."

Despite pressure from all the other EU leaders at the summit in Brussels last week, Mr. Topolanek objected to a declaration calling for rapid ratifications in the seven other countries - including his own - that are yet to agree the Treaty.

The Czech Senate has stalled ratification to await a constitutional court ruling on the Lisbon Treaty and Mr. Topolanek said: "If the vote was today, I would not bet 100 crowns [about £3] on a yes vote."

Please write to Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, offering him your support and letting him know he is not alone, despite the immense pressure he is under from other EU leaders to continue to ratify the Treaty regardless of the Irish no vote.

You can contact him here: topolanek.mirek@vlada.cz

4. What happens next?

The Irish no vote has bought us time, but the struggle is far from over. The I Want a Referendum campaign team continues to fight the battle for democracy on all fronts. You can find much of the work we do at the Open Europe website - www.openeurope.org.uk.

From now on, we will also send you Open Europe bulletins, every fortnight or so. Open Europe is an independent think-tank which produces research on everything to do with the EU, as well as a daily summary of EU news, which you can sign up to through the website. You will be able to unsubscribe from the fortnightly bulletin should you wish to.

Many thanks for your support.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:09 PM | TrackBack

Tewkesbury revived ...

The BBC Gloucestershire is hosting a website entitled "Why I like Tewkesbury". Do pay it a visit and leave your thoughts on the site.

We still have some scars but we are back up and running and have a lot to offer.

Next month we plan to celebrate and give thanks for all that has happened to restore the town and those affected by the floods last year. It will be a good end to a difficult period.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:56 PM | TrackBack

June 24, 2008

Greenpeace's "Green energy" Plan exposed as a sham

This article by a Professor of Physics is a must read for all those who might still believe that Greenpeace is a sane and sensible organisation with the planets interests at heart. Entitled "Without the hot air" it makes very interesting reading. My thanks go to the Gorse Fox for bringing it to my attention.

In summary, the professor has calculated what would be needed in terms of wind turbines, sea barrages and other "renewable" energy sources such as solar panels and found that even if we covered our island home in windfarms, ringed it with barrages to trap the tides and covered everything else in solar panels - we'd still have to buy energy (probably generated by nuclear) from someone else. Assuming of course that there was anyone still able to live here with all the turbines.

Just proves to me that Greenpeace is nothing but a bunch of charlatans, eco-terrorists and pseudo-scientists who like to trot out the scare stories regularly to keep the gullible entertained.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 23, 2008

Mugabe wins ....

Mugabe has won the battle of nerves and violence - his storm troopers have succeeded in calling a halt to the elections and now the hand-wringing in the West begins. But should we be accepting the blame for this very African problem? I'm inclined to the view that the answer should be no - except that our dearly beloved Nu Labour government feted and lauded this monster before he (and they) came to power.

Frankly, what is happening in Zimbabwe is a bare hairs-bredth away from happening in South Africa and several neighbouring states. Perhaps that is why the African heads of State are being so quiet - if Mugabe gets away with this, why can't they pull the same stunt when it suits them?

Why not indeed.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:42 AM | TrackBack

June 22, 2008

Islamification of Britain

In a stunning example of insensitive and crass stupidity, or perhaps deliberate signalling of their intent to marginalise everything Christian and to promote their Islamic credentials, Labour's placemen in the Department of Education and Employment (Another Oxymoron - education is so poor in this country now that employment isn't necessarily a consequence!), are turning a blind eye to the fact that some schools are not teaching pupils about the Holocaust. Reason, it upsets our Muslim adherents who deny that it happened. So now we are not to discuss the Holocaust because Labour's gurus agree with Iran's President and other Muslim "Scholars" that the Holocaust is a "Zionist Fiction".

Apparently it is sanctioned because teachers might face a "reaction" from Muslims. Tell that to the 6 million Jews who died and the hundreds of thousands of non-Jews who were also exterminated for their ethnic origins. Tell it to the 10 million Stalin and his successors killed in Russia - of course that didn't happen either, Labour deny that Stalin was a Bad Man and don't forget that card carrying members of the Labour Party were involved in handing over the nuclear bomb secrets to Stalin's people in 1949 - 1952. How can one challenge the fact that, once more, the Jews are being set up as scapegoats and Labour is up to their collective necks in this. The "Protocols of Zion" is once more being circulated in England, it is available through any Muslim sponsored bookstall and others sponsored by the most unlikely ally - the British National Party - I have even found copies in bookshops in London. Tell me that isn't offensive to Jews. Or doesn't that matter? For those that don't know, the "Protocols of Zion" made an appearance in the late 19th Century - initially in Russia where it is now known that they were written for the Tzarist Secret Police to enable them to carry out the pogroms against Jewish communities. Hitler used them as the foundation of his philosophy to rid the world of Jews and it is now being actively promoted and sold to the gullible (who Labour feel shouldn't be told of the consequences!) as the reason that Jewry should be suppressed by Islam.

What this reveals more than anything else is that Labour's agenda is to marginalise all those who don't agree with their anti-Christian and anti-Jewish doctrine of creating a state in which the Christian voice is marginalised and the way can be prepared for the Islamification of all our institutions. The announcement recently that the government is setting up a "Religious Focus Group" leaves me absolutely cold. It is nothing but yet another smoke and mirrors trick to give the Islamic community even more power over the rest of us since their voice will always be the one Labour bows to. The Christian stand-point for this Forum should be based on the findings of the study recently released (and notably NOT reported on by the Labour controlled media) that Christian Organisations and Church based social programmes are consistently excluded from government funding programmes and ignored by government Departments and Local Councils. There should be an immediate demand that that situation is made illegal - and the perpetrators brought before courts. In promoting this "apologiser" approach to the Holocaust, Labour is in the same camp as Stalin, Hitler and Hamas, to mention but a few genocide promoters and those who have denied, or still deny, that the holocaust happened.

Perhaps even more importantly, the teaching of the holocaust must be restored and made compulsory - with, preferably, visits to Aushwitz and Bergen-Belsen as compulsory parts of the curriculum. More Synagogues are desecrated, and more Jews assaulted in Britain every week than at any time in the past - and the perpetrators? Almost without exception from a small minority group from the very religion Labour is trying to appease. Is there any prosecution? We don't know. Why? Because our left wing, Labour controlled media don't report it - its "only a Jew" or its "a Zionist Institution" - so its a legitimate target to them. But let there be any affront to Muslims or to a Mosque and the whole press pack is howling for action and blood.

Labour constantly protests that it merely wants to promote "fairness" and "balance" and to allow Muslims the same freedom that Christians enjoy. What freedoms don't they already have? And what of Labour's next campaign? They now want to silence church bells - a coalition of "green" MP's and Labour anti-Christians want to ram through an Act that will make ringing church bells illegal as "noise pollution".

Its time to stand up to these dangerous commissars and send Labour into the wilderness for good. Roll on the election.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:48 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 21, 2008

Mugabe shows his hand

No surprises really in developments in Zimbabwe. The beloved leader, Robert Mugabe, the hero of the bush war against the evil white regime of Ian Smith, has no intention of allowing anyone to take the trappings of power away from him. Morgan Tsvangiri is lucky he is still alive - and as for his supporters, well, they haven' a prayer now that Mugabe has let slip his "war veterans" most of whom are far too young to have been involved at all in the bush war, and his police and military hardmen are now on the rampage.

Pity its taken this long for his neighbours to announce their disapproval. And even that is a pathetic little whimper which Mugabe will ignore completely. As for the likes of Hain, Harman and the rest of our own shower who hailed Mugabe as the "Liberator" and "Saviour" some thirty years ago - well, their silence speaks volumes.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 20, 2008

New Speak on the Euro-farce

Listening to the radio the last couple of days you could be excused for thinking that the voters across Europe have been given the opportunity to read, consider and have their say on the EU Constitution, aka The Lisbon Treaty. Our own dear Mr Brown was on yesterday proclaiming that the electorate must "trust" the House of Commons and "respect" their decision to ratify a treaty he first promised to hold a referendum on and now lies about, claiming it is a "new" treaty when everyone else says it isn't. Trust the denizens of the House of Commons? I'd feel safer handling the world's most poisonous snake or sitting down to dinner surrounded by lions.

Listening yesterday as I drove across country in horrendous traffic, I listened to that smooth talking Del Boy, Milliband, as he pronounced in New Speak, the EU mantra which translates basically as "The Irish will have to vote again and again until the get the answer right". In short, the voters of Britain and every other EU country don't matter a damn. Our Socialist Masters across Europe have spoken - we will be subsumed into the United States of Europe and like it.

That much was confirmed by the current Commission President, who basically said that the Irish will have to think again - or the rules will have to be changed.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 17, 2008

Ignoring the electorate

It seems that, as is now standard practice in the EU Ivory Tower, the vote in Ireland will simply be ignored, in contradiction to their own "Rules". The Irish have comprehensively rejected the Lisbon Constitution, but Brussels says it will go ahead anyway, that the Irish "got it wrong" and will have to do it again until they get it right.

It seems that, as usual, the Oligarchs in Brussels simply will not accept the fact that their Utopian vision for Europe is not shared by us all. In fact most Europeans do not want a political union even though we all like the idea of a Europe we can travel in freely and work anywhere. That is an economic union - not a political one. Even the "dream" of a single currency has its problems, because different countries within it interpret the "rules" for their economies differently and having a centrally fixed interest rate is not universally good as it means that individual states cannot slow or stimulate their own economies. Talk to the Irish and the inflation they are dealing with on that one. The fact that the so-called Treaty is in fact an "amendment" list and not a new or consolidated text which makes it impossible to read the document they are asking us to just accept, was supposed to ensure that most of us would not have access to it. In fact only 3% of the original has been changed, the rest is eye-blind meant to confuse and hide the fact that sovereignty is being stolen and subsumed to the unelected and unelectable.

Much is made of the "strengthening" of the EU Parliament. Really? Just what powers has Brussels transfered to the Parliament? Well, less a power, and more a bigger rubber stamp really. So thanks, but no thanks on that one. The Commission will still "propose" legislation and the Parliament will "adopt" the proposals - but there is still no direct election of the Commission or of the "President of the Commission" - usually another reject from one of the member states. More jobs for the "boys" all round. A bigger, sleeker and more generous (with our money!) gravy train.

Brussels can afford to ignore the electorate since they are not answerable to any electorate. The Commissioners are appointed by the "Council of Ministers" another unelected body, although the Mnisters are, of course, for the most part, elected by the voters in their own countries. The problem there is that they are able to distance themselves from the fallout created by the Commssioners - "honest people! It wasn't us, its the Commission!" when it comes to elections, failing of course to remind us that they appointed the Commissioner concerned. And who are the Commissioners? Usually failed or disgraced politicians from the member nations, each one having a certain number they can appoint, usually apportioned on a contributions basis. Now comes the problem, Brussels based Commissioners are res[onsible for over 80% of all the legislation currently approved or considered in our Parliament. In short, Westminster is irrelevant, we might as well scrap our legal system and Parliament and just accept that Brussels has direct Rule over our affairs.

Recently a British business was destroyed by our own Department responsible for food, agriculture and fisheries on direct orders from Brussels. The Brussels team were deliberately misrepresenting and interpreting their own rules and data and despite losing two court cases ordered Defra to issue a Statutory Instrument proscribing the use of any material from a NAMED company. Not only was that an abuse of power, it was a direct and flagrant breach of our constitution! Unwritten it may be, but it is still a constitution and we have spent centuries defending the principles it embraces. So the Labour Party's spineless surrender to an unelected Commissioner and his cronies who directly beneftted from this act of treason is nothing short of betrayal of the electorate here in the UK.

So, according to Brussels, the "Ratification" of the Lisbon Constitution must continue. In short, the electorate no longer matter. Democracy is well and truly dead in Europe.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:32 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 15, 2008

Rights

Human Rights are something we often take for granted without really considering what these really are. Since the adoption of Labour's much vaunted Human Rights Act, our rights have actually, in this country, been considerably diminished. There are several reasons I say this and one is that our freedom of speech has been, and continues to be, curtailed. One of our senior Bishops and a team of lay and clergy in his Diocese recently published a study which found that Christianity is now seriously threatened in the UK by a combination of proscription on what one may say in regard to any other religion, but especially in regard to Islam, and by the fact that government ministers and departments focus all their social aid efforts through Muslim organisations and actively discriminate against Christianity.

Under current "Race Hate" legislation I could probably be prosecuted merely for pointing this out. It is refreshing therefore to find that our cousins on the other side of the pond have idiots who think free speech should be restricted. Reading a post in The Anchoress on the subject of freedom of speech I found this post entitled "Cling to the Bill of Rights". It is worth visiting and reading her thoughts on this important matter - certainly one that we seem to have forgotten in England under Blair and his closet of "single issue" merchants.

There is a very fine balance between suppressing free speech and preventing anyone from causing offence by expressing hurtful or damaging views. I agree with The Anchoress when she says that it may be almost as important for those views to be heard and held up to scrutiny so that they can be dismissed in open debate, as it is to ensure that the right to criticise is not restricted in any way. Free speech means hearing many things that I find offensive, but there is nothing more offensive to me than to be told I may not express a view or challenge a view held by someone because it "may cause offence" and is therefore proscribed. I find it particularly offensive when those telling me this and restricting my liberty are the same group who, in my youth, staged protests over their right to choose who could and could not teach them, play cricket here or trade with us. And when they weren't doing that they were smoking pot, strumming guitars and dancing round the stones at Stonehenge. Come to think of it, some of them still do! This is the "single issue" generation who hate to be confused by facts and who often get their prejudices confused with their morality.

The freedoms they seek to restrict are ones hard won by our fathers and grandfathers. They were won by the blood, sweat and tears of our forebears and they must not be given up lightly. Democracy is not a robust institution, the natural state of humanity is living under tyrrany whether we like it or not and in its present form it is barely two hundred years old. If we are not careful it will not last another two hundred years for it will have been strangled in red tape by bureaucrats and single issue campaigners who never look beyond their own narrow confines.

The Anchoress is right, the Freedom of Speech, no matter how distasteful the view of the speaker, is one of the most important pillars of our democracy. It must be defended at all cost.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 14, 2008

The Treaty is dead?

It certainly looks as if the Irish have killed it. But then, the last time this happened there, they held another Referendum with a slightly different question and got the answer the politicians wanted. Let's hope it doesn't follow the same path this time.

The Treaty of Lisbon is the EU Constitution in disguise no matter what Gordon Brown and his henchmen say. There has, according to my MEP been just over 3% change to the original document and that in only peripherals. Furthermore, the "new" treaty is simply a list of the amendments to the original - it is not a corrected document or even a comprehensive document. No one has published an "Amended Text", in fact the Commission has expressly forbidden the publication of such a text. Even that apology to democracy, our European Parliament, have not seen an amended text, only the original and the lists of amendments. In other words it is a scam. It is a pile of ordure and it stinketh to the heavens - but that hasn't stopped the unelected Commission and their bureaucrats from trying to sell it as fertiliser - "It hath much power and maketh the grass to grow" is how they have tried to hoodwink everyone.

Visiting the BBC Website I found hundreds of comments on the story of the Irish Referendum, perhaps the richest coming from Italians suggesting that the British should leave the EU now. Believe me we'd probably like too, after all we pay three times what we get back from it, most of that going to Italy and other basket case economies threatening to destroy the Eurozone. What was interesting was the number of comments from all over Europe saying "Good for the Irish, why are we all not being allowed to vote on this". Some apologisers for the Treaty insisted that it was such a complex matter that we should simply trust our "elected" representatives to sort it out. Oh yes? Which "elected" representatives would they be? Labour's stool pigeons elected with a total vote of 28%? The Unelected Commissioners? The Council of Ministers made up of self-important and self-interested con artists? They have a better understanding of the "technicalities" than we do?

We in Britain were promised a Referendum on this issue at the last election, the government have reneged on that for one reason only - every poll they have taken has shown a nation-wide refusal to give up any more of our sovereignty to Brussels. Brown will discover just how deeply we feel on this issue at the next election.

In the meantime we need to thank the Irish people for exercising their constitutional right - and killing the Treaty.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 13, 2008

Irish Referendum

How ironic that we in Britain are all holding our breath for the outcome of the Irish vote on the EU Constitution. It says a great deal about the state of democracy everywhere else in Europe that not one other government has the guts to own up to the subterfuge they are pulling here to secure themselves in power as "super-power" mongers and give their nations an option to determine whether or not we want to be a part of this Oligarchic Super-State.

Why Oligarchic? Simply because what this consitution does is "crown" one of the unelected nominees put forward by the equally unrepresentative Council of Ministers and the Commission as "President". It has echoes of medieval Europe and the Holy Roman Empire where twelve "Electors" (Kurfursts) - in effect, vassal Kings - "elected, the Emperor. Here we have the same process being proposed. The Commission and the Council of Ministers will propose an "annointed" one who becomes President. Why can the people of Europe not have a say in this? I for one don't want to have to accept as head of state someone like Tony Blair. We have a perfectly good head of state - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. And, frankly, none of the other "candidates" fill me with any enthusiasm.

As for the rest of it, can you imagine how our Foreign affairs will be conducted if they move to Brussels? It goes without saying that Israel will have a hard time from there on because the French have long been in bed with the Arabs and European sympathies lie in that direction more than any other. One good thing I suppose is that the "Single Issue" lobbies that so bedevil our national politics will be drowned in the realpolitik of Europe. That aside, and its the only good thing I can think of in this, we lose control of our military (A Frenchman is head of the EU Fleet in the proposals - yes the rattling is Nelson, Anson, Howe and St Vincent, not to mention Hood and every other famous Admiral!) and no doubt the Falklanders will find themselves sold off to Argentina pretty quickly too. Any Falklander reading this should maybe start to learn Spanish.

Unless of course, the Irish have rejected it. A slim hope perhaps, but our only one.

I do want to see Europe united and strong. I do want to see it play a leading role in the future of humanity, but I don't believe the political vision of the 1930's is the way to go. It is too bureaucratic, too centerist and far to socialist. I want a voice in Brussels and a strong voice in Strasbourg, not a puppet parliament in Strasbourg and a bunch of unelected dictators in Brussels who call all the shots. Above all, I want to have a say in who represents this new state as its head - and that would not be that complete moron Blair!

Come on the Irish - save our democracy!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 11, 2008

The nations children are demonised, stressed and criminalised?

So say our Children's Commissioners. I wonder which planet they live on? Presumably one with nice fluffy pink clouds? These morons should try living in my street. Its been peaceful around here for the last few weeks - because the gang that used to terrorise us all (Eldest was aged 13!) with their threatening behaviour, foul language (I use expletives occassionally - but these kids seem to have no other adjectives) and the violence they exhibited against other kids who dared to get in their way. They put one boy in Intensive Care and then pleaded "Self defence" when charged with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Well the good news on that was the Judge in the Crown Court didn't believe it either - and took note of the fact that between them they had a record number of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. He sent them down and we now have some peace in the street. Sadly though, they'll be out again soon.

I firmly believe that these "Children's Rights" champions have got it badly wrong - indeed the entire Children's Rights lobby have it wrong. The system they advocate of "reward/Penalty" simply does not work unless you are able to devote an enormous amount of time to it and follow it through rigorously. One slip where something is either not rewarded or punished undoes everything you have achieved. Penalties must be applied, and by that I do NOT mean the sort of belting with some instrument that leaves bruises or scars - but a sensible application of a penalty that is appropriate and meaningful to the child.

Chidren need to know where the boundaries are and those need to be firm, not flexible. Children should be listened too, but they do not have either the experience or the knowledge to be rulers. Parents need to be responsible and need to have the backing of the law in dealing with children who refuse to recognise others rights and the boundaries set by parents or teachers. I regularly have to watch one particular boy in one of the Abbey choirs who knows he can do as he pleases and face no penalty - his parents simply refuse to accept that the little darling is disruptive, rude and downright obnoxious. Frankly, I'd have slung him and his parents out of the choir a long time ago regardless of how good a voice he has - but they are big donors to the school the choir is attached too....... And therein lies another huge problem. Many parents today try to buy their kids good behaviour, a system guaranteed to bring disrespect and bad behaviour.

Children do have rights, but, as I was taught, the exercise of MY rights should never include depriving you of yours or of in any way infringing your exercise of the same rights. The balance has swung far to far towards the children of today having all the rights and the adult population being deprived of theirs. You cannot reprimand a child for fear of being dragged into court on some trumped up charge - because the little darlings all know exactly how to make accussations which will stir up a hornets nest. And because of the "protection" they then enjoy in court, and the fact that there is an automatic presumption of guilt if a child accuses an adult of anything at all, there is little or no chance of your receiving justice.

It seems to me that the "children" are stressed precisely because they are given no boundaries, there is no firm guidance for them on any aspect of preparing for adulthood from their parents and their role models are drawn from the alcoholic football "stars" who spit, swear and throw tantrums, or from the world of popstars and super models who snort coke, take other drugs and behave like the pampered brats they are. Of course they get stressed out at exams - we all do - but somehow there has to be a measurement of how little they have managed to absorb in the disrupted classes our "gurus" in the Department of Education insist must have "all ability" mixes.

If these things are to be addressed properly it is not for the state to address them. The solution is simple, the police, the teachers and the parents must be empowered to impose discipline. Yes the child can enjoy their rights - but they have to learn discipline in order to exercise self-discipline, they must have boundaries and understand those boudaries. You don't get either if you are counselled everytime something doesn't go your way, or from "anger management" classes if all they teach is how not to beat up the person who says "no". It is not acceptable to have a small group of out of control hooligans making life miserable for anyone else - their liberties and their "rights" must be forfeit if necessary to guarantee the rights of everyone else. Thirdly, our education system needs serious rethinking - preferably without the moronic bunch of "educationists" and left-wing ideologues trying to impose their unworkable theories. The kids are stressed because they are not being taught things properly and that is not the fault of the teachers but of the theorists who argue against the tried and tested methods which have worked for centuries.

Children in this country are demonised, criminalised and stressed - and no wonder. They are given rights their parents can't exercise and which they are themselves unsure of how to use and at every turn warned that all adults are sexual predators. They are bored out of their heads because all they can do "safely" according to the "gurus" is watch television, play video games or "hang out" in gangs. However, what I would like the Commissioners to answer is this - if the children are such saintly and well behaved model citizens as you seem to suggest, then why do they indulge in violent assaults on innocent passers-by, even filming their assault on videophone to share with those who missed their latest "Happy Slapping" of some poor person who happened across their path? Why do they vandalise peoples property and never suffer any penalty in courts which are a sick joke, dominated as they are by hippy social workers whose only stock in trade is to try to make out that it is the property owners fault for having something that the youff could destroy?

Somehow I don't expect an answer - after all, the Commissioners only purpose is to tell the rest of us how bad we are, not to find solutions of any merit to any of the problems they, and those they represent, create.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:33 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 10, 2008

A typical example of what is wrong with our nation .....

Are the comments by Mister Rupert Everett to the Sunday Telegraph - which he is now desperately trying to amend. Too late Sonny Jim, you're on record as having nothing but contempt for the young men and women who put their lives on the line - at lower pay than you and your arty-farty chums and cronies pay Traffic Wardens - so you can exercise the freedom to speak out like that. Try saying that sort of thing in Iran, Russia, China or any number of countries who do threaten our freedom. The least you would get is a long spell in an unpleasant jail.

This creep is typical of the class that now control our media, our government and most of our town halls. That is why our soldiers and other service personell cannot wear their uniforms in public anymore - because scum like Mr Everett constantly drip their poison of anti-military garbage to the gullible. The Labour Party have long been the leaders of anti-armed services propaganda and there is a good reason for it. They HATE the military because they are afraid of the discipline and the loyalty the troops display to the nation and the country - not to the tuppenny-ha'penny politicians who might be in power at any given moment. In a world in the grip of some of the most unstable and dangerous regimes it has ever seen, we still have the vocal lobby in control in this country trying to reduce military spending below the pathetic 2% of Gross National Product that it currently is. Every time the military ask for better equipment or a new ship, aircraft or tank to replace the aging equipment they have - this same bunch of wimps and scum scream blue-murder that the money should be spent on more waste in Whitehall or even more waste in the sinkhole that is the NHS. Or even better - on more money being thrown at some of the Labour voting wastrals on permanent benefit. You know the ones - they have fifteen kids, have never worked a day in their lives and constantly demand upgraded housing to replace the most recently trashed property they have infested.

Personally I will not be wasting my time or energy attempting to see any production in which Mister Everett features. I heartily commend that course of action to everyone else as well.

By Sky News SkyNews - 1 hour 47 minutes agoRupert Everett has apologised for calling soldiers "wimps" and suggesting they went into the Army to torture prisoners.

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He says his comments were "flippant and irresponsible" and never intended to question those who had lost their lives or limbs.

The 49-year-old star of My Best Friend's Wedding - and the son of a retired Army major - had been quoted in a newspaper criticising soldiers for whining.

He made his comments in an interview to publicise a documentary, The Victorian Sex Explorer, in which he plays the Army officer and explorer Sir Richard Burton.

Everett said: "In Burton's day they were itching to get into the fray. Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed.

"Oh my God, they are such wimps now!"

He told The Sunday Telegraph: "The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits.

He also said: "The whole point of being in the Army is going to war and getting yourself blown up. That and (urinating) on prisoners. Yet we all get shocked by Abu Ghraib."

Now he has issued a statement apologising "without reserve" to the "many in this country, and hundreds and thousands of others across the world who have lost their brothers and sisters, their fathers and mothers to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the countless others".

Everett, 49, said: "I never meant at any point to question the bravery of those who lose their lives, or survive, but without arms or legs.

"Just seeing these people in my mind's eye right now makes me feel a terrible anguish."

He said he was trying to make the point that "we still go to war, but actually we haven't the stomach for it".

He added: "My flippant and irresponsible behaviour arises from a deep frustration at the fact that we seem to be continually making war, dreaming up new ones, instead of doing everything we can to avoid them."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:18 AM | TrackBack

June 06, 2008

Mugabe's "veterans".

Listening to the Zimbabwean government I am strongly reminded of Saddam's last days in power. His Foreign Minister seemed to have a problem with reality too. Mind you, a while back I commented here that you should not expect Mugabe's thugs to allow him to be voted out of power and I was absolutely right. They are so afraid of losing the "run-off" their puppets in the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission have engineered by manipulating the votes that they now don't bother to hide their campaign of terror from the rest of the world.

Sadly, unless the South African Military and some of the other neighbours are sent in to disarm Mugabe's thugs and confine them to barracks, the violence will continue until Mugabe "wins" the election. President Mbeki has shown himself unwilling to act against his thuggish friend and Zuma will not be able to do anything if and when he comes to power.

Mugabe's "War Veterans" are most of them far too young to have ever fought in the Bush War and are rather like Winnie Mandela's "Football Club" - thugs recruited simply to put the fear of Mugabe into anyone who dares challenge Mugabe. The biggest problem here is that Mugabe's people control the Police, the Judiciary, the Army and their Central Intelligence Agency. And he is fully prepared to use them against anyone and everyone - including Diplomats engaged in lawful diplomatic activity. Yesterday they tried to abduct, arrest and intimidate diplomatic personnel from the UK and the US. Today they have arrested Morgan Tsvangiri - how unfortunate that he could easily suffer a fatal fall while in custody - and the UN, the UK and the US bleat about it but do nothing. The only thing this thug and his cronies understands is the threat of annihilation. Learn to talk his language - or shut up and get the hell out of there altogether - and that includes the "AID" workers.

The only thing left to say is addressed to Whitehall and Westminster. You put him in power. You lauded and promoted him even though everyone of you knew he was a psychopathic murderer who ran "re-education" camps, organised abductions, ordered the murder of white farmers and their labourers and any and all opposition groups. You knew he had Maoist sympathies and operated one of the most indescriminate terror organisations in the world at that time - the Fifth Brigade.

Congratulations, you created a monster. Now tell us how YOU propose to deal with him.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 02, 2008

Broadcast Evensong

Yesterday afternoon BBC Radio 3 broadcast Evensong "live" from Tewkesbury Abbey. A very good congregation were treated to some stunningly beautiful music sung by Schola Cantorum Choir directed by Benjamin Nicholas and a virtuoso performance by Carleton Etherington in the Recessional voluntary. For the next few days, those who would like to hear it can go to the BBC 3 website and hear it on their iPlayer webcast.

Despite the braodcast, this was no concert. It was an act of worship, worship worthy of the angels themselves. I recommend that you listen to it yourself - you'll see what I mean.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:53 AM | TrackBack

May 31, 2008

A tribute to one of ours ...

In stark contrast to our own national response to our men and women currently deployed in Iraq (Hamstrung by Labour's "Human Rights" lobbists "Rules of Engagement" which prevent their actually shotting anyone shooting at them!) and in Afghanistan (which doesn't seem to attract the same level of support as Iraq in the "Human Rights" forum), I find the support for the armed forces in the US enlightening. Yes, there are dissenting voices, but they have not been fed the anti-military lies of the left wing pacifists for the last 60 years of socialism as we have.

Recently I was moved to discover this tribute to one of ours - barely mentioned in the UK Press, let alone on any UK based Blog I have found - on CrosSwords. I hope that Lance Corporal Croucher has now been awarded his well deserved VC. If he has not, I can only say that it is yet another example of the sickness at the heart of Whitehall and Westminster - infested by worthless, faceless and incompetent cowards who hate anyone with more initiative, courage and ability than themselves. I could add the poisonous left-wing "educationists" to that list - men and women who teach a poisoned and biased vision of the deeds of men and women who made this country great so that they could have the freedom to destroy it from within.

No prizes for guessing where the title of my next book comes from!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 24, 2008

Memorial Day

Memorial Day in the US. Quite and experience - one which makes me all to aware of just how much the Blair/Brown/Hain generation of squatters, boycotters and terrorists have undermined my own nation and its defenders. Recently I saw an e-mail on the BBC's "Comment on the news" blog which questioned why we should mark Armistice Day or show any respect to men (and women) in uniform. The writer stated "These people don't need our respect, they're nothing but natural born killers, licensed to murder innocent civilians by our government." The writer of that didn't leave a name, but their location showed up - a university campus.

Therein lies the problem for our nation. Our centres of education have become the home of left wing socialist doctrinaires who rabbit their poisonous claptrap about "better Red than dead" to youngsters who have no concept of the realities of history other than the slewed and twisted garbage that our schools and universities peddle as history (Che Guevarra was a misunderstood philanthropist struggling to free the oppressed from the evil western capitalists) and completely ignoring the fact that they enjoy the freedom to spread this poison because others have given their lives or a significant part of their health to the cause of freedom. And they weren't named Che or any other psychopathic left wing "hero".

I envy the Americans their pride in their nation and in their armed forces. I envy them the pride which sees the stars and stripes flying on almost every house, on every building and anywhere else they can put it. I resent the bureaucrats and the Labour communistas who deny me the right to hoist the Union flag at my own home, or even to have a pole to fly it from when they think I should. Why are they so afraid of our being proud to display our national symbols? Probably because it would expose the bankruptcy of their entire political and humanist ideology and see them thrown forever into the political wilderness.

Sadly, I would have to say that many in the US are very deeply ignorant of many things outside of their own nation, but then they have good company in Europe and elsewhere on similar issues. Equally sadly I have to say that I do not see the European "nation" surviving as long as the socialist poison drip against anything that speaks of discipline, self responsibility or service to anything greater than one's own wants holds sway.

We need to kick these poisonous vipers into touch and rediscover our pride in ourselves and our history and bury the socialist poison version forever.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:58 AM | TrackBack

May 21, 2008

Fire in the Berlin Philharmonic roof

Mausi drew my attention to a news item reporting a fire in the roof of the Berlin Philharmonic's home base. It appears that there was a smouldering fire in the roof - a very modernist building with a huge and very high structure - which engaged the attention of over a hundred fire fighters.

The Monk hated roof fires - you can't get at them for a start. And this type is the worst because the only way to get at it is to get on the roof and then make a hole in it. That weakens the structure and ventilates the fire allowing it to develop and spread while putting the troops in danger as they work. Hopefully the fire is now out - I make that assumption on the fact that I have seen no news report of the Philharmonic Hall having burned down.

The design of these very innovative structures often takes no account of access for maintenance or any other "service". I wonder what it will take to get designers to consider the unexpected event such as this?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:08 PM | TrackBack

May 11, 2008

Returning to/from Bucharest

Today I am travelling back from Bucharest, believe it or not, via Zurich! The long way round I'm thinking, but there, that is the way of airlines these days.

Every visit to Bucharest, since my first in 1995, is fascinating. Every time there are changes to be seen, many of them for the better, but one is also reminded that in any change of economic situation there are always winners and losers - one can really only hope that there are not too many of the latter and attempt to provide some sort of cushion for it. The city has changed enormously in the last thirteen years and even more changes are on the way. Buildings are being renovated, but it is a slow and expensive process. Many of the owners do not have the funds or the resources to do the work necessary and the city is built on a huge earthquake fault. Worse, many of the buildings were damaged badly in the 1977 and 1984 quakes here and the regime simply didn't bother carrying out the structural repairs necessary - so they papered over the cracks and now the restored owners face the bills.

New building is booming though and one thing is the extensive use of glass - about which I have a few questions in an earthquake zone! Tall buildings are on the drawing boards as well - currently not much more than 40 storeys, but it won't be long before someone decides to reach for the sky. The biggest problem for builders and designers here is the soil - it is millenia of silt from the Danube and another big river with bedrock several hundred feet down - and the high water table (About 4 metres below ground on average.) Then there is a problem with electrolytic action between power cables and steel re-inforcing in some areas where concrete with a certain type has been and is being used.

I am always a little sad to be leaving here, the people are amazingly friendly and generally very hard working. They are also determined to put their country onto the European map and to change their image from "sick" nation to "equal member" - one they are very proud to be part of and they are nothing if not proud as it is.

One final thought which sums them up rather well. Near my hotel is the memorial to those who died on the day the Revolution against the Communists and Ceacescu started. I was looking at it and trying to decipher the Romanian Inscription yesterday when an older Romanian joined me and commented, "There are many arguments about whether they are martyrs and whether the Revolution was a revolution. The improvement may be small - but at least we did something."

I wonder if anyone will say the same of us someday?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:12 AM | TrackBack

May 10, 2008

Good riddance to Red Ken ...

I suspect that there will be many raising a quiet glass in toast to the ousting of Red Ken Livingstone - another of the Labourites who think that Che Guevara was a man of vision and compassion - from the Mayorality of Greater London. I don't think I envy his successor. The GLA and its Admninistrative bureaucracy will be riddled with Labour placemen and spies whose mission now will be to sabotage everything Boris Johnson attempts to do.

In Boris' shoes I would sack the entire Administrative staff and recruit fresh, with filters in place to ensure that nothing and no one with sympathies with Labour or the Left gets a job.

Boris will have to watch his back at every step of the way until he can rid himself of Ken's poisonous cronies, many of whom will not be obvious. He's going to need a stab proof jacket for quite a while because a major part of Ken's tenure has been spent on building a bureaucracy as poisoned and as inefficient as the late and unlamented Greater London Council over which he presided for far to long. Since Ken has created the GLA and London Administration from scratch, it will have been designed to be entirely selfserving and utterly incompetent.

Many commentators have remarked on the fact that one newspaper in particular set out to "get Ken", led by a senior journalist. When confronted by the BBC, the journalist admitted that it had been his intention to do this - pointing out that he, unlike Ken Livingstone, had been perfectly open about his intentions. He also reminded the BBC that Ken Livingstone's tenure as head of the GLC had been brought about by a coup against his own party leader at the time.

Those who know Mister Livingstone evidently will not be shedding any tears. I did not know him, and I'm still delighted to see him ejected from office.

Thoroughly un-Christian of me I know - but then this little twerp has spent a vast amount of taxpayers money promoting a lot of anti-Christian propaganda and supporting the promotion of everything that is against the Christian ethos. Only one thing can make me any happier than his election defeat - to see him fall completely from grace, preferably through the criminal courts.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:03 PM | TrackBack

May 03, 2008

A publisher in sight?

I have received an offer from a publisher based in the US to explore the publication of "The enemy is within!". It is a tentative one and they certainly aren't predicting instant "best seller" or even "prize winner" status. They suggest modest sales and what looks, on the surface, like a sensible Royalty agreement. Even better it looks as if there could be some interest in re-publishing and marketing "Out of Time" once we get under way on "The enemy is within!" However, having taken a good hard look at the contract they offered, I am being very cautious. On closer scrutiny it appears that this may just be an upmarket version of the self-publishing route. It looks as if I would be putting up the manuscript, doing the edit and the proof-reading and they would simply publish it and put it onto Amazon and Barnes and Noble etc.

I could do that on my own. However, all is not entirely lost because there is a UK based publisher currently considering the work and they offer a much better set of options - including a really good marketing system. After all, they have to make some money out of this as well. I am not saying "no" to the US offer just yet, but I am considering every clause in the contract very carefully - and have a number of questions on each point already.

I have to say a huge thanks to all those of you - my long suffering friends - who have read my work, bought the first book and encouraged me to keep going. I had hoped to have "The enemy is within!" published almost a year ago. I have to say that I'm glad it didn't get done and that I have had this time to work on it and make it into a really great story - a worthy successor to Out of Time. That too, is thanks in very large part to Mausi's critiques and to the use of a professional editing service called Writer's Services. I can really recommend their services to any budding authors, professional, helpful and encouraging in their criticisms.

Thanks to all of you too for your patience and forbearance as I have wrestled with the system to get this far. Perhaps, as Sir Winston Churchill once said, this could just be the end of the beginning.

Well, watch this space and Amazon.com more news will follow soon.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 01, 2008

Thanks for nothing Mister Brown

Personally I hope to see a Labour wipeout in todays local government elections. It might, just might, alert our Lords and Masters in Westminster and Whitehall to the fact that we have had enough of meddling, nannying legislation and the theft from our wallets each month for their bloated pay packets and benefits.

The debacle over the scrapping of the 10% tax band which benefitted many of us between the ages of 60 and 65 who get no tax relief, no "benefit" and try to make a small pension stretch has, I hope, provided those who wavered towards giving this shower of charlatans and thieves the benefit of any further doubt with the excuse they need to vote differently. The tax on my pension just doubled, but does Gordon Brown and his coterie of non-working class champange socialists give a damn? Of course not, they're all right Jack ... And Brown's admission that "ministers failed to spot the impact on certain groups ..." just doesn't excuse it. That shower of parasites called the Civil Service, especially the bunch of trolls, thieves and thugs of the Treasury, didn't bother considering us either.

Since Blair and his luvvies brought Labour to power in 1997, we have seen our taxes rising steadily and inexorably. We have seen wave after wave of badly thought out legislation imposed on our lives by little tyrants who want to control every aspect of our lives and have brought upon us a society that is almost as bad as that created by the communists in East Germany. Neighbours now spy on each other and woe betide the mother who dares to smack a badly behaved or recalcitrant brat! And our taxes pay for what? An ever rising number of incompetents who cannot supply our troops with working weapons, usable ammunition or the most basic personal equipment. A growing army of "managers" who couldn't manage if their lives depended on it, a failing NHS subjected to more political interference and meddling than at any time in its history. An education system that changes every five minutes so that its failures can be concealed. Prisons bursting at the seams with parents who dared to smack a child, fuel prices rocketing through the roof (They try to blame that on the Oil Companies) with the Treasury stealing even more of our money through a Tax Escalator which sees tax imposed on tax. As the price rises the Treasury's tax take actually inflates it further because they use a percentage calculator - the higher the price, the higher the tax. No one else in Europe does that!

As I said at the start, I hope Labour sees a meltdown in the Local Government elections - its the only hope we have of shaking these arrogant, ignorant and idle thieves out of their complacency.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 28, 2008

Power blackout hits Power Outage protest meeting ....

Only in Africa could this happen. Or could it? It's not that many years ago that Britain underwent a period of power outages daily due to an ongoing power struggle between the Unions and the Government. This though is different, this is about resources not meeting demand.

The South African power supplier ESKOM is saddled with an infrastructure and generating plant designed to supply a population around half of what the current population level of the Republic is. There has been no development of these resources or investment in them since the ANC came to power and scrapped immigration laws for African migrants. Result? Cities bursting at the seams, power demand soaring and an infrastructure that will require probably ten years to extend, replace and increase to meet demand. Even then I doubt it can be done.

After all, even if they built a million houses a year for the next ten years it would still not meet demand ......

So, could this happen in BRitain? Guess what, it most certainly could. Green policies have severely restricted the development of our own power generating infrastructure. The ONLY sensible solution is to go for nuclear - but don't mention that in the presence of any of the green lobby or the Grenham Common fraternity. They'd rather see the Severn estuary destroyed by a barrage which will silt up the Bristol channel and damage the ecology of this extremely sensitive area and the country covered in windmills. I give it about ten years at present rate of growth and we'll be sitting in the dark for at least part of every day.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African union was holding a public conference protesting against the country's power crisis on Thursday when the lights went out.

(Advertisement)
"It was symbolic," Solidarity union spokesman Jaco Kleynhans said.

The Solidarity trade union was hosting a briefing on its possible class action suit against troubled state utility Eskom over job cuts when it was reminded of South Africa's power woes.

Delegates were left in the dark when Eskom implemented its daily blackouts that have caused traffic chaos and darkened homes.

South Africans are seething over a power crisis the government has warned could take years to resolve.

Eskom produces about 95 percent of South Africa's electricity and is spending billions of dollars to expand its generating capacity as it struggles to cope with rising demand from the country's growing economy.

(Reporting by Michael Georgy; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:10 AM | TrackBack

April 26, 2008

Sorting out some pics ....

Having taken quite a few pictures in Tehran I now have to downsize them so that I can post some. I also have to download them from my laptop and upload on the desktop ......

Sigh, this could take a while.

Patience please dear readers, it will get done, once I have sorted the junkmail from the important stuff, sorted out my presentation for Bucharest on the seventh of May and a few more pressing tasks. Three weeks away from home plays havoc with normal business ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:58 AM | TrackBack

April 20, 2008

Smoke free?

German restaurants and pubs went smoke free recently. Smoke free in theory, that is. Mausi cannot understand why it is apparently such a problem in Germany when Ireland, England, Scotland and even Italy went smoke free without a problem. The Irish even invented a new form of social intercourse - smirting, a combination of smoking and flirting or what else would you do if you have to go outside for a smoke?

In Germany there have been endless discussions in all the different Federal States. Each state wanted have some sort of exemptions or at least modifications to the law. Rhineland-Palatinate started the ban on smoking later than the others because they were afraid inn keepers were going to loose too much money during the carnival season because people would stay away from pubs if they weren't allowed to smoke there. Bavaria wanted the strictest of all laws in the first place and were even going to ban smoking in the big tents at the famous Munich Oktoberfest. But after the last elections in Bavaria a few months ago where the dominating party lost a lot of votes they are going to lift the ban on smoking a bit and allow smoking in tents again.

Bavarian inn keepers are also very inventive on circumnavigating the law. Some of them founded smoking societies whose members meet in the former pubs. They are all issued a member card which they show when they are inspected by law enforcing agencies. The only draw back is that societies are not meant to make a profit. Mausi has no idea how they are going to get around that. Another proposal is to define smoke free and non smoke free restaurants and pubs. That seems a bit unfair, as the non smoke free ones would retain their old customers and the smoke free would have to look for new ones.

The inn keepers keep complaining that they will loose all their customers if smoking is forbidden. Nobody seems to give all the non smokers a thought who have stayed out of pubs for years because they couldn't bear all the smoke and stink which settled in their clothes. Mausi hadn't been to a pub for the last 25 years if she could avoid it. And she was really looking forward to being able to have a beer inside a pub again. Now it seems that the law that bans smoking will be so full of holes that it is not worth the paper it is written on.

Germans seem particularly good at making things as difficult as possible....

Posted by Mausi at 07:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 16, 2008

A thought on Africa

Listening to the news on the difficulties of electing or changing a government in Africa today one could be excused for wondering why we bother. After all, democracy is an alien concept in sub Saharan Africa and Robert Mugabe is behaving exactly as a Tribal Paramount Chief would behave if someone challenged his authority. The veneer of civilisation (Western that is) is just that, a veneer.

Watch Kenya and you see the problem. For years it has been held up as the model of "Western" government in Africa, but beneath the veneer the ruling elite have carried on exactly as they would have done as tribal chieftains. Nepotism, bribery, and all the things westerners think don't happen at home are the norm. Naturally, the opposition to any government is really only seeking a place in the hierarchy. OK, I know, that sounds cynical, but it is the reality that our media and our bleeding heart Aid Agencies (Who, if you really look at them, are primarily concerned about the perpetuation of the nice little "feel good" industry) do not want to acknowledge. Perhaps because they cannot understand that Africa is not and probably never will be, a "Western" country. And there lies another problem - many people even now think of "Africa" as some sort of unified land, populated by poor downtrodden and oppressed black people. Just how insulting can we get?

Africa has more human genetic diversity than any other continent on the planet. Yet, south of the Sahara no major civilisations have emerged. Several have stuttered into the first faltering steps, but have then vanished without ever having got going, perhaps through being wiped out by a more powerful and envious neighbour. The ruins of Great Zimbabwe suggest one such failed attempt - no one even knows who built it.

What has all this to do with anything? Well, a friend forwarded the editorial in the extended post and frankly, as I posted before my excursio to Tehran, Robert Mugabe has reacted to his election defeat exactly as I said he would. Morgan Tsangari will probably have to remain in exile in Botswana unless he wishes to languish in Harare gaol on trumped up treason charges. And it will all, undoubtedly, stiull be the fault of those horrid white settlers .....

David Bullard's editorial says it all.

Article in the Sunday Times by David Bullard

Published:Apr 07, 2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine for a moment what life would be like in South Africa if the evil white man hadn’t come to disturb the rustic idyll of the early black settlers.

Ignored by the Portuguese and Dutch, except as a convenient resting point en route to India . Shunned by the British, who had decided that their empire was already large enough and didn’t need to include bits of Africa .

The vast mineral wealth lying undisturbed below the Highveld soil as simple tribesmen graze their cattle blissfully unaware that beneath them lies one of the richest gold seams in the world. But what would they want with gold?

There are no roads because no roads are needed because there are no cars. It’s 2008 and no one has taken the slightest interest in South Africa , apart from a handful of botanists and zoologists who reckon that the country’s flora and fauna rank as one of the largest unspoilt areas in a polluted world.

Because they have never been exposed to the sinful ways of the West, the various tribes of South Africa live healthy and peaceful lives, only occasionally indulging in a bit of ethnic cleansing.

Their children don’t watch television because there is no television to watch. Instead they listen to their grandparents telling stories around a fire. They live in single-storey huts arranged to catch most of the day’s sunshine and their animals are kept nearby.

Nobody has any more animals than his family needs and nobody grows more crops than he requires to feed his family and swap for other crops. Ostentation is unknown because what is the point of trying to impress your fellow citizens when they are not impressible?

The dreaded Internet doesn’t exist in South Africa and cellphone companies have laughed off any hope of interesting the inhabitants in talking expensively into a piece of black plastic. There are no unsightly shopping malls selling expensive goods made by Asian slave workers and consequently there are no newspapers or magazines carrying articles comparing the relative merits of ladies’ handbags.

Whisky, the curse of the white man, isn’t known in this undeveloped land and neither are cigars. The locals brew a sort of beer out of vegetables and drink it out of shallow wooden bowls. Five-litre paint cans have yet to arrive in South Africa .

Every so often a child goes missing from the village, eaten either by a hungry lion or a crocodile. The family mourn for a week or so and then have another child. Life is, on the whole, pretty good but there is something vital missing. Being unaware of the temptations of the outside world, nobody knows what it is. Fire has been discovered and the development of the wheel is coming on nicely but the tribal elders are still aware of some essential happiness ingredient they still need to discover. Praying to the ancestors is no help because they are just as clueless.

Then something happens that will change this undisturbed South Africa forever. Huge metal ships land on the coast and big metal flying birds are sent to explore the sparsely populated hinterland. They are full of men from a place called China and they are looking for coal, metal, oil, platinum, farmland, fresh water and cheap labour and lots of it. Suddenly the indigenous population realise what they have been missing all along: someone to blame. At last their prayers have been answered.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 05, 2008

Dear Mister Brown ....

Is the title of a song on the Tewkesbury Flood Relief Fund's CD and it pretty much sums up our town's response to his visit and crocodile tears over the floods last year. Listening to his response to the report from a very eminent committee of Cross-Party Peers, it struck me that, with a few minor modifications it could easily become the expression of the English Nation's feelings regarding him and his worthless collection of social engineers and ideologues.

It just goes to show how far removed from reality these idiots are. The Peers' report agrees that the unprecedented level of immigration into Britain brings in "around £6 billion" in revenue to our economy. It also agrees that there are roughly 600,000 jobs going begging at any one time in the UK. Where they part company on this is the government's view that we can continue to absorb indefinitely these levels of immigration and that this mythical £6 billion is of direct benefit to everyone. The Peers say that it is not, that the DIRECT benefit is measurable in pence per head of population. It also challenges the concept that the immigrants are closing a "skills gap" and asks why it is that the small number of employers who benefit from immigrant labour cannot train the million or more Britons who are currently drawing work seekers benefits or unemployment benefits.

Please do not misunderstand me, I happen to know a number of immigrants - in fact I am one myself - and almost all those I know have brought some new skills to this country, but that cannot be said for all those now pouring in. Whole cities and entire counties have changed irrevocably in the last ten years with long established British communities moved out, moved aside or simply subsumed. Parts of Birmingham more closely resemble parts of the Middle East or the Indian Sub-continent than they do an English city and there are parts of London where you could be forgiven for thinking you are in a different country. Yes, the Press do play up the numbers but they are high. Yes, this country has long had a tradition of absorbing immigrants, and rightly so, but never before have we had more than five percent of the total population as "immigrant" communities and never before have they so stubbornly refused to integrate.

Now 5% may not sound like a large number, but it is projected to grow dramatically, and it is further compounded by distribution. Most immigrants congregate in our cities and towns, driving up property values and driving lower paid working class folk out of them. That too is compounded by the various "Housing Authorities" operating sets of "rules" for dealing with applicants for scarce "social housing" which are biased against married couples where one or both are employed, in favour of single parents, people from "ethnically under-represented" groups and others perceived by Brown's closet communists as "disadvantaged". It gets worse when you realise that, under this government's open door policy on this issue (And you also have to take into account that almost everyone employed in the Department of Immigration in Croydon seems to be from an "immigrant" background and mostly from the Sub-continent and a particular faith.) it is expected that this number will continue to rise rather rapidly.

Rightly or wrongly, and a recent radio programme devoted to the subject of "Is Britain's White Working Class becoming invisible?" seems to suggest that it might be right, there is a perception that certain immigrant groups are simply exploiting the opportunity at the expense of native Britons. It is particularly noticeable that our taxes are rising at a rate that is almost enough to trigger a mass migration of those who can afford it to elsewhere in the world where their political leaders do not expect them to fork out almost half their earnings to fund their gerrymandering and social engineering. In one sense it is a form of "Gerrymandering", of manipulating the voting population to ensure this present government always have a majority in any given seat. It is equally noticeable that our unemployment figure remains high - and 600,000 vacancies or not, refuses to come down. Our shortage of housing remains high and more and more young people cannot get onto the property ladder at all, not even to rent because they cannot afford the huge deposit demanded on private letting plus the first months rent up front.

The expansion of the EU has brought with it a flood of young people from the former communist territories of Eastern Europe, and I, for one, welcome them. These youngsters have taken the trouble to learn to speak English and throw themselves into our culture and our way of life. Generally they also work harder than anyone else and have a far higher code of conduct than many of our own spoiled youth. But the key here is that they come here to learn, to gain experience and to send money home. One young Polish man who regularly serves me in my favourite watering hole earns just over £200 a week and sends half that home to his mother to support a brother and sister who are in university. When I asked about his own ambitions, he just grinned and said, "I like it here," then he shrugged and added, "I like to stay here, to get to be English maybe?" And he will probably succeed, because he is making every effort to "fit in".

In contrast, when my family and I migrated to these shores a little over twenty years ago our children were in a minority in the first school we could find and none of the notes they brought home were ever written in English. We always had to phone the school and ask to be told what they said. Twenty years on and nothing in that community has changed - in fact it has gone even further towards becoming completely detached from anything recogniseably "British". That is the problem created by Labour's "Open Door" and focus on "Multi-culturalism". It has dispossed the British and created ghettos by insisting that it is "OK" to refuse to integrate into our society.

Well, the Lords Committee has blown the whistle. Mr Brown and his coterie of socialist ideologues can object all they like. Facts remain facts and they cannot refute them. Their own statistics are now starting to give them the lie and no matter how much they massage the figures and move the goal posts the truth is starting to emerge. One important thing I notice that no one has addressed in this row is the cost to the taxpayer of the continuing employment of so many native Britons or the failure to invest in providing them with the skills our politicians say they lack. 680,000 vacancies the ministers trumpet, but they don't answer the important question. Why are we unable to fill these from our domestic labour pool?

I welcome the vast majority of those who have come here to make a better life - after all, I did and I would hope I have contributed more than I am getting back. I do not welcome the professional agitators, the parasites, the criminals and those who want to change this country into the third world, seventh century Theocracy they have come from. Nor do I welcome those who, for whatever reason, want to remain living in the manner of a distant country and force everyone else to live that way too.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 04, 2008

Good bye to a tyrant?

The prospect of Mugabe going quietly is one we can all hope for, but I have my doubts. As the Madam and Eve cartoon for April 2nd put it "The elections were definitely free - and one out of two isn't bad." Personally I will not be surprised if the delay in announcing the outcome of the Presidential election isn't caused by Mugabe's need to get his troops and police in place to arrest everyone who might even think he is about to give up his palace and his power just because the electorate say he must. Democracy doesn't work that way in Africa - or perhaps the West failed to take note of the Kenyan election debacle.

I will not be at all surprised if, no sooner is Morgan Tsvangira declared the winner, than Mugabe's General's will declare the election void and re-instate their "Glorious Leader" as President for Life.

I think its a case of "watch this space". But don't hold your breath - everything in that benighted country now depends on how loyal the army is to Mugabe.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:51 PM | TrackBack

April 02, 2008

When enforcers differ ....

Mausi finds herself in a strange position today. She is appearing in court as an "expert" witness, a job she normally does for the prosecution. Today is different because this is an appeal and Mausi finds herself testifying in favour of the Defence case and in direct conflict with the local police. Already someone has "leaked" this to the Press and the local and national dailies in her part of the world are full of stories about her organisation "gunning" for the police side.

Nothing could be further from the truth. She has, as usual, done a meticulous job of sifting through all the evidence and found that the original prosecution was badly flawed. The original investigators were offered this information and have tried to defend the indefensible.

The court will, I think, be an interesting place to be today, but of one thing I am certain, there can only be one outcome and if it improves the quality of future investigations by the force involved, that will be an even better outcome. As it is, someone has spent two years in prison for something they did not do. It isn't just embarassing when that happens - its a travesty. At least Mausi's Institute is interested only in the truth and the facts, not the target for "success" in prosecutions.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:56 AM | TrackBack

March 24, 2008

Gone beyond the rim ....

Arthur C Clarke has long been one of my favourite reads in Sci-fi. Alongside Isaac Asmiov, Robert Heinlein and one or two others who wrote scientifically plausible and realistic fiction. You don't get lost in the science with them, and you can enjoy the story without falling over scientifically impossible technology or concepts. Even their monsters were phgysiologically plausible and followed the "rules" as far as inter-species reactions were concerned. The most remarkable part of them was the fact that Clarke and Asimov were scientists by day and wrote for fun. Even Heinlein had a degree in Science.

Now Arthur C Clarke is dead, called to join his fellow travellers at last in the next dimension. To put it in the language of Babylon 5 - inspired in many ways by their writing - they have gone beyond the rim.

Personally I have found a couple of things Clarke wrote philosophically interesting in an intellectually provocative way. These have all appeared in different guises in his books, but he has also stated them in various interviews over the years. They include: -

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

This one always reminds me of the fact that many of the theories on which much of science is founded, are just that, our best guess at the "rules" as we understand them at present. The wise scientist almost always adds - "with the information/data currently available ..." to any "definitive" statement somewhere in his/her paper. Think of the Phlogiston theory popular in the early 19th Century - or the theory that cholera was spread by the stink of sewage - a view the medical profession refused to give up until forced to do so by incontrovertible evidence of the bacterial source.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Again, a hundred years ago many thought it would be impossible to launch men into space. But then only a few years before that it was considered that flight was an eccentric idea unlikely to ever be practical. Yet in living memory flying has gone from canvas and string gliders to hi-tech carbon fibre/titanium alloy powered by engines of unimaginable power at two and three times the speed of sound. We have even achieved one of the sci-fi writers stock-in-trade vehicles - the reusable passenger and goods shuttle.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Think of the impact electricity has had, of the ability to transfer our voices and our images around the globe in the blink of an eye. To any society that had never seen this - magic!

One of the truly interesting things about Clarke's writing is just how much has already become science fact. Space stations with men permanently in space, shuttles, moon walkers and even computers now edging into Artificial Intelligence.....

HAL 2000 may be just around the corner.

I hope that Arthur C Clarke will join his fellow scientists at rest beyond the rim and continue their exploration of the universe in both fact and fantasy. What an interesting company they must make.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:31 AM | TrackBack

March 15, 2008

Bureaucratic games ....

Yesterday's trip to London was an interesting experience. Firstly, having followed the web site times for applying for and collecting a Visa to visit a middle eastern state, I turned up at the Consulate at 10.45 only to be turned away again because "visas can only be applied for between 12.30 and 15.30". And no, you can't wait in the waiting room .....

So I found a quiet cafe and had breakfast (to get there as early as I had meant leaving home at 07.00 in order to get an early train which meant not being able to get a cheaper fare ...) and reviewed and got the missing details for my application sorted out. Eventually I returned to the Consulate fortified and armed with the form, correctly filled in, photos and all the other items demanded of visitors to the country concerned. Now there was a queue. I joined this queue in order to get a queueing number to join the visa queue. Ahead of me was a young lady, training she told me at Oxford to become a doctor. She was bareheaded, her blonde hair on view. An elderly man, obviously official, approached and informed her that she could not enter the Consulate without a headscarf. As the queue wasn't moving I suggested she nip round the corner to a shop that sold suitable items and get herself one and that I would keep her place. She hadn't realised that once across the threshold of an embassy or consulate you are technically in the country of that embassy .... So, off she dashed to return about fifteen minutes later (the queue hadn't moved so I let her back into the row ahead of me), her head now suitably covered in a rather heavy cashmere type scarf. I wish her well of her trip, no doubt she will discover a great deal about religious bigotry once she gets there.

Having got the ticket I now went downstairs as directed to make the application, joined a queue there only to be told, on arrival at the window, that I should have been upstairs - so back up the stairs, find the right queue (fortunately my number had not yet come up!) and waited. Eventually I managed to get my application in and was told - OK, come back Tuesday at 16.00. Aaaargh! Aother trip to the cesspit! Could they not do a "same day" service I asked as I live some distance from the said cesspit. Ah, well, OK, but it costs more. Fine - just give me the bl**dy visa.

So, at 15.35 I returned expecting to have to wait and queue again, only to have the passport and the shiny new visia returned to me immediately. Obviously as a representative of the Great Satan's ally I am fair game for these little bureaucratic games. I wonder if the rules will have changed when my colleague goes to sort his out next week? Probably, they seemed to make it all up as they went along anyway.

Still, I get paid for it ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 12, 2008

The right to choose?

The row currently in the news over the challenge to the government's new legislation governing embryology and genetic research comes from the unlikely source of a deaf couple who are challenging the legislation on the grounds that they should be allowed to choose that any child born to them by IVF treatment should be deaf. Now, leaving aside for the moment the concept of screen embryos to check for the genetic defects that cause congenital deafness, surely the debate should be addressing the question of giving any future child the opportunity to be born fully equipped for this life with eyes, ears that function and all the other organs functional as well - and not about whether or not the parents should have the right to decide whether or not a future child should be deaf, blind or limbless?

I found myself listening in disbelief to the arguments advanced by this couple and their supporters who are arguing on an emotional level that satisfies their needs - and completely ignores the childs. THEY want the child to be like them - deaf - and not to have the chance to be able to hear and appreciate all the things they cannot. THEY do not consider themselves disabled - and want their children to "fit into their 'culture'". Excuse me? So being deaf is now a "cultural" issue? So now perhaps we can look forward to demands from the wheelchair warriors for "cultural recognition" of their right to cripple the rest of us as they barge their powered wheelchairs through crowded shops and supermarkets?

This is definitely the thinking of the lunatic asylum. Offered the choice between bringing into this world someone with the full use of all their faculties and all their limbs and bringing in someone whose entire life will require a huge amount of support and assistance, will be handicapped in so many ways, these people would seem to be saying that they would deliberately choose to bring someone into it deliberately disabled.

I sincerely hope that the Judge in this vexatious case rules that the parents have no right to deliberately choose to disable their offspring when they have the choice. I know what my response would be if I learned that my parents had made this choice and that I now had to live with their bigotry. Bitter doesn't describe it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 11, 2008

Its beginning to get to us ....

This is doing the rounds, and rather than send it on by e-mail, I thought I'd share it with the blogosphere. This is the sort of form filling, paper shuffling bureaucracy that I always get mad at ....

Subject: Passport Application

Dear Minister,
I'm in the process of renewing my passport but I am a total loss to understand or believe the hoops I am being asked to jump through.

How is it that Bert Smith of T.V. Rentals Basingstoke has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1994, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?

How come that nice West African immigrant chappy who comes round every Thursday night with his DVD rentals van can tell me every film or video I have had out since he started his business up eleven years ago, yet you still want me to remind you of my last three jobs, two of which were with contractors working for the government?

How come the T.V. detector van can tell if my T.V. is on, what channel I am watching and whether I have paid my licence or not, and yet if I win the government run lottery they have no idea I have won or where I am and will keep the bloody money to themselves if I fail to claim in good time.
Do you people do this by hand?

You have my birth date on numerous files you hold on me, including the one with all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30-odd years. It's on my health insurance card, my driver's licence, on the last four passports I've had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the planes and boats over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done every ten years and the electoral registration forms I have to complete, by law, every time our lords and masters are up for re-election.

Would somebody please take note, once and for all, I was born in Maidenhead on the 4th of March 1957, my mother's name is Mary, her maiden name was Reynolds, my father's name is Robert, and I'd be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and the day I die!

I apologise Minister. I'm obviously not myself this morning. But between you and me, I have simply had enough! You mail the application to my house, then you ask me for my address. What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don't want to activate the Fifth Reich for God's sake! I just want to go and park my weary backside on a sunny, sandy beach for a couple of week's well-earned rest away from all this crap.

Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to back to Salisbury and get another copy of my birth certificate because you lost the last one. AND to the tune of 60 quid! What a racket THAT is!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? But nooooo, that'd be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some tosser to confirm that it's really me on the goddamn picture - you know... the one where we're not allowed to smile in in case we look as if we are enjoying the process!
Hey, you know why we can't smile? 'Cause we're totally jacked off!

I served in the armed forces for more than 25 years including over ten years at the Ministry of Defence in London . I have had security clearances which allowed me to sit in the Cabinet Office, five seats away from the Prime Minister while he was being briefed on the first Gulf War and I have been doing volunteer work for the British Red Cross ever since I left the Services. However, I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am -- you know, someone like my doctor...
who, before he got his medical degree 6 months ago WAS LIVING IN PAKISTAN ...

Yours sincerely,
An Irate British Citizen.
I think the letter encapsulates exactly what drives me up the walls with rage at the way we are treated by the faceless wonders of Whitehall. They can make the most mounmental botch of anything without even trying, but they are NEVER held to account for it. In a case exposed recently a Taxi driver was made bankrupt by the incompetent nincompoops at HM Revenue and Customs. How? Easy, they LOST his files and declared he owed them £12,000 in unpaid tax. Where that figure came from they are unable to explain - and, when he rightly refused to pay, they dragged him into court, declared him bankrupt and seized his property (including his cab - his means of earning a living) and left him destitute.

It has taken a year to sort it out. His outstanding tax was just £0.88pence. But he still has the label "Bankrupt" attached and even though he has been declared "rehabilitated" still cannot get a mortgage or any other finance deal - all due to the incompetence of some little toe-rag in the tax office. A faceless wonder who has now, no doubt, been promoted as a reward for his or her utter contempt for truth, justice or actually doing a useful job.

Coupled with that comes the admission from a senior civil servant that HMRC never pursue the rich - they have accountants who make life for the incomptents in HMRC difficult and look like the fools they are - so they target self employed middle class earners and working men, hounding them and accusing them of non-payment or underpayment of tax.

It really is time to hold the Whitehall W*nkers to account for every mistake, every unnecessary form and every wasted penny of our money.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:32 PM | TrackBack

March 10, 2008

Stormy weather ....

As the old sea shanty says: - "For the stormy winds do blow, and the raging seas how they flow!"

Got up this morning to prepare to go to work today to wind howling round the windows, rain slashing across the landscape and threats of flooding, fortunately not here. The road reports are of trees down and slow journeys, so this is a very short post. I have to drive some thirty miles to the job - and I better get going.

Seems the forecasters got it right for once.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:46 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 07, 2008

Left/Liberalism a mental disease?

Da Goddess (See my Blogroll) has posted an excellent piece outlining the dilemma many people face now that the "Liberal" trend is gaining dominance. In her piece labelled Liberalism Leftism As A Disease, she quotes a study made by Dr Rossiter - a doctor of psychiatrics - and analyses the problem of the "Liberal" who is anything but.

This is something that has worried me for years, the term "liberal" used to mean someone that followed a "live and let live" approach, Someone who was tolerant, recognised the individuality of people and stood for the right to be individual, free to speak as we saw even if we disagreed. Not so anymore. Today, certainly in Britain it has come to mean someone who subscribes to what Da Goddess calls "victimology" and wants to tie everyone up in "rules" which are supposed to be "for the greater good." Nothing, in recent years, has made me more angry than being told that "in order to redress the imbalances in our society, some people will have to sacrifice their rights and choices in order for others to be advanced." This is the mantra our Civil Service has adopted as an article of faith and what it means is a disproportionate number of immigrant minorities being recruited, often regardless of ability, to fill posts in the Whitehall Departments. Considering that across the nation the immigrant population numbers around 8% of the total - and roughly a third of that is from Europe and Eastern Europe in particular, we have to ask the question - why is it that some Departments now have amost a third of their staff from Asian or other non-european backgrounds? This is not liberal, it is a deliberate policy of exclusion aimed at the majority of Britons. The "sacrifices" that have to be made are notably NOT being made by those who espouse these policies or their families. The BBC recently rather bravely highlighted the plight of white working class Britain, excluded, unemployed and now invisible behind the rampant promotion of "Immigration is Good for Britain."

One problem with that is the news headline today that RAF personnel in Peterborough have been ordered NOT to wear their uniforms in public. Why? Because that centre of Christianity has become an Islamic ghetto under Labour and the servicemen and women are now being subjected to verbal abuse and physical threats whenever they leave the Base just outside the town. But the RAF personnel, argues the Left, are seen as the "oppressor" by these Muslim "victims" of the West's aggression.

Some years ago I was accosted in London by a protester waving a petition he demanded I sign. I refused as I did not, and still do not, believe that what was being demanded then was right. He immediately called me a "racist" and began to harangue me for my "Right wing" fascism. He never even paused to ask why I was not willing to sign, or to support his view, he was only interested in his own narrow vision. Angry, I told him that it took a racist to know a racist and walked away, followed by a torrent of abuse from him and his fellow protesters. Ironically, I recognise that twerp - now balding slightly, still arrogant and loud, and dressed in bespoke Saville Row suits, chauffeured by men worth a hundred of his sort. You guessed it, he's now in the Cabinet. And his petition was in support of Robert Mugabe .....

Dr Rossiter highlights several things about the "Left wing" mindset, including:

.....the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

- creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization; satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;

- augmenting primitive feelings of envy;

- rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

One thing I learned when studying Political Science some years ago is that the political spectrum is rather like a rainbow - it is a circle or a curve, it is not linear. At both ends of the rainbow you find yourself standing in the same place. If true Liberalism and Democracy are on one side of it, the other is where the dictators sit. The Left of today - I can't call them "Liberal" - sit on that end. Why? Because their clutching at regulating every aspect of our lives and their constant desire to "redistribute" wealth from the pockets of those who actually work, to their own and their "victims" pockets spells out very clearly where they are coming from and going to. Take a look at the denizens of Westminster - desperate to hang on to power at all costs, desperate to "prove" their credentials by constantly introducing more and more regulations to impose control on our lives - and desperate to defend their view of the rest of us needing their guidance and defence in order to manage our lives.

I think the good Doctor is right. It is a mental disorder, but I have no doubt that he is already under attack from the Left for even thinking it. Watch this space .....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:50 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 06, 2008

Misleading Parliament is a crime ......

Misleading the public seems to be a stock in trade. One does wonder, having watched the performance of the treasonous bunch who voted to deprive us of our democratic right to determine whether or not our nation is subsumed into the United States of Europe, what the penalty should be when the entire House "misleads Parliament" on a scale that must defy comparison. Gordon Brown dares to stand at the Despatch Box and declare that this is not the same as the treaty the French and Dutch electorates threw out. That it does NOT create a US of E, yet, every other government in Europe is saying that it DOES! The French President, the German Chancellor, all say that it is a constitution and that it does create a European State - so why is Brown lying?

It is easy to understand why this Parliament refuses to allow the democratic process to be followed, every opinion poll taken in the last six months has indicated that the electorate will reject the Treaty - and Brown and Labour cannot afford that. So they hide behind the lies.

Several newspapers and one of the political parties have said that this is the day our democracy died. They are wrong, it died, for England, on the day Blair's Party ramraided the legislation through Parliament creating the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament without providing a separate Parliament for England. Again, they didn't dare since Labour could not expect to ever be elected to power in it. So we now have the spectacle of a Scottish MP as Prime Minister, elected to a seat in Scotland which is ruled by the Scottish Parliament and not bound by any Act passed in Westminster, passing legislation and formulating legislation which affects people who did not elect him and would not elect him. Nor does it end there, since the majority of his cabinet and tranche of "Junior" Ministers are in a similar position. Even the occuppant of the Speaker's Chair is a Scottish MP, representing a Scottish constituency. They do not represent English constituents, they do not control what is happening in their own "countries" (Again, if they are elected by Welsh or Scottish voters, why are they sitting in a Parliament that does not 'govern' their constituents?) It goes further, for, as the government itself admits, more than 75% of the legislation they now rubber stamp is drawn up in Brussels by the unelected and unaccountable Commission. In other words, we, the voters have no say in the process of government. And in England we are now the subject of the rule of the Scottish, Welsh and Immigrant minorities in our own country.

The only conclusion one can draw is that democracy is dead, Westminster is now an irrelevance and we are ruled by an unelected elite of bureaucrats based in Brussels. Parliament is not only being mislead, it is being deliberately mislead, mismanaged and used to mislead the electorate - by the very people who so jealously guard their own interests and freedoms. Misleading parliament is a heinous crime, but misleading the elctorate is now the stock in trade of all politicians and their bureaucrat parasites.

I may be wrong, but was not the American Revolution fueled by the sentiment that there should be "No taxation without representation"? Perhaps it is time to ask what representation I have in Brussels - since my taxes pay for it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 03, 2008

Prince Harry

It is a great pity that some journalists simply can't help themselves. Common sense dictates that some stories are better not told - especially when it will put lives in danger. Yet the newshound named Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report simply could not resist publishing the news that Prince Harry, or to give him his correct title, Lieutenant Windsor, was on active service with his troop in Afghanistan.

He knew when he decided to publish it that this would have an immediate impact on both the Prince and everyone around him. One has to ask therefore, what his motive was in doing it. Public interest? That beloved catchall of the journalist hack? Try the other one, certainly the US audience is hardly interested in what the Prince does for a living, so perhaps he hoped that shooting his pen off with this would get Harry killed - big headline in that and masses of press coverage in the funeral. You can just see the banner headlines - "Tragic Princess' Tragic Son dies at the hands of the Taliban" and in the byline - "XXX British Soldiers die in massive bomb aimed at the Prince" followed by acres of handwringing prose agonising over "why was he sent there?"

Prince Harry is a soldier. It is what he was bred to be. A leader of men under pressure and by all accounts he's a damned good one. What he doesn't need now or at any time in the future is a bunch of idiot journalists hounding him everywhere he goes and endangering him, everyone around him and everything he and his troops represent. My sympathy lies entirely with Harry on this one. I wouldn't want to be kicking my heels in the Regimental Barracks either while my troops were out in a war zone. Like Harry, I'd want to be with them, but patently, as long as people like Matt Drudge can't behave responsibly, this desire to serve his country well will be frustrated.

What the Drudge Report has exposed more than anything else is the media obsession with "Celebrity" and their desire to destroy anyone who stands above the common herd - a herd they claim tomrepresent, yet do everything they can to stand aloof from while trying to influence and steer it. Prince Harry and his brother Prince William have been bron into one of the toughest roles anyone could have to assume. They did not choose to be what they are and now they have to learn to be something the media and politicians loathe while under the constant surveillance of the media circus. Neither of them can even pop out to their local club or pub without some damned idiot trying to embarass them, provoke them or get a "story" on them. In my book, both of them are a thousand times the men that the media hacks will ever be, and ten thousand times the people any politician will ever be.

Prince Harry is, in my view, a damned fine young man, one I would be proud to serve under or with. I hope he does get his wish to return to his unit and his role, he has a lot to offer and the media should butt out and let him get on with it. As for Mr Drudge, he should be asked to answer charges of endangering the lives of our troops in Helmand Province and attempting to undermine the effort to suppress the terrorism the Taliban represent. I, for one, think that was his intention - to get some British troops killed and to sabotage their efforts to overcome the Taliban. Perhaps the FBI should look into that for us.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 29, 2008

Circular thinking .....

Various regulators for the government in this country have been handing out huge fines to service providers lately. This is supposed to "encourage" them to provide better services in future. Now maybe I'm missing something here, but how will fining a government agency - one that was privatised and then renationalised by this same bunch of closet communistas - £14 million improve their abysmal service? How is this "value for money?" Especially I ask, how can it be value for money when it must come from my taxes in the first place - and will have to come out of the budget for maintaining the railway system in the second - unless, of course, some other Whitehall W*nker will simply take the money from the Treasury and pass it to the Network Rail Chairman in order for him to pay the Treasury .....

Circular thinking if ever I saw it.

But then, what do you expect from Whitehall? Common sense? Actual solutions? See your psychiatrist quick - it will be fairies in the garden next! The rail regulator evaded, no less than four times, a direct question concerning where the money to pay this fine would come from. Instead he burbled on about how the fine would "improve" performance. How?

Corrupt? Incompetent? Out of touch? Unable to face reality? One really does despair of the shower earning vast salaries to screw the country up completely. And they are completely unanswerable to anyone. Bomb-proof no matter how big the c*ck-up they create. In fact its a well known dictum in Whitehall - the bigger the c*ck-up, the bigger the promotion.

And the tax payer just keeps getting soaked for more of their earnings to pay for it ......

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:55 PM | TrackBack

February 28, 2008

What price democracy Mister Brown?

The refusal by our government to allow a debate on a Libdem Amendment to the EU Treaty ratification Act currently being rushed through Parliament with indecent haste by Brown and his Labour pitbulls exposes just how far we have drifted from being a democratic state. In a debate on Radio 4 a day or so ago, Charles Kennedy of the Lib Dems found himself having to agree with the UKIP MEP on almost every point the man raised against our remaining a part of the EU. The fact is that we, the British People, have never been allowed to say whether we wish to be a part of the United States of Europe or not. We signed up in 1974 to being a part of a Trading Partnership, NOT a political Union.

Again, it is a fact that Westminster and our Parliament has become an expensive irrelevance. It was already getting that way when Labour decided to devolve powers to Scotland and Wales and that has simply exposed it to the true state of affairs - it now is not Sovereign, nor is it acting on behalf of the People of Britain. The Scottish Parliament speaks for Scotland, not Westminster, the Welsh Assembly speaks for Wales, not Westminster. England is now ruled by Scottish and Welsh MP's who have no constituency in England. How's that for democracy? Brussels formulates and imposes almost 80% of all legislation that Westminster Rubber Stamps. Legislation, moreover, that conflicts with our legal system and practice and imposes ever more restrictive and postively damaging restrictions on our industry, commerce and trade without ever being responsible to the British People or subject to election as they would be in a democratic society. So who does Westminster speak for? It would seem now to speak only for the English, yet even here it is not democratic since Brown's Party majority rests upon Scottish and Welsh MP's who are not affected in the slightest by the taxes and legislation they impose on the English.

Yesterday a mass lobby of Parliament demanding our rite to a Referendum on this issue was highjacked by the loony Greens of Greenpeace who don't give a damn and pulled off a silly stunt to make sure they got the press coverage while the real issue was ignored. On top of this we have to listen to Brown and his Gaulieters spinning that the Treaty isn't a Constituition. Well, pardon me, but almost everyone else in Europe thinks it is - so what is Brown afraid of admitting here?

Certainly one of the things he and his party of traitors isn't admitting is that our Armed Forces have been handed over to Europe. That's right, the "Treaty" creates a European Defence Force and the Royal Navy is now no more than a squadron within that Fleet - led and Commanded by the French. Nelson must be deafening anyone in St Paul's crypt right now. Our Army too has been cut back and cut back so that it can be slotted into the European Army as "the British Division" which is all it now is. Even the Royal Air Force is being cut back to just a Transport and a Strike Wing. Lord alone knows who will be in command of the European Airforce - but he or she probably won't be British either! And Whitehall has just announced another Defenece Review - with the "proposed" aircraft carriers now being projected as "deferred" until 2020. By which time the UK will be mere provinces of Brussels.

We no longer live in a democracy. Labour have seen to that. This is now a Socialist Oligarchy, our democracy died the day Blair won the election in 1997 and it will not be revived in my lifetime. The Civil Service is now the single biggest political power block in the country, employing over 20% of the workforce. Blair himself commented recently that he had found it almost impossible to actually get his intentions implemented because of the blocking and delaying that the civil service employs to prevent anyone actually doing anything they do not appove of or which would reduce their grip on the real power. Yet his party are the very people who have created and fed this monster.

One further affect of the Brussels usurpation of our sovereignty is the manifestation of vexatious legislation meddling in the minutieae of peoples lives. There is a historical precedent for this - the Roman Senate in the dying days of that empire enacted similar rafts of legislation in a desperate effort to assert power of an increasingly disenchanted populace as the real power shifted inexorably into the hands of the Emeroros and their immediate court. Who weilds the real power here now Mister Brown? You? I think not, personally I think it is the Commission in Brussels. Unelected, unaccountable and all powerful - thanks to your and your party's treason.

Westminster is now an expensive irrelevance, corrupt, incestuous and totally unnecessary. It is time to use the words uttered by this shower's equally corrupt and bigotted hero - Oliver Cromwell, dictator, traitor and regicide -

"For too long you have disgraced this house. In the name of God - go!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:06 PM | TrackBack

February 25, 2008

Time for root and branch reform of Westminster ...

The news that the Speaker of the House of Commons is having his expenses investigated by the Parliamentary Wtachdog shows up the fact that our government is now so mired in sleaze that it is incapable of managing its own affairs - never mind ours! Mister Speaker is supposed to be absolutely squeaky clean - but then Gorbals Mick as his detractors nicknamed Labour's Scottish MP incumbent of the most important post in Parliament was always on a knife edge when it came to probity. The Scottish Labour Party has always played fast a loose with our money, particularly when given control of English Tax money. And they have a record of corruption and mafia style bullying and nepotism that makes some Third World States look like Cub Scouts.

When Mister Speaker can be accused of fiddling his expenses, the time has come for the appointment of some body to oversee Parliament and make sure they are playing straight. After all Mister Speaker is the man who agrees MP's allowances and approves their claims. If his aren't quite what they should be, what the h*ll are the rest up to?

Parliament is only a part of the problem. The way money is thrown around Whitehall it should come as no surprise that much of it finds its way into the pockets of corrupt civil servants and their political paymasters. It must surely be time to call a halt to the way Whitehall is run (or not run as the case may be) and put in place public oversight of the activities of the Treasury, demand proper Budgets, not the cobbled together "we don't really know how much we need so we make a guess at it and double it," style of budgeting. This government has done more "spending reviews" than any other in our history - yet the cost of government keeps rising. Why?

Probably because no budget is ever really cut - they just find more creative ways to spend our money to their advantage. Definitely time to clean out the house and bar the CIvil Servants from "managing" anything.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 23, 2008

Another assault on our freedom?

The news today that a new camera is to be installed on our roads to police the new government backed installation of special lanes for use by motorists who have more than one person in the car confirms to me that this government wants to deny most of us the use of private transport. Let's face it, most of us use our cars to get to and from work because there isn't suitable public transport or because we need to be flexible and work either longer hours or at different locations from time to time. So the Transport Minister babbling about "choice" and the need to compell us to use inadequate, inconvenient and packed with inconsiderate, ill disciplined and badly behaved yobs is a bit outside of reality. OK for those who have the use of chaffeur driven Jaguars with Police escorts - for the rest of us it will mean being forced to sit in traffic jams in the lanes single motorists, HGVs and everyone else are confined to while the "multi-person" lane is empty.

It seems that the proponents of this latest batch of stupidity traffic management argue that, if you convert one lane of a two lane highway into a "High Density Vehicle" lane and force all other road users into the other lane, you will ease the congestion. Anyone see the flaw in this? Anyone see the problem of forcing all the traffic into one lane so the fortunate few, such as the Minister of Transport and her chums with the kiddie seats and communal transport habits can have the freedom to drive unmolested and unobstructed - no HGVs means no crawling traffic to hold you back - at the expense of the rest of us who will now not only have to pay an exorbitant road tax for bugger all, but will burn more fuel, creating more pollution - and paying more fuel tax - for the privilege of using our own cars.

Some time ago I did share a car with several others. It was never an easy mix since well had to arrive at work or leave work together, it meant that whoever was late at the pickup point or delayed in the office held the rest of us up. It also meant that, if for any reason one of us had to work late or get in early, and sometimes we did, you had to make other arrangements to get there or get home.

As usual, the problems of the city are to be imposed on those of us who choose not to live in the cheek by jowl situation imposed by city life. And, as usual, the politicians and the bureaucrats are the only beneficiaries of yet more legislation and yet more criminalising of the general public as soon as we exercise our freedom of choice. Have any of these morons had to try living without their cars? Easy if you can afford the rents (or have the taxpayer pick them up for you) of central London. Easy if you have the chaffeur service at your beck and call - not so bloody easy if you have to catch trains, tubes and buses while carrying the family shopping!

Even worse, if you live alone and frequently have to travel alone, it is usually not a matter of choice. Where I live (Can afford to live!) is not on a mainline. Even if it was, I still could not travel to my most frequent destinations directly from here. It would involve several changes and is vastly more expensive than using my car. Even if I mix my transport, driving part way, then switching to public transport, I find myself heavily out of pocket vastly inconvenienced by the constraints of the train or bus timetables.

Let's face it, the real reason this government of control freaks, puritans and c;oset communists want to deny us the free use of our cars is that they hate our having any choice at all about how we live, where we live or where we work. They want to confine us in neat little units where we can be more easily monitored and fed the b*llsh*t they would have us believe.

Face it, the real problem on our roads is not the private motorist. It is the huge load of freight that is carried in juggernauts on roads not designed for them, through villages not intended for such traffic and into towns where they damage roads, buildings and lives. If you seek the real cause of pollution look no further than the huge fleets of trucks carrying goods that could be more efficiently carried by rail or sea around our coasts. Look no further than the lunatic "traffic calming" measures forcing motorists to drive at uneconomically low speeds in uneconomical gears around towns and cities and at the lunacy of empty lanes on raods that motorists are banned from using because they are reserved for "mass transit" vehicles. And all the while our Ministers andtheir Civil Service chums ride around at our expense in chaffeur driven limosines. Nice for some.

The last time I had to use the bus to go from my home to the neighbouring town - 8 miles in my car and only a matter of twenty minutes - the bus took a little over an hour and was filled with unruly teenagers who shouted, spat screamed and generally made themselves unpleasant. The bus driver could do nothing about it and the rest of us had to endure it. I have not travelled by bus since, and I don't intend to do so again until I can be assured that that sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and that such passengers will be ejected from the bus immediately.

On those occassions when I can take the train to my destination I find that more often than not I have to pay a premium fare in order to be able to travel when I need to in order to arrive on time at my business - and then, as often as not, I can't find a seat and end up paying over the odds for the privilege of standing for two hours.

Mark my words, this scheme is the thin end of a very large wedge. If this doesn't force you out of your car - and the schemes will be introduced in rural as well as urban areas - there will shortly be another assault on your right to drive your own vehicle. Ironic isn't it, that the present government are the very same people who boycotted lectures, staged "sit-ins" in colleges, schools and universities to force the governing bodies into accepting "freedom of choice" for students - and now they want to remove all freedom of choice from the rest of us.

If it wasn't so blatant, it might even be funny.....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:16 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 21, 2008

Investment theft ...

So Labour is again stealing investment capital. Northern Rocks long suffering shareholders are to have their shares in the business taken off them at a token value by this government of incompetents and thieves in their latest grab of peoples investments. The excuse that it is "to protect the taxpayers investment" is wearing a bit thin. After all, they created the crisis with their ill considered insistence on making the Bank of England reveal who it was lending money too. The real problem here is that having created the problem they compounded it by letting the panic run on and on until the Bank needed to borrow far more than it would have done. Then, of course, the Chancellor stepped in with that great Socialist/Communist panacea for all ills - put an incompetent bureaucrat in charge.

Or if you don't think you'll get away with that - put one of your tax dodging chums in the driving seat. That has to be the biggest con job of all. After making a huge song and dance about "Non-doms" dodging tax in the UK on money earned in the UK by actually living in a country with a lower tax rate, who does the Chancellor appoint to take over the Bank - a "Non-dom" chum ....

The truth is that the Northern Rock has been nationalised "temporarily" to protect the tax payers investment in keeping the bank afloat. As I said earlier, the crisis was engineered by the government, so I think the money should come from their pockets, not ours. Secondly, the shareholders can expect little or no moeny for their investment - the Treasury's creative accountants will value the shares at way below their market value simply to avoid paying out their real value - and there is no way the investors will be able to recover this. Again, all the Labour Communistas are rubbing their grubby hands gleefully and triumphantly declaring that the investors "can't be bailed out by the taxpayers". I think I'd rather know my tax money was doing that than paying the salaries of worthless bureaucrats and politicians who are totally unaccountable. This is exactly what they did to the shareholders of Rail Track when the same moron re-nationalised that!

The other problem is the word "temporarily". In Civil Service terms that embraces everything from "until the wind blows from the East" to "Forever". I suspect that Northern Rock is going to prove a permanent passenger on the Civil Service list, just getting gradually less and less efficient until it becomes obvious that it has, like the rest of Whitehall, just become a financial Black Hole, sucking in money and producing nothing of any worth or value.

Time, I suppose, will tell.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 20, 2008

Eclipse of the moon

Tonight sees the eclipse of the moon, a fascinating sight if it is visible. The moon darkens and takes on a red appearance as the shadow of our planet passes across its surface.

Traditionally, eclipses are portents of disaster, so I wonder who is predicting what for whom on this one. Darius III lost the battle at Gaugamela to Alexander the Great after soothsayers foretold disaster when a total eclipse of the moon occured a few days before the two armies clashed in 331BC. I must confess that I have seen a reference to Alexander being told the same thing - but having the courage to say "b*llsh*t!" and went into battle having given his troops a right old talking too. Darius III probably wished he had.

I wonder how often in history the torch of history has been passed on from one hand who believed the soothsaying to a victor who didn't. I would suspect that we will never know for the simple reason that the winner is unlikely to repeat the soothsayers doomsaying while laughing at the fact that his enemy fell for it.

Wonder if some clown will now try telling us that this ecplipse portends the ending of our civilisation. Won't surprise me at all if someone does!

Whatever, as it is happening at 03.21 - I won't be sitting up to watch it!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:25 PM | TrackBack

February 19, 2008

The Diana farce .....

Rumbles on. Listening to Mr Al Fayed on the radio after he gave his "evidence" today, I found myself wondering if this man is quite all there. I am convinced that he inhabits a world with several more moons around it than the one I am on. In fact if he continues to rant in the manner he was doing this evening when asked to comment on the Enquiry by Radio 4 I fully expect him to be either called to apologise publically by the Judge - a very senior Judge in the Lords - or charged with Contempt of Court, a very serious offence in the eyes of the law.

From what was broadcast the "evidence" now descends to the level of accusations which cannot be substantiated, downright defamation and, when challenged to provide hard evidence, invective and abuse. He clings to the view that the Princess was pregnant in the face of medical testimony that she was not. He declares that she and Dodi "were engaged" when all her friends say this was rubbish and, of course, no one can now prove or disprove it. To cap it all, he accuses the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip of racism and of complicity in "murder" - despite the fact that the Duke's letters released to this court show that he did more to try to help Diana than anyone else. And, much as I loathe Tony Blair, I find the accusation that the little creep colluded with MI5, MI6, Prince Charles and the Duke to have Diana and Dodi killed, just plain ludicrous. Especially as the conspirators are now supposed to have included the French Secret Service and the Sapeurs Pompiers and Ambulance service in Paris! If it wasn't such a monumental waste of money and tragedy for Princes William and Harry it would be laughable.

It really is time to draw a line under this - and send Mr Al Fayed the bill.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:09 PM | TrackBack

February 18, 2008

As civilisation fades ...

In South Africa, it seems that they are finding ever more amusing ways to have a dig at their leaders. The cartoon Madam and Eve has just run a series on "modernised" nursery rhymes most of which hit the mark - pardon the pun - right on the nose.

In a society where crime is so high no one is immune, corruption scandals are the order of the day and the most corrupt of all are sitting in Parliament or about to be crowned as President, there is nothing left buyt to resport to satire. And all nursery rhymes are, or were originally, just that. A poke on the nose for the government of the day. The Madam and Eve versions are amusing and fun for most of us, but do carry a serious message for those who have to live through their current difficulties.

So, is Western civilisation about to collapse completely? Perhaps not entirely in Europe and the North Americas, but it does seem doomed to fade and fail in AFrica and many other places it has been "planted". It is, however, comforting to hope that the "Dark Age" as we might view it, may be shortened by technoloy and the internet. Possibly even by the effect of "Globalisation". But, if Africa does go into a Dark Age, it will impact on the rest of us, and that should worry us all.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:49 AM | TrackBack

February 17, 2008

The cost of an ego?

The Public Enquiry into the death of the late Princess of Wales rumbles on. Or at least, apparently, its gravy train does. It sometimes seems that every nutcase idea that Al Fayed can dream up has to be explored by dragging in every recalcitrant ex-MI6 agent they can find and trotting him through his "conspiracy" piece. But the cost mounts daily and what is the likely outcome? Forgive me for asking I'm sure, but, if this little exercise is assuaging Mr Al Fayed's over expanded ego is already £6 million (Of Taxpayers money!) what benefit are we, the tax payers getting from airing all of this half baked trash in public anyway?

There has been nothing new exposed - except some rather dodgy individuals spouting garbage - that was not revealed in any of the earlier inquests. OK, so maybe our "Loyal" Government have indulged in this orgy of public hysteria by the small "Diana was a Godess" mob in the hopes of speeding the introduction of their Republic of Britain, but I doubt even they would be stupid enough - unless Al Fayed threatened to dish the dirt on them they way he did to John Major's mob. Mr Al Fayed seems to me to be pursuing a personal vendetta against the Royal Family and it also appears that some in our government are hell bent on helping him. Perhaps the time has come to ask whether or not he will accept the verdict, when it is delivered, and how much of the bill he will be personally picking up.

I like the approach that Lord Stevens, the former head of the Metropolitan Police, has taken over the allegations that Mr Al Fayed's lawyers have made regarding the integrity of his investigation into the circumstances of the death of Diana and Dodi Fayed, Mr Al Fayed's son. He is asking for an apology on behalf of his staff whose integrity has been questioned by the Al Fayed team and has been rather robust in defending his report and his own reputation in the Inquiry. (See the extended post!) Interestingly Mr Al Fayed's head of Security, a former Chief Inspector in the Met, has been forced to admit that he lied in public on an ABC TV show.

And, as I have said before, if the outcome isn't what Al Fayed wants, we will be subjected to more accusations of cover-ups and conspiracy. And he will have that loyal bunch of idiots who seriously need to get a life to support him.

Then there is the group that are now bringing a private prosecution against the Serious Fraud Office, a special unit which investigates fraudulent trading or corruption, on the grounds that they acted unlawfully when they stopped an investigation into allegations that British Aerospace had handed out "sweetners" to some important Saudi's. Their case seems to me to be deliberately disingenuous. The case was stopped because it was seriously damaging relations between the EU and the Saudi Kingdom at a time when we really needed their co-operation in the War on Terror. The spokesman for the group sounds like a typical failed student agitator when he protests that "the ethical principle overrides any other questions".

Like Mr Al Fayed, it seems that these groups recognise no truth but their own. I trust that the courts will eject them and their suite with full costs. And I look forward to hearing that Mr Al Fayed has offered to meet the full costs of this massaging of his ego - and perhaps Liberty and one or two other groups should be invited to pay as well.

Mohamed al Fayed's controversial theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, have come under fire.

(Advertisement)
The Harrods tycoon listened quietly as layers of his theory that Diana was murdered in a 1997 car crash by MI6 on the order of the Duke of Edinburgh because she was pregnant and set to get engaged to his son Dodi were stripped down.

The jury heard Lord Stevens, who carried out Operation Paget, the official investigation into the conspiracy theories, publicly denounce for the first time "scurrilous allegations" about his professionalism.

He condemned suggestions that he or his team had been negligent, not done their job properly and that he had been "got at" regarding the evidence in the report.

Calling the allegations "quite outrageous," he said: "I will take that on my behalf, but I will not have it said about people who worked for me for four years, who sometimes cannot defend themselves on these issues."

Lord Steven's report, published in December 2006, found the deaths were a tragic accident and also that driver Henri Paul was three times the French drink-drive limit.

In contrast to an eye-catching headline back in 1997 which claimed Mr Paul was "drunk as a pig", Lord Stevens described him on the night as "under the influence of alcohol". He told the jury: "Looking at the CCTV, looking at the witness statements, we knew that Henri Paul by account had a high tolerance for drink and in all honesty we could not say he was drunk, in our definition."

Lord Stevens also hit back at the suggestion he had used a November 2006 meeting with Mr Paul's parents, Jean and Gisele, to deliberately mislead them over what he would say about how much their son had drunk. He said: "That's outrageous, and I'm looking for an apology in relation to that."

Meanwhile, John Macnamara, a retired Metropolitan Police detective chief superintendent and Mr al Fayed's director of security in August 1997, accepted he had lied in public when he claimed in a television interview that Mr Paul had only drunk pineapple juice.

The jury heard that Mr Macnamara knew Mr Paul had two drinks from bar records he was handed on a visit to Paris immediately after the crash. But he failed to mention it when he took part in an ABC programme on US television on September 10 1997.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:35 PM | TrackBack

February 16, 2008

Soft touch/Out of touch ...

The report by the Royal United Services Institute which states that the UK is now a "soft target" for terrorists should worry the government. Instead, as is usual for the Labour Ideologues who cannot distinguish fact from the fiction they are fed by the Civil Service, The MP Keith Vaz denies that the report has identified what the rest of the population is all too aware of. Labour's Mass Immigration policy, particularly from their Islamic favourites, has seriously weakened the very fabric of British Society. Worse, it has created tensions by fostering isolationist groups setting up ghettos.

Mister Vaz and the Cabinet Office deny that this is so - but the reality is that every Muslim man who walks the streets of London, Birmingham, Leeds or Bradford (to name just a few) dressed in his Palestinian Refugee camp garb and sporting the fundamentalist whiskers, is demonstrating his rejection of everything British. Mister Vaz can protest all he likes that this projects a "tolerant and multi-cultural society" but the reality is that it does not. It projects a desire to supplant everything about our society with their own values, rules and laws. That is, perhaps, why the Archbishop's rather esoteric suggestion that "elements" of the Sharia Civil Code could be adopted, provoked such a hysterical backlash among the rest of us. Whether Mister Vaz and the rest of his Labour Storm Troopers and Gauleiters of the Multi-Faith, Multi-cultural ghetto building PC Brigade want to acknowledge it or not, the way forward for this country is most emphatically not to allow immigrants to come in on their terms and bring with them all the baggage of the country they have left behind.

Personally I have no objection to someone practicing a faith different to mine. But I do insist that this is my country and I expect them to adopt our rules and our way of life. If that is not the way they want to live - then they know where the airport is. Whenever I visit the Middle East or other Islamic countries I am proscribed in every regard as concerns my faith. I may not carry a Bible with me into many countries and even a prayer book or any other Christian book is definitely enough to get me the next plane home. I do not wish to impose that on them - but I repeat, this is my country and its traditions, however badly undermined by the likes of Keith Vaz and the rest of Labour's ghastly crew, are firmly based in Christianity. If you want to wear a dishdash, burnous and a head covering designed to keep the sun off you - then go and live where it is the norm. Nothing looks more idiotic than to see someone wearing the full Palestinian (and it is Palestinian - it is not some sort of "Muslim" uniform, it was invented in Lebanon by a leader of the PLO) with a couple of thick padded bomber style jackets over it. In fact most of the guys I worked with in North Africa recently don't even own this outfit and they are as Muslim as any of the Middle Eastern types.

It was to be expected that Labour's motor mouths would scream that the RUSI report was "out of touch" but the truth is that it is they that are out of touch and out of step. Tellingly an Afro-Caribbean gentleman phoned the Radio 4 phone in this morning and had a mouthful to say about "newcomers" trying to turn Britain into a Muslim Middle Eastern state. And the show's host did his best to denigrate the old boy - who freely admitted that he had come here as a young man in the 1950's - but singularly failed to do anything other than show up his own prejudice and bias. It was enlightening to say the very least.

Labour has much to answer for and the fact that it is their policies which have created this situation and, what is worse, lit the fuse on the powder keg, is likely to come home to roost for them soon. No one but a fool still believes that they are any way, shape or form, capable of resolving this. How can they - they refuse to even admit that there is a problem. So they continue to parrot their fairy tale version of how good it all is and to live in their cushioned and pamperd ivory towers in Whitehall.

After listening to Mister Vaz I concluded that he has fairies living at the bottom of his garden - along with the rest of the Cabinet.

By Sky News SkyNews - Friday, February 15 09:09 amBritain is becoming a "soft touch" in the face of increased threats from home and abroad because of its failure to "lay down the line" to ethnic minorities.

That's the claim from a defence think tank which says a lack of confidence in British identity and institutions is increasingly making the UK a "target" for attack.

The influential Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) also believes successive governments have presided over a decline in the nation's armed forces.

A contrast is made between the sense of national "fragmentation" and the "implacability" of Islamists who challenge the UK's interests domestically and overseas.

The report says: "That fragmentation is worsened by the firm self-image of those elements within it who refuse to integrate.

This is a problem worsened by the lack of leadership from the majority which in mis-placed deference to 'multiculturalism' failed to lay down the line to immigrant communities, thus undercutting those within them trying to fight extremism.

"The country's lack of self-confidence is in stark contrast to the implacability of its Islamist terrorist enemy.

"We look like a soft touch. We are indeed a soft touch, from within and without."

The think tank believe terrorism is not the only threat the UK faces; Russian nationalism, and increased competition for energy resources means that in future the Armed Forces may be called upon - and found wanting.

It said: "There is now such disjuncture between Britain's enduring security interests and the manner in which the state's moral and material defence of those interests has been pursued since the collapse of the Soviet Union (and especially during the last decade).

"This disjuncture is like a breach made by the defenders themselves in the walls of their own city," it said.

But the Government said that RUSI's claims "do not stand up to scrutiny".

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The safety and security of our citizens is the Government's main priority and the Government rejects any suggestion that Britain is a soft touch for terrorists."

The Government say that counter-terrorism funding has increased, that policy is indeed co-ordinated, and that the report's conclusions on community cohesion are "out-of-date".

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2008

Apologies/apologisers

I listened with interest to the debate around the apology by the current Federal PM of Austalia to the Aboriginal people. He apologised for several things done to Australia's aboriginal people over the last hundred years, including the "forced" removal and "conditioning" of aboriginal children. By this is meant that they were placed in regular education, instead of being allowed to follow the practice (which I understand has been re-introduced) of children in this group attending when they happen to take the fancy or to simply go "walk about" when the mood strikes them and their families. Listening to the various sides of the debate I repeatedly heard the words "racist views" or "apartheid" and then that crowning insult thrown by the left - "conservative" - which in their view equates to "Neo-Nazi". The one thing I didn't hear was any suggestion that the attempt to assimilate (another of the words used in the debate) the aboriginal peoples into the mainstream, might have benefited at least some among them.

What was clear from the debate was that the government, having issued the apology, now regards the matter as closed. Those who opposed the issue of the apology made an interesting point, one I find myself agreeing with. What good is an apology if there is to be no attempt to address the still very obvious issue of what to do with a large section of the population (about 300,000 people) who stubbornly refuse to lift themselves out of the stone age culture they would like everyone else in Australia to adopt? Clearly even the Left on this argument haven't a clue either, since there were the usual mutterings about returning the land to its rightful inhabitants, compensation and then - nothing constructive or practical. Except of course the usual propaganda, twisted history and ideology.

It is a very interesting and difficult conundrum. First it is filled with emotions, which never help to settle any problem. I have no doubt that the Australians of the 1890's saw the aboriginal peoples (as indeed did many Europeans) as an unfortunate sub-species to be protected, educated and, if possible, helped toward "enlightenment". In frustration, no doubt, they adopted the policy of enforced separation of children from parents deemed to be beyond reform and genuinely thought they were doing the "right thing". I have equally no doubt that those who now jump up and down about this and other "abuses" of the past will reject any thought that their fathers and grandfathers might have had the highest of ideals - ideals they held as dearly as the current crop of apologists cling to their desire to wear sackclothe and ashes and go about flagellating the rest of us for the "sins" of the past. The fact is that we look back with the perfect vision of hindsight and, as a philosopher once remarked, "The past is a foreign country from which we are now barred."

We cannot put right the mistakes of the past with meaningless apologies. And the apology is meaningless if it does not include a determination to provide a clear and acceptable means to provide a way out of the hardship that so many aborigines claim is a result of the history for which the apology has been made. That was very much the point made by those who opposed the statement. Yet this is the latest fetish of the left of any and every political spectrum. It is, in fact, part of the "victim" culture so beloved of Labour in this country and in Europe - and certain sections of the US and Canadian political spectrum.

Wherever you go these days there is some lobby campaigning for an apology for something done to someone with whom they seldom have much more than a tenuous connection. A classic example has to be Stephen Spielberg's dumping the Chinese Olympic Directorship. Instead of using his role to campaign quietly, he's decided to "grandstand" it and publically attempt to humiliate the Chinese. Now I would not rate the Chinese government as the world's most benevolent regime, but the fact is that they have to work out their own solutions within their own culture. And the culture of "Protest" is not one they have any truck with. So to promote protest in that country is not only to ask for trouble, but to visit it upon the heads of those gullible enough to listen to Westerners who have more sensibilities than sense. Yes China has an appalling Human Rights record, but so do a number of the "Protest" lobby's favourite regimes. I'm sorry, but Spielberg's resigning on the grounds that China should have stopped the slaughter in Dharfur is plain stupid. China is not concerned with what happens anywhere outside China at the moment, though I fully expect that that will change drastically if they are put under enough pressure - and it won't be the countries we disapprove of that they then target.

This culture of apology seems to me to have sprung from the protest movements of the 1960's and the Hippy culture that gave rise to these neo-puritans (on any matter THEY disapprove of) is now propelling the West into a very dangerous possible confrontation with the vigourous and rising powers off the East that do not share our obsession with "Human Rights" or our concept of "democracy".

Perhaps it is time to sit back and think carefully about the whole ethos that drives this urge to apologise for everything while at the same time trying to dictate behaviour to everyone else........

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 14, 2008

Valentines Day

Is not big on my calendar. Frankly it has become just another of those days/events in the year on which we are encouraged to part with huge amounts of our cash by the merchants and their marketing people.

That is not to say I don't think I should tell those I love that I love them - I do, and I have learned that that should be daily, if not all the time I am with them and even when I'm not. And I don't have to give fancy cards, chocolates or flowers to do it. In fact sometimes just doing something a little out of the ordinary or making some small gesture to make the other person feel really special is a far better way of saying and doing it. Even better is to get to know the other person so well that you can anticipate their needs and place these ahead of your own wants and desires without making yourself a martyr to it since that simply turns them off big time. Modern Valentine's Day frenzy is simply pandering to the Hollywood image of "Happily ever aftering" - the problem is that the glitz soon wears off.

And remember that Hollywood marriages are often measured in hours.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:39 AM | TrackBack

February 10, 2008

Coping with a collapsing civilization .....

The South African power crisis rumbles on and their hold on civilisation becomes, like Zimbabwe's, more and more tenuous. As Africa enters a dark age, with shortages of housing, food, electricity and water. As dictators rise from the ranks of the criminally insane, rapists and murderers, the general population have little choice but to defend what little they have and try to live as normally as they can.

My brother sent me this latest prayer from a frustrated South African - and I share it with you ....

Our father who art in Eskom,
Powerless be thy name.
Thy kingdom badly run, thy power undone,
In Joburg as it is in KZN and CPT.
Give us this day our half-baked bread,
And forgive the trespassers who shoot us dead.
Lead me not into a dark nation,
But deliver me from load shedding.
For you have no kingdom,
No power and no electricity,
Forever and ever
Amen

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:58 AM | TrackBack

February 09, 2008

Opening one's mouth to change feet ....

Seems to be speciality of Archbishop Rowan Cantaur. Out of loyalty to our Archbishop I have to say that I think I understand what he was trying to say - that the conflict for Muslims between our secular legal system, based as it is (Despite numerous denials by our atheist leaders, judges and civil servants) on Judeo-Christian moral principles, does cause some conflicts for Muslims. The problem is that you cannot allow two legal systems to operate in the same country. One or the other must be given precedence and override the other. But, if you actually read what Archbishop Rowan was saying, he wasn't proposing the adoption of Sharia Law in the UK. Though I have to admit that the journalists who made these assumptions probably couldn't understand half his paper anyway.

Some of you may recall that one of our Blair Babe ministers of state made similar remarks not that long ago, so the Archbishop is not alone in this thinking. He is, in fact, in line with a number of Labour Ministers who see no problem with the idea that we can operate three different sets of laws in this country without a problem. That is what lies at the heart of unease in many minds about the EU Constituion - it is founded on a legal system which is completely in conflict with the way in which the English Law system works, So is the Sharia. Blair's Babes don't want to understand either argument - and most of Labour's foot soldiers wouldn't either. Don't confuse them or the press with facts - their minds are made up. And the same can be said of the General Synod members whose knickers seem to be too tight suddenly. They should shut up and try reading what he really said, and not what it is reported he said out of context and out of malice.

There is also some confusion about the Sharia Law, many, including some Muslims, believe that it is "in the Koran". It isn't. In fact it is the work of 17th and 18th Century law scholars of the Ottoman Turkish Empire who developed this system based upon the Islamic understanding of justice. I am not at all sure that many in this country would wish to subscribe to the rules of evidence it contains, or the fact that the accused is represented by a legal adviser appointed by the court whose job is to plead mitigation - the court having, in most cases, already heard the evidence it thinks relevant. Nor, I suspect, would many Western women willingly accept that three women's evidence is necessary to overturn the witness of one man. Of course there are variations in the way this operates and is applied throughout the Islamic world, but that is the strictest interpretation of it. But the Archbishop is not suggesting that we adopt the criminal part of that code, only some of the "civil" part, which does, in some instances, merit closer examination and, as he rightly points out, much of that is already a part of our legal code anyway. So why the hysterical response from the Press? They, after all, have helped to create this mess.

The Archbishop's statement that its adoption is "inevitable" only reflects the trend in this present government of traitors, who will go to any length to appease their Muslim electorate, including, as they already do, turning a blind eye to Sharia "Courts" already operating in the Midlands and the North East. It may be annoying to many to have the Archbishop express this view - and the hysterical response in the media is informative if for nothing else than the fact that it demonstrates just how frightened our politicians and the "intelligentsia" who have promoted this with their "multi-culturalism" - are about its exposure. As Shakespeare put it, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much!"

That said, the Archbishop has stirred up a controversy, one with the potential to do a lot of damage, not to those responsible for the mess he has exposed, but to the Church of England itself. Not least I suspect will be the renewal of efforts to caste the church off by the political establishment so they can divert even more money to their own comforts and wastage without having the Church to prick their consciences. But then, that is also what the Church needs to be doing, stirring up consciences. If it is to be relevant in this modern day and age it must not shy away from challenging secular thinking and secular immorality in government. Far more than just our Christian principles are at stake here.

Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, once described himself as a "Bipediorthodontologist". I think the Archbishop may well be in the same league.

Political and religious leaders have reacted with anger at the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on the role of Islamic law in the UK.

Dr Rowan Williams said it was unavoidable that aspects of the Sharia system would become the norm in this country.

He said there was a place for finding a "constructive accommodation" in areas such as marriage - allowing Muslim women to avoid western divorce proceedings.

But Downing Street rejected the sugestion saying only British laws should apply here.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "Our general position is that sharia law cannot be used as a justification for committing breaches of English law, nor should the principles of sharia law be included in a civil court for resolving contractual disputes."

He added: "If there are specific instances like stamp duty, where changes can be made in a way that's consistent with British law and British values, in a way to accommodate the values of fundamental Muslims, that is something the Government would look at.

"In general terms, if there are specific instances that can be looked at on a case-by-case basis, that is something we can look at.

"But the Prime Minister believes British law should apply in this country, based on British values," he said.

Alistair McBay, spokesman for the National Secular Society said: "In a plural society, all citizens are equal under the law and the Archbishop's comments directly undermine this."

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice said: "This is a Christian country with Christian laws. If Muslims want to live under sharia law then they are free to emigrate to a country where sharia law is already in operation.

"Any accommodation with sharia law does nothing to help social cohesion. Christian law has been eroded by secularism and this country was founded on Christian values."

Dr Williams said other religions enjoyed such tolerance of their own laws, but stressed that it could never be allowed to take precedence over an individual's rights as a citizen.

He said it would also require a change in perception of what sharia involved beyond the "inhumanity" of extreme punishments and attitudes to women seen in some Islamic states.

Dr Williams said Orthodox Jewish courts already operated in the UK, and anti-abortion views of Catholics and other Christians were "accommodated within the law".

"Sharia law for civil matters is something which has been introduced in some western countries with much success; I believe that Muslims would take huge comfort from the Government allowing civil matters being resolved according to their faith."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "Provided an activity prescribed by sharia law does not contravene the law of England and Wales, there is nothing in English law that prevents people abiding by sharia law if they wish to do so."

But the spokesman added sharia law "has no jurisdiction in England and Wales. There is no intention to change this."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:42 AM | TrackBack

February 08, 2008

Laughing in the face of adversity?

I have recently received this from someone who has been on a month's holiday in South Africa and experienced the "load shedding" first hand. These are some the jokes that are circulating the country.

1. “In a drive to save on electricity consumption, the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off until further notice. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Kindly postpone all hopes and dreams.”

2. "Apparently we now have a new national anthem: Hello Darkness my old friend."

3. "Apparently the electricity supplier is changing its name and motto from “Eskom, together building the powerbase for sustainable growth and development” to “Eishkom, it‘s broken, welcome to our world, pitch black and powerless”.

4. Satan went on holiday to Cape Town and he ran into Gatiep.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked Gatiep.

“Nay,” said Gatiep. “Gimme a hint.”

“I am the Prince of Darkness,” said Satan.

“Damn,” said Gatiep. “So you‘re the CEO of Eskom!”

Another friend sent me this ....

This was emailed to me by my Internet Service Provider because their towers were down this afternoon due to load shedding (their UPS battery back up died because it was off for so long) so I had no internet...

Eishkom Letterhead. (It used to be Eskom, but now its broken ...)

Dear Electricity Consumer,

Just a little note to let you know we understand your anger in the recent price hike & power cuts.

But it should be noted that you have no choice.

We are a big company and you will pay what we tell you.

You have no choice.

We have the power, you need the power.

So sad, too bad. Sucks to be you.

We have enclosed a little picture to help outline our response.

Have a nice day and keep those cheques coming, loser!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:46 AM | TrackBack

February 07, 2008

Exploiting a tragedy ....

Some of you may have picked up on a report of a tragic fire which occurred in Ludwigshafen, Germany, on Monday. The fire occurred in a 19th Century building near the centre of town and nine people died while sixty were injured but rescued by the fire fighters. As the investigation teams assembled yesterday two things happened which, frankly, illustrate why politicians should stay away from disaster scenes and the media should be charged with inciting disorder.

First, the Turkish press got hold of a claim that the Feuerwehr had taken over forty minutes (That's right 40 minutes!) to respond. That was picked up by Turkish Language papers in Germany and blazed across their headlines and claims of racism and arson attacks are now the order of the day. The truth of the response is somewhat different. In fact the first Feuerwehr attendance was with 90 SECONDS of the call and the full attendance, professional and volunteer, was there within 4 MINUTES. But did the media check their facts? Of course not - the forty minute response sells more papers doesn't it? So they ran with that. The result was that a mob of youths spitting, shrieking insults and throwing things turned up at the scene and the hordes of reporters bombarded the Chief Fire Officer with so many hostile questions they reduced him to tears defending his men and his service. Eventually he told them to "get st*ffed" in more diplomatic langauage and was escorted away by a police colleague. The fire service then withdrew their support for the investigationas their men were "at risk" if they remained. Already an off duty fireman has been set on in a pub and beaten up and no doubt more will follow.

But, bearing in mind that the building is unsafe and the investigation is, at this stage, being conducted from suspended cages dropped into the building from above, cranes and turntable ladders allowing investigators to see into rooms and a host of other creative methods to search and find the evidence, the politicians got into the act. Turkey's Vice President and the Bundeskanzlerin, Angela Merkel are to visit today for a photo opportunity. Yesterday, all work was suspended for almost four hours while various politicans from both the Landtag and Turkey posed for their pictures with distressed Turkish Guest Workers in front of the building, laid wreaths and did all the vote catching things that are so blatantly false to any thinking person.

According to the press reports the building had fifty two registered residents, but that these had invited a large number of friends to watch the Rose Monday parades from the upper floors. It is a single staircase building, the staircase being open from the basement right up to the top floors. In effect, that makes it a chimney, so any fire starting in that space will do as this one appears to have done, run very quickly up the stairs and attack the upper floors first. The Monk has learned that the electrical installation in the surviving parts of the structure and in the basement, such as can be seen by the investigators at present, is "non-standard" - in other words, it has been extended, amended and added to without regard to safety regulations ....

That said, the invetigation team includes Germany's Bundeskriminalamt and they are considering the evidence of all options. The Press has been quick to scream "arson" and "racism" which is unfortunate, because now, no matter what the outcome the seeds of mistrust in the investigations outcome have been planted. Should they find, as well they might, that it is a tragic accident, the Turkish community will now refuse to believe that. Worse, the Feuerwehr in Ludwigshafen, which pulled off a fantasic number of rescues, hampered by the Carnival march and crowds, has now been branded by an irresponsible press as under performing and "murderous" to quote one reporter.

It never fails to sicken the Monk when he encounters such blatant exploitation of tragedy by politicians, both apparent and hidden behind the facades of journalism or "Community Leader" to push their own agendas. A tragedy has occurred here and whatever the outcome of the investigation the Monk knows it will have been conducted professionally and its conclusions will be an accurate representation of the facts. What the politicians of all flavours do with those facts is another matter.

Pray, my brothers and sisters, for those affected by the tragedy, the dead, the injured, the genuinely bereaved - and the investigators and emergency services now being vilified by an immoral media.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 06, 2008

Poll finds Labour more sleazy than the Tories ...

Well theres a surprise .....

Labour has made sleaze an artform. Dr Goebbels is credited with the dictum that "if you tell a lie big enough, it will become the new truth." Labour have taken that to heart and piled one huge lie on another. Their "New Clothes" of "NuLabour " and "Cool Britannia" have proved to be as covering as those of the fictional Emperor in the "Emperor's New Clothes".

Anyone with half a brain had only to look at the council's Labour have mismanaged for years, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Brent and the late unlamented GLC (lately replaced by the even worse GLA!) and so many more that I would run out of space here, to see that they are nothing but manipulative, work shy and corrupt career politicians. Look how they have debased the honours system. Look at the vandalism they have perpetrated on the Lords. Look at how they reward incompetents and promote dishonesty. Just look at how they select EU Commissioners. Financial impropriety? No problem - promote him and send him to a nice little earner in Brussels. Watch, that incompetent (The PM's words!) Hain will get a nice little backhander from his pal Gordo and a cushy job in Brussels as compensation for getting caught out with his funding declarations....

Sleaze? You bet. Ask those who have to work for Labour Councils. Ask those who have to live in them - apart from the Labour parasites on benefit who will always vote for whatever donkey Labour fields of course.

Labour have always been more sleazy than the Tories - and the Tories are no saints lets face it. But, as I said at the beginning of this - Labour have raised it to an artform. Worthy of a Turner Prize perhaps?

LONDON (Reuters) - The allegation of sleaze is linked more closely to Gordon Brown and Labour than the Conservatives, according to a poll on Tuesday.

(Advertisement)
The Times survey came just hours after the speaker of the House of Commons announced a root and branch review of MPs' expenses and donations after a wave of adverse publicity.

The Populus poll showed the opposition had strengthened its lead over the government -- with the Tories popularity rising three points to 40 percent, while Labour was down two points to 31 percent.

It found that in the public's mind Labour was more closely linked with sleaze allegations than the Tories despite the political storm over Conservative MP Derek Conway's payments of taxpayers' money to his family. It did, however, find that sleaze was linked to both parties.

In another setback for Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling, the poll also found Tory leader David Cameron and his shadow chancellor George Osborne had stronger ratings for economic competence

Conway, 54, was suspended from parliament and kicked out of the party after admitting using almost 50,000 pounds of public money to pay his son, Frederick Conway, 22, a Newcastle University geography student, for work he apparently never carried out.

Commons speaker Michael Martin announced the review of MPs' allowances on Monday. It is expected to report in the Autumn.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 04, 2008

So this is Labour's Multicultural, mutual respect society?

I was appalled to discover that a party of Jewish visitors to that stinkhole of a city, London, were stoned by gangs of youths while visiting the East End. For those who know, the East End was, at one time, the home of thousands of Jewish refugees, a hard working community that contributed far more to our nation than they took out. Unlike the present denizens of the East End who have gradually displaced everyone else and now feel they can impose their version of multicultural exchange on visitors.

Even more appalling is that fact that none of the major newspapers reported the fact that the ninety-six visitors were attacked by thiese yobs - described as "Asian" youths - while visiting sites of historical significance to their families. Equally, not one word of this has been on the BBC News or any other radio station or TV channel. Considering that the attack took place on Holocaust Memorial Day, that is nothing less than a disgrace. Had it been the BNP attacking a party of Pakistani's it would have been national headlines and Brown and his cronies would still be rabbiting on about it. But no, these were Jews and their attackers were Mr Brown's Paymasters in the inner cities - so let's be clear on this. Nothing will happen to the perpetrators and it will not be reported in the press properly either. It will, like so much more of this kind of activity, be swept under the carpet in the interests of peace and harmony in our "multicultural paradise". The fact that the only place I could find this was on a blog says everything you need to know about the attitudes and priorities of our NuLabour luvvies infesting the media. Dodgblogium has more links.

Go, read them and weep for our nation.....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:08 PM | TrackBack

Fact or fiction - the confused history taught in Britain ...

Following on from my blast at the idiots who think British History is too oppressive to be taught, there comes a survey that shows just how much damage these morons have done. Almost half the people surveyed think that several of our key historical figures, such as Richard the Lionheart, (Richard II), Florence nightingale, Sir Winston Churchill (25% of those surveyed) and others are fictional or myth. Believe it or not, almost a third thought the Charles Dickens was a character in a novel and others didn't even know who Charles Darwin was. The same group thought that King Arthur, Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes and several other fictional/mythological figures were fact.

A number of people who served this country within the last century are believed by many of those surveyed, to have been characters invented by Hollywood. I wonder what Bernard Montgomery, Earl of Alamein, thinks of that? He was, apparently a figure invented for the "war" films and not real at all. The idea that 23% of those surveyed think that Winston Churchill is a fictional person - again invented to fill a role in movies - is unbelievable, but probably shouldn't be surprising. After all, he, Bomber Harris, Air Marshall Trenchard, Admiral Sir Max Horton, Admiral Cunnigham and every other real leader of that period have been villianised and demonised by the Liberal Left for the last sixty years. A number of the books on my shelves, purporting to be histories of the period, reflect this bias. Almost all use inuendo and selective facts to build a case for declaring that WW2 was unecessary, that all the Allied Leaders were warmongers and psychopaths or so deeply flawed that they should never have been allowed out unescorted. A pity the survey didn't go all the way and find out just how much the survey sample actually knew about some of the key events in our history and some of the realities faced by our forefathers. Mind you, that might have been far too revealing.

This report on UK News gives more details.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:44 AM | TrackBack

February 03, 2008

Parenting lessons are a waste of time and money?

So what else is new. Only the morons who persist in trying to create a "punishment free" society (except of course for people THEY disapprove of, such as motorists or citizens who dare to defend themselves!) still think that it is possible to create a model society in which boys are girls and girls take male roles, bad behaviour is "discussed reasonably" and not punished and crime can be "trained" out of the system.

Well, a major academic study has just concluded that the "Parenting lessons" offered at great expense in Australia are pointless, do not improve the statistics and are, in fact, a complete waste of money. The study also showed that one in every seven children has behavioural problems. There are a number of reasons underlying this simplistic statistic, some of them genetic (as with Aspergers Syndrome or Tourettes) but others seem to be connected to a wide range of things such as sybling heirarchies, environment and reward/punishment issues.

Interestingly the researchers insist that the trial results show insufficient improvement to support the introduction of a wider trial. Thank God for that, some common sense beginning to permeate the thinking of the social engineers and tinkerers? Probably not, but it is an encouraging sign that they admit its not working!

AFP - Friday, February 1 09:19 amPARIS (AFP) - A new study shows that parent training programmes fail to reduce behavioural problems in toddlers, suggesting that coaching on how to rear children may be a waste of time and money.

On average, behavioural problems afflict every seventh child aged 4 to 17, previously studies have shown.

Aggressive or extremely defiant youngsters are said to have externalised problems, while those of kids who withdraw, or suffer anxiety and depression, are described as internalised.

Troubles in childhood often have serious personal, social and economic consequences later in life, experts say.

Left untreated, approximately 50 percent of preschoolers with behaviour problems develop mental health problems, including depression.

Besides the direct cost of treatment, there are social costs as well: unemployment, family stress or violence, drug use and increased crime have all been linked to behavioural difficulties very early in life.

One approach is to deal with the problems as they emerge through counselling, drug treatment, or psychiatry. But this is expensive, and not always effective.

Another tack is to try to nip the problems in the bud by discouraging the kind of parenting that can lead to troubled behaviour, such as unduly harsh discipline and unrealistic expectations.

For the study, published in the British Medical Journal, researchers enrolled 300 mothers and their eight-month old tots in the Melbourne area into the training programme.

Unlike earlier studies, this one looked not just at high risk families, but a representative sampling of parents and children from poor, middle income and wealthier families.

The scientists, led by Harriet Hiscock at the Centre for Community Child Health in Parkville, Australia, compared behaviour of the test group over an 18 month period with another set of mothers and kids who did not receive any special counselling.

The results showed very little difference between the two groups.

Mothers in the programme were somewhat less abusive and acquired more realistic expectations of how quickly their children would progress.

But there was no significant difference is the level of behaviour problems in the children, or in the mental health of the mothers.

"The outcome at two years are insufficient to support widespread introduction of a very early universal programme to prevent behavioural problems in toddlers," the researchers conclude.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:35 PM | TrackBack

February 02, 2008

Disgraceful history?

One of Labour's favourite "Think Tanks" has just published a report I would find risible, if it were not for the fact that it is intellectually and morally insulting - quite apart from the fact that it is so blatantly twisted against anything English, or for that matter, "British". The thrust of the report is that our history is so shameful we should not teach it to our children, that they should, instead, be taught about everyone else's history and how noble and good they were as they struggled to overcome our evil doings.

As I said, insulting and frankly anti-British.

These morons obviously have a serious problem. They cannot see the facts for the ideology they wish to push. They refuse to recognise that, until well into the 19th Century British subjects were being regularly seized and enslaved by the pirates who operated freely under the flag of Islam from North Africa. Anybody ever wonder why the French attacked Algeria and annexed it? No, thought not, mainly it was to stop the raiding of the coast of the South of France and the disruption of trade in the Mediteranean originating from the various Bey's of this that and the next controlling the coasts of Algiers, Tunisia, Libya and the rest. In 1836 a British Fleet assisted in an assault on Algiers for just that reason, Algiers based raiders had seized one too many merchant ships under British Flag. OK, so we turned the trans-Atlantic slave trade into a factory style process - that is one of the features of the British, usually slow to get off the starting block on anything, we simply don't know when to stop. Ask the residents of Hamburg, Dresden or one or two other German cities. Take a look at the same morons now making this proposterous proposal and you will see the same thing at work. They have spent so long campaigning for their "cause" that they can't see it has gone far enough and that it should now come to a gentle halt and consolidate what they have - not strive for more.

However, one of the more stupid assertions made by the "beat Britain for its slave trade" is that the Army or the Navy was engaged in capturing slaves in West Africa. If these morons knew their history instead of their prejudice they would know that the slaves were rounded up by locals who sold them to the Arab traders to their North as well. It was the Royal Navy and the Army that put a stop to the tribal wars that fueled this from 1820 onwards, noit an exercise in getting more slaves but in bringing peace to a region that had never had it! On the East Coast of Africa the slave trade continued in Arab Dhows well into the 20th Century, although, again, it was the Royal Navy that was hard at work to suppress it. Trouble was, being the other side of Africa and not affecting British shipping or people (except occassionally!) it was of little interest to the same bunch of w*nkers who now want our history suppressed. As late as 1942 my father's ship intercepted a dhow loaded with Africans being taken to an Arab slave market. But you won't find that in any "multi-cultural" history.

Yes our history is a bloody one, but it has also brought huge benefits to most of the worlds population. In fact, the very history these idiots want suppressed gave rise to democracy in the modern world - the Ancient Greek model was very, very different to what we now know. Modern democracy is founded on Magna Carta and the principles of freedom and human rights have their beginnings there. My father fought againts the oppression threatened by National Socialism and against the Communists afterward. My Grandfathers fought against the Kaiser and my Great-grandfathers against the enemies of their day. They all fought for the freedom they believed they had inherited from their fathers and it is a legacy and a history to be exceptionally proud of.

They most certainly did not fight to maintain our hard won freedom so that this bunch of closet communists could steal it by deploying their version of twisted history, denigrating everything that is good in our past and by proscribing our right to freedom of speech, expression and thought! I expect the thought police will be after me now for this heresy, but I am damned if I care. I too will fight to preserve the right to be free - and that means being free of those who overtax, over regulate and over govern this proud and ancient nation.

Why then, should we be forced to listen to morons whose understanding of our history is tenuous, biased and completely devoid of fact? I'd call for their being silenced - except that I, unlike them, believe that everyone has the right to an opinion and to express that opinion freely - even if it causes some idiot offence!

And just a sample of what is available as real history, not the doctored kind the authors of the report wish to see taught in English schools, the extended post contains some of what is available on the BBC History site.

British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
By Professor Rees Davies
Barbary pirates © The fishermen and coastal dwellers of 17th-century Britain lived in terror of being kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in North Africa. Hundreds of thousands across Europe met wretched deaths on the Barbary Coast in this way. Professor Robert Davis investigates.

Page 1 of 6

1. Europe under attack
2. Estimating slave numbers
3. The slave's lot
4. The European response
5. The legacy of enslavement
6. Find out more

Europe under attack

'When we had arrived [in Cork], I made a request to Lord Inchaquoin to give me a passport for England. I took boat to Youghal and then embarked on the vessel John Filmer, which set sail with 120 passengers. `But before we had lost sight of land, we were captured by Algerine pirates, who put all the men in irons.'

'...the corsairs plundered British shipping pretty much at will...'
So wrote the Reverend Devereux Spratt - carried off in April 1641 for several years' bondage in Algiers, while attempting a simple voyage across the Irish Sea from County Cork to England. Spratt's experience has been largely forgotten now, though it was far from unique in his day.

In the first half of the 1600s, Barbary corsairs - pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, authorised by their governments to attack the shipping of Christian countries - ranged all around Britain's shores. In their lanteen-rigged xebecs (a type of ship) and oared galleys, they grabbed ships and sailors, and sold the sailors into slavery. Admiralty records show that during this time the corsairs plundered British shipping pretty much at will, taking no fewer than 466 vessels between 1609 and 1616, and 27 more vessels from near Plymouth in 1625. As 18th-century historian Joseph Morgan put it, 'this I take to be the Time when those Corsairs were in their Zenith'.

Unfortunately, it was hardly the end of them, even then. Morgan also noted that he had a '...List, printed in London in 1682' of 160 British ships captured by Algerians between 1677 and 1680. Considering what the number of sailors who were taken with each ship was likely to have been, these examples translate into a probable 7,000 to 9,000 able-bodied British men and women taken into slavery in those years.

Not content with attacking ships and sailors, the corsairs also sometimes raided coastal settlements, generally running their craft onto unguarded beaches, and creeping up on villages in the dark to snatch their victims and retreat before the alarm could be sounded. Almost all the inhabitants of the village of Baltimore, in Ireland, were taken in this way in 1631, and other attacks were launched against coastal villages in Devon and Cornwall. Samuel Pepys gives a vivid account of an encounter with two men who'd been taken into slavery, in his diary of 8 February 1661.

'...during these years, Britons were enslaved all too often.'
'...to the Fleece tavern to drink and there we spent till 4 a-clock telling stories of Algier and the manner of the life of Slaves there; and truly, Captain Mootham and Mr Dawes (who have been both slaves there) did make me full acquainted with their condition there. As, how they eat nothing but bread and water.... How they are beat upon the soles of the feet and bellies at the Liberty of their Padron. How they are all night called into their master's Bagnard, and there they lie.'

The very casualness of the account makes it clear just how commonplace unfortunates like Moontham and Dawes were in 17th-century Britain. Britons in later years have boasted that they 'never will be slaves,' but during these years they were enslaved all too often.

Estimating slave numbers

North African pirate ship © According to observers of the late 1500s and early 1600s, there were around 35,000 European Christian slaves held throughout this time on the Barbary Coast - many in Tripoli, Tunis, and various Moroccan towns, but most of all in Algiers. The greatest number were sailors, taken with their ships, but a good many were fishermen and coastal villagers. Out of all these, the British captives were mostly sailors, and although they were numerous there were relatively fewer of them than of people from lands close to Africa, especially Spain and Italy. The unfortunate southerners were sometimes taken by the thousands, by slavers who raided the coasts of Valencia, Andalusia, Calabria and Sicily so often that eventually it was said that 'there was no one left to capture any longer'.

'White slaves in Barbary were generally from impoverished families...'
There are no records of how many men, women and children were enslaved, but it is possible to calculate roughly the number of fresh captives that would have been needed to keep populations steady and replace those slaves who died, escaped, were ransomed, or converted to Islam. On this basis it is thought that around 8,500 new slaves were needed annually to replenish numbers - about 850,000 captives over the century from 1580 to 1680.

By extension, for the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000 - this is only just over a tenth of the Africans taken as slaves to the Americas from 1500 to 1800, but a considerable figure nevertheless. White slaves in Barbary were generally from impoverished families, and had almost as little hope of buying back their freedom as the Africans taken to the Americas: most would end their days as slaves in North Africa, dying of starvation, disease, or maltreatment.

The slave's lot

Slaves in chains © Slaves in Barbary fell into two broad categories. The 'public slaves' belonged to the ruling pasha, who by right of rulership could claim an eighth of all Christians captured by the corsairs, and buy all the others he wanted at reduced prices. These slaves were housed in large prisons known as baños (baths), often in wretchedly overcrowded conditions. They were mostly used to row the corsair galleys in the pursuit of loot (and more slaves) - work so strenuous that thousands died or went mad while chained to the oar.

'...they received one change of clothing every year.'
During the winter these galeotti worked on state projects - quarrying stone, building walls or harbour facilities, felling timber and constructing new galleys. Each day they would be given perhaps two or three loaves of black bread - 'that the dogs themselves wouldn't eat' - and limited water; they received one change of clothing every year. Those who collapsed on the job from exhaustion or malnutrition were typically beaten until they got up and went back to work. The pasha also bought most female captives, some of whom were taken into his harem, where they lived out their days in captivity. The majority, however, were purchased for their ransom value; while awaiting their release, they worked in the palace as harem attendants.

'Some were well cared for, becoming virtual companions of their owners...'
Many other slaves belonged to 'private parties.' Their treatment and work varied as much as their masters did. Some were well cared for, becoming virtual companions of their owners. Others were worked as hard as any 'public' slave, in agricultural labour, or construction work, or selling water or other goods around town on his (or her) owner's behalf. They were expected to pay a proportion of their earnings to their owner - those who failed to raise the required amount typically being beaten to encourage them to work harder.

As they aged or their owner's fortunes changed, slaves were resold, often repeatedly. The most unlucky ended up stuck and forgotten out in the desert, in some sleepy town such as Suez, or in the Turkish sultan's galleys, where some slaves rowed for decades without ever setting foot on shore.

The European response

A priest negotiates ransom for the release of slaves © Europeans sometimes attempted to buy their people out of slavery, but no real system emerged before around 1640. Then the attempts became more systematic and were sometimes state subsidised, as in Spain and France. Almost all the actual work, however - from collecting the funds, to voyaging to Barbary, to negotiating with the slave owners there - was carried out by clergy, mostly members of the Trinitarian or Mercedarian orders.

'By the 1700s, the ransoming orders had significantly reduced slave populations in Barbary...'
Parish churches too, all over Spain and Italy, kept locked collection boxes marked 'for the poor slaves', with clerics constantly reminded their wealthier parishioners to include ransoming societies in their wills; slave-redeeming confraternities also sprouted in hundreds of cities and villages. Ransoming slaves was promoted as being one of the best of the charitable works a Catholic could perform, since slaves were ideal victims: 'Their [only] fault, their crime, is recognising Jesus Christ as the most divine Saviour... and of professing Him as the True Faith.' By the 1700s, the ransoming orders had significantly reduced slave populations in Barbary, eventually even inflating slave prices, as more cash chased fewer captives.

'Thousands of Dutch, Germans and British "languished for years in the chains of Barbary"...'
Compared to Catholic Europe, Protestant states could be lax and disorganised in freeing their subjects. Thousands of Dutch, Germans and British 'languished for years in the chains of Barbary,' without the aid of organised clergy or state funds for their release. England set aside its 'Algerian Duty' from customs income to finance redemptions, but much of this was diverted to other uses. Large-scale ransomings - like the one headed by Edmund Casson that freed 244 men, women, and children in 1646 - were rare, with the result that Protestant Britons were often more demoralised and likely to die in captivity than European Catholics. As one ex-slave noted:

'All of the nations made some shift to live, save only the English, who it seems are not so shiftful as others, and... have no great kindness one for another. The winter I was in [captivity], I observ'd there died above twenty of them out of pure want.'

How typical - even then it seems those in Whitehall could always find a way to spend the money intended to relieve the suffering of opthers on themselves and their own aggrandisement ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 26, 2008

You know things are going wrong when ....

As I told you yesterday, my brother and a raft of friends live in South Africa, a country which, until recently, seemed to have everything its people needed (and some things they didn't!). Electricity, water, mineral wealth, crime, corruption good education, work opportunities and farms that could, properly managed, supply enough to feed themselves. Slowly all that is falling apart. Food production has gone up, but not enough since the borders seem to have been thrown open and floods of migrants have arrived. Jobs to have become scarcer - due in part to employment laws that are ridiculously biased and almost a neo-apartheid system - crime has soared, (My brother was recently at home when someone tried to break in through his living room windows with him sat in the room!) - and the mineral wealth seems to be either remaining unexploited or the proceeds are being siphoned off to someone's bank account.

The recent election by the ANC rank and file of Jacob Zuma as "President in Waiting" (Forget democracy here, just as in the bad old days of Apartheid and the National Party, the ANC now has the sort of voter clout that means no serious opposition can ever unseat them) is a serious blow to confidence. It is only his political clout that has prevented him from being convicted as a rapist, as a serial fraudster and on a string of corruption charges. Interestingly all his cronies have been convicted and sit in jail while he remains free and will no doubt pardon them as soon as he is crowned President for life .....

The latest problem to beset the suffering people of SA is "load shedding". Technical term (Like the infamous British Rail "Wrong Kind of Snow") which means "Power Cut". Now I would guess that this doesn't actually lie at the door of the present government, but rather at the door of the last apartheid regime. It was they who, in their infinite arrogance, decided that the network of "local" power generating stations then in existence, should be closed down and all power generated in a few "Mega" Stations located at or near the coalfields. It sounded like a good idea at the time, especially as they "sold" the idea on the back of "mothballing" the smaller stations for re-activation when demand rose .....

The problem is that it takes several weeks at least to restart a RECENTLY mothballed station. One that has been idle for years takes months to bring back to life, possibly even years. And it costs big money to do it as well. Even in an active station, starting a generator set and bringing it online takes a minimum of an hour, which is why most stations have routines for meeting peak load periods by anticipating the demand periods and "running up" the turbines in readiness. Well, ESKOM (An acronym for Electricity Supply Commission - in Afrikaans "Kommissie") has now reached its capacity. This has been coming for some time, but the present government has been giving away the spare capacity to Mozambique and Zimbabwe among others, and has not been prepared to spend money re-activating the old stations. So now the country has run out of power. Those who don't use it are fine, so the rural areas where the open fire, LPG or paraffin stove and lamps are used have no problems. But the towns and cities are subjected to "load shedding" without warning.

Lots of promises are being made - but where's the money coming from?

Madam and Eve have been summing it up extremely well!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 25, 2008

A near run thing ...

My brother lives in Cape Town. In a very nice part of the city, on the edge of Flamingo Vlei (Flamingo Lagoon for those who don't have Afrikaans or Dutch) with stunning views of the mountain looking across the vlei and the sweep of Table Bay. It has always been a nice, quiet and rather safe area, but, no longer. On my last visit it was noticeable that squatter huts were gradually creeping along the verges of the motorway leading to Milnerton from the airport, and Flamingo Vlei is near Milnerton.

A month ago, my brother was in the house when there was a sound not unlike a gunshot and the front window disintegrated. He rushed out to find an intruder - and chased him off. THe Police, as ever, arrived too late to have any effect and handed out the usual useless advice about "greater security" and "fit burglar bars and improve the fencing". Everyone knows the spate of burglaries, assaults and murders in this area are related to the squatter encroachment - the very few perpetrators who are caught have all been traced to there. Meanwhile the car park at the local shopping centre has become a highjack opportunity for the thieves and it is no longer safe to even take your dog for a walk along the vlei. A neighbour of my brother's was murdered two weeks ago, walking his little dog along a path he has used daily for twelve years.

Last night I got a distressed e-mail from my brother to tell me that he narrowly avoided a similar fate - in his own living room. His young dog began to bark frantically and he went to investigate, just in time to see a large intruder emerge from his hedge and make a run for the open front room doors. My brother slammed them shut and locked them just in time, then dived into a drawer to grab the only weapon in the house, a pepper spray. The intruder must have thought it was a gun for he ran to scramble back over the fence getting momentarily caught on top of it and my brother, with more anger than thought, grabbed his leg and tried to use the spray. The Cape Doctor made sure they both got a dose.

As usual the police arrived to find no trace of the intruder and, as my brother wasn't actually attacked, have logged it, filed it and done little else. The neighbourhood is now in uproar and my brother is having razor wire installed in his hedge and along the top of the fences. He has been warned to get steel gates fitted to all his doors and to the windows. That is the level of threat everyone in SA now faces, yet, the liberal legal fraternity who now control the administration of justice refuse to impose meaningful sentences on those they do catch and regard the high crime rates as "the legacy of apartheid".

I spoke to my brother this morning. He has had a sleepless night - and so have I. One thing is for sure - the intruder will be back, and next time my brother might not be so lucky. Prayer is about all that is left to either of us.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:14 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 24, 2008

An unChristian celebration!

If there is one person I would cheerfully not lift a finger to help under any circumstances, it is Peter Hain. His resignation is sufficient excuse for me to open a bottle of good wine and toast his salary cut and his exposure as an - in the words of his own Party Leader - incompetent. I look forward to the day when I will open a paper or see on TV that ther rest of his murky past has finally caught up with him.

The fact that the electoral commission has handed its report to the police is sufficient for me for the moment. Of course the police will decide that there isn't a case for him to answer - what did you expect? A miracle that the political establishment will let one of their own go down? Not likely, but the sight of this evil man squirming is enough for me - at present.

I have a bottle of good champagne which will come out when he is finally ejected from Parliament and vanishes into the obscurity he never deserved to have left.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 22, 2008

High tide again

The tides are rising again around us in Tewkesbury, but, despite all the media panic this is our normal winter flooding. Nothing special, nothing like as high as it got in July and unlikely to get anywhere near that level. Yes, we are taking precautions, and yes, we are watching the rising water, but it is very different to what happened in July. Then the waters rose in the space of a few hours across the back of the town, filling the flood plains and covering the Vineyards park behind the Abbey - and that was the run off from the Cotswolds through the two small streams that bracket the town, the Swilgate and the Carrant Brook.

That initial flood from our two streams in July could not dissipate because the Avon came down in flood after the cloud burst dumped out over Warwickshire - and that was followed three days later by the Severn joining the party. That is what gave us the spectacular water levels.

This flooding is the normal run-off coming down the Severn from the Welsh Hills and North Wales. Yes, it is high and it is, obviously affected by the fact that the ground is still saturated from the July inundations. But for most of us it is no more than the inconvenience of having to take a longer than normal route when we want to walk to town. Mind you, I suppose I could get my high waders out and take the short route through Gander Lane, unlike the situation in July there is no more than four feet there now. In July it was more like eight feet. Such is the difference in the levels and the events.

For most of us its "business as usual" unlike the East Coast which does have a problem.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 21, 2008

Safety unsafe ...

I was recently listening to a news programme and almost choked on my tea. Now the "Raod Safety" nutters want to make it a custodial offence to use a mobile phone while driving. It seems that the fines aren't detering people. Doesn't this tell these morons something? Doesn't it tell them that people are being forced to break the law because the law is out of proportion already?

Yes, there is a safety problem with using a mobile phone while driving, but what the Whitehall Wankers and their chaffeur driven pals in Westminster, or their cycling "safety" advisers in the National Road Safety Association haven't asked is why are people obliged to. The bigger question is - how can it be made safer since it seems inevitable that people will be forced to at some stage. OK, so the argument is that you are distracted (Theior research says so anyway), and I would certainly agree that there are people who use a phone while driving in the most stupid conditions. Surely the sensible thing is to make it compulsory for every car to be fitted with a phone dock which is completely hands free and barrs outgoing calls? Yet, if it is a distraction to have a phone, why is it considered perfectly OK for some idiot to drive around in a car fitted with a stereo system that can be heard four blocks away? Or to have any passengers and to hold conversations with them? In fact, the last close call I had was not caused by someone using a phone or their stereo, but a woman with a car load of kids, who was so busy arguing with the backseat passengers that she wandered across two lanes and only my horns alerted her to the fact that she was heading for the armco barrier in the central reservation as she cut across the front of my car.

And if you are reading this madam, the V sign you flashed was the wrong way round.

The latest target of these so-called "safety experts" is the GPS now fitted or used by many of us. "Distraction" they scream, "Ban it", or, "Make it a criminal offence to use on!" Well, as long as they stick to riding the old fashioned sit up[ and beg bicycles or their broomsticks, they probably don't need them. But, as someone who has had to navigate around this country solo (and remember I have only been living here for the last twenty years) I have found the GPS an absolute godsend. I can concentrate on the traffic around me and rely on the GPS to find the turns, the addresses and so on. What would the "safety" twits prefer? That I drive at 5 mph while looking for the street names and sign posts they have had so cunningly concealed so that they are visible only from one approach and not the other? Far from making motoring safer, banning the use of GPS will make a return of the moron driving with a map book on his or her steering wheel far more likely - and believe me, I have seen quite a number of those.

Frankly, it should be made a criminal offence to lead a "safety" campaign from now on. It is time to restore the application of Common Sense. It beats the hell out of all this stupid legislation and nannying idiocy any day!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:04 PM | TrackBack

January 18, 2008

Guardian angels on overtime!

Yesterdays crash at Heathrow is nothing short of miraculous. No doubt the manufacturer's design will have played it's part, it is rare for these aircraft to remain as intact as this when they hit the ground at a hundred and sixty miles an hour. Given that their glide angle once the power is lost is only marginally better than your average housebrick (It's all about wing shape and load distribution) the pilots pulled off an amazing landing and walked away from it. A landing you can walk away from is a good landing as I have said before on this blog.

A hundred and fifty two people walking out of that aircraft has to be one of the most amazing escapes anyone could possibly witness, let alone be a part of. I have only one question at present for the passengers, did they actrually have time to adopt the recommended "crash position" with head down over their laps? If so, the aircrew deserve even more praise for having the forethought to tell them to do so. But, I wonder how those as tall as I am managed. BA notoriously has a short space between seats and when I have attempted to adopt that position I invariably end up with my head rammed against the seat back ahead - perfect to sustain a broken neck.

Once the aircraft was on the ground the response was exactly as it should be - the emergency teams were there almost as soon as it stopped. The BAA Fire Fighters deserve every penny they get and the praise of the rest of us - their response was impecable. To all those bean counters who constantly want to "save" money by cutting back fire service provisions I have this to say - "Do you pay your insurance premiums?" If you do, then this is exactly what the fire services are - insurance. You put the money in and they make sure they are trained, ready and available when you need them. And they don't quibble about your need either.

The investigation is now underway, and the immediate piece of news is that both engines failed during the approach. The big question must be - why? During the approach they are throttled back, then gradually given more power as it lands, before the braking systems are applied (essentially shields that redirect part of the jetstream as a "reverse" thrust until the normal braking system can cope. From the sound of it, this aircraft's engines "flamed out" as the pilots attempted to "throttle up" in the final approach. From there on, this was essentially a glider, without the best glide characteristics needed to stay airborne very long at that altitude.

We witnessed something close to a miracle yesterday - a lot of Guardian Angels worked overtime on this one. Let's be thankful.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 16, 2008

Glaciation in the super greenhouse?

An interesting item in the online Journal "Science" caught Mausi's eye recently. It seems that a team of scientists have recently discovered that the Antarctic Ice Sheet may well have formed, at least in part, during one of the warmest phases of the earth's history.

It has been commonly held until now that during these super warm phases the poles were ice free. That seems to have been blown literally out of the water by this study which shows that at least the Southern Pole was covered by ice during the Turonian period - the warmest inter glaciation period we have ben able to identify. As Mausi hjas pointed out, it just provces that a lot of these effects are very localised and that it is extremely difficult to draw a single "overall picture" in isolation. As those who have followed my link will see - surface temperatures were , at this period, an average of 35 degrees. And the oceans were nice and warm too.

No doubt we will soon hear from the "Global Warming" lobby that this research is irrelevant. Just as they dismiss the evidence of core samples from the Pacific. I guess an article of faith takes some changing ....

Isotopic Evidence for Glaciation During the Cretaceous Supergreenhouse
André Bornemann,1,2* Richard D. Norris,1 Oliver Friedrich,1,3 Britta Beckmann,4 Stefan Schouten,5 Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté,5 Jennifer Vogel,1 Peter Hofmann,4 Thomas Wagner6
The Turonian (93.5 to 89.3 million years ago) was one of the warmest periods of the Phanerozoic eon, with tropical sea surface temperatures over 35°C. High-amplitude sea-level changes and positive 18O excursions in marine limestones suggest that glaciation events may have punctuated this episode of extreme warmth. New 18O data from the tropical Atlantic show synchronous shifts 91.2 million years ago for both the surface and deep ocean that are consistent with an approximately 200,000-year period of glaciation, with ice sheets of about half the size of the modern Antarctic ice cap. Even the prevailing supergreenhouse climate was not a barrier to the formation of large ice sheets, calling into question the common assumption that the poles were always ice-free during past periods of intense global warming.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2008

Honourable Member?

The current debacle in that house of liars and cheats called the Palace of Westminster revolves around a man who should never have been elected to it in the first place. Peter Hain is, as defined in our current legislation a terrorist or, at the very least someone who gives succour to terrorists. The irony of that is that he and the Party he represents have put that legislation in place. That he is now on the carpet for failing to declare "Members Interests" in the shape of a large donation to his campaign (failed) for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party comes as no surprise to any except this man's sycophants and apologisers.

This, after all, is the man who led the campaign against this country having any links with South Africa in the 1960's and 70's. I doubt he has ever done a days real work in his life. Put simply he was a student activist who became a Union organiser and bully boy. His road to the top of this particular political dungheap is typical of the denizens of Westminster and a major reason why the voting public have lost all confidence and faith in the present political system. This is the man who dug up cricket pitches, caused thousands upon thousands of pounds of damage to public property, threatened peoples lives and livelihoods and backed, and still backs, murder in pursuit of political gain. He is famous in South Africa for the fact that his family aided and abetted the first urban bomber in that country, a man - ironically a white man - who planted a bomb in a suitcase on the Johannesburg station. His victims were an old lady and her grandchildren. The grandson and the grandmother died, the young girl was scarred for life and now lives in the UK permanently in a wheelchair.

When confronted with her some fifteen years ago this piece of human filth refused to admit that her injuries served no purpose in the "struggle" he championed. Worse, he refused to even apologise or sympathise with her position, instead seeking to justify his position and the use of violence in pursuit of political "freedom".

Well, it may interest any reader to know that he shares something with another Labour Cabinet member. Like Mr Straw, he idolised Che Guevarra, admiring his "struggle" for justice. Justice dispensed from the barrel of a gun which they now deny to any law abiding Briton, but have singularly failed to stop their criminal gangster supporters from owning. He also, at one time, sang the praises of a certain Robert Mugabe at every opportunity.

If this man's career has finally been derailed, I will celebrate. Sadly, like so many of those who disgrace our Parliament, I suspect he will survive, or simply find an even better paid job in Brussels - just as a certain Mr Mandelson did when his failures became public.

Honourable Members? Not in THAT House.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:46 AM | TrackBack

January 07, 2008

I wonder who will "glorify" our surrender?

The report out today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation sum up, for me, the cancer which will destroy our society and our civilisation. It is so obviously compiled by those of the "the military is evil" faction that I am surprised that it is even being given serious media attention. Sadly though, these same "Peaceniks" are in charge of the media as well - so naturally they will promote their own exclusive view and try to make out that anyone who thinks anythinbg different is a rampant blood thirsty, murdering, enemy of the people.

The report states that the Army is deliberately misleading recruits and "glorifying war" in its recruiting and promotional material. Perhaps the authors of this complete load of ordure should be reminded that it was the Army, the Royal Navy and RAF that ensured they are now free to publish such cr*p. How do they conclude that the Army telling recruits that they will have to fight in defence of liberty, may be called upon to shoot at an enemy or be constantly vigilant "glorify" war? They are stating simple facts.

The second thing these idiots are whinging about is that once a recruit has signed on "it is very difficult to leave". Well, yes, it is, but then, if I sign a contract with anyone for a predetermined period there are penalties for breaking it! A recruit who signs up for a twelve year period of service should be very well aware of the fact that he or she now has three ways to leave - Dishonourable discharge, discharge wounded or dead and serving out the time! It is possible, in todays armed forces, to leave before the full contract is served, but it has a process and that process is fully explained to every recruit before they sign - and, in contrast to any previous system - the recruit is told to take the papers home and think on it for twenty four hours and discuss it with someone they know and trust.

The Rowntree Foundation is a well known left wing anti-war foundation, after all, the Rowntree family are Quakers and pacifists. But, sadly, they represent today, the rotten core of the anti-military, unilateral disarmament, better Red than Dead cowards that currently run the country. This anti-military attitude pervades every town hall, every publishing house and every part of our media. Even Whitehall would rather spend money buying furniture and paintings for the MoD office block than on proper ammunition or equipment for the troops. It is a parallell with the fall of Rome - and we will soon have no means with which to defend ourselves when the next Alaric arrives at the gates ...

A sad day for Britain, and probably a foretaste of our ultimate surrender to the very next aggressor to threaten our nation. Who will then "glorify" our surrender?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:36 AM | TrackBack

January 06, 2008

Blogging against Islam can now get you arrested ....

A blogger by the name of Lionheart is under threat of arrest and charged with "Incitement to Racial or Religious hatred" for blogging against the ongoing threat posed by Islam in all its guises in this country. The law being used to do this is one Mister Blair and his Labour Politburo imposed upon us to promote the spread of Islam and other "minority" religions and protect its Imam's from prosecution for their constant lies and attacks on Christianity. In effect they have handed Muslim fundamentalists the right to prosecute anyone for telling the truth about the means of spreading their religion and their plan to Islamise Britain.

Even posting this piece could get me into the same mess. But I appear to be in good company. The Bishop of Rochester could well be next to have his collar felt by the Thought Police under the Act....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 27, 2007

The Global Warming scam ...

Bali, it seems, might not have been the harmonious and "unified" front the "Green" organisers would like to present. In fact, perhaps the US had a point, a serious point that the "Green" Gauleiters don't want aired. My thanks to The Gorse Fox for bringing this great quote to my attention. As I have often said, I think the debate is being railroaded by a small group of "Witch Hunters" and my question is - why?

What is to be gained by denying the counter evidence to their theory? Who benefits if they have it as wrong as many of us believe? The answer surely is no one except those who are living on "research grants" handed out by moroninc politicians who would hand over any sum just to be seen to be doing something and maybe win a few votes - and the developers of all the hideous wind farms which are costing us an arm and a leg and destroying habitats and the environment around them. (Notably though, not in any of Brown's ministers' constituencies - except where said Ministers can't see the infernal things!)

Why do the "Global Warming" nazis refuse to take account of the satellite data that shows surface cooling on the continental masses and slowing oceanic currents? Because they will lose "research" funding if their theory doesn't hold up. This is why are they afraid of an open debate.

But why is the press so afraid to expose the scam? Primarily because the fear in the media of upsetting the green terrorists and having their offices torched, or their papers labelled as "Fascist" - and affecting thier sales - terrifies them all.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:17 PM | TrackBack

December 20, 2007

Ban Lego immediately!

That has to be the only solution. Ban it outright - before the children of the UK and EU rush out to buy the book written by a pair of Danish anarchists who suggest - horror of horrors - a whole range of nasty weapon things that children might enjoy playing with!

Cue a collective howl of anguish from all the angst ridden feministas who have destroyed this generation's ability to cope with opposition, deal with bullying or any sort of aggression (other than their own!). As I said, the only solution is a total ban on Lego and any other toy which might have aggressive or alternative uses. So I guess that puts The Transformers, all military models and toys, The Dangerous Book for Boys and the Dangerous Book for Girls off the Christmas list.

Sorry folks, but those of you who have already bought these items, better rush out and find substitutes - preferably one's which can't possibly show a child how to make a nuke out of Lego ....

Forbidden LEGO Book Is Big Xmas Hit
Updated:11:17, Friday December 14, 2007

A book showing children how to make guns out of LEGO is climbing the list of must-have Christmas presents.

Book is a big hit in the USThe manual, written by two former employees of the Danish plastic-brick firm, is a big hit in the US.

The authors of Forbidden LEGO: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against promise "you'll learn to create working models that LEGO would never endorse".

Ulrik Pilegaard and Mike Dooley added: "Try your hand at a toy gun that shoots LEGO plates, a candy catapult, a high voltage LEGO vehicle.

"Or a continuous fire ping-pong ball launcher, and other useless but incredibly fun inventions."

Advertisement
The book was published in August by No Starch Press, a small independent publishing house based in San Francisco.

And it has become a surprise hit with Americans, shooting up the Amazon sales charts.

But in Britain, there has been concern about the effect the book may have on children.

The Daily Telegraph has dubbed the tome "the Anarchist Cookbook of the nursery".

And a commenter on ThisIsLondon.co.uk said: "This is a very dangerous idea.

"Kids could make atomic bombs out of LEGO, and just think what would happen if some Islamic terrorist get hold of a copy. The possibilities are terrifying."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 19, 2007

Sharia Justice?

Advice to any woman who thinks that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Don't get raped. At least don't get into a position where you could be raped in any country (or part of this country) where the Sharia Law is applied.

The King of Saudi Arabia's somewhat magnanimous gesture at "pardoning" a 19 year old raped by seven men - that's right, seven men - after a Sharia Court had sentenced her to a public flogging, is somewhat spoiled by the fact that he had to be pressured into it. Saudi Arabia has some of the most archaic laws going, but, and those who espouse Islam as an alternative religion for this country should note, this particular law applies in every country ruled by Islamic regimes. The fact that she was raped does not appear to have been addressed by the religious zealots running the court, all they were interested in was the fact that she had been taken by the men from the company of a man not a close relative.

In other words she was having a quiet moment with a boyfriend - and that seems to have been the excuse used by the rapists! No doubt screaming "harlot" at her, they grabbed her and raped her - perfectly acceptable in their eyes since any female who steps outside of the rules of "modesty" this religion insists on imposing is fair game. I doubt very much that they will be caught, and even if they are, I doubt they will be punished. After all, they are men. A single woman's testimony is unacceptable as evidence unless supported by another unrelated woman or a man's ...

Yup, I guess that's justice. Sharia style anyway.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:54 PM | TrackBack

December 17, 2007

Carbon emissions

Some may want to argue with me about my view of the Carbon Emissions League tables. On the table contained in Nation Wide dot Com site you will find a range of nations listed according to their CO2 output. Well, once you get down to analysing these, you will see the flaw in it. China, the world's biggest polluter at present is down at #80 as a result of the fact that the emissions are measured in Tonnes per 1,000 population! So Qatar (Population 750,000) is the world's biggest polluter if you simply read this table. Even the UK, which contributes less than 2% of the world total CO2 emmissions is up at #25 with the US much further down.

From the same site I discovered this YouTube clip which is one of the cleverest expositions on the need to see the whole picture - this Swedish Prof makes more sense than any of the emotional garbage I have found on Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace websites. Both of these insist on trying to present as "proof" the sort of data in the table I have linked to. The Professor is making a fantastic case for looking at things in context and arguing strongly that under no circumstances should anyone attempt to work with "average" or "comparative" data when addressing world issues and problems.

Now you can see why I don't believe the FotE or Greenpeace propaganda. As Dr Goebbels once said, a lie is easily detected and refuted, but a lie built on a truth or on half a truth is accepted as "truth". He must be proud of his students in Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and all the socialist dictatorships springing up in the formerly democratic West.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:39 PM | TrackBack

December 14, 2007

Incovenient facts ....

Further to the item posted by The Gorse Fox a few days ago concerning the theory that the Global Warming issue is a form of Collective Delusion of the same order as the Salem Witch (and other similar) frenzy of the 1600's, comes from Cross Swords, another of the blogs on my Blogroll. In a short but very informative piece he points out that despite the hype contained in the press releases and the political manifesto put out by the UN and its wastrells, the Geophysics satellite data shows that temperatures on the surface of our planet have been falling since 1998. In fact, contrary to what the UN and other pundits like Al Gore and Greenpeace would have us believe that hottest year of the last century was 1934 - NOT 1998.

There is other evidence out there to support this as well. For one thing the North Atlantic drift - the current that flows beneath the Gulf Stream and back towards the Equatorial zone, is slowing down. So is the Gulf Stream which has slowed by 2 knots in the last 10 years. That may not sound like much, but in terms of current flows, it is a lot. Yes, the Southern Ice Shelf in Antarctica is melting faster than anywhere else, but consider this, Antarctica has seen more human activity in the last hundred years than in the last several thousand - and the continent has been locked in an ice age for a very, very long time. It could well be that the pendulum is starting to swing back to release that area and freeze ours again - it is, after all is said and done, something like fifteen thousand years since the last Northern Ice Age. And it is the ocean currents changing their direction or flow which triggers that, something the "climatologists" refuse to model.

I don't think we have heard or seen the last of this. In fact I think the bubble may be on the point of bursting for the Global Warming shroud wavers.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:40 PM | TrackBack

December 13, 2007

The end to British Sovereignty ....

So our Illustrious Leader has signed away our Sovereignty. I wonder if that is treason? I rather think it is. He had no mandate to do this, in fact has reneged on the election promise of a Referendum on this issue - in fact he has no mandate to govern at present, having also failed to test the voter's willingness to have him take on the position of Prime Minister.

In fact, since Blair and his shower of closet communists, single issue politicians and luvvies came to power it seems to have escaped their notice that the PM is "First Minister of the Queen" and not some sort of independent authority exercising power in his own right. They have NO right or authority to give up our national rights and status to an unelected Presidency and Council of Commissioners in a foreign country. In effect, tonight, with his adding his signature to the rest of the collection of socialists who have cobbled together this treaty, the United States of Europe came into being. It is no good his Party whittering on about the Treaty being a watered down "Constitution" - all the other signatories have admitted it is the same Treaty the French rejected the last time round.

Do not get me wrong, I am not anti-Europe or even anti a European "Union". What I object to absolutely is the unelected Commission and the rule by Bureaucratic Decree from Brussels. When, and only when, the Commission and the Brussels Bureaucracy is brought under the scrutiny of election and full accountability will I support any form of USE. The British people have been lied to by the bureaucrats, by the current crop of political pygmies and by the current government.

We must have a referendum on this issue - it is either that or we need to descend on Whitehall and clean house!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:06 PM | TrackBack

A cruel blow ....

It was announced today that Terry Pratchett, quite my favourite author, has a rare form of Alzheimer's Disease. Apparently this has been brought on by a minor stroke he suffered in the last couple of years and didn't even notice - until the symptoms of Early Onset Alzheimers started to show. TP is 59 and frankly really doesn't deserve this fate. But then, who does?

I shall be praying for TP as, I hope, will everyone else who loves his work. Not for some miracle cure, but for a healing that he will cope with this and that those who will tend him as the Alzheimers takes away his mind, have the strength to cope with that. In the meantime he has announced that he plans to continue lkiving and writing.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 12, 2007

PC Brigade told to lay off Christmas ...

I have to thank Skipjack for this lovely item. It seems that the "Multiculturalists" in Labours little coterie of closet communists have finally stirred the pot once to often even for our Race Relations watchdog. Trevor Phillips and a host of ethnic minority religions including Muslims, Budhists, Hindus and Sikhs met recently to celebrate Christmas. Read the Reuters report below.

Hopefully this will see an end to the spate of schools cancelling Nativity Plays, refusing to allow children to make "Christmas" Cards (X-mas is apparently OK) and local councils declaring that Christmas is now "Winterval". Somehow though I doubt it. The Gorse Fox has a fascinating item on his blog about mass delusions and wonders whether the phenomenon of "Global Warming" is a form of collective delusion in much the same form as that which gripped Salem, Massachusets in the 1600's. I suspect that the present frenzy of trying to denigrate anything British or vaguely Christian and turn it into something offensively non-anything for fear of "offending" this or that minority is another form of collective delusion - and as such is not only dangerous but unlikely to pay any regard to any voice of reason.

We believe that anything British or Christian is offensive to XXXX and it must therefore be banned. Hmmm, maybe Mr Phillips and his fellow celebrants have just set themselves up as possible victims of the PC Deluded witch hunters......

LONDON (Reuters) - Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims joined Britain's equality watchdog Monday in urging Britons to enjoy Christmas without worrying about offending non-Christians.

"It's time to stop being daft about Christmas. It's fine to celebrate and it's fine for Christ to be star of the show," said Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

"Let's stop being silly about a Christian Christmas," he said, referring to a tendency to play down the traditional celebrations of the birth of Christ for fear of offending minorities in multicultural Britain.

Suicide bombings by British Islamists in July 2005 which killed 52 people in London have prompted much soul-searching about religion and integration in Britain, a debate that has been echoed across Europe.

The threat of radical Islam, highlighted by the London attacks, prompted reflection about Britain's attitude to ethnic minorities and debate about whether closer integration was more important than promoting multiculturalism.

Phillips, reflecting on media reports of schools scrapping nativity plays and local councils celebrating "Winterval" instead of Christmas, feared there might an underlying agenda -- using "this great holiday to fuel community tension."

So he joined forces with leaders of minority faiths to put out a blunt message to the politically correct -- Leave Christmas alone.

"Hindus celebrate Christmas too. It's a great holiday for everyone living in Britain," said Anil Bhanot, general secretary of the UK Hindu Council.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:25 PM | TrackBack

December 07, 2007

Feeling swamped ....

I know, I know, I bring it on myself.

With Christmas only three weeks away I have only just finished writing Christmas Cards and those for overseas will probably reach their recipients late. The internal ones may just make it, and those for hand delivery at the Abbey haven't even been started yet - but now I have offers of work pouring in, and I dare not turn it away. Mausi is having the same problem so this could get patchy ....

Don't even mention Christmas shopping.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 06, 2007

Hug a Hoodie? The Clarkson option ....

Many of us feel that we now live in a society that no longer has any respect for the law. In fact many of us feel that the criminals now enjoy "rights" which exceed anything enjoyed by the law abiding citizen. The row in the papers today over the anti-terror laws is a case in point. According the Liberty and the Civil Rights bleeding hearts, to increase the time the police are permitted to hold a suspected terrorist without formal charge is excessive at twenty-eight days and to increase it to the proposed forty two days is to threaten the very fabric of democracy. Considering that Labour are themselves a threat to democracy that is a bit rich - especially as Labour are the people who now want to bring this in and not that long ago were opposing every attempt to tighten up on any form of justice.

One does have to wonder though, when the likes of Jeremy Clarkson find themselves the target of a gang of "youffs" in a public centre in Milton Keynes and then find themselves "helping police with their enquiries" after one of the fourteen year olds called the police because he wouldn't kowtow to their threats and bad behaviour. That the police haven't taken action against the "youff" concerned for "wasting police time" says everything we need to know about the state of our justice system, when a victim turns on this scum and is then accused of behaving "provocatively"it is pushing the limits of everyone's respect for the police and the justice system. The full story is in the extended post to this, and I am pleased to see that Clarkson will face no further nuisance over this, but it is not an isolated incident.

Last Sunday afternoon I had to suggest rather forcibly to a similar gang of "youff" making free of the cloister area at the Abbey, that they should remove themselves before I did. I got a mouthful of invective and the usual threatening gestures, but then my Sarn't Major voice came into play and I refused to back off or leave them alone - so they decided to depart - but I dare say that I could have found myself facing an interview with Mister Plod had one of the little devils decided to make a complaint. Pity really, because, interestingly, as Church Warden, I hold powers of arrest within the Churchyard. That could have provided the Magistrates with a lot of fun. I would also have to say that we have a lot of trouble with this particular group who are well known in our town - and earlier in the afternoon they had been in and stolen several candles from the Advent Crown at the back of the Abbey. No doubt to add to their collection of candles stolen regularly from the Chapel Altars in the Ambulatory and from the three stands for Pilgrim candles.

What it really highlights for me is that these children have been lost to our society. They are on a one way spiral downward toward a life on the fringe of society, a life of drugs, crime and despair. It breaks my heart to see such a waste of human potential, yet no one seems able to reach them in any form. Discipline is completely lacking, they have no concept of belonging to anything or anyone. Loyalty is to themselves only, they will turn on a "friend" in a moment if it will save their own skins. They demand "respect" but have none for anyone else and cannot see that respect is something you earn, that it cannot be demanded or taken from someone, down that road lies contempt, loathing and, ultimately, revenge. These are children with family life so dysfunctional that they will never learn any of these concepts from their parents - and know they can reject with impunity all forms of adult restriction.

Want to get an adult male into hot water? Suggest he's tried to "groom" you or had sex with you. Want to get your parents into trouble - phone Childline or the Police. Get caught stealing or causing damage to something? Accuse the owner of assault. And the list goes on - that is the society that has been created by those who, for all the best reasons, have forced through laws restricting how we may deal with our children. As usual, to crack a nut they have gone for a full scale hydraulic press so that every parent is now held in suspicion every time a child picks up a bruise or breaks a bone. And the "lost" children know exactly how to exploit the power they have been given. Why is it that most of the murders involving lethal weapons or firearms are now committed by youths considered to be "not ciminally responsible" in the eyes of our law? They know exactly what they are doing and they know exactly what they can expect if caught - a lenient sentence and an early release - look at the murderers of Jamie Bulger, now enjoying a new life in Australia under assumed names.

Those of us who try to abide by the law are not protected by it, but those who choose to break it most certainly are. If we are to ask why this should be so, there is a very simple explanation and it lies in the fact that there was a general revulsion of the use of the legal system in the late 19th Century which saw boys hung at ages under sixteen for comparatively trivial offences. Children were also sent to prisons sentenced with adults to hard labour and the abuses they suffered probably did ensure they ended up as gallows bait - it was quite possibly a relief to be free of that harsh a life. Since then reformers have argued for a steady increase in the age of responsibility, but are they right to say that a sixteen year old does know the difference between right and wrong and a fifteen year old doesn't? A child of four knows the difference if they have been taught it from an early age - but this is where the reformers have gone too far. Children no longer learn this and any parent who does try to impose discipline is likely to have a visit from a social worker and the police!

Somewhere a balance has to be found. Children do know the difference between right and wrong, and reasonable punishment is justifiable in teaching this. The Dr Spock "reward" system is a failure - he admitted it himself - yet in Britain far to many earnest "professional" mothers hold to it as a tenet of faith - and sometimes the results can be seen among their offspring as soon as mummy dearest is out of sight. Again this is something I have some personal experience of and I know instantly which boys have been brought up on the Spock method and which have been brought up traditionally. No prizes for guessing which children I will deal with and which I won't have anything to do with at any price!

One thing is certain, we do need to find a way to deal with these feral children. If for no other reason than that we need to break the cycle which will carry them inexorably into a prison and justice systems. More importantly we need to begin by rediscovering the concept of justice involving an element of punishment and retribution - and perhaps we need also to rediscover or reinvent the concept of "Outlawry" - if you break the law, you place yourself beyond the protection of the law and cannot therefore shelter from the consequences by manipulating the law.

A thought for the day perhaps?

By Sky News SkyNews - 7 minutes agoTV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been questioned by police after he wrote in a national newspaper about confronting a youth who was pestering him.

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The Top Gear star explained in his Sunday Times column that the incident took place outside the Xscape sports complex in Milton Keynes, where his youngest daughter was celebrating her birthday.

Clarkson had stepped outside for a cigarette when he was confronted by a gang of teenagers, who began to pester him and followed him when he tried to walk away.

"And so, figuring that attack was probably the best form of defence, I grabbed the ringleader by his hoodie, lifted him off the ground and explained, firmly, that it'd be best if he went back to his tenement," he wrote.

"I was standing there holding this boy by the scruff of his neck, and instead of worrying about being stabbed I was actually thinking: 'Jesus, I'm going to get done for assault if I'm not careful.'

"I therefore put him down, and in a flurry of swearing and hand gestures involving various fingers he was gone."

The children began filming the November 23 incident on their mobile phones, although the footage does not appear to have made it onto the internet.

Thames Valley Police said they received a call from a 14-year-old girl informing them a man had been abusive towards her friend.

But when officers arrived at the scene and spoke to witnesses it became clear the girl was part of a group who had earlier been warned by security staff about their behaviour.

A spokesman said: "Mobile phone images were viewed, as well as CCTV footage, and it became apparent that, if any offence had occurred, it was the man who was the victim."

Clarkson was later interviewed at his home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, but did not wish to make a complaint or provide a statement.

The police spokesman added: "There is no evidence that a crime took place and therefore there will be no further police action."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:25 PM | TrackBack

November 30, 2007

So Islam is "tolerant" .....

Nothing makes me angrier than any form of religious fanaticism. In fact, about the only thing that comes close is the cant of the Westminster and Whitehall W*****s who insist that Islam is equal or superior to Christianity. All that demonstrates is that they know nothing at all about the beliefs of either. And about now my temper starts to boil over. The news from Sudan that a teacher has been jailed (she could have been flogged and then jailed!) for allowing some of her children students to name a Teddy Bear "Mohammed" is enough to make me angry, but when the Sudanese authorities then proceed to whip up a frenzy that has thousands of protesters out on the streets demanding her death - that is where I draw the line.

Listen up Mister Brown and your Muslim paymasters. England is a Christian country with a Christian tradition that stretches back to the first century AD. You and your PC zealots and your atheist and humanist cohorts (I could add Presbyterian in reference to the fact that much of our present state of secularism and materialism has its origins in the 17th Century heresies and intolerance of that branch of Christianity) have undermined our nation and our culture for long enough. Islam is not capable of rational or reasoned debate at present, any more than the Spanish Inquisition of the 1500's (themselves a response to Islamic activities in Spain in the 1400's) were capable of reasoned or rational debate. The only time England has been that religiously intolerant was under Cromwell's Presbyterians and the Spanish led re-imposition of Roman Catholicism under Mary Tudor. It is time to silence your anti-Christian "hug a Muslim and revile Christianity" apparatchiks and get tough with those of the Islamic faith who yiou and your party have welcomed with open arms into Britain and then encouraged to attack all things tolerant in our nation.

It is time you and the rest of your atheistic followers and propagandists recognised the fact that if you continue to promote the religion of intolerance that is represented by Islam in its present form, the Britain we know will soon cease to exist and be divided into those who convert to the religion of slavery and oppression and those who do not and are thenceforth excluded from all positions of authority. Islam will not and cannot tolerate equality of any other faith, it is an underpinning tenet of their faith that all other faiths are inferior and therefore not to be tolerated irrespective of their own Prophet's injunction that they respect "the people of the Book" ´ that is Christian's and Jews who follow the Bible. That has been the case since the 11th Century when a late Caliph (Descended they claimed from Mohammed) decreed that "the People of the Book" were "Dhimmi".

The Civil Servants of the Foreign Office should be kicked painfully and repeatedly until the teacher concerned is released and returned and Sudan's diplomats expelled along with any Muslim who supports the actions of that ghastly regime. They should be on the next aircraft to the Sudan with cancellation of all rights to return. They want to bring the Sharia Law into Britain, the rest of us will not tolerate that under you Mister Brown or any other government. You insist that we tolerate their attacking our faith and their assaults on our freedoms and particularly the freedom to speak our minds - while at the same time you tolerate their intolerance of every aspect of our society. It is time to call a halt to this farce - if they want the freedom we enjoy they have to accept that we have the right to those freedoms as well - and that includes in the countries they hold sway in. Why is it that only Christians are prosecuted under your "incitement to religious hatred" laws? Every week articles defaming Christ and attacking Christianity appear in Islamic papers and periodicals yet your religious police do nothing about it.

This latest example of the "tolerance" of Islam should be the final warning to all those who promote this multi-cultural mishmash - it won't and can't work. It cannot work as long as Islam sees itself as having the right to overthrow and impose itself on all other religions and nations. The Sudanese have done us a favour - they have exposed their "tolerance" and we would be foolish if we did not take heed.

Islam the religion of peace and tolerance? Not from where I stand - unless, of course, Hell has just started into an Ice Age.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:36 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 22, 2007

Who will be held responsible for this?

So the incompetents of the Civil Service have succeeded in "losing" 25 million peoples personal information including their bank details - on CD's they sent unrecorded through the privatised "internal" post. If ever there were a case for firing every single "manager" in this incompetent and totally dishonest organisation this has to be it! But, watch this space - not one will lose his or her job beside the man who has already resigned. Frankly this is a part of the fundamental dishonesty that lies at the very heart of government. The Civil Service is totally unfit for purpose. It is a collection of willing individuals who cling to their rules and refuse to apply common sense. They have no professional ability so "the rules" become the liferaft in every situation. No doubt "the rules" were followed in this instance when these vital Computer Discs were committed to the hands of - not the Royal Mail as you would expect, but a "private" mail provider without any safeguards.

It is a disgrace - but worse, it is a disgrace which will just keep getting worse. Whitehall has to be reformed. Not just reformed, but stripped of every incompetent masquerading as a "Manager" and then rebuilt around professionals that can be trusted to use initiative, common sense and good practice. Above all by people who are actually competent to do the functions they manage. There is no such thing as a "manager" who can take charge of any function and "manage" it unless they are themselves fully competent to do whatever it is they manage. It is time to burst the little bubble that the Institute of Management has been allowed to build - the civil service is unfit for purpose for two major reasons - one; it is managed by people who are expert politicians but utterly ignorant of the functions they manage and two; it is subject to sets of Rules set by equally incompetent idiots who then blame ministers. There is another reason it can never be fit for purpose and that is simply that it is no longer delivering any service at all - its sole function has become, under this present government, to serve as an employer for incompetents selected, not for their ability, but for their sexuality, race or gender.

It is time to kill it - preferably with, as the Americans say, "Maximum Prejudice!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:20 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 17, 2007

Civil Service incompetence ....

If proof were ever needed, surely the saga of the Asylum Centre that was never built must rank high in the list of evidence. Twenty eight million of taxpayers money went into the black hole of an asylum centre proposed for Bicester in Oxfordshire that ran into immediate problems with planners and the preservation of historic sites and greenbelt. All of which, if the Civil Service weren't so incestuously arrogant and incompetent could have been forseen. But no, they blkundered ahead with the project and ended up costing us all £28 million for nothing.

Which Department you cry in disbelief? Why, that magnificent edifice described by the last Home Secretary as being totally unfit for purpose. Has it been remodelled or even sorted out? Of course not, that is not how the civil service or the whole of Whitehall works. If you want to stay in post in the upper echelons of the Civil Service, you identify a problem and make it your speciality. Not so you can sort it out, but so that you are secure in post for life. As long as you are the only expert on that problem, you're bomb proof.

So, what can we expect with the latest revelation to embarrass our "Wunderkind" government? Oh, just that our security services have been infiltrated by up to 10,000 illegal immigrants. Nothing much to worry about and it should keep another thousand or so Civil Servants in post to retirement while they become experts on the problem.

Good game really, incompetence of that order is little short of genius I think.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2007

Abbey roof thefts .....

Well, our thieving visitors didn't return last night, but I have still had to spend the day at the Abbey with TV crews, police and insurers. It hasn't left much time for anything else in fact. But the following photographs give an idea of what has been stolen and from where.

The East End gulley. This is a main part of the roof darinage system and can run up to twelve inches deep in water since all the upper roof drains into this. It measures some 3 metres in width by roughly 15 metres in length.

The North side of the gulley, showing a further 3 metres by around 6 metres stripped of lead.

The small roof over an internal wall walk which has also been stripped.

The probable route the thieves took to reach the gulley - a sheer climb of around fifteen metres up this "chimney" between chapels.

The value of the lead is not the problem for us now as we try to repair the damage. The thieves will have got no more than £1500 for their efforts, but it will cost at least £15000 and probably more like £20000 to replace it. The problem here is that they have damaged some of the timber understructure and we now have to relay an underfelt and then lay the sheets of lead over this, and it has to be brought up here in large and very heavy rolls, then unrolled and beaten into shape, fastened down and then made water tight - a dangerous procedure which has resulted in more than one fire in such a building as this.

I suppose we should be grateful that they attacked a school eight miles away last night and didn't return for the remainder ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 14, 2007

An interesting thought for our political classes ...

The comments recently that Britain could be saved by the adoption of Islamic principles on marriage, sex, family life and children to name but a few aspects suggested by the head of the British Muslim Council must have come as a shock to Gordon Brown's anti-religious and anti-Christian Party. After all, the Muslim Council is one of their biggest donors and propagandist organisations. That is also has a single agenda, to convert Britain into an Islamic society is something our present political class would rather not acknowledge.

Personally, I found the comments rather insulting. Primarily because Christianity has tried to promote these same values which are now "Islamic values" for centuries and it is the very political establishment which is now denigrating Christianity and everything it has contributed to our society that has eroded those values, replacing them with the free for all, do as you please and don't whatever you do, admit to anyone else having any right to a different view, that must now answer his challenge. Will they do so? Probably not, because that would really let the cat out of the bag - they simply do not have an answer. The mishmash of ideas that is "Logical Humanism" has no answers, none at all on any level. This is why the whole of the Presbyterian movement of the 17th and early 18th Century collapsed - and paved the way for the sorry state we have of religious belief today. It focused on the material action and not on the worship that should lead to change and understanding.

There are a number of things in Islam that are admirable, not least the devotion with which prayer is offered five times a day. You try and get even practicing Christians to do that! Even casual Muslims - and by that I mean those who are not so overt in their faith that they feel a need to wear dress more suited to the desert or the Lebanese refugee camps and sport silly beards to "proclaim their faith" - are devout in their observance of the ritual prayer and fasting. They prepare themselves properly for prayer as well, not our usual find a space and gabble some prayer when we feel a need, but five times a day ritually wash and place themselves in a position in which to do it properly. What I cannot admire is their refusal to accord any members of any other faith the same privileges they enjoy in worship. We need to remember that the date in the current Islamic calendar is 1400 - and to compare it with Christianity at the same period in the Christian calendar. Once you do that you will see the danger that is posed by simply accepting any statement from a leader of Islam at face value.

So now our political classes face an interesting conundrum. How do they respond to the Muslim Council? How do they explain that these same values shared by Christianity and Judaism to name but two faiths that place values on behaviour toward our fellow citizens; that place values on marriage; on treating children and women fairly and every other "moral" issue they have highjacked and devalued or declared "outmoded", how will they explain this to their Muslim benefactors? They will have to, or the money will dry up.

I wonder too when they will acknowledge that several of our major cities are now Muslim enclaves? Will we still be a materialistic "British" society of socialist humanists in ten, twenty or even thiry years time? Probably not - at current rate of immigration and take over, we will be an Islamic Republic methinks and Gordon Brown's coterie of friends will have discovered the importance of naming their children Mohammed, Ibrahim or Abdullah ...

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 13, 2007

Lead raiders attack the Abbey

The last two days have been difficult. On Sunday night/Monday morning, one of our gates was forced and a small truck or van driven into the Abbey grounds. Then apparently two men scaled the walls of one of the ambulatory chapels and stripped about thirty square metres of lead from one of the large "gulleys" which is both roof and drain for the main roof.

So Monday was spent with the police and the scenes of crime people, the insurers and others. To cap it all a man was then seen to force open a collection box and remove the money. He knew he had been seen to do it, but, bold as brass, went to another and forced that as well. More police.

Unbelievably the lead raiders returned on Monday night/Tuesday morning and removed another huge section of lead. The annoying thing is that we had said to the police that we believed they would come back now that they had "recce'd" the roofs and established how they would do it and what they needed for the rest.....

And in the midst of dealing with a fresh police visitation, the collection robber from Monday walks into the Abbey - and makes another attempt!

As I said, it has been a trying week - and its only Tuesday.....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 12, 2007

IT woes ....

The Monk's faithful computational appliance, commonly known as his Desk Top blew it's monitor last week. Disaster, the computer worked, but, of course, without said monitor you cannot operate the system! OK, so what to do? Well, first off, is there a way to make that system talk to another and show itself on - for example - that laptop's monitor? Well, there probably is, but the Monk is not sufficiently up to speed on the how and the operating systems to get it to work! Aaargh! Several failures, including the laptop apparently deciding to revert to its most basic formatting and programming! - he finally succeeded in getting the laptop to talk to the homehub and therefore could get onto the internet to at least read his e-mail.

Now, of course, it would be useful, desirable even, to be able to downsize some of the pictures he took of the desert and the Libyan capital Tripoli, but no, that programme is in the Desk Top not the Laptop so that is a non-starter. What to do, what to do?

Ah well, at least some of what he needs to work on is on either the Laptop (Back-up mode!) or a memory stick, so not total disaster, and it gives him plenty to do while he awaits delivery of the new monitor from Dell. He almost can't believe his luck. For the first time in his life, the warranty had not expired on the old one! Bingo, the new one will be sent immediately. Probably the first time ever the Monk has heard the magic words which he has come not to expect from the so-called service centres for "online" help - except if you can't get online how are you supposed to get help? Well, suffice to say, Dell went up several points in his estimation. Now all they need to do to confirm it is to deliver ......

Oh, the e-mail did say delivery between 09.00 and 17.00 ........ Sigh!

It turned up eventually and was easily installed. Too easily. A whole lot seemed to have been thrown into disarray by the failure of the monitor - so several more hours of frusttration to get all the other things talking again ...

Well, for now, I have a new monitor and a system that seems to be functioning. Except that it refuses to operate the scanner ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 11, 2007

Remembrance Sunday

Today is Remembrance Sunday - and coinciding with Remembrance Day, the 11th day of the 11th month, the day in 1918 when the guns of the Western Front stuttered into silence at the 11th hour of the day. At this distance in time one can only imagine what it must have been like for those survivors who, after four and half years of constant bombardment, sniping and trench digging, interspersed with suicidal assaults across the killing fields of no man's land when, at the appointed hour, the last shell burst, the last machine gun stuttered into silence and the last casualty fell wounded or dying.

I remember one old soldier describing a sensation of overwhelming relief - followed by an overwhelming sense of loss. He was eighteen on the day the guns stopped - but he had been on the front and in the trenches since the summer of 1916.

Today we always remember the dead, but I have long been of the opinion that we should also remember the survivors, for each and every one of them walked away from their own battlefields, ships or aircraft in that and every war, carrying scars that could not be seen. As a child I used to watch and wonder as I saw many grown men weep at these parades and services, now I begin to understand why. I can recall my grandfather, a boy of fifteen when he joined the Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers in 1915, waking shouting and confused from nightmares when I was already in my teens. And my own father who, as an eighteen year old was among those detailed to remove the bodies from the flooded battery compartments of HMS Hecla after she had been torpedoed off the Cape of Good Hope. They had been in the flooded compartments for two weeks when the boy seamen, and others were put in to retrieve them. This was repeated a later when his own ship, HMS Ramillies, was torpedoed and saved by the deliberate flooding of her after magazines - an act of bravery by the officer concerned because it drowned him and around ninety others, but quenched the cordite fire. My father had nightmares of that and other scenes he had witnessed or been part of until his death - at 57 in 1982.

I looked around me this morning at the ex-servicemen in their blazers and medals, at the Sea Cadets, Army Cadets, Air Training Corps, Boy Scouts and other youth organisations - many of the boys and girls on parade of an age with my grandfather and his generation when they went off to war against the Kaiser. And I felt enormous pride at the manner in which these youngsters took the process of remembering the sacrifices made for us all over the years as a matter of duty and pride. As the Vicar pointed out, the youngest ever Victoria Cross went to a young man of fifteen who, as a medical orderly, contiunued administering medical aid to the wounded despite his own serious wounds, while under heavy fire. Another, awarded at the Battle of Jutland, went to a Boy Seaman named Jack Cornwall - aged just sixteen. Jack Cornwall did not survive, he lost a leg and then his life and was eventually buried in a grave which bears a marker only because his messmates paid for the head stone. The oldest recipient of the VC was a Lieutenant aged sixty one - who, to prevent munitions falling into the hands of the enemy, blew up the depot and himself as this was the only way to ensure the munitions were totally destroyed.

Today, at 11.00 we remembered them, the dead, the survivors, and those who serve still.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn,

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

A reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 44 vv. 1 – 15 RSV

1 Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations.

2 The Lord apportioned to them great glory, his majesty from the beginning.

3 There were those who ruled in their kingdoms, and were men renowned for their power, giving counsel by their understanding, and proclaiming prophecies;

4 leaders of the people in their deliberations and in understanding of learning for the people, wise in their words of instruction;
5 those who composed musical tunes, and set forth verses in writing;

6 rich men furnished with resources, living peaceably in their habitations-

7 all these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times.

8 There are some of them who have left a name, so that men declare their praise.

9 And there are some who have no memorial, who have perished as though they had not lived; they have become as though they had not been born, and so have their children after them.

10 But these were men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;

11 their prosperity will remain with their descendants, and their inheritance to their children's children.

12 Their descendants stand by the covenants; their children also, for their sake.

13 Their posterity will continue forever, and their glory will not be blotted out.

14 Their bodies were buried in peace, and their name lives to all generations.

15 Peoples will declare their wisdom, and the congregation proclaims their praise.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:05 PM | TrackBack

November 10, 2007

High tide receding ...

The high storm surge tide yesterday certainly made its presence felt along the East Coast. Some of the news footage - of ships floating high above the sea walls and quays lining the seafront of one town, were amazing to say the least. I expect that another few inches and it would have been a case of what street? What town?

At least the danger has passed for the moment, but now it really should be a wake-up call to the government and to the enviromental types. Its all very well saying on the one hand that this is all down to Global Warming and we must all revert to living in wattle and daub, walking, and cooking on open fires in order to save the planet - but what do we do about flood defences if you lot won't let us build new ones or repair the few we still have?

Hopefully the storm surge will have started the alarms ringing in Whitehall - but someohow I doubt we will see any action. After all, no politician lost anything and none of their own died in it ...

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:45 PM | TrackBack

November 09, 2007

High tide on the East Coast

Images on the news of the great flood barriers at Rotterdam being closed for the first time should alert us to the reality of the threat of flooding from the storm surge tide currently threatening all the North Sea coasts and towns. Here in Britain it is, of course, made slightly worse by the failure of successive governments to invest in the sea walls and defences which, from Roman times, have defeneded the low lying East Coast. The excuse has been that it was "interfering with nature" and "damaging ecologically sensitive habitats". Not half as much as uncontrolled flooding will, or the damage which will be done in other areas when Gordon Brown rams through his new legislation to force local authorities to approve and accept the building of some three million houses in ecologically disasterous areas so he can flood the country with more of his immigrant mates and voters.

Mausi informs me that the Chief of Police on the East Friesian island of Borkum told a radio interview that he had been almost blown into the sea by the wind and the ferries cannot load as the cars would have to drive through two feet of water to board. That's quite a tide surge! In Hamburg the Fish Market is already ankle deep in water - something the denizens of that ancient Hanseatic city seem to think is amusing and "normal". That said, the storm has, apparently, been less severe than predicted, so perhaps they will get away with it this time round anyway.

Here in the west of England we are experiencing high winds and some rain, but then, we had our deluge earlier in the year and suffered the effects of a natural occurence and the lack of planning that this and other government's have driven through giving the OK to building houses and tarmacking areas without proper consideration to how this affects drainage and run-off. Likewise all along our East Coast, erosion is increasing year on year, ironically a knock-on of the work being done along the Dutch and Friesian coasts to stabilise their coastline, yet our government and their "Environment Agency" which seems to be entirely populated by Ecowarriors, refuse to allow the maintenance or rebuilding of any of the existing sea defences. The result is that in the last fifteen years we have lost enormous amounts of arrable land and a large number of buildings to the sea. Of course, they rabbit on about "global warming" and "climate change" being responsible, but considering that our Roman and medieval ancestors successfully reclaimed this land with fairly low tech systems and our immediate forebears held it for almost two thousand years, it doesn't take a genius to work out that the loss is directly attributable to ill-conceived and ill-implemented government policy.

It remains only to be seen how much we lose this time.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:56 AM | TrackBack

November 06, 2007

Remember, remember the Fifth of November ....

Gunpowder, treason and plot ....

Where is Guido Fawkes when you really need him? With our government not content to give away our sovereignty and deny any pledge to hold a referendum, with their "Parliamentary Expenses" running at the GNP of most African Nations and now another vicious attack on a man who dares to step out of line and say what most of his prospective constituents - in fact most 'native' Britons - think, it really is time to look at the complete removal of Westminster and Whitehall and its replacement with a body which does actually represent us, the tax paying public and our concerns.

Let us recall Guy Fawkes with a little more sympathy than is usually afforded with bonfires, fireworks and Guy's to be burned ...

Maybe he had the best idea of how to deal with politicians and bureaucrats yet ...

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:12 AM | TrackBack

November 05, 2007

Ongoing tragedy ...

One of the prime reasons given for tearing our fire and rescue service apart and parachuting in all sorts of people with no fire background and at all levels of senior management was to "create a leaner, more effcient and safer" fire service. It was stated that these parachutists would bring "skills lacking in management, training and community relations". In reality it was a baldfaced attempt to ethnicise the service and make it more cuddly and feminine. The results have begun to show.

The training system which had served us very well for over fifty years was deemed to be "elitist" and "exclusive" and thrown out. Knowledge based learning which supported skils with underpinning knowledge and built on experience gained by working your way up through the ranks with selection - everywhere apparently except London - based on merit and ability. Yes, there were a few "rotten eggs" and bullies, but the service soon found them out and they seldom prospered. Then the politicians and civil servants got their dirty hands into the service. Out went the structured training. Out went selection on ability, in came Itsy Pitsy Diddly Squat as the longer serving men and women named the "new" "competence" based system which declared that knowledge was unnecessary and so were qualifications. All you had to be able to do was squirt water and operate the equipment. Alongside that, in came a range of "Selection Criteria" which focus on matters having nothing to do with what the service actually does - the element which is based on knowledge and understanding of fire fighting, rescue and extrication is 10% of the selection process - and is optional. This to allow people from the Job Centre to parachute in as "Managers" - the service is no longer led by "Officers" - Mister Prescott would not allow the use of that word or "commander" the alternative and forbade it.

Now we have services led by Chief Executives who have never actually ridden a red lorry - probably only encounter one when they need a publicity shot for the local paper and certainly have no understanding of what it is like to have to search the remains of a building for your dead colleagues. And those who have quite probably last actually attended a fire more than ten years before they rose, by political manoeuvering, to their current level. Oh, they make all the right noises and shed a few tears in sympathy - but they don't feel the anger, the sense of betrayal that their decisions to allow buildings such as the one in Warwickshire to kill your colleagues by relaxing requirements to fit sprinklers or to cut the manning on appliances and reduce turnouts using that other great "management" tool invented by the Whitehall Wankers - "Integrated Risk Management Planning" - a system which allows the Service Managers to reduce the fire cover in industrial and high fire risk areas because there is "no significant life risk", engenders in every professional fire fighter. Except of course to the fire fighters entering the building to try and save the livelihoods of a couple of hundred people and reduce the damage to the economy wrought by fire every year.

Intergrated Risk Management Planning worls ONLY if it is supported by a regime of strict application and enforcement of the provision of sprinklers and other "active" fire suppression systems in ALL high fire risk premises. That is to say, EVERY industrial, commercial, mercantile and storage facility, EVERY theatre, cinema, Shopping Mall, hospital and high rise.

You can manipulate the numbers as much as you like CFOA, DCLG and all the rest - you signed up to this, and you, and you alone, are responsible for these latest deaths, just as you are all guilty of the increase in fire fighter injuries and deaths since you "modernised" a service which, while it had its faults, was described only two years before your vandalism, as "The best managed Public Service in the country, delivering an efficient and cost effective service at all levels." IPDS, IRMP and all your other "Integrated" initiatives have brought us a less trained, less professional, less efficient and much more dangerous service - and if you are reading this and live in London I would add this. DON'T under ANY circumstances have a fire. The once proud LFB is now so afraid to enter a building on fire that it will burn out before they even begin to lay a hose - and if you are in need of rescue.? Forget it - fire fighter discipline has gone, replaced by "personal Risk Assessment". In short, if I don't like the order I'm given I can refuse. After all, its just a job.....

Try saying that to the dedicated Firefighters who died in Warwickshire - they have given their lives needlessly as it happens, doing something they believed would make a difference.

Congratulations Whitehall and Westminster. You and your parachutists have killed another four honest, hard working a dedicated men whose only mistake was to believe your hype and to think they could make a difference. Their blood is firmly and irrevocably on your hands.

My prayers for the dead and for the bereaved will include a plea to the Almighty that those who have brought the service to this state receive here or in the hereafter the punishment and misery that they have brought to these families.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:56 AM | TrackBack

October 25, 2007

Expensive freeloaders?

Am I alone in thinking that we, the tax payers of the UK are being ripped off big time?

EIGHTY-SEVEN point FIVE MILLION POUNDS in "EXPENSES"? Between six hundred and thirty four MPs? What the hell are we paying for? A fleet of Rolls Royces to shuttle them from one public appearance to then next? Hot tubs and masseurs imported complete with gold taps and fake tans? Each and every one of these freeloaders is laughing their head off - all the way to the bank!

Definitely time to clean house, after all they are paid a wage which is more than generous, and an "allowance" for running their "office" which effectively doubles the salary. Then, those in "government" get "Grace and Favour" flats as well - and the basic MP's salary, let us just remind ourselves is GBP70k per annum! It is way past time this was looked at by the Fraud Squad and the Public Auditor. And it is time the whole damned house of cards was trimmed back dramatically. God help us, but you may be sure that the MPs in Scotland, the Welsh Assembly crew and every damned inflated hanger-on is deep in this gravy train.

And we are paying for it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:51 PM | TrackBack

October 15, 2007

Wrestling with another bureaucracy ...

I am supposed to go to Libya in a day or three. The flight is booked, the arrangements made - but the visa is another story. I was first told (and have the e-mails to prove it) that it was no problem and all arranged. I should have known better, I really should have, for now I have to go to London tomorrow in order to apply for a visa that has been granted .....

And then go back again on Wednesday to collect it.

I think bureaucrats must carry a gene which primes them to be bloody minded and bloody awkward for no other reason than that they can ...

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:43 PM | TrackBack

October 13, 2007

Peace on Earth?

The news that over a hundred and thirty of Islams most senior figures have addressed a joint letter to the Pope, the Leaders of the Orthodox Churches and the Anglican and other Christian denominations should be welcomed. The letter highlights their view that unless a peaceful path can be found between Islam and Christianity the world faces extinction should be taken seriously - especially with the weapons we now have available.

They point to the fact that our Faiths actually do share several concepts in common and should not, in terms of the guiding tenet of both, embark on conflict with each other. They claim too that the vast majority of Muslims do not share the violent aspirations of the al Qaeda factions, nor of the rest of the rabid minority, but genuinely want to live in peace with their neighbours.

The only problem I have with this is the enshrined tenet contained in one of the Shuras of the Koran - "It is permissible to lie to the infidel, if by lying to him, you may convert him."

I guess I will have to let others guide me on this and see where the Archbishop of Canterbury, York and the rest of the Anglican World lead us. But, as the Muftis point bout, never before in history have we had so many of different faiths living next to one another. Perhaps we should see what else they have to say before we make any judgement - after all, they are right, if we are to save ourselves we do need to find a way to live together ....

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 130 Muslim scholars from around the globe called on Thursday for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying "the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake".

(Advertisement)
In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars said finding common ground between the world's biggest faiths was not simply a matter for polite dialogue between religious leaders.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants," the scholars wrote.

"Our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake," they wrote, adding that Islam and Christianity already agreed that love of God and neighbour were the two most important commandments of their faiths.

Relations between Muslims and Christians have been strained as al Qaeda has struck around the world and as the United States and other Western countries intervened in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such a joint letter is unprecedented in Islam, which has no central authority that speaks on behalf of all worshippers.

The list of signatories includes senior figures throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. They represent Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi schools of Islam.

Among them were the grand muftis of Egypt, Palestine, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Bosnia and Russia and many imams and scholars. War-torn Iraq was represented by both Shi'ites and Sunnis.

Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti who prayed with Benedict in Istanbul's Blue Mosque last year, was also on the list, as was the popular Egyptian television preacher Amr Khaled.

"MAINSTREAM VOICES DROWNED OUT"

The letter was addressed to the Pope, leaders of Orthodox Christian churches, Anglican leader Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the heads of the world alliances of the Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and Reformed churches.

Williams said he welcomed it as "indicative of the kind of relationship for which we yearn in all parts of the world".

"The call to respect, peace and goodwill should now be taken up by Christians and Muslims at all levels and in all countries," he said.

A Vatican official in Rome said the Roman Catholic Church would not comment until it had time to read the letter.

Aref Ali Nayed, one of the signatories and a senior adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme at Cambridge University in Britain, said the signatories represented the "99.9 percent of Muslims" who follow mainstream schools and oppose extremism.

"In Islam we have had a problem for some time now where the mainstream voices are drowned out by a minority that choose violence," he said.

Nayed said organisers of the letter had set up an ad hoc network among Muslim leaders that could lead to more cooperation in future.

"These people don't take their signatures lightly," he said. "We are trying to institutionalise this so we don't lose it."

The overture to Christians could be followed by similar letters addressed to Jews or secularists, he added.

Pope Benedict sparked Muslim protests last year with a speech hinting Islam was violent and irrational. It prompted 38 Muslim scholars to write a letter challenging his view of Islam and accepting his call for serious Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Benedict repeatedly expressed regret for the reaction to the speech, but stopped short of a clear apology sought by Muslims.

The new letter argues in theological terms, giving quotes from the Koran and the Bible that show both Christianity and Islam considered love of God as their greatest commandment and love of neighbour as the second greatest.

"The basis for this peace and understanding already exists," it said. "It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the one God and love of the neighbour."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:40 AM | TrackBack

October 12, 2007

Unhealthy Health Services?

The revelation that the NHS Trust which runs three of Kent's hospitals has actually killed ninety patients by allowing the spread of a deadly bug in its wards is bad enough, but then to have the facile moron mouthpiece representing them mouth "we're sorry - and apologise to ..." simply adds insult to injury. How, you may ask, does this come about? Quite easily, a combination of meaningless targets, underpaid and overstretched medical staff - the big salaries and money all go to the Bureaucrats who run the Trusts - a lack of any understanding among "managers" of the impact their "management decisions" have on the delivery of services and hospitals that are unfit for human occupation all contribute.

Then there is the revelation that patients were not taken to the toilets or given bed pans, urine bottles or the facilities to help themselves when bedridden - and you have beds covered in the ideal material to breed super bugs. Is this Trust unique? Not from what I have seen, nor from what I am told by one of my daughters who works in the NHS as a Nursing Assistant. She was recently injured when a large patient fell on her and the hospital now refuses to acknowledge that her injury is their fault. Believe it or not their Health and Safety Policy explicitly forbids her to prevent a patient falling (which is what she attempted to do), claiming that her injury is a result of her own disobedience of a written instruction. The fact that she was attempting to help a patient is, according the managers, irrelevant, she should have called for help to assist her to pick the patient up after the fall and not attempted to intervene.

Well, I would like to meet the "manager" that wrote that policy - and ram it down their throats. Our hospitals are a disgrace precisely because they are now run by morons who think that way and understand nothing but their own rules.

Now that the Treasury and the MoD have shut down the Military Hospitals and "awarded" contracts to the NHS to provide medical services for the military we are already seeing our troops on the receiving end of appalling treatment and abuse by the creatures that have been placed in charge of the Health Services. One young man, flown back from the battlefield in Iraq was told to remove his uniform because "it upsets some of our customers" by a bumptious A&E Manager recently. She failed to realise that he had just been flown in and, what is worse, HAD BEEN LEFT IN A CORRIDOR ON A GURNEY FOR TWO HOURS BY HER STAFF. He evidently wasn't considered urgent enough - after all he was only missing a limb, had several chunks of shrapnel in him and a saline solution drip .... No, HE must get up himself and remove his uniform because it upset some of the drug addicts lurking in the waiting area .... Her customers no doubt. There has stillbeen no apology for this disgraceful conduct by eitherv the Manager concerned or the Trust who employs her - and both should be forced to resign immediately. Fortunately a military doctor came a few minutes later and blew several fuses - but this would not happen if the military still had their own facilities!

There is only one cure for the Health Service. Scrap it. Scrap it before it kills off any more elderly people, any more of our military - and every single "manager" should be placed on a Blacklist and barred from employment for life.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:28 PM | TrackBack

October 10, 2007

Constitutional referendum

Labour are, as usual, reneging on their promises. They know very well that any attempt to impose the EU Constitutional Treaty on us would be thrown out by the electorate. So the simple answer is - resort to their usual lies and half truths. Every other EU leader has admitted that there is almost no difference between the Treaty the French people rejected, and the new one, but Labour and our crop of traitors masquerading as Ministers of State, insist it is different and that "we have red lines to protect our Sovereignty. Well, Brussels let the cat out of that bag - those so-called Red Lines are totally worthless.

Brussels has stated again and again that the "opt outs" Brown and his bullies talk about are just chimera, worthless and unenforcable. Even our own legal beagles say so, but Brown's cabinet of arrogant failures still refuse to acknowledge that they are wrong. The truth is that they dare not hold a referendum. If they lost it, it would mean that all the horsetrading they have done and the secret deals they have made to keep themselves and their civil service cronies in power with Brussels would be undeliverable - and they would lose out completely.

We must force Brown into an election or a Referendum on this issue, failure to do so will see Westminster turned into an even greater irrelevance than it already is. Already 80% of our legislation is initiated in Brussels and not in Westminster. And once Brussels has decreed we must do something our Civil Service seize it gleefully and Gold Plate the resulting legislation. If we surrender to this "Constitution" we should bite the bullet and dismiss Westminster, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament - and the Civil Service in its entirety - and just let Brussels dictate. After all it would save us all several Billion in tax. Why pay a bunch of treasonous w*nk*rs to eat their heads off and do nothing for our nation?

I am not against the concept of the EU per se. What I am against is the interference from Brussels and the imposition of legislation which we, the people of Britain, have no control over. Our MEP's have no say in this either, it is all down to the whims and fancies of the unelected (and if the truth be told - unelectable) Commissioners and the so-called Council of Ministers, most of whom seem to to be nothing but poodles of the Commission and their bureaucrats.

We MUST have a referendum on this, it is not something that can be left to our Civil Servants and their arrogant, ignorant and self interested Cabinet of dictators. If you are interested in campaigning for a referendum please do visit the "I want a referendum campaign.com".

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:33 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 09, 2007

Busy times ....

The last couple of days have been entertaining in some senses and frustrating in many others. It has been wonderful to have my youngest daughter and her partrner to stay for a couple of nights. We have had time to catch up on a wide range of things and hopefully to help sort a few out that needed sorting. On the down side, my current project (whgich will pay a few bills) hasn't made the progress I had hoped for - in fact I have a meeting tomorrow which I have to complete a load of work for - and I still haven't managed to get all the information I need.

Ce la vie! Who needs sleep .....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:52 PM | TrackBack

October 08, 2007

No election this year ....

I am sometimes reminded of the Billy Bunter stories when contemplating the activities of our illustrious political classes. Most of the dialogue between politicians seems to be of the "Yah boo - sucks! to you" level, and the "debate" over whether or not to hold an early election is no exception. The oleagenous tones of Jack Straw this morning on BBC Breakfast almost had me spilling my cornflakes as he tried to tell us that an early election had never been under consideration, that it was all a "media fantasy".

Pity real live quotes from his own party conference give the lie to that, and it really shows the contempt our political class now holds for the average voter that they believe we won't remember them. They genuinely believe that our attention span is no longer than the proverbial gold fish. And it follows from that, that they will also genuinely believe that we don't remember that barely two weeks ago his party was beating the election drum and threatening to "annihilate" the Tories by calling an election in the Autumn. Some of his own cabinet members were loudly proclaiming that a snap election would destroy the Tories completely and "renew our mandate". Just shows, the Polls swing against them and suddenly they are terrified to ask us what WE think. So the sham of this government of minorities (Their last election "Victory" was based on a bare 50% turnout of voters and they took 41% of that - just 28% of the total possible vote!) continues.

England is now governed by the Member for Fife, a man with no constituency in England and no influence of the Parliament his own Party has provided to Scotland at huge expense to the English taxpayer. They are very right to be scared of our opinion.

Sadly however, this fit of cold feet means we will have to endure another two years of this bunch of sleazy, spin doctoring megalomaniacs and PC purveyors before we can throw them out of power - and even more sadly, the current Conservative alternative doesn't look any better!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 04, 2007

Climate changing ....

The ice shelf in Antarctica has been extending again, reaching its greatest extent since 1979 when satellite monitoring began. And now there is a new theory about "Global Warming" which castes more doubt on the sequence beloved by politicians and eco-frenzies. The latest research shows that the last ice age ended when the Great Southern Ocean warmed and sent a flood of warmer water northwards through the Pacific. That event also triggered a rise in atmospheric CO2 - because warmer water absorbs less of the gas.

The extended post following discusses this in more detail and is taken from the online edition of Scientific American. It makes an interesting read.

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Image: NASA
ICY EDGE: The retreat of Antarctic sea ice led to the warming of deep ocean waters—and thus the end of the last Ice Age—according to new research.
Earth's climate can be sensitive, changing after a variety of events. A volcanic eruption or meteorite impact, for instance, can send enough particles into the air to block the sun and cool the climate. A thickening blanket of greenhouse gases can trap heat. And, more commonly, according to some scientists, slight changes in Earth's orientation toward the sun can cause it to cool or warm in so-called Milankovitch cycles (named after the Serbian engineer who first described them). Now, new evidence from a marine sediment core from the deep Pacific points to warmer ocean waters around Antarctica (in sync with the Milankovitch cycle)—not greenhouse gases—as the culprit behind the thawing of the last ice age.

Ice cores drawn from Antarctica and Greenland have shown that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere began to rise at roughly the same time as the vast ice sheets began to melt. But it remained unclear exactly which came first: melting ice and warming seas released more CO2 or more CO2 led to melting ice and warming seas.

By studying sediment cores from the deep Pacific near the Philippines, paleoclimatologist Lowell Stott of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and his colleagues revealed that the temperatures of the deepest seas rose by around 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) at least 1,000 years before sea-surface temperatures. "Even accounting for the uncertainties of the age of CO2, the deep sea warmed substantially before the CO2 began to rise," Stott says. "The deep Pacific is such an enormously large volume of water that [this warming] reflects the input of a tremendous amount of energy into the global system."

Stott and his colleagues used the isotopes of oxygen contained within the remnants of microscopic surface and deep-sea creatures to establish temperatures; they then used a radioactive isotope of carbon to date their age. Combining the two techniques showed that deep-sea creatures dealt with a warmer climate long before their surface brethren did, they report in the online edition of Science.

Image: NASA
EDGE OF COLLAPSE?: Antarctic sea ice has been behaving differently of late, reaching a new record extent this year while also undergoing unprecedented collapses, like the loss of portions of the Larsen Ice Shelf pictured here.
Because such deep seawater circulates from the coast of Antarctica, this deep-water warming implies that the Southern Ocean drove the last major climate change. Stott notes that the periodic wobble in the Earth's rotational axis described by the Milankovitch cycles led to more sunshine falling on the Antarctic at the same time—a likely cause of the warming waters. "The amount of solar energy increased at the same time as this deep-sea warming," he says. "Sea ice around the Southern Ocean was withdrawing."

According to the marine core sample, a full millennium passed—enough time for both the deep and surface waters to entirely switch places—before sea-surface temperatures and global atmospheric levels of CO2 began to rise. The greenhouse gas then further warmed the changing climate, Stott says.

This year, the sea ice around Antarctica grew to its largest extent since satellite observation began in 1979—whereas the Arctic arrived at record minimum—meaning present climate change is a far different scenario. In fact, the Milankovitch cycles would predict gradual global cooling. Man-made greenhouse gases, primarily CO2, are unequivocally driving present-day warming, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "This kind of study discusses the natural cycle and could help define the likely positive feedbacks we can expect in the long-term future, [for example] as temperatures warm, the ocean will want to give up more CO2, or rather absorb less," says climatologist Gavin Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies. "But it has no direct impact on attribution of 20th century warming."*

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:23 PM | TrackBack

October 01, 2007

Expensive night out ...

In Zimbabwe, if you can afford to eat, it can be expensive to eat out. The picture here was sent to me by a friend in SA and the restuarant manager is simply collecting the money for a meal for four. Nor was it an extravagant meal, a starter, a main course, desert, coffee and some beers. The price? Z$6 million. Way beyond the ordinary man in the street's pocket, and even expensive for those who have slightly better incomes. No problem for Robert and his cronies of course, who have stripped the countries treasury and built nice nest eggs for themselves in Swiss Banks. And definitely no problem for Robert who considers that, as President for Life, he can have everything he wants in any shop, restuarant or hotel for nothing. Oh, and that goes for his entourage as well ... Any suggestion that he might like to pay is dealt with by his Goon Squad.

Paying the bill for an evening out, Zimbabwe style. This Z$6 million in Z$1000 notes.

Considering that three quarters of the Zimbabwean population are starving in a country that was, until Mugabe started his seizure of farmland - which, far from being "redistributed" has been handed out to his cronies - was a net exporter of food, the world, and those who put Mugabe into power, should be ashamed. Those of us who remember Blair, Hain, Brown and the rest providing support and funding for this murderous psychopath should now demand an explanation for their rank disregard for the advice of almost everyone who had taken the trouble to look beyond the "struggle" and had taken account of Mugabe's known intention to exclude anyone who might have opposed him. In particular those in Whitehall and Westminster who put him in power should now be apologising to the families of those farmers who have been murdered so that their assets could be seized by Mugabe's Goons. They should be compelled to pay compensation to those who have been dispossessed out of their own assets - not the taxpayers money - and to make public apologies to those who tried to warn them of this man's psychpathic nature.

A pity they can't apologise to the forty thousand Ndebele men Mugabe's 5th Brigade slaughtered and hid down disused mineshafts within weeks of coming to power. That never got any media attention then, and they sure as hell won't give it any now. Forty thousand men from Zimbabwe's second largest tribe - Mugabe is a Shona - and all of them aged between 16 and 60, simply vanished in a well planned and executed bit of Genocide which the West condoned by its silence. Mugabe is a monster, surrounded by monsters. And the real reason the currency has collapsed is simple, Mugabe's policies have destroyed their agriculture, the treasury has been stripped of assets to pay for his luxuries and anyone who protests is simply visited by his Goon Squad and killed or jailed - and that in itself is as good as being killed, it just takes a bit longer.

Zimbabwe is a tragedy unfolding before our very eyes, but it is largely ignored and shunned by the media for the same reasons that Whitehall try not to talk about it - they too lauded this murderer and his cronies as "liberators" and "freedom fighters". Well now the result of their ignorance and stupidity is plain.

Z$6 million for an ordinary meal in a restuarant. For the same meal and number of people in this country I would have change from £60 in an equivalent restuarant. And in Zimbabwe there are people who cannot afford a half loaf of bread, never mind a night out.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 20, 2007

Pass the parcel?

Watching the news at lunchtime today I was treated to the edifying spectacle of the Governor of the Bank of England being blamed by the policticians for the Northern Rock debacle. The Governor made several very telling points which the MP's (I noticed that they all appear to be Scottish) tried to pin the blame for the whole thing on him. HIs most telling point in my view was when he pointed out that the mechanism which would have allowed him to act earlier and secretly had been removed by the very same MP's, their Civil Service Poodles and Brussels ealier this year.

The law was changed, according to the rationale of Brussels and our ever incompetent bureaucrats and politicians, to guarantee "openess". Kick in the Law of Unintended Consequences immediately. Since the Bank now has to publically announce what it used to do quietly and perfectly legallywithout the gutter press having the opportunity to create panic, was now conducted in public, guaranteeing that panic would ensue in the minds of the idiots who spent days queueing outside a bank that was never in danger of going under.

So now we will have the spectacle of our "New Elite" power freaks doing their damndest to hang a man who has to operate under the rules they have set up - and which patently don't work. Of course it's not their fault.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:00 PM | TrackBack

September 19, 2007

The new "Ruling Elite"

I don't often buy The Spectator, but a recent headline caught my eye and I simply had to read the article. I'm glad I did, because I now know that I am not alone in thinking that the great institutions of democracy and even the Civil Service have been hijacked by a small elite whose sole interest is to take power and to retain power by any means they need to. The old "Establishment" has been turned out and replaced by career politicians, people who began their political careers as student activists, graduated to Trade Union councils, Borough and County government and then moved on into Parliament without ever having actually done a days work in the fields of manufacturing (they can tell you all the buzz words, all the statistics and all the reasons why our industry is no more), commerce (again all the buzz words, all the contacts, but not the faintest understanding of how it all functions) and the public services(except for photo opportunities when it suited). In short, we are now ruled by a small elite who are best described as Career Politicians.

They have never done anything else. And they are determined never to have to.

As the Spectator points out, this new breed of politician is totally focussed on having power, taking power and keeping power. They will lie, steal and if necessary destroy everything and everyone that gets in the way. They are ruthless, narrow minded and utterly corrupt. Morality is no longer a matter of religious belief, it has been perverted to reflect the prejudices of this elite. The Spectator describes them as self-serving and that is certainly one of the key hall-marks of this dangerous new breed. Their language is one of self-congratulation - the Spectator describes it as "self referential" - in which the key element is to keep telling the voters how good they are denying any evidence to the contrary and to describe any opposition as "Fascist". A close examination of their actions betrays the fact that everything is about manipulating they way we think, speak and even dress - just look at the way our ruling elite present themselves. It surely cannot continue to go unnoticed that Gordon Brown, the man who refuses to wear a black tie and dinner jacket never mind the white tie and tail coat which is de rigeur for any dinner at the Mansion House, wears the full Scottish regalia when in his Constituency North of the Border.

There is a new form of power dressing going on - one which deliberately sets itself outside of any respect for anyone else's feelings and seeks to confront, never to concede to anyone else's concept of etiquette.

This divorce from the voters has a sinister side to it - the voter is increasingly treated as being unable to think for themselves, so unable to engage in a debate on any subject. In short, they are there to be told what to do, how to vote and even what they may or may not think. Do not think that any of the Parties are free of this, you need only look at David Cameron's front bench to see that they have cloned their Nu Labour counterparts and are as boorish and disconnected with the real world as the present government. Nor does it end there, for the upper echelons of the Civil Service have been salted with their placemen and the institution of the Civil Service has gone from being merely incompetent, to being the single greatest threat to our freedom and democracy. Why is this so? Simply because it has become the natural home of the New Elite, an elite that recognises no ideals but their own, and which will use every means at its disposal to hold onto power.

Look about you at any political gathering and watch who cuddles up to who, who is left on the fringes and who excluded. This is not about good governance, this is purely and simply about who wields power and who hands it out. Watch the men with the dark suits, the dark glasses and the mobile phones that never seem to stop. Watch the skilled avoidance of answers to straight forward questions and the insistence of "spin" in every statement. Spend any time in their presence and you rapidly realise that there is nothing to distinguish one from the other. They are there purely and simply to have power, they have nothing in common with the voters they supposedly represent and, irrespective of party, are closely allied in retaining the fat salaries, over generous pensions and the very profitable careers they have all carved out for themselves.

And the real tragedy is that we - more fool us - have allowed them to do it. No we have helped them to do it - because we either voted for them or refrained from voting altogether. We have only ourselves to blame!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 17, 2007

The big Confidence Trick in British Politics

The latest Conservative Party policy statement shows just how far David Cameron has taken his party from being electable. I could go into a huge rant about this here, but I don't need to. The Gorse Fox has beaten me to it.

Visit and read his post entitled Politics - the big Con.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 15, 2007

Banking panic ....

What get's into people's heads? Or perhaps I should ask what is it that the media think they are doing when they sow panic in people's minds. The Banks borrowing money from each other and from the Bank of England is nothing new, they do it all the time. Yet, looking at the headlines in the papers over the last couple of days you could be forgiven for thinking that the bank at the heart of all this fuss was about to go belly up and take everyone's money with it. What nonsense - and more fool the idiots rushing down to the local branch and demanding their money back.

Anyone with any knowledge and a half ounce of common sense knows that NO bank EVER has all the money on it's books in it's vaults. Certainly not since the end of the 19th Century anyway. Read the small print on the bank notes in your wallet - it's a "promissory note". In other words it "represents" money, and its only value is the issuing bank's assets. Originally this was gold bullion, held in a reserve stock by the bank. Each "Issuing Bank" had to keep a certain percentage of it's circulating "Bankers Notes" available in bullion in case someone wanted "real" money. That standard vanished forever in the 1930's with the "Gold Standard" and now the "value" of any country's currency is made up of a mixed bag of "goods" which represent the nation's trading assets and reserves. Very little of the currency actually in circulation is backed by "hard" assets such as real bullion, most of it is in "intangibles".

The banking system is now run on a system which allows the bank to take a one hundred pound deposit from one customer and "lend" eighty to another customer. That customer deposits the borrowed eighty and they then lend another sixty five to the next customer and so on. This keeps the money working and in circulation. The first customer gets his five percent interest on his deposit and the borrowers are paying seven percent (or more!)interest to the bank, so the bank makes a profit and the actual hundred pounds is behaving as if it were two hundred or more. Everyone is happy - until there is a hiccough in the cash flows. Then the original bank borrows money from their neighbour or the Central Bank (In our case the Bank of England) and keeps the money flow going. The original depositor hasn't "lost" his money and won't, because the bank covers itself with insurance and under guarantees is obliged to ensure that depositors cash is kept safe.

But evidently the idiots running up and down High Streets grabbing money out of Northern Rock and shoving it into other banks or stashing it under their mattresses haven't figured out that if anything is likely to cause them to lose their deposits - it's themselves and their behaviour in stripping money out of the bank!

This is one of those cases where the media has triggered a panic by their sensationalist reporting. The Northern Rock was never in danger of "going under" and probably still isn't. But there is no doubt at all that the damage that has been done in this "run" on their liquid assets (money) will hit their reputation and their business extremely hard. Come to that, they, or their insurers, would probably do well to issue a few writs for damages against the more sensationalist headline writing rags. It might just shake our media out of its shock/horror sensationalist attitude and bring them back to earth and reality.

In the meantime, if you have money to invest, I suggest you rush round to the Northern Rock and negotiate an over the average interest rate for your deposit. You'll probably be welcomed and given whatever you ask for!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 11, 2007

9/11

Today marks the anniversary of one of the most appalling acts of atrocity - the seizure and use of airliners to destroy the Twin Towers and attemps upon other targets in the US.

Personally I will never forget the moment I learned of the attack - or, more importantly, the moment I saw the towers collapse. I will be making space today to remember those who died in that attack, and those who have died since in the war on the terrorists who seek to bring down our freedoms and replace them with the tyrany of a medieval vision of faith founded upon a Christian heresy.

I hope that those who read this will join me in praying for all those who struggle to throw off the yoke of oppression everywhere and maintain freedom of faith, freedom of choice and freedom of dissent.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:59 AM | TrackBack

Imperial or Metric?

So now we know. It wasn't Brussels and the unelected Commission that "forced" Britain to give up Imperial weights and measures, it was our own unelected and bomb-proof Whitehall W*nk*rs. Brussels now says that the Directive was intended as a "guideline" and to be "liberally" interpretted and that Whitehall "Gold Plated" it. Now there's a surprise.

It has long been the Monk's view that The Whitehall W*nk*rs have been very efficient at using every "suggestion" from Brussels to expand their numbers exponentially by interpretting the Brussels Dictats as strictly as they can. This ploy has been seized on by the control freaks who infest the corridors of Westminster who have ably played along with it in the interests of taking to themselves the power to take away from us all our democratic freedoms - the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression and the freedom to make our own choices in a wide range of activities.

The latest declaration from Brussels to the effect that they never intended BRitain to have to give up the system of Imperial Weights and Measures leaves Whitehall and Westminster exposed as the culprits in the whole sorry mess that is the "Metric Martyrs". What is more, it leaves the Trading Standards Gauleiters exposed as over zealous jobs worths. The real problem is the Weights and Measures legislation which makes it a criminal offence to use Imperial measurements. THAT was written by - you guessed it - The Whiethall W*nk*rs and approved by the Westminster Wastrels. For those who bother, reading the directive is informative - it states only that on materials traded between member states the weights or measurements must be in metric and not in any 'local' system. Whitehall decided to force the entire country into metrc - without a mandate to do so and without the consent of the electorate.

That tells you everything you need to know about the state of our democracy today.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 07, 2007

Crime and no punishment ....

My youngest daughter, Allison Monksdottir (to use the Icelandic manner of naming offspring), had, until sometime yesterday morning (very early!) as her pride and joy a red, white and blue Honda CBR400. It was her transport and her prize possession, something she worked hard to save up and buy and has battled long and hard to master. It was a powerful beast, one which gave her a lot of pleasure. But obviously someone else rather fancied it as well - and wasn't about to make an offer or even to go out and buy their own.

Allison's bike, stolen in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Yesterday morning Allison's bike was stolen off the drive of her home in Bromley. It won't have been that easy to do because the bike was behind the family cars and in a difficult to reach position. Whoever stole it cut the security chain very carefully (and quietly!) and then obviously lifted it into a van to take away. It was evidently (according to the Met anyway) the work of someone who has been staking this out and planned very carefully, because the family were at home, windows open and no one heard it happen. Even less encouraging is the police reaction. "There's a lot of this happening at present and there isn't much hope of recovery - it's probably already been stripped for parts and the frame crushed."

Quite. So they won't be doing much looking for it then obviously. Makes you wonder why we bother paying the Police Precept on our taxes. And as for the leaflet they handed her telling her how to "reduce the risk of becoming a victim of crime" - it is plain bloody insulting.

As for the thieves - there had to be more than one person involved - I hope the bike assists them to achieve a full and unequivocal candidature for a Darwin Award. I just wish I could present it in person.

For the record, if anyone sees a red, white and blue Honda CBR400 with the registration plate G 726 WKE in the next few days - call the police to take the scum away for theft.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 04, 2007

London Life

My daughters both live in London, as does my son. The cost of living in London is horrendous unless you are one of the overpaid "city" traders whose bonuses usually amount to the sort of numbers that would feed the population of a small African country. No wonder property is so expensive that most young people cannot afford them and are forced to remain at home living in their parents homes and seriously blighting their marital prospects. The properties these kids are supposed to have access to are now reserved for the floods of migrants Mister Blair and his cohorts always deny are causing a problem, and they are forced to the outer suburbs where prices are also rising furiously. Then there is transport to and from work - usually in central London ....

So now that "Mayor" "Red" Ken Livingstone has barred the cars - by imposing a tax on motoring - and increased the price of travel on public transport to pay for his fancy new headquarters how are these kids supposed to earn enough to live? According to Ken and Brown there isn't a problem, besides they shouldn't expect big pay packets, after all those are reserved for Labour Luvvies, politicians, civil servants and their cronies in the City. Why should nurses, teachers, fire fighters, police, not to mention the shop assistants,clerks and cleaners and the other ordinary "grunts" who actually do the work in this cesspit of a city expect any help from the "mayor"? That is now reserved for the hordes of Labour voting immigrants he has welcomed into the city and handed all the benefits and housing too. Well, my daughter suggested I quote her on this so here it is - especially as Mayor Livingstone's mismanagement of the GLA is now about to be expressed in a strike (Anyone else remember him and his cronies marching with striking dustmen in the '80's while he was head of the unlamented GLC?) and screw the workers who are forced to rely on his dirty, overcrowded and unreliable transport system.

I quote: -

Have you heard that London Underground staff are planning a 72-hour strike this week? The TFL website is telling people to get home by 5pm... am I still living in a first world country? Am I under curfew? Am I going to be able to keep my job if they hike fares again or go on strike again?!? I'm sure the London mayor would tell me to cycle into work, but I'm sure you can guess where I would tell him to stick that idea, the crocodile tear-shedding holier-than-thou central-London-ivory-tower-dwelling dictator-disguised-as-a-socialist freebie-snaffling gargoyle freak! Bah!

Need I say more?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:49 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 29, 2007

Now listen to Nanny children ....

I suppose it was inevitable. Now we are to have road signs telling us not to trust our SatNav devices. It seems that the Nannies in our councils, departments of state and government simply cannot stand the fact that we might think for ourselves - they have to tell us that occassionally the SatNav is a little "off beam". Nothing less than the outlawing of all GPS devices will satisfy this pack of morons who seem to think that it is safer to have the driver on his own reading the Route Instructions from a print out from Google Earth or the AA Routefinder.

Well I for one don't. My GPS is 98% accurate and a damned sight safer than my balancing a sheaf of papers or a map book on the steering wheel!

These idiots who spend a vast amount of money on these meaningless signs - meaningless to anyone with an ounce of common sense - simply cannot believe that the average motorist is a sensible person who doesn't need to be coddled in this way. The reality is that they simply hate the fact that we can find our way about - in fact they don't like a mobile population at all. Heaven forbid, you may just find out that the people on the other side of the hill are not two headed freaks and the world isn't flat. Above all they don't want you to be able to choose when, where and how you travel, they wanbt to regulate that and force you to go where they want and when they think you should. In short, this is another assault on private transport.

Tax payers in Wales should gang up and refuse to pay for these signs. Let the Nannies who want them pay for them, but it should not come out of our taxes at all!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 28, 2007

So when is a State a Fascist State?

I must say that I have noticed over the last twenty or more years an increasingly derogatory approach to our national image and the Defence of the Realm among the intelligentsia. I have often wondered if it was in some way connected with the socialist "global" or "internationalist" view, and now, it seems, I may have stumbled on something that suggests that I may be right. It seems that there are fourteen "tests" of Fascist leanings applied by certain political academics and commentators when forming an opinion of any government. Unsurprisingly this includes the level of support within the government of the military, of the "national image" and such national symbols as the countries flag.

The full list includes:

1. Continuing nationalism, such as flying the national flag everywhere and taking pride in the national identity,
2. Ignoring "Human Rights" ethics,
3. Martialling the electorate by identifying "enemies" and scapegoating sections or particular groups,
4. Influence of the military - measured by how much is spent on defence against how much is spent on "social" programmes,
5. Media control, whether by "direct" control or with control in the hands of "sympathisers",
6. National security having a high profile in policy,
7. Government is overtly religiously linked to a particular faith,
8. Protection of Corporate Interests,
9.Overt sexism, measured as "masculine supremacy" and "oppression of women",
10. Trade Union activity is restricted or controlled,
11. Denigration of Intelligentsia and or/ restriction or control of higher education
12. Emphasis on Crime and Punishment, measured as how harshly the criminal is punished and how much effort goes to "reforming" the criminal,
13. Corruption and cronyism, again looking at who gets what job, is connected to who and how the appointment is made,
14. Fraudulent elections - measured by the level of smear campaigning against opposition members and parties, dirty tricks and ballot box rigging to name but a few "tricks".

An interesting list, but I find it a little puzzling. The authors of this list have looked only at the regimes they considered "Fascist" in compiling it. Their list included Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, President Suharto and a number of South American Juntas. Notable for its absence are the Communist regimes all of whom subscribe to thirteen out of the fourteen - and probably, if one looked really closely, to number 9 on the list as well. Even our Illustrious Departed Leader's bunch of closet communistas subscribe to a minimum of twelve of them. In my book, that makes them Fascists and Gordon Brown's assuming the leadership will simply exacerbate it. Even number 14 is a bit misleading since, in any "party" election, the public do not truly have a say - the party selects the candidate (cronies) and the candidate doesn't represent those who don't vote for his or her party, but his or her party. There is a difference!

Even more ironic in this is the fact that these very same intelligentsia all come from that privileged Upper Middle Class band of the population, parents of professional background, well educated and represented in the professions, they are also the people stuffing the boardrooms of the Corporate paymasters of all the parties. Take another look at Number 13 and then at our own government - all the top jobs are filled by people with connections. Outsiders haven't a prayer! And that extends through the entire Civil Service as well, it is never what you know or how good you are, though that is always trotted out as the explanation, it is always who you know and who knows you. The ticket to every Boardroom is a spell in Westminster/Whitehall - and of course, the right "social" attitude, connections and old school tie help.

It never fails to amaze me how the intelligentsia of the Left in any society always blind themselves to the failings of their own political vision. Anyone who does not subscribe to their idea of Utopia must be a Fascist just waiting to herd people into gas chambers or line them up for shooting practice. Ironically this is not a new debate at all - in fact it is very clearly echoed in the Senatorial debates of the mid 5th Century in Rome when Senators argued that letting the Barbarian Hordes into the Empire and allowing them to take over control of the military (WE don't want to sully our hands with that darling!), local colonia and of letting them establish alternate legal practices and systems while arguing it was "good for the renewal of Rome" all came to nothing on 410 to 476 when Rome simply fell apart because no one was interested in holding it together any longer. I am fascinated to see these debates being raised in the US and across Europe again, it seems we never do learn that there is a moderate path in this, one which is not unreasonable and which does ensure that our society is not destroyed and re-invented every five hundred years.

Reading the reports on the advance of Fascism in government I was amused to discover that the authors of the list I have produced here are Democrats and are accussing President Bush and the Republican Party of Fascism. I find it amusing because their own party has subscribed for generations now to draconian immigration controls - far stricter than some of the really represive states I have visited. I find it very amusing that the list could be just as easily a list of the flaws of the Left and Socialism as it is of Fascism (And frankly I see little to choose between the two - certainly having lived under one really Fascist regime and seen the damage done by Marxist/Socialists on the other!), yet the authors seemingly refuse to admit the case.

To me it proves beyond doubt that my Political Science lecturer back in the 1970's was absolutely correct. There is no Left or Right. Politics is a circle, veer to far in either direction and you find they are the same.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:54 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 27, 2007

Greek tragedy

One could be excused for wondering what has gone wrong in Greece. The Peloponnese seems to have gone up in flames, and while a lot of it is probably, as suggested by the Greek authorities, down to arson, the overall catastrophe is not just the single act of a few stupid idiots. The overall piucture must be seen, and it is not an encouraging one. Firstly, this part of Europe has been in the grip of a heat wave for several months. Just as Britain has been under water, so the Eastern part of Europe has been without it. The vegetation is tinder dry and just needed the proverbial match.

Now we have the spectacle of watching the Greek forests go up in smoke, and must mourn those who have lost their lives and those who may have escaped the flames only by sacrificing everything else.

There is much in this to commend the Australian approach to a risk of bush fire, they use a scale of assessment and put out a Fire Hazard warning across the states. When the risk is particularly high they have an outright ban on any sort of out door fire - including any BBQ. It doesn't stop the moron with a match or lighter and the sort of terminal stupidity to think it a good laugh to set fire to some grass, but it does limit the potential for other sources. And the penalties for starting such a fire are harsh enough to really hurt the perpetrators when they are caught, and the Aussies have a good record on that too.

Watching the TV news two things have struck me rather forcibly on this occassion, first that the Greek Fire Services outside of the cities haven't the resources to deal with anything on this scale, second that by the time they started water bombing it was probably too late. The one good thing emerging from this is the mutual aid flowing across borders from their European neighbours and the Balkan states. A Greek tragedy has become an opportunity to build bridges for the future.

Pray for those involved, they will need our spiritual and physical support as this tragedy continues to develop.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:10 PM | TrackBack

August 25, 2007

Gun free Britain?

One of the most stupid and disasterous moves ever made by our bunch of idiots and do-gooders infesting Westminster has to be the ban of all lawful ownership of handguns. Coupled with Labour's outright refusal to put the criminal community at risk of any sort of punishment or retribution by granting the law-abiding citizens - sorry, subjects - of this benighted land the right of self defence without qualification and obfustication, we should not be surprised that gun related criminal activity has gone through the roof.

The latest blatherings of the current Blair-babe (Sorry that should be Brown Babe) disgracing the office of Secretary of State for the Home Office, claiming that gun crime is falling to an "unprecedented level" and the fact that in the last four days one boy has been shot dead by another teenager for no apparent reason other than machismo and four other men have been wounded, one wonders which planet she is living on. Mind you, the way Whitehall counts or fails to count things for statistical purposes, its not surprising she thinks gun crime is falling. I suspect it is one of those figures that is subject to a considerable amount of "false accounting" by the civil service to produce a figure the minister can wave in triumph. Truth it most certainly isn't.

We have had a biker shot dead on a motorway. And the M40 is a motorway that isn't just busy, it's crowded! We have had a boy shot dead in Liverpool, we have had two bouncers at a nightclub shot and seriously wounded, we have had the police fiured on by a motorist they stopped for dangerous driving (He then drove off at high speed and escaped!) and we have had another shotting incident in which no one was hit, but which certainly put the wind up those involved. According to the Home Secretary, gun crime is down. Well it is if you don't count people who weren't hit by the bullets.

The truth is, if Whitehall and Westminster weren't such strangers to the truth, that illegal gun ownership is way up. Owning a gun has become a fashion accessory for every teenage gang member and for most of the criminal fraternity. And the law abiding subjects of this country are the first to be arrested and dragged into court accused of manslaughter or murder if they dare to defend themselves in any way at all.

A writer called J T Edson, ironically a one time British postman, wrote a series of very popular and successful "Westerns" one of which was entitled "A town called Yellowdog". The basic plot involved a man being killed by outlaws who had taken over the town of Moondog somewhere in Texas. This had happened after the twon council had voted to outlaw the carrying of or ownership of guns by the citizens of the town. So the townspeople found it much easier to simply do as they were told and let the outlaws have it all their own way. Until the wrong man got killed and his friends came looking for his killers. The clean up was, as I recall, bloody, but thorough and the angry young men who cleaned it up renamed the town for the cowardly streak that ran through its soul.

That I suspect is the problem with our present society. We tolerate to much from our cowardly legislators and their jobs-worths civil servants. We tolerate a legal system that is not about justice but about protecting criminals and we do so because it is easier than speaking out and running the risk of being made to appear "Right Wing" or "reactionary". What will it take to change this?

Probably nothing less than an armed insurrection.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:13 PM | TrackBack

August 24, 2007

Newquay fire ...

The discovery of more human remains in the rubble of the Penhallow Hotel will be upsetting for those involved and for the relatives, but it will also bring an end to the uncertainty and to the pain suffered by knowing that someone is "unaccounted for". As an ex-firefighter I know that some at least of the first arriving crews will now be asking themselves the questions, "Could I have done more? Could I have saved them?" These will never go away, if you have been there while someone was dying in something as ghastly as this, these questions haunt every dedicated fire fighter - and the UK Fire and Rescue Services still, despite the circus that is London, have more dedicated men and women who are thoroughly professional about what they do than of the sort I described in my last post on this subject.

I ask that you pray for all those involved in this ghastly fire, they will need those prayers in the days ahead, both the victims/guests and the fire crews who attended it.

Those investigating the fire will need your prayers and support as well. There are a number of features of this fire that should give us all some disquiet. Whether or not it was arson is immaterial, this fire spread very rapidly, suggesting that the structure had some features which may have helped it spread. That raises questions about the fire protection and the generally accepted concepts of "passive fire protection" and its effectiveness. In my experience it is, only if it is maintained and tested in realistic conditions which take account of the size and type of fire it is likely to be exposed to. Then, in an old building which has undergone numerous changes, a lot of the integrity will have been compromised - creating channels for the fire to spread in hidden spaces and in unpredictable ways.

And on top of that, the investigators must tread carefully as they look for the remians of any other victims who may be still missing. All of our prayers will help sustain them.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:06 AM | TrackBack

August 21, 2007

War on spam

My little battle on the spambots seems to be having some success, the junk pouring in is easing, the posts attacked are getting older and older and the number of spam "comments" I delete daily has dropped from a hundred or more to no more than ten. Irritating is the fact that I am now having to close comment acceptance on my sermon posts and most of those with a religious content, they seem to be the prime target for a rather unsavoury porn site.

For those who would like to comment on any of my theology posts, drop me an e-mail and I'll find a way to insert them without giving the spambot a chance to sneak something else in. E-mail gray.monk@btinternet.com

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:05 AM | TrackBack

August 20, 2007

Tragedy in Newquay

The fire on Friday night at the hotel in Newquay has, inevitably, raised a number of questions concerning the principal of "Integrated Risk Management Planning" or IRMP as it is known in Whitehall speak. It is slowly emerging that the fire cover in this area, whose normal population numbers some twenty thousand and rises to one hundred thousand during the holiday periods, has been cut back. Only one "pump" (the primary response unit of any UK Fire and Rescue Service) was able to respond immediately, a second was available but, thanks to the cut backs, could not be manned. Worse, the only high reach appliances in the protected area were bot out of commission - we don't know why - and the only available unit had to be sent from Plymouth some fifty miles away.

Now, to be fair, it must be said that the old system of a prescribed number of pumps to be available within a specified time for a series of risk categories was onerous and could be wasteful of resources, particularly in the larger cities where it often meant having duplication of resources within spitting distance of each other. In rural areas the picture has always been radically different - and Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service is a good example of a small rural service facing some difficult risks and terrain with minimal resources to begin with. Under IRMP the removal of the professionals from determination of the best way to provide the protection needed, by placing the political head - the Chairman of the Fire and Rescue Authority in overall charge - and by the use of a statistically based computer game to determine where your resources should be and what is required, has seen the available manpower and the equipment cut back below what most professional fire officers (Another term Whitehall has insisted be removed - everyone is now called a "Manager" to hide tha fact that many of the "new" "managers" know nothing at all about fire fighting) would consider either safe or adequate.

Yes, they eventuially mustered a hundred and twenty five fire fighters to fight the fire and twenty two pumps, but the critical time which determines whether the fire will be small or large is the first ten to twenty minutes. If it is not contained within the compartment of origin within that time, you have lost the war. Now it better also be explained that that first strike window is further narrowed by the fact that there is always a delay in first of all discovering the fire - much depends on the type of alarm system - and then in responding appropriately. Human instinct is always to try and deal with it first, only when it is already taking hold will the occupier think to call the fire services. Now enter a further "buggery factor". Thanks largely to the complete incompetence of most senior officers now in London, the fire service has become the focus of the "crew safety overrides all other considerations Brigade." Which means that the first strike against a fire may be delayed for up to twenty minutes before the officer in charge - and nowadays his crew are able to refuse to take orders if they disagree with them - may decide he has sufficient safety cover for an entry to be made. By that time there is little point in attempting an entry in most cases - the building is already a goner. And, anyone still inside it is a likely to be retreived eventually as charred flesh and bone.

I recently walked away from a circus performance in London that would have had the Keystone Cops in tears. The first pump arrived on the scene while the fire was still small and visible on the ground floor. The crew argued that they could not risk entry becauise there wasn't a second pump, which arrived, then a second argument ensued because there weren't enough "resources" on the ground. The fire meanwhile had spread internally and was now visible on the first floor. More resources arrived and the fire spread happily to the third floor and through the roof. Twenty five minutes after the first pump arrived the fire entered the adjoining properties through the roof and I walked away, sick to the stomach at what the service I had once been proud to be associated with has become. The sight of a fire fighter sporting dreadlocks and arguing with a senior officer was just too much for me. I hope the London Fire and Rescue Authority is sued for its back teeth!

One thing I am certain of is that already those responsible for this stripping of the fire and rescue services will be covering their tracks. You may be sure that the blame will be placed on the fire fighters or on the unwillingness of the service to "embrace new thinking" - a favourite Whitehall canard which conceals the fact that the fire and rescue service no longer has any professional guidance form Whitehall, all policy is now decided on cost and cost alone. The Fire and Rescue Authority in Cornwall will blame "Treasury Cuts" or "lack of government funding" for the parlous state of their service and any deficiencies uncovered during the investigation of this tragedy will be expunged from the report lest it embarass the "modernisers" and new non-professional Chief Officers.

None of which will bring back the lives lost or comfort those involved. And it will not change a thing in the "new" fire and rescue service which no longer enters buildings to fight a fire, nor is fire fighting its concern. The new regime is a major con trick, since the focus on health and safety, no risk fire fighting means simply that, if you have a fire in your home, the FRA does not expect its fire fighters to extinguish it, but to watch it burn. IRMP has reduced the fire protection provided by the Fire and Rescue Services, and it has allowed the politicians to spend money on glitzy and almost worthless projects aimed at "prevention". While I am a strong advocate of prevention I do believe it must be done professionally and not through comic books and showy demonstrations.

There is a second thing about this fire which should be called into question and that is the whole concpet of "Risk Appropriate Solutions" which allow the user to decide what protection is adequate - quite often without the slightest understanding of what they are actually dealing with. The FRA's are no better, several have dispensed with professional fire officers auditing this important work and engaged unqualified people as "Code Enforcers". In other words they believe that a building which "fits the book" is a fire proof. Nequay is a prime example of one that wasn't and there are thousands more around the country. For this regime to work, every hotel and every public building has to be sprinkler protected and there has to be a legal obligation on the water suppliers to maintain the pressure required for these to operate. For far too long the Wankers in Whitehall have resisted the requirement to fit sprinklers to these buildings and talked up the cost. It is time to fire the lot of them out of their cushy "no-blame" posts and expose their lies on this head - and their incompetence to "manage" anything.

If the politicians want to go down the route of a dumbed down, under equipped, non-professional fire and rescue service they have no choice. Sprinkler protection is an essential for every public building from here on in, schools, hospitals, hotels, shpoos and shopping centres are just the tip of the iceberg. Private homes should no longer be built without them either. The politicians, the civil servants and the "modernisers" in the FRS management have lied about fire and fire safety, now they stand exposed. Let us hope that this tragedy triggers another look at how the service is managed, staffed, regulated and organised.

But I won't be holding my breath - there haven't been enough deaths yet.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 18, 2007

Spam, spam and more spam

Thanks to Seth (Hard a Starboard) and Skipjack, One Happy Dog Speaks and all the others who have offered suggestions on dealing with the bombardment of spam. I will be looking into protecting myself with some of the software suggested, but for the moment at least the closing down of comments on the older posts seems to be helping. At least the spam comments are thinning out a bit as the spambot hunts for ever older posts.

As John Paul Jones is said to have proclaimed - "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 17, 2007

Spammer update

Following on from my post of yesterday, I have tried to identify what the posts targeted have in common that would attract a spambot. I am a little disturbed at what I find. Now I know this is not scientific, and I know there is probably some other mechanism at work - I certainly hope so - but I'm sure that this is a part of it. A computer software friend tells me that the fact that all the spam has the same series of false e-mail addresses means it is probably coming from a computer that has been cloned. In short, some corporation out there has had their computer taken over by someone else to run this spamming programme and doesn't seem to be aware that they are hosting a rogue programme. That is a bit scary.

Secondly, looking through the most commonly targeted posts I found they have the following words in common, though, obviously, not all of the words appear in all of the posts.
love,
youth,
parents,
leisure,
pleasure,
city,
politics and politicians,
children,
adults,
discipline,
crime,
punishment,
Jesus Christ,
God,
faith,
Church,
religion and religious.

The list is quite extensive and that is a sample. Obviously not all of the words appear in all of the posts, but enough are "common" to make me wonder what the spammer who set this up is trying to push. One of the worst hit posts is "Guest Post" which has a large selection of words in it which appear to be common to all the other posts that are being hit - and one very disturbing aspect is the post that I put up only four days ago, entitled "Letting go" is already a prime target for this scum. Why am I disturbed by this? Primarily because it has a number of the key words including "Parents", "children", "parenting", "teaching" and "love" among others. Could it be that this purveyor of porn is trying to target children or sell child pornography?

And yesterdays post was hit within hours .....

Regretably I will be forced to close down the comments on that post if this continues - I have already had to close comments on a very large number of older ones, a time consuming and very annoying task at the best of times. Equally obvious is the fact that accessing the MuNu server is becoming very difficult at times - and a quick check shows me that the number of spam comments arriving in my "Approval" bin coincide with these periods. Draw your own conclusions.

One of my more radically inclined friends has suggested that the whole spam bot thing is actually being run by various government secret services in an effort to drive bloggers out of the internet. Frankly, I doubt any civil servant would have the wit or the ability anywhere in the world, they are parasites, not original thinkers wherever they are. But I certainly wouldn't put it past some of our political masters and media barons to want to try it. After all, while there are many blogs that don't rock the boat, there are many more that do publish reports and information our politicians and media do not want publicised. A nice theory anyway.

My own feeling is that this is simply a mafia style operation being run from a convenient Developing Country and designed to make money for its originators. Pity it has to be so difficult to beat and so damned irritating.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:11 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 16, 2007

Spam attack

I am under a constant bombardment at the moment from a spam generator. The "e-mail" address on all of these is Pakerson@mgmail.com which is obviously a false address. Up to now I have been able to contain this quite simply by deleting everything and then closing the comments on the post they were targetting. Now they are targetting posts almost as soon as I have put them up.

It could be funny I suppose, but I really do not appreciate being targeted to post links for porn sites, particularly those of a more marginal nature.

If this continues I will have no option but to close all access to posting of comments - and I'm pretty sure that it is only a matter of time before one of these damned spammers finds a way to bypass your login for your blog and start posting directly. I recently posted an item in which I mentioned the fact that a lot of blogs I used to enjoy have disappeared - and from the feedback I have had, spam comments and trackbacks are a major reason. I get fed up with having to clear out hundreds of spam comments every day and have several times contemplated giving up the struggle. Then I noticed that particular posts seemed to attract more spam than others and that led me to the conclusion that these things obviously hunt for a "key word" and attack any post with those words in them.

Well, for now I will continue to close down comments on the older posts and hope that has some impact. For the rest I shall just have to hope that Pixymisa and Co can find a way to install that clever system that makes a commenter enter a code .....

That seems to work.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 07, 2007

Foot in mouth?

So, after the floods comes the plague. Now we have Foot and Mouth again - and a rush of politicians and Civil Servants all eager to demonstrate its not their fault - really.

The most likely source of this outbreak seems to be a laboratory occupied jointly (it was once a Government Lab but has been partly "privatised" by the Treasury) by a Civil Service laboratory unit (Defra Managed!) and a private company. Already the Civil Servants are blaming the company with the usual claim that "Our Procedures have been followed to the letter." The problem with the "Procedures" is that, like any so called Quality Control system, it measures only certain things and ensures consistency of the measured parts. Thus, if the product is ordure, and everyone knows it is ordure, the ordure can at least be said to be absolutely consistent. The Procedures do not ensure that anything is improved or protected or even identified as being a potential risk. They just make sure that whatever they apply to is always handled in the same way.

So where is the problem in that you may ask. Simply this, if the procedure was written forty years ago, and is not updated or rewritten to take account of new knowledge or better methods of doing/protecting/safeguarding something all they will do is tick the boxes. They will not actually do a damned thing more. Procedures need to be flexible, they need to be written by people who know what they are doing and what they are dealing with and they need to be reviewed by people who know it as well. Any Procedure written by a non-specialist in non-specialist language to be interpretted and understood by jumped up filing clerks who call themselves managers isn't worth a damn.

I'm prepared to bet that the Commercial Lab side will get the blame for this - after all the Civil Service is investigating the leak so they won't find anything wrong with THEIR procedures now will they - and the politicians will try to tell us how well they and their Civil Servants have done to contain it. Will it get as big as the last outbreak? I doubt it, for one thing Whitehall daren't let it and the finger of blame from the last lot would now be pressed to their heads very much more firmly.

The real losers are again the British farming community, the British taxpayer and everyone whose livelihood depends on our livestock industry. I should think this outbreak will be it's deathknell.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:39 PM | TrackBack

August 04, 2007

Here's another nice mess?

Living in rural surroundings the prospect of another outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease is not one to contemplate with any pleasure. The response from our lords and masters in Whitehall has, however, been commendably quick on this occassion, perhaps some of the lessons of the last debacle have penetrated the corridors of power after all. We are told that the Dour Leader himself is on the way home from his hols to deal with it and his Agricultural Secretary is also homeward bound from Italy to be on hand.

Wisely, perhaps, the French and the rest of Europe have closed their borders to British meat. But I would suspect, from where this has occurred, that it may already be too late. More importantly perhaps we need to know where it came from to get here!

Last time the blame fell upon a pig farmer not cooking his pig swill either long enough or hot enough, I wonder who or what they will find to blame this time? Equally, perhaps it is past time to innoculate all animals against this terrible disease. That will, of course, be resisted by the farming community because they know that if they do so it will mean a permanent ban on their products across the EU, but should it? Why, if the animal has been innoculated, should it be seen as a threat? Surely the purpose of innoculation is to ensure that the disease is eradicated and does not spread or infect others?

No one wants to see the great pyres of slowly burning carcasses we saw up and down the country last time. That is too ghastly to contemplate. So let us hope that there is a quick and less drastic solution this time - and particularly let's have a dose of common sense to support the farmers affected by it. Now is not the time to start a "blame game" now is a time for solutions. Let's find some and let's not have all the usual spin and meaningless statements from Whitehall's chinless wonders.

I think it is long past time that the politicians stopped meddling and trying to 'manage' things they know nothing about and focussed instead on how they can get the sensible precautions that are needed to prevent the spread of this ghastly disease properly recognised and used. We cannot hide our heads in the sand and declare that we are not affected by Foot and Mouth, the fact is that we are.

So let's deal with it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:09 PM | TrackBack

July 31, 2007

Damning study of failure of "Youth" policies ...

If anything could have been a case of telling us what we already know it has to be the headline of the latest Government commissioned policy study. Teenagers in Britain are out of control. So tell us something we really didn't know. Better yet, tell us that the goivernment will now do what it should have done right at the outset. Purge the Civil Service, the schools and the universities of all the "touchy-feely" "reward bad behaviour" mob who have created this mess and silence the "child protection" mob who refuse to recognise the need for reasonable discipline in bringing up children. Better yet, make them pay for the long term soilutions we will now have to put in place.

THis debacle is not a revelation to any but those who have continually made excuses for bad behaviour. Those who felt that sending delinquents on expensive holidays to Africa, Disneyland and other destinations most law abiding families could not dream of sending their children to, should now be confronted and made to face their creation. They have given us a generation that does not understand restraint, does not recognise anyone's right to anything and certainly does not know how to deal with life.

There is no quick fix for this one, but, typically, the government's reaction is to throw good money after bad. More taxpayers money to reward bad behaviour. It is enough to drive the law abiding to revolution, it really is. Read the BBC news report and weep.

LONDON (AFP) - British teenagers are among the worst behaved in Europe, a study by a leading centre-left think-tank said Thursday, exposing high levels of fighting, binge drinking, drug taking and under-age sex. But the Institute for Public Policy Research, favoured by former prime minister Tony Blair, said young Britons were not to blame, accusing successive governments of leaving them to their own devices through policy failures.

The report -- "Freedom's Orphans: Raising Youth in a Changing World" -- was published as the government was set to announce a major injection of cash into youth projects as part of a 10-year strategy for children and young people. "Britain has a real problem with its teenagers," said IPPR senior research fellow Julia Margo, highlighting that children may be richer than their predecessors, more computer-literate and fashion-conscious but are "life poor. British teenagers are more likely to get into fights, hang out with other teenagers, binge drink, take drugs and have under-age and unprotected sex than teenagers in most other European countries. But it isn't their fault."

Margo said teenagers should be made to spend less time "hanging out" with each other and challenged the government to be less "touchy-feely", arguing that compulsory, not optional activities, would help reign in unruly teens. "They (children and young people) might not like it but the evidence shows that the ones who don't want to do it are the ones who would benefit the most," she added.

Outlining her intentions earlier this month, minister for children and young people Beverley Hughes said giving positive activities for young people, especially the most deprived, was a "real priority" for the government. A 115-million-pound (172-million-euro, 235-million-dollar) Youth Fund scheme has been providing activities and facilities like DJ-ing classes, childcare for teenage mothers to attend night school and a youth radio station, since 2005. The IPPR said it feared the government would only offer teenagers the chance to participate in after-school activities rather than make them whether they like it or not. Regular attendance at extra-curricular clubs helped pupils manage their emotions better, cut down on anti-social behaviour and "radically improve" life chances, it added.

Its conclusions were based on analysis of surveys of people born between 1958 and 1970 and those with young people today. They suggested that those who participated in sports or community-based activities aged 16 were more likely to be better off at age 30.

All were less likely to be depressed; single, separated or divorced; in social housing; have no qualifications; or be on a low income.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:47 PM | TrackBack

July 29, 2007

Another view of the floods ....

A friend has agreed to my posting an e-mail he has circulated on his experience of the flood - and those of a few of his friends and colleagues. Certainly gives another view ....

Dear All

I know that as I write, some of you reading may have had a worse time than me in the floods, I hope that things are getting better

I have just been out to the garden to fetch a bucket of rainwater to flush the toilet, it really is strange to think that we will be without water for up to two weeks, it really is something that you take for granted. Kate has reminded me that on her gap year she had to fetch all of her water from a well, for others in different parts of the world that is their way of life - but it is not what we expect in Cheltenham Spa.

At Foxmoor we are lucky in that we still have electricity and we have no flood water in the house, some people have flood water in their house nothing coming out of the taps and no electricity. For those of you in the UK you will probably have seen the news that the fire brigade and the military managed to save our electricity sub station, if that had flooded the 400,000 of us that have no water would also have no power.

The train line that I use, Hereford to Oxford, then on through Didcot, Reading and to London Paddington is closed. Much of the line is badly damaged between Worcester and Oxford, no trains expected until 6th August when I will be in Cyprus. The line from Oxford to Didcot is still flooded. Yesterday I drove to the office in London, from there people find it difficult to understand the severity of what is happening, whenever we see events on the television they give us a little window on the world, but in 90 seconds no feel for what it is really like. The rain was very heavy on Friday and even those without floods coming up were affected by surface water, I heard of friends in Kensington and Fulham (west London - for my Russian readers!) who had water in their flats.

Friday was a very strange day, as the rain and flooding stated to develop it was very difficult to understand just how severe it was. I had to visit a Visa operations site in Basingstoke, when I opened the front door I didn't really want to take the bins to the end of the drive as the weather was so heavy........I spoke to Nigel Brammar and Neal Manners who some readers will know, we had planned to get together at the weekend to watch some motor cycle racing at Prescott in the Cotswolds, I suggested we might cancel........I am sure that they thought that I was being dramatic. I set off for Basingstoke in steady rain. I missed the turn in Basingstoke and had to go a little further around the ring road, I drove through a huge puddle with two cards already abandoned, as a result of my error I had to turn around and go through the puddle, this was at about 10.30, three hours later when we drove past the same location, the police had closed the road, there were six abandoned cars and somebody wading through the water that was up to their chest.

When I had arrived for the site visit, I had to put on the hat and coat that I keep for in the car for dog walking on Cleeve Hill, not really suitable business attire, the rain was really very very heavy. Relecting yesterday (Tuesday) a colleague at Visa, Harin, said that rain like that is common in the Indian sub-continent, the monsoon season...........but Hampshire is not supposed to have a monsoon season……….especially in July!

Lunch on Friday involved going to a lovely pub, an old mill......by the time that we got there the mill stream was in the car park and the landlord had the carpets up, he took us to an upstairs room and served lunch, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, there was no feeling of how awful things were not far to the north.

I left Basingstoke at 4pm hoping to be back in Cleeve by 6ish, it is only about 85miles (130km) it was then that the adventure started! Tom called me and told me to find a hotel for the night. My journey actually took about 8.5 hours, for those that know the route, I knew that the road from the M4 past Swindon was difficult and so I tried to go across country via Hungerford, Lambourne and Farringdon – normally very pretty, but huge puddles and lots of abandoned cars. I made it to somewhere between Wantage and Farringdon but got turned back by the police as the road was deemed too dangerous for anything except tractors and land rovers. I had already made a 20 mile detour via Wantage to drop off two decorators who had swamped the engine on their van, one of them had tried to fix it and his mobile phone had fallen from his pocket into the water – really not his day………..he just wanted to be dropped at a pub!!

So having been turned back I had to go all of the way back to the M4 and onto the A419, the traffic was nose to tail, I made 12 miles in two hours and thought that it would be like it all of the way to Cheltenham, another 30 miles, but I suddenly came across the problem about 200 metres of surface water about 2ft (600mm) deep and everybody proceeding with great caution, once past that I was able to knock off the 30 miles in about 45 minutes, until I reached Cheltenham. An extraordinary scene awaited me, cars abandoned everywhere at all sorts of angles, I was lucky, I managed to stay on the east side of the race course, drive through Prestbury and get home. Prestbury was amazing, the main street was like a shallow river, but passable with care. While all of this was going on James was trying to get home from the east, he traveled down the A46 until it was impassable he somehow made his way to the A40 and got into Cheltenham from the east. As some of you know he is qualified in Agriculture and is used to driving on all terrains, his language when describing some of the driving that he had seen could be described as agricultural!! In the meantime my friend Karen was traveling from Alnwick (close to the Arctic circle!) with son William and dog Scruffy to spend the weekend with us, she made it to Birmingham by 4.00pm, but the next 38 miles (64km) took her 15.5 hours as the M42 and M5 ground to a halt with the severity of the flooding. She was able to walk Scruffy on the M42 and the M5. She had plenty to eat and drink but was afraid to, without going into detailed biology, she was more comfortable being thirsty and hungry than dealing with the consequences in a lady like manner – observed by three lines of stationary traffic. It is a strange thing, we all felt guilty going to bed at about 2.00am knowing that a friend was stuck in a car on the motorway. Many of you will have seen the M5 on news bulletins.

When Karen arrived, she had a sleep and we had a lovely Saturday with a meal at the pub in the evening, we knew that the floodwater was serious at Tewks but it often is, it was only on Sunday that we really realised just how bad things were.

A neighbour knocked on the door saying that her son was working with some engineers who were trying to save a pumping station, we should fill a few pans, we did and went off to the pub for a lunchtime drink, lots of talk about the water, but the opinion was that it was scare mongering. Home, and an agreement to have a BBQ in the evening, in spite of the rain Sunday was a great evening. Not much food, the local Tesco had been stripped bare, we talked about journeys on Friday. My neighbour Dean and I were still not sure if we should head for the station on Monday morning, him for the 6.40 and me for the 7.18, the website said that journeys would be subject to delay, after another bottle we decided that it was best to work from home than to stand on a station waiting for a train that may not come. The last bottle of red was a good investment, we have a 40 minute drive to the station and may well not have made it – if we had at the time of writing the train has still not come and is not expected until 6th August, that’s a long delay even by First Great Western standards.

During Monday the water stopped coming out of the taps, which is where I started, fetching water from the garden. Earlier this morning I passed a convoy of eight army lorries being delivered to Cheltenham, we can collect 12 litres of water per household per day from the centre of the village, there are police there to prevent fights, we also have “bowsers” dotted all over the place with water that can be drawn off, it has to be boiled – which would have been a challenge for many of the electricity had gone as well. More on BBC website

It would be great to hear from anybody who is still with me and has not lost the will to live!

Chris

PS I am new to commuting, but have met and talked to some of my fellow travelers, I know frowned on in some commuting circles! One of them Alastair, a latent eccentric is writing a blog, am entertaining few minutes if you are at a loose end, I am featured……so are the floods – and Sid (because I know you will still be with me!) so are two RAF officers, one a former Z4 owner

The blog – www.trainfellows.blogspot.com

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:40 PM | TrackBack

July 28, 2007

Newsnight

Yesterday we had the Channel 4 team setting up their equipment in the Abbey so that they could broadcast "Newsnight" live from the Abbey. At the same time we had the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall touring the worst hit areas of the town and it was encouraging to hear the very positive comments from those introduced to him - especially in a Labour constituency.

How different then the approach of the Channel 4 team to their carefully selected panel. Some, like the Bishop of Gloucester who cancelled another engagement to be there, weren't even given time to talk. Nor was our Chiuef Fire Officer whose people had performed almost superhumanly for the last week. Instead they obviously tried to stir up a "blame game" and I am very pleased to say that they failed. It probably didn't make for exciting TV, but it was good to see the Environment Agency and the Severn Trent Water representatives actually being supported by the two Mayors and the victims.

The problem here was that the water levels rose so rapidly that there was almost no warning and certainly no time to implement the flood defence plan. Thos parts of it that were implemented worked well and the post disaster recovery plan is also well on track. The damage at the Myth Water Treatment plant has to be seen to be believed. It isn't just a case of flood water in the tanks and filter beds - the gantry and the intake pumps - a pair of really massive submersible horizontal pumps which normally sit 12 metres above the Severn - are gone. The river took them and their gantry. So what are the Severn Trent people doing?

Well, they are not just trying to rebuild the pumps, they are also also creating some new links between the Tewkesbury and Gloucester reticulation system and those adjoining it. This is how they have managed to get water back on the Tewkesbury system within six days. This morning they are extending that to the Bishop's Cleeve and north Cheltenham area and I have absolutely no doubt these guys will get water back on to the rest of Gloucestershire within the fourteen days they originally estimated.

Finally, in what must be the first occassion such a thing has happened, the Church Missionary Society branch in Niarobe, Kenya has contacted our Bishop and wants to send aid to those affected by our floods. A Bavarian Friewieligerfeuerwehr has contacted the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service anbd offered its pumping vehicles and twenty-five firefighters and an Aid Agency also based in Germany yesterday delivered 80,000 litres of bottled water and 10,000 litres of bottled apple-tize drinks for distribution to children ....

What can one say? How different to the attitude of the media and the Westminster politicians whose only interest seems to be to find someone to blame so that the finger cannot be pointed at them.

I think that I prefer the attitude of our Town and Borough Mayors. Praise the work they various agencies are doing and have done - and then let's pull our community together to get back on our feet as quickly as possible. You cannot blame someone for the speed at which this flood arrived and we certainly cannot blame the Water supplier for the loss of a plant built by Whitehall in the 1960's on a flood plain, albeit the same plant was built above the level of the highest previously recorded flood.

It was an interesting experience watching the filming of the programme last night and I have to say that the participants displayed the best of the Tewkesbury spirit in responding.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:21 AM | TrackBack

July 27, 2007

We have water!

You can't drink it and you do need to boil it, but we have water in the taps! It trickled back slowly and there isn't a lot of pressure behind it, but it really makes you conscious of just how dependent we now are on our technology and infrastructures. As soon as they fail we find out just how unsustainable our modern style of life is.

These last four days without the simple luxury of being able to turn on a tap and draw water for every need has certainly brought home to me how vulnerable our entire society has become. After all, our homes depend on electricity, gas and water all being supplied - we are not able to draw water from wells, water butts or even the local stream anymore. We cannot cook or heat our homes without electricity or gas and I have watched families trying to use barbeque equipment in the rain to cook basic food for themselves. I have also seen some remarkable examples of people getting together to help each other and to share those resources and services which one may have had and others lacked.

Sadly we have also had examples of the moron mentality that seems to have embedded itself in certain sections of the community. Examples include the deliberate fouling of the street water bowsers, of "youffs" turning on the taps on these and leaving the water to drain away. It does make you want to bring back the sort of instant justice practiced in medieval times. Placing them in the stocks for public ridicule, chain gangs forced to work to repair damaged roads and bridges or dry out damaged homes, possibly even public flogging would be a suitable punishment.

But, on a positive note, I really do want to say to all those still working round the clock to restore the electricity supplies, the gas supplies and the most important of all - the water supply. Well done to you all! Not just well done - you're bl**dy marvellous!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:54 AM | TrackBack

July 26, 2007

Receding slowly ....

The Flood peaked on Monday so we are told and there has been a steady fall in the levels. Electricity has also been restored to most of us (as you can see - I am back online!) but the one key thing that will not be so easily restored is our water supply. That will take between seven and fourteen days. No baths, no washing up, no flushing the loo ...

Now is a good time to invest in deodorants and other "household" perfumes ....

The water sneaking into the Abbey via a low drain that has reversed its flow.

Abbey Mill and the Ham at the height of the flood. Note the water has reached the first floor.

The former Abbey School in Gander Lane and Gander Lane itself filled with water.

And looking west towards the confluence of the Severn and the Mill Avon at Lower Lode. The line of trees in the middle is the Severn ...

Rain is forecast for the next few days, but is not expected to produce a rise in the water levels. We will just have to hope and pray that the rivers continue to fall back from their current height and that the Water Company can get their filtration plant and pumps running again quickly.

Thanks to all who have prayed for us and supported us through this disaster.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Recovery in the community ...

Yesterday our Bishop came to see us and to spend time with those affected by the flooding. His own home in Gloucester, though unaffected by the flood, has no running water and was without electricity for several days so he is able to identify very closely with all of us as we deal with sorting ourselves out. Many of the smaller parishes ditted around the Diocese have been devastated by the floods. Where the Abbey had a couple of inches of water at the West End, other churches have had four or five feet through them. And those are the churches, usually built on high ground ....

The houses around many of these churches are devastated. The hotels, restuarants and other businesses all face a huge clean up and loss of business in the interrim. The long term effect on everyone here is likely to be pretty harsh. Many businesses will not survive, many homes will not be repairable and sadly the death toll will continue to rise. So far we have one man missing, two confirmed dead and two babies born prematurely also dead.

It will be a very long hard road to put things right again and we will need your prayers and support to do it. Our Bishop has written the prayer below for use in all our churches as we start the recovery process, please pass it on for others to use as well.

Bishop Michael’s Prayer

Creator God, hear our prayer.
As we look with dismay on the floods across our county,
we ask you to look with compassion on all who are suffering on those whose homes are spoilt,
whose livelihood is threatened.

We thank you for acts of courage and of kindness
and pray a blessing on all who rescue and relieve.

And, when the floods have gone, guide us to learn lessons.
Help us to live in harmony with the laws of nature
and in reverence for a creation you have made to be very good.

Creator God, hear our prayer.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:57 PM | TrackBack

July 25, 2007

Real heroes

The current flood crisis has exposed the folly of many "managers" in the Public Services, the usual crop of non-specialist filing clerks who have risen to positions of authority over services they know nothing about except what they have been told in their famous "business cases" and "briefing notes". These are the people who keep appearing on the TV and answering the inevitable question of "how do we flush the loo?" with - "conserve your bath water and use that sparingly to flush." What bath water?

It has also seen a magnificent response from the troops on the ground. Police, fire, ambulance, life boat crews, army, navy and airforce personnel, electricity workers, water suppliers and the horde of volunteers who have worked non-stop to deal with the floods, rescue people, distribute supplies and try to keep services running.

My electricity was restored, by means of a huge mobile generator which arrived at 23.00 on Monday night, at 01.00 on Tuesday morning. This meant that a team of electrical technicians and engineers worked to find the cables, disconnect the flooded sub station and then connect their generator. Elsewhere my former colleagues in the fire and rescue services have worked round the clock dealing with rescue, flooding and every other type of incident. We have crews here from all over the country and no one is working to normal time. Sleep? They take it when and where they can. It makes me proud to have been associated with these folk and wish I could still contribute to the effort they are making.

These are the real heroes of the hour, the men and women who have done the job, know what they are doing and how to do it. They are pulling it off in the face of equipment shortages, poor planning and appalling conditions. Your prayers and your good wishes for them all should be shouted from the rooftops. Make sure they hear you!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:42 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 23, 2007

Flood update

Sorry folks, I am accessing the blog through a friends computer. My home is not flooded, but our electricity supply is cut off. Seems someone's "Cost Benefit Analysis" after the last floods came up with "there would be insufficient benefit" in moving the sub station out of the flood plain.

So now we have the main distribution sub station at Gloucester about to go under water. I wonder what the cost benefit is of shutting down the power to 500,000 homes? On top of the several thousand already without powerfor the same reason?

Oh well, all my freezer is now emptied and the contenbts are in myt friends freezer. I still have gas, and I'm still dry.

The Abbey has about an inch of water in the nave as nd will require a thorough cleanup to get rid of the silt once the water goes down. At the moment everyone is concentrating on getting the people ssafely housed, fed and minimising the damage to their lives. The hotels in te centre of town havewaived their room rates and everyone is pitching in the help each other. It's good to feel part of a community that can do that. Well, that's it folks, time to get back to seeing whatcan be done. Keep the battery radio going and listen to the News.

But the next turd of a Civil Servant blatlhering from their nice warm, well lit and comfy home in the best and most expensive parts of London about how "they see no reason why more houses can't be built in flood plains and catchment areas, is likely to get my Bell Book and Candle routine and be cursed into everlasting damnation!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 22, 2007

More on the floods

The flooding has brought out some of the best and the worst in people. The worst behaviour has been the 4x4 drivers who charge at flooded roads and throw up a wash that has overwhelmed the sand bag defences carefully built by people along the affected roads. These same road hogs have turned nasty in several instances when stopped by the police or residents and been asked to be more considerate. And now it is difficult to believe the number of people who have driven over here to look and see .....

You don't often see the RNLI Inshore rescue boats running on the roads ....

The best has been demonstrated by the inhabitants of the hostelry opposite the Abbey. When asked by the Vicar to help with the sandbagging of the Abbey doors and Porch they turned out to a man (and several women!) and shifted all the Abbey's furnishings into higher areas as the water crept across the nave floor. The Abbey folk are now cooking up a huge curry to share with everyone "on the island" - and Evensong will be held outside the Pub. A number of our congregation have been flooded, but again, others who are dry have rushed to find spare beds and places for those who can be evacuated. Christianity at it's best and at work. Our Curate, new as he is, has spent his time since Saturday morning in the Evacuation Centre offering help and comfort and some more practical help as well. And the Vicar managed to hold three Masses for those able to reach the Abbey ....

The rain has brought out swarms of butterflies and I captured these next to the flooded Mill Avon near Lower Lode.

The latest news is that the Monk's part of the town is about to lose it's power supply. No one seems to know when it will be restored, so, if I am absent for the next little while, it's because I am without that magic spark we call electricity for the next few hours/days/weeks!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Flood Pictures

Pictures at this point say more than words.

The Gloucester Road, with the flooded Abbey Terrace cotages. The water extends to the Bell Hotel and is still rising.

The water was last this high in 1947 and is still rising.

The view from the Gloucester Road as the waters continue to rise.

The view from the Lower Lode Road looking north across the Mill Avon towards the Old Avon and Mythe.

The Ham, which divides the Severn, Old Avon and Mill Avon - completely submerged.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:39 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

July 21, 2007

And down came the rain ....

If you are wondering why I am a little tardy in attempting a post it is because I have been on my feet looking after people stranded or evacuated to the Abbey for the last twenty-four hours. I am now going to crash into bed and sleep.

If you want to know what the floods have been like, let me say this. Another three feet and the Abbey would have had very wet floors - and we would have had to move a lot of people sleeping on them. The BBC Gloucestershire has some pictures.

And now to sleep!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:12 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

July 20, 2007

Good bye to Regional Assemblies, Hallo Regional England?

Over at the blog, The England Project, I found this excellent piece on the apparent retreat by our new Ineffable Leader from the detested Regional Assemblies his predecessor tried to impose upon England. Like the author of this piece I have deepe reservations about the honesty of the government's intentions here. After all, there are eight "Regional Ministers" who face losing their fat cat salaries and probably a few hundred thousand parasitic civil service bureaucrats who face redundancy if the Regional Government plan is scrapped entirely as it should be.

This entire expensive debacle is the work of the Labour Party which sought to entrench itself in power permanently in England, as it has in Scotland (Although not presently in their Parliament by the slimmest of margins) and Wales. The grand plan was to break England up into eight semi-autonomous "regions", each with an "Assembly", thus reducing the English to a status below that of Scotland with a "sovereign" parliament, but on a par with Wales and Ulster in having an Assembly. IT did not take a genius to work out that of the eight, Labour would inevitably be able to win almost permanent control of four, leaving the LibDems with probably two and the Conservatives with three at the outside. Westminster would then have remained controlled by the preponderance of Scottish and Welsh Labour MPs. Unfortunately for Blair, we saw through it. Now Brown seem to have taken the hint, but only on a limited scale. It seems that we will have to continue to have a bunch of unelected bureaucrats and appointed "ministers" dictating to us through the vastly expensive and wasteful "Regional Management Boards" they have set up as a nice little gravy train for themselves.

One thing you will have noticed the Ineffable Leader has not mentioned and very likely won't is the "West Lothian" question. Don't hold your breath - there is no chance he will ever address that, after all, his own constituency is in Fife and nothing he decides to do to England applies to his constituents. It couldn't get any better for him, no matter how hated he is in England, he will be re-elected by his Scottish voters because he doesn't do anything to them and can't be held accountable for the MSP's misdeeds now can he.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:32 AM | TrackBack

July 19, 2007

Pride and prejudice?

An interesting exercise conducted by David Lassman of the Jane Austen Festival has given rise to a bit of a flutter in the publishing trade. The Society sent in a range of very thinly disguised 'sample' chapters based entirely on well known works by Jane Austen. One, entitled "First Impressions" even included the famous opening line "it is a well known fact that a single man possessed of a large fortune, must be in want of a wife." Only one editor spotted the plagiarisms and the rest evidently never even read the samples, but simply sent in standard Rejection Slips.

While the revelation has caused a great scramble among the publishers to defend their process it has also revealed the great weakness in the system of selecting who to publish. I cannot escape the feeling that Miss Austen would not see the light of day as an author in today's publishing world. The reason, I suspect, is that almost all the publishers now employ as editors people who have come through university with a Literature degree and who select and defend only those works which meet the intellectual criteria they approve of. It certainly explains, for me, the reason I have found in recent years that the majority of best selling authors cannot hold my attention beyond around page three. Recent experience in my own writing with professional editors suggests to me that they are so wedded to certain formulae and forms that they would not accept works by the likes of W E Johns, C S Lewis or J R R Tolkien at all these days. Certainly any work which doesn't have a sex scene in every chapter, isn't brimming with aliens (in Sc-Fi - preferably seeking sex with everyone else) or in which the characters aren't using the "F" word perpetually as their only adjective seem to have no chance of publication.

So what are the publisher's looking at and for? Well, they all say they want a good story, but then you run into "what is the story?" or "this reads like a pale imitation of XXXXXX's novel ZZZZZ", which when you take the trouble to look it up, never having heard of XXXXX before, you find it bears no resemblance at all. They want a good dialogue, but then tell you that "more use of narative" would make the novel more readable. One agent summed it up recently, saying, "To get into the business today a new author can't be just good, he or she has to be outstanding because the industry isn't run by editors and publishers anymore, it is run by accountants who have reduced everything to a formula for sales."

Well, perhaps the latest little tongue in cheek "test" of the integrity of the Editors and selectors who dictate who and what we read these days will result in a review of what they are doing after this. That is the optimist in me - the pessimist says, it is unlikely. In the meantime, I will keep plugging away. My next book is out there doing the rounds and I have another to seel as well. Your prayers and support are appreciated!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 13, 2007

Terrorist police?

A headline recently caught my eye. As is usual with the modern media, it screamed across the newsagents. As it is not a paper I would normally read I ignored it, but the broadsheet I buy had also picked up the story so I read their version instead. It seems that our ever blundering bureaucrats, in their eagerness to "ethnicise" our society, have really screwed up this time. Many of those they have recruited to fill their "ethnic" quotas in the Metropolitan Police, and presumably other forces as well, have links to radical Islam, terrorist groups and Al Qaida. Nice one! Talk about scoring an "own goal" - they surely don't come much more embarrassing than this. It puts the old maxim of setting a thief to catch a thief in the shade.

It's either a very cunning ploy on the part of our Home Office clowns to deploy people from within Al Qaida to catch their rivals and, hopefully leave us alone, or its the most monumental blunder these blundering buffoons have yet pulled off.

What really gets my goat is that they will all continue happily in their overpaid jobs without a whisper of censure for it or even being kicked out as they should be. And we, the long suffering tax payers will have no choice but to pay their salaries, their final salary pensions and for the massively expensive and long drawn out investigations that must now take place. And they will all get "honours" for their outstanding service.

Pass me the sick bag, I think I'm going to be ill for some time.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:17 AM | TrackBack

July 03, 2007

A very Middle Class revolt?

The Timesonline recently published an item discussing the fact that many "middle class" taxpayers are cheating on their taxes. Having read the item I had a small smile at the irony since the present government purports to be mainly middle and working class and are therefore now criminalising their own. While the Times writer suggested that the Middle Classes are rebelling I am not so sure. After all, they are the people who voted for a government that wanted to redistribute wealth through "fair" taxes and who supported the "fair" concept of a society based on the respect for the rights of all "minorities" even where this disadvantaged the majority.

A commentator (in the extended post below) suggests that this is a sign of a rebellion in the middle classes at being constantly over burdened with regulations, taxes and nannying. Again, I am not so sure, I think this is more about the exercise of power - the dominance of ideas. Suddenly I think the middle classes - the professionals such as lawyers, doctors, small businessmen and women, accountants and bankerrs are waking up to the fact that they have been conned. What has happened in our society is a subtle shift of power away from the electorate to a coterie of semi-dynastic fulltime politcians and civil servants. The electorate and the taxpayer no longer has a say in what is fair, reasonable or affordable, that is all decided by a small and powerful group in Westminster and Whitehall.

So, is this a middle class revolt? I would say not yet, but I suspect it could become one very rapidly if they see themselves further disadvantaged in favour of other "empowered" groups favoured by this government, and increasingly, by the "New Conservatives" of David Cameron.

Watch this space, we live in a precariously balanced house of cards. One clumsy move by the politicians or the civil service could bring the whole thing crashing about our ears. Then the only winners will be the modern Vanadls, Huns, Goths and Visigoths this government has been so assidiously courting from decades, for they already have positions within the corridors of power. Put there by the policies of "affirmative action" and "positive" discrimination - the very things the Middle-class has now come to recognise as a threat to their future and their children's futures. And the real irony of that is that these same Middle-class voters and taxpayers thought they were being terribly "liberal" in supporting them.

It can't happen here? I suggest a reading of the history of Rome from 400 to 480 AD. It was the collapse of the Middle Classes then that triggered the total collapse of the whole edifice.

The article suggests that this is a form of rebellion,' I suspect these misdemeanours are an expression of middle-class resentment and revolt. Society, they might feel, hasn't been so civil to them, so they are becoming less civil to it. This is not immorality, necessarily; it is civil disobedience.

A civil society is based on common consent and shared respect. That means, among other things, that civic virtue must be fairly rewarded.

Taxpayers and law abiders should be consulted and respected and enjoy the returns of good behaviour. They should be able to feel their efforts benefit themselves as well as others and they should be able to take pride in both. When they no longer do, their inclination to civic virtue will be undermined. They will become demoralised and disaffected and sooner or later will start breaking rules and laws they no longer consent to; illegal fox-hunting is an example.'

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:45 AM | TrackBack

July 02, 2007

Terror in our midst.

I should think the Police deserve our praise for the quick way in which they have managed to home in on the suspects for the attempted bombings. Considering that they started out without anything to go on other than the cars and their contents they have done a remarkable job. It will have been helped by the capture of two injured bombers at Glasgow airport, but it is still a remarkable job.

It remains to be seen what these idiots hoped to achieve and precisely what their plan was, although I would suspect that it was supposed to be a co-ordinated attack with the cars in London going off at the same time as the attack in Glasgow. It may even have been the intention to recover the London cars and drive them into some target in a suicide attack. All will no doubt come out in the wash eventually.

In the meantime we have to be vigilant, we have to be unafraid and we have to weed out this enemy lurking in our midst and all those that support and conceal them. There is no excuse for this sort of cowardly attack on civilians.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 30, 2007

The enemy is within ....

Is the title of my next book, currently doing the rounds of agents and publishers. But the events of yesterday brought the theme of that book into sharp focus for me at least because the activities of terrorists are very much an internal threat to any and every civilised nation. OK, so these bombs did not go off, but the unanswered question is - "Who planted them?" Perhaps more importantly is "Why were they planted at all?"

I could make an educated guess at the motives underlying such an action. There are usually three main ones:

- disaffection with the current political regime in any given country and revolutionary intent,
- religious zealots determined to destroy whatever "Great Satan" is flavour of this month/year/decade/era,
- intent to foment fear and disruption to damage the economy with the aim of achieving an economic advantage.

To that list you may add the desire to impose a new political order, to achieve "freedom" from oppression or just a hatred of some group the perpetrator feels threatened by, has a grudge against or feels is deserving of extermination. The callous use of indiscriminate bombing stems from the Marxist/Leninist mantra that "some must suffer for the benefit of the many." Ironically a mantr that Whitehall and Labour have adapted to "Some people will lose out, but it will benefit many more!"

It is my view that there are several possible motives for this latest manifestation of terror bombing. One is that a large part of the UK population, the "natives" if you like, feel decidedly excluded from the process of government. They feel ignored and betrayed by the traditional political process which is now focussed not on "majority" rule but on "minority" rights. I have recently heard it said by several young white males that they have no hope of promotion in their careers now because they are white, male and heterosexual. I would hope that they are wrong, but I am also afraid they may have a point. The religious motive is a more difficult one. Our own statistics show that Mohammed will soon be the most common boys name in the UK. Other punters have commented that in less than thirty years Europe will be an Islamic State. I sincerely hope they are wrong, Islam is not a religion I admire, nor is it one I will ever subscribe to in any form. Take a close look at the Islamic world - far from being progressive or even free from corruption they are generally the most corrupt, most restrictive and most intolerant governments in the world - the only ones that even come close in draconian control are the communist dominated governments of China, North Korea and Vietnam.

By the same token the "Faithful" of Islam have been fed a world vision of world conversion. That is the aim of every Muslim, indeed it is their duty - and the Koran even authorises that such conversion may be by force of arms if all else fails. So, we in the ex-Christian West have a problem. The "enemy" is within our societies in the form of a growing Muslim presence whose avowed objective is to convert everyone to Islam and to impose their model of government and state upon us. Nice one for those in Whitehall and Westminster who have promoted the denigration of the Christian faith and the bolstering of Islam to deal with, but, as is the manner of turncoats everywhere, when the time comes they will simply adopt Islam and carry on in power. Small wonder there is a growing element in our society who may be considering the use of force to prevent it.

The final one is much more difficult since this generally contains an element of "internal enemies" for individuals. We all have them, those irrational fears that lurk in wait, the fear of small spaces, the fear of ridicule, the fear of exposure of some minor infraction of the law. The worst one is fear of strangers or of people you have been taught to regard as "outsiders". Now we are into the realms of people who have real psychiatric problems, but they walk among us in society and the only time you might suspect them of being dangerous is when they let slip a remark or a comment which suggests an intolerance. These are the secret bombers, the ones who will allow their hatred of some part of society to fester until it reaches the point where they take action. It may be simply walking into a school and shooting everyone in sight, or it may be planting a bomb outside a public building frequented by the people the bomber hates.

The enemy is indeed within. Both inside our society and within ourselves. It remains to be seen who is responsible for this latest series of failed attacks, it will be a long and difficult investigation but they must be found. The difficulty for us all is that, throughout the "Cold War" all the super powers, the UK included, used terrorist groups and organisations to affect change in countries they wanted "on side". Look around Africa and you see former Terrorists now "respectably" ensconced as Presidents. There are many more similar models across the Far East and even in the Middle East. What does this tell the latest crop of disaffected "warriors"? Why that you can bomb and shoot your way to power - and believe me they will.

It seems to me that we have a very simple question to face. If the enemy is within our society, how do we isolate them and how do we defend ourselves in a society that is obsessed with protecting the right of protest - even violent protest. A society moreover that sponsored terrorism for political ends - until it came home to bite.

It is going to be a long a difficult haul I think, one we may not solve at all in the short term.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:45 AM | TrackBack

June 29, 2007

Water, water everywhere ....

And more on the way. Tewkesbury sits astride the confluence of the River Severn (The longest river in Britain) and the Avon (One of four River Avons in England!). Ours runs through Stratford on Avon and flows into the Severn here at Tewkesbury. The Gorse Fox recently put up some pictures taken in Worcester of the flood rising in that city, so I thought I'd get my camera up the Abbey tower and see what I could see. And it makes quite a sight.

The view from the top of the Abbey Tower looking westward across the Swilgate, Mill Avon and Ham to the Severn.

I was lucky to have this beautiful clear day to take these pictures, although the wind was a little brisk at times, at least it wasn't raining. From the top of the tower you can see Gloucester Cathedral and I suspect you might even be able, in the right circumstances, to glimpse the top of Worcester's tower. Great Malvern, Bishop's Cleeve and even Pershore are all visible to one degree or another from here. But most spectacular of all at the moment are the vast sheets of water overlaying the flood plains which lie all around Tewkesbury. The town itself rarely floods, being built on a long ridge of higher ground between the Mill Avon and the Swilgate. Most buildings do not have a cellar, and those which do, have pumps and water proof linings.

The view north from the Abbey with the Old Avon and the flooded Ham. In the foreground the town stands dry footed on its ridge and the man-made Mill Avon separates the town from the Ham.

My usual walk to town is impassable at the moment with Gander Lane under water and a large part of the Vineyards Park also submerged the option for anyone wishing to walk that way is swim or wear chest high waders!

The flooded Gander Lane Cricket Ground and Car Park, the Swilgate runs along the edge of Abbey Meadow around the south side of the Abbey and joins the Mill Avon to flow into the Severn at Lower Lode.

If the weather forecasters are right, we can expect the tide to rise again next week as the water drains down the Severn and the Avon from Wales and the Midlands following the predicted heavy rain. I think its time I investigated buying a boat.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 28, 2007

Rising tides

The flood waters now coming down the Severn have filled the Swilgate and the Avon - which is itself contributing a lot of water - and the tide at Tewkesbury is rising steadily. The usual places are already underwater and others are preparing their defences, which will be needed if the volume of water is anything like what is expected. And the weather forecasts for the next several days suggest that we aren't out of the woods yet.

Ironically the Monk has either caught a cold or his hayfever is reacting to something which has just exploded in the rain. Another day or two will tell the difference methinks, but a cold on top of hayfever is no fun I can tell you. But that is another story altogether.

No doubt this unseasonal (Is it?) weather and the rainfall will be blamed on Global Warming and used as an excuse by the nefarious and ill-informed to demand even more punitive controls on the freedom of the rest of us. But the important question is unanswered - is this the result of Global Warming or is it in reality part of a natural cycle. Look back sixty years and you discover that wet summers were a norm. So were floods. No one was claiming it to be the result of Global Warming then.

In my humble opinion we are now emerging from a rather prolonged dry spell (think of the 1930's droughts that hit Africa, Australia and the North American continent as a cyclic example) and we are now seeing the result of two things. One the ENSA - El Nino Southern Ocean Anomaly - has reveresed direction for the first time in a number of years. Second, the sun is entering an "active" phase with massive sunsport activity. Both are related to colder wetter weather globally. I think it is a case of "watch this space" rather than "hit the panic button".

In the meantime we had better hope that Mr Prescot's successors don't approve any more building or development in flood plains along the Severn, something he was rather too fond of allowing. It is that, rather than the admittedly exceptional rainfall, which has contributed to the flooding we are now experiencing. And just for the record the floods of 1746 were higher at Tewkesbury than any of more recent date. In June 1746 the Vicar had to row himself up the ailse to attend the daily Divine Service. We are nowhere near that level now.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:10 PM | TrackBack

June 27, 2007

The PM is gone, or is he?

So Blair is gone and Gordon the Dour has taken his place? Do we get a say in any of this? Probably not, the Sovietistas of the Labour Party have decided that they rule, they know best and the rest of us don't count. Now there are rumours of Gordo calling a plebiscite in May next year - to see if we really do want him. Answers on a postcard methinks.

As for the man who has destroyed this country with his cronies and jobs for the boys - well he's off the a well paid job as a "Peace negotiator" for the Middle East. Talk about snout in the trough, he really has pulled a plum this time, the salary plus his pension from being the ex-PM will see him and his family nicely into the realms of millionairedom - without ever having done a proper days work. Marvellous what the right connections can do for you isn't it. Not bad either for the man who has almost single handedly done more to destroy the United Kingdom, the English and the British nation than any external enemy has managed in almost a thousand years. His nod of approval of the EU Constitution - ignoring the requirement in his own manifesto to hold a referendum,, one he knows he will lose - is his final act of betrayal and treason. Good riddance to him - but I suggest that we demand that we do not pay a single penny towards his salary or his pension from now on.

So what will his successor offer us? More stealth taxes, fewer services, smaller pensions and no doubt even more stupid, unecessary and meddling "regulations". The man is an unreconstructed Old Labour Socialist. He still believes that he can "redistribute" wealth by using the tax system - and ten years at the Treasury still hasn't taught him that only he and his cronies and the senior Civil Service have benefitted from this stupidity. He still believes that every social problem can be cured by throwing other peoples money at it, that "poverty" is the cause of crime - in the face of the evidence that the criminals are better off than anyone around them - and that "victims" of our society must now be given preference in everything. His greatest victims are us - the tax paying and law abiding public!

But what are the alternatives? Dave Cameron's lot? Don't make me laugh - the man is simply a younger Tony Blair, full of empty phrases and gestures.

God help us, I reckon it will take even less time for this nation to tear itself apart now than it took the Roman's in 410AD after Alaric departed. They managed seventy years - I reckon we will be history in twenty at the outside.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 09, 2007

Threat to Churches looming ....

If anyone doubts that the government of the UK, in particular the Labour Party and its current leadership (and that includes Gordon Brown) is anti-Christian and pro-anything except Christianity, take a look at the new Charities Act 2006. From this year, every church will have to be able to prove that it is a "public benefit" in order to continue to enjoy its charitable status. Worse, Trusts set up by Christians to provide assistance and sometimes housing to the most needy in their congregations now face being stripped of their charity status with the consequence that Gordon Brown's thieves in the Treasury can strip them of their income and treat them as "companies" under the tax laws.

Why will they be able to do this you may ask. Simple, the new law requires that to be a charity you must be able to prove the following:

1. The public confidence objective is to increase public trust and confidence in charities.
2. The public benefit objective is to promote awareness and understanding of the operation of the public benefit requirement.
3. The compliance objective is to promote compliance by charity trustees with their legal obligations in exercising control and management of the administration of their charities.
4. The charitable resources objective is to promote the effective use of charitable resources.
5. The accountability objective is to enhance the accountability of charities to donors, beneficiaries and the general public.

There is further clarification of Public Benefit in 2(2) of the Act which states that this can include the promotion of religion, but then goes on to add that it includes belief in more than one god and in no god at all .....

Just to compound the situation, we must take account of the "Guidance" issued by the Commission which actually uses the word "unbenefit". Yes, you saw it here first. Whitehall speak no doubt, I despair I really do - someone should take the perpetrator of these abuses of the English language outside the building they disgrace, publically flog them and then hang them by their thumbs from the nearest bridge as a warning to others. But, back to the "Guidance". This allows the Commission to strip a body of charitable status if it or its activities can be deemed to be an "unbenefit" to the community. Can't see the problem? An "unbenefit" can be anything that is deemed to "promote religious hatred". Ergo; promoting the idea that Jesus Christ is Lord and the Son of the Living God, part of the Godhead is anathema to Muslims who see Him as a minor prophet. Promoting the idea that salvation is through Jesus and not through your good works, praying five times a day or any other "holy" action on your part is to "diminish" any other religion that does not share that view. In short, that could get your church stripped of its charitable status.

But, let's start at Number 1. on the list. Public confidence. Years of anti-Christian media coverage and even more years of promotion of the lie of "all faiths are the same" means that Public Confidence is something that will be incredibly difficult to prove. Compliance with the legal obligations on the part of the Trustees of any charity is not too difficult, unless you wanted to make life difficult of course. Then you could quite easily make it so difficult for the Trustees to provide all the proofs that it would drive them out of business. Job done, wind them up as a charity. That goes for Number 5 on the list as well, easy for the bureaucrats who make up the Commission to make life so difficult that it will be impossible to comply - especially if the Treasury is after the money! That leaves Number 4 - and what a wonderful catch all that will be. To ensure that Charitable Resources are effectively used. Well, what I may decide is the most effective use of the resources in a charity may not be what the Whitehall PC Brigade consider effective for their agenda. No more charity and again the Treasury sweeps the loot.

Looking at the proposed Guidance it is blindingly obvious that the Commission will be driven by secular ideologies and will want to exclude those "charities" which it does not consider benefit a sufficiently wide cross section of the populace. Thus "Lady Pevensey's AlmHouses for Impoverished Ladies of Quality" could find itself threatened with the removal of its charity status if it doesn't offer its almshouses to an open field (irrespective of the terms of the trust) to include the odd Billingsgate Fishwife, Pagan White Witch and Lesbian Single Parent. It is precisely this interpretation of "community" that led to a RNLI Lifeboat station near here recently being refused a Lottery Fund Grant because "it didn't benefit a wide enough section of the underprivileged and ethnic minorities." It's a bl**dy Life Boat Station for the love of God! I can well see that argument being applied to certain Trusts and Charities set up by Christian Churches to help members of their congregations - if they do not open it to all comers regardless of their faith, intent or membership of the relevant congregation they will not be given the status of a Charity.

Now there may be some out there who will think that this is an extremist position, but think carefully. Anyone recently who has had any dealings with the massed ranks of Whitehall will know that the denizens of the various Ministries never, ever, consider the consequences of what they do or say. The mantra is "there will always be some who must lose out in order for the majority to benefit". Well, if you believe that, you probably also believe in little green men, fairies at the bottom of the garden and the basic decency of the political classes. Don't worry, the men in white coats will have your strait jacket ready by the time you have finished reading this. Whitehall and those who run it, do not believe in applying common sense to anything. They will interpret this law, badly drafted and written as it is (as is all the legislation of the last ten years!) in the narrowest possible way. They apply it as strictly as they can - and they will get away with it, because most of those they apply it against will not have the wherewithall to fight them through the courts.

I forsee a bonanza for lawyers from this, an explosion of more worthless civil servants to administer it and the cramming of prisons with trustees of charities stripped of their status and assets on trumped up charges under this act.

Promote public confidence? Not unless it is in the purely secular fronts that promote the ideology of socialist control freakery. They will flourish because their trustees will all be the people who wrote this garbage and administer it. Watch this space as Christian Churches are picked off one by one.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:19 PM | TrackBack

June 08, 2007

Reducing Global Warming

While I do not doubt that our climate is changing and that there is some impact on this by human activity, I do take serious leave to doubt that the measures Blair and other "Green" converts are ramming down our throats are going to help in any way at all. For one thing, all their measures really seem to be about is to produce ever more worthless bureaucrats, more restrictions on personal responsibility and freedom and more centralised control of who may travel and where.

The evidence for CO2 as the agent of change is also decidedly suspect, since now new evidence is emerging that shows that CO2 levels rise as a result of warming and not as the primary cause. The prime cause, as I have remarked here before, is too many people and too much pressure on too few resources such as water, arable land and timber - after all, if you don't live where there is electricity and piped gas, you burn wood to cook.

And now I have discovered that scientists agree with me. Take a look at "Wired.Com" and in particular take a look at this piece on one of their linked blogs. Entitled "How to save the world" it really does raise some serious issues about the population levels at present and the pressures this creates for us all.

The over population of the Third World has led to a rapid increase in desertification of arable lands, the pollution of water supplies and the wholesale destruction of rain forests. I get really annoyed when I am told by half baked twits in the "Green" campaign that eating beef is causing the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest. Garbage, first I don't eat Brazilian beef, and second, the destruction of the rain forest in Brazil is down to uncontrolled spreading of desperate peasant farmers who have no other way to feed themselves alongside the uncontrolled stripping of the forest for gold and other ores buried beneath it. Across Africa the same pattern emerges and it is not the big western nasty capitalists who are forcing this destruction, it is the people who live there that are driven to it by the greed of their own leaders.

The problem comes down to people. Now the dilemma is, which two thirds of the population do you exterminate. And how?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 06, 2007

Hypocrisy of the highest order ...

When you find the Fabian Society, an organisation that has campaigned since its inception for "internationalism" and the destruction of "nationalism", suddenly switching its coat and now appealing for "A national Britain Day" to promote British Unity and citizenship I find myself almost speechless. Mainly because I am so enraged I am unable to think coherently.

This socialist talking shop is single-handedly responsible for almost every failed "social engineering" experiment of the last century in Britain. Its luminaries include those who have campaigned for the promotion of alternative religions (I suppose at least they spared us the invented religions of Nazi-ism and the Soviet system). This is the organisation which has consistently campaigned against the maintenance of our military at anything like a workable strength, against decent education, promoting instead the dumbed down and debased comprehensive system, label everything that disagrees with them on any matter "Right-wing" or "Fascist" and the list goes on. They have campaigned for separation of authority for Scotland, devolution for Wales and now that the lid has come off and they are faced with the consequences - they rush to the barricades campaigning for a "National Day".

One thing we can be sure of, if it comes to fruition we will be ordered to celebrate "diversity", "multi-cultural enrichment" and any prayers of thanksgiving will be led by someone prepared to pray to the great god Mammon. It certianly won't be a Christian prayer, the Established Church notwithstanding.

In fact, thanks to this shower of ideological pygmies it is much more likely that any prayers said for it will be led by the newly appointed incumbent of a newly confiscated Lambeth Palace - the Grand Mufti of Britain. Blair and his shower Christians? Wrong, watch them scuttle into the nearest Mosque as soon as it suits them to do so. Any National Day promoted by this present government and their mentors in the Fabian Society will not be Christian, it won't be Humanist either though they hope it might - it will be Muslim by the time they have finished seeding their proteges into every government department and every office in the land.

And I can probably be accused now of stirring religious hatred. So be it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:41 AM | TrackBack

June 02, 2007

Big Brother is taxing you...

Trust the bureaucrats to look after themselves. In Germany they've just invented a new Federal authority, the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (BZSt). With lots of cosy jobs for pen pushers, to be sure. Up till now the tax offices in local authority districts were responsible for keeping the tax records of the people living there.You were issued a tax number and if you for example moved to another district you had to apply for a new number. That makes keeping track of an individual not an easy task, of course.

So someone had a brainwave and we, i.e. every single of the 82 million citizens of Germany, are to be issued an individual tax number which will stay with us all our live and even 20 years afterwards! That will be the first task of the BZSt. They estimate is that it'll take three to four yours until the last one has got his tax number. It is a huge task as for the first time all tax records will be accessible in electronic form and the local tax offices will be able to access them in a database. Seeing how many IT problems I encounter daily at my computer at work I am rather skeptical if this will really work. The new tas identification number will consist of 10 digits plus one, encoding things like name, former names, title, address, gender, day and place of birth and the local tax office. I wonder, why they would need to know about the local tax office. Probably to find your oldes tax declaration...

This system will of course make it easier for tax so offices to track down defrauders. As a law abiding citizen I wouldn't mind that so much, although if our tax regulations were less complicated getting around them would be a lot more difficult. (Someone told me only last week that about three quarters of all the existing tax regulations in the world were German.) But I do wonder if keeping data like that in a central database wouldn't make other institutions want to access them before long. And I am a bit worried about the protection of personal data.

The last example is the German toll system for trucks. Trucks carry little electronic black boxes in the drivers' units called OBUs (On Board Units) that send out signals. These are received at certain stations located on the motorways and the truck owners will get an invoice for the kilometers that have been driven by their trucks. The side effect of this is that it is possible to keep track of the movements of a certain truck and its driver. This has already been used in some criminal investigation. Rumours have it that plans are underfoot to install OBUs in every private car as well. Apart from getting a bit more money out of the car owners it will also accumulate vast amounts of data about individual persons. Who is going to guarantee all this information will be kept strictly confidental and will only be used by the proper authorities?

All this rather reminds me of George Orwell's 1984. And I think it will be one of the true challenges of our future life: with all this computer power and performace that is available nowadays it is easy to collect all sorts and vast amounts of data and information of all sorts. But what are we going to do with it? Will be not be buried by it? And will we be able to still protect the rights of privacy of individuals? It will be interesting to watch, I am sure.

Posted by Mausi at 02:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 29, 2007

Global what?

Came across a fascinating piece on a 15 year old in a site called Newsbusters thanks to a visit to another blog I haven't visited in a while. It seems that the climate change boyos might want to look at the data a little more closely. As I have long suspected, most of their scare campaign is based on outcomes from models that don't analyse the complete picture. Really useful that is. Read the newsbusters piece and weep.

Oh, and Mausi tells me that she has it on very good authority (Someone who spends his days studying the sun) that solar activity is increasing at the moment after a long period of calm.

Who knows, the next ice-age could be just around the corner!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:44 PM | TrackBack

May 28, 2007

Some people just don't get the message ....

I note with interest that the new French President has stated that it is his intention to force through a "revised" constitution for the EU and threatened that Britain could join the fast track or be sidelined. Apparently the fact that it was his nation that rejected the last such treaty has escaped his notice. Either that, or in typically French fashion, he has decided to ignore anything that disagrees with his worldview. Now it is proposed that the national veto should be removed on everything and that Brussels and the Commision should have even more power. Considering that the Commission is entirely unelected and unanswerable to anyone but themselves and their bank managers, I do not think there will be many who will agree to that.

Britain in particular suffers under the Commission since it frequently seems that each of the Commissioners looks after their specific nations interests first and foremost. Almost every attempt by smaller British firms to gain a foothold in Europe has been blocked or sabotaged by one or another of the Commissioners including some of our own appointees. The classic is the Food Commissioner whose officials deliberately misrepresented their own rules in order to force a small UK firm out of the market that a large French and smaller Italian company wanted to monopolise. The Commissioner was twice beaten in court and refused to obey the EU's own court! Not only that, but they then demanded that our government issue an unconstitutional Statutory Instrument prohibiting the use of the specifically named company's products! Our spineless Minister caved in and tabled the Order in Parliament. The Lord's rejected it, but the Commons - with Blair's foot soldiers flocking through the lobby, forced it through. It is unconstitutional and plain wrong - but we have no recourse to redress because the Commission is above the law. To hand it more power as the French President is demanding would be folly in the extreme!

To crown the French demands for more power to Brussels, we now have the Japanese Chairman of Honda Motor Corporation threatening to withdraw his company and their investment from the UK if we do not immediately sign up to the Euro. Well, I hope his Sushi has been properly prepared, because I won't shed any tears if it isn't. What is more, it is a classic case of an industrialist attempting to dictate policy to a democratically elected government by threatening blackmail.

Well, I won't be buying anything French for a while and the thought of buying a Honda to replace my aging Rover is now off the agenda as well.

Wonder where I can get a reasonably priced VW?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 27, 2007

The evil in our midst.

This afternoon I opened my email to find one from a very dear friend, one which opens some serious questions. I am posting my reply to hers here, and the original e-mail which was forwarded, with her comments at the end, are in the extended post below. It may help to read them first.

It does encapsulate the evil at the very heart of our society and highlights the terrible dilemma we all face over these sorts of actions, and believe me they are far more common than simply this one. Remember Fred West? Well there are more like him out there and these two boys have just been licensed to carry on in his image - safely in Australia where the Australian public have no idea of the horror living in their midst.

I suppose I have a privileged view of this sort of thing, for one thing I had several years working alongside the police on murders involving fire and many of those were perpetrated by "children", kids under the age of 16. The frightening thing was that they knew exactly what they were doing and could justify themselves in doing it. This is one reason why if Peter Hain tripped and fell in front of me I would kick the living daylights out of him. One can only face so much horror.

Since the Bulger case I have had the privilege of working with three people who were directly involved in it, one a policeman who had to retire after it on stress, the HO Pathologist and the forensic scientist who provided the absolute conclusive proof of what these "boys" had done and how they had done it. All of them have been scarred by it - in fact all three say they had never before, and never since, encountered anything as evil as this. Their word not mine. What was not broadcast was that they had castrated him as well as everything else.

Then there is the matter of Justice. Little Jamie has not had justice and never will have it. What he has had is a media circus and the usual flurry of well-meaning libertarians who have campaigned to "protect" the two offenders from being confronted by their crime. Neither of the two has ever expressed remorse, and when the Psychiatrist who was responsible for the counselling advised the panel of probationary judges of this, he was swiftly removed from post and replaced by someone prepared to "make allowances for their age and 'tragic' background". I am told reliably that several of his colleagues have since refused to work with these boys at all and all have filed reports saying that they are manipulative and devious. None of this is supposed to be public knowledge, but the police are really worried about this and some of those most closely involved are quite openly saying that it is a travesty of justice.

For justice to be done, it must be seen to be done. The way these two murderers have been treated since their conviction has not shown justice at work. They have enjoyed shopping sprees, (reportedly) holidays abroad,the best private education, rather more luxurious accommodation than most prisoners get (or than they would themselves have had at home) and now have degrees and careers ahead of them. Little Jamie Bulger had his future, whatever it was, taken away from him in that single couple of hours spree of evil. During those few hours they cut off his fingers with scissors, rubbed paint into his eyes, forced foreign objects into his anus and castrated him before throwing him onto the railway lines so that a train would, they hoped, destroy the evidence. This is not "little white lie" territory, this is major calculated depravity. And our Justice system has failed to deal with it - continually fails to deal with others like this.

Jamie has not had justice and these two have not yet made any amends or apology for their murder.

The key here is that these two boys knew that they were doing something incredibly evil - but continued, secure in the knowledge that even if they were caught they would still "get away with it". That is the view of the psychiatrist whose report has been suppressed. Why? Who is trying to hide this and what do they hope to achieve by it? This "protection order" allows this pair to continue to get away with it - until one of them commits another crime, something, I am sorry to say, that is inevitable.

Lady Justice Butler-Schloss should be censured for her order, it is not justice that she has served here, but the narrow interests of the entire criminal fraternity and those who think they can "reform" them. She has now created a precedent which will be used to hide other murderers and criminals in our midst.

Like most people, I do have reservations about the death penalty, even though the one thing to be said for it is that it removes permanently any threat of a repeat offence, and it does reduce the murder rates despite the anti-captital punishment lobbies manipulation of the statistics. I have grave reservations about allowing Jamie's killers to live in the community surrounded by unsuspecting families, and I do not believe that they have been "rehabilitated". While I might not be prepared to see them hang, however much they deserve to, I do think they should be kept in detention for the rest of their lives and not allowed to enjoy the benefits they have had as a result of their crime.

I have seldom seen a hardened and very senior Detective cry, but I know one man who did - and he was one of those on the Bulger investigation. My good friend, the forensic scientist, doesn't talk about what he saw and had to handle, but he, one of the mildest and most gentlemanly men I know, has stated that he would be willing to pull the lever and hang both. The Pathologist is equally, though less pointedly, categoric about this case. Evil doesn't actually sum it up adequately.

Those two knew exactly what they were doing. That is what sets them apart in everyone's books. That is why they should not, under any circumstances, be released into the world again. Ever.

Now I know that this is all of it contrary to what my saviour tells me daily. I shall have to make amends for it to him myself when the time comes, but as I said, you can only take so much horror and then you want to rid the world of those who commit it. What prevents me? The knowledge that I would, if I once embarked on such a journey, I would soon be far more evil than they could even imagine. That is the thin line between morality and immorality.

Peace be with you,

I have just received the following, which is currently being forwarded via email in an attempt to put together a petition to overturn the recent ruling by Lady Justice Butler-Sloss. I have added my own thoughts at the end.
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Do you remember February 1993 when a young boy of 3 was taken from a Liverpool shopping centre by two 10-year-old boys? Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second, Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson.

They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mummy. Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes, pushed batteries up his anus and cut his fingers off with scissors. Other mutilations were inflicted but not reported in the press. What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie's mother was forbidden to identify his body. They then left his beaten small body on railway tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created. These two boys, even being boys, understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident.

This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss has awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities. They will also leave custody early only serving just over half of their sentence. They are being relocated to Australia to live out the rest of their lives. They disgustingly and violently took Jamie's life away and in return they each get a new life!

Please. If you feel as strongly as we do, that this is a grave miscarriage of justice. Copy this entire email and paste into a new email then add your name at the end, and send it to everyone you can! If you are the 600th person to sign, please forward this e-mail to: cust.ser.cs@gtnet.gov.uk and attention it to Lady Justice Butler-Sloss.
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Jesus said, 'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone'.

What these two boys did was unquestionably horrendous and a vile, murderous act. Yet, as it states in this highly emotive re-telling of the story, they DID understand that what they had done was wrong and tried to cover it up. Who wouldn't? How many of us have told the odd 'white lie' to get out of trouble? It goes without saying that what Jon and Robert did can never be condoned within the society in which we live. But I believe in forgiveness.

Undoubtedly the Bulger family should not have to fear ever meeting these two 24 year olds who devastated their family's life. Therefore the only thing that can be done is to give the men a new start somewhere else in the world. It is unfortunate that Australia has been publicised as this 'new start'. People will no doubt seek to reveal their true identities and begin a witch hunt. I spent two years of my life with Jon Venables in a Young Offenders' Institute less that half a mile from my house. I should not have been made aware of that!

A disgusting act, yes, but I sincerely hope that during their time in prison - over half their lives - Robert and Jon received the appropriate care and therapy, have come to terms with what they have done and can live with themselves.

No human has the right to take away life. As a mother I would be devastated if something like this happened to Hannah. I would want those responsible to feel my pain. But I would not take their lives away. That would be a great a crime as the one they had commited. To quote Gordon Wilson, whose daughter Marie was killed in the Enniskillen bombing on 11 November 1987: 'I have lost my daughter, but I bear no ill will, I bear on grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. ... I don't have an answer. But I know there has to be a plan. If I didn't think that, I would commit suicide. It's part of a greater plan, and God is good. And we shall meet again.'

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:05 PM | TrackBack

May 25, 2007

The source of all spam?

I think we have managed to track down the sources of all spam. My daughter sent me a link today which took me to a website which explains all! It is the report of a conference held in Abuja. Read this and weep!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 22, 2007

Can she be saved?

What goes through the minds of the morons who see something of priceless value and decide to destroy it? Vandal is the word that we apply to those who perpetrate such acts, but it may well be a misnomer, since we use it for a range of far less devastating actions by this small and virulent running sore of a minority that infest our inner cities. These are the same yobs that bring our nation into disgrace when they go abraod as fottball supporters, or visit themselves upon the Spanish resorts. These are the same mindless sprayers of graffiti who deface our buildings, our monuments and litter our streets with their vomit when they can no longer hold their liquor or the latest designer drug.

The magnificent Cutty Sark in her dock before the fire yesterday.

The one saving grace is that she was undergoing a complete restoration and had been stripped to a bare hull. Her masts and her deckhouses are currently at Chatham dockyard being stored or conserved so they are unaffected. Sadly however her original timbers on her decks and and the upper part of her hull are badly charred. While some of these can certainly be salvaged, it will be at a cost of loss of thickness and mass. More serious is the fact that this ship's uniqueness is in part down to her having been built in a "composite" form, that is, wrought irn frames covered by oak planking. It is those frames that have suffered most through the fire. If they can be straightened, then she can be saved and restored. If not, someone is going to have to be creative.

She had a budget of £25 million for the restoration. It now seems likely that she will need a further £10 million at least to correct the damage she has suffered through the fire. Perhaps we should ask the government to divert some of the money they waste each year keeping the most disruptive elements of our society spraying graffiti and swilling beer and drugs, to divert the money the yobs who do this sort of thing would have had, to the rebuilding project.

Nice thought, but most unlikely!

Will we see anyone prosecuted? Possibly, but don't hold your breath, if the perpetrators are caught, which is unlikely, they probably won't be prosecuted because they come from a "deprived" culture or background. Or, if they are, they will be given a light sentence (probably suspended) for the same reason.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:26 PM | TrackBack

May 12, 2007

Farewell Blair; but the nightmare is not yet over ...

So Blair has finally announced he is leaving Number 10. Many will say about time too, those who feel he should never have been allowed to darken its door in the first place will, no doubt, feel that some, at least, of the darkness of this socialist era is beginning to lift. They may be premature. If anything his successor is even more inclined to micro-manage and to impose blanket solutions than the unlamented Blair.

History will no doubt judge this age harshly, undoubtedly this ten years will be recorded in future as the period when this nation lost its will to continue as a nation state, lost the ability to see itself as a nation rather than a group of pampered and spoiled individuals dependent on the State for everything and responsible for nothing. That is probably the hallmark of our age, but Blair and his sycophants and Gauleiters have managed if anything to accelerate it. No one is now individually responsible, we can all hide behind a "rule" book dreamed up by some clown in Westminster or Whitehall - no doubt with the best of intentions - which allows us to abbrogate our personal responsibility for anything. Health and safety, child protection, driving, even walking down a street - failure to pay attention to our surroundings can all be blamed on "but I was following reasonable rules", or on "but the council knows that this is dangerous" or someone does anyway. Fish ponds now have to be fenced - in case some parent fails to recognise that a child could drown in one.

As a child I fell into numerous fishponds. I never managed to drown myself - some would say mores the pity - mainly because my parents taught me from a very early age how to extricate myself from a pool of water, and more importantly, they taught me that certain things were dangerous and not to be tampered with. Sometimes the lessons had to be re-inforced with a short sharp smack on the rear end - but the lesson seldom had to be repeated. I learned to take responsibility for myself and for my actions. I learned that any action has consequences and to weigh up those consequences and make sure that, if I did something utterly stupid, I was the only victim. Like the time I shot the tip off my finger or stuck a sword point into a teacher's rear end. Both had consequences and I should have seen both coming. I had, after all, been trained the handle a fire arm properly, and didn't, and I knew swords were not toys and indulged in some horseplay which could have killed a friend - instead it got me a caning, and a very well deserved one.

The last century has seen the rise and rise of a society and political philosophy that will destroy Western civilisation. Blair is the pinnacle of that ideology, and by now it should be obvious to anyone with any brain at all, that it is an ideology which cannot deliver. In short, it fails at every level to acknowledge that individuals though we may be, we are not capable, like ants, of forming stable and homogenous communities (even ants can't - but they are good examples of entirely enslaved populations.). We cannot be forced to all conform to a single idea or a single philosophy. Bishop Tom Wright writes in the introduction of his book "Simply Christian" that the twentieth century, particularly the latter part of it, is the most moral age in human history. I would disagree, even though he goes on the qualify that statement by saying that we have more awareness of morality, more awareness of injustice and more determination than ever to redress the wrongs - acknowledging that there is still, probably because the morality is being driven by a small and extremely vocal minority currently in power, a huge imbalance and injustice in the world. While the good Bishop is talking about a religious desire and ethics, once you take the element of faith out of the matrix and impose it as a political ideology, you find yourself only a hairsbreadth from the Hitlers, Stalins and Pol Pots and their desire to control everyone and everything.

To me the great mark of Mister Blair's period in office will be the level of power he has handed to those who, like Dr Goebels and Lenin's propagandists, have perverted education so that our children are being fed a daily diet of half truth, half fact and untruth as "history" and "morality". History has been "reinvented" to give the biased and bigoted picture these shapers of the "new" morality wish to present to the world. I would like to agree with Bishop Wright that we do live in a more "moral" age, but I find I cannot. The truth is that thanks to Blair and his predecessors who have peddled the Socialist myth for the last century, we now live in an age run by an elite, for that elite. An age in which "democracy" is the excuse for every excess, in which the criminal has more rights than the victim and in which the law abiding citizen is at the mercy of a draconian and ever growing state which subsumes to itself more and more power over every aspect of our lives. It is not a "moral" age, it is an age now driven by the prejudice of the elite and not underpinned by any faith system in the world. Morality which is not founded on faith is not morality, it is merely a system of control.

As Blair departs, watch his successor who is even more of a control freak than Blair. I confidently predict that three things will happen very rapidly under Gordon Brown.

1. Personal taxes will rise, either directly or indirectly.
2. Personal freedom will be further curtailed and additional restrictions will be imposed on freedom of choice for scholling and probably even upon the practice of religion.
3. The Civil Service will increase in size dramatically to exercise the "new" powers - but this will be masked by a promise to "axe" many jobs from the public service (exactly as his famous promise to axe 100,000 civil service jobs actually translated into employing and 600,000!)

I can also predict that we will see more meaningless targets imposed on the NHS, Schools, Police, Ambulance and every other "public" service. And a continued decline in what is actually delivered by any of them.

And the Illustrious ex-Leader? Well, he'll have his nice fat pension (Over £100k a year at last glance) and a nice cushy job in the EU or the UN - all paid for by us his unwilling paymasters. Oh, and his nice little world tour at our expense to share the joke with all his chums around the world while he has the chance. I suppose it's to much to hope for some Divine intervention to rid us entirely of him and all his party while he's at it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:45 AM | TrackBack

May 07, 2007

Labour's legacy?

It's probably too early to say. But it does begin to look hopeful for those of us who detest Labour, their politics of envy and control freakery and BIG bureaucracy. Perhaps it is, as Sir Winston Churchil once famously said, "Not the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but perhaps, at last, the end of the beginning. The SNP is now the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. I could rejoice at that and even at their forming the next administration in Scotland but for two things. First, they have honed and refined Labour's propganda of hatred for their English fellow travellers on this small island and secondly that they have the avowed intention of destroying the very thing that made Britain Great. I am, of course, talking about the Union. This is the legacy of Labour's politics of envy, the mantra that has kept them in power in every area promoted as "victims" of the perfidious English for far too long. Perhaps the split is inevitable, it is certainly the legacy of Blair's era and of his party of incompetents driven as they are by prejudice, "class" hatred and ideological shibboleths.

The trail of destruction is unmistakeable and unprecedented. The Royal Navy reduced from a fleet to a squadron, the army reduced to a small collection of regiments created by the destruction of the originals with their proud history trampled under the feet of the vast horde of parasites called civil servants that Blair thinks will defend our shores with their masses of pointless targets and shuffling of paper. Even the Royal Air Force has been cut back to an air defence unit without the aircraft or manpower it really needs in this uncertain age. But the real legacy this government leaves us is a society which is now utterly spineless, "protected" by lawyers who rush to accuse anyone of "racism", "sexism" and a plethora of other "-isms" unable to discipline itself, addicted to pleasure and devoid of responsibility. This is the legacy of years of denigrating the military and depriving it of the proper respect, resources and status it deserves.

Everything is now run by "managers" the vast majority of whom have not the faintest idea of what the people they "manage" actually do, and often only the vaguest idea of what the organisation they "manage" is supposed to be doing. Look at the "Mission" Statements put out by the various Public Service Departments. Rarely will you find any reference to serving the taxpayer or the people they are supposed to be serving. What you will find is a lot of tosh about "respect", "equality", "ethnicity" and "value for money". That last is the biggest laugh of all, since, as every contractor on the Treasury "Preferred Supplier" list knows all too well, anything the Civil Service buys, automatically costs 40% more than it would if it was properly specified (That would mean hiring people who knew something about the job they do!) and put out to open tender as it is supposed to be. (But that would break up the cosy little nest egg building exercise the top civil servants have going for retirement and that comfy directorship.)

We may see the back of Blair at long last in the next few weeks. He was a charlatan in 1997 and he is still a charlatan. His successor is likely to be Gordon Brown, the man who has stolen our pensions, destroyed initiative and created more stealth taxes than any Chancellor in our history. He is also a Scottish Labour MP - whose Scottish MSP is now an SNP man. What irony, we could be the first country in the world to have as our Prime Minister, a man who represents a constituency technically in a foreign country.

Labour's legacy? Look around you and see the destruction, an economy based entirely on "finance" and fueled by stealth tax and government borrowing. Can it last? Not likely, and then we too will be reduced to the same state as the once mighty Romans - living on the fringes of things and masters of nothing. Well done Mister Blair.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 04, 2007

Blair's legacy?

OK, I can't resist. I don't like David Cameron, primarily because, like Blair, he is not what he seems and worse, he isn't a Conservative. He represents to me the the very worst of the current crop of politicians, lacking in vision, lacking in statesmanship, all spin and no substance. Blair has presided over the biggest expansion of bureaucracy in our history, he has eroded our traditional freedoms on an unprecedented scale and he has sold out to every terrorist currently seeking power. The Iraq war is a shambles because he and his ministers don't have a clue and interfere in military matters constantly, the "War on Terror" is a sham because he has terrorist sympathisers in his own government.

The meltdown in their control of Local Government continues apace and not a minute before time. The Conservatives have lost several tricks here because many of my age group (born between 1943 and 1949) see him as a young upstart who is going to do what our parents generation of politicians did to us in excluding us from the top jobs and positions of power (You're too inexperienced!) and then handed it over our heads to the Blair generation (born from 1950 onwards) We were working when they were smoking pot and strumming guitars - and paying into the pension funds Mister Blair and Mister Brown have now robbed to destruction. Am I glad to see this shower getting a hiding? Yes, but as far as I am concerned it isn't enough yet. I want to see them thrown out and their ideology discredited and destroyed completely. I want to see the voters of the world wake up to the fact that it is the socialist ideology that is destroying our civilisation and our nation. I want the voters to see that our present political system is no different to that operated pre- the Reform Act of 1836 in which the only way to advance in government was to have the patronage of someone above you. That system still operates but it is now the established means of promotion in the Civil Service as well. Promotion is not on merit in politics and it certainly isn't on merit in the Civil Service. It is all down to patronage. The right patron and you're in, regardless of your knowledge of the job or your ability.

The only reason this country prospered under that system before 1836 was that those who exrecised patronage then knew the importance of promoting protege's who did know what they were doing. Blair does not.

What a pity we have to wait another three years before we can throw Labour out of power completely in Westminster. Their losing power in Wales and Scotland is something of a sop, but we still have to endure yet another Scottish MP ruling the English and handing our money to the Scots and Welsh in order to bolster his parties power bases. It is a disgrace and it will not be addressed until the English are free of the overriding control of Labour's foot soldiers from Scottish and Welsh Constituencies. They have their own assembly and their own Parliament they should have no say over the English, just as we have no say over them any longer.

Let us hope that this swing in the voter choice continues - and Labour vanishes from our political landscape.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 26, 2007

Message to spammers.

Should any of the Spam Generator community be actually reading this I hope that you will take note of the following constructive comments.

1. I am no more likely to publish your spam comment if it begins with "Good site!" or "Useful information" than I am if it were to begin "This spam comment is..." 2. The Spam filter on this server catches them and holds them for my approval. I simply delete them. 3. It is irritating in the extreme to have to clear out my comments box daily, but, if it prevents your messages appearing, I am happy to do it.

I monitor the comments daily and delete upwards of a hundred of these irritating and utterly worthless messages every day. I am unlikely to allow you to use my blog to promote the sexual proclivities of any person or persons of whatever age, banking services, the sale of fake watches, furniture, perfumes, medications or any other commodity now or in the future. I therefoire respectfully suggest that you desist from this pointless and irritating activity.

Thank you.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:22 PM | TrackBack

April 04, 2007

The truth may be slow in surfacing - but it certainly bites when it does.....

So Brown wouldn't listen to his civil servants and pushed ahead with his robbery of our pension funds? Well, there's a surprise! The man is driven by self interest and entirely convinced that his "socialist" ideology is the only way to a "free" and "fair" society. But his concept of "free" seems to be a strange one - one in which those of us who are "rich" are "free" to be robbed blind by him and his cronies so they can hand our hard earned "wealth" to his voters and freeloaders. And, of course, his own pension is utterly bomb-proof, unless we, the voters and taxpayers refuse to pay up!

Interesting how the Welsh now have given themselves "free" prescriptions on the NHS, as have the Scottish Parliament - but the English, ruled by the Scottish and Welsh Labour Majority, are denied this - while their tax money flows in ever increasing amounts across the nominal borders to fund their constituency handouts in Wales and Scotland. The disgraced Paymaster General now admits they knew that taking £5 billion a year out of the pensions could be damaging, but I see and hear nothing of their being any compensation for those they have consigned to a life of penury as a result. Alright for some - the motto here seems to be the old "I'm alright Jack - I'm inboard!"

Well, we'll see what happens at the upcoming local elections - and then we'll see what happens in the General Election. But don't expect that idiot David Cameron to do anything to redress the pension theft. He voted for it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:35 AM | TrackBack

April 03, 2007

A new tale on Amazon.com

I am delighted to be able to put this up - it has been four weeks in the processing at Amazon.com - but at last it has made it's appearance. A Tall ship and the wind's song tells the story of Harry and Ferghal joining their first ship and their first short voyage in her.

On sale through Amazon Shorts as an "e-story" it's a bargain at $0.49c! Click on the picture above to visit the relevant page on the Amazon.com website.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:15 PM | TrackBack

March 30, 2007

Playing games with the West

The Iranian behaviour over the illegal detention of our sailors and Royals in the Shatt al Arab by their Republican Guard shows just how little evil regimes like this one think of the "Rules of Engagement" and "International Law" enshrined in things like the Geneva Convention. Perhaps this should be anobject lesson for the Human Rights lobbyists who are so quick to try and prosecute our troops for the slightest "infringement" of these same rules. It is of no comfort whatever to the hostages - for that is exactly what they are - or to their families to have the usual mantras trotted out by this particular abberant group on these occassions concerning "regard for the law" or the "we cannot be seen to be as bad as they are."

The Iranian Regime has, through its "Republican Guard" seized illegally the property of the British Crown and the persons of its serving men and women. That is an illegal act and one which the UN has once again shown itself to be useless to address. The Security Councils statement is nothing short of a slap in the face for Britain and I for one would wholeheartedly support both Britain and the US withdrawing support for all of the UN's activities until the organisation comes up with something a lot stronger in condemnation of the Iranians. The facts are that:
1. The Iranian government has breached the Conventions on the treatment of prisoners and is using them as hostages for its own political purposes. That is why they were seized and why they are being paraded on Television. That is a clear breach of all conventions on the treatment of military prisoners.
2. Iranian Vessels staged an invasion of Iraqi waters to seize these sailors, the ship they were investigating is still anchored where it was stopped for the search - and is well inside Iraqi waters.
3. The Republican Guard answers not to the Iranian Parliament but to their President and their Ayatollahs - it is therefore not a regular military force and should be seen as one raised, like Mugabe's 5th Brigade, as a terrorist organisation, and treated as such.
4. The Iranian Ministers and spokespeople are liars - and what is worse they consider this to be a legitimate ploy - after all they are dealing with people they regard as "Dhimmi" and whom they have clearly stated they intend to overthrow to impose their vision of a perfect society.
5. This is really all about humiliating the West and they know full well that the UK is so overstretched (It would not surprise me at all to discover that, under the Government's ethnicisation and feminisation of all Whitehall Departments that our MoD section dealing with Operations and deployment is staffed by Iranian or at least Muslim placemen passing on all sensitive information to Teheran) and that there is no way we could mount a retaliation or rescue mission.

Our sailors have been placed in this position by the stupidity and cupidity of those in Whitehall and Westminster who have reduced our armed forces to the point that we are so understrength and so overstretched that they are forced to rely on part timers to meet their commitments. And what is worse, when our boys and girls are wounded and injured in battle, they face being treated abominably by the disaster that is the NHS because that arch enemy of the armed services, the Civil Service, has decreed that the military do not need their own hospitals. The sight of Blair defending this in Parliament this morning had my blood boiling - especially coming on top of the recent incident when a lad was returned from the Gulf having lost a leg and, following emergency treatment at the scene, was evacuated back to Britain. Here he was rushed, by military ambulance, to the local NHS hospital and then had to wait his turn in the A&E Department - waiting four hours before a nurse approached.

Did she want to "assess" his injuries? Not a bit of it, she had been sent to tell him to remove his uniform as it might upset some of the other people waiting for treatment! The lad said later that if he hadn't been missing his leg he would have got himself out of there immediately - sadly he had no choice but to wait another two hours before he got proper attention - and nothing whatsoever has been done to the "manager" or the "nurse" responsible. According to Blair, our NHS Staff are providing our troops with the finest and best treatment available. No they are not Mister Blair - and you need to be taken out and shot for the appalling treatment our armed services are getting and the damage you have done to this once great nation - you and the rest of your treasonous party!

No wonder the Iranians are laughing at us. They know that as long as they want to play this game they can. Blair will do nothing because he can't. The UN will do nothing because it doesn't want to. And our soldiers, sailors and airmen and women will continue to be placed in danger and treated like dirt when they are sent home wounded - all so that Blair and his civil service stooges can continue to give themselves all the perks and kudos they want.

If I were now serving in any of the armed services, I would be seriously considering getting out before they sent me on yet another hostage taking trip for the Iranians or any other similar regime. Blair wants to fight this war? Let him and his army of worthless Whitehall W*nkers get out there and find out what the real world is all about, it might rid us of two problems simultaneously!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:39 AM | TrackBack

March 29, 2007

Whither Freedom?

Recently I came across an item about a recent BBC programme entitled "The Trap - What happened to our dream of freedom?" and it got me thinking. How "free" are we? How free have we ever been? And the answer seems to be - we never have been and we probably never will be "free" in the sense that most people (and the OED) would define as "freedom". Yet, it is one of the concepts that we, particularly in the Western Democracies, take as a tenet of faith, it is our great raison detre for all our desire to spread our "Liberal" concepts and democracies, but is this really "freedom".

The programme makers have examined the gap between our understanding of the promises of the last hundred years and the realities of our societies and concluded that we have the definition wrong, we don't understand the concept and we are probably not free at all. It seems that our idea of freedom is far too narrow and, most perniciously, our political masters like it that way. Why? Put quite simply it provides them with the means to circumscribe our freedom, to limit our control and to make sure that they have the ultimate say in what is and what is not permissible.

How has this come about? Apparently it arises from models of human behaviour that were developed by strategists as a means of manipulating public opinion mainly in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Unfortunately, as with all things taken out of Pandora's Box, it wasn't long before politicians realised that it was just as useful at home to direct public opinion and "steer" the gullible public in the direction they wanted us to go. The Mass Media are, of course, a party to this since they are the tool by which the manipulation is managed. This is how the largest part of the poplutaion has been deluded into thinking that Socialism, with centralising control of every aspect of life, ever increasing bureaucracy and the slow strangulation of enterprise and freedom of thought has been carefully managed, is a "Good Thing". Yet the concept is not new. This was the genius of men like Dr Goebels and indeed the Soviet Union's own propagandists. It is the stock in trade of every dictator; convince the public that, in order to "preserve" their freedom, you have to impose restrictions and limits.

It stems from the belief among radical psychiatrists and genetic biologists, anthropologists and other related sciences that humanity is basically selfish, a collection of isolated creatures who live in a state of constant suspicion that one or other of our neighbours might be up to something which will deprive us of something we have or want. The idea has been seized on by market economists and extended by marketing executives who all play on our supposedly inherent desire to be free of the herd. But, has this created the "freedom" we supposedly all crave? Has it actually created a "free and fair" society? Or has it created a society that is now more regulated, more controlled and less free than at any time since the beginnings of civilisation?

Personally, looking at the evidence these documentaries present, I would suspect that - to corrupt Voltaires famous saying, "We are born in chains, and these are added to as we grow". The Civil Service has never been more powerful - or more bureaucratically driven and more interfering in every aspect of our lives. Politicians thrive and mutilply - probably Britain's biggest growth industry at present, yet we enjoy no right of self defence, no freedom to bring up our children as we think is right, no freedom from wage slavery, taxes (They grow like Topsy!) and no freedom of thought or speech. Both those last are now restricted as never before by laws introduced to promote "tolerance". Even our freedom of movement is threatened by the government's determination to drive private motoring off our roads and force us to use the privatised and hugely expensive rail systems (Heaven forbid we should consider using the domestic airlines!). Even our choices in employment have been restricted by the collapse of our industries and their being driven abroad by over regulation of supposed "health and safety" and by "workers rights" which render labour here so expensive (not that the worker gets any more of it - it's the oncosts of employing anyone that are a killer!) that it is cheaper to sell the factory or move the factory and import everything.

Is the person on Benefits "Free"? Simple answer - no. They are tied up by endless "rules" restricting where they can go, how much they may have and how the "benefit" will be eroded should they dare to presume to take any paid work.

The concept of Freedom that we have lived with since the 1950's at least is fatally flawed. We need to have a wider concept, and a deeper understanding of what we mean not only by "freedom" - it has to be more than the right to vote! - and then we need to understand how it affects others, particularly those in other parts ofthe world who see things differently. The Cold War has produced many of the problems we face today, not least state sponsored terrorism, but equally the current trend to over regulate and to try to direct how society functions at a micro-managerial level. We need to restrict the power of politcians, bureaucrats and the media to a very large extent - and to rediscover the real meaning of freedom.

Have we ever been completely "free"? Probably not since we first formed societies and clans, however that is not to say that we cannot enjoy a form of freedom within that group which we would not have outside it. We do need some rules and we certainly need some moral guidelines to make any human society functiuon cohesively - what we do not need is constant interference by some group that considers itself better qualified than anyone else to direct our personal relationships, thoughts and utterances.

In short, we need to reconsider our concept of what it is to be truly "free" and to then explore where the boundaries of that freedom are - and what responsibility it imposes on the "free" to guard it and ensure it is enjoyed by all - and not simply by the ruling elite and their hangers-on in the bureaucracies.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 27, 2007

Law and order or another bit of spin?

Listening to the Home Secretary this morning one could be excused for feeling a touch of de ja vu, after all, his Illustrious Leader has been parroting the mantra of "Tough on Crime; Tough on the Causes of Crime" ever since they came to power. We could, I suppose, also be excused for finding it a little thin at this point since the fact is that violent crime is up, the jails are full to bursting point - and they haven't even made a dent in the problem - apart from further eroding our right of self defence and disarming the law-abiding populace and targetting them with ever more draconian laws against motorists, taxpayers and anyone they think might have some money left over to pay the fine, pay the extra tax or whatever to get their hands on more of our incomes.

The Home Secretary proudly says they have built an extra 20,000 prison places. Yes? And shortened jail sentences to the point where they are a joke for the criminal fraternity. And they have written handbooks for the judges and magistrates that mean a mugger can be let off with a slap on the wrist but a pensioner who refuses to pay an unjustified increase in domestic taxes is jailed. A murderer can walk free, but a white collar criminal must be jailed. The list goes on and on. The extra places are all in "Open Prisons" where the inmates get time out to go shopping, visit home and even have "holidays" out of joail while serving their sentences. Tough on Crime? Not in this bailiwick - and certainly not when the PM's wife is a senior judge and partner in a law firm that specialises in "Human Rights" law. A gold mine for her if ever I saw one!

As for tough on the causes of crime, well, that's a joke too. It seems that our political masters think that one of the causes of crime is that some people have worked hard and earned enough to have a few pennies set aside so they can afford nice homes and some luxuries - while their constituents have grown up on benefits and are therefore in some way "deprived" of their right to help themselves to what everyone else has to earn the hard way. Crime, in study after study, has several roots, one is certainly deprivation, another, and perhaps more important, is a lack of clear distinction in what is now considered "unfashionable" - morality based on a faith of one sort or another. Let's face it, if you believe that this life is all there is ever likely to be, why not break all the rules and murder, rape and pillage your way to a comfortable lifestyle. Go ahead, Mister Blair and Co would seem to think that rewarding those who do, particularly the young yobs who make some city centres no go zones, is a way to make them consider becoming model citizens.

No society in the world has ever succeeded in creating a just and moral society without some belief system to underpin it. That is where our secularisation of society is failing us. The more the political elite try to brush religion aside and a life code, the more effort is put into promoting the flawed concept that "humanity is good - it is society that makes them go bad" is promoted by the humanists, the more of a social breakdown we will see. Blind respect for someone is never good, but we now live with a generation that has no respect for experience (even of the kind that helps us make a different mistake the next time!), no respect for authority and no respect whatsoever for the law - primarily because we are now so over regulated that we all break a half dozen or more laws every day without even being aware of it!

The Home Secretary and his cohorts in the Home Office still believe that they can fix the problem by setting the police and the courts more "targets", unrealistic and meaningless statistical measurements which divert the police from actually doing their job - preventing crime and putting criminals behind bars for realistically tough sentences. Listening to his patter on the Breakfast Show I'm afraid I was somewhat underwhelmed by the spin. I honestly believe that this is now so far out of their limits of understanding that neither the civil servants nor the politicians have got a clue what to do. Of one thing we may be sure, that whatever they do will see tax rise, less real policing and a lot more crime. Oh, and more law-abiding citizens charged with defending themselves.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:05 AM | TrackBack

March 26, 2007

Iranian arrogance; Western impotence

Yet again the Iranian Republican Guard have pulled off a spectacular and totally illegal seizure of British seamen and Royal Marines in a blatant act of piracy. The claim that our boats were in Iranian waters is a barefaced lie - it is the Iranians who were on the wrong side of the waterway - that is why our boats are monitored on radar and through GPS links. Their base and base ships know at all times exactly where they are and so do they. Ergo, the Iranian Republican Guard has committed what amounts to an invasion - if not an act of war. The only response if our people are not released, and their equipment returned within the shortest possible time is to sink every Iranian vessel that dares to show itself anywhere on the waterway. Sadly, our peaceniks in the MoD will not allow that to happen - and the Iranians know it.

Blair can bluster and posture all he likes, the Iranians will strip our boats (they never ever returned the last lot they seized equally illegally!), beat up our seamen and their RM colleagues and then, after parading them with sham "confessions" on Arab TV, will send them home ignominiously. And Blair and his coterie of luvvies will do exactly nothing about it at all.

What is more, with our fleet reduced to a squadron, with no strike aircraft and no carriers to call on for air support (shades of the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941 and the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse!) there is not even the capacity to stregthen our presence in the Shatt al Arap. This latest raid was well planned and well executed, our boats were shadowed by several Iranian boats who then closed in at high speed when reinforcements arrived and left our people with the option of a fire fight against superior numbers and firepower, or surrender. The MoD should be very proud of their estimated manpower and equipment requirements for this area, you would have though they would have learned from the last episode - but that pre-supposes that either the Civil Service or the Westminster carrion can actually learn. Patently they cannot.

Sadly, the outcome of this debacle will be to leave the extremist Republican Guard looking superior to anything the Western Infidel is able to do, and the Western Democracies looking weaker than ever.

Blair and his anti-military party should be congratulated. All that remains is for us to surrender at the earliest moment to the Iranian government.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 25, 2007

The Climate Change sham ....

The climate change debate has recently featured on a number of blogs and in the media, most notable one in the UK was the show on C4. There has also been some fluttering in various scientific journals with some serious scientists demanding that their names be removed from various papers apparently "rewritten" to suit political rather than scientific outcomes.

There is a very good debate on this issue on On The Third Hand, although the main debate is in the comments section. Unfortunately, the link to the Google Video Clip no longer works, but I'm sure it can be tracked down by the determined. Well worth the reading.

The whole debate is particularly pertinent to the Monk at present as there is a group currently engaged in trying to drive the Abbey community into "Greening" the Abbey. So far they have come up with:
- Insulating the walls,
- Insulating the roof,
- Turning off the heating during the week,
- Changing all our lights to low wattage "energy efficient" bulbs,
- Covering the roof with Photo Voltaic cells and filling the voids with the battery packs to run our lighting and organ motors, and
- Encouraging the congregations to "turn down their thermostats".

Well, my response was perhaps a little robust. And just for the record, we now know and can prove, that when the Abbey was built in 1102 - 1141 this area was a whole lot warmer in climate than it is now! In all seriousness there is no way that we could insulate the walls - they are nearly twelve feet thick and solid stone. The same goes for the roof voids - double layer of close boarding (Some of it going back seven hundred years!) covered by lead and sitting over a stone Lierne Vault which is around four feet thick and thicker in some places than that! Changing the light bulbs is not as easy as it sounds. In fact its a non-starter until we change every single light fitting - and the lighting system because you cannot use dimmers with energy efficient bulbs and they don't make energy efficient Halogen lamps. Again, we would have to spend of the order of £20k to replace the lights and the controls to save around £500 a year.

Turning off the heating during the week would have a disasterous effect on the three organs and, as an experiment last years showed, result in a large amount of money having to be spent on repairing them every few months! As for covering the roof in PV cells, well, the life of a PV Panel is between three and five years, so we would spend, assuming we could even get English Heritage to consider the proposal, something of the order of £40k in order to save around £900 a year in cost of our lighting. I estimate that it would take us 45 years to pay it off - assuming we didn't have to replace a single panel until then!

Most of our congregation already do take sensible steps to conserve energy, and really, telling some of the older ones to turn their thermostats down on their heating would be the equivalent of suggesting they commit suicide.

Climate change is a serious issue. It does and will affect us all, but it is, in my view, complete and utter stupidity to think that we can change the course of nature. Think back to the comic books of the 1950's and 60's and the concept in many of them that by the end of the twentieth century we would either be able to control the weather using satellites or live in vast domed and closed city environments. It is time we stopped all rushing about trying to change things we have no control over and stopped letting politicians and the media scare the living daylights out of the tree hugger fraternity and looked at this problem rationally and seriously.

Yes, well, Hell has just formally announced it is experiencing an Ice Age.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:11 AM | TrackBack

March 23, 2007

Gordo's give-aways ...

Seems to me that our dear Chancellor has done a very neat sleight of hand in his budget. In fact, if I wasn't one of those hit in the pocket (Nothing new there then!) I could quite admire the masterful piece of sleight of hand he has pulled off. First, the BIG bit of generosity, scrapping the 10% tax band for lowest income earners. Well, big deal, I happen to be one of those hit hard by that, because my pension is under £10k a year. So, for me, the tax rate just went up 10%. Ah, but wait, the Chancellor has been very generous, he has increased the tax allowance for pensioners - but only if you are over 65 - so that rules me out again. My local tax office is as sympathetic as ever, "well, of course it is hard for those who fall outside the net Mister X, but there are inevitably some losers no matter what!" Yes, there are, as long as it's not the Civil Servants and their Political Masters that's quite OK then isn't it.

Oh, and his BIG tax cut. Ah, well, that doesn't take effect until NEXT year. So, actually, he hasn't given the poorer end of the scale a damned thing. But he has raised the threshold for the top rate of tax, so all those nice champagne socialists who vote for him in the City can enjoy a nice little tax break. Funny that, throughout the years I was one of the so-called "middle income earners" he refused to make that change because people like me who were always just inside the higher rate zone, were "rich" and didn't qualify for all the breaks available below the "middle income group" (defined by the ever loving Civil Service as anything between £25k and £40k per year) and we certainly didn't get enough to take advantage of the tax breaks available to the people on the top brackets. Of course if I were to set out an father a whole herd of illigitimate children I could, I suppose, claim this ephemeral "Family Credit" which is supposed to be better than the former "Married Persons" allowance, but then probably not. Its so complicated to get onto it that most people aren't claiming their actual entitlement. What about Child Support. Ah, well, as a male I am NOT entitled to that even if I did have the proverbial set of rug rats to feed. THAT gets paid to the mother, mere males might just spend it all down at the local boozer you see. So single overage males just continue to get what they have always had, a good shafting at every opportunity and a demand that we continue to pay for the hordes of worthless pen pushers and sycophants in Whitehall and Westminster.

Looking at his latest adjustment to corporate tax, one has to ask which boardrooms have managed to engage his services. It will be interesting to see what Directorships he picks up when he is eventually kicked out of Downing Street and hopefully Westminster. At least we will then know who handed him the sweetners for this one. Small businesses have, according to him, been evading tax. So, the answer is raise their tax band and put the squeeze on them, then lower the rates for the really big players and give them further breaks for "research" and "investment". For both of those read "sweetners".

I suppose I could develop a "victim" mentality here, because all too often it is my generation, those born between 1943 and 1949 who seem to get shafted by the politicians at every turn. We always seem to be in that undefined zone where any change to pensions, tax or any other aspect of employment or income, seems to benefit those ahead or behind us - but hits us right in the wallet, bank account or investments. We are always the ones who don't qualify for the "new" deal or have our membership of the original deal curtailed. Just once in a while it would be nice to get included in something that actually benefits us.

I suppose I should be grateful, I don't drive a Chelsea Tractor and I drink very little anyway. With the extra tax coming out of my already shrunken pension, I couldn't afford to keep the tractor and I certainly can't afford to do much more drinking once the extra tax has been docked. I do trust that increasing the tax on beer while not hitting the Scottish Distilling trade isn't an anti-English thing, or we could really get paranoid about this budget.

Well, I suppose we can but live in hope that this malignant fraud will soon be history, but his legacy is unlikely to be disturbed by the likely successors - another bunch of self-interested idiots if ever I saw any.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 22, 2007

The joys of public transport ....

Subject: FW: Tube Announcements

I was going to add my tuppence worth of comment on the Thief of Downing Streets latest piece of sleight of hand, but figured I'd leave it to others less opposed to the political chichancery that is Whitehall and Westminster. So, what to blog. Well, here I am going to cheat quite a bit. My eldest daughter sent me these gems - and given that Mausi had a most interesting journey yesterday on a Deutschebahn ICE train (First Class of course!) - but she can tell that story herself.

Travelling around London on the ube can be an interesting experience. Trains can be delayed, run to their own version of the timetable, skip stations, and, of course, are packed. In summer it is even worse, because aircon was an unknown when the system was built and the trains are the mechanism for driving the ventilation ..... So, train stops, no ventilation. At rush hour that can be a very trying experience! Anyway, the following are all announcements, very unofficial ones, that have been heard on the tube. Guess the drivers and platform staff have a rough time too under the management they have to work with.

GOLD!

A list of actual announcements that London Tube train drivers have made to their passengers.. .

1) "Ladies and Gentlemen, I do apologize for the delay to your service. I know you're all dying to get home, unless, of course, you happen to be married to my ex-wife, in which case you'll want to cross over to the Westbound and go in the opposite direction."

2) "Your delay this evening is caused by the line controller suffering from E & B syndrome: not knowing his elbow from his backside. I'll let you know any further information as soon as I'm given any."

3) "Do you want the good news first or the bad news? The good news is that last Friday was my birthday and I hit the town and had a great time. The bad news is that there is a points failure somewhere between Stratford and East Ham, which means we probably won't reach our destination."

4) "Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the delay, but there is a security alert at Victoria station and we are therefore stuck here for the foreseeable future, so let's take our minds off it and pass some time together. All together now.... 'Ten green bottles, hanging on a wall.....'."

5) "We are now travelling through Baker Street... As you can see, Baker Street is closed. It would have been nice if they had actually told me, so I could tell you earlier, but no, they don't think about things like that".

6) "Beggars are operating on this train. Please do NOT encourage these professional beggars. If you have any spare change, please give it to a registered charity. Failing that, give it to me."

7) During an extremely hot rush hour on the Central Line, the driver announced in a West Indian drawl: "Step right this way for the sauna, ladies and gentleman... unfortunately, towels are not provided."

8) "Let the passengers off the train FIRST!" (Pause .) "Oh go on then, stuff yourselves in like sardines, see if I care - I'm going home...."

9) "Please allow the doors to close. Try not to confuse this with 'Please hold the doors open.' The two are distinct and separate instructions."

10) "Please note that the beeping noise coming from the doors means that the doors are about to close. It does not mean throw yourself or your bags into the doors."

11) "We can't move off because some idiot has their hand stuck in the door.

12) "To the gentleman wearing the long grey coat trying to get on the second carriage - what part of 'stand clear of the doors' don't you understand?"

13) "Please move all baggage away from the doors." (Pause..) "Please move ALL belongings away from the doors." (Pause...) "This is a personal message to the man in the brown suit wearing glasses at the rear of the train: Put the pie down, Four-eyes, and move your bl**dy golf clubs away from the door before I come down there and shove them up your a**e sideways!"

14) "May I remind all passengers that there is strictly no smoking allowed on any part of the Underground.
However, if you are smoking a joint, it's only fair that you pass it round the rest of the carriage."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:01 PM | TrackBack

March 20, 2007

Disgraceful incompetence

The news today that really got me going was the revelation that seven thousand servicemen and women who have been wounded or injured in Blair's little adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan are still fighting their way through the bureaucracy for the compensation they are entitled too. The MoD's usual lying mouthpiece says "everything possible is being done to expedite matters". Quite. In short, when enough of them have given up all hope and withdrawn their claims - we'll get around to dealing with the hardliners.

If this involved a member of the useless, incompetent, worthless and overpaid coterie of civil servants who have infested Whitehall and multiply their numbers exponentially without reason putting in a claim it would have been processed ages ago. Why then are these servicemen and women, many of whom are no longer able to serve or to work thanks to the wounds they have received, having to wait? Some of them have been waiting for over EIGHTEEN MONTHS! Without any other income - because their military disablility pensions are being withheld pending the outcome of their compensation claims! And what precisely is the MoD doing about getting it sorted out? Not a lot, after all, their main priority is to ensure that their pensions, their knighthoods and their nicely redecorated offices are purged of all traces of any Armed Services representatives.

Starting from the top of this disgraceful pile of ordure the relevant Minister should:

- Order the Permanent Under Secretary to settle all outstanding claims within seven days and deal with all subsequent claims within fourteen days,
- Resign his Ministerial post having sacked all the senior Civil Servants and all the Middle tier Civil Servants who have sat on this problem and failed miserably to deal with it, and
- request a Parliamentary investigation into the incompetence of the entire Civil Service and of the Treasury in particular.

Is it likely to happen? Of course not - the whole damned pile of sycophantic, symbiotic and parasitic leeches that is the Civil Service and the political establishment of this country is entirely Teflon coated and unlikely to change a thing. The losers will always be the boys and girls who join the services in good faith - only to be shafted again and again by these worthless and utterly immoral scum.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:42 PM | TrackBack

The Chancellor like Stalin? Really?

Well, the commentator on that one, an ex-VERY senior Civil Servant (who got a Peerage out of his years of doing nothing) says our Chancellor is rude, dictatorial and refuses to discuss anything with his colleagues and civil servants. Then, of course, he was 'surprised' when his remarks were published by the Financial Times. Oh dear. Really?

It probably doesn't help that said civil servant used to be the Permanent Under Secretary to the Treasury. That ought to put him in a position to really know where the bodies are lurking .......

And the Chancellor is the man Mister Blair announced today will not have to be elected to the post of Prime Minister - unless there is some serious opposition to him becoming that from within the Labour Party. How typically Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist - in fact how typically Left wing. What do the people know? Not enough to be trusted with doing what we want them to do! Funny that, until recently, the Prime Ministers resignation generally meant the government fell with him or her and the voters got to choose a new one - not the Party hacks. Silly me, perhaps we do live in a Stalinist State and .....

Sorry, the knock at the door could be Tony's Thought Police. I'd better stop there ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 16, 2007

Pandora's Box once opened ....

Recently I was told that Stephen Hawking thinks that the reason we have not been contacted by any superior space faring race is that they have all blown themselves up at about the same point in development as we have reached. Well, that has certainly refueled the "Unilateral Disarmament" debate. Why is it that in the face of all evidence to the contrary, the morons who support the idea that if we, the British people, give up all our weapons, everyone else will do so too? They tried it in the 1920's and 30's and look where that got us all. They have been trying to disarm us since 1945 - and very nearly succeeded - proclaiming that we would be "better red than dead!" Now they think that if we surrender our defensive capability, that the likes of Iran and every other funny bunny regime will give up their ambitions to overthrow our society and impose their idea of Utopia.

It is edifying just how many of Blair's Cronies are jumping ship so that they can vote with the rest of their ex-hippie, pot-smoking "Peaceniks" against the retention of our nuclear deterent. All the usual garbage about how much more we could spend on the NHS, Education and all their usual hiding places and gravy trains - if only we didn't spend it on defence. Considering that we spend less per capita on defence than any other EU nation and certainly less per capita than any one of the states threatening to blow us away if they get the chance, I find this posturing in Westminster absolutely sickening. At least - for this occassion - sense seems to have prevailed and we are, it seems, to build the next generation submarine fleet and missile/warhead system.

Once something has been removed from Pandora's Box, it cannot be put back again. Once nuclear weapons were built and used they can never be "disinvented". They are a fact of life and we now have to live with that - throwing away our capability as these idiots wish to do is sheer lunacy in this unstable and morally bankrupt age.

Tacitus wrote almost two thousand years ago - "Si vis pacem; para bellum". It is as true today as it was then.

He who seeks peace; is prepared for war.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 12, 2007

Keeping a perspective

A big issue currently exercising the minds of the evangelically inclined and liberal members of the Church of England is the two hundredth anniversary of the prohibition of the carriage of slaves in British Ships. It took another thirty years for the owning of slaves to be outlawed in the British Colonies and a further thirty before this happened in the Southern States of the USA. In Spanish, Portugese and Arab controlled countries it continued for some time longer. In fact, in some Arab countries it continues still, although now disguised and even in Europe it has re-emerged in a different and possibly more pernicious form.

Several things make my blood boil whenever this issue is raised in any forum run by the evangelical liberals now organising a "March of Witness on Parliament", mostly the fact that they conveniently ignore a number of important facts in apportioning blame for this evil trade. One in particular got me going yesterday and several people got savaged by this impenitent Monk as a result.

I took exception to the description of the 18th Century Royal Navy as existing only to protect the British interests in the Slave Trade. Their contribution to the freedom exercised by every single Briton today means nothing - they existed only to protect the slave traders according to one speaker. The many thousands who died suppressing it - some of whom lie forgotten and neglected in Port Royal, Jamaica - are now seen as "oppressors" and "slavers". The fact that they suppressed the horrendous piracy in the Caribbean driving such luminaries and "freedom fighters" as Henry Morgan (whose amusement included betting on whether a near term pregnant slave was carrying a boy or a girl and then cutting her open to see which!), Blackbeard Edward Teach and many other equally psycopathic murderers from the seas, is now a worthless effort designed only to protect the slavers. I'm afraid a large group got a history lesson that pinned their ears back - and they are now in no doubt of my opinion of such revisionist history!

Secondly they are celebrating an event which, for all its good intentions, was so badly managed that it has locked certain nations and peoples into poverty for the last two hundred years and very probably for at least that long again for the future. All very well telling people one morning - congratulations, you're now free, please vacate the slave quarters immediately and by the way, you haven't got a job, an income or the means to support yourself, but what were the consequences? Great planning, and even greater idiocy was to think it could all work itself out! OK, so the Bishop of Exeter got a thousand pounds in compensation for the slaves he owned. What did the freed slaves get? Just a lot of grief and hardship by the look of it - and once again it was idiots like the group that annoyed me yesterday who "planned" the whole thing and actually thought they had done a good job! In one country alone three hundred thousand ex-slaves were out on the street without the means to support themselves. Is it any wonder that their nation now has the highest crime rate in the Western Hemisphere?

But another aspect which really annoys me about this is that, in focussing on the African Slave trade, this group have ignored the fact that right into the early part of the 19th Century Barbary corsairs regularly raided Cornwall and North and South Devon and even south west Ireland to carry off slaves to North Africa. The Royal Navy spent an inordinate amount of time pursuing them and trying to suppress this, but, with a world wide conflict in progress against Napoleon (in defence of our "slave trade" of course!) they were pretty stretched! And, Cornwall, Devon and Ireland were far enough away from the London Coffee Houses and the anti-slavery league that they could conveniently ignore the misery of our own people suffering in this way. The southern French coast, Italy, Sicily and Spain all suffered these raids as well - but I hear not one word of condemnation from our present crew of blame the "British Empire" pundits. Again they ignore completely the fact that it was the Royal Navy that suppressed this in Algiers in 1836 and freed literally thgousands of European slaves from there! But that doesn't fit the picture os us as nasty slave owning oppressors does it? Nor, it must be said, have I heard anything at all from this same bunch of whimps and intellectual cowards, about the fact that Christian boys and girls in the Sudan are regularly seized - usually on the pretext that their parents are debtors or rebels - and sold into slavery serving Muslim masters and families. They are not recognised by the UN and the rest of our Western revisionists as slaves for two reasons - they are Christian (and therefore oppressors!) and their Masters are those nice cuddly Muslims - whose religion condones slavery.

One of yesterdays statements which really got me going was "the Royal Navy regularly sent ships up the rivers to collect slaves for the slave traders!" Like hell they did, they were sent up the rivers yes, but to suppress the tribal wars which were feeding slaves to the coast and the various "factories" on the coast. Again the idiot making this statement had no knowledge of the Ashanti Kingdom's part in this or of the Barbary pirates and their raids into Cornwall and the rest! He even tried to say I was making it up. Well, he has now seen the error of that little exercise, since he got presented with my sources!

Why should we grovel and apologise for the actions of our forebears? It was a different age and a different understanding, I do not approve of it, and I certainly will not tolerate it in so far as it lies in my power to prevent it, but I see no reason to tell me to apologise for something my forebears actually gave their lives suppressing! If we want to extend that a bit further, will the Spanish apologise for the many British seamen that died chained to the oars of their galleys? Will the Irish apologise for the slaves they seized in Roman Britain (including Saint Patrick, seized from his family home - quite possibly on the Severn estuary?), will the Welsh? OK, so the "English" - that peculiar mixture of Celt, Pict, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Dane that currently inhabit "England", finally bit back - and generally did it better than anyone else. It is neither right nor proper for any man to enslave another, whatever his colour or race. But, let us keep a perspective. The English never sent armies to Africa to collect slaves, they bought them from local chieftains, much easier and much more commercially efficient.

Yes, we played a major role in the slave trade, but I have to ask myself why it is that there is this group in Britain who feel it was all our fault. That we were, and are, the only peoples who must "apologise" for it. Could it be because they represent groups who want to try and milk us for compensation? I am very much of the opinion that that is the underlying motive - and it is as immoral as the apologists version of our history! Our forebears certainly did transport a large number of people across the Atlantic, but why can we not keep the perspective and acknowledge the fact that the Spanish, Portugese, Dutch and French all shipped even larger numbers across the ocean and from even further abroad. Why are they not being told to apologise? And why should the present generation apologise at all?

I feel very strongly that this is simply a distraction. Britain played the most prominent part - and its Armed Forces are the instrument of Westminster, not an independent money maker - in putting an end to this trade in the west. It has never been completely supppressed in Africa and has re-emerged in modern times mainly in the Middle and Far East. If we feel so strongly about it, focus on those still practicing this evil trade - and suppress it. Don't sit here wringing your hands and blaming this generation for the sins of the past! And don't start arguing that the British Armed Forces existed to support and promote it. That is a canard of the highest order and an insult to the many thousands of men who were sacrificed by the do-goody stay at home feel-goody factions that still infest Westminster and Whitehall - and expect everyone else to pay the price.

Grow up, get your history straight and stop trying to pin guilt on those who can no more change the past than you can!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 05, 2007

Owning weapons

In an interesting commentary on the state of the minds behind our anti-defense league in Britain I have stumbled across an interesting piece in the Times Online thanks to Tim of An Englishman's Castle. For some time now we have had to listen to an interminable procession of drips whinging on about "violence begets violence" and that the only way to stoip the cycle is to all surrender to anyone who threatens us. This, so they argue, will eventually mean the destruction of all arms and armaments. Yes, and probably the reappearance of fairies in every garden. The simple fact is that the removal of any threat of retribution, and of any possibility that the victim may fight back, has not seen a reduction in crimes of violence, but the opposite. These crimes, particularly gun crimes, have exploded!

The author of the Times piece points out that in Victorian London gun ownership was widespread, yet gun crime was very low. Primary reason for this was that if everyone is armed, someone may shoot back - and he/she may well be a better shot! That is certainly my interpretation! That said, the figures do speak for themselves as do the reasons behind the progressive restriction of general ownership of weapons and the steady erosion of our right to defend ourselves.

The first restrictions were introduced after WW1 when LLoyd George was afraid that the disillusioned and isaffected soldiers returning from the trenches might join forces with the rising militancy of the Trade Unions to over throw the ruling classes. I suspect that that is far more the reasoning behind Blair's outright ban on the ownership of handguns - the excuse is "public safety" but the truth is that he is afraid of a popular uprising against him and his Whitehall W*****s in the Civil Service.

Do read the Times article, it has some very revealing facts and figures about gun crime and the rising attraction of gun possession by the gangs of today. Do I feel safer in a "gun less" Britain? Not at all - especially since I have no right of self defence and could get arrested for carrying the Dirk in yesterdays post in the street!

Welcome to Big Brother Britain. Only the State and the Gangs are allowed weapons.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:15 AM | TrackBack

March 02, 2007

Another Whitehall Fairy Story ....

The newspaper today is full of the major story - the plight of the Junior Doctors sold down the river by their own British Medical Association and the Senior Consultants who are in bed with the Whitehall W******s who have implimented the latest waste of taxpayers money. The Government has launched yet another "modernisation" on the Health Service. And you would be wrong if you thought it was about delivering a better medical service to patients and a reduction in the wasteful use of funds and acutely short space for waiting rooms and treatment rooms by sacking the infestation of bureacrats. No, this scheme is forcing all our junior doctors to apply for the jobs and specialities they have been studying for or already hold. One can only ask why the BMA even considered for one second supporting this scheme - or why some Consultants seem to have done very well out of supporting it according to the Doctors caught up in the farce. The whole is rapidly developing into yet another expensive and totally unnecessary change for changes sake scheme is imposed on professionals by the faceless and utterly incompetent Wonders of Whitehall.

The Junior Doctors caught up in this disaster are forced to complete an online application form - most of the questions having no direct relationship with anything medical - and then wait to hear if the bureaucrat at the other end has managed to read it; process it; and allocate the doctor to his or her own job. Whitehall doesn't seem to have considered that (a) most Junior Doctors have families and working partners, and (b) may have invested a considerable number of hours or years even in training for their present speciality. So, the faceless wonder processing the form decides the Doctor X is not required for their current post or speciality and either (a) informs them they are no longer required and are on notice, or (b) can continue in the health service but at a new hospital in some other part of the country. The lucky few who get to keep their jobs are also sometimes told they will have to change speciality.

It is nothing short of disgraceful that someone who has invested five years at university and another five years working as a House Doctor in one of our now increasingly disgracefully maintained and managed hospitals is now at the mercy from a career perspective of some jumped up filing clerk who has no university degree, no medical qualification and is simply processing a form designed by some equally unqualified and overpaid consultant. Morale among Doctors has collapsed completely. Understandably they feel betrayed by the BMA and equally understandably they feel bitter and betrayed by the Consultant Physicians and Surgeons who have managed to not only remain in post but have aided the incompetent civil servants in setting this up.

In the 19th Century the Civil Service was created to do away with the rotten "patronage" system. It has not succeeded. In fact it has simply replaced one rotten system with a new one - one that is even more rotten in that it pretends to be based on fairness and openess when it is neither. Pity the Junior Doctors, but I have to say they are simply the latest casualties in the New Labour (Old Socialist) programme of replacing every professional in management of every public service with incompetent civil servants who will do as they are told.

As for the BMA and the senior Medics supporting this process - well, meet the modern face of Judas Iscariot.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:36 PM | TrackBack

February 28, 2007

'Twas a wild and stormy night ....

Every book and tract I have read about how to sell my books and stories to prospective publishers begins with an admonition never, ever, under any circumstances, to submit a piece of work which opens with those words ..... But then, this blog is my own publication forum so here I can.

Monday saw me in that den of expediency and cynical abuse of power, the so-called mother of parliaments, for a seminar. I managed not to set a match to any fuses - and there were plenty about. Having to listen to a series of pompous and opinionated Labour placeholders telling us what a magnificent service the fire services will be when we get rid of all tradition, all professional officers and replace them with Managers was more than I could take by the cocktail session so I made my excuses and left. The most telling comment came from a little photographer who makes a living taking "happy snaps" of delegates at these functions. His comment - "The place has been ruined by this shower of s****! They are a bunch of vandals."

Still, I managed to give my paper and enjoyed a very good lunch in the Churchill Dining Room for my efforts. My biggest regret is that while I was sat in the large Committee room listening to the afternoon's papers there was a debate in the Commons on the future of the RN - one I would have given anything to hear!

But my MP was not in residence and he was apparently the only one who could sign my Pass. We're apparently now very strict about who is allowed to listen to these debates from the public gallery. It boils down to - only our friends, cronies and sycophants.

Sorry, my cynicism is showing again. Contemplating the supposedly "rotten" Borough PM's on the Grand Stairs, I was struck by the similarity to the state of play under their regime when their friends and cronies were openly awarded plum contracts and the present system where the civil service now awards the plums to their friends and cronies on the "Approved Supplier" lists. No change there then either.

As I said at the outset, It was a dark and stormy night ....

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:49 PM | TrackBack

February 24, 2007

Keeping one's cool .....

One of the most difficult things about working for oneself is deciding which work to accept and which to refuse. My recent jaunt to Jamaica was not an easy decision to make in the first place and now appears to have been the wrong one. In accepting the offer I made myself unavailable for other work here in the UK, work which would have paid a lot better, but which wasn't on the table when I accepted the Jamaica contract. I was aware that there might be some work coming from the alternative source, but was also conscious of the need to build opportunities for the future.

Well, the company that enagaged my services in Jamaica now has all the materials I put together for them for their courses and, having had me deliver the first of these, now knows how they should run as well. Pricing this sort of work is always tricky, as to front load pushes the cost for the client out of the affordable. So you spread your costs over the estimated number of courses you will be delivering for them.

Generally it works out, but every now and then, you get stung. I have just been stung. I was scheduled to go and deliver the next course in a weeks time, no longer. I received a rather abrupt e-mail informing me that my services will not be required. No explanation, no apology - and no payment in lieu! So the Monk now has three weeks on his hands with no income (it's too late to pick up the alternative work since it has gone to someone else.) and there doesn't seem to be much on the table at present.

Lesson learned? You bet.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:52 AM | TrackBack

February 23, 2007

More unintended consequences ....

The Sun, a newspaper I would be reluctant to use even in the event of a world shortage of toilet tissue, has today carried a picture which surely sums up the problem we face in Britain with "Youff" and gun crime. The picture shows a young "hoodie" aiming his fingers, firearms style at the retreating rear of the Leader of the Conservative Party. Said Leader having just visited a deprived estate and spoken to the local gang members and general "youff" about their use of guns and other weapons to kill one another and generally terrorise the estates they infest.

Mister Cameron has echoed Mister Blair in stating the blindingly obvious - these youngsters have no respect for authority, no respect for the law and absolutely no respect for their parents. Their role models are violent crack and herion addicts, footballers whose behaviour on and off the pitch is disgraceful and "rap" stars whose "lyrics" praise the use of guns and violence to force people to "respect" you. So what do our favourite politicians do - rush about tellimng us that this is the problem.

Yeah, well. What did you expect? Leadership? Don't make me laugh.

These politicians have no respect for the traditions of our nation, no respect for the family (unless its theirs!) and even less respect for the forces of law and order. The role models of former generations, men who embarked on voyages of discovery, blazed trails through jungles, led their troops bravely in battles and showed compassion in victory have all been consigned to the rubbish bin by Blair, Cameron and others of their generation who have made an artform of denigrating our past and particularly the giants of our history, castigating them as exploiters, tyrants and sexual deviants. So what have we got instead? Footballers who can't join up words, rap artists who are so drugged up they can barely stand and violent gangsters who show their contempt for the new society in the traditional manner. Blair and his testoterone enhanced Blair Babes have downgraded men to inferior oppressors of women and destroyed our history and the structure of our society. They have disarmed the law abiding and empowered the criminal classes to the extent that the majority of crimes now involve the use of illegal firearms at some point.

With role models like these, is it any wonder that the disenchanted and essentially disenfranchised young men (who have been denied a decent education by the politically correct educational system now slewed entirely towards feminised learning styles) seek to find themselves a new "rebel" outlet for themselves. Part of this new image is the carrying of lethal weapons - weapons that society deems to be unacceptable and are therefore attractive to the disenchanted.

Change the culture? Well, we can try, but I rather think the damage is already done.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 22, 2007

Since it is unlikely to be read by Mister Blair .....

The debate concerning the introduction of ID Cards has rather disappeared beneath the avalanche over the "Road Pricing" debate, but it is still a live issue. My daughter, The Postulant, was one of those who responded to Mister Blair's E-Petition to stop the ID cards and, surprise, surpirse, got an e-mail (Obviously Global!) explaining why the Whitehall W*****s think it is essential.

Her response is a gem. Pity Blair and his cronies won't read it or respond to it!

Dear Mr Blair (or the unfortunate person who has to answer any replies), I have a few questions: 1) Who will you be outsourcing the massive IT contract to? 2) Will they do a better job than all of the other IT contractors that your government has signed deals with? 3) Will the project be completely secure (which has been a problem in the past), 4) Will it be delivered on time and... 5) ...are you really really sure that the cost won't creep up like National Insurance contributions, council tax, bus fares, train fares, tube fares, inheritance tax, petrol tax, the Red Ken Olympic fund... the list goes on. I would want these questions answered in a way that suggested that you recognised the potential for identity theft from a leaky government second-rate database, outsourced to contractors who don't give a damn about anything other than the bottom line. You have taxed my generation into oblivion and given us nothing in return. You have presided over a deterioration in healthcare, education, transport and job security and you offer us... shiny new ID cards that the police and armed forces are under-resourced to deal with and that will be easily faked by some gang somewhere within a few months. We are no longer interested in style over substance. Stop waving nice futuristic ideas at us and get your hands dirty doing some real work for a change. Best regards (not), Signed

The PM's e-mail is in the extended post below - Read it and weep for the future of Britain and the (Dis)United Kingdom.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: 10 Downing Street [mailto:team@petitions.pm.gov.uk]
Sent: 19 February 2007 15:53
To: e-petition signatories
Subject: E-petition: Response from the Prime Minister

E-petition: Response from the Prime Minister
The e-petition to "scrap the proposed introduction of ID cards" has now closed. The petition stated that "The introduction of ID cards will not prevent terrorism or crime, as is claimed. It will be yet another indirect tax on all law-abiding citizens of the UK". This is a response from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
The petition calling for the Government to abandon plans for a National ID Scheme attracted almost 28,000 signatures - one of the largest responses since this e-petition service was set up. So I thought I would reply personally to those who signed up, to explain why the Government believes National ID cards, and the National Identity Register needed to make them effective, will help make Britain a safer place.
The petition disputes the idea that ID cards will help reduce crime or terrorism. While I certainly accept that ID cards will not prevent all terrorist outrages or crime, I believe they will make an important contribution to making our borders more secure, countering fraud, and tackling international crime and terrorism. More importantly, this is also what our security services - who have the task of protecting this country - believe.
So I would like to explain why I think it would be foolish to ignore the opportunity to use biometrics such as fingerprints to secure our identities. I would also like to discuss some of the claims about costs - particularly the way the cost of an ID card is often inflated by including in estimates the cost of a biometric passport which, it seems certain, all those who want to travel abroad will soon need.
In contrast to these exaggerated figures, the real benefits for our country and its citizens from ID cards and the National Identity Register, which will contain less information on individuals than the data collected by the average store card, should be delivered for a cost of around £3 a year over its ten-year life.
But first, it's important to set out why we need to do more to secure our identities and how I believe ID cards will help. We live in a world in which people, money and information are more mobile than ever before. Terrorists and international criminal gangs increasingly exploit this to move undetected across borders and to disappear within countries. Terrorists routinely use multiple identities - up to 50 at a time. Indeed this is an essential part of the way they operate and is specifically taught at Al-Qaeda training camps. One in four criminals also uses a false identity. ID cards which contain biometric recognition details and which are linked to a National Identity Register will make this much more difficult.
Secure identities will also help us counter the fast-growing problem of identity fraud. This already costs £1.7 billion annually. There is no doubt that building yourself a new and false identity is all too easy at the moment. Forging an ID card and matching biometric record will be much harder.
I also believe that the National Identity Register will help police bring those guilty of serious crimes to justice. They will be able, for example, to compare the fingerprints found at the scene of some 900,000 unsolved crimes against the information held on the register. Another benefit from biometric technology will be to improve the flow of information between countries on the identity of offenders.
The National Identity Register will also help improve protection for the vulnerable, enabling more effective and quicker checks on those seeking to work, for example, with children. It should make it much more difficult, as has happened tragically in the past, for people to slip through the net.
Proper identity management and ID cards also have an important role to play in preventing illegal immigration and illegal working. The effectiveness on the new biometric technology is, in fact, already being seen. In trials using this technology on visa applications at just nine overseas posts, our officials have already uncovered 1,400 people trying illegally to get back into the UK.
Nor is Britain alone in believing that biometrics offer a massive opportunity to secure our identities. Firms across the world are already using fingerprint or iris recognition for their staff. France, Italy and Spain are among other European countries already planning to add biometrics to their ID cards. Over 50 countries across the world are developing biometric passports, and all EU countries are proposing to include fingerprint biometrics on their passports. The introduction in 2006 of British e-passports incorporating facial image biometrics has meant that British passport holders can continue to visit the United States without a visa. What the National Identity Scheme does is take this opportunity to ensure we maximise the benefits to the UK.
These then are the ways I believe ID cards can help cut crime and terrorism. I recognise that these arguments will not convince those who oppose a National Identity Scheme on civil liberty grounds. They will, I hope, be reassured by the strict safeguards now in place on the data held on the register and the right for each individual to check it. But I hope it might make those who believe ID cards will be ineffective reconsider their opposition.
If national ID cards do help us counter crime and terrorism, it is, of course, the law-abiding majority who will benefit and whose own liberties will be protected. This helps explain why, according to the recent authoritative Social Attitudes survey, the majority of people favour compulsory ID cards.
I am also convinced that there will also be other positive benefits. A national ID card system, for example, will prevent the need, as now, to take a whole range of documents to establish our identity. Over time, they will also help improve access to services.
The petition also talks about cost. It is true that individuals will have to pay a fee to meet the cost of their ID card in the same way, for example, as they now do for their passports. But I simply don't recognise most claims of the cost of ID cards. In many cases, these estimates deliberately exaggerate the cost of ID cards by adding in the cost of biometric passports. This is both unfair and inaccurate.
As I have said, it is clear that if we want to travel abroad, we will soon have no choice but to have a biometric passport. We estimate that the cost of biometric passports will account for 70% of the cost of the combined passports/id cards. The additional cost of the ID cards is expected to be less than £30 or £3 a year for their 10-year lifespan. Our aim is to ensure we also make the most of the benefits these biometric advances bring within our borders and in our everyday lives.
Yours sincerely,

Tony Blair

Useful links
10 Downing Street home page
http://www.pm.gov.uk/
James Hall, the official in charge of delivering the ID card scheme, will be answering questions on line on 5th March. You can put your question to him here http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10969.asp
To see his last web chat in November 2006, see: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10364.asp
Identity and Passport Service
http://www.ips.gov.uk/
Home Office Identity Fraud Steering Committee
http://www.identity-theft.org.uk/

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:30 PM | TrackBack

February 20, 2007

Computers, don't you just love their little ways .....

About six months ago I bought a "Portable Drive" with 50 Gb of storage space on it. Great, I thought, now I can carry my working files around with me and work on them where ever. I could even find space to download and copy all the stuff I had accumulated on my computer at work before I retired - taking care that I took only the stuff that was my own and nothing that was theirs! The result was that I had the means to carry my presentations, my book drafts and a whole load of useful and irreplaceable information that I use all the time with me.

Most of it was "backed up" on other machines, drives and sticks. Most of it.

Yesterday the Portable Drive ceased to function. My desktop can "see" that it is there, but cannot "read" any of the information on it. This is when you discover that what you thought you had stored on other drives and machines isn't. Ninety-nine percent of it is, the one percent that is vital isn't - including the draft of a technical book I have been writing for the last eight months.

A visit to a hardware fixer and data retriever was my first step. He has done his best, he tested everything on it and in it. He has tried inserting it into a laptop as the "main" drive, he has tried to breathe life back into the device, to no avail, my Portable Drive is now, like John Cleese's parrot, an "ex-Portable Drive". It appears that there is a tiny motor inside the thing which allows the disc to spin and be read. The motor turns but the disc doesn't and as it is sealed there is no way to discover why without destroying it entirely.

The supplier is sympathetic - bring it in and we'll exchange ot for a new one. Fine, but I have still lost almost 30 Gb of data ........

I could weep, but it will serve no purpose whatever. A lesson learned the hardest way possible I think!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:37 PM | TrackBack

February 19, 2007

The Law of Unintended Consequences ....

The Law of Unintended Consequences is one of the most frequently overlooked physical "laws" in life. There are any number of glaring examples where some well intentioned action has had exactly the opposite effect to that intended. My recent visit to Jamaica brought me face to face with one of the most devastating examples - the Emancipation of Slaves. The intention was laudable and extremely desirable, but the outcome was anything but what the protagonists intended - and the legacy is still having repercussions in Jamaica and elsewhere to this day. It was one thing entirely to, at the stroke of a pen, "free" several hundred thousand slaves, it was another entirely to provide them with living incomes, homes, food and even clothing! One moment they had all these things - admittedly fairly basically - and the next they had nothing and nowhere to go!

The planters and slave owners received compensation for the loss of "assets", the slaves got nothing but to be shown the gate. Some, it is true, managed to find employment, usually with their former owners, others had no such luck and had to find their own means of subsisting. The impoverishment of the entire nation from there on seems to have been inevitable and is stamped large on Jamaican society even now. I will admit that I had not appreciated this until I read about it in "The Gleaner", Kingston's principle newspaper. Further research showed me that this was just one of a number of consequences arising from that single event and to be honest, I am not at all sure that the Emancipation lobby ever understood the effect it has had.

What has sparked my writing about this? Several things, first an acquaintance is organising a "March against Slavery" in London to mark the anniversary of the Emancipation in 1837 and secondly the rise of the "Fair Trade" movement which, like the anti-slavery league, has the best of intentions, without, I fear, understanding the affect their campaign is likely to have on the very people they seek to help. In the same week I have had to endure the incredibly intense anti-nuclear movement led by the Greenpeace Eco-terror mob as they campaign to stop the building of any nuclear power plants in the UK. Again, the law of unintended consequences is likely to bite every UK based person hard as our power demand continues to grow and the so-called "renewable" resources are exceeded while Greenpeace and their anti-progress lobby force further delay (and escalation of costs) on the only sensible option.

Likewise we see in the "Global Warming/Climate Change" hysteria another group whose demands for reductions in Carbon Emmissions, ecologically friendly farming, and much more can really only be met if we all stop travelling anywhere, stop manufacturing anything and stop heating or cooling our homes. Oh yes, and we need to cut the world population by about two thirds as well. We cannot have it both ways, if we cut our emmissions something has to be given up - something that is at long last acknowledged by the Kyoto Fascisti now that they realise it is stupid to demand that the developed world do one thing while the world's greatest polluters, the developing world, do another.

Taking the Fair Trade campaign as a starting point, the campaigners want the "workers" in the developing world paid a fair price for their goods and their labour. Fair enough, but what is the price tag? Looking at our end, we will pay more for the raw materials, fair enough, but that is not the greatest part of the cost of these goods. So, if they cost more to start with, they will cost even more to finish because the cost of transport, processing and delivery will all rise commensurately. Ergo, demand will fall, or wages at their end will rise to meet the rising cost. That will start yet another spiral as the costs at this end rise to pay for the rising cost of living and so on .....

Then there is the question of a "fair" wage at the other end. First question, what do we regard as "fair"? Second question, is this really what is needed at the supply end or will it simply drive the living costs there even higher? So the coffee farm worker is paid what we regard as a wage below the poverty line. He or she can't afford a television, gameboy and Nike trainers - but, do they need them or is this a case of our material ambitions being superimposed on another culture and society? Do those who support this campaign and insist that the rest of us drink only "Fair Trade" coffee (ghastly stuff!) or eat "Fair Trade" chocolate (even more ghastly!) really care about the workers who, if the wages are forced up by their campaign, will find themselves in the same position as the Jamaican slaves in 1837 - without any income at all? Do they understand the consequences of this? From my contact with those I know who really do get rabid about "helping the poverty stricken of the world" I would suspect that they don't - or, if they do, they don't care because the "cause" is far more important than the people it will impact upon.

I fear that this same attitude is what drives the Greenpeace Eco-terrorists - their fear of nuclear power drives them to declare that anything will be better than taking a sensible and reasoned approach. One nuclear power plant can produce five times the electricity that is produced by the largest wind farm currently in the UK. They would still rather see every square hectare of this countryside covered by windmills than admit their "renewable" energy sources cannot provide the power on their own. They must also have a scape goat, so humanity is blamed for what may very well turn out to be a natural change occurring in our climate, although I have to admit that the current level of world population and our heating systems and air conditioning systems (all providing some form of heat exchange) are definitely not helping!

This is a living planet and it is slowly entering a warming phase. We may be able to slow that down, but I doubt very much if we can stop it! In the meantime the unitended consequences of their campaigns are to drive prices of basic commodities up, move jobs across continents to where their influence is ignored and to generate poverty among those who lose out as a result.

Looking about me, I see a number of things where the good intentions have been entirely negated by the Law of Unintended Consequences. As I said earlier, this is one law that really does bite!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 15, 2007

Consultation? Only when we agree with our Illustrious Leader it seems ...

The recent spectacle of the "Online Petition" against the proposed "Road Charging" scheme our Illustrious Leader and his merry minions have dreamed up as another scheme to penalise everyone who dares to use a private car having backfired badly, is enlightening by reason of the responses it has drawn from our Whitehall W****rs and their Westminster cronies. Firstly, the petition was evidently supposed to be seen by only a few selected signatories. That didn't work because the word spread like wildfire and everyone with any sense at all logged in and "signed" it! So many in fact that the website crashed. Instead of the "less than 750,000" Number 10 expeted, they got over a million signatures before it crashed.

Does this mean the government (and more especially the Civil Service) will now shelve this stupid idea? Of course not, the Minister responsible merely gets himself on TV and announces that the petition "clearly shows that people simply don't understand the need" to do this! Like hell we don't. What we do understand very clearly is that Whitehall spends less than 25% of the money collected at present in "Road Tax" and "Fuel Tax" from every motorist and vehicle user on roads and transport. The rest vanishes into the vast Black Hole that is Whitehall, lining the pockets of the army of "special advisers", "consultants" and other hanger's on that infest that place. The Minister bleated that we should trust him that there would be a reduction in the standard Road Tax rates to compensate for the "Road Charge". Oh yeah, like we were all born yesterday and have fairies at the bottom of the garden.

The truth of Mr Brown's "Economic Stability" is that we are sat on a huge bubble of debt. A growing debt what is more! When it, as expected, bursts, the only way to balance the books for this shower of tax and spend merchants will be to raise every tax they can - and guess who will be hardest hit - you've got it - you and I! Road Tax will never be reduced, Road Pricing or charging is merely another of Brown's stealth taxes, taxes that he squanders on ever more useless (and conversely powerful) Civil Servants and their inflated budgets and incompetent planning.

I have signed the petition, but I am of the opinion that even if every motorist in Britain signed it, this government would still go ahead and implement the scheme. Why am I so convinced of this? Consider their record on everything to date. Regionalised England? No one wants it, but they have gone ahead and created them anyway - only without elected assemblies, just more of Blair's cronies 'appointed' to the "Boards". Devolved government to Scotland? Everyone warned of the consequences, but they went ahead with it anyway and now are panicked by the threat that Labour could lose control of the Scottish Parliament - and be forced to allow Scotland to seek independence! Gibralter? They planned to hand it back to Spain - despite the clear will of the Gibraltese to remain British! The government simply declared the Gibraltese Referendum "irrelevant". Health crisis? There isn't one says the Minister in the face of the evidence and the story goes on and on.

Face the facts. This is no longer a democracy, it is an oligarchy ruled by the unelected in the Civil Service for the benefit of the few who are suppoed to be our servants. Watch this space - the referendum will be ignored when this shower of dishonest charlatans think they can safely get away with it - the Minsiter has already declared that the "trial" schemes will go ahead anyway. You may be sure that once in place they will not be removed.

Send Blair and his chums a message anyway, hit his site and sign the petition!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:12 PM | TrackBack

February 14, 2007

Valentine's Day

February 14th is the Feast Day for the Christian martyr, Saint Valentine. It has a somewhat chequered history since it is also the date of a number of massacres in history, particularly that of the Hugenots in Southern France and perhaps more notoriously still, Al Capone's murder of a rival gang in Chicago in the 1930's. That said it is today the date on which it has become customary to send someone a romantic card or some other token of love - preferably anonymously.

It is a day I try to avoid! Twice I have received Valentine Cards and twice I have landed in trouble over them. I have even managed to send gifts for Valentines and landed in trouble for that too! I shall keep the saint's feast in my own way - and I won't be sending any anonymous cards or gifts to anyone! Should I receive any I shall hide them!

Somebody let me know when the 15th arrives!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 13, 2007

Pardon?

Yesterday, a German court ruled that Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a well known member of the former German terrorist group RAF (Red Army fraction) is to released from prison at the end of March after serving 24 years of her life long sentence. She will be out on a five year parole. Her release has stirred up quite a discussion in the country if and under what conditions people like her should be released from prison at all.

The RAF formed in the late 1960's at the end of the student protests in Germany. It was also known in the beginning as the Baader-Meinhof gang after her founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Its purpose was obviously to fight a war against the German state which its members thought oppressively capitalistic. The RAF is thought to be
responsible for killing 34 people between 1972 and 1991. It officially disbanded in 1998 admitting they couldn't win the war they had started.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt was studying journalism when she joined the RAF in 1971 supplying them with weapons. She was arrested in 1972 and sentenced to five years. She spent the last months of her sentence in the same prison as Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, another member of the first RAF generation. After her release in 1977 she became one of the key figures of the second RAF generation.

1977 went done as a bloody year in German history. Mohnhaupt was involved in the murders of leading figures in German industry and politics including industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the head of the Dresdner Bank ¨rgen Ponto and the federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback. German society was stunned by the sheer brutality of these crimes. For example, the car of Hanns-Martin Schleyer was stopped, his driver and two companions gunned down and Schleyer was abducted and held prisoner for several weeks. Mohnhaupt and her accomplices demanded the release of the other imprisoned RAF members but the German government refused to be blackmailed. So, in the end Hanns-Martin Schleyer was shot by the RAF terrorist. They never showed the least bit of compassion for their victims.

In October 1977 Palastinian terrorist abducted the German Lufthansa plane 'Landshut' on its way from Mallorca to Frankfurt. They too demanded the released of the imprisoned RAF members. At their first stop in Aden they shot the captain and then flew on to Mogadishu where they were eventually overwhelmed by special German military orces. During the next night the imprisoned RAF terrorist Jan-Carl Raspe, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin committed suicide in their cells.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt was eventually caught in 1982. But the terror still went on with the assinations of the head of the
Deutsche Bank Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 and the head of the Treuhand trust (an organisation which, from 1990-1994, took over the state owned firms of former East Germany after reunification and sought to bring them into the private sector) Detlev Karsten Rohwedder in 1991 and the bombing of a newly built prison complex in 1993. I have seen the remnants of Herrhausen's car and I've heard the 'bang' when the car bomb went off right beside the prison wall as a lived only about 20 km away at that time and both was a real shock to me.

As mentioned before the RAF officially disbanded in 1998 and it is said that Brigitte Mohnhaupt supported this decision whole heartedly. After having been sentenced to five lifetimes of imprisonment she will have served the required minimum of 24 years in March this year. As she is no longer believed to be a threat to society and has said herself that guerilla war is no longer an option for her she will be released on parole next month.

I must admit that it is not easy to come to terms with that. I know that our juidicial system is not built on revenge but on resocialisation, i.e. giving people a second chance to prove themselves useful for society. It is certainly correct that from a legal point of view Brigitte Mohnhaupt is entitled to her release. But still - I could believe a murderer regretting his deed if it was committed in the heat of a moment. But I have severe doubts in this case where the murders were carefully planned and carried out coldblooded and without mercy. And I wonder how the surviving family members of more than 30 victims of those 20 years can live with this.

It was said in the media that Brigitte Mohnhaupt wanted to do something more for the victims' families than just telling them that she was sorry for what she had done. It remains to be seen if she really will. The tragedy is that whatever she will do it will never make undone what she has done in the past.

Posted by Mausi at 07:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 08, 2007

Emissions

Germany has been battling the EU again for the last weeks or probably months about the amount of CO2 emissions. We agreed at last to reduce our CO2 emissions to 453 instead of 465 million tons as originally planned.

Overall Europe today cars emit an average of about 163 grams CO2 per kilometer, in 2012 this will have to be reduced to 130 grams per kilometer by improving car motors and technology. Originally, EU-commissioner Stavros
Dimas wanted CO2 emissions reduced to 120 grams per kilometer. The German car manufacturing industry promptly cried out loud and kicked up a fuss and said this was impossible to achieve and thousands of jobs would be lost and Germany would loose one of its key industries and all the rest that is usually said in such circumstances. What really astonishes me is that 130 grams is a value the car industry can agree to. Piece of cake, they said. I mean, if 130 grams are easy to achieve, why not 120?

The real reason, I think, is that the German car industry has taken a wrong turn some years ago. They thought the most promising car models were the one of the high price sector: fast, powerful engines, lots of horse power, admittedly nice to drive but guzzling up petrol at an appalling speed. I really have no patience with those people driving these new luxury off roaders made by Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen not because they live in the wilderness and need the car to get around but because they like to park it in front of the supermarket where it instantaneously becomes an obstacle in our narrow streets just because they like to show off on their way home from the tennis court. I may be prejudiced but what really got me going the other day was watching an interview on TV a few days ago with a middle aged blond lady driving one of these, her daughter sitting in the passenger seat and answering the question why she drove a car like that in town with: "Well, my husband chose this car for me. And I feel very comfortable and safe driving it. And if it uses up 18 litres of petrol for 100 kilometers - hmm, it can't be helped, can it?"

Mind you, I am not jealous because I cannot afford to drive a car like that. It is not my lifelong ambition to do that. Being a chemist, I just think that petrol, or rather all the different hydrocarbon compounds it contains, could be put to a much better use as raw materials for quite a number of products instead of simply being burnt in a car no one really needs around here. The other thing I fail to understand is why people are so opposed to a speed limit of 130 km/h on German otorways. There's so much traffic around by now that it is very seldom you can go faster than that anyway. It's probably just the feeling that you could if you could and with a speed limit you can't even if you could!

Posted by Mausi at 06:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 27, 2007

Some short stories due ....

Watch out on Amazon.com for the publication of two short stories related to my book Out of Time. They should be published as "e-stories" very shortly and will come up under Amazon Shorts. A search for "Patrick G Cox" should bring them and my book up and these will sell for $0.49c a time!

Patently I don't expect to get rich on the Royalties ..... but the object of the exercise is to get the book noticed and to feed into it. Both stories are prequels to the book itself and develop the personalties of the two principal characters in Out of Time. I hope that some, at least of you, will venture out and buy into them.

Have fun reading!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:09 PM | TrackBack

January 20, 2007

Travelling again ...

The Monk left yesterday for Jamaica where he has three weeks work to do. If possible he will drop a few lines from there and maybe even a picture or three, everything depends on being able to access the appropriate services foir the internet.

Mausi will do her best to mind the blog, but is under quite a lot of pressure at work and may find herself having to skip the odd day. Please bear with us both as we try to keep things going, we promise to be good and to try and keep you entertained one way or another. Certainly, this year is turning up some interesting challenges right at the start, not least for the Monk as he tries to sort out future working patterns for himself.

In an ideal world he would be able to concentrate on doing what he enjoys most, writing books. This isn't an ideal world, so the books play second fiddle to earning his crust.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 15, 2007

Rising water ....

The water continues to rise around Tewkesbury, although it is still not as high as the levels about five years ago. Behind the Abbey the Vineyards recreation area is flooded as are the car parks and a part of the campsite. Along the Avon, the water is lapping over the road surface in several places and the Ham, the triangular area of commonage between the Avon and the Severn is completely submerged.

The Vineyards, south of the Abbey and through which runs the little Swilgate, seen here as the lake it has become.

Yesterday the sun shone for the first time in quite a while, the perfect opportunity to get some pictures!

The flood water covers the Ham seen here from Mill Lane, where the converted Abbey Mill (right) stands with its lower floors flooded.

The Swilgate is also backed up and covers the cricket club grounds, the Vineyards car park and the lower edges of the Caravan Club site.

The swollen Swilgate covers the Cricket Club's pitch.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 14, 2007

Defend the Union? A bit late isn't it Mr Brown?

In a major historic move England and Scotland became a United Kingdom exactly three hundred years ago this year. Scotland had been bankrupted by various "adventures" in colonialism led by ambitious Scottish merchants and politicians attempting to compete with the English merchants instead of working with them. National pride, led to national catastrophe with the Darien Adventure bringing about the final collapse. England drove a hard bargain for the Union, demanding the cessation of the rivalries and the closure of the Scottish Parliament in return for paying out the debts accrued in these failed ventures. Scotland, for its part retained its unique legal system and gained a powerful voice in Westminster - a voice I might add, that has over the years become ever more powerful as more and more "Scottish" MP's have risen to the Cabinet and to the office of Prime Minister.

Yes, there have been negative issues, not least the land clearances, initiated by Scottish landowners and not, as is often taught in Scotland and among expatriate communities, by the perfidious English. Overall, Scotland has done rather well out of the Union, not least because a very disproportionate amount of the tax revenue has always found its way north of the broder, but because the number of Scottish MP's has always been dispropoirtionately larger than the population there merits. By and large, the system has worked to the benefit of both nations, as it has benefited the Welsh and some would argue the Irish, although that depended to a large extent on how you view it and whether or not you do so from within the Pale or the Province! Now Labour, having fostered the politics of envy, is in danger of destroying the Union completely because it has contributed to the feeling that Scotland has in some way been "deprived" by the Union of their wealth and status. So, enter the Scottish Nationalist Party, determined to end the Union and create a Republic of Scotland, independent of England, but a member of the EU so they can still keep milking the English tax pot for funds.

Gordon Brown is now alarmed and has written an article defending the UNion in his Scottish newspapers. Well, the prospect of an independent Scotland is bound to alarm him - after all he would lose his seat in Westminster (He represents a Scottish constituency) and all hope of being PM. He would also lose (or Labour would) some seventy seats from their majority. It is no secret that it is the Welsh and the Sottish MP's (both now with their own Parliaments or Assemblies) that keep Labour in power and ensure that the English are forced to accept the will of the Scottish and Weslh Labour majorities.

While I accept that this should alarm those, who like me, were born and raised to believe the Union was what made us as a people "Great" in the way we shared and supported each other, I have to say, that with the current tax spend North of the Border being some six times per head what it is South of the Border - and the vast majority of that is raised in England, I am of a mind to say, let them go it alone. Let them have the bloated bureaucracy they have built in England and elsewhere as well. We English may well be a nation of shopkeepers, and we may well have been those who benefited from Scottish ingenuity and so on, but we have funded it as well. Perhaps it is time to let Scotland and her peoples have another Darien Adventure. It will bear no better fruit than last time.

As for Gordon Brown's defence of the Union, well the stench of hypocrisy from him and his party is nothing new. They have sown the seeds, it is now a bit late to discover that they have sown a crop of dragon's teeth. Its a bit rich of him to now blame the Right when it has been the mantra of his own Party for almost a Century to play the envy card in Scotland and in Wales in order to whip up anti-English feeling. The BBC article on Gordon Brown is in the extended post below.

The Union of England and Scotland is under threat 300 years after it was formed, Gordon Brown has warned. The Chancellor has set out his fears of a "dangerous drift" to separatism in an article to mark the tercentenary of the two parliaments merging in 1707. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Brown defends the idea of Britishness amid signs that the Scottish National Party will perform well in forthcoming elections north of the border.

He praises the former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for her consistent support for the concept.

He also rejects calls for English laws to be decided by English MPs alone, now that devolution has been brought in.

The Chancellor's intervention will be seen as further evidence of his concern over being seen as "too Scottish" if, as expected, he succeeds Tony Blair later this year.

"It is now time for supporters of the Union to speak up," Mr Brown writes.

"The failure to defend and promote the United Kingdom is now becoming more a feature of the thinking of the Right."

Mr Brown insists: "Of course it is healthy to recognise the distinctiveness of each nation.

"But we will lose all if politicians play fast and loose with the Union and abandon national purpose to a focus on what divides."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:40 AM | TrackBack

January 13, 2007

Some Rules of Life every school child should get straight!

A friend sent me this - but I think it should be seen as widely as possible! Please feel free to link it, copy and post it and generally make sure it gets seen by the Nanny and PC mobsters! If Bill Gates can see these ovious truths then so should everyone else. Rule 1 applies!

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:26 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 12, 2007

More cuts for the Navy?

A bit of a storm in the press - and not the one currently battering this soggy isle! - caught my eye earlier this week. It seems that someone in the MoD is once more planning to decimate the Royal Navy. Not since the days of King Charles II's parliament and their mothballing of the entire Fleet while the country was still at war, has this nation seen anything as stupid! What will it take to get this shower of morons ejected from their ivory towers in the refurbished MoD HQ and the Treasury? Where is Admiral van Tromp when you need him?

Judging from the letters column in the Torygraph there is as much stupidity among some of the readers and letter writers as there is in the Treasury and the MoD. Perhaps some of those letter writers are civil servants or retired civil servants? [Probably not, they are all Guardian (or Gruaniad!) readers, must be because that is the only paper the civil service advertises in. - Ed] Certainly some of these letter writers believe that one ship is equal to a hundred simply because it has X amount of fire power. Have these complete morons learned nothing? Oops, sorry, by definition a moron cannot learn anything. So why do we tolerate having these vital services run by morons?

It seems that, to "save money", the MoD is considering shutting down Portsmouth Naval Base. And yes, the rattling sound you can hear all over the country is the whirling of generations of Naval dead in their coffins. The noise in St Paul's crypt is almost deafening! The argument is constantly advanced that "we are building two new carriers and six new destroyers". Yes, but to replace THREE carriers and TWELVE destroyers! Oh, and a complete class of Minehunters, some sixteen ships has been reduced to just six. And the Roayl Navy has lost its Air Arm - or at least it has lost all its fixed wing capability. It must now ship RAF aircraft (not designed for shipboard use) and pilots who must now spend months learning to fly off a moving airfield. This was tried in the 1920's and 30's and is the main reason the navy went to war with outdated biplanes and no fighters on its aircraft carriers! The Royal Yacht has been given to Scotland as a show ship, the submarine fleet is being eroded, and even the nuclear deterrent is under threat - all at a time when the world has never been more under threat and more unstable.

Earlier this week I visited a military site. It used to run efficiently and economically and did what it did well. It is now run by Serco at vast expense and the MoD has to rent it back from Serco. The place is stuffed with Civil Servants who have taken over the Officer's Mess and the Officers have decamped to eat in the local pubs. Why, because they find the stench of hypocrisy too much for their stomachs - especially as nothing works properly any longer, everything takes five times as long to get - if it can be got without a "business case" - and invariably it can only be got if some filing clerk now labelled a manager, is prepared to accord the uniformed services a higher priority than the nice little paper shuffler who needs their office redecorated.

A friend in the NHS has exactly the same general complaint. The "Manager" constantly says no to medical needs while saying yes to new office equipment, additional paper shufflers and nice furniture for the "Executive" suite - stuff the patients and their needs, and particularly stuff the medical staff. And this in a trust that is £40 million in the red and considering closing hospitals and overloading understaffed services in the remainder. Oh yes, the Wonders of the Treasury thought that forcing hospital trusts to take out these loans in the first place "saved money". Just as the Treasury thinks that privatising the running of military bases, military transport and the servicing and maintenance of military hardware "saves money". The fact that it now costs twice as much because it means that the military lose the expertise and must not only pay the trooper, matelot or airman that used to do it - but must now pay some contractor as well to steal their expertise!

The advantage of having things run by soldiers, sailors and airmen for soldiers, sailors and airmen is that when the s**t hits the fan, all of them can be marched out to fight. Now, we run out of men immediately the s**t hits the big whirly thing because the men we have already committed to the front line are all we have. No reserves and don't expect the civil servants to go and do it - "not in my job description" breaks out en masse!

Another advantage of having soldiers, sailors and airmen running things is that they know that, when ammunition is unsuitable for a weapon - you don't send it along anayway just to make up the numbers! Couldn't happen? Think again, our Parachute Regiment is in Afghanistan with a full thrid of their ammunition for the .50 machine gun they have on their patrol vehicles unusable, something that was identified several years ago and corrected - or so they thought. The complete a******e in Whitehall (and I sincerely hope that he has been taken out and publically flogged before being charged with treason!) responsible for the supply of munitions, is now on record saying, "It was deemed better to ensure that they had a full supply of ammunition, than to send them with a reduced supply!" Really? It is better to have ammunition that you can't use rather than fewer rounds that you can - and kick someones rear off his comfy (and very expensive) luxury armchair in the MoD to get the full compliment of proper ammunition there yesterday?

How do our modern Admirals, Generals and Air Marshals put up with this? Where are the men of principle who, fifty years ago would have threatened to resign en masse and go public? Why are the morons in the Treasury and the MoD allowed to remain in post?

Let us be clear on this. You cannot expect to do with five ships what you can do with fifty. You cannot use ammunition which does not work in the weapon you are holding. You cannot keep demanding more and more from fewer and fewer people, and you cannot replace the ships and men you have lost through this folly overnight! It take eighteen months to reactivate a ship that has been mothballed and several years to train up the people to staff them. Aircraft are only marginally quicker on the turn round. And as all this must now be done using "Prince 2" procedures and contractors the Navy, Army and Airforce have no control over or input into - guess what, the Civil Service will screw it up completely and it will take twice as long and nothing will work. Good game - if you can become the contractor, no blame, no pain and an open cash vault for you.

There is, of course, another question on this, one the Civil Service and Blair and Co don't want asked. What deal have they done with the EU that has agreed a reduction in our forces to Squadron, Division and Air Group status? I suspect they are about to declare that we no longer need our own forces because the EU will take over responsibility for Defence. The French have been working on that for years, and I think our Whitehall liars and thieves have signed up to it - and are afraid to tell us the truth, that is why they are closing bases, reducing materiele and personnel. They are about to hand the country over to Brussels. Napoleon's dreams realised and without firing a shot!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:00 AM | TrackBack

January 10, 2007

A tale of our time?

The Gorse Fox has posted a story - a tale of our time - which cuts right to the heart of what is so desperately wrong in our Cool Britannia paradise for the layabout.

Let us hope that this story of the industrious squirrel and the lazy grasshopper is read, digested and pondered by a very large number of people and then remembered when next our political masters try one on us, or the press and the bleeding hearts at the BBC present their usual guilt/angst laden tales of psychological blackmail.

Read the story, I can not find anything to add!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 31, 2006

Good bye 2006!

Well, we have survived another year. And what a year it has been, both personally and on the world stage. On a personal level I have had the interesting experience of retiring, only to find that the days were suddenly filled with more work than I really want! Still it pays the bills, so I had better learn to cope with it. My first novel has been published - albeit through a self-publishing house (Best price for it is still through AuthorHouse UK or AuthorHouse US) - and the second is well down the line of being written, with a more mainstream publisher actually expressing interest. While I doubt this will ever make me into a zillionaire (I should be so lucky!), I do find it is great fun and very relaxing as I try to find believable ways to get my heroes into the situations that make the story.

On a world front the picture is much less rosy I fear, especially with the news that Saddam has been despatched from this life on the end of a short rope. I have no doubt that this will be seen by all the Civil Liberties mob as "Iraq kowtowing to the wishes of the evil US" and by all the Islamic Fundamentalist mob as "Iraq kowtowing to the wishes of the evil US". More bombing and murder will now follow. All in all a year in which the world seems to have lurched closer than ever towards a major confrontation and I have to say that I expect it will happen one of these days, probably triggered by some fundamentalist somewhere who thinks it would be a good idea to obliterate someone he doesn't approve of. I won't take any bets on who, where or when, but the clash of cultures and the present lack of any direction in the West is likely to create the ideal opportunity for some lunatic group.

On a personal note again, the highlights have included my trip to the West of Scotland with Mausi earlier this year, and the various contacts I have had with friends, family and colleagues around the world. June saw a trip to Cincinatti for a Conference which was a huge success. It also provided the opportunity to meet the parents and grandparents of a student I had the privilege of hosting at the college I worked for. Miles seems to have made good use of his time and to have begun to use his skills in a very beneficial way. His family too, made me very welcome and were easily the best example of real American people I have yet met - good solid folks with a great appreciation of the world around them. I also had the chance to visit Belgrade for the first time and to meet and make a range of new friends there. What a fascinating history Eastern Europe and the Balkans share - and what a lot we, in the Western parts need to learn about it if we are to work effectively together in the future.

Well, tonight we say good bye to 2006 and hello to 2007. Let us hope that it brings with it a better set of prospects than we have faced in 2006 and a better and more stable world by its end.

Happy New Year to you all!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:09 PM | TrackBack

December 26, 2006

Farewell to Tugg

One of my favourite cartoonists has died. "Tugg" also known as Lieutenant Cecil Wilson MBE, has died suddenly. I know that in reproducing one of his masterpieces here I am breaching the copyright, but I sincerely hope and trust that it will be permitted to pass as a sincere tribute to the man and his art. Subscribers to Navy News will know and love his work - and his ability to capture "Jack" in all his moods, hopeful, cheeky, pushing his luck alongside the tensions that always exist between the "Royals" and the Matelots aboard any ship in the RN.

I am sure that many who have passed through one form of military service or another will agree with me that the PTI's were often more frightening than the enemy could ever be! Sometimes even more scary than the GI's or even the Master at Arms at his most bucolic and sarcastic. I think the cartoon below sums up why extremely well!

Tugg knew his subjects well, having joined the RN in 1947 as a Naval Air Mechanic and achieved the rank of Sub-Lieutenant in 1964 and his sense of humour was unsurpassed, frequently biting, but always spot on the button. My thoughts are certainly with his family at this time and my prayer is, as ever, "May he rest in peace; and rise in Glory with Christ."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:46 PM | TrackBack

December 20, 2006

Comment on todays post

For the first time since I started writing this blog I am declining to post a comment. It is a comment posted against the post I put up this morning and it is so clearly driven by the propagandists vision of the Middle East that I cannot, in conscience, publish it. I hold to the position that Israel has the right to exist and to defend itself against aggression. That is the basic right of any nation state. I do not agree with some of the actions the Israeli government has taken, but I can well understand the provocation that underlies it.

By the same token I cannot and will not support the fundamentalist approach espoused by Hamas, Hizbollah and al Qaeda. I therefore apologise to any reader who feels that I should support the Palestinian "victims" in their war of terror and attrition. I will not support any state funded terrorist organisation since this is merely to endorse the fighting of wars of territory by proxy. Iran, Syria, Saudi and the other states sponsoring the purchase of bombs guns and bullets for Hamas and Hizbollah terrorists to use are fighting an undeclared war through their proxy dupes and victims, the Palestinian people, in the hope that this will hand them greater power and a 'victory' over the hated West.

I do not support the funding of terror groups by any state, my own, the US, the USSR or anyone else, and I will not support the war in the Middle East currently being fought by terror groups on behalf of the Islamic dictatorships and their ambitions of world domination.

Yes, I am practicing censorship - but it is my Blog, and I will not be used to spread vicious propaganda on behalf of anyone's cause.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Lead bullets harm the environment .....

Yup, I guess they do. They're not much good for the people they pass through either, so I suppose the Campaign Against the Arms Trade has a point when they pour scorn on BAE Systems "lead free munitions". On the other hand, the day we discovered the bow and arrow the efficiency with which we kill one another has advanced by leaps and bounds - ask the French survivors of Agincourt about the English Long Bow. Their losses against an English force of just over six thousand exhausted and dyssentry ridden men was over ten thousand dead to the English loss of six hundred - mainly women, children and sick men caught by the Dauphin and his troops in the Baggage train.

Taking the lead out of the ammunition serves two purposes really, one being that the rifling in any gun isn't being plugged with lead as you fire, so it reduces the need to keep clearing that out of the grooves, and second, it probably helps increase velocities and therefore range and accuracy. Gravity has this irritating habit of pulling the projectile into a downward path which increases as the velocity drops, ergo the faster the bullet the further it will go and the more likely it becomes that it will hit the target. There is a negative of course, wind forces can also influence the flight path over long distance - so a heavy bullet is less likely to deviate sideways ....

Oh well, enough ballistics.

The real problem for us all is that the technology, once developed simply does not go back into Pandora's interesting box. Once something emerges, it cannot be ignored. An interesting analogy is the events of the First World War, the technology had advanced so rapidly since the last major European conflict of the 1870's that the Generals on both sides really had no idea of how to handle them. Even today, our troops and their Commanders are constantly having to rethink tactics and battlefield deployment strategy as they come up against new and more devastating weapons. Far from being the "Clinical" exercise that our politicians think it is, warfare is still about killing - and the side that finds the most efficient way to bring attrition to the other side, usually always wins.

The second problem is state sponsored "irregular" armies. They are not new, the Swiss fought a campaign against the Austrians for over a hundred years using terror tactics. The Irish did the same supported for much of the time by France and later, in the twentieth century by funds from the US - OK, not exactly "State" funding, but legally collected and sent by Noraid direct to the IRA. In Africa both the US and the USSR supported rival terror groups, as did China, Cuba and several other "civilised" nations. Go back to another century and you find that the Welsh fought a guerilla campaign against the Edwardian Kings as did the Indians and others in South East Asia against their colonial overlords. Classic examples, if only Mr Blair knew a little more history and a little less of the twisted PC versions he thinks is truth, are the Afghan wars of the nineteenth century, the desert campaigns through the 1920's and 30's in Iraq, the Yemen in the 1950's and 60's and the list goes on. Even the South American drugs cartels have their origins in "freedom" fighter groups who have simply discovered the power of voting with bullets.

We have a massive problem in the Middle East precisely because several states - and I don't think it is just Iran and Syria - are funding the terror groups operated by Hamas, Hizbollah, al Qaeda and everyone else stupid enough to fall for the seventy two virgins and paradise rewards offered. Billions of dollars are being poured into Hizbollah from Iran at this moment for "reconstruction" in Southern Lebanon. No one knows how much of that is being spent on weapons by this ghastly group - but I am pretty sure the Israelis will soon find out! Terrorism is the oldest tool in the war chest - and it is still the ugliest.

We cannot disinvent the gun, the bombs or the other things we use to kill one another. The clock cannot be turned back to an age of smaller populations living with diseases we no longer have, poverty we can't imagine and tugged forelocks to our Local Landowner. It cannot work, and it was never the golden age that some of the anti-military campaigners and tree huggers seem to think it was. Unfortunately we do not seem to be able to stop killing each other either - none of us ever seems to have to look far for a reason or a cause to harm someone else.

We need a strong military as long as there are those loose in the world who look with envy at whatever their neighbours have got, and want to take it. As long as there are those in the world who want to impose their particular set of philosophies, moral standards, culture or world view on everyone else. Vigilance is the only defence, vigilance and preparedness, a lesson we forget all to readily and all too often. "Si vis pacem; para bellum!"
If you seek to maintain peace; prepare for war! Unfortunately that means that we have no choice but to keep developing new ways to do more damage to one another - preferably before someone else finds the way!

I suppose, at the end of the day, that the lead free ammo will at least not leave any lead in the wound to give the traditional dose of lead poisoning. Small mercies perhaps? Yes, guns are used to kill people. So are knives, arrows, darts, hyperdermic syringes, fence poles, clubs, stones and just about anything and everything a man or a woman can pick up and hit someone with. It is not the weapon that kills - it is always the person wielding it. Banning one weapon simply means that someone else will pick it up and use it on the person who has been disarmed and is now defenceless. No one in his right mind believes that supine surrender is a good alternative to terror, no one that is except the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Funded by the KGB throughout the Cold War!) and all the other "Peace" Groups who chant variations on the mantra "Better Red than Dead". What is worse, they would be the first to betray those who tried to organise a "resistance" movement (See definition of "Freedom Fighter", "Terrorist" and "Underground"), turning them in in the hope of scoring brownie points from their new overlords. But then, that is the nature of humanity.

Weapons are a fact of life, we need to make sure they stay in the right hands - and not disarm ourselves so we surrender everything our forebears worked and died for. Lead free ammunition? Why not?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:50 AM | TrackBack

December 13, 2006

EU Corruption at work?

There is a very worrying report from the House of Lords regarding the case of the EU Commission on food safety and a small British firm which has now been forced out of business on orders from Brussels. This despite the firm having successfully challenged the Commission in the European Court and won - the Commission first made three attempts to impliment the decision in a very slewed manner - and then simply by-passed it by demanding that our own Department of Health pass an immediate and totally unprecendented Statutory Instrument banning the use of any product made by the target firm!

The Lords have rightly challenged the Minister of Health who supinely agreed that it was unprecendented and unfair - but he felt he could not refuse since to do so would place us in breach of an EU Directive! Never mind the fact that the Commission is blatantly in breach of their own laws and in breach of a European Court Judgement! Never mind the fact that the EU Commissions Inspectors have repeatedly misdirected their committee and have flagrantly misapplied both the law and deliberately misinterpretted their own data. This is extremely worrying because it suggests that the Commission has an ulterior motive. Perhaps the Commission should now be investigated because it is almost certainly the case that these orders have come from someone in receipt of a substantial bribe - to put a rival out of business. The Noble Lords are very right to make an issue of this, and very right to be concerned at the ramifications for our democracy.

The Commission has refused to accept the findings of our inspectors who found nothing at all wrong, having conducted a much more thorough going inspection of the premises than the Eurocrats who could not even interpret their own documentation - all they in fact looked at. In fact the UK Inspectors identified that the Commissions inspectors had misrepresented their own data! One is left with the distinct impression that the inspection had only one purpose - to close down a factory which is hurting someone with the ear of the EU Commissioner in providing a better service and product. Now the Commission is threatening to impose a fine on the Department of Health for "failing to protect public health"! That is really rich considering that their data for this has been trashed in court twice! It will be nothing short of a disgrace if the Whitehall W**kers are allowed to pay any such fine - it must be challenged in every court available and the Commissioner himself charged with contempt of Court and of Democracy. Whitehall cannot be allowed to simply accept this!

It is time to stop being so damned supine in Whitehall. Perhaps it is time to issue a summons for the Commission's inspectors to appear in the High Court in Britain to explain their contempt of the law, of the Courts and of the truth. Perhaps standing at the Bar of the House of Lords and undergoing cross examination in the Highest Court in Britain will prove to be a salutory lesson to this bunch of unelected, corrupt and dictatorial despots a salutory lesson.

Sadly, it is unlikely to happen. Not while Blair thinks he can do business with the EU in its present form. It might jeopardise his nice cushy number as a future Commissioner himself.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 12, 2006

The beginning of the end for multi-culturalism?

Mr Blair's sudden conversion into an integrationist is amusing to say the least. He and his party have spent at least the last thirty years telling us that we were institutionally racist because we refused to "celebrate" the desire of every ethnic community to recreate their former homelands culture and to remain outside of the "British" system even though, thank you very much, they wanted the education, opportunities and hand outs.

Ten years of telling us all that we, the British, were the racists who "provoked" oiur ethnic minorities and that we were wrong to insist that they integrate themselves fully into our society and the rule of law as we have it, has finally been recognised as a blunder. Predictably the Muslim Council, who have worked hard on Blair and his cronies to win concession after concession from them, have stated they are "alarmed" at his demand that they integrate. After all, they, more than anyone else, have been exploiting the privileged status Blair accorded them set up an entirely separate society within this countries boundaries. They operate their own legal system, their own courts and they refuse to give allegiance to the Crown, stating that it "against their religion.

Now we see members of his cabinet struggling to add their voices to his in denouncing the excesses of their own policy. Sadly the damage is done already, as I have commented repeatedly in this Blog, the concept of a "multi-cultural" society is just another name for Apartheid.It will take years to undo and I doubt very much that this shower of half wits will ever really appreciate the damage they have done - or acknowledge their error!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:44 PM | TrackBack

December 10, 2006

Three cheers for the Archbishop of York!

Three very hearty cheers for the Archbishop. +John Sentamu has proved to be a gale of fresh air for the Church of England! His Grace's latest very measured attack on the attempts to remove Christ from Christmas and to turn it into a secular "festival" of "multi-faith" and no faith excess has struck right to the heart of the sickness that Nu Labour (and it must be said most of Old Labour!) and their placemen and women in the Civil Service have infected this country with over the last thirty years.

Christmas is a Christian festival, it is a celebration of the birth of the infant that grew into the Christ of the cross of Easter. It is not some "multi-faith" bunfight, just as the Millenium was a Christian event - which the morons of Nu Labour and the Civil Service managed to screw up completely by trying to make it "multi-faith". (They held it a year early - there is no "0" in the Roman numeral system - and they then spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get the Muslim, Jewish and other faiths to celebrate a Christian event!) Yes, Christmas does fall on the ancient Roman Saturnalia and on a Druidic festival, Beltane, but it is neither. Certainly the date was chosen because it took over an existing festival and the message of re-birth and renewal was easily transposed upon them. But it is and remains a Christian festival.

The Archbishop, an ex-Judge and lawyer is no fool, and certainly no soft touch. He has struck out at the attempts by secularists and atheists in our society to rewrite our history and to denigrate Christianity and its role in our society. His arguments are powerful - all the more so because, as a good lawyer and judge he has made sure of his case. It is edifying to see how many of Blair's so-called cabinet have suddenly come out in support of Christmas and against that other great shibboleth of the Labour Party - that Christian Festivals are "offensive" to other faiths.

The Archbishop seems to have opened the window to a gale - let us now hope that it blows the whole of this heap of trash away!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:21 PM | TrackBack

December 08, 2006

'Green' Tax?

I expect it was predictable that the Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the rest of the unscientific and lunatic fringe tree hugging brigade would condemn the Chancellor's latest increase in fuel tax. As far as they are concerned, nothing less than driving every last private motorist off the road by charging swingeing fuel tax, road tax and any other tax they can think of, at rates that no one can afford, is acceptable. They want us all to ride bicycles or walk. They want all internal combustion engines outlawed - but they also want the money from the taxes so they can promote all their cockamamie schemes to reverse climate change.

The latest fuel price hike by our caring Chancellor is not going to be spent on improved public transport. Let's be clear on that, it will vanish into the black hole in Whitehall and pay for more worthless penpushers or the MPs 66% pay hike. Or Blair's £60,000+ per year pension which he can claim from May onwards. It won't be spent on transport - unless its in London.

Yet again we hear the W*nkers of Whitehall rabbiting on about "Carbon" offset and "carbon" exchange - what they mean is no change to the emissions - its OK because we have offset it against something which no longer emits! Like British Industry that isn't producing anymore because its moved to China or India! Yet again the Chancellor boasted about how well the economy is doing and how good our tax savings are - but his own figures don't actually stack up - the cost of Whitehall keeps growing, every "cut" in expenditure seems to end up costing twice as much somewhere else. And his BIG announcement in the "Mini Budget" is a fraud. The "extra" cash for schools is the same money he has announced at least three times to my knowledge.

I would suspect that the only reason the tax on fuel is as low as it is - is because the Chancellor wants to get into Number 10 and become PM before anyone actually figures out ho much its consting them! That's politics for you.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:24 PM | Comments (1)

December 06, 2006

Christmas banned - in a supposedly Christian nation ...

It could only happen in Blair's Britain. There isn't a heck of a lot I can say about this - except that it really is time to sharpen the pitchforks and to man the barricades, drag all the PC fanatics out into the steets, beat the crap out of them and then decorate the bridges in London and the lamp poles elsewhere with their corpses.

Now that would rekindle the festive spirit. Sadly, its not very Christian either.

It seems that nothing short of our becoming a Muslim state will satisfy our Politically Correct classes, Christianity is everywhere denigrated, derided and debased by our so-called Leaders. Where now Mr Blair's much vaunted "Family Church-going" or his Christian Socialist Values? Ditched, along with all his other empty promises and non-existent values!

Christmas Banned

Nearly three-quarters of British firms are banning Christmas decorations in the workplace for fear of being sued, research has shown. A new survey found most bosses are scared to put up festive tinsel and Christmas trees because they might offend non-Christian workers. Law firm Peninsula said the workplace was becoming caught up in the "wave" of political correctness.

"Christmas trees and decorations may well be a thing of the past in many workplaces this Christmas as political correctness culture has spread to the workplace," managing director Peter Done said.

"Although employers who are enforcing the ban are sceptical and dismayed by this trend, they feel they have little choice in the matter due to the threat of litigation, as they have to protect themselves, their reputation and their livelihood."

Office workers at Tower Hamlets council and the Royal Bank of Scotland have also been banned from hanging up Christmas decorations at work - in case they got hurt.

Staff were barred via email from climbing on office furniture to put up decorations in case they fell off, hurt themselves and sued.

Recently, workplace dispute reconciliation advisors ACAS attracted criticism for warning bosses they had to be politically correct at office parties.

A set of guidelines issued by the service warned against running raffles at end-of-year shindigs, because they might offend Muslims, and against playing too much modern music, because it might offend older members of staff.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:20 PM | TrackBack

December 05, 2006

Caution - Dual legal systems in force.

The word is now out on the streets, Blair and his anti-Christian gang can't hide it any longer. Islamic Sharia Law is even now being enforced in the UK - but entirely without legal or constitutional authority! It is being enforced by courts set up in Mosques and it seems the Muslims in Britain are supporting this. They do not recognise the law of the land and have imposed their own - an entirely foreign legal system from the tenth century - upon their community in defiance of Parliament.

Mind you, Parliament is now such a discredited body I almost have sympathy for this, but the fact is that it cannot be allowed to continue. There cannot be two legal systems or two sets of courts in this country, the law has to be one and the same for all our citizens and the Sharia system is totally out of keeping with the UK legal ethos.

How are Blair and co likely to respond to this? Well, I suspect they have already given it their approval, after all, it is part and parcel of the multi-cultural society garbage they have peddled for the last ten years. Our Departments of State are now bastions of Gender Correct, Racially Correct, Atheist Preferred rectitude, increasingly staffed with Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist practitioners from ever ethnic background except White Anglo-Saxon-Norman and, as the latest debacle precipitated by BA has shown , anti-Christian. I am pretty much convinced that we will soon go the way of the Byzantine Empire, infiltrated by Islamic adherents who, admittedly by their own industry, infiltrated the high offices of State, then launched a take-over, ousting the Christians from office and amending the laws to their taste.

At present the Sharia Courts are operating clandestinely, but watch this space, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has already gone on record stating that she "would not object to the introduction of certain elements of the Sharia law system". Well, if I were voting to get rid of her, I would go for the introduction of the bits that bar women from public office, that require two women to testify against the word of one man and several other bits that would see the likes of her and her chums in the civil service booted out of office and kept permanently veiled and muzzled. But I am not. I am for a free fair and open society, not one ruled by clandestine courts rooted in archaic prejudice or for that matter by Politically Correct Mantras and social engineering again based on the prejudice of the current ruling elite!

Now its out in the open, Blair and his cronies had better deal with it - before the country is plunged into a civil conflict provoked by a take-over bid by his extremist friends currently promoting Sharia Law as an alternative to our own.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:30 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 04, 2006

A dangerous occupation ....

It was really only a matter of time before something like this happened. The fire in the fireworks warehouse in East Sussex serves to highlight the folly of the government's assault on the fire services and the drive to socially engineer, reduce and "demilitarise" the fire services. In reality the target was the Fire Brigades Union, the last bastion of the Socialist Workers Party within the Labour Party fold. The victims, as all too often in any fight between politicians are the people who actually do the work.

The Chief Fire Officer of this particular Fire and Rescue Service has been one of those at the forefront of the drive to fill all "management" roles above the level of the people who ride on the big red lorries, with "managers" parachuted in from Tesco, the local Job Centre and anywhere but the ranks of those who know anything at all about the job that they are called upon to do. The result has been that they have had to re-employ retired officers to fill the knowledge and experience gap they have created, appointing these ex-officers - sorry, "managers" - as "Operational Support" or "Incident Support" officers. The idea being that they stand beside the Parachutist "Incident Manager", who has no fire or operational experience, and make sure he follows their "advice" and doesn't screw the job up completely!

The supreme irony has to be that one of the two casualties, is one of these "Incident Support" officers, a man who, having done his time and been put out to grass by his "modernising managers" had been hired back to "help" their proteges gain the experience they will never be able to amass because they will never, in a million years, ever be competent to tackle a major incident unsupported. Worse, they will never understand what it is like to be at the sharp end, take orders from someone who does not understand and has never experienced for themselves what it is like "at the sharp end". Sadly, I suspect that these deaths are only the first of many more we will see until the politicians are made to accept the blame for their destruction of a service which, with some faults it has to be said, was by and large pretty good.

Incidents involving explosives are mercifully rare, and few of us ever have the chance to experience dealing with them - thankfully! The incident commander has to understand the likely behaviour of these materials in a fire, for, while they may burn if unconfined, the behaviour is likely to change dramaitically as the burning rate increases as the temperature in the building rises and as the expanding gas increases pressure on the remaining material. The fire tends to increase in speed, flashing from subsonic to supersonic and the resultant detonation can occur with very little warning and very, very swiftly. The standard procedure is to place large water streams at the access points and throw water at it from a long way away. But, that is not always advisable - especially with fireworks as they contain things like magnesium and other metals, which increase their burning rate if you add water! All of this will have had to be taken into account by the Incident Adviser - but at the same time, the fire fighters will have been aware that there were other exposed risks around the building on fire which needed to be protected, and they will have recognised the need to attempt to prevent the fire spreading to involve other fire works. This is a damned if you do, and damned if you don't scenario, every experienced fire officers nightmare, one the inexperienced ex-Tesco Manager would not even begin to understand no matter how often he or she had played video games on the Minerva Suite in London or elsewhere.

I mourn for my lost comrades. I pray for their families - and I hope that those that have "modernised" the fire and rescue service to the state it is now in are exposed for the frauds they are.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:00 PM | TrackBack

December 02, 2006

Another "Stealth" tax .....

I think the latest report on road congestion stinks of corruption. Not only will I have to continue to pay 80% of the price of every litre of fuel in tax to the thieves of the Treasury (and don't forget the VAT!) and the Road Tax to the DVLA (Read the Treasury!) but now I will be required, if this bunch of thieves are allowed to get away with it, to pay, in addition, per mile for using my car! The blythe announcement that this will raise £28 billion "to be spent on improving rail and bus transport" makes me realise that this shower do think the rest of us are completely stupid!

As things stand they spend less than a fifth of the money raised by Road Tax on the roads, the rest vanishes into the Black Hole that is Whitehall's idea of budgetting. This £28 billion will suffer the same fate - and the buss and train service will not improve because it simply can't. These morons live in cities and think that everywhere in the country you can find a bus stop every two hundred yards, that the place is swarming with black cabs and theres a train every twenty minutes. Well there isn't.

Just taking the trip I have had to do over the last couple of days as an example, my journey out took four and quarter hours for the 232 miles, including a stop for comfort and coffee. The journey home took three and a half, but I didn't make any stops. Overnight hotel cost me £61 B&B and the fuel came to £39. Ergo the trip has cost me a little under £180 (if I include an allowance for the running cost of the car!) To do the same journey by rail would have required me to travel into London the day before, stay overnight at a hotel and then travel North. Another night in hotel, then a reverse train journey arriving back at home probably around 11 pm last night. Costing it out I arrive at a figure of a little over £300 all included.

What was particularly noticeable, as I listened to the various political supporters of this cockamamie scheme rabbitting on about the cars causing the congestion, was that the congestion on the motorways was always where there were a group of trucks trying to overtake each other and blocking two, three and, in one case, four traffic lanes! But the trucks are the property of one of the political establishments favourite and most generous slush funders - the Road Hauliers Association. As far as the politicians and the civil servants are concerned, the roads belong to the RHA and not to the motorist - ergo; the motorists (excpet for the politicians and their cronies) must be driven off them (no pun intended) and into inadequate and expensive public transport. This will serve two purposes, both of them dear to the heart of any socialist regime. It will restrict peoples ability to travel and it will increase their control over who travels, where they go and how they are permitted to do so.

It is a well known fact that anyone who is unable to travel outside of a small aea where they work and live, invariably is dependent on his local authority figure for the world view. Which means that we can continue to control people by feeding them lies and fostering envy and greed. Keep the populace tied to their area of origin and don't allow them to check the propaganda for themselves and you have a poplutaion which is easily manipulated by the political classes. This is why the Feudal Barony were so strict on the movement of villeins!

I don't know what the proposed charge for using the roads is likely to be, I am certain that I know who will be hurt by it and it won't be those who can draw a full pension after only ten years of so-called work. It will once againbe those of us who actually live and work in the reality of life outside places like London, those for whom the use of a car is an essential not a luxury. It will be the middle income earner that ends up footing the bill for tthe nice clear roads Blair and his fellow denizens of Whitehall and Westminster want to have for their exclusive use. Damn the lot of them! We have paid for the use of these roads through Road Tax, through exorbitant fuel tax and through our blood sweat and tears! It's time to send the lot of them to Coventry - and to start a letter writing campaign that will bury them in an avalanche of protest!

Time for the resistance to start!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:19 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 01, 2006

Reducing Bureaucracy?

Have you ever noticed that every new government makes a promise of reducing bureaucracy while they are in power? The latest European Commission is no exception. And I am sure everyone would agree that it is indeed high time bureaucracy in Europe was reduced! However, reading about the latest attempt to do so leaves me in serious doubt the this Commssion will achieve anything at all in that direction.

Recently the Germans refused to turn the new European law on 'lighters' into national law. And quite right they are. The whole point of this new European regulation is to make lighters 'child-proof' all over Europe. If you think you can write this down on one single page you don't know the first thing about European laws and regulations. It cannot be done in less than 13! First you have to define the term 'child-proof'. Not child-proof are termed all those lighters which don't look like a lighter but rather like some toy. Pretty straightforward so far.

The next pages deal with the correct process of introducing child-proof lighters into the market. Did you know that a lighter is 'an apparatus using some kind of fuel to generate a flame, which is operated manually ...' and so forth. The European Commission points out that it is usually employed to ignite tobacco but can also be used to set fire to other materials. Ignition of small children is obviously not intended, however. Therefore the lighters must pass a test to be declared child-proof.

It was this test which made the Germans draw the line in the end: Each type of lighter must be by a group of 100 children. None of the children must be older than 51 months (I wonder why?). The tests with each group must be carried out at at least 5 different locations. If the children are unfamiliar with the room where the tests take place they must be given enough time to get accustomed to their surroundings.

I wonder if it will be worthwile for manufacturers to produce lighters in the European Union at all. I also wonder how my parents coped with life 40 years ago. My father was still smoking heavily when we were small kids but we were not allowed to touch matches or lighters or play around with them. My parents left us in no doubt about this. Perhaps the quickest way for reducing bureaucracy in our lives would be to allow people to be responsible for their own lives again instead of trying to find a fool-proof regulation for everything and teaching hundreds of small toddlers how to become little arsonists!

Posted by Mausi at 10:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 22, 2006

Is it a bird? Is it a 'plane? No! It's Super Nanny!

If proof were ever needed that the inmates now run this asylum, then this must surely be it. Having spent most of their careers railing against restrictions, "out of date" ideas of parenting, "traditional" family values and - of course - any form of disciplinary action aganist one's children, our Illustrious Leader and his morally bankrupt coterie of "do-gooders" and Social Engineers, now wants to impose on us all, professional training to be good parents. It seems to have escaped this shower of idiots and bigots notice that most of us manage to do a fair job without his or his army of "social workers" interference. The problem lies, in the main, with the group that Labour purport to represent - the out of work, drug addicted and "victim" class.

I live in an area where parenting skills seem to be to scream at your kids, shout at each other and drink or whatever to your hearts content while the kids run amok and wreck everyone elses peace and quiet - so why do I think this is another of Blair's attempts to impose intereference and will not solve anything? Well, three doors from me is a nest occupied by the most notorious family in Gloucestershire. Daily visits by the social workers haven't cured their kids of truancy, nor have the daily visits by the Parole Officer, the Police and a host of other "visitors". Around here the family are known as "Midnight Movers Inc" and what really needs to happen in most people's view is for them to be removed, en bloc, from society permanently.

This Super Nanny idea is just another attempt by the liberal left to impose their world view, based on the discredited ideas of the infamous Doctor Spock, on how to re-engineer society into a supine dependent and obedient mass to be ruled by our new Lord's and Masters. I am prepared to guarantee that as soon as this latest piece of ill considered and ill judged legislation hits the streets than it will be found that there are too many parents from "poor and deprived" backgrounds, to many "ethnic minorities" and too few "white middle class" families being given these orders. The Social Worker army of witch finders will immediately leap into action and round up every white middle class father and mother whose child has received a slap on the backside and bingo - we have met our quota and solved nothing.

The problem of delinquent children is a very complex one, and the parenting is only one part of the whole. We live in a society which seems to have lost its identity. The Scots know who they are, as do the Welsh and the Irish, the English have been stripped of theirs completely after years of being told they aren't English, that they are Geordies, Manunians, Brummies or whatever - anything but "English". Then we also have the problem of a non-mobile workforce. Unlike Europe where the world wars have caused huge migrations in most countries, Britain has not been a particularly mobile population, so there is a fragmentation in which those living in the Tyneside have almost come to regard those living in the Cornish peninsula as foreigners and vice versa. I hate to think what this is doing to the gene pool! Again, mobility is discouraged by the Trade Unions and Labour because it means that, like Fuedal Lords, they cannot control their peasant workers if the little buggers can wander off to pastures new when they want to or need to for work. Much better to keep them tied to structures and locations where they can be brainwashed into victimhood when the going gets tough or the factories close.

The sixties "sit ins" in universities may have come to an end, but the Students Unions, the debating societies and all the training grounds for social engineers and politicians in the making are still there - though now controlled completely by the socialists and the ultra-left. Blair himself was a member of this "class" and so were all his cabinet and most of his MP's. It was at this point that the parenting started to break down as drug use became the "in" thing to do, children could be allowed "freedom" to develop their own "personalities" and anyone who objected was branded "reactionary". Single parenting became the "new" way to be with men an optional extra for sex or fathering a child for the new feminists - many of whom are now in Blair's government and are no doubt behind much of the "child protection" and "parenting" legislation.

The problem of renegade children is a serious one - but imposing Super Nanny and dictating how families will be run and how parents will deal with their children is unlikely to solve the bigger problems in our fragmented and damaged society. This is another of Blair's "smoke and mirrors" quick fixes and it will be as effective as all the rest of his ill considered legislation since 1997. Mark my words, it will result in more broken families, more hardship for parents and more "protection" for renegade children who will still receive no discipline and no guidance on how to be members of a decent society. All it is likely to rpoduce is more witch hunting against those who believe in traditional discipline and traditional family values.

We live in a society which is no longer ruled by moral principles and common sense, we are now ruled by the principles of prejudice - the prejudices of the left dressed up as morality. If you want to see a model for this look no further than some of Lenin's pronouncements against the bourgeoisie or Hitler's rantings about "the Jews" - or even some of that other group of Blair's "heroes" - the Islamic preachers of hate who want to see Israel destroyed. Welcome to the "new" Britain, no longer the home of the "free" on any level.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:24 AM | TrackBack

November 20, 2006

Strange weather ....

Mausi's roses blooming in November put me in mind of a question I have been pondering for a little while. It certainly came back to give me some more thoughts recenetly on considering news from the Southern Hemisphere! I have never liked the term "global warming" since it doesn't actually describe effectively what is really happening. I was reminded of this recently when talking to Ozguru in Australia and he mentioned that they have recently had a bushfire extinguished by snow in the Blue Mountains. Now there are several aspects to that which are interesting. The first is that at this season in the Blue Mountains the temperatures are usually in the upper 20's Celsius, and the second is that for the temperature to drop that low - low enough for snow that is - means that some very strange weather patterns must have come into play over the continent. Coupled with an extremely long dry period this suggests that there is a major shift happening in the weather over the Southern Hemisphere which, far from bringing warming, seems to be bringing cold.

When this information is put alongside my brother's reports from the Western Cape of the winter just past, to the effect that it has been the coldest and wettest there on record for some time, and you do begin to wonder precisely what is going on. I think that there are several things happening and only one of them is human related. Sure, we can probably do something about that, but the real bottom line there comes back to overpopulation in areas where the ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to over use and to the fact that we, in our efforts to control our envirionment, actually pump heat into the system at a phenomenal rate. Think airconditioning, think central heating .... Both are heat exchange systems, and the heat always, as Flanders and Swann have famously said in a song about Boyle's Law - transfers from a hotter body to a cooler one. So if we sink heat into the ocean as a means of cooling the air in our buildings built of glass and steel in places like the Arabian Gulf, you raise the sea temperature. If you heat your home in Europe, the heat seeping into the ground, the walls and the roof heat the atmosphere around the building. Certainly one of the most amazing things you can see is a look through an infrared lens at a modern building. The microclimate around it - and the heat plume above it - is fascinating, and that in buildings which are supposed to be compliant with modern insulation requirements.

The other aspects which are likely to underlie what is happening in our atmosphere and on the surface, quite possibly lie beneath our feet and are well beyond anything we can control. I'm talking here about the planet's own evolution. Plate tectonics mean that everything is moving, albeit at an infinitely slow rate, but still moving. Even in my lifetime that distance between Europe and America has increased by a measurable amount, minute as it happens, but measurable, and the distance between the America's and Asia and the Pacific Rim has shrunk. Everytime a volcano erupts, CO and CO2 emmissions run off the scale, and even a good earthquake can release a huge amount of these gasses if it causes a surface rupture. The planet itself is changing around us, parts are cooling, other parts are warming. Changes in the 80's to the emmissions to deal with acid rain mean that we are now producing less white and fluffy cloud and more grey. Grey absorbs heat, white reflects it. We solved the acid rain, but we now absorb more heat from the sun. Anyone got a plan for losing this somehow? Big sheets of reflective foil in the upper atmosphere perhaps? Giant mirrors in orbit around the planet to cut solar radiation?

The oceans act as heat sinks for a range of natural phenomena and we add to that by using them to cool power station outfalls, steam condenser units and even for desalination treatment plants. The Northern Europe area faces an interesting future as far as I can see, because as the "Atlantic Conveyor" slows down with the melting ice cap, the warm water which flows in to replace the outflow and comes from the warm Equatorial Regions, is diverted or ceases to flow Northward. In effect it is thought that this will trigger another Ice Age - hopefully not as violently as the movie "Day after tomorrow". But this leads me back to the snow in the Blue Mountains. I have no scientific proof of this, and probably will now attract the howls of derision from those who believe it can all be solved by simplistic models and changes to human behaviour - but I find myself wondering if the Southern Hemisphere isn't about to see a return of the ice.

The Great Southern Ocean has been slowly warming for centuries, but the recent meltdown of much of the Antarctic Iceshelf has dumped billions of gallons of fresh water into the oceans there, changing the salinity and changing the ocean currents and temperatures. If this triggers a similar slowdown to that seen in the Northern Hemisphere and specifically in the Atlantic current pattern - the Southern tip of the Americas, the Southern Ocean and the southern end of Africa and even Australia could get a heck of a lot colder.

I wonder if anyone has thought of that one - after all, the last great Ice Age in that half of the world ended just a little over 450 million years ago. It may well be that they are about to have another one!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 16, 2006

How stupid is George W?

Not very, seems to be the conclusion when you do a little digging into his background and history. That he isnb't very articulate is a matter of record, that he is an idiot is perhaps open to question when you realise that he spent some years flying supersonic fighter aircraft which have one of the worst ratings from its pilots for being difficult, unforgiving and lethal to any idiot attempting to fly one. And then there is the little matter of his academic record. He is a Harvard and Yale graduate having gained two advanced degrees from them, neither university is noted for handing out degrees in return for payments, donations or political quedos. Ergo, he must have actually worked for them and passed the examinations.

In Vietnam he succeeded in flying a fairly active war in the F-102 Delta Dagger, an aircraft that was notorious for the number of pilots it killed in accidents. And before anyone suggests that this may have been because he didn't do much flying, again the USAF records prove otherwise. In fact he was quite a successful pilot all round. That is certainly the verdict of another pilot who has written a very thought provoking item on the man entitled "War of the bumper stickers." It makes very interesting reading - and it certainly knocks down a few of the misconceptions about this rather enigmatic man.

George W Bush may not be everyone's idea of the perfect President of the world's currently most powerful nation, but perhaps it is time to stop trying to make out he's an ignorant and stupid pigmy. He isn't.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 15, 2006

Coexistence/multiculturalism?

My daughter, The Postulant, recently sent me the story in the extended post below. Having read it I have to say I can agree with just about everything the author of that piece says. It is all very well posturing and declaring our multicultural intentions, credentials and achievements - but its all worthless when dealing with a protagonist who neither recognises the validity of any argument save their own, or wishes to live in harmony and peace with anyone who does not share their own very narrow view.It is one thing to preach that the Lion will lie down with the Lamb - it is another entirely to achieve that happy state, unless the lamb is supper!

This seems to have escaped the notice of all those who continually apologise for the aggression of those who seek to destroy everything in the Western way of life in order to replace it with their 7th Century vision of paradise on earth. According to the current mantra from the Left, if only everyone in the West (particularly those nasty people in the US!) would just learn to be more accomodating, more apologetic for the "evil" that is supposedly caused by our Christian faith in upsetting our loving and friendly Muslim enemies, the world would be filled with peace and harmony. This is the same lame brained thinking that says if you stand with your hands in the air in surrender, your enemies won't take advantage of you. Quite!

I commend to you the following item, it certainly makes you think about the issues.

Coexist!

You’ve probably seen this word spelled out with various religious symbols.

Who can argue with this? Not me, certainly.

What I CAN argue with is the idea that if only enough stupid, warlike Americans would just get on the Coexist train, then the world would be a happy and peaceful garden. Who else are the people with these bumper stickers preaching to, if not their ill-informed, knuckle-dragging neocon fellow commuters?

Unfortunately, here’s where reality inserts its ugly head. There is no more multi-cultural society on earth than the United States. The United States owns the patent on Coexisting religions and ethnicities. Drive half a mile though any major US urban area and you will see more ancient ethnic enemies living cheek by jowl in harmony than any other spot on the planet. Thursday morning water cooler conversations about Dancing with the Stars wallpaper over more ancient ethnic and religious murders than history has been able to record, and this despite Hollywood and the news media’s deepest efforts to remind you on a daily basis that the black or Hispanic or Asian or white friend in the next cube is secretly seething with racial hatred just beneath that placid veneer.

Americans are able to coexist because they have subjugated, if not abandoned, those ancient religious and ethnic hatreds to join a larger family, that larger family being America. And this is why, if you truly value the idea of coexistence, you should be dead set against multi-cultural grievance and identity politics, which do nothing but pit one ethnic group against the others and reinforce, rather than dilute, ancient resentments and grievances.

Now as it turns out, there is one member of the human family that seems to be having a little difficulty with the whole coexist thing. Muslims are at war with Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are fighting Animists in Africa, Hindus in Kashmir, Buddhists in Southeast Asia…they are blowing up nightclubs and schools and police stations and trains and buses and skyscrapers and are under daily orders to kill Jews on sight anywhere in the world.

I don’t mind preaching so much as preaching to the choir. When I see Coexist bumper stickers in Islamabad and Cairo and especially Riyadh to the degree I see them in Venice, California, I will be a happy man. They will make a very welcome sight covering over the Death to the Infidel! stickers that seem to be somewhat outselling Coexist messages in that part of the world. Until then I think we should coexist and carry a big stick.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 14, 2006

Remembering

The last few days have been interesting because I have been juggling showing my friemds around my part of the world alongside having, on Saturday, to lead the short service of Remembrance at 11.00 in the Abbey and then to repeat that on the Sunday alongside being there for the Civic Services, Requiem Mass and all the other services. I find the Remembrance Services very emotionally challenging for a number of reasons, not least because I too have lost friends in war - and I feel that it is something I can offer in remembrance of those who served, and those I knew who also served and gave their lives for others in war and in "peace". Some of those died in vain it often seems as I watch what the politically correct and victim culture promoters do with, and to, the freedom that was so hard won for us. It is especially notable that none of these so called Moralists who now dictate our thoughts, our actions and seek to restrict our freedom of choice and action so assidiously - always spouting their mantra of "fairness" and "moral obligation" - have ever served in any of the armed forces or any of the uniformed services that must daily preserve the peace, uphold the balance of law or protect people from their own folly. Not for them that opportunity to "die for the cause" - that "honour" is always accorded to those they inevitably paint as "institutionally racist", "institutionally sexist" or any other "institutionally -ist" that suits theiur particular beef of the moment.

The pursuit of victimisation - everyone in the mantra of the PC brigade is a "victim" of the system, of slavery two hundred years ago, injustice or poverty today - have turned the freedom that our fathers and grandfathers won at such a fearsome cost into a new slavery. If you are a "victim" of something you are in their power as you can then be made dependent on them for "help" intended to "lift you from your victimhood". In reality this only means that they can feel good about "helping" while they continue to hold you in the "victim state" because only if they have a "victim" to help, can they feel they have a goal in life.

We are all, at some time or another, a "victim" of some form of injustice. There is a solution, but it is an individual one. Get a life, draw a line and move on. If you allow yourself to be sucked into the pit of always feeling you are a victim you become one - but you are the opressor as well. In short you make yourself a victim. Those with the courage and the guts to do so, turn away from that and take on a new challenge and usually succeed. Sometimes it takes more than one restart, but it almost always is rewarded.

As I remembered my own family members who served in the wars of the twentieth century and survived or died, I was struck by the example of my grandfather. Wounded at the Somme, he recovered and continued to serve. Then, targetted by the IRA on returning home, he emigrated and carved a new life for himself in a foreign land, never again returning home. Was he a victim? Yes, in a sense he was, victim to the crass incompetence of the commanders of the first world war and victim of the evil men of the IRA that Blair now lauds and honours. But, he picked himself up and built a new life for himself. He was never rich - he was even deprived of his inheritance by the Labour Government of 1945 - 51, but again he never complained about it, he simply drew a line and carried on. Unlike MrBlair's PC lobbyists who insist on being the Victims for everyone else's sins.

I certainly hope that the world wakes up to the insidious poison that lies at the heart of the victim culture that fuels PC - before it destroys us all. Then the act of remembrance and the sacrifice of the millions of men and women who fought for our freedoms will truly have been in vain.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 10, 2006

Historical Day

Yesterday the opening of the new Synagogue in München (Munich) made the headline of the evening news on TV. Of course, November 9 is a historical day in Germany. As with all history there's good and bad in it. The good news is that with the completion of the synagogue the Jewish community is has found its place in Munich again. This day, 68 years ago, synagogues in Germany were set on fire and shop windows were shattered by members of the NSDAP. November 9 in 1939 marked the beginning of the darkest chapter in German history: the systematic expulsion and murder of the Jewish members of our society. It is something that must never be forgotten to prevent it from ever happening again.

After WWII Germany was divided into two parts, East and West Germany with the Western Allied Forces controlling the Western part and the Russians the East. Berlin, the former capital, formed a sort of island in East Germany. And even Berlin was divided into different sectors, the eastern part of Berlin again being controlled by the Russians. Without the generous help of the Western Allies West Berlin would never have had a chance to survive.

Then in 1961 the leaders of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) ordered a wall to be built right through Berlin separating the western from the eastern part. It was a very well planned undertaking. While the wall was built soldiers were preventing people from crossing it. Most of the wall was finished within one day and families and friends were separated. People who had gone to the other side in the morning could not return in the evening. Suddenly a frontier ran through the whole of Germany separating West and East.

All through my childhood we were never able to visit my father's relatives who still lived in the Eastern part of Germany and they were not allowed to visit us. Only people over 65, like my grandmother, were allowed to go to the West for a visit. The regime obviously didn't mind the pensioners coming over and not returning.

In 1989 the regime of the GR fell apart and on November 9, 1989, the wall finally fell. That was the first step towards and Germany's reunification. Only in theory, of course. If you keep people forcibly away from each other for 28 years they develop in different ways. The biggest catastrophe was that with the end of the Soviet Union the economy in East Germany had collapsed completely as they had been trading mainly with the Eastern States. It was the end of whatever industry there was in East Germany. Great numbers of people came to the West in search of jobs and employment. This resulted and large areas in East being deserted. Rebuilding the industry in the East has only been partly successful. It is an enormous task and a lot is still left to be done.

Ironically, yesterday also died Markus Wolf, the most famous spy of the GDR. He was prominent member of the MfS (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), the most repressive instrument of the socialist regime. He was head of intelligence service for foreign countries, which included also West Germany. His masterpiece was placing his spy Günter Guillaume as the former Chancellor Willy Brandt's personal secretary. When Guillaume true identity was revealed Willy Brandt was forced to resign. Markus Wolf died without ever uttering a word of regret for what he had done or whom he had served. Instead, he made quite a bit of money with selling his biography to the media in the 90's and appearing in various talkshows. I sometimes wonder about the role the meida play in our society.

But the MfS was better known for spying on its own people, the inhabitants of East Germany and preventing them from fleeing to the West or gathering information from the western media like TV, newspapers or radio broadcasts. Nowadays, with modern communication devices like computers and internet at our disposal it seems quite unbelievable how a whole country could be kept in ignorance and isolation so effectively and for such a long time. When my grandmother came to visit us for the first time, which must have been sometime in the middle of the sixties, she asked my parents if we were still living in the British sector. By then sectors had not been in existence for years but people in the East were kept in total ignorance of developments in the West..

Trust politicians to make a mess of things. In 1989 promises about the development in the East were made to people there which could not be kept, of course. Likewise financial sacrifices were demanded of the people in the West, which were often only grudgingly given. The politicians somehow felt compelled to give these promises and Chancellor Helmut Kohl thought this a good opportunity to stay in power a bit longer.

Well, growing together again has not been easy. But now that almost a generation of post-wall-people has grown up again in East and West, our economy is taking a turn for the better at last and we even have Frau Merkel as Chancellor, who grew up in East Germany, and doesn't do too bad a job, there's hope that things will brighten up at last and we'll feel as one country again.

Posted by Mausi at 10:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 09, 2006

Potential for a Darwin award?

The BBC News has just released a story about a 22 year old in Monkweartown in the North East of England who, in my humble opinion should be nominated for a Darwin Award. It is to be hoped that neither he nor any of his equally intelligent "friends" perpetuate their genes into a further generation - I would suggest that the world has sufficient stupidity already. This young man is currently in a serious condition in the local hospital after placing a Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket between his exposed buttocks and attempting to launch it from there - in defiance of the likely effects already known from an earlier videoed attempt a few years ago to do the same thing.

Somehow or other this candidate for the dubious honour of demonstrated possession of the terminal stupidity gene, managed to fire the thing upwards and into his anal cavity where it lodged in his colon. His injuries are described as extensive. All I can say is that he and his friends can be thankful it was not the sort of rocket the detonates at the top of its flight. As it is, I would suspect that he is unlikely to be using the latter part of his colon in the future for the purpose it was intended as I would think a colestomy is probably the likely outcome of the damage he has suffered.

The spokesman for the hospital says that he hopes this is an isolated incident. Well he should keep hoping, this particular stupid gene seems to be fairly common - this is the third such incident have seen reported and I have video copies of two of them. On object lesson we hope - but I suspect it will not be the last time we will hear of this sort of idiocy! As I said, let's hope he and his friends refrain from breeding this gene on.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:22 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 06, 2006

Remember, remember, the 5th of November ...

Gunpowder, treason and plot ...

The customary commemoration of the failed attempt to blow up Parliament - and King James I - on November the 5th is, for me, something of a mixed "celebration". There is one school in England where it is never marked, in fact they have a statue of the man outside it as he was an "Old Boy" and apparently no slouch either. Why do I have mixed feelings over him?

Well, we would have to acknowledge that his attempt was inspired by the Puritanical proscription on the practice of Catholicism and the hanging, burning and beheading of Catholic priests and their supporters and followers. Other countries in the 17th Century burned witches, we burned Catholics and witches. We would also have to acknowledge that he is the first recorded would be suicide bomber. He was unlikely to have survived lighting the fuze since he would have had to remain in the cellars to ensure it burned correctly and no one dscovered it in time to stop the train. He is often portrayed as a dupe, someone gullible who could be ensnared by the more influential plotters and then sacrificed to their advantage, but I don't think that is a true picture at all. His school record shows him to have been an intelligent but unremarkable student. He wasn't wealthy, but he certainly was a member of the landed gentry classes. He was also a devout Roman Catholic in an age and in a nation when to be a Catholic was to be associated with the Spanish attempts to invade and certainly to be associated with the Papl attempts to undermine the English Crown. I suspect there may also have been an element of let's dispose of the Stuart usurpers ....

The other part of my difficulty with Guido Fawkes is the fact that he was probably the last, if not the only, man to have entered any Parliament with completely honest intentions. One wonders where his modern day equivalent is now that we need him! I think I shall mark his passing in somewhat quieter style than is usual - and salute him as a man of conviction and honesty.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 03, 2006

A shocking best seller?

I came across an interesting item on a blog called "Rhymes with right" the other day. In an interesting piece the author has quoted en block from somewhere else, it is revealed that the infamous "Protocols of Zion" , a fraudulent document originally produced in the late 19th Century by the Tsarist Secret Police to justify the pogroms, is currently the best selling book in Iran, Egypt and several other Middle Eastern countries. If that isn't setting the diplomatic alarm bells on fire alert throughout the Western world it damned well should be!

This ghastly concoction has been used throughout the twentieth century to justify persecution of the Jewish peoples, the most ghastly example being the Holocaust during the second world war - an event the Islamic "teachers" and leaders say did not happen. According to the Islamic propagandists that Mr Balir and his Nu Labour cronies love to cuddle up to and appease (Iraq is a ghastly mistake luvvies! Its about the oil, nothing to do with the religion, such a nice cuddly and peaceful religion dontchaknow?) the Holocaust "myth" is an invention of "International Zionists" to stir up passions against Islam and to steal "Arab land".

Unless the world wakes up and puts a stop to this open use of this ghastly rubbish and its spread by the propaganda of the Islamic system of unmonitored and unchecked brainwashing through "faith" schools (Christian Schools in the UK are obliged to take in Islamic students - one cathedral school is now 70% Islamic children! - but Islamic schools are not) we will very soon see Iran using them to justify the fact that they have "nuked" Israel. It will be on the heads and hands of Blair and the rest of the anti-Jewish Liberal Left when that happens - and frankly, it is my opinion that they should then be gathered together and sent to deal with the dead, the dying and the slaughter they have given legality too. At gunpoint if necessary!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:44 AM | TrackBack

November 02, 2006

Media bias

An interesting aspect of our current political view of the world from Britain is the bias of the mass media and its influence on the way we in Britain see the world. I expect that a similar problem exists across Europe and I recently read that many Americans feel the same way about their press and mass media news reporting. I have long wondered about the fact that all Civil Service jobs and ALL BBC positions are advertised in one newspaper only - the Granuiad - or Guardian. The Guardian is used by the Civil Service on the grounds that it is the only newspaper owned by a "Not for Profit" Trust and that this represents the only correct use of public money. What it ignores is that only a left wing liberal with communist leanings is likely to buy this blatantly biased and ultr-left propaganda rag.

Frankly I would not wipe my rear end with it if it was the only paper available!

I suspect that the impact that this biased recruiting policy has had is to be seen in the fact that almost all our Civil Servants are now card carrying members of the Labour Party, or if not, are at least sympathisers. Similarly, it does not take a genius to see the blatant (except to the left wingers who staff the BBC's complaints department) bias in all their reporting of anything involving any moderately right wing view point, anything involving Israel and especially anything about the United States. I recently watched the BBC's Deputy General Director defending his organisation against some pretty barbed questioning and was left with the sad impression of a man who is so convinced by his own propaganda that he simply cannot see that his own hectoring responses were exactly what many of us feel is so wrong with his organisation. Watch any interview with any Labour minion and be sickened by the sycophantic fawning, yet, wheel out a "Right wing" politician and watch the same interviewer refuse to debate, to ask the most barbed questions and draw the most preposterous conclusions to anything the person being interviewed says.

The real problem is that this liberal left drip of constant contempt for anything they don't like is what is undermining our society. Their constant blather about "equality" and "fairness", about "poverty" and "redistribution of wealth" has now terminally damaged our confidence in our own abilities to improve ourselves. Everything is spun, everything is twisted until it becomes a mantra. As Cranmer's Prayer Book says, "we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". Therein lies the heart of the problem, the liberal left cannot see truth, particularly when it disproves their articles of faith in things like "institutional racism" or "equality" or even the latest one that giving access to people from poorer backgrounds to the top places in the best universities will somehow transform them into geniuses of the future, is twisted into a mantra of academic bias or snobbery. The fact is that our education system is in deep crisis, the Comprehensive system is an expensive and ghastly failure and the fact that private schools have abandoned the GCSE exams should send a warning to Whitehall, instead it has evoked accusations of bias and prejudice against the schools concerned. They simply cannot stand people choosing for themselves, they have to control out thoughts and our access to everything, and let's face it, that is the hallmark of dictatorship.

The Left hates anything that smacks of individuality and again, our bias in the media created by hiring only left wing journalists has engendered a view in Britain of anyone who is individual or enterprising as being somehow crooked or an oppressor of one sort or another. They simply cannot celebrate individual success - probably because it flags up the fact they cannot control everything and where they do, they do so badly. The NHS, described recently as the biggest and worst example of Public Sector monopoly is an excellent case in point. And guess where the NHS recruits its managers?

You got it, The Guardian.

We have to break the Left Wing bias and the policy of recruiting left wing clones to all our media and the offices of State. If we do not we will probably be the first country in history to drift into a Communist system without ever fighting over it, or voting on it. Is the media bias affecting our thinking? Of course it is, and it cannot be good for any of us.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:51 PM | TrackBack

October 21, 2006

Trafalgar Day

Today, two hundred and one years ago, Admiral Lord Nelson won the famous victory that reshaped Europe and the history of the ninteenth Century. Had he lost, Napoleon would have had a clear run at invading Britain and Europe, and probably the world would now be predominantly French speaking. Mind you, our "friends" in the Labour Party and Scotland would probably think that "a good thing" since any enemy of the English must be a "friend". Certainly the Scots have never lacked for people who will side with anyone opposed to the English and the same can be said for sections of the Welsh and Irish communities as well. You do have to wonder why, two hundred years on from Nelson's victory, the English have managed to allow themselves to become the butt of everyone's spite, constantly denigrated by our trendy PC historians as freeloaders, slave trafficers and evil oppressors of everyone? According to modern revisionists we, the English Nation, have contributed no great inventions, no advances in science and no advance in civilisation. Men who, in their own day would have considered themselves (and did!) proudly British or English are now labelled "of French parentage" (Brunel), Cornish (Trevethick), German (Jenner- although I'm pretty sure he'd take offence at that!) and so on. Anything but English.

Gone is the national pride which saw the "United Kingdom" rise to be the premier world power for a full century. Gone is the pride that we justly felt at being a free, fair and decent society, a society which did its best to be fair to everyone and offered refuge to all in need. Gone is the pride in the work of Wilberforce and others who worked to outlaw slavery, or Sir Onesimus Paul who worked to reform the prison and justice systems. Frankly they would be appalled at what we have done with their legacy! No longer are we permitted to feel pride in the fact that two hundred years ago, we broke the ambitions of a revolutionary dictator on the rock of a navy now cut to a fleet (more like a "Squadron"!) smaller than that managed by our former enemy. The rattling sound you can here in church yards around the country and particularly in the crypt of St Paul's is every English Admiral, General and Leader that contributed to the greatness of the United Kingdom and ALL it's peoples whirling like dervishes in their graves!

The comment from ABC, a thirty something, to my post of Friday, sums it up. Every young man or women with common sense and the ability to see through the lies of Labour and the Politically Correct clone army is looking for ways to emigrate. English pride is gone, buried in the avalanche of Welsh, Scottish and "Worker" prejudice and envy that is the Labour Party's stock in trade and their desire for vengeance. It has been said of the Irish that they have experienced everything, forgotten nothing and learned nothing from it. I think the same can be said of the rising generation and of the generation that is currently in charge of government - with one exception. This shower have no experience, they live in a world of unreality, a world driven by mantras such as "institutional racism", "institutional sexism", "class war", "oppressed minorities" and "militarism" and many more related war cries all aimed at one thing only. Destroy everything the nation once stood for and whichj made it a great place and a great people. Reduce it all to the lowest level of mediocrity and entrench themselves and their cronies in power.

Look around us. The United Kingdom became great during an age when work was something everyone did. The best employers saw to it that employees had what they needed and looked after those who became infirm and unable to continue working. The worst, usually from among the nouvo riche - of which most of Blair's cabinet are prime examples - did not. But the combination of effort and productivity moved mountains - even Marx said that the worker needs take his or her skills to the market, to move to the workplace, not the other way round. Unfortunately the labour movement saw it in other terms. After all, if people are tied to an area - as any feudal Baron could tell you - they are much easier to influence, bully, browbeat and control. That is the birthplace of socialism. If the state is the sole provider of work, wealth, benefit of any kind, the state is the sole arbiter of where you live, where you work and how you may advance. So what has happened in the last two hundred years?

Education peaked under the immediate post war system, admittedly with a difficult choice between Secondary Modern (which wasn't!) and Grammar School which offered a very superior level. So what was the solution the Socialists devised? Raise the standards at Secondary Modern? Of course not - destroy the Grammar Schools and lower the whole standard across the board to the lowest level possible. Anyone who has seen the latest questions for A Level students will attest to that! Secondly the "full employment" mantra of the Labour Party throughout the 60's and 70's led to the complete collapse of British Industry. It simply became unreliable, uncompetitive and totally unproductive. Who ever heard of manufacturing cars that no one would buy, storing them and then sending them to the crushers to be recycled when they had gone out of style? The Soviet Union never tried it, but it was a Civil Service solution dreamed up and endorsed by a Labour Government to the huge stockpile produced under massive subsidy by one car manufacturer. Who ever heard of the same company actually having an internal price war between its own subsidiaries so that no part of the company could possibly make a profit? Well Labour thought it was a good idea - and encouraged the workforce to engage in almost continuous strike action at the same time.

Our once great shipping industry has also collapsed under competition from abroad while our own labour force was encouraged to "milk the toffs" with ever increasing wage demands while refusing to modernise and reskill. Again, to have done so would have removed the unions power base in the shipyards, because a better educated, better skilled workforce is much more likely to see the stupidity of voting for their own demise.

What have we done with Nelson's legacy? Sadly we have thrown it away.

Like the Irish we have experienced everything, achieved greatness, forgotten nothing - and learned nothing at all in the process. We deserve the dictatorship we are gradually descending into.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:44 AM | TrackBack

October 20, 2006

Brown for PM? Not if the English have an ounce of sense left in them!

The Gorse Fox has provided me with some interesting figures - figures which support my long held view that Labour and its leadership have been waging a war of attrition on the English and everything English. A report that the Gorse Fox quotes reveals that Gordon Brown (a Scottish MP, representing a Scottish constituency - which has another MSP representing it in the hugely expensive Scottish Parliament as well) has stripped over £100 billion from the pension funds of Middle England and the English pensioners.

And this is the man who harbours an ambition to rape and pillage the English Nation even more as he seeks to replace Blair as Prime Minister of the now dysfunctional, and far from United, Kingdom.

If nothing else exposes the dishonesty, and frankly vindictive, attempt to destroy the English Nation then this must be a prime candidate. It sits alongside the arguments advanced by this shower of dishonest and immoral charlatans to the effect that "there is no such thing as an English Nation", that there is no longer anything "British" and that unchecked immigration from Africa, Asia and any other non-Christian and non-European nation is essential for the survival of the Kingdom and to fill a "skills gap". In ten years this Party of malignant left wingers and closet communists have reduced a two thousand year history of this island nation to a series of lessons on how evil the English were/are and always will be and how noble the Welsh, Irish or Scots are to have been "oppressed" by them for so long. Multiculturalism was not about integration or assimilation, unless it was into the Islamic society Kelly, Straw, Brown and Blair seem to think is so much nobler and freer than our own.

For the last hundred or so years the English have been painted as evil oppressors and absentee landlords who have suppressed the Scottish nation, abused the Irish and stripped the Welsh of their coal. And for the last hundred years the English have actually paid towards the propagation of this nonsense in tax revenue raised in England and spent in Scotland, Ireland or Wales. The Scottish Parliament has not been paid for purely out of Scottish taxes - it couldn't be, since there are fewer taxpayers there than in England and fewer still in Wales to pay for the hugely expensive parliaments they have built themselves and the massively oversized and overpaid bureaucracies that they have gathered about them. No, over 60% of that money has come from the English - probably out of the pension funds that Brown has so effectively asset stripped.

It is time for the English, particularly those of Middle England who fell for the smarmy smile and the empty words of Blair a decade ago and are now paying the price, to throw Labour and its evil scheming and vindictiveness out of office and preferably into the sea. If they want to elect these charlatans in Scotland or Wales, let them, but then they must pay their own way as well.

The country - and particularly the taxpayers of England - can afford them no longer. It is time they went, and it is time the huge bureaucracy they have created around themselves was cut back dramatically as well. Public services would not suffer from such a pruning, they would improve because it would place the delivery and management in the hands of people who know what they are delivering, not jobsworths climbing the Civil Service promotion tree. Taxes would be lowerand money would be available for the delivery of real services, not the restricted services we currently get from the incompetent managers parachuting in from Civil Service departments who couldn't give you a straight answer if you had them on a medieval rack!

Its time to clean out the house, before they destroy it and everything our forefathers built and fought to preserve.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:36 PM | Comments (3)

October 18, 2006

Losing our freedoms?

There is a scene in my favourite bit of Sci-fi telly, Babylon 5, in which a group of rather unpleasant politicians who have managed to win power by playing the fear card rather well (a bit too close to the reality of New Labour sometimes!) make the statement that "it may be too our advantage to play up this threat. It may help us to extend the President's emergency powers later." Looking at the record since Blair came to power you could be excused for thinking that, as his popularity has waned at home, his pursuit of "threats" from nameless and sometimes imagined, enemies at home and abroad have enabled him to sneak in a wide range of legislation all of which restricts, removes or limits our long cherished freedoms.

Freedom of speech is now seriously limited since you cannot debate the ethics of a wide range of government mantras without being accused of racism, sexism, fascism or some other conveniently invented label all meaning much the same thing. To question the "wisdom" of any of Whitehall's denizens and superfluity of "advisers" is to lay yourself open to being labelled and extremist of some sort. An interesting twist on that is the latest statement by Ms Kelly to the effect that the Far Right is as dangerous as ever. What about the Extreme Left Ms Kelly? Or are they OK people because they are members of your Party and your government? Of course, the Old Labour Party members used to be allowed to tell us that Stalin was such a nice man who really did run Soviet Russia as a "workers paradise". Yes, well, most of them also have fairies at the bottom of the garden as well - except that you are not allowed to say that anymore, it might offend someone!

The problem for many of us is that New Labour's much vaunted "morality" is in reality, nothing more than the personal prejudices of the various people who make up the Party, repackaged and redressed as "morals". Their dream of "redistributing" wealth is just that, an unachievable dream. Wealth can only be created by effort, those who make no effort gain no wealth. Yes, there are unfairnesses in the manner in which effort is rewarded - I for one would not pay the Senior Mandarins in Whitehall a single penny since they produce nothing and destroy everything they are entrusted with - and the modern belief in "across the board" pay rises based on percentages can only exacerbate the inequalities between senior managers and the actual workers. But, of course, it is not in the interests of anyone on the upper end of those awards to change them.

Many of the much vaunted "Rights" they have driven through legislation have resulted in hardship for those on the delivery end, while further rewarding his real constituents, the moneyed and wealthy who fund his Party. A good example is the "Right" to choose how you work, almost entirely anulled by the granting of a seven day trading week for much of the retail industry. The supposed "protection" built in for existing workers who chose not to work on Sundays was a laughable farce. It could not and did not afford any protection at all, since employers had the perfect get out clause written in by their stool pigeons in Parliament. All they had to do was make acceptance of a "flexible" week compulsory if you changed your position in your employment. So, either stay in your present job with no improvement in benefit - or take a "promotion" and change your "right" to choose not working on a Sunday. Overall, the only winner here is the Board and Senior Management of the likes of Tesco, B&Q et al, none of whom are ever required to work at a weekend.

Family friendly working is another of his Weapons of Mass Deception, since the reality for many of those it was supposed to benefit is very different. It has meant, when taken with the seven day working idea, that many families now rarely have the same two days off. The husband and wife may be on different work patterns and the children are at school when they are off work. Is it any surprise that the fabric of our society is unravelling? It shouldn't be - but remember that Blair and the rest of those who have subscribed to this - and the Tories and LibDems are all in the boat with him - will never have to face these choices themselves. Why should they, they earn hugely inflated salaries, employ their own relatives and cronies as their assistants and secretaries and have the luxury of awarding their annual pay increases themselves. Would a turkey vote for Christmas? Not likely, but, as long as it doesn't affect them, their families or their chums in the Treasury or any other Whitehall Department, why should they.

In the last ten years the legislation we live with has been amended, changed or replaced on a phenomenal scale - and all of it has in some way restricted our traditional freedoms - or even removed them. Blair and the Civil Servants will argue that this is necessary to meet the threat of terrorism or to "harmonise" with Europe. But is this the truth, or are we simply the victims of power hungry autocrats who believe that we are incapable of behaving decently or managing our day to day lives without their interference? I rather think it is the latter, and that view is supported by the announcement that that other buffoon holding a Ministerial brief, Harriet Harman, that millions of our money is to be spent "teaching children how to eat fruit". That and the further idea floated by another minister that students should be spied on to ensure they are not getting involved in radicalism. East Germany's Stazi are but a whisker away from being re-established in Britain!

Unless we are able to take back our freedoms from this shower of closet dictators very soon, we will lose any right to call ourselves a free and democratic nation. Sadly I do not think that any of the alternative parties would be any better in power!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2006

Veiled upset .....

The debate about the wearing of veils by Muslim women when attending meetings or other events and functions seems set to develop into a full blown confrontation over a number of "religious" usages. On the one hand it seems to be developing into a row about the whole issue of wearing so-called "Islamic dress" and on the other it is really about the dominance of a particular cultural view of appropriate conduct and dress codes. In all honesty, the Islamic world finds the Western mode of dress, particularly for women, unacceptable. But does this mean that it is right and proper for them to dictate that their own women should be covered in the Burkha? Or to veil their faces in public? I would argue strongly that it is not. In fact I would argue that it is an affront to women that they should be forced to hide from the public eye at all - and even that it is not in the Quran that they should do so either!

Unfortunately this is also linked to the recent government drive to promote the practice of Islam at the expense of what was left of British culture and the Christian faith. Multi-culturalism is the root cause of the tensions now emerging in our fragmented society and the bleating of the incompetent Ms Kelly that "extremism must be rooted out" is unlikely to have any effect at all. One manifestation of the drive to suppress any faith other than Islam is the decision of the Heathrow BA manager to suspend a worker who refused to remove or cover up the symbol of her own faith. Apparently BA sees no conflict between allowing a follower of Islam to wear a hijab over her uniform, but any Christian symbol is deedmed offensive. Personally I find that deeply offensive. In fact I find the wearing of Arab dress - designed for and suited to the deserts of the Middle East - by public servants in this country an affront. There is only one reason for wearing this form of dress and that is to set themselves apart from our society and as long as they do, there will be conflict and fuel for the extremists on both sides to promote enmity.

We can no longer call this a Christian country, it is not. At present it is a secular and extremely matrerialistic society - Post Christian if you like - but if Blair and his minions continue to ignore the very basic principle that a divided society is a society in conflict, we will soon have to choose whether to live as a "tolerated" minority in an Islamic dominated theocracy or leave. That is the simple message underlying the insistance on being allowed to hide their faces and their identities from non-Muslims and in maintaining a separation from anything that has marked our society as free, fair and just in the past.

I seldom agree with anything any member of this government says or does, but on this occassion I think Mr Straw is correct. If these women wish to consult their MP, the veil comes off. If they wish to be treated in the NHS, they do so without the veil! It is time to stand up and insist on integration and the abandonment of the Wahabi Cult's patristic vision, rooted as it is in the ethics of a desert people living in the 7th Century. It has no place in our society and no place at all in the modern world.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 14, 2006

Fallout ....

North Korea's nuclear test should warn those in the West who think they can disarm and negotiate with monsters like Kim il Yong, or whatever his name is, pause for thought. But it won't. They will continue to bleat that if we disarm everyone else won't feel threatened and won't try to steal the family silver. Its a bit like the Home Secretary's assertion this week that long jail sentences will shortly be a thing of the past because "custody in the community" will be the way to punish in future. Oops. Did I say punish - I meant reward.

The real point here is that history is full of attempts to "negotiate" peace with well armed and dangerous dictators. The record of failure to achieve it is unsurpassed! Of course the "lets disarm everyone" lobby is driven by fear, the fear that they may one day be the target. Disarming themselves (and those who usually end up defending these cowards) is inevitably a recipe for becoming a target. Did gun crime go down as a result of the removal of fire arms from the legitimate user? No, it went up by eight hundred times. Surprise, surprise, guns are now more commonly available and used than ever before in the pursuit of crime - and our police are still largely unarmed. But then so are the victims. Pity the bad guys have all the guns really, it woiuld be so nice if they gave them up voluntarily.

Returning to the problem of North Korea, the real problem for us all is that frighteningly focussed people like the Great Leader and the President of Iran will stop at nothing to possess these sorts of weapon and to use them if they think it will further their own ambitions. They are also reasonably certain that the Western Media circus and the growing number of lawyers making a fortune out of suing the military for "murder", "attrocity" and "breeching human rights" will prevent us from retaliating in kind and ensure that we roll belly up and surrender rather than fight. Blair is incapable of dealing with this and so is his party. After all, almost every one of them is a card carrying member of CND (or was until they had to grow up) and they almost all subscribe to the Hammer Horror visions of a post nuclear world.

The situation with North Korea is going to be a major worry, because this Great Leader will no doubt win friends from within the Security Council and among the mavericks of the Middle East by peddling his bombs to them in return for oil and cash. And the UN will do nothing except wring its collective hands about the human rights and tragedy of the starving in North Korea. The cynic in me says they won't do anything because North Korea hasn't got any oil and it has nothing of value to anyone outside of the region. And, if they do blow up a few million in South Korea, China and the surrounding area - who'll miss them?

The first encouraging news that the US satellites had detected no radiation has now been dashed by the report that there is now radiation emerging. Not good news for anyone - particularly in a world as unstable as our present state of transition and indecision in the Democratic world. Let's hope that their neighbours, China and the rest of that Region can take effective and decisive action to remove the threat this ghastly little megalomaniac poses to the whole world quickly and as painlessly as possible.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 09, 2006

Mister Straw seems to have stepped in the ....

So much, it seems, for the whole thing of accepting other peoples cultural preferences, our formner Foreign Secretary, none other than the illustrious Mister Straw, has really created a bit of a stir, by insisting that Muslim women attending his constituency "surgeries" must remove their veils in his presence. Of dear, surely he knew this would cause offence to those wonderfully tolerant members of the Islamic Fundamentalist movement? Or, perhaps the real truth is he only pays lip service to the whole Multicultural thing anyway.

Judging by the brouhaha in the press and on television, I would suggest that this is going to be another of those little things which will lead to yet more curtailment of our right to freedom of speech and expression - just to protect the sensibilities of a very small section of the community who, quite frankly, should seriousl;y consider going and living in any country where they can practice this form of "liberation" to their hearts content. I do find it very annoying that this adoption of a form of dress more appropriate to the desert than to Europe is being pushed as being a part of the religion when thirty years back it was hardly seen in the UK. UNtil, that is, it became a fashion statement of "solidarity" with the Palestinians.

It really is time to recognise that this is not a religious matter, it is a political one and the politics underlying it are fairly simple. As long as these young women are prepared to hide behind these ridiculous veils and under the headscarves (which are not, as far as I can see, actually stipulated in the Quran) the Ayatollahs and Imam's will continue to have power over them and their voices in any public arena. One can only hope that Mr Straw's somewhat daring attempt to get a little common sense - after all no one likes to talk to someone who is hiding their face - into his "surgery" actually sparks a wider rebellion against the PC acceptance of this stupid and demeaning mode of dress and behaviour.

Fatwahs on a post card please.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:05 PM | TrackBack

October 06, 2006

Wealth redistribution

I was amused and annoyed yesterday to read that the Rowntree Foundation, one of the country's "leading" Think Tanks - they recently gave a report that said children were living in poverty when they didn't have designer trainers and expensive electronic toys - is now publishing a report that is highly critical of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's much vaunted "Family Credit" system for redistributing money from my and every other working taxpayers pocket, to someone elses. According to the report, the system is so complex that it actually works as a disincentive to anyone to "get into" work. For once I can see what they mean and agree with the authors.

The problem is that the "Family Credits" are supposed to "top up" low incomes and lift low wage earners out of the poverty trap. This system replaced the universal "Child Allowance" and is "means tested" - which means that if you earn more than the arbitrary "average" wage set by the usual suspects in Whitehall as low as they think they can get away with - you do not qualify for this "benefit". What is not generally known is that your "Credits" are eroded if you are in work and earn anything above your supposed weekly maximum. So, anyone earning a little extra in overtime is immediately penalised by having their Credits cut. As the Rowntree researchers have found it is possible, when you take the tax, national insurance and any other deductions taken from the gross amount are added to the cut in the Family Credit, it amounts to a supertax which can reach 100% of the amount earned in overtime. Some incentive to do a bit of extra work! Naturally, those overpaid and completely unproductive buffoons at the Treasury deny that this is a disincentive and point to the fact that unemployment is low. Fine, provided you realise that the reason that unemployment numbers are low is that the workforce is currently enlarged by the influx of Eastern Europeans and, as any mathematician can tell you, if you raise the numbers at one end, the numbers at the other end of any statistical sample fall. More workers in low paid jobs and a larger workforce means that the numbers out of work, although largely static, look smaller in a statistical percentages presentation.

Its called fraud if anyone else tries to present facts in this way.

But then, this is something Whitehall have excelled at for almost two hundred years since Gladstone invented our modern bureaucracy. It is one of the most entrenched aspects of our modern society, that we want to believe that the civil service is actually there to provide the necessary infrastructures and stability necessary to make the modern state work. The truth is somewhat different. In fact, the civil service has become, as Parkinson predicted in his book of the late 1950's, an entirely self sustaining and self interested organism. Moreover, it has become a parasite which is slowly but surely crushing all enterprise out of the society it purports to serve. The long term result is to create a society of dependents - exactly what the Family Credit system is now doing.

It may well be that this situation suits our political classes and their civil servant parasites because a population dependent on them for everything from income to health is unlikely to want to eject them from power. There is a further dimension which may well derail all of this - it is based on the assumption that wealth creation can only occur within the control of the government and its sycophants, or, as was the theory in the 17th Century, that all wealth is a fixed sum and can be accrued to a small group who can control its distribution. This last is an interesting postulation since it assumes that nothing more can be developed or created and the only thing that can now happen is that the "wealth" can be redistributed by means of some artificial construct that moves it from one person to another and is not based on productivity or ability. In fact, if you think about it, this is what the architects of the failed "socialist" experiments in Eastern Europe, Russia and China have tried.

Mr Brown seems to think that he can continue to control the wealth of every individual by means of the tax system. What he has done is create a monster which is rapidly doing the opposite of what he intended. Instead of giving people the incentive to go out and create further wealth, he has provided an incentive to sit back, relax and take the handouts. I doubt very much that this situation will be changed until we get rid of the socialist thinking and thinkers in our iuniversities, schools and the department's of state. Only then will this country have any hope of once more becoming a beacon of forward thinking and enterprise.

Don't hold your breath though - its likely to be a long time coming!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 01, 2006

Harvest Festival

The coming of the harvest festival really begins the Autumn I suppose. Of course, those in the Southern Hemisphere are just entering the Spring and their "Harvest" will not be until almost Eastertide, something that I used, in the days I lived South of the Equator, to find a bit strange when the Prayer Book always insisted that we celebrate it at this time of the year. Just shows how far we have removed ourselves from the cycle of agriculture really in our comfortable and mainly city based lives.

It is only really in the countryside - and particularly the countryside parishes - that Harvest Festival really has any significance these days. The city parishes still celebrate it, but the link between the soil, the seasons and the preparation of food that can be stored to tide the community over the winter has long gone. Everything we need to eat or drink now comes prepackaged, sanitised and completely detached from the reality of a life tied to season and land.

Harvestime used to be a period when everyone, men, women and children, were out in the fields toiling to bring in the harvest, even our school holiday periods are geared to this. Now, of course, most of this is mechanised - or immigrant labour is hired in at below the minimum wage - to gather in the bounty of the land. I do wonder sometimes how much longer we can sustain the balance we currently have between food production, water supply and popultaion growth. There is no secret of the fact that the most fertile lands for certain produce lies in the developed world and the less fertile in some of the most undeveloped. Yields of grain is one indicator which can be very telling - in the US, Canada, Europe and the Russias yields are usually two tons per acre or more - in Africa that would be the top end of the very best managed land. Cash crops produced in Africa and the Caribean now supply Europe with goods not growable here, but the primary criticism of this system is that it means that the farmer there has to import the basic foods they need instead of growing them themselves.

While there are arguments for and against both positions on that, it is worth remembering that our own farmers don't do that well in the cash stakes either. The producer is always the bottom end of the money/value chain and the supermarket always on the top. Interestingly a commentator on the radio yesterday remarked that todays food retailer "designs" the food they stock in that they carry out research to find the price the public will pay and then source their supplies according to price.

Well, we live in a material world, one where everything has a price and a label. Our managers and accountants at the helm of the nation can tell us the cost of everything - but they know nothing of value, only price. Sadly that goes for the vast majority of us as well, we focus entirely on the material and the luxuries - and forget the true value of perhaps taking another route or choosing another product.

Who knows, that might even start a green revolution! My sermon for today is in the extended post below, I hope it give you something to consider.

Harvest Festival
October 1 2006

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, drink and clothing?”

+ May I speak, and may you hear in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

Well, life without food, drink and clothing would probably be short, desperately uncomfortable – and cold! So, is our Lord really saying we should ignore the needs of the body completely? I would suggest not; in fact he is reminding us that we need to get our perspectives and our focus right – he is reminding us that there is a huge difference between our basic needs and an obsessive pursuit of more than we actually need for our comfort and health.

It is one of the greatest weaknesses in modern society that we are no longer in touch with the reality of the means of production of the food we consume and the clothes we wear – or, indeed, with the energy we use with such profligacy. We go to the supermarket and are upset if vegetables are not there, or the particular brand of soap powder is not available. We give almost no thought to the materials that go into our clothes – or where they come from. The builders of this and other churches in our area could have told us that and more, since a poor harvest meant a hungry winter. One suit of clothes lasted as long as possible – and out of certain seasons the fare offered at most tables (if you had one) would have been fairly basic!

St Paul reminds his readers in the letter to Timothy that we should at all times in our public worship, give thanks for all the blessings our Lord provides. We need to be thankful for more than just the bountiful harvest we enjoy, but for the many other things that, particularly in the developed world, we tend to take for granted.

It is frequently one of my pet irritations that every time someone publishes a new survey of “people in poverty” in the UK or Europe, they use as measures the presence or absence of a range of toys, luxury goods and other non-essential items as a determining factor. Why do we use such ludicrous measurements as whether or not a household can afford to buy their children a Game Boy or designer label trainers – both of which appear in a report by a prominent think tank as markers – when in Thailand many live on the streets with no shelter or income at all. There and in other “Tiger Economies” people sell their children into the sex trade to support themselves and in Africa one meal a day is considered enough for vast sections of the population?

Has our idea of wealth and poverty become so material that we cannot see the true needs of ourselves and our fellow travellers on this, the third rock from the sun?

Our Gospel this morning reminds us that, in the midst of plenty, we are impoverishing ourselves if we do not strike a balance between the physical and spiritual. That is the message we need to restore in our society as a whole, for we live in a spiritually impoverished and materially rich society and age.

“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

Again the key point in the letter to Timothy is in the fourth word Paul uses to describe the appropriate elements of our common worship. Thanksgiving is what we should begin and end our daily prayer cycle with, thanksgiving for life, thanksgiving for the bounty of our health, wealth, food, families and homes, but how many of us give thanks for faith? How many of us give thanks for our friends, our colleagues and those whom we may never meet – but who have provided the very things we eat drink and wear?

Harvest time serves as a reminder of our need to be thankful for the food on our tables and the clothes on our backs, but it should also be a reminder to us that we need to keep a balance in our lives between our real needs and the plenty we are fortunate to enjoy. It needs too to be a reminder to us that these things are not ours to be wasted or squandered, but that we need to be mindful of those who do not share our wealth and for those from whose labour we draw so much benefit.

Harvest time used to be the time when the housewife and the children got busy preserving, pickling, preparing food to be stored to see the family and the community through the barren season of the winter. A well stocked larder was essential to survival and the management of those stocks was a vital part of the cycle of life. We no longer have that need, so perhaps we can afford to take more literally the words of our Gospel to take no thought to our needs for food and drink – after all Mr Sainsbury, Mr Tesco and Mr Morrison to mention but a few, will surely have all that we need when we need it!

Unfortunately it seems that the freedom from the need to worry about the forward planning that our forebears had to take so seriously has not meant that we have focussed on the spiritual, rather the reverse, for now we focus on the luxuries we may or may not enjoy.

As we prepare to meet our Lord in this feast of the Eucharist, dare I suggest that we all consider very carefully our own balance between our spiritual life and our physical needs? Do we have it right? Are we using the freedom from the fear of famine, storm or poor crops to the best effect in our spiritual growth? I pray that we are – or will.

Amen

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:32 PM | TrackBack

September 30, 2006

Learning

There's quite a debate going on in Germany about our education and school system. Recent PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) studies have shown German students to be far away from top positions and have mercilessly displayed the shortcomings of the German system. The results of the first PISA study in 2000 came as a bit of a shock for our politicians and - as always - promises were made to remedy the situation quickly. "Education is investment into our future!" "Highly skilled and well educated people are the only resources we have!" "A much higher portion of our gross domestic product has to spend on our school and university system." Surprisingly, we didn't do that much better in the next one in 2003 and the debate about what needs to be done is still going on but nothing seems to happen as is the way with politicians, I suppose.

One has to admit that the situation in Germany is a bit complicated, to say the least. Matters relating to schools, universities etc. are under the authority of the 16 Federal States. In former times that didn't even have common standards in Germany what students have to know when having completed a certain class at school. This caused all kinds of problems when students had to move for some reason form one state to another. For example, Bavarian Universities would not acknowledge the "Abitur" (the final exam at school that you need to pass before entering University) from Hessian schools, thereby excluding Hessian students from entering Bavarian Universities, because they thought the Hessian Abitur inferior to the Bavarian. They were most probably right in this but this was certainly no fault of the Hessian students.

I was lucky. I once had to move form Nordrhein-Westfalen to Hessen. Changing schools was easy for me but wouldn't have been the other way round. Now the Federal States have at least agreed on common guidelines for the Abitur. The aim is to have a centralised exam, meaning all students have to take the exams at the same day and time and will be asked the same questions. One would thinks this should have been a matter of course.

The schools face huge difficulties, mostly an overpowering lack of money. My sister, who is a teacher at a primary school in Niedersachsen, told me that for the second year in a row there was no money to clean the school rooms thoroughly at the beginning of the new term after the long summer vacation. I mean, it sort of helps if the pupils are able to look outside through the window, doesn't it? Likewise the frequency of cleaning has been cut down, instead every teacher was provided with a broom to look after the dust him/herself.

During the evaluation of the PISA results it has transpired that quite a lot of lessons in schools were cancelled because there were not enough teachers available, or on sickleave or whatever. At the last election of the Ministerpräsident (head of a Federal State) of Hessen the candidate who eventually won promised that provisions would be made so that no more lessons had to be cancelled in Hessian schools. Great! What did he do? Employ more teachers? No! The brilliant idea was to prolong the working hours of teachers. That doesn't improve the situation at all, of course.

I have experienced the German school system as one where the children are presented with the things they have to learn in lessons and they can either learn it or not. Not much thought was given of different ways of learning or promoting individual skills of the children. This is not so much a problem for the very good pupils but very much so for the rest. For years we have been allowing young people to leave school without having acquired even the most basic skills. It seems that teachers were content when after eight years at school the children were able to write down their own name.

This is probably the reason why we did not well in the PISA studies. The countries that came out top had learnt to promote the children individually to enable them to be asset to society after school instead of a burden. Now they try a similar approach in Germany but they are not providing the funds for it despite all they say. If you want to further and promote children individually you will need a lot more teachers than are available right now. And they will have to be properly trained especially for the very young who are still highly motivated and inquisitive when they enter school. Yet the estimate for this year is that we are short of 14,000 to 16,000 teachers which means that each week 1,000,000 lessons will have to be cancelled.

I wonder how much longer it will take for politicians to realise that the system itself needs to be radically changed and that it also means putting money into it and not squandering on another of their costly but utterly superfluous and badly managed pet schemes. Otherwise we will have to keep paying money for all those who were allowed to leave school without having learnt enough to be able to find a job and stick to it. This is highly frustrating not only for the young people themselves but also for the rest of the society who has to finance this through their taxes. I believe everyone can make a worthwhile contribution to society even if not all of us turn out to be 'Einsteins'.

Posted by Mausi at 12:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 29, 2006

G'day mate in abeyance?

My good friend Ozguru has decided to suspend his blog for the moment. This is partly due to pressures of work on him and his co-blogger Peskie but it is also down to increasing problems of access to the administration server for the server and blog provider (which incidently also hosts this blog!)

I can sympathise with Ozguru and Peskie on their withdrawal - I hope temporarily - from the blogosphere, as the pressure of work is increasingly making it difficult to find the time to keep posting. I have also noticed recently that many of the bloggers who were regular and reliable posters (and readers!) in the early days of my blog are increasingly not blogging regularly or have ceased to blog at all. And I wishfully thought I might have more time for this pleasant activity as I entered retirement - a thought I have had to rethink! My diary is filling up with work so rapidly that I think I will be in danger of working harder than ever from Day 1! Time for blogging, painting and writing? Not at this rate.

Ozguru and Peskie will be missed on my daily read as I am sure we will all have missed others who no longer post. We can but hope that they will make a comeback in due course.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:05 PM | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

Waste

I've read recently that everyone in Germany lucky enough to have a job wastes 32,5 of his precious 250 working days per year. This is not done on purpose, of course, the hours just fade away in useless meetings, or because the same task has been assigned to two different people, and in ever increasing administrative tasks. I would readily subscribe to that considering how often I have to sit in meetings which I think could well be conducted in at least half the time they usually take if everyone only went to the meeting well prepared. The time that is wasted in this way is estimated to cost the tax payers more than 170 billion Euros per year, a mind boggling sum which equals about 8% of our gross domestic product. Another alarming estimate is that worldwide 30% of the working hours are squandered on unproductive activities.

A study conducted by Proudfoot Consulting blames inefficient leadership for this waste of time and money. Managers don't find the time to do their job properly and they don't talk enough to their employees. Unproductivity is generated by bad planning and controlling. Further reasons are bad training, ineffectiv communication and IT problems.

Too true! Far from making things easier for my computer at my office takes quite a few minutes off my working hours each day causing problems I didn't have before. Countless are the times when I wanted to bite into my keyboard or give that cheeky Dr Watson a good punch on the nose. And if at last you have persuaded the computer to perform a difficult task for you you can bet on it that next time both of you will have forgotten how to do it and you will be back to square one again.

It is a bit of a consolation, though, that even private firms face the same problems that I thought hitherto to have been only inherent to the civil service: too many administrative tasks, too many fruitless meetings etc. Still - I went into the civil service as a natural scientist fifteen years ago. But now a very small amount of my working hours is actually devoted to scientific work. Instead, writing a scientific report has become a kind of luxury. And because even the civil service has to cut down costs now and then a substantial number of the scientific and technical staff that has left the department over the past years has not been replaced. Strangely enough, the overall number of employees seems not to have changed much. But the only unit that has been prospering lately is the one that is supposed to do the administrative tasks for the department. Instead of taking this kind of work away from us they succeed effortlessly in creating even more of it for us. And that is a real waste of potential. For all of the scientific staff members were employed because of their special skills and knowledge in the first place which we are not allowed to use anymore to the extent we would like.

I find it quite remarkable that during the last 30 years actual production has been moved out of Germany to the East and lots of small or medium sized firms have gone bankrupt. But the civil service has been forever increasing. They just seem to breed among themselves. If one of the Federal Offices is closed another one springs up out of nowhere. But as long as our Parliament consists mainly of members from the civil service and lawyers there's not much hope that things will change in the near future. What a waste!

Posted by Mausi at 08:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 22, 2006

Euro troubles?

In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to escape the ever present garbage about our illustrious leader and find out what is happening in the world outside the Peoples Republic of Blairdom. I was a little surprised to read in the Financial pages of one of the English national daily's (International Edition) that there is increasing concern in the Euro Bank and the IMF about the future viability of the Euro as a currency. It appears that too many of the members of the Euro Zone, but most notably Italy and Spain, are experiencing a form of runaway inflation masked by the fact that their currency is managed outside of their economic system. In fact, it is now being said that Italy in particular, may have to be ejected from the Euro before their problems bring it down and tear the entire Eurozone apart.

It seems that the pressure is increasing dramatically as more of the Eastern European economies link to it as well, since their need to play catch up on wages - viz the exit of skilled workers from these countries to better paid positions in the west - and to rebuild the infra structures and manufacturing base destroyed by years of centralised soviet style controls, created inflationary pressures a currency managed for the benefit of German and French interest rates can cope with. Now it may well be unfair to blame the Germans, but there can be no doubt that the German, Dutch, Belgian and French economies would suffer badly if interest rates were put up to the levels needed to damp down the inflationary pressures in Italy, Spain, Portugal and some of the newly joined member states. One commentator likened the situation to the debacle that resulted from trying to unify the British Pound in the early 1990's - the Pound almost tore the ERM as it then was, to pieces.

It could be argued that the present situation is or was predictable. This is, after all, merely the latest in a number of attempts in Europe to harmonise economies and have a single currency. France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland all adopted the Franc and tried to maintain a single value while running independent economies. The experiment fell apart as the different economies suffered diverging growth or stagnation. The end result was that the only common thing about them was the name - and you had to add the country name in front of it to differentaite. An example was another trip to a Pre-Euro Europe when I crossed from France into Belgium and on one side got Fr10 to the £1 and on the other Fr66 to the £1! The difference - one was the French Franc and the other the Belgian Franc.

The experts predict that this wobbly state will continue in the short term. They even think it can be propped up for a while longer, but they are all clear on one thing - it cannot continue to be propped up or the problems ignored for much longer. Unless the inequalities in national economies can be resolved swiftly, the Euro is likely to go the way of the Franc. Perhaps Mr Brown's five 'tests' before we in Britain enter the Euro will be entirely academic in a couple more years.

Pass the crystal ball and I'll have another look at the future ......

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 16, 2006

The Heads beneath the Scarves

Eight years ago there was big discussion in Germany because a young womam named Fereshda Ludin seeked employment as a teacher in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. In Germany teachers are civil servants. Ms Ludin is a Muslim and she wanted to keep wearing a scarf around her head in school. Apart from the scarf her way of dressing is very much Western European and her German flawless, as can be expected from a teacher.

The State of Baden-Würrtemberg refused to employ her stating that the scarf was a symbol islamic fundamentalism incompatible with working as a civil servant in a Christian society. The case was taken to court and Ms Ludin lost her case. The outcome of it was that most of the Federal States in Gemany issued a ban on scarfs for teachers or others seeking employing in the civil service.

Looking back it seems a bit astonishing that during the heated discussion in the media so little attention was given to the actual heads underneath the scarves. What did they think about religion and fundamentalism? Why did they want to wear a scarf around their heads at all? A common prejudice was that they had been forced to do so by brothers, fathers or husbands.

Recently a study has been carried out by the Adenauer foundation among 315 Turkish women of all ages from different parts in Germany. These women had all kinds of educational backgrounds, some had obtained German citizenship, some had jobs, some were housewives and staying at home.

If the scarf were indeed a symbol of islamic fundamentalism one would expect to find quite a number of fundamentalists among the 315 women. Interestingly, however, 90% of them wished for a democratically elected government. This is not much different from the average German population. What makes it even more significant is the fact the women not only came from three inconspicuous congregations in Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart but also from a certain Mosque in Aachen which is under surveillance by German authorities. One would therefore clearly have expected to find a certain number of fundamentalists among the women.

But quite contrary: the results obtained by questioning the Turkish women about the importance of marriage and partnership, personal freedom, financial security, jobs or children were not at all different from those that had been gathered form questioning German women during the last years. The signifcant difference was that the Turkish women were by far more religious than the German women.

Then why the scarf? By far the most said that brothers, fathers and husbands had nothing to do with their decision to wear a scarf. They said instead that it is proper for a female muslim to wear a scarf and that they did it voluntarily. They also claimed that the scarf gave them a certain amount of self-confidence. This may be explained by one third of them saying they believed that they were especially dear to Allah, although two thirds believed everyone is equal before God.

I think it's high time for a proper dialogue to begin between different groups in our society. Far too long ethnic groups have been allowed to live only among themselves. Often Turkish citizens of the second generation are even less integrated into German society than their parents. But a society can only function if we know each other's thoughts, needs and ambitions. Just basing your verdicts on prejudices will not do.

Posted by Mausi at 07:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2006

The post-war Baby Boomer Generation

The Monk being away to foreign countries again has asked me to turn a newspaper article he came across a couple of days ago into a post for this blog. He has assured me that he agrees with every word the author has written.

The author claims that the post-war Baby Boomer generation has done its best to ruin the world for those they'll leave behind. He gives a number of examples to prove his point:

Bill Clinton, a prominent representative of this generation, of ignored the al Qaeda threats to his country because he was too busy with personal affairs.

Britains baby boomers have created a culture where sentiment takes precedence over substance. Especially since Tony Blair and New Labour it seems to be more important to present oneself as a good person than acutally being one.

Boomer feminists are to blame for today's porno-culture. And their ill-conceived hatred of housewives and their desire to see them leave the kitchens for other workplaces has destroyed the lives of those women who now do tiwce the amount of work they did before.

Baby Boomers also destroyed music for generations to come, shown by the endless stream of geeks with guitars inspired by The Beatles.

Drug-taking in the Boomer culture was seen as an expression of freedom. This now causes thousands of people each year to succumb to cannabis-induced shizophrenia. Britain's inner-city poor are imprisoned on estates ruled by crack lords.

Another Baby Boomer, Bob Geldof, uses the misery in Africa for boosting his own fame and wealth stating he wants to raise awareness about Africa. As if everyone weren't aware that Mugabe is a murderous villain.

The Boomers' wish to appear cool and empathetic made them hate the idea of integration. They rather wanted immigrants to maintain their identities, which has caused serious segregrational problems in Britain.

The author blames the Baby Boomer generation for having to live in a society that has no direction. Young people of his generation are scarred by divorce, drug-use, and empathetic parenting, when they needed structure and discipline. On the other hadn his generation is hated by the Baby Boomers for their apathy, materialism and licentiousness which is only a product of the abysm the Baby Boomers created. And he looking forward for the Baby Boomers to retire or better still expire.

Although I can see some of his points on the whole I cannot agree with the young author. It is a much too easy way in my eyes to just blame others. Because we have choices in our lives. I would never do anything, like taking drugs or smoking, just because everyone else around me did it.

I, too, deplore the tendency presemtation seems to count more than content and substance. But I don't think this is restricted to Baby Boomers. It's more human nature. It is for us to fight against this and not let the others get away with it.

And I don't agree that music has been destroyed for generations by The Beatles and followers. It doesn't mean that good music is not good any more. If you prefer Bach to John Lennon - fine! It's your choice! And I must say that I like The Beatles a lot better than today's Heavy Metal or Rap Music.
Women leaving their kitchens and starting to work somewhere else is a difficult topic. But I know quite a few examples where both partners work at reduced hours or alternately and manage jobs, kids and family quite well. It is a decision everyone has to make for him- or herself. And I think it was caused by the girls having suddenly access to better education than before the war rather than some feminist Baby Boomers.

It is too easy in my eyes to just see yourself as a victim of a preceding generation. Do something about it. It may be that some of the young generation lacked guidance and discipline and their parents were not the best of examples. But no one prevents you from taking someone else as an example of how you want to be. Just think of that whole generation of children in Europe who lost parents and family during the last war. Many of them only had very little education and guidance and still many of them became fine people.
And I even know some Baby Boomers who are great people as well.

Posted by Mausi at 06:54 PM | TrackBack

September 07, 2006

The Australian approach ......

Interestingly in my post entitled Three cheers for Australia, attracted a couple of commenters - one accusing me of plagiarism and citing an article in Snopes.com and a second, which for some reason I seem to be unable to "approve" which provided a second link and identified this post on the same site as a source for verification of my first. I am going to do a cut and paste job on the comment I cannot approve to give the sender the credit for the link he sent me.

Name: Vapor Email Address: texan95@comcast.net URL: Comments:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/australia.asp

It wasn't plagiarized from any article about the U.S. It was pasted
together from actual quotes.

It is encouraging that more and more moderate voices from within the Islamic community around the world are slowly beginning to denounce the men and women of violence who have highjacked their religion in the pursuit of power. It is encouraging, but there is still a long way to go as the events of this week have proved with tourists being gunned down in Jordan one of the more "moderate" Islamic nations. Equally, the howling mob rejoicing at the roadside bombing that killed yet more servicemen for Mr Blair and his fellow anti-military cronies in Iraq, proves that reason and a desire for peace and normality is not uppermost in the minds of the average denizen of that benighted region.

We can but wait and see who will ultimately win this battle for the heart and soul of Islam. I suspect that it will be a long a very protracted struggle with many more innocent lives lost in the process.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 26, 2006

The End of the German Language?

Not subscribing to a daily newspaper I must admit I hadn't noticed the apparent debate about Denglish (see The Monk's post from yesterday) going on in the media. I think of language as a living thing which will of course change over years especially when you are surrounded by quite a number of foreign states with whom you trade and have relationships in many fields like science, technology etc. At the moment we just incorporate a number of English expressions into our language and subject them to German grammar, like

Ich downloade, ich downloadete, ich habe downgeloadet
I download, I download, I have downloaded

So what? At the moment they are these phrases are only used in spoken German but may eventually find their way into the Duden, the authoritative reference on written German. We must not forget that it has worked the other way round as well. The English language has adopted the German 'Kindergarten' and turned it into 'kindergarden'. And I bet the plural is 'kindergardens' and not 'Kindergärten' as it is in German.

We have even incorporated words from the French language into our own, there was quite an exchange of soldiers and warriors in the past centuries on our western border, as for example Portemonnaie (a purse). The word even looks French and I've always found it interesting to try and find out where words came from originally. But about 10 years ago the bureaucrats decided to change the orthography of German to make it easier for the students to learn proper writing. Therefore the good old Portemonnaie has changed into 'Portmonee' which is closer to its actual pronunciation.

I don't mind if the writing changes over the years by itself. That's a natural process. But to think up new rules and then impose them onto the people is the height of stupidity. The bureaucrats were quite astonished when their wonderful new rules met with a lot of opposition. People just wouldn't comply - after all we live in a democracy not a tyranny. Even big newspapers refused point blank to comply with the new spelling rules. Over the years the 'reform' has been reformed several times and only this summer at last an agreement was reached. Many of the proposal from the original version were taken back again.

The process had its funny but also very annoying moments. The ones who really suffered where the kids who started school during the last ten years. They must be totally confused by now. They are probably the generation that writes as it likes and will have to rely heavily on spell-checker programmes.

After all this I think we'll easily survive the Denglish phase. So many words from different languages (Arabic, Latin, Greek, French) have found their way into German that a few more English ones will not matter in the least. In the seventies I went to England for the first time on a pupils' exchange programme. My English friend told me that there were many foreign words in German but that English was just English and nothing else. And I thought, oh dear, and that one of the things I had always liked about the English language was that whenever I could not think of the correct English word I just had to take the Latin one and pronounce it English and could usually made myself understood.

Posted by Mausi at 11:57 AM | TrackBack

August 24, 2006

Three cheers for Australia

You can always rely on the Aussies to call a spade a spade. It is one of their most attractive characteristics, especially for someone like me who absolutely detests the fact that we seem to be living in a society where everyone has an agenda and you spend half your time in any given meeting for any given organisation trying to figure out what these are, rather than being open and honest and getting on with the task which is supposed to be the subject at hand! In the extended post below I have cut and pasted the thoughts from an e-mail going the rounds. It is particularly pertinent in the UK at the moment where our latest Blair Babe Minister has announced that she "has no objection to adopting 'elements' of the Sharia Law if this will help relations with the Muslim community!" Personally I think this woman should be removed from office immediately. She patently has no understanding of what she has said, or of the consequences for the entire nation of her inane suggestion.

Which "elements" did she have in mind? And does she not realised that the Sharia Law is entirely incompatible with English Law and the English Legal System. Anyone who wants to live under that legal system should remove themselves immediately to Saudi Arabia and be done with it.

No, I think the Aussies have the right approach. But even more interesting is the accompanying "header" from the man who initiated the e-mail.

OK, another 'round-robin' e-mail but this one actually extols the virtue of common sense. Well worth the read. I am not anti-muslim. I mean, I live in Saudi Arabia and that is hardly the place where someone who is anti-muslim would choose to live. I chose to come to Saudi Arabia and I chose to stay, accepting that I cannot live my life as I would in the UK. I can't pop down the Ferret and Stovepipe of a Friday lunchtime for a pint and a ploughman's lunch. I can't go to church. I can't even go to the cinema as they don't have any. I'm not even allowed to give a lift to a female friend if she is not my wife. However, I chose this lifestyle and have to live with it. The majority of Muslims that I have met are genuinely decent people. They accept me into their country to do a job and they are eager and willing to talk about the true meaning of the Islamic faith. As with most things in life, the minority are ruining our perception of the majority. Anyway, I'm off my soap-box now. Read the message below and, just as the Subject Line says, Three Cheers for the Team in Canary Yellow!

Read the rest of the extended post and if you agree with the sentiments - spread it around! Personally I can hear the Guardianistas screaming for blood already........

Three Cheers For Australia

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crack down.

Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by parliament.

"If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said on national television.

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option," Costello said.

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other country.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off".

"Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off,"he said.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agency's monitoring the nation's mosques.

AMERICA, Britain and Canada...ARE YOU LISTENING?

Quote:

IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT.

Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture.
Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.

However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.

I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia.

However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand.

This idea of Australia being a multi cultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle.

This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the language!

Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push but a fact because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, Because God is part of
our culture.

We will accept your beliefs and will not question why, all we ask is that you accept ours and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.

If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like " A Fair Go", then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet.

We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means keep your culture but do not force it on others.

This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.

But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, "THE RIGHT TO LEAVE".

If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.

Pretty easy really, when you think about it. I figure if we all keep passing this to our friends (and enemies) it will also, sooner or later get back to the complainers, lets all try, please.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE, PERHAPS WE CAN CREATE A GROUND SWELL AND SEND OUR POLITICIANS THE MESSAGE THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF US BELIEVE AS THE AUSSIES DO.........

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 20, 2006

Stirring the pot ....

It seems that the writer of a post on the ConservativeHome blog that I linked too earlier, has stirred up something of a hew and cry. Judging by the comments I have received, ranging from simply informative to downright "serves the fascist scum right", over the suspension from his job of the writer of that post by his employers, I feel that he got a lot of what he was saying absolutely right. Curiously though, some of the comments logged in my e-mail have not come through to the "comments pending" in my MoveableType comments box - so I will have to try and do those commenters the justice of cutting and pasting their effort into either this post or the comments section under the post they left them for.

The left wing media have had a field day with this, quoting bits of his post out of context - as is their usual wont - in an effort to make them say something they do not when seen in context. One of the people "proudly" responsible for the present predicament of Mr Inigo Wilson is posting regular comments on the ConservativeHome defending the fact that he is responsible for bringing about Mr Wilson's suspension by organising a campaign to have him fired on a Web Forum devoted to the promotion of Islamic propaganda. This "gentleman" who refuses to give a name and signs his triumphalist comments as "Anonmouse", proclaims himself to be a "New" Conservative of the stamp that the new leader Mr David Cameron is trying to attract and labels Mr Wilson and his supporters as the type of person the Conservative Party no longer wants. Well, if he is truly a representative of the Conservatives - then I for one will never again vote Conservative! That leaves me asking whether or not Guy Fawkes is standing in the next election because I cannot, in conscience, vote for either of the other Parties.

Inigo Wilson's predicament is clear proof of the very point he was making. Read the comments and you will see what I mean. We no longer live in a free and fair society. It is no longer a democracy run by the majority for the benefit of all - it is now an oligarchy run by a small minority who abuse language and spin definitions to twsit and warp meaning to create offence. They dictate "morality" yet are themselves not prepared to debate the principles they propound as being the "only" point of view. Challenge them and you find yourself in Mr Wilson's position. Dare to express an opinion that runs counter to this twisted morality and you soon find yourself being accused of everything from public indecency to promoting racial hatred. Yet, by the twisted ideals of these anonymous moralists, it is OK to denigrate any Christian believers faith, it is OK to pour scorn on the concerns of any white male who wants to see his country back in the hands of sensible people, not those who hide behind weasel words, who refuse to acknowledge any point of view but their own - and who adopt the tactics of the Stasi when it suits their purpose. Anonmouse is the name of the boastful poster on ConservativeHome and he is exactly this sort of person - and the reason that I will never again vote Conservative. If they plan to provide a home for those who, in other times and lands would have rushed to join the Stasi they have no place in our society!

Anonmouse, if you should read this, I have a message for you. You and your friends on the Chat room you have the time to frequent and to organise campaigns in are no better than the thugs who populated the Gestapo, the KGB, the Stasi and all the other organisations set up by dictators to spy on the ordinary citizens. It is you and your ilk who have a real problem and who are the real promotoers of racial tension in our society, your "piety" to the cause makes you twist very expression of concern to something that you alone see in it!

For me the most disturbing thing in all of this brouhaha is the fact that so many patently bigoted and prejudiced people are the very ones who are leading the attack on Mr Wilson. It is their prejudice which more than anything else frightens me - since they claim that their prejudice is the new morality! God preserve us from the Prejudiced do-gooder, there is surely no more dangerous animal on earth!

Oh, and as far as I am concerned, the future isn't bright and it is certainly not, as far as mobile phones go - any colour between yellow and red on the spectrum!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:16 AM | TrackBack

August 17, 2006

Airline chaos

As someone who does a fair amount of travel by air these days for business, I can only say that I am glad I have not had to do so in the last week or so. The chaos at our airports has achieved almost as much as blowing up ten or so airliners would have and has brought almost as much publicity. Score one for the terrorists. As if the chaos weren't enough, the forced removal of cabin baggage to the baggage holds and the insistence that passengers baggage may not be locked has increased theft from baggage exponentially and over twenty thousand pieces of baggage have gone "missing" from one airline alone!

While I appreciate that many electronic items can be rigged to act as triggers for bombs, there has to be a better way of screening this than to simply ban their carriage in the passenger compartment. Placing my laptop and my digital camera in the baggage hold in unlocked luggage is an invitation to some thief to help himself (or herself!) and the airlines are categoric that there will be no compensation for this loss - or for damage to either. The alternative isn't much better. Instead of taking my laptop I could take my Memory Sticks and m Portable Drive with me - but they aren't allowed in the passenger hand baggage either - so what happens if I lose them in transit? Well, then I'm stumped both ways, not only will I not have the use of a laptop at my destination - but I won't have my data files either! My camera is an essential tool of my trade - and being digital - I need my laptop to download it (even though I have a huge memory card in the camera) as I need to review the pictures I have taken to make sure they tell the story or illustrate the points I am trying to make. If this is stolen, as it appears many people are having happen, I am again up the Swanee in a leaking canoe without a paddle!

Best of all is the argument now between the Airports Authority, the Airlines and the Government as to who should pay compensation to the Airlines. Bugger the passengers whose holidays have been ruined or the businessmen inconvienced or suffering serious finiancial and business loss as a result.

What this has exposed is that we are simply not geared up to cope with this sort of threat at all. My last trip to the US was an eye-opener because at my destination, having collected my luggage I was forced to hand it in again and then stood in a queue for nearly three quarters of an hour to be screened for weapons, bombs and heaven knows what else before they would let me out of the airport! Surely, if I had a bomb in my baggage, I would have used it before we got there? Or am I simply being far too logical about this?

As a single man travelling sometimes to some dodgy destinations in the Far East I find myself regularly targeted by the security forces who search my baggage, question my motives for travelling and make suggestions of possible impropriety as being the reason for my trip. The fact that I am carrying HMG Id, loads of material which is all work related, travelling on tickets booked by my employer and to a destination I would probably not visit if I had freedom of choice, cuts no ice - single white males travelling to certain destinations fit a "profile" that our society is obsessed by - sex tourism. I resent very much being singled out in this way - particularly as the same lobby that insist that all single white males are child abusers screams blue murder if anyone even dares to suggest that young men of middle eastern origin are much more likely to fit the profile for a bomber than a sixty year old grandmother or a single white male in his middle age!

The real problem is international terrorism. It is not unique to the Muslim fundamentalist, although they are currently the number 1 users of this despicable form of warfare. It is a hangover from the Cold War, a war fought between the US and the USSR and their allies by proxy, in Africa, in Indo-China and the Middle East. It continues today, but now the terrorists are the men in suits ruling the countries they "liberated" (Mugabe is a good example!) and carrying on their "war" against "oppression" (defined as anything Western) in ever other country they can reach. The UK was fortunate in one sense during the IRA campaigns, in that we got a lot of experience of dealing with this
form of war, but all that has been lost in Blair's drive to "demilitarise" our society, downgrading the Fire Service and placing it in the hands of idiot civil servants and parachutists from Tesco and other "commercial" organisations. The police have had their powers curtailed and the courts are far to lenient because we have the lobby that screams "mistrial" if there is a single form not filled in to their liking.

And terrorism pays. Look around Africa, there is almost no government South of the Sahara run by someone who has not been a terrorist! Look at the Middle East, almost every government there sponsors terrorism somewhere else! Its how they retain power - keep the lunatics and psychopaths operating next door and keep them out of the "home" politics. OK, so the foot soldiers get to be "martyrs" but the leadership become rich and powerful and that is what it is all about. Power and money.

Messing people about at airports is a triumph for the terrorists. Chaos and headlines raise their game and encourage further attempts. The only way to beat it is to adopt the policy used by the Royal Navy against piracy in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th Century. We catch you; we hang you! As long as terrorism brings recognition and reward for the likes of Hizbollah it will not be beaten. Those who take up the sword to murder civilians and attempt to seize power that is not theirs to take must be treated in the same way. Instant execution, cremation of the remains and the ashes dispersed where they can never become a place for pilgrimage or hero worship. Countries that sponsor groups like Hizbollah must also be punished, their assets frozen and their governments indicted with crimes against humanity.

Is it likely to happen soon/ Not likely, far to many of the current rich and powerful in every country including our own have a vested interest in maintaining the present status quo. That will only change when they are personally made to face the consequences of their inane and ineffectual approach to dealing with it.

In the meantime, the rest of us will have to suffer the consequences.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:40 AM | TrackBack

August 16, 2006

More nanny attempts from the UN?

As many of my readers will know the UN is not high on my list of useful organisations. Recently it has sunk even further down the list. The publication of their findings on "research" into "children at risk of violence or abuse" lies at the heart of my latest reason for contempt of this over expensive and frankly useless body. UNICEF has just published this latest load of manure - no doubt having destroyed the equivalent of the Brazilian rainforest to do it - as a supposedly "scientific" study of children suffering from violence in their own homes.

Now I am not one to deny that there is violence out there affecting children. I know there is, I even know that there is a strong chance that several children a day will be injured by someone close to them and some may even be killed. That is not my issue here, what is at issue is how the UN nannies have defined "violence". They have included any and every attempt at disciplining a child in their definition of violence. Dr Spock's discredited ideas on "reward withheld" is punishment, is once more driving these morons into making the assumption that every child will respond meekly to this ideal. Some patently do not. But that is not a reason to beat the living daylights out of them, but it does argue strongly that parents should have the final say over the appropriate punishment and not some bunch of overpaid bureaucrats in the ivory tower that is the UN's HQ in New York or wherever. As usual with this lobby group, there is confusion between legitimate chastisement for bad behaviour or misdemeanour and genuine abuse where the child is beaten simply because someone else cannot control their own feelings, temper or lives.

The report states, inter alia, that children who suffer violence at home suffer low self esteem in later life. Well, OK, I can identify with that since my own childhood, immediately post war with a father suffering all sorts of traumatic stress related problems that led to alcoholism and a mother struggling to cope with that and two small boys wasn't exactly an idyllic childhood. What I cannot identify with is the fact that a "womans" group has immediately adopted this report to support their appeal for more money to "provide support for women and children suffering violence in the home" and pointing the accusing finger at the males in the household as the abusers and perpetrators of violence. Again I can accept that there are many men who are the problem here - and many of them have something in their background which may well contribute to this - such as abuse as a child or a lack of parental guidance as to what is and is not acceptable behaviour. But where is the voice for the men who suffer misery at the hands of women. Where is the voice for the men and children who suffer violence and abuse at the hands of women in their lives? Believe me there are plenty out there, again, my day job has, at various times given me ample opportunity to witness this first hand.

In my own childhood, it was not my father's temper we were afraid of, it was my mother's. Now we know what caused that, but back in the fifties it was not something that could be treated. We lived with it, and we survived. My grandparents provided a refuge when things really got tough and perhaps that is what is lacking in todays "me centric" society. Have I got low self esteem? Well, yes, I would have to admit that I have. Has it held me back? I would say it has not, particularly once I found me true calling and a career that has helped me to help others. I have two degrees, a string of diplomas and the esteem of a wide range of my contempories and colleagues. The motivation for me was to rise above the baggage and get on with life! Feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to change anything, taking the positive stuff - and there was plenty to take alongside the negative - I have made the most of it and I recommend the same course to anyone else who has that background. When I look back, the positives I got from my parents and grandparents more than make up for the negatives. My father gave me a love of the sea and the skills to manage boats, ships and water craft in all conditions, my mother gave me an ability to paint and draw, my grandparents gave me a love of knowledge and the curiosity to explore all manner of things. And they all gave me discipline - the disciopline to know when to act, when to speak and when to remain silent.

At the end of the day it is not so much the baggage of childhood that holds us back, it can also be the spur to drive you forward, but it is the wallowing in self pity that so many of our nanny brigade want to encourage. Low self esteem is one thing, self pity and the inability to rise above the problems in one's life are. I do not know how the UNICEF crew have arrived at a figure stating that there are one million children in the UK suffering violence in their homes. Frankly, I do not believe it based on their definition of violence, nor do I believe that all of those children, assuming the figure is anywhere near accurate, will be forever trapped in poverty and violence. I am not unique and I am certainly not living in a cesspit of regrets and hatred for my parents. The older I have got the better I understand their problems and the greater the pity I feel that I did not understand better when they were still alive.

Children do not, in general, need more protection, they need to be shown that life is not fair, it is scarcely just and it is a school that sometimes gives very hard knocks. Those were the lessons I have carried forward and I have no regrets and certainly no intention of collapsing in a heap. I have achieved quite a bit and there is a lot more I want to achieve. The best advice I can give to anyone on the UNICEF "at risk" list is this - stick it out, then get a grip on your own life, take life head on and yes, you will get some bruises, but don't let the past hold you back. Know the past, recognise the injustices and determine never to repeat them - then stand on your past and climb to a better future. The world owes us nothing, we are who and what we are and no amount of nannying can change it.

Marx wrote that the worker must needs take his skills to the market for them - it was probably the only sensible thing he wrote - and life is exactly like that. We have certain skills, we develop those and we then have to sell them on the market of life. That is what many more people than I have done - I know because I have met a lot along the way who are shining examples for others - if only the nannies will get out of the way and let the youngsters see them!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 15, 2006

Baby boomers and the shape of things to come ....

This morning's breakfast TV raised an interesting discussion, namely the fact that my generation, born in 1945/6/7 are now in the run up to turning 60. And for many, the question arises "what is our legacy" for our children? The BBC had invited a former Editor of the Daily Mirror to put his case for how our generation of "revolutionised" the media and changed the society in which we live. Listening to him I was struck by the fact that he sees the present media circus and its ability to destroy peoples lives, reputations and achievements, it's witch hunting and its ability to sway public opinion by selective and biased reporting as a "good thing". He also seemed to think that the increasing influence of Left wing socialist ideology and bureaucratic interference in everything from health care to wealth creation was a good plan.

So what has my generation produced as a legacy? Well, I think, to an extent, it depends on where you have lived your life. If in Britian I would suggest that it is the generation that has produced the highest rate of inflation every recorded. It has produced a media that is so left of centre it is almost a political force in its own right, it has focussed on "rights" rather than responsibilities and it has promoted the concept of "entitlement" and self indulgence to the limits. It is the generation that has seen the rise of bureaucracy to ridiculous levels, the destruction of the "British Way of Life" for the nebulous ideal of "Multi-culturalism" and "inclusivity". It is the generation which has turned its back on the order of society (except of course where it suits it to preserve their own portion of it!) and promoted rebellion and anti-authoritarianism (except for increasing bureaucracy), decries organised religion, but promotes Eastern Mysticism, any non-European religion and New age-ism. It is the generation which has promoted the "recreational" use of hard drugs and created a culture of "youth". In short, we are a self indulgent generation who take stances, act and decide to act on a range of issues because they make us "feel good" and that we "care" or have "done something".

Outside of Britian we may not have had the "Sixties" Hippy outburst, indeed, some of us even had to work for our livings instead of going on pot-smoking breaks "sitting in" at universities" paid for by the tax payers. But we haven't done much better. Some of us had to take up arms and fight a war against terrorism sponsored by one or other of the "super powers" in their "Cold War" - which translated into a "hot war" for the rest of the world. Some of us have been disposed of our heritage and the nations our forbears built as well because the way we lived, or the way at least the political elite of the time thought we should live, didn't accord with the vision of the ideologues in the so-called "Western Democracies". So what have we got to be proud of? That we do not have the ability to pass to our children anything of our heritage? That we do not have the ability to help them get a foot on the ladder to a better job or a lifestyle similar to that which we once enjoyed?

Should we be proud of the fact that our media are irresponsible, jeopardising court cases by reporting information that has not been tested in court? Should we be proud of the fact that we sent our armed forces into a war in a country we had only the most tenuous connection with (we were after all the occupying power who set up the mess that is Iraq in the 1920's and 1930's!) with defective equipment, the wrong kind of boots and insufficient ammunition? That we now want to put them on trial for fighting the very battles we sent them to fight? Should we be proud of having elected Ministers of State who smoked pot, took mainline drugs and thought (and for all we know, still think) that mass murderers like Stalin, Lenin and Guevara were "Class Warriors fighting for the cause of justice for the workers"?

The legacy of my generation is not a proud one. We are leaving our children struggling to find meaningful jobs, with education that is being eroded and dumbed down, with housing spriralling out of control cost-wise and a looming disaster called "multi-culturalism" which is, quite simply, another name for apartheid. I do not share the view that we have made a better, safer or fairer society, we have laid the foundations for a society which will tear itself to pieces, a society which will increase the divide between those who are born with the right address and the right amount of wealth and those who are not. We have made it more difficult for someone born in "poverty" (a much abused term) to actually improve their position and their career chances and those who have the right parentla support and networks to give them a flying start. Does our "fearless" media give us anything we should feel good about? Well, let me ask this question; when was the last time you saw them write about some authority figure in terms which can be described as "positive"/ And I'm not talking about their usual sycophantic reporting of any Labour Luminary.

No, I think that in the final analysis, the Baby Boom generation will go down in history as self indulgent wastrals who have, in a single generation reduced a once proud nation and society to one of insecurity and dependence on handouts. They have sidelined us as a people and drowned us in immigrants, stripped us of our right to free speech (lest it offend someone) and promoted the rights of the very worst elements of society. Am I proud to be a Baby Boomer?

You got that one right!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:18 AM | TrackBack

August 13, 2006

Lefty Lexicon

Occassionally the Monk slips his moorings and wanders into the field of unusual blogdom, like the ConservativeHome.blogs.com, the blog for Conservative Party members with something to say. And this one certainly hit the button. The gentleman is named Inigo Wilson, an unusual name to say the least and a very good writer. His piece on the language of the left is worth a read, in fact it should be an essential read for anyone who, like me, feels that the left have highjacked our language and our heritage and tried to advance their agenda by denigrating every effort to raise the English people out of the image of drunken yob football supporter.

I guess you could say that I am an old fashioned patriot, proud of being British, but at the same time proud of my English heritage. I am not a member of any political party and do not intend to be, I believe in exercising my vote to elect the person who seems to offer the best hope of actually representing what I believe to be good for the majority - not for some disaffected minority who don't want to live here or wish to recreate the slum they escaped to come here. I am sick to death of being told that "poisitive discrimination" is good because it "redresses" "Historic" or "Institutional" imbalances in anything from race to sexual orientation and blue eyes versus brown. In my book discrimination is discrimination and totally unacceptable for any reason at all!

It frequently seems that the Scots, the Welsh, Muslims and any other "victim" minority can say what they like and behave very badly towards the English, but heaven help any white male "Englishman" who attempts to assert his right to freedom of speech. No, I think I can be glad of people like Inigo Wilson and his attempt to get a wider awareness of the Left's abuse of our labnguage and the heritage that underpins our entire society.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:44 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

August 10, 2006

Real pollution

You can tell the politicians are away, the press is running all the scare stories about health, the environment and anything else they can twist and spin into "bad news". Why "Bad" news? Well, as everyone knows, "Good" news doesn't sell papers, people only buy the paper to see the bad news.

The latest efforts to reduce Western Developed Nations pollution would make me angry if they weren't so damned stupid. Why are we supposed, at least according to Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth (Foes of Humanity) - to be worse polluters than all the developing nations with their uncontrolled exhaust emissions, stripping of forests, open cooking fires, destruction of habitats and so on? As anyone who has ever visited Metro-Manilla will know the Pasig River and Laguna de Baye are both open sewers, the stench from the once magnificent Manilla Bay is overpowering if you have the misfortune to encounter an onshore breeze and the air pollution is completely off the scale. The same can be said of Bangkok, Jakarta and a number of other Far Eastern cities I have visited. The air pollution from uncontrolled diesel busses, trucks and other vehicles - there is almost no "public transport" in terms of trains and the busses are a matter of having a death wish - is appalling, the air is brown with the haze over these cities, but no, according to Greenpeace, F(r)iends of the Earth and the Western Press it is you and I who are the enemies of the earth, the great polluters who will destroy the climate. Evidently it is us who are the polluters in the Far East and the destroyers of the rain forests in South America. The people who live there are "victims" of Western greed and exploitation - or so says the great socialist mantra.

What a pity we can't ship these morons out to the countries that really are destroying the world. Who knows, perhaps they might then make an impact - or become martyrs to their cause. At any rate, it would get them out of our faces and out of the press for a few weeks.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:29 PM | TrackBack

August 08, 2006

All right for some ....

Our legislators having knocked off for the summer, the news media are obviously desperate for stories, so now that the thought police are no longer at home to stop them, all the really awkward reports and recommendations are making it into the papers. Like the fact that MP's want to make us pay by the mile to use our cars, or that they want to increase airport and air travel taxes to levels that may well double airfares. Oh, and then there are proposals to reduce speed limits on all our roads to really stupid levels guaranteed to slow everything down and extend journey times, increase pollution and driver frustration.......

Taking the first item, the proposal is for "Road Pricing" a system of digital cameras that would monitor every road and charge you for taking your car anywhere. One analyst suggests that this could cost the "average" motorist £16k a year to use their car for transport to and from work. Naturally the Whitehall Wankers and Politicians behind this will be exempt, it will be the rest of us that will pay for their free and easy use of the roads. Clearly the object of the exercise is to drive people off the roads and render it uneconomic to use your car. The excuse is that they can then do away with fuel taxes and road tax as it is, replacing it with a "user tax". It sounds reasonable until you realise that it will hit the rural communities extremely hard. My current abode and my place of employement are some thirty miles apart - getting from one to the other is possible, but impractical. Ergo, I will be forced to change abode or employment if this were to come in. As ever the morons in Westminster think only in terms of the impact on the city traffic with its good transport infrastructure - assuming you like travelling in crowded dirty trains and busses full of obnoxious teenagers and standing cheek by jowl with someone who desperately needs to have a bath - or at least be introduced to deodorant.

Of course, the benefit for the Whitehall and Westminster gang of thieves is that they alone will be able to afford to travel by private car, the rest of us will be forced off the roads so they won't have to suffer from the congestion - nor will they have to endure the discomfort of expensive and uncomfortable trains. I hate travelling by train for the simple reason that, at over six feet and being fairly wide in the shoulders (I also suffer with a bad back!) the seats are designed for pygmies - or at the most generous, for the pre-war British person who was an average of 5 foot 5 inches and narrow shouldered. Try sitting three men in a row on any modern British train - you all wind up with aches because the damnded seats are too small - but that's alright because the Civil Servants who draw up the standards and codes for these and their political cronies won't have to travel on them. If they go by train we, the tax paying public are paying for their First Class Fare.

In case anyone thinks the Road Pricing equipment is still years away, think again, it is currently under test and will be available by the end of the year. The equipment is already being installed, so this is not a matter for discussion or consultation - its a matter of when the Civil Service decide to turn it on.

Next the move to lower speed limits. According to the pundits for this moroninc proposal, it will make travelling safer and less polluting. I don't buy the last since all modern cars are only less polluting when operating at their optimum engine speed - which at the speeds proposed they will not be. Ergo, pollution will go up. Second, the claim it will be safer. Garbage, it will be safer when all the self appointed traffic regulating merchants who hog the centre lanes and jump into gaps in the inner lane whenever they fancy slowing that down, are taken off the road and forbidden driving licences. There are few things worse than having to travel across country and being obstructed by someone determined to drive as slowly as possible while his or her children run riot in the back seat. Or worse, the OAP's who can barely see over the dashboard and have never exceeded 30mph anywhere, but who insist on hugging the white lines on roads where the speed limit is 60 or more.

The "safety" lobby - read anti-private car and individual freedom - are campaigning to have a blanket 40 mph on all rural roads. Again this is punted as "less polluting" and "safer". The fact of the matter is that almost all accidents on these roads are caused by inconsiderate driving by one of two groups - young and foolish going very much too fast and the "safety" fanatic driving everywhere at least 20 mph under the speed limit. A pity they are allowed to obstruct others to the extent that eventually someone will be driven to overtake in an unsafe position. It is a sad fact that these are the two most common causes of accidents around my area - the "average" motorist doesn't have a problem travelling at the perfectly reasonable existing speed limits.

It is obvious that the onslaught on the motorist is coming from the usual suspects - all of them with a vested interest in depriving the rest of us with the freedom of movement our cars give us and further restricting our freedom of choice in a whole range of things including our ability to travel anywhere outside of the UK. Consider the effect of increased air travel taxes. As airfares are pushed upwards by this latest blatant grab for more of the money in our pockets the excuse is yet again, "saving the environment", but the impact will be less environmental and more economic. Tourism will be reduced in the UK, and incase you think this doesn't matter, it does, as recent downturns on those areas dependent on tourist revenue have shown. Of course, if we can't travel because the Whitehall Wankers have rendered it too costly, it means that the resorts and destinations we would have spent money in are also going to feel the pinch - except of course, that our Whitehall and Westminster cronies will now have them to themselves without the rest of us to clutter up the beaches. And the long term affect? More of our freedoms of choice removed by Whitehall Nanny, more frustration and no overall reduction in the "environmental damage either, because the traffic will simply go elsewhere.

It is the first lie of the budding dictatorship that in order to preserve the "greater good" the "individual must give up his freedom". Time to throw the entire Whitehall and Westminster crew out of office, off the payroll and restore freedom and democracy.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:37 PM | TrackBack

August 05, 2006

Iraq and the Blair "Spin" .....

Interesting view expressed by Her Majesty's "Man in Baghdad" in his final telegram to HM's First Minister, The Right Dishonourable Anthony Blair, would be President of the USE. Parliament would, had it been in session and not on four months of summer hols, have had a field day with this.

Far from the lovely image that our Illustrious Leader (now off to Italy on his hols and leaving that buffoon Prescott in charge!) has been presenting of a gradually "improving" situation in Iraq where we are supposedly "winning the war on insurgency", the retiring Ambassador, who is probably far more capable of assessing the situation than either Blair or the moron civil servants who prepare his "media briefings", that the country will descend into a major civil war and break up. It is not really surprising when you give this some careful thought. The country is, after all, the creation of the post First World War western imperial powers who carved up the former Ottoman Turkish Empire to create the patchwork of states we have today. While these were loosely based on the former "provinces" of the Ottoman Empire, this did not mean that they were any more "unified" states than any of the creations we have left behind in Africa. Put simply they ignored ethnic and cultural groups and boundaries, indulged in ethnic cleansing in some areas (continuing the Turkish practice agains troublesome minoroties) and mass population transplanst in others. As the world has been destabilised by the left overs of the Cold War and the absence of any really original thinking in the field of political change, we now have a country that is about implode with enormous consequences for the entire region and probably the rest of the world as well!

The spin doctors still desperately try to lead us to believe that what they are saying is "good news", but it is becoming ever more difficult for them to hide the fact that it is all unravelling and we will, I believe, see the formation in the not too distant future of a new Kurdish State in Northern Iraq (Turkey is determined to prevent that so watch that space for the next aggressive war!) and the Southern part looks set to split between native Arab and native Assyrian - and believe me there is a difference! The religious positions also complicate it enormously, since you have not just the Sunni/Shi'ite disagreement, but there are several more smaller sects of Islam present, there are numerous Jewsih communities and around 40% of the population are Christian of one brand or another and then you have the Islamic fundamentalists .....

Symptomatic of the present problem in Lebanon is tha fact that this government is trying desperately to show their sympathies lie with the Palestinians in the increasing desperate hope that they can keep Muslim opinion on board while not actually alienating Israel. This will backfire spectacularly as the UK Jewish population are increasingly targeted by pro-Palestinian (or just anti-Jewish) elements in our own society. The fact that Lebanon has brought this on itself seems to be being brushed out by our media, after all it is the Lebanese Government who allowed Hizbollah to arm and train an army on their soil. It is the Lebanese Government who allowed their territory to be used as a base from which to attack their neighbour. Pointless bleating that their civilian population is now being targetted - get the terrorists out of the population centres, disarm them and deal with them. End of war!

The middle East dilemma will continue as long as the Muslim States permit their citizens to harbour terrorists. No good in calling them freedom fighters - they are part of the global threat to every civilised society and we need to recognise this. What is the difference between an al-Qaeda backed "insurgent" bombing "pro-Western sympathisers" in Baghdad and the Hizbollah fanatic firing rockets into Israel or kidnapping Israeli citizens?

No, the Ambassador and the US General are correct, Iraq will collapse, it will break out into a civil war, and it will spread into the neighbours. Everyone in that region has a choice - disarm the terrorists, disarm them and cutail their recruiting and training. Then get around the table and sort out the peace. But, the discussion cannot start until the terrorists are disarmed and put out of business. Don't whinge about the fact that civilians are suffering - these governments know exactly who the terrorists are and where they are - so deal with them.

It is a sad reflection on the fact that our media are distinctly biased and one sided in their reporting - very little has been shown of the suffering caused by the Hizbollah attacks on Israel. Silly me, that is because our left-wing dominated media hate Israel, hate Jews and want the State of Israel destroyed. They love "victims" and the Israelis are patently the aggressors here - aren't they?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:09 AM | TrackBack

July 21, 2006

Blood cries out for blood .....

The tragedy unfolding in Lebanon and Israel should concern us all. Now I will declare in advance that I do actually side with the Israelis on this, they have a right to exist as a nation and they are, with all their faults, the only truly democratic country in that entire region. However, there does come a moment when you have to step back and ask yourself how this will end. And for my part, I am pretty sure it will end badly.

If you look at the history of the region it is not a happy one, particularly for the Jews. Since 70AD they have officially not existed as a nation. The British took Palestine off the Ottoman Empire in 1916 -18 and promised the creation of a Jewish homeland, then reneged in 1919 under pressure from the French and the Arab's many sympathisers. In the meantime, in Europe, the seeds were being sown for the holocaust - which the Arabs still deny even occured (check the Arab press on sale in London) - and for the tragedy that would follow Lenin's revolution in Russia and the pograms initiated by Stalin and his cohorts. In the 1940's it was mooted that the Jews should be offered a place in Palestine and certain expectations were raised again. Then came the decision by, surprise, surprise, a Labour Government with distinct Communist leanings, to hand the whole of Palestine to the Arabs who had been declaring their intention to "purge" the country of "decadent Jews". On the eve of the handover the Jews took the only action open to them - they seized the country and, if you care to look it up, declared that never again would they place themselves in a position to be treated as they had been in Europe up to 1945.

Though it is vehemently denied now, the simple truth is that Whitehall and the British establishment were, and I believe still are, anti-semitic, or more correctly, anti-Jew. We have seen a constant stream of legislation to "protect" and "nurture" Islam while attacks on Jewish people, businesses and places of worship are rising steadily - yet there has been nothing done about it and nor will there be. The establishment subscribes to the Guardianista view of the likes of George Galloway and Ken Livingstone who represent the mainstream of the Labour Party on their thinking about Israel and the Jewish people per se. The trouble is that they can always find an excuse for the Palestinian, Hizbollah or Hamas terrorists, but when the Israelis strike back, it is "genocide" or "disproportionate". Even the much quoted Benjamin Netinyahu statement that one Jewish life was worth a thousand Arabs is frankly a misrepresentation - his original utterance, ill adivesd to be sure, was to say that the Jews are outnumbered and therefore their response is necessarily harsher.

As usual, we have the EU ministers "demanding" a ceasefire and "demanding" that Israel withdraw and subject itself to the International community of the UN. Why should they when the UN is little more than a mouthpiece for the Arab League when it comes to Israel. For the Israelis nothing has changed in the last 2,000 years - the world is still against them, despite the platitudes and assurances mouthed by flagrantly anti-Jewish political establishments across Europe and the West. As one Jew I knew was fond of saying, if Moses had turned right instead of left at the Jordan the world would be chummying up to them and kicking the Arabs.

None of this history however, will be resolved by conflict and it is a long way from either side being prepared to take a more reasoned approach. Each time an Arab bomber kills an Israeli the blood cries out for blood and the Israelis will bomb the hell out of some Arab settlement. And so the spiral continues. The real bottom line here is that, until the latest kidnappings, the Israelis were keeping their side of the bargain struck to allow the Palestinians some breathing space. By and large anyway. So you do have to ask yourself why the Palestinian government then allowed one of its "agent" terror groups to kidnap an Israeli soldier and to try to infiltrate the country with malicious intent? And why then did the Lebanese government allow Hizbollah to operate from its territory and strike into Israel? There can only be one reason - both parties hope to provoke a general war involving all their allies. After all, both Hamas and Hizbollah are surrogates of Syria and the Iranian Ayatollahs from whom they receive funding and arms. Is it really realistic to expect the Israelis - who have the intelligence data on this in front of them - to sit back and allow these incursions as Mr Livingstone and Mr Galloway and other left wing anti-Jewish politicians seem to think they should? Is it realistic to think that the Israelis would be prepared to allow terrorists to kidnap their troops and their citizens at will and not respond? Would we simply sit back and let it happen?

Of course not, and it is unrealistic in the extreme to think that the kidnapped soldiers are even still alive - their captors are not in any way men of honour, they are thugs and psychpaths, and they certainly do not operate under the Geneva Convention. Those young soldiers will have been tortured, abused and no doubt beheaded within days of their capture.

So lets see less of the handwringing from Europe and a damned sight more honesty. We murdered six million Jews because it was politically inconvenient to look at and admit what Hitler was up to. That makes us partners in that crime - and even more so in the several million more that Stalin and his henchmen murdered between 1927 and 1945, because that traitor Attlee thought "he was a friend of the workers, a man we can do business with!" It is time to set out a few home truths for the Arab and Muslim world.

1. The Jewish State has a right to exist.
   
2. The further promulgation of the "Blood Libels" by the Arab press should be punishable as an international war crime,
   
3. All terrorist organisations living in Palestine or the surrounding states are to be disarmed and brought to trial for murder and wilful prosecution of an illegal campaign of ethnic cleanising by non-governmental forces.
   
4. Jerusalem should become an open city, governed by an elected body and protected by forces neutral to all sides until such time as one side or the other can be trusted to police it themselves.
   
5. The Knesset may continue to sit in Jerusalem in acknowledgement of the fact that it is the ancient capital of the Jewish nation and will continue to be so.
   

Europe and other states must acknowledge their bias in this conflict and sit down to act to find a solution instead of being, as they are, a large part of the problem.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:04 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

July 15, 2006

An absence of morality .....

For a government that trumpetted their "squeaky clean" credentials just over 9 years ago as the "new" force in politics, the force that would sweep away forever the sordid wheeling and dealing, bed hopping and dirty tactics that have marked the last fifteen or so years particularly, our wonderful cuddly bunny and completely vacuous PM is now facing being "interviewed" by the police. It is hard not to gloat. It really, really is. Politicians clean up their act? Not until hell itself plunges into the ice age to end all ice ages. Politicians on the Left being "fair" or "even handed"? Check the weather forcasts for Hell! All that is left to really make my day, is a report that Blair has been arrested. I think a bottle of Irish Whiskey - 12 years old when I got it ten years ago - will be just about right for the celebration, even if I have to go out into the highways and byways to find someone to share it with.

This is a government which arrived proclaiming an end to sleaze, and end to the politics of tax and spend, and an end to the politics of "them and us". They failed on all counts right from day one.

This is the government which has introduced a new and insidious form of apartheid which they have termed "affirmative action" or "positive discrimination" and argue that this is "necessary to redress the balance of unfair selection biased in favour of white males". It falls into the same category of meaningless utterance that is categorised as "institutional racism/sexism/genderism." By this measure as long as you are female, sexually alternative or belong to a minoroty group and a religion other than Christianity, it is alright to discriminate in your favour, but not the other way round. The majority no longer rule, it is now about minority rule in every sphere, which we spent nearly forty years fighting and marching against in its original guise of apartheid. The problem with any form of discrimination in any sphere of life is that the balance between "positive" and "negative" discrimination depend entirely on which group you belong to.

This is also the government that has created more peers, apparently on payment of large sums of money (loans rapidly become donations after a few Honours have been handed out!) than any previous government, yet their attempts to stuff the Lords with cronies have failed, all that has happened is they have devalued and brought into disrepute the entire system of Honours. This is also the government which has promised not to raise tax, but has done so by the back door, raising death duty by stealth, fuel tax (and blamed the Tories for the mechanism) income tax by raising the upper thresholds for National Insurance and rewarded themselves with ever larger perks and salaries. They have raided pension funds and turned a problem into a crisis by their greed and they have almost destroyed the armed forces, the police, the justice system, the fire services and - despite huge increases in spending - the NHS. Anyone who still votes Labour after this is living on a planet somewhere with more than one moon in its orbit!

To crown their achievements, we have seen Minister after Minister and Civil Servant after Civil Servant caught with their incompetence showing or with their trousers down in someone elses bed - but we have seen very few of them depart until forced to do so. They have railed against bullying in everything from Industry to the Public Sector, Education and Hospitals, but are the biggest bullies on the block. The worst of the situation is that the media, particularly the BBC is now nothing more than the propaganda outlet for Labour, a point that they are beginning to worry about as more and more bloggers call into question their reporting and the selectivity and biasof their reports - so much so that a blogger has now been threatened by a media group. Visit the blog of one Guido Fawkes to read about this.

As I said, it is difficult not to gloat as the pigeon dung mounts on Blair's head and shoulders, but I shall do my best not to celebrate to wildly when he is finally thrown out of the Office he has now disgraced completely.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:21 PM | TrackBack

July 14, 2006

Here's another nice mess .....

Its good to know our money is being so well spent isn't it. After all, we are constantly told that Whitehall is such an efficient and non-corrupt organisation constantly worrying about expediture that they even have targets for measuring how much value we get for our tax pound. At least that's what they would like us to believe.

The revelation that the drive introduced by Tony and his Cronies to "revolutionise" Whitehall's delivery by launching a great drive to install IT for everything has run out of control and is a disaster from start to finish really should come as no surprise. You only have to understand two things about it - first that it is being scoped, specified and managed by Civil Servants, and second that it is being managed under the "Prince 2" project management system. As anyone who has ever worked with or to the Civil Service knows, they are incapable of managing a Binge Drinking session in a Brewery and as for the "benefits" of Prince 2, all it really ensures is that there is an "audit trail" of forms completed against every motion or activity connected to the task, not that the task has been properly scoped or even has achieved what it was supposed to. It only ensures that if the project is not properly scoped or planned, it will deliver all the faults and all the pitfalls - but it will do so consistently.

The wastage on IT runs into billions of pounds in one department alone (The Home Office naturally!) and even the Passort Office is having (five years on and more billions of tax money) having to revert to filling in forms manually - because the "online" version is either unusable or unreadable. To this bit of IT lunacy one must add the hugely expensive and still only partially operational NHS system and the Air Traffic Control system which has taken several potentially major disasters and a lot of kicked butts to sort out - again millions over budget, and the morons at DeCLoG - the Department that replaced Prescotts empire at the ODPM - have already issued contracts (open cheque books more like) to "prefered suppliers" to build the Regional Control Rooms for Fire Police and Ambulance Services which no one, except Whitehall and their toadies in the "management" of these services, wants.

How many more billions must we watch these incompetents throw into the pockets and bank accounts of their chums on the "preferred supplier" lists the Treasury issues, before we throw the whole damned lot in jail for fraud? We have pensioners suffering hardship because their pensions are inadequate (thanks Gordon Brown for the ongoing raid on pension fund incomes), we have our armed forces relying on outdated and unstable equipment and vehicles because Whitehall Wallahs spend the money on fancy chairs and decorating their offices, and we have a Health Service in crisis because the Civil Service has loaded the entire thing with worthless managers who know nothing whatever about managing a Health Service and manage by committee!

Time to clean house. Time to make the Civil Servants responsible for these failures and the the wastage accountable. Time to treat them in the same way that any director of a private company that behaved as they do - sack them and prosecute them for fraud.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 09, 2006

Panem et circenses

Today is the last day of the soccer world championship Germany has been hosting for the last four weeks. Suddenly we Germans are faced with the problem of what to do with our evenings now that there are no more matches to be watched. Alright, soccer certainly is the most popular sport in Germany but no one really expected these waves of sudden enthusiasm that have swept over the country during the last weeks. Not only were the stadions packed with people but also the public viewing places with their big screens. Even long standing members of the "I am not watching soccer on TV because that's as interesting as watching paint dry on the wall" suddenly found themselves dragged before the TV set by family and friends to watch the German team play. And I've never seen so many German flags around on display.

Much of this is owed to the coach of the German team who over a period of two years - against all odds - patiently built up a team of young entusiastic players who suddenly thought it an honour to play for Germany and not a nuisance. At least that is the impression I had about the old team. If I am wrong, I apologise. Before the championship not many would have bet money on the German team to last longer than the first three matches. But the players have demonstrated impressively that a real team is more than just the sum of its individuals. They richly deserve the 3rd place in the tournament they won yesterday against Portugal. They've played an attractive game of soccer all the time that is interesting to watch. And the fans never stopped supporting them even after they lost the semi final against Italy. That was probably the biggest surprise for the team.

With our President Horst Köhler and our Chancellor Angela Merkel being present in the soccer stadium every time the German team played one really got the impression that a whole nation stood united behind their team. Suddenly there seemed a breeze of optimism blowing through the country. Breweries were making a fortune, shop keepers were quite pleased with additional income from longer opening hours and even the stock exchange was affected positively.

But politicians would not be politicians if they would not grab the opportunity when everyone else was apparently only thinking "soccer" to pass a few bills of legislation almost unnoticed by the public. The first is about a "reform" of our National Health system". The reform is that I will have to pay higher premiums to my health insurance company and get less in return. We wouldn't have needed a reform for that. That has been the development over the last years! I had the hope that something would be done about the structure of the system itself. Do we really need more than a hundred insurance companies? Stupid me, of course we - to provide jobs for a lot of admin people!

The second bill concerns the relationship between the Federal Government and the Federal States. Up to now quite a number of bills that affected the Federal States in some way or other had to be approved not only by Parliament but also by the representatives of the Federal States. That meant that during the last ten years almost nothing got through because we had a socialist government and christian democratic dominated representatives of the Federal States. Now responsibilites between the State and the Federal States have been reorganised and a considerably lower number of bills will have to be approved by the representatives of the Federal States. We live in hope that now some at least will pass the parliamentary hurdles.

The way the responsibilities have been reorganised makes you wonder, however, if we are about to fall back into the old times when the present Germany was just a cluster of little principalities and kingdoms. Up to now each Federal State had its own police but now they will also have their own civil service meaning that they are free to decide how much they will pay a civil servant. Before a civil servant in Schleswig-Holstein earned the same amount of money as his colleague in Bavaria. Bearing in mind that for example teachers also belong to the civil service in Germany it makes you wonder what impact the arising competition between richer and poorer states will have on the quality of the civil service they provide.

And from now on the Federal States will also have their own representatives at the EU negotiating their own affairs. That will be interesting to watch, indeed!

I know, I shouldn't be so pessimistic with all that new optimism around me, it might all work out for the best, I just don't wee it at the moment ...

Posted by Mausi at 11:27 AM | TrackBack

July 06, 2006

Mr Prescott's slips showing again .....

Oh dear, Mr Blair's favourite bully boy has apparently been caught with his snout in the trough. So now we have the prospect of a Deputy Prime Minister famous not just for his trousers down carryings on with his diary secretary (Strictly forbidden in the Civil Service Handbook by the way and a dismissable offence for any Civil Servant - unless you have 'friends' in the right places!), but he is also apparently doing deals with a billionaire who wants to buy up the infamous Dome for a song so he can turn it into a Mega Casino. Dear old John is obviously considering his retirement and needs the money, after all, two jags and three houses is a lot to maintain on his Parliamentary Pension or even on an MP's generous allowances and salary if he manages to be re-elected.

Interesting that we are still not hearing the howls of "Sleaze" that would have been trumpetted by the BBC and the Murdoch Presses under the Conservatives. To be expected really, the BBC is after all, merely the Labour Party official mouthpiece and Murdoch probably has a Life Peerage coming from dear old Tony. I wonder how much of a 'bung' Murdoch has shoved into Labour's coffers recently?

Time this lot of crooked and treasonous charlattans were kicked out of office completely.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:00 PM | TrackBack

June 27, 2006

Public smoking

There's a debate going on in Germany at the moment if smoking should be banned in all public places by law. This would also include bars and restaurants. So far, the government has relied on restaurant owners to voluntarily provide guests with non-smoking areas. But in view of 140,000 deaths a year from tobacco related illnesses - more than from traffic accidents, alcohol and drug abuse, and AIDS combined - the politicians are trying to take some more draconian measures after a first attempt failed eight years ago.

Of course, with tobacco there's a lot of money involved. So things are not as easy as they might seem. The tobacco industry tries to tell people that passive smoking is no more hazardous to your health than using a mobile. All I can say is that having someone smoking beside me in a room gives me a capital headache, burning eyes and a sore throat. I haven't been inside pubs for years, only in summer when you can sit outside, because of that The restaurant and hotel owners are apparently afraid that people will stay away from bars and pubs if smoking is banned inside. I would suggest that once you get the smokers taking their drinks and cigarettes outside you have a real chance of attracting the non-smokers inside! I really enjoyed the Scottish pubs during my Easter holiday this year with all the smokers having a quiet get-together outside and the non-smokers sitting inside in warm and clear air enjoying a pint and a meal. Locals had told us that before smoking was banned in pubs you couldn't see the hand before your eyes inside there and judging by the layers of smoke residues covering walls, ceiling and smoke detector we could readily believe them.

As the government gets quite a bit of revenues out of the heavily taxed tobacco an open confrontation with the tobacco industry is the last thing the politicians want. So they've had this ingenious thought of delegating the responsibility for banning smoking in restaurant and pubs to the federal states, which will undoubtedly result in 16 different solutions. You better watch out which state you are in if you are a smoker! The Federal Government will probably ban smoking in its ministry buildings and sell that as a big success!

Some federeal states have tentatively started to try banning smoking in schools. This should be a matter of course in my eyes! When I went to school there was a big discussion if smoking, which was forbidden inside the building, should be allowed in the school yard for teachers and pupils over 16. In the end there was a certain corner in the yard where the smokers could meet. What really annoyed me that there were some teachers who openly ignored the smoking ban inside the school building - so much for setting an example!

In the state where I live pupils are no longer allowed to smoke in the school yard, so they just leave the yard during breaks and smoke somewhere else. I don't feel that's a solution to the problem - as long as we cannot convince kids that smoking is neither 'cool' nor a sign of personal freedom, smokers will always find a place somewhere.

Robert Proctor, a Professor at Stanford University, has stated that one reason the German anti-smoking movement is so weak is the influence of the Nazi's hostility to smoking. During the Nazi regime smoking was barred in many workplaces, government offices, hospitals and rest homes. According to Professor Proctor the tobacco industry took advantage of that by successfully portraying the members of the anti-smoking movement as intolerant and fascist. And for the nicotine addicts smoking was a sign of personal freedom and a new way of living.

In my opinion that is probably taking things a bit far. One shouldn't forget that the body gets addicted to nicotine. I know that my father started smoking at the age of 16 or 17 because it killed the feeling of hunger during the war. His consumation of cigarettes gradually increased over the years and after several unsuccessful attempts of giving it up for good he eventually succeeded by sheer will power. By then he was a true chain smoker.

What annoys me most about this whole thing is duplicity. Everyone is welcome to ruin his or her own health by smoking. But in public places where non-smokers cannot escape being subjected to passive smoking politicians should not hesitate to put a ban on smoking just because they are afraid of losing voters or money from taxing tobacco. On the other hand they don't think anything of paying large amounts for the health care of people who suffer from tobacco related illnesses. And as examples from other European countries (Ireland, Italy etc.) have shown the public uproar was far less than had been expected.

Come on, politicians, be brave for once and go ahead!

Posted by Mausi at 04:34 PM | TrackBack

June 24, 2006

You can't be serious Mr Blair!

Our Illustrious Leader really has run out of ideas - or perhaps it's because, since Alistair Campbell was forced to leave his Media Advisory Team - he's having to write his own statements and there's no one around to tell him what to say and what not to say anymore. It is also a measure of the man's desperation to be able to claim that he has "improved" the British way of life through his modernisation and "Cool Britannia" approach that he has now leapt into the scandal over the justice system and made a series of sweeping pronouncements on the subject. Oh, and just in case you didn't hear him yourself, its all the last Conservative Government's fault.

According to our dearly beloved Tone, the legislation he and his playmates have thrust into the statute books is not at the heart of the problem. Honest guv, the tinkering and tampering they have introduced is not - it's all the fault of those nasty Conservatives who wrote legislation that was far too clear cut - and the Judges who "misinterpret" the Human Rights Act, the Criminal Evidence Act and the whole avalanche of other legislation Blair and his idiots have created to ensure that their criminal friends don't get too harshly treated by our courts. Now he tells us that he wants to "rebuild confidence in the police and rebuild peoples faith in the Justice System". Frankly it makes me want to laugh since it is this little creep and his pot smoking hippy cronies who have done more than anyone else to undermine the police, to tie them up in red tape and to destroy the ability of the courts to actually deal with crime.

One thing we should not expect is for this shower to actually do anything useful on this problem, if their past record is anything to go by (and we should have a good idea of THAT by now!), whatever they do will make it far worse than it was to start with.

It is amazing the gall of the man, when the leading lawyers and Judges are all saying the same thing, that since Labour came to power their tinkering and tampering have created a dog's breakfast of the justice system, the immigration system and made the task of the police almost impossible, that he can still turn round and say, with a straight face, that the problem is not with what he and his clowns have done, but with the legacy of the last Conservative government. If he were to stay in power for fifty years (God please forbid!) he would probably still be trotting out this excuse.

He really does think that the electorate is comprised entirely of idiots who will swallow any lie he cares to utter and who will believe his spin even in the face of evidence to prove his utter incompetence in government. The Civil Service is totally unfit for purpose, but this shower of politicians are even more so. It is time to throw the entire system out and start afresh.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:28 AM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2006

The ethics of gene research

Gene research is once more in the news, and as usual, opinion is polarised. Partly I suspect that this is because the tabloid press likes nothing better than to play up public fear on these sorts of issue, and partly it is down to a very vociferous lobby that appears to want to stifle all research which may result in the human race addressing some of the major genetic disorders affecting us all. There is a very serious question on the ethical level in tampering with our genetic material, but it relates, in my view anyway, more to the use of genetic manipulation to create "super humans" or to ensure that a child is a certain sex, and not to the elimination of disabling conditions or cancers!

I am amazed at the "spokespeople" from disabled groups who want to block any attempt at screening genetic defects which are passed from parent to child - some of them, like cystic fibrosis, lethal to the child affected - while the carrier may suffer nothing at all. Why, I ask myself, condemn a fellow human to a life of difficulty, pain or endless medical care because your vision of the world dictates that some people must be that way, when a fairly simple screening process can identify the gene and the carrier - and prevent the gene being passed on, or modifying it so that the defect is not passed on. I have difficulty, and I am told by those who espouse the "let the disabled be disabled because they are just as valid as the rest of us" lobby that it is because I am prejudiced against disability, in accepting that it is ethical to condemn someone to being born without ears, or without eyes - or limbs or a a functioning digestive tract, bowel, liver or anything else you care to choose, simply because "they are valuable people through their disability". I find that both patronising and downright distasteful.

Then there is the question of screening for genetic defects which cause cancers. Some people feel that we should not be doing this either on the grounds that it might cause undue worry or prohibit people from taking out life insurance or even pensions. There are arguments raised about the risk that employers might refuse to employ someone who MIGHT be suceptible to cancer at some stage of their lives. But, by the same token, if cancer is, as we now seem to have evidence to support the hypothesis, genetic in origin, then we should be looking seriously at identifying the genes and trying to find ways to repair damage or "switch off" the cancer causers. To proclaim that this "demeans" the suffering of those who have suffered or died of cancer is a nonsense.

The debate on the ethics of genetic research is being clouded by the illogical stance of those who seem to want to argue that to find cures for, and to prevent, future deformity or disablility somehow "demeans the contribution" of the currently disabled. It is, of course this illogical argument that the tabloids love to promote since it evokes visions of Dr Frankenstein (Remember the Frankenstein Foods debate?) beavering away to create a hideous monster with the aid of Igor the hunchback henchman. Nothing like scaring the public into thinking they are all about to be herded into some sort of mass production cloning unit to be turned into obedient zombies for some scientists mad dream to really sell a few more scurrilous rags.

There are, as I have said, some serious issues to debate about the ethical questions raised by some research, but can we please get away from the illogicality of arguments about whether or not someone with a disability is "demeaned" by offering to prevent their children suffering the same fate? That is to abrogate intelligence and is frankly of service to no one. I suppose it should not surprise me either that the people making these sort of declarations on behalf of sufferers of Cystic Fibrosis, genetic deafness or any of the many other genetically transmitted disabilities - are never themselves disabled. Could it be that curing the problems they claim to represent would deprive them of their little corner in the spotlight? Could that be the reason for their opposition to this research?

Its time to sort out the ethical questions and to get them right. It is also time to make sure the politicians don't get involved in the ethical debate - ethics and politicians have never sat at the same table.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:34 AM | TrackBack

June 20, 2006

An avalanche of broken intentions ....

Funny how, once one bit of a politician's Utopian vision starts to unravel, how it all seems to gather momentum - a bit like an Alpine avalanche, once started it stops when it hits the bottom. Our Illustrious Leader must be feeling as if he is caught in one at the moment, with revelation after revelation about the mess his party and their meddling have created in the justice system. It defeats the most inventive imagination to even begin to fabricate disasters for this lot and their Civil Service incompetents. Who in their right minds would allow jail birds out on parole - which implies they are under the close supervision of a Parole Officer - to take vacations abroad? Yet that is precisely what the arrogant little twit Blair shoved into the House of Lords as Baroness Scotland (did anybody ask whether the Scots thought it a good idea for her to assume what is effectively a 'Royal' title?) has approved and signed into law without even informing, never mind consulting, parliament.

OK, so we all know Blair regards Parliament as an irrelevance - but then so do most of the English population as far as I can tell - but it would be nice if just occassionally he and his cronies at least made the pretense of consulting the Chamber of Hot Air. But then, that would actually dignify it with a purpose and Blair could not stand for that.

The admission that Labour might lose the next election from one of Gordon Brown's hangers on, must be causing sleepless nights in Number 11, not least because by the time Blair does resign and hand over to dear "old Socialist" Gordon, it will probably be pushing close to the next election - and Gordo could just get kicked straight out of Number 10 having barely had a chance to settle in. It's almost like watching an alternative version of Macbeth - except Gordo is no Duncan! As I said - you can't make this up, no one would believe it in a work of fiction! Even the great Terry Pratchett would find it hard to make this any funnier tragedy - and this is the party that claimed to be sleeze free. Oh dear, oh dear. Politicians by their very nature are sleezy, ergo, they can never be completely free of the stain of their own machinations. Maciavelli; eat your heart out, by comparison to this lot your 'Prince' was a saint!

So now we have sex offenders in Bail Hostels next to schools, we have murderers released early to live next to their victims famillies and we have a reoffending rate to be ashamed of. And what does our Home Secretary do? Climbs on a soap box and starts to proclaim he's "moving them out". To where? All the experts give the view that they rarely if ever have the opportunity or stupidity to 'groom' a child that close to home or without the acceptance or access granted by befriending a family. Next he proclaims that he is "redressing the balance in justice" and supposedly swinging it back to favour the victim. Well blow me down - but I think we've heard that before somewhere! On top of this we have the Prison Governors telling us that the prisons are overflowing and close to bursting point - and would in fact be bursting of it weren't for the fact that our wonderful Home Office (remember the Secretary of State says it's not fit for purpose?) has implemented a revolving door policy - as someone comes in one side, someone is released early to make room on the other!

And in the middle of all this are groups like the Howard League who would have us believe that punishment should not be a part of justice, that justice is about rehabilitation - when the evidence is that most criminals re-offend within days of leaving a soft jail sentence.

The problem that the politicians refuse to face is that they have criminalised far to many things which should not be punished with custodial sentences. Let's face it, some acts of criminal activity - particularly in the White Collar sector - could be addressed more productively than by locking someone up. Similarly some of the things which are treated under "community service orders" should be custodial.

No one in his or her right mind should expect or even think that this government will sort this out. Forget it, this has taken them almost ten years to compound on top of their earlier meddling through the sixties and seventies - it will not be solved by this administration - and quite probably not by the next either! But chiefly it will not be solved by this government because they are yet again mistaking 'spin' for action and they have a coterie of placemen - their placemen - in positions from which they can and will frustrate every effort to sort out the mess.

The sooner we can kick Blair and his chums out of office - and preferably out of the country for good - the better. We may then be able to rebuild Britain into a decent society in which we can all live in decency, respect for each others rights and privacy. Blair has encouraged the rise of snoopers, thought police and a peculiarly British puritanism - none of which is good for democracy, justice or our nation.

As his hero Cromwell once proclaimed to an enemy; "For too long you have disgraced this house; in the Name of God - go!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:24 PM | TrackBack

June 17, 2006

Educational failures .......

Mr Blair may have another "bad week for Labour" to confess too soon. It would seem though that this time he will not be alone in having to carry the can for at least part of the latest bit of really bad news for the country. It would seem that both the LibDems and the Tories have to accept a part of the blame for this one - the Comprehensive failure of the Comprehensive eductaion system.

A report just published shows categorically that children who have gone through the Comprehensive system in the last forty years since Labour introduced it and vowed to shut all public schools and Grammars, that the chances of anyone from a "poorer" (ie:Middle income or lower) background actually getting a look in for a higher paid or above average job is now lower than it was before Labour interfered. A survey of the top jobs in the UK shows that on average 70% of those in them are from Public School or Grammar school backgrounds and the kids from the Comprehensive haven't a snowballs hope of improving their lot - the certainly won't get the boardroom posts unless they or some rich relative actually buys the company! Comprehensive failure is the mark of the Comprehensive system, primarily because it does not address the needs of the bright children and it tries to be all things to all abilities - which is impossible!

Looking back at who the promoters of this grandiose scheme were, it should be no surprise to discover that they were almost all from Grammar Schools or Public Schools and the better universities where their heads were no doubt stuffed with the sort of Socialist claptrap which pervaded the 1930's and 40's and infested everything in education since. In other words these privileged and pamapered idiots have driven their ideoloical sabotage through and guaranteed that their progeny - since they control the wealth and the access to it - are now entrenched and everyone else is destined to remain a peasant or serf to their ideological Utopia from here on in. Unfortunately it is a Utopia that ensures that workers and their children will always be workers and those who can afford the Private route will always be the ones in charge. Comprehensive social engineering in a nutshell.

Labour introduced it, the Liberals espoused it, and the Tories have done nothing to redress the problems. Therefore, in my book, they are all in it up to their necks! OK for some - as long as you are in the right group.

Mixed ability classes, lack of competition, supression of sporting activities, dumbing down of standards and academic content - it is the mark of Comprehensive education. It is not comprehensive and it is most emphatically NOT equal to that offered in private schools or the Grammars. This latest report is damining in the extreme, but what will happen to improve it? Nothing, not one thing. Why, because the political elite of this country have it all nicely stitched up - as long as your children and mine are denied a decent education they cannot threaten the dynastic ambitions of the Whitehall and Westminster mafia.

Our education system is a Comprehensive sham, but don't expect to see any improvement - at least not before the next ice-age anyway.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 16, 2006

Social engineering .....

Since the mid-nineteenth Century there has been a movement based upon the liberal intelligentsia (mainly the middle class professional types with inherited wealth, education and time on their hands!) dedicated to "engineering" society into a "free and fair meritocracy". According to the thinking behind this, if one removes from peoples thinking the idea that competition, hard work and respect for authority are good, and replaces them with concepts that everyone is "entitled" to the same rewards regardless of effort or merit, if one "redistributes" the trappings of wealth (not theirs of course, just everyone elses!) and undermiones respect for authority, this will, somehow, create a levelling in society so that the wealth of the nation is equally shared between all comers. Of course, in this wonderful Utopian society, someone will have to be at the top - to make sure the rest of us all "share equally" - and naturally, "they" and their friends and famillies will need to be the people at the top redesitributing the fruits of our labours. It frequently amazes me at just how far they have managed to push this concept - and even more amazing is how stupid and gullible so many of us are that we fall for it!

All power then to the gentleman academic who has blown the whistle on the Education system and how it has been feminised to the extent that boys are now physically disadvantaged by it. Competition has been suppressed - exams are "competitive" so they are replaced by course and project work which have a bias towards the preferred female learning process. Games have been suppressed - usually on health and safety or on Techer's Rights grounds - and the boys now have no outlet for their energy - other than in disruptive behaviours outside of school. Many of todays parents are guilty of collaborating in this, by accepting the dictats of the social engineers and applying them at home. What the gentleman concerned has flagged up is that the education system is now so hideously biased in favour of advancing the preferred learning methods for girls, that it does not address the needs of boys. This is one very good reason why boys are failing to achieve in education - a second is that they are bored silly by the culture of protection that forbids them to engage in any activity perceived by the nannies as a 'risk' or as 'too macho'.

Naturally he has been immediately attacked by the liberal establishment - after all they are threatened here, since if the sham that they have perpertated on us for the last hundred and fifty odd years is exposed for what it is - they stand to be exposed as frauds and charlattans. All their cosy little power base could vanish as people eject them from their comfortable positions of dictating what we think, where we live and how much we can earn. It won't happen overnight, but once a house of cards such as this starts to collapse, it accelerates fairly rapidly. That is why we now have the defenders of the "status quo" they have built for themselves are throwing up the usual smokescreen of "women are dstill disadvantaged" and "boys are improving their performance now that the system is beginning to change them" are all being trotted out.

What a pity that this is all given the lie by the biggest success in book sales - a book for boys entitled "The dangerous book for boys". A sort of updated "Boy's Own" it is stuffed with activity ideas, facts, ideas for adventurous things to do and general "boyish" things. I expect it will be withdrawn soon because it promotes "maleness". Its become an unexpected best seller - all the local news agents and bookstores around my area have sold out and the printers are trying desperately to get reprints out of suppliers. That surely, must tell us something?

The sad fact is that our civil service, our Parliament and our entire education system is in thrall to this concept of a socially engineered society in which "violent" males are feminised out of their maleness, in which women are promoted as being the "peaceful and fair" sex, the natural rulers. Well, perhaps its time to disabuse ourselves of this nonsense. Life is not fair, it does not operate on an equal playing field and it cannot be "engineered" in that direction by meddling with peoples lives. It really is time to ditch this garbage and get back to allowing people to be people, to allow them to develop equally and fairly without the constant tinkering and tampering of the few whose contact with the realities of life seems to be viewed through rose tinted spectacles and from behind several layers of glass!

Time to kick all social engineering into touch and apply straight forward commonsense rules for dignity, fairness and support for the less able! All of us are not equal in ability or in physical prowess and we need to stop pratting about with the nonsensical idea that we are - or can be 'educated' into being equal! All this is doing is guaranteeing mediocrity in every sphere - and preserving incompetents in positions of power.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 15, 2006

Punishment or rehabilitation?

The current brouhaha over the apparently "light" sentence for a paedophile who abducted and then sexually abused a girl of three highlights the mess that our justice system has become. The man is actually sentenced to "life" imprisonment, meaning at least twenty-five years in terms of the maximum "tariff" he could serve without consideration for parole. But, because this government cannot resist tinkering with everything, they have several times rewritten the "guidelines" for Judges passing sentence, and these now require the judge to make allowance for a person who pleads guilty and to set a lower "tariff". So the Judge in this case set the maximum tariff the guidelines recommend - five years.

Not unnaturally there are a lot of people who think this is too short a time. After all, his previous tariff had expired the day before he went out and deliberately abducted this victim - something he had spent the period of his "probation" planning! In the ever present spirit that drives our Illustrious Leader and his cronies in dishonour, there has been an immediate outcry by the Home Secretary and several other motormouths from the Labour benches, demanding a review of the sentence or the sacking of the judge - but they wrote the guidelines he has applied. That, of course, is not mentioned. That would never do, to have the Minister himself responsible for the complete failure of the prison system, for the debacle in Immigration and the debacle in just about everything else that is failing in theis country, to admit that it is his own guildelines - one's he imposed just a few short months ago - that are the problem!

At the very heart of this debate lies the serious question of what do we actually expect of the Justice system. Justice? Or something else?

Talk to the liberal left chattering classes of Islington and you would think that the justice system is all about "redemming the disadvantaged criminal classes" and "reforming or rehabilitating" them. Talk to the victims and they think it is about redressing the wrong done to them or their loved ones. The trouble is that constant political interference and meddling by civil liberties and human rights activists has resulted in a justice system that certainly does not punish - and it doesn't rehabilitate either! In short, the victims are left cheated of justice and the criminals regard a spell in jail as a badge of honour, a sort of ritual earning of one's spurs. To often serial criminals are allowed to plead "extenuating circumstances" and the judge is required by the Home Office "Guidelines" to make allowances. For most career criminals these guidelines are almost a bible - they know exactly how to plead to maximum benefit and reap the reward of a shorter sentence.

This latest case will remain a political football, nothing will change as a result of all the uprorar - it is just another bit of smoke and mirrors "Look, look, we're doing something about this!" Gesture politics is what it is all about, nothing more. The root cause of this problem is the simple fact that for far too long the likes of the Howard League have been allowed to slew the debate in favour of the criminals, in a misplaced sympathy of "these victims of poverty".It is time to look again at the entire argument and to address the very real concerns of ordinary people to the crime and violence marring our society. The criminal element is a very small minoriity in any given community, so let's stop playing with them - hit them with some meaningful punishment, it does tend to deter the small timer attracted by the thrill.

Time to tell the politicians to stop meddling and to let justice be seen to be done.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:38 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 10, 2006

Blair's legacy

Our dearly beloved and most Illustrious Leader has good reason to be worried about his much vaunted "legacy" as the possibly worst and most dishonest PM this country has had in several centuries! he will leave his successor, quite possibly from a different political party, the ruin of a nation, the destruction of the Union, created out of economic necessity in 1707 and expanded by political concensus in 180,1and a growth industry in nannying and bureaucracy that exceeds even the worst excesses of the Soviet Union. The national debt is growing, industry is shrinking and so are the real job opportunities, small businesses are being driven out or crippled and taxes have risen inexorably under this socialist regime. The illusions and spin are finally, like the mirages they are, vanishing. People have realised that the lies at the very heart of Whitehall extend all the way through the entire political system and through the Civil Service which has become the UK's single largest employer. One in five people is now directly or indirectly employed by the civil service, but try to get a hospital appointment, try to get sense from a Whitehall department, try to actually get anything done by that horde of paper shufflers and con-artists.

Blair's legacy will be an interesting one for the history books. It will be marked as the period in which a once great nation was finally torn apart by the legacy of a political propaganda campaign which has been run by Labour for at least the last sixty years North of the Border and probably longer in Wales - one which constantly painted the English as milking the hard working Scots and Welsh and "stealing" the fruits of their labours to enrich themselves while giving nothing in return. Anyone taking a simple look at where the most tax is raised and where the spending has been focussed for the last forty years would have immediately seen through this lie, but again, Labour has been careful not to allow the majority populations in either country to think this. It was amazing to speak to the many Scots on my trip up through the Western Isles who were adamant that they neither approved of nor wanted the expensive "Parliament" in Edinburgh - the building of which has cost the nation over £400 million so far and the bills keep pouring in - many expressing the view that it was merely a talking shop and gravy train for Tony's Cronies.

The division has also raised the Mid Lothian Question, but now as a serious issue, especially in view of Gordon Brown's ambition to be premier. He is a Scottish MP with a seat in Scotland, not England. His votes in the Westminster Parliament are meaningless in Scotland since he and his Illustrious Leader set up the Holyrood Parliament. The Westminster Parliament no longer decides on policy for Scotland other than Defence (anyone noticed how much of our Defence establishment has moved North again?) and Foreign Policy. Ergo, why should he and around 70 other MP's who represent Scottish constituencies have any say in England? That too will be one of Tony's "legacies". So too wil be a war in Iraq which, if he had bothered to read his history of the 20th Century - and not the PC version that he prefers all about "social revolution" - he would have discovered that the British Empire had been involved in a Vietnam style conflict there throughout the 1930's - a war we never actually finished. That should have warned him off for starters, but not, our Tony wants quick fixes and fast track to glory - someone else gets to sort out the mess.

We now have entire Departmen's in Whitehall which are so dysfunctional that the Home Secretary's description of his own as being "not fit for purpose" is the greatest understatement. It doesn't even begin to describe the chaos inside Whitehall where the various "sections" inside any given Department don't communicate with each other, never consider the full impact of their action on any other department - and in some cases are actually prevented from sharing information internally because of the interpretation of various pieces of unnecessary and ill thought out legislation Blair and his cronies have rammed through the statute books. As a result Whitehall is failing in every sphere, they routinely overspend on any project because they do not use competitive tendering and the "preferred supplier" system set up by the Treasury is the biggest gravy train for corruption since the 18th Century! The collapse of Education, Health Services, the ambition to create Regional Assemblies to break up the English, failing morale in Fire Services and Police Services, the joke that is Criminal Justice, the farce that is the Human Rights Act and now a terrorist threat from the very community this idiot and his hanger's on have boosted, fostered and promoted in favour of our own national identity are now all being exposed as failures of his ill-considered and incompetent "special advisers". These are Blair's Legacy.

This little man and his treasonous government should go and go now. Before what they have done to us becomes terminal and before the next government finds themselves unable to reverse the damage. sadly, it may already be far too late to save us. What Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon and the rest were not able to achieve by force of arms, this little turd has achieved in two and a half parliaments.

Now that is an achievement, but what a legacy!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 03, 2006

Stolen statues

The recent theft of two statues commemorating the fallen of World War 1 originally, but no doubt extended to cover the second great conflict shows how appalling is the fall from decency in this country under the libertarian regimes of the last fifty years. The news story highlights the fact that a total of 20 - yes 20! - very large bronze statues and works of art have been stolen in the last year. The worst aspect of this is that they are undoubtedly being melted down and sold on as "scrap" by the thieves since the manner of their seizing them is almost certainly causing damage that would make them valueless to any art "lover" trying to collect them!

I find it appalling that anyone could stoop this low, I find it even more a symptom of the "nuffink to do wiv me guv'" attitudes that pervade our society (unless it involves fitting up some teacher or parent who dares to discipline an out of control child) that no one has come forward to give information on the thefts. It is not exactly easy to shift several tons of bronze, even more difficult to pass it on to an honest scrap merchant, yet no one seems to ever see anything. Even though the thefts invariably require cutting equipment, a crane to lift the item and all take place at night - a time when most council emplyees are hardly likely to be carrying out repairs to a statue! Certainly not the ones I have known anyway!

Nothing is apparently sacred, so we can expect our War Memorials to be destroyed one by one as these thieves strip the bronze statues one by one with impunity. Twenty memorials and works of art cannot simply vanish - not when they weigh in at several tons to start with! Someone is receiving these destroyed items and someone must see them at work - so why have the police not managed to catch them yet?

Or perhaps I am missing the important point - in the eyes of our anti-militarism Labour Junta these statues "glorify" war, ergo they must be got rid of! So, since they cannot do it openly, the answer is to get someone to steal them and destroy them. Nah - can't be that simple, not even Blair is that intelligent!

All joking aside, the police need to trace this gang and their buyers - and put them behind bars for a very long time!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 02, 2006

Nice work if you can get it ....

So now his own kind are out to get him. I refer, of course, to that buffoon we tax payers keep in two jags, Royal Flight and Train freebies, four houses and a fat salary to take charge in the absence of that other charlatan we call a Prime Minister. Step forward that great example of Socialist gravy train riding, John Prescott. It seems that even his "working class" origins, the pies and pints in t' working man's club and the back slapping, language mangling pronouncements are no longer enough to keep t' lads onside!

The spectacle of this party of ideologues whose sole ambition is to hold onto power and to entrench themselves in the trappings (and rewards) of power tearing into the old Doofus is somewhat less than edifying. Blair has tried to be the "President of the UK" modelling himself on that other great democrat Oliver Cromwell and completely ignoring the fact that we are; a) a democratic State with a Sovereign at its head - not the Prime Minister, and b) that the Cabinet ruling elite works in the US primarily because it is balanced by TWO houses of elected reps and not one stuffed with poodles and the other jumping to the Whips. Prescott enjoyed a range of perks at our expense, not least being Dorneywood House, a nice little country estate managed and run by a fairly large staff and largely funded by trusts set up for the purpose. In essence it is supposed to be a place where he and other Ministers of State can entertain visiting Ambassadors, Ministers and their minions and hold meetings. That is not the purpose to which Mr Prescott has put it, rather for him it has been a place for a "quickie" lunch. Mind you, anyone who has had to deal with him will quickly tell you that a meeting chaired by him is something to be avoided.

It would seem that this was a complete waste of a valuable resource, so, at the very least, Mr Blair should have deprived him of its use and assign it to some Minister who will make better use of it. Likewise the expensive and very des-res flat in Admiralty Arch. This buffoon was not capable of enjoying it, so his decision to let it go to someone who does appreciate its position and the value of the honour bestowed in having the use of it should be applauded!

We all sneer at poor old JP, but in reality none of Blair's ministers are much better. Certainly some can string together sentences that make sense, but few, if any, can actually argue a case for the policies they have imposed. Most take refuge in bluster, in accusations that the questioner must be mentally deficient, racist or some other -ist that the policy is supposed to prevent or cure and very few have the ability to make a success of their original careers. Mind you, as most of them are career politicians, I suppose one must assign credit for the fact that they have blackmailed, bludgeoned and bullied their way into power so successfully. And that they have managed to pull off what Abe Lincoln said could not be done - they have fooled the majority of people, for the greatest ever length of time, into believing that they do in fact care for their constituents and not for the lining of their pockets and the trappings of power.

And therein lies the rub. Politics has always been about the exercise of power, and anyone with half a brain can figure out the fact that this mob are simply the continuous line of descent from the previous generation of career politicians. It has become dynastic, and no matter how hard we try to change it, they remain in or close to power and the proletariat so beloved of Lenin, Stalin and the rest have no choice but to suffer with it. Coupled with a "professional" Civil Service (a clear oxymoron!) and you have those who are elected and who exercise power through ideology and their control of what passes for a democratic process - and the people who wield the real power and who are never subjected to election or penalty for failure - the Civil Service. I am no longer sure which is the worse offender in the assault on civil liberty, the politicians who seek to circumscribe everything they don't like either on "moral" or "safety" grounds - or the Civil Servants who actually draft the rules, regulations and red tape and then apply it rigorously and frequently, it seems, maliciously.

Both groups have things stitched up nicely - the politicians cannot lose since even if chucked out of power they have a wonderful range of featherbedded benefits which continue for life, and the civil servants also cannot lose as their perks after forty years of "Yes Minister-ing" are as generous as the politicians and they don't have to take the can when they screw up either.

As I said in the title - Nice work if you can get it - but don't hold your breath trying, if you aren't one of the network of "good old boys" you haven't a snowballs hope of survival in a furnace. Probably less.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 01, 2006

Just how safe are we?

A tragedy always hits hardest when it is someone you know. When it is the result of a criminal act, it is sometimes marginally worse. In the weekend immediately past, a young man of 19, journeying home from university, attempted to intevene when a man began abusing a woman on a fast train passing through Cumbria. The man whose violent behaviour towards the woman had been causing some distress to the other passengers, promptly drew a knife and murdered the youngster on the spot and in the clear view of several dozen passengers. When he attempted to flee, the train staff sealed off the doors to the carriage and locked him - and potentially more victims into the carriage! Now that may be correct procedure according to the train company - lets face it, its probably sensible self preservation for the train staff - but, as soon as the train stopped, the violent criminal smashed his way out through a window and escaped.

Now the dead young man had merely tried to calm down a situation which was clearly causing a disturbance, and equally clearly escalating. He was acting reasonably and with good intent, but already we have heard the police saying that he should not have intervened "for his own safety". For some of us, that is not an option, we do not believe that we should stand idly by while an assault is carried out and we most certainly do not believe that violent and abusive behaviour towards someone else, anyone else, should be ignored - but clearly the majority of those sharing the carriage do think so and in my book they are as guilty of the murder as the man with the knife.

It does not help that the young man in question was the only child of a colleague of mine, a bright young man who shared his father's values and sense of duty, who was doing well in his university course and was the pride and joy of his parents. It does not help that our legal supremo has recently again published a directive to the courts saying that assaults and other "casual" crimes should be punished by "community sentences". I am sure that the b*****d responsible for this little murder will be let off with the usual smacked wrist instead of the long and hard custodial sentence he so richly deserves, because his smart civil libertarian brief will plead diminished responsibility due to stress, drugs, perceived threat and all the rest of the excuses this shower of anti-justice campaigners usually trot out in defence of the indefensible. There will be arguments about "intention", "inappropriate behaviours", "manslaughter" and the victim will be accused of having "threatened" the knife wielder. In court of course, you can say what you like about the deceased victim, turning them into the assailant and even making out that they were mentally unbalanced. Since they are not there to defend themselves - and most of those on the train who witnessed the murder will conveniently not remember the event in any detail (they will have been far to busy avoiding getting involved!) and so there will be no one to speak up for young Tom Grant, and his parents will have to endure the sight of their son's murderer being treated as the victim.

Spare a prayer for Tom and his parents as they deal with his death. He is as much a victim of the murderous lout who stabbed him as he is of the legal system that continually refuses to punish and the politicians who have fostered the culture of disrespect, condoning violence in children which turns into uncontrolled behaviour in adults. It starts with the child and it is not the child that learned that inappropriate behaviour is always punished that is todays offender, it is the one allowed to get away with everything because social workers and child "protection experts" (X is an unknown factor and a Spurt is a drip under pressure!) have for too long argued that punishment is "inappropriate". In my view they should now be hauled into court everytime there is an incident of this nature (there have been three other fatal stabbings this week so far!) and made to explain again how the criminals they have bred through this thinking would have been worse behaved if they had been punished earlier.

Tom is the victim, but as I have said, he is one of four others. Already we have the Minister for Fairyland rabbiting about further restrictions on the sale of knives or the carrying of knives and soon it will be illegal to use a knife and fork to eat, but the knives are not the root cause of the problem - that lies in the breakdown of discipline among certain sections of the community and the rememdy is not one our politicians are prepared to admit! If the 60's generation have a legacy it is this, a society that does not know who it is, where it is going or even what is right or wrong. A society that protects the guilty, villianizes the victim and promotes hooligans and yobs as heros. Welcome to 21st Century Britain - Blair's Britain.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 26, 2006

Changing feet ......

So our wonderful new Home Secretary has tried to be open and honest with Parliament, and now must face an interesting barrage of new questions. Firstly he admitted that the central Department of the Government, the one that handles Nationality, Immigration, Justice, Police, Passports and just about everything to do with the day to day running of the very heart of Government is a shambles, mismanaged, lacking leadership and direction, not "fit for purpose" and incompetentence is endemic. What has he done about it? Nothing, not one of the incompetents in the department has been sacked, not one has been demoted and there certainly don't seem to be any plans to do so either!

They still don't know how many criminals are simply walking out of the Open Prisons they should never have been in in the first place and we still have no idea of how many dangerous illegal immigrant criminals have been released "into the community" and are wandering about unsupervised and under no threat of deportation because their home countries would have no qualms about hanging them or throwing them into a prison and losing the keys - something our Liberal Extremist Legal gravytrain would not countenance! The list of debacles in this one government department grows daily and it makes one wonder just what is happening inside other Ministries that we have not yet discovered! Mind you, we can make an educated guess from the announcement today that the "Company" Blair's minions set up to replace the one they stole from the shareholders, Railtrack, is running uyp a debt for the last financial year of £450 million. But that's alright because this year they plan to make a profit of £20 million - because they are to get a subsidy from the taxpayers of some £900 million to 'help' them turn the company around. I wonder what would have happened if the Rover Car Company had been given the same sort of handout. They didn't, and perhaps it was because Blair realised he couldn't get away with stealing another group of shareholders money.

Then, in the midst of all this disaster for the government, they announce that they have a wonderful plan to restore the link between earnings and pensions - but not until 2012 and then it may not happen because dear old cuddly Gordon has gone and added "if the economy can afford too". In other words;

"don't hold your breathe you stupid old git pensioners, because once you've voted me back into power, you can forget the pensions reform for another five years by which time you're all dead anyway!"

Nothing like a little bit of having to face the emptiness of all the 'spin' to make a politician sweat, and dear old Tone is sweating now. I guess he's feeling the knives hidden in the Toga's around him and wondering who Brutus will turn out to be. Well, he and his entire damned party cannot get their comeuppance soon enough for me! The trouble is, there's almost no hope that the Civil Service will get what it deserves - and that is the real pity!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 24, 2006

A thought for all the safe society nannies and would be nannies ....

Something to make you think a bit. Especailly all those who are so determined to create a society in which nothing bad can happen because they have made yet another law to prevent it, to take away personal responsibility or circumscribe some everyday activity. I rejoiced recently when I heard that an Approved Code of Practice drawn up by the morons of the HSE in Whitehall had been withdrawn because it was not only totally unworkable, but actually increased the danger if anyone was stupid enough to try and follow it! So think on the following!

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Not everyone succeeded at everything and some failed. Those who didn't succeed had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. And you might want to beat the living daylights out of the next namby-pamby wimp who suggests that something ought to be banned as "too dangerous"!

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:41 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 23, 2006

Whitehall exposed .....

I know I should not gloat, but I can't help myself, it is almost too good to be true. At long last the incompetence of both the civil servants and the ministers is laid bare for all to see in the disaster zone that is called the "Home Office". For me the simple wonder is that it has taken this long to become public! It has been a standing joke within the civil service for years that the Home Office was so incompetent it would take years for them to even find their own a***s with both hands - so why does it take a string of murders and rapes committed by prisoners who should have been kept in jail literally for life or ejected from the country as soon as they were paroled, to bring it into the open?

It is refreshing to see that a government commissioned report actually accuses Ministers of piling on "unnecessary" legislation which has made the co-ordination and day to day running of the Home Office impossible. I note that they stopped short, apparently, of identifiying the offending legislation, but I suspect that most people would start with the infamous Human Rights Act and continue from there. Who in their right minds except the peculiar class of mentally deficient or perhaps mentally ill advisers that Blair has surrounded himself with, would consider that giving the burglar, mugger and serial murderer the right to sue their victims for injuries sustaned fduring the commission of a crime could possibly be good for justice? It really does take a peculiarly twisted mindset to think that way.

As debacle after debacle is exposed at the Home Office - a senior Civiol Servant admitting cheerfully that he does not have the faintest idea of how many illegal immigrants are in the country followed by the revelation that his own section is employing a large number of them is embarrassing, but then there's more! The prison service (also a HO Section) admits that dangerous prisoners are being sent to "Open" Prisons after a "risk assessment" (no doubt conducted by the said dangerous prisoners friends and relatives!) and are simply dissappearing. Three hundred in one year from a particular prison near where I live! The ludicrous PC demand for the punitive treatment of middle class offenders on comparatively minor misdemeanours while muggers, murderers and rapists are treated leniently is bad enough, but then you also discover that our prisons have an almost revolving door policy whereby a prisoner is released early to make way for a new arrival - frequently reoffending within days!

The report concludes that the Home Office is utterly unable to act in a cohesive or efficient manner - and that is probably an understatement. Prisons are a mess, passports are a mess, immigration is a joke, nationalities division seems to have a nice little number going in the line of sexual favours gets you a nationality registration, the police are in ruins and there has not been a single head roll from among the bombproof incompetents who have created this mess! Much as I would like to say it is all the fault of Blair and his Labour cronies, I can't. The debacle that is Whitehall is a creation of the thinking that subscribes to the view that any idiot with a degree and the training offered by that expensive and luxurious Country Club operated by the Civil Service for the Civil Service and laughingly called the "Civil Service College" can manage any function without any specialist knowledge. In this day and age only someone with fairies at the bottom of the garden and who sees Santa arriving on our rooftops with a sleigh drawn by six reindeer still believes that!

I wonder how much longer we will have to wait to see this bunch of rule making, power broking, paper shufflers get what is due to them for their utter incompetence? Probably far too long! In the meantime they have all but ruined every public service from the mail, through police, fire services, ambulance services, health services and every other service they claim to be "managing". The simple truth is that they are incapable of managing the tea club, never mind the nations assets! And, while we're at it, lets not forget the Treasury, the bunch who, year on year "manage" the economy by demanding arbitrary reductions in budget of X% across the board, then have to find extra cash to fund things late in the year when there is a danger that some vital service will cease to function because of mismanagement and impossible budgeting. Inevitably a cut translateds into job losses, and job losses translate into more social dependency and more demands on the Department of Social Security which measn - ah! More tax and a growth in the Social Security budget! So any "savings" are immediately consumed by the growth in the DSS budget and in the numerous extra civil servants hired to "manage" it.

There is, howver, one item in the news at present which must demand the head of the relevant civil servants on pikes around Whitehall. I refer to the Criminal Records Bureau searches and clearances - another of Blair's draconian measures which still failed to pick up the Soham murderer! This Department has managed to destroy, through their incompetent handling of data, the lives of several thousand people who they have issued "Criminal Records" reports for thus barring them from jobs in a very wide range of fields. Some lost places at university, and some lost jobs. The arrogant SOB who fronts this incompetent troop has refused to apologise and claims that there is no long term harm to any individual from the mistakes. Just shows how much he knows about the system he and his halfwits have set up. Once the CRB has issued a report sayying you have a record, it goes in a register and even if the record is subsequently withdrawn as erroneous, the entry that it was issued remains on the register. Thus any future check brings up the original erroneous record .....

No there is no long term damage. There is only one cure, the Civil Service must be brought to heel, its power curbed and it must be radically downsized and reformed. If necessary the present Civil Service must be sacked in its entirity and replaced by something slim, mean, lean and efficient! We cannot afford to pour good money after bad any longer, the incompetents must be sought out and sacked - and the whole system opened up to scrutiny at every level. This incompetence cannot be tolerated for one moment longer.

As Cromwell is said to have told the House of Commons; "For too long you have brought disgrace upon this house; In the name of God, go!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:41 PM

May 22, 2006

Politically incorrectness ......

It has been one of those days when you regret actually waking up, never mind getting out of bed. I hate morons, and I especially hate interfering morons. And before anyone argues, in my definition a moron is an otherwise intelligent and possibly even likable person who insists on ignoring the blindingly obvious, gets caught out being where he or she should not be and then tries to argue that it is your fault. When they compound that by demanding that you provide a bunch of paperwork they have no right to ask for - they get nuked.

There is a small part of my workplace that will be glowing quietly for the next several years - but the message has got across - the Monk has taken as much as he is prepared to for the rest of eternity. Pity about the area we will no longer be able to use, but, as it says in the Lord High Executioner's song, "I have a little list, and they surely won't be missed!"

This made me very acutely aware of the parlous state we have got ourselves into in this country by allowing the nannies in Whitehall to take over and decide how, why, when and where we may do anything. Common sense is dead, long live the bureaucrat and the PC adviser! The highlight of the evening has been to find that someone has done that which I wish I'd thought of - written a blog on it! Entitled Polical correctness the awful truth,, the author writes a very well informed and damning piece condemning the manner in which common sense has been subsumed into a wilderness of rules and regulations which make breathing a crime if it is an offence to someone else. Do visit the "Stupidity" pages in which they have listed and explained all the major politically correct debacles or expensive follies for the last couple of years. Priceless - exceept that we have paid for it!

Also worth the effort are visits to all the other sites in his collection of links, the best of which I am going to include below!

Lib Fibs
Campaign against political correctness
The English Rights Campaign

While I do not agree with everything these sites support, I do believe that theirs is a very important voice - one which should be heard and not drowned by the hyserical and strident tones of the PC morons. And, yes, see my definition.

I hereby declare the PC moron hunting season open!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 19, 2006

Nuclear future?

It was entirely predictable that, as soon as the PM mentioned the "N" word in his speech the other night, that all the usual fluffy jumper, dodgy science brigade from Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and CND would be out in the media in force howling about "renewable" energy and "energy saving" and how the money could be "better spent" on any number of crack brained schemes they espouse. All the usual claptrap about "massive quantities of radioactive waste" and "potential bombs" have re-emerged, alongside, of course, the plea to completely cover the UK in wind turbines, wave generators and barrage schemes. As usual too, the statistics are trotted out that show that, per head of population, we use more energy than a peasant in Dharfor or the outer reaches of the Australian Outback Aboriginal tribesmen. Which ignores completely that fact that a peasant in Africa probably has less need to heat his home than I do, but he also has far more offspring than I do. Ergo, if you measured it on a like for like basis, the balance would be a bit more even!

Looking at the breakdown of energy sources in the UK, we find that currently 40% is from natural gas, 33% from coal (now THAT really pollutes and certainly kills more people than the nuclear industry has done), 20% nuclear and 3% comes from wind turbines and hydr-electric schemes. The pro-renewable lobby want to achieve a balance by 2020 that sees the wind turbine section replace nuclear - ergo to expand it to 23% of the supply, and to run down the coal portion as well. Given that we are already net purchasers of power from French Nuclear Electrc sources for the South East and that the gas we use is increasingly imported from the Middle East and Russia, the sums simply do not stack up in favour of the woolly-pully arguments for renewables - not without a major reduction in power consumption (not going to happen) or a serious reduction in population (again, not likely) or a return to some sort of 1950's idyll where we used less power, heated our homes with small gas fires in one room only and lived on "organic" food which was locally produced.

Lets get real. Nuclear offers the least problems in terms of environmental impact, carbon emmissions and waste. Yes, the disposal of the waste is a longterm problem, but it is not insurmountable and solutions are being found to a great deal of it. The most radioactive part of it, the fuel rods, can be reprocessed and re-used (renewable fuel) and the actual quantities produced and in use at any one time are very small indeed. It is time that the anti-nuclear lobby stopped trying to frighten people with their exaggerations and their decidely iffy science and started behaving positively and responsibly in the pursuit of solutions. They are rapidly becoming a major part of the problem when they should be a part of the solution. For example, few people will now remember the row over the proposal to sink the redundant Brent Spar oil storage platform in a deep trench under the Atlantic. Greenpeace claimed there was over 50,000 tons of oils still onboard and launched court cases, protests and a political campaign to prevent this process - even claiming there was "radioactive waste" onboard.

In the end, the Spar was broken up on land, causing of the order of ten times the pollution and it was then revealed that there was no more than a hundred tons of oil sludge - oily sediment that settles out of crude oil - in the bottom of the tanks and that the "radioactive waste" was in fact this same mud. Have we had any apology for misleading the public? Or for the health hazard they imposed on those who broke it up, disposed of the contaminated steel or the sludge? Of course not! Neither Greenpeace nor Friends of the Earth would wish to own up to the fact that almost all of their campaigning does not rely on science, it is emotive and it is designed to play on the fears of the ignorant. It is time to put a stop to that, and to act responsibly, something those running these political lobby groups are simply incapable of doing.

I rarely agree with this government, but this is one occassion that I do. Nuclear power is the only truly viable way to reduce the serious emmission problem from power generation and we would be lunatic not to use it. Our next big hurdle is to address the one thing everyone ignores - heat exchange. This is only my guess, but my limited understanding of physics tells me that everytime we heat something, the heat must be absorbed in the atmosphere (and the oceans are really only liquid atmosphere!) and it must therefore impact cumulatively on the overall atmospheric heating. More people, generating more heat, more heat to be dissapated and absorbed - and we have a prime source of heating of the atmosphere.

It really is time to stop squabbling over targets and percentages which have no scientific base and to look at the whole problem, not isolated bits of it! For the moment I am for nuclear power, but I also want to see a proper appraisal of the impact of heat loss from everything we do. Only if we address the whole package and take action on every front can we hope to find a solution that does not create a further problem in the future.

Sadly, I think the anti-nuclear groups are incapable of seeing anything constructively or holistically. We opened Pandora's Box a long, long time ago and nothing we have taken out of it can ever go back into it. We have no choice but to find ways of using the things we have taken out wisely, safely and well for the benefit of every single one of us. It's that or extinction.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 18, 2006

Competence and management

Yesterdays revelation by the Senior Civil Servant in charge of immigration that neither he, nor anyone else in his Department, has the faintest idea of the numbers of illegal immigrants currently living and working Britain should come as no surprise to anyone. Civil Servants simply do not have the competence to do anything like this, if it isn't in one of their "rule books" or something that requires a form to be filled in with completely meaningless information (like the one for housing benefit which requires an 80 year old woman to complete a section on whether or not she has remarried, taken a new partner or given birth during the past twelve months!). Keep a check on illegal immigrants - definitely not, even if it weren't politically incorrect to do so, the Immigration Department is now staffed almost exclusively by immigrants or ethnic minorities.

The whole farce of the comprehensive mess in the health service, in the police and justice system and in the emergency services - we'll leave the military out of this for the moment, they still manage largely as the military always have, by ignoring the civil servants and scrounging what they need when they need it - can be traced to the fact that, over the last thirty or so years (In the case of the Health Service probably the last fifty!) the filing clerks have gradually worked their way into the positions of control. It has been an assidious movement, and I confess that I may well have been one of the managers who allowed it to happen, sparked by the fact that those of us who have actually done the job and know what the service is and how it is delivered, have left the filing and the paperwork to the clerks - who have now an exclusive hold on the finance and information bank! That is how we find ourselves under the control of people who are, essentially, overpaid, over qualified filing clerks whose idea of management is to hold meetings, set targets and shuffle paper around an office.

Services are falling apart because the "management" do not understand the function they manage, do not appreciate that simply changing the seating in the office and not replacing some annoying technocrat has a cascade effect which impacts on service delivery. I recently discovered that the HSE, supposedly the sepcialist group who know everything about everything to do with safety, have had to withdraw and scrap completely their new Health and Safety Code for nuclear facilities. The reason? It was totally and completely unworkable, had anyone attempted to follow its strictures two things would have resulted, first a great deal of safety maintenance work would have become illegal and secondly, some of the recommended procedures were in the same league as those which resulted in Chernobyl. The reason for this? It was written by "expert" consultants and then converted into Civil Service speak so that it could be "all things to all occassions", that wonderful concept that pervades Whitehall, that everything can be reduced to a set of rules written down and slavishly enforced by the filling in of a million new forms.

Lets face it, if you tie everyone up in filling in endless pointless forms, they won't have time to cause any problems.

Perhaps that is the secret behind the rise and rise of the filing clerk from the backroom to the boardroom. The question now is; how the heck do we shove them all back into their boxes and files and remove their unimaginative and stifling influence from the running of commerce, industry, government and every public service in the land? That will be the next revolution!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:46 AM | TrackBack

May 12, 2006

Efficiency.

There is a huge row in the area in which I live over the proposal to close several "cottage" and one larger hospitals, move various service currently available at three or four centres all to one and to cut clinical staff in the process. It is all being done to cut £40 million out of the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trusts budget and to "improve efficiency". As usual, the definition of "efficiency" being applied by the bureaucrats making these cuts is "cutting the costs to a minimum" and has nothing whatever to do with improving the delivery of health and medical care. There is huge anger in the county over the fact that all the cuts are being made at the delivery end - no papershuffling, meeting attending, bean counting, form generating and checking "manager" will lose their jobs - only nurses and clinical staff.

It is proposed to close several Accident and Emergency Centres and concentrate these at Gloucester and Cheltenham leaving the Forest of Dean and the further reaches of the County (we might be small but we are an odd shape and rather scattered) faced with the prospect of long journey times to receive emergency treatment. Maternity services are all to be focussed on Gloucester Royal Hospital which is not the most convenient place to get to for anything and given that it will now also have to cope with the closure and movement to that site of pediatrics, mental health and the day care treatment of children with longterm health needs, and you have a recipe for disaster - or at best chaos. Successful and well managed units are being axed here to give the bureaucrats more power and the public less choice and even longer waiting lists.

THis situation really sums up the problem which afflicts not just the NHS but every public service at present. To many bright accountants brandishing MBA's and similar "business" qualifications are now running services and functions they do not have any concept of the actual delivery of and can judge things only on the cost. As has been said many times before, they can tell you the cost of every paper clip, but they have no concept of the value of anything. Thus, in their pursuit of "greater efficiency" they use the rule of Efficiency = Cheaper.

This group of number driven bureaucrats and econocrats have no concept of what it costs at the delivery end in terms of pressure on the ever decreasing numbers of staff qualified or actually in post to deliver any service. They express admiration and "grateful thanks" for the efforts staff put in to provide the service, but they then look at the figures and wonder why "customer" satisfaction is falling, "consumer" confidence has evaporated and complaints keep rising. They wonder why, when they do hold "public consultations" - a euphemism for "we wanted to tell you what you want or can have" - they are invariably surprised at the depth of anger and loathing they get from the public and almost invariably pass the blame for their mismanagement and ignorance to Whitehall. Mind you, the problems do originate in Whitehall, where the same concept of any "administrator" is able to "manage" any function and doesn't need to understand it in order to doso - just "manage" the numbers.

The problem is, of course, that the gap between expectations and delivery is getting wider - precisely because the delivery is being reduced to make the numbers "efficient", and action which does not translate into better services. One of the commentators on the radio phone in I was following this morning as I drove to work, made the point concisely. He pointed out that the senior "managers" in the NHS - and he identified himself as someone in the NHS - earn the same money as the senior consultants, doctors and nurses and this spreads across the board with Diary Secretaries - the ones who manage the Waiting Lists - earning as much as the Nurses (who are so over stretched that they are to be cut in number so that they can be more efficient). The Health Secretary's claim recently that the NHS Waiting Lists are now lower than ever before is just one example of how "efficiency by numbers" works. The Waiting Lists are lower than ever before because no Waiting List is longer than eighteen months. If you haven't had an appointment within eighteen months - you are simply dropped from the list and your Doctor must reapply for you to be placed on a fresh one! A nice little fraud which if tried in commerce or industry would get you a visit from the Fraud Squad!

Every industry, every public service and every part of commerce is increasingly being taken over by the bean counters whose idea of efficiency is not "are we delivering the goods". Their own numbers speak for themselves - the NHS is now populated by about 600,000 medical staff and technicians and about the same number of administrators, managers and bureaucrats. As the latter group grow in power, the cost of delivery escalates astronomically and the deliverers are reduced "to save money". This is happening in several public services including the police, fire and rescue and the ambulance service. It is even being done to the Military where ever Regiment, every Naval Base, every Airbase is now run by civilian "managers" who count the cost of everything and make sure the troops never have the equipment they need. What is forgotten by those who argue that this is more "efficient" and "cost effective" and "frees the specialists to do what they do best" is that, when I have a Doctor running a hospital, in a crisis he or she can get down to A&E and help deliver medicine! No space wasting bureaucrat can ever do that!

Administrators are a necessary evil - but they do not have the knowledge, skills or background to run major services, commercial enterprises or industries - and they should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to "manage" uniformed or medical services. They simply are not capable of being useful in a crisis and they cost far to much for what they are capable of doing. At the end of the day, all you can expect out of an "Administrator" or Non-technical "Manager" is that they can make some tea for the people actually putting their klives on the line in a war, or fighting a fire, or dealing with a riot - or, in the NHS, performing life saving surgery or giving medical attention. They simply cannot be taken out of their cosy offices to fill the gaps they have created in the delivery end and that makes them absolutely useless as managers or supervisors.

It's time to put the technocrats back in control of these services and demote the bureaucrats to the broom cupboards and filing cabinets they do understand. Then, and only then, will we will see an improvement in "efficiency"!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:03 AM | TrackBack

May 10, 2006

Terror and bullying

The breaking news that Glaxo shareholders are being targetted by a shadowy "Animal Liberation" movement who have acquired their names addresses and shareholding details from the registers at Company House highlights what I consider to be one of the most difficult aspects of living in a supposedly free and democratic society. Particularly one living in the latter stages of "liberal" and humanist political control. The BBC is being very careful - as are the police and the company - to describe the authors of this attack on ordinary shareholders, as "bullying". But ist it bullying, or should it be considered as something far more serious. In my opinion this is terrorism and should be treated as such.

This is one of the dilemas faced in our free society, just where does the freedom to dissent from the mainstream start to become urban terrorism? What is an acceptable form of protest and what is not? Does the sort of rioting that France has recently seen consititute an assault on the liberty and freedom of the majority or should it be seen as a legitimate expression of anger against a legislature that is attempting to address a ludicrous situation put in place by well meaning but frankly impractical left wingers who have created a monstrous state machine and legislative mountain which is seriously damaging France's economic growth? Recent images of the streets of Paris may well be alarmist and overstating the real position, but they do give an indication of a worrying expansion of the lack of suitable jobs and housing for the growing numbers of school leavers and emigrants.

Here at home we see the continuing rise of the BNP and, like them or loathe them, they are cashing in on a response to what many people see as a breakdown of our values, a loss of opportunities for British youngsters and a growing flood of immigrants who may or may not bring with them skills the country lacks. But, it is fair to ask, if we lack these skills why do we continue to pay workers to be idle and to remain unskilled in these when there are jobs that are available to them - if they have the skill or can reskill? Again, we have to ask, why do we fund the idle protester lobby who barracade harbours and ferries because they disagree with live animal shipments? Why do we continue to pay housing benefit to those who turn their houses and flats into bomb factories or who use the handouts to buy equipment with which to spread terror and fear - whether for animal rights or for any other perceived "right" they feel they should be handed?

Part of the problem here is the politically correct lobby who have for years hero worshipped the likes of Che Guevarra, Pol Pot and anyone else who took up arms against the great Military/Industrial Capitalist regimes who have created the generous welfare states they live in. It is the fine distinction between "freedom fighter" and "terrorist" that these idiots insist on making that creates the problem - and of course, the voters who support the present government are frequently made up of a large number of the very same freeloading urban terrorists who embark on the sort of campaign the Glaxo shareholders are currently facing. It is time to stop playing games with these people, their actions are straightforward terrorism and must be treated as such. The police must throw as many resources at this as they have done against the Islamic terror cells active in this country and treat them the same way.

This is not legitimate protest, this is terrorism - and let us hope the new Home Secretary deals with it swiftly and firmly. I won't be holding my breathe though, he is, after all, the same man who thinks the IRA are men of peace fighting to save their religion and freedom from Unionist (and therefore not Labour!) occuppiers of Northern Ireland.

Oh, and most of the Labour Party are secretly in on this activity anyway - middle class shareholders? Capitalist filth in the eyes of Mr Blair and his Class Warriors.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:05 PM | TrackBack

May 08, 2006

Monday mayhem?

Having a long break from the usual daily bind is both a good thing and a bad one. It's bad because you return to work to find that a skip and a power digger are necessary to rediscover your desk, your coffee mug is growing interesting fungii and there may well be dragons lurking in some of the under explored areas of your office. Its good because that initial feeling of euphoria keeps you in a bouyant mood even though the rest of your body is saying "Dontwannabehere!" and drumming its heels!

When you work in the public sector the other piece of fun is the constant changes of direction, such as having replaced a failed wine steward as head of the department with a kindergarten teacher to oversee the failed fire fighter who at least knew what one of those big red lorries we use actually does who was the minister responsible - they changed the departmental name and then replaced the fire fighter type with a feminist who has never even seen a big red lorry so that she can run what's left of the fire service completely into the ground and turn it into yet another feminised non-service. My colleagues are all speculating today what future (if any) we have left here, and how much this latest change of name which will no doubt require new letterheads, new compliments slips, new memo pads and new website and probably a "re-launch" to get across to the paying public that we have a "new" face and a"new" mission, will cost Joe Taxpayer. Probably a billion squid or so, but hey, who cares, its all in the interests of that nice, Mr Squeaky Clean Blair staying in power so it has to be worth it.

As for good old "Two Jags" he's very much now also "No Job but still got Two Stately Homes at the Taxpayers Expense" so he's laughing. Are you?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:03 PM | TrackBack

May 03, 2006

Guest Post

The only entrant to my little competition earlier - the mystery photo - came from Slimjim, so he duly gets his prize, a Guest Post on this blog.

Whilst Rome is Burning

Well, the meltdown of New Labour is continuing, despite the best efforts of the Downing Street press machine. We are witnessing the outcome of the lies of the New Labour Project, as the chickens are coming home to roost.

Just exactly what have this sorry bunch of criminals and political chancers achieved over the last 9 years? Despite what we are spoon-fed, the record is not particularly good, is it? If we could highlight what encapsulates New Labour and their achievements, what would our list look like?

• Lies
• Deception
• Higher taxes
• Increased public spending
• Decrease in manufacturing base
• Restrictions on freedom
• Massive increase in legislation
• Massive rise in immigration
• Very little environmental improvements
• An illegal war based on lies
• Downgrading of traditional family & Christian values
• Promotion of homosexuality and other minority causes
• Explosion of political correctness

I could go on, but I think you must be getting the picture by now! Am I being too negative? In the interests of fairness and balance, let’s look at their positive achievements:

• Healthy economy (for now, but wait and see what happens if Brown keeps on increasing his spending & borrowing)
• Low inflation
• Low interest rates (N.B. the last 2 are more to do with the Bank of England than no. 11)
• Better pensions (for MPs!)
• Best year for the NHS (OK, I’m really taking the mickey now…)

Oops, I seem to have run out of ideas! Please feel free to add to the list if you can…

So where does this leave us? What exactly will Blair’s legacy mean to most of us? Well, as I see it, our democracy and Parliamentary processes and procedures have been hijacked by an oligarchy of self-serving professional politicians, failed lawyers and trades unionists. Their raison d’etre was to gain power and retain it whatever the cost. The end justifies the means. But forgive me for asking - what is the end? This schizophrenic regime is unsure whether it is socialist or capitalist. It wants to be both. It also wants to fool all the people all of the time. It certainly seems to pressing ahead with redistribution of wealth, whilst entirely neglecting to ensure that we are producing wealth too! The third way?

The only difference between the current UK set-up and a Third World dictatorship is that we are allowed the dubious privilege of electing our dictator! I have no doubt in my mind, as I am sure you have too, that we need urgent and drastic changes to safeguard democracy in our country. Who will deliver that change? That’s the big problem we face. Turkeys wouldn’t vote for Christmas, so who is going to make the difference? Why, it’s you, dear voter. You have the power to make a difference. Not voting is not going to make things better, unless we all put ‘none of the above’ on our ballot papers. Making us vote compulsorily isn’t the way to go either. Have you noticed how lazy this government is? It doesn’t feel the need to educate, persuade and inform us of the errors of our ways. It’s much easier to pass laws and criminalise us in the process.

Finally, back to the title of this post. Whilst Bliar is fiddling, why exactly are we in this mess? I believe that this is due to 3 main reasons:

1. Power is concentrated too much at the centre of government, thus making it harder to be accountable democratically;
2. This is the most mendacious administration in British history, and liars always get found out in the end!
3. Policy is based mainly on political ideology, rather than the public interest.

Due to the above, we have witnessed an absolute erosion in trust and credibility of the executive. Essentially, this rotten government has been found out, and is no longer fit to govern.

I would like to thank the Monk for giving me this opportunity to communicate and to you for taking the time to read this. Thank you.

Slimjim

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:09 AM | Comments (3)

April 08, 2006

Taxing death

The latest Budget contains some rather sneaky tax changes. Our Chancellor is so convinced that only he and his collection of Class Warriors, thieves and muggers of anyone they consider "rich" or "advantaged" can "redistribute wealth" fairly - that is, into their and their cronies pockets - that they have further tightened the screws on those who hope to leave even a small legacy to their children. As someone whose grandparents were stripped of a farm and home that had been in the family for slightly over 400 years, you could say that I hold a prejudiced view. You'd probably be right, especially since it has meant that the three generations since then have always fallen in the gap between those who qualify for handouts for everything and those who want for nothing and can afford the fancy tax accountants and tax dodges while sending their children to public schools and the very best fee paying universities - with extra tuition also possible should little Johnnie or Spohie need it.

Don't get me wrong, I do not envy those that are able to do this - I resent bitterly the likes of Blair, Brown, Clarke, Straw and the rest - all from those privileged backgrounds - stripping me of the hard earned income I have, and then imposing a totally immoral tax on whatever insurance and or property I will be able to leave to my children. The mere fact that I own, rather than rent from their poodle councils, the flat I live in means that everyone else in my neighbourhood qualifies for all sorts of extra cash from Whitehall to "assist them in old age", while I do not! So, I will have to make do with my pension which will be one fifth of what I currently earn without any other benefits - until I dispose of my property and have spent all the "profit". In short I am not allowed to pass anything on to my children! So much for "fairness" and dignity, so much for the taxpayer who has funded all the layabouts who vote for this shower of immoral charlatans.

The ancient home my family had to surrender when we could not raise the cash to pay a death duty demand of slightly more than the property was actually worth at the time, had been taken over by the Ministry of War and used as a headquarters during the period 1940 - 1946. When handed back, the house was in dire straights and needed major structural repairs thanks to "alterations" made during the war. The Labour Government's poodles in the civil service refused to make good the damage - war austerity you know! - and then presented my grandfather with a tax demand as his father had died and the property now passed to him. Family possessions such as furniture and portraits had been simply piled in a barn during the war and were, by now, ruined, so there was little he could do to raise money anyway. His own business had also been ruined by the war and the austerity that imnposed so he declared himself bankrupt - and the tax office grabbed the entire property and sold it to defer the tax payment. He fought their "outstanding claim" for something like fifteen years afterward as they sold it at way below their own valuation!

Yes, I am prejudiced on this score, and yes, I am bitter and do harbour a deep grudge. That is perhaps why I shall do all in my power to ensure that anything I have does pass to my children - even if it means my sleeping under a hedgerow somewhere until I am called from this life. Brown and his thieves will get nothing more from me once I retire - and for my part I will take everything I legally can from them and their cronies. I have paid my way all through this life and my children will do so too - unlike Blair and Brown's favourite "class" of wasters and benefit dependents.

Well, it's soon going to be my turn to take some of that back - and believe me I will!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 03, 2006

Reforming the Lords - again?

I find myself in a quandry over the latest threat to the Lord's from our would be "Lord Protector Cromwell" clinging to power despite the sleaze slowly engulfing him. The Lord's have refused, despite his attemtps to emasculate them and to stuff the Upper Chamber with cronies - most of whom don't seem to attend any debate at all - to kowtow to the illconceived and frequently ill considered dictats of the Labour Party and their agenda to entrench themselves in power. With i ncreasing frequency the Lords have rejected or modified Bills the government is desperate to pass - because it hands ever more power to them or gives them some entrenched advantage over who will rule in future in this country.

Blair and his totalitarianistas cannot stand opposition. So, their solution; reform the Lords again!

Into this mix we must now throw the anxiety of the denizens of the "Class War" warriors who riddle Labour's ranks and who see themselves as being the only legitimate arbiters of how the country should be governed and run. They are demanding a House of Lords so restricted in its authority that it will be littel more than an advisory body to the Civil Service and can be completely ignored by the frequently incompetent and frankly unworthy ideologues and apparatchiks that occupy of the Commons. The demand is that that the Commons must have "Primacy" in all matters of Government, yet, it is the Lords who have consistently shown that they are far better judges of the real needs of the country and, indeed, of the disasterous consequences of some of the legislation this collection of clowns who disgrace the name o government, and their equally incompetent civil servants, have drafted.

This government have all but destroyed the United Kingdom, creating the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament only in order to priovide yet more feather beds for their growing gravy train. England was to have been broken up and destroyed as a "nation" under this plan, but we rejected the "Regional Assemblies" and Blair refuses to allow us to have a "national" parliament precisely because he knows that his Welsh and Scottish power-base would no longer control the English. What really needs reform is the Commons, but, as a friend frequently remarks, "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas!" Thus, we will see the incompetents in the Commons doing yet more damage to our democracy when what is really needed is an elected Upper House with full autonomy and able to block legislation passed by the Commons and vice versa. In short we need both Houses to agree before anything can become law, and we need the expertise in the Upper House to be fully integrated into the Cabinet as well - not appointees, but fully elected Peers.

Naturally, this will create a balance between the two Houses, and will restore the function of Parliament to concensus between the two Chambers. In this it will be a restoration of the balance enjoyed in the US between Congress and the Senate, themselves modelled on the 18th Century English model of King and Council, advised by the Lords and the Commons who actually ran the country since the "Council" was, in reality, the Cabinet of the day.

While I would probably draw the line at returning to a position in which the Sovereign was directly involved in the everyday government of the nation, I am in favour of a fully elected Parliament of two chambers and an elected Cabinet. While we are at it, we also need to revisit the way the Civil Service "manages" the delivery of government policy, but perhaps that is a topic for another day.

For the moment, we need to engage carefully in this latest attempt to destroy what is left of our democracy, and it is supremely ironic that the only guardians are, at present, the unelected Lords!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:58 AM | TrackBack

March 29, 2006

An interesting little dilemma - and a serious case of sloping shoulders!

It is supremely ironic that, in a country where we make a huge song and dance about extraditing criminals and terrorists to any country where they may face the death penalty or be subjected to what our civil liberties mob call "torture", we have shipped a man off to face a death penalty for his conversion from one religion to another. That "compassion" and "human right" to be given freedom from fear of "unnatural punishment" does not apparently apply to anyone who is under threat of death for changing his or her religion. The case in point is an Afghan man named Abdul Rahman, born in Afghanistan and raised as a Muslim, he converted to Christianity.

That is a crime for which the sentence is death under Muslim Sharia Law. It is not negotiable and not transmutable. Apostasy equals death - literally. Even foreswearing on one's conversion and reverting to Islam still leaves you facing other penalties.

So, when Mr Rahman fled to Britain and claimed asylum you would think that he would be afforded our much vaunted protection from injustice and "cruel and unusual punishment". You'd be wrong. After considering the case, our Whitehall Wankers decided that he wasn't under any such threat - and sent him back to Afghanistan to face the music. Not a murmur from Mrs Blair-Booth or any of the other members of the horde of "Civil Rights" campaigners. As for our Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the arch Apostate in all religions, Mr Straw, let us just say that he has lived up to his name and proved himself to be worthy of it in every respect.

The result was predictable, Mr Rahman was arrested on his return to Afghanistan and charged with Apostasy. It has taken the combined efforts of the US and a host of other national leaders to compel the Afghan President to make the court drop the case - but that does not necessarily mean the Mr Rahman is home free. He still faces the prospect of being hunted down and killed by any fanatic prepared to act on a fatwah issued against him by any Mullah who fancies making an example of him. He also faces the prospect of being declared insane by members of his family - citing as proof his conversion - and he will spend the rest of his life locked away in a lunatic asylum. Death by beheading would probably be preferable.

Is Whitehall in any way contrite about this situation? Of course not, it is, as ever, the "Rules" that made them do it. Nothing to do with us, we simply followed "The Rules". I seem to remember that plea being rejected at certain trials held in Nuremberg between 1945 and 1947. It was rejected then and it should be rejected utterly now.

If anything happens to Mr Rahman the Civil Servants and the Ministers involved should be charged with his murder. They simply cannot argue that they could not have known this would happen, they were fully aware - and still sent the man home. His "crime" in the eyes of Whitehall was undoubtedly his conversion to Christianity - that seems to be a crime punishable by death even in this country these days. Anyone of any "minority" persuasion engaged in real crime can expect the full protection of our law - but not if you are a Christian.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:06 PM | TrackBack

March 28, 2006

Labour melt down?

Recently Mr Blair has been in the spotlight over a little matter of undeclared "loans" from some of his chums who, no doubt, thought they might get a mention in an Honours List. Well, they didn't and now Mr Blair stands exposed, looking a little less than saintly despite his attempts to distract us.

I will confess that neither he, nor the Party he leads, are top of my favourite people lists, so I am not sorry to see them exposed in this way for the deceitful and dishonest bunch they are. It really is time they were pushed, waiting for them to go voluntarily simply will not do. As is the usual procedure now with this dishonest party, they are now desperately trying to cover their tracks by throwing mud at everyone else. Give the LibDems their due - they are open about their donors and bankers, the Conservatives are less so. The real problem for all of them is that the donors frequently don't want to be known to be supporters of one party or another -and sometimes even support more than one!

For Labour though, the crisis this has provoked runs deeper than mere money - although the news that they are having to make Party workers redundant and may even have to sell off their Walworth Road and the recently acquired Kensington office buildings to balance the books shows just how desperately dishonest and determined to cling to power they are. No wonder Blair immediately made a play for the public purse! Considering that they rented the former HQ of a government department for the first seven or so years they were in power at a peppercorn rent (until people started to ask awkward questions) perhaps it is also time to demand that they pay back to the public purse the difference between what they paid and what they should have paid on that rent. After all, the "rental" terms amounted to a public subsidy of one political party - which is both illegal and dishonest!

Perhaps the best thing that is emerging from this is that, as Blair loses his grip, the party is once more showing all its natural internal divides. This is what kept them out of power for twenty years - their inability to all sit at the same table and sing from the same song sheet. If Blair is to be credited with anything, it must be that he has employed the same tactics that Lenin and Stalin used to bring the party under control. He simply did not allow dissent. His MP's all were fitted with pagers (electronic tags as the other parties dubbed them) and he ensured that any MP who broke ranks was disciplined by the party. It didn't always work, but it has kept him in power for far longer than he or his bankrupt cabinet deserved. Of course, he didn't have the same option for dissenters that Lenin and Stalin enjoyed - a visit by the Secret Police and an extended vacation in the Siberian Gulags, but his threats and bullying have worked fairly well on the whole.

As his grip weakens though, more and more rebels are emerging and, surprise, surprise, all the Old Labour baggage with them. Class War, Selective and Private Education, Private Savings, Pensions and Health are all now in their sights. Brown, the "Heir Apparent" has already shown himself adept at robbing peoples savings and pensions so we know where this will go under his leadership. Hopefully the latest crisis in the Health Service and the paucity of the plans for education (basically dumb it down even more .... and destroy anything that might produce real learning or achievement!) will now begin to penetrate through the electorates collective consciousness.

We live in hope I suppose!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 23, 2006

Hostage rescue

The good news today is that the hostages, taken in Baghdad some months ago - ironically all "peaceniks" and some at least ex-CND - have been released. Equally ironically in an operation lead and executed by an elite unit whose existence is in itself the stuff of legend - and the very antithesis of what the hostages where in Baghdad to protest about.

This is, I suppose, one of the supreme ironies of a "free" society. We are free to decry and denigrate the armed forces and any other "militaristic" service, but when we are in the swamp and the crocodiles start to close in, it is those very people that we expect to put their lives on the line to save us from our own folly. I hope that the hostages will consider carefully their future actions and the impact these may have on our troops and on the future safety of our entire nation. It is one thing to place yourself in harms way on a point of principle, it is another entirely to expect someone to rescue you from the jaws of death at the risk of their own wellbeing and safety when your own folly has placed you there.

I salute the brave men and women of the armed forces who have pulled off this coup against the terrorists. I do not expect it to be the last such venture they will have to undertake, and I can only hope that any future missions go as flawlessly as this one.

The motto of the regiment concerned is "Who dares, wins". It only tells a very small part of the whole story behind their success.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:28 PM | TrackBack

Family friendly - not!

Earlier this week there was a debate on a local BBC Radio station while I was doing my usual morning preparation to face the world. It concerned the allocation of children to school places by the Local Education Authority. Now this is a very sensitive issue, because, naturally, parents want their children to attend a good school, one which will give the child at least a running chance at a good education. The next criterion is almost always that it should be reasonably close to home, and, if there is more than one child in a family, that it should be the same school the other siblings attend.

But, as ever when you let petty bureaucrats run things, it is never that simple. The Lord alone knows what criteria these rule ridden idiots follow, but it isn't commonsense. The debate centred around the fact that, this year, more than 20% of the families applying for places in the school of their choice have been allocated a place in another not of their choosing. Almost 70% of those are cases which separate children and place one in one school and one in another, frequently there is already an older child attending a school and the parents, not unreasonably, want their other child in the same school. But, apparently this is not a criterion for allocation according to the mealy mouthed idiot from the LEA!

When the LEA representative was confronted with the fact that one brother has been allocated a place in a very good school in one part of the County and his younger brother has been allocated a place in another at the other side of the County, all he was prepared to say was that the LEA was only required in law to offer the parents a place in a school and that they were not obliged to take into consideration the presence of any siblings! The parent concerned pointed out that she has four children and will now have the joy of delivering each child to a different school - a round trip (at our present fuel prices and the taxman's cut!) of just over 24 miles each morning and each afternoon - thanks to the incompetent weasel in the LEA. This is not unique, it was the experience of my own family to have our three children distributed between schools, fortunately we did manage to argue a case to move one, but in any event it hardly helped as the Comprehensives to which they were allocated were, without exception, comprehensive failures at providing a balanced education or to meet their education needs.

The present system of allocating schools by reference only to what is available and the absence of any consideration of a child's ability, family cohesion or parental wishes is a complete nonsense. It is beloved by the jobsworths who fill our burgeoning bureaucracy precisely because it gives them unlimited power over the lives of not only the next generation, but their parents as well. It is a system designed by socialist ideologues to ensure that all education is as mediocre as possible and to guarantee that they are never exposed to a generation better educated, more capable and more willing to exercise judgement than they are.

In short, it is yet another example of how our education system is being run for the benefit of those who run it and for their paymasters, the political elite who can manipulate the system to their advantage. The rest of us have to take whatever they dish out and be grateful. So much for "Parental Choice".

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:47 AM | TrackBack

March 21, 2006

Labour does love it's Terrorist chums ....

According to the Sun Online - a link I found visiting Dodgeblogium - a Labour Peer (one of Tony's donors no doubt) has been extremely helpful to an al Qaeda sympathiser. Completely ignoring the security issues, Lord Ahmed invited a man with known al Qaeda sympathies arrested recently in a round up (much belated!) of terrorist suspects and gave him a personal tour of the Houses of Parliament. Nothing like the personal touch to help someone case the joint!

Labour have always had a difficult blindspot when it comes to terrorists. They simply cannot shake off their love of anyone who opposes the US, the English Establishment, Capitalism or anything else that can be labelled conveniently as "working class struggle" for justice. Look at how many Labour supporters sport Che Guevarra badges, tee-shirts and other paraphenalia. When challenged they make excuses about "it's not about the man, it's about his ideals", completely ignoring that fact that this man was shunned by his supposed mentor Fidel Castro because even Dr Castro could see that Che was a psychopath! As for those other organisations, let's see - Pol Pot's little group (around 5 million dead), the Vietcong (something similar to Cambodia), dear old uncle Joe Stalin (30 million), Moa Tse Tung (anywhere between 30 and 50 million dead) the IRA ( probably small fry in the killing stakes, but whose counting?) the MPLA in Angola, the ANC in South Africa and dear Robert Mugabe's ZANU group in Zimbabwe. All at one time or another promoted and supported by Labour as being the best representatives for the "downtrodden masses".

We should not be surprised that a Labour Peer has invited an al Qaeda supporter into the Palace of Westminster, we should be surprised that it has leaked this early. We should be even more surprised that Labour's Spin Machine isn't already trying to pin it on someone else!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:57 AM | TrackBack

March 11, 2006

Lifesaving mugging?

An item on the news has caught my eye and my imagination. A 97 year old woman was attacked by a 17 year old who attempted to steal her hand bag. In the assault he flung her to the ground and made off causing her to lose her bag and to suffer some minor injuries. At the time of the attack he was high on cocaine and had been egged on to attack his victim by his "friends" and his need to get money to buy more drugs.

Ironically, as a result of the check she received in the hospital, the lady was diagnosed as having a Deep Vein Thrombosis and received emergency treatment which has saved her life. In essence the mugging probably saved her dying of the usual outcome of a DVT - pulmonary embolis, a fatal condition arising when a part of the clot breaks loose and lodges in the main arteries to the lungs. Understandably the lady is grateful.

Unfortunately that leaves the larger issue unresolved. The youth's cocaine habit. He is now serving a four year sentence in a Young Offender's Institute, which we can only hope will provide an opportunty to wean him off the drugs and give him some hope of a future. Sadly, I doubt it will successfully deliver either.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:27 AM | TrackBack

March 08, 2006

PC Nonsense again .....

The lunatics of the PC Brigade are at it again, this time it is a Nursery School which has been ordered to change the words of the nursery rhyme "Baa, baa, black sheep" to "Baa, baa, Rainbow (!!!!?) sheep ...." It not only doesn't scan but it makes a complete nonsense of the whole thing when they go on to start "qualifying" the rest of it! Apparently the term "Black" sheep is offensive to people of a darker hew. I wonder if they have considered the fact that the Gay Rights movement uses the "Rainbow flag" as it's identity and that the "negative image" of a "Rainbow" Sheep could be offensive to the Gay community? Or maybe that doesn't count?

I am sure I cannot be alone at having severe reservations about the people who spend their lives dreaming up things to take offence at. They seem to be able to see evil in just about anything from children's toys to minstrel shows or even Morris Dancer's with blackened faces. Take a set of photographs of your children or grandchildren in their bathing costumes and you could wind up under investigation by the Thought Police for possible paedophilia. I jest not, it has happened recently to a grandparent and I have no doubt at all that it will not be the last occassion. It makes me ask myself "what is it that these people have lurking in their own minds that makes them see evil in everyone else?"

I suspect that, in the long run, it will become evident that many were in fact covering up their own prejudice or prediliction for some "dark" sexual practice. Unfortunately, in the meantime, they will have demonised many more completely innocent parents and grandparents and further damaged our children's understanding of true morality, decency and responsibility. I do get seriously worried by this constant "moralism" from the PC brigade, much of it based on their own incomprehension of real life - God alone knows where they spent their own childhood, much less whether or not they actually work in any productive industry besides this destructive one of denigrating everything they do not like. In all too many cases the reasons they give for their "moral" judgement on something is based on entirely spurious and frequently self-invented "evidence" of past prejudice or wrong-doing.

My own position and the deep distrust I have for these pedlars of twisted morality arises from a teenage encounter with someone who constantly publically ranted against homosexuals - then tried to seduce and molest a friend of mine. At the time it was all kept under wraps because the person was widely regarded as a "fine upright family man" - who also happened to hold a position of some power - and it was said that there was "no point in causing a scandal!" That was almost forty five years ago now, my friend is now dead - entirely unrelated to the original incident - but the perpetrator is still regarded as a "fine upright man of high moral standing who set high standards of morality for himself and society." I quote his obituary!

The real scandal there is that my friend was not the only boy this "Upstanding Moralist" attempted to molest, in fact there were a string of boys, some less quick witted or on their feet than my friend, but none of them were believed and he got away with it! More importantly for me at any rate, I have encountered a fairly large number of so-called "moralists" over the years whose private lives told a completely different story.

That is the biggest reason I can possibly have for distrusting anyone who sets out to dictate to me or any other member of society a set of "morals" based on their prejudices and supposed "moral code".

Life is not fair, it is tolerable and moral only in so far as society subscribes to sets of personal rules and commonly held taboos. Erode any part of that code and suddenly the whole begins to unravel, that is why we have the highest teenage pregnancy rates, the biggest drug and alcohol abuse problems and a crime wave that is out of control by all the indicators - even the government's own massaged and manipulated statistics! These attempts to twist and warp and manipulate society's beliefs, values and language by a small group of time and space wasters is a large part of the problem.

It really is time the very large majority of level headed and common sense guided people gently led the PC pundits quietly to secure mental hospitals and rid ourselves of their presence. Society will then be a much safer, saner and more pleasant place than it is under the stifling hands of these prejudiced and immoral idiots.

That, or send them off to a planet far away from here! One way trip only.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 06, 2006

The Prince has some rights as well .....

Currently the media is full of "leaked" documents supposedly showing that the Prince of Wales is "interfering" in politics. I have two problems with this. Firstly he should be accorded the same "right" to privacy regarding his diaries and his correspondence, particularly this sort of correspondence, as the rest of us. It is a private exchange of views and concerns between him and the appropriate people in the government and not intended for public consumption or to be used to influence the public!

Secondly, the Prince is right to express these concerns, yet, in the eye's of the Press, he is supposed to be a brainless puppet without views or opinions on anything. Given that he and most of the other Royals are on an IQ level beyond most of the media hacks who publish this garbage, I suppose that one motive behind this is an attempt to drag him down to their level - the gutters.

There is also a deeper concern about these leaks per se; namely that they seem to have come from within certain senior Minister's private offices. That suggests that Labour's Black Press team have been busy again, combing through files and looking for things to "leak" in order to distract the morons in Fleet Street from something that would embarass the government. Like the fact that Tessa Jowell's husband is wanted in Italy on bribery charges and Blair's stooges in the Home Office have managed to scupper the Italian prosecutor's case by feeding the papers and evidence to the accused! Their bleating that they "followed procedures" is akin to the famous plea entered at Nuremburg in 1945, that the accused were "following orders". It stinks of Number 10's direct interference and this campaign against the Prince of Wales is, in my mind, being orchestrated by Millbank in order to create a smokescreen.

The Prince's comments to the then Lord Chancellor on the affect of the Human Rights Act upon the uniformed services are right. The fact that this is not yet showing up on the statistics is simply because the majority of people are probably still unaware of the fact that they can use the courts. Many are simply too dependent on their jobs, but if the position changes, as it will in the next few years, the floodgates will be opened and the consequences will be dire, both for business and for the country.

Why did we need the Human Rights Act? After all, it actually reduced the "rights" we previously enjoyed under our unwritten constitution. One does wonder if it was perhaps a piece of wonderful subterfuge to create a niche for the Prime Minister's future, after all, his wife is part of a "Chambers" that specialises in Human Rights cases - and does extremely well out of it.

There is undoubtedly also a Republican agenda in the leaking of the Prince's private papers. One cannot escape the feeling that we are being prepared for a coup d'etat staged by Labour - brief against the Prince, selectively leak papers and run a campaign designed to portray him as "unfit" to be King, then, when the present Sovereign dies, call a loaded referendum and depose him. Far fetched? Probably not as far fetched as some would like to think.

In the meantime, let us have the police look into the source of these leaks since they amount to theft. Let us also see the use of the Human Rights Act to defend the Prince from these insidious attacks and this vile campaign to discredit him. As I said, I suspect that if the police do look at it without any interefernce or "help" from the incompetents in the Civil Service who dance to Labour's tune, I think we will be treated to the spectacle of several key members of Labour's Press Corps being stood in the dock for theft.

One can live in hope!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:40 AM | TrackBack

February 28, 2006

Collective insanity?

Events in Iraq since the deliberate bombing of the Shia shrine last week expose just how fragile the peace and hope of a swift settlement in that country are. But it also speaks volumes for situation and tensions within the rest of the Islamic world as well. The act of desecration is, in itself, a ghastly act, but the sentiment which underlies it is even more depraved. Surely only a truly twisted and sick mindset could conceive of a plan of action aimed specifically at setting one part of the community against another?

Sadly, this sort of mindset is not confined to the Islamic world, indeed, I would have to say that I am encouraged by the speed with which leaders of Islam around the world - though notably not in Saudi Arabia or Iran (that we have heard anyway!) - have condemned this attack. Perhaps the most telling comment has come from an "ordinary" Muslim, the steroetypical "man on the street" who said that as far as he could see, the bombers had failed to even begin to understand the teaching of the Prophet and were unworthy of Islam. As I have said before, this is not about the religion, it is not about the presence of the US or any other troops, it is about who rules in future - a bunch of lunatic fanatics and bigotted "clergy" as they have in Iran, or a duly elected government that represents everyone in the country and not just the narrow religious view of the few.

Unless the insanity can be contained, unless the bombers can be caught and brought to trial, there is a very great danger that the country will descend into a civil conflict whicvh will affect the West as much as the Middle East. There is a suggestion that many of those killed in the so-called "reprisals" may have been targetted because they have been, or were, providing succour to the terroist "insurgents". If that is so, then it is an indication that, as I suspect, many ordinary citizens know who the terrorists are, who shelters them and who pays them. This attrocity may have the effect of exposing this and perhaps signal a swing against the tolerance of it and of those who are involved.

Every true believer, Muslim, Christian, Jew, now needs to pray as never before that sanity can be restored, that the doers of evil be brought to justice and that no further innocent blood is shed for the ambitions of a few truly evil men and women.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:08 PM | TrackBack

February 27, 2006

Odious little man .....

So our Standards Committee have "suspended" the "Mayor of London", not please all outside of the UK - not the Lord Mayor of London - that odious little toad Ken Livingstone. "Red" Ken single-handedly brought about the end of the Greater London Council when he staged a "coup d'etat" which unseated the elected Chairman from his own Party in the then GLC and stuffed it's Departments with his placemen, turning it into a radical Left-wing socialist forum hell bent on defying Westminster, then under the government of Mrs Thatcher. He destroyed education in London, wrecked health and everything else he and his cronies could get their hands on and finally stage managed a series of confrontations over everything from the Falklands war to Tax policy.

This little t*rd politicised everything, the Fire Service, the London Transport system, garbage collection, education, housing and even benefits - those he could get control of anyway. In the end the only way to get rid of him was to destroy the GLC - which is precisely what Mrs Thatcher did. Blair's greatest mistake was to attempt to replace it, giving this nasty little communist apologist a new power base from which to destroy the democratic process which governs the Greater London area.

For the unenlightened, what most people call "London" is actually a loose association of some thirty three "independent" Boroughs, Cities and Towns. The City of London is a small piece of this, generally refered to as the "Square Mile", it's ancient boundaries being the Thames along it's Southern Edge, the Fleet Ditch to the West, London Wall and the Barbican to the North and the Tower of London and Aldgate to the East. It is bordered by Islington, Tower Hamlets, Holborn, Westminster and, across the river, Southwark to name but a few of the "independent" "towns" that have become a part of "London". The demise of the GLC meant that these Boroughs had to work together on a range of issues and this process was bedevilled by the inability of politicians from all parties to agree on anything anyone else thought might be a good idea. Thus there was and probably is a need for there to be an overarching "City Government" for the whole, but Blair and his cronies fell for the worst of all possible solutions - and then they managed to make Livingstone the only possible winner!

This little creep has now been censured for his outburst to a Jewish reporter from a newspaper he hates (because they are right wing and have exposed his failures over and over again!) in which he compared the man to a "Nazi Concentration Camp guard". Thus far he has refused to apologise - and probably never will. After all, it was this little idiot who invited one of the most virulently inflammatory anti-Jewish Imams to speak in the UK. He even found funds to pay the bills for the trip - and then declared that it was "justified" so that the "Anti-Israel" point of view could be heard!"

Suspend the little creep? Not nearly enough, send him to Austria and charge him alongside his pal Irving. They should make good cellmates - and London would have the benefit of being freed from this poisonous little snake's clutches! At the very least he should be barred from public office, suspension is far to lenient!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:38 PM | TrackBack

February 23, 2006

The Prince is right.

Thanks to Tim of an Englishman's Castle I can link you to his reproduction of the Prince of Wales diaries. Personally I think it sums up the intrusion and absolute lack of decency of our so-called journalists that they see no problem with publishing someone's private thoughts, but I find myself in complete sympathy with the Prince on this one. The people making decisions and advising this government have absolutely no understanding or experience on the things they are deciding on.

This is probably why we have such a mess in the legislation, why everything this government has "modernised" now is half as efficient as it was and costs five times as much.

As to the publication of the diaries, it is a pity the High Court feels that the theft of the diary, and it's subsequent publication for the titilation of the Islington tittering classes, is not a breech of the Prince's privacy. I feel sure that had it been Mr Blair's diary, the noble Judge would not have hesitated to pronounce their publication a breech of the PM's "Human Rights" and a "threat to national security." As it is, this ruling opens a dangerous door, one which will no doubt be used to allow the selective publication of extracts which cause the Prince the maximum embarrassment - and I would also be pretty sure that the place to look for the thief is in the Number 10 Press Office. I have no doubt too, that they will attempt to argue that his thoughts are "public property" because his trip was funded by the taxpayer - but then I want to see exactly what Straw and the rest of our cabinet ministers write and think and say while travelling at my expense in luxury.

The most likely candidate for the theft and leak is one of Blair's apparatchiks, acting on the unwritten and deniable instructions of the Party "Black Press" team to continue their avowed campaign to blacken the monarchy by every means available and lay the ground for us to become a Republic - with Mr President Blair or Mr President Brown as it's head.

Pass me a pikestaff, London Bridge needs decoration.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:37 AM | TrackBack

February 22, 2006

Muslim against Muslim - but wait, it's all the fault of the US!

The appalling news today of the deliberate bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Iraq, actually betrays the fact that there is a struggle underlying the obvious turmoil of a country trying to re-invent itself. A struggle for power by religious fanatics against the more pragmatic "secular" politicians who wish to establish a democracy based on less rigidly religious lines.

The tragedy is, that in a country as volatile as the present Iraq, it is all too easy for this sort of atrocity to tip the country into a civil war - something it has almost succeeded in doing. Let us all hope and pray that the perpetrators fail, because, if they succeed, it will be very bad news for the entire world. The campaign over the "cartoons" is a part of this overall campaign to destabilise and reduce the will of the "free" world to resist these fanatics. It is a tried and trusted methodology, after all, it worked against the US in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in Cuba and other South American countries - and it is still in use even now in North Korea. The strings of accusations, "revelations" of atrocities, all tie down valuable time and resources with ridiculous and time consuming investigations of complaints, allegations and slurs ably spread by means of a "free" press in the target country - and drip fed in heavily biased reports in the controlled media of the originator. It destabilises and creates an atmosphere of distrust, unease and fear - perfect for civil revolt if you provide the right incentive.

As ever, of course, the British, US and other Allied Forces there now have the unenviable task of trying to prevent the commission of further attrocities and of trying to keep the factions apart. Sunni Muslims are the majority - but only in parts - the rest are Shia, and many of Shi'ite Islam's holiest places are in Iraq. Ergo, the perpetrators have ready made targets. Worryingly, the bombers today wore Iraqi Police Uniforms, which should tell the world that the police have been infiltrated by the "insurgents", "agitators" or whatever you wish to call them. Even more worryingly, a leading Shia Imam managed to make a statement to the effect that the attack - by acknowledged Sunni Terrorists - was the fault of the presence in the area of US troops. It demonstrates clearly just how far from reality is any hope of rational judgement being exercised by those who see themselves as representing the religious interests of the people. It certainly tells me that no matter what they do, our and the US troops will always be seen by these, no doubt otherwise reasonably intelligent men, as anti-Islam.

The tragedy of the destruction of the Golden Dome over the shrine of the Imams is an indication of just how far the minds behind the attempts to provoke a civil war are prepared to go. We can only be thankful that there were no deaths - or at least none reported yet! But, let us be clear, this is not about faith, it is not about Islam, it is about power - and who wields it. Identify the people behind the bombers and you will find that it is a small group of radical Imams who, once they have reduced the country to a slaughterhouse, will emerge from the shadows to the acclaim of their followers and grab control - if the world allows them to do so.

Let us hope that the media frenzy which will no doubt follow, does not sway the minds that control our forces into allowing this to happen.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:15 PM | TrackBack

Safer driving?

The latest announcement from the RAC, the AA and the government nannies responsible for the so-called "Motorist's Bible" - the Highway Code - should raise a number of concerns. It is suggested by these prize idiots - responsible for such idiocy as the dictat that states that if traffic in the lane to your right (the lane to your left in the US and EU) slows down for any reason, you must slow down as well to avoid "undertaking". It took them something like 40 years to realise that this was one of the many things responsible for the clogging of our motorways, as once some idiot got himself into the supposedly "fast lane" and then tried to change back and braked or slowed down, the entire damned motorway slowed down with him, trapping him there!

Now they are planning to make it "illegal" - the Highway Code is not "law" as such, but is given the credence and force of it by the Police and Courts - to use Satellite Navigation systems in private cars. So they deem it safer to have a map or a route planner print out in your lap so you can read it while you're driving? This has got to be the most stupid and ludicrous piece of moronic thinking since the law which still requires every self propelled vehicle to be preceded by a man on horseback with a red flag. What annoys me even more is the fact that the RAC and the AA support this idiocy!

Let's face it, there are some idiots out there who will fiddle with their SatNav as they drive - but then there are idiots out there who drive with their in car steroes on such a volume level you can hear them four cars away at 70 miles an hour on a motorway. Which is more dangerous, a motorist having his SatNav tell him an exit is coming up in 1.4 miles, and when to turn off the carriage way, or some clown bowling along and trying to read a map? I know which I prefer, and it isn't the map reader!

I bought my SatNav system precisely because I am not familiar with many of the places I have to go to and I cannot read a map and look for the street name signs (singularly absent in most towns I visit!) while driving my car. I need to keep my eyes on the road, the traffic and the moronic pedestrians that the law seems to think have a right to commit suicide by wandering into traffic as they wish. My SatNav allows me to concentrate on the driving and seeing the plethora of roadsigns and other hazards, while directing me clearly and without fuss to me destination.

Believe me I believe that SatNav, far from being the danger that the Whitehall wankers seem to weant to make out it is, is probably the best piece of safety equipment a car can be provided with! But, mark my words, these morons will write it into the Highway Code as a "distraction" and "hazardous item" alongside the clowns who still use mobile phones while hammering along motorways - and our ever willing police will haul every motorist they find with this "illegal" aid to safety into court.

I recommend that every person who agrees with me withdraws their support from the RAC and the AA immediately and tells them why.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 20, 2006

Support for the Armed Forces?

I will admit to almost falling off my chair yesterday morning as I heard our Secretary of State for Defence actually stating that the media are far too onesided in their reporting on our troops actions in Iraq! Good grief, I found myself agreeing with him! Help, I think I need a psychiatrist, at the very least a sedative! I'll be voting for the idiot next!

Having got over the shock (Oh, the shame, the shame!) of being in agreement with anything this government says, let alone one of the ministers whose understanding of the department he is responsible for is probably less than a schoolboy's, I would have to say that he is spot on the money on this one. The media are very quick to spread the word on anything that is to the discredit of the Troops, but never sullies their pages with anything about what they have achieved - unless it's to share the reflected glory of medals or heroism. Let's face it, the troops are involved in a great deal more than simply sitting in protected camps and taking potshots at the natives for their amusement!

In the early days it was these same troops who saw to it that food, medicine, water and shelter got to where it was needed. It is these guys who are helping rebuild and then protect the schools that the majority of Iraqi kids now attend. It is these guys who have repaired the hospitals, rounded up the murderers, lunatics and bombers and got them, by and large, off the streets. And most of them are under 30 years of age. In fact the vast majority are under 25. They deserve to have their praises sung from the roof tops and they deserve all the support we can give them, because it is through their efforts that Iraq will eventually emerge as a free, democratic and safe society, not through the efforts of the Press Corps or the money grabbing Human Rights lobbyists and lawyers clustering like vultures ready to denounce every soldier for sneezing out of place.

It says a great deal about the society in which we live that our troops are routinely treated as a "necessary evil" to be underpaid, kept on a leash and treated like second class citizens by our politicians, civil servants and the Media Circus - until the ordure hits the great big whirly thing - then, as Kipling once said in his poem - they all want to hide behind the lad in the camouflage outfit!But, as soon as he's sorted out their mess - they want to shove him back into the box and pretend he isn't there.

Tacitus wrote, Caesar quoted and Pliny commented that if you seek peace, you must prepare for war. Si vis pacem; para bellum. This is the lesson this present generation has forgotten and it is one we will all pay dearly to relearn.

The press is not alone in it's constant denigration of the soldiers conduct, they are, after all, merely repeating the lies, deceits and myths they learned from pacifist lecturers at university and polytech. Downing Street's Press Corps is comprised entirely of people who have no understanding of war, of uniformed services and of the ethos, discipline and camaraderie that pervades such organisations. Their creed is based entirely on the belief that if you denigrate everyone else and make them look bad, you somehow look better than they do in the eyes of the public. Look hard at this government and what do you see, a bunch of over privileged ex-hippies who used family advantage to get to the best schools, the best universities and to the top in the Party they belong to. Frankly they make the Roman Senate of Caesar's day look like a Sunday School outing, but they reflect the society they have created and represent, a society which cares only for it's own comforts and it's own image and prestige. Frankly we would be well served if the troops packed it in and told us all to get on with it ourselves - at the point of their bayonets!

Between our so-called "leaders" there is not one who can be termed a "worker" (I do not count "Union Official or Union Activist as being anything to do with real work!) and there is certainly not one who can claim to have served this country or any other in the Armed Forces. That is true too for the bulk of the Press Corps - not a sailor, soldier or airman among them, so they have no understanding whatever of the way the troops respond to threat - unless it makes good negative copy or film. This is why they have, between them, systematically destroyed the discipline codes, subjected the services to politically correct garbage and legislation and now wave "international law" at them at every opportunity.

Let's get a few things straight. Firstly, there is no such thing as "International Law". The UN is NOT a law making body. It never has been and it never will be. "International Law" is a concept, a myth that exists in the minds of the Socialist "Internationalist" elite and no where else, it is said to be comprised of treaties and agreements between states, but this too is a myth since no treaty is ever valid unless all parties agree fully to apply all the codices equally and in full - which they do not. This is a legalistic vision which is not only unworkable but entirely unenforceable. Secondly our Armed Forces have been reduced and equipment cut on the myth that the "end of the Cold War" brought a "Peace Dividend" which allowed us to cut the heart out of the armed services. Well, the world is a much more dangerous and unstable place since then - and it is getting more so all the time, particularly as our enemies see that our forces are stretched beyond breaking point! As a former First Sea Lord said in the House of Lord's in answer to the latest stupid statement by the government's motormouth in the Lord's "one ship may have the fire power of the entire Grand Fleet, but it remains one ship, in one place at one time". The Grand Fleet had over a thousand ships at it's disposal, with a permanent strength of over three hundred, including thirty battleships.

It is good the see the Secretary of State at long last standing up and saying that the briefing against our forces must cease, but I fear he is far too late. The damage is too far gone and the society we live in has been too far poisoned against the Armed Forces - indeed against anyone in a uniformed service. The "bad press" the military in Iraq and Afghanistan receive is merely a part of the whole, and the whole story is that the anti-military propaganda of the last fifty or more years is now coming home to roost.

I hope that Mr Reed, our Scottish Secretary of State for Defence, is able to persuade the media to be more positive in their reporting - but somehow I doubt it. The Guardianista Brigade who lead the Media don't like positive images of the military or any other uniformed service - it undermines their entire belief in Humanist "goodness" undermined by an evil scheming "Capitalist Military-Industrial" conspiracy.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 19, 2006

Young offenders might suffer the consequences of their own violence?

The news earlier this week that Lord Carlisle had published a report for the Howard League covering the deaths of young offender’s and attacking the guards at the Young Offender’s Institutions for using “pain” and “force” to control them aroused my interest, and then my anger. It is obvious that the authors of this latest piece of stupidity have never had to deal with violent and disturbed youngsters. Equally obviously, they have lost sight of the fact that they are in these institutions because they have committed, not one, but usually a string of offences, many of them involving the use of violence against a victim.

As is usual with anything published by a certain group of “child welfare” lobbyists, they have lost sight of the fact that these are youths who are, for the most part, a menace to the societies they come from. Instead they are portrayed as “victims” of a brutalising regime and a society that doesn’t care. Society does care, it cares a great deal as to whether or not we can walk down our streets without being attacked by a group of “Happy Slappers” or whether our children can go safely to the town centre without having their money, jewellery and mobile phones stolen. We are concerned too about the level of violence many of these so-called “children” deploy at the slightest provocation. These young people won’t learn that “violence begets violence” in the institutions – they already know that and are more than happy to initiate it.

Naturally nobody wants to see these young people further brutalised, but you do have to ask the question; how do we expect the guards to deal with a violent and abusive teenager, often bigger and stronger than the guards? Very often pain is the result of particularly violent struggling to avoid the consequences flowing from an attack on a guard or a refusal to “lay off” another inmate, but it is a consequence of action, not a deliberate intent.

It often seems to me, that the promoters of the concept of “don’t discipline your child, persuade and reward” miss the central point here. A child does not necessarily have the necessary language skills or the understanding - certainly in the early years of grow – to understand a reasoned argument, so occasionally, a sharp reminder is required. They also seem to completely deny the existence of some predispositions which arise when our genes incline us to certain behaviours, such as violent temper, lack of appreciation of consequences and quite possibly and tendency to simply be a person who cannot tell the difference between right and wrong. To admit that some of us may have such a genetic defect, is almost to admit that some people may not be “responsible” for their actions, and we don’t like that thought either! After all, we like to think that we are all able to control our own actions and our destiny, that it is a straight forward choice between “right” and “wrong”. Perhaps it is, once we have figured out what our “default” settings are – and then we have to learn to modify them, to behave within the accepted norms of society, or accept the consequences.

Personally, I hope that Mr Blair and his cronies place this report where it belongs, in the round filing cabinet to be found next to any desk.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:04 PM | TrackBack

February 10, 2006

A moderate voice at last!

I watched the Clive James late night chat show last night with mounting hope that, at long last, the trend to pander to the sensibilities of a fanatical few among the Muslim community could be at, at least, the beginning of the end. My only question is; why was the discussion and the young lady around whom the interview centred, shown so late at night? This should be shown and repeated often on daytime and on prime time broadcasts!

The young woman, and I regret that I do not have her name, was passionate, Muslim, and vehemently opposed to the demonstrations last week, the radicalisation of her faith and - absolutely fabulously - opposed to the Police's "softly, softly", handling of it! As she pointed out to the other members of the panel - both politicians from major parties - had it been BNP demonstrators, the police would not have held off "for fear of provoking a riot", they would have waded in and caused one! Frankly she outclassed both the politicians who were back footed and had to accept that she was not only right, but far more representative of the majority of Muslims in this country than those one normally hears and sees in the papers and on TV. Commenting on the hysteria surrounding the publication of the now infamous cartoons, she pointed out that these had been published in Cairo a month after they appeared in Jyllands-Posten and had created almost no comment - then, three radical Imams from Denmark made a trip to the Middle East and evidently spoke to people she called "Radicalist Islamic Godfathers". Within weeks, all hell had broken loose, something she vehemently decried!

It was refreshing, to say the least, to hear such a passionately put case from someone who is quite definitely moderate and believes in practicing her faith, dealing with the conflicts in a modern world. I think both politicians were taken aback by her saying bluntly that the disaffected young Muslim men who run about shouting anti-Western, and particularly anti-British, slogans should be told to go and live in any of the countries they consider so much better for Muslims. As she said, they don't know what they are talking about, but if they are so sure they want to live in countries where poverty is institutional - send them on their way!

I sincerely hope that this young lady gets the support she deserves from the rest of the moderate Muslim community. She made a lot of sense and showed incredible bravery by coming on the show and speaking out as she did. The fact that she was not wearing a Hijab and was modestly dressed in smart casual and distinctly "Western" clothing, is probably more than enough to get her onto the radicals hit list. The fact that she has spoken out against them, is more than enough for one of these idiots to try putting out a Fatwah. Let us hope that our police are, for once, alert to this and take steps to deal firmly and quickly with anyone who even thinks about it!

Her argument needs to be widely heard and it needs to be debated at every level of our society. She made the telling point that the UK is at least twenty years ahead of the rest of Europe and - her words - centuries ahead of the the Muslim world. Anyone who wants to destroy that is a fool.

Her final arguments were all directed at the government and the police, as she made an impassioned plea to them to stop treating Muslims as somehow "different" and needing "special consideration". She argued that this is only stirring up even more hatred among the likes of the BNP and encouraging the radicals among her community who think they are untouchable. She made a very firm plea, and both politicians could only nod sagely as they listened, for Muslim radicals and troublemakers to be treated in exactly the same way as would any white or Christian radical or troublemaker.

It was really refreshing to hear someone from the Muslim community speaking out so forcefully againt the radicalisation of her faith. Let us hope that the government and the Muslim Community, now swings behind her and deals with the radicals. They have no place in our society.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:46 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 08, 2006

Questions of balance

The shouting and the tumult has not yet died down over the "Mohammed Cartoons", nor is it likely to until the focus of the mass media shifts away from the ranting rent-a-mobs to something else. Interestingly the Police, who only last summer saw no problem with attacking the orderly Countryside Alliance protesters with batons and teargas, opted to adopt a "softly, softly" approach to the ranting mobs waving demands for the beheading of those who "insult Islam" and for Jihad and war on the EU. It seems that it is alright to attack law abiding and upper income bracket taxpayers, but not baying packs of fundamentalists - particularly if they are from a "disadvantaged minority".

At least the police's tactics are now being called into question and they have, reluctantly, issued a statement declaring that they are examining film footage to see if charges can be brought of incitement. Had that been a crownd of white "English" people waving similar placards, you can be certain that they would have been attacked and up before the Magistrates by now, but then, that would be different, wouldn't it? After all, white English people protesting must be members of the Far Right, aren't they? Definitely enemies of the State and of the nice Mr Blair's vision of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Britain. A vision which, with the recent conviction of that peace-loving promoter of harmonious relations, Abu Hamza for "incitement to murder" and the re-arrest of the clown who dressed up as a bomber for the protest at the Danish Embassy, is beginning to look a little frayed!

All of this calls into question the balance at present between what is acceptable behaviour or demands from one section of the community and that which may be exercised by another. Why has it taken so long and so much pressure from the "silent majority" to get this to happen? This is really the whole of the problem, and not least, the reason why the rather small circulation Danish paper published the cartoons in the first place. The EU is at present being "invaded" by large numbers of people seeking a better life than they can hope for in their own countries of origin for a wide variety of reasons. As with the ancient Roman Empire, where a similar thing happened, eventaully you have entire cities being taken over by large groups from cultures totally alien to the culture that they admired enough to want to live in it. That is when the lines start to blur, as slowly the emmigrants culture starts to dominate, and soon the original inhabitants are in a minority in their own land. Islamic invaders have done this several times over the last thousand years, not least in the Middle East where they infiltrated, then dominated the Southern half of the Byzantine Empire, gradually taking control by means of the steady movement of their own people into key posts. When this failed, they called up armies and seized power by force of arms. An item by a news reporter called Mark Stein actually sums up very well the dilemma we all face in this stupid drive to create a "muli-cultural" paradise - and says why he belives it cannot work.

As Mr Stein points out, the "invaders" have often been aided and abetted by legislatures who have tried to "preserve" principles of fairness and advantage by resorting to legislation - which almost inevitably results in abuse and conflict. The present efforts in the UK and the EU to "give equal status" are in fact nothing of the sort, it is a shor cut to the undermining of the entire Western tradition and handing over the cultural leadership and control to the extremists. That is not healthy and will achieve nothing but the subjugation of Europe and quite possibly the entire Western democratic ideal to the corrupt and draconian dictatorship concepts promoted by the Sharia exponents of the Muslim fanatic persuassion.

While I see no benefit in deliberately seeking to cause affront to the Muslim communities, I would also say that they had better learn to show the same respect and consideration for those whose countries they wish to reside in. In the meantime, perhaps our own politicians should begin to defend our much eroded "liberties" a bit better - and perhaps get the police to address the question of balance and fairness properly - instead of following the Commissioners latest politically correct dictat.

It begins to seem to many of us, that the "institutional racism" is endemic - in the minds and actions of the politically correct commissars currently managing the civil service and the police! I wonder how the government's Thought Police would respond to anything like the cartoons available in the Arab press and thoughtfully provided by the "Honest Reporting" site. Probably tell us that they're OK - after all they aren't religiously inspired, are they?

And just to show a bit of "balance" I found a website which gives a very large number of images of the Prophet Mohammed - the vast majority drawn by Muslims.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:26 PM | TrackBack

February 04, 2006

Promoting peaceful understanding?

If anyone wants to know why I will never support the present Politically Correct promotion of Islam and Islamic Fascism as "superior" to Western culture and Christianity, visit this site on Middle Eastern Analysis by Tom Goss. Where, I wonder, are the fanatical demonstrators storming Arab Embassies in Western Capitals over the gross depictions in the cartoons Mr Goss has found in Arabic newspapers? Surely these are as offensive as the rather silly cartoons published by the Danes?

To make matters even worse, these cartoons and the papers that publish them are freely available in London and no doubt several other UK cities in those areas now apparently exclusively owned and occupied by our peaceloving Muslim community. If the Church Times (the nearest thing in the UK even marginally equivalent of the Saudi based "Arab News") published anything like this about Muslims the editor and staff would have been thrown in jail long since and the paper closed down. There would have been riots in Leeds, Birmingham, Bradford and London, questions in Parliament and a whole avalanche of new anti-Christian and anti-free speech legislation ruished through Parliament.

But, apparently its OK for Islamic sources to propagate this garbage, after all its only against evil Jews and Westerners! Frankly, while I do not support the crass action of deliberately offending Muslims with cartoons of the Prophet, I find the perpetuation of these anti-Semitic and anti-Western propaganda cartoons in Arab publications deeply repugnant and offensive. I know very well that I am not alone in this, so why are Blair and his cronies so reluctant to make known our objections and to take the sort of draconian action they would unleash on us for publishing less offensive material?

These cartoons are also why I will fight at every ditch, hedgerow and barricade to prevent Blair and his Gauleiters from bringing in their famous "Religious hatred" legislation. It would prevent anyone from commenting on the fact that their chums in the Mosques are in fact spreading the most vicious and pernicious lies and propaganda in the name of Islam - and are actively helped to do so by the PC lobby and Blair's minions.

Dare I suggest that Mr Blair and his cohorts across Europe are actually in the pay of the Arab Islamists and are really, themselves, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian?

Yes.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 28, 2006

LibDem meltdown?

It is always edifying when politicians start to show their true colours, but the LibDem's seem to have taken this to a new level of vituperation. The daily press seems to have done a bit more than the usual muckraking as well, but perhaps it also explains why the Liberal Party, now morphed into the Liberal Democratic Party, has not been able to get itself elected as the party of government since 1918. Their previous record speaks clearly for itself, this is, after all, the party that invented the Civil Service, that invented Income Tax and which has, since they were last in power, done nothing to encourage voters to believe that they would be any better now than they were then.

In fact, if one looks at where they do have some power and influence, at local government level, they are very often the worst of all choices for local taxation, local management and local democracy. One prime example is the Council of a city near me. Their "Traffic and Planning" Committee has recently decided, without any consultation, to "phase out" residents parking permits for resident's at city centre blocks of flats. At a stroke they have rendered all these flats (apartments for my US readers) unsaleable. Who wants to buy a flat where there is nowhere to park your car? Even better, they have decreed that no new developments in the town centre will be permitted to include provision for parking private cars! Instant unsaleablility!

Add to this the fact that these are the same party members who have saddled this city with a huge debt, because they decided to sell off assets and borrow heavily on speculation to pay for massively expensive and totally unworkable pet projects. The now defunct "Noddy" Train which was supposed to ferry you from your car parking (miles from any shop!) to the shopping precincts, will not be forgotten by those still paying for it! In fact, probably the only thing which keeps these idiots in the council is the fact that there is a large student population from the local university who vote for them in preference to the alternatives primarily because the LibDems want to raise taxes to pay for a free tuition programme for students.

So far, the only candidate in the leadership "contest" who does not seem to have some "skeleton" in his closet is Sir Menzies Campbell, but I am sure the Sun or the Daily Mirror will find something sooner or later. Sadly, the only winners in all of this will be Labour and the usual backroom grubbers who make a living destroying reputations and characters.

Perhaps the LibDems real problem is that politicians in general have become so isolated from the realities of everyday life that they fail to see that the public opinion of them is so low that nothing surprises us anymore. The more they deny wrongdoing, peccadilloes or filandering, the more we believe they are up to something. I have no doubt that they will survive this unedifying swathe of dirty linen currently being hung out in public. It may be of some interest to those who revel in the discomfort of others, but is it really telling us anything we did not already know, or even need to know? I rather suspect not.

At least, if the LibDems carry on with their apparent desire to commit collective hari kari, we can perhaps expect to see the next elections being conducted without their usual pact with Labour and a more balanced view from the electorate - those who bother to vote anyway.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 27, 2006

Opinions differ ....

A few days ago, while having my morning caffeine "hit" and trying to get both brain cells pointing in the same direction, I turned on the telly. I know I shouldn't do this, because there is almost always some prize twit who manages to annoy me and I spend the rest of the day with a desire to rip someone's throat out - with my teeth!

The recent debate sparked by the "don't smack children" campaigners had reached the morning news room of ITV. Someone there obviously thought it would be a good idea to get the leader of the bunch of arrogant, nannying nitwits who want to make smacking a naughty child a criminal offence, and someone who holds a different view, together on their programme. So we found ourselves watching a slightly uncomfortable newsroom "front" team putting questions to an older gentleman of Afro-Caribbean descent neatly dressed in a open necked shirt and comfortable slacks and a large white lady of extremely patronising attitude dressed in the West African style popular in countries like Nigeria. It was obvious that she thought she alone had the welfare of children and society at heart, and that only her view was correct. She neither listened to the gentleman who put, very clearly, his views on the lack of discipline among the young and how this could be tied back to the interference of the state and "children's welfare" groups and their perpetual interference in the parents attempts to keep children on the straight and narrow. He pointed to the "rights" without "respionsibilities" and made a very good case for children to be held responsible when they transgress, stressing that they inevitably hide behind the armies of social workers and children's support groups who invariably portray all parents as criminally inclined child abusers.

The Child Commissioner representative swept all of his carefully considered points aside insisting that a smack is the same as a full bodied assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and that "violence simply begets violence". According to her argument all the world's ills and all the breakdown in discipline and law and order is due entirely to children being smacked for disobedience.

I'm afraid that, for me, the fact that she chooses to dress in the flambouyant and colourful outfit that best suits the African climate and the African culture to go on morning television, probably sums up where she is coming from on a wide range of subjects. She would not even consider that it merely shows that she is from the very worst end of racial prejudice, one which denigrates everything of her own culture, espouses what she imagines is the best of another, but takes all of her rose tinted ideology from her own background and tries to package it as coming from the culture she wishes existed elesewhere. And in so doing, she succeeds in patronising those who are from that ethnic group and culture. That she neither understands that, nor wishes too, is also self evident from her manner of speaking to people who are from those cultures.

My coffee almost boiled afresh in my hand as I listened to her lecturing the studio crew, the other speaker and the TV audience. Her accent told me that she is Oxbridge, her vacuous arguments told me that her degree is no doubt in sociology which is neither art nor science and her attitude made me want to decorate several bridges with her and her cronies heads on pikes. Since she patently has no children, or, if she does, they are probably cared for by an army of nannies with strict instructions to coddle them no matter how repugnant they may be, I take leave to doubt that her contact with reality is in any sense valid. If she is a typical member of the "Commissioners" then God help us all!

My heart and agreement lay entirely with the Afro-Caribbean gentleman, whose face said everything it has taken me this long to write! His polite, quiet spoken and very valid points made much more sense than all of the Commissioners blather - but she got the final word, probably under orders from the ITV bosses!

Where do these morons come from?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 26, 2006

"Big" is not always better!

A little local debate reflects a much bigger and often less open agenda driven by the Whitehall belief that to be "efficient" every service must be "bigger". It is reflected in their belief that Fire and Rescue Services, Police Services and Hospitals - and even Doctors Surgeries - are only "efficient" if they are employing thousands, protecting millions and "serving" the political agenda which happens to be flavour of the moment. Sadly, their passion for "big" is more about centralisation of control than it is for the actual delivery of whatever service, and it usually costs twice to three times as much as the smaller units it absorbs.

The debate around my County at present is over the provision of Primary School places and schools. According to County Hall and Whitehall we have 1500 places too many and these must be cut from the provision. This means that some of the smaller schoools will have to be closed and the pupils (this is after all a rural County) bussed considerable distances from their homes to larger less personal and more intimidating schools elsewhere. Listening to the usual bunch of self important and self righteous politicos and their public servant paper shufflers, you would think that this will be good for the kids, but when pushed, they slide away from the question of who has studied the impact on small children of long journeys too and from schools and the need to cope with the stress of being a long way from their parents if hurt, sick or otherwise in need of care?

One woman on the radio today argued that this was not a problem - until it was pointed out rather forcefully by a parent that the bulk of the parents at the school they were planning to close did not have cars and would be unable to fetch their kids from the proposed enlarged school some twelve miles away! Then she self righteously declared that this was not a problem the County Education Authority needed to consider, it was one for the Transport Committee and the parents to work out.

The fact is that these "super schools" are very much part of the problem when it comes to indiscipline, truancy and failing education standards. When you look at the best performing schools you soon realise that there is a correlation between pupil numbers, teacher to pupil ratio and the total number of students in the school! Looking back at my past I realise that I was lucky to have gone to a school where the total number of pupils was a little over 600 - in buildings designed for 250 admittedly - and the Masters knew all the students. They may not have known our individual names (the class Masters certainly did!) but they certainly knew all our faces and it was not unusual to be pulled up in the street even out of uniform (yes, we wore those too!) by a passing Master if you were behaving badly or inappropriately. That was the secret, they knew who we were, they knew our parents, they knew where we lived and they cared. That link vanishes swiftly as soon as a school exceeds around 700 pupils and once it exceeds 1,000 the teachers haven't a hope of knowing all the children. That has certainly been my experience and observation of the schools my own children have had to attend courtesy the ideological mess the politicians and civil servants have made of the education system. It would be really interesting to see the results of a major study on this topic, I rather suspect it would require a major change of thinking to address the probably outcomes!

Having worked in organisations whose employees number thousands, and others delivering the same service, whose employees numbered hundreds, I can say categorically that the smaller organisations are always operationally more efficient than the large ones. This is, quite simply, because the communication chains are shorter and more direct, the operational information is circulated much faster, problems are identified and dealt with quickly and there is nowhere to hide or room for "empire" building. Managers manage in small organisations, they cannot hide in committees and meetings and when they delegate something they are able to communicate it directly to someone and get immediate feedback rather than having to do it through a committee and then listen to hours of excuses and debate as the goal posts shift in accordance with whoever's empire is being threatened by the work required. The so-called "efficiencies of scale" are a myth, no money is saved by going into a super organisation, in fact the opposite, the "economies" turn out to be vastly more expensive.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, the only advantage of a "big" organisation is that it concentrates all power for decision making in a small number of people at the centre. Power is removed from a "local" level and people are unable to communicate with the "management" or to influence any change of culture, direction or improvement. Even the supposed "devolved responsibilities" are so restricted that they are not "devolved" powers at all. Look about you at the waste in Whitehall, the corruption that lurks beneath the surface as incompetents waste money, divert resources or simply cover up the failures. One prime example is the "Preferred Tenderer" system of awarding contracts which by-passes the tendering process altogether. The theory is simple, choose a supplier from the "Preferred Tenderer" list supplied by HM Treasury and you do not need to go through the tender process, you can accept whatever bid is offered and, if the budget is available, spend the money. The only wriggle is that the "Preferred Tenderer's" price is usually around 20% higher than what would have been obtained on open tender. Nice little earner if you can get on the list - but that is another story! Perhaps now you see why we all need to say a very firm NO to any further centralisation on any front! Particularly when it comes to depriving communities of a school, a hospital or a police station. Everything the Civil Servants and their appointees touch immediately costs far more and delivers less!

Local people and local services are far more efficient and - in the long term less costly - than the dwellers in Whitehall, Westminster and many County Halls will admit. The real problem is that they cannot control them - and they hate that!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 25, 2006

Political influences

There is something deeply disturbing about the fact that an Australian billionaire with US citizenship, is able to control the UK's media in such a way that he is able to dictate the editorial political support of those media. Rupert Murdoch does not live in the UK, he does not pay taxes in the UK, yet he considers it entirely appropriate to play the eminence grise in British politics and to use his newspapers and television channels to promote a political philosophy and a party of worthless wasters to an electorate stupid enough to be swayed by him.

You will note that he does not live under Blair's nannying dictatorship and he makes little, if any, contribution to the vastly expensive and wasteful machinery that every Labour government in history has produced. Nothing of his personal fortune is paid into the UK Tax system, and his companies all have "offshore" holding companies which reduces the tax they pay as well. Very neat, one could almost say, the perfect Socialist solution - control a government without having to live under it's control and without havibng to contribute money to its excesses. Tough for the peasants, but what a lovely earner for the promoter.

This sort of situation raises several interesting questions about the conduct of the media in its role as "informers of public opinion". Many will recall the outrage caused by a stupid and rather obvious "endorsement" of a candidate in the US Presidential election a few years ago by one of our political leaders, yet Blair and his media mogul did exactly the same thing - with less of an outcry - in the last election. Perhaps the difference was that it was a left-wing socialist endorsing the nearest thing to a left-wing socialist in the US that makes it acceptable?

Given that Mr Murdoch is now in the UK and saying that Mr Blair is taxing us far too highly, restricting freedom far too much and - horror of horrors - placing burdens on business and enterprise, is a sign that he is having a rethink. Somehow I doubt it, Tony will find some way to reward his mouthpiece.

Another question which needs to be examined concerning the media is the spectacle raised by the treatment of the deposed Leader of the LibDem Party and of the candidates for his job. Charles Kennedy had at least the guts to admit he had a problem, but the sanctimonious, and, frankly, utterly hypocritcal press, went for him in a manner which suggested that they were hoping to see him throw himself off St Stephen's Tower in a spectacular suicide. Their muck raking on one of the candidates is equally sickening - yet it is excused by their bland statement that "anyone in public office should exopect to have their actions placed under greater scrutiny". And just who scrutinises the scrutineers? Why, themselves of course! So the pot is free to call the saucepan black and get away with it, because they control access to the presses!

Then there is the dubious practice of masquerading as something or someone else, in order to entrap a "celebrity" into saying something that will damage their career. One of Mr Murdoch's papers has just pulled off the "spectacular" of planting a conterfeit "Sheikh" at a reception where he succeeded in getting the England Football Team Manager and Coach to admit to some pretty damaging opinions. If a police officer did the same thing to a criminal, the courts would, rightly, reject the evidence and censure the police, yet the press routinely do this with impunity! Again, had this been a police "trap" the very same paper would have smeared the policemen's reputations and been howling for a Chief Constables head on a pike. It seems that sauce for the geese is not, in the eyes of certain elements in the press, sauce for the gander.

Press freedom is an essential in any free and democratic society, but the control of our media services by a very few, very powerful men is not a truly free press, the editors are obliged, or are specifically appointed, to reflect the views of their employer and no one else. The tactics they employ when attacking personalities or attempting to influence policy are frankly anything but a reflection of a free, fair and just society, they are an abuse of freedom and justice and it is time people woke up to this fact. The classic example of the manner the press abuses its power is the case of the disgraced pop-star "Gary Glitter". One of Mr Murdoch's newspapers has spent quite literally thousands, if not millions, pursuing this pathetic little man around the world and, despite their avowed opposition to the death penalty for murder here, made sure, by means of lucrative payments to the victims, that he would be accused and tried for sexual offences in a country where they knew full well that he faced the death penalty if convicted. Newspaper justice and trial by media.

I suppose that the reality is that, one way or another, we have the government that business, the media and the pressure groups elect with their money and their lobbying. Democracy is, after all, a mere chimera - or it has become so since the cynical control of the media and of the organs of economics have all been vested in a favoured few over the last half century. But then, this is the classic symptom of a political system in decay - or so Plato said in "The Republic" almost 2,500 years ago.

It seems that nothing changes - except the faces in the pictures and on the statues.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 23, 2006

Spare the rod and spoil the child .....

The arch-nannies so beloved of Mr Blair's Labour soviets are making noises again, this time it is the four "Children's Commissioners" who are demanding that smacking a child be made criminal offence on a par with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. According to this group of expensive and unelected Labour Appointees, children MUST be given the same "rights" as adults - but not, of course, the responsibilities that go with them.

This group of - and here I am struggling to find a printable adjective and pronoun - control freaks wish to see parents who smack a child that is running out of control charged with the same offence as a group of yobs (assuming the Police bother to pursue a group of yobs!) who kick a pensioner insensible in order to steal what little he or she may have. They also want to bring in "parenting classes" to ensure that "parents are taught alternative methods of persuading children to accept boundaries". These would, naturally, be compulsory, and no doubt too, any parent who dared to "fail" would be immediately under threat of having their children removed by the State and put out for adoption or fostering.

This group have consistently refused to acknowledge that two parent families generally have less trouble bringing up children than single ones, that children from families where there is a lone parent who works, or a lone parent who is on benefit and doesn't have a history of employment, are much more likely to run out of control and bring misery to a neighbourhood than any other child. In fact, the worst behaved and most problematic children are generally those from homes where the parents have never been disciplined and who feel that they and their children are somehow "owed" everything by the State. It does not seem to have occured to any of them, and least of all the Government itself, that these "Rights" without the "responsibilities" are 99% of the problem of criminal behaviour among young people. It is precisely because there is a total absence of penalties for criminal behaviour or even sanctions for bad behaviour that children now think they are untouchable and unpunishable.

It is this group of "Commissioners" who have consistently fought for the erosion of parents rights to bring up their children in a manner best suited to their circumstances and the childs own character. And it was this same group of visitors from the Planet Ming who recently demanded that more "Middle Class" parents be required to attend "Parenting Classes" because this group was "under represented"!

Well, in perhaps the first, and possibly the only, sign we have seen to date that Blair and his cabinet of power hungry closet communists, have noticed that the populace at large has had enough of this sort of garbage. They have rejected the call saying that "it would be hugely unpopular (You're telling us!) and unenforceable". Only one problem, the Commissioners" aren't listening and are now planning a trip to the European Court of Human Rights.

Time someone took them out and introduced them to a space ship with a one way ticket back to the Planet Ming.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 21, 2006

London Transport (an oxymoron)

We've been warned in the papers over the last few days that train companies in the UK are campaigning to be allowed to set their own fares. Their reasons sound quite sensible - they want to raise more money to improve service and the government won't have to subsidise them as heavily in future. It sounds absolutely great - finally, privatisation will start to work and all of that free market stuff will improve consumer choice, right?

One example given by the papers is that a cheap day return fare between London and Manchester, which currently costs around GBP 35.00, will be raised to over GBP 200.00. That's not a big deal if you don't want to go to Manchester, but considering that there are coach companies offering the same trip for less than GBP 35.00 and that a train can carry as much as 12 times as many people, GBP 200.00 seems a bit like profiteering.

It gets worse though...

What about all of the people who can't afford to live in London? They commute from Reading, Maidstone, Southend and even Brighton. Will they be paying GBP 100.00 a day? Most Londoners don't even earn that much in two days. Will employers subsidise or pay for employees to get to work? Will they raise salaries to compensate? Of course not. We all know that increases in salaries lead to inflation - or at least that's what I'm always told when I ask for a raise! Seriously though, a salary hike for everyone in London wouldn't solve anything. The supply of homes isn't meeting demand and the government isn't interested in addressing the problem.

I currently pay one tenth of my post-tax salary to the train companies for the privilege of getting to work. I can expect 7/10ths of my salary to be poured into the black hole that is rented accommodation (as and when I have enough money for a deposit on a flat plus the first month's rent). That includes council tax and amenities. That means that approximately 8/10ths of my salary is already paid out on a place to sleep and a means of getting to work. The rest of my income having to go on health insurance and a pension, despite the fact that I pay over GBP 200 in National Insurance to pay for other people's pensions and unemployment benefits is a topic for another day.

So you can see the problem - where is extra money for transport going to come from if fares keep rising?

Some won't have any choice but to slip further and further down the social scale. Most cleaners already live in social housing and work as close to home as possible to avoid wiping out nearly an hour's pay on transport costs. Any fare rise will reduce their take home pay quite sharply. Some young people get stuck at the bottom of the organisational ladder and don't make enough money to save. If it now costs them more to leave London they're doubly trapped.

A surprisingly large number of people who work in London are already struggling to make some sort of life for themselves. We're "too well off" to be given any benefits or housing assistance and too poor to provide what the state provides for those poorer than us for ourselves. People who fall into this category are the most likely to leave - taking the IT, admin and customer service skills that the city needs but won't pay for with them.

My final point is that the transport companies can raise fares as much as they like, but they will never offer a good service as long as they refuse to employ conductors on buses and ticket inspectors on trains. The current practice is to send a gang of ticket inspectors to various train stations, probably for their own safety - at least I would find that understandable. It could also be because the trains they want to check on are too packed for anyone to move through the train checking tickets, but it's more likely that the inspectors have had too many people accost them about the price of the poor service. Their retreat from trains and buses allows people to get away with truly awful behaviour.

For example, I got on a bus this evening (shortly after 9pm), which contained the following:

A gang of young men rolling up a spliff with the most powerful marijuana I've ever smelt. Plenty of people were looking at them disapprovingly, but no one was brave enough to say anything (least of all me).

Another gang of young men who drank enough spirits in their short journey to cause them to fall down the stairs of the bus when they nearly missed their stop. (Alcohol is banned on buses).

So much graffiti scratched into the glass windows that I had trouble seeing where we were and where we were going.

A gang of teenagers arguing loudly - not terrible, but a bit annoying.

And worst of all, having paid GBP 3.00 for a round trip of less than 4 miles (in a packed bus), 2 people barged onto the bus as I got off and tried to hide out of sight of the driver.

The driver saw them, but he's just one man and isn't allowed to leave his cab. His choices are either to refuse to move the bus until they leave, delaying and annoying a double-decker bus full of people, or ignore them and drive on. A second uniform stood at the second set of doors would have made them think twice.

Just one man at Elephant & Castle Underground station manages to keep the crowds calm in the morning. He has colleagues quietly manning the ticket barriers, but the fact that he is there to politely remind people to be more considerate about using the lifts makes everyone's journey easier. If people like him were employed to patrol trains and buses, the service would improve immediately. I certainly notice the difference when he's not on the morning shift.

So, the answer for transport companies wanting to make more money is to employ enforcers on every train. Make sure that all of your security cameras work and don't leave your drivers alone in a bus on a route that routinely attracts fare dodgers and graffiti artists. If safety is a concern, hire ex-soldiers instead. I'll guarantee there'll be a 0% reoffence rate. I'll bet that once you make fare dodging difficult and scary, your revenues will increase without squeezing your honest, law-abiding customers. Surely the money that bus and train companies would save on constantly replacing windows alone would pay for the staff?

Posted by The Postulant at 10:10 PM | TrackBack

January 20, 2006

Beware the Jabberwok!

The hysteria in the Press over the discovery that a teacher with a conviction for a sexual offence, committed with a 15 year old girl he later married - when she was a year or so older - gives almost the impression that every school is populated by potential paedophiles and that every child attending them is at risk of sexual assault. As was pointed out in a Radio Talk show on my way to work, this is a vast exageration of the problem, and most children are far more at risk from other far more lethal events than they are from any paedophile teacher. As ever, the real target here of the mass Media is not the paedophiles, but the Education Secretary and there is nothing that sells newspapers like a good political scandal. A pity that the result will be an even more draconian solution from the politicians to a problem that seems to me to be blown out of all proportion, and a population living in fear of molestation.

It sometimes seems that "sexual offenders" have become the new "witches" in the ongoing hunt among certain classes to find someone to blame for all the problems in society. In the 16th and 17th Century (and in some African and third world countries today) it was "witches". All one had to do to be branded one was to have a wart or a birthmark in the wrong place, to have fallen out with someone who subsequently managed to injure themselves or to get sick - easy enough in that unhygenic age! - or to be old, alone and unloved and suddenly you were responsible for all the ills in the village. Off to the stake and the purging pyre with you! In fact, it sometimes seems that even daring to question the perceived prevalence of this issue in any sort of "public" forum makes you a suspect "witch" as well. If viewing a particular type of pornography is viewed by the "moralist/protectionist" lobby as being the same as committing the act, one can only suppose that voicing doubt about the manner in which the "Witch Trials" are conducted and the "evidence of crime" that is employed is anything to go by, questioning the conduct of these "trials" is fraught with the peril of being accused of the crime oneself!

It does seem strange that in an age obsessed with "Human Rights" a murderer can be considered "rehabilitated" if they admit their fault and demonstrate contrition and reform, but someone accused of any sexual impropriety may find themselves permanently barred from any number of activities because they are on an indelible "Register" for life. This paranoia extends to parents being forbidden from filming their own children in the bath - sick, paedophile imagery of naked children according to the Whitehall nannies - or of school plays or nursery school pageants because the images might provoke someone to have a paedophile orgy on the images. What about someones "right" as a parent or grandparent, to enjoy photographs and videos of the highlights of a child's development? What of the supposed offenders right to rehabilitation and to being spared "cruel and unusual punishment"? Surely the sort of mind that can conceive the idea that every parent or grandparent photographing their children in swimming costumes, on stage or in the bath as potentially "perverted" are the really sick and perverted minds? Surely it is they who desperately need to be locked away and treated since only a truly disturbed mind can turn something innocuous into a vision of sick perversion!

Following their logic through to a natural conclusion, no man should ever be asked to change a baby's soiled nappy! Who knows what might result from his being confronted by soiled baby backsides!

Yes, there certainly are some very sick individuals out there in the real world, but the Whitehall/Westminster response so far has been to criminalise everyone who touches a child, who tries to discipline a child or who may, at some stage have to work with children, rather than to find some effective means of identifying and dealing with the real offenders. The "vetting" process for those who work with children is one of those amazing pieces of bureaucratic form filling which actually serves almost no useful purpose other than to put anyone off actually putting themselves forward to work in any number of youth and youth related organisations. Every organisation which has anything to do with children's work now has to have a "Children's Officer" and "Children's Policy" and pay through the neck to have everyone who has even the remotest contact with any child vetted. And yet, the Government itself, in fact a Cabinet Minister no less, manages to by-pass the system and approves the appointment of not just one, but several of these supposedly evil and dangerous predators to posts in schools. It does make one wonder!

What does seem to be a rather worrying development in all this is that some of those on the so-called Sex Offenders Register are there for having at some stage accessed pornography of a certain type on the internet. They have not in fact committed any act which would be prosecutable in a court, but that does not seem to matter to the Whitehall-Westminster Witch Finders. To look at images they deem inappropriate is to be declared a "Witch"! Not only that but there seems to be no appeal and certainly no remission once accused. One has to ask how they would know, and it transpires that a considerable amount of money and effort is focused from our very scarce police resources, on monitoring certain web addresses and capturing the URL's of anyone who visits them. After that it seems that a dawn raid on your address is inevitable and a period of extreme embarrassment ata police station is then followed by a lifetime of restriction. That has deeply worrying implications for our entire justice system, smacking as it does of the sort of "justice" meted out by Judge Dredd and his fictional ilk.

Even more worrying is that this hysteria has created an atmosphere of fear among parents and children and is stunting the development of responsible attitudes among the young. Because they have no experience of taking care of and looking out for themselves they are increasing reaching adulthood with no concept of responsibility for their own safety. Now that may be something the Whitehall nannies want - after all it gives them more and more reason to argue that the "State" (read Civil Servants and "Protection Lobbyists") should have complete control over every aspect of everyone's life. This is certainly where the Health and Safety mania is going!

The hysteria over sex offenders teaching in schools - and I would be prepared to put some hard earned money on a bet that it is no more than five at most - is masking several other and far more serious problems. Children are of the order of seventy times more likely to be injured or killed in a road accident than to be molested at school. They are a hundred and fifty times more likely to be bullied and at least a hundred times more likely to be offered drugs, yet none of these issues get anything like the attention and don't attract anything like the penalties. Selling a child drugs is likely to get you five years at most, killing one in a road accident probably no more than eighteen months or a fine. So why is sex seen as something so peculiarly unique as an offence.

In part I suspect it arises from a very puritanical approach to anything to do with the human procreative organs. Yet here too, we have the ultimate contradiction between the youthful activities of those now imposing their "moral code" on the world, and the world they say they are trying to create. On the one hand they assign "rights" and on the other impose "restrictions" dictated by their own "moral" code which they apply strictly to everyone but themselves. They deny that there is a "Higher Authority" or a God given Code of Conduct, yet seek to impose an even stricter version of the base codes in many religions than the religions themselves expect.

Look closely at any statement emanating from the Moral Righteousness Political lobby and you soon begin to notice a trend. It is always wrapped in a "moral" stance, but the effect of what is proposed always draws more powers to the proposer and steals yet more freedom of choice and action from the individual. A good example is the mantra that "guns kill people!" Yes, they do, but generally not on their own and the banning of the ownership of handguns in the UK was precisely the sort of hysterical reaction certain lobbies thrive on. Instead of putting in place the proper vetting and checking procedures for gun ownership, they banned their ownership outright - and gun crime has soared as a result. Nor is this the only area in which the hysterical responses to a relatively small number of incidents which have become the latest focus of the "righteous guardians of public morality". The Jabberwok is loose among us and his Jabberwokian double speak is meant to intimidate and confuse, to frighten and subdue, and once he has subdued and frightened his victims they are as putty in his hands as he strips them of their rights, their independence and their ability to think for themselves. A recent commentator on this blog quotes the situation faced by a teacher recently. It is educational and instructive and it certainly makes one wonder what sort of world we have allowed the Press, the Politicians, the "Issue" lobbyists and the Civil Service to create. As I said, the real irony is that these are the same bunch of left-wing loons who spent the 60's and 70's smoking marijuana, talking about "free love", screaming for "freedom" from the morality of their parents and blockading universities because they didn't like what the teachers and lecturers said or did. Freedom of expression, action and thought is obviously, in their sick minds, only for those who agree with them and their vision of the world.

Beware the Jabberwok, he has you in his sights!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 18, 2006

Patriotism

Mr Samuel Johnson, the great 18th Century philosopher, curmudgeon and lexicographer - English spelling is mostly his fault - once said that patriotism was the last resort of the scoundrel. He wrote this in 1775 as things were boiling to a head between the North American Colonies and the then Government in Westminster. At the time, he had a point, patriotism was then being trotted out and stoked up for the looming conflict with the Colonial "rebels" who had the audacity to want democratic representation in the Parliament that sought to impose taxes and laws on them.

One is forced to wonder whether Mr Brown's sudden interest in patriotism is fueled by the realisation that, as a Scottish MP, his role as Prime Minister of a United Kingdom in which he would be effectively a "foreign" dictator ruling over the English now that Westminster no longer governs Scotland, might be untenable. This is the conundrum once described as the "West Lothian question" by one of his own MP's when the subject of the devolution of government to Scotland and Wales was first mooted. Why should the Scots and the Welsh continue to elect members to the Westminster Parliament to vote on matters pertaining to the English Nation, when they were, in essence, no longer ruled by their own decisions? Surely this makes all the Scottish and Welsh MPs "occupying powers" in an English Parliament?

It is interesting too, that Mr Brown's own party has for years supported the Trade Union view that Patriotism equals Nationalism and is to be suppressed in favour of the rights of International Law and Labour movements. Multi-culturalism is one such child of that unholy mess - the truth being that it can flourish only where there is some cement that binds the disparate "cultural" groups together as one people and one nation. Take a look at the USA, it may not be fashionable to take any lessons from there, but in all seriousness it is the patriotic fervour that permeates that nation that binds all its peoples together, nothing much else!

Here, for years, Mr Brown's own Party has promoted Scottish, Welsh and any other "Nationalism", while decrying anything that might be said to be "English" Nationalism. This is why the likes of the British National Party have flourished, create a vacuum, deny one group the right to an identity and something will arise to fill that vacuum. Like it or not, we are still tribally oriented, and we need to acknowledge that in one form or another.

Many of us do feel patriotic, not in the great, flag waving, "my country, right or wrong" kind of way the left usually deride us for, but a sharing of identity and pride in our values and our achievements. Messrs Blair, Brown and the rest of their cronies hate that, they detest us for not agreeing that we are a horrible, old fashioned, out dated bunch of closet conservatives who do not share their vision of a Socialist paradise. They have consistently denied that the English should have a national day alongside St David's Day (Wales) St Andrew's Day (Scotland) and St Patrick's Day or the Commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne Day (Ireland [Catholic] and Ireland [Protestant])! Labour councillors consistently refuse to permit the celebration of St George's Day - a day I used to mark with a red Rose in my lapel, until Blair and his scoundrels stole the Red Rose of Lancashire and St George as a Party token.

Try applying for permission to erect a flagpole in your garden - as is common in many EU and Western countries - anywhere in Britain. You are unlikely to get planning permission because the planning laws and the enforcers of these are all Socialist sympathisers who detest any display of British pride or patriotism. In fact, flying a Union Flag in many of our inner city areas is likely to get your house petrol bombed - again a product of the years of propaganda put out by the Labour Party and its loony left. (An oxymoron I know - the Labour Party is the Loony Left!)

What worries me about this call to become patriotic and to return to being proud to be British, is that it is being made for all the wrong reasons. We should be proud to be British, but I find it hard to be proud of the Britain that Blair has created, a place where we are weighed down with unnecessary laws, surrounded by ignorant bureaucrats who bleed business dry with their unproductive costs and bureaucratic burdens, who destroy every public service they are supposed to deliver and whose thirst for power rivals even Mr Brown's!

Brown has rabbited on about "our National Symbols" which should unite us. It is noticeable that he has omitted one - the most important of all - the Crown. That, for me, rather says it all. This is merely another stunt by a bankrupt and corrupt Party to entrench themselves in power. It is time they were gone, from power and from public life.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 17, 2006

Patriotism? Surely not Mr Brown?

It never fails to amaze me that politicians seem to be able to change their beliefs almost as easily as the rest of us change our clothes. The left wing Labour mantra of the last sixty years, that the Union Flag is a "flag of oppression" to be derided and despised, and that patriotism, particularly English patriotism, is the root of all oppression and evil, has been ditched, officially, by no less than the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That he did it in a speech to that most left wing and possibly treasonous group (if you take their support of the "International Brigade" in the Spanish Civil War, defence of Filby and the other "Atomic" spies and espousal of all things Soviet for most of the last Century into account), the Fabian Society.

Some of their precious members must have needed reviving with stiff glasses of whatever is their fashionable tipple at the moment! Patriotism must be rediscovered says Mr Brown! Shock, horror, the vile "P" word, derided by them and their predecessors and mocked as the root of all "institutional -isms" for two generations at least, is now to be promoted as a "good thing"! I'm surprised they didn't need every Intensive Care bed in the country for the heart attacks these champagne socialists will have suffered on hearing this!

According to Mr Brown, the Union Flag must be seen as something that unifies us, something that is quintessentially "British" and marks us out as a "Nation". Considering that he and his party have spent almost sixty years trying to divide us and to promote the idea that the Scottish and the Welsh are somehow superior to the English - who, incidently, are supposed to be happy to cough up loads of tax money to fund their independent Parliament and Assembly while still having their MP's vote on matters "English" - and have, at every turn, tried to prevent anyone flying it from civic buildings - or government ones for that matter. Go North to Scotland and it is never seen - only the Saltire is ever flown there - and across the Welsh border and all one sees is the Green, White and Red Dragon flag of the modern Wales. Never the Union Flag.

But now, a volta face! Our Scottish Chancellor, who refuses to wear a dinner jacket in England, but dresses up for parties in Scotland, now wants the Union Flag to fly at every opportunity. Why? Because, he says, we have to take it back from the British National Party. Because we need a "National" symbol. Because "Patriotism" is essential for our nation to move forward in unity!

Coming from a man and a party that has done more to destroy this nation than any enemy could conceivably have achieved, that is rich! The BNP and their like have been able to highjack our national symbols, the Union Flag and the Cross of St George, precisely because Labour and the rest of their traitorous cronies have refused to allow their legitimate use. For years now, anyone daring to express a patriotic opinion has been immediately branded a "Fascist" or a member of the BNP! The Trades Unions are equally guilty of this, with open declarations by one union, that "patriotism" is equal to apartheid!

Still, it shows that there might be hope for this nation and this country after all. Coming in a week when we have heard Mr Blair admit to smacking his children and have had a report published which rubbishes the Politically Correct movement, we may just be seeing the pendulum stalling at the end of its swing to the extreme left. I just hope that it now swings back fast enough to decapitate all those who have promoted PC, multiculturalism and all the rest of the Anti-British (read Anti-English) claptrap Blair and his party stand for.

We live in hope!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:32 PM | TrackBack

January 14, 2006

Respect?

It appears that our Illustrious Leader grows ever more desperate as one after another of his "Flagship" initiatives crashes to the dust and burns on the flames of failure. Earlier this week he launched yet another grandiose publicity stunt policy "initiative" at a cost of vast amounts of taxpayers money declaring that he intended to reform the youff culture of yobbism he and his touchy feely mob have created. Scenes of him jet washing graffitti off a brickwall in his sharp suit and carefully stage managed setting in Swindon almost provoke laughter. Sadder though were the comments of two policemen hauled off their normal duties to watch and protect this complete twerp from his "adoring" public.

Policeman One pointed to the large crowd of lounging "youff" and said candidly to the assembled press that he didn't think the watching graffitti artists were much impressed. Policeman Two told the press that the real problem was that Blair and his minions have hamstrung the police, stuffed the courts with people who simply do not consider any punishment is appropriate for bad behaviour and constantly let hardened young criminals go without any penalty at all.

The much vaunted ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) is, according to Mr Blair, working and just needs to be tightened up. According to the police it is the latest "Badge of Honour" for young thugs, you have no street-cred if you have no ASBO. Given that around 1600 have been issued since they came into the legal arsenal you would think they might have made some impact, but no. Largely because the courts rarely enforce them and if the offender is dragged into court for breeching it, they are usually cautioned and no further penalty imposed.

The latest proposals include "Parenting Orders" which are supposed to force parents to discipline their kids, attend "parenting classes" and a range of penalties for parents who fail to control their children. Given that most are on benefit (second or third generation of benefit takers who have never worked many of them!) and could now be threatened with eviction from homes and so on, I predict that there will be an instant redress to rehouse in some other area as to refuse to do so would be a breech of the "Human Rights". Never mind anybody else who may be the victim of these abusive thugs - Blair and his cronies live in areas and places protected by regiments of security guards and police the rest of us don't have recourse to, so, as long as it's not on their doorstep, its OK.

But, wait, Shock! Horror! Our Illustrious Leader has also confessed that his elder children were smacked when small! Send in the Social Services Gaulieters! Haul him into a Family Court! Let's see him defend his party's attempt last year to criminalise parents smacking their children now! Ah, but he's given that all up now that he has a younger child and has "given up disciplining him!" Ah, so perhaps he now needs a "parenting Class"?

When you look carefully at the fine print in this latest piece of nannying, you quickly discover that future parents will find themselves under the close supervision of all the Politically Correct social workers, home visitors and midwives who must now supervise new parents, "educate" them in "correct" parenting and "parental responsibility". The fact that most of these people are "experts" in other peoples children, never having had time (or perhaps having the sense not to have) their own. I once had the dubious pleasure of having to discuss parenting with a woman young enough to be my daughter who held soime very definite views on how to bring up children - but had none of her own. All her "experience" came from her ideological brainwashing and from interfering in other peoples lives. This is the barmy army Blair plans to unleash on parents! This is how he plans to introduce State interference right inside that most impregnable place in English Law - private family homes!

Most amusing of all is his "fond remembrances" of the Govan home of his grandparents "where people had respect for their elders and betters". Really Mr Blair? Perhaps the backward looking Rose Tinted hindsight glasses are a little flawed. Govan a hundred years ago was rough, tough and shipbuilding navvy territory. Respect was due to the Gang Bosses and Foremen and to the Owners who paid the wages. Kids learned to respect elders - or get a smack around the ear or - literally - a belting across the rear end if they did not. Idylic it certainly was not - unless, like the Blairs you were in that comfortably well heeled bracket of Doctors and Lawyers with servants and enough money to buy respect!

The real problem which Blair and those like him seem totally unable to face, is that they and their toadies have taught, for the last forty years, that young people have to challenge everything and everyone. They have promoted the idea that "youff" is wise and burning with the desire to "modernise" and for "fairness". They simply cannot face the reality that children, like adults, need order. They need to know that their inexperience means that they have to learn from those who are older in order to avoid falling into the same traps. They need to learn where the boundaries are, what is permissable and what is not. If they are not taught this early, it is too late to try when they reach their teens!

So, now that Mr Blair and his cabinet of "ex-rebels" and "ex-Hippies" are the people in power, what is their vision for the future Britain? A workers paradise? Perhaps, but only if you have a vision of paradise that includes State interference and control in every facet of family and personal life. Watch this space, Soviet style Marxist/Leninism is not dead, Mr Blair and his cronies are introducing it here by stealth. He knows that he cannot win the already lost battle against the yobs, so now he is going to try, as he has done with his laws on homophobia, Islamophobia, "race hate" and "sexism", to bring in a legal requirement that people show "respect". The question is, respect for whom?

You may rest assured it will not be for the ordinary people of this country, it will be for Blair's yobs, Gauleiters and cronies. The rest of us don't count in this once green and pleasant land now firmly under the heel of the most oppressive collection of dictators since Cromwell's Puritans.

"Respect" will become yet another of the words this nasty little dictator has debased in our language, it will join "integrated", "modernising" and "institutionalised" in the collection of landmarks that mark his failures. Let us hope for another Glorious Revolution to throw these quasi-Presbyters and Puritans out of office forever!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 09, 2006

Oh dear, another of Mr Blair's little mistakes.

Our Illustrious Leader and his team of bully-boy ex-hippies have had the embarrassing experience - again - of having to confront the fact that they have seriously misled the public. This time the consequences may not be immediately apparent, but rest assured these will come home to bite, savagely.

The previous Home Secretary, against all advice but his "Special Advisers" and certain Chief Constables and a Commissioner of the countries, once, model police force, downgraded cannabis (marijuana, ganja, dagga or grass) from a Category B drug, possession of which could land you a nice spell "at Her Majesty's Pleasure", to a Category C. The argument was that this would reduce its appeal to the younger potential user and thus its consumption, and it would allow the police to focus on the harder drugs such as Cocaine, Heroin, Crack Cocaine and so on. A certain "Commander" of the worst affected area made it a policy statement even before it was legal - with the full backing of his Commissioner and all the Labour politicians - to "lay off cannabis" and focus on "encouraging" people not to use it.

Medics, especially those dealing with psychiatric ailments, were horrified! And rightly so, there is a huge amount of evidence which shows that far from being "harmless" the cannabinoids in the drug cause permanent changes in the brain. Even better there is a direct link between cannabis use and schizophrenia in young men and women. But it doesn't stop there either, anyone who has ever smoked cannabis is far more likely to suffer Clinical Depression than someone who has not. This is not "new" evidence as Mr Clark, the current Home Secretary is trying to present it, this evidence has been around since the 1950's!

Arguments that the cannabis smoked by young people today is "not as potent" and "more refined" are purest garbage. What is on the streets today is a genetically enhanced version of the most powerful strain available in Africa - and this stuff is really potent! But, even worse is the fact that there is now evidence that cannabis is a "gateway" drug. The evidence is slowly emerging (no one was really prepared to admit this before, but the evidence was there then!) that drug dependency almost invariably begins with cannabis use.

And the usage has not reduced as Mr Blunket claimed it would - it has soared!

When taken with the fact that almost every five pound note in circulation in London for more than a few days will give a positive result when tested for cocaine and you begin to see a truly alarming picture emerging. Drug usage is rising and rising fast, a fact born out by a newspaper reporter who used a commercially available test kit to take swabs in toilets, pubs and clubs across the capital - and 90% gave a positive result! Going soft on drug use has not solved the problem it has exacerbated it, something the Dutch are now admitting and having to try to reverse the liberalisation of laws on cannabis use!

Mr Clark's statement earlier this week that "they may have misled the public on cannabis in the light of the medical evidence now available to them" is disingenuous to say the very least, in fact its a blatant lie. The evidence was there all the time; they were presented with it when they first mooted changing the law, but, in their usual arrogant fashion brushed it aside. Now they are confronted with the reality they have a problem.

I am not so uncharitable as one of my colleagues who thinks that the original motive for attempting to legalise its use had more to do with "multiculturalism" and "granting freedom to the Rasta Brotherhood" of their "religious" use of "ganja" than common sense. I think it was just plain ignorance outweighed by complete arrogance.

Well, as Stan Laurel used to say to his friend; "here's another nice mess you've gotten us into!" The question Mr Blair and Mr Clark, is; "how do you propose to get us out of it?"

Answers in public please and in plain English, starting with "We have caused untold damage to the British Nation by our arrogant stupidity ...."

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:19 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 07, 2006

Creating a storm

I stumbled across a story recently that should sound warning bells for everyone in Europe and the Western world - particularly those who value what little we have left of freedom to express our opinions on a variety of issues. It seems to me to be a perfect case of over-reaction in every direction and one which highlights the idiocy of the advocates of politically correct meddling in some aspects of our lives.

The story begins in September with the publication by a Danish newspaper - quite a small one with a small circulation - of a series of twelve cartoons showing the Prophet Mohammed in a slightly less than complimentary light. Given that the total population of Denmark is no more than 3 million and the Muslim immigrant population is around 3% of that, you would think that most people would simply shrug their shoulders and that would be that. Not in this case.

The first problem is that the Koran (or Quran) expressly forbids any depiction of the Prophet. This is probably based on the sound principle that an image can very easily become an idol, so it has a practical purpose, but it is also taken extremely seriously by adherents of Islam. In fact there are a number of images of the Prophet available in Islamic countries, mostly commissioned by the Caliphs and Sultans who ruled most of the Muslim world for near on 1200 years. That doesn't stop the fanatics, though, from yelling "Jihad" and demanding that Denmark "punish" the cartoonists and the newspaper. Apparently even a "Fatwah" or two have been issued.

Eleven ambassadors demanded an audience with the Prime Minister, who refused and told them he was not about to interfere with his countries democratic principle of freedom of expression. That is where it starts to get out of hand, because Brussels jumped on the bandwagon and made some equally silly demands - which the Danes basically told them to poke somewhere painful. But, in parallel, the Islamic press has whipped up a storm about this "attack" on their faith and it has even resulted in a general strike - in Kashmir!

But, the teacup had not yet reached full blown hurricane, so - enter the UN with a demand that Denmark be investigated for "growing racism". Now we have a full blown hurricane, which could have been avoided if people of sense had simply taken the line of least said soonest mended. The cartoons probably are tasteless, but are they really worth a major international row? Are they really worth whipping up such a passion that we now have threats that a Jihad will be launched against anyone and everyone who dares to support the Danes on this?

One commentator asked how Christians would re-act to a blasphemous depiction of Christ, and went on to say that he knew of "no such assault on Christianity". Well, I don't know what planet he lived on when "The life of Brian" which even has the hero being crucified was launched. Or where he was when the "Da Vinci Code" was published. I certainly don't know where all the brouhaha is about some of the sillier depictions and jokes that float about with Christ as the butt of them. This is what is so very wrong with the entire political correctness agenda - it is hopelessly slewed by the lie that Islam is in some way the "victim" of Christian aggression. Given that whenever it is a Christian leader who complains the same bunch of PC morons in Brussels either ignore the complaint or pour scorn on it as being "counter to the EU's desire to be inclusive and put aside the wrongs of the past". Indeed.

Personally I am sick of this stupidity, it really is time for sensible people everywhere to say enough! You do have to wonder just how much of a fuss this would have caused if the Ambasadors had taken the trouble to write a polite note to the Editor of the paper concerned pointing out that they found this offensive and left it at that. What they have now is these cartoons on the internet and the world aware of just how silly their reaction looks.

An "own goal" if ever I saw one.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 31, 2005

Troubles downunder (or Upover if you prefer!)

I have often wondered if it is the heat that sets off certain bouts of public disturbance in communities. I noticed many years ago when I served in Southern Africa, that we always got real riots in the really hot weather, winter seemed to be to cool and wet - or at least tempers didn't get as heated. This often seems to be a feature here in the UK as well - riots tend to be more likely in heat than at this time of year when it is generally cold, wet and miserable.

Talking to Ozguru the other day I learned that they have been having quite a heatwave - around the Sydney area temperatures above 40* C for the most part. And, as many of you will be aware there have been some "troubles" in some parts, apparently sparked by "racial" tensions according to the news reports. Interestingly very few of the reports outside of Sydney actually mention what sparked them - a large group of young immigrant Muslim males who descended on the surfer beaches and harrassed the bikini clad women who frequent them. The surfers males responded by "teaching them to mind their manners" and things escalated from there.

Now I don't know about you, but if something offends me about someone else's culture - and there is a lot about several I have encountered that does - I recognise that I cannot change it - and avoid contact with it. In short, if I find the sight of young, shapely women in bikinis on a beach distasteful, I should avoid going to the beach! Thankfully, I do not suffer from such an exquisite sense of religious rectitude! I just wish I lived where I could enjoy the sights and the view!

It seems to me that the authorities in Australia now face a rather tricky problem. Do they surrender to the sensitivities of the Muslim minority immigrant population and ban the wearing of bihkinis on the beach? Do they perhaps ban mixed bathing and have "women only" beaches? Or do they do what anyone of any sense would do - call in the Mullahs and tell them bluntly, this is our country and our culture - if you want to live here, learn to live with it - or go back to whare you came from?

To complicate matters even further, there is a strong likelihood that many of the young men involved are born and raised in Australia and not in whatever part of the world their parents originated. Thus Australia is their country and their home. They too have a choice, live by the mores of their religion and accept the culture of their country is not in accordance with those mores, or go somewhere where they can live the mores and "enjoy" the sort of society and culture that goes with them - somewhere else. This is really the problem which lies at the very heart of the laudable attempts everywhere to embrace cultural diversity and to allow "multi-culturalism" to take the place of mono-cultural societies. The problem is that there will always be conflicts between them and a tendency driven by the purists on all sides, to retreat into ghettos of their own creation, to shut out the parts of the society they dislike, by building walls and fences instead of trying to find ways around the problems.

It would seem to me that the Australian "Beach Wars" could simply be a forerunner of a bigger struggle ahead in every country where "multi-culturalists" have tried to paper over the problems. Let's hope the Aussies find a solution which the rest of us can copy!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:48 PM | TrackBack

December 27, 2005

Signs of stress?

Over the last couple of weeks I have watched international news casts on the rising tensions in Sydney and other parts of Australia between various ethnic groups with some alarm. Not least because I know - indeed have "family" - people living in some of the areas which seem to be affected. At this distance it is sometimes a little difficult to get a handle on what is really going on, what underlies it, and what is being done about it. One news cast spoke of the police being given "special powers" to deal with riots. Given that they are armed and are generally pretty tough types (even for Australians) I would not have thought that they needed much more. But, as ever with politicians, now that they have "a situation" to deal with, they will undoubtedly meddle and make it worse.

The Australians - the original settler Australians, you know, the one's we Brit's shipped out there in the 18th Century - are a pretty tolerant lot. Their record on absorbing immigrants is, on the whole, pretty enviable, but there is now a situation where European immigrants are a minority - in fact the original "First Families" of Anglo-Saxon descent are now a minority in the country they built. This has been a deliberate policy decision by the politicians over there, to "encourage" Asian migration and discourage Westerners. As ever, when things get deliberately slewed in favour of one group or another, the outcome is resentment in whichever group considers itself to be disadvantaged. This is, in effect, what is fuelling tensions in Britain and the EU at the moment, as "positive discrimination" is encouraged by "targets" set by the faceless wonders who serve their political masters in capitals across the Western world.

As I understand it, the Australians have an additional problem, in that there are distinct tensions between Vietnamese immigrants and Cambodian immigrant communities. Add to this a large dosage of "Tong" involvement from the Hong Kong and other Chinese communities, a fully fledged Cambodian "mafia" and you have a recipe for "light blue touch paper and stand well back". In addition there seems to be a powerful group in Canberra whose guilt trip on "all white settlers are evil" and deprived the real Australians of their wealth, country and nation and you have a recipe for tensions being fanned into flame that could burn quicker than the legendary bushfires you get there.

Now, before I get accused of pontificating about the politics of a country I know only as a visitor and observer of the Australian lifestyle, let me make it clear that these are just my thoughts, assembled from observation and conversation over quite a period of time. It struck me rather forcefully that the malaise in "Liberal Western Politics" is not confined to any one country - the UK is a prime example of the sort of lunacy that is being forced on us all by well meaning ideologues who simply cannot accept that their burning desire to correct the "wrongs" of the past by meddling with the present and future, is not just compounding the problem, it is actively making it worse!

The last time I had the pleasure of visiting Australia I was amazed to discover that the politicians there have almost managed to create a new form of Apartheid for the Aboriginal population - who number some 300,000 in total out of a population of 17.5 million - by setting up a system which allows the Aboriginal population to "opt out" of anything they do not think fits with their culture. While I would never support the enforced separation of families and the policy of enforced adoption that was practiced there in the 1950's, I can see that the authorities were trying to bring the Aboriginal population into some sort of "mainstream" and to bring them into the 20th Century. It simply does not work to have two levels of civilisation occupying the same borders and my impression is that the Aboriginal "councils" have the power to stop major urban and industrial developments which are essential to power up the Australian econmy.

Coupled with that is the "positive" discrimination "immigration" policy, which has changed permanently the demographic profile of the population - as is happening in the UK - which is probably fuelling at least some of the tensions which have recently boiled over in Sydney. "Social Engineering" is one of the great evils of the 20th Century - it finds outlets in Hitler's "final solution", in "ethnic cleansing", in "apartheid", in "affirmative action" or "positive discrimination" - and all it achieves is to create a new set of disadvantaged players whose resentment boils over into violence against those they see as having been given an unfair advantage.

Above all, I hope that the Australians, one and all, new and old, can sort this out among themselves and at least make a start to working out a truly free and fair society, rather than one dreamed up by left-wing politicians for the sole purpose of entrenching left wing politics in power. That is the real threat to civilised society, not racial, ethnic or cultural differences, but the creeping imposition of left wing ideologues where they can distort the concepts of freedom and fairness to their hearts content without fear of ever being ejected from power.

Our society is under stress as never before - and it is largely due to the deliberate attempts to "engineer" it to create "fairness". You cannot force or legislate changes to attitudes or cultural differences, that road simply creates more anger and a hardening of attitudes. The only real soltuions in this are to create integrated societies where everyone has the right to succeed or fail on their own merits. No other society can work, certainly no society that tries to embrace cultures where bribes to officials to do their jobs can exist alongside one where bribing officials is not acceptable, is ever likely to succeed. That, unfortunately, si what has happened in many countries where the political masters have decreed "multi-cultural" societies are achievable. The result is that everyone finds themselves lumbered with the worst of all cultures - and conflict.

I am sure that time will bear this out, in the meantime, I hope and pray that the Australians can find a solution to their immediate problem and perhaps show "the rest of the West" how to manage this properly.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:35 AM | TrackBack

December 23, 2005

Education? What education?

The cracks are beginning to show in this sham government. Strangely over the attempts, half-hearted and, as usual, half baked, to repair the damage they have done to the education system with their years of denial that mixed ability classes and non-selection for schools has done. The cat is well and truly out of the bag when that complete ignoramus who cannot even string together two words to make an intelligible sentence, weighs in with the demand that the "Toffs" cannot have any privileges.

Lord, spare us this incurable moron!

The Comprehensive School system is fine for children of medium ability. It is useless for those of higher ability and absolutely useless for dealing with those who have difficulty adding up their fingers and toes. Add to this a lack of grouping of children in their appropriate ability ranges into different classes and you have a recipe for mediocrity and failure. The pupils who cannot keep up become disruptive or truants and disrupt the education for everyone else.

Not all of us can afford to send our children for extra lessons or private tuition as can every single member of that house of charlatans called the Palace of Westminster (all courtesy of the huge allowances they regularly vote to themselves at the taxpayers expense) or afford to send their children out of the borough in which they live to a better school, stripping places from the locals so their kids can get the education they deny everyone else. Yes, I do get hot under the collar about this as my children were prevented from taking places at the Grammar Schools in our home Borough, by the flood of Labour MP's kids sent in from the failing Boroughs all around us! They even took our council to court to demand they be given priority placement, something that also sticks very badly in the throat!

So, to have the bloated idiot who disgraces the title of Deputy Prime Minister and who has destroyed everything he has meddled with to date, now getting involved and threatening to lead a revolt against the reforms - half hearted though they are - is nothing less than proof positive that Blair is not in charge of a modern party at all. Rather, he leads a party of reactionary ideologues that is hell bent on dragging us back into some sort of Animal Farm scenario where the "Down trodden workers" can finally have control of the wealth that everyone else has denied them! The fact that half the problems now arising stem from the fact that the so-called Ministers these idiots have promoted are so far out of their depth that it is a wonder they have not yet sunk without trace.

Educational reform? Not likely under this shower so I wouldn't recommend holding your breath. Not until we hear of an ice age starting up in Hell.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:45 PM | TrackBack

December 22, 2005

Sleaze? Who, that nice Mr Blair?

Well, well, well. Our illustrious leader has been hiding his tracks again it seems. Having commissioned a report into ministerial kudos and perks, he apparently has sat on the report for over six months and is apparently about to act on its findings. Or is he? Well, actually, he's planning to ignore them - and abolish the sleaze watchdog body which blew the whistle on his government's sleazy activities.

Well, you surely didn't expect him to admit that his government has been the sleazyest ever did you?

No, in typical Labour Party fashion, having been caught out with their snouts firmly in the trough, they have taken the same action that the old Soviet regime would have taken. Trump up something on the messenger, suppress the report, dismiss the watchdogs and deny all impropriety. Taken with his behaviour over the Honours List - anybody who stumps up funds for the party or a nice little earner for any Labour apparatchik or their media campaigns gets a knighthood of a peerage - and his dismissal of the watchdog body that was supposed to guard against that behaviour, Mr Blair's 1997 election promises that his party would be whiter than white and more open, honest and upfront than any previous government is now exposed for what it is.

The biggest con trick anyone has ever seen. This is a party that is corrupt to it's core, hell bent on the Sovietisation of Britain and the destruction of everything that is decent in British Society. It is time they were thrown out on their ears and prosecuted for their abuse of our democracy and their blatant chichancery and abuse of the high offices they disgrace by their presence.

Time to go Mr Blair - and take your Civil Service placemen with you when you leave!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:30 PM | TrackBack

December 20, 2005

Crime under control?

I came home a few nights ago to find a fire burning in one of the row of garages where I keep my car. These garages are owned by the local Housing Association and there is a long waiting list for the "privilege" of renting one, an essential on an estate where the same housing association, pleading "legal obligations" insists on dumping all the families who have been moved out of other areas that they control the renting in because of the problems they cause. Quite a number of these garages are filled with abandoned scrap, several are known locally to be used as drug dens, one has people sleeping in an abandoned car in it, and the local youff gang has made a den in another. Who pays the rent you may ask, it seems that the Housing Associations records are so poorly kept that they only know who is actually paying for the ones in "regular" use and simply ignore the rest!

Anyway, the local yobs apparently decided to get rid of a stolen motorbike by burning it - inside one of the "ownerless" garages. Add a few scrap tyres, some petrol drained from the tank, some other bits of rubbish and we have the makings of a bit of entertainment for the local delinquents as everyone else rushes about trying to ensure that their property isn't destroyed. I arrived before it had become quite such a circus and did what I consider to be the right thing - I called the fire service. Someone then rushed up to me and shouted "Better get your car away from here there are petrol tanks in there!"

Well, being what I am, and staring, at that moment into the flames, I could see that the only tank in the blaze was on the bike itself, and the flames spouting from the fuel pipe at the bottom and the open filler at the top, told me that explosions were unlikely. I thanked the lady and continued feeding information to the Fire Control. About six minutes later - pretty good for a retained crew - two pumps arrived from the local station and dealt with the fire. In the course of this they opened the adjoining garages and discovered a second one all primed to go. The derelict car in it has had all its windows smashed, it had been filled with rubbish and primed - but obviously they either hadn't got round to lighting it when the first attracted attention, or planned to do it later to spread the fun a bit.

Now you would think that the police would be interested in this, but you would be wrong. The fire service requested a police attendance, and were told the police would not be attending. Given that the fire service had found evidence of drug dealing and use in both garages, one would think that they would be interested, but apparently not. The police don't seem to be interested either in the fact that the Abbey is now regularly under attack by these young hooligans, who break into the enclosure around the scaffolding on the South Transept and climb it to steal tools, tear things off and throw them at passers-by. They are also not interested in the vandalism happening all around us in the local parks where the rubbish bins have been smashed, burned and sign torn down. Or the children's play area which has been graffittied and some of the facilities destroyed.

The local residents know exactly who the perpetrators are, we see them at it regularly yet are powerless to stop them because they are "under the legal age of responsibility". In other words, if arrested, an army of social workers and do-gooders immediately descend on the police station and start slinging accusation of "heavy handedness" or "police insensitivity" - then the kids get a "caution" and wander off in search of more opportunities for their vandalism. For these kids, being arrested or being given a behaviour order by a court is a badge of honour. There needs to be a serious look at why being destructive, being protected from the responsibility for your actions and the sense that unacceptable behaviour is somehow worthy of sympathy or respect and should be allowed to continue!

In truth, the problem with these kids seems to be twofold. First there is the fact that most of them are from completely dysfunctional families. One or more of the parents and syblings are in jail or have "form" with the police. In short, there is not role model at home they can look up to with anything like respect - respect is for anyone who can beat the living daylights out of you if you cross them! Is it therefore any wonder that the only thing these kids respect is lawlessness?

The problem is compounded by the social workers who defend the bad behaviour and insist on keeping these brutalised kids in brutalising "homes". They should be made to live in the communities afflicted with them! The same goes for the many psychiatrists and psychologists who come up with medical mumbo-jumbo which legitimises this behaviour. "Attention deficit syndrome" is always a popular one - "they do it because they are seeking attention in a deprived background" is the most common argument. Tell that to the people whose lives are made a misery by having their homes spattered with eggs, garbage emptied in their gardens, sheds set on fire, hedges destroyed, gardens trampled. Tell it to the elderly folk who no longer feel able to walk to the shops for fear of the yobs they have to walk past on the way - yobs of 11 - 14 who think nothing of snatching purses or "jostling" "old fogeys".

"Attention deficit syndrome" is a fancy name for complete lack of discipline. The real root of the problem is that no one is attemting to do anything about it. The blame is passed to the parents and they are expected to deal with it - and most of them are not sufficiently intelligent or sufficiently capable of dealing with it anyway - they have problems of their own, either alcohol or drug related! It must be stressed that it is not the same as something like Asperger's Syndrome which is a well recognised condition in which a child may simply not have the ability to connect cause and effect. Children in this group are not that common and are usually very bright as well, whereas those in the "ADS" group are usually associated with broken or "damaged" homes and fall into the mid-range group of IQ levels. There is definitely a connection, in this group, between the "nurture" they don't receive at home, and the nature they develop for themselves!

This is one of those very tricky areas where someone, somewhere, is going to have to rein in the do-gooders and put in place a sensible regime which removes these children from the environment which has created the problem, and puts them through a corective regime which will address, if not cure, it. Simply advising the parents who have caused it in the first place is not an option.

The real problem is, as usual, that this one is far to hot a potato for our politicians to tackle. It is much simpler to blame it all on "society" and the victims "lack of understanding" of the needs of the criminally inclined. I wonder how much tax income is generated by the proceeds of the crimes these yobs commit? That will probably give us an indication of the likelihood of anything ever being done to put an end to it!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:18 AM | TrackBack

December 15, 2005

More Brussels power grabbing.

The average person in the UK is - or was - blissfully unaware of the fact that Brussels has managed, despite the rejection of the "EU Constitution", to sneak in it's grab for overall control by the backdoor. Well, we were in ignorance, that is until a series of leaks this week revealed the full extent to which our civil servants and the present government have surrendered power and control to the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

Even Prescott's famous "Regional Assemblies" were a part of the overall Brussels plan to break up strong "national" ties and replace them with puppet Assemblies which could be controlled by Brussels and Strasbourg. Anyone who thought that the vote rejecting the Constitution and the even more outright rejection of the "Regional Assemblies" in the North East would see an end to the matter should think again. Now Prescott and his bureaucrats have "appointed" their toadies to run "Regional Boards" - actually they did this sometime ago in anticipation of getting their way with the "Assemblies" - which are now slowly but surely assuming the powers of Regional Government by stealth. When next we look we will find that our Police services, Ambulances, Health care and Fire Services are all run by the Regional Board and not, as at present, by the Local Authority. Nor is this all, even the "great" Departments of State are slowly becoming mere agencies of Brussels. The Ministry of Defence has now all but surrendered control of our armed forces to the "European Defence Agency" and the Environmental Agency - supposedly answerable to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, is in reality an agency of the European Environment Protection Directorate based in Italy and answering to an EU Commissioner.

Our fisheries policies, agricultural policies, policing, judiciary and immigration is increasingly in the hands of the totally unelected European Commission and their poodles and not under the overpaid and worthless Ministers who pretend to control our destiny. In effect, thanks to Blair's obssession with being President of the United States of Europe one way or another, we, the British taxpayers and voters, are being effectively sidelined and disenfranchised. Our elected MP's, Local Councillors and despised civil servants are no more than frontmen for the real rulers - the Eurocrats in Brussels.

I suppose we should have seen this coming, it hasn't, after all, happened overnight. Quite what can be done about it now is a very open question. Certainly it does go a long way to explaining why Blair is so keen to stifle any debate and to hang onto power at all costs.

Ironic is it not, that the Carolingian Empire has been stealthily recreated, not by force of arms, nor even by force of persuasion, but by assimilation and deceit, both internally and externally. The one enlargement of that empire is the inclusion of the UK and of Denmark, both of which stood outside of the original Empire ruled by Charlemagne. He never succeeded in invading these isles or of penetrating into Denmark, but the bureaucrats in Brussels have achieved it with weazel words and empty promises.

Just proves the epithet - the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 07:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 14, 2005

Congratulations to the Fire Fighters!

The Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service deserves some plaudits - as do the many services who have contributed personnel, appliances, foam stocks and equipment to dealing with this blaze. These fires are never easy to deal with, sometimes you get lucky and can extinguish it quickly without getting other tanks, pipes and bunds involved, but not always. There is the ever present risk of further leaks, vapour ignitions or explosions - and there is an element of uncertainty about the contents of some tanks, how full they are or what the actual behaviour of the contents is likely to be.

In the Buncefield incident, I would suspect that almost all of the required fixed protection systems which the service would normally be able to use to assist in fighting the fire, will have been damaged or destroyed in the initial blast. That, in itself, makes fighting the fire a great deal more difficult since it means that personnel will have to be exposed to the heat and flames - and the risk of vapour ignition behind them as they advance - in order to put the necessary equipment in place to tackle it.

On this occassion, the service has had to take a step by step approach to fighting this fire, first setting up a containment system to ensure that nothing else joined the fun and that what was already on fire, didn't go anywhere else! While that is going on there is a need to assemble all the foam concentrate supplies needed for the attack and to ensure that all the equipment that will be needed is on site and can be deployed to where it will be effective. Once all that is in position, the attack an commence. You cannot start the attack until you have sufficient foam concentrate on site to ensure that once you start to pour foam you will be able to continue pouring until the last flame is dead. Any interuption can result in a "burn back" where the foam already applied is burned off and the fire jumps back to the start point.

In effect this means that, in order to successfully attack a fire like this you need a water supply that will not dry up or lose continuity and you need the quantities of foam which will enable a seamless pouring operation to commence, before any attempt is made to fight the fire itself. To put this in perspective, the water usage since the atack started has been 32,000 litres per minute. Put another way the fire fighters have thrown 32 tonnes of water a minute at the fire. To that must be added 2,000 litres of foam concentrate per minute (2 tonnes per minute) which must be fed into the water streams so the foam cannon and handlines can "pour" foam onto the surface of the burning oil.

One thing which has helped the fire fighting here is that the tanks do not seem - from the photographs - to have collapsed and so the fires are, at the present moment, still contained in the damaged tanks and are thus separated. This has allowed the service to attack along a perimeter and extinguish one area at a time successfully. Had any tank collapsed it's contents could have been released into a bund, threatening the collapse of any adjoining tanks by increasing the burning surface and thus the heat output from the fire.

Even so, the service has achieved a major success on this and deserve the congratulations of everyone for their achievement. Perhaps too, that fat toad who has, with his equally culpable civil service poodles, now leave well alone and stop the further reduction and destruction of a service whose members have performed this feat. Somehow I suspect only a fire of this magnitude in the heart of Whitehall will actually get the real recognition the service deserves from the denizens of Prescott's little empire at the ODPM.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 13, 2005

Hell on earth?

The fire at the Buncefield oil terminal is now being fought. It will take some time to put it out as the original explosion probably damaged the fixed protection systems, and the fire resulting from that will most likely have destroyed anything that remained functional by now. For interesting pictures of this fire - said to be the largest since the second world war - you need to visit the BBC's news site.

At a guess, the initial explosion seems to have been caused by petrol vapour igniting, but there remains some doubt as to where this had collected and what the source of ignition was. As is the nature of these things, it could be any number of initiators and the vapour could have been released from a number of sources and accumulated in the right mixture in some low lying area due to the unusually still air conditions and the low temperature. The bang when it ignited was certainly spectacular - look at the picture of a car apparently flung some distance from the site by the blast on the BBC site! There are claims that it was heard in Belgium and it is reported to have measured 2.4 on the Richter scale at the seismology recording station in London.

Spare a thought and a prayer now for the fire fighters who must now face the inferno and try to put it out. This will be a long, hard and very dangerous operation.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 04:00 PM | TrackBack

December 09, 2005

Immigration charades

Yet another revelation of the double standards practiced by our Ministers and their Whitehall poodles, the Civil Service. A leaked memo from the Home Office Immigration chiefs to all Immigration Officers at our Ports and Airports. Let through all the dodgy asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Don't stop them, don't check on them, encourage them to "disappear" while you look the other way.

Why? Because our "Detention Centres" are full of failed asylum seekers and until these have been "sent home" there is no room for anymore. Does Whitehall consider the obvious? Speed up the bureaucratic and vindictive pursuit of failed asyklum seekers (Frequently people like the Oxford Graduate woman who, after arriving here as a child aged 10 has taught herself English, succeeded in passing through the State School system and won a place at Oxford on merit) and expel them from the country? No, of course not. They instead opted for the easy option - simply open the floodgates and let anyone who wants in while they look the other way. This, of course, solves two problems at a stroke - first, it reduces the statistics on asylum applications to almost zero, and second, it allows them to claim that we no longer have a problem.

This is not the first time I have said this, and it probably won't be the last, but if any private individual, company director or manager behaved in this way on anything to do with the operation of any private concern - they would be charged under any one of a number of laws. Why then, is the Civil Service, in particular the Civil Servants who undoubtedly cooked up this fraudulent scheme, not treated in exactly the same way?

It is about time that those in Whitehall who sit in their plush offices at the expense of the taxpaying public, where made fully answerable for their actions and charged with offences when they order underlings to ignore or break the law. The fact that they are the architects of this debacle in the first place makes them doubly culpable and it is about time that they paid the price of their incompetent fraudulent behaviour.

Let's see justice done - for once, let's see a minister and his coterie of civil servants ignominously dismissed from their posts and stripped of their pensions into the bargain.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 07, 2005

Nice for some.....

Well, well, well. Our illustrious politicians have their fingers caught in the till again? Trying to sneak through a nice little package to give themselves a rather generous 22% pay rise - even if, as they vehemently protest, it would be spread over two years, it is still way too generous for a bunch of failed lawyers, businessmen and women and trade union organisers! They should pay us for the privilege of representing us, not the other way around!

Let's face it, boosting their already generous pay packages - an MP can claim the full "salary" plus a generous "allowance" which could total as much as £250,000 per year - to a new "high" of £72,000 per annum plus the full package of allowances, is really ripping the a**e out of the electorate. Not only do they get the most generous "pension" of any scheme on being thrown out of office - if we can persuade their usual "tribal" voters to rebel - but they have also had time and the opportunity to line up several nice "non-executive" directorships which pay rather handsomely and usually go on to offer their services to "lobbying" companies at generous fees to get these entree to the hallowed halls and corridors of Westminster and Whitehall! Most of them retire very well off indeed, never mind on the pittances they expect everyone else to survive on.

For a government that preached "moralism" and "fairness" in both the last two elections, this latest revelation is nothing less than proof that they are rotten to the core, interested only in feathering their own nests and to the devil with the taxpayers. At the next election we should insist on a health warning on all their posters -

Caveat emptor - let the voter beware!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 05, 2005

How many moons?

With crime rising and certain types of crime at an all time high, our new Lord Chief Justice has announced that "young" muggers should not be sent to jail. On the contrary, according to him they do not "intend" harm, and may simply be desperate! Two days after he published this latest piece of idiocy, we have seen two "young" men (one 17 and the other 24!) sent to prison for a racially motivated murder of a young black man whom they attacked for no other reason than his skin colour. Perhaps the Lord Chief Justice would have felt that they too, didn't mean any harm?

The two in question admit going out to "look for a fight". One claims not to have "intended" to kill. So that was why they took an ice axe with them? In summer? In Britain? They were obviously going to climb a convenient glacier in the local park with this impliment!

Thankfully the Judge who heard this case decided that they had intended to kill and that they deserved to go down for the mandatory "Life" sentence of 25 years. Sadly they will be out again on "License" in just over 12 while their victim and his family will really have the life sentence.

One is forced to wonder sometimes just what goes through the minds of our most senior judges. I have to say that I have come to the conclusion that they either do not inhabit the same planet or even the same universe/dimension as the rest of us. I'm sure that, wherever it is, it must be a fabulous place, peaceful, crime free, forever sunny and pleasant - and probably has more than one moon to light up the night sky!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 06:03 PM | TrackBack

December 03, 2005

Pension? What pension?

Lord Turner's report on the pensions crisis is finally published and, surprise, surprise, so much of it has been leaked already that it is almost a case of "what publishing date"? Equally, it does not seem to have so much that is radical about it - apart from a recommendation that every one should, by 2050, work until they are 68 or 69 before drawing their old age pensions. As by then I will be 110 I hardly think that this is going to have a radical impact upon me, but it will affect many of those currently entering the workforce.

One aspect that does seriously annoy me however, is the suggestion that every employee should in future have to pay a further 4% of income into a compulsory saving scheme "designed to provide them with a pension at retirement age". That is precisely what we are all already paying 12% of income in "national insurance" for! That "National Insurance" is supposed to fund the NHS, Pensions and that even greater economic "Black Hole" - the Social Welfare Blair and his cronies so love to proclaim as a "model" for everyone else.

The Turner Report proposes that everyone should contribute 4% of income, topped up by a further 3% paid by employers and 1% added from the Treasury. This is already done in National Insurance, since every employer pays an amount matching the employees contributuion into the NI fund. So, if we have 22 million workers all paying National Insurance, and let us assume that the mean average is £3,000 per person per annum (based on the Treasury's "average" National Income of £25,000 per annum) then the employers amount would be at least £3,000 per employee, making £6,000 per annum for each one of the 22 million employees. My calculator tells me that this means the Treasury is getting £132 million a year pouring into the Treasury's coffers. The real problem is that this is not enough to pay the NHS, bloated as it is with bureaucrats and Damagers who contribute nothing whatever to the delivery of medical treatment or care to the patients, indeed, it is they who create the waiting lists and whose cost has shut down wards, created a shortage of beds and is now closing hospitals. So, patently, the NHS cannot be funded from this sum.

Nor can the even more bloated "Benefit" industry run by the Department of Social Security and Pensions. Like the NHS a vast amount of money is spent on bureaucracy and paper shuffling intended to ensure that anyone classed as "rich" - ie: you own your own home or have a few pounds tucked away in savings of one sort or another - does not benefit from anything they have contributed too, while the layabouts and terminally dependent (and I am not counting Old Age Pensioners and the genuinely disabled among those) are kept in the manner to which they have been promoted by the likes of Blair and his henchmen. Ask only what the Chancellor means by "Means Testing" and you soon discover that the prudent and hardworking are excluded from almost everything they have paid for through their working lives, while Blair and Brown's feckless supporters milk it for everything they can get.

Even allowing for the fact that the amount I have used as a rough guestimate will have been considerably lower than that in the first years of it's inception, had it been invested, we would not have the present crisis. Instead it has always been treated by the tTreasury as simply another element of the overall "tax" income taken from hardworking people to fund the lifestyles to which our Bureaucrats have always been accustomed. In short its name is a total misnomer and it is simply a form of income tax which has nothing at all to do with paying our pensions, the NHS or the Social Security it is supposed to be funding. It cannot, it is not invested, it does not earn interest or generate income, it is simply money poured into the economic black hole that is Whitehall.

If Lord Turner's suggested 4+3+1% was invested in a Trust Fund that was Treasury proof, I might consider this a good idea. As it stands, if it is to be collected and administered by the Treasury, it is nothing more than another tax on incomes and should be rejected out of hand. It is the Treasury and its refusal to invest money for the future, and the politicians who see every pot of money coming into "their" hands as a cash cow to be squandered on whatever scheme is flavour of the Budget, who have created this disasterous situation, but you will notice that they have not been required to reduce their very lucrative and entirely non-contributory packages to provide "fair" and "affordable" pensions for anyone else!

This is a thorny issue to be sure, and it will not be resolved by politicians or their aparatchik civil servants unless they have the courage to grasp the very simple point that you cannot take £8 billion a year out of the incomes generated by invested pension contributions in the private sector and still expect them to pay their pensioners. You cannot take money from today's contributors to pay today's pensioners and still expect to be able to pay those whose contributions you have taken today and spent today, the pensions they have paid for tomorrow! If you or I tried this trick in a private venture we would very soon be enjoying Her Majesty's hospitality in one or other of the overcrowded jails our judges like to fill with middle class types who dare to defend themselves when attacked by Blair's yob voter constituency. Perhaps that is the solution, let's bring the government and the Treasury officials who are responsible for this state of affairs to court on charges of false representation, misfeasance and fraud, for that is precisely what it is - on a national scale! And we need to acknowledge that it is not just that crew, because this is the same situation which has arisen in Local Government pensions - particularly the Fire Service Pension scheme - and in many "private" schemes where the money has never been "invested" to provide income for payment of pensions, but has been used instead to fund road building, parks, gardens, schools and probably a few things that, if looked at critically, could be very dodgy indeed. Nor is it just this government or Party that is guilty of this, it is every political party who have subscribed to this and misused the money in this way. They are all guilty of misfeasance in respect of the way that they have managed the pension scheme they are supposed to have set up.

It is no good their complaining that people live longer, or that they retire too early, the real bottom line is that they have stolen the money - rather like that other great supporter of "New" Labour, Robert Maxwell - and spent it on things they felt would attract votes, now the pigeon has come home to roost the last thing any of them want is to have to acknowledge that it is they and they alone, who are responsible.

The only problem is that, as usual, it is the hardworking who will now have to work longer and pay more into a fund, which, if it is not set up in an entirely different way from the start will be in equally poor state long before Lord Turner's target date of 2050!

I predict that nothing will change except the retirement age - and that is likely to rise to 70 before long and perhaps even further to 75 - and those who have paid into these funds all their working lives will eventually find that they are not entitled to the benefits under the Chancellor's "Means Test" criteria, because these will be set to exclude anyone he considers "rich", that is anyone who owns anything, has any savings and pays tax!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 30, 2005

Crime, punishment and rehabilitation

The UK's jail population is once more in the news with the usual band of whinging liberals wringing their hands over the "overcrowding" and "lack of facilities" for "rehabilitation". While I have some sympathy for those affected by having a partner or parent in jail, we do seem to lose sight of the fact that most of those in this position are there because they seem to be pathologically unable to recognise the fact that they do not have a right to take what is not theirs, beat up anyone they dislike or to kill someone for their skin colour, sexual orientation or any other "provocation".

Listening to a spokeswoman for the usual bunch of "youff" criminal protectionistas, the SPCC - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, but increasingly seemingly the Society for the Protection of Child Criminals or even the Society for Promotion of Child Criminality - having a parent in jail is the major cause of 61% of our "youff" becoming criminals themselves. It never seems to enter into these airheads vacuum filled crania that there might be a combination of abusive "home" life (something they seem to insist is to be preserved and perpetuated despite its patent clash with their proper title!), the influence of their criminally inclined syblings and peers and possibly even a genetic defect or link. All of that would mean ditching all the psycho-babble they have mouthed since the advent of Dr Spock's now discredited book on child rearing which he himself admitted never having followed!

The result of this constant fear of punishing the guilty is all to plain to see, the jails are full, yes, but if you look at who is in them, a large proportion are there for "crimes" that include driving too fast, non-payment of council tax and similar examples of "middle class" crime. Murderers, burglars, muggers and the like are out "on license" or on bail or wearing the electronic tags that allow them to carry out more murders, robberies and muggings! Yes, it is scandalous that we have such a high jail population, it is even more scandalous when you realise that this is a direct result of leniency and tolerance of criminal behaviour among children from an early age. Think only of the two boys who murdered little Jamie Bulger. They are now comfortably resettled under new identities - some say in Australia - and free to live their lives in anonimity or to commit even more crimes in future.

This despite the fact that several assessments of both of these "boys" in their time in jail recorded the fact that one in particular was manipulative and violent tempered. The other was a gullible follower. I have some sympathy with the second of those tow, but experience recently in my own community of having to deal with out of control children of the first sort tells me that it is merely a matter of time before we see as horrific an event as the killing of littel Jamie played out again by a group of "children".

Building more jails may not be the answer, but perhaps sentences which mean a severe loss of freedom and which are commensurate with the crime, locking up the really criminal instead of the minor offenders who haven't paid parking fines, skipped council tax or have offended some "moralist" law against calling a spade a spade. That, and a realistic look at what drives our youth into crime without dragging in all the 1960's garbage about pampering and coddling. Let's get real, life is tough, it isn't a perfectly safe environment and never will be, we have to take some knocks and learn some lessons the hard way.

Maybe the jail population figures are telling us we have the whole argument wrong on crime, punishment and rehabilitation. Maybe we have gone to far down the road of excusing bad behaviour and rewarding it. Maybe its time to teach by punishing it again.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 28, 2005

Pensions and politics ....

Our wonderful government has done it again. They don't like the content of the report that they commissioned from Lord Turner - one of their own supporters - so they leak a whole slew of memos to the sympathetic press trashing its contents before the report is even published. Then they rush out all the usual liars to "brief" the press on how the Commission has "exceeded its brief"! Well, given their track record thus far, I suppose we should not be in the least bit surprised. I suppose we should simply be grateful that they haven't used some attrocity committed by one or another group of terrorists somewhere to "hide bad news".

I will confess that I have a personal interest in this debate. I retire next year on a pension that will not pay my mortgage, so I will have no option but to work until I drop. One thing I am absolutely determined on, is that it will not be for the present shower of complete incompetents that I currently have to answer to. Further, I can see several battles ahead as the funds I transfered into my present pension fund, have been "revalued" by them several times - always downward. Each time I have fought them on this and each time it is resolved only to have them "lose" the resolution conveniently with all record of the funds transferred in at some future point so that I have to fight the whole damned battle again! Always with a slight loss of the ultimate benefit.

None of this is helped by the Chancellor's ongoing raid on all pension funds which is stripping some £8 billion a year from the hard pressed funds - and he still has the gall to tell us we should invest more so he can steal more. This crisis is almost entirely the result of stupid and incompetent management who did not invest the workers contributions wisely, if at all, so when the stock market went bad on them, they threw good money after bad to the point that many funds have collapsed entirely. And then Gordon Brown and his thieves decided to tax the earnings of pension funds and stripped what remained.

You will notice, just in passing, that those parasites who occupy the Palace of Westminster have got their own pensions stitched up a treat. Index linked, non-contributory and you only have to "work" 10 years to get the full two-thirds final salary benefit! The rest of us have to put in 40+ and contribute to funds that have never been invested or have been so badly managed we will be lucky to get a damned thing - but Parliament is the body that decides how much we can have and now when we can have it. I will feel a little less aggrieved about this when I see them having to take a cut in their perks and benefits, pay the full tax on it all and have to put in as many years under incompetent and ignorant managers as I have.

A reasonably simple calculation tells me that if Parliament had to accept a pay freeze for the next ten years and pay the full tax on all their earnings and the "perks" - like an allowance equal to a second salary for "expenses" - this would be equal to around £20 per pensioner and there would be no need to raise the pension age as the Chancellor is now insisting is necessary. Another simple action would be to remove the tax the Treasury has imposed on pension funds. This would inject £8 billion straight into the funds, which, if properly managed and invested would go a long way to paying proper and reasonable pensions to those who have paid into them for their working lives.

I recently made enquiries to see what I would have to invest in order to draw a two thirds final salary pension after only ten years investment. It amounted to almnost two thirds of my current take home pay. Let's see our parliamentarians and their hanger's on do that, then perhaps I will consider their fat-cat pensions to have been earned. Untill then, they can damned well keep their mouths shut about anyone having to make "sacrifices" to pay for a problem entirely of their making.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 18, 2005

Tommy Atkins

Kipling's poem, written around the end of the 19th Century, has perhaps never been so apposite as in the present age of anti-military, pro-bureaucrat denigration of anything and anyone in a uniformed and professional service. This was brought home to me very forcibly on Remembrance Sunday, the 65th Anniversary of the end of hostilities in the second World War, as I watched the veterans filling the Abbey nave.

This year, for the first time ever, there were no services units on parade. Why? Because under this and successive previous governments, the armed forces have been cut back and cut back to the point where the only way we can now meet out international commitments is by sending the Territorial Army units. That's right, the part-timers are now being sent to do the work which used to be done by the full time professionals.

Do they get any credit for this? Not a lot. Kipling tells the story very well. This government and its cloud of "peaceniks" have failed utterly to recognise the truth of the statement:

"Si vis pacem, para bellum"

If you seek peace, prepare for war.

Of one thing we can be very sure, you will not find a single pen-pushing civil servant lifting their well padded rear ends out of their comfortable office chairs (£1,500 each chair in the MoD) or a single politician putting his or her neck on the line in any future war. Their secret weapon? When they run out of troops, ships and aircraft, they will simply change sides and enjoy the benefits of being good little workers for their new masters.

It was ever thus.

TOMMY
by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:26 PM | TrackBack

November 10, 2005

Beginning of the end?

The defeat, last night, of Mr Blair's attempt to railroad legislation through Parliament, is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak political landscape. The size of the defeat suggests that more than sixty of his own party voted against him on this, so perhaps they too, have finally woken up to the fact that Blair and his cronies have been abusing our democracy - nay, have been destroying it - and have now sent a signal saying "enough"!

Well, we can all live in hope.

Watching him squirm as he tried to pass the defeat of his much vaunted draconian legislation for detention without trial, I will confess to a feeling of satisfaction. At last some of this government's less than honest activities are being exposed. It may well be that the Police would like to be able to detain suspects without trial for up to ninety days. There is a very strong case for it even, but most of us are very uncomfortable about the lack of judicial scrutiny of it. Even more are very uncomfortable about the apparent control it would hand to a very small group of police officers and civil servants to decide who, where, how and for how long someone could be detained. As the late Pastor Niemoller wrote, "when they came for the Jews, I did not speak out, because I wasn't a Jew". Following through to "when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up for me!" Blair and his Thought Police should take careful note - Parliament has, for once, spoken on the concerns of the real moral majority, not the readers of the Sun or any of the other Rupert Murdoch controlled mouthpieces for Labour.

The truth is that this is not the beginning of the end for Labour or for their attempts to steal democracy and turn this into a one party state in all but name. Those of us who grew up in the Apartheid years under the South African Nationalist Party recognise the signs all to well. You change the electoral boundaries, create new "urban" constituencies and break up the oppositions "safe" seats, lumping these in with "safe" constituencies of your own and build in an unassailable majority while preserving the appearance of "free and fair" elections. You don't have to stuff the ballot boxes if you adjust the constituencies to ensure that you always have a majority of "safe" seats. Oh, and you stuff the Civil Service with people who are "natural" supporters of your policies.

Sadly, all that will happen if Blair goes, is that Brown will step up to the plate and take his place. Many of us suspect that Brown has been the Puppeteer and Blair the Puppet for some time. Who knows, he may even choose to install another Puppet - after all, he wants to preserve his image of success, so have someone else do the failing for you.

What we can all hope for is perhaps best summed up by this countries most famous 20th Century leader, Sir Winston Churchill. This may not be the beginning of the end, but it may well be the end of the beginning. Let us all hope and pray that it is!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 08, 2005

Pigeons and other droppings ....

The government is obviously very embarrassed by the publication of our former Ambassador to the US's biography on his time serving Mr Blair. If not, they should be. As usual, we have all the top Civil Servants covering their rear ends and howling about "confidentiality" and "impartiality" but, frankly, they are as much a party to the mess the country is in, as Blair is. And the sooner it all comes out into the open the better.

What is particularly silly about the Civil Service's bleating on this is that the Ambassador did take the usual steps and sent a copy to the Cabinet Office for approval to publish - and the Senior Civil Servant himself passed it for publication! Are they now saying he didn't read it first?

The whole system is rotten to the core with nepotism and cronism. Everyone in the system is dependent on the guy above him giving him (or her!) a hand up the ladder. Keep their noses clean and no matter what the electorate thinks, they all move up the chain and impose more and more nonsense upon the populace. Let's face it, the revelations in the Ambassador's book are almost a side show to the latest ruling from the Inland Revenue on their arrogant and completely avoidable error! They now want to claw back the £4 billion they overpaid to recipients of Mr Brown's overly complicated system of "Tax Credits" - something unnecessary that replaced Child Allowances and Family or Married Persons allowances - with the result that many are now genuinely in hardship - because the Civil Service has screwed up and refuses to use common sense. Worse, they have also ruled that while British Citizens are liable for repaying this, immigrants wrongly paid it - and overpaid it - don't have to pay back a single penny, because this would be discriminatory!

It gets even better when the Home Office writes to a Victim Support Group who organise a Carol Service in St Martin's in the Fields and order them to arrange another venue because the Carol Service in a Church is "too Christian". The Tax Office (Inland Revenue) is also at it, ordering employees not to donate gifts to a charity that distributes these at Christmas to needy children - because the Charity is "too Christian". Even better, when called to explain this, their Great Panjandrum pronounces that "it was the Trade Union" that requested this! Really? And just how many moons circle the planet he inhabits I wonder?

How can a Carol Service be anything other than Christian? Don't these morons realise that no other Faith sings Christian Christmas carols? Perhaps that is the problem, they simply have no understanding of any religion other than their own invention - the Great Guru of Whitehall, All Seeing, All Powerful and All Pratt!

Mr Blair and his cronies now stand exposed to the criticism of someone close to the centre in their early years of power, someone who knows what they have screwed up. One thing is very plain, since this government took power it has increased direct interference in the private lives of every individual without any thought to the consequences. At every turn they play the fear or the safety fear card - another example of bankrupt arguments from this mornings news - a Minister and "Child Protection" campaigner arguing that if parents were to be told whenever their teenage daughters had abortions it would result in deaths, injuries and "back street" abortions. The same tired argument they used twenty or more years ago to allow doctors to hand out the Pill to pre-teens.

Parents control is increasingly undermined and brushed aside - look no further than Norfolk where the Social Workers have decided that a couple are "not intelligent enough" to have children - and the rights of children are regarded as more important than those of the people whose lives these irresponsible and morally deficient garbage mongers are destroying. It is their efforts which have now undermined every "value" on which our society is based, the have torn apart the very fabric of the family, deprived parents of any control over their offspring and they have the effrontery to be amazed when youth crime goes through the roof, teenage pregnancy keeps rising and parents simply give up even trying to control their offspring. Attempting to do so is likely to land you in a "Family Court" charged with abuse and tried on the flimsiest evidence by a bunch of Social Services Gauleiters and their poodle judges.

These "Family Courts" are a blot on the democratic traditions and on our legal system, wide open to abuse, manipulation and secretive in the extreme, anyone charged in one may as well take the advice over the door to Hell - "Abandon hope all ye who enter here"! You certainly will not find justice in one, nor will you find truth - especially if it is a Social Worker giving evidence against a parent! These courts are not subject to public scrutiny - "in the interests of the children" - and their proceedings fly entirely in the face of the precepts of justice. But don't expect Blair or any other of the denizens of Westminster or Whitehall to change them.

As the society in which we live becomes less and less "free", as Whitehall's tentacles reach deeper and deeper into all our personal and private lives, we need to worry about the future of this country and its people. We need to take heed of the rather dire purview of the present Astronomer Royal in his book, "The Final Century", and we need to think very carefully about where we are headed. Westminster and Whitehall are spiritually bankrupt, and in my book, that makes them morally deficient as well. While I would never wish to see a return to government by the likes of Cromwell and his Presbyters, or by fundamentalist religious people of any religion, I do expect the government to leave my Faith and my personal morality alone.

I suspect that the riots in France will be used as an excuse to impose more of this "secularist" garbage upon us, that it will be seen as another "frightener" in order to drive yet more Political Correctness on us and impose more restrictions on Christian worship, preaching and freedom - while handing out extra "freedoms" to attack Christianity to Islamists, Atheists and anyone else with an axe to grind.

Perhaps it is time to take the advice on the Bumper Sticker I saw in the US - "Beam me up Enterprise, there's no intelligent life here!"

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:38 PM | TrackBack

November 03, 2005

Is it just me that sees the humour in this ....

I must admit that my funny bone is always tickled by irony - even when it is against me. This time it isn't, and I am finding myself chortling at the news that the editor of the Sun (a newspaper that includes highlighted words in its text so that their readership can pick out the message without actually reading it) who is also a militant feminist and campaigner against domestic violence against women, is currently in a cell in London for assaulting her husband.

If this isn't irony at its best then I am not sure what is! After all, the lady(?) is supposed to be the one at risk here, but her husband (an actor in the TV soap "Eastenders") is sporting a split lip following an altercation between them to which the police were called at 04.00 this morning. Who started it and why it came to blows we will probably have to wait to hear - the Sun is itself being remarkably circumspect about the whole thing - but I'm sure the Mirror or another of the equally opportunistic tabloids will dish all the dirt later!

I try very hard not to be vindictive, but I do find myself having a little lightness of mood whenever someone from the press, who never spare anyone else's character, are themselves revealed as flawed and no more saintly than the rest of us. Revenge is mine says the Lord, but sometimes I think He just allows His sense of humour to have free rein - after all, it has the same efect as the proverbial lightning bolt and is much more educational as the target ends up having to live with the exposure!

I wonder if the Sun will continue to support Labour and be a mouthpiece for their propaganda after this? Probably, after all, humiliation is not something with which Politicians and their minions are very familiar. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the laugh.

Thank you for the ray of sunshine in Fortress Wapping!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 08:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 02, 2005

A peep behind the false facade?

So Mr Blunket has resigned. I wonder how long it will take for him to be re-appointed to the cabinet this time? A few months maybe? Or, will he, like Mr Mandelson - Labour's "Eminence grise" - find himself rewarded by a lucrative little number in Brussels?

Considering that this government came to power on the promises that they were "squeaky clean" and have so far managed to bully, lie and otherwise obfusticate about every single thing that could possibly show them in a bad light, it is remarkable that they have managed to hide the dirt for this long. If Mr Blunket has been working for government contractors and buying shares in them, how many others are in the same boat? Mr Blair and his party spent most of the last Conservative government's years in office screaming "sleaze" at every opportunity, but, now that they are in power, have made sure that they have their placemen in the BBC, in the mass circulation press and in all the media agencies. The result is that no one dares to speak out about the Labour Party's dirty linen in the same way they eagerly pounce on the slightest misdemeanour by a Conservative.

As Dr Goebbels proved (and as Mr Campbell, Blair's media mastermind has practiced) if the truth is damaging, tell a lie, the bigger the lie the more likely it is to succeed as few, if any, will seek to confirm it. Even better, selective truth and misinformation is even more believable by the gullible, because the verifiable parts tend to hide the untruths. If you want to stifle any debate, shout abuse based on half truths, lies and urban myths - most effective of all, label the doubter a Bogeyman. Thus, anyone who questions "affirmative action" or multi-cultural shibboleths, is instantly labelled a neo-nazi or a Fascist.

The present facade behind which Blair and his apparatichiks hide the creaking and rather repugnant mess that is the Labour Party is slowly starting to give way. The sooner it collapses and falls away the better. Then, perhaps, the public at large will begin to realise that it has hidden lying about everything on a monumental scale; town halls run on nepotism, bullying and outright gerrymandering; misfeasance on a scale that would land anyone else in jail and a cynical manipulation of the truth that would have had Pinnochio looking for a low-loader to carry his nose.

For too long now, this band of misfits and maladroits have hidden the rotten stench of the corruption at the very heart of the Labour Party behind the flashy smiles and the glitzy presentation of the leadership. Like all facades attached to a clapboard concoction however, it does not refelct the true structure - and it is eventually peeled away. Alternatively, someone walks around the back and sees the decay.

Let us hope that somewhere there is a D9 bulldozer warming up in preparation to pushing this entire rotten edifice and all its creators straight into a rubble pit. It cannot happen soon enough!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:35 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 31, 2005

Take care motorists, splashing a workman could land you in court!

Our hard pressed police are hard at work driving down crime and pursuing real criminals - motorists! In what must be one of the stupidist and most pointless prosecutions of recent months - I can't go further back than that without finding something equally petty - a police force (and our equally worthless Crown Prosecution Service which probably couldn't successfully prosecute a real criminal if they found one) have just spent £5,000 prosecuting a motorist who drove through a puddle in the road and splashed two council workmen with the water.

Unfortunately for him, our ever vigilant police saw the incident and followed him for a further two miles, no doubt checking to see if he went through any more puddles, before pulling him over for "driving in an inconsiderate manner". Enter the CPS, who decided to prosecute this man who freely admitted that he had driven through the puddle, qualifying it by saying that he could not drive around it because of on-coming traffic. The Magistrates evidently decided that his driving deserved censure, because they have fined him £150 and awarded three penalty points on his license, stating that he should have stopped and waited until it was safe to drive around the obstruction. No one seems to have taken account of the fact that the oncoming traffaic stream was almost continuous and that this would have caused problems for other motorists behind the first one - who was almost certainly not the only one to go through the puddle!

Yet again it seems that our "justice" system is more interested in persecuting motorists for daring to drive their cars, than it is about dealing with the criminals who make life misery for law abiding citizens. When do we hear of the police pursuing someone who has smashed a woman drivers window and snatched her handbag, briefcase or other valuables from the seat beside her? Or of them pursuing someone who has just car jacked - often violently and with a weapon - some motorists car? What would the Magistrates do if they did? Probably let them out on bail, or, if they did decide to hear the case, give them a "community service" sentence so they can carry on car-jacking.

If ever there was an example to be found of the police being too busy hounding motorists to go after real criminals, this is it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 05:15 PM | TrackBack

October 26, 2005

An admission of failure? Surely not Mr Blair!

The announcement by our esteemed Secretary of State for Education, that her illustrious Party of champagne socialists and closet Marxist/Leninistas has yet again stolen something from the Conservative Party's repertoire, must surely be an admission that their sixty years of espousal of non-selective education is the disaster everyone else has been saying it is for years. What a pity that politicians seem to be genetically deficient in one vital area which is so important. They seem to be congenitally unable to say "sorry, we had that wrong!"

Perhaps this should be registered as a form of serious disability. It seems to be a universal feature of political animals everywhere I go, so I can only assume that it is something in the genes that causes otherwise nice and seemingly intelligent individuals to become politicians and immediately suffer a loss of common sense, decency and this all important ability to admit a fault. The ex-Labour MP, George Galloway seems to be a classic example of this - he is right and the rest of the world is wrong, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

The announcement in the Commons today that the government is planning to re-establish, sorry, re-invent, Grant Maintained Schools, releasing them from the constraints of the idiots who infest Local Authority Education departments everywhere, is a breathtaking piece of effrontery. After all, it was this shower of ideologically deficient morons who destroyed the Grant Maintained system in 1998 and who have, for sixty years now, screamed "discrimination" at the very mention of any suggestion that children learn better when in groups of the same ability. So we have suffered, and some children have had their educational opportunities destroyed, by the nonsense of "mixed ability" classes with the pace of progress dictated by the lowest IQ in the class, who was usually also the most disruptive!

Not unsurprisingly, the teachers unions have all come screaming out of the woodwork to condemn any suggestion of selective "streaming" or, indeed, of any form of parental choice or of the school actually having control of its admission policy, its curriculum or the nurturing of the brighter children. Heaven forbid that anyone should be seen to be brighter, or to be given a slight leg up in a world which runs, as it always has, on nepotism and the old boy network. Let's be honets here, the contacts one makes at school do have a major impact on the rest of your career - you will certainly have far better connections if you attend a private school such as Winchester, rather than Mr Blair's "bog standard" Comprehensive in Lewisham or Islington! Teachers should be in favour of ability selectivity, it makes their lives a heck of a lot easier if they have only to deal with a group who are all at more or less the same level of ability - dealing with a class which has both ends of the ability range is nightmare territory - it's damned difficult to soar with the intellectual eagles if you are lumped in with the intellectual turkeys! Only those who favour mediocrity in all levels of society could possibly see selective grouping for education as a threat.

This is the problem at the very heart of Socialist ideology. It assumes that the Biblical truth that they have so effectively divorced from its real meaning, that, "in the eyes of God, all men are equal", and spun it instead into a twisted version that "all men are of equal ability" and it is only "disadvantage and privilege" that prevent all from reaching their full potential. Any but the ideologically blinded can see at a glance that this is a patent nonsense - we are not all of equal ability. I am certainly no musician, no matter how hard I try, but I am able to do things my musician friends cannot. It does not diminish any one of us, rather our gifts compliment each others. I enjoy their skill in music while they enjoy the protection my work affords them and their wider audience.

Much as I despise this government and their chicancery, I am relieved to hear them at least tacitly admitting that the education system they have created must change, and must change to address the need to recognise that we all have different ability levels in different areas of life. Only when we rid ourselves of the last vestiges of this idiotic assertion that children of widely mixed ability can all learn at the same pace in the same way in the same environment, will we be able to create an education system worthy of the name.

The most worrying aspect is that Blair has declared he will step down soon, and his erstwhile successor is an avowed defender of the current disasterous system - despite himself being the beneficiary of the Public School (that means a Private and very expensive school for those outside the UK) system himself. I rather suspect that he will be unable to resist reversing this policy as soon as he seizes the reins of office from Blair.

Even if Brown doesn't wreck this policy, I rather suspect the Civil Service will ensure that it is watered down and restricted to ensure that they retain control despite what the public want. We shall have to wait and see whether there is any substance to this, or whether it is merely another bit of "spin" for the punters by this government of intellectually bankrupt charlatans.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:19 PM | TrackBack

October 24, 2005

The multi-cultural myth

If one believes the promoters of "multi-culturalism", it is supposed to create an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect. It is supposed to defuse and remove forever, the problem of racial bias and hatred. That is why the government have squandered millions on promoting the rights and cultural superiority of so many ethinic minority groups over the "native" culture of the UK. So, if this is what it is supposed to do, why have we had two nights of rioting in Birmingham between Afro-Caribbean community members on one hand and Asian community members on the other? Don't they live in harmony? They share a section of the inner city and are both "oppressed" and "under represented" minorities as our political leaders so frequently tell us. Why are they embarking on such a course of enmity?

Partly, I would suspect, because the promotion of multi-cultural ideals has meant that communities are now retreating into small, isolated cultural ghettoes, making it much easier for psychological barriers to be erected between groups and to promote perceptions of "injustice". Taking just one aspect, the Asian community appears, on the whole, to be in better paid jobs than their Afro-Caribbean counterparts. This makes it easy, when there is a suggestion of discrimination, to promote the idea that Asians get a better deal. Look around at the evidence of this - as the communities do not mix either culturally or socially at any but the most basic levels such as work or trade, there is a complete lack of understanding between the groups. To an Afro-Caribbean from the poorer end of the social scale (or to a caucasian from a UK lineage!) Asian businessmen often seem arrogant, aloof and influential. This creates resentment, and resentment breeds distrust. Thus, it becomes extremely easy to introduce a mythical rape of a teenager from the supposedly disadvantaged group - and spark a riot when the MP for the area (an Asian as it happens in Birmingham) arrives and tries to deal with the problem by making political platform speeches about multi-culturalism which do not address the problem.

It really is time to take note of the dangers this "separate development" of "cultural integrities" poses. Even the Commission for Racial Equality is now wondering about the wisdom of this ideology. What is plainly evident is that it fuels distrust of "other groups", it promotes disengagement between groups and it creates a feeling of alienation for all those affected by policies of "positive discrimination".

The flare-up of violence in Lovells Road over the weekend, should be a wake-up call to politicians of all shades on opinion. It is time to stop promoting "difference" and to adopt a more pragmatic and sensible approach which will see integration and closer understanding between groups. Discrimination on any grounds is unacceptable, isolationism leads only to distrust and abuse and should be resisted by all sensible people.

If we do not, the events over the past weekend, could well become the future prospect for racial conflict. I sincerely hope it will not be, but we must get the politicians to acknowledge that this ideological nonsense has failed - and to find common sense ways of moving forward to proper fairness, dignity and opportunity in an integrated and racially diverse nation.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 15, 2005

Is there a connection perhaps?

The government is wrestling with an interesting conundrum at present. Crime rates are apparently dropping, but the population of our prisons has gone up sharply. And all our lovely civil servants and their Political Masters are agonising over the question; why, if crime is down, are there so many people in prison?

Could it be that we are locking up pensioners by the score for daring to refuse to pay unjustifiably large increases in property tax that is inflating the prison population? Or could it possibly be, that with all the criminals in jail, there are actually fewer crimes being committed? Perhaps the crime rate is down because the victims are all in jail and the criminals aren't reporting their activities? Or perhaps its all the pensioners who are criminals and their activities are now curtailed because they are in jail?

Or is there a simpler answer that Mr Blair and his Cronies refuse to admit - that crime is down because the criminals are where they belong; in jail! We will soon know for sure, because our cuddly bully-boy Home Secretary is going to let most of them out with the discredited electronic tags they can remove and go out to commit more crimes.

Part of the problem seems to be the debate between those who feel the criminal element in society are "victims" who need sympathy and "rehabilitation" versus those who feel that criminal activity needs to be punished. At present prison does neither, and the many attempts to "rehabilitate" young offenders shows that, while it might be a good idea, it doesn't seem to work. A look at re-offending rates confirms that very swiftly. Certainly the governments "soft" option of letting crimnals out early with tags that do not control or monitor their activities may well prove very effectively that they have this one wrong.

Any bets on the crime rate soaring again in a couple of months as a result of the new "serve your sentence at home" policy? Bet they make the OAP's with unpaid Council Tax serve their full sentence though - after all, we don't want them at home while Blair's burglars are round there robbing the place - they might interfere and resist the burglar!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:10 PM | TrackBack

October 14, 2005

Ongoing tragedy

The relief effort in Pakistan seems to be having some effect, but the Winter weather is also starting to threaten lives. The big aftershock this morning - one of many since the original quake - will have unsettled people and done even more damage, perhaps undoing some of the vital repair work to roads giving access to the mountain communities still cut off.

The death toll keeps rising, and with many villages still unsearched, and even more cars, trucks and busses still buried in landslides and rubble, it is likely to be some time before anyone knows the full extent of the loss. All we can hope for is that the people now homeless and threatened by the cold and lack of food or water reserves can be reached in time. This is something we all need to pray about and to try to help the agencies now hard at work providing relief.

It really is encouraging to see that the Indian government has sent a large consignment of blankets, food, water and other essentials and offered more. Even better is the fact that Pakistan has not only accepted their help but welcomed it. Perhaps there may yet be some good arising from this tragedy.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:57 AM | TrackBack

October 13, 2005

There is no discrimination ....

Isn't it amazing how we have loads of legislation forbidding employers from practicing "discrimination" while at the same time actually encouraging, by means of "targets" for "diversification" the very thing the law forbids. Our employment legislation requires that candidates be chosen on merit, but the "diversity" policies of this government actually require that "all candidates are equal, but women and ethnic groups are more equal than white anglo-saxon males", particularly in the recruiting to any post in government or in the fire and emergency services. The following report speaks for itself!

Hewitt admits sex bias

Patricia Hewitt has admitted breaking the Sex Discrimination Act when, as trade and industry secretary, she overruled advisers and appointed a woman to an influential job instead of a better-qualified male candidate.

The health secretary and her former department were taken to the High Court by Malcolm Hanney, a merchant banker, after he was turned down for a £9,000-a-year position on the South West Regional Development Agency. Hanney had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain notes taken at his interview in which he was described as the strongest candidate.

A spokesman for the DTI said it had "misunderstood certain provisions" in the code of conduct for appointments. "Processes have changed to ensure this does not happen again," he added.

Interestingly, she faces no criminal charge for this, which is precisely what her Department would insist upon, if it had been any commercial employer! Are the government and Ministers above the law? Not in the eyes of the Constitution of any truly democratic state, but evidently not, in the eyes of Blair and his Aparatchiks in Whitehall!

Taking a look at the latest government statistics on recruiting and at the targets for "diversification" for one of the metropolitan fire and rescue services, it soon becomes apparent that in order to meet the target, only three in every forty recruits for the next ten years can be white males. This means they have a serious problem, because the same statistics show that ther ratio of applicants does not in any way support that level of recruiting - unless every woman and ethnic minority applicant is automatically accepted and every white male is required to meet a range of criteria, chosen to ensure their deselection, that will not be applied to any other group.

There is no bias or discrimination in "Positive Discrimination"; is there?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:20 AM | TrackBack

October 04, 2005

Religious hatred

In the same week that it is reported that attacks on Jews are on the increase in the UK, we have this government of atheists, agnostics and New Age hippies, trying to ram through new legislation that will further damage relations between religions. Why? Because it will hand the fundamentalist Islamists the perfect weapon to attack Christianity, Judaism and anyone else with impunity, while being immune from criticism themselves.

On the face of it the new Bill simply amends existing legislation which deals with "racial" hatred. However, as ever with anything dreamed up in the ivory towers of Whitehall, one needs to read the accompanying "Explanatory Notes" to see what the effects will be - assuming the author of the explanation actually understands the way in which the police and the courts will interpret it - which is unlikely! This is evidenced by the fact that the author states:

Some religious groups, such as Sikhs and Jews, as distinct ethnic groups, already benefit from the protection of the existing Part 3 [Of the Public Order Act 1986] offences while other groups who may be, and have been, targetted for their religious beliefs are ethnically diverse and so are excluded from the scope of these offences.

Which is an interesting view in the light of the fact that, to date, only those who have "offended" Muslims have been prosecuted under this legislation, while no one has thus far been prosecuted under it for the numerous attacks on Jewish children, women and men in the UK over the last ten years. Could it be that to do so would expose the fact that the perpetrators are from the group this legislation is supposed to extend the "protection" too? I would suggest that that is highly likely, especially in view of the increasingly vitriolic tone of Arab language newspapers freely circulating in this country which publish extensively the constant promotion from so-called Muslim Theologians and Academics, of the discredited "Blood Libels" first used by the Tsarist secret police to justify the purge of Jews from Russia. Not one newspaper of this sort has been withdrawn, not one Muslim "cleric" has been charged with promoting this poison - and the likes of Jack Straw (Foreign Secretary) bleat about their "concern" at the increase in attacks but then support the promotion of material designed to incite it.

The new Bill's definition of "Religious Hatred" is so loose that it will provide the likes of Mrs Booth-Blair with billionaire incomes for life! This is what it says:

In this part "religious hatred" means hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief.

Again, it seems innocuous enough on the face of it, but when you read further you realise that it covers the publication of any pamphlet, book, article or even this blog, if "it can be, or is likely to be seen by any person in whom (it) is likely to stir up religious hatred." Once again, I ask myself, if these powers have been in existence and have afforded protection to specific groups in the past, such as Jews and Sikhs, then why do we have a weekly outpouring of material, statements and tape recordings from radical Muslim "clerics" going entirely unpunished and unchecked? Let one Christian or Jewish theologian publish a critique of Islam and watch the full weight of the law fall upon them!

For me this Bill betrays the complete paucity of integrity or even the vaguest intention of actually addressing anything other than the creation of a situation in which Islam can and most certainly will triumph. These same "liberal thinkers", as they like to think themselves, are without doubt the biggest collection of dictatorial oligarchs we have seen in this country since the demise of Cromwell and his ghastly Presbyters Parliament. Their sole reason for this is to curry favour among Muslim communities, they no longer give a damn about anything but their own continuation in power.

As for any religious belief, I do not hestitate to say that I fully believe that even those among this government who claim to be Christian are not. They are apostates who pay it lip service only. They neither understand the message of the Gospels, nor do they subscribe to any of it's principles. Their continued attendance in any congregation is an affront to those who do believe and it will be the measure of their failure when their "multi faith" dream ends in the strife and acrymony that will result from the stifling of genuine theological debate and exploration of spiritual development which will flow from this ill-conceived and flawed attempt to promote "Islamic" ideals.

Mark my words, you will not see a single Muslim extremist prosecuted under this or any other legislation for the daily incitement to hatred of Christians, Jews and every other religion their Sharia declares to be "dhimmi". Watch Blair and his shower of cronies convert to Islam as soon as they realise that they cannot remain in power in an Islamic State.

Religious hatred? Let's see how parliament defines "hatred". As I understand the term from the OED, it implies a strong emotional element, one definition being "active dislike". Perhaps more importantly, do I "hate" Islam? The answer is no, since I respect another persons right to hold views which differ from mine and I certainly do not "hate" someone because they practice a different religion from mine. I do however, reserve the right to disagree strongly with them, with the active promotion of Islam, and the stifling of any alternative religious promotion, and to debate openly and publically my view of the flaws in its theology.

I expect a visit from the Blair Thought Police at any time now!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 03, 2005

Emergency powers?

Anyone who is familiar with the South Africa of H F Verwoerd, B J Vorster and their successors, will be feeling a large dose of deja vu! The strangest thing about it is that the men now trying to bring in the power to detain people they feel are a threat to the nation without trial, are the same crew who spent years waving placards against it outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square. Peter Hain in particular must be having some strange emotions on this one as he and his parents came in for attention from the security services at that time.

Now the boot is on the other foot and it is these "freedom fighter" supporters who are the targets of a new breed of "freedom fighters" - and now it is they who feel it necessary to give the police power to arrest and detain someone for 90 days without trial. My, how the wheels turn! Now it is the "liberty" generation who find it necessary to impose authoritarian and dictatorial restraints on the citizenry, who, it must be said, they have so successfully alienated! After all, the creation of minority cultures, sub cultures and ghettoes is almost entirely down to the politics of fostering and "celebrating" difference.

Well, I suspect that, the opposition from the Conservatives and the LibDems notwithstanding, Blair will get his "Emergency detention powers" - and our democracy will have taken another step along the road toward the oligarchy and one-party state this government so desperately wants. I wonder how long it will be before they take the next step - and the 90 days becomes 120 days with an option on "house arrest"?

Probably not that long - it was a matter of only a few years in South Africa and Blair and his cronies may not have that long.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 26, 2005

Conference season

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's BIG speech is likely to be something of an Oscar Award performance. For one thing he is likely to say that his "cuts" to the Civil Service have seen 80,000 jobs cut, but is it true? The simple answer is no. The object of the exercise was to "save" £22.5 billion, instead the Whitehall Whallahs have hired in "Consultants" to "advise" them on everything they are paid to know anyway, at a cost of £2.5 billion. Not a single job has gone from Whitehall, all the big departments have managed to hang on to every single post and acquired a few more. So the monster continues to grow - with enhanced powers and cost.

As he lines himself up to be the Illustrious Leader we should all begin to worry, not least because the economy is slowing down, the country is experiencing a rise in crime (despite the "adjusted" statistics) and the pensions "Black Hole" is getting worse. And who, as the adverts used to say, do we have to thank? Why none other than our very own Gordon, whose economic policies have seen government spending go through the roof, and his raids on pension funds, insurance premiums and every other "service" he thinks he can get away with have seen costs rising steadily. Now he announces he wants "more private home ownership" and "more individual share ownership". Funny that, because this is the man who not that long ago was proclaiming that we had to build more "social" housing!

More worrying though, is the evident confidence of this party of thieves, robbers and ideologues who should not be allowed out unaccompanied, that they are going to be in power for evermore! They have such overweening belief in their inevitable victory at any future polls that they are already handing out posts in a future Brown Government. Even more worrying is the fact that the Civil Service is now completely in the control of Labour Party appointees and ideologues. Even if they were voted out, the Civil Service Party is now in a posiion to frustrate any change of ideology, party agenda or parliamentary intent.

It seems we now live in a one party state, communist in its behaviour, and communist in its centralised control of everything. All we can really hope for is that the electorate will wake up before the next election and throw this shower out before they can entrench themselves any further!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:10 PM | TrackBack

September 24, 2005

Yet another super storm

Hard on the heels of Hurricane Katrina comes Hurricane Rita, already clocking up wind speeds in excess of Katrina. More than a million people, according to our news, were being told to evacuate the Texas Gulf Coast as the storm approaches. Interestingly, this time, the authorities are laying on busses and aircraft to move those without their own transport, yet even so, the Interstate seems to be almost at a standstill. At least Rita seems to have moderated a bit as it heads inland - it's now down to a Category 3!

The storm itself is over 400km (a little over 250 miles from side to side), and is notching up wind speeds in excess of 160 miles per hour. That is some storm, and it is still gaining power as it soaks up energy over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico! Scientific American, a magazine I subscribe too, recently published an article on the results of a survey of these storms over the last twenty years, and reports that they are, in fact, increasingly powerful and frequent. Now the "Global Warming" lobby - led by the Haed of the UK's Environmental Research Section - are already out and shouting "it's all the US's fault", but is it? Or is it something much bigger and much, much less controllable? It is notable that the Kyoto Protocol is once again being waved at the US and Australia, but it's notable exclusions and licenses to pollute for "developing" nations are simply waved aside when challenged. Nor are these same "experts" prepared to express an opinion on the ongoing destruction of the Indonesian rainforests, the Jungles of central America and the Far East and the Amazon Basin - or the Congo Basin for that matter. These are all in "developing" nations. They aren't "rich" so we can't blame them can we?

In the Scientific American and in New Scientist and Astronomy I have read nuemrous other reports that show that our planet occupies a rather unique position in space, a narrow band of space that is exactly the right distance from the sun so that we do not fry or freeze. At the present moment, our orbit is on the "inner" edge of that bad, so we are, effectively closer to the sun - ergo; the planet gets more heat! That is not to say we are not compounding this in some ways, but it does seem to explain some of the more extreme situations we seem to have lately. The other half of this equation is the ocean itself, absorbing a lot more heat as it is, it would seem likely that we can soon expect to see even more of these super storms since they form over "hot spots" in the ocean and then gather strength from other hot spots as they head North.

At this point in time there is little any of us can do except pray for those who are travellig and for those who will lose everything.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:47 PM | TrackBack

September 21, 2005

What price crime and punishment?

From time to time, we have a case which raises some important issueas in relation to the way in which we deal with criminals. Murder should surely be seen as one crime that is worthy of, if not the death penalty, then, at the very least, permanent deprivation of liberty for the perpetrator? And what of the increasingly common cases of serial offenders, fueled usually by drug addictions, who rack up incredible criminal records before they even hit maturity - and who are still treated as "suitable for rehabilitation" despite all evidence to the contrary? It would seem, frequently, that the criminal justice system is driven more by compassion for the criminal than by the administration of justice for the victim.

This week has seen the conviction and sentencing of a young man whose record for burglary begins at the tender age of 10, for the cold blooded killing of a grandmother in a raid on a small jewellery store. His sentence of 22 years for this crime is risible - even though there are those who will argue that it will effectively mean his being "on parole" for the rest of his life - as he will be released "on licence" after serving half of this total. It is risible precisely because he was out of jail "on license" and electronically tagged when he committed this murder! In fact he had removed the tag within hours of his release, failed to report as required for interviews with his supervising parole officer and failed to observe the curfew imposed by his license for almost the entire two weeks he was supposedly "on license" - yet the supervisory authorities did absolutely nothing to control him!

Further he is a cocaine addict and so will simply keep on offending to feed his habit. All of this the authorities knew - but still decided to allow him loose, record for violence, sexual offences and all, on "license" to terrorise the community.

If this was an isolated case it would be bad enough, but it isn't, it is merely the most visible in a long and growing catalogue of similar cases all of which our crumbling legal system refuses to address properly. Even the Lord Chief Justice is a party to this with his latest directive to judges and magistrates to avoid locking up people for violent crime, burglary or assault - but to treat "white collar" crime and "sexual" offences more harshly. So, the message is clear, commit assault and manslaughter or rob someone of their possessions and you will be treated less harshly than a man who indulges in "insider trading" or "cooks" his company books.

The root of the problem does seem to be the perception that burglary and robbery are "victimless" crimes because no one is injured. Assault or murder have victims - but drink, drugs and "provocation" are all taken as "mitigation". Any crime committed by anyone under the age of 18 is treated as "youthful misdemeanour" and frequently rewarded, but the bottom line is really that nothing is punished anymore - unless you are white, middle class and do something which affects the profit to be made by the ruling classes speculation on the Stock Market!

The lack of any retribution, or at least the appearance of punishment, for crime is fueling a mindset that anything is permissable, and being caught is a badge of honour since it proves you are "hard". These are people who are caught up in a web created by their having no respect for anyone - least of all themselves - and who then seek to make themselves "respected" by intimidation or violent criminal activity. It is a malaise which reaches deeply into the entire psyche of crime and punishment - and one which makes a complete nonsense of any attempt at "rehabilitation" because, unless the root cause - the lack of respect for authority, lack of respect for society and lack of respect for self - is addressed, there can be no rehabilitation!

At the moment it would seem that there is too much focus on "forgive and rehabilitation" and not enough on making clear that crime is not something a civilised society is prepared to tolerate. Undisciplined behaviour in a child, if unchecked, leads to real behavioural and anti-social behaviour in their teens and to real crime in adulthood. If caught early and dealt with effectively - and reward/non-reward is not effective! - much of this sort of heartache can be prevented. Criminal Justice needs to refocus on punishment, correction and then on rehabilitation. The last cannot be achieved with being underpinned by the first two elements.

The Home Office currently wants to cut the cost of keeping people in prison - but this is a false economy since the real price then falls on those whose lives are destroyed, homes wrecked, possessions stolen by the likes of the violent hooligan jailed this week for murder. How many more must we suffer before someone in the Halls of Power has the guts to admit they have had it wrong and brings in the change of direction that is so patently needed?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 20, 2005

Lies, damned lies ....

The publication this week of the memoirs of a man who was once "on the inside" at Number 10, must make for some very uncomfortable reading among the Blair Media Manipulation Units. Not only does this book name names, it has the dates, the places and the events as well. Tellingly, Number 10 tried to strangle it - by putting senior Civil Servants to work on trying to get parts excluded, rewritten in a more favourable light or simply twisted to the Number 10 preferred version of the truth. The book does not bode well for government, the contents exposing some of the really appalling lies this government regularly resorts too in its desperate and very determined bid to hold onto power at all costs even if that actually kills off democracy altogether.

The fact that Blair and his sycophants have deployed Civil Service manadarins to do their dirty work should send shockwaves through the system because it proves, if proof was needed, that the civil service is now an organ of the Labour Party and not an independent and impartial service at all. It is now run exclusively by Labour Aparatchiks, for the benefit and service of Labour ideology and not for the national interest. The fact that the Cabinet Secretary himself - the Head of the Civil Service - was directly involved in implementing Mr Blair's "modernising" dictats which have seen the Civil Service grow by 1.8 million and become ever more closely aligned to the delivery of "socialist" values, is proof of the fact it is no longer "independent" or "impartial". Add to that, its direct intervention in efforts to block the publication of Mr Price's book, and you have all the proof you need that this vast unelected and singularly unaccountable organisation is not only not good for this country, but a force destroying our much prized democracy.

What Mr Price has exposed is a deliberate and very carefully orchestrated campaign run by the New Labour media manipulators and ably aided and abetted by the Civil Service poodles appointed by this devious little man and his Party to destroy the democratic establishments, imperfect though they were, of this country and replace it with a Socialist Paradise to ensure their perpetual grip on power. We should thank Mr Price - and begin immediately to challenge every attempt by these unscrupulous gangsters, to enslave us further!

What this book reveals is just how rotten, dishonest and power hungry this government is. They will stop at nothing to hold onto power at any price and no lie, no deceit and no skuldugery is to low for them to stoop beneath it. It is time to reform the entire political structure, root branch and civil service!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 19, 2005

Creating ghettoes?

I am finding myself more and more in accord with Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (an organisation I have personally no time for at all!). He has recently spoken out - albeit in code - against "multi-culturalism". In a recent speech in Manchester he declared that our "tolerance of diversity" was "sleepwalking us into segregation".

Now I have argued before that the "preservation of diversity" is nothing less than "Apartheid" by another name, so it comes as a welcome confirmation to have Mr Phillips state that the emphasis on diversity is encouraging the growth of segregation. That diversity is in fact isolating people and dividing society, by encouraging the growth of ghettoes in which minority communities cut themselves off and then apply seperate values to themselves and those they encounter when they make forays into the rest of British society.

As Mr Phillips says; "The fragmentation of our society by race and ethnicity is a catastrophe for us all." I would actually say it is more than that, it is a travesty created by a failed ideology and perpetuated by a small minority whose purpose is to create a society founded on their vision of Utopia, a totally unworkable concept in any shape or form and which will lead, ultimately, to a tragedy for every part of British Society.

Seeing Mr Hain bleating about wanting to see more and more "integration" is insulting, since this is the very same man who so despises our own culture that he and his cohorts have dreamed up this "rainbow" Britain concept which, as Mr Phillips has rightly pointed out, is leading in the opposite direction. What is needed is not more money (as Mr Phillips suggests) or even more talking (as the Conservative Spokesman suggests) but a much more pragmatic and sensible approach based on common sense and not ideology. The starting pioint has to be a review of the current immigration policy and of the mess that is the "asylum" policy. Without a much more sensible approach to these important issues there can be no starting point - the country has now a total of 7.5% of the population as "new arrivals" since 1991, and the enlargement of Europe seems to be increasing this with the loss of controls on our borders and the reluctance of the Whitehall Whallahs to actually get to grips with the abuses and abusers.

There are not going to be any quick fixes for this, nor are there going to be any easy solutions. The politicians have between them created this mess, the lawyers thrive on it and a whole "industry" of "equality, diversity and ethnic rights" activists have made careers out of it. The victims are almost entirely the entire population of the UK as we all find ourselves forced deeper and deeper into our own little ghetto.

I welcome Mr Phillips warning, let us all hope that someone, somewhere, will kick into gear the machinery that will do something about it. In the meantime we should all do our utmost to expose the sham that is "multi-culturalism" and the farce that it is the "only" future. We should all be British - or not. To attempt to be anything else while living in these isles is to invite the creation of yet more ghettoes and that can only lead to disaster.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:33 PM | TrackBack

September 16, 2005

Rights and responsibility

This morning I had the dubious pleasure, on the way to work, of listening to our Illustrious Leader proclaiming that his Home Secretary's new laws on terrorism will not erode our "civil liberties" to any significant degree. He further claims that the average British Citizen (actually I beieved that we were "Subjects") recognised that our "Rights" came with "Responsibilities". Well, that would certainly be news to some of my current crop of neighbours and their uncontrolled and rupgnant offspring.

He went further and suggested that anyone coming to Britain in future, would have to "live by our rules". Really? And which "rules" would those be Mr Blair? The one's that criminalise parents for controlling children firmly? The one's that criminalise debate on religion if it criticises Islam? The one's that allow out of control youths to terrorise elderly folk and destroy and damage everyone else's property? Or did he mean that he and his cohorts have at last realised that their 1960's "free love" ideology has been a dismal failure and created a broken, disenchanted and seriously (possibly terminally!) damaged society?

As an example of what I mean, this last week has been a bit of a nightmare for the residents around my home. A gang of youths, male and female - aged at a guess between 14 and 17 - have taken up residence in the local park. The congregate in large numbers and then migrate to sit on street corners near my home and hold shrieking and shouting competitions with other groups. They consume alcoholic drinks without attempting to conceal it and the stench of marijuana is all pervasive. The language is unbelievable and seems to consist of not more than five words, most of them referred to as "Anglo-Saxon" and regularly involve fights and scuffles. Fences have been torn down, hedges attacked and damaged and the police are all but powerless to stop it.

Last Friday night, there was what can only be described as a riot in the street outside and despite three police cars attending, all that happened was that the parents arrived and joined the fight!

This morning a prime example of the mental attitude of these kids was visible for all to see. An expensive child's bicycle, thrown down in the gutter and abandoned apparently because the chain had jumped the gears and it could not now be ridden. I have seen the boy who owns this bike and know that he is from a "deprived" family - so what exactly is his mindset when he simply throws away something as expensive as this? (My own children had to make do with second hand bicycles I had painstakingly rebuilt for them from scrap, so this one makes my blood boil.) Is this a part of the modern British Socialist mindset which seems to promote the "everyone owes me" culture? I rather think it is. These children have grown up without any guidance in acceptable behaviour, their "heroes" are not men of discipline, they are people like the Man U footballer whose outbursts on the field should have had him barred for life! Yet these are the "role models" the kids are being taught to look up to - people who cannot control their tempers, recognise no codes of behaviour other than their "I want it, I'll have it" ethos.

Mr Blair and his sycophants frequently blame the parents of these children, and there is certainly an element of blame that belongs there. But it is encouraged by the fact that we now have armies of social workers all eager to interfere in family life, all eager to promote childrens "rights" and to deny that those rights bring responsibilities. No one has the "right" to disrupt or destroy anyone else's "right" to enjoyment of their home, property or lifestyle, yet that is precisely what Blair and his friends have done, created a society in which the out of control and frankly criminal have all the rights and everyone else is a hostage to their right to be indifferent to anything but their own wants.

Really, the problem is a very difficult one. It will not be solved by ASBO's or even more legislation restricting parental control. The root of the problem is that we now have two generations of "citizens" who do not have the slightest understanding of "self discipline" or who accept the consequences for their actions. They simply do not accept that destroying someone else's property has a consequence for the owner. You constantly hear "the insurance will pay for it!" or, "I don't care - it's only a .....!" This is the same mindset that tortures other children by merciless teasing and bullying while the social workers, teachers and parents all look the other way. It's frankly "too hard" to deal with, so they shirk the responsibility.

Yet another symptom of this is the "happy slapping" craze. Again there is no acceptance of the consequences, the perpetrators frankly, do not care. Yet, you can be very sure that they do fully understand exactly the hurt, the damage and the harm they are causing, precisely because they set out to do it - because it gives them a thrill! Worse, they often excuse their actions by saying the victim "deserved it!" The only way they will ever learn the consequences of their actions is if someone did the same to them - unlikely, and certainly not desirable, yet, what alternative is there? Even sending them to a young offenders institution seems to have become a "badge of honour" in that it shows you are "hard".

Even more laughable is the latest fad among the legal profession, social workers and youth workers of making the perpetrators "apologise" to their victims. Having been a witness to a couple of these I can tell you that I had the overwhelming desire to drag the little *£%*@$* out of the room and string him up as a public warning - and then go back and do the same with the social worker and the lawyer! The sheer insincerity for the "apology" and the unctious attitudes of the Magistrate, Social Worker and Lawyer with this yob who patently did not mean a word said on his behalf made me so angry I had to bite my tongue and grip the armrests on the chair so hard I broke one. I also drew blood from my tongue. The little creep knew exactly what he had done and how much pain he had caused - yet the "officers of the law" aided and abetted in letting him flaunt his arrogance and get a way with it.

The root of the problem in our society is that no one is willing to admit that there is a large section of our society - mainly under 40's - who do not recognise that "rights" bring "responsibilities". This is where Blair and politicians of all parties have it completely wrong! The new laws will help to restrict the freedom of terrorists to act, to recruit and to escape the consequences of attacking the British public, what they will not do, is reduce the fertile ground for recruiting from among this dissaffected, over protected and over privileged youth culture who see it as a challenge and as fun to be disruptive, destructive and frankly murderous.

If we want to change this pattern we need to address both the issues of integration and to address the consequences issue. For far too long we have allowed those who carry out "happy slapping" attacks - or stand back and "enjoy" them - to escape the consequences and penalties of their actions. These kids DO know what they are doing and they DO know the consequences. It is time they were made to accept those consequences. It is time they learned that you simply cannot throw away something and expect to get another - even if it is by theft.

It is time that those who promote separation of cultures (Multiculturalism) and "rights" were made to face the results of their creation. Blair's response with draconian laws is interesting - especially in the light of his opposition to much milder laws in the time when the IRA were running around bombing us. Perhaps he too, has learned that our society needs discipline and needs to know who it is, what it is and where it is going.

Perhaps this new legislation will focus some minds on the rest of the problem. And perhaps I am the Cardinal Archbishop of the Church of Latter Day Cynics.

Somehow I doubt that this government or any other in this country will address the real issues at the root of the rising problem with anti-social and anti-cultural behaviour - it is simply never punished. None of those involved are ever made to pay the price for their actions, even where it has led the victims to commit suicide. Come on Mr Blair, let's bring in a manslaughter charge associated with "happy slapping" and let's make those who film such attacks on their mobile phones, "accessories to the assault".

That will make a start on dealing with anti-social behaviour and in teaching responsibility.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:19 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 14, 2005

A taste of his own medicine?

The Northern Ireland Secretary, the arch protester and one time professional student protester and wrecker of other people's education, sporting pleasure and campaigner on all sorts of "rights"; none other than the esteemed Mr Peter Hain, is suddenly on the receiving end of someone else's protest. And clearly he isn't enjoying the experience any more than those he himself targetted in his activist days, enjoyed his attention. How the wheel turns! How the definition of terrorism changes. By their own definition, most of the cabinet were once terrorists in their student campaigning days - so I do not hesitate to call them so - but now they are chummying up to more dangerous and murderous terrorists and trying to appease them.

This government has turned appeasement into a fine art when it comes to dealing with murderers and terrorists, especially those of the IRA who have suddenly, in New Labour speak, become "Nationalists" and "Peacemakers". The Unionists, of course, have been demonised by Blair's Propaganda Ministry and are portrayed as wreckers and unco-operative recalcitrant extremists. Mind you, that's easy to do when they - and the rest of Northern Ireland - are not Labour supporting luvvies. It's also very easy to do when you are not fighting for your right to rule in a democratic way, without the IRA's guns and bombs calling the shots. New Labour have managed to portray Sinn Fein as a "majority" party, when it is not, even in the South, the Republic, it is a minority Party, but they and their New Labour chums have managed to present themselves as "majority" representatives of the "oppressed" Irish. Being part Irish I can also enjoy the joke about the gullible English, but this is taking it too far.

The recent riots are a symptom of what will happen if Hain and Blair continue to ignore the majority voters of Northern Ireland and give concession after concession to Adams and his gang of thieves, drug peddlers and murderers. Drug peddlers, you ask? Where did you think the IRA's funding came from? The tooth fairy? For the last forty years the IRA has run almost every racket from drugs and prostitution to "protection" in order to fund their "war" on the innocent and the free. Now, as with his disasterous endorsements of Mugabe and his thugs, Blair and his sycophants have done it again. They back Adams and the IRA only because they want to avenge themselves on the Unionists who consistently vote against Labour and Blair in Westminster.

All very well for Hain to bleat about "Unionist thugs" and "Loyalist Terrorists" when he was one himself and daily sups with the devil in his appeasement meetings with Adams and Co. Did he really expect this nation of tough "Wild Geese" and pugnacious fighters to take this lying down? I rather think he will find he has a tiger by the tail, and it is slowly getting ready to turn and savage him - and with him Blair and all his sycophants. No one in their right mind wants a return to the bullets, bombs and guns - but Blair and his fellow terrorist Secretary of State have created a situation in which they have alienated the majority and will sooner, rather than later, find they must pay the price.

I suspect that the Unionist/Loyalist majority in Northern Ireland have only just begun to show their anger. Mr Hain's career, like so many others, may well come to a very sticky and messy end as a result of Labour vindictive folly. But I doubt they will learn anything from it - they are too arrogant and too stupid to do so.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 03:24 PM | TrackBack

September 13, 2005

Fuel woes

I find myself green with envy whenever I visit either the US or Australia and have to pay their fuel prices - especially now. The recent escalation in the cost of oil has hit fairly hard here in the UK with a rise of over 50% in the "at the pump" price since January. For someone like myself with no choice but to use a car to get to and from work (a daily average out and return of 60 miles) the mounting cost is eating heavily into my small "disposable" income. A tank of fuel for my car (a diesel) cost, last December, just over £30 and I use roughly a tankful every eight to ten days. Now a tankful costs in the region of £45 and rising. Today I paid £1.05 per litre - and decided that at that price (admittedly at a garage that is known to take advantage of any "crisis") a half tank would see me through the remainder of the week or until I could find somewhere more reasonably priced!

Over lunch I had the dubious pleasure of hearing our ever so caring and concerned Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chief Thief of the Treasury and Grave Robber, Redistributor of Everyone Else's Money to his favourite electorate, piously claiming that his exhorbitant tax on fuel "had nothing to do with the excessive price". Considering that 61% of the cost of every litre is tax - and then he taxes that as well by adding VAT at 17.5% at the pump - I would say he is being extremely economical with the truth. Since his "share" of the price rises with every rise in the basic cost at a more or less exponential rate, its pretty disingenuous of him to say that the tax part is not contributing to the cost. I may not be a mathematician but even I can work out that if something costs £1.00 and you add 61p tax, and then tax that at 17.5% you are suddenly paying £1.89 for your £1 item. Now increase the price by 25p at the base end and the 61 p becomes 76p and the VAT likewise increases in value to make the new price £2.36! Our Chancellor either thinks that we, the paying public are complete idiots or he is unable to do the arithmetic.

Of course the situation is not helped by the media who have talked up the possibility that some filling stations could run "dry" if the planned "Fuel Blockades" happen. It has, as usual, become a self fulfilling prophecy with the gullible dashing to the filling stations and filling ever container they can find with fuel. A colleague is currently having to deal with the usual tranche of morons who have filled up wheelie bins with petrol or diesel (marginally safer!) and are now trying to store these inside their houses! We agreed a few minutes ago that we should cease our efforts on these cases, allow natural selection to happen - and nominate the lot for this years Darwin Awards!

Trying to get to the nearest filling station in my area was a waste of time, the forecourt was solid with little old ladies in blue rinse hairstyles all filling containers and spilling fuel out of overfilled tanks. Alongside them a couple of farmers cheerfully filling Land Rovers (with trailers behind) loaded with Jerry Cans and even one huge tractor with trailer and 44 gallon drums! The next filling station was already dry - so on to the next which still had around a quarter of their usual fuel stock of diesel - but at a price 6p a litre above anyone else! Who us, profiteering?

Between the Chancellor, the Oil Cartels, the Producers and the odd profiteer it could prove to be a difficult few weeks. The Chancellor is unlikely to lower his tax take - he can't because his forcasts are so far adrift he needs every penny he can get - and even if the oil production rose significantly, it is unlikely that any reduction in price will be passed on the the consumer.

Well, I think it's time I checked on the availability of alternative fuels and possibly steam generation to power an engine. I wonder if I could persuade the fish and chip shop locally to sell me his old vegetable oil? Diesel cars run on any light oil so all I would have to do is filter the "fines" and dewater it and I should have a good alternative fuel.

I wonder if anyone has a patent on it yet?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:28 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 01, 2005

Are we suffering from mass paranoia?

It seems to me that this nation is now in the grip of paranoia. Reading Tim's post on An Englishman's Castle about the reaction of the North Yorkshire Police to a report from one of the usual crop of completely wet and stupid morons who delight in reporting these things, about a father and son arrested and held for five and a hlaf hours on "firearms charges" for playing with a toy pistol and rifle BOUGHT AT THE DAMNED SCARBOROUGH SEASIDE STALLS WHERE THEY WERE ARRESTED makes my blood boil! Especially after the weekend event where two teenagers and two older youths burst into a South East London baptism party, shot a woman in cold blood and then robbed the rest of the party with REAL GUNS!

Ever since Blair and his shower of complete idiots passed legislation on the owning of handguns shortly after coming to power, gun crime has gone through the roof! What is worse, guns are now more readily available then ever before - to the criminal element! Worse yet, these new generation of armed criminals are more ready to use these weapons than ever before, viz the events of last Saturday. It would be alarming enough if this had not resulted in yet another phenomenon - now we have an army of pathetic and stupid individuals who patently wouldn't know one end of a gun of any sort from the other, who take it upon themselves to phone the police and report every child or adult seen playing with anything that even looks like a gun! We have, as a result, had people shot for carrying table legs wrapped in a suspicious looking shape, we have armed responses to a pair of children seen in a suburban street playing cops and robbers with toy pistols and the latest folly, a father and son arrested at gunpoint on a beach for playing with a pair of toy guns bought on the seafront.

Even more worrying is the police response. Having really screwed it up, by not checking what they were dealing with and then by not admitting that they had got it badly wrong when any halfwit should have been able to tell instantly that they were dealing with toys, they carried through the full process of arrest, caution, fingerprinting and DNA sampling of the father and son! I bet they haven't told either that their DNA will now be on the national register for life - despite what Mr Blair and his sycophants publically declare.

This "risk aversion" syndrome is turning us into a nation of complete wimps and informers. The East German Stasi would have been proud of the way people are informing on their neighbours and on anyone they see in the street. This is the same sort of idiocy which informs on a father disciplining a badly behaving child at a supermarket - but then fails to deal with a child abuser and potential murderer in a community! The shooting of the Brazilian "suspect" recently has also raised a number of rather ugly questions, not least why the armed response officer emptied a full magazine into the victim. Surely a "double tap" would have been sufficient? I know I have commented that the victim in this case should have stopped, but from what has emerged since, the whole thing seems to have been a monumental SNAFU which has only served to increase public fear and concern.

This mass paranoia is being fed by the media and used by both Whitehall and the politicians to manipulate public opinion, create a climate of fear and to introduce ever more restrictions on the personal liberty of the individual. Ironically, it is this same bunch of cretins who insist that "Care in the Community" of dangerous psychotics, schizophrenics and other mentally disturbed people is about respecting their "right" to normal life and privacy!

No wonder we have paranoid morons phoning the police to report toys and childrens games! A pity the police don't behave a bit more sensibly as well!

(The original blog post on this can be found on Kim duToit's blog.)

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:30 AM | TrackBack

August 31, 2005

Hurricane Katrina damage mounting

My post on the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Mississippi Delta has attracted some nice comments from the US, and one, at least, has posed another interesting question. Where is Bob Geldof, George Clooney and the rest of the "Celebrity Circus" who are so quick to pour their emotive appeals into anything involving anywhere in the Third World?

Rather conspicuous by their absence as far as I can see.

The blog has an interesting title "Two Babes and a Brain" and I will, having read this and several other posts on their blog, be adding them to my own blogroll for future visits! Thank you ladies for the hat tip and for the compliments concerning my sentiments on this disaster, like you I will be finding someone I can make a small donation to to help out, but I hope that more will do so too!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A snoopers' charter?

The announcement recently that the "moral minority" that dominate Blair's government are to introduce a new set of laws making it illegal to access or download pornography from the internet has overtones of "Big Brother". While the pornography issue is a thorny one, and is rightly regulated in print and distribution laws in every nation, the internet poses a whole new range of problems.

Firstly I would like to acknowledge that the promulgation of violent and degrading images, films, and other forms of this material via the internet is horrendous and should be repugnant to us all. But it is a fact of life - in fact it has been since time immemorial if the paintings in Pompei and other ancient sites are anything to go by! Even our television is now laced with some truly repulsive stuff, particularly if you have access to satelite channels. Regulation doesn't seem to have much impact there either!

It is not so much the regulation of this that I find worrying, it is the powers of enforcement and the interpretation that will be put to it by the enforcers. All very well for ministers to mouth their usual platitudes about privacy and the rest, the reality is that they do not give a damn about how these powers are used and abused by officials. It is stated that the possession of images which "degrade" and show "gratuitous violence", "torture", or "restraint" will be the only ones affected. That depends on someones interpretation, a very subjective subject! A good example is the new Licencing Act, which contains provisions for objections to late opening being lodged by anyone "in the vicinity" of the licenced premises. Sounds good, until you discover that the officials (Yes, you've guessed, the faceless wonders of Whitehall again!) have put a limit on "affected area" of a radius of 80 yards from the licenced premises! I live a mile from a club which has a current "late opening" licence and am regularly woken by drunken revellers shouting and screaming and fighting in the street outside my home - which happens to be a thoroughfare - but I am not allowed to object! The same thing will happen to the new laws, Whitehall "guidance" will licence more of their incompetents to snoop and their interpretation of what is and is not "offensive" pornography will be so wide that I can see grandparents being marched into court for having pictures of their grandchildren in bathing suits!

It would seem that the Police or some even more shadowy government agency will soon have the power to monitor the internet, in particular certain websites, and record the ISP of everyone who visits it. This should worry us all, because this is only one step away from then monitoring all traffic from someone's computer and everything that you do on it or through it onto the web. Big Brother will then know who all your friends are, who says and thinks what, and to whom. Pornography may be the declared target, but is it the only target? Given Whitehall's penchant for snooping and interference in private life, I doubt it. Soon it will be monitoring your views on religion, family life, children's behaviour and politics. It will be all too easy for these powers to be extended as Blair's Dictatorship extends its tentacles ever further into how we live our daily private lives.

I have learned from friends who work for various organisations who write software and who develop hardware/software for looking at and monitoring internet traffic that it is possible now to monitor who is visiting what on the internet. In fact, it is apparently possible to set up a system whereby a computer monitors particular ISP's and locks in the ISP address of every visitor. This is, of course, where some of the more creative users of the internet have developed programmes which scramble or generate false ISP's for their wanderings through programmes such as "Thor" - which is illegal in most Western countries - but, which I learn, is used by most of those generating spam and pornography! It would seem to me then, that the real sex offenders are likely to have access to this sort of programme and it will be the small time offender whose curiosity or boredom and possibly loneliness has led him or her to explore these sites that will suffer the full weight of the law - purely so that the Whitehall nannies can show how effective their snooping is.

As I said earlier, I am not a supporter of pornography, I do however, support a person's right to privacy and to live their lives in their own way - provided it does not impact on anyone else! And there lies my dilemma. Pornography does hit someone. It affects the person who is coerced, inveigled, or simply forced into it by economics, desperation, or abuse very, very badly. Hitting the user may restrict it but I suspect it will have little impact on stopping it.

There is one more thing that I find very difficult in this debate (not that there has been one!), and I suspect I may not be the only person to have spotted this anomaly - the people now introducing this legislation and trying to restrict the use and spread of pornography are the very same ones who fought to scrap censorship of films, rules of decency and behaviour, and are even trying to sneek in legalised prostitution. The leopard changing its spots, or something more sinister? I suspect it has much more to do with "being seen to have done something" than with any real desire to help the victims, and I also suspect that it is simply another way to get their "Thought Police" more powers to snoop into the privacy of our computers and erode further our freedom of speech and thought. Pornography may be the target, but I rather doubt it will be the only thing these powers will be used to access and restrict.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:01 AM | Comments (3)

August 28, 2005

Animal Welfare Activists? Terrorists by another name!

The news that a family who farmed Guinea Pigs (Not from Guinea and certainly not members of the Porcine family!) for medical research have gone out of business after 16 years of violent attacks, harrassment, and other terrorist attacks on them, their relatives, and their employees by so-called "Animal Welfare Activists", is a sickening indictment of our legal system's failure. Among other nasty attacks, the so-called "Activists" dug up the coffin of an elderly relative and stole her remains, holding them to ransom for over a year now in return for the family giving up its business.

Well, the police have failed utterly to find the perpetrators - despite very real evidence that they must be based fairly close to the farm - and no one has ever been caught or prosecuted despite numerous attacks, plenty of evidence, and even some injuries. Even if they were, the courts would not give them the sentences they so richly deserve.

What sort of sick mind will dream up the idea of stealing the corpse of someone's relative and then holding it to ransom? These people have placed themselves firmly outside of the bounds of any acceptable and normal society. They have the audacity to claim that what this family were doing is "inhuman", but they, and their sympathisers in the RSPCA, Animal Welfare, Anti-vivisection League, and all the rest of this "animals are more important than humanity" rabble, have espoused tactics in no way different to the suicide biombers of the Middle East and no more acceptable in a civilised society!

The plain fact is, whether we like it or not, that some things cannot be tested in a laboratory without first testing it on a rodent. Simply doing a chemical analysis is not going to tell us whether it will have effects like Thalidomide or not.

Perhaps that is the solution. Round these human animals up and use them to test the drugs for cancer, for allergies and for genetic disorders. After all, they have placed themselves outside of humanity - so treat them as outsiders.

There is no excuse for terrorism for any cause, and there is no point in appeasing terrorists. Cut off their funds, cut off their support, and shut down their sympathisers - then you can address the real issues which give rise to it. It is simply unacceptable to have the supporters and sympathisers airing their support in the media and arguing that it is "justified". It is not. It never has been and it never can be. It is time to get tough with these sickening perverts and deal with them effectively. The Police and the Minister responsible should be censured for their failure to act and to bring these criminals before a court. It really has gone far enough;it is time someone answered for this failure in our criminal system.

Someone, somewhere knows who these people are and where they have hidden the remains of the family's stolen grandmother. They should turn them in now - or be treated when the Police finally get motivated to deal with this, as accessories after the fact! They are every bit as bad as those who carry out these acts, whatever their cause!

Terrorism is evil and cannot be tolerated in any form or for any cause.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:08 PM

August 21, 2005

Conflict to come?

Despite the many warnings, and despite the record of history, we still live in a society which believes that the "flower power" philosophy of "love beats bombs" and "jaw, jaw, not war, war" will overcome the Jihadi approach and determination to enslave the world in the name of Islam. The name itself should be a warning since it means, quite bluntly, "submission". I found my way to an interesting article through Dodgeblogium on this subject, and it has provoked my taking a hard look at several matters raised there.

On a site entitled "Private Papers" I came across a well researched and written item entitled "Doublespeak unveiled", which gives some interesting insights into the philosophy driving the Islamist and Jihadi mentality. Nothing less than total world domination is the goal, and nothing less than that will satisfy them. Those who choose to ignore this - particularly those who, like Tony Blair's coterie of cronies and appeasers - are creating an atmosphere in which there is likely to arise a situation which will trigger another global conflict. It may start as a terrorist campaign, but sooner rather than later someone will take advantage of some real or imagined slight and it will explode into a major war.

As Bruce Thorton, the author of the article in question, points out, the failure of both Fascism and Communism was that they tried to replace spiritual values and yearnings with purely material comforts. They did not address the fundamental spiritual needs of society - in fact this is evident even now in post-communist societies where Socialism holds sway. Secularisiation of everything, even the beliefs of millions for the purposes of creating a "multi-cultural and mutually respectful" society, is missing the same thing - it tries to reduce belief and spirituality to logic and reason. The Islamic threat is not one of material gain or even of secular power - although they recognise that secular power comes from success - it is about imposing their beliefs and spiritual values on the world. Where the communists tried to impose a non-belief system and the fascists tried to create a sort of new paganism, the Islamist wishes to impose his spirituality - and therein lies a huge difference, because in a spiritually impoverished world, simple belief and simplistic faith patterns have a huge appeal! For those who do not kowtow to the "Submission" there is a prospect of being removed from all authority and denied equality in anything.

It is worth quoting Thorton:

"The jihadist enemy, on the other hand, is operating on principles and values squarely in the tradition of Islam, and thus unlike fascism and communism is expressing a spiritual need and an orthodox religious mandate: to fulfill by force the will of Allah that all the world be subject to Islam and an Islamic state, the caliphate, ruled by sharia, Islamic religious law. Those conquered infidels who refuse to convert are reduced to dhimmi, subordinated and humiliated peoples whose restricted rights, diminished lives, and circumscribed behavior testify to the superiority of their Muslim overlords and their divine right to oppress the infidel and exploit him economically. This dynamic of jihad and dhimmitude has been extensively documented by Bat Ye'or and other scholars, and is apparent on every page of Islamic jurisprudence, theology, and history from the eighth century to today."

The history of the Near and Middle East is enlightening, for those who think that history has a lesson for our age - but apparently those currently entrenched in power in the West believe that history is simply a waste of time and that they are far wiser and less fallible. A study of the late 7th Century and the 8th to 11th Centuries history in the Middle East should sound a number of warnings. First, Islam infiltrated communities which were nominally at least Christian, Jewish or simply pagan (Zoroastrianism should perhaps not be considered pagan, but some do so label it!). Then, having established communities, they began to make demands for concessions to their faith, and finally to provoke conflict within communities. When the authorities reacted (A large part of the area affected was then a part of the Byzantine Empire) they found themselves under attack from increasingly powerful armies of desert recruited nomads and eventually organised armies as more and more states fell to the Muslim hordes sweeping out of Arabia. Conquered towns and cities were given a stark choice - convert to Islam or die.

So, as I have asked before, is there such a thing as a "moderate" Muslim? I am not convinced there ever can be - it is simply a contradicition in terms. Again, Thorton provides a useful reminder:

"Or consider Dr. Yusuf Karadawi, a British Muslim theologian the mayor of London has praised as a “moderate.” Of course, on cue he will recite the usual “condemnations” of terrorism, but always with his fingers crossed. Once more, Israel is the key to discerning the true beliefs of the “moderate.” Dr. Karadawi has stated that there are no civilians in Israel, that using children as homicide bombers is acceptable, and that the terrorists in Iraq murdering Americans, Brits, and Iraqis are “valiant.” The Muslim Council of Britain has described this apologist for murder as a “distinguished Muslim scholar, a voice of reason and understanding.”

In his attitudes to Israel and to Jews in general, Karadawi points to the smoking gun in the hands of every adherent to the Islamic faith. They simply cannot accept equality or even acknowledge the truth, they must always point a finger at someone else and say "it is their doing, we Muslims are the victims." Yes, they are victims, victims of their own hypocricy.

The real battle is not for possession of Israel or "Palestine"; the real fight is the overthrow of the West. And Mr Blair and other "liberal" "moderates" in the West had better wake up to this soon - or they will be responsible for the outbreak of a war that will make the Great War of 1914 - 1918 and the 1939 - 1945 wars look like Sunday School outings.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:26 AM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2005

Dispossessing the natives

The images currently pervading the news channels on TV with the removal of Jewish settlers from Gaza are disturbing enough, but the abusive language, no matter how carefully delivered by the Palestinian "spokeswoman" will certainly win her no prizes for promoting understanding. She has consistently chanted the mantra of "Evil Jews stealing land and supported by the evil United States to do it!" Sadly, it seems that the hope of peace that has sparked this will prove to be a chimera.

Unfortunately I have also been listening and watching various "human rights" activists - who all seem to be feminist, Muslim, or Atheist (Now there's something to worry at!) and ardent believers in blaming Britain, the British people, or Western Democracy for the ills of the world. One could be forgiven, listening to these people, for believing that Western democratic society is responsible for everything from poverty in the third world to Muslim fundamentalist terrorism and any other "failure". The remarkable thing is that most of them are either born and educated here or have come here as refugees from whatever Islamic "Paradise" on earth they originated from and have enjoyed the benefits of our free and open society to gain first class educations, access to universuities and degrees in law - and then make full use of the freedom this society gives them to attack it!

With the increasingly generous (to Muslim fundamentalists) legislation giving more and more "rights" to ethnic minorities, "special" religious groups, and more and more restrictions on Christianity and any "Western" religions, there is soon going to be a situation in which the majority population in Britain will find themselves in the same position as the Jewish settlers in Gaza, of being steadily disposed of our heritage and our culture and even our religion.

If we are honest, Britain's history is tied very strongly to the Christian ethos. Whether one is a practicing Christian or not, one is influenced by the Christian message. Our laws are framed on Christian principles; even our ideas of fairness and justice are based on Christian ideals. The Islamic teachings on justice, fairness, and equality differ on a number of points with those as Christians understand them - or, dare one say, as those who seem to think that a "multi-cultural" society will produce and honour them as they understand them. The laws our illustrious leaders are busily trying to frame and impose on "religious hatred" favour Islam, they will not be applied to Islamic preachers of hate, and they certainly will not be applied to defend the Jewish community in this country. Thus, by default, Blair and his stooges will succeed in changing the face of this country from a broadly Christian one, to an Islamic Republic. In short, Islam will achieve its aim of Islamisation of Britain, by thedefault of our own legal system.

At that point, with the introduction of the "Dhimmi" principle, we will all face a choice, adopt Islam or be condemned to second class status in our own land. We will not be the first to have been subsumed in this way: Persia and its Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews are second class citizens in modern Iran. Christians and Jews are second class citizens in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and even the UAE; the same fate befalls them in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. Where they could not defeat the inhabitants in open conflict, they infiltrate and then use the legal system to seize influence and finally control. We will not be the first, and we will not be the last - unless the "liberal" left can be brought to heel before they give away our heritage and dispossess us by their obsession with this failed experiment in "multi-culturalism"!

If it is not checked soon, we will have been neatly and successfully dispossessed in our own country.

Is this the Britain we want our children to be part of?

Posted by The Gray Monk at 09:56 AM

August 19, 2005

Who do you believe?

The leak recently of a document or documents from within the Police Complaints Authority relating to the case of the Brazilian shot by the Metroploitan Police, are disturbing for several reasons. Firstly, they are disturbing because it would appear that the first accounts we were given of this tragic incident were misleading to say the very least. Secondly they are disturbing because it suggests that someone within the Police Complaints Authority is pursuing a personal agenda to not only embarrass the police, but to influence the outcome of any final report and potentially the course of justice.

The major problem with any investigation is that you will have a mass of conflicting accounts from witnesses. It would be very easy to be selective about which accounts you leaked if your agenda was - say - to have the policy of "shoot to kill" changed. Select all the statements that seemingly deny the "official" line and feed these to a sympathetic journalist who will then emblazon his or her "scoop" across the front page of whatever rag they scribble for. Think "Rita Skeeter" in the Harry Potter books, the truth is not what counts, it is whether or not we can embarrass the establishment and sell more papers!

For all that these revelations are disturbing, I think it is even more important now for the whole mass of evidence to be examined, perhaps in a public inquiry, and to be assessed as a whole, and not in tiny fragments selected for their propaganda value rather than their importance. If there is one thing I have learned in investgating any event, it is not the differences in the witness statements that count, it is the matters on which there is convergence or agreement. In the fianl analysis, it is also necessary to know the sources and the individuals and a bit about their "issues". Only then can you fully analyse and assess the statements they are making, and only then can conclusions be drawn.

I sincerely hope that the person who leaked these documents is found - I suspect it will be a civilian employee who has an issue with uniformed and disciplined services - and that they are duly charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice - because that is what they have attempted to do. I hope, too, that the enquiries will continue on the issue at hand, it is vital that the whole truth in this matter be made public.

Justice must be seen to be done, and no individual in a position of trust within an enquiry team should consider themselves to be above the law or in possession of superior moral values. Both the Brazilian victim and the policemen involved have a right to justice; that will not come from some individual attempting to act as judge, jury, and court.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:04 AM

August 18, 2005

Dispossession and bitter legacies ....

Watching the removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza "settlements", I felt some of the hurt these settlers must be feeling - and some of the anger as well. The propagandists for the Arab/Palestinian cause would have us believe that these settlements have all been built without the conivance of both the Israeli government and the various Palestinian regimes, that the settlements are built on land "seized" from Palestinains without compensation and without legal process. They would have us believe that this land has been in some way "stolen" - and feed the Western media (ever anti-Israel, anyway!) with the mantra that the Israeli occupation of Gaza is "illegal".

Having left one country for another I can sympathise with the upheaval it causes. I left voluntarily, although, among many reasons, one was because I felt that my children's heritage and their right as citizens in a country that my forebears had created out of wilderness, was about to be stripped from them. As it turned out, this happened in Zimbabwe, but not so far, in South Africa. Be that as it may, much of what my forebears - and I in my small way - built in terms of infrastructures, roads, culture and history has all been demeaned, stripped or destroyed. So I can identify with the Israeli's who are being dispossessed of everything they have built - perfectly legitimately - in Gaza.

The land they have built on was purchased, contrary to popular myth, for legitimately agreed prices and without coercion or force. The structures, infrastructures and even the flourishing gardens have been painstakingly built and nurtured by the Jewish settlers. Prior to their arrival there was nothing like this there. That is the primary difference between the Jewish settlers and their Arab neighbours, the Jews are industrious and hard working. They accept hard work in order to improve their lives and their surroundings - and having done it, they have every right to expect to be able to enjoy it.

The settlements should not have been allowed in the first place, yet politicians on both sides saw them as bargaining chips in the struggle to wrest land from each other. Yes, there are the hardliners among the settlers who have made religion and Biblical "proofs" the justification for being there, but the real culprits are the politicians on both sides who have used this as a lever in the corridors of power. Ariel Sharon will not be popular, and I would not be surprised if and when he is assassinated, but he is at least tackling the first steps necessary to try and reach a peaceful settlement!

It will not be easy, and it does require some sacrifices on both sides. For those being dispossessed of the fruits of their labours for the last 20 years or so, it is deeply hurtful, and they will probably never fully replace what has been lost. For the Palestinians, it will seem like a triumph - they have regained land they sold legitimately at no cost to themselves, and it has been redeveloped and converted from desert to flourishing settlement for them. I hope they take better care of it than I have seen them and their cousins do elsewhere in the Middle East!

The Israelis are often criticised, and the Jewish people are currently under attack again by those who use the discredited "Blood Libels" as a weapon in spreading their filthy propaganda, but this is the opportunity for the world to recognise that there is an opening for peace. Will the Arab nations take it? Somehow I doubt it, because they are all sworn - and their press reflects this with its vile portrayal of all Jews as "liars, thieves, and perjurors who practice infamous rituals and are sexually debased" (I quote an article by a Muslim "Cleric" based in Egypt!). They have one objective - the destruction of the Israeli State.

Those who criticise the Jews in Israel would do well to remember that the world has demanded more sacrifices in the last 2,000 years from this people than from any other. They have been dispossessed more than once, and they have still managed to survive. Doesn't this tell us something? Doesn't this sound a warning somewhere? Surely they have given enough, now it is time for the other parties in this dispute to give a little in return.

Israel is the ONLY democratic state in the region. "Palestinians" who live there have a vote and roughly a third of the seats in the Knesset are filled by Muslims. Show me another Middle Eastern State where Jews or Christians have a similar standing. It is all very well arguing that the land was "stolen" from the Arabs in 1947 - the British must accept responsibility for that myth, having promised the Jews a homeland, they reneged and then tried to hand it over to a hostile Arab population who had publically announced their intention of "driving every Jew into the sea!" Having survived the European holocaust the Jews decided it was not happening again - and the land is theirs.

Perhaps attitudes in Europe and the West would be different if we had a similar history of dispossession, but we don't. The resident population of Europe has lived here undisturbed for the last 1,000 odd years, they having, in turn, dispossed the Gauls, the Franks, and the Celts. I wonder how the Celts felt when the Anglo Saxons moved in and moved them on? I wonder how the multi-culturalists will feel when they find that they are being dispossessed and disadvantaged in their own land - as will surely happen to us if current trends continue unchecked.

I feel for those who have been required to make the sacrifices in Gaza, and I feel for those Palestinians who have been dispossessed by the actions the Israelis have felt necessary to defend the heartland of their State. It is now time - and it is easy for me to say this at this distance from the tensions, the politics, and the intractable enmities - for the politicians on both sides to stop posturing and using the people as pawns. It is time to let peace have a chance, but it is also time to gag the preachers of the hatred that permeates the Middle East. It is time to stop the lies the Muslim clerics perpetrate in the name of religion, and to stop vilifying the Jews.

They do have a right to exist; they do have a right to a homeland. It is also the right of the Jews and the Palestinians not to have their existence used as the pawns in a game of power and landgrabbing by their neighbours in the Arab world. Remember that the last three wars in this region have all been initiated against Israel by their Arab neighbours. The occupation of Gaza began after the abortive attempt by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to overwhelm the Israelis in 1967. They lost that war, and they lost again in 1973 when they attacked sneakily on a Jewish Holy Day. They do not seem to have given up, though, and the inflammatory rhetoric in every mosque in the region bears testimony to this. If there is another war it will be the Arab nations that will start it again. The world needs to be mindful of this - and to ensure that it does not happen!

The Jewish settlers and their investments have been sacrificed to the goal of peace - let's hope it is not a chimera and that it does lead to a proper and lasting settlement.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 11:08 AM

August 12, 2005

The secret heart of the EU exposed

Reading a blog published by a Euro MEP, I thought it might be worth an entry here, since it exposes where Blair and his coterie of closet communists are trying to go. According to Ashley Mote MEP, the real fight over the EU "constitution" was about whether or not it would be the French "vision" of a "social" Europe.

The real issue here is that Brussels is now so stuffed with Apparatchiks who believe that free enterprise and freedom of choice is evil and only they know how we should all live, what we should all eat, drink and how we should have or even who should have access to it, is something that should give us all warning of the things to come. Brussels is most unlikely to give up on trying to get in place a constitution which will allow them to make even more draconian and dictatorial regulations with which to strangle enterprise. The vision of a "social" Utopian Europe is one to which they are far to strongly committed. Perhaps "committed" is the wrong word, perhaps we should say, beholden - as their very existence in such droves becomes suspect if the "social" element is removed.

To quote Mr Mote, commenting on the current EU President of the Commission, Mr Jose Manuel Borrosso's efforts to create an "Enterprise Europe":

"But the truth is - and he knows it - the incumbent bureaucracy is too strong, too deep-rooted, and too committed to a social Europe. They know, and he knows, that they will still be there long after he is gone."

Therein lies the problem for all elected governments faced with entrenched bureaucracies - the bureaucrats are unelected, unaccountable, and unremovable! Mr Mote quotes a very informative letter written by a former civil servant who was in on the creation of the Brussels Bureaucracy, and I make no apology for repeating it here!

"Peter Le Cheminant wrote to The Daily Telegraph at the beginning of June 2005.

He said: “As a young and junior civil servant I had a ringside seat at the birth of the EEC. France and Germany had senior civil servants of high calibre with no small opinion of their own abilities. Both [countries] had lost a war, as they saw it, through the stupidity of their political masters.

“Small wonder then that they should have devised structures that gave real power to themselves, and minimised the roles of the member states. Their underlying doctrine was that democracy was all very well, but only officials were intelligent enough to control the levers of power.”

That last line says it all! That is what lies at the very heart of the problem with Brussels and the EU, but worse, it is the problem that lies at the very heart of the burgeoning bureaucracy in Whitehall - democracy is to all intents and purposes dead - the power rests entirely in the hands of the faceless wonders of the civil service - who have now got themselves so entrenched that it will take a civil war to remove them.

I sincerely hope that we will not need to go that far!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:20 AM

August 11, 2005

Rethinking our society

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to think of many things; of shoes, and ships and sealing wax; of cabbages and kings." Thus, in Lewis Carol's famous poem, begins the feast at which the oysters are consumed by their hosts under the guise of a serious debate. I guess you could say that the UK has found itself playing Oyster to the Islamic Walrus ably supported by his sycophantic "Multi-culturalist" supporters. But what is "multi-culturalism"? What is the reality of a "pluralist" society?

To see one in action one would have to look at the Indian State, where, nominally at least, all faiths have equal status and all cultures (which are usually bound to a particular religious view) are equal. But are they? Certainly in some areas it works reasonably well, but dig down and you find certain tensions simmering beneath the surface. Hindu radicals actively attack mosques, and Christians are the target for everyone who has a grudge. In many such "richly mixed" societies you find that to be a member of a particular religion often excludes you from sections of society, certain professions, and any post which would place you "in charge" of someone from a "dominant" faith group.

Is this really the Britain we think we live in? Is it the Britain we want to create? If we are not careful this is precisely what will happen, primarily because the law will be used, and is being deliberately written in a bias against our native religion and culture - ostensibly to "redress" injustices which have more to do with reaction to unfortunate attitudes and behaviours in some immigrant communities than anything else. Do we really need a law such as that imposed by the Australian Federal government which effectively outlaws the expression of anyone's beliefs in public?

A recent leader article in the Daily Telegraph postulates that the "policy" of multi-culturalism is dead. The author states that it died and should die, because: -

"The idea that many cultures could coexist in one country, going their own ways, living by their own values, and cultivating their own disparate and distinct identities, was always a cop-out. But, considering its presumed high-mindedness, it was oddly cynical as well. It seemed to assume that coming to live in a country was like lodging in a boarding-house: new tenants could keep to themselves and do what they liked so long as they didn't make too much noise or block the lavatories. How they lived their lives was nobody's business, not even the landlady's.

Well, as we have apparently now realised, being a country that absorbs migrants involves rather more than taking in lodgers and leaving them to get on with it. Multiculturalism may have been dressed up as cosmopolitan virtue but, at heart, it was a rationale for not really giving a damn, and a cover for the least attractive British traits - intellectual laziness, indifference to the needs of other people, complacency, and contempt for any sort of energetic commitment to a social ideal."

I must say that I agree entirely with her opening statement: -

"Multiculturalism is really taking a kicking. No tiptoeing around anymore. Nobody, so far as I know, has actually gone the whole hog and suggested that the multicultural philosophy was really a form of "separate but equal" development - which is to say, cultural apartheid. But somebody is bound to go there pretty soon. (Come to think of it, I suppose I just have.)"

In fact, I found myself agreeing with a great deal of her argument, particularly when it comes to educating our young folk in civic affairs and in the actual process of government. I would not find the idea of my children and anyone else's being taught to honour the flag or the constitution and to understanding what it actually means to live in a society that exists as a cohesive unit because everyone shares a love of the freedoms that being part of that society brings. Let's face it, if you don't like living here - go live somewhere else! Don't expect the rest of us to change our freedoms for your oppressive idea of Utopia in some sort of fundamentalist dream state ruled by the likes of Abu Hamza!

All of which brings me to my point: simply that British Society has evolved over a long period. It has been, for at least the last 200 years, a fairly enlightened and tolerant society. Yes, that has brought with it some abuses and certainly some aspects that are of perhaps dubious morality, but the concept of a "multi-cultural" society is simply a non-starter. It cannot work, simply because you cannot have mutually hostile cultures sharing the same spaces! As I pointed out in an earlier post on this subject, sooner or later you will run into a problem with the justice system? Which one prevails? The law of the land, or the law according to some religious fanatic? And here I include fanatics of ALL religions.

On my desk is a saying by a great American writer/journalist, H L Mencken, and it sums up the problem of "multi-culturalism" very well because it actually addresses the real problem, twisted morality and ethics as interpretted by a bunch of narrow-minded and intelligence-challenged moralists. It says:

"The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression."

The problem we face with the government's "policy" of multi-culturalism is that it is being driven by fanatics. It is time for reasonable and intelligent people to call a halt to this nonsense and institute the means for addressing a truly integrated and fair society - not this dangerous sham we currently endure.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:37 AM

August 08, 2005

Treason?

Interesting are the reports today that the government, in the form of the Attorney General, is considering charging our resident Muslim extremist clerics with treason. This could well be a case of far too little and far, far too late! Ever since the late 1970's - in fact, probably much earlier than that if you count the activities of Blair, Hain, and their cronies whilst at university - various governments of these isles have tolerated and given shelter to wanted criminals and terrorists and allowed them to continue their despicable activities - as long as they didn't target the UK.

This present government has blood on its hands, and not just the blood of Iraq or Afghanistan. They must also accept the bloodshed in Africa in long drawn out terrorist wars there, in Israel where they have long sided with the likes of Hamas, Black Spetember, and the PLO, and in South America where our Foreign Secretary spent some of his time providing "comfort" and support to rebel groups there. In Northern Ireland, our Secretary of State is a vindictive and nasty little-minded man whose main interest is to sell out the Northern Irish Unionists to the Republican Sinn Fein - because he and his boss, the Illustrious Tony the Crony-maker - feel that appeasing the IRA is more important than the majority wishes of the people. Never mind that such appeasement encourages other groups, such as the UK Jihad mob, to think they too can pull off a coup d' etat in return for their bombs and bullets.

Well, as the saying is, if you sow the wind, you must also reap the whirlwind. Especially since the early 1990's the increasingly anti-Christian, anti-Western, and anti-Jewish rantings of the militant Islamic preachers our government has given shelter to, have been winning converts to the campaign to overthrow the "decadent" and non-Muslim West. And we the taxpayers have been paying for it in the form of housing, handouts, cars, health services, and constant appeasement of these vicious killers in our midst. Suddenly we, the British people, and our American cousins, are responsible for all the oppression in Muslim countries around the world. Suddenly we are to blame for Saddam Hussain, Ayatollah Khoumeini, and every other dictator who has risen to power in a Muslim state and then murdered and oppressed his own people.

And when we defend ourselves against these psychopaths? It is a war on Islam!

Well, let's see the government bring on the treason trials. Start with George Galloway, and let's include the army of lawyers who make a fortune from their activities for organisations like "Liberty" who abuse the law to frustrate our defence. Let us also do something about the people who have created - as the Daily Telegraph columnist points out - a "new" form of apartheid in their "multi-culturalist" mumbo-jumbo and their twisted vision of society which has actually aided the terrorist grwoth in our midst by promoting separatist enclaves and the idea that some sort of disadvantage attaches to certain groups.

If treason abounds, it starts in Whitehall and in the very heart of the politicians who promote these myths for their own purposes.

Come to that, why bother with reviving the concept of treason? If these cretins want to live in Islamist States, let us revive the even earlier concept of law - exile them to an Islamist State and let them "enjoy" the fruits of living in one! Why should we continue to pay for the "rights" and comforts of people who wish to deprive us of our rights, privileges, and heritage? Even if found guilty, "life" sentences in this country do not mean "life" and they certainly won't stop the poison.

Exile the lot of them, and bring back a capital charge for any act of terror committed in this country for those who perform it and those who promote and support it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:01 PM

August 04, 2005

Political courage - or a deathwish?

I note that the mainstream papers are being very slow to pick up the rather bold statement from the erstwhile leader of the still demoralised Conservative Party, that "Multi-culturalism is dead". I am reminded of another politician in another era and another country, who once declared "apartheid is dead" - only it took another twenty years for it to actually finally die!

I suspect that Mr Davis is right, "multi-culturalism" - another name for the South African concept of "pluralism" (yet another guise of "Apartheid") is unsustainable and ultimately destructive. This is primarily because it creates a sort of vacuum, and nature abhors vacuums, sending something rushing in to fill it as fast as it can! Certainly the concept that allowing imported Middle and Near Eastern cultures to continue to practice their own morality, their own legal systems and even their own "customs" is unsustainable. Sooner, rather than later there will be a clash between whatever that culture demands and the culture of the rest of the population. If it is a clash between some "accepted" practice in that community and the law of the land, it will inevitably lead to confrontation over which should hold sway. If the Law of the Land is to be brushed aside in such a clash, then we have the first steps in the collapse of the law.

Much is also being made of the statement, rather bald, but nonetheless true, by another "senior" Tory, that those who feel dissaffected by British life, should leave. If they want to live in a backwards looking Islamic Republic, then go and live in one, because the rest of us don't want that and won't accept it. I suspect that a couple of promising political careers will come unglued on this issue - the Labour Party Disinformation Unit will see to that - but they are still only saying what any thinking person will recognise as true!

The problem for them, as it was for Mr Koornhof back in the late 1970's South Africa, is that the now entrenched "multi-culturalists" in government and the Civil Service, will work to frustrate every move to change the situation or to limit the damage, just as the Civil Service in South Africa worked to frustrate the political intentions of many of the more enlightened politicians there. Now that Blair and his cronies have effectively got their "placemen" into all the key positions it is likely to take years to undo the harm they have done and are doing to this nation state - and I suspect we do not have the time!

Joan Collins has recently written a leader article for a national daily in which she admits that she fears for the future of the country. The good lady points out that very few strong and self confident nations ever succumb to external threat or attack, but those whose confidence and will have been sapped from within crumble very quickly. As she points out, this nation is now supine, its self confidence completely drained by years of assiduous dis-information from academics, left leaning liberals, and Labour propaganda. We may no longer call ourselves "English", we must refer to ourselves as "Britons", lest we stir up prejudice. Yet, the same promoters of this politically correct garbage encourage anyone living in Scotland, Wales or Ireland to refer to themselves as "Scots", "Welsh" or "Irish" - but not the English! According to our Foreign Secretary (A man who prides himself in his "Scots" ancestory) "there is no such thing as an Englishman".

Joan Collins is right, we have been destroyed from within - and will be consigned to the scrapheap of history in very short order if we do not regain our culture and our identity, taking it back from the appeasers and "diversity" garbage mongers. The French Judge who laughed at our "soft" approach to terrorists was absolutely right. We are now so obsessed with the protection of the rights of these animals that we have forgotten that the nation has the right to defend itself from them by any and every means at our disposal!

This week has seen two British born preachers sound off on national television urging their followers to jihad and suicide attacks, subtly I will concede, but still encouraging them. Will the police act? Of course not, Mr Blair's Minister for Security, one Mrs Blears, attacked the police for saying they weren't going to stop and search elderly white ladies as suspected bombers - but would focus on "risk groups". Her response? "that would be a breach of the law and we must not alienate any section of the community!"

Guess what? She just alienated me completely! If we know that the likley profile of such attackers is Muslim, aged 18 - 30 and likely to be from a certain ethnic group, then surely that is where you focus your attention? But not, evidently, in Blair's "Cool Britannia"!

I fear that both the Conservatives and Joan Collins are right. Multi-culturalism is dead, and it will soon be replaced by a repressive mono-culture that is atheistic, foreign, and anti-British. We will allow it because we have allowed Blair and his poisonous Party to undermine us, to steal our freedoms, and to wage their anti-English campaigns deluding ourselves that it was "fair" and "just". Well, it was neither, and now that the economy is stalling across Europe and particularly here in Britain, we could be facing a very rough ride indeed.

How long before someone has the courage to stand up to Blair in Parliament and use the words of his great hero, that other great traitor and Regicide, Oliver Cromwell. "For too long you have disgraced this House; in the name of God go!"

I won't be holding my breath, but I'm sure as hell studying my options!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:52 PM | Comments (6)

August 01, 2005

It's official?

The Iron Chancellor - no not that mean-spirited curmudgeon we currently call the Chancellor of the Exchequer - but the great Graf Otto von Bismarck, the man who created a United Germany in the 1860's, once remarked "Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"

Well, since several junior Ministers and their civil service poodles have now "officially" denied the Government's intention to adopt the recommendation of the Centre for Policy Studies, a government think-tank, that all workers should now work until they are 67 before retiring, it must be official policy. They argue that this will solve the current crisis in funding pensions - a crisis created almost entirely by this government's raid on pension funds - and it is sustainable, they argue, because everyone is living longer. Well, not if the government's other great "triumph" of ideology, the NHS, gets its hands on you. They seem to be the other solution for the pensions crisis - kill off the pensioners with neglect, refused, or delayed treatment and you solve the problem. I note that no one is suggesting that the worthless denizens of Westminster or Whitehall take later pensions or a cut in their very generous pensions paid for - in large part - by the very people they are saying must delay taking a pension because the government can't afford it!

Well, now its been officially denied, believe it. We will all be required to work to 67 before we can get the pension we have contributed to for all our working lives. But the Whitehall and Westminster crew won't - they are a "special" case and not to be treated like the rest of us "masses".

Remember, you read it here first.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:05 AM | Comments (1)

July 30, 2005

A deliberate slight or an oversight?

An edict from the various Ministries in Whitehall to all their outposts and to Local Authorities recently required them to fly the Union Flag at half mast on the day of the funeral of Lord Callaghan, the Labour Prime Minister who followed Lord Wilson - and who was the leader of the Labour Party which presided over the collapse of the Pound, the Labour vote, and the "Winter of Discontent".

I wonder if anyone else noted that the same edict was not issued for the funeral of Sir Edward Heath, the Conservative PM who took Britain into the EU and who managed to lose an election which allowed Labour in to completely destroy the economy by 1979? Could this be a sign that this government is now so confident that it cannot be ejected from power that it is prepared to slight everyone who is not of their exclusive little "club"? Apparently the principle of honouring all our deceased Leaders equally, regardless of their political allegiance, is now a thing of the past; only Tony's cronies and mentors can expect due honours in future.

The question must be asked; is this a deliberate slighting of Sir Edward and his contribution to our nation?

It would certainly appear to be the case - and it is then further proof that our democracy is dead.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:35 PM

July 26, 2005

Which part of "Stop" didn't he understand?

The death of the Brazilian electrician at the hands of the police seems to have been a tragic end to a series of misunderstandings or perhaps even the outcome of a silly game. Some reports state that the dead man may have been playing a game with friends and thought the shouted orders to stop were from them - a failure of reality that cost him his life. By all accounts he had a very good command of English, so the language barrier does not seem to have been a problem.

Then there is some unexplained behaviour to be taken into account - not least his reported vaulting of the ticket barriers (quite feat in itself!) and running down an escalator to dive onto a train. By this stage the police were probably alarmed that he might indeed be a bomber and not a courier! He had left a building that housed a number of suspects from the earlier bombings, and when he emerged on a relatively warm day in a padded jacket it will have raised fears that he had a device hidden under it. The decision to shoot will almost certainly have been made with the very real threat in mind that if he did have a bomb the struggle, or a deliberate triggering could cause a very serious incident. So the armed officer pulled the trigger at close range and - a death ensued.

All deaths are a human tragedy, especially those which could have been avoided. I do not agree though, with the lobby that says the police should be disarmed, charged with murder and all the rest of the liberal garbage they usually spout. Dealing with terrorists is not easy, dealing with homicidal terrorists whose idea of paradise is to blow yourself up in order to win a place in a heaven populated by "perpetual virgins" is even more difficult. There is, as the Israeli's can testify, only one way to prevent a suicide bomber from blowing up his or her bomb. You shoot them in the head.

Tragically, that is what our police thought they were dealing with. They got it wrong this time, but what if they had not been wrong? What if he had been carrying a real bomb and had got onto that train and blown it up?

Perhaps this is something those who are now claiming to have been "traumatised" should consider. My sympathies lie with the dead man's family and with the police officers who had to make a snap call under extremely fraught conditions. No one wants to see another person die, least of all a policeman, but sometimes that is what it takes to keep everyone else alive.

We should all pray for the victim, the victim's family - and especially for the policeman who pulled the trigger. They will all need our prayers in the coming days.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:50 PM | Comments (1)

July 23, 2005

Undermining the Armed Forces

Another of Mr Blair's grand ideas coming home to bite him is his eagerness to sign up to the "International War Crimes Court" or whatever grand title this idiotic offshoot of the UN is called. Now that he has signed up to it, he had to quickly introduce legislation in our own parliament or allow our treasonous legal beagles to drag our troops into a foreign court at every opportunity. So now we have another piece of meddling legislation which allows charges to be brought by enemies against our troops for doing their job in a war zone and as a cover up for the real guilt which lies right in the heart of Whitehall - in Downing Street, the Palace of Westminster, and in the Ministry buildings of Whitehall. It is these people who should be in court and not the soldiers they are so free to throw at every conflict they can find.

The US had the good sense to refuse to sign up to this, and the even better sense to hold onto the principle of having separate Military Law and Justice. Not so Mr Blair and his shower of cretins - "Civil Law" is better than Military Law and can cover everything Military Law can. That is as may be; what it can never address is the lack of competence in Civil or Criminal Courts to test decisions or actions made on a battlefield under battle conditions - and the ending of formal fighting in enemy territory is far from being the end of hostilities! As Iraq has proved, it is only the beginning of a new phase - but that is not what Whitehall or the gravy train passengers of Westminster would ever understand.

So now we have the spectacle of civilian lawyers trying to press charges against soldiers serving in Iraq and against their commanding officer, a holder of the Distinguished Service Order, usually awarded for exceptional bravery in the face of the enemy - under this cockamamie Act for "War Crimes". And the smirking civil servants behind it are the ones who should be in the dock alongside Blair - for high treason.

As some distinguished Noble Lords, all ex-Chief's of the Defence Staff, said last week, this will undermine morale, it will undermine recruiting, and it will undermine discipline. But, perhaps that is what Whitehall and Blair want. After all, it will be much easier to roll over and surrender to the terrorists if we have no armed forces to call on, won't it.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)

July 22, 2005

The Bombers are back

Exactly two weeks to the day since the last set of bombs in London, we had another set. In fact only the day before, the last underground carriage, the one from Russell Square/King's Cross, was removed for further forensic examination - and now the psychopaths have struck again. Or perhaps that should be, have attempted to strike again.

This time they seem to have got their bombs wrong, but it is worth noting that they nearly got away with it again, albeit that at least one of them didn't particularly want to go up with his device. He threw it into the train and ran for it! Big, brave, bomber? No, bigoted, cowardly, murderer. Interestingly the people on the station gave chase and I cannot help but wonder what they would have done if they had caught him.

Somehow another man got very, very close to Number 10 with a fire arm - but by then the police were thicker than flies on a manure pile and we were treated to TV images of them arresting him with guns drawn, cocked and ready. That'll give Mrs Blair and her colleagues in the "Human Rights" gravy train lots to rant about and to plead about in court - at huge fees paid by the British taxpayer. No doubt they will find some way to say that this idiots "rights" have been breached by the public way he was stopped and arrested.

The pigeons are definitely coming home to roost for this government and their Civil Service cronies. The Human Rights Act has opened doors for every murderer and terrorist to abuse this country's laws to enter through the loophole of the "asylum" system. This is a joke, pure and simple as we have just learned when a leaked report shows that over a quarter million "failed" asylum claimants are still here - and unlikely to be removed. Other restrictions on the police and the immigration - and the moronic imposition of the policies which "prefer" people from non-Christian and non-caucasian backgrounds has opened our borders to an unprecedented influx of escapees from every unstable regime on the planet.

Now Mr Blair is having to resort to measures to restrict civil liberties and adopt methods for the prosecution of these murderous twits with their bombs and guns that a very short while ago he and his party were fighting to prevent. Now he wants to allow the use of telephone taps in court - previously forbidden - and a raft of other restrictions, including the banning from entry of anyone who has written or published anything that could be designated likely to "stir up or incite terrorism."

Funny how, just a few years ago this same shower of cronies were falling over themselves to call terrorists "freedom fighters" and welcoming them into Britain. Funny how things change - especially when you see how some of those same "freedom fighters" now treat the populations Mr Blair and his party aparatchiks helped to put under them. Robert Mugabe is a good example.

We have not seen the last of the bombers, nor have we seen the last that Blair and his cronies will put in place in their desperation to stop them. As the Chinese saying goes, "He who sows dragons teeth; must deal with the dragon when it springs up, fully grown." Somehow I don't think Blair has the stuff required to take on dragons.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 10:43 AM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2005

Inspiration from the past

I must thank Byzantium's Shores for the link and comment they left on my post regarding the bombs in London. I must also thank him for the text of the speeches by Henry V and Winston Churchill. They may have been centuries apart, but they certainly capture the spirit of the English when someone takes them on in order to destroy the things they hold valuable.

They still inspire today and should send a warning to all those who think they can frighten us or threaten our culture or our heritage. We may be tolerant in the extreme, but there comes a time when we will go no further. Mr Bin Laden and his supporters and the appeasers may be about to discover that the limit has been reached.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 12:55 PM

July 18, 2005

Military action and civilian law

The recently collapsed prosecution of a young soldier for actions taken in the heat of battle in Iraq flags up the very real problem of the military being judged and "managed" by incompetent morons who have never, and will never, wear a uniform or defend their country. The MoD's legal wizards decided, after a military investigation had already recommended no further action, to try to bring a prosecution in the Old Bailey against a soldier for doing what he considered necessary under threat of enemy action.

It is gratifying to see and hear some very senior and very experienced old soldiers, sailors, and airmen now gracing the House of Lords, as they attacked the government for its determinedly crass and plain bl**dy stupid efforts to undermine the morale of every single uniformed member of the armed forces. Mr Blair and his chums are quick to hide behind the troops when they need to, and very quick to take the credit for the work these lads do under appalling conditions, with frankly poor equipment and under threat of constant reviews and cuts. Our fleet is now woefully under strength, our army is dependent on the Part-timers of the Territorials to meet its commitments, and the Airforce has more transports than frontline fighters and bombers, yet Mr Blair and his cronies have "reviewed" defence budgets and strength downwards every year since they came to power - and they are at it again.

Yet, the same sauve Minister who assured "My Noble Lords" that the country had never been better defended, was unable to answer the challenge of a retired Admiral who threw down the gauntlet and demanded to know whether or not the civilian lawyers who now infest the MoD were aware of the damage to morale done by their lack of understanding of the realities of a battlefield rather than the niceties and luxury of being able to cerebalise events in a court room. All the Minister could do was bleat that "The MoD's legal advisers have learned a great deal from this experience."

The Admiral's quiet "I bet they have!" was all but missed as he gave a grim laugh at this response!

After all, we are talking about the same bunch of utterly worthless and incompetent Whitehall Wallahs who cut spending on the armed forces to "save money" and "pay for improved frontline equipment" (The boots that melted in the desert and the rifles that stop working if it gets too hot or too dusty!), cut the Fleet from 104 ships to 89, and then spent the equivalent of the price of a newbuild Type 45 Destroyer on "refurbishing" their office block and buying special chairs at ?1,500 each for the 3,000 papershufflers who now fill it. I never ever thought I would see the day come when I live in hope that the senior officers of the Army, Navy, and Airforce tell their political masters and the civil service cretins who carry out the damage, to "fight your own damned wars or go and keep the peace in Baghdad yourselves, our boys and girls are coming home and you bastards can clear up your own mess!" Sadly, they will not, because their professionalism and their sense of duty will not permit them to mutiny, for that is what it would be.

Civil law is not and never has been the way to judge the actions taken on a battlefield. To even consider doing so is little short of lunacy; no civilian lawyer, no matter how intelligent is ever going to be able, in the dry and rarified atmosphere of a courtroom, to understand the pressures on a young man or woman in the heat and stress of battle. That is not to say we should permit or overlook atrocity; I am saying that civilian courts and lawyers are not competent to judge it!

All power to the noble Lords who have stood up and defended the troops. Let us hope that they have started the first stones rolling of an avalanche which will drive these parasitic civil servants and their equally worthless political cronies out of power! At least let us start by throwing out the cretins who decided to bring this prosecution in the first place - identify them and sack them. Their actions have done untold damage to our troops' morale, and they have undermined the excellent work of the services under conditions that are entirely the responsibility of Whitehall! Let them pay the price with their cushy jobs - the troops are paying with their lives!

Si vis pacem, para bellum!

Posted by The Gray Monk at 01:31 PM

June 27, 2005

When will they learn? Will they ever learn?

The publication of a study by the Sutton Trust, a Trust fund set up to provide assistance to disadvantaged youngsters of a major study into educational opportunity and future employment options, makes damning reading for Blair and his cronies. Essentially it points out that the Labour Party's drive to destroy the system of Grammar Schools which served this country and the Middle Classes and Working Class scholars so well for nearly 500 years has helped to widen the gap between rich and poor, rather than, as Labour trumpetted would happen, close it.

It must be no surprise to anyone with even half a brain that almost all Labour MP's, and certainly all Labour Ministers, have made damned sure that their children have places in either the remaining Grammars or in Public Schools, while everyone else's kids have to suffer under the failed Comprehensive system. It should not escape anyone's notice either that many of the Middle Class Islington types who head up all the policy making "focus groups" and who are so quick to vote for this shower of hypocrites, also make sure that their children have the places in Grammars or Public Schools that Labour has, by its removal of Grammars, denied the very people they claim to be helping or representing.

I have said it before, and I say it again, there is no "working class" representative worthy of the name at the helm of the Labour Party! Blair is a Public Schoolboy, Brown is a Grammar product, as are six more of their cabinet. Ten more are from Independent School backgrounds. In other words, 17 out of 23 have had access to "privileged" education - education opportunities their policies deny to deserving and intelligent children from real working class backgrounds!

This reduction in opportunity for children from lower income backgrounds, whose parents may not be able to afford to move to catchment areas for better schools or who cannot afford the extra coaching for selective schools, has resulted in a widening of the gap between well-off and not so well-off. And it is getting worse all the time! As the Comprehensives continue to sink under the incompetence of Whitehall and political meddling, as the sheer size of the schools grows beyond what teachers and principals can hope to control, more and more children slip through the net and leave schoool with woefully substandard educations.

And all this is voted for by Blair's sycophantic following among Middle Class professionals and semi-professionals - mainly women - who consider that this is "fair and reasonable" and "providing the best education and opportunity for the underprivileged". Naturally Tarquin and Samantha simply have to go to a fee-paying instiutution, dear - they are so bright and MUST have special tuition!

Yet these are also the morons who are, according to the latest figures released by the Watchdogs, paying the Lion's share of the tax burden. Under their hero's leadership the tax burden for anyone in the upper tax bands has risen steadily and is now (inclusive of direct, indirect and stealth taxes) standing at 55% of income! Their personal savings are being demolished by this grasping and wastful government at an unprecendented rate, their pensions have been destroyed (alongside everyone else's!), the "great" public services have never been so poorly managed, so inefficient, or so riddled with nepotism - and yet these idiots will still protest that Blair and his deceitful and dangerous cronies are "the only fair and representative government!"

All the "new" money purportedly being poured into "public services" is actually going straight into a burgeoning bureaucracy and not into service delivery. Most of it is double-accounting - a practice that would swiftly land any private company in court! All of the money is the taxpayers anyway and not the government's, yet we seem to have less and less control over this dishonest and deceitful horde of career politicians who have no hestitation in awarding themselves huge pay rises and perks (And bomb-proof pensions!), and their hangers on, the ever present Sir Humphreys of Whitehall, continue to waste it liberally and without check. Even with the swingeing tax rises this shower of deceivers have introduced, government borrowing is rising steadily and has reached an all time high. So much for Brown's "fiscal probity!" The last Labour shower who borrowed on this scale also devalued the Pound by 50% and then tried to print money to get out of the hole. (Is that the sound of the Royal Mint Printworks we hear thumping away?)

Latest predictions from the Treasury and confirmed by the much more reliable City analysts is that taxes will rise still further - by another 3% at least before the end of this term.

So, will the Middle Class chatterers and Champagne Socialists ever learn? Not until little Tarquin or little Samantha are forced to forgo their places at the fee-paying school because Daddy cannot afford the tax bill and the fees or until they find themselves without the opportunities for the best jobs or professional qualifications - because Blair's tax and spend has caught up with them, or his "selective diversity" policies have barred them from Oxbridge or the better universities.

Then and only then will these Champagne Socialists learn the truth - Labour is a deceitful and seriously vindictive and dictatorial party. Not only that, Socialism is a chimera, one which destroys far more than it offers. There really is no substitute, as our forefathers knew, for self discipline, hard work, and merit in all human effort.

One paper recently asked "Who will fight for the battered Middle Class?" The answer, sadly is "no one" - because too many of them are so wrapped in the thrall of Labour's spin and deceit; they are blinded to the truth. As long as they continue to vote Labour, to donate to Labour, and to perpetuate the lies of Socialism and Labour, they deserve everything they get.

Posted by The Gray Monk at 02:16 PM | Comments (4)