The Random Jottings of Paul Donnelley

The mysterious world of Facebook finance

2012-01-28T14:55:00.007Z

The news, or rumour, that Facebook is about go public with an IPO started me wondering again. Where does its money come from?

I am still puzzled as to how Facebook is worth $100billion - or whatever the latest figure appears to be. Where does the revenue come from? Advertising? I had a Facebook account for a while and only once clicked on an ad. I have asked others with accounts if they click on the ads. No one has admitted to doing so. Obviously, my "research" is only empiric but of replicated nationwide would seem to infer that the number of ad clicks is not great. Additionally, the email account I used for Facebook (not my main address) has not been bombarded with spam relating to the subject of the one ad link that I did click - photography, in case you are interested - so Facebook is not selling email addresses.

So where does the revenue come from? Facebook is, at least in the UK, not allowed to sell the information its users input. Similarly, it cannot use the millions of uploaded photographs for commercial reasons so that is not a source of income.

Facebook doesn't sell email addresses; it doesn't appear to use the information or photographs stored on its servers. Despite the occasional rumour that it is going to start charging for use, it boasts that Facebook is free and always will be. A number of large companies ask us to become "fans" on Facebook so does Facebook charge companies for their pages? Even if it does (and I doubt it does) that cannot bring in that large a sum. Apart from raising their profile what good would it do for those companies? Does Coca-Cola or McDonald's, for example, need to raise their profile via Facebook? So, that's not where the money comes from.

Facebook appears to be the latest example of a dotcom company that is valued far beyond its true worth. Remember the 90s? Remember all the people who invested in dotcom companies and then got horribly burned when the bubble burst? I fear the same thing will happen to anyone who invests in Facebook shares, that is, of course, if Facebook does issue an IPO - and, of course, there is no guarantee that it will.

Diana's death taught the North Koreans to publicly mourn

2011-12-19T21:53:00.000Z

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's Dear Leader, died of a heart attack on Saturday at the age of 69 or possibly 70 - as with so much about him his date of birth is unclear.

North Koreans have taken to the streets in an outpouring of grief that frankly looks ridiculous to cynical Westerners. Perhaps most of it is orchestrated by the government to show the world how much the people will miss the Dear Leader.

As I watched the footage on North Korean television I was transported back to August and September 1997 when this country was host to a similar situation - people crying over the death of someone they only knew from the television or newspapers.

In the days following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales you not only grieved but you had to be seen to grieve and if you didn't you ran the risk of having your head kicked in, as did some poor sod who decided to wash his car on the morning of her funeral.

Laugh all you want at the public mourning in North Korea and then watch the footage of Diana's funeral and tell me what is different.

We should honour our own...

2011-08-12T21:37:00.003Z

In this country we seem to have almost an obsession with honouring foreigners and foreign towns that have nothing to do with us.

There is a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square. Why? What has Mandela got to do with this country? As a member of what was a terrorist organisation, I don't understand why he is so honoured. I doubt if he lives to be 90-odd we would erect a statue to Gerry Adams. At least I hope not...

Now, we learn an old soldier has lost a two-year battle to stop the local council renaming the Hemsworth bypass in Pontefract, West Yorkshire Sprockhoevel Way. Sprockhoevel is a town in the Ruhr. I'm sure it's a very nice town but what on earth does it have to to with Pontefract? Is there a Pontefract Strasse in the Ruhr? What do you think?

It's not the cuts, Ken...

2011-08-09T06:59:00.005Z

Some things are cyclical. The planet warms up and cools down by itself; flares come back into fashion; a reality show winner will crash and burn and Ken Livingstone will pop up opportunistically to have a pop at the Tories.

There he was last night on Newsnight blaming the rioting in Tottenham, Hackney, Croydon et al on "the cuts". He bemoaned the "fact" that in Tottenham nine youth clubs have closed because of the Coalition government. Of course that's the reason Ken. It was obvious to anyone watching the rampaging mob that if they hadn't been setting fire to Carpetright or looting a Vodafone shop that they would have been down the local youth club enjoying a lemonade while playing a gentle game of Whist.

The fact is that, like Livingstone, much of what has gone on over the past three days is nothing more than opportunism. Opportunism to run amok. Opportunism to have a punch-up with the Old Bill. Opportunism to smash up a few shops and loot them while you can.

The people carrying out this mayhem are not doing it because of the cuts. They are not doing it because the police shot some gangster in the back of a taxi. They are doing it because they are greedy, stupid, feckless thieves who would prefer to live on money made by selling drugs or benefits or both, rather than get a proper job and improve the "community" they claim so passionately to care about.

As for Livingstone, well there's a mayoral election next year and there's nothing like going on television to defend "the people".

Bring on the water cannons - and if Ken Livingstone gets a bit wet, so much the better.

The answer is not blowin' in the wind

2011-06-14T10:32:00.006Z

Wind turbines are a giant waste of hot - and cold - air. They don't work in the cold and if it is too cold, they have to be switched off in case they get damaged. Oh and if it is too cold they have to be heated thus causing them to cost more money than they actually save. Madness.

Now, we learn that they will be have to switched off for 38 days a year if it gets too windy because the National Grid cannot cope with a surge in power. At the moment, they are turned off for 25 days a year. Based on historic data, wind turbines will have to be switched off for 38 days every year when wind power production exceeds 35 per cent of installed wind capacity and demand falls below half the levels seen at peak time, National Grid said.

So are we abandoning this folly? No, we are pressing ahead to increase these eyesores seven-fold by 2020. Utter, utter madness.

Close our purse strings

2011-06-14T10:22:00.004Z

Prime Minister David Cameron announces that Britain will donate a further £814million of taxpayers’ money to a child vaccine programme run by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, taking the country’s total contribution to £1.5billion. He told a conference at a five-star hotel (natch) in London that people should be "proud" of the Coalition’s pledge to increase aid spending by 34 per cent to more than £12billion.

As well as being more than five times the £274million pledged by the U.S., it is more than 30 times higher than Germany’s £44million and almost 50 times the £30million given by Spain. Japan gave just £5.5million, while China gave nothing.

Raj Shah, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that America could not afford to give more because it was facing a "very difficult budget environment".

No kidding? Our "donation" would be all very laudable if the country was not financially bankrupt. We simply cannot afford to be the world's nurse as well as its traffic warden.

Why do the "great and the good" love grandstanding with otehr people's money? Lord Coe told a radio audience that he believed most Londoners were happy to pay for the Olympic Games - he has obviously not spoken to the Londoners I know. We didn't want it and certainly don't want to pay for it.

Gordon Brown paid untold millions just so that he could have his picture taken with Nelson Mandela. Now his successor at Number 10, a millionaire many times over, is giving away more of our money at the time people are fearful of a double dip recession that will lead to more unemployed, more homeless and more misery.

Enough is enough. Charity begins at home, Mr Cameron.

Shoesmith's blood money

2011-05-29T00:29:00.004Z

They just don't get it.

The hatchet-faced harridan Sharon Shoesmith who has unbelievably won her case for unfair dismissal sqawks, "I don't do blame" when asked if she feels any responsibility for the death of 17-month-old toddler Peter Connelly.

She claims that her health has suffered because of her ordeal and that she had even contemplated suicide although she didn't look at death's door in the pictures taken on Friday.

Shoesmith claims that she took the case to court for "justice" not for money. So by this, can we take it that she will not be taking one penny of any offered compensation that she so richly does not deserve?

Prisoners have no right to vote

2011-05-22T05:12:00.003Z

It has been a long time since my last post for which I apologise.

Should prisoners have a right to vote? No. Totally and unequivocally no. When someone goes to prison, they lose the right to vote and this is as how it should be.

A friend of mine disagreed. He said that anything that makes prisoners feel less disenfranchised is a good thing.

Aside from most prisoners not knowing what "disenfranchised" means, thanks to the appalling comprehensive school system, does my well-meaning but, I believe, naive friend really believe that most prisoners could care less whether they can vote or not?

Does he really believe that Chummy lays on his bunk in his cell on a Friday and Saturday night when his friends are out burgling or chatting up girls in pubs and bemoans the fact that he cannot vote?

More evidence we are not fighting a war on drugs

2010-12-30T18:09:00.004Z

When drugs are discussed, many say that since the war on drugs has been lost, we should decriminalise all drugs.

My view is that the war on drugs has not been lost, it was never fought. A story that broke after Christmas gives credence to my view.

An email was issued to staff at Heathrow 0n 23 December, telling them not to "actively seek to identify any passenger with internal concealments".

The email, leaked by a whistleblower, also warned officers that if they did arrest smugglers, they would have to work a 24-hour shift guarding prisoners.

It read: "We would seek your co-operation in managing this situation by asking that you do not actively seek to identify any passenger with internal concealments for three days up to and including Christmas Day."

This is a disgraceful abrogation of duty and the person who issued it should be immediately sacked.

Last cut is the deepest

2010-12-14T01:50:00.003Z

So Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is to drop the manifesto proposal that anyone caught carrying a knife would be subject to an automatic prison sentence.

The Coalition have now lost the moral high ground when it comes to law and order but is anyone really surprised that they are backtracking on yet another promise?

Is Ed too young?

2010-09-25T17:29:00.006Z

So Ed Miliband is the leader of the Labour Party just five years after he entered the House of Commons. If David Cameron calls a general election in 2009 rather than the following year, Ed Miliband could become Prime Minister just nine years after he became an MP.

By coincidence, David Cameron moved into Number 10 nine years after he became an MP.

We are now ruled by a political elite that have never had a proper job in their lives (I exclude David Cameron's stint as PR for Carlton TV) and are getting younger and younger. Surely, those who seek to govern us should have had some experience of life before getting their hands on power or at least have a dozen or more years of being a back bencher before moving into government.

I have been looking back over the most recent PMs.

Gordon Brown was an MP for 24 years before he became PM.
Tony Blair had 14 years' experience.
John Major was an MP for 11 years before entering Number 10.
Margaret Thatcher had 20 years as an MP.
Jim Callaghan waited 26 years before becoming PM.
Harold Wilson took 19 years to climb the greasy pole.
Alec Douglas-Home took 33 years between becoming an MP and becoming Prime Minister but his spell was interrupted by going to the Upper House.
Harold Macmillan also spent 33 years before he moved into Number 10.

Some of these were good premiers and some bad but they all had 10 or more years learning the ropes. Our future politicians should take note...

Well done to Ed

2010-09-25T16:31:00.001Z

I would like to offer my congratulations to Ed Miliband, the new leader of the Labour Party.

However, his victory is yet another example of where the "experts" got it wrong. A minute or two before the Labour lady announced the result, BBC political editor Nick Robinson predicted that Miliband major would win. Other "experts" claimed that as well and also said that Ed Balls would finish last when, in fact, he won the bronze medal.

So as Miliband minor takes over, beware the "experts" - they are usually wrong as they have been on Aids, climate change, bird flu, the Millennium Bug and so many other topics.

Cut back strictly gay projects

2010-09-24T13:41:00.004Z

In the Nineteenth Century Oscar Wilde described homosexuality as "the love that dare not speak its name".

In the Twentieth Century Kenneth Williams commented that the love that dare not speak its name now won't stop shouting from the rooftops".

The public has been assailed for many years with the knowledge that at least one in 10 people are gay and thus governments of all hues have spent millions of taxpayers' money on what really amounts to homosexual propaganda: that a gay relationship is as valid as a heterosexual one; that gays should be allowed to adopt children; that the rights of gays should be paramount to the religious beliefs of many, etc.

Now, new research has revealed that Britain does not have one in 10 gays but that the real figure is more likely one in 100. The Office for National Statistics said that 1.3 per cent of men are gay and 0.6 per cent of women are lesbian.

Another 0.5 per cent consider themselves bisexual, according to the figures gathered from questions put to nearly 250,000 - the biggest survey possible outside a full national census.

This means that, in total, around 1.5 per cent of the population is either homosexual or bisexual.

The number is far lower than the estimate used as a basis for the distribution of millions of pounds in public money to sexual equality causes.

When the last government framed civil partnership laws, it accepted an assumption that at least five per cent of the population was homosexual.

Will the coalition scale back on lesbian outreach workers and their like and spend public money on schemes that benefit the whole public not a tiny but nonetheless vocal majority?

Root out the bad apples in the police

2010-09-12T20:09:00.003Z

Sergeant Mark Andrews was jailed last week for an unprovoked attack on a 59-year-old lady. He was sent down for six months after he had been found guilty of actual bodily harm.

Now another man has come forward to claim that he, too, was assaulted by Andrews.

What I find surprising is that Andrews was not immediately sacked on conviction. Further two of his colleagues lied on oath when giving evidence for him. They were PC Mark McIntyre and Acting Sergeant Kate Smith. They alleged that the 59-year-old lady had been violent but Deputy District Judge Peter Greenfield said on sentencing Andrews, "You called two officers whose evidence I didn’t accept... I was so concerned about the evidence these officers gave me, I asked my comments to be brought to the attention of the Chief Officer of Wiltshire."

A police spokesman said, "Two officers will be receiving words of advice from a senior officer on how to present their evidence."

"Words of advice"? Isn't that more often called attempting to pervert the course of justice?

Since when was it the job of the local council to pay for toms?

2010-08-15T23:50:00.005Z

August is the "silly season" in what used to be Fleet Street. Stories that ordinarily would not get a look-in are featured in newspapers.

Today, The Mail on Sunday runs a story that local councils are using taxpayers' money to pay for prostitutes, visits to lap-dancing clubs and exotic holidays for the disabled.

Labour (who else?) introduced a £520million scheme to "empower people with disabilities".

I am sure that the intention was not for this money to be used setting up people with toms.

That is precisely what is happening. One social worker said that if his client, a 21-year-old with moderate learning disabilities, was not allowed to visit a hooker in Amsterdam, it would be breach of his human rights. The social worker said that the 21-year-old was an angry, frustrated and anxious young man and that it was the social worker's duty let him use the money for sex.

Another man who apparently has a brain injury has sessions organised by an
occupational therapist that were designed to teach him to become sexually self-reliant after his wife left him and took all their money.

The 21-year-old man travelling to Amsterdam in September has never paid for sex before but intends to use his personal budget from social services to "try it".

"Who says he can't do what he wants?" his social worker said [I do]. "We can't place restrictions on a young man who wants to experience the world. [Why not?] He has been to two different sexual health and sexual awareness courses and basically wants to try it. Like anyone else wouldn't."

It's on day this that you realise that the country is truly in the grip of mad people.

The social worker adds, "Wouldn't you prefer that we can control this, guide him, educate him, support him to understand the process and ultimately end up satisfying his needs in a secure, licensed place where his happiness and growth as a person is the most important thing?"

What job is it of taxpayers to fund a 21-year-old's "happiness and growth"?

"The need is there. I identified it, I assessed it, and am going to be providing a service to meet it. By refusing to offer him this service would be a violation of his human rights. Put yourself in his shoes before you cut off his balls."

It's your balls that should be cut off Mr Social Worker for even considering this nonsense.

Another chap got a holiday in Tunisia, a subscription to an internet dating site, driving lessons and expensive art materials.

We really all are going to hell in a handcart...

We had no "partners" in the Empire

2010-07-31T12:51:00.002Z

Dominic Sandbrook writes an interesting article in today's Daily Mail calling for an end to politicians apologising for Britain's Empire.

The Empire was in my opinion a good thing but this sentence is politically correct nonsense:

"The Raj survived not at the point of a bayonet, but thanks to the enthusiastic co-operation of thousands of ordinary Indians, who relished the order that their colonial partners"

No one here or in India saw Indians as "partners". If the sentence had finished "colonial masters" it would have more semblance to the truth.

Good for Oxfordshire CCC and its abolition of speed cameras

2010-07-25T17:50:00.006Z

Oxfordshire County Council could be turning off all its speed cameras in am effort to save money after Labour's mismanagement of the country.

Naturally, this has brought out the "road safety campaigners" in a hot flush. Ellen Booth, a campaigns officer for road safety group Brake, said, "It would be a disaster. It would be especially hard to justify the idea that all speed cameras should be turned off. Speed cameras are a really cost effective way of managing speed, which is one of the biggest issues on our roads. To get rid of them would be a backward step and we would really be risking people's lives."

Brake claims it exists to "stop the carnage" - emotive words indeed and more appropriately used when describing a battle. However, it does seem to confirm that Brake believes that there is indeed a war on motorists.

It would be impolite to say that "campaigns officer" Miss Booth is talking utter cobblers but she is. What does she mean "speed... is one of the biggest issues on our roads"? It is easy to say that speed kills which is presumably what she is talking about. It doesn't - inappropriate speed kills and most accidents are caused by people not paying attention to where they are going not because they are driving too fast.

Swindon turned off its fixed point speed cameras and has seen no change in serious accidents or deaths on its roads.

There is no evidence that speed cameras do anything except raise revenue.

What choice, Mrs Spelman?

2010-07-18T14:43:00.004Z

It must be the necessity to have a first class degree that makes you utter such stupid comments.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, a first in European Studies from Queen Mary, University of London, says that banning the burka would infringe a woman's right to "choose each morning when you wake up what you wear".

What choice does a woman have if she wears a burka? "Hmm, shall I pick the black one or the black one?"

Last year, I drove past a mosque with my wife and sister-in-law, both practising Muslims, and we saw a woman in a burka reading a fashion magazine. I said, "What's the point of her looking? She will never be able to wear anything in it."

My sister-in-law replied, "That's just what I was thinking."

The burka is not a symbol or religious freedom or intolerance. It is a social garment. Nowhere in the Koran does it say that women must cover their faces when they leave the house or are among men to whom they are not related. It calls for women to dress modestly.

The burka has no place in civilised society.

Stop calling murderers "Mister"

2010-07-08T17:04:00.003Z

Psychopath Raoul Moat continues to evade the police hunt for him. It appears that the SAS are now involved.

One thing bothers me: can the senior police figures stop referring to him in their press conferences as "Mister" Moat. It is not exactly as if he is going to take umbrage - he is annoyed with the police enough as it is...

Gordon Brown's lies about immigration

2010-04-29T17:17:00.003Z

Gordon Brown was again today asked about immigration and again trotted out the mantra about the points system that his government have introduced.

What he does not say is that his points system will have no effect whatsoever on the eastern European immigrants who flock to the UK because their countries are members of the EU and they have a legal right to be here.

Gordon shows his true colours

2010-04-29T11:09:00.005Z

Gordon Brown boasts of his “moral compass”. He feels people’s pain, he claims.

Yesterday, he was shown up as the hypocritical weirdo he actually is. “You’re a very good woman,” Mr Brown told widow Gillian Duffy before knowing anything about her, “and you have served the community all your life.” He then returned to what he thought was the safety of his car to insult her.

Having realised that he had been caught out calling Mrs Duffy “a bigoted woman”, he returned to form blaming everyone but himself.

It was Sue [Nye]’s fault for introducing Mrs Duffy to him; it was the media’s fault for miking him in the first place but it was not Gordon’s fault – oh no.

To slightly misquote the song, Gordon really is a moron.

Jordan is too pathetic for words

2010-03-08T18:00:00.003Z

Could there be a more pathetic creature on earth than Jordan?

The woman has warned ex-husband, "I don't want him to be unhappy but people need to realise he's not what the public think he is. I want him to move on like I have, but he won't. You just wait. It's time the truth came out on me and Pete. I'm not going to hold anything back. I'd be very scared if I was him."

Why do people need to realise anything about Peter Andre?

Jordan, do us all a favour and crawl back under the stone with the rest of the slime...

Public has no right to know Jon Venables's "new crime"

2010-03-07T23:35:00.004Z

There are few crimes as sickening as what Jon Venables and Robert Thompson did to James Bulger. Two days before St Valentine’s Day 1993, Thompson and Venables, both just 10-years-old, abducted James Bulger, a month away from his third birthday, from Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside. James had been with his mother Denise and he wandered away from her as she shopped in a butcher’s.

Thompson and Venables who were playing truant from school had spent six hours trying to steal a child. When James left his mother’s side at 3.40pm they pounced and left the shopping centre within two minutes. They took him 2½ miles to a railway line near Walton Lane police station and Anfield cemetery. There they sexually abused him, threw paint in his eyes before beating him to death using bricks and an iron bar. They pushed a battery up his back passage.

After they had amused themselves, they placed his body on the track covering it with bricks and bits of wood where it was cut in two by a passing train. James’s body lay undiscovered until 14 February. CCTV allowed the police to identify the two killers and they arrested Thompson and Venables and charged them with murder on 20 February. They were also charged with the attempted abduction of another child on the same day. Remarkably, thirty-eight people had seen the evil duo with James Bulger but none had thought to intervene even though he was crying and some testified that they had seen a large wound on his head and saw him being kicked.

The trial of Thompson and Venables opened on 1 November 1993 at Preston Crown Court. Twenty-three days later, they became the youngest people to be convicted of murder in British criminal history. Venables cried in court but Thompson remained impassive. The judge, Sir Michael Morland, recommended that they serve a minimum of eight years but the Lord Chief Justice Taylor of Gosforth raised their minimum sentence to 10 years. Home Secretary Michael Howard further increased their sentence to 15 years after a petition raised by James’s parents collected 207,000 signatures.

As it turned out, they did serve eight years being released in June 2001 and given new identities. Now Venables is back in prison for "serious offences". The authorities are refusing to say what he did to be returned to prison lest it prejudice a trial. James Bulger's mother, now Denise Fergus, has asked to be told what Venables has done. So far, she has not been told.

I have always been of the opinion that some crimes are just too hideous for the perpetrators ever to be released, irrespective of their age at the time. This is one such crime. Thompson and Venables should have been locked away until they were very old men.

However, the course of justice takes precedence over what Venables is alleged to have done. The public has no right to know what he is accused of before he comes to trial. The same goes for the Bulger family. Will knowing bring James back? Will it comfort them? No, of course not.

Some years ago, a new bride was murdered by two sisters. They were rightly convicted but later released after it was shown that press coverage had prejudiced their right to a fair trial. A innocent woman is in her grave while two callous murderers walk the streets.

Whatever Jon Venables is accused of doing, it is right for justice to take its course and there is no reason to satisfy the prurience of the public.

Tidying up for the New Year

2009-12-31T11:43:00.006Z

It's been a while since my last posting... or which apologies.
So to make up here are a few random jottings to end the year.

Apparently almost 200 dustmen have been assaulted this year by householders furious at the "alternate weekly collection". A spokesman said, 'Emptying the bins from more than 20million homes is a huge undertaking and certain rules are necessary to enable the job to be done quickly and efficiently.' The rules seemed to work a few years back - the dustmen would come into your back garden, hoist the dustbin on their shoulders, carry it to the dustcart, empty it and return it and (hopefully) put the lid back on and close your garden gate. Why is it more complicated now than it was then?
Senior policeman Cressida Dick has been awarded the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service. She, you will remember, was in charge of the operation that resulted in a totally innocent Brazilian electrician being shot dead on a Tube train in south London in July 2005. She was promoted not long after and has subsequntly been promoted again. Could she not have waited until retirement before she was given the gong? It seems once again (for the third time) remarkably insensitive of the Metropolitan Police Force to publicise this incompetent woman.
After the football manager who used the Human Rights Act to prevent the world being told he was sleeping with another man's wife, another uses the same act to prevent the world learning he visits Thai prostitutes. Granted, it may be none of our business who either of these men are but was this really what the Government had in mind when they introduced this piece of legislation?
The man who was jailed for beating up a burglar who tied up and terrorised his family should be freed immediaely.

Happy New Year. I hope 2010 brings you all that you wish yourselves.

Let men serve on the front line and only men...

2009-11-22T19:50:00.003Z

For many, many years men and women did not serve on the front line in military campaigns. Apart from the obvious reason that women are not as physically strong as men, another reason comes from Afghanistan.

Ten British servicewomen on operations in Afghanistan have been sent back to the UK in the past six months after becoming pregnant.

A number of the soldiers may have become pregnant after having relationships with their colleagues.

When are the buffoons who run the country going to realise that political correctness has no place in military life?

Blair not wanted in Europe either...

2009-10-30T16:41:00.003Z

So it looks as if Tony Blair's ambition to become the first president of Europe is going to hit the (gravy train) buffers before he even buys a ticket.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who was initially one of Mr Blair's most vocal supporters, declared that there would be a joint Franco-German candidate for the post.

Of course it will, because as I have often said the EU is a Franco-German stitch-up with the Germans doing politically and economically what they couldn't do militarily twice last century and the French doing what they do best - collaborating with the Germans.

All crimes are equal - despite what the police think

2009-10-26T20:44:00.002Z

A trainee young policeman has been beaten up in Liverpool.

Detective Chief Inspector Tim Keelan is leading the investigation.

He said, ‘People who commit crimes can expect the full attention of the police and we will not rest until the offenders are brought to justice. We have stepped up high visibility patrols in the area to reassure the public and we would urge the community to help us with our enquiries and find those responsible.’

Except that is not quite the full story. James Parkes, 22,the trainee cop in question is gay and what DCI Keelan actually said was, ‘We are treating the assault as a homophobic hate crime and this incident shows there are still some people who have not learnt that crimes of this type are completely unacceptable. People who commit hate crimes can expect the full attention of the police and we will not rest until the offenders are brought to justice.’

I sincerely hope the police catch the attackers quickly and that they get banged up for a long time. However, why is this attack being treated with more seriousness than if a heterosexual trainee copper had been beaten up? Surely all crimes should ‘expect the full attention of the police’ and they should keep at it until ‘the offenders are brought to justice’. Surely all crimes especially those of violence are ‘completely unacceptable’ not just when the victim is gay.

The police should put all their efforts into solving every crime not just the politically expedient ones.

In the meantime, I wish Pc Parkes a speedy recovery.

Griffin was not a success on Question Time

2009-10-23T10:22:00.005Z

Nick Griffin's poor performance on Question Time last night came as a surprise to many who expected him to be well-briefed, articulate and "on-message".

In the end, he was none of those things. Perhaps if the programme had been a normal Question Time then he might have fared better but the questions were all about the BNP apart from one about a newspaper report on a dead gay pop star.

Too much time was wasted on asking Griffin if he had said certain things and he either denied them or blustered.

If Neil Kinnock was on the programme, would they have spent much of the time asking him if he had wanted Britain to leave the EU? And they made great play of the fact that Griffin had shared a platform with David Duke of Ku Klux Klan but Ken Livingstone, endorsed by the Labour Party, has shared platforms with IRA terrorists and a Muslim cleric who advocates killing Jews and homosexuals.

It would have been much better to have a normal Question Time but then the liberal elite feared that Griffin would espouse views that would resonate with much of the country i.e. two men kissing being creepy.

Much better to spend the whole programme attacking Griffin.

Gordon give the money back...

2009-10-11T14:38:00.002Z

Tomorrow all 646 will received a letter from civil servant Sir Thomas Legg about their expense claims over the past five years.

Some will be cleared, some will be asked to pay back money and some will be asked for clarification about their claims.

It seems simple to me. MPs should be able to claim for travel to and from their constituencies, food for legitimate purposes (entertaining constituents or matters pertaining to their work as an MP) and accommodation where their constituency is more than 50 miles from Westminster and no more. No televisions, no computers, no laptops, no digital cameras and no Sky TV (yes, that means you Gordon Brown).

Okay to ask Cameron about drugs... but not Brown?

2009-10-01T08:13:00.002Z

The Labour Party is up in arms after the BBC's Andrew Marr had the temerity to ask Gordon Brown if he was on the happy pills.

Former leader Neil Kinnock told Five News: "The BBC is one of the greatest institutions in the world. They demeaned themselves, they cheapened themselves and the judgement of the journalist who asked the question has to be questioned."

So it is okay to ask David Cameron if he has taken drugs (twenty years ago) but not okay to ask the leader of the country if he does?

As usual, one rule for one...

What if Helen Goddard had been a pederast?

2009-09-21T21:39:00.004Z

Teacher Helen Goddard, 26, has been sentenced to 15 months for having sex with one of her 15-year-old pupils.

The court heard trumpet teacher Helen Goddard used sex toys and fluffy handcuffs on the "vulnerable" child, helped weave a web of lies so the girl could stay in her flat overnight, and took her on a dirty weekend in Paris, where they joined a gay pride march.

Goddard is slim and attractive and has had boyfriends in the past so many have been quick to defend her. One man on The Sun's website even says that he hopes Goddard's career has not been too damaged!

I offer three alternative scenarios - would they have defended her if Goddard had been a stereotypical lesbian - all dungarees, sensible shoes, cropped hair and tattoos?

Would they have defended her if Goddard had been a 26-year-old man seducing a 15-year-old girl and finally would they have defended her if Goddard had been a 26-year-old man seducing a 15-year-old boy?

Brown's cowardice comes to the fore again

2009-09-07T00:46:00.004Z

Once again Gordon Brown demonstrates his innate cowardice.

He announces that he would not ask Colonel Gaddafi about compensation for victims of the IRA financed by Libya when he met Gaddafi.

Now, back home he announces that British diplomats would now help in lobbying the Libyan government for compensation.

Funny he didn't do that when he met Gaddafi - Brown is a coward through and through.

What benefit have gypsies ever brought to the UK?

2009-08-18T01:05:00.005Z

I thought long and hard before posting this because I just know some illiberal will call me a racist or Little Englander.

It comes on the heels of the news that some of the Romanian gypsies who had left Belfast after being beaten up had returned to the city.

One might ask why since they did nothing to engender a community spirit last time they were there. Reports had them starting a mini crime wave finally resulting in the locals taking the law into their own hands.

Perhaps the biggest irony of all was watching the gangster Martin McGuinness condemning people for being violent. Pots and kettles spring to mind.

I suppose one question that must be asked is why the Romanian gypsies came to Britain in the first place. It is hardly a direct route.

Labour Communities Secretary Shahid Malik admits that planning laws are indeed deliberately skewed to favour gypsies and travellers. He said, "Fairness does not mean treating people equally. It means addressing the different needs of different people."

That by any measure can hardly be described as "fairness".

Now comes the question: this government has defined gypsies as an ethnic minority. So leaving aside that piece of nonsense, one must ask what benefit have gypsies ever brought to the UK?

I think most people would agree that selling lucky heather and clothes pegs is not actually economically beneficial since one is unnecessary and Tesco and Sainsbury's can supply you with the other.

It is a question I would genuinely like the answer to: what benefit have gypsies ever brought to the UK?

I can make a case for the social and economic benefits of members of nearly all minorities coming to this country: West Indians, Pakistanis, Jews, Indians, Sri Lankans, Chinese, Japanese, Bangladeshis, Poles, not to mention French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Spanish, Americans - the list goes on.

All of the above have improved this country by their being here whether it is in the sporting arena, food and restaurants, constructions business, cleaning, tailoring, dry cleaning, social and cultural events or merely doing lowly paid jobs that no one else wants to do. For this they pay tax and national insurance and in many cases add to the gaiety of the nation - the Notting Hill Carnival and Chinese New Year to name but two occasions.

But what benefits have gypsies brought? It is a genuine question and I would like to know the answer.

Have I got BBC views for you?

2009-07-18T16:39:00.001Z

Radio 2 DJ Sarah Kennedy has been ticked off after saying on air that Enoch Powell was the best prime minister we never had.

A spokesman for the BBC said that the corporation had received 25 complaints and that the presenter had been "spoken to" about the remark.

Would she have been reprimanded had she said Michael Foot was the best PM we never had?

If it's hot stay in the shade - you don't need a quango to tell you that!

2009-06-28T18:52:00.004Z

And once again the nanny state swings into action.

The last couple of days have been a little warm so now we are given advice on the weather.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'The heat is especially dangerous for the very young, older people or those with serious illnesses. Keeping the home as cool as possible during hot weather and remembering the needs of friends, relatives and neighbours who could be at risk is essential."

They usefully provide some helpful hints:

Tips of how to keep cool in the heatwave...

People with serious health problems (for example heart conditions), should avoid going out in the heat, especially between 11am and 3pm.
Drink cold drinks such as water or fruit juice regularly and avoid tea, coffee and alcohol.
Stay tuned to the weather forecast and plan ahead with supplies - think of elderly neighbours who may need help.
Keep plenty of water to hand and stay in the shade where possible.
Identify the coolest room in the house to use as a room to cool down or sleep in.

Now, this is what I would call commonsense and doesn't need the intervention of a government department.

What these busybodies seem to forget is that an awful lot of people have been on holiday to Spain, Italy, the Caribbean and other hot places and somehow have managed to survive without being told to drink water or stay in the shade.

Perhap this is the subtle way for the global warming nutters to tell us that we won't be allowed to fly anywhere in the future.

Keep your nose out...

2009-06-23T18:57:00.004Z

The BNP is back in the news after the Equalities and Human Rights Commission said it must change its rules that you can only join if you are white.

Once again, the BNP gets the oxygen of publicity but one has to ask why is it any business of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission whether the BNP only admits whites?

If an organisation or club wants to exclude some one that should be entirely at their discretion - it certainly should not be any business of a quango.

If the BNP is forced to change its rules so anyone of any colour can join, does the Equalities and Human Rights Commission really expect a flurry of applications from West Indians and Pakistanis?

So what is the point apart from as a BNP spokesman says, "an entirely politically-motivated attack"?

Does Gordon Brown know how to tell the truth?

2009-06-20T17:39:00.004Z

We know that Gordon Brown has difficulty telling the truth. We know that he is unhappy in his own skin but now he appears to have lost the plot entirely.

He has now said, "To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow. I'm not interested in what accompanies being in power."

Liar.

In the interview with The Guardian, Brown also said he was "not very good" at political manoeuvring - a claim that will amaze Labour politicians whose careers have been destroyed after incurring his wrath.

And two more reasons why people vote BNP

2009-06-18T15:06:00.002Z

If I was a conspiracy theorist, I could almost believe that the government is deliberately arranging things so that people will vote BNP and then introduce yet more draconian laws to assault out civil liberties.

The first story is that gypsies will be given priority over normal people at doctors' surgeries.

Gipsies and travellers should be given priority in NHS hospitals and GP surgeries, doctors have been told.

They will be fast-tracked for doctors, nurses and even some dentist appointments above all other patients.

GPs have also been told to see any travellers who simply walk in without an appointment, even if all consultation times for the day are full.

Second is the tale about the fanatic Muslim organisation Al Muhajiroun which some claim should be banned for if not espousing terrorism then at least giving it a sympathetic ear. However, the Home Office said a ban could only be implemented if there was evidence that a group was involved with terrorism. A spokesman said: 'Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism."

So they won't ban an organisation which called the 9/11 hijackers "magnificent" but will ban American shockjock Michael Savage?

We are, indeed, living in strange times.

Cameron needs to explain fully his ID card opposition

2009-06-17T12:33:00.002Z

David Cameron has announced that any future Tory government will abolish the ID card scheme.

All well and good but...

He has also said that he will not offer a referendum on the EU constitution when/if he comes to power if the Irish have been conned into saying yes when they are forced to vote again.

Will Cameron say that he will abolish the ID cards no matter what, and not just abolish plans for them if they have not been introduced by the time of the next election?

A sensible view on ID cards

2009-06-17T01:13:00.002Z

Retired law lord Lord Steyn has spoken out on the folly of identity cards.

In a London memorial lecture, Lord Steyn warned that ID cards, and the national identity database which will store the personal data, are steps towards a 'Kafkaesque' society.

He accused the Home Office of introducing the cards step by step as a way of 'conditioning' and 'softening up' public opinion.

Ministers say the scheme will help fight terrorism, crime and illegal immigration and help people easily prove their identity.

But Lord Steyn says there is 'absolutely no evidence' they would protect the country against terrorism. Their introduction was an unjustified 'invasion' of civil liberties, the former judge added.

He said: 'The commitment, by and large, of the British people to European constitutional principles and ideals does not require us to adopt an ID card system.

'In my view a national identity card system is not necessary in our country. No further money should be spent on it. The idea should be abandoned.

'The Home Office now proudly asserts that comprehensive surveillance has become routine. If that is true, the resemblance to the world of Kafka is no longer so very distant.'

'To illustrate the scale of the surveillance, one can refer to the estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in operation in this country. It is said that a person living and working in London is likely to be filmed about 300 times on an average day.

'The cost to the taxpayer is several hundred millions of pounds. No doubt CCTV coverage has, in some cases, proved effective in combating crime. But it is unclear how cost effective generally the system is. Some of the types of surveillance introduced by the State border on the ridiculous.'

Gordon's latest folly

2009-06-17T01:01:00.005Z

Oh dear, oh dear. So Gordon Brown has swallowed the same bunkum that Tony Blair did about the necessity for everyone to have broadband.

Blair who couldn't even use a computer was convinced of the necessity for every school pupil to have a computer at home.

Now Brown's government has announced that every household in Britain will be forced to pay an additional tax to fund a national roll-out of superfast broadband.

The news comes as Mr Brown today claimed that a fast internet connection was now a vital service for all homes.

Writing in The Times, he said: "Whether it is to work online, study, learn new skills, pay bills or simply stay in touch with friends and family, a fast internet connection is now seen by most of the public as an essential service, as indispensable as electricity, gas and water."

Utter bollocks, Mr Brown.

He added, "Britain is going to lead the world. This is us taking the next step into the future, being the digital capital of the world."

Does this idiot actually listen to what he says? World-class schools. World-class public transport. Oh yes we are going to have it all.

I suppose the one consolation with all this is given the Government's appallingly bad record on delivery (NHS super computer), it will never happen.

A lot of people don't want internet in their homes. I have a close friend who is highly literate and does not use the internet and does not want to use it. There are millions like him.

Gordon, give up - you're a prat.

Peace... for a time

2009-06-16T00:44:00.005Z

So for now the internecine war within the Labour Party is at an end... at least until the party conference rolls around or until Gordon makes another balls up of things and does his party trick of running away and letting someone else take the blame.

I have already said that he will be seen as the Jim Callaghan of his generation - the PM who bottled an autumn election that he almost certainly would have won and lost/will lose a spring election.

It is my belief that David Miliband will be seen as the Michael Portillo of the Labour Party, a man who twice had the opportunity to strike and twice lost his nerve.

Next Labour leader? Alan Johnson, possibly, as a stopgap but for the future - James Purnell.

Why people voted BNP

2009-06-13T20:30:00.008Z

On Question Time last Thursday Caroline Spelman said that she thought people voted BNP because they didn't really understand what that party stood for.

She was either being disingenuous or incredibly patronising. That well-known former window dresser Caroline Flint - Caroline Spelman, Caroline Flint, hmm perhaps it's something in the name - said much the same thing when the Irish very sensibly voted no in the EU referendum, that the Irish didn't understand what they were voting for/against.

The people who voted BNP last week - mostly disaffected and disenchanted Labour voters - knew exactly what they were voting for.

They voted BNP because they are fed up of a Labour Government that they think doesn't give a toss about them. They get angry.

They voted BNP because they are fed up of a Labour Government that they think cares more about the rights of ethnic minorities than then. They get angry.

They voted BNP because they are fed up of a Labour Government that they think is in thrall to Muslim fanatics. When British war heroes march through the streets of England and are booed and jeered by Muslims and the police arrest Britons rather than the Muslim troublemakers. They get angry.

They voted BNP because they are fed up of a Labour Government that they think places the rights of gypsies above their own. When a group of "travellers" set up camp on a field and the local, law-abiding people see the value of their homes decrease and the amount of crime increase; when the opinions of the local, law-abiding people are dismissed as racist and ignored by the local council. They get angry.

They voted BNP because they are fed up of a Labour Government that tells them "British jobs for British workers" and then imports hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. A Labour Government confidently predicts that only 13,000 workers from Eastern Europe would come to Britain when the true figure was around a million. They get angry.

They voted BNP because they are fed up with a Labour Government that seems not to care for old aged pensioners. They see the government spending millions on overseas aid, giving money to asylum seekers and ignoring pensioners who often have to decide between eating and heating.

They voted BNP because they are fed up with being told by a liberal elite that Britain is a multicultural society (by and large, it isn't but that's another blog) and wonder why no one thought to ask them if they wanted to live in a multicultural society.

The disenchanted Labour voter would never vote Conservative and is unlikely to put their X next to the Liberal Democrats' box so who can they turn to? Who appears to speak up for them? The BNP.

All three major parties need to address the matters outlined above or more and more votes will go to the BNP until one day there are BNP members at Westminster. And no one wants that.

Flintish fury of a woman scorned....

2009-06-08T11:19:00.004Z

Former Europe Minister Caroline Flint's continued rants against Gordon Brown may have more credibility if they did not come days after she professed her loyalty to him.

And do we really believe that she would have quit if Brown had given her a top job?

It is simple for Gordon Brown to reclaim the initiative - but his cowardice won't let him

2009-06-07T19:01:00.006Z

Tony Blair has said of Gordon Brown that “the darkness in his heart and the lies will be his downfall”.

Aside from being a bit rich that Blair is calling someone else a liar, he has a point.

A friend of Blair revealed that the former PM always feared Brown did not have the right temperament or character to do the job and that’s how it has turned out.

Another source close to Mr Blair claimed: “Tony’s view is that Gordon has brought this all on himself. He spent years plotting against Tony and is in no position to complain now that it is happening to him.”

When he took over, Brown’s people put it about that he was a new broom and that would replace Labour “spin” with a more “honest” style.

That was itself spin.

Brown is anything but honest. He claimed that he was at his press conference last week, seconds after lying that he had not intended to sack chancellor Alistair Darling when it was an open secret that he wanted to install his protégé Ed Balls at Number 11.

Lord Mandelson said before he came back to the Cabinet that Brown is insecure.

A simple way to defuse that allegation is for Brown to do what John Major did many years ago. Tell the Cabinet that he is resigning as leader of the Labour Party and invite them to stand against him. Put up or shut up.

Of course, Brown won’t do anything such thing because he is fundamentally a coward.

Hold the front page! Mandelson tells the truth

2009-06-07T14:55:00.004Z

Peter Mandelson on the Andrew Marr Show this morning...

"I can assure you the Cabinet are united against him"

Finally, Mandy tells the truth...

Children are not a social experiment

2009-06-07T10:36:00.006Z

Today The Mail on Sunday reports of another case where a ten-year-old Catholic boy is being placed in the care of gay foster parents against the wishes of his religious mother.

It follows the case of the other children - a brother and sister - who were "adopted" by a gay couple against the wishes of their mother and despite the fact that their grandparents - her mother - offered to house the children.

Naturally, none of the children can be named for their own protection and perish the though not so that we cannot question the social workers and their motives.

If homosexual couple of either sex want to have children, they can get the turkey baster out and there is nothing we can do. But it is the duty of councils to look after the children in their care and that means not placing them with gay couples.

The best place to raise children is in a loving, stable home with a mother and a father. That is the ideal and yes we know that not every home is ideal and that not every home is loving or stable. Nonetheless, that is what we as a society should be aiming for.

We do not know whether children raised in a home where both lovers are gay will turn out to be normal - and yes gay people are normal, too - and well-adjusted members of society. And there's the rub - placing children in homes with gay people is a social experiment. It may work or it may not.

We have recently heard much, too much, about the "rights" of children. Isn't the most fundamental right of a child not to be part of a social experiment where no one knows the outcome?

Some MPs STILL don't get it

2009-05-23T18:42:00.004Z

Tory MP Nadine Dorries says that the revelations of MPs' expenses is now becoming a witch hunt which shows that she still does not get it. She still does not understand the anger felt by ordinary people. This is not a Diana-style frenzy whipped up by the tabloids, this is genuine anger.

So many MPs trotted out the line that what they did was within the rules. Well, that's yet another lie because how many of the things they bought and then charged us for were actually necessary for them to do their job?

Dry rot?
£750 television?
Moat cleaning?
Duck house?
Avoiding capital gains tax?
Avoiding stamp duty?

And now Andrew Mackay has decided to step down as candidate for Bracknell at the next general election after resigning as David cameron's advisor. Call me cynical but how long after the next election do you think he will be back eiher in a by-election or as Lord Mackay?

Mea culpa, mea culpa - but only cos I got found out...

2009-05-11T22:51:00.001Z

I have just watched Shaun Woodward, the millionaire Labour MP with seven homes, on Newsnight saying that the the expenses fiddles are terrible and the system must be changed. How many of the MPs now decrying the system would be saying that if the public had never found out about it? As for the disgraceful and terminally stupid Speaker Martin who tried to block publication of MPs expenses and exempt MPs from FOI, he should resign immediately.

More snouts in the trough

2009-05-10T21:42:00.005Z

So today and tomorrow the papers reveal more details of more snouts in the trough.

The thing stinks to Heaven and each time the, let's face it, frankly dishonest MP bleats "It's within the rules" - ask yourself who makes the rules and who enforces them?

The Home Secretary is a thief and a liar - Jacqui Smith's main home is NOT her sister's back bedroom and to claim it is means that she is stupid as well as being dishonest.

Look at the claims made so far - 95% of them have nothing to do with work in Westminster or their constituency. It is grand larceny on a huge scale.

The allowances are supposed to be in place to help the MP do his work. Why did John Prescott need the front of his house redecorated? Why is Paul Murphy's boiler any of Parliament's business? How does Sky Sports help Gordon Brown to be a better MP? How does hazel Blears constantly changing the designation of her "main home" help her constitutents?

The system needs changing and quickly. Let MPs stay in a hotel if they need a place in London - maxmium outlay £100 a night, breakfast included. Allow them £20 a day for food and drink. NO patio heaters, NO Sky Sports, NO dry rot work, NO boilers and receipts for everything!

The height of stupidity

2009-05-08T19:28:00.003Z

I have a lot of books and some are on high shelves that necessitate a bit of stretching or sometimes a ladder.

It is lucky I don't have to comply with elf'n'safety laws. Students at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University are now unable to read certain books in the Duke Humfrey reading room.

A fortnight ago, the university's elf'n'safety officer decreed that using a ladder was unsafe and it would be wrong to remove them from their "original historic location".

So students now have to travel to London to read books that they can see in Oxford.

Laurence Benson, the library's director of administration and finance, defended the move.
He said: 'The balcony has a low rail and we have been instructed by the health and safety office that this increases the risk to those in the balcony. As part of the process the restriction on the use of ladders on the balcony have been introduced.

'The library would prefer to keep the books in their original historic location - where they have been safely consulted for 400 years prior to the instructions from the Health and Safety office.'

So if they have been safely consulted for 400 years, why is there danger now?

The gravy train that keeps on a-puffin'

2009-05-08T11:30:00.005Z

So the expenses of the Cabinet have been released and we now know how Gordon Brown and co spent our money.

Lord Mandelson tried to downplay the revelations, insisting the claims would not have been approved had they been against the rules.

But the rules are helpfully published - one clearly states: "Claims must only be made for incurred expenditure that is necessary for an MP to carry out his or her parliamentary duties."

Can anyone explain to me how a patio heater is necessary for Jacqui Smith to carry out her "parliamentary duties"? Or why Gordon Brown needs a subscription to Sky Sports or Sky Movies to carry out his. Brown is also said to have claimed for variety of household items, including wallpaper, a fridge, lightbulbs costing £15 and a John Lewis vacuum cleaner worth £265. Why does he have to spend almost three hundred quid on a vacuum cleaner?

And still they don't understand why the public hold them in such contempt.

Swine flu - don't panic

2009-04-29T17:56:00.002Z

All you need to know about swine flu is that the risk is exaggerated. Millions will not die from it around the world, 40 per cent of Britons will not contract it - just as 40 per cent of didn't die from Aids, mad cow disease, sars, bird flu or any of the other myriad scares we have faced in the last thirty years.

Gordon is a moron

2009-04-24T03:38:00.003Z

Have you ever seen anything as weird as this? Remember, this man is our prime minister or prime mentalist as Guido Fawkes calls him.

Gordon grins at the most inopportune moments. He thrusts his right shoulder forward as if he is about to do the Hokey Cokey but is not sure whether he should be shaking it all about.

Have you ever seen a man more uncomfortable in his own skin? He knows he has been caught out as not fit for purposem we know and he knows we know.

Time for a General Election.

Simplify the tax rates...

2009-04-24T03:09:00.003Z

So ~~Gordon Brown~~ Alistair Darling is to introduce a new 50p top rate tax band on everyone who earns more than £150,000 a year.

Apart from breaking a manifesto pledge not to raise tax rates, when will Labour realise that you do not make the poor rich by making the rich poor.

Apart from making work for accountants (Hi Sean), why not simplify tax rates. On the first £10,000 you pay nothing – taking the poorest out of a vicious circle; 20p on £10,000.01 up to £50,000 and 30p on £50,000.01 to infinity and beyond.

If Labour is not careful, we will have another brain drain like we had in the 70s when income tax reached 98p in the pound. Utter madness.

Local candidates only need apply

2009-04-20T12:23:00.005Z

Once again the Labour Party has tied itself in knots over the selection of a candidate for a safe seat.

The good people of Erith and Thamesmead are the latest to have an approved candidate thrust upon them.

Georgia Gould, 22-year-old daughter of Philip Gould, one of the architects of New Labour, is competing with a Brownite candidate in the seat which has a comfortable 11,500 majority.

Sitting MP John Austin is retiring before the next election and will be chosen from an eight-strong all-women shortlist

Put aside the wrongness of an all-woman shortlist - we have had this madness before - do we really want to elect a 22-year-old to parliament?

A large part of the malaise affecting modern politics is that it is seen by many as a career choice and not a chance to put something back into society after having actually done something with their life. It affects both sides and while politicians continue to be drawn from the ranks of schoolteachers, failed lawyers and polytechnic lecturers, we will have more of the same.

The American Constitution specifically forbids anuone becoming president until they are 35, lived in the US for 14 years and were born in America. For senators these are the requirements:

A US senator must be at least 30-years-old
a citizen of the US for the past nine years
and a resident of the state which elects him

In a bid to stop candidates being foisted on local parties, would the adoption of these rules not help?

To misquote C.L.R. James, "What do they know of politics, who only politics know?"

Bring on the Labour kicking...

2009-04-11T15:30:00.002Z

Labour's deputy leader the idiotic Harriet Harman says that the BNP are a threat to Labour in the forthcoming European elections.

Does Mrs Dromey not realise that is because ordinary people in this country feel that Labour has nothing for them and indeed has positively harmed them by seemingly giving preferential treatment to foreigners, to criminals and other undesirables.

This Labour government has abrogated its responsibility to the working class people of Britain and deserves every kicking it gets.

Another nail in education's coffin

2009-04-11T15:24:00.003Z

The betrayal of our children continues. To add to the dumbing down of education by both parties, we now learn of the teacher who was arrested for possession of crack cocaine but has kept his job because he is apparently an "excellent" role model for children

Michael Swann, 27, who teaches at Maltby Comprehensive in Rotherham was given a caution for possession of the Class A drug after being found with it in a nightclub.

He denies the drugs were his and claims that he found them in the club lavatory. Of course, you did mate, of course you did - that's why you accepted a caution - because you had never seen them before.

What message does this send to children?

Police are scared of Muslim hate mobs

2009-03-13T13:12:00.002Z

The Sun reports today:

"LUTON cops may prosecute the hate mob involved in this week's shameful protest against Brit troops returning from Iraq"

Trust me, they won't.

Time to punish the babymakers

2009-02-14T00:37:00.003Z

So now we have yet another story of a child fathering another child.

Thirteen-year-old Alfie Patten who is 4ft tall and looks about 10 has become the father to Maisie with his 15-year-old Chantelle Steadman.

What chance does Maisie have in life? She will probably be raised by her grandparents who since they have singularly failed to imbue any sense of morals into their children can hardly be regarded as role models. Alfie's older sister Jade, now 19, also had a baby at the age of 13.

Alfie is a child. Asked what he will do financially for Maisie, Alfie - whose voice has not yet broken - replies: "What's 'financially'?"

He said that he and Chantelle had decided against an abortion, explaining:, "I thought it would be good to have a baby. I didn't think about how we could afford it. I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10."

Mother and child are living with Chantelle's mother Penny, 38, her out-of-work father Steve, 43, and their family in a council house in Eastbourne, East Sussex. The family live on benefits. Isn't that a surprise? So another mouth to feed, another burden on the welfare state and does anyone really expect Alfie to pay for his daughter even when he grows up?

And another surprise... Sussex Police said they had looked into the case and decided it was "not in anyone's interests" for anyone to be prosecuted.

This news comes in the same week that it was announced that doctors will be paid bonuses for persuading teenagers to have long-lasting contraceptive implants and jabs without their parents' knowledge.

When will the establishment admit that sex education does not work? More sex education does not lower the number of pregnancies in the UK - it increases them.

As for Maisie, she should be adopted and her feckless father put into care.

Jackboot Jacqui gets away with it - what a surprise!

2009-02-12T01:20:00.002Z

Well, well, well - isn't that a surprise?

Parliamentary sleaze watchdog John Lyon said there was "not sufficient evidence for an inquiry" into the disgusting, disgraceful, dishonest behaviour of Jacqui Smith, our dolt of a Home Secretary claiming £116,000 in expenses by claiming that her sister's back bedroom is her "main home".

Let's hope this ghastly harridan loses her seat at the next general election and since she has only a small majority, that could be quite likely.

Lord Levy gets it one-quarter right

2009-02-10T03:15:00.002Z

Just got a copy of the paperback edition of Lord Levy's memoirs A Question of Honour.

At least this time the publishers manage to get his name right on the cover, if not the blurb, title or copyright pages.

His name is Lord Levy, Michael Levy or, to be totally correct, Baron Levy of Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. One thing it most certainly is not is Lord Michael Levy which is how it appears on the blurb, title and copyright pages. As far as I am aware, he is not the son of an earl - unless that is yet another secret New Labour kept from the people.

Stand firm Boris

2009-02-10T02:32:00.002Z

London Mayor Boris Johnson has gone back on his plan to withhold the pay of London Transport staff who didn't come to work last Monday and Tuesday.

Unions threatened industrial action if the mayor didn't change his mind.

Keith Norman, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers' union, said: "I am sure most Londoners will agree that being penalised for failing to arrive at work last week would be vindictive and mean."

The reason some Londoners couldn't get to work last week was because the bloody train drivers didn't turn up!

In Germany recently eight inches of snow meant that public travel services were delayed by up to 45 minutes - eight inches of snow here and the whole system grinds to a halt.

Pathetic.

Carol can say what she likes... as can those who disagree with her

2009-02-09T02:15:00.009Z

We either want to live in a free country or we don't. There can be no half measures and if we want to live in a free country then we must have the right to say what we want - however much that may offend other people.

So if Carol Thatcher wants to call a black tennis player a golliwog then that is her right in a free country.

Just as it is the right of other people to heap opprobrium on her for saying that. That is their right - what is not their right is to prevent her speaking out in the first place.

In a free country everyone must have the right to say whatever they want except when they incite violence. That is when and only when the law must intervene.

Labour has finally lost the plot

2009-02-09T01:35:00.007Z

7 February 2009 will go down as the day that this Government finally lost the plot.

In the past eleven, getting on for twelve years, it has made some ridiculous decisions - kneejerk reactions to problems of its own making.

The ID scheme is bad enough but the Government has announced that it is compiling a database of every movement in and out of the UK by air, sea or rail.

Ministers give the usual excuse about how it is necessary to prevent terrorism, illegal immigration and organised crime.

But how, exactly, will it stop any of those activities?

This Government is obsessed with collecting information - and then losing it. The sooner we are governed by people who have some idea of what they are doing the better.

Why are we worried about foreigners?

2009-02-04T19:08:00.003Z

Once again we have the story of outrage at a Briton being tortured at Guantanamo Bay.

Binyarn Mohamed, 31, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held by the US at Guantanamo Bay since September 2004.

Exactly how is he a Briton?

The Daily Mail reports today: "Last August the same two judges said in their initial ruling that MI5 had participated in the unlawful interrogation of Mohamed, an Ethiopian national."

An Ethiopian national who was arrested in Pakistan.

I repeat, exactly how is he a Briton?

Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic

2009-01-29T05:06:00.005Z

Today a report is published that should cause both parties to hang their heads in shame.

An "unacceptably" high number of people in England cannot read, write and count properly, MPs have warned according to the BBC.

The Public Accounts Committee said the government's target of getting 95% of the adult population to have adequate reading, writing and maths skills would only bring England to the level currently achieved by the top 25% of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

Tackling poor literacy and numeracy skills was essential if more people were to realise their full potential and England was to remain competitive in the global economy, the report concluded.

This is what comes of comprehensive education which despite its perhaps initially laudable aims it does nothing but bring everyone down to the same level rather than allowing the more intelligent to flourish and succeed without being held back by the less able.

It is outrageous in 2009 that there is anyone in a country like England who is illiterate or innumerate. It is bizarre that we know more today than ever before yet we are more ill-informed (more people vote in Big Brother than in elections) and we are more aware of nutrition and healthy eating yet we are fatter than ever before.

When exam chiefs award marks to feral boys who scrawl obscenities on their tests, when teachers are told not to mark down pupils who use text speak, when expression is more important than clarity, we are all going to hell in a handcart.

Impartial BBC? Don't make me laugh...

2009-01-27T10:49:00.003Z

The BBC is under fire for refusing to show an appeal about Gaza.

DG Mark Thompson says to show it would breach corporation impartiality. The BBC should show the appeal or they shouldn't - it is entirely a matter for Mr Thompson and his editorial team. However, don't give us this sanctimonious tosh about BBC impartiality.

The BBC is not impartial - it is not impartial about the EU, it is not impartial about global warming, it is not impartial about metrification, it was not impartial about Peter Mandelson's sexuality a few years ago, it is not impartial (mostly) about the Labour government - so why the big public statement about impartiality on Gaza now?

Once again the government should keep its nose out...

2009-01-22T15:37:00.002Z

Today the Daily Mail has a headline:

Secret middle-class drinkers exposed: Professional women far more likely to drink at home, claims government

Can anyone tell me what business it is of the government who drinks and how much?

The Irish aren't thick...

2008-12-14T15:24:00.005Z

Labour minister Caroline Flint has said that the reason the Irish voted no on the EU treaty referendum is because they didn't understand it!

The breathtaking arrogance of this government is quite simply incredible.

Poor, thick Paddies couldn't understand a simple choice of yes or no.

Does Flint and her ilk not think that perhaps the Irish understood perfectly that the EU is an undemocratic, unaccountable monolith and want no further part of it?

No, in the EU yes means yes and no means well no means you haven't understood that the only answer we want is yes.

At least, Miss Flint the Irish were given a vote - unlike we poor Brits who have lied to for more than eleven years.

Time for the police to shut up and catch crooks

2008-12-08T02:58:00.004Z

Last week Karen Matthews, a venal and stupid woman, was found guilty of the kidnap of her daughter Shannon - because she wanted the £50,000 reward.

Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan said on the steps of the court: “Karen Matthews is pure evil."

Am I alone in not caring what the Super has to say? His job is to catch criminals, not to make public statements. His force was hardly covered in glory - it took them 24 days to find Shannon. Aren't the family supposed to be the first suspects when a child goes missing? The police didn't too much digging in that direction.

At last a blast for freedom from ... Europe!!

2008-12-06T19:53:00.002Z

At last some common sense from the European Court of Human Rights which has ruled that the Government is not allowed to keep DNA samples and fingerprints from those who have committed no crime.

Naturally, Jacqui Smith, our buffoon of a Home Secretary, is said to disappointed by the decision.

The Strasbourg court found the force had violated article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to respect for private and family life.

In a strongly-worded attack, it condemned the "blanket and indiscriminate nature" of the powers.

Chief Constable Chris Sims, the forensics spokesman of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the judgment would have a profound impact.

He said: "In making use of powers to take and retain a person's DNA the police service must continue to be balanced and proportionate to the rights and freedoms of individuals. However these developments risk diminishing our ability to protect the public and prevent crime."

Smith added: 'The existing law will remain in place while we carefully consider the judgment.'

What is to consider? Your beloved European Court of Human Rights has said you are wrong. Get over it and destroy those samples...

Stop giving our money away...

2008-12-06T19:27:00.003Z

Each year the Government gives pensioners money - between £200 and £300 - towards their fuel bills, to help them keep warm.

Nothing wrong with that.

But why do pensioners who live aboard get the money?

One guess - yes, the EU.

Under European law, benefits acquired in one member state must be paid to those who move to another.

It is madness that someone who lives in a sunny, warm climate is entitled to money that someone who lives in Barnsley desperately needs.

It's different for Tories

2008-12-02T18:36:00.002Z

I have not posted on the Damian Green saga - others have had plenty to say. One point that did catch my eye is that Mr Green was required to give a DNA sample and his fingerprints.

Some Labour apparatchiks have compared this to the Met's investigation of the Cash for Honours scandal. One main difference - as far as I am aware neither Lord Levy nor Ruth Turner were fingerprinted or gave DNA samples.

Cough up, Met

2008-11-26T16:45:00.003Z

Met policeman Tarique Ghaffur has settled his claim for racism and discrimination against the force - for money, of course.

The Met was not prepared to say how much had been paid to Ghaffur.

Why?

Don't the public have a right to know how much of taxpayers' money was given to Ghaffur?

Tolerance works both ways

2008-11-26T16:34:00.003Z

A Christian policeman has been sacked after claiming that gay sex was "sinful".

Pc Graham Cogman, twice commended by his force for his loyalty and diligence, received literature promoting gay events so he emailed his colleagues with details of Christianity. His bosses said that he was not showing enough "respect and tolerance" to fellow officers and forbade him from using the office computer.

Speaking about his treatment earlier this year, Mr Cogman said: "The blatant support for homosexual rights in Norfolk police makes being a Christian officer extremely difficult.

"I have to make a stand when things become so blatantly biased against me just because I hold a faith."

What about respect and tolerance for Mr Cogman's beliefs? Why are his views less worthy than other people's? Would the police had been so quick to sack him had he been a Muslim? Why does it always only ever go one way?

Bags o' money

2008-11-26T15:35:00.003Z

We are back to carrier bags again. The BBC carries a story that supermarkets hope that carrier bag use will halve by next Easter.

Again, the reporter trots out the line that "the bags... take about 1,000 years to decay". How does he know?

Also, he reports that "UK retailers hand out an estimated 13 billion free plastic bags every year." No, they don't. The cost of the bag is built into the price you pay for the goods you buy in the shop. If we are getting fewer bags, the cost of the goods should come down. Will it? What do you think?

The police are moral arbiters - that's what we pay them for

2008-11-24T15:04:00.004Z

A mother was walking her teenage daughter to school when they saw two semi-naked men having sex. Marie Cragg, 44, called the police who told her to use a different path.

This follows on from last month when Deputy Chief Constable Mike Cunningham said people caught having sex in public should only be arrested as a last resort. He added that it was not the job of police to "take the role of moral arbiter" and claimed punishing those involved rarely solved the problem and could cause "humiliation, breakdown of relationships and the outing of men".

It is exactly the role of the police to be moral arbiters because morals are what underlay the fabric of society. And the problem is that they abrogating their responsibilities which is making society worse.

President Obama - or is it?

2008-11-04T18:12:00.003Z

Well, today's the day America elects its first black president. Or is it? Everyone thinks Barack Obama is a shoo-in and they are probably right.

But.

Remember Britain in 92? Everyone thought Neil Kinnock was a shoo-in and we woke up with five more years of John Major. Could it happen Stateside? Probably not but I am loath to make predictions since I got it so wrong over Hillary Clinton...

Message to Gordon - act now before it is too late or rather stop acting

2008-09-17T20:38:00.005Z

If Gordon Brown really wants to save his premiership and even at this late stage it is possible... just - he needs to do the following:

1) Stop jumping on every bandwagon - wishing Andy Murray well at Wimbledon, promising gongs to Olympic medal winners, etc. Brown does it so ineffectually that it is obvious that he is only doing it because Blair did - forgetting that Blair got away with it.

2) Stand up to the EU - reinstate weekly bin collections, abandon any idea of ID cards, get rid of the Human Rights Act.

3) Remember that Blair was a one-off and stop trying to ape him. For ten years Brown stood by and watched Blair act because that is what Blair does and Brown indisputably can't. He is obviously out of his depth socially when not discussing endogenous growth theory so he should stick to what he knows.

4) Stop telling people he is listening and then telling them what he wants them to hear. As Alastair Campbell memorably said when Harriet Harman and Frank Field were having their spat - time for a little quiet.

Gordon Brown has probably, no make that almost certainly, lost Labour the next election and will go down, as I have said, before as his generation's Jim Callaghan - the older man who took over from a charismatic, people pleaser with an eye for the main chance.

But if he takes my advice (yeah right!), the scale of the defeat may not be so huge...

I bet the smoking police are more efficient than the real police

2008-09-17T19:08:00.004Z

Is there any area of our lives that the authorities do not think to meddle in?

I read this today in the Daily Mail: "Smokers will be stopped in the street and asked to take a carbon monoxide test in London's most hard-hitting anti-smoking campaign.

"'Smoking police' will target people at betting shops, bus stops and shopping centres to shock them into giving up cigarettes.

"They will be asked to breathe into a monitor to show how much carbon monoxide is in their bodies, and could then be signed up to local stop-smoking services and given access to counsellors.

"Pro-smoking group Forest described the campaign as a humiliating infringement of civil liberties."

I would describe it as a bloody disgrace.

I loathe the smell of smoke and have never had a puff but this is going too far. Let's hope that soon the smoking police soon have their own backsides monitored to find out how much shoe leather is up there...

Sarah's Law won't work

2008-09-14T01:30:00.005Z

The News of the World is today claiming victory in its battle to get a law introduced that allows parents to know if a paedophile is living in their area.

Pilot schemes start on Monday 15 September in four police areas in Britain - Hampshire, Cleveland, Warwickshire and Cambridgeshire - allowing parents and carers to seek details of the background of friends, neighbours and relatives who have unsupervised access to their children.

And single mothers can also discover if a new boyfriend is a convicted paedophile.

All very laudable but here is where the problem occurs. Sara Payne whose daughter was murdered by a paedophile explains: “Say you have a new babysitter you want to be sure about. You can get peace of mind by going to a police station and registering your application to see if there’s anything worrying in his or her background.

“You will be vetted and have to sign an affidavit that you will use the information responsibly."

You will "sign an affidavit that you will use the information responsibly" and there's the rub.

Firstly, there is always the possibility of a mistake in the information held by the police. The last time the News of the World published a list of paedophiles some poor sod who isn't sexually interested in children got his head kicked in because he had a similar name to a paedophile.

Secondly, how can the police be sure that the information will be used "responsibly"? How can they know that the details will not be passed on to vigilantes?

Before anyone accuses me of being soft on paedophiles, I know of one way that would stop any paedophile abusing another child - lock them away FOR LIFE.

Do you wanna be in Jacqui's gang?

2008-08-20T20:34:00.003Z

It was said of Tony Blair that he never met a bandwagon he didn't like. It seems Home Secretary Jacqui Smith shares the same outlook.

Gary Glitter has been released from jail and what a great opportunity for New Labour to be tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. Smith has said that she wants to crack down on sex tourists.

On Tuesday she said it was her view that Glitter should be given a Foreign Travel Order banning him from overseas travel. Smith also announced plans to tighten controls on the movements of paedophiles.

Only problem is that Gary Glitter won't play ball by returning to the UK so all this posturing is revealed to be nothing more than hot air...as is so much of what Labour promises.

Government wants all your details... even if you are innocent

2008-08-16T16:20:00.003Z

The Government has admitted that 39,095 innocent children are on its DNA database for life.

Since April 2004, anyone aged ten or above who is arrested in England and Wales can have their DNA and fingerprints taken without their consent, or that of their parents.

This is absolutely outrageous - the old eastern bloc countries were not as intrusive of their citizenry as this appalling, dishonest government is. The argument if you have done nothing, you have nothing to fear is absolute nonsense. Ask the Guildford Four or the Birmingham Six and yes that was in the days before all this wonderful technology. But ask yourself, do you trust the Government not to make a mistake - who will be the first innocent person to be convicted through "incontrovertible" DNA evidence because buffoon pushed the wrong button or filed the wrong information?

The Government lost the records of 25million people who receive child benefit. Civil service laptops are being lost, it seems, on an almost daily basis.

Overmanning in public life...

2008-07-31T09:13:00.001Z

There is a quote from Chandler in Friends, “All right, kids, I gotta get to work. If I don’t input those numbers... it doesn’t make much of a difference.” It reminds me of the civil service – you could probably sack two-thirds of them and it won’t make much of a difference.

The National Health Service employs about a million people – not all of them actually do anything beneficial. Many are pen pushers. In fact, at the Department of Health there is a department called the MRSA Cleaner Hospitals Team. I have no idea what they do but it seems to me that they would be a lot more useful if instead of sitting in an office shuffling paper they were given a mop and a bucket of bleach and sent to actually clean hospitals.

Miliband is not prime ministerial - although nor are any of the others

2008-07-30T15:29:00.004Z

David Miliband writes an article for a little-read newspaper outlining his view for a Labour future and suddenly he is launching his bid for the leadership.

Former Blairite favourite Peter Mandelson says, "It would be a very strange government if there was nobody amongst the higher ranks who was not sufficiently qualified to be a future leader.

"I am not saying [David Miliband] is a candidate or that there is or should be a race but equally the government does have lots of talent and thank God for it."

That's the problem that could also be Gordon Brown's saving - there are not any big beasts on the Labour front benches who could take over. Jacqui Smith? Ed Balls? Miliband? They are hardly Cabinet material let alone prime ministerial.

Most of them are anonymous yes men (and women) - "government of all the talents"? Don't make me laugh...

Matt is a genius...

2008-07-29T14:42:00.002Z

Absolutely brilliant (as always) cartoon from Matt Pritchett in The Daily Telegraph about the Weston-super-Mare fire that destroyed the pier.

Gordon can't have it both ways...

2008-07-28T09:17:00.003Z

As the clouds gather over Gordon Brown, we are told that he is a financial genius and that the world is suffering from an economic downturn that is not his fault so he cannot be blamed.

Hang on, how come he took the credit when there was an economic upturn? He and his dwindling band of supporters can't have it both ways.

By the way, if he is such a financial genius why did he sell off our gold supplies at rock bottom prices?

Gordon is a weirdo

2008-07-28T09:14:00.003Z

Amusing post yesterday from Guido showing further evidence that Gordon Brown is not as other men...

Hutton puts foot in mouth

2008-07-25T16:07:00.002Z

Politicians really should think before they open their mouths.

The Times reports John Hutton, the Blairite business secretary who has taken a stand against the unions, responded by dismissing their influence, as asking, “Who are they? What is their mandate? Who elected them?”

One might be tempted to ask, who elected Gordon Brown?

Gordon, if you want to keep your job - get us out of Europe

2008-07-25T09:40:00.002Z

Labour crash to another by-election defeat - in supposedly impregnable Glasgow. Another disaster for Gordon Brown. He has the Midas touch in reverse.

Brown said, "We've got to listen and hear people's concerns and that's exactly what we are doing.

"I'm getting on with the job. My task is getting on with the job. It's exactly what people want me to do."

Who are these "people" that Brown constantly refers to who supposedly want him to get "on with the job"? Most people want him to get out of his job.

To be fair to the useless weirdo, many of the problems he faces are not of his own making. However, he can do something about many of them - by simply withdrawing from the European Union.

Tax really doesn't have to be taxing...

2008-07-15T18:19:00.004Z

News comes that Gordon Brown's tax credit system has cost £14billion in fraud, error and overpayment in just four years say the National Audit Office.

The tax credit system was created by Brown in 2003 to give otherwise unemployable people something to do. People on low incomes apply for tax credits to get back some of the money they have paid in tax. What company/government would take money from people, then employ other people to read forms filled in by the first people to get back some of the money they had originally paid? Utter madness.

Here's a radical idea. Change the tax system to introduce just three bands of tax that everyone can understand.
Band 1 for earnings up to £9,999.99 - 0p
Band 2 for £10,000 to £99,999.99 - 25p
Band 3 for £100,000+ - 40p
And that's it. Taxed at source so need for self-assessment - you know when the tax was collected by the Inland Revenue not the bodged HM Revenue & Customs.

Swindon sees some sense over speed cameras

2008-07-15T09:54:00.004Z

A small cheer for Swindon Council who have announced that they might, might, get rid of their speed cameras and replace them with other devices.

I say a small cheer and not three rousing choruses of "Hip, hip..." because it hasn't happened yet and I am not sure that it will.

Typically, the (Labour) MP has even started a save out speed cameras campaign. Anne Snelgrove said the council was "playing politics with lives". As if the government doesn't do that 365 days a year.

Miss Snelgrove said the removal of the cameras could see road accidents and deaths rise. Could is the operative word.

A spokesman for the Department of Transport said the funding decision was a local matter for Swindon, but added: "Safety cameras are there to save lives not to make money. There are 1,475 fewer deaths and serious injuries at camera sites each year. The government is clear that the best safety camera is the one that takes no fines at all but succeeds in deterring drivers from speeding."

How on earth did he keep a straight face when he said that? How many times? They are not "safety" cameras - they are SPEED cameras. They are there to raise revenue for yet more of Gordon's mad schemes. And where did he come up with the figure of 1,475? Annually? Monthly? For each camera? All you need to know is that the figure is made up. Speed cameras are there to show people who is boss.

Another death in vain

2008-07-14T17:12:00.005Z

In recent years roads have been further blighted by the painting of a bicycle and a zone near traffic lights - presumably for cyclists to wait "in safety" while waiting for the lights to change.

When have you ever seen a cyclist wait in the zoned area?

Last week, cyclist Jason Howard was fined £2,200 for killing 17-year-old Rhiannon Bennett, a horse management student he mowed down while cycling on the pavement.

As Howard, 36, a line painter from Buckingham, sped towards Rhiannon, he shouted, "Move, because I'm not stopping."

With no time to react, the 17-year-old was hit with the full force of the £4,750 custom-built bicycle, suffering fatal injuries as she hit her head on the pavement. Howard told the court that he could have avoided Rhiannon if he had slowed down.

The carbon fibre titanium bicycle was built to Howard's specifications. Despite its cost, the court heard it did not comply with the Highway Code because it had no reflectors on the pedals or on the back.

Howard, who has a previous conviction and is well-known in his home town as a thrill-seeker, was also ordered to pay £750 in costs.

Rhiannon's father, Mick, said, "It's laughable - when we first heard about this we thought it would be manslaughter, or perhaps even murder, but this is Britain. He is an arrogant, vile little man."

Rhiannon's mother, Diana, said: "Words cannot express how broken-hearted we are as a family.

"My daughter ended up dying for him having a bike ride."

A CPS spokesman said: "A file of evidence from the police was reviewed by a senior CPS prosecutor and, based on that evidence, it was decided the charge of dangerous cycling was the most appropriate."

Appropriate for whom? Another victory for British justice. And how does a line painter (roads? football pitches?) afford nearly five grand for a pushbike?

Up in the air madness...

2008-07-10T10:41:00.003Z

There are many arguments for and against building a third runway at Heathrow. How it affects ethnic minorities or women should not really be taken into consideration. Yet, as Iain Dale reports, a decision on the future of Heathrow has had to be delayed because the government omitted to carry out a "race and gender impact assessment" of a new runway. There now has to be a new consultation to see how the proposals would affect ethnic minorities, women, the disabled and the elderly.

Madness, utter madness.

We can't afford IVF for all...

2008-07-09T13:35:00.005Z

At PMQs today stand-in Harriet Harman was asked a question about IVF and said in essence that it should be available on the NHS everywhere and not just in certain areas - the so-called postcode lottery.

IVF should not be available on the NHS for anyone. When the health service began in 1948 it was formed to treat the sick, the elderly, children, victims of accidents and catastrophic illnesses - not to provide people with children that they can't have in the normal way.

Whilst I have sympathy for those people who want children but are unable to have them, it should not be the responsibility of the National Health Service to provide free fertility treatment anymore than it should pay for nosejobs, tattoo removals or sex change operations.

Successive governments have poured pots of money into the NHS and with what to show for it - and now people are dying from illnesses they have caught in hospitals.

More taxes on the way - thanks to a non-existent problem

2008-07-08T16:36:00.006Z

Global warming is one of those subjects in which people - MPs especially - jump on the bandwagon to show their caring, "green" side.

The government announced in its Climate Change Bill that Britain is committed to make at least a 60 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2050. Now Gordon Brown faces yet another rebellion from 85 of his back benchers who want that figure to rise to 80 per cent.

The Labour rebels say the Climate Change Bill's 60 per cent goal will not do enough to control global warming and say the target is based on out-of-date science.

Britain is responsible for 1 per cent of the world's carbon emissions yet that minuscule figure has given Labour licence to introduce all sorts of exciting new taxes and to reduce the emptying of bins. Heaven knows what we will have to suffer if Brown gives in to his back benchers especially since the government has indicated it is not unsympathetic to the 80 per cent target and the prime minister has already said the evidence points that way.

The trouble is that the evidence is skewed and those in favour of man-made global warming are the ones who get the grants to perpetuate their nonsense. Those who look at the science find themselves short of money to challenge the orthodoxy.

Everyone should pay for healthcare...

2008-07-08T10:46:00.003Z

This month is apparently “is Gypsy and Traveller month, an important time in the Equality and Human Rights calendar”.

The NHS wants to help more gypsies “access services” within the health service – an admirable aim, one might think.

Ian Holding of the Gypsy and Traveller Team at Bristol City Council has initiated a scheme to help them. He asks, “How can they access health services when they are moving about so much?”

Presumably, since they are moving about they are not paying tax or national insurance, so one might ask why they are entitled to health services they have not paid for?

Let the people speak, Mr Brunstrom

2008-07-02T11:49:00.003Z

Richard Brunstrom has posted at length on his blog his view that crime no longer exists and so police can spend their time on minor incidents.

However, one thing Mr Brunstrom does not seem to believe in is free speech. At the bottom of his blog it states, "Anonymous comments are disabled" which is fair enough. However, he has also banned all comments which isn't.

Come on, Chief Constable, let the people have their say.

More madness from the Mad Mullah...

2008-07-01T09:45:00.007Z

Just when you think that perhaps just perhaps, he has learned some common sense, up pops Richard Brunstrom, the idiot who runs North Wales Police Force.

Brunstrom writes on his blog about the recent furore about councils misusing CCTV to prosecute people who, for example, do not clean up after their dogs.

He says: “Research clearly and repeatedly shows that our citizenry in the UK is very comfortable with today’s surveillance society; CCTV makes people (including me) feel safer. The research also shows the importance of local issues – a clean and tidy environment has a much bigger impact on most people’s quality of life than does the burglary rate.

“Crime is now so low... that ‘traditional’ crime has become if not a rarity then certainly unusual.”

What planet is this man on? I hardly know where to begin.

Firstly, even senior policemen agree that CCTV does not work. Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police force unit says "CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure. Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It’s been an utter fiasco: only 3 per cent of crimes were solved by CCTV. There's no fear of CCTV. Why don’t people fear it? [They think] the cameras are not working.”

Secondly, Brunstrom claims that “our citizenry in the UK is very comfortable with today’s surveillance society”. I would dispute that but if you spend a long time telling people that they have something to fear and that only CCTV (or 42 day detention or ID cards) will save them, it is hardly surprising that they will agree with you.

Thirdly, “‘traditional’ crime has become if not a rarity then certainly unusual”. This on the day that another teenager was stabbed to death in London.

Richard Littlejohn in his Daily Mail column today also has a story about the Mad Mullah.

Up Mad Mullah Creek without a paddle – you’re nicked

The Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban has extended his reign of terror from the roads to the waterways.

North Wales Police have arrested, fingerprinted, photographed and taken a DNA swab from a man accused of the heinous crime of canoeing without a permit.

Nigel Conway refused on principle to pay the £3 demanded by a rafting company to paddle along an 830-yard stretch of the River Dee in Llangollen.

The company leases the bank from a local landowner and believes it is entitled to charge others to use the river.

Mr Conway said: “I refused to pay because everyone should have the right to access water free of charge.”

The firm reported him to the police and a week later he had his collar felt. He was taken to the station and interviewed for two hours in connection with “obtaining services dishonestly” under Section 11 of the Fraud Act. He’s on police bail, awaiting charges.

This is despite the fact that there is no specific law relating to access to rivers in England and Wales.

“It was such a joke, even the officers at the station were laughing,” said Mr Conway.

Sorry, but it’s not funny. It’s monstrous. The rafting firm should have been told to take a running jump. At the very best, this was a mere civil dispute.

How dare the police arrest an innocent canoeist and treat him like a criminal? I hope he sues the leather motorcycling pants off the Mad Mullah and forces him to destroy his fingerprint and DNA samples.

Chief Constable Brunstrom runs North Wales like one of those deranged, sadistic sheriffs in some American Deep South hick town. I’m only surprised Mr Conway wasn’t breathalysed, too.

How long before the Mad Mullah gets round to putting up speed cameras on the banks of the River Dee?