The Irish aren't thick...

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

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!!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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

Hutton puts foot in mouth

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

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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?

Drop the criminal surcharge

Former Blue singer Lee Ryan is not the brightest spark in the world - he was the one who moaned about saving the whales in the days following 9/11.

Yesterday, he was convicted of punching a taxi driver. He was fined £500, ordered to pay costs of £450 and must give the taxi driver £300 in compensation.

So far, so good. But he must also pay a £15 surcharge which goes towards victims of crime.

Why? He has just paid the victim of his crime £300. That should be an end to the matter. The surcharge should be abolished especially since if you get sent to jail for, say assault, you don't pay it.

More legal madness...

Tough on home-makers

The Home Office has refused permission for Martha Stewart, the American TV personality, to visit Britain.

Miss Stewart who made a fortune from being a lifestyle guru was convicted four years ago in America for obstructing justice. She was planning to speak at the Royal Academy in London.

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said, "We continue to oppose the entry to the UK of individuals where we believe their presence in the United Kingdom is not conducive to the public good or where they have been found guilty of serious criminal offences abroad."

Yep, Martha Stewart may make some killer muffins while in the UK.

Abu Qatada, Abu Hamza, Mike Tyson - come on down!

Lap dancing is not sexy

So Labour once again decides to stick its nose in where it is unnecessary.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the Culture minister, wants lap dancing clubs to be brought under the same legislative rules as sex cinemas and peep shows. He admitted that the Government was worried by the rapid increase of clubs.

Why? What has it got to do with the government?

Yes, before you ask, I have been to a lap dancing club. But would I class it as a sexual experience? No. It wasn't in the least erotic. I know several girls who work in clubs and for them it is not a sexual experience either.

Women go and see the Chippendales for a laugh, not to get turned on.

It's the same with lap dancing clubs.

Is there any aspect of life that the Government feels it does not have yo poke its nose into?

Scrap tribunals

Muslim "hairdresser" Bushra Noah has won £4,000 for "hurt feelings" after she was turned down for a job at funky hairdressing salon because she refused to remove her headscarf - which she says is an integral part of her religion.

Thankfully, she lost her claim of direct discrimination but won the claim for "indirect discrimination" and four grand into the bargain.

This is madness. You apply for a job, don't get it and then the company has to stump up four grand because your feelings were hurt!

Victims of serious crime often do not get awarded this sum of money. It is time for the tribunals to be overhauled so that the awards bear some relation to commonsense.

Awards of this size do nothing to assuage the belief that there is one law for Muslims in Britain and one for everyone else.

Ireland says non to Lisbon...

Well done to the Irish - a resounding victory for the No camp.

Will it make any real difference? Sadly, that's also a no.

UPDATE: The Irish government have admitted that they lost. But European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he had spoken to Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen and agreed with him that this was not a vote against the EU.

What planet are these people living on? Of course it was a vote against the EU!

In less than two hours the House of Commons votes on whether to pass legislation allowing terror suspects to be detained for 42 days without charge.

I fear the Government will win the debate but as has been mentioned by many the debate has become a test of strength of Gordon Brown. Labour's worse Prime Minister since Ramsay Macdonald is claiming that it is all about saving the country from terror and that the police and security services want the extra time.

That as with so much of what Gordon Brown says is a lie. The security services have not said that they want extra time and many policemen say that it is unnecessary. Sir Ken McDonald, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, says that it is unnecessary. Former attorney general Lord Goldsmith says that it is unnecessary.

Acpo, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the unelected cabal of top coppers says that it is required but then if you ask them if they wanted 90 days, 180 days, a year, 42 years - they would say yes. Acpo always wants more and more power.

One might ask why 42 days is necessary in Britain when 14 days is sufficient in so many other "civilised" countries.

The Government promises safeguards but it also said that the RIPA powers would only be used to prevent terrorism. More than 150 local councils have so far used the powers for such heinous crimes as dog fouling, putting too much rubbish in a bin and trying to get a child into a particular school. Who authorised that?

If you give politicians and the police powers they will always, always, always abuse them.

As a sop Gordon Brown has said that people held after 28 days and not charged will receive compensation. So that's all right then. The police arrest an innocent man and hold him for more than 28 days and the taxpayer ends up paying... again.

This legislation is unnecessary and the sooner it is put in the bin the better.

Peter Lilley sticks up for Britain

Last week Peter Lilley stood up and spoke in the House of Commons. Hansard for Tuesday 3 June at 3.35pm, will give you the details, if you want them.

Mr Lilley said that 80 per cent of our laws are now made in Brussels, and Parliament has no power to reject or amend them.

Post Offices closing - it's thanks to an EU directive.
Data Protection Act - it's thanks to an EU directive.
Home Improvement Packs - it's thanks to an EU directive.
Expensive directory enquiries - it's thanks to an EU directive.
Fortnightly rubbish collections - it's thanks to an EU directive.

Mr Lilley suggested that MPs’ pay should be cut each time they hand over authority to others. "Few voters, or even members of this house, fully realise how many powers have been, or are about to be, transferred elsewhere," he said. "There are three reasons for this. The first is that governments of all persuasions deny that any significant powers are being transferred.

"The second is that, once powers have been transferred, Ministers engage in a charade of pretence that they still retain those powers. Even when introducing measures that they are obliged to bring in as a result of an EU directive they behave as though the initiative were their own.

"Indeed, Ministers often end up nobly accepting responsibility for laws that they actually opposed when they were being negotiated in Brussels."

Get us out of the EU... now!

Gordon is a weirdo

Labour suffers yet another fall in the opinion polls. Despite his words at the Commons Select Committee last week, Tony Blair must be laughing up his sleeve at the mess that Gordon Brown has made since he became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007.

Napoleon would ask one question of his generals: "Are you lucky?" Gordon Brown certainly could not reply in the affirmative.

Let's be frank here. One of the main reasons why Labour is going down in the polls is Gordon Brown. To the majority of the public he comes across as a weirdo. Richard Littlejohn has commented on Brown's kiddy-fiddler grin but I would not go that far. However, having his teeth capped did him no favours. Now he just looks like a weirdo who has had his teeth done.

From the strange jaw moment when he speaks to his frankly bizarre pronunciation of words, Gordon Brown is just plain weird.

He is not up to the job and the sooner he goes the sooner Labour can become re-electable again.

WHO finally admits we are not all at risk from Aids

In the 1980s the Government spent untold millions claiming that we were all at risk of Aids. Instead of targeting the people who were actually at risk from the disease we were told that we were all vulnerable.

It was tosh then and it is tosh now.

Now the World Health Organisation's top HIV expert has admitted that the threat of a global Aids epidemic is over.

Rather than being a risk to populations anywhere, the threat in developed countries is largely confined to gay men, drug addicts and prostitutes and their clients.

The concession comes just months after the United Nations admitted overstating the threat of Aids, slashing estimates of the number of people with HIV worldwide from nearly 40million to 33million.

All we need now is for them to admit that there is no such thing as man-made global warming.

Why is Obama using JFK's daughter?

With the news that Barack Obama is claiming victory in the Democrat candidates' race comes the revelation that he has formed a three-member panel to help him choose a running mate.

It comprises Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, former deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and Jim Johnson. He performed the same selection task for John Kerry in 2004.

I can see the benefit of having the former deputy Attorney General but why Mr Johnson and why Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg? His input obviously didn't help John Kerry and surely the selection of JFK's daughter is only an attempt to reflect his glory onto Obama.

What is Gordon Brown talking about again?

A while ago, I blogged about Gordon Brown's inability to speak properly - yesterday at Prime Minister's Questions, he continued his mangling of English.

Who is Alky Ada?

At least get the name right...

A series of books published this week destined no doubt for the remainder bin are the autobiographies of John Prescott, Cherie Blair and Lord Levy.

Oddly, Levy’s publishers seem unable to get his name right on the cover of his book. 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. As far as I am aware, he is not the son of an earl.

Wedding pictures breach data protection rules...

At my time of life I seem to be attending more funerals than weddings - still, I remember the photos taken as the happy couple sign the register.

Now, that looks like becoming yet another thing of the past as this government seeks to interfere in every aspect of our lives.

A number of local councils are refusing to let couples be photographed signing the register because it "breaches data protection rules" and, get this, "There is also a high risk of damage to the register with a fountain pen when the bride and groom are looking at the camera and not the pen".

Naturally, the health and safety of the register must be paramount - after all, if these regulations save one book from being damaged...

Is there no aspect of life in this country that Labour and its prodnose apparatchiks feel is exempt from their meddling?

Mind how you go....

Two forces show why policing in this country is in such a mess.

In a six-day period last month in Suffolk police caught more than 1,700 people speeding. Do you think that all those people were driving dangerously? Attempting to justify his force's behaviour, Sgt Steve Knight said, "Motorists really have no excuse. The campaign was well-publicised and there still seems to be a significant number of drivers who have failed to grasp the concept that speed kills."

Actually, speed doesn't kill. Inappropriate speed kills.

Again, Sgt Knight: "We are aware that there are those who say police should have better things to do, but this ignores the role speed plays in fatal and serious road traffic collisions."

Yes, it plays a role. A very small one. Even the Government's figures show that speed is responsible for 5 per cent of crashes.

How many people were mugged and how many houses burgled while the police crouched by the side of the road?

Meanwhile, a plumber with a heart condition spent 18 hours in a police cell and and had his DNA and fingerprints taken after being accused of dropping an apple core.

On 21 April 2008, the first day of Suffolk's motoring blitz, Mr Hirst said he was tapped on the shoulder by a plastic plod on the way to the chemist and accused of dropping the apple core, which he denied.

Mr Hirst, who no longer works because of his ill health, said: “He was an over-zealous young lad baying to give me a ticket.

“I told him I was on my way to the shops, but would be walking back that way if he wanted to speak to me later. He followed through the precinct to the chemist.

“When I came out there were five police officers surrounding me. I said I had done nothing wrong and so was not telling them who I was. The most senior police officer said they would have to take me into custody.”

Mr Hirst was arrested for refusing to pay a £50 on-the-spot fine and taken to Swinton police station before being eventually taken to the magistrates’ court in handcuffs.

While in custody Mr Hirst twice needed to be seen by a doctor as he complained of dizziness and chest pains.

Superintendent Ian Palmer of Greater Manchester Police said: "We work closely with the city council and other partners and take a firm stance against all environmental crime."

Ye gods! "Environmental crime"! Does Supt Palmer have any idea how ridiculous he sounds? It was an apple core. It is organic matter - it will decompose on its own unless it was eaten first by some local creature.

Sgt Knight and Supt Palmer will, no doubt, go far.

Who were those masked men?

The death of barrister Mark Saunders is a tragedy. It is the first time the police have killed anyone since Jean Charles de Menezes was shot on the Tube in July 2005.

Saunders was shooting at passers-by and exchanged gunfire with the police so the outcome was never in doubt.

One thing puzzles me though. The policemen from CO19 are idenitifiable - from their crash helmets and guns but who are the disturbing figures in the balaclavas in the picture?

Gordon can't listen - the EU won't let him

Last Thursday the country gave Gordon Brown a good kicking. At the weekend the Prime Minister went on telly to admit that mistakes had been made and that he would listen and lessons would be learned.

Is he going to do a U-turn on the abolition of the 10p tax rate? No.
Is he going to forget the ridiculous ID Cards plan? No.
Is he going to cut stealth taxes? No.
Will he restore the great pension grab which wrecked Britain's pension system? No.
Would he drop his plan for 42-days' detention without trial? No.
Is he going to abandon his plans for taxing people who have too much rubbish? Yes.

Then, Downing Street announced that actually no he wasn't abandoning the rubbish plan. What they didn't tell you was the reason why - the EU. This new law is the result of an EU directive and Britain always implements EU directives - even those that harm the country.

Makes you proud to be British. Vote Labour.

CCTV doesn't work - even the police agree now

For some time I have been saying that CCTV is next to useless in the fight against crime and has allowed the police to abjure their responsibilities.

Now, a senior policeman agrees with me. Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville, the head of the Metropolitan Police Force's Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office, said that the system was an "utter fiasco" - with only 3 per cent of London's street robberies being solved using cameras.

He said, "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."

Hmm, here's a radical idea - why not police patrols back on the streets?

Life should mean life...for Sophie's memory

Two morons who kicked a young girl to death as she tried to protect her boyfriend have been jailed for life.

Well, I say life: Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, have been told that they must serve a minimum of 18 years and 16 years respectively for the brutal murder of Sophie Lancaster, 20, in Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, in the summer of 2007.

So when they get out of prison they could be as young as 33 and 32 - still in the prime of their lives.

Sophie won't get the chance to be a mother or live a happy life.

Isn't the least her memory deserves that these thugs spend the rest of their miserable, useless lives behind bars?

Empty the bins, damn you!

The world has officially gone mad - or at least this country has.

A father-of-three has been fined £225 because his wheelie bin was overflowing - not rubbish strewn on the floor but overflowing.

Council officials took pictures and two turned up on his doorstep wearing stab vests, read Gareth Corkhill his rights and then issued him with an on-the-spot fine of £110.

Taken to court, he was ordered in absentia to pay the fine plus hit with costs of £100 and a £15 surcharge.

Mr Corkhill said: "I could not believe I had been fined for putting rubbish in a bin. I tell my kids not to throw rubbish away and always use a bin."

Whitehaven magistrates convicted Mr Corkhill in his absence of overfilling a receptacle used for waste.

In a statement the council said: "Copeland Borough Council will continue to crack down on the problem of overflowing bins, which cause problems for local residents and in the battle to reduce waste."

Here's a radical solution: why don't they crack down on overflowing bins by emptying them weekly instead of fortnightly?

And why does everyone have to pay a £15 surcharge? Well, I say everyone - if you are sent to prison you don't have to pay it. The surcharge is supposed to go into a fund to help victims of crime - muggings and the like. But if you are convicted of, for example, "overfilling a receptacle used for waste" why should you have to pay towards a mugger's victim when the mugger himself doesn't have to pay if he is, rightly, sent to prison.

More traffic on the roads...

The one thing that you need to remember about the government's motoring policy is that it does not work.

Speed cameras are not there to save lives - they are there to raise revenue.

Now Transport for London has admitted that the congestion charge has not cut traffic.

Transport for London said the freed road space created by the 21 per cent drop in traffic had been taken up by other road users.

It is the first time TfL has publicly admitted to such a sharp rise in congestion in central London.

Gordon joins the sinking ship... again

The Evening Standard reports today that Boris Johnson's lead over his mayoral rival has been cut by half.

It also says that Gordon Brown- rated the worst Prime Minister since the 1930s - is campaigning alongside Labour mayor Ken Livingstone - that should put a few more votes Boris's way.

The abuse of power

As Richard Littlejohn has said on more than one occasion, the more powers you give to the police, government or local authorities the more they will abuse them.

A case in point is Poole Council in Dorset who used laws designed to track terrorists to see if a family were really living in a school's catchment area.

The council admitted using powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) on six occasions in total.

James Welch, legal director for Liberty, said, "It's one thing to use covert surveillance in operations investigating terrorism and other serious crimes, but it has come to a pretty pass when this kind of intrusive activity is used to police school catchment areas.

"This is a ridiculously disproportionate use of RIPA and will undermine public trust in necessary and lawful surveillance."

Tim Martin, the head of legal and democratic services ("democratic services"? eh?) at Poole Borough Council, said, "The council is committed to investigating the small minority of people who attempt to break the law and affect the quality of life for the majority of law-abiding residents in Poole."

Where do they find these people?* He will go far.

The child in question is THREE-YEARS-OLD.

Martin added, "An investigation may actually satisfy the council that the application is valid, as happened in this case."

So, in other words it was a waste of public money.

* I know, I know - the jobs pages of The Guardian.

Be afraid...investigators are out there

A couple from Weston-super-Mare has been caught claiming child benefit for offspring they never had.

After the case Sarah Bamford, of HM Revenue & Customs, said: "This case is the result of many months of intense and thorough work by a dedicated team of tax credit investigation officers."

Many months? The couple lived in a one-room property in the town yet claimed that they had 16 children.

How long does it take HMRC to investigate that it is highly unlikely that anyone would have 16 children, let alone that they would all live in the same room?

Hillary says it all....

Great quote from Hillary Clinton when asked why she should be the next president:

"I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

It's only a game....

There is a new computer game being launched next month in which teams in camouflage try to kill teams wearing arab headdresses.

The Sun's Anila Baig states that the game is "racist and completely unacceptable, especially in this climate of fear...It insults all Muslims."

Who instigated this "climate of fear"?

Stop the fiddling...

Finally, MPs' expenses have been published.

I understand the need for a second home for honourable members who live, say, more than 50 miles from Westminster.

However, wouldn't a small flat or semi do? David Cameron has a sprawling home worth £750,000 in his Witney constituency - not to mention a large house in Notting Hill.

And why are we paying for MPs' television licences? If I have televisions in two homes, then I have to pay for two licences - why was Tony Blair allowed to claim for his second set?

Political prats

Is this anyway for senior Government ministers to behave?


I can't imagine Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home or even John Profumo behaving in such a pathetic way.

One rule for Muslims and none for the rest of us...

Yesterday the brilliant Richard Littlejohn echoed Ben Elton's statement that the BBC is scared of Muslims and said that there was one law for Muslims in this country and one for the rest of us.

If ever that argument has been proved true, it is the case of a Muslim curry house owner who has been spared a driving ban (he was doing 64mph in a 30mph zone on 21 August 2007) so that he can visit his two wives.

Mohammed Anwar's lawyer told a Scottish court he has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow and sleeps with them on alternate nights. He also needed his driving licence to run his restaurant in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.

Ian Blair should stick to his word

Some time ago Metropolitan Police Force commissioner Sir Ian Blair called for middle-class drug users to be targeted.

There is a drugs problem in this country but for the most part that problem is not exacerbated by middle-class drug users. It isn't middle class drug users who mug or burgle to fund their habit because they can usually afford the price of cocaine. It is the working-class junkies who steal to pay for their drugs who cause misery.

Today the inquest of actress Natasha Collins heard that she died in a scalding hot bath after she and fiancé Mark Speight "partied" at home on drugs and alcohol.

Miss Collins, 31, had 60 per cent burns to her body including her face and tongue and appeared to have died in the bath with the hot tap on after taking almost five times the lethal level of cocaine. She Collins also had a 0.4in diameter hole in the septum of her nose - something pathologist Professor Sebastian Lucas said was associated with cocaine use.

Her body was found the following day, 3 January 2008, by her fiancé. He told police that they had been "partying" on their own and had taken cocaine and sleeping pills as well as drinking wine and vodka.

Speight was initially arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs, but Scotland Yard later said he would not face any charges over the death.

If Sir Ian Blair is serious about targeting middle-class drug users, why has Speight not been arrested and charged with possession of cocaine. If his fiancée had five times the lethal level in her body then they obviously had more than a "personal use" quantity of the drug in their home.

Gay books have no place in junior schools

Muslim parents' protests have resulted in two books about gay relationships being withdrawn from Easton Primary School and Bannerman Road Community School, both in Bristol.

Around 40 parents are said to have gathered at Easton to speak to staff and another 50 at Bannerman Road.

Farooq Siddique, the community development officer for the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society and a governor at Bannerman Road, said: "In Islam homosexual relationships are not acceptable, as they are not in Christianity and many other religions."

Ben Summerskills of gay rights group Stonewall said: "The small number of parents who make a fuss will cause children to think there is something wrong."

Actually, they won't because despite what a number of "gay rights" campaigners think, children are not obsessed with sex in junior schools.

Feel safe now - Dirty Harry's on the beat...

Remember a few years ago when Michael Heseltine wore the camouflage jacket?

The latest politician to get dolled up is "Labour's Deputy Leader and Chair Harriet Harman MP". Have you seen the picture of Harman wearing a kevlar stab vest when she toured, er, her own Camberwell and Peckham constituency? It's below and also on her website.

She has attempted to defend herself saying that it was like wearing a white hairnet at a meat factory, or a hard hat at a building site.

As John Humphrys pointed out, "You wear a hard hat on a building site because... there is the danger that something might drop on your head. You don't need to wear a bullet-proof vest on the streets of London, do you?"

To which Harman replied, "No of course you don't. It was just a courtesy, there was no security issue whatsoever, it was almost like wearing the kit when you go out with the team."

So why wasn't she wearing a helmet? If the answer is because she is not in the Job one might say that she is not a policewoman but she is still wearing a stab vest with the Metropolitan Police force logo on it.

What is it with politicians and the dressing up box? Remember Blair and Cherie donning the Nehru suit and the sari when they went to India? I don't recall Indian politicians dressing up like pearly kings and queens when they visit the East End or wearing a bowler hat when they go to the City.


UPDATE: "Dirty Harry" Harman said she wore the vest as a "courtesy" to the police. Is she saying that they would have been offended had she refused? She added that it was the same as wearing "an Indian outfit going to meet Indian constituents". Have you ever heard such patronising twaddle? Why on earth would you wear an Indian outfit to visit an Indian constituent? Does she don a shell suit to meet chav constituents? Harman is an embarrassment to her party and the country.

Teacher, leave them programmes alone

Every year at their annual conference the National Union of Teachers come up with some nonsense - this year we have had banning the army from giving talks in schools.

Yesterday, Steve Sinnott, the union secretary, called for the quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks to be toned down to prevent glamorising insults and nastiness.

Perhaps, Mr Sinnott should first ensure that when children leave school they can read, write and do simple maths - then he can rant on with his ridiculous ideas.

EU have to get off the bus

Yet more lunacy from the EU.

Passengers on a route in Newquay have to get off partway through their journey because their driver is not allowed to drive more than 31 consecutive miles. Thanks to the Driving Times And Rest Periods Directive which came into force last April, drivers are forbidden from covering more than 31 miles at any point in a single trip – unless they have a 45-hour period off in the same week.

It means that customers of Western Greyhound have lost their direct service between Newquay and Plymouth. The route, which covers 54 miles at the cost of £5, is now broken into three stages. First, passengers must catch the 597 from Newquay to St Columb Major, seven miles away. There they must disembark and change onto the waiting 593 which takes them the 27 miles to Liskeard. Finally, the passengers switch to the 592 for the remaining 20 miles to Plymouth.

This at a time when the Government is telling people to use public transport and shortly after Gordon Brown boasting of his pride in being a member of the EU.

Worry about real discrimination

There are plenty of instances of genuine discrimination in Britain today without pathetic politicians getting up on their hind legs and moaning that something is not “inclusive”.

The latest to bleat is Margaret Hodge who is claiming that the Proms is not inclusive.

She says: “The audiences for some of many of our greatest cultural events - I’m thinking particularly of the Proms – is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this.”

Anyone can go to the Proms if they want. That’s the whole point of them. The fact is that some people may not want to go but they are not prevented from doing so. If there was a genuine reason why certain people could not go then that would be a cause for concern but there is not. No one is stopped from going to the Proms.

This is just more social engineering from Labour, a party determined to wreck the great traditions of this country.

The sooner Hodge and her cohorts are gone, the better.

Guido has this.

Harry shows his mettle

Prince Harry is back from Afghanistan and the media have understandably gone big on the story.

However, the Daily Express on Saturday featured a pic of him riding a motorbike.

Who will be the first prat to complain that Harry was setting a bad example by not wearing a crash helmet?

The madness that is Strasbourg...

The European Court of Human Rights has shown once again that it is completely out of touch with normal thinking.

It has ruled that a terror suspect cannot be deported to a country that might torture him. The suspect's "absolute" right to protection from torture must come first. First above the rights of the people not to be blown up by these fanatics.

Why do we take notice of this absurd ruling? These Muslim fanatics are a threat to our lives never mind our way of life and the sooner they are out of Britain the better.

A bag of nonsense

At the moment I am reading a book called Scared to Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North.

It is a round-up of the great panic-inducing scares we have suffered over the last 20 years from Aids to the latest global warming.

Booker and North postulate that many of the scares have no basis in scientific fact and that often scientists and governments deliberately mislead the public for their own ends be they financial, fame or power.

Today Marks & Spencer has announced that from 6 May 2008 it will charge 5p for carrier bags.

We have been told that carrier bags take 400 years to degrade. Now the BBC is running a story claiming: “Campaigners say plastic bags damage the environment. Some 13bn are given free to UK shoppers every year, and they take an estimated 1,000 years to decay.”

Both figures are complete nonsense. Since we didn’t have carrier bags in 1608 never mind in 1008, how can they possibly know?

Soon we will no doubt be reading that carrier bags take a million years to decay and unless we stop using them polar bears will die.

Government gets it wrong... again

The National Audit Office has reported that the Government has overestimated - by £250million - the amount needed to help people switch to digital television when the analogue service is switched off.

The Guardian reports today: "The tone of the report... flagged up other potential dangers, including low awareness of switchover among ethnic minorities and non-English speaking groups."

I don't see that that is a problem. How many non-English speaking groups watch telly in the first place?

We aren't going to restore capital punishment

Today The Sun publishes the results of its survey about whether Britain should restore capital punishment.

Predictably, 99% of readers call for the restoration of the rope.

It isn't going to happen while we remain members of the EU - even if every single person in the country wanted it.

Time for Mr Speaker to be silent...

Labour MPs are rallying around the Speaker Michael Martin.

Former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett says, “What I don't understand is why there have been a whole string of nasty little stories about Mr Martin. Somebody is out to get him.”

Business Secretary John Hutton said, “He is a decent man and a good Speaker of the House of Commons.”

No, he isn’t. He is the worst Speaker of the House since Selwyn Lloyd. Martin has flown members of his family in business class from Glasgow to London for a New Year break, using air miles gained from official trips. He has claimed £17,000 a year mortgage relief for his home in Scotland even though there is not mortgage on that home and £7,500 in costs for using that home as an office.

He lets Gordon Brown get away with murder at PMQs and has used public money to fund personal legal matters.

He is a disgrace and should go immediately.

Is this justice?

Today, the Daily Mail runs a horrific story about a shopkeeper facing a murder charge after defending himself against a scumbag career criminal with a string of convictions going back to 1999.

Loser Liam Kilroe attempted to rob Tony Singh at 9.40pm on Sunday 17 February 2008 after a 13-hour day minding his corner shop in a parade of stores in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Incredibly, Kilroe had been given bail last year despite pleas that he remain in custody after the collapse of his trial for two robberies.

Lancashire Police issued a warrant for his arrest last week after he failed to appear in court. He was on the run when he targeted Mr Singh's late-night shop.

Now, Mr Singh has a terrible wait to find out if he will face murder or manslaughter charges.

I thought the government had said that it would not be prosecuting anyone for defending themselves. More weasel words from this mendacious bunch of spivs running this country.

Mr Singh is a hard-working man who serves a local community often working 13-14 hours days in his shop. Liam Kilroe was a waste of space - let him rot.


UPDATE: (Wed 27 Feb) In a rare outburst of common sense the CPS has announced that it will not be prosecuting Mr Singh.

More bluster from the government

The Sun reports today on a new government plan to charge immigrants to come into Britain.

The newspaper says: “Ministers hope the new levy will raise up to £15million a year for extra housing, hospitals and school places.”

Leaked papers reveal the fees will be on a sliding scale, with higher charges for those with children, sick or elderly relatives.

The paper says: “Immigrants who tend to consume more in public services such as children and elderly will pay more than others.”

Ain't gonna happen...

The war on drugs wasn't lost - it was never fought...

Contrast the sentence meted out to someone possessing illegal drugs in Dubai to that over here.

Some Radio 1 DJ who I had never heard of has been jailed for four years in Dubai for possession of cannabis.

We are not talking about supplying cannabis - he had 0.076oz of the drug in a pair of trousers - so that was almost certainly for personal use. The sentencing guidelines in Dubai for drug possession range from four years to death.

Possession of that small an amount would not even result in a caution in the UK where some senior policemen are calling for the decriminalisation of all drugs.

The policemen in question claim that the war on drugs is lost. I would argue that far from being lost, it was never fought. When so-called "leaders" like Brian Paddick - who now wants to be mayor of London - introduce a softly-softly approach to drugs, you know that the authorities are not serious.

Imagine the outcry if someone in Britain was sentenced to four years of porridge for possession of less than a quarter of an ounce of cannabis.

Yet if the police pursued an anti-drugs policy with the zeal they prosecute motorists, we, too, would not have a drugs problem and useless police would not talk about the war on drugs being lost.

Another Labour initiative... that will go nowhere

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has announced that thugs who carry knives will be sent down for four years under a new crackdown.

And the band played "I'll believe it when I see it".

Terrorist material is as reprehensible as child porn

The appeasement of Muslims in Britain continues apace this week the Appeal Court freed five Muslim men jailed over extremist literature.

Freeing the men, the Lord Chief Justice said there was no proof of terrorist intent. Yet downloading terrorist material is illegal so why were the men freed?

If someone downloads child porn, they do not receive a get out of jail card because they had no intent of actually molesting a child – so why is there a difference for terrorist material?

We are walking into a time bomb and the government is lighting the fuse…

Why the Democrats are on course to lose...

This is from my friend Barry, a fervent Democrat.

If you had any lingering doubts about how dumb the Democratic Party is, this should remove them.

We've all heard how close the Democratic nomination "fight" is--virtually assured of going all the way to the Convention held ONE WEEK BEFORE LABOR DAY, while McCain has now wrapped up the Republican nomination and can direct all his efforts and resources to winning the general election in November. Without opposition or discord.

But what the press DOESN'T tell you, is how this came about. Let's take this most recent Super Tuesday for instance:

o Hillary Clinton won New York by SEVENTEEN points over Obama (57-40%), while garnering more than THREE TIMES the total votes that GOP winner John McCain received (1,003,623 vs. 310,014). Yet, because the Democratic primaries are ALL "proportional" contests in which the delegates are divided up by district while the GOP primaries are mostly "winner take all," Hillary was awarded 177 delegates to Obama's 94...while McCain pocketed all 101 of his party's delegates!! So, in drawing over 693,000 more votes in N.Y. than McCain, her margin over her closest opponent was 83 while his was 101.

But wait, it gets worse...

o The "biggest prize" of the night was clearly California--and all the candidates campaigned extensively there, and expended the most resources of any state to date. Hillary beat Obama by TEN full points in a state where over 4 million votes were cast, getting 400,000 more than her nearest rival. McCain beat Romney by just EIGHT points, with far less than half the total votes casts (the fewer the votes, obviously, the easier it is to have a larger % thereof), while getting just 164,000 more than Romney (41% of Clinton's margin). And what was her reward: 43 more delegates than Obama (195-152) while McCain picked up all 149 at stake in the Republican primary. So, for getting way less than half the total votes Clinton attracted (965,900 to her 2,132,166), McCain stretched his advantage over his only rival by 106 more delegates than she did!

o How about the hotly-contested New Jersey primary you ask? Clinton won by TEN full percentage points...yet just 11 delegates. Yep, she won 54-44% or 602,576 to 492,186 and was awarded 59 delegates to his 48. McCain got about HALF the votes she did (310,427)...and all 52 delegates! So he got nearly FIVE times the "bump" for HALF the votes.

o Despite the "huge" endorsements of Ted and Caroline Kennedy, and with the other Massachusetts Senator (and last party presidential candidate) John Kerry actively and enthusiastically campaigning for him, Obama lost the state to Clinton by a whopping FIFTEEN points (56-41%)! Yet her yield, based on each district, was just 17 delegates (55-38))--a mere two more than the percentage points she won by with 1.2 million votes cast! For comparison, Romney won the state of which he was recently Governor by a margin 50% less than she did!

o How about a solid "red state" like Oklahoma? Clinton romped over Obama with FIFTY-FIVE percent, to his 31. McCain edged Huckabee by a mere 12,000 votes (and 4%)--more than 86,000 fewer votes than Hillary's margin of victory. In a Republican stronghold! For which he received a 26 delegate margin (32-6) while hers was just 10 (24-14).

o I could go on and on--she won Tennessee by THIRTEEN points...yet just 12 delegates--but let's not forget how the Democratic Party butchered the delegate-rich Florida and Michigan primaries. We keep hearing how she "didn't really win them"...however, all the candidates had an equal chance to be voted for (even though they were forced not to campaign or advertise in the "rogue" states), and the fact is, Clinton got 50% of the vote in a FOUR person race in Florida and 56% in Michigan (prompting that immortal headline in the Washington Post: "44 Percent Vote Against Clinton"). Florida had 210 delegates at stake, and Michigan 156. In the former, Hillary beat Obama by SEVENTEEN points...and received no delegates. McCain squeaked by Romney 36-31% (3% more than the Democratic loser), and walked away with all 57 Florida delegates. So in the state of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, Clinton got 164,000 more votes in the primary than McCain...and 57 fewer delegates! Seems fair and reasonable to me...

Had these two states both awarded delegates identically, Hillary would have netted 366 delegates more than Obama.

And it's fair to assume that the candidates haven't campaigned LESS enthusiastically so far because their states were proportional rather than winner-take-all...clearly, each did everything he or she could to win each primary.

Let's be clear (even though media, to my knowledge, has never once pointed this out): If the Democrats and Republicans had the same, or even similar, primary processes this year, both party's nominees would have locked up their nominations after Tuesday...and would thus have an equal opportunity to campaign against each other starting now...

The only difference is that one party devised its rules to select and get behind a single nominee at the earliest possible date, while the other...MY esteemed party...came up with a formula virtually GUARANTEED to prevent that from happening.

And we wonder why we've elected two donkey presidents in the past 44 years.

FYI: The donkey is the symbol of the party, not Barry's take on Presidents Carter and Clinton.

Mind your language

If someone shovels shit, they are a shit shoveller. Calling them an "excrement removal technician" doesn't alter the job they do.

Dustmen have become "refuse collectors" - which is rather ironic since quite often these days they refuse to collect the rubbish.

Now the madness of changing job titles has reached school kitchens. On BBC Breakfast this morning I saw an item about dinner ladies being taught to cook and having learned, returning to their "unit". Apparently, a school kitchen is now a "unit".

According to today's Daily Mail: "Those with catering qualifications prefer to be called 'school cooks' or 'school chefs' while servers want to be known as 'lunchtime supervisors' or even 'food advisers' following Jamie Oliver's healthy meals revolution."

What is Gordon Brown talking about?

Apart from being probably the worst performer in living memory at Prime Minister's Questions, where did Gordon Brown learn to speak? His pronunciation of certain words gets weirder by the week. We know that John Major had the irritating habit of pronouncing "want" as "wunt" but Brown seems to have his own language.

Remember "bona feedees"? Yesterday at PMQs he was banging on about the need for "surveyance". As Cyril Fletcher used to say, I will pin back my lugholes for more examples.

And isn't about time that only opposition MPs were allowed to ask the questions at PMQs? It would save us the embarrassment of watching Labour MPs asking sycophantic non-questions that often even they cringe when asking.

Yet again we are the mugs of the EU

Much is made of the prosperity of Ireland. Rarely is it mentioned that this is due to huge EU subsidies.

Indeed, when we hand back £7.4billion thanks to Tony Blair's incompetence surrender desire to become EU president negotiations, the gap between what we get and what the Irish get become even wider.

The UK will receive just £582 per subject while the French get £1,118 per citizen and the Irish £2,336 (24 per cent more).

Tell me again all the miraculous benefits we get from being in the EU…

Hillary is still gonna win it...Part 2

An awful lot of journalists have a large amount of egg on their faces this morning after their predictions of a Barack Obama win at the New Hampshire US presidential primary.

Even the respected pollster Frank Luntz was calling it for Sen Obama with up to a double digit winning margin on last night's Newsnight.

American politics is fascinating at the moment. The Democrats have the upper hand and President Bush is the most unpopular chief executive for many a long year so theoretically the blues should walk it in November. However, for the first time the leading contenders are a black man and a woman - two groups who have never got close to the White House.

Also, is it just me but does the chant by Sen Obama's supporters "Yes we can" remind you of Bob the Builder?

I'm going to continue sticking my neck out and say that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nomination come November.

The asbestos scam continues...

A new book is out by Christopher Booker and Richard North. Scared to Death is a round-up of the scare stories that successive governments have used to introduce new laws.

In yesterday's Sunday People were two advertisements by a firm of lawyers called Godloves Solicitors. Unsurprisingly, it was part of the compensation culture. There was an ad for people who may have suffered a skin complaint caused by their new sofa! And also one for victims of asbestos. As Booker and North point out (and as Booker has done many times in The Sunday Telegraph) the asbestos "danger" racket was one of the biggest scams going.

Read the book and find out.

Hillary is still gonna win it...

Against the odds Hillary Clinton did not win the Iowa primary and was actually reduced to third place - albeit only by 0.2 per cent.

However, before everyone rushes to write Senator Clinton off, it should be remembered that in 1992 one man gained only gained 3 per cent in Iowa - a lot less than Sen Clinton's 29.5. His name was Bill Clinton.

Mind how you go... in Islamabad

Scotland Yard detectives have arrived in Pakistan to help with the investigation into the death of Benazir Bhutto.

Why? Are there not enough crimes to solve in the UK?

Brunstrom is talking balls...

On Wednesday, I suggested (again) that it was time for Richard Brunstrom, the idiot who runs North Wales police force, to resign after his comments that ecstasy was safer than aspirin.

Brunstrom has used his blog to defend his comments. He writes: “As a fact then, and one which deserves to be more widely known, UK government figures from the Office of National Statistics show that between 1993 and 2006, ecstasy was ‘mentioned’ on death certificates in England and Wales 456 times (and mentioned on its own, without other drugs being present, less than half that number of times – 234) , whereas aspirin was mentioned on 504 occasions (on 285 occasions in the absence of other drugs). So in the last 14 years, as a fact, aspirin has been formally associated by the government with the death of more people than has ecstasy. That’s why I said on the radio that ecstasy’s safer than aspirin. The picture is not that simple of course, not least because the word ‘mentioned’ does not mean that ecstasy actually caused the death, merely that a person died who had taken it.”

As Brunstrom admits the picture is not that simple. Put another way: 504 people “died” as a result of aspirin out of perhaps 20 million people who took it (0.00252 per cent); 456 “died” from ecstasy out of perhaps a million that took it (0.0456). Now which is the safer drug?

In addition, his biography (which boasts of his A grade A level in Welsh as if that has anything to do with policing) on the site claims that “under Richard Brunstrom, North Wales Police has become one of the best performing forces in England and Wales”. Hmm, under Brunstrom his officers issued 4,200 speeding tickets but – in stark contrast – solved only 41 out of 693 vehicle crimes in a single month. In the same period it was revealed that his force had solved a mere six per cent of burglaries in their area.