The Coffee House Wall – 12th/31st March

Posted on March 12, 2012

This is the Coffee House Wall for the rest of this month. I won’t say that it is your chance to communicate with us, as we are all in this together. It is, nevertheless, the Conservative Blog post that has no particular theme, and where everything is on topic. Let’s just remember that we want to avoid ad hominem attacks on others. We don’t want to engage with trolls. We want to moderate our language ourselves as responsible and mature adults, choosing to use fruity language only where it is necessary. This is our opportunity to show what the Spectator Coffee House Wall could have been like.

1,208 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall – 12th/31st March”

  2. King of the metrosexual narcissists, Matthew d’Ancona argues this week that it is the essence of conservatism for governments to bugger about with centuries old institutions, vapidly comparing marriage with the White Horse chalk carving (as opposed, say, to the Cerne Abbas giant).

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9135181/The-case-for-gay-marriage-is-fundamentally-conservative-it-will-strengthen-Britains-social-fabric.html

    Veritably brimming over with paradox and counter-intuitive irony, Matthew then seeks to subvert the distinction between the metropolitan elite (‘if indeed it exists’!!!) and middle England. ‘Its [the metro elite’s] members surely fret about the economy, being mugged, and their retirement years as much as anyone else.’ Yeah, Matthew, being mugged by the behooded burghers of middle England – and so you should be.

  3. Syntax error. Lose the final ‘be’ at 09:20. I know, earth-shattering stuff.

  4. Thanks for summarising D’Ancona’s piece. I just couldn’t bring myself to read it and get even more angry.

  5. Verity

    See my post at 02:01 today and the exchanges et seq on the “Freedom of Speech – No limits” post. A question you asked on that thread is answered therein.

  6. From my very naughty niece:

    “My wife found out that our dog could hardly hear, so she took it to the vet. The vet found that the problem was hair in the dog’s ears. He cleaned both ears, and the dog could then hear fine. The vet then proceeded to tell Andrea that, if she wanted to keep this from recurring, she should go to the store and get some “Nair” hair remover and rub it in the dog’s ears once a month.

    Andrea went to the store and bought some “Nair” hair remover.

    At the register, the pharmacist told her, “If you’re going to use this under your arms, don’t use deodorant for a few days.”

    Andrea said, “I’m not using it under my arms.”

    The pharmacist said, “If you’re using it on your legs, don’t use body lotion for a couple of days.”

    Andrea replied, “I’m not using it on my legs either. If you must know, I’m using it on my Schnauzer.”

    The pharmacist said, “Well, stay off your bicycle for about a week.”

  7. Man driving down a country road, car conks out. Horse leans over a hedge, sez: problem mate? Man sez, yeah, car’s conked out. Horse sez, mind if I take a look? Man sez, nah, help yourself mate. Man opens gate, clip clop, out comes horse, looks under bonnet, sez: spark plug, mate. Ah, cheers! sez the man, fixes spark plug, gets back in car, drives off.

    Feeling a bit shaken, man pulls into a pub car park, goes in for a drink. Barman polishing a glass, sez: you look a bit pale, mate, you all right? Man sez, a matter of fact, had a bit of a shock. Car conked out, this horse leans over a hedge, asks if I need any help, has a look, sorts it out. Amazing. Barman sez, what’s he look like this horse? Man sez, well, dapple grey, about sixteen hands, bit of a limp. Right, sez the barman. Tell you wot, it’s a good job you didn’t run across the chestnut horse, he knows f–k all about motors.

  9. ACP

    W’Ancona: I assumed (particularly before he started to diet) that he was a ‘stray’ son of Nicholas Soames, but had failed to inherit his wit and panache. He was a ringer when he was fat.

    I wonder, sometimes, if he and his ilk ever read what they write, or if it’s just effluent that they pull the chain on once they have finished – and then return to their long lunches to accrue another load.

    ” … mugged by the behooded burghers of middle England … ”

    Delicious! Thanks.

  10. More on W’Ancona from our old friend AAE, over on the Speccy site:

    AAE
    March 11th, 2012 11:56pm

    “And nothing to do with this but I notice that the DT has been saving d’Ancona’s feelings by not allowing comments beneath his article “Gay marriage is Conservative”. Poor politicians. Poor journalists. Imagine how awful it must be to find out what the electorate and readership actually think?”

    I doubt they ever read any commentary anyway, AAE, and if they do, it’s only as grist to the mill of scoffing sessions in their metrosexual enclaves.

  11. I see Speccie alumni rule the blogs.
    Boris and Matt are the subject of 5 of 7 posts.

  12. It is of course indefensible for anyone to assert the right to wear a Christian cross.

    This unhelpful linear configuration is also found on stodgy buns ubiquitous at this time of year in a manner which is highly offensive to one of our major faith communities. Better this ugly crusader bun is replaced by the infinitely more delicious, sympathetic and community-cohesive croissant.

    So, yes, let’s all support ABC Rowan Williams and the Coalition, and remove this divisive geometry from public life and from our supermarket shelves.

  13. Frank P,

    I put some more links to photos up on the Freedom of Speech thread.
    I’m certain that there are many more to be found out there. An interesting comment on the “Snopes” thread about the US MSM.

  14. Fergus! Graced by your presence indeed. I was recently told that as well as being a bon viveur and wry observer of the contemporary scene, you are also something of an amateur poet. Tell us more. Are you a metrical virtuoso a la William McGonagall, a bit of a moral evangelist like Martin Tupper, or perhaps even (eh??!) a bit of both? 😉

    Don’t be shy, Fergus. Give us a blast.

  15. Andy Carpark — I can honestly say I have never read any Matthew D’Ancona piece to the end. In fact, after the first few, I only read to the end of the headline, which was written, of course, by a sub and there was therefore an attempt to attract interest and thus readable.

    He’s Maltese, you know. (Nothing against valiant Malta, which won a George Cross for the bravery of the citizens of this tiny island during WWII … but he doesn’t have broad enough experience and didn’t have broad enough exposure to more cosmopolitan outlooks duriing his younger years.)

    Actually, I long since abandoned the notion of even reading the first sentence.

  16. Verit; on last week’s thread I see that we have driven the troll, Publius away. If only our combined talents could get rid of Blancmange so easily. However, do you think Publius (sounds rude?) will return bearing another nom de plum?

  17. Well, AWK, if he wishes to return with a new nom de plum, it will depend on the new image he wants to create. He could sign himself, with a feminine flourish, Damson or Mirabelle. If he wants to promote himself as a fearless, noisy Japanese warrior, perhaps, he coudl adopt the blog name Satsuma. Or, if he wants to appear mysterious and intriguing … unlikely in a troll … he could choose Damask.

    Or, if he is a petty minded, jealous inadequate, his new nom de plum could be Greengage.

  18. @V

    Want know how to make a Maltese cross?

    Kick ‘im in the n*tz.

    I’ll get me coat.

  19. Those were the days, my friends, we thought they’d never end …

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/869741/how-cameron-should-reshape-the-machinery-of-government.thtml

    I guess that Daniel Korski is your new intern?

    is this a spoof?

    Get a grip.

    Twaddle

    Is this post some kind of joke?

    Absolute garbage.

    hahahahaha

    Daniel Korski must be in total la-la land. Who is this idiot?

    I too assumed it was a joke. Not worth a detailed critique.

    I gather this blog is now becoming a haven for the Gruniad’s stray dogs? Curiouser and curiouser ..(Frank P)

  20. Blimey Bruce!

    Your filing system is ace. Can I borrow it, please? Or are you one of those bright spark with absolute recall? Wonder why DK has dissolved into the cybermuda triangle?

  21. The Spectator seem not just to have abandoned Conservatism but to no longer care about accepted English spellings either.

    It now has a piece by James Forsyth, with this headline –

    “Cameron’s Human Rights quandry”.

  22. Frank P vs. Andy Car Park

    Frank, I think your niece’s joke wins by a hair.

    Incidentally Frank, I did post a short note to you on the Freedom of Speech thread at 02.30 before this week’s Wall was up saying that your response to Redneck on March 10th @ 22:47 on last week’s Wall was measured and thoughtful. My post is still apparently “awaiting moderation”, but I can’t think how to make it any more moderate than it was.

  23. Like you all I try to avoid saying something already well but I will make an exception when it comes to,

    ‘Actually, ‘Gay’ Marriage IS the truly conservative thing to do!’

    Thanks for the overview ACP as, Like Frank P., I certainly have no intention of reading this sort of assault on reality.

    ‘Frank P
    March 12th, 2012 – 14:22
    More on W’Ancona from our old friend AAE, over on the Speccy site:
    AAE
    March 11th, 2012 11:56pm
    “And nothing to do with this but I notice that the DT has been saving d’Ancona’s feelings by not allowing comments beneath his article “Gay marriage is Conservative”. Poor politicians. Poor journalists. Imagine how awful it must be to find out what the electorate and readership actually think?”’

    Well yes it is.
    However, this is why I despair when sensible people imagine that falling readership or their losing advertising revenue will make any difference to the MSM.
    It will not make any difference because the whole point of the MSM is that it attacks our values IF you let it.
    This happens if we (the nation) go along with the process.

    Why would the degenerates want to own ‘The Grundian’ or ‘Gay Times’?

    Money does not come into it.
    Anyone who owns a major international MSM title is on board for The Agenda.

    Verity
    March 12th, 2012 – 15:30
    “Andy Carpark — I can honestly say I have never read any Matthew D’Ancona piece to the end. In fact, after the first few, I only read to the end of the headline….”

    Verity, I’m avoiding doing any work and I’d like to walk you through where I am with the infamous ‘Telegraph’ headline ‘Black is White in hot Ice Container’
    Or more articulately, ‘Gay marriage is Conservative’

    So you don’t read D’Ancona
    Years ago I did.
    Once, twice. Maybe twice.
    I was suckered by the title ‘The Sunday Telegraph’.
    I had fond memories of that newspaper.
    The lettering on the headlines seemed familiar and comforting.
    Then you read what is inside and…..ah well. Shame he’s a Maltese. I like the Maltese.

    On the last thread you mention how insane perverts attempt to envelop others in their madness by twisting language (after the surgery and the lifelong course in powerful drugs…).
    Can it be only me who noticed that ‘The Daily Mail’ went along with this ugly madness every single step of the way?
    Why?
    Are they after the nut-case market?
    If so I geddit.
    But how big CAN that be if we are honest Verity ? If we are really honest?
    A friend of mine went stark staring mad a few years ago and he never as much as looked at a newspaper. I know it’s anecdotal and I’m not a Doctor but….

    The ‘Telegraph’ and ‘Mail’ still attempt to present themselves as ‘right wing’ and ‘conservative’ and even ‘Christian’ when it suits them.

    Well I stopped laughing at that long time ago.

    Surly we must recognise that this inversion of political and moral logic is deliberate, coordinated and all a bit strange.

    Look, if I ever did open a copy of ‘Gay Times’ and there was a happy smiling normal couple with children who had married each other and procreated and bought a little house and settled down and were called Steven and LUCY…..
    ……I’d say
    ‘What’s going on here? I’ve been had! I fully expected Steven and Stewart. I want my money back!!!!’etc etc

    ‘This hetro couple getting married and having children is simply a travesty of all I would expect from a well known homosexual publication yabidi yabidi yah yah yah…..’

    Y’know the point I’m making?

    I mean, with the best will in the world would you expect to see a statue of the Virgin Mary in a Mosque? No. You wouldn’t would you? Neither would I. That’s my point.

    Speaking as a Catholic, I may have fallen in love with a Jewish Girl (and indeed I have) but not even my devotion would get me to rustle her up a bacon sarnie of a Saturday morning. Brown sauce or no. Brown sauce would be irrelevant it’s the JEWISHNESS that would be at issue.
    No pork you see?

    And yet here we are fully expected to read about how men are giving birth in the
    ‘hard/right family’ ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper of all places. Is it me? Not it’s them.

    How the ‘Telegraph’ can opine that a revolutionary, unpopular and unnecessary break with ALL civilised human history is ‘conservative’ leaves me a tad perplexed. It makes me recall how ‘gay’ adoption broke a load of international legal covenants and no-one in the MSM even noticed. No-one.
    Those guuuyss !!!
    I know some ‘gay’ marriages happened thousands of years ago. But hold on a minute Verity!!!! Look and you will see that people were legally marrying small children, horses and probably statues back then.
    You could certainly pop down to the market to buy a few people and slaughter them for kicks if you felt like.
    No. The barbarous past is surly irrelevant?
    It’s the barbarous present and future that I’m worried about and the fake authority of the MSM as it makes a bid for the nut-case end of the market makes me feel uneasy.

    I can’t help but worry that even THEY know that men don’t have babies.

    ‘Miss’ won’t eat my sarnie.

    Steve and Lucy DO NOT belong in gay times and perversion and madness really are not conservative at all.

    They know. We certainly know. Even Caligula’s horse seems sure. Yet still they write this stuff down and some folk read it.

    Strange time Verity.

    Regards.

  24. ‘…….already well said……’

    Too tired to apply the irony but please feel free…..

  25. Anne Wotana Kaye 1

    “Verity; on last week’s thread I see that we have driven the troll, Publius away.”

    Hello Anne that is a relief, not that we have driven away a troll, that is always a good thing but the fact that you name Publius as a troll, he/she/it for no apparent reason picked a fight with me.

    I read and reread my posts and could not understand just what I had written to cause his/her/its displeasure, now it all becomes clear, thank you.

  26. And more strangeness, though rather expected, the Arch-Druid, Rowan Williams, enters the conflict about Christians and the Cross, and comes out on the side of Anti-Christ!

    Thank God, and I mean thank God, the Catholic bishops are starting to realise that the times they are a changing and we need bishops who will speak out, at any cost. I hope I can encourage my own bishops to do the same.

  27. David Ossitt: Regarding the troll: I can smell the bu**ers a thousand miles off! ‘Orrible little bully.
    I will only be posting much later as I have chores to do and want to see “Empire” and moan at Paxo’s droopy drawers and sweaty blue shirt, although I hear that this week’s episode is good.

  28. “Thank God, and I mean thank God the Catholic Bishops….”
    P. from M.

    …are doing their jobs.
    Yes, I admit I was pleasantly surprised at the clarity of the message read out at Church on Sunday. Church, as always packed. Standing room only.

    Hope you are right about ‘changing times’ Pete.

    One thing is for sure, everybody knows the Government is lying about ‘not forcing Churches to provide venues for the ceremony’.

    Perhaps The Church recognises that Priests who defy the State will go to jail over this. That’s not happened since Third Reich/Soviet block.

    Those who did not do their jobs and did not go to jail would have the likes of me standing outside the Church handing out information;
    “Do you know what goes on in this place in the name of God?” ‘soming’ like that, off the top of me head.

    Should be interesting. I certainly would never enter any Church that had attempted to sanctify blasphemy. Regardless of any ‘law’held up as an excuse.

    Don’t reckon a Christian could.

  29. I am fortunate to meet very senior Catholics quite regularly and I do encourage them, as far as I am anyone worth listening to, to take the lead where Arch-Druid Rowan has lost the plot. I would be very happy to see England become a Catholic nation again, as far as the majority Christian community was concerned.

  30. I always thought it was arcane and malevolent to appoint the Archdruid to Canterbury. I wonder if HM had any courteous objections that were lisped aside by Blair, who shortly afterwards signed up to the RC.

    Sentamu is a hero, so he presents a killer problem to the fascists. They’d love to get a black in as the Archbish of Canterbury. On the other hand, he is a strongly commited Christian. Some days they must get the feeling that they just can’t win.

  31. I was at first sadden that decent Anglicans (in the UK, those abroad seem much more robust and didn’t need my sympathy) had to put up with idiotic swine like Jenkins. Remember Jenkins? Remember ‘a conjuring trick with bones’ ?
    Remember the Cathedral getting struck by lightening and burning for the first time in it’s history soon after?

    It’s not sad any more though. It’s irritating. As per my above ramblings I don’t ask for vegetarian sauce on my steak pie.
    So why do these parasites pose as Christians?
    Why are they indulged by anyone at all?
    Now the Head Druid (if I may, I like that one…) is quoted as saying ‘the cross is religious decoration’.

    The cross of Christ is a decoration?

    This man is just a liar.

    He is simply supporting the Government’s/The Agenda’s latest attack of Christianity.
    People will look back and say,
    ‘Er…he called for Sharia Law in the UK and you STILL though he was a Christian???’
    I agree with Nicholas at the end of the last wall/thread; the logical contradictions will not make any difference.
    I wonder when mass peaceful protest will again be in the hands of decent people?

  32. Well it is rather hard to engage in ecumenical dialogue with Anglicans. It is never clear who is being dealt with and if they have any authority to speak for Anglicanism – of course they don’t. So I am not sure there is much point, apart from general good will. With Catholics I have an entirely different and hopeful view, and I enjoy participating in ecumenical meetings with Catholics very much indeed.

    I heard Rowan Williams preach at Lambeth Palace and was not impressed. It did just seem to be warm, fuzzy, we need to be nice to everyone, and we are all climbing up the same mountain sort of thing.

    I sat next to George Carey’s brother on a flight to Finland some years ago. We discussed going to Uusi Valaam monastery together for a trip, but I stopped visiting Finland regularly at that point and so was never able to organise anything.

  33. “I heard Rowan Williams preach….warm, fuzzy…”

    He is not a Christian.
    Remember when the MSM used to bang on and on about his ‘impressive intellect’.
    Liars. He is not at all intelligent. He’s not even clever.

    Though (we) Catholics can’t be too smug about organised infiltration of The Church.
    After the ‘fall’ of the Soviet block a lot of ex-Secret Sevice from eastern block countries came forward to explain the extent of the infiltration programme.

    It will not surprise anyone that the Secret Service ALWAYS chose homosexual men. No need to mention the element of paedophilia.

    Mind you, OUR destructive traitors at least PRETENDED to have the Faith.
    Whereas the Druid….

  34. I wouldn’t want to judge the state of any man’s soul but certainly the things he says and teaches are not Christianity. But then it is not clear to me how those who are joining the Ordinariate could wait so long. The game was up a long time ago.

    ..The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God..

  35. ‘…by their works you will know them…’

    What has happened to the UK under the direction of the likes of this man and Blair who put him there?

    He CANNOT be a Christian. Good bad or indifferent.

  36. I enjoyed “Empire”! Harmless, inoffensive, no new facts, but glorious scenery, schoolboy annuals recalling my childhood, scout jambarees, cricket, wonderful Hong Kng, and Paxo wore jeans!

  37. God, I love Hongkers. Who remembers .. maybe as much as seven or eight years ago … when planes used to come into Kai Tek airport, which was basically in the centre of town, and the 747s used to make their final descent between tall apartment buildings and you were close enough to see people in their living rooms? I remember seeing a young woman looking into the bathroom mirror intently, drying her hair and not paying any attention at all to the descending 747 and all the passengers looking into her bathroom window as they glided by.

  38. In the case of the C of E : Bishops and Archbishops are appointed on the advice of Synod (which has been taken-over by ‘liberal’ activists).To maintain the fiction that the choice remains with The Queen,they pass two names to the PM for HM’s consideration.The trick is:one is the ‘correct ‘candidate,the other is a clearly unexeptable loonie.So it goes.

  41. On matters of the clergy one hesitates to intrude into private grief…

    BUT in case anyone is interested there was a very good article in the Bidonville Chronicle charting Anthony Charles Lynton Blair’s spiritual progress:

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/convert-blairs-been-a-catholic-for-25-years-already-6592778.html

    and the guiding hand on his shoulder who (I think I read in the Times at the time) had a significant input into Rowan’s appointment.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thomson_(priest)

    BTW if you Google(Tm) “Wiki Rowan” it is Rowan Atkinson who comes out top of the list. He, as we all know, would have made a much more convincing A of C.

  43. Speaking of Google (.co.uk). If you search for ‘coffee house wall’ our site is now the top 4 results, above the Spectator. And our visitor statistics continue to rise, as you can see in the top left of the site.

  44. Andy Car Park

    I wonder if comrade Foot actually read it? If it hadn’t made me feel “positively bilious” then I think I might have lost the will to live. In the 1982 Beaconsfield by-election Blair came third – losing even more Labour votes than in the collapse of 1979!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaconsfield_by-election,_1982

    Scanning the results I was rewarded by the memory of dear old Lt. Commander Bill Boakes, “Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident” who was unfairly labelled by the left and the media as a crank and a racist. I don’t believe he was either. He was a concerned citizen activist who got stuck in – the sort of person that the Westminster ‘pros’ of today pay lip service to but really hate.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Boaks

  47. Andy Car Park,

    When referring to “Debts of Honour” Blair says this”

    “It also provided a further diversion from the weary tedium of the Bar! My clerk (the one like Jeeves if you remember) caught me reading it in my room.”

    To me this underlines what a little shit he was. When one pays good money for a barrister and, indeed, one is totally reliant upon them to to fight one’s case in court one would like to think that you have their full attention!

  48. ACP (09:02)

    Bastard! You just knew that my insatiable curiosity would impel me to read the Blair letter from beginning to end, didn’t you? I suspect you are part of a sinister plot to further derange the already severely damaged minds of those amongst us who are, in the remaining moments of our diminishing hours, desperately clinging to their last vestiges of hope for salvation.

    Now – of course – my curiosity demands to know whether or not Foot, who in 1982 had already lost whatever marbles he ever had, bothered to read the youthful ramblings of our future PM (Ye Gods!) – and if he did, how he chose to respond – or not?

    Further and better particulars, please – bastard! Or is part of the punishment that we have to Google up the answers to those questions ourselves? You are quite pitiless, aren’t you? And, as I remarked before, (with Anglo-Saxon additives that were filtered and replaced with stars by the invigilator) – incorrigible!

    [I am assuming that ‘bastard’ will escape censure and, let me hasten to add, I use it only as an expostulation of playful castigation, rather than as a suggestion of fact, as I am sure you know both your mother and father and that you were conceived and delivered within the safe custody of Holy Matrimony of the heterosexual variety, rather than through an accommodation arrived at by two homosexuals via a surrogate female, a a vitreous receptacle, the services of The Right Honourable Professor The Lord Winston FMedSci FRSA FRCP
    FRCOG FIBiol FREng(Hon) and, perchance, a professional onanist – supplied with a glossy magazine from David Sullivan’s library of erotic pictorial and exotic provocations].

  49. There seems to be another scam brewing up based on the fact that it hasn’t rained in some parts of Britain for well – at least three days. All the national and news bulletins seem to be threatening us with higher water costs (what else?) and heavy punishment if we water our daffodils or flush the loo twice in one day.

    It now seems that the shadowy figures arranging the jigs of the New World Order have joined the scam:

    http://survivewatercrisis.com/salesvideo-1/?v=y

  52. Andy Carpark 9:02 Re Blair’s prolix letter to Foot, so windy a heavy glider could have take off with its aid, thanks. I think. But it was’t funny enough for first-cup-of-tea-of-the-day reading. I’m guessing even Foot didn’t make it beyond the first couple of paras before thinking, “What a creepy little climber!” and aiming it (in those days) at the waste basket.

    PfromM in the context of Coffee House Wall’s growing readership … Congratulations! And in only … what … three weeks since kick-off? Good blogroll, too!

  53. Frank P 13:45 – It rained for about four minutes … or at least the sky went black with rain clouds … in my area of Mexico two or three nights ago. Here, it only rains in the rainy season, and this phenomenon was a matter of excited, theory-laden discussion among the general populace the next day. The excitement has died down now, but it was gave the area some conversational fizz at the corner shop and the bakery for almost the whole morning.

  54. Frank P 13:09 – Ha ha ha ha ha!

    Sorry about the confused grammar of 14:31 above. I shouldn’t post before finishing my first cup of tea to kick start the brain cells.

  55. Verity (14:38)

    “Sorry about the confused grammar of 14:31 above. I shouldn’t post before finishing my first cup of tea to kick start the brain cells.”

    Many years ago my cerebral autofilter adapted itself to iron out any little typo glitches that may sometimes occur in your ‘pre-first-cuppa’ posts. Your comment therefore reached the cognisant part of my grey matter as faultless prose. And even if it hadn’t, or had it been laced with a barb or two (as they sometimes are when I have sinned), I would have forgiven you.

  56. Verity (14:24)

    Incidentally, V, I’m not so sure that Foot’s reaction to Blair’s letter would have been the outcome you eloquently suggested to ACP. flattery is a powerful stimulant and when you remember that the Welsh Windbag Kinnock kissed the feet of Foot and was sponsored by him – and that Kinnock in turn sponsored Blair, it may well have been that the oleaginous flattery which oozed from said epistle did indeed seep through and lubricate the ultimate elevation of TB into No.10.

    OTOH hand it’s also a possibility, imho, that Cherie, herself a Marxist apparatchik, offered to give Michael one in return for agreeing to facilitate Tone’s coup. Foot was not only his name, from all reports, it was also the metaphorical measurement of his todger; it is reported that he was a prolific philanderer.

  57. Well, preening over-writing seems to be a long-standing fault with Tone. Anyone else read the emetic extract, which, for reasons which defy detection, Blair and the publisher must have thought would help shift his book … in which he described “sleeping” with Cherie. Even though I read a bit of it, in repelled fascination, I couldn’t make it through to the end of the first para. Genuinely stomach-churning, although perhaps not stomach-churningly genuine …

  58. I have found an admirable piece to follow up on my previous post on Afghanistan
    “Imperial Echoes”. I won’t take the chance of framing into a proper post, as it may get ‘mangled’ in the process; in any case, the article and the illustrations speak far more eloquently than my own puny literary efforts ever could:

    http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/03/blood-price-of-afghanistan.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews%20%28from%20NY%20to%20Israel%20Sultan%20Reveals%20The%20Stories%20Behind%20the%20News%29

    A taster:

    “The alleged attack on Afghans by an American soldier in Kandahar, where 91 soldiers have been murdered last year alone, is already receiving the full outrage treatment. Any outrage over the deaths of those 91 soldiers in the province will be completely absent.

    There will be no mention of how many of them died because the Obama Administration decided that the lives of Afghan civilians counted for more than the lives of soldiers. No talk of what it is like to walk past houses with gunmen dressed in civilian clothing inside and if you are fired at from those houses, your orders are to retreat.

    Air strikes are for days gone by. The American soldier in the ISAF is expected to patrol and retreat, to smile and reach out to Afghans while they shoot him in the back. After risking his life to hold back the Taliban, he is expected to take it calmly when his government announces that it is trying to cut a deal with the Taliban. As he waits out the final months until withdrawal, seeing his friends lose their limbs and their lives, knowing that the enemy has won, that he has been betrayed and is being kept senselessly on the front line for no objective except the diplomatic position of a government that hates him, that is taking away his health care, his equipment and his job; how does he feel? … ”

    But PLEASE! Read it all.

  59. Superb writing.

    I have hated Obama from Day One and knew that he would be a conduit for great evil.

  60. I would take a bit more convincing that poor old Wurzel was a bit of a jack the lad. I do recall, a propos nothing, that his wife Jill Craigie was once given a not wholly consensual rogering, on the Foots’ kitchen table, by Arthur Koestler, writer’s writer’s writer and international poseur.

    On another topic, I am glad to see that the expression ‘professional onanist’ is gaining currency. There seem to be a lot of adverts for sperm banks on London Transport these days, featuring a Lord Kitchener finger over a gormless looking baby. I rang the helpline. Apparently one of the gasometers just north of Kings Cross station now serves duty for the testosterone charged City types, who climb the external stairs in their pinstripes and bowlers until they reach a circular walkway at top level, at which point they drop ’em, have a crafty jodrell into the ‘bank’, zip up and continue home. It was a pre-recorded message to which I did not bother to listen to the bitter end.

  61. All of this talk of water; has reminded me to mention a madness that came in my post about a week back.

    We live in West Yorkshire and in our particular neck of the woods never ever have water restrictions, many of my neighbours over the past twenty years or so have at their own instigation had water meters fitted resulting in vastly reduced charges.

    I on the other hand have not and so often pay two to three times the amount that those who have meters pay.

    This might sound very silly, but I understand myself rather well, and I know that if we were metered I would make our lives uncomfortable by trying to reduce our usage at every opportunity. We are quite happy to pay our ever increasing bill every year.

    Back to what came in the post, the notice informing us of the ten-monthly payments starting at the end of this month, with the information that there is an 8.3% increase, a quick calculation revealed the increase was 8.5% not 8.3%, after what seemed an age I managed to get through to a living breathing Water Co employee who after much sucking in of breath, left me hanging whilst he discussed with a colleague.

    On his return; in a tone of voice that he probably uses on the mentally unstable he pointed out that my water bill has in fact five separate charges and it was one of these that had an increase of precisely 8.3%.

    I have just successfully had my council tax re-banded to the next lower band and have received a very welcome rebate from the tax going back to April 1993, I had noted that the Water charges are based on a rateable value on the property as of 1st April 1990, and so I told this water company chap that I shall apply for a re-rating.

    He took great joy and pleasure in telling me that the agency that levied the rates in the first place no longer exists and therefore no appeals for a reduction can be made.

  62. @Verity 12th, – 23:27

    “God, I love Hongkers.”

    V, (in hushed tones) Chek Lap Kok opened 14 years ago.

    It’s frightening the way the years roll by unnoticed.

  63. @David Ossitt 13th, – 16:32

    “All of this talk of water”

    Makes you want to go?

  64. ACP (16:28)

    I’m not at all convinced either, that the aforementioned: The Right Honourable Professor The Lord Winston FMedSci FRSA FRCP FRCOG FIBiol FREng(Hon), doesn’t provide all the love juice himself, assisted by the capable hands of some fairly fit female nurses and assistants who staff his IVF clinic in West London where, last time I looked, there were some 3,000 photographs, on the wall of his office, of babies that had been produced as a result of his ‘interventions’.

    The national appeals for donors could be nothing more than a ruse to cover the possibility of later paternity suits in search of what must now be a fortune of massive proportions accrued from his divers projects in medicine, science, Television and baby farming. So any of you proud Mums who have brought sons into the world in the last few decades as a result of Bob Winston’s magic; watch out lest they display a propensity to sport a ludicrously bushy moustache and a strong desire to vote Labour.

    Btw, my visit to his office were neither as a customer of his practice, nor as voluntary donor of the raw material used in his crucibles of creation. I was there on official business.

    How much were they offering in the advert for a flip o’er t’wrist, when you phoned Bruce?

  65. David Ossitt/Ostrich (occasional):

    Water, water everywhere, and all the bored did shrink! 🙂

  66. Nicholas
    March 13th, 2012 – 14:04

    I’m surprised the Lib Dems haven’t suggested a water tax.
    ———————
    Nicholas, good to see you! I’m surprised the milksop Lib Dems haven’t suggested using skimmed milk for watering the garden and showering.

  67. Verity, I note that there is a post on the Spectator site by ‘veritty’, which I imagine is a troll pretending to be you?

  68. Peter from Maidstone: Please give us details so we may ‘analyse’ the posting 🙂

  70. For some reason, which utterly escapes me, the mods over by declined to post this last night. It is of course addressed to Fraser Nelson.

    Maister Nelson!

    Completely off topic but…

    Accidentally caught your gig on “The Agenda”. You really do need to change your tailor! lol

    But seriously…

    How come the Speccie Australia gets to have an article about Mark Steyn but we don’t…?

    http://s3.amazonaws.com/steyn/pics/large/198.jpg

    The cartoonist might as weel have replaced the transvestite polis and Mad Mullah with you lot!

    B******S!

    BRING BACK MARK STEYN!

  71. Andy Carpart re Koestler … “writer’s writer’s writer and international poseur. ”

    BRAVISSIMO!!!

  72. Peter from Maidstone: Actually it doesn’t sound quite like my ‘old china mate’ so we must wait and see if the veritable Verity can elucidate us.

  73. Ostrich (Occasionally): “It’s frightening the way the years roll by unnoticed.”

    Yes indeed, especially if you spent those years on diferent continents. You don’t have the continuity to fall back on.

    P from M and AWK — Thanks, and yes, a poseur. I don’t think I’ve ever written the word “Irish” before this. (sp?)

  74. Frank P.

    “Water, water everywhere, and all the bored did shrink!”

    Subtle play on words Frank; it takes me back to school.

  75. Ostrich (Occasionally): “It’s frightening the way the years roll by unnoticed.”

    Yes indeed, especially if you spent those years on diferent continents. You don’t have the continuity to fall back on.
    ==================
    Agree completely. Alas, it was only when I settled back in England that I really became conscious of the passing of time, and my age. Reason: Despite prejudices not allowed, ageism is bloody well alive and well. I see people, healthy in mind and body dumped in the garbage bin and allowed to rot. After forty, it seems, old age is very much around the corner, an old age devised by Shakespeare – toothless, bald, a mewing old infant.

  77. I see that a Muslim woman has been held on Saltburn seafront as part of a major operation. Its been going on for 8 hours. It is thought she has a bomb.

  78. Save these photos for hangovers. Excellet emetics.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2114532/A-smart-choice-Samantha-Cameron-goes-formal-Burberry-trenchcoat-cropped-trousers-lands-U-S.html

    Apart from the ugliness of the couple, it’s another fashion mistake on the snob Samantha’s part. Just as she dressed down ….. WAY down, for the Royal Wedding in case her grandeur frightened the peasants, Samantha Cameron has dressed WAY down for her visit to the US … not realising that American women do not wear trouser suits for formal occasions. (She didn’t understand that all British women wear hats to weddings, either.) Same with Dave not understanding that most British men wear morning suits to family weddings.

    The Americans will, in fact, be offended that she couldn’t be bothered to dress up for them. Patronising oik. Why didn’t Dave turn up in running shorts? What a lofty, patronising pair … out-oiking the oiks so “the little people” won’t be over-awed by their grandeur.

  82. I shouldn’t judge a book or books by their covers, but the Camerons certainly did no favours for British tailoring nor fashion by their appearance in the States. In contrast, Mrs Obama looked like a Queen, seated on that sofa, dressed in a magnificent purple day dress, so simple and extremely well-cut. In contrast, Mrs Cameron…………………………………..well I will leave Verity to fill in the dots!

  84. Well. AWK, you left too many dots for “gruesome” … or pretentious (in that Samantha apparently thinks she is being rather daring and cutting edge).

    Surely the US Ambassador could have advised Downing St that Americans would not find this louche approach amusing or admirable? I suspect, though, that given Samantha’s inexplicable degree of self-assurance, they wouldn’t have dreamt of getting an opinion from the Embassy.

    I wondered what the reaction of the US press would be, and just for kicks, tuned into The Houston Chronicle, a conservative large metropolitan paper.

    Oddly enough, they seem to have missed the news of the landing in DC, although I did clock an interesting little item headlined “Shooting for charity”. My kind of people.

    In The Dallas Morning News, the headline was “GOP candidates collide in Alabama, Mississippi primaries”, followed closely by the news that The White Rock Marathon is moving to Dallas.

    The San Antonio News Express reveals that the Dallas Cowboys (football) have cut someone called Newman, and that restaurateur Chris Newman died of an englarged heart.

    OK, Austin’s the state capital … the seat of government of Texas, so I gave that a try for DC news. Well, a prosecutor has been named in the Anderson Enquiry, whatever that is. And a Texan has been jailed in Iowa for trying to release minks.

    But, no coverage of the Camerons or Samantha’s horrible faux pas, made all the worse because she thinks it’s clever.

  85. Malfleur … and your point? Hillary Clinton wore a pantsuit to a meeting in San Pedro Sula, 250 km north of Tegucigalpa in Indonesia. I’ve never been there, or heard of it, but it sounds pretty rural to me. In rural Indonesia, it is not customary for women to show their legs. This looks like a diplomatic courtesy to me. If it had been Jakarta, she’d have been in a skirted suit.

    And Michelle Obama was visiting a mosque. Du-uh. Plus, of course, she is married to a muslim so has to show his religion some respect. Tee hee.

  86. I am sorry that Nicholas has not offered his thoughts on this week’s episode of the Paxman programme, but I can understand what must be his view that further time spent on watching would be a waste. David Blair,a blogger at the DT, has however published an account of Monday’s episode, though it only serves to reinforce Nicholas’s view. The blog gives Paxman stick on the facts and the comments on his piece open up the BBC to robust criticism.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidblair/100143406/jeremy-paxman-on-gordon-of-khartoum-so-laughably-inaccurate-that-i-thought-i-must-be-hearing-things/

    Paxman now seems to be competing with a new series which started this week,Triumph and Turmoil, in which Niall Ferguson tackles China. Did anyone see the first episode and have any comments for those of us who, for one reason and another, were unable to?

    On another front in the PC war, I was listening to BBC World Service Radio a short while ago and heard that Dante has come under fire by the PC brigade, more specifically by a consultant to UN bodies on racism and discrimination, Gherush92. The focus of the BBC report was Roberto Benigni’s efforts to popularize the poet’s work, which included bringing his show to London in 2009, and the role of Dante’s work as a staple in the education of schoolchildren in Italy. Dante is, so the PC brigade claim, every kind of phobe including an islamophobe.

    Having googled a bit, I see that the DT also picked this story up.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9140869/Dantes-Divine-Comedy-offensive-and-should-be-banned.html

    “Educationalists” have notoriously in recent years wounded the development of a love of English literature in our children, which wounds Michael Gove is trying to bind up, even as, so it appears, Italian children come under assault.

    Most of English literature is conservative and occasionally, generating some embarrassment, “conservative”. We should take it warts and all, but without misrepresentation – like the rest of our history. I hope the Italians too will kick against the pricks.

    Gherush92, by the way, seems from its website to be another of these non-profit organizations run by God alone knows whom, and devoted to coagulated English prose and well as general busy-bodying in the cultural field. For those on the Wall who have been looking for a definition of “racism”, Gehrush92 helpfully explains that it can be “understood as negation of biological and cultural diversity”.

  88. Cameron’s boondoggle – shilling for Obama’s election campaign:

    Let’s turn the clock back 50 years:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rQkcb_ik0g

    The careers of the POTUS and the UK PM each took a very nasty turn soon after this historic meeting: Kennedy’s ended in Dallas when he got too close to a grassy knoll and Supermac’s ended when his War Minister got too close to a brassy moll. So it goes.

  89. Verity 00:34 – I always call it the Union Jack, and so did everybody else (apart from flagopolists) up until quite recently. I also say Boadicea; and I’m baffled as to why everybody now seems to to say Beijing, Mombay and España… though I may be mistaken about the last one.

  90. My post of 23.30 is still awaiting moderation, though the last post on my screen is Frank Sutton’s piece timed at 01.20. Oh dear, I have been a naughty naughty boy and am stood in the corner. I had a teacher in prep school who used to make me stand on one leg at the same time and, if I had been really, really, really bad – hold my arms out the while – most painful. He taught Latin, but I learned that amor vincit omnia (as Madame Eglantine also knew) .

  91. For nearly 200 years Our national flag was called The Union Jack.It is the name our people lived and died under.We can date presicely when the term Union Flag came into use:it was when the BBC etc. suffered the trauma of losing the Falklands war…..Lets get it straight:it is not true,as pedents claim that’ jack’should only be used at sea. The Royal naval term refers to the size of the flag(about 5ft. by 3ft.:a very useful size).The word ‘jack’ was a diminutive applied to small items.When naval parties went ashore on a raid ,or to claim a territory ,they took the Union jack-flag with them(or Union jack,for short).The Navy,being so important to the nation,the terminology was picked-up ashore and so it became transmuted into a proper name:The Union Jack.So it was called through-out the 19c. and during two World Wars.So it is the right and proper name of our national flag is the UNION JACK.

  92. Frank Sutton, about Bombay … apparently the Brits had misheard Mumbai as Bombay because they weren’t yet accustomed, 300 years ago, to the way Indians said words and they started writing it as they thought they had heard it. Same with Calcutta. Now it’s gone back to being called Kolcata.

    It was just based on a misunderstanding and the Indians want their own names back, but no animosity. It’s just the names they’d used for centuries, or perhaps millennia, before the Brits hove to.

    My (rather obvious) guess is, the same in China, although don’t know who were the original mispronouncers.

    Didn’t know Spain was keen on foreigners calling it España. That can’t be right.

    Why is my comment of 23:16 “awaiting moderation”? What on earth is there to moderate?

  93. Frank Sutton: “I’m baffled as to why everybody now seems to to say Beijing, Mombay and España”
    When we ask why, they’ll say, “because I’ve been there, and actually, that’s how the natives pronounce it, so i’m being urbane and sophisticated anf you’re a waycist who uses colonial era terms.”
    When you point out that the Chinese do not, in fact, pronounce Peking as “Beijing” and then ask these numpties why they do not also call Moscow – Maskva, or Florence – Firenze, or my particular favourite, Damascus – Dimashq, they always eff off. looking sheepish.

    Great way to get rid of them.

  94. Frank Sutton, about Bombay … apparently the Brits had misheard Mumbai as Bombay because they weren’t yet accustomed, 300 years ago, to the way Indians said words and they started writing it as they thought they had heard it. Same with Calcutta. Now it’s gone back to being called Kolcata.

    It was just based on a misunderstanding and the Indians want their own names back, but no animosity. It’s just the names they’d used for centuries, or perhaps millennia, before the Brits hove to.

    My (rather obvious) guess is, the same in China, although don’t know who were the original mispronouncers.

    However … more sinister … didn’t know Spain was keen on foreigners calling it España. That can’t be right. Surely? Surely?

    Does that mean that the French can’t refer to Angleterre any more, and have to say England? And that they can’t call Germany Allemande, and that we can’t call it Germany but we all have to call it Deutschland?

    Anyone sense the One Worlders (Hi, Julia, Tony, Jacqui!) and fellow New World Orderers are advancing?

    I can see the sickening logic … Everyone in the US calls California California, and New Hampshire New Hampshire, Idaho Idaho. Etc. They need to force the United States of Europe to have commonly accepted nomenklature …

    They’re further along the track than I had realised. This is something UKIP can grab between its teeth and run with!

  95. A topical joke, but one which I think will remain topical for quite some time:

    A middle-aged German businessman visits a house of ill repute, and the madam greets him and sends one of her newest working girls over to entertain him.

    The pair sit and talk, frolic and giggle, drink for a while, and she sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear and she recoils in disgust, slaps him, and storms off.

    Seeing this, the madam sends over a more experienced lady to entertain the German guest.

    They sit and talk, frolic and giggle, drink a bit, and she sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear, but she too screams, “No!” and gives the gentleman a slap in admonishment before walking quickly away.

    Madam is by now absolutely intrigued, having seen nothing like this in all her years of operating a brothel. She hasn’t done the bedroom work herself for a long time, but she’s sure she has said yes to everything a man could possibly ask for. She just has to find out what this man wants that has made her girls so angry. Besides she sees a chance to teach her employees a lesson.

    So she goes over to our German friend and says that she’s the best in the house and is available. She sits and talks with him. They frolic, giggle, drink and then she sits on his lap.

    He leans forwards and whispers in her ear, “Can I pay in Euros?”

  96. Malfleur, posts with links get moderated. I do have to sleep so posts added in the middle of the night with links go into the queue.

  97. I am on my way to an interesting job interview and would value the prayers of those here who pray.

  98. England is becoming green, and it is a rather pleasant place to be right now. Nothing to do with politics, but SPRING!

    So, with warmer temperatures, lighter evenings and summer(ha!) just down the road, what is that unsetting feeling at the back of your mind? It can only me one thing! Yes, ‘The Eurovision Song Contest’ is on the radar once again. (aka the national embarrassment, the annual Euro anti-british(really anti English) hate fest etc.) If it wasn’t for the large amount of our money that the BBC pisses up the wall every year financing it then we might be spared automatic qualification and the annual ritual embarrassment.

    Englebert Humperdinck? I think we’d stand a better chance with a pearly suited Harry Redknapp on spoons performing a novel arrangement of Cock-e-knee traditional songs. (although something less taxing might be more appropriate)

    England football manager?

    “The FA? Football, isn’t it. Little boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Endearing image, isn’t it.” Ron Manager.

    Who to pick? Since the great, mercurial, Brian Clough is sadly no longer available then only man alive capable of doing the job is, imho, Nicholas Van Hoogstraten.

  101. Peter from Maidstone:

    If it is for you, may G-d help you achieve this job.

  102. Peter from Maidstone (07:59)

    If Archie Cuntsbury is on the selection board, I wouldn’t quote this blog as part of your portfolio, Peter. 🙂

    Good luck, anyway, chum. It’s a rough old world out there in what’s left of the workplace.

  103. @Radford NG 14th, – 02:28

    “We can date presicely when the term Union Flag came into use:it was when the BBC etc. suffered the trauma of losing the Falklands war…”

    Sorry, old lad, but that’s garbage. The Boy Scouts were teaching the difference between the Union Flag and Union Jack as early as 1960, when I joined them.

  104. EC

    Ashen-faced manager ‘arry Redknapp carries within his cerebral cortex and vocal cords the now vaguely plangent speech patterns of an endangered accent and argot – East End Cockney.

    It’s sad to think that it’s being replaced by the horrible hybrid “Jafaican” a roiling patois devoid of humour, irony or interest: a threadbare linguistic idiocy which proclaims to the world, “Bro, I is an idiot, innit?”.

  105. EC

    Send some of those warmer temperatures our way, willya David? There’s a chill wind coming off the Wash and the skies are like the inside of a dirty aluminium saucepan, here in the armpit of England.

    Nick the Hoog? The only balls he ever kicked were those of his ‘business competitors’. But I agree – the yobs who are likely to be chosen to play for Engerland do need that level of ‘discipline’.

    After watching Barcelona and Messi perform against the Hun last week, any references that include “England” and “football” in the same sentence are historical only. Forgeddabahdit!

  106. Free Speech:

    Matthew Parris has felt the need to give a flourish of support for (a beleaguered?) Fraser Nelson, and maybe give a waft of something else in our general direction. See:

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/all/7699558/the-writing-is-on-the-wall-for-restrictions-on-free-speech.thtml

    I am very disappointed by his piece which is nebulous to the point of obfuscatory. Somewhat ironically, imho, his post contains some of the aspects that he is complaining about. For some reason nobody has yet made a comment. It certainly deserves one, but by someone far more articulate than myself.

  107. Maybe I just didn’t understand the Matthew P piece cos ize fick?
    It’s OK, I accept that.

  108. Austin Barry (10.25)

    A very perceptive and witty summation of just how rapidly the resilient cockney slang became subsumed by the mixture of West Indian dialect/American rap/ and ganja culture, if you don’t mind me saying so.

    I suppose to, to be honest, all accents are in a constant state of flux and the argot of the streets has always been organic and affected by the waves of immigration over the centuries. ‘Cockney’ itself contains a fair measure of Yiddish.

    When I worked among the first generation of the large post-war influx of West Indian immigrants, who were very patriotically ‘British’ in both their manners and general culture, (they were partly recruited by Enoch Powell btw, to staff the needs of the burgeoning National Health Service), I found the differences in accents between Jamaica, Barbados, the Leeward and Windward Islands quite distinctive and charming. I have a soft spot for that generation, which has some cause for resentment, given the promises that were made in the recruitment campaigns. But their English born issue rebelled against the strict Baptist/Methodist tenets of their parents and fell into the hands of the Marxist mechanics from the black power movements that set up, throughout West London and Brixton – and other provincial cities, youth clubs and shebeens to brainwash the youngsters and instill hatred against their ‘colonial masters’. Now there is a third generation steeped in that racial resentment.

    By and large the hardworking West Indians who came to find work here did so and assimilated. The ill-feeling that was generated and caused ‘race riots’ of the Fifties, was mainly caused by around a couple of hundred ‘hustlers’ (most of them stowaways) who imported their petty drug, gambling and prostitution rackets and fell foul of the indigenous villains who resented the incursion and competition. The symbiosis between the hustlers and the Black power activists aided and abetted by people like the Leftist journo/author Colin McGinnes and Vanessa Redgrave, et al. was crucial.

    Money from the Sino-Soviet agitprop apparatchiks was added to the revenue of the rackets. When you think about it (and returning to my comment of 01:12) it was a couple of West Indian hustlers, Aloysius “Lucky” Gordon and Johnny Edgecombe (he died last year, btw), who in a jealous shooting spree over who ‘owned’ hooker Christine Keeler, precipitated the fall of the Macmillan administration; subversive interplay was a component in that complex conspiracy – not that Lucky and Johnny knew much about it – they were just hustlers and ‘useful idiots’, but they certainly brought at least part of the network to the surface.

  109. ‘Arry Redknapp. Various sociolinguists with axes to grind recently conjectured that Cockney like wot she is spoke will be extinct in 30 years time having yielded to a species of Inner City patois.

    This prognosis is too hasty. My matutinal recreation consists of punching bags, hopping around in Daniel Mendoza attitudes and discussing the pugilistic scene with various diamond geezers, some of them barely old enough to vote. I can reassure Wallsters that all is well wiv our ancestral tongue. As the costermongers used to say, ‘Shan’t be rahnd in ver morning. Donkey’s pissed in ver strawberries.’

  110. PS – I am referring to the Holloway/Dalston hinterland from where a few of my colleagues hail and not intending to be too pedantic about true Cockney. Some horse’s mouth observations on this subject can be found in Bryan Magee’s Hoxton memoir, ‘Clouds of Glory’ (2003), in which he says that there is no unanimity even among native Hoxtonian as to whether they are true Eastenders. (Hoxton started out as one of three Liberties of Shoreditch, along with Haggerston and Holywell [Shoreditch ‘peroper’].) He also recalls that his grandfather’s generation (born c1870) used to pronounce Charing Cross as ‘Cherring Crawss’, which sounded quaint to him as a boy in the 1930s.

  111. There is a theory that Cockney has migrated with its native speakers to the outer London suburbs and new towns but, if so, it seems to have incorporated en route the dreadful whining, wheedling, supplicant tones of Estuary English – or perhaps, as a nod to Dickens, Uriah Heep English.

  113. P from M 7:59 … I am sure everyone here is praying for you one way or another. I am sure you are awash in a tidal wave of positive energy and spiritual assistance!

    I hope it’s not too late for me to join in!

  115. Austin Barry
    March 14th, 2012 – 13:34

    There is a theory that Cockney has migrated with its native speakers to the outer London suburbs and new towns but, if so, it seems to have incorporated en route the dreadful whining, wheedling, supplicant tones of Estuary English – or perhaps, as a nod to Dickens, Uriah Heep English
    ==========================
    Austin,that terrible whining one hears all over the Surrey dormitory suburbs. Once the mummies of these wretched whiners, drank tea with their little fingers crooked. Now, they drink out of take-away cups as they trip along with their pop-up bras and everything on show.

  116. What the HELL is Samantha Cameron wearing? I can’t stand Michelle Obama (there’s a surprise!) but she looks chic and well put together. That trouser suit yesterday and that bizarre dress in the photo look like E Berlin just after the Wall came down. Everyone trying to look Western, but without a clue.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114886/Our-closest-friend-deepest-ally-Obama-Cameron-display-friendship-White-House-lawn.html

    A “5,500-strong crowd” … uh huh. They let just anyone wander into the White House gardens. No probs. Liberty Hall. They were government employees ordered to be there to dress the stage.

  117. Verity: Your bete noire is dressing appropriately. She is the wife of a modern Stalin/Hitler (Molotov) political movement. In time, far earlier than the Wall came down. Now where does Cameron fit in? Too dumb to be a Goebbels even if crazy as Hess, perhaps one of the foot soldiers marching all over freedom and democracy.

  118. Verity

    Sam Cameron does rather look as though she’s preparing to ride in the 3:30 at Cheltenham, and you’d think she’d want to avoid equine allusions given recent events.

  119. A sterling piece by the sterling Janet Daley.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/janetdaley/100143936/what-does-obama-want-from-cameron/

    It’s short … you can read it in a minute … and, oh my, is it pithy!

    BTW, I blogged yesterday that this pointless dog-and-pony (you should forgive the allusion) show wasn’t getting any coverage in the US media, mentioning several big US papers that ran nary a whisper, and Daley also mentions this. Like everything else that Dave and Bin Barak touch, it’s fake.

  120. What is going on here? When I click the Coffeehouse Wall link, it shows the number of comments, and for the last few clicks there have been another two or three comments indicated. Yet when one clicks on, the comments haven’t moved. What has happened to all the new comments advertised but not on the site?

    A nous moutons! For once, a Telegraph piece has inspired some truly funny … a couple of laugh out loud, even … comments.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9143412/David-Cameron-given-19-gun-salute-as-he-holds-talks-with-Barack-Obama.html

    Obama and Cameron on the same stage have proved a comical inspiration for British posters.

  121. The statistics are not live. I have a spreadsheet I am keeping averages on and update the site from that data.

    Thanks for the good wishes for the interview. It went very well indeed. Now I need to wait and see until next week.

  122. Has anyone else been listening to the over staged-managed interviews on the radio4 of all of the political leaders by older school children.

    I say all; but methinks it was the main two parties plus the LibdDems, SNP and today was the turn of Plaid Cymru.

    Some boring Welsh fart was doing his level best not to answer the questions asked but rather to use the opportunity to launch Wales on to the world stage as an independent nation, stark staring mad.

    But the best was yesterday when Alex Salmond who was patronising his inquisitors in his usual oily oleaginous manner, a youth had asked the question ‘why do you want to allow those who are sixteen and seventeen year old to have a vote in the forthcoming referenda?’, Salmond walked straight into the trap.

    First he declared that he thought that those who were sixteen and seventeen should be voting in all elections, and then gave a number of reasons all based around just what sixteen year old’s could do already, finishing off by saying for the second or third time that sixteen year old’s were adults.

    When he at last paused for breath the youth quietly asked ‘if at sixteen, why not at fifteen’ in a tone that hinted at why not fourteen, Alex Salmond’s quick reply that they were far too young showed him for the humbug that he is.

  123. As Boudicca lowers the Union Flag on Mumbai and Beijing, I wonder about other places known by names that the locals don’t use.

    I don’t suppose the natives of España mind our Anglicised stab at their country’s name, though I’m sure that “When in Roma…” remains good advice.

    Other places, though, seem to spread confusion. I always think of the country that calls itself Netherlands as Holland; though its inhabitants and language are Dutch.
    Germany is trebly blessed – possibly more? – with names. Germany, Allemagne and Deutschland uber alles.

    But I’m still puzzled as to why Beijing and Mumbai caught on. Correct or not, what was the process where came into more or less universal use?

    Likewise Union Flag – seemingly only a few diehards like me persist with Union Jack.

  124. Janet Daley seems to hint at ‘gay bonding’ but coyly fails to mention that Obama casually goosed Cameron as they were boarding Air Force One.

    It is a brazenly emetic business all round.

  125. Frank, I’ve only ever called it the Union Jack. Indeed I’ve nevr heard a real person call it the Union Flag. What is the impetus behind losing the old name?

  126. Frank Sutton – ” But I’m still puzzled as to why Beijing and Mumbai caught on. Correct or not, what was the process where came into more or less universal use?”

    Presumably the Indians requested all diplomatic outlets to use these usages and made similar representations to the media. It’s a small enough courtesy to ask. I like the word Bombay, but probably only because I like Bombay. Mumbai doesn’t have the bombast. But it’s their country.

    Don’t know anything about China.

    “Likewise Union Flag – seemingly only a few diehards like me persist with Union Jack.” I have a feeling this is something to do with the BBC. This was one more part of the national fabric that they could unravel.

    Andy Carpark … Janet Daley hints at “gay bonding”??? WHAT??? Where? Neither one of them is gay. Have you clocked Cameron’s dress sense? And when did either of them ever make a witty extemperaneous comeback to a question? And the wives! My dear! Please!

  127. Apparently the Hindu nationalists changed the name to Mumbai in 1994-ish by legal diktat. It is much the same as the Turks changing the name of Constantinople. I never use the name Istanbul. The Turks may have killed most of the Christians but it is still Constantinople.

  128. I just looked it up and I was wrong. Bombay was apparently renamed after Mumbadevi, a Hindu goddess.

  129. Verity,

    “Malfleur … and your point? Hillary Clinton wore a pantsuit to a meeting in San Pedro Sula, 250 km north of Tegucigalpa in Indonesia. I’ve never been there, or heard of it, but it sounds pretty rural to me. In rural Indonesia, it is not customary for women to show their legs. This looks like a diplomatic courtesy to me. If it had been Jakarta, she’d have been in a skirted suit”

    Teguciagalpa (prounced chechichalpa or thereabouts – and must be the most difficult town to pronounce in the world) is the capital city of Honduras in Latin America! Some several thousands of miles away from Muslim Indonesia! Actually its down South from you in Mexico – just Belize and Guatamala in between. We have lived there (Honduras) for a year on our boat South of San Pedro de Sula in a place called La Ceiba. Nice Spanish and English (the Babtists) speaking people but all very very poor and mostly they wanted more than anything in the world was to get to America or the UK.

  130. Bigamy and polygamy are illegal in all developed nations and yet here in the UK; we not only allow it for certain group but actually encourage it by rewarding those who commit these crimes with extra financial benefits through our utterly stupid benefit system.

    We have very strict laws on how animals are slaughtered for human consumption, and yet daily these laws are flouted without censure for a certain group of people.

    A committed Christian; who stood silently in a public place holding a placard that said ‘It was against the law of God for a man to lie with a man’ was arrested and charged with a hate crime. And yet those from a certain group could hold similar placards and chant to the heavens their message, without any censure.

    Likewise; that same certain group can stand in a public place holding banners that threaten all manners of death to any who they see as critics and escape arrest.

    The last labour government brought in draconian legislation to limit where anyone can smoke tobacco products, the unintended consequences (I do hope unintended) of these illiberal measures has decimated those most British of institutions, the local Public House, The Working Man’s Social Club etcetera and has stigmatised those who still smoke and yet “for those of a certain group”?

    On tonight’s BBC Look North News the reporter was in Bradford at a local Shisha Bar, we were told that these bars are being opened all over the country (I suspect only where a certain group are prevalent), what is a Shisha Bar? You might ask, it is a bar or café where a Shisha pipe or what is sometimes called a Hookah pipe are smoked, and yes the product smoked is tobacco.

    If I still smoked, (it is over nine years since my last cigarette) I would go into the nearest pub to one of these Shisha Bars and I would light up, they would have to drag me screaming from the place, and I wonder what the response would be from the magistrate when I gave as my defence that if a ‘certain group’ can openly flout the law and get away with it, then so should an Englishman.

  131. Thanks, Jennifer, and very curious. I copied the name off a news piece that I now can’t find. Here’s the closest I can get: “San Pedro Sula, 250 km north of Tegucigalpa in Indonesia.”

    Very strange. I have never heard of Tegucigalpa, although it could pass for Indonesian, so I didn’t trip up over it. If I’d been paying attention, though, my cue would have been San Pedro Sula … Yet Sulawesi and Surabaya are in Indonesia so it sounded normal. Yet San Pedro clearly would not have been. I wasn’t really paying attention.

    Thanks.

  133. There is a very interesting and detailed paper here …

    http://www.casas.org.uk/papers/pdfpapers/polygamy.pdf

    English law changed its attitude to polygamously married couples in the post-Second World war period as a result of the increasing migration of Asians and Africans to Britain for whom polygamy was a long standing social practice.

    There is growing evidence that the purported ban on second wives, either through the immigration law system, private international law or English ‘domestic’ law, is not having the intended effects as Muslims continue to resort to unofficial means of regulating their affairs highlighting the inability of English law to legislate away ethnic minority legal facts in a chauvinistic way.

    The paper is written from a position which believes that there should not be restrictions on polygamous immigrants. It is worth skimming for the legal developments. I am not convinced at all that polygamous groups should be able to gain entry to the UK. Would we say that because in country X slavery is legal therefore immigrants from X should be able to bring their slaves with them? I don’t think we would. Therefore it seems to me that we should be able to prohibit other social structures and behaviours that are not compatible with British culture, not least genital mutilation of girls, forced marriages, child marriages, animist witchcraft etc.

  136. David Ossitt
    March 14th, 2012 – 19:45
    David, Your posting was so true, so heartbreaking what is going on. By the way, read the “Radio Times” 17-23 March 2012. The Feedback pages(Readers’ Letters) depict just what some people have become. There is a letter entitled “A Stark(ey) warning which hatefully condemns Starkey’s ‘behaviour on QT and doesn’t want him back! I have written to local newspapers (under a nom de plum) and raised great fury when defending Christianity and denouncing the betrayal of conventional western values. I seldom write as the readership is so ignorant, rather like the “DM”.

  138. David Ossitt: Forgot to mention ! Thosr smoking dens are brilliant, considering who is patronising them. According to the outraged “DM” the use of Shisha causes lung cancer and all other life shortening diseases. But best of all, it is responsible for problems in pregnancy. Rhey can’t blame us, they get rid of the buggers themselves!

  139. And extract from P from M’s quote here: International law or English ‘domestic’ law, is not having the intended effects as Muslims continue to resort to unofficial means of regulating their affairs highlighting the inability of English law to legislate away ethnic minority legal facts in a chauvinistic way.

    If “muslims contine to resort to ‘unofficial means’ — in other words, illegal means —of regulating their affairs, it does not “highlight the inability of English law to legislate away ethnic minoritiy legal facts in a chauviistic way”. It highlights the curious lack of will. It highlights leftist illegal complicity with law-breakers for which the said enablers should be tried.

    Muslims resorting to “unofficial means” are muslims breaking the law. What is so hard to understand about that? Why are they not being arrested? Why are they not being deported? Why are all these illegal “wives” who are not wives at all because they are not legally married, sucking on British taxpayers’ money.

    Bigamy is illegal. That’s the law. The law against bigamy has never been repealed. Those committing bigamy should be deported, after first supplying a sample of their DNA and a retinal photograph. Their concubines passing as “wives” should be on the cattle boat with them.

    The government could have garage sales of their possessions right on their street, pour encourager les autres.

    The sentence seems to be evidence of insanity on the part of the writer

  140. The last sentence appears on the above courtesy a cat walking across the keyboard and somehow resurrecting a deleted sentence. Apawlogies.

  141. “The government could have garage sales of their possessions right on their street, pour encourager les autres.”

    I can’t imagine they’d have anything to sell that I’d want.

  142. Ostrich (Occasionally) – I can’t imagine that you would even be anywhere near their street. This would just be theatre for the rest of the street and to encourage them to begin packing stat.

  144. Nicholas, March 14th, 22:24 – If this chap can get arrested for saying this on Facebook, how come the Luton mob saying much the same thing (in the video in last week’s post on the wall) seemingly get away with it?
    Odder and odder.

  145. AWK 22:43 14th March – You raise some irrefutable points.

    Lung cancer, which they are giving themselves, would limit their ability to shout out irritating slogans and chants without coughing, so I consider their smoking it to be a public service.

    As for it causing pregnancy problems, though, I would not be too quick to assume another win-win situation for the indigenes and respectable immigrants who have adopted British mores. “Pregnancy problems” – awful birth defects due to generations of ignorant, money-driven inbreeding – are already rife among this group and cost the UK taxpayer tens of millions a year.

  147. Peter from Maidstone
    March 14th, 2012 – 22:16

    An interesting post and one I hope you’ll allow me to add to, if I can word it so you don’t fall foul of the thought police.

    Polygamous marriage is but the thin end of the wedge. Consider the vile practices being brought into the UK by the sad and sorry specimens for humans arriving from Africa (and I refer to those we know about, not necessarily every African). A recent trial revealed a revolting tale of barbaric and medieval behaviour, carried out by a couple of ‘noble savages’, Africans Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu and highlighted the torture and murder of 15-year-old Kristy Bamu (the brother of one of the accused) after a four-day orgy of unimaginable and sickening violence. The trial has brought to light some of the previously hidden facts about the widespread Third World conditions inflicted on Britain by the mass-immigration and multi-cultural policies started by Labour and continued by Cameron and Clegg, and all sanctioned in the name of Political Correctness and multi-culturalism.

    Instigated by the murderers stone-age beliefs in Witchcraft and possession by evil spirits, the reports in the Dead Tree Press of this one particular case will horrify and sicken any sensible person who thought that our nation had progressed beyond the medieval belief in ‘evil’ witches and the murderous persecution of those accused as such. (The BBC, of course, carries no comment, merely reporting the sentencing facts – impartiality is all when reporting on the aliens.)

    The fact that Britain and the British people had progressed beyond such backward beliefs and barbaric actions but are now seeing brutal and uncivilised Third World savages let into our country who are bringing their equally savage ways with them must appal all people who consider themselves to be remotely civilised. There can be no justification for the actions of these dregs, nor can we allow the leftards to make excuses for them (civil wars, poor education, etc etc)

    While the facts of this particular case will horrify all decent people, the Dead Tree Press has glossed over the fact that Scotland Yard has investigated 83 similar cases over the last decade (previously suppressing this information) but that detectives fear that there may be hundreds of other child victims of these backward beliefs and that these crimes are far more prevalent than official figures suggest – and that the number of cases are growing, no doubt in proportion to the number of these backward savages flooding into our country.

    Given all the bandwidth wasted earlier in the week arguing about Christian symbols, it is telling that the blame for this savagery lies with so-called Christian fundamentalist pastors who fuel the medieval belief in witchcraft and evil spirits among immigrants and make money by offering expensive exorcisms and other ‘cures’, the DTP fails to mention that these ‘Christian’ pastors are themselves from Third World immigrant communities and are merely using the Christian faith to perpetuate yet another Third World scam to enrich themselves, a Third World habit that the indigenous people of Britain are wearily growing accustomed to.
    That the ‘Christianity’ practiced by these Third World pastors and their ‘congregations’ has no resemblance to the religion recognised by ‘true’ Christians – and has nothing in common with the teachings of Christ – exposes again the incompatibility of Third World people and their cultures with the people and cultures of western Europe. Perhaps all the hand-wringing, soft-left, tolerent and loving Christians who have contributed nothing but hot air this week might get off the fence and these savages they are wrong.

    But, of course, if you believe one fairy tale, it is difficult to ridicule another one.

    The horrific torture and murder of Bamu took place (over Christmas, of all times!) just nine days after and a few miles away from the equally savage ‘sacrificial’ disembowelling of a four-year old girl by her mother Shayma Ali because she believed that her daughter was possessed.

    Ali was sentenced to be detained indefinitely in a mental hospital, joining the many other foreigners clogging up our mental health facilities, leaving no room for British people who need residential care.

    So yet again the truth is revealed that, instead of the highly skilled and hard working foreigners we are told that we have to accept for our own benefit and continued prosperity, we are flooded with backward Third World immigrants who have no skills and do not work and are of no use to Britain, yet are awarded with social housing (which many British families are unable to get) and are a constant drain on our welfare system – and then practice such barbaric standards of behaviour that no civilised nation should have to suffer.

    It may seem hypocritical that while the politicians happily spend £billions of our money and sacrifice the precious lives of our soldiers fighting wars to bring civilisation to stone-age Third World countries like Afghanistan, the people from that country can arrive in Britain and, in the hallowed name of multiculturalism – where all cultures are deemed to be equal – can carry on observing their backward cultures unhindered.

    Not just unhindered, but with bucket loads of our cash to help them.

    Even the French have woken up to the fact that open borders don’t work and that they are being flooded out with aliens who have nothing in common with French culture and actually actively oppose it.

    In a post last week:-

    daniel maris
    March 11th, 2012 – 03:44 stated:-

    “We all know many immigrants have enriched our country ……”

    And I challenged “Can we assume you are being ironic? If not, please justify this statement (with a little more argument that “you can get a mean curry in Birmingham”) And please don’t put forward the annual crimefest in Notting Hill, no one will take you seriously otherwise.”

    His response, in a nutshell, was that Americans and Canadians had contributed and Cliff Richard and the Queen were a definite benefit.

    Pisspoor response Daniel. As the evidence grows that we are being swamped beyond recognition as a decent, moral society by immoral, venal savages and medieval misogynists brandishing a book of hate that makes Mein Kampf look like Peter Pan, would you like to have another go at justifying your disgraceful claim?

    To paraphrase the Python, apart from a good curry, what have the immigrants ever done for us that would allow us to say that, on balance, they were a force for improving and bettering British society?

  148. There’s a timely article on the National Review’s website by John O’Sullivan on free speech (or rather on its constraints) in the UK. As Mark Steyn notes, O’Sullivan’s most perceptive comment is that in Britain the “police have become the paramilitary wing of the Guardian..”.

  149. Nicholas, March 14th, @22:24

    Thank you for that link to Alex Massie. (and I don’t often say that!)

    The police comment was so bizarre it was worth repeating:

    The police spokesman quoted by PA explained the charge thus: “He didn’t make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother.”

    The majority of the UK population then, myself included, may as well have their mouths sewn up and their keyboards impounded!

    And Matthew Parris, loftily, finished of his impenetrable post with:

    “Then readers will learn to read the walls we can trust.”

    Note the use “we” when I would have thought that “they” would have been more appropriate! Freudian slip?

  150. Austin Barry, “the horrible hybrid “Jafaican” a roiling patois devoid of humour, irony or interest: a threadbare linguistic idiocy which proclaims to the world, “Bro, I is an idiot, innit?”.”

    Much as I’d like to agree with Mark Steyn about freedom of speech, I think anyone who says ‘bro’ instead of ‘bruv’ should be led to the nearest gallows – to join those who use ‘basically’ as a discourse marker, and anyone who says, “diversity” “outreach” or “progressive” without a trace of sarcasm.

  151. Frank Sutton – I don’t know. The inconsistency is puzzling. Facebook gets a lot of “something must be done” attention because of the “yoof” angle and the response was so swift that I suspect it is yet more political direction of police action because of the high emotion around the incident that provoked it.

    I just read the Parris piece as yet another hack irritated because blogging threatens their cosy closed politico-media-celeb shop. But at the end of the day he concluded no constraints were needed – in sharp contrast to EU government plans to increase political control over the internet. Licensing sounds innocuous but it was licensing that eventually led to the erosion by the Home Office and police of our common law right of having arms for defence – “a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression” (Blackstone). It is all part of the modern creep of “controlling” rather than representative government.

    EC – agreed it was bizarre. The general acceptance of what he said and the lack of challenge to it is very worrying. The police interest and involvement in what is said and written is the not so thin edge of a very sinister wedge.

  152. Richard of Christchurch, March 15th, 2012 – 09:08

    Wouldn’t the gallows be too quick, too humane? How about marooning them on a remote desert island with the incredibly tedious Peter Tatchell and Darcus Howe?

  153. If Boneless Dave had any backbone (if my grandmother had wheels …) he would reciprocate Obama’s boorish attempts at hospitality by taking him to the Ladbrokes PDC World Darts Championship, forcing him to eat doner kebabs over the course of five sets followed up by a 1-2-1 tactical discussion with Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis. Then take him on the piss and make him do the Truscott Ten until the passport-doctoring fraud plays the whale.

  154. EC March 15 @09:40

    You seem to be one of those kindly, misguided, liberal judges.

    How about being marooned on a desert island with eye-rolling hypocrite Diane Abbott, simpering bleeding heart Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, the preposterous Polly Toynbee and the despicable Baroness Shirley Williams.

    To add to the purgatorial torment they could pair up, disrobe and compete in a beach volleyball contest – a vision of Hell to which only Hieronymus Bosch could do justice.

  155. Austin Barry
    March 15th, 2012 – 10:32
    Thank you Austin,

    You just ruined my delicious late breakfast. 🙁

  156. Austin Barry (08:27)

    The complete article by Rowan Dean, in the Australian Spectator, on Mark Steyn’s Australian ‘Free Speech’ tour – rather than just the cover page I linked last week, is now available here:

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/7701238/silence-this-infidel.thtml

    Thanks, btw, for noting John O’Sullivans gem ” the police have become the paramilitary wing of the Guardian..”

    Wonderful – another submission for the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Perhaps we should start a new Devil’s Dictionary a la Ambrose Bierce? Imagine what fun he would have if he were alive today?

  157. Am I the only one here to smell a couple of rats in the coverage of the Cameron/Obama reconciliation?

    I do not see any mention in the media yet that Cameron has raised with America’s noble leader the infamously “unequal” extradition treaty …

    PR,PR,PR…

  158. Oh dear.

    Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear.

    Oh dear.

    Professional onanist, telemachus’ has finally fallen victim to his own all consuming vanity and outed himself back in the oubliette.

    It turns out that far from being a ‘trained scientist’ who took a congratulatory first at Oxford during the 1960s followed by a doctorate under the supervision of Sir Hans Krebs, all while taking time out from manning the barricades with his big mate, Tariq Ali, telemachus’ is in reality nothing more than a PR spiv who read Greek and French at Kings College London between 1982 and 1986 (a qualification with which there is of course nothing wrong).

    So, our functionally illiterate Greek tosser would seem to be upsides in no particular order with THX1138, David Cameron and Roland Rudd. We should have seen it coming. Dammit, Watson. What clots we’ve been.

  160. Peter from Maidstone states intriguingly on the James Forsyth blog at the Spectator CoffeeHouse today that:

    “A friend of mine has said that he has heard that the Barclay Brothers want the Spectator to position itself as a Lib-Dem supporting publication. It would certainly make sense as it is no longer a Conservative one. It does seem that every opportunity is taken to publicise the LibDems and diminish the vaguely Conservative section of the Conservative Party.”

    If Peter’s source is reliable, that would explain a lot.

    On the same thread Publius, who may have been written off here a little too early as a troll, writes with reference to telemachus’ :”Patricia Shaw posted exactly the same twitter address on this site yesterday. If you are the same person, why do you post under different names?”

  161. The Greek PR spiv, stalker and shifty, multi-identitied advocate of Stalin complains that to those such as we anything not “opus dei or UKIP’ is considered to be liberal. How predictably tiresome, inaccurate and impoverished. The intellectual equivalent of a smelly fart in a crowded lift.

    Clearly the fat-headed prune (whose education it seems was wasted) is incapable of actually reading or comprehending anything beyond the thick mist of his own Stalinist prejudice and lefto-fascist bigotry or he would realise that most of the congregation here have the utmost respect for true liberalism as it existed and was conveyed in the liberties and freedoms the English enjoyed long before Blair & Co hove into view and usurped them.

    Liberal Democracy, on the other hand, as now practiced rather than preached by the socialist EU puppet and pantaloon Clegg, is anything but liberal or democratic, being rooted instead within the nasty, authoritarian, “we know what is good for you”, nannying arrogance shared by the current, absolutely illegitimate, political elite occupying Westminster on behalf of foreign powers and alien doctrines.

    It’s bad enough that we have to put up with these immature and opinionated clowns, not fit to sit on the same benches as their statesmanlike predecessors, but for our heartfelt insurgency to be written off as “opus dei and UKIP” by other clowns, intent on promoting yet more of the lefto-fascist garbage already spilling over ad nauseum in the socialist cesspit that is modern Britain, is just too much.

    Me, I’m heartily sick of being characterised in various ways but the real one by yet more socialist twats with an agenda, including those socialist twats now infesting and “modernising” the Conservative Party. I was born here, still live here and am entitled to my views, however much they might not “gel” with the current, vacuous, dumbed-down, self-satisfied, smug, pea-brained and brainwashed twattery being inflicted on us by clowns of all political persuasion. And so, a quote, especially for the benefit of the arch-clown Cameron, although I expect its subtlety will be entirely wasted on the bounder.

    “When you are young you do not understand how different then and now are because you have lived only in now and it feels as if that is where you will always live. You do not realise that your now – and you – are becoming then. And when you realise how completely now has become then, how different it is, it is like the fall of an axe. It splits you off from all these younger people who, however much they think they know or understand, cannot feel life as it was then. The pulse of it, that was the thing, always, with everything, and that is what cannot be conveyed.”

  162. Watching Shameron cavorting at the basketball game or whatever it was, and pretending to bite hungrily into a hot dog (on which no one had old him to put mustard, not ketchup) while his country is sinking, screaming, into the Stone Age was so nauseating that I had to ferociously click away.

    That there is absolutely no more reason for this peculiar man to be PM
    than the man who runs the local corner shop or a man or woman who is a successful lawyer or doctor tells us that Cameron occupies his position as part of a plan. Yes, folks, a conspiracy. There is no other explanation for his presence in Downing St.

    No country in the Western world, save, perhaps Denmark and Holland, is more likely to be run by a conspiracy cabal pulling the strings of puppet heads of government, than today’s Britain.

    Cameron is a mental inadquate who was barely capable of running the pr department of a failing company. There is no justification for him running the pr department of a larger company, never mind an entire ancient country with centuries of unobtrusive laws and a record, since 1066, of seeing aggressors off.

    Yet Cameron welcomes the enemy. Caters to them. Gives them the means to these hostile, destructive groups to live comfortably and within their own traditions. Bigamists are neither imprisoned nor sent back, yet marriage between a man and a woman is the cornerstone of all stable civilisations. He caters to the police psyche, according them a larger role. He caters to the educational establishment whose paedophilia arm is showing animations to six year olds of men and woman having sex.

    I wouldn’t say he is as evil as Tony Blair, who iniitated the destruction of Britain from within, because, as dim and self-elevating as Blair was, he was brighter than Cameron.

    If the Tories want to save their country, they will have to put major pressure on the party to excise, like a cancer, David Cameron from the political corpus. Stat.

  163. Any chance in hell that the provincial, ignorant,wannabee British media could put a sock in its ignorant, self-elevating usage of the term “First Lady” as an alternative to using the names of prime ministers’ and presidents’ (except the US President) wives?

    Carla Bruni is Mme Sarkozy. Samantha Cameron is Mrs Cameron.

    First Lady is a real title. It is not an alternative to Mrs. The First Lady is an official position that can be filled by whomever the president chooses. Theodore Roosevelt (I believe it was him) put his daughter in as First Lady. Another president … don’t know which one … appointed a family friend.

    The position of First Lady carries a budget, formal office quarters and dedicated staff.

    These slavvering British wanabees who think they are being oh-so-worldly by ignorantly conferring this unique American title on every political chief executive’s wife are an embarrassment.

  164. Austin Barry @10:32

    Re: Desert Island sophists,

    “To add to the purgatorial torment they [Diane Abbott, Yasmin Alibi-Brown, Polly Toynbee & Shirley Williams] could pair up, disrobe and compete in a beach volleyball contest”

    ARRGH! You win!

    Thanks, Austin, I’d only recently managed to erase the mental image that you planted, of a Lucian Freud portrait of “Abbot in the nip.”

  165. I assume that none of the regular crew here deigned to watch the clip of the exchange of speeches between Obama and Cameron at the White House gala from beginning to end; the comparatively tame commentary that follows the Spectator post by Jonathan Jones would have contained much more vitriol I’m sure, had you done so. I finally did, after much reluctance, suffer the complete works and am still trying to recover. Nauseating in the extreme and deeply troubling. Both speeches were obviously produced buy Anita Dunn’s Obfuscation and Counter-intelligence Unit for these two puppets of the Alinski School. The electorates of both countries are being conned on an industrial scale never before witnessed in the history of Western ‘democracy’, which now is, as we suspected, doomed.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7715493/cameron-dines-with-obama-and-clooney.thtml#comments

  166. EC

    You have identified my subconscious, nightmarish obsession with a naked Diane Abbott. I can imagine her now, waddling towards me like a huge ambulatory Malteser her eyes rolling seductively with amatory intentions which will not, cannot, be denied.

    Arghhh. the horror, the horror.

  167. “http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9136191/Christians-have-no-right-to-wear-cross-at-work-says-Government.html

    Why not? What is their reasoning?

    Yet primitive islamics can wear desert attire in Britain, ignorantly under the impression that it’s a religious requirement because their ignorant, ill-educated imams tell them so.

    Under the Freedom of Information Act (or whatever it’s called), I would like to know have many people demanded that the symbol of our national religion be banned in public. One hundred?? Maybe. One thousand … only if organised … and if organised, then by whom? Ten thousand?

    Does anyone know how to find out how many other “demands” by 10,000 or so signatories have been signed into law, without debate in Parliament? My guess is, none. Was the banning of the cross in public debated in Parliament. (My guess is no … not in this lifetime.) If not, how did it get made into a law?

    This needs further investigation. Who originally instigated this action? My guess, from what I know of islam, not the muslims. They respect Christ as a great prophet before mohammad.

    This smacks of vicious, toxic lefti-ism to me. Yeah. I know. Call me Sherlock.

    A bright light needs to be shone on this issue and the (I’m betting) indigenous perpetrators named and punished.

  168. Further to my rant on the 14th at 19:45, I have had a further thought on the fact that a certain group can flout the draconian smoking laws by frequenting their local Shisha Bar and there smoke tobacco in a Hookah pipe, we were told that these bars are being opened all over the country.

    If this is true what would be the result if a publican were to designated one or more rooms in his establishment as a Shisha Bar, where he could (for authenticity) install one Hookah pipe and lay ashtrays out on all surfaces, so as to encourage his cigarette smoking clientele.

    Perhaps Frank P, might like to comment.

  169. Did you read the comments beneath that article, Verity? Interesting how many atheists using it to have a knock at Christianity think that “their” is spelt “there”.

    Young and dumb, brainwashed rather than educated.

  170. Could the British get a petition together to ban the burqa and the niqab in the workplace? Unlike the Christian cross, these items of attire have absolutely no religious significance and long, long predate their prophet. They are simply intelligent attire for the searing sun and constant wind that blows sand into eyes, noses, ears and throats.

    As this isn’t a problem in Britain, and having masked people walking around in public presents a civil threat, they should be banned. As they are in France.

  171. In fact, wearing the burqa, the niqab and similar Saharan clobber is a not-for-prophet activity.

  174. PS – most people don’t know that both Bob Hope and James Cagney began their Hollywood careers as dancers.

  175. Frank P: Hi Frank,
    Seems this bolshie government is obsessed with gay marriage, and everything else seems unimportant. What do you think of the latest suggested police ‘reforms’? Should Fatty Arbuckle cops get the push, even though they account for approximately 50%? Should raw recruits, providing they have the so-called educational certificates be allowed to enter as officers without advancing in the ranks? I would love to hear your comments, providing they don’t ignite in cyberspace!

  176. Verity
    March 15th, 2012 – 17:19
    Verity, unfortunately the mainly wonderful people on this CH Wall are not typical of the British public. Most are so PC, so completely indoctrinated by socialist rubbish, that if you waved a crucifix in their faces they would stagger away, Dracula-fashion, and soil their underpants. They defend the right of the savages in our midst to wear burkas and completely cover up, just try objecting and they will scream ‘ “You are a racist”! The rot has gone too deep. You would have stood as much chance in the Third Reich demanding democratic elections.

  177. AWK … Good grief! It just shows you how easy it must be to brainwash people!

    My own pet peeve … is there any way on the face of the earth to hammer it through the three inch thick skulls of the left that islam is not genetic. There is no islamic gene. THEY ARE NOT A BLOODY RACE!!!!!!!!!!!!! So anyone who comments on their myriad shortcomings as human beings cannot be a racist. There is no islamic DNA.

  178. The following is true….

    The school that I am teaching at is being ‘Ofsted’ed. at present.

    Many of you will know that this can be stressful.

    The Ofsted team (of three) indicated that they in turn want to see OUR management team ( Dep Heads & Head) inspect the teacher’s lesson.
    This is to monitor and assess how the management monitor and assess the teaching.

    So far so sane.

    Now, as it happens the Ofsted team are in turn being assessed and monitored by HM Chief Inspector of schools.

    So Yes!

    You got it: the monitors are being monitored by monitors who are being monitored.

    …and assessed.

    Tomorrow I could have FIVE in my lesson.

    Please DO NOT blog to ask,

    ‘ Ah. ..but who will monitor the monitors who are monitoring the monitoring monitors??’

    Just don’t. I mean it. I’m soooo tired…..

  180. “John Richardson … how about going abroad?”

    Thanks Verity. I know you mean, well but there’s no way I’ll get a flight before 9:00am tomorrow morning.

  181. Watching Paxo, and hope there are plenty of rubber tires to sit on in the studio tonight. Hemorrhoids!

  182. EC “Wouldn’t the gallows be too quick, too humane? How about marooning them on a remote desert island with the incredibly tedious Peter Tatchell and Darcus Howe?” …and a naked Dianne Abbott, yes.

    Verity, thank you for ‘not-for-prophet’ – brilliant.

    A trivia quiz for everyone:
    Yesterday, in my wife and daughter’s beautiful home city of Christchurch, a true hero saw a piece of scum threatening a women with a knife and a machete. The scum had already stabbed a middle-aged man and was threatening the woman, so the Kiwi belted the specimen with a crow bar, keeping him away from the terrified lady until the police had a chance to shoot, wound and arrest the subhuman.

    The hero and the two victims were Kiwis, but of course there is no way anyone would be psychic enough to guess where the cowardly piece of filth was from, but have a try:

    A. Christchurch
    B. Peking
    C. Bombay
    D. Somalia

  185. Verity, that is uncanny. How could anyone possibly guess, what with Somalis outnumbered so much by Indians, Chinese and New Zealanders!

    Following on from the BBC and similar switching to Mumbai (it’s “Bombay” in “Nellie the Elephant, so Bombay it stays) and Beijing, I noticed the BBC numpties have taken to pronouncing English names in the local dialect, (“New-CASS-el” etc) rather than received pronunciation.

    My prediction of how a BBC news report will sound in the near future:

    Some UN inspectors, from Beijing, Mumbai, and King-ston Ja-meeeaaaah-ka, have completed their tour of the United Kingdom. Having visited New-CASS-el, Auld Reekie, Norn Iron, Cymru, Gloucesterrrr my loverrrr, and finally, Saaaarf Lahndun, the delegate from Ja-meah-ka issued a statement: “Me like da Mutha Country and ya brethren, but da BBC announcah need to kiss his teef, mun. BBC – dey all batty-men, and da Bible say batty-man goin’ to Hell.”

  186. Richard of Christchurch – “Verity, that is uncanny. How could anyone possibly guess, what with Somalis outnumbered so much by Indians, Chinese and New Zealanders!”

    It’s a gift.

  188. AWK1

    Anne – recruitment of people from civvy street directly into senior ranks of the police without prior police experience? That’s a suggestion that is too serious for me to joke about – and too hilarious for me to be serious about. Does that answer your question?

    Am I surprised that is being suggested and already partially implemented? Not in the least. The travesty that is now described as the UK Government is capable of initiating any debacle that you could possibly imagine, however bizarre, in policing or any other form of public service.

    Obese police officers? It’s a health issue. In my day if police officers became so fat that they were unable to perform their duties efficiently on the street, they were cast by the Central Medical Officer. But this also applied to other physical deficiencies, such as myopia (spectacles a no-no) or any other physical defect that rendered them unfit for active duty.

    Minimum height requirement was also imposed (I think it was 5′ 10″ for men, 5′ 4″ for women. (Don’t ask me what that is in centimeters – I still refuse to acknowledge continental measurements or weights) and height/weight ratios were also taken into consideration at the medical examination prior to acceptance.

    Those who later specialised to detective branches or other specialised branches or office jobs were not, by and large, given weight-gain dispensation , as it was assumed that if the shit hit the fan at any stage, then all police officers of all ranks were required to take to the streets when necessary to maintain public order. Sometimes officers injured in the course of duty were accommodated with non-physical posts, if their expertise could be deployed, but usually officers were cast with a sick-pension if they couldn’t hack it on the streets. And retirement after 30 years service was compulsory unless special permission for extension was obtained, and that depended on the potential benefit of the Service, rather than the benefit of the applicant. Most policemen who had earned their wages were clapped out after 30 years anyway. When I joined it was on a 25 year contract with a half-pay pension thereafter, or a two-thirds pension after 30 years. It was a good job and attracted a surfeit of good recruits, hence the rigorous physical criteria.

    From what I now observe it is obvious that all physical criteria have now been abandoned. Therein lies the root problem of policing. If people can’t perform the basics of police duty on the streets – and that requires the mien and authority to carry it out, then they should not be appointed to the Office of Constable, which all police officers do hold , regardless of rank or specialist duties.

    A very large percentage now fall well below what I regard as the minimum criteria necessary to perform the myriad duties required of an efficient police force. But then the expectation of the public towards their politicians seems to have plummeted as well, considering who they elect into office these days.

    After watching QT and TW tonight, following more footage of the Obama Cameron jolly, there is really nothing more to say, is there Anne? As I said to the memsahib, “Turn the clock back 50 years and imagine that the two or three hours we have just witnessed had emitted from our TV screen? Now turn the clock forward ten years and imagine what our kids will be watching ….?”

    On that alarming note I shall depart my den and hit the sack. Nighty-night.

  189. Frank P: Thanks for a great posting. Recalling those tall, fine figures of young men who graced our hospital dances, it all seems like it was hundreds of years ago and not just 55-60 years. Now looking at the PCSOs, it is another world completely. Too short or too tall, thick glasses, flat feet, any disability they are bound to have it, including the inability to speak or understand English correctly. The idea that just because someone is a graduate they can be fast=tracked to become an officer is quite mad. As you day, Frank, with our politicians, what can we expect.

  191. QT was especially depressing last night. I can understand why Frank Field was dismayed by the Scottish audience. The sanctimony that generated the seal-clapping was motivated by something akin to groupthink.

    The Lib Dem panelist was especially cretinous with his ode to Wind Turbine and sanctimonious twaddle about the evils of drink. Alcohol is clearly going the way of cigarettes.

    There is a comedy film, the title of which I cannot remember, about a man who travels into the future to find that society has become incredibly stupid. Watching QT last night I realised that the proposition is not that funny.

  192. Nicholas,

    Happy to report this morning that Thursday is still a ‘QT free zone’ for me. (I take it one Thursday at a time)

    Re: that film: It wasn’t “The Idiocracy” (2006) was it?

    Narrator: As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

    Also: the future as depicted in Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” (1985/6) has arrived!

  193. EC I’m sure that was indeed the film, thanks. It seems that we are already getting towards society as depicted in ‘The Idiocracy’ and the authorities/police as depicted in ‘Brazil’! Come to think of it the term ‘Idiocracy’ seems rather well suited to a certain regime currently wallowing in self-satisfied smugness chez Obama.

  194. Cheltenham Gold Cup 1520 this arvo.

    Hitler’s Catamite at 25-1 and you can’t go wrong.

    Bets via PayPal, please, to Uncle Andy’s Surefire Nags (Lagos).

  195. ACB

    I fancy Gordon’s Ganymede, particularly if the going’s firm. Probably worth a fiver each way.

  197. RoC 00:10

    ‘until the police had a chance to shoot, wound and arrest the subhuman.’

    Oh, THAT Christchurch. Somewhere down a very deep, dark, rusty groove a penny drops. Had it been Christchurch Hants, it would have been:

    ‘until the police had a chance to shoot, wound and arrest the victims.’

    That is the only detail that put me wise, in my usual sloppy and superficial reading habits; the only one.

  198. I see that Rowan Williams has announced he is stepping down. Too late, I think, for any successor to achieve anything with the Anglican communion. It has been led too far down the wrong path. Certainly it is difficult, when I am in ecumenical situations, to know where dialogue with the Anglicans can go, they are moving as fast as possible from the Apostolic Tradition. I have to say that I think he was the wrong man at a most important time. On the other hand, I think that the political class may well have considered him entirely the right man for their own agenda.

  199. What a pity Bishop Michael Nazir Ali isn’t a contender.

    John Sentamu is a robust Christian; does that rule him out? (Unfortunately that is a serious question.)

  202. Words of wisdom in today’s Evening Standard from the delightfully epicene gay, Brian Sewell.

    “I am as queer as any of them but I do not much care for my brethren in crass, demanding mood. By all means dress in ridiculous togs, exchange rings and kisses, guzzle Laurent Perrier, bake a cake and dance the night away, but call it a wedding, an Old English term of even older German origin, with nothing theological about it — and leave marriage to those who still believe in its sanctity.”

  203. I’m not sure, because Andrew Neil still hasn’t mastered his top set or the auto cue, but I think he announced last night that he was giving up his ‘This Week’ anchor job? Or are they dumping him? Or indeed, are the BBC dumping the programme altogether. Does anybody know which it is, if indeed my state of torpor during the programme didn’t cause me to dream it?

  205. Frank, he did say it but I couldn’t decide whether he was being serious or just persevering above and beyond the call of duty with one of his lame monologue jokes. He is the wrong age for serious political comment on the BBC after all, being somewhat over 18.

  206. Austin Barry (13.37pm)

    Heh, heh, heh. I’ve always considered Brian Sewell a national treasure, albeit a somewhat rococo example; I’m so glad he issued forth with the timely quotation you cite. In light of your recent comments about the changes in lingo and dialect on these islands, isn’t it wonderful that his enunciation has been preserved for posterity? Here’s an example:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTcT6VpTnUg

    He knows how to take the piss, too, doesn’t he? Though in that clip I’m not sure who’s taking what out of whom?

  207. Nicholas and Austin.

    Re Andrew Neil – thanks, perhaps I should run it again on the BBC i-player and try to unscramble it. On second thoughts that would be well ‘beyond the call of duty’ so I’ll be patient and wait (with baited breath) until next week to see what transpires. Perhaps the bill for his weekly change of Irish has broken the BBC bank. Do you think our ‘Brillo’ sobriquet finally got to him, maybe?

  208. Frank Sutton – Mollywood. V good!

    Frank P … 2:48 Re Police Commissioners … the Americans, of course do it right. You don’t encounter tiny officers in the US. And the Chiefs, whether appointed or elected, have had 20 so experience on the streets, coming up through the ranks. An expolitician suddenly putting himself forward to be the boss of trained people, who know far more about policing than he does, and who risk their lives, and make split second decisions daily, is too gruesome even to be funny.

    The thought of a lazy, ignorant, louche, self-serving fatso being in charge of trained officers and police policy boggles the mind to the point where I can’t even think of anything funny to say about it.

  209. typo alert! … bated – of course. But I did have sardines for breakfast – so perhaps not entirely incorrect.

  210. In a topsy turvey world, Rod Liddle has a well-argued, cogent, non-sarcastic piece on why John Sentamu is the best candidate for the A of C. I looked, hawk-eyed, for the tiniest smithereen of sarcasm, and there isn’t one.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7718738/sentamus-the-right-man-for-the-job.thtml

    I’ve believed for two or three years that Sentamu will, if appointed, be the saviour of the CoE. I also always thought that the appointment of the ineffective, Druidical Williams was an act of malice on the part of the church. Sentamu will get the drop-outs back onto the pews.

  212. Frank P.

    The Speccie has taken down your robust comment on the ABC’s retirement. I think it was the unfortunate typo in Canterbury that caused the removal.

    Chaucer would be ‘wepyng and waylyng’ in despair at these bluenosed moderators.

  213. Austin Barry (14.44)

    I was surprised it went up! Just testin’. [Sips coffee, chuckles]. Thanks for letting me know.

  214. It seems that my comment has also been removed from the ABC thread. I only said that he was not the right man, and had been chosen because he suited politicians. Fergus Pickering’s abuse of me looks rather odd since it now appears that I had not posted when he decided to be insulting.

  215. I somehow doubt that is the real Fergus Pickering. The rank odour wafting from the wording of that comment seems more like that of the mad as a box of frogs and just as slimy Greek PR spiv who, rumbled, is no doubt extending the repertoire of his impostoring. A sad and sick little bunny that one.

  216. Peter from Maidstone (14:51)

    Well it seems that Fergus P’s comment has also gone now – this censorhip lark gets very silly, doesn’t it? We’re fighting a culture war and some of us think it’s necessary to take the gloves off and apply a a bit of bare-knuckle combat occasionally. Admittedly, we could all take lessons from Austin Barry who has the knack of getting the barbs through in a way which defy any silly ‘rules of engagement’. His comment on the ABC thread is a master class in cunning compromise.

    WIFN don’t the mods just let the craic roll and stop being precious? Judge not lest ye be judged. Sanctimonious ‘superiority’ is stifling – and in fact, controlling. The common language sometimes needs to be just that. When then lefties wiped out the Obscene Publications Act after the Lady Chatterley and Oz trials back in the 60s, a lot of evil and not necessarily unintended consequences ensued: a growth of the Porn Industry and all its potential for sexual and venal corruption, with the fortunes it accrued as a result. But one of the good outcomes was that ordinary people became free to express themselves on paper, if they wished, in terms which were already in everyday currency anyway (across the social and ‘intellectual’ classes, too I might add). I knew a padre in the army who used Anglo-Saxon to very good effect in his moral imperatives, often breaking up lengthy words with hyphenated lewd interspersions that were as illuminating as they were shocking to the faint hearted. Much less obscene than some of the abstruse and densely packed literature and verbiage of Archie C… – no! I must behave myself!

  217. Frank P .. “WIFN don’t the mods just let the craic roll and stop being precious?”

    The mods are employees who, not unnaturally, want t keep their jobs.

  218. ‘breaking up lengthy words with hyphenated lewd interspersions’

    Frank, you are talking about tmesis, as in fan-bloody-tastic.

  220. Peter

    Sorry, I must have skipped over it inadvertently.

    Verity

    That was a rhetorical question, AYWK.

    ACP

    ‘tmesis’, eh? Thanks so much – new one to me. Wish I’d known that before I tortuously constructed what I was trying to describe about my ornery old vicar.
    I try to learn a new word every day; have picked up quite a little lexicon from your posts, though I suspect some of your neologisms may not yet have reached the OED?

  222. AWK1

    I give your post on the latest Speccie ABC item about 1 hour before it vanishes a la Frank P’s.

  223. P from M

    Obviously the other FP (if indeed he’s yet another doppelgänger for the Bubble & Squeak) doesn’t post here as you will ‘out’ him again. We seem to see less of the troll on the Speccy site, too. I’ll forward some stuff I got from my original source on the Shavian mob, perhaps you can match up some of the links you have already sussed from your incoming here. I’ve got a feeling that the original Fergus Pickering has given up the ghost having had his moniker usurped.

  224. Frank P.

    This from Wiki:

    “Unbe-fucking-lievably”, said by Stephen Fry on June 29th, 2011 at BorderKitchen in The Hague, as an example of tmesis. He also told the audience that tmesis is his favourite trope.”

    I don’t think that the pretentious Fry’s effort quite works, the ‘be’ should remain with ‘lievably’, and only a man of his pomposity would use ‘trope’ instead of ‘figure of speech’.

  225. Austin Barry
    March 16th, 2012 – 16:20
    Austin, it’s a good laugh. and like being back in school, trying to outwit the teachers.

  226. Austin Barry @13:37

    Brian Sewell is absolutely spot on. Why go to expense of a church wedding when one can have a marriage of convenience? Or was it the other way around?

  227. I don’t know if it is the real Fergus on the Spectator site, or if he still comes here. But I will answer him here as well and say that I am not and have never been an Anglican.

  228. Austin Barry
    March 16th, 2012 – 16:20

    AWK1

    I give your post on the latest Speccie ABC item about 1 hour before it vanishes a la Frank P’s.
    ======================
    It’s now 17:47, far more than the hour you mention. How I wish we had had a real wager, for once I would have won. By the way, I think my general writing and spelling were so illiterate, they must have assumed I was an innocent Leftie product from a State school.

  230. Frank P

    “But this also applied to other physical deficiencies, such as myopia (spectacles a no-no) or any other physical defect that rendered them unfit for active duty.”

    Re: ‘fugitives’ and ‘gnashers’ and combinations thereof.

    Obviously false teeth would render a police dog unfit for duty but what about a human? Surely a set of false choppers might prove to be a liability in an altercation with a felon resisting arrest?

  231. EC (18.04)

    False teeth? Well, I never had to resort to biting any prisoner who resisted arrest. I was bitten a few times myself though. But I found that grabbing their balls from behind with one hand- grabbing the collar with t’other and a brisk frog-march to the Black Maria usually did the trick; much better than the ‘hammer-lock and bar’ method taught at Hendon, which I never found too successful; romping around on the ground with the ungodly was undignified, not to mention unhygienic – often.

    The worst routine problems I encountered in my early days on the beat Up West were breaking up territorial disputes between the toms in Shaftesbury Avenue . The Messina girls sported Bond Street stiletto-heeled jobbies with specially adapted (sharpened) steel tips in those days. One of those across your skull, or in your eye, could maim for life. You just didn’t know where to grab the ladies of easy virtue. It was once suggested to me by one of the more primitive PC’s during my probationary period that a deft insertion from behind with the lignum vitae could produce similar leverage, with stroppy females, to the male testicles-collar frog march routine. But given the occupation of the ladies in question, I doubt it would have worked; our small truncheons would have had neither the length nor girth to gain sufficient traction to effect a suitable result, regardless of the orifice entered in the case of those – whadda they call ’em these days? Sex workers?

    They have a trade union now, I’m told. The only union they had then was about twenty times a shift with whoever had the ‘Two quid for a nice time, dearie?”

    These days of course, with Sami Check-ya-battery looking over their shoulders the lads would have the ECHR on their case in a flash, if they tried any such traditional methods of ‘self-defence’.

    Oh! How unlike the home life of our Dear Queen – to whom we had sworn our Oath of Orifice.

  233. Frank P 16th, – 19:01

    “Two quid for a nice time, dearie?”

    A-ah, the march of time!

  234. Re 20:35 … Thanks, Frank. Very peppy!

    I still think she is more competent – and a more undiluted Republican – than the other candidates, and I still wish she would run. Perhaps she will be drafted at the last minute. She would be the most effective at wiping out the harm Obama’s done.

  235. Andy CP. I may have dreamt this, but wasn’t Daniel Mendoza the great, great grandfather of Peter Sellers?

  237. I can see Dave and Obama on a tiny desert island, under a palm, in garish knee-length shorts … Obama strumming a banjo.

  239. Verity (20:52)

    Oi! Steady on. You’re getting close to a a black and white minstrel allusion there. With that sort of loose talk you WILL finish up on the black-list – twice!

  240. I was thinking more offshore Hawaii than London.

    I have a new theory about ol’ Obamy’s birth certificate, and frankly, it’s a humdinger.

    Ahem. My theory: Obama was born in Hawaii … BUT … before it became a state. So he is a year or two older than he claims to be. If his mother had lived in Hawaii since before Obama’s birth, they would have known a lot of people, but even if they got a faked birth certificate, it would have had the wrong registration number on it because they would have had to dig back and filch someone else’s … a real citizen’s … registration of birth number.

    My theory, but I think it’s pretty much unbeatable.

  241. Verity
    March 16th, 2012 – 20:52

    I can see Dave and Obama on a tiny desert island, under a palm, in garish knee-length shorts … Obama strumming a banjo.
    =================
    Verity: Dave would wear brown wool socks with sandals, and Sam would wear a knitted bathing suit (1930s) which drooped precariously every time she entered the water. Both would wear sun glasses with white plastic frames.

  242. You are wrong about Samantha, AWK. She would wear a 1940s style two piece where the bottom half came up to waist and the top would be a halter style that comes down to the bottom of the rib cage fashioned in some early form of nylon. It would be monochrome and without adornments. She would wear those beach slippers that our mothers thought would protect our little feet from ill-intentioned jellyfish.

    She would wear this rig, with an air of smug superiority, in the belief that everyone admired her lack of pretension. Like her grim get-ups for the Royal Wedding and state banquets in DC.

    She really did look gruesome in DC.

  243. Verity: To make amends for going hatless at the Royal Wedding, Samantha would wear a lobster pink rubber swimmuing cap, with straps under her chin. Dave would wear one too!

  244. “Osama bin Laden ordered cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to shoot down a plane carrying Barack Obama” (Daily Telegraph online – headline)

    Um… er…

    Anyone?

  246. AWK 22:11 – Now that I can see. Head down on the computer laughing … especially the image of Dave in his trunks, little beach sandals and rubber swimming cap … although I think his would be white. I can just imagine his horrible little face grinning out of it.

  247. Verity: I’m choking with laughter. Guess what? Both are wearing those terrible water wings novices at the seaside wore. Also, Dave is carrying a bucket and spade, whilst Sam has some candy floss she smuggled onto the island.

  249. Verity: I agree. However, how about this? The tropical sun is too much for Blancmange and has turned it a dreadful shade of lobster red. Samantha has covered herself with that old-fashioned suntan cream. It is streaky, and her arms and legs are a weird shade of orange. Surely very realistic, although sandcastles would have suited their intellectual level.

  250. Samatha gazes up from her book, past the pink sweating blob of her husband as he dozes on the towel next to her, lips moving involuntarily as he dreams of being handed his Oscar, and finds herself staring at the sinewy form of Barack as he emerges dripping from the surf and trots lightly up the sand.

    “Hmmm…” she thinks.

  251. Kennybhoy (22:22)

    Thanks for the BBC i-player link. I watched the complete hour with some foreboding and initial reluctance, but nonetheless found it very ‘thought provoking’ as you say; perhaps even evoking moments of soul searching. The theme in a way neatly dovetailed into last weeks theme here of Imperial Echoes and Echoes of Empire.

    It penetrated even my steely carapace of cynicism, but no doubt for different reasons than it caught your eye.

    Benign exploitation is a phrase that comes to mind, in a number of ways. But can ‘exploitation’, in the sense that I use it here, ever be benign? The religious aspect to one side for a moment, can a TV project like this spark a revival of community spirit and revitalise a bucolic community that has been reduced to a semi-comatose state by successive governments’ failed education policies and inculcation of the welfare dependency culture; village life gutted by Supermarket diktat and insane agricultural policies that benefit European ‘integration’.

    It reminds me in a way of the guy who was featured in the TV series ‘The Choir’; people need encouragement and it’s amazing what can happen when they get it. But ‘need’ makes them vulnerable to ulterior motive and whether it’s a TV crew or a proselytising preacher or an obsessive music teacher, unless the altruism involved is genuine, the long term outcome can be counter-productive. The innocent and intelligent enthusiasm of the ten-year-old boy was joyful and optimistic. Let’s hope there is someone there who will nurture it and not take advantage of it. The mobility scooter alky narrative was somewhat flaky, I thought. The local Baptist Minister was unceremoniously pushed into the background to make way for the ‘reverse missionary’ theme and I would have liked to have known a bit more about the antecedents of the Jamaican ‘missionary’; has he lived in England before, I wondered?

    Returning to the religious theme, I guess even his faith must have taken a bit of a battering when he found the only tangible records of his hero: a trinket and a wedding garment handed down to the only known remaining relative and an unattended grave where he lies – aged 46 at death. God does reward his servants in mysterious ways, it seems. I was also a little dubious about the headstone. It seems remarkably well preserved considering its age. Having done a bit of graveyard searching in my life, I know that the weathering of gravestones can be devastating. I wondered whether it had been replaced for the TV Camera.

    Anyway let’s hear your take and tell us why you injected it into this gathering of an eclectic mix of saints and scoundrels, Kenny?

  253. There don’t appear to be any posts going up on the Spectator site.

    I replied there to Fergus Pickering (although it may be telemachus’). He said..

    From ‘another place’.”I am on my way to an interesting job interview and would value the prayers of those here who pray.” I did not get the job.” Did you not pray hard enough then ?

    And I replied that I thought he had gravely misunderstood the Christian faith, and the practice of prayer, if he thought that I had been praying that I would get the job. That would be presumptuous. I was, of course, praying that whatever God willed might be worked out. ‘Thy will be done’. It does get a little annoying when commentators on the various Newspaper sites think that they can criticise Christianity, when in fact they know nothing significant about the substance and practice of Christianity at all. (I mean of course real Christianity, there is a real Christianity).

  254. Peter, if you remember, many moons ago when the shape-shifting Greek PR spiv first turned up at the Old Wall, he used to post comments in his “we this and we that” soviet everyman mode that slyly inferred that he attended and supported multi-denominational church services and advocated a kind of benign Christian-Muslim union. In hindsight and with his latest nastiness revealed it is probable that this was just more Walter Mitty provocation from a seriously disturbed and deranged personality disorder. Fishing any of these early comments from the “archive” is quite beyond my capabilities.

    The thing that amuses me greatly is the idea that the clients he jets off to see all round the world probably have no idea he is a basket case – or perhaps they are politically vetted in advance to ensure that they have a similarly odd outlook on the world. Superficially “reasonable” but inwardly malevolent, professing tolerance but in reality a nasty bigot, vengeful, stalking, determined to dissemble and finely attuned to strife and the weak spot. Remind you of anything? Reminds me of the creature stalking the wilderness who I believe is all around us, empowered and thriving in modern Britain.

  255. Good articles by Peter Hitchens and Rod Liddle in this week’s Speccie*, the latter especially so regarding the assault on freedom to speak and write. But a piss-poor article on gay marriage by Hugo Rifkind entitled in the Lib Dem weasel style “Sorry, but religion ought to be marginalised in public life”. You always know when a lefto-fascist is going to lay some controlling vibe on you by the preliminary “Sorry, but . . ”

    As in “Sorry, but you must wear this yellow star” or “Sorry, but you must get into the cattle truck.” Every time some socialist drone says or writes “Sorry, but . . .” know it for what it is. The collectively intimidating buzz of the Borg shuffling to snuff out your freedom, your liberty to rage against their darkness.

    * Sorry, but I have a routine of a long Saturday breakfast and the Speccie, the languid enjoyment of which quite defeats any principles. 😉

  256. Linked here from a site sympathetic to Obama. We liked your Premier this week and his aristocratic wife who did good things at Ground Zero.

  258. Sorry, but this is the 21st Century, Nicholas. You’re out of step, maybe you should wake up and smell the coffee . Your comments are unhelpful and inappropriate – they’re probably unacceptable too… get over it.
    I, on the other hand, have the moral high ground, from where I look down on your benighted confusion with condescending patience. This is self evident from the lingo, and no further argument is necessary.
    (Plenty more where these came from – I’m sure other Wallsters can supply examples).

  259. It’s the right thing to do and we should reach out to our faith communities.

  260. Watergate!!?? DMAFF!

    Reporting an alleged break-in at the office of the Milibrat, the fey Peter Spencer, Sky News political correspondent (the one with the flamboyant and over-active wanking-spanners) muses “It could be nothing but one thinks of the Watergate investigation – and that brought down a president.”

    If “one thinks of” that, you pillock in this context, then “one” is liable to flights of fancy that should disqualify “one” as a reporter for a major media TV channel.

    The implication being that Cameron would hire a bunch of burglars to screw the offices of what is laughingly described as Leader of Her Majesty’d Opposition? With a view to what, Mr Spencer?

    In my experience, break-ins of this sort usually have a much more mundane explanation. One such that I once investigated was a false report from someone who was trying to cover up the fact that he had inadvertently left his briefcase in a whore’s boudoir and was terrified of the consequences when his missus found out. But much as I dislike both Cameron or Miliband, neither Spencer’s scenario nor that one, seems even remotely likely.

  261. Austin Barry (13:55)

    “It’s the right thing to do and we should reach out to our faith communities.”

    A propos of what?

  262. Curonsky … You do understand that Oscars are for acting in the movies, don´’t you? I think even Barry grasps that.

    Frank Sutton … “Sorry, but some of your comments could be hurtful to those who have recently joined our society.” Tee hee.

    On another topic, I absolutely love the proposed ban on the wearing of crosses, because it’s a Trojan horse. Bans on wearing symbols your faith. They obviously did not think this through.

    Okaaaaaayyyy … Home Office, or whatever, announcement: “It gives us no pleasure to have to say that, now that the state has decided you can no longer wear items that advertise your faith, as it is an imposition on sensitive souls, we will reluctantly have to ban the wearig the burqa, the niqab, khimars, etc in the workplace or the public street or the airport.”

    Ha ha ha. Tee hee. Get ready for: “Oh, but the burqa, the niqab, the khimar aren’t religious wear! They are symbols of our” (straight face) “civilisation! They are nothing to do with islam.”

    “Nice to hear you admit it. It’s now banned outside the house. And especially in airports, where the wearer will be liable to detention and questioning.”

    Tee hee.

    And for a good chortle, get this: http://www.al-mujalbaba.com/women/ They actually have “islamic” underwear. What a hoot! Turn to the page for a good laugh. Quote from the ad: “”You guys are the best Islamic clothing store around.” Asfareen – New Jersey.

    Anyway, my point … if crosses are banned in public, what is advertised as clothing proclaiming a religion must also be banned. Although these items are nowhere, NOWHERE mentioned or referred to in any way in the q’ran. Mohammad never got involved in fashion writing.

    Given the slimy, cowardly nature of Cameron, they’ll lift the ban on crosses rather than offend the Mohammadans. (They hate being called mohammadans, btw, so you might like to employ the term frequently.)

  264. I’ve just noticed, in that ad for for “islamic” clothing on the net, there’s one section called “Black Cothing”. Do visit the site. It is hysterical.

  265. This next item isn’t anything to do with politics, but it reminded me of a terribly funny novel I’ve just finished reading. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116238/Google-Maps-madness-Face-Jesus-field-lake-blood-strangest-cloud-ever.html

    Carl Hiassen’s “Lucky You” is about someone who wins the state lottery in a small town in Florida that captures the tourist trade with an oil slick onthe highway, that could look like Jesus, and a reincarnation of the saints, this time as religious miniature turtles.

    Anyone who has never read Carl Hiassen should order one of his novels stat. Funny, funny, funny.

  267. Every time I look at the AoC threads on the Spectator it seems that even more posts have been removed? What is going on?

  268. It wasn’t hard to decide who to support in the Six Nations rugby earlier today. In honour of Andy Murray and Alex Salmond I rooted for Italy from beginning to end and they won 13-6.

    Any team but Scotland, eh?

  270. Frank Sutton @13:47

    I hope that you’re giving 110% whilst thinking about your carbon footprint.

  271. Verity
    March 17th, 2012 – 15:14

    I’ve just noticed, in that ad for for “islamic” clothing on the net, there’s one section called “Black Cothing”. Do visit the site. It is hysterical.
    =======================
    Perfectly disgraceful, Verity! I shall report this to the Moderators 🙂 They actually had a picture on Google Images for Exploding Underpants. I think a lot of the Mohamaddans on public transport must be wearing them, because the scents of Araby are far from fragrant.

  273. Frank P.

    I was just following on from Frank Sutton’s list of cliches. The following are horribly prevalent:

    (a) It’s the right thing to do (Ed Miliband, constantly);
    (b) reach out (every American businessman, constantly);
    (c) faith communities (every politician trying to avoid specifically mentioning Islam, constantly).

    Also,

    (d) Self-harm (Irish chums outside my window embarking on oblivion drinking bouts as a consequence of St Paddy’s day and the impending defeat to England.)

  277. And England won rather than Ireland lost – it was the scrum what done it.

    Scotland get the wooden spoon – never was ignominy so deserved.

  278. Old blancmange chops and Clegg, Dark Lord of Reform and EU Familiar both have a habit of saying “It’s the right thing to do” too. The other cliché is “to send a message”. We legislate now “to send a message” rather than to deliver justice.

  279. Just a heads up if folk are around the net. Telemachus appears to be trying to use the names Leviathan and Keith Dudgeon. He has just posted here as Keith, but the IP trail exposes his true identity.

    On another note, the Spectator seems very quiet at present. I know that this is partly because half the posts were by telemachus in any case, but not many other posts seem to be going up either.

  280. “Duchess of Cambridge toasted by Irish Guards”

    Crikey, me eyes are goin’. I’m sure I read that ‘t’ as an ‘r’!

    Seems the ‘Torygraph’ amended the headline to, “Duchess of Cambridge presents St Patrick’s Day shamrock to Irish Guards.” Maybe I wasn’t the only one.

  282. “Sorry, but I have a routine of a long Saturday breakfast and the Speccie, the languid enjoyment of which quite defeats any principles.”
    Nicholas.

    Ha ha.

    Taking it easy and getting out of bed over a one or two hour period is sheer bliss.

    My ambition is, one day; to have ordered my life such that my ‘morning’ ends around 2pm ish.
    Each and every day ‘cept Sundays ‘cos of Church.
    Yeah.
    That would really be living.

    I know at present it’s just a crazy dream, but one day one day……….

  283. Isn’t it amazing that we Brits, despite being hated by so many races around the world and by so many of our “fellow citizens”, still have the amazing grace and manners to allow St Patrick’s Day to be celebrated within our shores, despite the atrocities perpetrated by many of its proponents on our fellow citizens?

    We are truly an outstanding yet sadly endangered species. Will we see our likes again?

  285. The lower orders in England made peace with their counter-parts in (southern) Ireland in 1992 ,unnoticed by the upper orders–peace through football.At the World Cup both sets of fans supported each-others teams:probably because most of the Irish national side play for English F.A. teams.The back streets of England were bedecked with St. George’s flags and Irish tricolours:often from the same building…..This at the same time as many of the English were truly shocked to become aware of the Hate being generated against their side by the Scots.Thus giving new meaning to the old English joke:”We’ve nothing against the Irish;it’s just those bastards in the north we can’t stand”.

  286. “The Navy took itself for granted, and the country took the Navy for granted. Then we allowed it all to disappear after the Falklands. ”

    Anyone who would like to have their Sunday morning ruined need go no further than this appraisal of and further comments on the current deplorable state of the Royal Navy by Rear-Admiral Sir John Forster Woodward reported by Cole Moreton in the Daily Telegraph online. It is unfortunate that what has also disappeared is not only the will to remedy the situation, but also an effective government or an effective loyal opposition ready to hold accountable the people responsible.

  287. I should perhaps offer an antidote to the piece noted above in today’s DT. This might go a little way towards at least removing the gloom induced by Sandy Woodward’s elegy for the Royal Navy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U14iJzdPtWI

    For that antidote I have to thank Frank P. (yesterday at 15.36) who drew my attention to Mark Steyn’s article in The Orange County Register in which he makes a passing reference to an earlier standard from which modern TV has slipped, namely Leonard Bernstein giving live illustrated music lectures on Beethoven on CBS in the Fifties. Thanks to YouTube, lectures by Bernstein on music are available, though not perhaps the ones to which Mark Steyn refers. This for instance
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14VhzlcSuT0
    – try the first few minutes – although from somewhat later than the 50s,surely keeps the bar high. Speaking of bars, I had also taken note of Frank P’s waiting pile of books and his lesson from the days as a pub landlord that it was often the diplomatic thing to do when conversation took a particular turn for those whom the topic might aggrieve to take the opportunity for a Roddy Liddle. It is worth at such times following a lead like the tip given by Mark Steyn, and here one has to have some sympathy for the Chinese whose 1.3B people’s have been denied access to YouTube by their all-wise government in any language, to see where you end up once started, as I did when I browsed that site for the lectures by Bernstein which Steyn had referred to merely in passing. Before I could drag myself from the computer I had re-engaged from the past with William Buckley, Norman Mailer, Harold Bloom (cries), Mark Lane (pipe), Orson Welles (cigar),Dick Cavett, Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom (cigarette), Hugh Hefner (pipe) and a moving BBC documentary on Mozart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHZu9kWuB-g).

    Leo Strauss by the way, who is I think something of a bugbear here as associated with the Frankfurt School, is not someone I have read or listened to before; but at the beginning of his lecture in 1966 on Plato’s Meno starts his comments on political philosophy with a discussion of the public good. That’s not a bad place for us to start again from perhaps, especially as David Cameron at one point last year introduced the as yet unclearly defined concept of “The Big Society” as one of the ambisions of the Coalition which may make Strauss “relevant” to our understanding of what is going on in England today when he invokes “the open society and the great society” etc. which other politicians have in the past tried to pass off as vehicles for the public good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpZKKmVZ1DY&feature=related

    Be careful when you go browsing in YouTube is the lesson I take away. It’s a bit like browsing in a second-hand bookshop, except that there’s no owner who throws you out when the sun goes down because he wants to go home. In the meantime though I see that balance has again become a characteristic of the new Wall in so far as humour though deal with terrorism seems acceptable if musical (H/T EC yesterday at 18.39).

    On another cheery note, noting the interest above in rugby, the Hong Kong Sevens are on next week: 23rd,24th, 25th. Anyone going?

    But Mark Steyn in that article first got me going to YouTube by his reference to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and “Shall We Dance” singing “They All Laughed”. Here is my first stop – what elegance and esprit!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGYdYxjnGek

  288. Is it my imagination, or is the BBC giving the attempted break-in at Whitehall, which took place in the Norman Shaw Buildings where Ed Miliband’s office is a very low profile?

  289. Although I regret that the content may offend Peter’s sensibilities, I have just posted the following on Alex Massie’s Speccie blog on Opus Dei. It has appeared on the blog, but I wonder for how long.

    “It is wryly amusing that Alex, who a few posts ago was banging on about freedom of speech, removed my fairly anodyne observation which was more or less as follows:

    “As a Catholic I believe that marriage is for the creation of children to maintain the line of supply to priests.”

    Freedom of speech, Alex? Humbug.”

  290. Mallfleur (08:21)

    So you had an evening on the links, but with no sea-breeze to invigorate you? I know the feeling. The cornucopia of nostalgic resurrection that is available at the touch of an index finger on a plastic gizmo attached to the magic of intertubes is utterly addictive. I mix on whether it’s a blessing or a curse, though. Nature’s way of erasing much of the past from our memory cells; Old Father Time’s natural limitations on poring over history in books, once alleviated constant retrospection and regret over past sins of commission and omission. Selective memory is essential for peace of mind, I guess. Now that science has facilitated the instant electronic dredging of great swathes of the past, which I fear for most simple souls like me has always contained more to regret than celebrate, the temptation call up the past and wallow in self-recrimination can both powerful and destructive. But perhaps we should concentrate on the recorded excellence of others and try to enjoy their work, rather than enviously wishing that we had achieved more ourselves?

    In the case of Mark Steyn his powers of analysis and synthesis; his acute sense of the ridiculous and his peerless word-smithing is a joy to access; even though his prognostications make the blood run cold – because if the PTB don’t heed them, they will undoubtedly come to pass.

    I shall be glad when the weather improves and the sun breaks through. My garden is glowering at me on the other side of the double glazing and accusing me of gross neglect. Less ‘linking’ and more tilling, is the imperative of the my dear wife on Mother’s Day. Considering the fact that it was I that made her a mother four times and indirectly a grandmother twelve time (recently a great-grandmother once (thus far), I had better pay attention, perhaps.

  291. Austin Barry (11.42)

    I followed through on Massie’s thread with a response to yours; then I replied to
    a previous comment by ‘Ranmore’ with this, which I’m pretty certain will not make the cut and may well disappear from here in short order too:

    “Rantmore (12.18pm)

    ” If you call someone out on their obvious bigotry they hide behind a cry of “freedom of religion!”.

    Is it really ‘bigoted’ to believe that buggery should not be afforded the legitimacy of the state or the blessing of the church? The manifold manifestations of progressive perversion are all around us and both baneful and baleful. The ‘feelings’ of the perverted weigh little in my book beside the obvious negative results that flow from, not only loosening the law that previously curtailed the spread of it, but the ensuing legal imperative that we must approve of it. The thin end of the wedge – ‘consenting adults over 21’ – eased us into this gradual degradation of society, the thick end is now up all our jacksies.

    Stick that up yours – and enjoy it – or not!”

  293. Not only a great clip, Malfleur, but all filmed in one take. Who could do that today?

    Also, as an aside, in which I believe AWK will concur, if Samantha Cameron had worn such a simple but very elegant dress in DC, at least she would have got some positive comment, which she was clearly seeking with those patterned bin liners she rolled up in. Ginger Rogers looked fabulous.

  295. Verity
    March 18th, 2012 – 15:03
    Concur !!!
    By the way, in the “Speccie” thread on Lansley, there is a poster named Verityred?

  296. AWK – Yes another impostor. It started posting with the clear intention of being mistaken for me around a year ago. It’s a lefty troll.

    Funny how the right never try to steal other people’s names, isn’t it? Only the inadequate and vicious left try to grab a ride on someone else’s identity.

  297. Quick-thinking humanity to the rescue of our pescatorial counterparts, who seemed to lack a sense of porpoise in this adventure. Amazing footage:

    http://elcomercio.pe/player/1384898

    Just as well they didn’t beach themselves in Japan or Italy, they would probably have been on the table by dusk, as sushi or callipo insalata respectively.

    h/t my Naughty Niece.

  298. I saw this several days ago and thought it fascinating. It wasn’t even a planned operation. One man saw the porpoises becoming stranded and ran, as you can see, and grabbed one of them by the tail, which got the attention of other men who happened to be on that part of the beach, and who also immediately ran forward and grabbed a porpoise. A very nice, humane effort and completely uncoordinated. Everyone acting of their own volition.

    Very nice. I think it was in Brazil. (I didn’t watch the link again.)

  299. Please excuse my tardiness, Verity.

    I do try to keep up. Why didn’t you give us the benefit of your find then?

  301. Just viewed the porpoises, giving me hope for the way humanity is sliding down the slippery slope. No doubt if they had arrived on Dover Beach. Elf and Safety would have demanded they be culled. I loved the way the people all worked together without being organised.

  302. “I loved the way the people all worked together without being organised.”

    I did, too, AWK. I liked that first young man who simply strode into the ocean and took action without shouting, “Hey, everybody!” and his action attracted the attention of others who responded, ad hoc, immediately without grandstanding.

    I was a little worried about the wimp who didn’t want to get his shorts wet and stepped out of them and handed them to his wife to hold. He was on a beach for God’s sake. The sea is wet!

    At any rate, well done to all. No hesitation, no discussion, no one trying to be the organiser and, as AWK said, no elf ‘n’ saying “Can’t ‘ave that, lads. I’ll ‘ave to book you if you touch one o’ them fish.”

  303. As a follow up to Frank P’s post on March 16th at 20.50 re. Ann Barnhardt, here’s another individual, Daniel Greenfield, who found himself listed as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has something to say about it.

    (He thinks it may include his cat by the way- watch out, Verity!)

    http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/15/how-i-became-a-hate-group/

    Mr. Greenfield concludes, using persuasive logic, that the Southern Poverty Law Center has exposed itself as an anti-islam hate group and that, applying the Center’s criteria, islam is itself an anti-muslim hate group.

    On the other hand, since his analysis shows that the Center cannot be trusted anymore,because for instance it includes a gun lubricant on its list, Mr. Greenfield feels that he can no longer take its word that he and his cat are an anti-muslim hate group.

  304. Malfleur — I’ll read it over lunch, but cats are not anti-muslim. This is because muslims are cat daft, and cats appreciate that. When I lived in Jakarta, my cat used to take the air sitting up on the gate post, and there was barely a person passing who did not stop and talk to her. She must have been asked what her name was, and been told how beautiful she was, at least seven or eight times a day.

  305. “Taleb [and Fraser] in 20 minutes” is the caption of the latest post on the Speccy blog.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7722858/taleb-in-30-minutes.thtml

    Fraser Nelson writes:

    ” David Willetts is interviewed, saying that Taleb’s work underlines the folly of long-term forecasts because ‘the big events that shape the world today are those which no one predicted four or five years ago’. ”

    Verity kicked off the comments with a caustic remark over there, so I tried to follow through in a similar vein. The comment box refused to accept it, so I’ll post it here instead.

    Why people who lack vision automatically believe that nobody else can see the wood for the trees? The left, or Islamic jihad, or (latterly) a combination both, have planned almost every deleterious event that has occurred for the West for over 50 years in some cases for longer than that and have constantly boasted of their intentions.

    It would appear that the foetid air inside the Westminster Bubble makes it impervious to news from outside. But carry on with your bullshit Fraser, I’m listening. Or rather reading – no good me listening, I still haven’t mastered the strangled vowels in your ‘enunciatation’.

  306. Thanks for following up on that, Frank. Fraser’s post was rubbish.

    Maybe Fraser hadn’t predicted the appearance of shale gas, but surely even he can understand that people wouldn’t have been looking for it/investigating it unless they thought it was there.

  307. Verity 18th, – 16:46

    “AWK – Yes another impostor. It started posting with the clear intention of being mistaken for me around a year ago. It’s a lefty troll.”

    Oh…I thought it was just an anagram of ‘very tired’.

    Probably more apt.

  310. If anybody who reads this blog needs any further proof of the deep corruption of the AGW & Cap & Trade scams, this report from 10 years ago should do the trick:

    Enron Sought Global Warming Regulation, Not Free Markets
    Georgia Op-Ed in The Roanoke Times
    By Paul J. Georgia
    February 02, 2002
    Print Email Share

    It’s not surprising to most people that Enron delivered truckloads of money to politicians in an attempt to influence the political process. What may surprise many, however, is that Enron believed that one of its main opportunities to make money by gaming the political system was global warming.

    Enron became one of the biggest corporate boosters of the Kyoto global warming treaty, which would require huge reductions in energy use by consumers and industry. According to an internal Enron memo, quoted by The Washington Post, the Kyoto treaty would “do more to promote Enron’s business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States.”

    In addition to all its political lobbying and contributions, Enron became a founding member of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change’s Business Environmental Leadership Council, a leading industry front group pushing the Kyoto agenda. Enron chairman Ken Lay also served on the board of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, along with Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense, and former Alcoa CEO and current Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.

    Even after President Bush decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Kyoto treaty, Enron continued to push for a domestic regulatory scheme known as cap-and-trade, whereby the government would set a cap on the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions allowed in the U.S.

    It would then distribute permits or allowances to companies affected by the cap giving them the right to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide. Those allowances could then be traded in the open market.

    Enron executives believed that a cap-and-trade program would put them in a position to dominate the U.S. energy market. Electric utilities, required to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, would be forced to switch from coal to natural gas as the only practical alternative to electricity production. As a leading trader of natural gas, Enron would be the recipient of a huge financial windfall.

    Moreover, Enron is already a major trader of carbon dioxide emissions throughout the world, making it similarly positioned to take a fee with each and every ton of carbon dioxide traded within the United States.

    The potential redistribution of wealth involves more than just energy companies. As noted by Ross McKitrick, an economist at The University of Guelph in Canada, “If emissions are controlled by tradable quotas, this creates a new, artificial scarcity in something that hitherto had been free: the right to release carbon dioxide.”

    He also explains that the value of this newly created asset “represents the capitalized value to existing users of fossil fuels of the right to emit carbon dioxide at no charge. This value is already counted into balance sheets, investment portfolios, collateral for loans, etc., all through the economy.”

    Putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions, says McKitrick, “extracts that money from its current use and hands it over to the beneficiaries of the policy.”

    One of the main selling points of a cap-and-trade system is that it is allegedly less costly than other policy options, because trading allows reductions to take place where it is least expensive. But when uncertainty, which is pervasive throughout the economy, is taken into account, costs have been shown to be significantly higher.

    When government caps emissions, there is really no way to forecast future permit prices. Mistakes in forecasting lead to large social costs. The emissions trading program to reduce sulfur dioxide has been plagued by wildly fluctuating prices, making it difficult for businesses to plan long term, thereby creating large costs that trickle down to the consumer.

    A study by Resources for the Future found that given uncertainty about costs and benefits, emissions trading is about five times costlier than a carbon tax. Moreover, revenue collected from a carbon tax could be used to at least partially offset the higher energy costs. This isn’t the case with emissions trading.

    If Enron’s lobbying efforts had succeeded, the United States would have ended up with a costly regulatory scheme designed to redistribute wealth from the American people to politically powerful companies like Enron.

    So why would elected officials pursue such wrongheaded policies? Because cap-and-trade is a complex regulatory scheme that hides the true costs of compliance from taxpayers. Politicians can regulate energy use through the hidden tax of cap-and-trade to avoid accountability, creating the perfect cover for vultures like Enron to swoop in and capture the rewards.

    Enron is gone, but the threat of energy rationing lingers on. Other companies are waiting in the wings to fill the political void. For example, on the day that the Pew Center on Global Climate change took Enron off its business council list, 29 major corporations were still listed. If these companies are successful, the cost in terms of money and jobs would dwarf anything seen since the reckless energy policies of the 1970s.

    h/t Crosspatch on the Anthony Watts blog.

    http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/enron-sought-global-warming-regulation-not-free-markets

  311. Frank P 1:10. What a trite, and strangely uninterested, individual Obama is. It was a load of tripe, of course, but what came across to me is that Obama is not in the Oval Office to build alliances. He’s not interested. The words and the body language were condescending, trite and aloof.

    He’s there as a messenger for the New World Order.

    A facilitator.

    He’s certainly not intelligent enough to have thought of any of this scam himself. He’s a tool. Don’t forget, before he got to the national Senate in DC, he was in the Illinois Senate for (I think) two years as payback for his work in Tammany Hall as a fixer, or, to put it more oleaginously, “a neighbourhood organiser”. A political activist he is not. During those two years, the only times he ever spoke were at roll call, when he said, “Present”.

    He’s a puppet to take attention away from the real work going on behind the scenes.

    I am proud to have been the first person on the internet to refer to him as the Manchurian Candidate.

  313. Basically I think that there are just two kinds of people. Those who want to control what happens and must have “causes” and those who just want to be left the Hell alone to get on with their lives. The former mostly gravitate to the Left and to causes like “climate change”, the latter to the right. The former is mostly a feminine mind set greatly enriched by the “liberation” of women, the latter masculine, greatly eroded by the undermining of patriarchy. Unfortunately it is impossible for the two to live in harmony because the former spend their lives bugging the Hell out of the latter. It’s the wife who wants to “get things done” nagging the husband who just wants to sit in the armchair and read the paper.

    The great irony is that almost every single “climate change” shrieker currently shrieking will probably die without having made one bit of difference to the planet (except of course the wind farm racketeers who will have made eyesores for future generations to wonder at the folly of).

    Currently the public narrative in Britain is in the hands of leftist, controlling, feminine minded “causists” who use buzz words like “progress” and “progressive”. And huge amounts of tax-funded, public money are being showered on them which makes them even more of an irritant as the great bureauquangofakecharityiocracy expands. Those of us who just want to be left the Hell alone are having to put with it, as they never tire of reminding us.

  314. Wheatley had recent published ‘The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware’, the tenth volume in the Roger Brook series. He was pressing on with the Brook novels at speed because he was anxious not to die without having completed them, and before long … he was at work on another, ‘The Irish Witch’.

    Knowing what his public now wanted, the penultimate Roger Brook story is a tale of black magic. At the climax of the book, with its familiar Wheatley crux of sexual degradation salaciously avoided just in the nick of time, Roger Brook’s own daughter is being held down by a large [factotum] named Aboe so that Father Damien, the evil priest, can ravish her. The horrified Brook can do nothing except watch, when fortunately a gigantic frog suddenly appears and gobbles all the Satanists up.

    ‘The Irish Witch’ is not Wheatley’s best book. He was particularly mortified when Hedman [a Swedish fan] pointed an error in the opening sentence, which makes Copenhagen the capital of Sweden. He pressed on with the next volume.

    – Phil Baker, The Devil is a Gentleman: The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley pp 586-7

  315. Now that Williams has gone, it’s time for Sentamu
    Rod Liddle
    For a laugh, I sent a posting to the “Speccie” on the above thread. It was moderated and now sits in the rubbish bin. Here is the gist of my offering:
    “Surely the very idea that the A of C should be a member of the Church of England goes against multiculturalism and all that this country now stands for. It is hardly politically correct to restrict this well-paid and prestigious post to a Christian. A fundamental muslim must be given every opportunity to fill this position”.

  316. @AWK 1 19th, – 10:40

    Perhaps they were afraid someone would take you seriously and engage you in debate.

  317. Ostrich (occasionally)
    March 19th, 2012
    Looking at recent articles, the editor and the quality of postings, I think you may very well be right.

  319. Just read this from Mattbayleaf in the Telegraph comments on an article by Charles Moore on how the left is waking up to its idiocy over multiculturism. I thought that it expresses the views of a lot of people that I know, myself included. These people (and by that I mean the Labour leadership, not people of other cultures and ethnicicities) really do need to be held to account

    Multiculturalism is a bright shining lie. It has been used by the left as a weapon. It masks the struggle for power between different racial and cultural groups, especially if those groups are politically organized.

    It is worth making the point once again that the majority of the electorate of England made it clear at the general election in 2005 and 2010 that they wanted the levels of immigration to be reduced in a significant way. Their voice was ignored and hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered the country against our wishes. Does this matter ? It should. Six years is a long time to wait for representation in a democracy. Those who cheered and applauded as the Labour government dragged the wooden horse into the city should shed no tears if they are engulfed in conflict in the years to come.

    Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have caused serious injury to this nation. They should be held to account through the courts and imprisoned for at least five years. The people of England deserve a fair and proportionate measure of justice. If we want to take pride in our country there are times when we have to defend it. This is one of those times. The Telegraph could do something to help. It could support a campaign to get Tony Blair and Gordon Brown behind bars. It is important to do this otherwise the notion of democracy, together with our liberal Christian values such as the rule of law will not mean anything.

    I wonder if you can see what I mean. Flag waving is not enough. The Labour government stuck a knife in the body of England. They must understand that you do not do that and expect to walk away unscathed

  320. Nicholas
    March 19th. You are not far wrong. However, there comes a time to get out of the armchair, go down the garden path and build something useful in the shed. That time has now arrived

    The shriekers are at a loss as to what to do next, hence the upturn in the volume. More sanguine souls should be careful not to give them anything unduly juicy to shriek about while starting to dig us out the mess that they have lead us into

    Like not giving interviews, not feeding fake debates, just getting on and doing useful things that bring benefit to themselves, their neighbours and the country at large. We know that we can do it, and frankly I am beginning to get a sense that the tide is beginning to turn in that direction, of its own free will. Now there’s a concept …

  321. Rocket Dog

    “…just getting on and doing useful things that bring benefit to themselves, their neighbours and the country at large…”

    Yes, and the voluntary action on the beach in Brazil to save the beached dolphins referred to by Verity and Frank P above could serve as an apt metaphor for the way in which this could be imagined as happening.

  322. Malfleur (12.04)

    I’m glad you ‘got it’ when I posted my NN’s dolphin footage. That was the indeed the porpoise (to repeat that pun – which was the other reason).

  324. Interesting piece by Tebbitt in the DT where he suggests that the Government have not considered the miriad legal questions which their rush to create ‘gay marriage’ will provoke. He asks, reasonably, what will constitute the consummation of a ‘gay marriage’. It cannot surely just be a cuddle, unless the natural, universal and traditional definition of the consummation of a real marriage will also be changed. Will the act of adultery therefore be constituted by having a cuddle with someone? Or will it require something more forceful?

  325. What the shriekers are doing is working hard to increase their hold on the levers of power and also working hard to absolutely de-legitimise dissent – especially from the right. See the link on “hate groups” and the chilling comment there that “once the SPLC has determined you are a racist, it is final.” This manipulative control of language is shocking but if you explore modern bureaucracy you will find plenty of examples where unaccountable “decision makers” hold absolute power unless you are prepared for a lengthy, costly and risky legal battle. Situations where decisions cannot even be appealed because in some cases they are made secretly. As I see it Cameron and Clegg are working hard to increase unaccountable executive power but claiming to facilitate localism.

    Whilst the metaphor of the dolphins speaks volumes about the inherent goodwill and collective action of communities that goodwill and collective action can only go so far against the reality of power and bureaucracy. They are empowered only in a power vacuum – as on that beach. In most cases it is individuals who find themselves up against bureaucracy and power, or communities who find that they face a legal battle or stifling amounts of bureaucracy in order to be able to express their goodwill and community spirit. Meanwhile those who already hold power are “leading beyond authority” and finding new ways to evade accountability and to disempower everyone else.

    Far from seeing a tipping point and any light at the end of the tunnel I see a subtle shift in direction to clamp down on the open debate that can lead to dissent. The police have been busy arresting for tweeting again but meanwhile cannot respond for 7 days to a burglary victim who actually recorded the criminals on CCTV. The old concept of inviolate private property does not matter to leftists who are far more interested in controlling what people say or write and codifying justice by their pecking-order “victim” groups. Even protest, which used to be a right, has been codified and controlled.

    At Cranmer there are several excellent pieces on the erosion of freedom and some telling comments, especially the way in which English birthright liberty has been replaced by European state “granting” of defined rights. Most of these have led to conflict, tension, divisiveness and segregation. Call me cynical but I expect that very soon it will be dangerous and potentially criminal to oppose leftist dogma in any way and that being of a right wing viewpoint and even mentioning the things that concern us in speech or writing will be synonymous with being identified as a “hate group” and therefore de-legitimised and marginalised politically.

    Yes, we can go down to the shed and tinker away locally to “improve” things but it is like building sandcastles against an incoming tide. And on a national scale nowhere are there leaders espousing real dissent to what is happening or providing a rallying point to expose it. Half the right or more are deluded into belief in “modernising”, in “de-toxifying” conservatism or have swallowed the propaganda that the leftist dogma of control is a centre ground, moderate position.

  326. Frank P, March 19th, 2012 – 01:10am

    Re: Danish Obama ‘boxing’ video.

    RESULT! I’m now happy to report that I have received an emotional and incoherent response from one of my American DINO chums.
    Bwahahahaha, they don’t like it up ’em!

  327. Peter from Maidstone, March 19th, 2012 – 13:37

    “Will the act of adultery therefore be constituted by having a cuddle with someone? Or will it require something more forceful?”

    Was this a test of our self restraint? I resisted the temptation to make the expected response. One day at a time …

    A whole raft of legislation will have to be amended.
    eg. Matrimonial Causes Act 1973

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/18#section-12

    see: 11. Grounds on which a marriage is void.
    12. Grounds on which a marriage is voidable.

  328. Frank P, March 19th, 01:10: “Following on from the ‘political clichés’ theme of Frank Sutton and Austin Barry… ” Well that’s O’Bama hoisted on his own clichés. If you say something three times it becomes true, so we’re all great sluggers and closest allies.

    By the way, the theme was started by Nicholas with his “Sorry, but…” revealed as a way of thwarting argument. Some clichés are merely absurd, others worm their way into speech and try to snuff out dissent.

  329. Nicholas
    I think that sometimes we attribute a level of interest and sharpness of analysis to our fellow countrymen that they do not deserve. A lot of what has happened has happened because it has been allowed to happen. You are, I believe, indeed correct about the erosion of liberty and the movement of our society towards a tipping point. But if Napoleon once referred to the English as a nation of sheep, following each other blindly around the pasture nibbling grass, he may be about to be validated in his belief – because when the tipping point comes and people really see the facts for what they are, then the flock will run out of control and our masters will be left blowing their dog whistles and looking rather stupid

    I don’t think that we the English are particularly good at political argument, and the leftists shriek down anyone who is stupid enought o publicly disagree with them

    Running out of money and having no sensible ideas about rebuilding the national economy will be their nemesis. The national consensus over the centre ground is all very well, but with rising unemployment and benefits going unpaid, I think that people will simply switch off and stop listening to them. They are running empty on trust as it is …

  330. “He [Tebbit] asks, reasonably, what will constitute the consummation of a ‘gay marriage’.”

    John Hardon, S.J. “Consummated Marriage”. Pocket Catholic Dictionary.
    Image Books. p. 91.
    ISBN 0385232381.

  331. Rocket Dog … you are too wimpy. I don’t want Brown and Blair to not walk away to a prison cell unscathed. I want the the death penalty for treason to be restored stat and I want Blair and Brown and their minions to be tried for treason. Their allies, as in the their ministers and their enablers, including certain sections of the media, should also be tried … not for accurate reporting, but for complicity in siphoning known lies into the public mind.

  332. If I post something now, will it be instantly consigned to “last week” as a new Wall is put up?
    Incidentally, PfM, while one everlasting Wall would be unfeasible, how about a constantly renewing wall, which would show posts from the past seven days at any given time, with posts falling off into an archive once they are eight days old?

  333. Malfleur … “Yes, and the voluntary action on the beach in Brazil to save the beached dolphins referred to by Verity and Frank P above could serve as an apt metaphor for the way in which this could be imagined as happening.”

    An interesting speculation. It could become individual action. That action on the beach in Brazil was completely uncoordinated. The men weren’t shouting orders at each other. Every man was thinking, fast and focussed, of how he was going to get hold of that panicking porpoise’s tale and drag it back into the sea against a strong tide.

    Of course, if that had happened in Britain, someone would have thought it was his natural right to take control and “coordinate” it.

  334. I’ll leave this wall for a moment and see what can be done about having a wall with multiple pages or something. It can’t grow forever though so I need to do something. And having multiple pages is good for Google and traffic.

    What about some more posts from people?

  335. “Panicking porpoise’s tale” … I was, of course, referring to the ancient mariner instinct in porpoises who are eager to share their stories with other porpoises.

  336. Verity
    While Balir being strung up for his misdemeanours is an appealing image, I am afraid that Nicholas is correct with his analysis concerning the manipulation of the public psyche by just about every organised political entity at the moment. I think that we have been experiencing a ‘soft’ invasion for the past decade or so – and repelling boarders requires that we should use similar weapons. Disembowling Gordon for crimes against the people would win few friends. Banning him from handling cash and making him wear a device that beeps if he should go anywhere near it would be far more effective. If it got TV coverage!

  337. R5 in fine autopilot mode today regarding the Toulouse murders.

    Reporter said it would be wrong to speculate on who and why but they went on to allow a bit of selective speculation that the perpetrator could be a ‘member’ of the far right or a ‘lone’ Islamist.

  338. Headline from today’s Independent:

    “Brian Paddick: ‘Politics is affecting my relationship with my husband”

    Well, at least that answers the ‘who pitches, who catches’ question. Thanks, Brian.

  339. Rocketdog — “Five years” for Brown and Blair? For mortally wounding an ancient and well-ordered civilisation, knowingly, with forethought and malice??????????

    Nicholas, I am not counting on anyone in Britain. I am looking across the Channel hoping that Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders will prosper at the ballot box and will lead the way for the Brits. If they triumph, the Brits will have to help UKIP into power stat.

  340. Rocket Dog … “Disembowling Gordon for crimes against the people would win few friends.”

    Surely you jest! The queue to buy tickets would stretch to John O’Groats and you would hear cheering, and see merry bunting lining the streets throughout the land.

  341. Rocket Dog, the clue to how people feel about Gordon Brown is the magnitude of his defeat at the ballot box. Blair was cunning enough to get the hell out of Britain before the mob got the upper hand.

  342. It’s worth noting that no one on the beach in Brazil shouted, “Let’s have a meeting!” Or, “Anyone got a copy of Health and Safety regs on this?”

  343. Brian Paddick doesn’t have a husband. He is a fantasist.

    Shameron is not a bright man, but he knows there are infinitely more straight voters than gay. As I’ve said before, worldwide, homosexuals appear to account for a fairly uniform three to four percent. I don’t think even Davie Dim would bet the ranch on those odds.

  344. Verity

    I like GB about as much as you do. However, I think that muttering threats and imprecations gives him more status than he deserves. To get 5 years now you have to do something fairly reprehensible or be divorced man trying to see his children (not me, friend, honestly). He is a horrible little man who represented a party of horrible little men (and women). He should be forced to wear a tag and clean up after his betters as they will be forced to clear up after him

    After all, he is hardly Uncle Joe, so let’s not let him fantasise that he is …

  346. Ony 4% of the workforce have identified their ‘sexuality’, so the figures aren’t worth very much.

    The latest significant research I have seen says about 1% of the population identify as homosexual men, and 0.2% as homosexual women.

    I’d expect it to be deliberately higher at the BBC anywhere that decisions about programmes get made.

  347. RocketDog, Gives who “more status than he deserves”? Not Brian Paddick, surely, because he has no power. If you are referring to Cameron, he has the status of being PM of Britain, whether he deserves it or is a tragic incompetent isn’t the point. We have to address things as they are.

  348. How soon before Cameron’s come back to haunt him: “I’m not voting UKIP in spite of being conservative, I’m voting UKIP because I’m a conservative.”
    Or something like that.

  349. P from M – I think Frank Sutton’s suggestion of only showing the current day and the previous seven is a rather good one. I think we seldom refer further back than that when posting, and if we need to, we can still access the old Wall.

    What do other posters think?

  358. There are 30 comments per page, the newest post is at the top. If you get lost then click on the very top bar where it links to the latest posts on the wall

  359. Okay now – I was getting a different page by pressing the “Home” button as opposed to the ‘CHW’ button – seems to have rectified itself. Thanks.

  361. If the most recent comment is now going to be at the top could the comments input box be at the top too? Having them at opposite ends seems a bit counter-intuitive.

  362. Yes, but I’ll have to hack around in the code so it will take a little while.

  363. All the comments bar one have now disappeared!

    Some may be interested in a petition “supporting the legal definition” of marriage at http://c4m.org.uk/
    There’s also a less openly worded one at the govt’s e-petition site, with the motion “Do not legalise gay marriage”.
    Its heart’s in the right place, I suppose, but its wording rather misses the point.

  364. I can put it back the way it was if people want.

    I can, however, see all the latest comments here.

  365. I’m getting two Walls now. One with my 18.33 comment as the first and one with all the previous comments. Clicking on the top bar switches between them!

  368. Headline..”Soldiers asked to disarm during Leon Panetta speech in Afghanistan”
    Then beneath…
    “US soldiers were asked to disarm during a speech by Leon Panetta, the American defence secretary, in a sign of grown concern over spates of seemingly random violence in Afghanistan.”

    The above from ‘The Daily Telegraph’.

    Also, according to Alex Jones (and that’s good enough for me) the same applies to high ranking US Generals in Iraq; they will not go amongst their own soldiers for meetings & speeches & suchlike; unless the soldiers are disarmed first.

    This is a big deal. Remember how we could once laugh at ‘regimes’ who protected themselves from their own people and their own soldiers.

    The conclusion that I draw is that the US forces are not loyal to their elites in the way that we have always assumed in the west (the French special case).

    This is because the men have realised that their elites are not loyal to them.
    This is because the Government of the US has been hijacked by the NWO (yawn yes I know, but there it is).

    So what the Hell are ‘our boys’ killing for in Afghanistan?

    For the values of Tony Blair*, Gordon Brown and David Cameron?

    Would you kill anyone for those three swine?

    Are the soldiers killing for ‘Queen and Country’? I defy any rational person to make that case. What country?

    Even the most plugged in mainstream commentators now hesitate to pretend that the soldiers are really in Afghanistan to ‘make the UK secure from terrorism’. ‘The Sun” editorial did not defend keeping soldiers in any longer after those six were killed last week.

    I suggest that ‘our soldiers’ are killing for ‘us’ about as much as ‘our Police’ are
    working for us or our courts or our politicians or our Social Services or our Archbishop of Canterbury or…….

    Look, everything else in ‘our’ world has been stolen and perverted; it takes some faith to say….

    ‘No!
    Not the military.
    They’re different. They would not be working for The Bad Guys. They would never become a tool in the hands of The Agenda!’

    This is disturbing stuff if you think about it without illusions. According to ‘coalition forces’ the death toll in Iraq was 250,000 according to the UN; 600,000 due to the invasion.
    Whatever, it will now be much higher after disease sectarian killings etc

    What has ‘our’ country become?

    (*Tony B. also referred to ‘his’ soldiers btw)

  369. Austin Barry
    March 19th, 2012 – 15:10

    Headline from today’s Independent:

    “Brian Paddick: ‘Politics is affecting my relationship with my husband”

    Well, at least that answers the ‘who pitches, who catches’ question. Thanks, Brian.
    =============================
    I would have thought Paddick’s HIV positive status would affect it more.

  370. Peter of Maidstone:
    Sorry if I appear ungrateful, but I liked the Wall as it was before. I’m getting very disoriented 🙁

  371. No problem at all. We can try things without much cost to us and then go back to what we had if it doesn’t work.

  372. Poor Peter from M … We’re complaining as though we were paying customers and “know our rights” … P from M, you got this blog up and running in the blink of an eye and everything on it works and there is no officious monitoring for political purposes.

    It’s great!

  373. @John Richardson 19th, – 19:42

    “(*Tony B. also referred to ‘his’ soldiers btw)”

    Aye, well, he was always a deluded b*stard, from the day he was elected party leader.

  374. Ostrich – He was a deluded bastard since university when he thought he was going to be a rock star. His group was called Ugly Rumours. I will refrain from comment.

  375. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2117310/Veiled-Muslim-juror-asked-stand-judge-wouldn-t-able-facial-expressions.html

    The dhimmitude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The judge asked this bint if she would agree to remove her veil (mask) and she said no. So he APOLOGISED and said that for this case he would have to be able to see the jury’s facial expressions so EXCUSED HER.

    He is in charge of the courtroom. Why did he ask her? Why didn’t he just order her to take her bloody mask off? Surely to God a judge cannot be so ignorant that he thinks this desert gear is worn on the command of mohammad or allah or the tooth fairy!! (Even if it were, so what? Since when was a British courtroom subject to the laws a desert dweller thought up during an epileptic seizure?) Google mohammad and epilepsy, by the way. It explains a lot.

    (Frankly, if I were on the stand, I would prefer that an ugly desert dweller not be on the jury trying me, but that’s beside the point.)

    So a judge in a British court acceeded to what he thought a tinpot local diety, or his epileptic prophet, in a desert 1200 years ago, might not approve of. the local people of the time could be excused for thinking the man mumbling during a seizure was getting messages from the local diety, but a judge in a British court being so ignorant of the history of these desert dwelling incomers is appalling.

    He should have ordered her to take her mask (oops! sorry! niqab!) off or face imprisonment.

  376. The sheer, slimy, sleazy, cowardly dishonesty of this Daily Mail headline:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2117003/Honour-violence-acceptable-say-young-British-Asians.html

    They have trained the idiot British to understand that “Asian” stands in for the word the media dare not utter … Pakistani. I don’t know, of course, but I am guessing that The Mail did not canvas the other people originating from Asia in their poll.

    How did the British press become so cowed it became willing to print transparent, easily detectable lies?

    According to Wickipedia, there are around 250,000 Sikhs in Britain. But apparently, they are not “Asians” despite hailing from India, because I am sure their opinions were not canvassed. There are around 1m Hindus, with 45 Hiindu temples in Britain. But they don’t count, either. I am sure no one asked them. There are around 250,000 Chinese. These were old figures as I couldn’t be bothered to troll through all the accompanying irrelevant bunf Google threw up … but around 2m, at today’s figures, people discontinentalised because “Asia” doesn’t mean 80m Japanese, or hundreds of millions of Chinese, Thai, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Laotians, Sri Lankans, Burmese … no, it means people from the Hindu Kush in northwest Asia on the border of Iran (which is a Middle Eastern country).

    The cowardly British media have buggered up an entire vast continent in the service of never having to print/say the word “Pakistan”. I do not want to even imagine how “Asia” is taught in British schools today.

  377. Our beloved Chancellor is apparently planning to relax Sunday trading restrictions (such as they are) during the Olympics so that visitors will not discover a Britain “closed for business”.
    Does Gideon imagine that Olympic visitors, when not glued to the mixed doubles freestyle shot-put (or stuck in the traffic jam leading to or from such events) will make a beeline for the nearest retail park hoping to enjoy the Sabbath™ trawl round B&Q and World of Leather – only to gasp in dismay: “England is closed for business!”?

  380. Ken Livingstone’s “Ich bin ein Meccanischer” speech I caught before seeing Verity’s post at 01.42 when I was reading the current blog on Jihad Watch and looking at a number of videoclips by Arabic speakers with English sub-titles which I think should also be read and watched by New Wallers. They will be interested for instance in the view of one muslim spokesman expressed there that the prophecy of Mohammed that islam would take Rome is on course for realisation.

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/

  382. “Empire” on TV tonight was very boring. Of course the story of slavery was heartbreaking, but Paxo, again in horrid blue shirt was uninteresting and dull. What interested me, was that earlier in the day, I was in a large chainstore bookshop, and they had piles of the book “Empire” right in the front. The book itself is pretty slim and I saw absolutely nobody even bothering to open it. To attract my attention, it would have to have at the least coloured, pop-up illustrations!

  383. Still on the subject of books, the wretched “DM” annunces that our old friend from the “Speccie” is broke. Despite the ‘Woman in Black’ , Susan Hill is down on her uppers.

  384. Malfleur – I went to your Telegraph link and thought, given the subject, that the comments seemd rather sparsely checked. I tried to RECOMMEND a couple of comments, but the recommend click didn’t register. Clearly, it’s been disabled, although they are maintaining a charade of an open blog. They just haven’t announced it. But it’s shut up tight.

  385. AWK – Sorry to hear that. She certainly had a deadly boring blog, but did she do her own negotiations with the film company?

  386. Verity

    The “Recommend” button worked when I visited Andrew Gilligan’s blog and when I revisited just now; 368 comments at last look; but you will notice that that number is very high compared with comments on his previous four blogs listed to the right of the article which were, in reverse chronological order on March 18th, 17th, 16th and 16th: 49, 41, 37, and 14 respectively.

    I agree that it is puzzling, to say the least, that comments have already closed on the Ed West blog of the same day.

    Perhaps the reason is that Ed West’s criticism of Livingstone are very much more acid than Gilligan’s, as in for example: ‘ …He [Livingstone] also promised to “make your life a bit easier financially.” I’m not sure what he meant by the last one. Ken made life easier financially for quite a few people during his eight years in power, but money is not really the issue.’

  387. The April issue of History Today (generaly a leftist mag.)has an editorial praising Jonathan Meades for delivering “challenging, erudite and wonderfully eccentric documentaries”which left the editor seeking-out more information.He wonders if viewers would do the same re. Paxman and Marr who “wrap up history in a comfort blanket and stifle the life out of it……TV history needs…a lot more confrontation” he writes.

  388. Anne Wotana Kaye 1, March 20th, 2012 – 03:12

    Nothing is impossible, but I think that either the DM, or the lady herself, might just be pulling your leg.

  389. EC
    March 20th, 2012 – 08:04
    Who knows? Seriously, can one believe all the newspapers write?

  390. As Hexamgeezer predicted yesterday, the terrible murders in Toulouse are being pinned on the “far right”, without exception, by the world’s media.

    Up until last week Marine Le Penn was polling at about 16% or 17%. This was hurting Sarko’s chances of reelection in April so much that he’d started to make overtures to the FN’s voters in recent speeches. It remains to be seen how recent events in France will be reflected in the next set of polls.

  391. “fergus pickering” on Rod Liddle’s ‘Sense about sensibilities’ thread at the Speccie:-

    “But he does need to know that writing certain things and publishing them is not on. We don’t like it, and we won’t have it. Who are we? We are the people, my friend.”

    Chilling. And note how “diversity” and “multi-culturalism” is so easily suspended when the intention is to usurp a common will. The insidious assumption of a common will by a minority of power seekers (think Common Purpose, think “leading beyond authority”) has exploited and abused the general goodwill of the English to bring this situation about. All this “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” chiding is a bluff, an intimidation which has cowed a majority into keeping quiet and still does. But reading the comments and links in the Ed West piece it is very clear that something is stirring and that the arrogant “fergus” (aka many other names) does not speak for all of the people. Besides, he has no sense of irony in the fact that his sinister “we the people” admonition stands alone in a thread where the majority of comments condemn what he purports to represent.

  392. AWK on ‘Empire’. The programme was pure deception from beginning to end. Paxo characterised Plassey as the wicked, exploitative Clive against the poor benighted heathen. No mention that it was fought almost as an extension of the Seven Years War, no mention of the preliminary attack on British Calcutta and the Black Hole incident that preceded the battle, no mention of Clive’s many Indian allies or of Siraj-ud-daulah’s French Allies. There were more Indian troops in Clive’s army than British. It was outrageously misrepresented.

    And of Opium. The programme constructed a typically simplistic Leftist narrative of the British doing all the peddling and the Chinese all as victims. The familiar Leftist morality tale of the world divided into (white) oppressors and (ethnic) victim groups larded with self-hate. This Leftist fable that oppressively governs us is so tiresome, so false and so due for sweeping away. There was no mention of the demand for opium, or of the Canton merchant class that made themselves enormously rich importing, smuggling and distributing it to their eager countrymen. No mention of Elliot and his key role. The staggering corruption, contradiction and self-delusion within the government of the Daoguang Emperor was not revealed – China was depicted almost as a modern homogenous nation. The script was pathetically inadequate and in terms of its caricaturing far worse than those jingoistic comics Paxo was sneering at last time. The trouble is the Left cannot see themselves for what they are – a replacement of all the ills of the past rather than an antidote to them.

  393. Has the Fergus Pickering name been taken over by trolls? He now sounds more like the trolls than he used to, and he/it/them uses different variants of upper/lower case spelling which is usually a sign of multiple posters. Since the Spectator must now this, and could deal with it as I do here, it is rather unfortunate (sorry, I mean appalling) that they are allowing trolling to take over again. I had thought the exposure of telemachus’ would have put an end to it.

  394. Malfleur, March 20th, 2012 – 02:19

    Ken Livingstone’s “Ich bin ein Meccanischer” speech.

    V Good! Meccanoids…

    I watched that video of Ken’s “peace be upon him” performance. It was good, but it lacked the worthy, angst ridden elements of his public apology for the slave trade that he made when he was Mayor of London. You remember, when Jesse Jackson had to leap on to the podium to comfort Ken who, consumed by remorse, had disolved into a mound of blubbering jelly. The performances of both, worthy of Oscar nominations.

  395. Nicholas
    March 20th, 2012 – 09:23
    Nicholas,
    I agree with you completely. You have presented a serious criticism of a dreadful film. I’m afraid I was so disgusted with it that I wrote some ‘flip’ nonsense. I watched Paxo at his very worst, with my husband’s snoring as a background to the rubbish Paxo spouted. I should have slept too, it was sa complete waste of a precious hour.

  396. Odd things are happening on the Speccie blog.

    I was just about to post the first comment on Rod Liddle’s lively berating of Ken Livingstones bonkers ‘Islam’ speech but, on pressing the comment button, I got a ‘Page not available’ response. Now I see Rod’s post has vanished.

    Perhaps I imagined it?

  397. I do think that the Spectator is being driven in a more ‘progressive’ direction. And on the DT site it is harder and harder to find any important topics about which comments are allowed. It does seem to be a Barclay Brothers policy decision.

  398. Austin Barry,

    Perhaps it is something to do the Mayoral election?

    This, just in from BoJo on Twitter:

    Boris Johnson ‏ @borisjohnson

    Day 1 of official election period! No City Hall resources in use, so all Tweets until 3 May are from my phone or @BackBoris2012 team.

  399. “Progressive” is just a euphemism for communism. I know that I get accused of seeing “reds under the beds”. Well, they are not under the beds any more but in a council office or town hall near you. So many of these so-called “progressive”, liberal democrat, socialist, centre-left, moderate, blah, blah, blah so-and-so’s have communist antecedents and communist hearts a-beating under their phony, philanthropic guff. It’s a great wheeze to instal East German authoritarianism under the guise of something fluffy and caring and then to demonise those who raise objection.

    Call them what they are. And don’t forget that they want to force you to comply with their ideology.

  401. EC – Every muzzie riot and every lefty apologist fuel French anger. I lived there four years ago and the ordinary French LOATHE the islamics. They are so proud of France and their civilisation that, apart from anything else, they see the islamic presence as an affront against their civilisation.

    Chirac was driven to outlaw little girls attending school in burqas … against a huge “religious” (the burqa is ancient desert gear and nothing to do with religion) outbreak of violence. The muzzies were trashing Lille and northern cities at this affront to allah. (Didn’t it occur to these violent, controlling primitives that any effective diety should have better things to occupy his mind than being prescriptive about little girls’ clothing?) … The French were in a huge snit about this primitive assault on their civilisation.

    By the way, trashing Lille when it wasn’t even Christmas was quite a departure for the muzzies. Usually, at Christmas, they set alight thousands of cars, all over France, but the big northern industrial cities get the worst of it.

    To say the French loathe the islamics is to severely understate the case. I don’t want to jinx Marine’s chances be making any predictions.

  402. Re Rod Liddle and Livingstone’s sermon in the mosque: A new Liddle blog, “Ken and The Prophet” has recently appeared and when I looked had four comments. When I looked again, it had only three – the missing one being from, I think, Austin Barry. I thought it was quite good – maybe he could re-post it here?
    Here’s another I spotted which may or may not survive on the Speccie:
    “May the Prophet Livingston (peace be upon him) cast the first stone against adulterers, qu**rs, tax dodgers and other enemies of the sta… er, caliphate.
    Insha’Allah.”

  403. At Austin Barry “sympathetic and community-cohesive croissant”. Ah but you may find said croissant’s origins lie in the celebration of the Battle of Tours after which an order went out to bake crescent shaped buns so the winners could consume the defeated hordes for breakfast each morning.

  404. By the way, anything mohammad said during one of his epileptic seizures can be taken with a pinch of salt. Or paprika if you prefer. The scribe who was trying to take notes during “visions” must have had one hell of a tense job. I mean at one time, mo apparently promised jihadis 72 (what is the significance of 72?) virgins for killing infidels. But by a different interpretation, what he promises jihadis was 72 raisins. Maybe he put the raisins on the table first, and when he found out it was not a great motivator, changed it to virgins.

    Who knows?

  405. Nicholas and AWK 1

    Thanks for your comments on Empire. It becomes increasingly clear that nothing is lost in missing it except material for understanding liberal disinformation.

    On the Opium Wars, it is interesting that while the opium sold to the Chinese compradores for distribution in China was largely grown in and supplied from India, the Indians, to the best of my knowledge, never suffered from its abuse to the same extent as the Chinese. Certainly it never seems to have amounted to the same problem for the British administration of India. I wonder whether its effects in China were really as deleterious as suggested to what was by 1840 the moribund economy of China, or was just a stick with which the court in Peking could beat the foreigner. I haven’t studied the question closely enough, I’m afraid.

  406. Baroness Ashton was involved with Common Purpose when she was in the NHS. She is part of the NWO. There is indeed no other means for her to rise to any such a position as she enjoys other than by patronage.

  407. There is a good modern and readable account of the Opium War by Julia Lovell which is revisionist but balanced. She goes into some detail about the Chinese perspective – the reality and the perception. You raise a very good point about consumption. Back in the day many of the older dockyard coolies in the treaty ports reckoned they needed their daily smoke to get through the day and it seemed to have no ill effects on their work – which was arduous in the extreme. The confucian scholarly class that ran things in Imperial China were often quite divorced from the practical world and indeed their refined idealism never really reflected the vice, corruption and cruelties of everyday life. With communism the subject has been clouded even further by propaganda, revisionist history and the great burgeoning of xenophobic patriotism in China, always latent. Despite being thoroughly de-bagged in the West and despite Tiananmen Square there is no discrediting of Maoism in China – if anything reverence for Mao as a symbolic figure responsible for the emergence of China as a super power is growing.

    Of course, Paxo also failed to mention the reality of opiates in everyday Victorian life in Britain too, quite different from today.

  408. Peter From Maidstone.

    Peter should we be offering you condolences on the death of Pope Shenouda III?

  409. Austin Barry,

    Rod Liddle’s “Ken and the Prophet” blog is back up again.
    After trip to the legal beagles and a hasty rewrite perhaps? (I didn’t see the original)

    Rod nails it when he calls Ken a “clapped-out newt-bothering Stalinist.”

  411. Malfleur
    March 20th, 2012 – 16:20

    FrenchNews

    I wonder what the 21st century equivalent of the croissant might be
    ============== ====================

    scrapple !

  412. David, thank you. It was his funeral today. I saw most of it on the TV.

  413. David Ossitt

    The blogs on Jihad Watch which I mentioned at 02.19 include a video clip of Egyptian cleric Wagdi Ghoneim talking about Pope Shenouda III in the most venomous terms. Scroll down to the item headed “Egyptian Muslim cleric: “With the grace of Allah, the head of unbelief and polytheism, known as Shenouda, died yesterday, may Allah exact revenge from him”” I would imagine that whatever Peter from Maidstone’s affiliation, he would find this muslim’s views most upsetting. They do however help us to understand the unbending mania of such people: http://www.jihadwatch.org/

  414. Malfleur.

    “They do however help us to understand the unbending mania of such people”

    And it is a mania; strange that most of the worlds great religions foster love and care.

    Whilst this other never has.

  415. EC

    Rod Liddle Redux looks much the same as the original post. Like you I suspect the lawyers had a second look at it.

  416. There is so much anti-Christian violence in Egypt that never gets reported in the UK.

  417. EC/Austin Barry

    “EC
    Rod Liddle Redux looks much the same as the original post. Like you I suspect the lawyers had a second look at it.”

    You bet, if only to justify another invoice. It is rumoured that the muzzies have indirectly cost the Speccie well over a £1m during the past few moons in ‘opinions’ about blog content.

    I suppose the BB can afford it, but their Scottish genes will undoubtedly feel the pain. The annual premiums must have gone through the roof, too. So keep up the good work. Every time you get a comment expunged, a little spasm occurs in Monaco or Sark (or anywhere else they happen to be enjoying the fruits of their w & d).

    Their serpentine progress is well, if not necessarily comprehensively, charted in this excellent report from 2004 by Simon Clark and Erik Shatzker via Bloomberg : interesting reading for anybody that enjoys delving into the subterranean corridors of power to acquaint themselves with whose hands are really on the levers.

    http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=86636

    The unholy alliance of tax exiles in Monaco and the ties that bind them are beyond the analytical capability of the computer capacity of the combined Law Enforcement agencies of the Western World. Not that they would be permitted to undertake such a task, even if they wanted to. When money talks bullshit walks.

  419. Lovely picture on the front page of the Daily Telegraph of The Duchess of Cambridge with a spade between her legs, smiling away and apparently not missing hubby a bit.

  420. Does anybody else find the Guardian’s “Three Little Pigs” advert on TV as creepy as I do? From the revisionism, the casual imagery of the heavily armed Brazil type SWAT team arresting the unarmed pig, the media orgy, the falsetto voiced police “spokesman”, the “bankers made them do it” message and the subliminal reversal of the villain(s) from wolf to pigs. Far from seeing something from all sides it seems to be a meme for the manipulative distortions of the Left. I find it strange and horrible and wonder who was responsible for it.

  421. Verity
    March 20th, 2012 6:16pmReport this comment

    AWK -I think she’s Eddie Izzard in drag. This is Eddie Izzard’s day job.

    ———————————–
    Verity: You flatter the ‘barreness’. Eddie Izzard in drag is a beauty queen compared to her/it.
    Verity
    March 20th, 2012 6:16pmReport this comment

    AWK -I think she’s Eddie Izzard in drag. This is Eddie Izzard’s day job.

    ———————————–
    Verity: You flatter the ‘barreness’. Eddie Izzard in drag is a beauty queen compared to her/it.
    Verity: I posted this on the Speccie, because I like Murray. However, seeing so much scum posting there , I will not go often anymore.

  422. I agree Nicholas. It is very creepy and seems to be promoting the black is white, white is black, perversion of language.

  423. AWK quotes me: “Verity: I posted this on the Speccie, because I like Murray. However, seeing so much scum posting there , I will not go often anymore.”

    Who’s Murray?

  425. Frank P @18:55

    Thanks for the mind boggling link. Never mind ACP, that’s quite a filing system that you’ve got yourself!

    “We do not consider our financial, business or charitable affairs to be of public interest as we are not answerable to shareholders, or indeed members of the public,” he wrote in response to requests for interviews for this story. “We would prefer if you did not write about us at all.”

    Yeah, right!

  426. I went to have a look at how easy it would be to register to vote in the London Mayoral election. It seems that all a politician would need to do would be to go online, register their entire family, or a made up family, as living with them. Then apply for a postal vote for each of these names, and state that they will be unavoidably outside the country at the time of the election. It seems, as far as I can see from the official website, that persons with ill intent could register an almost unlimited number of voters. Indeed the entire population of Pakistan and Bangladesh is able to vote in the London Mayoral election as long as they are willing to fill in a form and provide a London address.

    Of course it is easy to guess how many English people are qualified to vote in Pakistani elections!

  427. Peter from Maidstone
    March 20th, 2012 – 20:53
    and Verity

    Al Murray?
    ———————
    Douglas Murray. Forgive my sloppy writing. Douglas Murray is a bright young man.

  428. “The Leader of All Progressive Mankind—-The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”.The term may first have been applied to Comrade Stalin himself. I later applied it to Bill Clinton.Following that comes the Leadereen of All Mankind: Hillary Rodem Clinton.(That should be ‘of All Human Kind’:Personkind(?).)

  429. For some time I have half joked with myself that the Beast of Revelation could be IT.
    We know, from Holy Scripture, quite a lot about the Beast and what it will get up to.
    Only through IT could all mankind be made to worship at once; though the ‘worship’ would be a debased form of communion based upon artificial neural connections.
    Loads of people, doubtless, thought of that when the ‘666’ mark of the Beast could be identified as a chip under the skin of the palm or forehead.
    OK.
    However, every now and again the joke wears thin as with this recent article from ‘Wired’ magazine.

    “CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher
    By Spencer Ackerman Email Author March 15, 2012 | 5:35 pm | Categories: Info War, Spies, Secrecy and Surveillance

    More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.

    Earlier this month, Petraeus mused about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus enthused, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”

    All those new online devices are a treasure trove of data if you’re a “person of interest”* to the spy community. Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. With the rise of the “smart home,” you’d be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency can intercept in real time when you use the lighting app on your phone to adjust your living room’s ambiance.

    “Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing,” Petraeus said, “the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.”

    Petraeus allowed that these household spy devices “change our notions of secrecy” and prompt a rethink of “our notions of identity and secrecy.” All of which is true — if convenient for a CIA director.”

    The article is online for anyone who would like to read more. The article continues with assurances about how something called ‘the law’ prevents the abuse of power by the agencies of the state. Not now. Not any more. Not in the US, the UK or anywhere else.

    I’ve known for some time that all telephones & laptops are able to listen to and observe us even while turned off.
    Then things like toothbrushes and household goods started getting these IF chips installed ie see dishwashers above.

    I’ve even read that the new light bulb are able to detect, store and actually transmit the electronic communications in your home.I haven’t got a clue. I did not understand the science when I heard it explained so who knows?

    Whatever the case is, on the whole it can feel like your living in one of those
    scary sci fi films set in the near future. Those films where hardly any one else seems to realise the terrible danger until…..

    These chips, at first the public were assured it was a crime prevention initiative.
    Well, I ask you; if that is true why have I not heard about one single London looter having his/her plasma TV taken away because the ‘chip technology’ allowed the authorities to track and recover the stolen goods?

    That’s what it is supposed to be for.

    They are lying and the whole point of this technology is something completely different. Further, when you are aware just how advanced this technology now is, it is very hard to accept the official story about ‘terrorism’. Honest, it would be more of a comfort if I did accept the official story.

    Something wicked this way comes?

    Nope, it’s been here for at least 15 years.

    *Anyone who holds Christian values will soon be a ‘person of interest’ to the degenerate Euro Welfare State, but you knew that already.

  430. Much made of Ken sucking up to the desert filth.

    He obviously can’t help himself. Have we all forgotten his love for the murderous bogtrotters as they blasted their way to power in NI?

    Clearly, Ken would rather not face the electorate. Naked aggression, criminality and ritualised slaughter are seem his preferred route to power.

  434. John R

    And just in case that failed to make you pass the bug from your bum, spend an hour with Duncan Campbell – this should do the trick:

    http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/6/6929/1.html

    Watch out! There’s an eavesdropper about!

    Ahhh, the sweet innocence of those earlier days of WT & RT skullduggery, when all we had were two RCA AR88 receivers; split headphones; two acres of antennae; an H2 pencil; Proforma log sheets; highly trained morse skills and a knowledge of the World’s Communications procedures and protocols. We just listened to the (potential) enemy and sent the traffic back to Berkeley Square to what we thought were loyal members of HM Secret Service. That was of course before we learned about the ‘Cambridge Five’ . But we won the Cold War anyway, didn’t we? Well .. didn’t we??

    Bwaaahahahaha!!

    Sleep well, old chum and don’t worry about your toaster spying on you. We’re all toast anyway when the Twelfth Imam comes out of hiding. So far it’s the only sobriquet that Telemachus, aka etcetera, etcetera and etcetera, hasn’t used, so I have my suspicions.

  435. Gosh “baroness” Ashton’s ugly! I mean, ugleeeeeee. Grotesque.

    OK, so we can agree, without a shadow of doubt, without a single dissenting voice, that this individual is a walking emetic. Everyone who has to meet with her probably comes packin’ Alka-Seltzer.

    So why did she get the job in Europe?

    She seems to be a bit thick and clumsy in her public personna. Her looks would have mohammad on his knees begging her to put on a burqa. Her intelligence seems to be (ahem) limited.

    So why did she get the job?

    Any ideas, anyone?

  436. Ashton was given a non- job in the horse-trading that goes around(mainly between the frogs,huns&brits) because she was a non-entity.

  437. Radford NG – Well, yes, obviously she is a natural entrant for horse trading.

    But she doesn’t bring any oats to the stable.

    My point is, this individual has nothing, rien, nada to trade with.

    Why did she get the job?

  439. It appears she just got lucky.The nomination was given to Brown after he failed to get Blair accepted as’President’ of the EU….she was his consolation prize(according to Wikipedia).And was sufficiently unknown to be accepted.

  440. Radford NG – Whoaaaah!

    If she was the consolation prize, what was the winning prize? A week in a Siberian salt mine?

  441. Found it:eurofacts june press(18 Dec. 2009)….re Ashton;”Farage….lost for words….two nonentities(selected)…”Disgracefull”….horse-trading.”The newsletter ‘eurofacts’ is a great source of information and statistics contra the E.U.

  442. Frank P, were you in the Signals? Doing National Service or as a regular? My Dad was in the Signals in Germany in the late 50’s, early 60’s. AT Langeleben.

  443. Wow, Catherine Ashton is coming in for a lot of stick.

    Please remember that she a difficult childhood. She was so ugly that her mother fed her by catapult. When she and her family drove on holiday, she stuck her head out the window and got arrested for mooning. It wasn’t much better when she grew up. She was so fat that when she lay on the beach people felt sorry for her and tried to roll her back in the water.

    Let’s be kind, folks, at least she has the face of a saint – a Saint Bernard.

    ( For more of the same, please note that I will be appearing in “Holiday Fiesta” at the Palace Theatre, Paignton from June for six weeks. See you there, playmates.)

  444. Four Jews are shot, by the same killer (or, to be accurate, by the same weapon) that killed three French soldiers.

    And, as usual, the MSM and the politicians are quick to lay the blame at the door of the right.

    Meanwhile, in the UK, the trial of a bunch of perverts who gang-raped a 15 year old unconcious through drink continues in Leeds. this time, even though the idiots filmed themselves, nevertheless, the MSM identifies them as ‘men’ or ‘Asian men’.

    So, lets shout it out loud for them shall we? They were all Muslims. In France, home-grown Alkie-Ida nutters, in the UK, just part of the tidal wave of deparved religious deviants that has washed up on UK shores from the deserts of north Africa and the hell-holes of the Indian sub-continent.

    Muslims OK? Just following the teachings of their hate-book, maintaining the women-hating, murderous attitudes of their forbears.

  445. Why lie like that Austin! I went straight to the Palace Theatre website to book tickets and discovered there was no such show!

  446. I see that the DT is saying that the French have surrounded the house of a ‘Jihadist’. So, (without being premature, it seems that the MSM/Left agenda of blaming it on the right was, once again, off target)

  447. Peter

    Apologies. I have these fantasies. My psychiatrist told me I was crazy. I told him I want a second opinion. He said okay you’re ugly too

    I think my troubles stem from my childhood. My parents didn’t like me. For bath toys they gave me a toaster and radio.

    Also, I think I may be gay. On the family tree I’m in the fruit section.

    Arghhh.

  448. If the yanks are so good at IT how come British and American teenagers are reportedly regularly hacking into some of their most vital facilites? Instead of extraditing and imprisoning these kids they should put them on the payroll.

    In Germany the state sponsored snooping entity is called the “Bundestrojaner.” The authorities were highly embarrassed recently when the Chaos Computer Club hacked the code and gave it a good Fisking – demonstrating how badly written it was. (that heise.de website has many articles on it) But don’t underestimate the Germans they’ll get it right eventually.

    The BBC’s take on the German hackers with a conscience.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9393571.stm

    Ssshh! Don’t mention the Chinese, OK.

  449. Ooh, I say, my wife, you know, now I’m not saying she’s fat, ho ho, but every time I go down on her I scorch me bum on the lightbulb.

  451. My naughty niece:

    > A father walks into a restaurant with his young son and gives the young boy 3 coins to play with to keep him occupied. Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue in the face. The father realises the boy has swallowed the coins and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up 2 of the coins, but keeps choking. Looking at his son, the father is panicking, shouting for help.

    A well dressed, attractive, and serious looking woman, in a blue business suit is sitting at a coffee bar reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper and places it on the counter, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant..

    Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants; takes hold of the boy’s testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first and then ever so firmly. After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last coin, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand.

    Releasing the boy’s testicles, the woman hands the coin to the father and walks back to her seat at the coffee bar without saying a word. As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, “I’ve never seen anybody do anything like that before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor?”

    ‘No,’ the woman replied. ‘I’m with the Inland Revenue.’ <

    I think my NN is not looking forward to Boy George's budget today. 🙂

  452. EC (08:57)

    Thanks, I had missed that one. Pat at his caustic best. Disseminate, disseminate.

    He’s looking unwell, don’t you think?

  454. I see that all the climate change laws which cost us £685 a year are to be protected from any amendment as they are critical legislation. Certainly they are critical to the fortunes of those making lots of money from the rest of us.

  459. So the letter to the Guardian by the usual Islamists and Dhimmis asserts that the press is “whipping up a climate of fear of Islam ..”

    I don’t suppose for a moment that these characters appreciate the situational irony of having the letter published this morning.

  460. Nicholas (10.53)

    I’m surprised Nicholas Hadjinikos didn’t sign it. But then he probably did – in another name? 🙂

    Clear Memories

    Catch up! EC posted that at 8:57 and we’ve been talking about all morning.
    Not that repetition is a bad thing but it does indicate that you’re not reading the blog.

  461. Austin Barry,

    More or less the same point that I was just making to Melanie Phillips.
    And let us not forget that until the BBC/MSM were forced to cough up the awful truth they were almost exclusively pinning the Toulouse atrocity on “the far right.”

  463. PETER, PLEASE REMOVE WHAT I WROTE ABOVE AS IT IS SO FULL OF SPELLING AND TYPING MISTAKES. MY ONLY EXCUSE IS HOW UPSET I AM. PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

    The news coming in seems to indicate that the evil devil who destroyed the innocent lives of Jewish people at the French school and earlier murdered French soldiers is a fundamental fanatic muslim. Bitter news for the almost equally evil Left, who would do anything to blame the Right. In this tragedy of people being mown down, why do I say the Left is almost equally evil as the fundamentalists? The answer is that they have deliberately opened the gates for them to take over civilised countries. Witness Britain? The primitive barbarians swarm all over, destroying the native culture and replacing it with their sick practices. The rape of English girls mentioned on this Wall today is just one example. The Left introduced legislation making it illegal to even mention the filth by their most common name PAKISTANIS. The Left make it compulsory to call them Asians, an insult to millions of decent people. It is no coincidence that the Algerian who ran wild killing spent time in Pakistan training to carry out his wicked deeds. The BBC must be quite distraught that they cannot whinge about the ‘wicked rightwingers, Marine Le Pen and all who recogise the barbarians in our midst.

  464. It is so easy it seems for the Leftist establishment to categorise anything they don’t want to hear as a “phobia”, “hate group”, etc., and to demand sanctions, including criminalisation, that do not seem to require any burden of proof for them. This is near totalitarian and we seem to be walking into it.

    “An alternative inquiry is necessary to investigate what many regard as widespread and systematic discriminatory practices in reporting on Muslims and Islam in the British media.”

    That “what many regard” qualification is fantastically subjective and without any actual verification. But, if such a demand is to be considered valid, then try this:-

    “An inquiry is necessary to investigate what many regard as widespread and systematic discriminatory practices in the reporting of UK politics by the BBC.”

    That letter stems from the usual Leftist presumption of being correct about everything, having a moral supremacy and that their world view is verified by the empirical “evidence”. Unfortunately the establishment test of this “evidence” is piss poor and seems to rely wholly on “because I say so”. The whole justice system is rapidly becoming one of a presumed veracity of complaint by “victim” and a subsequent onus on the “offender” to disprove the accusation.

    Do we really want a situation as in Canada where right wing journalists and bloggers are hauled before a “Human Rights Commission” on the say so of partisan Leftist agitators and activists who wish to suppress free speech, have learned a cunning wheeze by the manipulation of language in order to do so and have been facilitated in that project by the Justice establishment? This all started because Tony Blair conflated the ideology of a political party with Justice, eroded Common Law safeguards and politicised the supposedly neutral establishment, including the police. It was in effect a cultural revolution the next inevitable stage of which will be to persecute and criminalise dissenters.

    Meanwhile the Speccie is still running the equivalent of Hello magazine articles about UK political personalities and missing entirely the humongous elephant in the room about the growing threat to liberty and freedom of speech.

  465. Austin Barry (11.49)

    Well yesterday the Guardianistas on the BBC spent all day telling us it was a right wing extremist a la Breivik. That claimed he had been ‘almost certainly’ identified by a face tattoo as one of a trio recently cashiered French Special Services forces, sacked for ‘Right Wing’ activities. On Newsnight, even a Rabbi blamed Sarkozy for whipping up right wing feelings and blamed him for inciting the act.

    Wood for trees, come to mind?

    I know why the left are acting as shills for Islam, they see them as useful Idiots in the Long March, hoping that when their internationalist socialist Utopia is achieved, they’ll deal with it a Stalin would have done, but how anybody else can defend Islam in any way, shape or form, defies logic. And of course Islam will go along with the Left, certain that when the Twelfth Imam emerges, they will dhimmify the commies.

    I’d love to be in the Cabinet room when they discuss the Islam problem. Perhaps we should ask Andy Car Park for a skit on an eavesdropped conversation; or Austin Barry – or both? C’mon guys; you know it makes sense.

    One last caveat, careful lest the holed up ‘escapee’ is merely claiming responsibility for the school shootings and the previous spate, as publicity for his branch of loonyism . Let’s see how it unfolds.

  466. Sorry, we’re all clamouring to say the same thing simultaneously here, re the French atrocity.

  467. Peter from Maidstone (11:59)

    You asked me that question many moons back and I answered it. I was indeed a Certa Cito ‘Y Service’ man, in Austria, before we handed it back. Our unit was tucked away on what was once a Luftwaffe aerodrome, in Thalerhof bei Graz – which is now an International Flughafen. Your Dad may have been doing the same thing in Germany – but he’s obviously a bit younger.

  468. Frank P
    March 21st, 2012 – 11:53

    8:57 for you is dinnertime for me. As we’re 10 hours ahead, as the world turns, I’m always waiting for you to catch up.

  469. Thanks Frank, I knew you had said but couldn’t find where or when. My Dad is still a young 74.

  471. Peter

    Actually it was only six moons ago – and it was a three-way conversation on the Old Wall between Rhoda, you and me.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7336538/coffeehousers-wall-24-october-30-october-2011.thtml

    Extracts;
    Rhoda Klapp
    October 26th, 2011 1:54pmReport this comment
    Frank, when were you there? I went to Aisne Lines primary school, around ’56. My dad was in the training regt.

    Frank P
    October 26th, 2011 2:40pmReport this comment
    Rhoda Klapp
    When was I there? Early 1952.
    Catterick was excellent for muscle toning – all those FSMO clad marches over the Yorkshire moors. Then at completion of basic training, to 10 WTS in Woodhouse Eaves and Beau Manor Leicestershire for ‘ Y Service’ training, before being shipped to a listening post on the plateau at Thalerhof bei Graz, Oesterreich, to knob the morse transmissions of the ‘potential enemies’. Didn’t find out until much later of course that the stuff we were sending back to Berkeley Square was being read by the real enemy – Burgess , McClean, et al. By then I had changed the colour of my uniform and eventually lurked in mufti, delving into the murkier depths of treachery and sleaze. We are indeed a fucked up species and there are none so deaf …

    Peter From Maidstone
    October 26th, 2011 2:56pmReport this comment
    Frank P, my Dad did National Service in the Signals. He went through Catterick and Woodhouse Eaves and ended up a few miles from the Red Army at Langeleben, a long way north of you of course, and a bit later.

    It’s worth reading through the whole Wall for that week; the Wall was jumping then and it was before the rot set in, some really good stuff from Nicholas and several other renegades; it’s a good exemplar of what the Speccie let go -twats!

    Mind you Telemuck was being very silly as usual, or example:

    telemachus’
    October 24th, 2011 6:45pm
    Report this comment
    Peter From Maidstone
    October 24th, 2011 1:26pm

    “Day One of the new Libyan democracy and it imposes sharia law and legalises polygamy. Welcome to the new fundamentalist Islamic Libya.”

    Give ’em a chance

    This is a gross slur on a group of freedom fighters feeling their way

    Fortunately Sarkozy and Cameron have more sense.

    [Ha!]

  472. ‘[Rugby] is an unsophisticated game designed for middle-class, latent homosexuals.’

    – Austin Barry on a Martin Bright blog which no-one will read.

    Seconded. I used to know a pair who had to sit together at meals, no matter what. The late arrival would snuggle in beside his friend, annoying everybody else, and the two of them would go through an ecstatic ritual of giggling and poking each other like two acolytes in a novelette by Ronald Firbank.

    It was enough to make a chap chunder through his nose.

    Later in life, they donned beards in a cheap alternative to ZZ Top, and are now no doubt waiting agog on the gay marriage proposals so they can set up a longed-for menage a quatre. WBGTDWI?

  473. I have played rugby and still enjoy watching it. I commented about it previously which is presumably what has triggered ACP’s blast from the past about it being a game for latent homosexuals.

    I’d much prefer him just to insult me directly rather than mess about with the non too subtle innuendo, thanks.

  474. Today’s news, a 15-year old Worcestershire schoolboy has died after collapsing during a rugby match in Kidderminster. I cannot recall so many tragedies on the sports field as seem to happen now. Not only the famous football player, but ordinary schoolgirls and boys, at swimming pools and playing fields. What is happening?

  475. ‘presumably what has triggered ACP’s blast’

    Completely and utterly wrong. I am blithely unaware of the post to which you refer. You presume too much.

  476. Austin Barry 7:57 – What a great post. Very invigorating with a first cup of tea. Thank you.

    Clear Memories 7:59 – excellent. Mohammadans (I call them that because they hate it) are probably the most depraved group in the world. Is it too late for the Kool-aid, I wonder? You could tell them it was being given to them on the command of allah and they’d drink it. They wouldn’t look it up. They don’t look anything up. They believe with all their hearts that allah gave fashion advice and forbade women to go out without all that desert gear. The imams can’t point to where it is in their q’ranny deal, because it’s not there, but they believe it anyway.

    Peter Maidstone 8:12 … you have knocked me over with a feather. Having lived in France, I am betting the French papers reported the perp as a probable islamic right from the git go.

  477. Meanwhile, on the world’s most inappropriately named blog – the BBC’s ‘Have Your Say’ one can opine, subject to moderation, on aspirin or One Direction’s topping of the US charts.

    This must be grounds on it’s own for withholding the license fee.

  479. Unhappily, before achieving my current Adonis-like physique, I was a scrawny rickety youth, albeit with almost angelic features, which meant that the sado-masochistic delights of rugby rather passed me by. But as a game it has one major failing. Unlike football it has no sustained ebb and flow, but rather a constantly broken narrative festooned with obscure but game-changing penalties. Perhaps its principal purpose is to provide a healthy outdoor pastime for pie-eaters of Desperate Dan dimensions. Nothing wrong with that.

  480. I suppose Mohammed Merah may as well hang on until they whack him – he’s got nothing Toulouse.

    Well, I dunno; a choice between 72 virgins or being butt-raped in a flowery dell, I suppose.

    Merah, Merah
    On The Wall
    Who is the foulest
    Of them all?

    You of course: you child murdering, monstrous muzzie!.

  481. Peter from M re “windfars (an ignorant misnomer, but what’s new?) – “Certainly they are critical to the fortunes of those making lots of money from the rest of us.”

    Yes. Samantha Cameron’s father.

    AWK 12:13 … I have posted and posted and posted that the media must stop libelling over around 2 billion people by calling Paki perps “Asians”. I’ve been bringing this up for months. In my last post, I also pointed out that Pakis are barely even in Asia. They are right up there in the Hindu Kush on the BORDER OF IRAN, WHICH IS A MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRY

    Legitatimate “Asians” (the word has now been disgraced) are Chinese, Japanese, S Koreans, N Koreans, Mongolians, Hong Kongers, Thai, Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indians, Sr Lankans, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Burmese, Indonesians. THESE PEOPLE ARE ASIANS. A couple of billion of them, having their cultures smeared because the British media is afraid to call Pakis Pakistanis.

    They make me sick. Snivelling bullied cowards, every one of them.

  482. Daddy was at Catterick. The war was declared over before he was shipped out, thank God. I was a baby at the time, but he would refer to it from time to time when I was growing up.

    Austin Barry … Its similarity to rugby, with all the irritatiing interruptions rather than, as you say, the sustained ebb and flow of soccer, is why I can’t stand American football, which was based on rugby. I find it a most irritating game.

  483. Verity

    “They make me sick. Snivelling bullied cowards, every one of them.”

    Agreed; but its the legal fees wot done it! Shyster’s queuing up to cash in on the shit-crazy ‘hate’ legislation – and editors with peanut balls, which the shysters have already measured in micrometres with a custom built gauge for the job – it can also be used for sexing chicklets. Dunno how to describe cowardly editoresses?

  485. I have to say that I have very much enjoyed watching the Six Nations, and I am not a latent homosexual at all. Our national team seem patriotic, brave and hardy, unlike most of our national footballers.

  486. Austin Barry … agreed. All those vast shoulder pads and those thick helmets with bars in front of them. And they stop play every two minutes to resolve disputes. It is the most soporific of sports after synchronised swimming.

  487. Austin Barry’s posts at 7.57 and 8.57

    are seriously funny. Can he be persuaded to combine his humour and his politics into a blog here. We might be able to groom our own Mark Steyn.

    Peter from Maidstone

    What happened to avatars? That was the first time I ever bothered to get one!

  488. Nicholas
    You are not wrong. From yesterdays Independent, written by one Amol Rajan
    It should be a cause of national shame that the two main political parties in Britain refuse to stand up for immigration, and are committed to making it harder for immigrants to come here – in other words, to criminalising the ultimate expression of what it is to be be human, and to stop other heroes like Fabrice Muamba from inspiring their fellow patriots.
    This is definately another point of view. What bothers me is the use of the word ‘criminalising.’ I do hope that this chap is not a lawyer

  489. Verity (15:49)

    “Daddy was at Catterick. The war was declared over before he was shipped out, thank God. I was a baby at the time, but he would refer to it from time to time when I was growing up.”

    That’s the first clue you’ve ever given as to your age. Interesting.

    Was your Pappa in the Royal Sigs? Other Army Units did their square-bashing there, too. The drill pigs were particularly masochistic at Catterick Camp; but there’s no doubt that squaddies were fit for purpose when they left the hell-hole – those that didn’t commit suicide during the process, that is.

    There were several scandals when raw recruits jumped from the upper floors of the Sandhurst blocks at Catterick in the late 40s and early 50s, rather than face the wrath of the RSM, with belt poorly blanco-ed, unbulled boots or brasses that weren’t glittering like the RSM’s eyes when he spotted a barrel of a .303 rifle that hadn’t been properly ‘pulled through’ before morning parade.

    Nobody enjoyed the process (except the bastard NCOs who had absolute power over the ‘sprogs’ during their basic training stint). However, when remembered through the prism of experience, there’s no doubt that compulsory National Military Service would solve some of the problems of today’s ‘entitlement culture’.

    Catterick seems to have spawned a second generation of bloggers, too. I knew we had something in common. 🙂

  490. Verity

    You weren’t the girl in this couplet, that was extant when I was doing my bit back then?:

    “She was only an operator’s daughter
    But she did it ‘cos da-da-did-it. “

  491. My Dad enjoyed his National Service greatly, and always speaks of it fondly. His Dad was a regular and had taught him how to prepare his kit, which he put great effort into. He will speak for hours about his time at Langeleben.

  492. Malfleur

    I wouldn’t try grooming Austin Barry if I were you. He has already been assessed as ‘impervious to advances’, particularly from rugger-buggers.

  493. Frank P … I was literally a babe in arms but I remember the occasion vividly. I was carried downstairs to the hall and there was a man (I now realise, in uniform) standing inside the door and after a split second, I recognised him and began crying and I remember reaching out my arms and being taken into his arms and hanging on and crying hyserically. I was too young to have any words but I still remember the overwhelming emotion which I realised in later years was happiness. I can still see the colour of his clothes … khaki … and his face and eyes alight with a smile.

    I didn’t know it then, of course, but a war I didn’t know about was over.

  494. Rocket Dog

    ‘What bothers me is the use of the word ‘criminalising.’

    What bothers me is the word ‘definately’ – activate your spell checker FFS! Normally I wouldn’t be pedantic, but you definitely use the word a lot.

  495. Verity 21st, – 15:49

    “is why I can’t stand American football, which was based on rugby.”

    I t’ought it was based on gaelic football…whatever that was based on.

  496. Nicholas, March 20th at 15.56…”…there is no discrediting of Maoism in China”.

    “Except unintentionally” one might add perhaps. Bo XiLai, who did a good job on the economic side as Mayor of Dalian some years ago, fell foul of the Party last week and was kicked out of his most recent position as Party Secretary (i.e. Boss) of Chongqing, a city with about 33 million people at last count.

    The Associated Press reports (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-03/D9TKR0DG0.htm) that the Party is ordering “sensitive content” to be removed from Maoist websites now that Mr. Bo has been booted out. His removal was possibly for links with the Macau mafia or possibly for trying to get the authorities off his wife’s case or possibly for simply being a pain in the arse of too many influential people – but in some part was perhaps due to his support for Maoist popularism. Mr. Bo had made something of a reputation for himself as an oddball since taking up his post in Chongqing by promoting an attempted revival of Maoist songs and other stylistic characteristics of the good old days. He is now however quoted as saying plaintively “”As a party member and citizen, I haven’t done anything wrong” – a cry reverberating down the years in CP ranks from the 1920s.

    Newser reports the Los Angeles Times as saying “In Chongqing, music has been banned from a park where retirees used to wave red flags and sing patriotic anthems…” and links this to a general move against the Maoist faction in Chinese politics which is against the “opening up” in the country. http://www.newser.com/story/142340/china-cracks-down-on-maoists.html

    A report last year by NDT TV focuses on the dilemma which the Chinese Communist Party faces in dealing with Maoism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzl_iSGlD2I

  497. Verity (17:11)

    “I didn’t know it then, of course, but a war I didn’t know about was over.”

    Yep – and I guess those that lived through it thought, like me, that it was the longest period of misery in their lives. Yet now we look on the Iraq and Afghan wars as a ‘blinking of the eye’; mainly because the common deprivation of 1914-18 or 1939-45 doesn’t exist, except for the families of the service persdonnel involved.

    It will probably return when the Iran show kicks off – for those that are left when the SHTF, anyway.

  499. Ostrich (occasionally) … Oh, God! There’s another form of football? GAELIC football? Now you’ll tell me there’s Cornish football … and Nordic football … As they say in New York, “Enough awready!”

  500. I think Pat Condell’s strong piece would have been even stronger if instead of stressing that islam is a religion, not a race, he had identified it as a political ideology (divided into warring factions). Then the disaster which the immigration policy of our political class is wreaking on our nation would be easier to explain to a people who have been brought up to believe in religious tolerance even more than to believe in toleration of diverse political views.

    To see islam as a political ideology is to be able to draw an analogy between the current immigration policy with respect to islamists and what would have been the effect of permitting mass immigration by Nazis in the 1930s or Soviet communists in the 1960s.

    Why are we doing it now? Who is responsible? When will it stop? Who is benefiting? How do we reverse it?

  501. Sarkozy’s comments after meeting the principal faith communities:

    “The president said that the French should not be tempted by revenge and should understand that the attacks had nothing to do with religion.”

    So a self-confessed AQ Jihadist has nothing to do with religion?

  502. Malfleur – “Who is benefiting?”

    Cui bono? That is what has acutely interested me for the last ten years.

  503. Austin Barry … (Sarky) “The president said that the French should not be tempted by revenge and should understand that the attacks had nothing to do with religion.”

    And a few more tens of thousands of votes swing over to Marine. I hope the hell she is making hey while the sun shines …

  504. Frank P @17:04

    Rugby Union: I think that it is one’s vulnerability during the ritual entanglement of the scrummage that is the major concern for some.

    Austin Barry has succinctly described the problem thus:

    Lord Carey warns British Christians not to get carried away
    Austin Barry, February 18th, 2012 12:09pm

    It’s a given that Rugby is game played by latent or patent homosexuals. A scrum is all about rear presentation: “touch, pause, engage, ooooh.”

  505. http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7729928/a-man-surrounded-and-some-assumptions-exposed.thtml

    A peculiar article that appears to be trying to guide people away from believing that the attack in France was islamic. By nutty islamics. In the cause of their allah.

    The writer mentions that it is not just islamics who commit mass murder. I have a feeling that, increasingly, leftist excusers of islamic violence are going to hold up the Norwegian Breivic as an example of “righrt wing” violence to somehow balance out islamic aggression in the name of allah. I think this one instance of right wing aggression is going to be put into the service of excusing the allah-ites.

  506. Islam is not a religion, and at best Moslems follow a primitive cult movement which has the most barbaric practices in the world today. Also, apart from anything else,.practising Moslems are not very bright, even if academically intelligent. They lack a certain quality, and in turn are lead to slavery and death. Hitler, one of the most evil men of the 20th century, wrote Mein Kampf, his role model being Mohammed. Briefly here is an excerpt from Prophet of Doom
    Chapter 24 – Profitable Prophet Plan
    (pages 658-670)
    Der fuhrer’s methods for accomplishing his madness were identical to der prophet’s. Mein Kampf:676 “Spiritual terror…men must threaten and dominate men by compulsion. Compulsion is only broken by compulsion and terror by terror.” On the road to power, compulsion follows seduction. ”
    The irony of Lefties, such as Ken Livingstone slobbering before Islam, can be seen in the way Stalin set about destroying the Moslem peoples of the USSR. Stalin and Hitler were really two sides of the same coin, eager to control or exterminate other races than those who they delegated as fit to live.

  507. Malfleur (17:48)

    Once you try to protect a religion that you approve of, by calling a religion that you don’t approve of, something else, then you’re on the slippery slope. Islam is a religion, a particularly pernicious one. All religions are political. I can tolerate Christianity – just – as long as Christians don’t try to tell me they know ‘Who’ or what created the Universe – whatever that might be, in its entirety. They simply don’t know; neither do I, nor does the Dawk, for all his protestations. If humanity lasts for another thousand years, which is very unlikely, it’s very unlikely that as a ‘sentient’ species it won’t be any nearer the ‘Truth’ than Aristotle, Plato, Socrates or any of of the other guessers were. Nor Christ, nor Mo nor any of the other idols to whom people genuflect.

    But I’m prepared to tolerate any superstition or faith until the power seeking self-appointed priests, with lust and or greed or a combination of both in their hearts tell me that I’m a heretic or an infidel. When they do, my answer is “Foxtrot Oscar!” And if they try to impose their will by force then I shall take a few with me before I go. Ecrasez l’infame!

  508. Frank, why should I not say that I know who created the universe? Why should I be obliged to defer to your views any more than anyone else’s? I do know who created the universe and it is surely my right to say so unless silenced by force? Why I want to object to one tyranny to submit to another? Has anyone said your views should not be voiced?

    Or have I misunderstood the point you are making.

  509. “I was a scrawny rickety youth, albeit with almost angelic features”

    Yeah, I guessed that.

  510. After the child-murderer’s claim of vengeance Baroness Ashton’s remarks are looking even more outrageous. And of course the British Leftist Collective are now rapidly losing interest.

  512. “Frank, why should I not say that I know who created the universe?”
    Peter from Maidstone

    It’s a common mistake to make; to assume that Faith must always be at the centre of religion. Peter Hitchens (for example) makes this mistake all the time and he is certainly a Christian.
    So, no surprise that honest agnostics* think the same.

    * If not Frank P. then certainly other honest agnostics that I know.

    Frank P.

    I don’t know how interested you are in the subject as the tone of your above contributions seems rather light hearted (?).
    However, there are clear differences between cults, sects and religions.

    Cults, for example can be defined as insisting on: a strict dress code: repetitive prayer; no contact with those outside the cult; sexual repression/exploitation of women (polygamy); the persecution and even killing of those who leave the cult.

  513. With respect, Frank P, I have to agree with PfromM .

    He is not trying to force anything down anyone’s throad or hammer anything into anyone’s head. He should be at absolute liberty to say how believes the universe began. Free speech is free speech and P from M is not suggesting that anyone be harmed.

    It is only when force enters the picture that speech has to be controlled. In my opinion.

    The Crusaders were in the ME not to convert the muzzie dingbats, but to stop their encroachment on Christendom and European soil.

    Now that the Hare Krishnas have faded into a dim and irritating memory, the only people aggressively trying to promote their belief system are the muzzies. At least the most physical thing the Hare Krishnas ever did was get entangled in their robes and trip up.

    As an aside, it is interesting that the only places the muzzies have success in promoting mohammad and allah that jazz are backward places like Somalia. Buddhist countries seem to be completely immune, as are the Hindus and the Sikhs. As are Christians, Jews and people in the advanced West in general.

    The mohammadans could probably have got some traction with Jim Jones’s group, pre Kool-Aid.

    But P from M has a perfect right to say who created the universe according to his belief, I believe, Frank.

  514. Perhaps, and I am bold here, what Frank P meant to say is that he tolerates Christians (and other religions and groups – other than the Lib/Lab Coalition and the EU…) as long as they don’t get themselves in a position to tell him what to do.

    Suffice it to say that I think that Frank’s slippery slope is something down which we have already slid, and did so when we allowed islam to develop a constituency in England as a political ideology but with all the privileges of a religion.

  515. Malfleur – I wouldn’t presume to make any assumptions abourt what Frank P meant to say … given that he is capable of explaining his points in with clinical precision, but I agree with you that the British (I believe with malice aforethought via the conduit of the vile Tony Blair who was looking to his future) made an appalling error in allowing islam to develop a constitutency in Britain as a political ideology … never mind with all the privileges of a religion.

    Their values are so opposed to those of the West that they should have been categoriesed as undesirables – and indeed probably were until large amounts of baksheesh made its appearance in numbered bank accounts.

    I am for the wholesale shovelling out of almost all of them. Pakistanis aka “Asians” and Somalis can exercise their rights to a “family” life in Pakistan, Somalia and other undeveloped dumps that follow the fellow who suffered from epilepsy, and whose mumblings during seizures the ignorant locals of the time took to be messages from their god.

    They’re a poison in our national bloodstream, deliberately introduced, and should be flushed out.

  516. “Egypt’s parliament, which is dominated by two pro-Sharia Islamic supremacist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, voted unanimously last Monday to expel Israel’s ambassador to Egypt, and signaled that the Camp David Accords would soon be a thing of the past: Egypt, the parliamentarians declared, would “never” be Israel’s ally. In fact, Israel was Egypt’s “number one enemy.” And how did Barack Obama respond to this egregious trampling upon the agreement that has kept an uneasy peace between Israel and Egypt for thirty years? By announcing a resumption of military aid to Egypt.”

    http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/21/egypt-designates-israel-its-top-enemy-obama-restores-military-aid-to-egypt/

    Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of Israel.

  518. Verity
    March 21st, 2012 – 23:43 (& others)

    Whilst we all know the Quisling anti-white ECHR keeps allowing murderous scum to remain within EU borders on the grounds they have a ‘right to family life’, surely that is the only loophole our governments need?

    ‘Family life’ must mean western family life, not the misogynist, barely-legal rape that passes for marriage under the desert cult? Insisting the women they have purchased and any daughters they might sadly produce wear desert dress and act as chattels upon pain of death is surely clear evidence these scum do not wish to have a family life and therefore can be swiftly removed from amongst us without fear of subsequent legal action.

    If the ECHR disagree, let them attempt to defend the oppressive practices that constitute the tenets of the vile Allah-ites, hopefully shortening the overlong life of this anti-liberty, anti-freedom organisation.

  519. Peter can believe what he likes; say what he likes about the First Causes; like another Frank – François Marie Arouet, I would defend to the death his right say it and to believe it.

    But do I have to agree about his ‘faith’ or conclusion – his religion? Am I not entitled to disagree? Has he any more right to suggest a First Cause than I have to doubt his interpretation – or disbelieve what he has faith in? I didn’t pick a fight with him – he challenged me. Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.

    Where, in my little reply to Malfleur’s point about Islam not being a religion, did I deny Peter’s right to follow his Roman Catholic faith? It’s his opinion. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, including me I hope? I may be closer to the answer than any of you, btw so I hereby promise that if there is an answer on t’other side, I’ll find a way to post it on Peter’s blog – and I’ll apologise. Otherwise assume it’s oblivion; rather than the fires of hell, as no doubt you believe is deserved and probable in my case.

    The point I was trying to make was that Islam is indeed a religion. It is also many other things, which involve many sects and competing politics and superstitions, but as Verity has pointed out, there is a common factor to all the sects, the underlying message of conquest. That is what their militant wing is trying accelerate – and until I hear great swathes of ‘moderate muslims’ taking them to task over it, I shall assume that they all approve of that muscular acceleration as their book of rules demands.

    I am not drawing a moral equivalent between Roman Catholicism and Islam, but both are religions with a very colourful history; at this time I don’t feel too exercised about the Pope and his flock, they no longer have the militant wing I understand; they tried to whack me and my colleagues a few times (and nearly did on the day of the Old Bailey bombing), but they appear to have discontinued that method, at least for the for the time being. Moreover their ‘moderate wing’ no longer has any influence on my personal life – they did once interfere very seriously in my affairs and caused me great unhappiness; that was unnecessary and in my opinion very stupid. I do not wish to go into detail, but my wife is Irish and was Roman Catholic. I’m sure a wink is as good a nod to blind man – but some sages here will probably understand just what that entails.

    As for Islam, the religion runs deep, the Koran is the manual for the mullahs to
    exercise power and the Maddrassas are there to brainwash children and perpetuate the theme of conquest – the return of the Caliphate. As Verity so often points out – Islam means submission: ours – not theirs. I have never believed there are ‘moderate muslims’. They are all religious fanatics as I see it.

    But other religionists don’t like to admit that Islam is a religion, because they feel that it besmirches the word ‘religion’. It does indeed, but Islam is where religion has travelled along one of its many brutal highways. It is a despicable religion that oppresses its adherents and kills Jews and other ‘infidels’. We should therefore reject it for those reasons. Reject the RELIGION of Islam for those reasons. That is my opinion.

    I’m not an atheist; people must be allowed draw comfort from wherever they can, PROVIDED that they don’t think they are entitled to foist that belief on others (me in particular). I suppose some would call me ‘agnostic’, because I’ve never seen anything yet that convinces me that the sum total of human existence and all its ‘progress’, in Universal terms, is other than an infinitesimal irrelevance to whatever it was that kicked this process off ‘in the beginning.’ I suspect even that phrase is just an indication of our ignorance – why should there be a universal ‘beginning’ – just because humanity has a beginning, a middle and an end?

    I recognise my own arrogance in expressing opinions, likes and dislikes in human matters, but I’m buggered if I can summon up enough arrogance, or courage, to suggest a First Cause. Even with Master Dawkins’ (or Peter’s) help.

    The Islamic RELIGION, per se, is inimical to ‘our’ culture. But sadly, in 20I2, I don’t know what ‘our’ means in that phrase any more. WTF are ‘we’? In that respect, Malfleur is correct. But that’s not the ‘slippery slope’ that I was addressing. I was defining Islam as indeed a religion – and suggesting that it is slippery to disown the word in that context because you feel tainted by it.

    John Richardson

    The point about being agnostic is that you can be both lighthearted and serious at he same time. You can also be mischievous, coarse, stupid and irrelevant without ‘letting the side down’.

    At the age of about 15 I escaped from the clutches of the Methodist Mafia, of which I was a made member – a junior lay preacher at the age of 13. As a child I was nobbled by an evangelistic padre who used the auspices of the MAYC to brainwash a large tranche of young teenagers. I saw through the scam when he breathed rather heavily on me when I was 15. (I am in the Witness Protection Programme. 🙂 But that’s long story.

    And I enjoyed what Voltaire is reported to have said to the Priest who came to shrive him at the end. I’m sure the erudite gathering here don’t need me to remind them.

    Over the years that I have roamed the blogosphere, I have usually defended Judeo-Christians and Jews against Islamists and Atheists, in these endless and irresolvable discussions and debates. I defend their rights to their opinions and beliefs, without necessarily agreeing with them. I go along with the rituals of hatches, matches and dispatches with gusto. Why not? A good song, even though some of the lyrics are a bit iffy, is as good for my heathen soul as it is for you true believers. Mind you the predominance of bent vicars and priests seems to be proliferating and is a bit nauseating imho; reminds me of how I only just escaped as a youngster. Yes, ACP, that’s probably WBHTDWI!

    But my spirituality knows no bounds, I am afraid. I wish it did. I wish I could wallow in the faith that some of you enjoy. But I can’t kid myself. And I am not afraid of death. And as for being Eddie, Nicholas, (and I note your smiley) I repel militant atheists and militant religionists with equal vigour. Amen.

  520. Frank P

    I have no quarrel in principle with anything you say.

    On a point of information however: I did NOT write that islam was a political ideology NOT a religion; I do NOT think that the one excludes the other. What I wrote was that “Pat Condell’s strong piece would have been even stronger if instead of stressing that islam is a religion, not a race, he had identified it as a political ideology.” I can’t do italics, bold face or underlining, so you will just have to read the vocal emphasis on the word “stressing”.

    Islam is allowed to get off far too lightly because, as I indicated, it enjoys the privileges which were granted to religion as a consequence of the settlement under the Enlightenment as a quid pro quo for, in effect, staying OUT of politics. That settlement was not in my view though intended to extend its generosity to islam, which had no significant presence in England at that time,and which quite clearly has no intention of staying out of politics and nor therefore should it be allowed to enjoy those privleges in view of its political ambitions and their formulation which are unique among all the religions of which I am aware (excluding perhaps the Aztecs for the time being, pending further consideration) for their totalitarian barbarity. (I will admit that the calligraphy is very elegant. etc., etc….) Not for nothing have some people commented that communism and fascism have some of thew characteristics of a religion and its fervour. With islam, the reverse is true, but the political implications for English, indeed for European, society are every bit as threatening either by the constituency being inserted from outside with the connivance or through the negligence of our political class, or by more conventional attacks from outside if and when islam gets good and ready to employ them again.

  521. Verity’s link to the Ed West article. The comments are quite something. The article is unbelievably crass and manipulative. This stood out:-

    “It’s easy to get it wrong because so many of the world’s varied extremists, whatever their motivation and however much they might hate each other, focus their anger and loathing on similar targets – the state, the city, modernity, capitalism, and the one group who embody all these complicating, unsettling changes in the minds of lonely, failed young men – Jews.”

    For a serious journalist to write this after more than 60 years of world terror perpetrated in the name of Islam, including some of the most outrageous deliberate acts of mass murder against innocent men, women and children is beyond belief. It is perfectly understandable for ordinary people to presume that yet another act of terror is committed in the name of Islam because the empirical evidence shows that is more likely.

    It is clear from the comments that many people see the connection to the Left in what is happening, especially for enforced multiculturalism, repressing dissent and criminalising those who wish to preserve their English ethnic and cultural identities. None of the so-called conservative parties fight the Left as an entity that threatens us in the way that it does. We have “Unite Against Fascism” – I suggest it is time we also have “Unite Against Leftism”. The Leftist hegemony in Britain don’t seem to understand that in their determination not to provoke even more radicalism within muslim communities they are radicalising the indigenous English.

  522. Frank P. @ 22 March 3:29 am

    Well said, Frank P.

    Maintaining a cheerful agnosticism while dodging the theocratic thugs, and worse, of the religious is probably the optimum course through life. The proposition that one cannot live a moral and ethical existence without the direction of the ordained is of course inherently absurd and patronising.

  523. The Ummah is keeping very quiet about its co-religionist’s butchery of children in the name of Jihad.

  524. Frank P @03:29

    BRAVO! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to set that out.

    I find much of what you said very reassuring. Despite having been brought up by a Christian mother(methodist) and having derived some benefits from the moral framework of what used to be our CofE based state education system, I never quite felt as if I was “a member of the club” so to speak. I am not an atheist like Pat Condell but, politics aside, I do share some of his concerns about “organised religion” in general. (You know what I think about Islam)

    The CofE is an important part of the history and fabric of our country. I just wish that, post WW2, it could have made itself and the morality of Christ’s teachings more relevant to ordinary people. (and by that I don’t mean employing the guitar strumming, clap happy twats as vicars!)

    Not only the church, successive governments and what has become the political elite, have failed the people and not the other way around. Now it appears the solution is to change the people, and then the church – instead of amen it looks like it’s going to be inshallah.

  525. I really enjoyed my cow pie this morning. But at my age I’m finding the horns ever more difficult on the old gnashers. Now its off for a cold shower to suppress my latent homosexuality.

  526. Frank P 22nd, – 03:29

    One of your best ever. Long may we continue to read your pearls of wisdom.

  528. Interesting debate. I am struck that denominationalism may get in the way of the Word. I am heading over soon but here we look to the Churches to rein in the radicals. Terry Jones is somewhat of a fallen hero in the message against heretical faith but the current contest, if you are not a Mormon, gives credence to Baptist and Catholic alike. Santorum is getting a little tarnished but he would do well on your blog.

  529. EC @ 9.31

    “I just wish that, post WW2, it [the Church of England – my birthright by the way for those interested] could have made itself and the morality of Christ’s teachings more relevant to ordinary people.”

    And not just of that of Christ, but also of the Old Testament which is, I believe, still recognized by the various Christian groups as not without relevance.

    I am the happy customer of a second hand bookshop which carries a lot of trash among which the usual jewels. From what is available by chance, prejudices and an alert eye pick out these jewels from the trash pile. For instance,in connection with the recent topic, I came across “Fiasco – the American Military Adventure in Iraq” by Thomas E. Ricks, John Le Carre’s “The Little Drummer Girl” and most recently “Tjhe Jewish Moral Virtues” by Eugene B. Borowitz and Frances Weinman Shwartz.

    The latter volume draws on the centuries of commentary on the books of the Old Testament. What a rich treasure store that is! What a contrast to the sterile, pernicious teaching of the Koran! As the Old Testament, as we call it, was the foundation of the intellectual heritage of Jesus of Nazareth, one hopes that this deeply moral and rational nutrition for conducting,bearing and celebrating our daily lives can be more prominently propounded by the Christian churches. The Jews, as I understand it, do not proselytize; but when are the Christians in England going to pluck up the moxy to take their message into the islamic population together with the teaching of the Old Testament as glossed by the great Jewish teachers down through the ages? Of course, they would have to dare to be a Daniel…

  530. Nicholas March 22 at 9:31 am

    It’s interesting to note that although Desperate Dan is now in his mid-seventies there is no evidence of his ever having a wife or cowgirl friend. Given his red boots, nifty blue foulard and designer stubble one can only conclude that he is homo on the range in the general direction of Brokeback Mountain. Yippi, yi ooooohhh.

  531. Nicholas @09:31

    I trust that your cow pie was topped off with shortcrust and not puff pasty. 🙂

  532. EC: Shortcrust indeed, but topped off with the usual ground glass and powdered chilli.

  533. I dont normally say much that is personal but I have just started a mission with a team of others in the East End in an area that is 85% Bangladeshi Muslim.

  534. Frank P 03:29 – Neither/Nor: that’s the way to do it!

    I seem to recall that Voltaire is an anagram of Arouet L(e) J(eune), where the U and J are Romanised and you and I have concurred before that when the Emperor sends a ship across the ocean, he does not worry about the comfort of the mice in the hold. The pretensions of humanity to metaphysical knowledge or, so far as different, self-knowledge as a species, are as worthy of respect, sub specie aeternitatis, as the pretensions of mice.

    Eek, eek!

  535. Sorry guys but it states at the top “This is our opportunity to show what the Spectator Coffee House Wall could have been like.”

    Well, it seems all that has happened is a pale copy of Cranmer’s blog has evolved, but less erudite.

    Most of us are atheists (there’s no such thing as an agnostic – by accepting the premise, you automatically accept the belief – work it out for yourself) and if you strip out the religious arguments, there’s not been that much action.

    Yes, we all know Islam is not a religion but a political movement; No, the CofE has not been a force for good and has greatly let down society since the end of WWII; Yes, too many Catholic priests are kiddy-fiddlers and No, US fundamentalists are not actually sane. (Surely there’s somewhere in the Koran where it says they must take up serpents and drink poison?)

    Having got that out of the way, please feel free to believe what you will but remember its supposed to be a personal matter, not one to ram down the throats of others (job for the Muzzies) Let’s get back to surely what the site was conceived for – abusing and slandering socialists, wet Tories, Ken Livingstone, the one-eyed Scots bigot and the war-criminal Blair.

  536. Mr Barry @ 10.21, quite wrong (why am I not surprised by this).

    My good friend Dan had a well-documented dalliance with Little Bear, a native American girlfriend, from 2001 to 2007. Dan and I marched arm in arm (in male bonding, camaraderie style) in the memorable protest against Labour Party connections to the Soviet Union in 1968 and both of us were instrumental in establishing Conservative Cowboys for Christ in 1970. Dan allus found it difficult to conform to the more stringent requirements of his faith, but was generally heterosexual in his appetite except on the longest cattle drives when anything walking or breathing had cause for concern. But you would go a long way to find a better rugby player and a more congenial drinking companion, provided that one made oneself scarce by the eighth bottle of whisky if Dan was still armed.

  537. Its now bedtime here (Frank P March 21st, 2012 – 11:53) so I’m off, having tossed a stone into the ethereal pond. I look forward to the morrow with interest.

  538. According to who? ACP. That is no more than your opinion rather than a statement of fact.

  539. In fact one of my fondest memories of Dan is of him taking exception to two canoodling men in a bar after a long night of drink and debauchery. Dan was determined to avail himself of the establishment’s wall-mounted fire extinguisher in order to cool the ardour on display and his muttering, always formidable, made absolutely clear his views on such demonstrations. Now, one might presume this was self hate and self-repression, but having shared many an igloo, wigwam, tent and canoe with Dan over the years and therefore having access to his prodigious collection of pornography I can reassure that his tastes were most definitely heterosexual. Even the temptation of critters on long drives was governed by a qualification of female of the species (rattlesnakes were hard to tell though).

  540. Why should religion not be discussed? To object to any reference to Christianity is to already endorse the agenda of the NWO. It belongs to any discourse where Christians are participating because it cannot be separated from the life of Christians. To imagine it best that Christians be silent us the goal of the enemy. I will not be silent.

  541. Continuing the theological theme of this morning, the slain Toulouse butcher is now a Shahid, and can collect his reward in paradise:

    “Think not of those who are slain in Allah’s way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord. They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah: And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the Shahid’s glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they cause to grieve.”

    —Qur’an, Sura 3 (Al-i-Imran), ayat, 169-170

  542. PfM. It did not purport to be a statement of fact so much as a statement of value, namely whether pretension to knowledge commands respect. In my opinion, it does not. Therefore, any disagreement you think we have should prove, on closer inspection, to be illusory.

  543. Another child prostitution ring. 12 men arrested. Children as young as 11 used and abused.

    No mention of the ethnicity or religion of those arrested?

  544. The Media has already turned the siege and it’s upshot into an anti-Sarkozy campaign with an eye on the election- “terrible cock-up in the final execution, etc. etc.”

    Seems the result of the action is one more murderous muzzie dead; one soldier shot in the foot and one soldier feeling quite shocked (prior to his PTSD claim). Not a bad result, but a bit messy. What do you expect – they’re French, non?

  547. Just seen the British Olympic kit! Dark blue and a swish of green on it (it had to have green in it somewhere). Why on Earth does everything to do with the British Olympics have bog all to do with Britain?

    As it happens I think its a waste of money and resources and will be of great benefit to the few and a colossal pain in the rectum for the many, but if they are to do it why be so anti British about it! The kit, the creepy mascots and that awful logo copied from some criminal damage artist spraying on a railway wall!

  548. PfM 22 March 11:47 am

    The following from today’s Oxford Journal rather gives the game away:

    “Thames Valley Police has demonstrated in conducting this investigation that it is not prepared to tolerate child exploitation in Oxfordshire. The county council feels sure it is speaking for the whole community in expressing total support for the police in this regard.”

  549. Clear Memories: I was intrigued by the first three words of your post at March 22nd, 10:51.

  550. Interesting table here from an academic paper describing the incidence of child prostitution in the world. Child is defined as under-18 in this paper. It is frankly horrific.

    Country (City) Number of Children

    Southeast Asia
    Cambodia 24,000-35,000
    Indonesia 42,000
    Vietnam 20,000-40,000
    Philippines 40,000-100,000
    Thailand 200,000-800,000

    South Asia
    Bangladesh (Dacca) 10,000
    Nepal 28,000-40,000
    Pakistan 20,000-40,000
    India 400,000-575,000

    East Asia
    China 200,000
    Taiwan 40,000-60,000

    South America
    Brazil 100,000-500,000
    Colombia (Bogotá) 5,000-7,000
    Dominican Republic 25,500
    Paraguay 26,000
    Venezuela 40,000

    Europe
    Netherlands 1,000
    Russia 20,000-30,000

    North America
    USA 300,000

    Africa
    Zambia 70,000

    Source: Willis and Levy (2002), Meier (2000), Montgomery (2001), Future Group (2001) and Flowers (1998).

  551. Peter

    “I shall not be silent!”

    I just looked back to discover who demanded that you shut up. My search was in vain.

    Unless you include yourself among those I alluded to thus (in my comment of 21/19:33):

    “… power-seeking self-appointed priests, with lust, greed, or a combination of both in their hearts, tell me that I’m a heretic or an infidel. When they do, my answer is “Foxtrot Oscar!”

    I wasn’t thinking of you when I wrote that, but if you inferred that I was, because you count yourself among ’em … we-ell, I repeat:
    dididahdit dahdahdah!

    Btw. I wish you luck with your missionary work among the ‘deshis’. But watch your step in that seething jungle, chum, and have a Ruby Murray and a Cobra beer on me while you’re at it. Send me he bill. Cheers!

  552. I am presently trying to find statistics for the ethnic origin of victims and perpetrators of child sexual exploitation. I have contacted the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People and will see if they have this information.

    I know that Verity has suggested that this is only a Pakistani problem, but I think that the statistics I posted show that it is much more widespread, though certainly in the UK it seems to be restricted to a smaller ethnic base. I am waiting for statistics to support that judgement.

  553. Frank, I was objecting to Clear Memories who said..

    Having got that out of the way, please feel free to believe what you will but remember its supposed to be a personal matter, not one to ram down the throats of others (job for the Muzzies)

    He suggested that this was not a place where religion should be mentioned. I disagree with him. I was a little confused by your statement about those who believed they knew who created the universe (I do) but did not take it as suggesting I should not mention my Christian faith. I did take his post as suggesting that it was best I never mentioned Christianity.

  554. An extraordinary headline in today’s Daily Telegraph.

    “Children who speak English at home now in minority.

    Children with English as their home language are now the minority of pupils in more than 1,600 schools across England.”

  555. Frank P — As so often, I am an awe. I read every word of your treatise above and cannot see any points I would take issue with. Their are other religions, of course, other than the Judeo-Christian two and the one started by the islamic epileptic controlling nut job.

    Malfleur 7:28 – “That settlement was not in my view though intended to extend its generosity to islam,”. No, indeed. The whole point of the Crusades was, as our brave ancestors were very clear on, was to keep the murderous, primitive cult of islam out of Europe. They stopped the muslim cult at the Gates of Vienna, but some of them made it into Spain. The mantillas, that until fairly recently, you saw Spanish women wearing are, of course, a derivation of the burqa and the niqab. Some very old ladies in Mexico still wear shawls round their faces, but in the main, nowadays, it’s platform shoes, tight jeans and low cut T-shirts (for the young, that is.)

    Nicholas 7:42 – You are correct in everything you write. Islam was a God-send for the left. A new, shiny weapon of control (and they are too stupid and arrogant to know that one day the islamic knife of control will be at their own throats, once they have done their service for the furtherance of islam). There are large surprises in store of Ken Livingston, Jack Straw, Tony Blair, Jacqui Smith … despite that she proved her dhimmitude by obeying “Lord” Ahmad’s order that Geert Wilders, legally elected MP of Holland, a fellow member of the EU, not be allowed to land in Brtain. I take a grim, sour pleasure in watching these people make their kneeling, salaaming cringing obeissances to islam and await the day they get a girthy, long, hard shaft up the bum as they bend over after they are judged no longer useful.

  556. Peter (13:29)

    Interesting statistics. I note that the UK seems to be missing. Why, I wonder?

    The other question that comes to mind, how does your faith reconcile the rape of the innocent, both in those statistics and in the recent bestial acts of the late Mohammed Merah, with an Almighty and Loving God in his Grace and Mercy?

    If if I had followers who had bestowed those qualities upon me and had even a fraction of the Power they had faith in, I think I’d get my idle ass out of my ivory tower and kick a few buts among my apparatchiks on the ground. Whaddaway to run a religion!

    I know … I know! He works in mysterious ways. I’m only teasing, but doesn’t that kind of dilemma raise the serious odd doubt hither and thither about the credentials of your lot’s idea of a First Cause? And why are you being so tetchy with ACP – very un-Christian of you, if you don’t mind me saying so. I sincerely hope you’re not trying to shut him up – he’s one of the reasons I log in here every day. His posts are refreshing and free of the cant that bedevils so much of the discourse that one Googles up these days. Just sayin’.

  557. Frank, I dont mind atheism. I do mind being told that my faith has no place in the public sphere. I have not told anyone not to offend me. But as a person, not site owner etc, I will not be told that there are things I cannot politely speak about. That is the way of the Left.

    Why us there evil in the world? We only have to look inside ourselves. The opportunity to choose good is an opportunity to choose evil. Would you rather have no choice in your rejection of faith? That is what is required to ensure that only the good is chosen. Evil will be judged. The innocent are already in a place of blessedness.

  558. 5:52 – P from M … No child prostitution in Singapore.

    This is because Chinese pragmatism applies in Singapore and the death penalty is applied for crimes for which is mandated, and for drugs peddling and other vile practices, the rotan. No one who had undergone the rotan once re-offends.

    For those who don’t know, the rotan is an (I believe 8 ft) thick bamboo cane. It is flexible, so can be brought down by a strong man (the appliers of the cane are strong men) with a tremendous whack. So tremendous that the prisoner, tied face down, has thick pads tied round his kidney area or they burst at the first whack.

    They can usually only take around four strokes of the cane before passing out. They are then unstrapped and taken to hospital to recover. When the doctor judges them well enough, they are taken back to prison and the remaining strokes of their punishment applied.

    Singapore is a country that has no re-offenders.

  559. I note this in a report on the new Oxford child prostitution ring…

    Police refused to comment on the ethnicity of the children or men involved, although it is understood that it bore similarities to other cases in the country.

  560. Nicholas/Austin Barry

    Can we expect your your metaphorical cartoon skit to encompass Batman and Robin any time soon? If so, pre-notification please, that’s one sequel I wouldn’t want to miss.

  561. The extract below was in Arutz 7, an Israeli newspaper. It is very chilling to read what this monster did to a fellow Moslem family, and perhaps even more frightening the way police seem to ignore legitimate complaints. Political correctness seems to walk hand uin hand with terror.

    Woman: Toulouse Terrorist Terrorized Me in 2010
    In an interview, a woman said she warned authorities in 2010 of Mohammed Merah’s terrorist. connections, but nothing was done
    By David Lev
    First Publish: 3/22/2012, 10:39 AM

    French police in Toulouse
    ReutersIn an interview with a French newspaper Thursday, a woman claimed that she had warned authorities that the Al-Qaeda connected terrorist who killed four people in Toulouse earlier this week, Mohammed Merah, was a dangerous terrorist who needed to be stopped. The warning was ignored, however, and Merah remained free to carry out the murders of Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, and his sons Aryeh, and Gavriel, 3, and 8-year-old Miryam Monsenego.

    The woman, identified only as Aisha, told French daily Le Telegram that Merah had tried in 2010 to recruit her son for the “worldwide Jihad” he was organizing for. She remembered Merah, and said that when she heard what he had done, “I felt as if someone cut off my legs. That they did not stop him was a terrible gaffe on the part of the authorities. I filed complaints against him numerous times, over and over” – but to no avail, she said.

    In 2010, the woman and her then-15 year old son lived in the same neighborhood as Merah in Toulouse. She said that Merah had been friendly with her son, and on one occasion took him into a car, and played for him a CD with Islamist preachers urging listeners to take part in Jihad. Merah then took her son to his apartment – the same one the terrorist is now holed up in – and showed him a giant Quran, and showed him Al-Qaeda produced propaganda films, all the while holding a sword over him. The films showed scenes that were very difficult for the 15 year old to stomach, including beheadings. “My son called me and begged me to get him out of there. In the end we succeeded. He was held there from 5 in the afternoon until midnight,” Aisha said.

    The woman said she filed a complaint with police over the incident, angering Merah. “He came to our house, threatened me, and eventually hit me. He said I was an atheist, and that I would have to ‘pay’ like the French would.” Two days later, she said, Merah attacked her in public, and beat her son and daughter, who had intervened to protect her. “No one stopped to get involved,” she said. As evidence of the story, she presented the paper with the police complaint she had taken out in 2010 against Merah.

    Aisha added that the real “brains” behind the Merah Jihad operation was Abdelkader Merah, the terrorist’s brother. “He was the one who was always traveling abroad” to organize missions, she said. As far as Mohammed Merah was concerned, Aisha said, he is “two-faced,” or at least confused. “He can drink beer one minute,” a violation of Islamic law, “and go to a mosque the next minute.”

  562. Mr Barry’s skit might be metaphorical – who knows with lawyers – but mine is firmly rooted in reality. Lest you think I exaggerate please Google “Desperate Dan and Little Bear”. In the days of my misspent youth there tended to be more Desperate Dans around and they were often the preferred role models for young gentlemen and the preferred ideal for the amorous attentions of ladies who were then about in similar quantity. A far cry from the strident, trousered viragos who take offence these days.

    Nowadays of course the preferred role model is a weedy, cunning, thoroughly feminised creature of little integrity or honesty who is man in name only. The preferred career for these wimps and dweebs is the law (especially), politics or the corporate greasy pole rather than anything which might involve discomfort, danger or the need for a hairy arse and a Mexican moustache. And it seems it is now only the homosexuals who retain an attraction to those more masculine attributes and appearances once more commonly appreciated.

    Little wonder then that the thinly veiled but spiteful mummy’s boys of The Apprentice type so often gravitate towards older women and feel threatened by the Daddy role model.

  563. EC – Braw wee blogger, George Laird, is the object of some rather scathing backchat from one LarryW on Mel McD’s post on the oubliette. Poor old George, but the thread is fizzling out and I cannot be arsed to step into the breach on his behalf. I have always conceived of George as rather like the late poet and harmonium player, Ivor Cutler, but at the same time am sure that he cannot be nearly so effete, unlike the contributors to this blog all of whom appear to be screaming queens except me and Frank P, and even we, as vigilant homophobes who can spot b*gg*ry in a plate of cornflakes, must be regarded as distinctly suspect in terms of that erectile experiment I read about on Guido Fawkes.

  564. Peter (14:20 – last para).

    That is not an answer, but rather an invitation to step into the cosy dream that comforts you – and to enter into the sort of abstruse bollox that Archie Cuntsbury uses to confuse the fearful. I’ve been through the card in that field of runners and riders; but still can’t find one horse that deserves a penny of my pension on its nose as a potential winner in the Great Scheme of Things. Nonetheless I’m still looking; as you know … ‘hope springs eternal in the human breast’.

    Perhaps the fact that over the years I’ve encountered so many whited sepulchres in my search for answers to the ills of this life is the clue to why my carapace is pretty impregnable.

    But I shall continue to tap into this source of wisdom, more in hope than expectation – and try my hardest not to offend my host while entering into the repartee with the eclectic mix of opinionated scoundrels who frequent this very cosy and convenient hostelry. I know I can’t shake his faith, nor would I wish to, so I’m not ashamed of challenging it; it’s probably good exercise for each of us.

    Shame the landlord has barred ALL the trolls; when we’re not savaging them, there is a temptation to bite each other’s ankles.

    Mind you – Nicholas, the crafty sod, still manages to get his red meat from the Speccy blog and brings it back here for a chewing at safe distance. Is that perhaps rather having the best of both worlds without the concomitant hand-to-hand combat. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, that’s his prerogative but, well, I dunno! I always enjoyed the exchanges when the blood ‘n’ shit were flying and that now that requires watching two channels at the same time: a bit of a distraction. Can’t have everything, I suppose.

    Now the glowering and burgeoning Dolly Varden screams from the other side of the den window; I must away and do my bit before the sun sets. Great show from Venus and Jupiter of an evening for the past month or so. Think they’re try to tell me summat, Peter?

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46734632/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/venus-jupiter-put-spectacular-planetary-show/#.T2tLXMUaNgs

  565. PfM 14:20, In your opinion, is good the absence of evil or is evil the absence of good? This is not a pisstake or a trap. I am interested in your point of view.

  566. Andy Car Park (15:44)

    I’m afraid my days of erection are over, even with the help of London Scaffolding plc; the old finasteride put paid to that; as for your quoted experiment – I already answered that last time around: something about a 1/9d seat in the back row of the cinema in my youth, playing ‘windows’ with the belle of the day – what was on the screen was irrelevant, was the gist of it, If I remember correctly. I’m sure you recall the era.

  568. Frank P, I don’t mind you having your views. (And did you expect or want me to really discuss the nature of evil in the world?) But I do object to those who think that the views of some people (Christians) should not be heard. I will resist that while entirely being comfortable with moderate levels of abuse. Have you read any C.S. Lewis?

    Why would it be such a bad thing to enter the dream that comforts me? It doesn’t seem like a dream to me. My life has been pretty much an unremitting hell over the last years. My experience of God is such that I do not doubt his existence at all. (Of course that is not intended as evidence enough for any other person). But I do not consider myself credulous or a fool, though others may do. We are all of us not the same person on the inside as the outside. We are all hypocrites. But there are a great many folk, Christian folk, who are well aware of this and are spending their lives trying to unify the person they are to themselves and the person they are to others.

    I am not an Anglican. I am not actually a Catholic. I am a member of a Church which has been persecuted for 1500 years and which continues to find comfort in the Christian Faith. In such circumstances it is a manly, heroic faith which faces torture, violence and death with courage. If it were just a dream I do not believe it would sustain people as I know it does. But not all those who call themselves Christian are. And not all systems of belief which call themselves Christian are. Real Christianity is not the ‘abstruse bollox’ you properly find contemptuous. I’ll offer a prayer or two for you Frank.

    Venus and Jupiter have been wonderful, although I can’t see them so well with these glasses, and can’t afford a new pair. Yes, they are trying to tell you that ‘the Heavens declare the glory of the Lord’. I won’t go on about my faith, unless it is appropriate, or unless I just want to 🙂 No-one has to read what I write. And we are not the only people reading the site. There are over 600 unique visitors a day. I am sure that some of them share the same views as myself.

    I often get telemachus’ trying to post here. But he is really not worth the time. It is best to starve him of attention. He has been allowed to so thoroughly destroy the Spectator site that I do not believe he deserves any latitude at all.

  569. Hey Frank
    I’ve got an English degree too! He heh heh … You know, I know that I always spell it incorrectly, but I hang on to it like a compliment on inspection. You know, last man but one hasn’t done his bootlaces up properly. Got to give the commanding officer something to dig his teeth into. You are right. Ghastly word

  571. Peter from Maidstone March 22nd, 2012 – 13:42

    “I am presently trying to find statistics for the ethnic origin of victims and perpetrators of child sexual exploitation. I have contacted the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People and will see if they have this information.”

    Peter I do not have any true statistics; however when I trawled the net some time ago, by Googling subjects such as, groups grooming under age girls, group abuse of young girls etc, I found a vast mass if information.

    And as is always the case each link led on to others.

    An ever constant factor was that the men were all Muslim from either Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds, another constant was that the girls were almost 100% white, most were regarded as vulnerable and many were under the protection of the local authority and in some cases the police had urged that the ethnicity of all parties involved should not be made public.

    It is high time that sentencing for such horrendous crimes was raised to a level that will deter future events but also it should be required of the Imam’s that they preach sermons condemning these culprits and if they do not then some form of censure must be used against them, high time that these so called moderate Muslims demanded that these guilty men have the Muslim equivalent of excommunication.

  572. (I will have to speak religiously and I will be brief)

    From the theological position I hold, evil is a choice of the will other than God’s will. It does not have existence, as good has existence, but it exists in the choice. It is the choosing of darkness rather than light. The natural state of a human, in relation to God, is to be love. When a person turns from God, both in the act and then in a habitual attitude of the will, he becomes evil, darkness, hatred. So evil is a turning from good. It is not created by God. It is a state and condition that we choose.

    Choice is therefore very important, from my theological POV, and I would want to insist that it is always possible for a person to be truly human, even when habitually inhuman, and therefore to be responsible for the evil they do, and the evil they become. At every point Mohammed Merah, or any member of the gangs of child exploiters could have chosen otherwise. They are ultimately responsible for their actions and no-one else. They have chosen to do evil, and by habituating themselves to such ways of thinking and acting they have become evil. But at every moment it was possible for them to choose otherwise. Evil does not exist as an excuse for any of them. It comes into existence in their lives because they did not choose the good. To choose good leads to a greater sense of human personhood, we become a real person. To choose evil leads us, rather like Gollum in the LOTR, into a shadow world where nothing is really substantial or satisfying or meaningful.

    It is said, ‘ubi caritas, et amor, deus ibi est’. Where charity and love are, there is God. But equally when there is a choice for evil and hatred, God is absent. In a sense, even an atheist who acts in a self-sacrificing manner, is embraced by God. While the notional Christian who lives in self-absorption is without God. If God is the ultimate reality, and the basis of our existence, then choosing other than God (I don’t so much mean atheism, but choosing that which is not good) leads to an unreal existence and non-existence.

    Of course it is possible to be a ‘christian’ and choose other than God. But it is not possible to be a Christian and do so, because that is the definition of a Christian.

  573. David, my email was read by the organisation whom I would expect to know the ethnic breakdown, but they appear not to want to email me any statistics they do have!

    I note that theire director insisted that ALL communities have this problem, but that seems disingenuous. It may well be that the White English community has 1 instance, and the Pakistani community all the other 99%. In such a case it would be true that all communities have this problem but it would still be essentially intended as a deception. I agree with your estimate, but hoped that this organisation would have detailed statistics available.

  574. Peter from Maidstone
    March 22nd, 2012 – 10:44

    “I dont normally say much that is personal but I have just started a mission with a team of others in the East End in an area that is 85% Bangladeshi Muslim.”

    In wish you and your team all the very best with your new venture.

  575. I would have imagined that if anything deserved a life sentence it would be the sexual exploitation of children. I don’t mean the faux outrage that is so often found in the press over things that are consensual and not really very serious, (I mean a 25 year old teacher going out with an 18 year old student) but the horrific physical and sexual abuse of very young teenagers and children for commercial benefit and animal satisfaction.

    But it does seem to me that the Left are also complicit in the prostitution of our children, by their intentional undermining of family relations, sexual norms, parental responsibility and the cheapening of unborn human life. The Left does not respect our young girls and women, they are just another constituency they hope will be of some use to them as they seek to gain comprehensive control over us all.

  577. Thanks David. Perhaps the possibility of mission to Muslims is one (perhaps the only) positive aspect of having so many in the UK. There are many who are Muslims only because they know nothing else. It is thought that many millions of Muslims are secretly becoming Christian in the Middle East and Africa. Satellite broadcasting is allowing them to learn more than they could previously.

  578. Nicholas 16:17 – The sagacious Frank P has recently likened this place to a hostelry. Since it has opened, you have taken two wild, unprovoked swings at me both of which, on account of their inaccuracy, have missed by a country mile (07.03.12 13:10 and 21.03.12 14:11). In the circs, you may understand if I am sitting here wondering what the blue blazes you are going to accuse me of next. Spilling your beer? Looking at your bird? If you absolutely insist on staggering over to my corner of said hostelry like Brendan Behan after an evening on the sauce, I shall of course try to prove equal to the challenge. Meanwhile, if you take umbrage at the appllation ‘screaming queen’, I will defend it as a proportionate taunt to your own recent petulance and prickliness. Lighten up.

  579. PfM 16:40, Interesting. I am offline until at least tomorrow evening, but hope to contribute a view later on.

    Sorry to be grabbing my hat and coat when a brawl appears to be brewing. I shall be disappointed not to see the furniture flying around by the time I get back.

  580. Ponce alert for pensioners; get your butts over to the latest Speccy thread where some little rat-faced Guardian think-wanker, name of Ian Mulheirn is vying for Daniel’s old job:

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7732203/another-voice-pensioners-ought-to-contribute-more.thtml

    According to him we’re just coffin dodgers, poncing off his generation. Fucking parasitical ingrate. Give him a kicking please somebody. I’ve run out of steam for today. Over and out.

  581. I think that it is a good thing to identify evil from both a religous and cultural perspective and to speak out against it

    Is it just me, or have I have noticed that the MSN in a number of cases have used language about the Toulouse murderer that seek to mitigate his action – or might suggest such mitigation (presumably as he would be classified as coming from a ‘victim’ group). Emphasising that he had been turned down for the French military due to minor misdemeanours committed as a youth, that he had lost his job, that he had only killed the children because of ‘frustration’ at not being able to find another off-duty soldier to murder. The conflation of the word ‘Frustration’ in one headline with this narrative leaves the impression of an alienated youth with the casual reader – not one of a politically motivated Jihadist

    Also. Do we really need to worry too much about terrorists that nick scooters with tracking devices in them, and then turn up at local dealers enquiring as to how to deactivate them. Bit like those chaps learning to fly in the US, but not bothering how to land. The clues are there people, look out for them …

  582. Andy Car Park @ 1710

    I don’t see any “wild and unprovoked swing” in the first comment you refer to since I was aiming nothing at you to begin with, but today you asserted that all commentators here were “screaming queens” apart from you and Frank P – so don’t come the unprovoked nonsense over that one. And the comment I made in response was not a “wild and unprovoked swing” – it was in jest and tongue in cheek. I’m hardly in a position to “mark your card” after all.

    I do hope that clarifies the matter to your satisfaction and is light enough for you. I’d hate to bear the brunt of any more “proportionate taunts” especially as you seem to be using Eddie’s definition of what constitutes reciprocation. I can’t recall accusing you of petulance and prickliness . . .

  583. Re Mr Mulheir:-

    Ian Mulheirn was appointed director of the Social Market Foundation in October 2008. He joined the Social Market Foundation as the chief economist in February 2008, after three years as an economic adviser at HM Treasury. He has worked in a variety of policy areas including child poverty, savings and investment, welfare to work and higher education funding. Ian leads the SMF’s influential work on public service reform, and was recently a specialist adviser to the work and pensions committee inquiry into the Work Programme.

    And he looks about 18.

  584. RocketDog
    March 22nd, 2012 – 18:36
    Hi there,
    I don’t read the Daily Mail, but I perused the online article on the murders in France, paying especial attention to Readers Comments. It was quite frightening how Middle England is really not aware of what is happening in the world today, and has become brainwashed by years of Leftwing indoctrination, followed by a watered down version of the same from our so-called conservative/NatLib coalition.
    On a different suject, trite but faintly comical, the idiot Telenachus’ reproaches me for abusing a serious commentator posting on Douglas Murray’s blog in the Speccie. If anybody needs this troll to defend them, I think it says it all!

  585. Yes the troll telemachus’ keeps asking for a right to reply here on the wall. Of course he has no rights.

  586. Andy Carpark 15.44 … Sorry, but no one can spot a gay as fast as women. AWK will confirm. Women know in a nanosecond.

  587. David Ossitt – We need the death penalty reinstated. A society that does not dish out any retribution is finished. Even the stupid US states that don’t have the death penalty, lefty havens like Massachusetts, say, dish out very long prison sentences. And the prisoners work for their keep. It’s not free, grace of the taxpayer.

  588. P from M – I support your decision not to have the tiresome, predictable, high-pitched Telemachus on. His predictable whine gives me a headache.

  589. Prisoners should all work for their keep and should provide cheap labour undercutting the Chinese. There should be a factory attached to every prison. Food should be grown by the prison population. It should work out cost neutral as far as possible.

  590. Frank P at 18.35 asked for someone to give Ian Mulheirn over on the Spectator site a good kicking , I have had a go, but I append it here just in case my reply is blocked on the Spectator.

    Ian Mulheirn from your article it is apparent that you do not like the elderly very much, do you?

    You state that “In fact, it’s high time that pensioners start to contribute to the unprecedented fiscal squeeze we’re going through” and you tell us of the “three main reasons why”, hello, the last time I looked all of the essentials for the elderly, food, drink, fuel, council tax, water rates, heat and light are all rising in price at an alarming rate, and so Ian, we are all contributing.

    You state that “ First, they’ve (the pensioners) contributed next to nothing to the deficit reduction programme so far”, what unadulterated bollocks, how dare you write such crass rubbish, on what basis can you present such libellous twaddle as fact?

    Your hatred of the elderly would appear to be boundless, how else whilst referring to the contributions that we have made in the past; could you write “but they clearly didn’t pay enough or the country’s finances wouldn’t be in the state they are”, so there you have it, in your demented opinion our country is in such a sad state because we the elderly have not paid enough, you might as well add that we are a drain on the National Health Budget as well. We are in the state we are, in the main because of the incompetence of the last labour government and in particular Gordon Brown.

    You finish your piece by informing us that, Ian Mulheirn is the Director of the Social Market Foundation.

    A simple Google search informs us of just what the Social Market Foundation is all about and that is.

    About

    We are a leading cross-party think tank, developing innovative ideas across a broad range of economic and social policy.
    We champion policy ideas which marry markets with social justice and take a pro-market rather than free-market approach. Our work is characterised by the belief that governments have an important role to play in correcting market failures and setting the framework within which markets can operate in a way that benefits individuals and society as a whole.

    Every trite bit of it is pure Common Purpose cant.

  592. Verity.

    “David Ossitt – We need the death penalty reinstated.”

    Hello Verity, I agree.

  593. Frank P.
    3:29 last night

    Well said.

    (However, you must know that the IRA are as ‘Catholic’ as the Sicilian Mafia. Or as ‘Protestant’ as the much maligned ‘black ‘n tans’. Still.)

  594. David Ossitt (19:45) (a good sequence of figures there to remind the little prick).

    Thank you: you framed my thoughts beautifully. My own were a little curt, I haven’t looked but I don’t expect them to be published – on several grounds.

  595. Frank P – I support your decision not to have the tiresome, predictable, high-pitched Telemachus on. His self-righteous, triumphal whine gives me a headache.

    Frank P – He’s a cross-dresser. He doesn’t seem to be gay. Not that I could hear a word, given that they played music over the narrative.

  596. John Richardson

    “(However, you must know that the IRA are as ‘Catholic’ as the Sicilian Mafia. Or as ‘Protestant’ as the much maligned ‘black ‘n tans’. Still.)”

    Ahhh, but all three of those ‘honorable societies’ claimed to represent the faith and many of the faith’s officials were prepared to accept their largesse. Which is part of what I was trying to say about the ‘slippery slope’.

    Lord Acton’s aphorism was spot on.

  597. Clear Memories
    March 22nd, 2012 – 10:51

    What are you blogging about?
    I don’t understand at all.

    “Sorry guys but it states at the top “This is our opportunity to show what the Spectator Coffee House Wall could have been like.”

    Yep. A great success so far I thought.

    “Well, it seems all that has happened is a pale copy of Cranmer’s blog has evolved, but less erudite.

    Nonsense.
    How often do you visit?
    This site simply is not a religious forum at all.
    What are you on about?

    “Most of us are atheists……”

    How on Earth do you know that?
    Most folk are smart enough to keep their Faith or lack of, out of the intellectual picture.

    “…..(there’s no such thing as an agnostic – by accepting the premise, you automatically accept the belief – work it out for yourself) and if you strip out the religious arguments, there’s not been that much action.”

    Well, you know how to remedy that. Go ahead.

    “Yes, we all know Islam is not a religion but a political movement;…..”

    No we don’t.
    I contend that it is a cult, as I suggest above.
    Obviously, any cult will become political if it can/gets big enough.
    Perhaps I’m wrong, but we don’t ‘all know’ anything of the sort.

    “No, the CofE has not been a force for good and has greatly let down society since the end of WWII;….”

    Yes. Why though? Any ideas?

    “Yes, too many Catholic priests are kiddy-fiddlers……..”

    Lazy, unintelligent and ‘untrue’ in as far as ‘too many’ can be untrue.
    Where are you getting your information?
    Be honest, is it ‘off the telly’?

    “……..and No, US fundamentalists are not actually sane.”

    As opposed to what other fundamentalists that ARE sane?

    (Surely there’s somewhere in the Koran where it says they must take up serpents and drink poison?)
    Having got that out of the way, please feel free to believe what you will but remember its supposed to be a personal matter

  598. Andy Car Park @15:44

    The indefatigable bloggernaut that is George Laird rarely speaks out at “the oubliette” as you call it. In the days when they could still be bothered, I think that they warned him off – hence he set up his own blog. When he is not employing the single entendre George’s pronouncements can sometimes take on a delphic quality.

    George is always at his best when commenting on the hand to hand combat and general sleaze of Glasgow politics. He is an invaluable window on that world. It’s no wonder that the tender editor of the aforesaid “oubliette” fled south of the border!

  599. Verity. Just a little light on his high-heeled loafers perhaps? He’s as bent as a donkey’s hind leg. 🙂

  600. Clear Memories
    March 22nd, 2012 – 10:51

    What are you blogging about?
    I don’t understand at all.

    “Sorry guys but it states at the top “This is our opportunity to show what the Spectator Coffee House Wall could have been like.”

    Yep. A great success so far I thought.

    “Well, it seems all that has happened is a pale copy of Cranmer’s blog has evolved, but less erudite.

    Nonsense.
    How often do you visit?
    This site simply is not a religious forum at all.
    What are you on about?

    “Most of us are atheists……”

    How on Earth do you know that?
    Most folk are smart enough to keep their Faith or lack of, out of the intellectual picture.

    “…..(there’s no such thing as an agnostic – by accepting the premise, you automatically accept the belief – work it out for yourself) and if you strip out the religious arguments, there’s not been that much action.”

    Well, you know how to remedy that. Go ahead.

    “Yes, we all know Islam is not a religion but a political movement;…..”

    No we don’t.
    I contend that it is a cult, as I suggest above.
    Obviously, any cult will become political if it can/gets big enough.
    Perhaps I’m wrong, but we don’t ‘all know’ anything of the sort.

    “No, the CofE has not been a force for good and has greatly let down society since the end of WWII;….”

    Yes. Why though? Any ideas?

    “Yes, too many Catholic priests are kiddy-fiddlers……..”

    Lazy, unintelligent and ‘untrue’ in as far as ‘too many’ can be untrue.
    Where are you getting your information?
    Be honest, is it ‘off the telly’?

    “……..and No, US fundamentalists are not actually sane.”

    As opposed to what other fundamentalists that ARE sane?
    What do you mean?

    “(Surely there’s somewhere in the Koran where it says they must take up serpents and drink poison?)”

    A joke?

    “Having got that out of the way, please feel free to believe what you will……….”

    Huuum.

    “….but remember its supposed to be a personal matter”

    What are you talking about?
    No ‘it’ isn’t.
    The opposite is the case. It’s SUPPOSED to be the focus of your whole life.
    I’ve never heard of a religion that was supposed to be ‘a personal matter’.
    What are they called? Where do they live?

    “Let’s get back to surely what the site was conceived for –…..”

    You mean like the considered and polite exchange around Frank P’s comments above?
    The exchange appreciated by so many other posters? Religious or no?

    “…….abusing and slandering socialists, wet Tories, Ken Livingstone, the one-eyed Scots bigot and the war-criminal Blair.”

    Awh mate!
    That’s just too darn easy! Children can do that don’t you agree?
    That’s not what I come here for.

    ‘Clear memories’ 15 Hail Marys.
    No…..26.

  601. Verity I gather that you meant the first part of your (19:58) to be addressed to Peter; I never blackballed anybody (either overtly or covertly).

  602. David Ossitt, 19.45: Ditto your comments. I imagine the author was trying to provoke, but I find the growing habit of regarding “baby boomers” as hate figures worrying.

  603. Have you seen the statistic that there are 1 million children who do not have English as their first language in the UK, and that there are 1600 schools where children who speak English as their first language are in the minority! What is the educational and financial cost? Is it factored in to the great bounty that unrestricted immigration brings us?

  604. I have been wondering (in regard to the proper punishment of those perpetrating commercial sexual exploitation of our children) how the prison service could be made self-sufficent, or at least much less costly than it is now.

    I note a written reply in Hansard in 2008 said that it cost £39,000 a year to keep a prisoner. How can this be reduced? I’d have a factory attached to each prison and all prisoners should have to work a full week for their food and board. I’d also have prison farms where most of the food required was produced. My old Dad said he was talking to someone who had been a warder on a prison farm and they had been closed because it was humiliating for the criminals to have to work. I’d have thought that these together would allow a reduction of £10,000 per year per prisoner?

    But there are also something like 13% of the prison population who are foreigners (with many more who have gained citizenship and then committed a serious crime). So if those 13% were deported rather than being a cost to the taxpayer, this would allow a further reduction of prison costs.

    Also, it seems to me, that if the prison population is busy working (and the Bible teaches that he who will not work should not eat) then they will be less likely to cause trouble due to boredom. The move towards self-sufficiency and the removal of foreign prisoners would mean that those who should be imprisoned will be, and those who should be imprisoned for longer would be able to be. Prisoners would also gain more experience of work than is possible at present.

  605. Verity
    March 22nd, 2012 – 19:29

    Andy Carpark 15.44 … Sorry, but no one can spot a gay as fast as women. AWK will confirm. Women know in a nanosecond.
    ——————————————–
    Verity: I cannot speak for all women. Personally, I can suss them out. Vibes I guess. But unfortunately, some homosexuals are so charming and attractive that women can lose their hearts to them. Maybe today, with more women gaining full sexual experience before marriage they won’t undertake a wedding without knowing there are two brides making vows! For years, I adored Noel Coward, and he was my Prince Charming!

  606. Nicholas
    March 22nd, 2012 – 15:22

    Nicholas, you return to this subject of female/ male roles and functions in society.

    You mentioned it the other day (female left…desire to control…) and I though it interesting.

    Very little in human affairs is truly divorced from the sex roles. From space travel to warfare to the development of the Welfare State; human social and political history is a meaningless blur without this ‘key’ to our affairs.

    I regard the male/female public & private relationship as a dynamic that can be tweaked and twisted in a scientific fashion.
    A little like the economists (pretend that they) can manipulate inflation and economic activity and stuff. So, for years economists ‘did economics’ with some success & some failure. Then along came monetarism* and a whole new economic ‘science’ was overlaid on all the existing intellectual frameworks. Then all the banks and democracies went bust and……er… no that’s not my point.

    My point is that the points you make seem obvious to me.** They are very important to everyone both politically and personally. However they are totally absent from the public sphere.
    No one ever says;
    ‘My goodness your a wimpy mummy’s boy aren’t you? No surprise if YOUR wife is 12 years older.’***

    Soooo, we can conclude that this curious ‘debate shaped hole’ where common sense and thousands of years of history should be is the work of The Agenda.

    That’s why we have ‘men’ giving birth in ‘The Daily Mail’.
    That’s why we have billions£ spent simply to create fatherless ‘families’.
    That’s why there are so many oestrogen mimicking chemicals in the food.
    That’s why ‘woman’ ranks only beneath ‘ethnic’ and ‘gay’ in the Pantheon of Progressive Gods……and why ‘male’ ranks slightly above ‘heterosexual’, ‘white’ ‘Christian’ or ‘middle class’.
    That’s why….well you can add your own if you agree.

    *I refuse to use Keynes. Ha! Screw you John Maynard.

    ** A debased femininity seeking to control (as a consequence of no husband/provider in my opinion) society via the State. Creating a pseudo husband/father in the Welfare State or in the NHS or in the volk or The People or whatever. Y’know, Hitler’s immense electoral appeal to women etc etc
    ‘Health ‘n Safety’ being another example; eliminating ‘risk’ but actually simply increasing control etc etc

    *** No-one ever says, ‘No man can ever know himself until he’s been in a fight. A real fight. And lost.’….but perhaps that’s just me.

  607. I won’t post telemachus’ words here, but he tries to threaten me, as he has threatened others such as Melanie Phillips. He is clearly irritated that he cannot post here because he insists on coming back (I can tell each time he visits) and he keeps sending me little notes. This time he warns me that ‘the consequences will be on my own head’ because I will not give him access to the site. I think that counts as making a threat. It can be added to the collection of his threats which are being compiled by others.

    He says one thing that is true. ‘My serious points have no place …. here’.

  608. “Ahhh, but all three of those ‘honorable societies’ claimed to represent the faith and many of the faith’s officials were prepared to accept their largesse”
    F.P.

    Oh, indeed they were. Despite, for example, the contradictions implicit in the name ‘Provisional’.
    Ah well, at least now we can both be sure they all burn in Hell now and……oh no!…oh drat…it’s that darned religious presumption of mine again.
    Sorry.
    Won’t happen again. Not this side of judgment…oh drat!

  609. John Richardson, I agree with your post very much. Our society has been feminised, and this does not mean that it has been made woman friendly but that it has become less properly human. Man is male and female. The society where women are of less value and respect than a cow is as deformed as the one in which we presently live when it is almost impossible to provide boys and young men with the role models they need. I know that I grew up reading all about the heroes of the Second World War. But my son hardly knows about San Nazaire, or the sinking of the Bismarck, Scharnhorst and the Tirpitz. He has not been taught, apart from by me, about the North Africa Campaign. The heroes presented to him are vacuous TV celebrities, overpaid footballers, and moody, drug-taking popstars.

  610. David Ossitt @19:45

    Your comment still hasn’t gone up. The last comment went up at 19:00. They must be at the pub, again.

    Social Market Foundation: Who pays for all these staff, board members, advisors, and associate fellows? (HTF does one get to be a Viscount these days?)

    http://www.smf.co.uk/about/people/

    As I just asked back at the “oubliette”, “Who pays for them and what damn use are they to anyone?”

  611. I would never commune a terrorist. I cannot condone political violence and have to reject it myself. The hero is the one who his willing to die for his principles not kill for them. If the IRA had spent all its energy crippling the UK infrastructure and carefully avoided causing any harm to like, then it would have achieved much more, and much more quickly. But they are in fact murderous and wicked men, and it is shameful that they sit in any place of Government. That there are some Catholic priests who would commune them says something about the fact that in the end such a priest is responsible for his actions. I know that I would never have done such a thing, nor would I support a violent nationalist terrorism in the UK in such a way, or in any way. The ends do not justify the means. There is, in any case, a great range of other political actions which will be used to much greater effect in the coming upheaval. How long, for instance, until we have a fuel price revolution? I will certainly support it this time. A few well placed lorries and the nation grinds to a halt. And when people realise that something can be done which is noticed, then there will be other matters which will produce similar protests.

    A 20% rise in the price of a sausage roll from Greggs, just because it is warmed up. How is that anything other than theft? How is that a suitable matter for taxation? Is a warm sausage roll now a luxury item? Are those of us who frequent Greggs now ‘Fat Cats’? And the repair of historic buildings and churches is now also to be penalised by a 20% tax. On what basis? It is just getting too much. Meanwhile another 600,000 immigrants are entering the country.

    The right people at the right time in the right place.

    Are the Tory MPs who have insisted they are Conservatives going to do anything? Are they in touch with Farage and Helmer? Will they stand up as patriots even to the ruin of their party prospects or are they actually only interested in themselves? How many people are required to make a loud noise and rally support for the British cause?

    It would be possible to help Farage win a Parliamentary seat. If he chooses the right one it would require only that 5,000 supporters moved into that constituency and made it their home before the election. It could be arranged. It would be legal.

  612. Clear Memories
    It would be a cause for alarm if, following the terrible events in Toulouse, there were not some discussion of good and evil on this blog.

    Furthermore, if English political and civil society is to be rescued from nihilism, a conversation about the first principles of “the public good” needs to be conducted in the country at large.

    Frank P
    I would have preferred Mohammed Merah to have been arrested, interrogated to disclose all his contacts, and then shot – trying to escape, of course.

    Peter from Maidstone
    A brave choice to organize a team among Bangladeshi muslims in the East End. It would be interesting to have a blog on that from time to time giving some insights into the attitudes of the people, if it could be done without breaching any confidences or drawing unwelcome attention. Perhaps a fictitious district in a fictitious city and with fictitious names could provide a safe perimeter for observations.

    Malfleur
    March 21st @ 17:18
    This footnote from the Daily Mail today: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118773/Chinese-leaders-order-internet-whitewash-amid-rumours-attempted-military-coup.html

  613. NUMBER ONE PRIORITY — As in every other country in the world, voting is a privilege of citizenship. Citizens are, for the vast part home grown over dozens, hundreds or thousands of generations. To obtain citizenship as a foreigner should be very difficult and the examinations should be daunting.

    Until someone 1. Removes all votes from non-citizens, by which I mean overnight so “their MPs” will no longer be motivated to court their votes and

    2. Sets out the timetable for the repatriation of every resident who is not a citizen of Britain or (sadly) the EU and

    3. Decrees that the British taxpayer will no longer be giving money or shelter to non-citizens even temporarily … this problem will not receed.

    Clean sweep. Party’s over. Start the demolition of the mosques this coming Monday morning. The infestation needs to be cleared because, with all those females, they’re quick breeders.

  615. The Social Market Foundation has income of £580,000 a year, mostly from ‘Charitable Activities’. It has had income of £900,000 in the past. Most of this income comes from sponsorship of their activities by businesses, public bodies and charitable foundations. The main sponsors were..

    Mastercard, ACCA UK, Provident Financial, Engineering UK, Royal London, Cap Gemini, Go-Ahead Group.

    These contributed up to £65,000 each.

    The aim of the SMF is to influence individuals with responsibility for making decision of public policy so that they adopt a Social Market approach.

  616. Pete from Maidstone.

    You are right about our contemporary boys being denied any real positive role models (horrid phrase). Time and again at school I find EVERY book has the same theme; men bad, women good.
    Again, you are right to point out that this does not mean that society is really pro-woman. Just that it is anti-man.

    It is all another face of The Agenda.(Before 1914 however, it is probably true that the West was too male orientated.)

    I think that the/a true history of political state extremism has yet to be written (or published). Without female loyalty to Hitler, Germany could not have survived the bombing and carried on. When historians talk of ‘civilian moral’ they are really talking about female attitudes to the war. If women had ‘lost faith’ the nazis would have been powerless. In the USSR, was it not women who comprised the bureaucracy of State suppression?

    The worst Social Workers are women. The worst ‘welfare warriors’.

    (Whisper it but scripture holds the key)

  617. “Are those of us who frequent Greggs now ‘Fat Cats’?”

    I am advised that one of the ‘modern’ taunts employed by some elements of the younger generation is to shout “Gregs on legs” after fat people, particularly girls. Both cruel and not justified by a random sample of Greg’s clientele.

  618. “If the IRA had spent all its energy crippling the UK infrastructure and carefully avoided causing any harm to like, then it would have achieved much more, and much more quickly”

    Yes.
    Even as a teenager I used to think, ‘Why on Earth don’t they bomb major motorways or power stations or airports or……’
    The Baltic Exchange was so weird as it was an exception.
    The Canary Warf bomb was to announce the end of their ceasefire.
    There is a ‘conspiracy type’ answer to this but anyway..

    “…..nor would I support a violent nationalist terrorism in the UK in such a way, or in any way…”

    However, so many will. Thus allowing The Agenda to advance at an accelerated pace.
    It seems obvious that the Human Rights madness, a mass immigration programme and the general State created inversion of sanity/reason/justice are tailor made to provoke a violent response in due course. That’s the whole point.
    Oh, and the deliberate collapse of the productive (middle class run) economy a la Weimar/QE.
    Some even fear a ‘burning of the Reich stag’ type Olympic militant ‘event’, but those people just spend too much time on the Internet……

  619. Peter @21:22.

    Thanks for the update on the SMF, and together with Frank P, for you various interesting posts today.

  620. John Richardson – spot on re the feminised business. Interestingly it has also resulted in the sort of divisive polarisation so prevalent in so many aspects of British life. By this I mean that modern British man (and this is a horrible generalisation) seems now to fall into two categories of either wimp or baldy, loud-mouthed Mitchell bros thug. Tough, uncompromising but essentially gentle men are more or less a thing of the past. In recent years some more thoughtful American film makers have explored this aspect of masculinity – for example Walter Hill’s ‘Broken Trail’ explores the now archaic notion of physical toughness combined with an inherent decency and understated compassion very well – and it incorporates racial themes. I cannot ever imagine the BBC doing this because their perspective is so narrowly codified by their leftist “principles”. They have created their own ideological limitations and yet they boast laughably of breaking the boundaries. The deception with their artificial enthusiasm and presumption of representing popular thinking is that far from representing anything noble they represent something trite, de-valued and contemptible – but goons cheer and applaud it.

    Some will maintain that this type of heroic man has never existed and is an idealised, mythic creation but that is not true. Unfortunately even those endeavours that most demonstrate the qualities have now been trivialised and reduced to mawkish hysteria. Suffice it to say that there might be an expectation that soldiers in a war zone risk death, even in numbers, and that the reality of that should not reduce us to blubbering hand wringing when it happens. In the days following D-Day many homes in Britain were beset by the grief of loss, on an enormous scale, but there was not mass hysteria from strangers. There was not the desire to showcase grief, for grief to become public rather than personal. And now in the wake of two world wars where millions died we seem to hold a minute’s silence and haul the flags down for every untimely tragedy. There seems no perspective to it.

    I fear that the Left has really messed with the Ying and the Yang, subverting a type of male role model that is absolutely essential to a healthy society. When I see grown men blubbing on TV over some trivial issue it does not impress me as being in touch with a “feminine side” or showing “sensitivity”. The reality is probably that the same man feels no compunction about shafting his work colleagues in order to progress his career or pulling other “assertive” stunts that are more about devious cunning than machismo.

    These are jumbled thoughts so forgive their clutter.

  621. It is interesting that virtue means, in a sense, manly and courageous. But it has been subverted to mean weak and feminine. Likewise the ideals of nobility and prudence, wisdom and heroism. All made laughable in our days.

    We must win these words back. Words matter. Who owns the discourse matters. Who owns the discourse chooses the battlefield and the weapons.

  622. telemachus and “serious points” is a non-sequitur. He has long proved himself just a mouthpiece for tediously predictable leftist cant – which we get enough of elsewhere and which I for one am mighty tired of. Their dogma, moral superiority and presumptions distorted by hypocrisy require serious challenge not more airing. And he undermines any tiny shed of credibility by his insistence on shape shifting and deceit.

    If he wants to make “serious points” (yawn) he can FO to the Guardian and commiserate with the rest of the comrades. This is a lefty-free zone and all the better for it. To quote Clear Memories :-

    “Let’s get back to surely what the site was conceived for – abusing and slandering socialists, wet Tories, Ken Livingstone, the one-eyed Scots bigot and the war-criminal Blair.”

    Indeed!

  623. I think what Nicholas, who will never forgive me for (a) positing that rugby players and Desperate Dan are probably gay, (b) living in Ireland and (c) being a lawyer, is saying is that stoicism is dead. I believe we agree on this point.

  624. Clear Memories, March 22nd, 2012 – 10:51

    “Let’s get back to surely what the site was conceived for…etc.”

    I hope that you’re not trying to control the elements and terms of the conversation à la telemachus. [Hi there tele, still lurking? What’s that? Sorry, can’t hear you. 🙂 ]

    Your list was not extensive and certainly did not include some of my primary and secondary concerns such as climate change scammers and, perhaps more importantly, the plague of spandex clad cyclists whose arrogant behaviour and total disregard for the highway code makes them a danger to themselves and all other road users.

    Thank you and goodnight.

  625. Mr Barry! I didn’t know that you live in Ireland or else it hadn’t registered! One of my interests is modern Irish history – 20th Century. I have just finished reading Townshend’s ‘Easter 1916’ (which was a disappointment despite the rave reviews) and managed to get a copy of Bretherton’s 1925 ‘The Real Ireland’ after a mention in the Speccie. Percival of Singapore notoriety was advising in the 1920’s that in counter-insurgency operations roads should never be used. It seems strange to me that tracked vehicles in Afghanistan still deploy on them when culvert bombs are such a risk but I presume they know what they are doing.

    I think it is a little more than stoicism but yes, that is at the core.

  626. Nicholas.

    No. I think that thoughts might feel cluttered when they are actually on ‘new ground’ as it were. This issue is not just outside the ‘mainstream’, but as I say it is outside the public sphere entirely.
    And anyway, if you think you’re thought are jumbled, get a load of this…….

    I’m a conspiracy theorist/realist.

    For example, I look back to all that media hysteria about football hooligans (circa 1980-1990) and I see the signature of The Agenda.
    Remember how they constantly told us that ‘England’s name has been dragged through the gutter again on another night of shame blah blah blah…..’ when a few dozen young half drunk idiots smashed up a few windows on the continent?
    That media campaign eventually had it’s desired effect on ‘the public unconscious’.
    It was about making white (mostly) physically
    self confident men seem an anet…. an anethm er making them seem so terrible. The fact that the national flag was also associated with ‘the scum of the earth’ was just a bonus.
    None of this happens by accident.
    I was suckered too when I drew my young conclusions from the TV coverage. Later I knew plenty of ‘hooligans’ and found out how different reality was from the BBC.

    The left still admired ‘the miners’ though they were violent but it’s all so complex. Again ‘the left’ made exceptions for ‘black violence against oppression’ but that was in opposition to ‘white power’ etc.

    When the recent glorious history of Englishmen at war is ‘redacted’ from history (reported by P. from M above) then something is afoot.
    I’ve ran plenty of lunchtime Second World War clubs and the boys LOVE IT. Race and religion irrelevant. So why remove the history? We know why.

    The left would love to take credit for mutilating the nations ‘Sexual psyche’.
    They were foot soldiers yes, but spectators to the wider sweep of this historical development.

    Regards.

  627. Peter from Maidstone
    March 22nd, 2012 – 22:10
    “It is interesting that virtue means, in a sense, manly and courageous. But it has been subverted to mean weak and feminine…………..
    We must win these words back. Words matter. Who owns the discourse matters. Who owns the discourse chooses the battlefield and the weapons.”

    Yes to all that. You sound like the brilliant Alex Jones, the anti-NWO Texan who I try (and totally fail) to get Verity to listen to.
    He says that soap operas (and shows like ‘Friends’) have convinced men that ‘real men’ are bumbling, unsure oafs. That real women are totally independent ,sexually knowing and cynical.
    So women mimic what they see on screen, and men mimic what they see on screen.
    Result?
    Modern men & women are both confused by and not attracted to; the opposite sex. The added bonus is that homosexuality is identified as a state of ‘happiness’ and ‘balance’.

    As I wrote above I think that there is a science of human sexuality and it is totally in the hands of The Agenda. All these ‘Daily Mail’ stories of ‘a little girl who is really a boy’ and all that tosh.

    Did anyone really think that ‘gay marriage’ was really about equality?

    Why would the political elite fight this battle?

    Even ‘Stonewall’ was not asking for ‘marriage’.
    We are in the grips of this conspiracy. The Agenda even has me up blogging away when I should be ironing my shirt for the morning.

    Dark.

  628. Frank P, March 16th, 2012 – 13:38
    I’m not sure, because Andrew Neil still hasn’t mastered his top set or the auto cue, but I think he announced last night that he was giving up his ‘This Week’ anchor job? Or are they dumping him? Or indeed, are the BBC dumping the programme altogether. Does anybody know which it is, if indeed my state of torpor during the programme didn’t cause me to dream it?

    Unfortunately, there was much backtracking by Herr Brillo on tonight’s episode of ‘This Week.’ It appears the program shuffles on and not off. More’s the pity as it is a moribund format – in much the same way as Brillo’s hairdo.

  630. Cameron’s inept coalition addresses the drink problem and gets it completely wrong, as always. And, as always, the poor and the innocent will suffer most.

    Instead of visiting the US (by the way, the tribute sums up the US Forces – 19 guns and they still managed to miss both the useless so-and-so’s), CMD could do worse than visiting these shores where the reputation for heavy drinking is just another macho tale.

    Australia has tight rules on where and when you can both purchase and consume alcohol. The beach barbie is a fallacy, generally, you can’t drink in public places. All licenced establishments have their drinking area defined – my local golf club is not licenced for drinking on the deck. All sports stadia have clearly defined areas where drink can be consumed.

    Effectively, they have the old UK system of off-licences, selling alcohol through specific locations and removing the sale totally from supermarkets, general stores, grocers et al. Not even in the same building, not a fenced off area, not even in the same Mall. Whilst nothing should preclude supermarket chains from owning these outlets, they must be accounted separately with no cross-subsidisation. This approach has numerous advantages – outlet locations can be more tightly controlled through the liquor licence. The licences must be issued to a named Manager, who must be present at all times when the store is open and who cannot be substituted easily. If the parent Company wants to open 24/7, they must have enough Managers dedicated and licenced for that specific outlet to cover opening hours, holidays and sickness with a set maximum working period of no more than 8 hours/6 days. Managers cannot hold a liquor licence for more than one store. No Licence holder, the outlet closes. If an employee breaches the licencing laws eg underage sales, the Manager loses their licence and the outlet closes until Magistrates approve another licence holder – no Manager can be ‘parachuted’ in from Head Office or another branch. The legislation needs to be worded to ensure that, if an outlet Manager offends, especially under pressure from the site owner, the parent Company must suffer.

    Ban linked Sales ie buy a BBQ, get a case of beer cheap. No money-off vouchers.

    This approach will increase the cost of alcohol without increasing supermarket profits and the higher costs will, in turn, produce more VAT. As importantly, it will bring the myriad small ‘family’ businesses until tighter control, these being an ignored source of much under age alcohol supply for the simple reason that many are owned by our ethnic cousins and are largely unpoliced for PC reasons.

    For ‘On Sales’, we need to adopt the Australian approach and start back-tracking from the point of offence to the point of sale and levying heavy fines on those who purvey alcohol to those already drunk. Start at, say £500 for the Seller, £2,500 for the licencee.

    Why not consider, in tandem, a permit to purchase alcohol? This works in some Countries, can be linked to income to limit the amount of alcohol that can be purchased, virtually prevents under age alcohol sales and can be withdrawn as punishment for alcohol-related unlawfulness. The hardware, software and procedures are available ‘off the shelf’ (Non-nationals simply produce their passport for a grace period, perhaps 30 days. Thereafter, they need a permit. Oh, guess what, illegals won’t have one, so there’s another benefit.) CMD should visit his favourite Muzzie paradise, Qatar, and see how they handle alcohol sales to the non-Muslim, ex-pat community.

    A large proportion of the British population demonstrate, day in – day out, that they cannot handle alcohol responsibly and that includes the vendors as well as the consumers. This is an area where the good of society has to take precedence over personal freedoms (and I write as a happy tippler)

  631. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of the Front Left Party, has overtaken Marine Le Pen and is now running third in the French presidential race with an increase of 5 points to 14% in the latest poll as against the 13% of Le Pen who has slipped 2 points. This is the first poll to be conducted since the murders in Toulouse.

    http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2012/infographe/2012/02/21/presidentielle-2012-comparez-toutes-les-intentions-de-vote_1637470_1471069.html

  632. Daniel Pipes writes on the Israeli Arabs at http://www.danielpipes.org/10873/israel-arabs-paradox

    The comments are also worth reading. One identifies the paradox in Israel, the USA and Europe where “there is the same problem of a Muslim minority which wishes, and even demands to remain DISLOYAL to the country where it lives, even though the great majority of these disloyal citizens would find it abhorrent to move to any majority-Muslim country”.

  633. “I think what Nicholas, who will never forgive me for (a) positing that rugby players and Desperate Dan are probably gay, (b) living in Ireland and (c) being a lawyer, is saying is that stoicism is dead. I believe we agree on this point.”

    Such characteristics do not require forgiveness.

    a) I doubt that one could posit such a thing about rugby players as a generalisation without some statistical evidence for their sexuality – so it is merely a slur of doubtful motivation; re Dan see my comment about Little Bear – a verifiable fact. It does not mean he isn’t gay – or at least bisexual – but it does correct your assertion about him re the absence of a girlfriend.

    b) Not a matter at issue unless you are also a rabid, British-hating republican

    c) There is nothing to forgive here. You are a lawyer. I shall keep my counsel in future.

    Hope that clarifies the situation to your satisfaction. Thank you (sincerely) for mentioning stoicism.

  636. A very remarkable young man. My daughter is studying French and Spanish Business at University and is fluent in both now, and I was proud of her, but this man’s talent is of a much higher order. Although in the past we did have so many more men, of all classes, who studied language as a matter of course and to support their self-education. I can read theological French pretty well, but am not fluent by any means, and I have some NT Greek. And I am learning Coptic at present, and will probably attend the Kings Summer School in Syriac. My Grammar School German has fallen by the wayside and we didn’t learn Latin at my school, a great disappointment now. I wouldn’t mind learning some Hebrew, and Classical Armenian.

  637. I think it is quite amusing that telemachus is whining about his “right to reply” when one of the distinctive features of his trolling at the old Wall was that he never replied in order to counter by argument anyway. He just parroted the usual ghastly leftist war cries and dog whistles as well as hurling the usual pejoratives at dissenters. What a horrible little man he must be (and so I’ve heard). And speaking of horrible little men, did anyone else endure watching the 28 year old Owen Jones on This Week telling us about the 1960’s? Another ghastly gobby product of the Left.

  638. I see that Frank P’s pithy and well-aimed comment on that think-tank whelp’s Speccie blog about the undeserving aged has been removed – it survived, at the top, for quite a while.

    But quite a few references to it further down are still there.

  639. My post never even went up. But I see that trolls are still allowed to post.

  640. Yes, lots of nasty ageism over there. Can you imagine what this country will be like when the thirty-something wonks that run things now with all their “experience” and “knowledge” have brought on another generation of, presumably twenty-something, apprentice wonks? Well it is happening now when you watch ghastly loud-mouthed sloganeers like Jones. The degree of “truth speak” ever broadens and the degree of truth ever narrows. It now seems to have taken root that people of my age are somehow to blame, en masse, despite the fact that there were governments supposedly in charge, manifestos seemed to count for very little and I suspect very few of us ever drove policy decisions or influenced markets.

    Maturity is under the cosh, despite the touchy-feely bollox spouted by the leftists. Fantastic simplifications and slogans that would have been derided in my youth are taken up seriously and used as battering rams. Truly we are headed for Orwellia.

  641. Nicholas
    I saw him and thought much the same as you. A clever manipulative youndg man who knows everything and nothing. The others seemed amused at his panache. He reminded me of the young management consultants that the big six used to let loose on middle management in failing businesses – to give them the coup de grace

    We have too many theorists at the moment, in all walks of life, and too many barriers to common sense

  643. Nicholas

    “Not a matter at issue unless you are also a rabid, British-hating republican.”

    No. Rabid, British-hating republicans are, in my experience, rather thin on the ground.

  644. From the Toronto Globe & Mail reviewing Stella McNepotism’s Olympic togs:

    “It looks fantastic, very royal, very patriotic. We want to be very professional but sexy at the same time,” Smith told Reuters before a passing pigeon spattered his skin-hugging suit with droppings.”

    Says it all really.

  645. Everyone I know thinks the Olympic strip looks appalling and is designed to suggest the team are representing some other country than the UK. And why was it farmed out to a celebrity? Why indeed is everything to do with this Olympics costing so much, with so little return to taxpayers, both financially, and in terms of being able to actually see anything, and even in terms of the diminishing of our culture.

    I see that anyone daring to sell a hotdog within a wide area of London will have their business equipment seized and impounded. When did we vote for all this?

  646. Peter from Maidstone
    March 22nd, @ 19:44

    In view of Ian Mulheirn’s blog at the Spectator site, perhaps your post should be slightly amended as follows to bring it into line with modern views:

    “Pensioners should all work for their keep and should provide cheap labour undercutting the Chinese. There should be a factory attached to every pension. Food should be grown by the pension population. It should work out cost neutral as far as possible.”

  647. How much alcohol is there in a ‘unit’?
    I suppose the department of self-righteous nagging will have this information somewhere, but they don’t exactly publicise what they mean.
    They’ll just say something like, ‘It’s half a pint of beer’, or ‘a small glass of wine’.
    Given that the strength of alcohol is always quoted as percentage by volume and most drink is sold by the litre or centilitre, it would be easy enough to work out
    how many units any bottle contains – if they’d tell us how much a ‘unit’ is.
    Maybe they don’t trust us with the arithmetic.
    Similarly, ‘five-a-day’ portions of fruit and veg – one pea? A whole carrot?

  648. EC @ 22.03.12 21:45

    ‘to shout “Greg[g]s on legs” after fat people, particularly girls’

    This intelligence was stamped with the certificate of authenticity by Hexhamgeezer, occasionally of this parish – and Hexham. Local knowledge, laike man, y’kna?

  649. It’s not just the Olympic strip – the design appears to be a Union Jack with the red removed, making it in effect a Saltire. The volunteers are expected to wear a garish uniform of pink and puce, topped with straw trilby of the kind that grocers used to wear.
    Then there’s that appalling logo.
    Seems there’s a competition to make England look as ridiculous as possible for the most amount of money.

  650. The bottle of Tsingtao that I drank yesterday after mowing the lawn was 330 ml which is 0.5807188155087 of a pint and the label on the back that nagged – I mean advised – me to enjoy it “responsibly” says it is 1.4 units of alcohol. Therefore I estimate that – roughly – a unit is just under half a pint. The health nazis and banning brigade recommend a man should drink no more than 3-4 units a day – or one and a half to two pints.

    It’s going the way of cigarettes and the same people are on the bandwagon. First the endless nagging and advisory warnings. Then the gradual restrictions. It is, as always, just the thin edge of a nannying wedge. We can look forward to increasing duty, increasing restrictions on sale and consumption and relentless nagging. This one is apparently another one of Cameron’s hobby horses.

  651. I was rash enough to go for my free NHS health check the other day. The health Nazi was most disappointed that I appeared healthy. Particularly after I told her that I smoked cigars and regularly consumed a months worth of ‘units’ over a celebratory weekend

    These people are not only controlling and dangerous. They are boring as hell. She was nothing like the nurses that I used to know in my (wasted) youth

  652. Frank Sutton 23rd, – 13:04

    A ‘unit’ is 8 grams of pure ethanol.

  653. Peter from Maidstone 23rd, – 12:35

    Of course, one could perceive the bastardisation of the colours of our national flag as a statement by the designer…Macca’s little lass.
    She, by her statements yesterday, is clearly unaware that the Olympics were awarded not to Great Britain but to the United Kingdom, which includes that inconvenient little bit in the north east of the emerald isle.

  654. Clear Memories (02:58)
    A very informative post, thank you. I didn’t realise that Oz had maintained some regulation of its booze distribution and had, I must confess, swallowed the lager ads depicting Australian lager louts, deducing that things had evolved there much the same as here.
    That’s more or less the way licensing worked here once, as I’m sure you know. It worked very well in comparison to the way that bent local authority apparatchiks have now grabbed the levers and perverted licensing to fill their own coffers – and I speak as an erstwhile customer; enforcer and licensee, in various permutations of status and location.
    The other popular myth is that the American Prohibition Era was a failed noble experiment. In fact it was a nobbled experiment. In those places where prohibition was enforced, it worked very well. It was only in American/Italian Mafia controlled areas, where police were entirely subverted by corruption that it failed, because there was no ‘prohibition’: there was a cartel with brutal enforcers who decided from who and where their profits were derived.
    And eventually, even when prohibition was repealed, it was at the behest of Mob: the distribution was handed to them and their Jewish associates, who used the now ‘legitimate’ business of booze to launder other criminal revenue from illegal gambling, loan-sharking, prostitution and its off-shoots – and to set up the vast chain of retail chain store businesses, breweries and distilleries that now comprises the guts of transatlantic and European retailing conglomerates.
    In my travels through the criminal undergrowth on both sides of the Atlantic, I found that the ‘ Gresham’s Law’ was a misnomer. rather than ‘bad money driving out good’, most good money springs from the shit of bad money; certainly criminal activity of one form or another, rather like Mother Nature’s own fertilisation processes. An over simplification I know, but that should get the libertarians going.
    The damage done to humanity by its own propensity to escape from the horrors of existence via the ‘easy’ method of imbibing various combinations of chemical substances, some legal others illegal, has been fairly constant through the ages. Whether interference of government in the supply can ever be effective, has been and will remain the subject of endless debate. And standing on the sidelines, to take advantage of whichever way the legislation is framed, there have always been and always will be, those who know how to exploit human weakness/fallibility and reap the harvest. Plus ca change…

  655. Peter sorry to have posted that twice, but the first one escaped before I had checked. Please expunge the first garbled version – and keep the second garbled version. 🙂

  657. Malfleur 5:13 — I wonder why Marine slipped in the polls at such a time. Any idées? I was thinking she would have enjoyed a surge. Do you think the other rightist is stronger?

    Ncholas 10:44 — “. Fantastic simplifications and slogans that would have been derided in my youth are taken up seriously and used as battering rams. ”

    Yes. Like CaMORON’s “Big Society”. Perhaps there are more moronic slogans in the political arena … I am sure there are … but never such an empty, vapid, utterly meaningless slogan promoted nationally with such a po’ faced air of revelation.

    Austin Barry … agree about the Olympic logo or whatever it is (who cares?) and like the name Stella McNepotism. There are kids in design school who could have come up with something with more panache and Britishness. And I the Union flag on the back of swimming trunks is insulting. Tens of thousand died for our flag. It’s so bad that I suspect she designed her father’s toupée as well.

    Austin Barry 12:23 — I liked this … ““It looks fantastic, very royal, very patriotic. We want to be very professional but sexy at the same time,” Smith told Reuters before a passing pigeon spattered his skin-hugging suit with droppings.”

    Did anyone ask the speaker what there was about the outfit to suggest “royal”?? Or what on earth about it says “patriotic” given that it doesn’t even employ our national colours. “We want to be very professional” … I thought the stupid Olympics celebrated amateurs??? … “Very sexy”?? How? Is this a joke? Did he mean to say “very poxy”?

  658. Ostrich (Occasionally): Games awarded to the UK? I thought they were The London Olympics.
    Macca’s little girl seems to be unaware that London is in England, judging by the study in blue she’s made of the Union Jack.

  659. Frank Sutton … Good point. Stella McCartney seems oblivious to the fact that it is cities who “win” (and that’s a whole subject on its own) the Olympics – not countries. As is the Olympics Committee, which travels the world as the pampered guests of various cities for four years in between the actual games knows only too well.

    Stella doesn’t seem to have been well-briefed, so to speak.

  660. Frank Sutton 23rd, – 14:10

    Ostrich (Occasionally): Games awarded to the UK? I thought they were The London Olympics.

    Aye, fair enough. And I suppose it’s not totally her fault, when she sees the team call itself ‘Team GB’ when it should be ‘Team UK’.

  663. The whole thing (Olympic strip twaddle) seems to have been an exercise in avoiding the English flag and national colours being recognisable in the design at all costs and then dressing that up in trendy pseudo-babble from a talentless hereditary celebrity. Probably to avoid offending the kaleidoscope sensitivities of the kaleidoscope metrosexual twats living in the kaleidoscope bubble that is Londonistan. Those responsible should feel nothing but deep shame.

    The design looks like something on the side of an aspirin carton. The colours of the UK are red white and blue and the colours of England are red and white. They should simply have been reflected in the design and those responsible for commissioning it and deciding on it should have insisted on that.

  664. Frank Sutton (15.01)

    Good link. Explains how and why the Left are trying to bugger yet another institution, this time literally.

  665. TeleBubble is still window licking over there: see last comment on the pensioners thread. Heh heh heh! God, is he p’d off! Hates his poor old Gran too, apparently?

  666. Nicholas 15:08 — Well posted, sir!

    And of all the designers in Britain, why, oh why, oh why ….. ?

    A gay would have been better.

    Actually, Victoria Beckham would have been better. She understands the world of competitive sport, that’s for sure, and some of her things are rather nice.

    Well, nice to know that Stella came first on Team Nepotism.

  667. It is noteworthy that Lord Coe had already flogged off the rights to the team strip to the German company Adidas, who then invited Stella to design something, clearly with a brief to be as disrespectful as possible. She has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

    Lord Coe is clearly happy to be parading himself as the Olympic man, but is also clearly embarrassed to be putting on the Olympics in Britain and is trying to make them as little to do with most of us as possible. We are just a location for a foreign games.

  668. Why it’s sensible to hate soft left goons like Cameron part 357…..

    Last year C did one of his meet the people roadshows at Greggs’ where he extolled businesses like Britains best sausage roll makers. Last year Greggs and others won a battle with the Treasury over the definition of ‘hot food’ which meant that their S Rs wouldn’t be defined as hot food but ambient and not be liable to VAT at 20%. The Budget has now put 20% on these ambient type of products anyway (vindictive twats).

    This could mean that any fresh food like bread baked on the premises which comes out the oven warm (like all of it) could attract a 20% rise in cost.

    Also Britain, with 20% of the EU’s population already pays 40% of it’s alcohol duty but Cameron, a fan of leftist health fascism, is happy to introduce more tax under a minimum unit scheme. The fact that Ken McMeikan of Greggs and Tim Martin of Wetherspoons are opposed to this crap cuts no ice with these metropolitan bien pensant tosspots. I guess that the calculation is that they wont lose many Tory votes. Maybe so but what it will do, along with fuel and energy duties, is galvanise an anti-tory turnout in the next election.

    On a more cheerful note, can I recommend Greggs’ forthcoming ‘chip shop curry’ slice and samosas – out soon.

    Hexhamgeezer – bringing down blogs’ tones since 1962

  669. What benefits does hosting the Olympics bring to the city that wins the bid? Has anyone produced a realistic cost-benefit analysis?

  670. Lord ‘Olympics’ Coe was, as we know, a formidable athlete. What may be less well known is that he and William ’14-pints’ Hague often frequented Jeffrey Archer’s private penthouse gym for, at least in William’s case, judo lessons. Which may, with hindsight, call into question just about everyone’s judgment

  671. They lost this Conservative vote some time ago. My Dad got a call from UKIP yesterday and told them he would be signing up again, and that his son was also interested. I am now. Anything is better than this, or at least is no different.

    Warm sausage rolls. Now a luxury item and subject to tax. Who would have thought that a Conservative Government would impose so much tax, allow so much immigration, continue to increase spending, assault the Christian faith and traditional British culture, for what? What are they getting out of it? Do they really think that they are so much better than the plebs? Do they really dream of some Brave New World? It seems so.

  672. Frank Sutton 23rd, – 15:51

    “What benefits does hosting the Olympics bring to the city that wins the bid? Has anyone produced a realistic cost-benefit analysis?”

    We-ell, after the monumental f*ck-up of Montreal in 1976, I understood they were all treated to some sort of CBA thingy. Apart, of course, from Moscow. And…we are led to believe, they have all turned a profit.

  673. Frank Sutton … the only people this vile charade of giant egos benefits are the Olympic Committee with a life of unending First Class travel, penthouse suites in the best hotels, chauffered limos, five star restaurants on a daiy basis for each five year cycle as cities (run by the deranged, like London) vie to hold this vile and utterly stupid charade.

    A week long commercial for steroids.

    And far from earning money, the Olympics leaves cities indebted for years. I believe, if memory serves, the Montreal Olympics of 1976 were only paid off 10 years ago. They had a tiny celebration. Athens, Beijing, Sydney, Atlanta … google (I can’t be bothered) to see how long it took them to pay it of, but yearsf. The financial benefits are miniscule to negative.

    China was the only one that made any sense because they were, in effect, re-introducing themselves to the world after around 50 years of isolation, and it was a showcase for them. The Chinese are nothing if not pragmatic and, had there been no larger financial/commercial purpose behind it, they would have eschewed the pleasure.

    BTW, the Olymics Committee has clearly (to my mind) noted that human athletics have reached the optimum, even with drugs. Watch them introduce sneaky new, non-competitive “sports” little by little. Oh, like synchronised swimming for example …

  674. All of this talk of safe drinking levels and of David Cameron showing his socialist tendencies by interfering in the right of manufacturers and retailers to set their own pricing policies, has reminded me of what to me is an intriguing fact.

    Some years back a doctor was being interviewed for his opinion on something or other, whilst in conversation; he claimed to have been a member of the medical panel that was set up to determine and advise the then government on what were the safe amounts of alcohol that could be drunk, ‘these so called units’, what was quite astonishing; was the fact that he claimed non of them had a clue and so they decided amongst themselves that the would in effect ‘pull numbers out of the air’ and so they did.

    Try Googling to see what so called safe ‘units’ other countries have, you might well be surprised.

  675. I think we will increasingly see the competitive element removed from the Olympics as it is clearly elitist to consider one person as ‘winning’ when really everyone is a winner. Indeed it will soon become necessary for the selection committees to take into account the social class and background of competitors so that those who are not fit, and can’t run without coughing up a Gregg’ sausage roll, will be able to represent our country. The new quota system which is being planned will ensure that a properly balanced range of competitors from every country, creed, race, class and ability will all get medals.

  676. I object to the pressure being put on brewers and retailers to stop selling strong beer and cider as when I do, very occasionally buy a bottle of something I prefer one small bottle of strong cider or beer, rather than several bottles of weaker brew. Why should I not be allowed to continue in such a manner?

  677. From a Wiki item on the Athens Olympics

    “An operation carried out by the Greek National Intelligence Services, in collaboration with a foreign Intelligence Service, discovered a large amount of plastic explosives a few days prior to the beginning of the Olympics Games. It was decided that the incident would not be made public in order to avoid creating a situation of panic and insecurity that would probably end up in mass ticket cancelations.”

    If a plot were to be discovered whereby misogynistic Islamists were planning to attack the alarmingly haram spectacle of the uninfibulated women’s beach volley ball competition, would we be told?

  678. Austin Barry — good point.

    Frankly, I have thought this was an invitation for disaster from the day Blair first expressed an interest in getting it for London. I couldn’t even understand why London went along with it because it has been a world famous city for six or seven hundred years and doesn’t need the publicity.

    Peter from Maidstone 17:04 — As I mentioned above, they have already started removing the competitive element with the introduction of synchornised swimming, whose winners or losers will be dependent on whether the judges like the routine and the costumes. Not on objective criteria like time, distance or height. So it’s begun.

  679. ‘Warm sausage rolls’

    At least one year on and I have been unable to banish from my mind Verity’s mordant image of ‘an ambulatory sausage in a shalwar khameez’. It kinda shattered my image of the luscious Saeeda for whom I had had previously had something approximating to the hots.

  680. Andy Car Park (17.39)

    Provenance please – I’d like to revisit that exchange. Perhaps if I just Google the phrase; there can’t be two of those in the blogosphere – or in the Universe.

  681. Is it correct that there is a new Olympic event especially for women in burkas? I hear that it is called the Sack Race! 🙂

  682. AWk – Tee hee. Only muslims will enter it. They’ll want to keep it allah in the family. To capture the grace and beauty of the event, some of it may be filmed in slo Mo.

  683. Verity 23rd, – 17:36

    “synchornised swimming”

    There are typos …

    and typos. This one set my mind boggling (do blokes do synchornised swimming anyway?)

  686. Further to my post at 17:00.

    I have just accessed the following site.

    http://www.drinkingandyou.com/site/uk/biggy.htm

    And I have extracted the following information that just confirms my opinion that we are being controlled by narrow minded, control freak idiots.

    Australia, standard unit 10g, x 4 per day = 40 grams per day.

    France, standard unit 12g, x 5 per day = 60 grams per day.

    Germany, No official guidelines, (let’s all move).

    U.K. standard unit 8g, x 3/4 per day = 24/32 grams per day.

  687. Nicholas
    @ 13:19

    Tsingtao used to make a black, Guinness-style, draught beer, but with extremely limited distribution. It was pretty good, though I don’t know if it is still brewed by them.

    Is Guinness still served as a heath drink in English hospitals by the way? If so, there is still hope for the country…

  688. In Toulouse, an English teacher ordered her pupils to maintain a silence in honour of the mass murderer who, she said, had had “a troubled childhood”. I don’t think I need tell you that she is an English teacher FROM ENGLAND.

    The French children, to their great credit, of one accord, got up and marched down to the headmaster’s office to report her.

  692. Nicholas
    @ 13:19

    Is Guinness still served as a heath drink in English hospitals by the way? If so, there is still hope for the country…
    ======================
    Nicholas, 55 years ago when I was expecting my son, I was told to drink Guinness every evening, by a doctor, and after the birth Milk Stout. When I asked a youg mother if this was still the norm, she looked at me with pity and assumed I was suffering from dementia!

  693. My wife has been a nurse all her life and is training to be a health visitor. I’ll ask her if she knows if it is the practice anywhere.

  695. She says they still used to recommend that breast feeding mothers had some Guinness.

  696. The Tsingtao Dark Beer (it was called that and also sometimes Black Beer) is no longer made although it was quite good. They now have a product Tsingtao Shansui Black Beer which is schwarzbier in style and also Tsingtao Stout which is not bad.

    The brand originates in the brewery set up in the German treaty port of Tsingtao. The lager is middling to poor but ok to wet the whistle in the garden on a warm day – bottle preferable to can anyway.

  697. Verity
    March 23rd, 2012 – 19:53
    Verity, Where did it say that the English teacher was English? Checking through Google, it appears that she was of French nationality.

  699. Tsingtao. Apparently an Amstel brewery, The Chinese seem to think that the green bottles prevent the Oreintal light from wrecking the beer – San Miguel follow the Western consensus and use brown. When drinking locally be very careful. No antifreeze but huge differences in specific gravity – bottle to bottle

    Most Chinese can manage one large bottle (about a pint). Better on brandy. I would reckon on 3 bottles being a good night, apart from Fridays and Saturdays which were for Martini and the Peace Hotel. Happy days

  700. Frank P
    As an afterthought to my post at 22.38, it seems that some “Tea Party” members have been rolling the dolphins.

    Nicholas
    Thanks for the update on Tsing Tao’s black beers.

  701. I’ll have to look it up for you, AWK. Her name is Lorraine Collin.

    Here. Draw your own conclusions. She said the murderer had “an unhappy childhood”. Sounds like a British lefty ambulatory dog turd to me. Or she could be a Frenchie dog turd married to an English dog turd.

    http://hummersandcigarettes.blogspot.mx/2012/03/toulouse-killer-pc-idiocy-abounds.html

    While we’re at it, I checked the Hummers And Cigarettes blogspot and found this list of shortest books …

    http://hummersandcigarettes.blogspot.mx/2012/03/worlds-shortest-books.html

    She also, apparently, explained to the class that the mass murderer had had an “unhappy childhood”. She can only be British or an Obamaesque American. Having lived in France, I just don’t see any French person making these comments in a school. This is the country that under Chirac, banned the burqa on schoolgirls on school premises. This is the country that, three or four years later, banned the burqa on adults on a public street. Until it banned entirely in public, they had banned it o premises owed by the public. Such as schools, mairies, public libraries, etc.

    I could be wrong, but I do not think a French teacher of anything would jeopardise her job … given how popular these laws are with the French themselves.

    That is government policy.

    While we’re at it though, check out this blogspot for a bit of a larf …
    http://hummersandcigarettes.blogspot.mx/2012/03/worlds-shortest-books.html

  702. Reading that 12 men have been charged in Oxford for sexual offences against under age girls and children. The authorities refuse to name them, but obviously they will have to eventually. Unless of course, a new law has been passed banning the names Iman, Muhammed, Hussein, Yusef or Sayid from being printed,

  704. Malfleur

    Just when you begin to think that bizarre things only happen in America, the BBC Newsnight team hire Eric Joyce to make the case against the governments new measures to curb binge drinking. Is he hoping to make a new career in stand-up comedy, I wonder?

  706. Things you’ll never see on the BBC – the ineptitude and empty incompetence of the Obammamessiah.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erYpXzE9Pxs&feature=player_embedded#!

    Roll on November – surely they can’t fall for the “You’re a racist if you don’t vote for the black guy” line twice? Like all black leaders, he’s steadily destroyed his nation and impoverished his voters.

    By the way Daniel Maris, we’re all still waiting for your examples of how immigrants have enriched our society. Are you the thinking of the blessings they have bought upon the little girls in Oxford? or Derby? or Liverpool, Manchester, Telford, Blackpool, Oldham ……. ? Or their contributions to road safety in East Anglia? Their concerns for wildlife, especially Swans in Peterborough?

    I sympathise with your delay in responding – its so hard to know where to start. Why not try their enrichment of the architecture in suburban Slough?

  707. Sometimes the good guys win. From today’s Daily Mail.

    “A shopper who suspected a man had been taking indecent photographs of children in a supermarket pounced on him herself – because the store’s security staff refused to help.

    Jane Gothard followed Mohamad Hatef out of the store and detained him while she waited for police to arrive at the scene – despite security guards refusing to get involved.

    Her brave actions resulted in Mohamad Hatef being jailed for two years after police launched an investigation that revealed numerous offences against children.”

    Pity though about the security staff.

  708. Austin Barry
    March 24th, 2012 – 09:19
    The security guards were afraid of being accused of giving muhammedans a bad name.

  709. Sometimes they don’t. From today’s Telegraph:

    “Alzheimer’s sufferer Dorothy Griffiths, 87, was found sitting down after staff heard a bang and a carer went to the office for help to lift her.

    But agency nurse Abdul Bhutto, who was in charge, said they would have to wait.
    Carer Zoe Shaw told the Sheffield hearing: “It took between five and ten minutes because he was praying upstairs in the office on his prayer mat. A staff member told me we had to wait for him to finish.”

    The inconsiderate pensioner died.

  710. Austin Barry
    March 24th, 2012 – 09:29
    Unfortunately, Bhutto’s prayers were answered. Another Infidel out of the way.

  711. Denis Waterman isn’t a wife-beating brute, simply of the wrong faith community. From 24 Hours Vancouver:

    “Eric Brazau was unmoved when flipping through a marriage guide he found in an Islamic bookstore a month ago. That was, until he reached the parts on how to control and beat your wife. Brazau bought A Gift For Muslim Couple out of curiosity but was taken aback when he found dozens of chapters and passages giving Muslim husbands advice around controlling, restraining, scolding and beating their wives.”

  712. Clear Memories
    March 24th, 2012 – 05:12 et al

    Have you banned Daniel Maris from the site?

    I find it difficult to think of any other reason why he has failed to substantiate his claims, either here or on the Speccie site.

  713. For those that might wonder at my constant carping at Daniel, well, he included in a post the line “We all know many immigrants have enriched our country ……. ”

    Well I don’t agree, I think MASS immigration has completely f***ed my country to the point where I have had to bugger off to the other side of the planet in order to maintain the lifestyle I want for me and my family. I have 2 lovely grand-daughters and I don’t want them growing up as bait for male members of the desert cult.

    Daniels slippery, soft-left slimeball response was :-

    “daniel maris
    March 13th, 2012 – 01:52

    Just as many “American” entertainers and businessmen are actually Canadian, I think you’d be surprised how many British notables have their roots in immigrant families whether it be Cliff Richard, Michael Portillo, or indeed the Queen.

    My point was that immigrants can bring good things but mass immigration into a crowded mountainous island is not really a good idea, even if all of the immigrants were in tune with our values.

    Sadly though many of the people we let in hate our values or are plain criminal in intent. And the rest are a burden on our strained infrastructure in terms of housing, health, education and transport.”
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

    To which my answer is “Bollox – that’s no answer”

    If you think the sundry towel-heads, camel-jockeys, eastern pikeys, poles and other EU-inflicted dross have benefited us (beyond Cliff and the Queen), justify your statement. You’ve had the best part of two weeks.

    If you can’t, then keep the f**k out of discussions on the social fabric, ills and disintegration of the UK because you have nothing positive to contribute and, by your sly acceptance, are actually part of the problem.

  716. They hardly ever do once challenged. The pattern for most lefties is a propaganda soundbite from their script which when challenged by any kind of logical argument or request for evidence is usually followed by silence or (more likely) predictable pejoratives about Tories or personal abuse taking liberties with fact (they are good at taking liberties) or stereotyping the opponent to fit leftist prejudices. The latter usually involves referring to the other party by a diminutive – “Nicky-boy” etc. – they all do that. It must be in some lefty troll training course somewhere. It’s a power technique, attempting to diminish the opponent by patronising contempt.

    As soon as you disagree with a leftist you become a filthy-rich, tax-evading, baby-eating, fascist, racist bigot. They are remarkable creatures of deceit. But the aspect that continues to fill me with wonder is that despite their transparent dishonesty, hypocrisy and manipulative conniving, despite their Borg-like predictability, they continue to get such an easy ride in the media.

    The other thing they do to highlight their moral superiority – their activists in the QT audience often do it – is to spread their arms and plaintively wail “Can’t you just celebrate (insert lefty moral judgement or cause)?” This implies that there must be something wrong with the other person not to be demonstratively celebrating the prevailing leftist agenda topic. They use terms like “disgusting” to describe points of view that disagree with theirs. There is an increasingly aggressive demand on moronic sites like Twitter for people to articulate their sympathies about “tragedies” and when they don’t they are condemned as “unfeeling”. That starts to get towards the North Korean-type coerced public grieving which seemed to begin in Britain when Diana died and HM The Queen was hounded to make an appearance.

  717. PS He never responded to my challenge to his ridiculous statement about the Empire either. It’s the blind side they effortlessly display when, for example their championing of feminism and gay rights collides head on with their championing of Islam in Britain. The two happily co-exist in their peculiar vision of “progress” because the only threat to feminism and gay rights that their dim Borg programming can recognise is the aforementioned filthy-rich, tax-evading, baby-eating, fascist, racist bigots, the criteria for which inevitably involves being white and indigenously English.

  718. No Emu, I’m not angry – how could I be when a proper two-party coalition has demonstrated that it is possible to overcome the leftie bigots.

    Today is the Queensland election, a state larger than the UK and suffering from 20 years of Labour in control. I can’t yet vote, but I sit here with pleasure as an honest two-party coalition has wiped the floor with the socialist shitheads, around 75 seats to 6 as type.

    Labour here has created a situation where ‘boat-people’ will risk their lives to sail from Indonesia (have a look at the map, some of the most dangerous seas in the world) If they’re spotted, they’ll blow up their boats rather than turn around, expecting the navy to save them.

    An Indian magnate has purchased huge mining rights and wants to fly in Indian labourers at Indian wage rates, then fly them out again – no minimum wage here! And Labour take him seriously!!

    Gillard will be history at the next election.

    Imagine the Coalition have more than 90% of the seats in the Commons. And the BNP have as many seats after the next UK election as Labour. That seems to be happening here.

    Joy and bliss!

    And all you poor bastards have Cameron and Millipede.

  719. Clear Memories (briefly):We immigrants left Somalia 50,000 yrs. ago and (12,000yrs.ago)ended-up on a cold,wind-swept,island in the North Atlantic.Others coming after,from the near-by coasts(or even from Germania),were close cousins.That is different from mass immigration by those we left in Africa 50,000 yrs. ago;or those we divided from 40,000(?) yrs. ago(‘Asians’) .But we can note the Jews & Sikhs are the the wealthies groups of newer arrivals.

  720. Clear Memories:from you account of the drinks laws I had the stange suspicion you were in Queensland.I wonder whether laws are the same in ‘Neighours’land ?or else where in Australia?

  721. Good old Radford (nice to know where the anti-semites are – resent rich Jews do we? Be at home with Ken then).

    So, off down a different road we go. Yes, the theory so far is we all came out of Africa (thought it was Ethiopia actually, but thats close to Somalia.) Trouble is, it doesn’t work.

    If we’re all from one root, it’s becomes difficult to explain why one branch (the orientals) managed to invent things as diverse as paper and gunpowder, whilst us white folk were shivering in caves. And whilst we caught up, the Aborigines here, in the Torres traits and PNG hadn’t developed a written language by the time Cook washed up on these fair shores (and still haven’t).

    And you well know that all the references here and the wider discussion relate to the immigration that started in the early 1950’s and became a tsunami over the past 20 years. The usual slur implies, as you did, that the objection is to blacks. But it isn’t. It’s a resentment that a Labour government has allowed such an influx of aliens that the society that had evolved over centuries has been irrepairarably altered/damaged in such a short period of time.

    And its a growing resentment that these aliens, whose beliefs are at odds with a basically Christain, liberal society, are allowed to ride roughshod over attitudes and practices that have developed over a long period of time.

    Sadly Radford, people like you and Daniel, in seeking to be so tolerent and accomodating (of course, you and yours never actually suffer directly from all this ‘enrichment’ – that little corner shop is SO convenient and such nice people) are the problem. If we still had manufacturing, the unions would be funding the BNP not Labour – its the white ‘working class’ (how I hate that tag) that really suffered.

    Oh and one last thought. It seems the “Red Deer People” evolved independently in Central China. So we might have two roots. Thats going to be fun! Kinda knackers to ‘we’re all the same under the skin’ argument.

  722. Radford NG
    March 24th, 2012 – 13:03

    Clear Memories:from you account of the drinks laws I had the stange suspicion you were in Queensland.I wonder whether laws are the same in ‘Neighours’land ?or else where in Australia?

    You are correct in your assumption. I can’t be sure of other states – SA charges you a deposit on the beverage container, WA also separates alcohol sales from other purchases. NSW/VIC might let you drink on the beach, who knows? QLD will generally turn a blind eye to alfresco consumption if you’re not obvious, blatant or drunk.

    By-the-by, you can’t take booze into northern QLD and drink sales are banned there to try and help the aboriginals who physically cannot assimilate alcohol. (another argument for us not all being the same – see my other post around this time)

  724. Clear Memories … V well said.

    Radford NG 12:37 … I’ve read that theory before by other delusional moon bats.

    If we look at the majority of the Africans today, and then imagine what they must have been like 50,000 years before they developed to their current low level of intellectual achievement, morals and social responsibility, and then look at the altitude of Caucasian social advances, inventions and organisational achievements, I think we can deduce that you are batting for a non-starter team.

    The three most intelligent races are the Caucasions (includes Indians from India), the Semites, and the Mongoloids. All have had, for a long time, high levels of social infrastructure, intellectual curiosity inventiveness.

    The least developed are the indigenous Africans and the Aussie Abos.

    Clear Memories, the Chinese also invented footwear and umbrellas/parasols (four thousand years ago … approx …).

  725. Peter from Maidstone, March 24th, 2012 – 11:33

    “No, Daniel Maris is not moderated. He could post here if he wanted.”

    He must’ve be having a massive sulk and/or gone into a sad decline after, earlier this week, Victoria Coren announced her engagement to David Mitchell.

  727. Clear Memories:my point was the Jews contributed greatly in the last 300yrs.It was their example which led the Protestants to create the Capital to finance the Industrial Revolution.And I lived in the place where the first provincial race-riot occured in England;actually a drunken brawl over a girl outside a dance-hall.As well as working along-side aboriginies in a place in Brisbane.I still love Australia as the country I once knew.

  728. Just a brief note; many of us have suspected that over on the other Coffee House some one who posts as Fergus Pickering’s is counterfeit and a fraud, the real Fergus writes far better than this nasty copycat .

    I have contacted management at the Spectator drawing their attention to the matter and I have had as you would expect a reply with a very positive response and the promise that the offending chap will be stopped post-haste next week

  729. Verity:they did’nt develop:we got out while the going was good.My view is we walked away from the violence of our neigbours.They stayed where and as they were.We variously developed as we spread around the world.

  730. The first three names of the The men held are brothers Anjum Dogar, 30, and Akhtar Dogar, 31, both of Tawney Street, Oxford, and Kamar Jamil, 26, of Aldrich Road, Oxford. Somehow, these names do not bring the sleeping spires of Oxford to mind, more like the cess pits introduced and encouraged by Nu Labour.

  731. David Ossitt — I, too, noted the change in quality of writing and thinking in “Fergus Pickering’s” posts.

    Radford NG – Best laugh of the morning so far. “We got out while the going was good” (completely unsupported by science). And you read this where, given that these people hadn’t developed an alphabet so didn’t leave notes? (Not even pictographs.) Yet they somehow just knew that there were seas to be crossed and other continents where people were smarter? Or were all the other continents uninhabited until the Stone Age Africans blundered their way in?

    This is a great Saturday morning laugh. Thanks!

    There are big diffferences between IQs and mental abilities between the races as there are between breeds of animals. (Except cats. All cats are smart, cunning and manipulative and do cute things.) But terriers are smarter than, say, spaniels, for example. Others, more familiar with dogs, will be able to comment on the differences between doggy IQs.

    Birds are another animal with highly developed brains and an ability to think very quickly. The smartest birds by far are parrots. Next, I believe, come the raptors.

    Africans are not near the top percentile of humans. As noted, that is the Caucasians, the Mongoloids and the Jews. I am not going to waste time further arguing the point because the evidence is so terribly clear.

  732. Verity says:

    “But terriers are smarter than, say, spaniels, for example.”

    Is this blog to descend into bigoted breedism? I hope not.

  733. Verity – where do you get your facts from that Africans and Aussie abos have a lower IQ than everyone else?

    However I agree that the Chinese have had and still have a higher and better interlect than all the rest of us put together. Have you read a book called “1421 – The Year China Discovered The World” by Gavin Menzies? Forget Columbus, Vasco de Gama, Cook and all the others, they all used Chinese maps (or charts as we call them now). The Chinese managed to map the world -even Greenland which was much warmer then.

    Still, I prefer our Western culture however much it fails. Chinese culture is hard and ruthless and totally uncompromising – kill your own grandmother for $1 even if you like her.

  734. Austin Barry — I knew as soon as I clicked Send that comparing doggy breeds had been a mistake.

    Plse fast forward, or fast back, to Eagles and parrotts. Muy amable. Gracias! (Said the Mexican parrott.)

  735. Jennifer

    Where do you get your facts from that the Chinese have had and still have a higher and better interlect [sic] than all the rest of us put together?

  737. Jennifer, I don’t make a note of the provenance of every word I read, so I cannot give you the references that I have read over the years.

    However. the evidence of my own observation confirms everything I have read on races. This is not to say there aren’t some clever Africans born and raised within the Western system.

  738. I wonder whether we might stop using the wussy and weasel word ‘moderated’, FFS?

    Wouldn’t it perhaps be better to call it what it is, there are many words that are much more appropriate: barred, blackballed; blocked; excluded; censored; emended, abridged; expunged; deleted – depending on how much someone with whom you don’t agree, or wish to silence, has been curtailed in expressing an opinion or emitting ad hominem abuse. There is nothing ‘moderate’ about doing any of those things. If you want to exercise power over a fiefdom with limited access rights, do so with honesty. The use of that euphemism is dishonest. Just sayin’ …

  739. Dont really agree Frank because moderation is more than blocking people. It is also editing things if necessary and even arbitrating. Things go into the queue to be checked. This is also part of moderation. Its not the same as censorship. Though it can include that.

  740. The Jeremy Vine Show http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01dd65n (40 mins 30 secs in).
    Before knowing that the French killer was an islamic, the thoroughly obnoxious Beatrix Campbell tells us that it was all the fault of right-wingers, chucking in the name of Enoch Powell for good measure.
    Laugh? I thought I’d never start…

  741. Malfleur –

    |Probably the same place that Verity does which makes me look pretty stupid!

  743. Malfleur, I didn’t say the Chinese have a higher intellect than “the rest of us put together”. I said they are historically one of the three cleverest ethnic groups … which are Mongolian, Caucasian and Jewish.

  745. RE AWK @ 16.04

    ..and the hearing afterwards remanded a Zeshan, Mohammed (who him?) and Bassan.

    ‘Rubbing our faces in it’ as a Neathergatian might have it. This business is looking more and more like the tip of a very sick iceberg and a rather consistent response by a culturally arid mindset when immersed in the UK. Interesting that underage girls in care are prime targets. At a guess I suspect a large number of their customers are extremely retarded in their social skills with women and find it difficult to engage with ‘normal’ age prostitutes after tiring of their 1st cousins.

    As for the business end of these enterprises, it is clear that their religion makes it very easy to deal with kuffars in this fashion.

    Who realised, when Anne Cryer in Keighley spoke about this years ago and was pilloried then, just how widespread this attitude was? Oxford today – where next?

  746. Hexhamgeezer
    March 24th, 2012 – 19:32
    I loathe the British men and women involved in this more than the accused. The barbarians are behaving just as one would expect them to, and this is why in times past, sanity reigned, and they would not have been allowed the freedom and liberty to pollute our very lives. Unfortunately the British, from the negligent mothers (I feel sure no fathers around), to the corrupt/insane judiciary and idiotic and depraved social workers are all far guiltier, by virtue that they should know better and have betrayed the trust of helpless children,

  747. AWK – In my experience, the British … espeically the English … are the most officious people on Planet Earth. The bossiness … the yearning to be able to tell someone else what to do and … even better! … tell them what they cannot do (“Oh, no madam! It’s more than my job’s worth to let you ….” blah blah blah). I have never encountered this in any other country.

    British social workers are just the apex of a mountain of similar individuals whose ambition is to have power over someone else … “Sorry, but those are the rules …” and “If I was to make an exception for one everyone who asked …”. It’s a ravenous hunger for power, but why is it so evident in every aspect of British life, but not in other countries. No one on earth can say “No” with the relish of the British.

  748. Verity
    March 24th, 2012 – 20:05
    Sorry, if I knew why, I would be a very wise woman. Alas, why cannot the silly little girls and not so little girls learn to say “No” with relish?

  749. Good point, AWK. Perhaps they’ve been cowed by the social workers while in “care”.

  750. Verity writes:

    ” .. the British … espeically the English … are the most officious people on Planet Earth. The bossiness … the yearning to be able to tell someone else what to do and … even better! … tell them what they cannot do (“Oh, no madam! It’s more than my job’s worth to let you ….” blah blah blah). I have never encountered this in any other country.

    We even invented “jobsworth’ to update the archaic, but possibly more apposite, “little Hitler”. The French did of course coin the word ‘bureaucrat’ so we are not alone. The dreaded acronym ‘EU’ , however, trumps all parochial identifiers of bonkers officiousness.

  751. Austin Barry – The French are finicky and want everything done within precise rules and boundaries but they don’t take the relish in saying “no” that the Brits do. In fact, I found that at the mairie, in France, they will readily explain to you why any decision has been made. They’re not uppity. They’re not triumphal. They just want to explain the logic to you.

  753. Austin Barry @ 20:49
    The English are, or were,notorious for being “bolshie”‘ a word which we coined to deal with its many manifestations among our people in their resistance to authorities or of anyone being too pushy; but I think there is a trail that leads back into times before the 20th century.

    Not wishing to wind anyone up, but I would put the Chinese higher on the list than the citizens of the EU – the French may have coined the word “bureaucrat”, but bureaucracy itself was one of those great legacies of the Chinese which civilized peoples elsewhere are encouraged to imitate and admire. That was all lost with the revolution of course. In England, we had the Civil Service, which was not at all the same thing, but that has now also gone – and what young gentleman today would steal a policeman’s helmet on Boat Race night, although our American cousins have tried to preserve the craft? See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwLs0O3gCwQ

  754. Austin Barry

    “Is this blog to descend into bigoted breedism? I hope not.”

    Breedism? Is there such a word?

    But no matter; what you are trying to do in your own inimitable way is to try to play the race card.

    When Verity wrote ““But terriers are smarter than, say, spaniels, for example.”

    She was writing a provable fact, observe a Great Dane a majestic yet stupid breed.

    I once had the love of an Irish Setter (Red Setter) bitch who until age four or five was a permanent silly puppy and yet my two sister Miniature Wired Haired Dachshunds (terriers) were almost as intelligent as a working Border Colley.

    When Verity points out that there are similar variations in humans it is not racist, it is just plain fact.

  755. I had always thought “bolshie” originated from “bolshevik”? Although I don’t dispute that the English have long had a natural disposition – until now – to scorn and resist overbearing authority. The relationship between the Englishman and the state has changed quite fundamentally in my lifetime. In my youth an Englishman was free to go about his business and largely considered the state to be in his service when he required it. Much of the behavioural constraints were regulated only by commonly agreed but unstated conventions and common courtesies. Now the state seeks to control the activities of every Englishman, through advice, coercion, regulation and legislation; and this is manifest through local, central and European (foreign) dimensions of government.

    The new Left began an insurgency against a fundamentally benign “establishment” in the 1960’s and have now replaced it with a fundamentally authoritarian one. I don’t quite understand why this accelerated with the fall of the Berlin Wall but find it intriguing. I also find it intriguing that no-one much outside bloggers and the odd journalist has identified and documented this and that there are no cohesive movements to counter it. Whereas the Left have managed to collectivise fractured agendas into a codified whole – to create an influential script or narrative that gains momentum, the right remain fractured – and considerably disadvantaged by a core who have embraced leftist ideologies and/or conform to leftist narratives.

    To my mind – and I could be wrong – there is a delusion at work that damages the preservation of those constitutional attributes and safeguards that have proven so successful (and exportable) in the past. The delusion is exacerbated by ignorance of course but seems to be rooted in a reluctance to accept the necessity of opposing the collective left in their own terms – especially their intimidation. Take most political left vs right encounters and you will see the right remain polite and sometimes ineffectual in stating their case, whilst the left are robust and aggressive to the point of outrageous rudeness. They hold the initiative. And until that is broken by the right preparing to be equally assertive, aggressive and rude about them their narrative will hold sway. The right need to learn and apply subversion.

  756. Nicholas … Bravo! Bravissimo! You’ve captured the whole zeitgeist of the dictatorial, conquest-driven, power-ravenous, toxic left. They are rabid.

    You are right that using their well-known techniques, they have bludgeoned their way to astounding (my father would never have believed the country could disintegrate so quickly and surrender to a cadre of authoritarian bullies) and inexplicable dominance. Town councils are telling people what to think. Perverts have a place in junior schools forcing sexual knowledge on small children. The police, in their threatening gear, are like an occupying force. The right to own a gun for self-protection has been slipped out from under you. New “hate” laws, that are punishable, have been cunningly fashioned as “caring” and hammered into law.

    Nicholas’s post above is brilliant.

  757. But Nicholas’s post raises the question: Why??

    Why did the British allow themselves to be whipped into destroying their own civilisation and mores to win the approval of junk like Jo Brand, Stephen Fry and all the other shrills, the vividly, obviously fascist BBC (which the victims are forced pay for … ask yourself why anyone should be forced to pay for the destructive, sleazy BBC … and also ask yourself why anyone should need a “licence” to have any appliance in their own home).

    This is the most baffling. Not that there is wickedness afoot. Such wickedness would not have surprised Shakespeare. But that there has been such ready surrender.

  760. Nicholas

    “I had always thought “bolshie” originated from “bolshevik”?”

    Yes, of course; but in English – and at this point I just did a random search of an online dictionary, Merriam-Webster – its meaning was extended by us to be applicable more generally,so that:

    “British : refusing to obey or help : defiant and uncooperative [more bolshie; most bolshie] Brit, informal : refusing to obey or help
    ▪ He turned bolshie and uncooperative. First Known Use: 1918”

    I know that at my school chaps were often accused, especially by prefects, of being bolshie, and none of them, so far as I am aware, was a Bolshevik, or even a Menshevik.

    I don’t have any quarrel with anything in your post. The English need to learn to be bolshie again – and to roll the dolphins. I don’t think the situation is irreversible, unless the cultural balance of the population is shifted overwhelmingly – which may of course be the point of “Neathergate” and the EU.

    By the way, and à propos of my comments yesterday about China and Bo XiLai, I read in the press today (FT, hard copy) that the Chinese government has just introduced a requirement that every Chinese lawyer (this is, one hopes, limited to those qualified on the mainland, otherwise I might have to get my little red book out) is now required to swear an oath of loyalty to the Communist Party – making it more difficult for them to be bolshie to the Bolsheviks: but Chinese bureaucrats were always an officious lot – though the Chinese people as a whole tend to be a bit bolshie traditionally, which can be attested by the numbers of them that get murdered by their government over the years.

    I wonder whether the numerous Chinese mainland lawyers now enjoying life in, for instance, California, will now hurry over to their Consulate in San Francisco or Los Angeles to raise their right hands – or would it be their left hands…? Let’s hope they are too bolshie to cooperate.

  763. Until recently Peter Spencer of Sky News was a welcome screen ‘friend’ with his structured, roue’s hairstyle, masher’s togs and hyper-kinetic finger tweaks – as though he were seeking an obscure station on an old fashioned radio.

    Unhappily, we can longer watch his appearances with any degree of seriousness and his perceptive comments have been hopelessly compromised.

    Why?

    Step forward, Frank P.

    Mr P. has forever undermined Peter’s gravitas by characterising his elegant, artistic, pianist’s fingers as ‘wanking spanners’. Even Mrs Barry upon seeing Peter shimmer onto the screen calls out in derision, “It’s old wanking spanners’.

    I think more careful moderation of Frank P. may be required.

  765. Anyone up for a whip-round to raise £250,000 to get Verity access to David Cameron?

  767. Peter from Maidstone

    If one clicks on Conservative Voices on the Spectator blog roll, it opens up this Coffee House Wall. (H/T telemachus’ March 25th at 4.28 am [sic] James Forsyth’s ‘Ken’s Identity Crisis’ blog).

    Are you running a mole at the Spectator?

  769. Malfleur, yes, I’m afraid that I misread your meaning where you stated about the British coining the word! I understand the usage but was referring only to the origin of the word.

    But, indeed, a bolshiness or stubbornness in not cooperating with the strictures increasingly placed upon us might serve better than organised protest. The problem is that the law enforcers now appear more vigorous in pursuit of such non-compliance and exercise of personal freedom. So a publican allowing people to smoke in his bar or a shop owner refusing to serve a veiled woman would probably find themselves the subject of police attention much more rapidly than if they were burgled or assaulted. I’m not sure how these political ideologies are prioritised by the police, whether it is an actual direction from above or just an aversion to accusations from the strident agenda lobbies or an aversion to litigation, but prioritised they are. And in effect we have political police. These police are certainly no longer “only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence”. But the sleight of hand perpetrated by the left is to slyly presume and usurp the “interests of community welfare and existence” to their own political agenda.

    This in turn is rooted in Blair’s creepy boast that “the Labour party is nothing less than the political arm of the British people as a whole”. New Labour were very successful in consolidating their political ideology and “order” in society in exactly the same way that the National Socialists in Germany did. They reinforced their mantra by political correctness and law, demonising or criminalising those who did not think, talk and act like a socialist. And under their watch – and now Cameron’s – political correctness and the law continue to merge. We see the results of this in the torrent of faux outrage whenever a public figure dares to speak out in a way that does not conform to it. Despite his promises Cameron has done absolutely nothing to reverse it. And if that is at the insistence of the “Liberal Democrats” then those people should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. The Coalition have preserved New Labour’s abuse of English freedoms.

    The “grey ponytails” (© Breitbart) who assaulted the benign establishment in the 1960’s were successful precisely because the establishment was benign. The establishment they have replaced it with is far from benign and therefore much more difficult to subvert by bolshiness. For a person to declare freedom and rebel is more risky now and the consequences potentially more terrible, so there is a climate of oppressive fear in stepping out of line. The analogy is exactly the passing of such expressions of minor rebellion as knocking off of policemen’s helmets or throwing rotten eggs at bad politicians – there is no humour or tolerance in enforcement now. The English have been disarmed in more ways than one.

    And as with most unchallenged or consolidating power it becomes ever more arrogant in its demands and impositions – and ever more draconian in enforcement.

  770. Scanning the “Radio Times” for the coming week, I was delighted to see that on Friday, at 2:15 on Radio 4, “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot will be performed by two brilliant actors. This is one of my favourite literary works, but I was amused (polite word) to see that amongst the Luvvies introducing it are the Archbishop of Canterbury and Jackie Kay, a black, lesbian icon of the BBC. Eliot must be turning un his grave.

  771. Verity
    March 25th, 2012 – 02:27
    “But Nicholas’s post raises the question: Why??

    Why did the British allow themselves to be whipped into destroying their own civilisation and mores to win the approval of junk like Jo Brand, Stephen Fry and all the other shrills, the vividly, obviously fascist BBC (which the victims are forced pay for … ask yourself why anyone should be forced to pay for the destructive, sleazy BBC … and also ask yourself why anyone should need a “licence” to have any appliance in their own home).

    This is the most baffling. Not that there is wickedness afoot. Such wickedness would not have surprised Shakespeare. But that there has been such ready surrender.”

    It certainly has happened and it certainly is baffling.

    The answer is that the world is not as it seems.
    The solution to the puzzle ‘Why did the British allow themselves to be enslaved?’, is rather depressing.
    The reality is that ‘elites’, political and economic, need to operate very discreetly in societies that are ostensibly democratic. So this is what they do. Though it is an old left analysis; the idea that real power operates covertly in democracies, we should not dismiss this idea.

    The entire contemporary public political scene is filled with issues that are a clear conflict between covert power and the democratic will.
    Human Rights. Welfare payments to the undeserving (or children in foreign countries who have never even visited the UK). The CO2 lie and the millions being earned by the already rich in corrupt ‘subsidies’. Soft anti-justice. Homosexual ‘marriage’. The progressive propaganda posing as ‘news’ on TV and in every single newspaper. Unlabelled GM food. MMMR vaccines/autism. etc etc etc

    All these issues can be understood as a conflict between the mass of the people and powerful covert interests. They are international and anti-Christian, anti-family.
    So why are thing worse than they seemed to have be in very recent history, given that these powerful covert interests always existed?

    It is possible that the ‘character’ of a free people (the English or anglo Saxons or whoever) was always an illusion. It’s possible that previous ages just told themselves that they were free with more conviction.*

    Secondly, the nature of the elites has certainly altered. They seem to have applied some very destructive policies to ‘their property’; that is, us.

    Now we are not needed as cannon fodder in the elites power struggles (after The Bomb, warfare is not used to settle their disagreements) there is no reason to maintain ‘order’ in the masses or the herd, as they consider us.
    The logic of this analysis leads to the suggestion that significant massive depopulation is now the policy of global elites. The evidence for this is alarmingly plain and not just the one child policy or the chemicals added to food and drinks.

    So the British (or Texans or Welsh or Germans or Canadians or whoever) did not exactly allow themselves to be enslaved. Instead the social and political mechanisms that they assumed THEY had built to protect themselves were always owned by other power interests ie

    The Monarchy; zero help protecting the Constitution.
    The political parties; now exposed as obviously betraying their ‘core’.
    The Police.
    The BBC.
    The Church of England.
    The universities and schools.
    The Courts and the Law; subsumed by the EU with consummate ease. No fight back. No battle because they were never actually ‘owned’ by the people. Jury trial won’t last long.

    So, it was not actually ‘our’ country to lose in the first place. The democratic character of the political settlement just made everyone happier pretending it was. That’s it.

    Oh, and the global elites have an agenda that binds them together. That’s it.

    Reg.

    *Technology is key to this though. Modern technology gives the elite a power to control that not even Orwell imagined. ‘1984’ has long been surpassed. See ‘Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us’ essay in ‘Wired’ magazine written by billionaire globalist insider.

  772. Malfleur, this site is more interesting than the other. So I redirected it here.

  773. I see there is new outrage over party donations, bringing a pledge from some LibCon apparatchik to “keep big money out of politics”;
    Could this mean they mean to take big money from us?

  774. Political parties, especially in their current form, are deeply anti-democratic and should be made illegal within Parliament rather than being funded by taxpayers. If we don’t want to join then that should be a pretty good indication that they are failing to represent anything and anyone other than their own interests.

  775. We had a visit from telemachus’/Patriccia Shaw/Nick Hadjinikos. He likes to blow hot and cold. Today he was abusive. I must say that he reminds me more and more of Dame Edna Everage. Indeed perhaps Nick could tour as Patriccia now that Dame Edna has decided to semi-retire?

  776. Nicholas … “This in turn is rooted in Blair’s creepy boast that “the Labour party is nothing less than the political arm of the British people as a whole”.

    Never mind the creepy boast … Blair is one hissy, lispy, little creepy individual no matter what your perspective. I wonder if he and his beautiful wife see much of fellow slime Peter Mandelson these days. Do you think they’ll be over for the games? My guess …. no.

    P from M 15:08 … may I respectfully suggest that Patrickster Shah be allowed unalloyed non-presence on these pages. No one was interested in what it painstakingly wrote on The Speccie and no one wants to hear from it here.

    Nicholas 10:56 … “The “grey ponytails” (© Breitbart) who assaulted the benign establishment in the 1960′s were successful precisely because the establishment was benign. The establishment they have replaced it with is far from benign and therefore much more difficult to subvert by bolshiness. For a person to declare freedom and rebel is more risky now and the consequences potentially more terrible, so there is a climate of oppressive fear in stepping out of line.” Indeed, indeed. Masquerading as being young and free, uninhibited and briinging a “fresh perspective” to society, these little self-congratulatory fascists (yes, Jane Fonda, I’m looking at you and your repulsive ilk) have degraded society. I’ve just had a thought … was Lee Harvey Oswald’s shooting of President John Kennedy in Dallas the starter’s gun?

  777. P from M suggests the political parties not be funded out of public funds.

    I agree. The public clear has no hunger for any of them, so why should their taxes pay for over-ambitious, greedy people to achieve their ambition. No further public funds for political parties. They can stand or fall by funding themselves.

  778. Senator Joseph McCarthy was a hero.

    No wonder the vicious, toxic, vivaperous left devoted 100% of its attention to destroying him. Thousands of media and millions of citizens trying to destroy one man … who went down fight. Senator Joseph McCarthy … RIP.

  779. Verity re J. McCarthy

    For anyone interested in the truth it is now plain that he was essentially correct about ‘subversion’ and ‘infiltration’ of American society. However, who was actually doing the ‘infiltration’? Reds?

    One analysis has it that what McCarthy identified as ‘communism’ was in fact the emerging NWO; at the time busy creating the conditions necessary for a ‘merging of the two systems of communism and capitalism’.
    This is why the treachery that he uncovered went so high and this is why there were powerful forces in America determined to protect ‘communist ‘ agents. These included the had of the Army; who was a globalist not a communist.

    McCarthy possibly recognised all this at the end. Recognised that he had been duped somewhat and that the rot was very deep and very high placed.

    This analysis would explain the state of the Republic today, despite the ‘triumph over communism’. Also it would explain why Nixon went to China and why China now occupies the place in world politics that it does.
    Also it would explain the development of the socialist undemocratic EU.

    Regs.

  780. Nicholas @ 10.56

    “…political correctness and the law continue to merge. We see the results of this in the torrent of faux outrage whenever a public figure dares to speak out in a way that does not conform to it.”

    My worry is that the outrage is not faux but the expression of the internalisation of the PC and the related legal constraints on running counter to it.

  781. Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports that in the United States the Kenyan’s puppeteers seem to have passed the executive equivalent of the 1933 enabling act in Germany:

    “President Obama has given himself the powers to declare martial law – especially in the event of a war with Iran. It is a sweeping power grab that should worry every American…He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator. The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law. It is blatantly unconstitutional. The executive branch is arrogating responsibilities precluded by the Constitution without even asking the permission of Congress. The order gives Mr. Obama a blank check to erect a centralized authoritarian state….”

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/22/obamas-power-grab/

  782. Malfleur
    March 25th, 2012 – 17:54

    Yes, a criminal takeover of the United States. Tyranny.

  783. The outrage may be faux or heartfelt, but it is orchestrated, and for a purpose.

    The ‘outrage’ over party funding will be diverted to support tax-payer funding of parties. I see CMD has already put the wheels in motion. The resignation of a recently appointed fund-raiser, egg on face, is a small price to pay for getting their hands on more of our cash.

  784. John Richardson, I wrote a reply to your well-observed post above, but the TELMEX modem I am using is from the Stone Age … I know that because it was delivered by a man with a cleft stick.

    I think your observation and conclusions are correct. The NWO either didn’t exist at the time, or hadn’t been bruited about in the public domain, and communism, via the USSR, was the only enemy we knew about. McCarthy was a brave and steadfast man, given that he didn’t give an inch to those who hurled abuse and ridicule at him.

    That is why the left instinctively hated him. He was too close to the truth, but had grasped the only handle he knew … communism. That he withstood the ridicule and toxic hatred for so long speaks very highly of him. Gary Cooper and John Wayne, astute men the two of them, were steadfast in support of McCarthy in the face of all the ridicule and jeering. (“What does a stupid cowboy movie star know about politics! Har har har har!”)

    Jane Fonda … the perfect emetic. And free. And you didn’t have to leave home. All you had to do was look at her and hear her to heave.

  786. Malfleur 17:54 … My God!!!

    Next — Re Obama’s sleazy (I realise the adjective is unnecessary) martial law, copycat Cameron will declare a copycat law in Britain. And, of course, the clouds are clearing and the clarity of the picture improves. This is why it was so easy for them to form the absurd and utterly undemocratic EU, and why Edward Heath, another one, was able to slide our ancient rights out from under us.

    Frank Sutton, you, too, are correct. This has been orchestrated since the fall of the USSR.

    How odd.

    Only today does the picture become clear. Is it too late?

  787. I hadn’t realised the NWO was so advanced and went back so far. So the Bildenbergers that the left jeer at as a right wing mirage … how do the Bilderbergers fit in? If the left are jeering, we know there is substance in the claims …

  788. Verity.

    The Bildenbergers; apparently they are a sort of steering committee that works at the policy level ie they advise attendees of the policies that have been decided and help formulate the best ways of applying those policies (eg a single currency for Europe or moving productive capacity out of the West to China or whatever).
    Thus, they are an important tool of the Agenda, but they do not actually set the agenda as it were. Alex Jones ‘bull horned’ a recent meeting of theirs and interviewed an insider btw.

  789. A wonderful spoof in the Speccie blog about Red Ken’s Identity Crisis, purporting to be from telemachus’, March 25th, 2012 8:55am.

    Wish I’d written it, but I’m not promoting my own work here.

  790. FrankSutton: That louse is getting really bloated. I think he must now be a fully paid up staff member of the Speccie, as he dominates the blogs with his spittle and spew. I don’t want to dirty Peter’s Coffee House, so please read the posting shown here: telemachus’
    March 25th, 2012 8:55am (On the Ken blog) , This makes me wonder if telemachus’ is now in complete raver’s gear cruising through the men’s lavatories in search of the diversity and ‘openess’ he craves.

  791. Peter of M : Perhaps my comment of 8:00 is a bit too much. If it is removed, fair enough! 🙂

  792. Your comment is awaiting moderation
    Will all my postings now bear the above citation?

  793. It’s because some of your credentials had changed. The system was asking me to check it was you.

  794. Peter of Maidstone
    Thanks, Peter. Do you think they have made a clone of me? Too ‘orrible to contemplate!

  795. Well it could of course be the real telemachus’ claiming the earlier one was a spoof, or it might be a spoof telemachus’ claiming that the real one is a spoof.
    Or it could be – well, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice comes to mind.

  797. It looks like there are several telemachus’ since one says his PR company is doing OK, and another says that he is in a different business sector altogether.

    The telemachus’ who enjoys being touched in his special place may be either the PR one, or the non-PR one, or it might just be that telemachus’ has told so many untruths and been so many people (I guess he is also still posting as Fergus Pickering) that he has lost track of his stories.

  798. The next Pope of the 12 million Coptic Christians in Egypt is to be chosen by a blindfolded child*.

    Might this method, if adopted by the Conservative Party, provide a better alternative to the present leadership of the country?

    *http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=263367

  800. Three names are selected by the various constituencies involved, and then the names are placed on the altar in the cathedral and a young child chooses one of the names. This was how Pope Shenouda was chosen. It has not been a system which has often been used at all. But in the present circumstances it will be used again because it is impossible to change it. Any changes to the Byelaws of 1957 would require Egyptian Presidential approval which could not be obtained while there is no President. Hopefully the new Pope will be an older man who will provide a period of continuity, while also allowing some of the more pressing issues in the Church to be dealt with.

  801. Peter from Maidstone

    This seems somewhat similar to the method for selecting the Dalai Lama, which worked pretty well the last time.

  802. I love it when Mark Steyn uses his dynamite-packed words to play with numbers.
    The likelihood that he will still be around to report events after the apocalypse makes me wish that could still be here to read his analyses and descriptions of the aftermath. He has recently returned from Australia with the words of pro-American Aussie economists sadly pronouncing the US as ‘no longer a First World country’.

    http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/budget-346003-debt-percent.html

    A soupçon:

    > Suppose Beijing decides to seize Taiwan. The U.S. is obligated to defend it militarily. But U.S. taxpayers would be funding both sides of the war – the home team, via the Pentagon budget, and the Chinese military, through the interest payments on the debt. (We’ll be bankrolling the entire People’s Liberation Army by some point this decade.) A Beijing-Taipei conflict would be, in budget terms, a U.S. civil war relocated to the straits of Taiwan. Which is why plans for midcentury are of limited value. When the most notorious extreme callous budget-slasher of the age [Congressman Ryan] cannot foresee the government living within its means within the next three decades, you begin to appreciate why foreign observers doubt whether there’ll be a 2040, not for anything recognizable as “the United States.” <

    But read all twelve hundred or so words of his latest dancing devilment. It puts things in perspective and makes one wonder why anyone would want to pay £500,000 to have dinner with Cam 'n' Sam.?

  803. Frank P

    I was reading that piece just a short while ago, but decided that as good as the article is I didn’t think Wallers should have their dose of Monday morning blues before they had their coffee, even if his blues like a lot of the sung variety is laced with humour. I liked for instance the story he includes about the ‘…famous exchange in Hemingway’s “A Place In The Sun.” Someone asks Mike Campbell, “How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways,” he replies. “Gradually, then suddenly.” ‘

    When are you going to establish an avatar, btw? I noticed that most of the commenters on Mark Steyn’s article had them.

  804. I wonder why Vulture has never joined us. He seemed to have slipped away gradually while we were still posting on The Speccie. I wonder if he is aware of this site.

  806. “My worry is that the outrage is not faux but the expression of the internalisation of the PC and the related legal constraints on running counter to it.”

    Faux was perhaps the wrong word. As Frank Sutton has suggested – “orchestrated” might be better. The BBC often use the words “outrage at” or “anger at” without identifying exactly who is outraged or angry. Usually it is some partisan statement from a single-issue agenda rabble or fake charity with a vested interest (like those multi-signed letters in the press) but the news is slyly distorted to make it appear that the “outrage” and “anger” is public and more widespread. Then it feeds on itself to grow into the “media storm” that we are accustomed to. Very often when you read actual public comments on media sites they are of the “So what?” type. So it is more like hot air in the bubble being re-played as something of national consequence.

    Later the BBC will report “calls to resign” but again it is never clear who the calls are from. It is almost like the old technique of “seeding” storms. The whipped up response is focussed too. It is hardly ever vigorously directed or kept alive when leftist politicians are involved. Thus Diane Abbott escaped the consequences of the appallingly hateful racism that should have finished her career as a member of a parliament supposedly dedicated to “equality”, “fairness” and “diversity”. A Tory politician would have been crucified. Things to watch out for are carefully scripted, coded words like “granny tax”, latched onto by all the usual suspects and repeated at every opportunity to “seed” them in the public mind.

    A very concerning aspect is the sinister marriage of cloaked communism and capitalism. If you are a wealthy and privileged member of the elite (whether politician, quangocrat, bureaucrat, celeb or media whore) an authoritarian cod-communist socialist regime that keeps the lid on the proles is probably a more attractive proposition than a blundering, benign, old-fashioned conservative one. That is the smell that has been coming from the EU for some time and is now starting to emanate from Westminster. And conveniently the regime can dress itself up at the same time as a caring, sharing, everything for your own good nanny where “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear”. Unfortunately in those terms “nothing to hide” includes not disagreeing, dissenting, holding “incorrect” views or articulating them. Cameron, Milliband and Clegg are just trying to shoulder each other off this hybrid ground in order to occupy it. Theresa May’s “nasty party” was the stupidest own goal ever, because it gave justification not just to the enemies of liberty but to the “modernisers” determined to subvert Old England.

    This is where we are headed. But as can be seen in China the wheels start to come off even the perfect marriage because of the internet. The next struggle will be the battle to control blogging and it will be a child of the Levison Inquiry. Watch the language to come and how it will be slyly manipulated with carefully timed “outrage” stories and alarming statistics from agencies monitoring online behaviours. Cameron will climb into the pulpit yet again to presume to speak on behalf of decent, hard-working families and to tell us that the further limitations on freedom, the further tax-raising and surveillance wheezes thinly veiled as “licensing” are “the right thing to do”.

  807. PfM, As a student of Eastern Christian traditions, you may be interested in the translation of the Caucasian Albanian palimpsest, which was recovered after a fire at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.

    http://www.lrz.de/~wschulze/Cauc_alb.htm

    The interest of the story is not purely linguistic. The Udi were forced converts to Armenian (Gregorian) Christianity but since the translation of the palimpsest, they have made a serious attempt to resurrect their autochthonous orthodox tradition. A heart-warming story.

  808. It would be worth us forming an organisation that didn’t do anything but make statements of outrage at various leftist things that could then be sent to the press. I mean this seriously. There is no point moaning if things are not done. The Humanist Society chairperson is always in the media but the Humanist Society probably has 10 members. We allow them to set the narrative. We need to win it back with unremitting propaganda for our British/English, traditional, conservative perspective.

  809. I am not sure I would say that they were forced converts to Armenian Orthodoxy, since they were already Orthodox. They certainly came under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate. I don’t know anything about the community, save for a brief read around various sites as a result of your interesting link. But it may be that the restoration of the Catholicate might help the community prosper. I like the Armenian Church a lot and hope to have a go at Classical Armenian next year. I don’t know any Udi people though. There are so many small peoples throughout the Caucasus.

  810. This from this morning’s ‘Torygraph’:

    BBC’s Television Centre ‘infested with rats’.

    But look who’s photograph heads the article.

    Ah, well. If you live by the sword…

  811. I have reconsidered my unfortunate call (25 March at 9:30 am) for Frank P. to be more carefully moderated.

    It was the result of dyspepsia caused by the unwise ingestion of a slightly dodgy ecclesiastical Sunday breakfast of Eggs ‘Pope’ Benedict served-up by our curate, whose egg dishes are an uncertain mixture of good and bad.

    So, having recovered, I say, “Let Frank P. be Frank P!’

  812. If you think the curate’s egg is bad for dyspepsia you should try cow pie for breakfast. The horns provide quite a dilemma.

  813. Link to a sermon given by The Revd Dr Peter Mullen.

    http://www.st-michaels.org.uk/Sermons%202012/The%20Queen.pdf

    (Re Her Majesty’s precocity. Impressive, but the late Hugh Gaitskell probably edges it. When out in his pram one afternoon, a passing woman stopped to admire him. The infant Gaitskell sat up, declared, ‘Ere long, you and I will be cold in our graves,’ and solemnly lay back down again. Source: Probably one of David Kynaston’s New Jerusalem tomes.)

  814. Jennifer @ 09.29

    Yes, I think Mark Steyn meant The Sun Also Rises, but please take it up with him.

  815. Thank you for the link ACP. This leaped out:-

    “Having defaced and deformed institutions such as parliament, the church, the law and the university, the whole modernising political clique, in a fit of hysterical self-hatred, egged on by ignorant, envious and sensationalising sections of the mass media, regularly turn their destructive spite on the monarchy which too will have to be modernised.”

    Followed by “They know not what they do”. Unfortunately I think that some of them, the malevolent ones behind the Agenda, know exactly what they do.

  816. I can across this in a financial link that I was reading:

    “Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it…Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that * confidence * which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society.” — Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784: English man of Letters and Moralist

  817. “Abu Qatada has been upgraded to a larger taxpayer-funded home since his release from jail last month, the Mail can reveal. The terror suspect, pictured above with a female companion [see photo…], has told relatives in his native Jordan that he is the ‘happiest man in England’ after he was rehoused to the more expensive property. Qatada’s brother, Ibrahim Othman, said: ‘He is really enjoying his new home and so are his family.’ ” (Daily Mail online)

  819. Austin Barry (09:30 25th & 10:45 26th)

    ” “Let Frank P. be Frank P!”

    Fear not; it will be so, regardless of any efforts, including my own, to curtail my tendency to fall within the definitions of Monsieur Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (1859–1904).

    Pleased to hear that Mrs Barry has acquired keen observational acumen in her extensive travels and that she has retained her sense of humour despite being married to you; please give her my regards.

    I must slip quietly and anonymously into the back row one night, during one of her performances, and use my own WS in the enthusiastic applause necessary to express appreciation of her excellent vocal talent. 🙂

  820. John Richardson. I googled your link and found the attached

    Why the future doesn’t need us.Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to make humans an endangered species.
    By Bill Joy

    Put that together with Nicholas’s analysis above and I will be digging a deep hole and filling it with canned food and bottled water

    I think that there is something in all of this. Maybe not a bunch of uberich sitting on a yacht somewhere planning to eradicate Christianity, but certainly something more nebulous (maybe we should call it a ‘meme’ ?)

    Perhaps the world has always been ‘directed’ by a few, in such a way. I watched a bit of the TV programme How God Made the English by the supercilious and not very English (although trying to look and sound like one) Diarmuid MacCulloch

    Fell asleep (as boring) but did catch the bit where we are supposed to have cooked up the ‘meme’ that Jews were vampires – apparently prevalent in the middle ages. Naughty us. How can anyone attribute anything, so far back in history, to a national/ethnic group? Even if so, such an attribution comes with an agenda and attacks/strengthens a meme (hypothesis: Cultural identity=the English are tolerant, the English support Jews. Suggestion: our ancient culture is as morally reprehensible as some current cultures = cultural relativism). Or have I been subjected to too many Marxist academics. I am sure that Verity will tell me if I have

    Culture is born, to some degree of Myth. Myth is narrative, and the control of narrative is, in my opinion, top of the control system hierarchy. Mores and then law follows. Maybe narrative/modern day myth is being influenced by a number of levers at the moment – and our conspiracy theory (and my confusion) is about a number of different groups each fighting for control of the cultural airwaves

    We are stuck in the middle of it, trying to make a living for ourselves for the time being, and ensure a future for our children. God help us, we need it

    Much like neuro linguistic programming – this does not make for happy productive people. Maybe there is something

  821. Well that didn’t come up as posted. Sorry

    First. Quote from Bill Joy’s quote from Ray Kurzweils The Age of Spiritual Machines

    Then please feel to disregard anu of the rest, but especially the last sentence which should be there

  822. Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite. Or, if the elite consists of soft-hearted liberals, they may decide to play the role of good shepherds to the rest of the human race. They will see to it that everyone’s physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes “treatment” to cure his “problem.” Of course, life will be so purposeless that people will have to be biologically or psychologically engineered either to remove their need for the power process or make them “sublimate” their drive for power into some harmless hobby. These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they will most certainly not be free. They will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals.

  823. Tip
    To cut and paste, it appears necessary to paste into the box, cut and then repaste

  824. I’ve added this ACP, though he seems not to have a blogroll himself to be able to ask for a reciprocal link.

  825. Jennifer and Malfleur – Correct. “A Place in The Sun” was a film based on Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy”, a huge best seller of its day.

    Malfleur 13;26 – I have nothing but searing contempt for those who gave the muzzie, Abu Whatsit, nicer quarters. He should be chained (by his left hand) in the hold of a cattle boat, forced to pee and shit where he is chained (terrible punishment for a muzzie, and wipe himself with his right hand, ha ha ha ha ha! – always look on the bright side), until chucked off – by which I mean “chucked”, as in “heave ho!” into the sea fairly close to a port. Of course, he may not be able to swim far with a chain around his arm, but if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

    I would suggest shipping him in the hold with pigs, but I have great respect for pigs. They have a very high intelligence level and they enjoy games … which is why you so often see a football in fields where pigs are kept.

    Before Abu allah whatsits is hoist aboard, some barber, on the promise of an OBE from HM, should be paid to saw off his beard so we can all have a good laugh at his face before he is shoved into the hold.

  826. Verity – the fate you prescribe for Abu ‘peace be upon him’ wotsit reminds me of the the “if I ruled the world” fantasies we used to have at primary school of humiliating and painful deaths for various teachers. (Not that they were a bad lot – just a normal children’s reaction to teachers in the days when the need to be liked didn’t cloud their judgment.)

  827. Nicholas 13:07 – Absolutely.

    Frank Sutton, yes, I know, but I really mean it and would happily participate in the organising free of charge.

    Incidentally, why did you write “peace be upon him”? Perhaps you meant “pieces be upon him” …? (“Piece” being, in old movies, the gangster lingo of the ’20s for “gun”.)

    BTW, the people who accorded this dog poo all this extravagence out of the taxpayer purse should be shipped out and shoved overboard, screaming and begging for mercy, with him.

  828. Here’s a gem of a comment from our old friend Thucydides on Peter Hitchens’ blog:-

    “Well, reading Hitchens’ Sunday column (as opposed to the other blog postings) together with the comments is rarely something to fill one’s heart with joy, but we do seem to be surpassing ourselves this week. Michael ‘I hate everybody and I don’t care’ Williamson and Peter ‘bitter? moi?’ Charnley, once the benchmark for grumpiness, are just going to have to up (or maybe that should be down) their games if they’re to keep up with the sheer vitriol at the likes of Common Purpose, family courts etc etc that is dripping from this week’s offerings.

    Still, it’s reassuring to see that BNP posters always come across as rather stupid. Mind you, since I couldn’t have identified the Keats quote Hitchens would presumably have put me in the stupid corner with them.”

    Note the sly reference to the BNP.

  829. Hi Verity,

    I found this gem scrolling around. Very well said – I think.

    “Mr Exploding Underpants – from Nigeria but sans passport as he was allowed to board an international flight without one – should be in the ground by now, one dead eunoch.

    Instead, he was allowed to lawyer up, and as a result there will unfold a hugely costly trial – with the taxpayers he intended to massacre footing the bill – to come to the foregone conclusion that is suffering from that handy portmanteau condition: insanity. Maybe with a side order of dyslexia.

    The same millions are being poured into finding Major Hilal of Ft Hood massacre fame kind of not guiltyish. Major Hilal should also be in the cold, stoney ground by now.

    By what tenet of the law – Trumpeter Lanfried, are you there? or any other trial attorneys? – is an individual who tried to commit a public act of murder – and in Hilal’s case, actually committed murder with dozens of eye witnesses attending, including some of those he shot who survived – is someone who committed murder before hundreds of witnesses deemed innocent until proved guilty?

    This circus of these two is going to eat up years, and millions in public funds that could be better spent elsewhere. And lessen the impact of the shock of what they did. Personally, I think that it part of the plan. Normalise terrorism.”

    Perhaps this site could do with one or 2 trolls to liven it up a bit. There was much more life in 2010 when you wrote the above. Otherwise, we will end up as a self congratulating society/blog

  830. Thank you, Jennifer. You must have been scrolling well back for that one!

    Mr ‘Splody Pants is still living at taxpayer expense in, I believe, a prison in Michigan as he was, if memory serves, trying to detonate his testicles when the plane was coming in to land at Dearborne.

    I don’t know how many people know, or remember this, but Mr Empty Knickers was allowed on an international flight without a passport.

  832. I remember ‘Splodey Pants’ had to removed by force from the plane lavatory as the plane was descending to land. The flight attendants had noticed that he had been in there an awfully long time. Apparently trying, without success, to ignite his testicles via a bomb he had concealed there. (I am assuming that allah, who thinks of everything, after all, would have arranged for him to be made whole again before sending over the 72 virgins.)

    Then, when they’d got him securely strapped in his seat as the plane came in to land, he took a cigarette lighter, lit it and held it to his fly (I am not making this up) where eventually it produced a small blue flame. He still didn’t explode and the flight attendants took the lighter away from him and he is now languishing in a federal penetentiary in Michigan wondering what went wrong.

  833. P from M — All that the Telemucous piece revealed to me was that Telemucous Syndicate had had a drinky lunch.

  834. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2120557/Three-guilty-gang-shooting-left-Thusha-5-paralysed-life.html

    These people need to be sluiced out of our country. En masse. No deportation hearings. Don’t try them. Don’t contaminate our prisons with them and their vile halal food. Just have a two-month round-up and put them on cattle boats. It doesn’t matter if families are split up. Just get rid of them off our ancient islands, which they are currently contaminating with their Stone Age habits and violent “religion”.

  835. Re my comment above … I’ve just gone to the Comments section at the end of the piece and note that most of the comments seem to be against much punishment for the fellow who allegedly shot and crippled the dancing child. Interesting, as I didn’t realise so many Africans could write even a badly constructed sentence.

    By coincidence, the three perps (found guilty in the trial) all look African.

    The paralysed little girl will never walk again. I wish I hadn’t watched the shop video. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2120557/Three-guilty-gang-shooting-left-Thusha-5-paralysed-life.html

  836. That Telemachus’ post is surely a spoof, by the author of yesterday’s spoof in the same vein – that same enthusiasm for touching people in their special place.
    Is the imposter one of the Wallsters?

  837. Maybe the word ‘kaleidoscope’ should join ‘vibrancy’ in the lexicon of multi-culti bullsh*t.

  838. Vince CableThe telemachus’ post seems of a type with his other posts. Indeed how would it be possible to spoof him. I did laugh out loud when I read it. Nick’s local LibDem MP would surely be Vince Cable. We know that Vince does dance so the post may well be entirely genuine.

  839. The spoof telemachus’ – if indeed it is a spoof – has a command of language that eludes the genuine article (if indeed it is).

  840. Good grief, re telemucous … so much time and internet ether wasted analysing a talent-free nonentity (syndicate of nonentities). Who gives a stuff who is churning out this ill-constructed, provincial, infantile wadge of posts?

  841. Frank Sutton (17:31)

    Or maybe Her Majesty should just tell Berkov to Ferk-off (in writing), as she did with her glance of utter contempt on the day of the speech, when he oozed the obsequious ‘kaleidoscope’ plop. And that wasn’t a manufactured glare, like the pre-planned hamming by Camerkunt; it was a visceral response from deep in the Royal bowels.

    Whenever I clap eyes on the little runt and his gangly bint, I think of Sally engaged in standing coitus with him, spinning him like a windmill, with a Union Flag up his Union Jacksie, to make the moving tableau more ‘kaleidoscopic’, while singing the National Anthem.

    Sally forth with THAT image, Mr (un)Speaker (bull)!

    And if you think that’s a bit OTT, take a look at what I was forced to watch this afternoon in the local phlebotomy unit of our meat factory as I was waiting to have blood taken:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c08cq/Jedwards_Big_Adventure_Tower_of_London/

    Not ‘Four poofs and a Piano’ on late night TV, but four poofs desecrating an ancient part of of our heritage at the behest of CBBC, with the assistance of Her Majesty’s staff, in a ‘history lesson’ for children returning home from school, where no doubt their other ‘lessons’ had been equally bizarre.

    As the nurse said, when she performed the procedure, “Just two little pricks, Mr P – and that will be that.”

    “Exactly!”, I replied with a smile.

    She looked puzzled, but I didn’t bother to explain. It’s all too late, anyway.

  842. Actually I think that telemucous provides almost boundless amusement in his posts and in his denial that his posts are indeed his own.

  846. For all the talk of Afghanistan being an example of asymmetrical warfare it seems wholly symmetrical – both your enemy and your allies want to kill you.

  847. Verity (18:44)

    I agree; I sometimes wonder if the purpose of blackballing him from this site was that he could become the target of taunts from a safe haven by those with whom he disagreed. He must be enjoying all this attention. I wonder whether rather than the ‘window licking’ that we have been suggesting’ he has been happy to have been the main topic of conversation here since day one. So back to the old maxim DFTFT, particularly by throwing him food over the fence, so to speak. Go kick the lame dog where he is still barking (in the widest sense of that word) if you feel you must do. The only obscene word that should be censored from this day forward, is Telemachus’!

  848. An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake.
    He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels.
    After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, ‘Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?’

    The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.

    In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says,

    ‘Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it is only fair, Given that you are blind, that you should know five things:

    1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.

    2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.

    3. I’m a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blonde woman with a black belt in karate.

    4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weight lifter.

    5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.

    Now, think about it seriously, Cowboy. Do you still wanna tell that blonde joke?’

    The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head and mutters, ‘No…not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.’

  850. Frank Sutton 26th, – 17:26

    That Telemachus’ post is surely a spoof, by the author of yesterday’s spoof in the same vein – that same enthusiasm for touching people in their special place.
    Is the imposter one of the Wallsters?

    Well, surely PfM can tell you that, it’s his site, he’s the one who can read the URLs.

  851. No, I really don’t think he is enjoying all the attention, and his real identity being exposed, and the extent of his really quite unpleasant behaviour. I don’t think he likes it at all. The last thing such people can stand is being the object of derision and contempt and their duplicity made manifest to all.

  853. Ostrich (occasionally) and everyone else except AWK (men are such obsessives), re Telemucous and his avatars …. WHO CAAAAAAARRES??????????????

    We don’t come here to discuss inadequates, except those in Parliament.

  854. Verity, if telemachus’ is a collective of socialists then I think it important that their methods be understood and dealt with. He/They have managed to shut down the Spectator CH Wall. That was surely not an accident. If we don’t consider how these things happen and how to counter them then such collectives will be able to take over everywhere they act.

  855. P from M … OK. It’s a fair cop. You are correct that they shut down The Spectator CF Wall.

    OTOH, they wouldn’t have managed it if people had ignored their drab posts, written with stultifying dull-witted triumphalism. They would have got miffed and trolled around looking for somewhere that offered them more attention.

    What on earth prompted people to reply to them as though they were legitimate posters?

  856. RocketDog @ 14.18

    History suggests the consequence of this would be a neo-feudalism under which in each country a few elite families enjoyed their lives but would then develop rivalries which would sharpen until one among them removed all the others. This process would develop at the international level until one family, possibly just a single couple and their children, remained to operate the robotry: Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve perhaps, and their kids, Cain and…

  857. RocketDog
    March 26th, 2012 – 14:12

    Thanks for the response.

    “John Richardson. I googled your link and found the attached
    Why the future doesn’t need us.Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to make humans an endangered species.
    By Bill Joy
    Put that together with Nicholas’s analysis above and I will be digging a deep hole and filling it with canned food and bottled water”

    Wait, that’s MY hole…you’re digging near my hole! I was here first.
    Dig yer own blinking hole!

    “I think that there is something in all of this.”

    Certainly is.

    This analysis of the ‘elite’ explains everything important about developments (in the west at first) since WWII at least.
    Surly no-one can doubt that Western society has been ‘dumbed down’? Every now and again a whistle blower* writes a book** from the inside. Then nothing happens and the Agenda continues on a tide of cheap money, consumption and Welfare.
    Sticking to education though, this analysis explains the destruction of the Grammar Schools; nothing else does. No one is more likely to vote ‘Conservative’ because they fail to offer bright wc children a decent school. No one.
    This is so obvious that mainstream commentators from the ‘right’ (P. Hitchens for example) even claim that the Grammars are not revived so as to allow the rich/elite to clean up in the field of education. Doesn’t really add up in my opinion.
    A conscious policy to lower educational attainment does add up.
    It explains the 50% into University madness.
    It explains the pretend Universities themselves & all the pretend degrees.
    It explains the bogus GCSEs and the even worse ‘A’ Levels.
    This is a policy not an error.

    “Maybe not a bunch of uberich sitting on a yacht somewhere planning to eradicate Christianity, but certainly something more nebulous (maybe we should call it a ‘meme’ ?)”

    They always hated The Faith.
    Now they feel they have their chance.
    Have you seen the film ‘Zardoz’? Connery in his first post Bond role.
    The film is a vision of the future as planned by these elites.
    All precious artworks and cultural artifacts are appropriated by the elite.
    Then the extermination of 90%+ of the herd.
    Then the creation of organic farming Communist collectives of the chosen.
    They don’t die.
    They use advanced technology to maintain their ‘selves’ digitally.
    No disease. No war. No money. No competition for ‘mates’.
    At last! The secular dream life realised (Lennon would have been proud).
    They are all evolutionists and so naturally the film includes thei ‘evolution to the next stage of human development’. They are psychic for example. In the film they are called ‘Immortals’.

    I’m not saying ‘Zardoz’ is real.
    I’m saying that these ideas are well developed and not at all peculiar.

    Western civilisation stands in the way of a more ‘ordered’ global hierarchy along the grounds set out above.
    Western civilisation has been deliberately hollowed out from within by those institutions that claim to be protecting it.

    Who but the elite could set out the Welfare State to enfeeble the people and consume wealth?
    Who else could launch the mass immigration programme?
    Who else could destroy our ancient culture in a generation?
    Who else could replace justice with the UCHR?
    Green taxes? Power cuts.
    People are left thinking the world’s gone mad. No, it’s gone bad.

    These guys mean business and it’s not just the Sodium Fluoride in the water, the GM foods and the Estrogen mimicking chemicals in the plastic keyboards we are all using.
    This also explains the ‘gay rights’ phenomena and, while I’m at it, try googling ‘The cia funded the feminist movement to destabalise society’; New York Times interview with the feminist they funded. Gloria Steinman from memory.
    It goes on.
    You can also find a quote where Gorbachev says something like,’ The environmental movement is the vehicle to bring about the New World Order’.
    He’s at one of those weird international conferences at the time.

    The tyrannical Presidential powers cited by Malfleur above are real.
    They ain’t to save use from the Muslim bogeyman.
    The only logical purpose is to impose a tyranny. Then…..

    “Perhaps the world has always been ‘directed’ by a few,………………”

    I agree. Nothing could be more natural.
    Wouldn’t we direct, fund and create the social conditions we wanted to see if we could? Naive to imagine things are as they seem (not that you are).

    “…….(hypothesis: Cultural identity=the English are tolerant, the English support Jews. Suggestion: our ancient culture is as morally reprehensible as some current cultures = cultural relativism).”

    I enjoyed that analysis.

    One thing is certain, all MSM are a tool of the Agenda.
    Can you imagine a Hollywood film about a decent Christian who does the right thing and triumphs in adversity?

    “Culture is born, to some degree of Myth. Myth is narrative, and the control of narrative is, in my opinion, top of the control system hierarchy. Mores and then law follows.

    Interesting.

    I’ll have to give it more thought but you seem to omit Faith and that pesky or chestnut ‘economics and the means of production’.

    “Maybe narrative/modern day myth is being influenced by a number of levers at the moment – and our conspiracy theory (and my confusion) is about a number of different groups each fighting for control of the cultural airwaves……….”

    Sadly I see no real battle at all. It’s all one way traffic.

    “We are stuck in the middle of it, trying to make a living for ourselves for the time being, and ensure a future for our children. God help us, we need it
    Much like neuro linguistic programming – this does not make for happy productive people. Maybe there is something”

    There is and it cannot all be expressed in a post.
    Though I will say that thus far I have zero reason to doubt this theory: that the elites are the single prime movers in modern history; that all the power mechanisms of the modern world are totally in their power; they have no intention of leaving us alone. We aint seen nothing yet.

    Regs.

    **’The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America’
    A WHISTLEBLOWER’S ACCOUNT

    Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Education, blew the whistle in the `80s on government activities withheld from the public. Her inside knowledge will help you protect your children from controversial methods and programs. In this book you will discover:

    -how good teachers across America have been forced to use controversial, non-academic me
    -how “school choice” is being used to further dangerous reform goals, and how home schooling and private education are especially vulnerable.
    -how workforce training (school-to-work) is an essential part of an overall plan for a global economy, and how this plan will shortcircuit your child’s future career plans and opportunities.
    -how the international, national, regional, state and local agendas for education reform are all interconnected and have been for decades.

    *Charlotte Iserbyt is the consummate whistleblower! Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration, where she first blew the whistle on a major technology initiative which would control curriculum in America’s classrooms. Iserbyt is a former school board director in Camden, Maine and was co-founder and research analyst of Guardians of Education for Maine (GEM) from 1978 to 2000. She has also served in the American Red Cross on Guam and Japan during the Korean War, an

  858. Andy Car Park and Peter from Maidstone

    Thanks for the heads up on Alexander Boot and for adding his site to the blogroll.

    “I regard …Western civilisation as the most beautiful of God’s and man’s creations. That’s why it pains me to watch the edifice being burnt down by carnivore and vegetarian alike, people who perpetrate this crime consciously or negligently, with much bloodshed or none, with their faces distorted by ugly scowls or lit up by beatific smiles.”

    Yes.

    AWK/PfmM

    Phil? I remember a phil.

  860. Verity 26th, – 19:44

    Obsessive? Moi?

    Peter from Maidstone 26th, – 19:39

    “I can’t see who is posting on the Spectator site though, Ostrich.”

    Yeah, fair enough. Thanks for your patience, though. Moderating this must surely eat up a lot of person-hours. (Oh, dear, all this PC cr*p is getting to me.)

  861. Well, I actually enjoyed the final part of “Empire”. Paxo was as patronising as usual, but the mainly African scenery was so lovely it took my breath away. I was amused to think that the Colonial British were against Indians, in their own land, allowing Sati to be practised. Without being in any way a supporter of the practice of Sati, I find it strange that so much effort was put into banning this burning alive of widows, whilst in contemporary Britain, barbarians, such as muslim Pakistanis, can practice (FGM) Female Genital Mutilation, have sex with under-age children in so-called religious marriags and practice polygamy. In conclusion, I wonder if the publishers will have a lot of ‘remainders'(?) to offer in the special bargain basket?

  862. John Richardson
    Maybe the answer is enough people getting together and refusing to be managed. I am intrigued by the idea of there actually being a conspiracy of these people, like Bilderberger. I am not discounting the idea, it is just that I think that people are more than capable of talking themselves into collective madness under the right conditions – last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, etc
    I know a number of otherwise intelligent lefties who have swallowed the cultural marxist thing hook line and sinker. Maybe it is a type and has a medical diagnosis. One thing is for sure, the internet is a two-edged sword. It disseminates and it collates at the same time. Add AI and God knows what Google will be coming up with by the end of this decade. Spotting dissenters through online shopping lists I have little doubt
    The only way out is to abstain and keep on digging the hole. Maybe when it is all over we can emerge, like Mad Max and fight each other for Carbon Futures

  863. Should have mentioned too, that the scourge of slavery was correctly placed in the hands of other Africans and Arabs in the part about David Livingstone. Whatever sins the British colonials had, they brought education, hospitals and other blessings. By the way, the schoolchildren of Malawi were brilliant, as were their teachers. Far superior to many a State school in Britain today. The children were clamouring to be taught, religion wasn’t a dirty word. Above all, ‘Respect’ was not a warning word from rappers, but the giving of courtesy and love to one’s fellows, and one’s elders. Would that today’s so-called Post-Nu Labour could teach these values.

  864. I am not sure how worried I am. On the one hand I do believe in conspiracies of the rich and powerful. But I also believe that organisations are never able to achieve quite what they might like. I think of the Nazi thousand year Reich for instance.

    I do believe in evil. And the Church has consistently had a sense that the end of things would be found in a conflict with the manifestation of real evil. If there is a conspiracy then I believe that behind it there is something worse. But in such a conflict I do not believe that evil will win though I can easily imagine things getting desperately bad for people of faith and goodwill.

    I am still not sure in own mind of the correct way forward. Assuming that electoral reform will solve all problems seems inadequate. But doing nothing in the political realm also seems less than is required. I just cant get too afraid of conspiracy because ‘they that are with us are greater than those who are with them’.

  865. On conspiracies:

    “Th[is] exchange was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room for remarks by the two leaders…:

    President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.

    President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

    President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

    President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”

    Read more at: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/03/26/obama-comments-to-medvedev/

  866. I think the most evil “leaders” are in Britain, the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden … I’m not counting all that roiling mass of failures in Eastern Europe … and France to a lesser extent, although they’re so far up their own arse I can’t really see them cooperating. The New World Order seems to comprise, in the main … Britain, the US and Canada. Is anyone better informed?

    The Arabs and all that Pakistani, Algerian, Afghani rubbish are grains of sand in the desert and will blow hither and thither without determining their own course.

    I see the American Latins as following their own course, unattached to any of the above. Same with the Aussies and Kiwis. The main, manipulative playerss are the US, Britain and possibly Germany.

    As for China, Japan and (an eventually re-unified) Korea – this kind of psychological manipulative madness isn’t really in their political vocabulary.

    Just some thoughts off the top of my ahead about a grave new evil we have hanging over us. What do others think?

  867. There is quite a bit of analysis of Obama’s National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 online now. Jim Garrison has a piece at

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison/martial-law-under-another_b_1370819.html

    which correlates the March 16 Order with the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which together he says put “…the government completely above the law, which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen…” and in the course of which he comments

    “Our political elites have come to consider democracy an impediment to effective governance and they are slowly and painstakingly creating all the democratic legalities necessary to abridge our democratic rights with impunity…”.

  869. Candidate for DUH!! of the week:

    “…[A Libyan] militia recently captured and held two British PressTV journalists because militia members mistakenly believed Welsh materials in the journalists’ possession were written in Hebrew, and that the Iranian-employed Brits were Israeli agents.” (Commentary)

  871. Just to help keep the Breitbart phenomenon alive, post mortem:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/what-andrew-breitbart-got-about-the-internet/253836/

    Extract:

    >In the early nineties, a friend, Seth Jacobson, who was studying astrophysics at Harvard, paid Breitbart a visit. “He came to my house, and he said, ‘Andrew, we need to go take a walk,’ and we took a walk,” Breitbart told me. “He says, ‘Your brain works differently from most people’s. And there is this thing called the Internet that is your brain.’ ” Breitbart, who was an early user of Prodigy and CompuServe, recalls, “I said to him, ‘Yeah, I’m on the Internet.’ And he said, ‘No, that’s not the Internet. You can create your own path. You can create your own environment.’ It was almost like a dare.” Soon afterward, Breitbart went out and bought a six-pack of Pilsner and a rotisserie chicken. “I said to myself, ‘O.K., you are going on a date tonight, and you are not going to bed until you have gone all the way.’ And I remember hooking up to the World Wide Web that night, and it was a revelation. It was just like shooting yourself into outer space, and trying to latch onto anyone else who was out there. …”

    And that’s how he began, latching himself onto Matt Drudge, and later Arianna Huffington, and then, finally, striking out on his own. He went on to build his own little empire of “Big” blogs: Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and the youngest, Big Peace. It was fitting that Breitbart took on the “Big” brand, though he surely meant it as an attack on the powerful reach of these institutions he so hated. Because Breitbart embodied big: Everything he did was suffused with the bigness of his ideology, his conviction, and his willingness to battle it out with anyone who disagreed. <

    But, as always, read it all.

  872. Andy Car Park

    Thanks for putting the Boot in. Amazing stuff.

    Enjoyed his Tolstoy dissertation immensely. Would like to read his theory on “How the West Was Lost”, but at £58 a throw – cheapest used version from Amazon – perhaps I’ll settle for his latest tome “The Crisis Behind Our Crisis” at £12.95.

    You are not his agent, are you? 🙂

  873. Over on The Telegraph blogs, someone calliing himself Barbican wrote this:

    “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny;
    when the government fears the people, there is liberty”.

    I think he was called Ben Franklin.

    Can you imagine any of the political midgets operating in Britain today being able to discover that thought? And expressing it with such economical and elegant precision?

    Possibly John Redwood. I cannot think of another. They’re all such coarse wideboys and self-seekers who don’t trouble to conceal their greed, and haven’t the nous to conceal their stupidty. Look at Cameron’s vacuous, self-admiring, self-serving greedy little face, unlined by life or thought.

  875. Frank P – Thank you for Alexander Boot! I hadn’t heard of him before. He’s a forensic thinker and a good essayist. I’ll check in at his blog in future.

  879. Oh!Lucky Jim! How I envy him!….Brother Callaghan can in no way be acquated to Blair ….or Cameron.

  880. If it looks like a duck ;walks like a duck;quacks like a duck…..it’s probably you old pal telemachus.

  881. Peter from Maidstone 27th, – 09:26

    I am not really old enough to be able to judge Callaghan, but I think he is spot on in his appraisal of Blair..

    It’s a conceit of mine that I am old enough to pass comment; my recollection of the time is that once the arch-charlatan Wilson had screwed up the country in a desperate attempt to placate the unions and “preserve Labour unity” he bailed out and passed a very sh*tty baton to Callaghan. I guess that in his short and inglorious period as PM, Callaghan made the best fist possible of what he was handed. But we WERE glad, once he had been defeated.

  882. The march of bureaucratic fascism:

    Companies House – URGENT REMINDER – ANNUAL RETURN (dated 23/03/12)
    “YourAnnual Return is due for filing. It should be made up to 25/03/12 and must be delivered to Companies House no later that than 22/04/12. Please note that you cannot file the Annual Return Return before the made up date. File your Annual Return via our WebFiling service at a first time cost of £14. This fee is considerably cheaper than the paper version which costs £40. […]

    Please note that it is a criminal offence not to file an annual return on time. If prosecuted , directors can be fined £5,000.

    I know it’s only a small point, but since when have any of these officious, petty quango-crats done anything within three weeks? Damned sesselfurzer!

  883. Wilson resigned in mysterious circumstances and has often been rumoured as being the target of a potential coup by the Armed Forces. Some time ago the BBC ran a documentary defusing this and attempting to show Wilson in a more favourable light. I remember first hand that era too and some of the very dodgy defence decisions being made such as the cancellation of TSR2 as well as the soviet subsidised scum running the unions. The Wiki entry for Wilson is clearly written from a leftist perspective, making light of the industrial issues at the time and the nature of pro-soviet subversion in both the unions and the Labour Party. The latter has never been fully revealed although the Speccie ran an article a couple of years ago exposing some of the superficial elements.

    I have never been convinced by the “cancellation on cost” grounds attributed to TSR2 and the determination with which everything was supposed to be completely destroyed – plans, jigs, research data, etc., has always struck me as the requirements of some secret pro-soviet deal. The soviets were terrified of the potential of TSR2 when they got wind of it and the Labour Party was full of pre-war recruited communists and of course the very useful idiots of the CND. The same thing happened with our independent nuclear payload missile capability which at one point post-war was moving ahead of the USA in terms of technology. It was as if a decision was made to reduce our capability as a ‘threat’ and to justify that on grounds of cost. It wasn’t all Labour though, the Tories had idiots like Sandys who in 1957 thought military pilots were unnecessary and canned a lot of potential development. Cameron’s ridiculous decision to do without aircraft carriers in an Age of Threat exactly reflects that sort of crass thinking. The fact that he was still shovelling millions into India which is equipped with ex-Royal Navy aircraft carriers just adds insult to injury. That foolish man has no concept of Britain’s maritime legacy or how important it is in the modern world.

    Both Wilson and Callaghan had the classic Labour MP background of being in the civil service but Callaghan at least had the merit of serving in the Royal Navy during the war whereas Wilson was a reserved “specialist”.

  884. Frank P,

    Re: Monsieur Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (1859–1904) etc.

    As a former member of the licensed victualers trade I thought that you might be interested in this establishment, which purports to be situated not far from here. It sounds like this hostelry is being run by Gordon Ramsay, but I am unable to confirm this. (Austin Barry, Mrs B should only view with discretion)

    http://bit.ly/L6dOx

    Last summer I was somewhat dismayed to see what a dive (imo) Wenns in SMP had become. It used to be a great boozer in the 70’s. I also noted that the Rose and Crown at Snettisham, which used to be my regular weekend haunt, had developed a children’s adventure playground/activity centre in the back garden. Mm, I suppose that’s progress for you.

  885. Frank P 02:31. He’s a bit of a find isn’t he? From the blurb at the beginning of his latest book, ‘Crisis’, his best mates are the Revd Dr Peter Mullen and … Theodore Dalrymple.

    Recommend ‘Crisis’ to anyone, BTW. He is an Hegelian (as is Roger Scruton) and a bit of a Slav mystic, so thinks that the world is shaped by metaphysical forces. I stand at the opposite pole as a votary of Schopenhauer and a cock-up theorist but, BOY, have I learned a lot in the past week.

  886. Verity (03:12)

    Don’t thank me – thank Andy Car Park he linked the site yesterday; excellent find.

    I was just developing a further link on Boot’s site, because it was a seminal essay imho. Boot’s treatise on Tolstoy is a wonderful compilation of information. He has very interesting antecedents. I think I’ll drop him a line and ask him whether or not he can authenticate – or indeed debunk – Yuri Bezmenov’s claims. My own sources are a little cagey on the subject – much tooth sucking.

  887. You arrive on a desert island which has precisely two inhabitants, neither of whom you know by sight. You do know that one is Fergus Pickering, who always tells the truth, and the other is telemachus’, who always lies through his teeth.

    You may pose one question to one inhabitant in order to decide which is which. What is it?

  888. We would not have had Blair & all the rest of it if it had not been for the Arch-traitor Heath…….”Edward Heath is buried and dead;he-haw,marjory-daw/Dig up his body and cut off his head;he-haw,marjory daw”.

  889. EC (12:01)

    Heh, heh, heh. Great spoof! Must send it to my son, he lives in Hants.

    As I told you last week, The Feathers is under new management, but you know what the tourist season’s like in these ‘ere parts and Easter looms large. Honest hostelry’s are a TOTP I fear. Cue Betjeman’s “The Village Inn” – he was already lamenting the loss back then, imagine what he would say now.

  890. ACP (12.43)

    Yes, I agree, Schopenhauer’s work has enlightened even my ounce of grey matter, during my less active periods of life. The ‘sphere is a terrible distraction – but it’s fun also ; too much introspection at my stage of decay could lead to dire results.

  891. How has a student been sent to prison for 56 days for making what were undoubtedly unpleasant comments on Twitter while he was receiving medical treatment? No-one was harmed by his comments, no-one could have felt personally threatened. And yet when two Somalian immigrant women nearly beat a white girl to death they spent no time in prison at all?

  892. Nicholas 10:59 – “Wilson resigned in mysterious circumstances and has often been rumoured as being the target of a potential coup by the Armed Forces.”

    Hmmm … I can see how that could work.

    And now the Rt Hon David Blancmange-Ca-Moron of HensArse Hall intends to junk our Royal Navy…

  893. Andy Carpark 12:49 .. Who the hell cares? It’s like trying to personally identify two fleas. What is the purpose?

    Andy Carpark, why are you wasting cyberspace obsessing about two needy, chippy losers? Who here doesn’t scroll down at speed past the verbal post nasal drip of both?

  895. Peter 27 Marc 15:43

    You realize that by questioning the paradoxical absurdities of the liberal narrative you may one day, perhaps soon, be guilty of a crime and, given the example you use, a racist crime at that?

  896. James Delingpole’s got a sizzler in The Telegraph today. He rips the revolting, hard left, politically “correct”, incredibly unlikely, creepy – nay, gruesome! – The Archers to shreds. Mincemeat, even. Grinds and liquefies it and pours it down the loo.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100147131/i-agree-with-richard-bacon-the-archers-is-rubbish/

    When I lived in England and that fake Olde English theme tune came on, I could clear a flight of stairs in one leap before the first speaker could complete the first sentence …

    “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr … it looks like that nice Mr Lamumba is goin’ to buy the Squire’s House after all …”

    “Oooooh, and I’ll bet he’s payin’ a pretty penny fur it an’ all …”

    “Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrr, don’t suppose ‘e’ll be put off by the price … owning a successful supermarket chain with branches in Ivory Coast and Brazil like he does …. and with a PhD in forensic science …”.

    “Well, I liked his wife Tan Loh-Ming. I’ll bet she has some wonderful Chinese recipes! I might invite her to cook a Chinese Christmas dinner this year.”

    OH SHADDUP!

  898. Andy Car Park, March 27th, 2012 – 12:49

    You may pose one question to one inhabitant in order to decide which is which. What is it?

    Ask either of them what name the other one would give if they were asked their name. The reverse is then true. [Dr Who (Tom Baker) Pyramids of Mars – 1975]

  900. Peter from Maidstone

    “How has a student been sent to prison for 56 days for making what were undoubtedly unpleasant comments on Twitter while he was receiving medical treatment? No-one was harmed by his comments, no-one could have felt personally threatened. And yet when two Somalian immigrant women nearly beat a white girl to death they spent no time in prison at all?”

    Peter you ask how; I suspect you mean why, and if you do then the answer is very simple.

    1. Because he is white.

    2. Because they can.

    3. Because he is white.

    4. Because he is educated and middle class.

    5. Because he is white.

    6. Because they want to send numerous messages.

    7. Because he is white.

    Did you notice that 56 days x 50% = 28 days = 4 weeks all very neat and tidy, all very PC, did I mention that this young chap is white.

  901. Thanks for the responses. here are my thoughts.

    RocketDog
    March 26th, 2012 – 22:21
    John Richardson
    “Maybe the answer is enough people getting together and refusing to be managed.”

    Yes, this would certainly work, it would cost virtually no money and is a PEACEFUL solution.
    However, I ask you to reflect upon what years of progressive secular propaganda my The Agenda have achieved.
    I am not despairing but think of the BBC. Below, Verity refers to ‘The Archers’; since WWII a mouthpiece of government.
    hen The Countryside Alliance held it’s march in London (biggest in our history before the Anti Iraq invasion march) ‘The Archers’ attacked the march. Two young characters scorned the march and went on a ‘Gay Pride’ march instead, I kid you not.
    That’s how clumsy and dumb the hatred-propaganda from the BBC is and has been for years.
    You try telling your friends to stop choosing to fund it.

    Your idea would work. Right tyrannical problem. Wrong people however. Too many of us still think that in the end ‘we are on the wining side’. I’ll return to this.

    “I am intrigued by the idea of there actually being a conspiracy of these people, like Bilderberger.”

    The idea is intriguing but I assure you the reality is terrifying (at first).

    “……I am not discounting the idea, it is just that I think that people are more than capable of talking themselves into collective madness under the right conditions – last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, etc”

    Yes, and you appear to have thought this through (if I may say).
    There IS a conspiracy and there is also the phenomena of widespread madness. They are both happening at the same time. Perhaps for The Agenda, both need to be occurring at the same time; if so we have plenty of evidence of this from the removal of cause and effect in the micro elements of human economic existence (Welfare) to the promotion of filth (literally) and meaningless as ‘art’.
    Also, I would suggest ‘modern’ architecture sends people insane. I know of the ‘economic’ arguments for developing concrete for example; but they all seem to be bogus on inquiry. On thing is for sure, any modern building I see seems to reflect a fear of reality and a denial of the transeddental.

    IF we are in the grip of a massive conspiracy that is what you would expect to see, a ‘full spectrum’ effort to undermine our sanity.

    “I know a number of otherwise intelligent lefties who have swallowed the cultural marxist thing hook line and sinker……”

    Me too, but for my part I would say that none of the men (they are men) I am referring to are original thinkers. None. Despite their intelligence I suggest they would all be ‘sigue heiling’ if they were born German a few years ago.

    Cultural Marxism is seductive partly because it posits the notion that those who accept it’s precepts are Good People with Fair Minds.
    Faith protects the truly intelligent from that delusion. Weaker minded people are probably never gonna wake up. Some worshiped Stalin even in the Gulag.
    They are irrelevant to our discussion.

    “…..Maybe it is a type and has a medical diagnosis.”

    You are maybe right and this is what I was trying to discuss with Nicholas a few days ago in respect of human gender/sexual roles. Trouble is you have to rather invent your own terminology or use phrases like ‘macho’, ‘nancy boy’ or somesuch.
    I think that there are whole schools of psychology, economics (certainly) and probably medicine that remain outside the public sphere as they are elite tools of control.
    This is sooo simple to achieve once you control the Universities. You can easily achieve that in the UK with less than 200 people.
    I could give explicit examples.
    What is the alternative?
    That No!
    There are no significant advances and disciplines that are NOT available for us to contribute to and gain advantage from in the public sphere.
    Sounds silly doesn’t it?
    Why on earth would ANY elite offer to the world ANY advantage that it had for itself?
    Decent bakers won’t tell you how they bake their bread. Do you really think the NWO will tell us about their secret technology*
    In respect of the madness you suspect; haven’t we all spotted that certain type? The ones Nicholas describes as beginning their hate fest with “I’m sorry but…..”
    They are nutters and my only sympathy is that they have been driven mad.

    “One thing is for sure, the internet is a two-edged sword. It disseminates and it collates at the same time. Add AI and God knows what Google will be coming up with by the end of this decade……..”

    The end of the decade???
    Rocketdog!
    You’re living in a rose tinted happy la la dream world where all the girls are pretty and want to kiss me. At least.
    The sad fact is that Google (I think) already has it’s predictive programming up and running.
    As you worry……
    they are collecting stuff like credit card bills, travel habits, alarm times on phones key words used on phones, emotional responses on phones, books lent from libraries, searches online, age, medical condition and anything else I can’t think of off the top of my head….
    …adding it all together cross referencing it with CCTV images and….well they say they can predict human activity 97.something %…..oh great.

    “Spotting dissenters through online shopping lists I have little doubt….”

    No doubt.
    They are also listening to you via you laptop mic & computer & phone mic when they are switched off via key trigger words and digitally storing the data for years and mining it when they have cause to and……

    “The only way out is to abstain and keep on digging the hole………”

    Or prayer.

    “….Maybe when it is all over we can emerge, like Mad Max and fight each other for Carbon Futures….”

    YOU have the Carbon Futures Mr ‘Road Warrior’, someones gotta repopulate the Earth pronto.

    Peter from Maidstone
    March 26th, 2012 – 22:50
    “I am not sure how worried I am.”

    Given how weird human society can be at the best of times, it’s probably smart to decide to remain ‘undecided’ about the ‘Massive Evil Death Conspiracy’ stuff.
    At least until He decides to reveal it to us.

    “On the one hand I do believe in conspiracies of the rich and powerful.”

    …and the poor and powerless!! I’m not kidding!!!
    Small children can conspire in the classroom against their teacher…..but I WILL ruthlessly enforce my Total Rubber Ban. You see.
    Seriously though, I cannot think of any area of life from love to gambling to entertainment to technology that does not encompass a massive element of the covert.
    When we geddit; it’s a ‘revolution’ or a ‘development’ or even an ‘evolution’.

    When we are powerless against it it becomes a conspiracy and we are inclined to make it go away by pretending it is not there.

    How many parents could face the truth if the vaccinations really DID risk autism??

    Who wants to find out they offered their child up to that all because they couldn’t be bothered to read up on the issue??
    The nature of the conspiracy must depend upon the character of the people. We only got this far because of the Faith.
    Without it anything is possible.

    “…..But I also believe that organisations are never able to achieve quite what they might like.”

    Nope. Probably stopped by prayer. Look at Khan at the gates of Rome.

    “…..I think of the Nazi thousand year Reich for instance.”

    Did they really lose or was it a weird version of ‘the collapse of Communism’?

    Loads and loads of evidence the Nazis (especially SS and Intelligence) cut a deal and swapped sides. You’ve got to look long and hard for any evidence of ‘justice’ after ’45.
    So many Germany burned and buried alive whilst the scum of the Earth get new identities, excellent pensions and secure jobs in the USA (with their families naturally).

    “I do believe in evil. And the Church has consistently had a sense that the end of things would be found in a conflict with the manifestation of real evil. If there is a conspiracy then I believe that behind it there is something worse.”
    Yes you are correct. What binds the conspiracy together is worse.

    “But in such a conflict I do not believe that evil will win though I can easily imagine things getting desperately bad for people of faith and goodwill.
    I am still not sure in own mind of the correct way forward.”

    If enough German people in the 1930s had said ‘Look, you cannot win a war. You can fight it but you cannot win it.’ Who knows.

    I say let’s just tell the truth.
    It’s free and an easy policy to remember and spread.
    If teachers said,’You’re children are not really learning anything because we apply mixed ability teaching, the school is ‘Inclusive’ of disruptive children and too many cannot speak English’….then what then?

    What if politicians said, ‘We will never ever pay these Public Sector Pensions. It’s all a con to bribe your loyalty with empty promises. Who do you think we are? ‘The Magic Money Men?’ You deserve to die poor if you listen to all these Union/Government lies.
    Tell them to SHOW YOU THE MONEY!

    “Assuming that electoral reform will solve all problems seems inadequate. But doing nothing in the political realm also seems less than is required…..”
    I know what you mean. Telling the Truth can be harder than it might seem. A lot of decent people have been duped one way or another.

    “I just cant get too afraid of conspiracy because ‘they that are with us are greater than those who are with them’.”

    On this Earth?
    I’m undecided. We’ll see. So many think that they’re on the winning team. How many said ‘No’ to Hitler ? How many?
    The Germans of that era were better educated than us today. Had a less corrupt (£) political class. Less drugs. Less porn. Less welfare. Less feral fatherless children** Less, er foreign visitors with interesting ‘habits’. Less Human Rights Lawyers Scum. Less……

    Verity
    March 26th, 2012 – 23:36
    “I think the most evil “leaders” are in Britain, the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden … I’m not counting all that roiling mass of failures in Eastern Europe … and France to a lesser extent, although they’re so far up their own arse I can’t really see them cooperating. The New World Order seems to comprise, in the main … Britain, the US and Canada. Is anyone better informed?”

    No comment on being better informed but I can help with the NWO (titter).

    You are correct and many actually use the phrase ‘Atlantic’ or ‘Anglo’ in respect of the NWO.
    You will notice it is the ex Empire (Australia is in it’s grip evidence? carbon Taxes) so most readers conclude Her Maj is in it up to her eyballs. Explains her betrayal of her subjects to the EU I suppose.

    “The Arabs and all that Pakistani, Algerian, Afghani rubbish are grains of sand in the desert and will blow hither and thither without determining their own course.
    I see the American Latins as following their own course, unattached to any of the above.”
    They are subject to the same financial regime despite all the MSM bs.
    Remember that Argentinian crisis? All linked to the dollar. Besides, their elites crave acceptance by the western elites, that’s just the way it is. Personally I now find an invite to The Palace a terrible bore…….

    “Same with the Aussies and Kiwis. The main, manipulative playerss are the US, Britain and possibly Germany.”
    All already in the bag. Sorry.

    “As for China, Japan and (an eventually re-unified) Korea – this kind of psychological manipulative madness isn’t really in their political vocabulary.”

    It isn’t in ours!!!

    Anglo Saxons arrested because something that they said was overheard by someone else who though it might cause offense to someone else again??!!
    Homosexual marriage??
    This is where we are.

    “Just some thoughts off the top of my ahead about a grave new evil we have hanging over us. What do others think?”

    I think it’s later than we think

    Regards.

    *I will direct anyone to ‘cast iron’ evidence of this technology if they wish.
    **Though some very very high numbers up to 30%ish from memory.

  902. John Richardson

    You may be making telling points, but your sheer volume of words in a kind of prolix cascade tends to repel rather than attract.

    Follow Orwell’s six rules of effective writing:

    1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
    2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
    3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
    4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
    5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
    6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.

    Sorry if I seem patronising (and I concede that I’ve broken at least two of Orwell’s rules just in this short post).

  903. Austin Barry — John Richardson’s posts are usually succinct and telling. I think we are all aware strictures you mention, but the subject is so vast and labyrinthine (sorry about the foreign word) that it’s not really possible to be elegant and succinct in a casually dashed off post on a blog. Orwell was speaking as a serious essayist, not a blogger. Still, chacun a son gout. Ooops!

  904. John Richardson, yes, on the earth, but not visible perhaps, and not of the earth. I am, as you seem to be, a committed Apostolic Christian. I was thinking of 2 Kings 6:16-17

    And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

    I think you are right about speaking the truth. It is not clear where and how. There is much truth spoken on blog comments but it is not read and has little influence. I had not even known of Alexander Boot until yesterday, yet he writes for the Daily Mail. So many voices, all silenced because they are atomised. What if all these patriotic and right-thinking journalists and politicians supported ONE place where the truth was spoken, as well as their day jobs, and they did it for free because the truth must be spoken and not because they wanted some extra income or political advancement? What if such a venue used humour to consistently undermine the Programme, as well as serious news and comment?

    How does the resistance organise itself?

    It must be possible to produce professional quality radio (or even TV) documentary and comment for instance, from a conservative, patriotic point of view, and have it available and advertised. But how do you get such a project started? Who would commit themselves from among those who are already fairly well known? Would any? Or do too many find satisfaction in having their own little blog and their own group of followers?

    We are divided and so we are silenced.

    If I organised a day conference for patriots to share their vision of how we turn back the tide who would participate from among politicians and journalists? I could possible get a Catholic Archbishop to speak, or even an Anglican one. But I would not want to immediately get down to actions, which is what seemed to happen at the day conference I attended. I’d want the principles that mattered to be described. It is a spiritual conflict we face, not simply a political one, and I mean that even in the sense of the ‘spirit’ of England which is being subsumed. We need to know what the real problem is, not just respond to symptoms and skirmishes.

  905. Austin Barry.

    Thank you. I appreciate your sincere advice.

    However, in my defense I have quoted three other posters in their entirety.
    This is because I am attempting to address the points that they posted last night after my beddy byes. So I need to recap.

    Verity has chivalrously (and succinctly) aided ‘my corner’ by pointing out that the NWO just cannot be identified and analysed in brief points. That’s probably impossible given our prevailing sense of ‘normal’.
    I do, however, hunger to expose elements of the conspiracy. I recognise that over eagerness.

    My goodness…THEY take over the western world and little ol’ ME
    takes the flak…or maybe they’ve gotten to YOU Austin Barry!!

    Cheers.

  906. Fair enough.

    I don’t think they have gotten to me. Why would you think so? It’s impossible while one maintains a sense of ironic detachment to other than one’s immediate family and friends.

    The optimum approach, perhaps, is to embody the Chekovian stance expressed in Joyce’s The Dead: “just an ordinary, simple man walking swiftly and cheerfully across fields, beating his stick on the ground, under a broad, brilliant sky”. Do that and, by and large, you become impervious to the relentless bullshit – or, at least, you can see it for what it is.

  907. Peter from Maidstone

    Thanks for ‘Kings’.

    If it is written, it is written. That’ll do for me.

    “What if all these patriotic and right-thinking journalists and politicians…….”

    You make it seem a simple thing and perhaps it will be a simple thing; to have a intellectual and political space for the conservative and Christian English to breath freely. Let’s hope and pray and take action. As you have taken action.

    “How does the resistance organise itself?”

    Politically?
    I suggest striking at their weakest part. The pocket.
    This country simply cannot afford the pensions it has promised itself. The mass immigration. The vast Welfare system. The green taxes etc etc etc.

    Perhaps events will turn in our favor very soon.
    I perceive a sense that the economy is teetering on the edge.
    Will people make real financial sacrifices for a ‘green multicultural wonderland’ or will they not.

    When economic chickens come home to roost it is vital that the people hear the truth. Your idea of a voluntary forum could be very important therefore.

    Regards.

    ___________________________________

    Austin Barry

    Noooooo….t’was a joke.

  908. John Richardson … “Perhaps events will turn in our favor very soon.”

    Hmmmm … “Events, dear boy … events.” But those events are now being orchestrated by one set of people. Not individual governments. The NWO and the Bildenbergers. Obama is in on it, as are some top people in the US government, otherwise they would never have let Obama run for president without proving that he is an American by birth. (Especilly given that he applied for a grant at an Ivy League as a “third world student”. That’s probably easily enough explained, but it illuminates a very dodgy character.) Yet he was allowed to run anyway.

    My point is that everything is deliberately turned topsy-turvy in the service of destabilising the populations. Like giving free money to hundreds of thousands of Third World immigrants/invaders, including free money to extra “wives”, allowing incomers without British citizenship to vote in British elections (that is insane … or very sly) and giving them free health care paid for by citizens and legitimate incomers who are contributing to the economy.

    Like having immigration counters at airports manned by Third Worlders rather than British.

    It is daft. It is topsy-turvy. It offends agains the sense of right. It is destabilising. It is deliberate.

  909. Two illuminating articles in The American Conservative: Peter Hitchens on Mrs Thatcher and the state of modern Britain & Pat Buchanan on the power of the Left to control free-speech.

    Spent the last few weeks in our capital city (second time in a year or so): just an awful state of affairs. In the shadow of Big Ben, North African pedlars of some grimy gambling game, blocking and polluting Westminster Bridge with their barely-intelligible screeching; barely a single UK employee in a major hotel and the very rarely heard relief of our native tongue. Goodness but I detested the sorry state-of-affairs, yet it could be ours again if only we employed all of our benefits-suckled underclass in the posts presently supporting a vast army of foreigners and got rid of all those without legitimate right of abode?

    Good posts above by all, recharged my soul.

    Wasn’t on Internet while away, was very interesting watching the reluctant volte-face by the BBC as it became clear the murdering scumbag in SW France was not a “right-wing extremist” but, in fact, one of their own sacred minority. Still they could not bring themselves to condemn…

  910. Well, at long last, even the most stupid should be able to see that the UK now has a two-tone legal system – one punishment level of punishment if you white and another if you’re non-white.

    Liam Stacey makes stupid racist comments gets sent to jail, Diane Abbott makes stupid racists comments and its all a mistake and a misunderstanding and no jail sentence. Spot the white man.

    Stupid young girl has a rant on the train, remanded in custody, stupid young man calls for the death of more soldiers in Afghanistan, still out on bail. Spot the white one.

    Of course, it has to be like this as the one area where whites have been largely eradicated are the crime figures. Even the BBC can’t cover it up anymore with 70% of the ‘most wanted’ on Crimewatch not from these shores originally.

    Of course, we don’t have access to figures about criminal ethnicity (because the wheels might come right off the multi-culti bandwagon) but the 2005 Color of Crime survey in the US found:-

    • Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against
    a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.

    • Blacks are 2.25 times more likely to commit officially-designated hate crimes
    against whites than vice versa.

    Suspect it’s much the same here. And the data won’t have changed much as leopards are not known for changing their spots.

    And please, hold the abuse. My argument is not so much anti-black as the blatant inequality against whites in our judicial, political and media systems. By applying an unofficial positive discrimination against the host population, the establishment are simply storing up an ever-increasing pressure of resentment.

  911. Peter from Maidstone and John Richardson

    “We need to know what the real problem is, not just respond to symptoms and skirmishes.” (PfmM)

    ““How does the resistance organise itself?” Politically? I suggest striking at their weakest part.” (J.R.)

    The ground of the problem does appear to me to be a philosophical question; spiritual, if you will. We have to identify the common good and debate it with the modern Sophists who dominate the “culture”. As the economy may not, certainly in the immediate future, be able to meet the criteria of the modern Sophists for the happiness of the people by their crude definition, the problem well defined in terms of the common good may find its own solution. The seductiveness of consumerism and the power of its economic and political machinery however has a formidable momentum and has the allegiance of most people as we stand with our noses pressed against the great store window hoping to be allowed in.

    Lenin said “No revolutionary practice, without revolutionary theory” and this is really a purely Socratic position, surely, as Socrates held for instance that you couldn’t have a good shoemaker unless the man first knew what a good shoe was. In order to effect a conservative revolution, turning things round until they return to a traditional balance, we need to have a theory of the common good for the 21st century, and then of how to achieve it.

    Any ideas?

  912. Alexander Boot – The Crisis Behind Our Crisis:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVvRGx3rVz4

    “Economics is an aspect of human behaviour and people’s behaviour is determined by what they think; what they regard as right or wrong…and that is a reflection of what they believe – as it were of the metaphysical premise from which they proceed…”.

  913. Clear Memories

    You are spot-on, add in the litany of paedophile-rape of Caucasian girls, and any right-minded person should think that there’s a gross pro-ethnic conspiracy. The very fact that it is so overt, yet the majority are petrified to even whisper it, tells one everything one needs to know about our current plight?

  915. Two Mail Online headlines today:

    1. How to get tough with a terrorist: As UK agonises over Qatada, Italy simply ignores Euro judges and kicks out fanatic

    2. British citizen arrested in Somalia on suspicion of trying to join Al Qaeda backed Islamic group

  916. Frank P … Nancy would turn her grave if she were to be portrayed by gruesome arch lefty Jane Fonda. So would President Reagan be angry. But then, they had the slimy, self-regarding Meryl Streep “play” Margaret Thatcher although the major credit seems to have gone to the make-up artist and the hair stylist.

    Perhaps the Reagans’s children can get an injunction or something.

  917. Malfleur … “1. How to get tough with a terrorist: As UK agonises over Qatada, Italy simply ignores Euro judges and kicks out fanatic …

    See, I see this as a mistake. If you kick them out, that means they are still breathing.

  918. “Jim Brisbane, chief crown prosecutor for CPS Cymru-Wales, said: ‘Racist language is inappropriate in any setting and through any media.We hope this case will serve as a warning to anyone who may think that comments made online are somehow beyond the law.’”

  919. No-one was hurt. No-one was threatened. It was just unpleasant words. I can read words which are just as bad, but about Christians usually, on any national newspaper comments section. If he had run across the pitch and shouted it in Muamba’s face that would be a different situation. But he didn’t, and could never have. There is no way that he deserved 56 days for being unpleasant on the internet when real criminals are daily escaping a custodial sentence.

    This is a parody of justice. Or rather it is the outcome of the constructed justice we now face, rather than the natural justice we still half think exists.

    But why is this judgement not being criticised in any of the press? Why is the Spectator not criticising it? Or the Daily Telegraph?

  920. It’s as though workplace behavioural codes have been translated into criminal law. I don’t understand it at all and the most sinister aspect is where the line will be drawn – or more likely – not drawn. The recent cases already seem to be prosecuted beyond the letter of the law and feel like the criminalising of rudeness. There is also a certain amount of “pillorying” with photos of the offender in handcuffs being led away. If Voltaire were alive today might he write: “Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un blogueur pour encourager les autres”?

    To be fair both Nick Cohen and Alex Massie have written blog pieces at the Speccie condemning this prosecution but I don’t expect an Editorial stance from Mr Nelson. The “outrage” (at the prosecution) is being expressed mainly in comments across the media. Those supporting the prosecution (who seem to be in the minority) are using the usual words “disgusting” and “offensive” to describe the tweets, as though that should be the test of law.

    The judge made it crystal clear that he imposed the sentence to appease the mob: “I have no choice but to impose an immediate custodial sentence to reflect the public outrage at what you have done.” meaning, presumably, that he feared the flak from all the usual suspects if he didn’t. It is difficult to see how “public outrage” is measured. And does a judge really have no choice in sentencing?

    But another comment he made is curious: “Not just the footballer’s family, not just the footballing world, but the whole world were literally praying for Muamba’s life. Your comments aggravated this situation” Is that true? Was the whole world literally praying – how could he know that? – and how could comments from one man aggravate that situation? Has hyperbole masquerading as truth now entered the criminal justice system as it has entered everything else? If a judge can make comments like that in order to justify sentencing we are really not far from Roland Freisler.

    But perhaps the most telling aspect, as Peter notes, is the passive acceptance. I don’t think this is apathy but rather a reluctance to speak out in fear of guilt by association. I think we are already seeing this “chilling” anxiety over what can and can’t be said. The enforcers would praise that – as it makes people circumspect about using “inappropriate” language. But it begins to feel oppressive rather than equalising or fair (Mr Clegg).

  921. Even worse, it would seem likely that if someone in a foreign country were to read a tweet by a rude, objectionable and drunken student, that student, if he is white and British, could well be liable to summary extradition if someone elsewhere in the world happened to find his comments offensive. It seems that such offense is never allowed to exist in the case of the Christian religion (and I am not suggesting that it should specifically) but it seems to apply to all cases where a white British Christian is not the person being offended.

  922. John Stuart Mill’s “harm principle” is being extended by comparison to something being called an “offence principle”. I’m not sure when and how this principle arose but it seems to have become a way of weaving psychological or “social” harm into Mill’s principle without denying it.

    “The maxims are, first, that the individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself. Advice, instruction, persuasion, and avoidance by other people, if thought necessary by them for their own good, are the only measures by which society can justifiably express its dislike or disapprobation of his conduct. Secondly, that for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, the individual is accountable, and may be subjected either to social or to legal punishments, if society is of opinion that the one or the other is requisite for its protection.”

    What seems to have happened is that the Left (it is always the Left isn’t it?) have been playing fast and loose with what constitutes both “actions prejudicial to the interests of others” and the “opinion of society” above and beyond real harm. Again it comes back to that irritating presumption that the Leftist view is universal and right. Mill also wrote of the tyranny of the majority in “the tyranny of prevailing opinion and feeling”, but I do not think Britain suffers this. I think the tyranny here is from a minority – or minorities – whose power, influence and messages are disproportionate.

  923. EC – 27.03.12 19:00. I didn’t know that one. Your question is more elegant than the one I do know, but as you say you have to negate the answer to get the info you want. The other trick is to nest one question within another as follows:

    “If I were to ask you whether you were a truth-teller, would you say ‘Yes’?”

    The liar answers ‘No’ and thus reveals himself as such.

    I have some dwindling memory of your quoting Frank ‘P’ Ramsey in the old place. Are you into this sort of stuff?

  924. Redneck 28th, – 00:50

    “You are spot-on, add in the litany of paedophile-rape of Caucasian girls, and any right-minded person should think that there’s a gross pro-ethnic conspiracy.”

    Y’know what’s puzzling me? Why is there barely any litany against the parents of said Caucasian girls, who’s upbringing of them is clearly sadly lacking?

  925. Ostrich (occasionally)
    March 28th, 2012 – 10:15

    Redneck 28th, – 00:50
    ======================
    These ‘Caucasian’ girls do not usually have parents. At best, or worst, one unmarried mother, and perhaps a social worker lurking around. Those really at risk are in care (an oxymoron if ever there was one).

  926. “Not just the footballer’s family, not just the footballing world, but the whole world were literally praying for Muamba’s life. Your comments aggravated this situation”

    This may be some kind of heresy, but I don’t really care about Muamba or any of the millions of other heart attack victims with whom I’m unacquainted.

    We seem to be living through some strange Fiesta de los Muertos where the death or illness of some marginal celebrity unleashes an outpouring of synthetic concern and tribute as crass as it is absurd.

  927. Will Unite in the shape of tanker drivers be the thing that really exposes the govt for the sham they are?

    Idiotoc response to the threat so far – Apparenty CMD yesterday advised drivers to “stock up” on petrol. Francis Maude this morning repeated this, but said they shouldn’t “rush to the pumps”. Sounds like “Panic – in an orderly fashion”.

  928. More CMD idiocy on the news just now – this will be “the most exciting summer of our lives”.
    Credit to the Olympics, he reckons, though I think more riots are a more likely source of excitement.

  929. Austin Barry: Like you I took no part in the alleged worldwide prayer-fest which evidently guided the learned judge to his wise decision.

    I wonder if E-petitions might be a way to give a voice to the widespread misgivings about this lunatic judgment?

    Not sure what form it could take – I don’t think you can petition against a court decision as such. Maybe something aimed at the Home Office or whatever it’s now called, to do with the threshold of what constitutes a criminal offence.

    Any suggestions?

  930. The Independent Riots Communities and Victims Panel whose report on the August 2011 riots has just been published seems to be composed of the usual suspects:-

    http://riotspanel.independent.gov.uk/panel-members-biographies/

    How were these people appointed and why? Why was there no “ordinary” representation from people who do not have a socialist government/quangocracy background and agenda. Where was the practical policing and law enforcement dimension to the panel? The panel boasted that it would be independent, drawn from across the political spectrum and entirely independent from government. I would dispute that strongly as I think the panel members represent the usual metropolitan elite with the usual social care, alternative education, BBC/Channel 4 and welfare issues backgrounds – one might almost say those things for which there seems so much a Common Purpose today. All of them appear to have strong connections to government and the quangocracy.

    Small wonder therefore that their output has mainly cast the rioting hooligans as victims. Thinking of the state of youth aspiration in the East End before the war and applying the output of this “independent” panel to it there should have been rioting in London year in and year out.

  932. Well, the petition might be couched around the coalition promise to repeal New Labour’s many unnecessary and oppressive laws, citing “recent cases” where there appears to be inconsistency or inequality in the way they were prosecuted. The Coalition (of supposedly conservative liberal democrats) briefly set up a website to gather suggestions on this but quickly retreated, presumably because New Labour’s stay behind parties in the civil service, quangocracy and strident agenda lobby got a grip on Clegg’s balls, whilst the EU junta got a grip on Cameron’s.

    But the petition would have to be very carefully worded to attract the maximum support and to avoid the easy tarnish applied to most traditional conservative, liberal democratic principles as being “out of touch”, “toxic”, “racist”, “bigoted”, etc., etc.

    One commentator at the Speccie has stated that racist language is illegal (which makes one ponder why Diane Abbot wasn’t locked up) and it is that meek acceptance of draconian meaning to woolly-worded law that is of such concern. The parameters of what constitutes “racist language” seems to be both subjective and very flexible. However it is being interpreted, by who and why, it doesn’t seem very equitable or fair (Mr Clegg).

  933. There have been a lot of postings about “The Archers” on the other Wall. I happened to once enjoy a Soap called “Doctors” on BBC Channel 1. It amused me how modern medicine was presented, nurses and HCA wearing gloves when they performed procedures involving taking blood (quite unlike real life in many GP surgeries), and how the GPs in the Soap are really concerned about their patients, rather than bonuses. Now, in keeping with diversity etc etc., we have not just a lesbian doctor, but a bisexual one. She and her current lover, the practice nurse cuddle up on the couch, in bed, and even at the surgery. ‘Orrible! As though that is not enough, yesterday we saw two homosexual males in bed together and then kissing on the lips. Ugh! Has the BBC gone completely bonkers? Naturally the straight couple, doctors at the surgery, who have just had a baby are unmarried. The only bad guys we see are white, usually middle-class males, and never black, gay, lesbian or Nu Labour. It has become very predictable and boring.

  934. I see from the Daily Mail that a Cardiff cabbie has mown down seven workmen.

    The DM provides no information on the cabbie, save that he has been arrested.

    This is pure speculation on my part, but Taxi Driver Online a year ago reported:

    “Several Cardiff cabbies, who have asked not to be named, have made allegations against drivers of Somali origin who, they claim, have been working while under the influence of the substance.

    One driver said: “I know many Somalis who chew khat while they’re at work. “It’s incredibly dangerous as the drug works as a stimulant, making drivers take risks on the road they wouldn’t otherwise take.”

    Oddly enough, the same complaints have been made about Somali cabbies in Perth, Australia.

  935. Austin Barry @13.45pm

    I trust your post on khat chewing taxi drivers causes no undue concern to Verity.

    A surprising number of cats have started to vanish in my own locality and I now start to see a connection between them and the wild-eyed, be-turbaned and bearded taxi drivers, with what appear to be tails in their mouths, who drive furiously at me when I stop occasionally to pick up a stray syringe from the gutter.

  936. The taxi driver is being charged with attempted murder rather than manslaughter, or dangerous driving etc etc. And his name and other personal details don’t seem to have been released, which is usually a sign that he is not white and British.

  937. Peter from Maidstone
    March 28th, 2012 – 14:10
    Peter, you may well be right. Did a little research, and found that Grangetown, Cardiff is where the taxi driver lives. It is a popular venue for Somalis…….

  938. Verity (02:42)

    Poor Nancy Reagan – please let her get into her grave before you exhort her to turn in it; I’m sure if she reads your post today she will be quoting Mark Twain. You had me looking for the Obit report as I thought I had missed her long day’s journey into night.

    You never know V. – she may have chosen Hanoi Jane herself – I’m sure they crossed paths in Hollywood and Nancy may have aspired to be Barbarella and fancies a vicarious second go. Regan was a bit of a lefty himself before he saw the light and the lure of the Oval Office; don’t forget he shared her with Frank Sinatra at one stage – or was that Sammy Davis Junior??

  939. AWK

    A scoop then for the Wall.

    “Khat chewing Somali runds down workmen.”

    It will be interesting to see whether it pans out as we anticipate.

  941. Nicholas reports that Jim Brisbane, chief prosecutor for somewhere in Wales, said, “‘Racist language is inappropriate in any setting and through any media.We hope this case will serve as a warning to anyone who may think that comments made online are somehow beyond the law.’”

    “Inappropriate”! an all time favourite word with British fascists (PBUT) (Piss Be Upon Them) especially you, Jim Brisbane, you tenth rate, self-adoring, power-hunger wanker. First, Jim (you won’t mind if I call you Jim as that is how you present yourself, although I would take more seriously a chief prosecutor who didn’t need to sound so cuddly and approachable…).

    Actually, on second thoughts, I don’t want to sound like one of your familiars, so I’ll address you as James. Actually, on third thoughts, I don’t want to get into a dialogue with you because you are creepy. A creepy Taffy. Ooops!

  943. Since when has what is inappropriate become the same as illegal?

    How do we get in touch with Jim?

  945. Frank P – I thought I remembered her funeral. How odd.

    They could not have chosen a crappier, more self-regarding self-promoter to play the self-effacing, diplomatic, loyal Nancy. I hope the notion falls through, and if it doesn’t, the film will be a box office failure. Too many people loved the Reagans and had contempt for Fonda’s behaviour during the Viet Nam war. The people who supported Fonda’s self-righteous, self-serving, bossy antics of the time wouldn’t go and see a film about Reagan anyway after all this time. Fonda and her protests are ancient history.

  946. Apparently, it’s estimated that around seven tonnes of khat is imported into the UK each week from Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya. The drug is not illegal in the UK although banned in 16 EU countries and for that reason the UK is a European import hub for illegal distribution elsewhere.

    If, building on our hypothesis, a khat-fuelled Somali cabbie is responsible for, as they say in the US, attempted vehicular homicide, what chance of the Government banning the drug?

    I’d guess none as it would offend one of our more vibrant faith communities.

  947. “Director of Public Prosecutions (and well-known Lefty) Keir Starmer told Sky’s Adam Boulton: “My own view is that cameras in court are a good idea and I don’t object to a limited start. “People need to know what we are doing, why were are doing (sic) and I think that can be done using the television just as much as written statements.” The Government has been determined to stop trials becoming US-style spectacles.”

    Yeah, right. Following on from Jim Brisbane’s “pour encourager les autres” approach to prosecution we now have the prospect of full-blown Roland Freisler show trials. And presumably the workings of justice were a complete mystery to the British people for centuries until Mr Starmer decided they should be televised. But no doubt it is Mr Starmers particularly leftist take on justice that needs sensationalising.

    What a great country we live in. The fag-smoking PBI who slogged their way from Normandy to Berlin to preserve our liberty must be turning in their graves.

  948. P from M 15:00 – “Since when has what is inappropriate become the same as illegal?” I’m going to email ol’ Jim-boyo with this point.

  949. “‘Racist language is inappropriate in any setting and through any media.We hope this case will serve as a warning to anyone who may think that comments made online are somehow beyond the law.’”

    Well, we can’t say this nonentity hasn’t warned us all. Anyone know what slopping out involves? Still, on the plus side trips to the local A&E for free treatment, heating and three meals a day, bondage material for those who enjoy that sort of thing. In cell TV and cell door to door recreational pharmaceuticals. Being courteously addressed by the staff as Mr or Mrs. Trendy blue shirts…the fellowship and company of MPs and Lords. The opportunity to train for a new career…

  951. Andy Car Park

    “The other trick is to nest one question within another as follows:
    “If I were to ask you whether you were a truth-teller, would you say ‘Yes’?”
    The liar answers ‘No’ and thus reveals himself as such.”

    Andy read that again, the liar would answer yes.

    In my opinion the answer to the conundrum and over the years I have seen it posed in a variety of ways, is always the same :-

    You ask either individual just one question “If I were to ask your colleague whether you are the truth teller will he say yes or no?” if the answer you receive is ‘yes’ you are talking to the liar, if the answer is ‘no’ you are talking to the honest man.

  952. Someone I know has just sent him an email politely asking if it is now illegal to make a comment which someone finds offensive in any circumstances, and whether this new interpretation of freedom of speech applies only to white British people since I have many example posts by genuinely threatening Muslims he might want to look at.

  953. I just sent Herr Jimboyo an email offering some friendly guidance to comporting himself in the public arena.

  954. The judge in the case actually said the “whole world” was praying for Muanda or whatever his name is? They were praying for this soccer player in Des Moines, Iowa?????? Anchorage? Bangkok? Beijing? Jakarta? Sydney? Tokyo?

    Jimboyo is not too tightly tethered, in my opinion.

  955. Re:-The Wales Crown Prosecution Service. Does anyone know why they need an Area Business Delivery Manager and three Business Delivery Managers?
    What the heck do they do? How do you drum up business from an essentially shy and retiring criminal, sorry, “offender” community? Go around the pubs starting fights on a Friday night, with the Bill in attendance? Compete with the Chester and Bristol courts to handle their burglary cases. “We won that tender for Birmingham shoplifting fair and square!”
    Or, do they just surf the net and Twitter looking for inappropriate thought criminals?
    Either way, as as fail to see any use or purpose for these people, I can feel a a visit from the valleys as I write…

  956. Frank Sutton:
    Frank, I’m often accused of using inappropriate language by ignorant full-of-themselves petty bureaucrats. One day, I was on the phone trying to deal with a really stupid young woman. She mentioned she couldn’t help me as her line-manager was away with ‘toothache’. I replied that I hoped she didn’t have pyorrhea, and immediately this ignoramus gasped, and said she was going to conclude the call as I was offensive. Fortunately, at the start of the call, I had heard the usual daft “Your call is being recorded for training purposes”. I wrote a letter, stating this, and assuring the authorities that I had in no way accused their clerk of having an SDT!

  958. David Ossitt.

    Q = ‘Are you a TT?’

    TT says Y. L also says Y.

    ‘If I were to ask you Q, would you say Y?’

    TT says Y. L says N, because he would in fact have said Y (see above).

  959. Verity
    March 28th, 2012 – 16:19
    Hi Verity,

    When you sent JimboTaffy an email, I wish you had asked him why the name of the murderous taxi driver isn’t revealed.

  960. AWK … You are very naughty. You knew bloody fine that the brain-flatliner you were talking to would not know what pyorrhea is and you chose that word to be provocative and have a giggle.

  961. AWK – No, I was on my first cup of tea of the day and wasn’t thinking clearly enough. I’ll write to him again a bit later and blind copy Coffee House Wall.

    BTW, which taxi driver? I haven’t actually read the story.

  962. According to Debkafile, the Israeli intelligence website, it’s all likely to kick off this Friday:

    “Israel boosted its Syrian and Lebanese border units as special flights carrying thousands of pro-Palestinian activists from Tehran touched down in Damascus for the international Global March to Jerusalem Friday, March 30. Before takeoff, they were split into small groups and tutored by Iranian Al Qods Brigades officers in tactics for breaching Israeli border barriers, bursting through and challenging the Israeli military forces defending the border.”

  963. Austin Barry – mohammadans are going to challenge Israeli military forces???

    Words fail.

  966. Verity

    Still agree with a National Review reporter who a coupla years ago said that when she sees Michelle Obama smile, she sees Jane Fonda’s face; it’s the cruel communist set-of the mouth, probably.

    So…ooo, they can ask Jane Fonda to play Michelle Obama also, eventually. She wouldn’t have to act when depicting Michelle at the Bill Ayers ‘Community Organising’ courses (aka Long March drill parades), she can do that from memory. [lifts clenched fist – fingers forward]. I wonder whether Barracky shared Michelle with Jane Fonda? No, can’t be so, that’s unkind. Apologies.

    But it could account for the …. Stop! Despite Peter’s bad example at 14:59 I must not descend into ad hom abuse. Particularly as some sheep-shagging, leek-sucking MP might interpret it as racist.

  968. If you can stomach it, read Fraser Nelson’s “The Grey Recovery” over on The Speccie.

    “But the over-65s are doing their bit for the recovery too: thanks to them and the immigrants, employment has risen.”

    Yeah, all those illegal Somali freeloading gangsters in public housing, all those illegal Paki terrorists and freeloaders and their burqa clad multiple “wives” and their hordes of children born free in British hospitals and also living in taxpayer owned public housing have been such a boon to the economy.

    Never say Neather!

  969. Has anyone had a reply from Jim Brisbane? Or is he busy trying to get through a very large inbox at present?

  970. P from M … No … not a dicky-bird from Jim Brisbane (PBuH). I’m on N American Central Standard time. It’s 11:23 here. What time is it in Wales? Do they use Standard Idiot Time?

  971. My abiding memory of Jane Fonda are the photographs of her sitting in the gunner’s seat of a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, wearing a North Vietnamese army helmet and smiling, very pleased with herself as just up the road her braver compatriots suffered in the Hanoi “Hilton”. Googling “Jane Fonda Hanoi” will get you them. It was a great photo opportunity and she was in good company with our old friend, the majestic Tariq Ali who wanted to form a volunteer unit to fight on behalf of the North in their war of communist aggression against the South.

    But Hanoi Jane’s piece de resistance was handing over the messages smuggled to her from US POWs to their North Vietnamese captors. She still looks pretty good now and doesn’t suffer the physical and psychological injuries the ex-POWs have to put up with. Flying to Hanoi to consort with the enemy was so much easier than flying over Hanoi on a mission with a triple-A and SAM welcome. Back in the days when honour, integrity and loyalty to one’s country still meant something (before socialists slithered onto the scene) they used to shoot traitors.

  972. Fraser Nelson just appeared on SKY news defending CMD and Boy George’s performances over the past week (Granny Tax, hot sausage rolls, petrol panic, etc); Kevin McGuire batting for Milibrat. Neither particularly keen on their clients, despite, I am fairly certain, being fed and watered by them frequently.

    Fraser seems to have been on a crash course to improve his enunciation, stripped of some of the Scots poseur crap, it was almost entirely readable. Still the same old Westminster Bubble-burble though.

  973. I think it reasonable to ask whether Fraser has been wined and dined by Cameron since clearly Cameron benefits by the positive comments provided by Fraser while Fraser must also benefit in some unspecified manner.

    It is reasonable to ask how often they meet and what Fraser gets for his supportive press.

  974. I doubt that you will get any answers from the politically correct Mr Brisbane. You will be considered ‘nacht und nebel’ because of your political views – swivel-eyed, foaming bigots, out of touch, left behind, regressive – toxic even.

    Diversity and equality, you see, has limits.

  975. AWK & Ostrich

    Re-parents of Caucasian daughters being raped by peace-loving religious men: sadly you’re probably correct, in that in a lot of instances, there will be single-mothers only.

    However, I think it is becoming more prevalent that often these young girls come from “stable” homes but the girls are being sexualised at a young age by the borderline indecent images propagated by Hollywood and, even more so, by cable channels such as MTV. As part of the subtext of these “emissions”, is a very clear propaganda message that being with ethnics is somehow “cool”: this leads to too many of our indigenous girls finding it normal to chase after these abusers who treat them as fodder.

    Those funding and driving this poisonous output have, in my opinion, a definite part to play in the social engineering designed to weaken our civilisation. They are intent on seeing our traditional structure crumble. Who directs Hollywood & MTV etc?

  976. Andy Car Park.

    Andy your further comment has made me sit and think again about the conundrum (often dressed up in different scenario) that I found the solution to over fifty years ago, and I now realise that there are two solutions mine and yours and I think the following illustrates them in answer to your first question.

    “You arrive on a desert island which has precisely two inhabitants, neither of whom you know by sight. You do know that one is Fergus Pickering, who always tells the truth, and the other is telemachus’, who always lies through his teeth.

    You may pose one question to one inhabitant in order to decide which is which. What is it?”

    The question one could ask is, “If I were to ask your friend whether you always tell the truth, what would he say?” A reply of “no” means you are talking to the truth teller, a reply of “yes” means you are talking to the liar.

    Another possible question is, (I think that this is your correct answer) “If I were to ask you whether you always tell the truth, what would you say? In this case a reply of “yes” means you are talking to the truth teller and a reply of “no” means you are talking to the liar.

    Both questions take advantage of the liar lying about what he or his friend would say, creating a double negative type situation.

  978. Verity
    March 27th, 2012 – 23:13
    John Richardson … “Perhaps events will turn in our favor very soon.”
    ………..But those events are now being orchestrated by one set of people.”
    Yes, the United Nations is another nest of the Conspiracy.

    “The NWO [Verity, always with the NWO already….snigger] and the Bildenbergers. Obama is in on it, as are some top people in the US government, otherwise they would never have let Obama run for president without proving that he is an American by birth….”

    It’s disappointing just bleeding obvious the whole construct is.

    HE HAS NO LEGAL RIGHT TO BE PRESIDENT….you smucks…..

    I sometimes wonder if The Agenda is keeping the ‘War with China….war in the Middle East….’ narrative/drum beat alive.
    It would be a handy device for them to keep a war ‘on tap’ to be ‘activated’ if political momentum ever began to build against the coming tyranny.

  979. Thank you Verity for that link. I liked this comment:-

    “What you are experiencing in the UK and other predominantly Anglo and Western European countries, are Laws made by a Socialist influenced, Liberal/Social Democrat elite designed to shape Society, and so we have become enslaved. Not by a mighty revolution or conquest by Arms, but by the annexation of our language. As certain words and topics become forbidden, so does the expression of thoughts, feelings, and opinions which need those words to define or explain the forbidden topic. Thoughts that cannot be expressed without punishment are relinquished. Left deserted by the side of the road, they are forgotten. Even the questions that could lead to those forbidden topics become punishable and therefore go unasked. Forgotten. Having been lead like thought-less, dis-educated appeasers, into a brave new world of total enforced social equality, we will have forgotten what freedom was.”

    It is a great pity for our society that almost invariably the comments are more perceptive and truthful than the articles which generate them. If only journalism was brave and truthful.

  980. Malfleur
    March 28th, 2012 – 00:33

    Peter from Maidstone and John Richardson
    “We need to know what the real problem is, not just respond to symptoms and skirmishes.” (PfmM)
    ““How does the resistance organise itself?” Politically? I suggest striking at their weakest part.” (J.R.)
    The ground of the problem does appear to me to be a philosophical question; spiritual, if you will. We have to identify the common good and debate it with the modern Sophists who dominate the “culture”.”

    The trouble is Malfleur that these ‘modern Sophists’ are all lying bas****s.
    All of them are a font of deliberate deception.
    Against all evidence they prattle on about ‘our multicultural society’ or whatever.
    We have won every honest debate we ever had and look at the situation we face.
    It would be like debating with Stalinists.
    All they understand is POWER and they know instinctively that power now rests in the hands of the wicked.
    I could never understand the inexplicable respect so many afforded ‘The Spectator’s editor after Neather.

    He is an intellectual coward our enemy. Plus a dimwit for mentioning it in the first place. Sheeesh.

    “As the economy may [fail]….. the problem well defined in terms of the common good may find its own solution.”

    Perhaps I’m in a dark mood but I forgot an important factor.

    The banks (who own Hollywood Redneck) are central to the Agenda.
    They are not acting like a ‘reality check’ on government.
    Instead they are generating fiat currency to keep the economic bandwagon rolling until the political game is over.

    “Any ideas?”

    Well, I’m planning to dig a hole in the nearby park, gather as much tinned food as possible and…….

  981. Redneck: Started to reply to your posting and my typing all vanished! I do not believe that responsible parents allow young girls (or boys) to watch everything on TV. There is a switch which can be turned off, and I have used it when raising my family.Actually I feel Hollywood movies are in the main less destructive than BBC films, these being full of homosexuality, disturbed people and sadism. However, I do not believe that any films can turn girls into nymphomaniacs ripe for exploitation, or lads into homosexuals. A strong family where the parents share relaxational viewing with the children, and when the children are out their whereabouts are known, together with plenty of love and a firm hand, is the best we can do, plus a prayer that they will be safe.

  982. Nicholas 09:13

    “The recent cases already seem to be prosecuted beyond the letter of the law and feel like the criminalising of rudeness.”

    As though a hyper debased feminised sensitivity had taken the place of law?

    “There is also a certain amount of “pillorying” with photos of the offender in handcuffs being led away.”

    I saw that in the press and though ‘My goodness! They really are getting their message across aren’t they.’

    “Those supporting the prosecution (who seem to be in the minority) are using the usual words “disgusting” and “offensive” to describe the tweets…….”

    Did they use the word ‘vile’?
    Remember a few years ago when they all started using ‘vile’?
    ‘Vile’ was the word.
    ‘Vile’ was almost coded language for them.
    It said ‘we’re not at all offended but we will make up for that with the energy of our lies’.

    “The judge made it crystal clear that he imposed the sentence to appease the mob:
    But another comment he made is curious: “Not just the footballer’s family, not just the footballing world, but the whole world were literally praying for Muamba’s life. Your comments aggravated this situation”

    Hold it one cotton picking moment!
    You can get sacked these days for praying a Christian prayer! See P from M below.
    Once I might have enjoyed the stupidity of this contradiction. Awaiting, in the civilised manner that we know; the intellectual denouement as appeal followed judgment resulting in some resolution that meant the World Was Essentially Sane and Just.

    Now we all know that’s not how the story ends.

    “Is that true? Was the whole world literally praying – how could he know that? – and how could comments from one man aggravate that situation? Has hyperbole masquerading as truth now entered the criminal justice system as it has entered everything else?”

    Yes it has.
    An emotional, dishonest fantasy on the part of this Judge. What an unpleasant person he is.

    “If a judge can make comments like that in order to justify sentencing we are really not far from Roland Freisler.”

    You are exactly correct and Freisler was also over emotional. Even Nazis though he over did it. Died painfully of course.

    “But perhaps the most telling aspect, as Peter notes, is the passive acceptance.”

    Impossible to tell given the total control of the MSM. Perhaps the country has a vast majority of decent people thinking rational thoughts?
    For me the worst part is that this is all an organised and cold blooded operation.

    For years the MSM have campaigned to ‘raise awarness’ of a non existent problem called ‘cyber bullying’.
    Y’know ‘Young Girl’s Suicide caused By Tragic Loneliness and Mother’s Refusal to Allow Her To See Her Father’

    Oh no. Silly me, that should read,’ ‘Young Girl’s Suicide caused By Online Bullying by School friends’

    Since when did schoolgirl bitchiness cause suicide?

    Yeah, anyway when the caring sharing state is refusing to jail burglars and those who commit statutory rape but IS jailing drunken idiots for typing…well….no one, not least the journalists writing about it really know,or cares…then that’s The Agenda. As you know.
    It’s all a cover to remove the freedom to blog on the one hand.
    On the other, it’s a way of criminalising everybody. As you realise.

    Instead of, ‘Are Your papers in order?’ as a way of saying ‘We can take you away anytime we wish?’

    Now the Police/power authority can ask,

    ‘All your e-mails are in order aren’t they Sir?
    Wouldn’t want to come across any offensive hate speech now would we?
    You’d lose your job for a start.
    You know how hard it is to find an employer who does not need Council or Government contracts.
    They’re the only one’s who’d touch you after a Hate Conviction.
    So…let’s try again shall we…when did you first realise that your next door neighbour was homophobic?’

  983. The muslims were sluiced in as a weapon agaist the indigenes of Western Europe, by the Left. What the Left is going to discover is, they can’t control them.

    And regarding the rapes of all the little British girls, don’t forget, their hero, Mo, saw Aisha BEING PUSHED ON A SWING BY HER MOTHER … a little girl small enough not to be able to propel a swing by herself … she was six years old … and he sent for her.

    He was obviously a big noise in the village or settlement or whateverthehell, because the mother hurried little Aisha along to his house and the little girl was “out of breath”. This is in their q’ran.

    Reader, he “married her”. Then spent some time discussing with his mates that she was, in the words recorded in the q’ran, “too small” for him. Anyway, they decided he should hold off, and when she was nine, he raped her. She was evidently a very intelligent little girl because she became his favourite wife. When she was older, it was she who recorded some of what you read in the q’ran.

    It’s all in the q’ran or the suras or the hadith, whatever.

    Just some background.

  984. I did find the tweets all listed somewhere today with various words ****’d out. Stacey was certainly rude, but as far as I can see it is not racist to simply use particular words. His speech was abusive, obscene, inappropriate and offensive. But it would have been so had he been addressing other white British people. I can’t see that simply adding particular words makes it racist if there is no intent to cause threat or harm to a particular group.

    If someone calls me a fat, ugly, b*£%”$rd, God-bothering, stupid, paedo scum then does the abuse become worse if he adds the word ‘honky’, or ‘toubab’ (the Senegalese word for a white European)? I don’t think so. And so I don’t think that Stacey’s tweets were racist hate speech, they were just abusive. They were abusive without a few ‘racism’ trigger words, and I think they just remained abusive.

  985. John Richardson writes of the judge, “An emotional, dishonest fantasy on the part of this Judge. What an unpleasant person he is.” Yes, indeedy, an elevated jobsworth. It used to just be ticket collectors and people like that. Now it’s judges.

  986. Verity

    Illuminating background: explains a lot of recent events.

    Thank you for Telegraph link. It is always reassuring to see that there’s more than a handful of “extremists”, who have the audacity to question whether wholesale, open-door immigration into the UK & US is an appropriate course and concordant with the views of the indigenous population?

  987. PoM – it’s fantastic. It is as though disapproval has been elevated as just cause for persecution – I mean prosecution. It is as though some twee, prissy, politically correct chump thinks that anything he disapproves of should be persecuted – I mean prosecuted. It reminds me of nothing less than he who shall not be named, who descended on the old Wall out of nowhere, tried to impose his blooming charter of how things should be done, and then proceeded to disapprove of anything his wretched socialist cant disagreed with. Can you imagine if he were in a position of power? It would be a logical step (for him) to criminalise and persecute – I mean prosecute – those who do not share his political views. And this is exactly what has happened – the law has been harnessed to the political ideology of New Labour. That stinks.

    I feel very angry about this. Not just the persecution – I mean prosecution – but by the stupid, subjective, twee, logic defying comments made by the persecutor and the judge. How can justice be in the hands of fools like that?

  988. The toxic left sees islam as a tool. Islam sees the toxic left as a tool.

    Unless islam is shovelled out of Britain and the rest of the civilised world, guess who is going to win.

    Don’t forget taqqya and kitman … lying/misleading in the service of allah. Yes, they have a formal term for it. They can swear whopping lies in a court of law with their hand on their q’ran, and if it’s in the service of allah/islam, they get extra points and allah blows them a little kissy poo. Their “word” is meaningless. The conquest of the world for allah is all that counts.

    These people can never be integrated because they are on a holy conquest. Our ancestors, the Crusaders, understood the urgency of keeping them out of Europe. How tragic that so many hundreds/thousands of them died defending Europe and Christianity, and now we put out the welcome mat for the enemy.

  989. Re-Tweeter trial: still find it ridiculous that we are now trying to control what people say. People can say what they like to me or about me in writing. They can call me or my kith-and-kin whatever they choose, I will defend their right to do so. Maybe a different outcome were they to say it to my face though but that’s testosterone for you.
    If we do not truly have free-speech then we have clearly arrived at a situation where definitions have to be set. Unequivocally, this is open to abuse; at present the agenda is being driven by the Left who see it as a chance to “manage & manipulate” the thoughts & actions of those who “know no better”. Bravo!

    How is that different from the National Socialists in the 1930s? Oh yes, of course, the Left are the purveyors of the Truth. How naive of me.

    Let the Left wait though till the coming of the Caliphate; once the latter get a piece of this thought & speech control action then the Lefties and their favoured groups e.g. gays, artists, women, non-Muslim ethnic minorities etc. will be well-and-truly hoisted by their own petard.

    Hope we can rely on our Crusader Leader, Mr Cameron to save the day?

  990. PfM and Nicholas

    Very well put, my thoughts exactly. Laughable that these events are actually happening in this fine country.

  992. Near panic at the petrol stations according to my flatmate (Harrow, nw London).

    (…huum, this seems a strangely short post….)

  993. @Peter from Maidstone 28th, – 21:41

    “If someone calls me a fat, ugly, b*£%”$rd, God-bothering, stupid, paedo scum”

    Surely you’re not fat, Peter?

  995. Redneck 28th, – 19:28

    “AWK & Ostrich

    However, I think it is becoming more prevalent that often these young girls come from “stable” homes but the girls are being sexualised at a young age by the borderline indecent images propagated by Hollywood and, even more so, by cable channels such as MTV.”

    Yes, I guess that was what I was trying to hint at.

  996. Frank P

    You must have seen a lot of hot pasties when you were working the Soho beat with the Met. Would you beguile us with a story or two? I understand that they are now to be taxed or something.

  997. The Daily Mail columnist, Abhijit Pandya, has come up with a piece today on an effective embargo on the Falkand Islands which, in particular, has created a severe food shortage.

    Mr. Pandya picked this story up from “on the Russian World Service radio channel the ‘Voice of Russia'”.

    Why doesn’t England have a World Service radio channel that concerns itself with people being starved by oppressive regimes? Perhaps we should create one.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2120965/Argentine-Embargo-threatens-starve-Falkland-Islanders-Cameron-act-now.html#ixzz1qSE3NkJO

  998. AWK 10:28

    I am sorry to say that I am unable to fully agree. It is extremely difficult now to police our children’s viewing habits, I would regard a parent able to do so as being extremely fortunate.

    I take your word for the egregious nature of BBC drama: I never watch them. However I suspect, perhaps wrongly, that these are less commonly watched by children? Whereas, MTV et al and allegedly age-appropriate movies have, I think, perhaps in a paranoid fugue, been manipulated to a nefarious end. They purport “fun” but this is manifested as a very non-Caucasian, sexually explicit and “gangsta” style arrangement that does invite young girls to explore an extremely different lifestyle to the detriment of our culture.

    Similarly, I take your point that banks will influence Hollywood but I’m not sure they benignly “control” it and off-shoots such as MTV.

    I think MTV is a malevolent force that softens up our bright young minds, preparing them for their school and university formal indoctrination and developing their Western Culture loathing. An extremely clever tool, you have to hand it to the puppet-masters, in my opinion. I have not worked out what their end-game is but I think weakening of the UK & US is an integral part of this strategy.

  1001. Frank P

    If ‘yes’, then only because I decided to put a post up at 00.24 on “England’s Green and Pleasant Land” blog, instead of on the Wall Wall (it’s still being moderated). Otherwise, it may be /might have been Redneck.

    What would you consider an appropriate prize…? Carte blanche from management for one 100% fruity post?

  1002. “…there is a possibility that a conservative majority on the Supreme Court might rule ObamaCare unconstitutional…”

    “…liberal activist judges have consistently thwarted the will of both the legislative and executive branches of government without a blush as they imposed their own ideas about every conceivable issue on the country…”

    “…Now that the shoe is on the other foot, liberals are shocked at the notion of judges stepping in to teach the legislature a lesson….”

    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/03/28/with-obamacare-in-danger-liberals-decide-the-courts-power-should-be-limited/

  1003. David Shameron and Nick Clegg have both been “caught” eating pasties all of a sudden. From the Nasty Party to the Pasty Party.

  1004. Superb column by Peter Oborne and outstanding comments from true conservatives (set). Most of them very good, but an absolutely outstanding post from Rastustasty (or similar) on page 4. He’s already got 60 Recommends after just a couple of hours.

    I was surprised by how many people loathe Cameron. It’s never been spewed out in quite this volume before. Highly recommend. If you want the cockles of your heart warmed, go thence stat.

  1006. Frank P, March 29th, 2012 – 00:39

    1000 congratulation be upon you effendi!

    Your prize?

    “1001 Cleans a Big, BIG Carpet for Less than Half a Crown”
    (was that one of Murray Walker’s?)

    Two shillings and a six pence won’t buy much these days. These days 2s 6d (aka 12½ pence) is barely enough to pay the VAT on getting Greggs to reheat your sausage roll. I think that you have already expounded upon the purchasing power of the £1 back in the ’50s – in relation to Soho. (CH Walls passim) I hate to think what grisly treat one could have purchased for 2s 6d ?! (There’s the old schoolboy joke , you know the one that I mean, but we’d better not tell that one here , had we?)

  1007. Andy Car Park, March 28th, 2012 – 09:51

    “Are you into this sort of stuff?”

    Once upon a time in a land far, far away ….
    These days it hurts too much, and I’d rather have a pint.

    (BTW I’m not a Whovian but the Dr Who reference was accurate. You can do a BA in it now, you know.)

  1008. Why did we go decimal? Our currency was of such great antiquity, with so many interesting varieties of coins. but it was thrown away for what?

    I used to get 6d pocket money and can still remember buying a handful of sweets with it.

  1009. Verity
    I think it is becoming recognized that Cameron, Eton notwithstanding, is a spiv dealing with spivs. The coalition is dominated by spivs and the opposition by boors.

  1010. EC – If anyone tells you that you are an anorak because you are a Dr Who fan, tell them politely but firmly that you are not. You are, in point of fact, an atmospheric density jacket.

  1011. I have always thought that decimalisation introduced an artificial x 2.4 factor of inflation into the economy. They should have had 200 new pence in the pound for parity and settled on ten bob as the main unit of currency with a new name. 50p should have been 100p, if you get my drift. Like so many “progressive” improvements we should have resisted it.

    My grandparents bought their three storey Edwardian town house for about £400, by way of nothing in particular. They still had to have a mortgage but through a building society whose interest and re-payments were not rapacious and not designed to facilitate the wives of its senior executives buying £1,500 handbags and £2,000 dresses.

  1012. Dr Who – brilliant in concept, but rubbish in execution. Intriguing ideas ruined by actors who think self-indulgent mugging and rushing around shouting and screaming like girls are acting. The master of the technique, the one and only, soul mate of Andy Murray and supporter of New Labour – MacChicken!

  1013. I was struck by the similarity of events in the Salem witch trials as portrayed in “The Crucible”, and the odious Welsh show trial for hate crime.
    The fabrication and distortion of evidence, the mass hysteria, the manipulation of ‘evidence’ and fools are all redolent of the McCarthy witch hunts to which Miller was supposed to be alluding.
    These new control laws are now being firmly embedded into our society and have almost become the accepted norm. “Racially aggravated” abuse prosecutions are now commonplace (viz John Terry), and it will take a revolutionary change, over many decades, in our present culture, by politicians, press and lawyers, for these appalling laws to be repealed.
    Tragically I have no expectation whatsoever that this will ever happen.
    Tragically I have no s to It
    The hypocritical mini-Streicher and

  1014. Peter from Maidstone 28th, – 23:19

    “I do get the joke.”

    Aargh! Yet again, through trying to be brief, with my fingers rattling on faster than my brain, I’ve lost the intended meaning.

    Wasn’t suggesting that you WERE any of the “asterisked epithets”, merely that like me, many times over the years, you’ve been called them.

    My apologies.

  1015. Lol! No I took it as a joke. I have often been called fat. Not so often called the others.

  1016. I would have preferred the new currency to have kept the old names. May be the next one will restore them.

  1017. @Peter from Maidstone 29th, – 08:22

    “Why did we go decimal?”

    My dad, who at the time of decimalisation had been a maths teacher for 35 years,
    bemoaned the changeover because it minimised the need for children to be adept in mental arithmetic. He used to enjoy making the argument that ten was a bloody silly base for a number system and that, at the dawn of time, we should have adopted the base of twelve, in that it is divisible by two, three, four and six.
    But then, we only have five digits on each hand. We could have included our (bare) feet!
    I understand that the Maya included their toes in the count.

  1018. Troubling intimations of instability in Mexico from Stratfor here, in particular:

    “If the military-led offensive to crush the drug cartels launched by conservative President Felipe Calderon falters, as it seems to be doing, and Mexico City goes back to cutting deals with the cartels, then the capital may in a functional sense lose even further control of the north, with concrete implications for the southwestern United States”.

    http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/focus-syria-mexico-burns-robert-d-kaplan?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120328&utm_term=kaplan&utm_content=readmore&elq=480890f52586410faacc8ea00d45e051

  1019. bare feet?

    “Alas, poor Ostrich! I knew him, Struthio; a bird of infinite jest, most excellent fancy; ” but…er.. slightly lacking in the toes department?

  1020. http://wals.info/chapter/131

    Supyire (Mali) has base 400, with sub-bases 5, 10, 20, 80. The Chumash language of California used base 4 but is not shown on the map on account of extinction in the 1960s.

    Before I get my coat, did you know that only one of the Beach Boys could surf? Denis.

    ‘Let’s go surfing now. Everybody’s learning how. Come on Surf Safari with meeeeeee …’

  1021. TomTom on Pete Hoskin’s blog, Fuel for the political bonfire, at the Spectator Coffee House at 10:01am is calling for a general election on 3rd May.

    Sounds like a plan. It would certainly put the khat among the pasties.

  1022. Contrast the treatment meted out to Peter Gilmour, pampered child of the media elite, heir to millions, who desecrated the Cenotaph and will be welcomed back to Cambridge with open arms and hosannahs from the highest, to that doled out to the poor sap from Pontypridd, slung out of university and probably had his life ruined. The inquisition of the left has gained another victim, poor old Voltaire must be spinning in his grave. Let’s send e-mails to Swansee University demanding the restoration of the Pontypridd un (welsh for one) and to the home office pointing out the bleeding obvious, that show trials have no place in our diversity. And now I am off to throw up.

  1023. Ostrich (Occasionally)

    “But then, we only have five digits on each hand. We could have included our (bare) feet! I understand that the Maya included their toes in the count.”

    Which recalls Joan Rivers old joke:

    “My husband is so dim he has to take off his trousers to count to eleven.”

  1024. Still no reply to my email to Jim Brisbane. I wonder if he will make a statement about his statement.

  1025. Austin Barry

    ““My husband is so dim he has to take off his trousers to count to eleven.”

    Surely he could have managed thirteen under that principle. Ohhh – wait a minute … as he was married to Joan Rivers, she’s undoubtedly right.

  1026. Stephen Maybery

    You’re correct: another very sharp lesson issued to those of us who’d dare question the orthodoxies of the Left. Be afraid, very afraid.

    Do you think this fear is what prevents any of our historical allies e.g. The Conservative Party, The Spectator, The Telegraph etc. from openly questioning this dramatic change to our way of life? Or is it worse than that, are they in collusion?

  1027. From yesterday’s Nottingham Post.

    “An Iman who sexually assaulted two boys has been jailed for three years.

    The mother of the two boys has been “vilified” by the Muslim community for reporting the assaults, Nottingham Crown Court heard. She has been subjected to “a number of unpleasant incidents” including an episode at her home and damage to her car, Sarah Knight, prosecuting, said.

    The mother told the court she felt the acts were aimed at encouraging her to withdraw the allegations because in the eyes of the Muslim community, she had committed a sin.”

    I don’t think this is quite the kind of ‘community cohesion’ our masters are forever eulogising.

  1028. Per Verity “..Our ancestors, the Crusaders, understood the urgency of keeping them out of Europe. How tragic that so many hundreds/thousands of them died defending Europe and Christianity, and now we put out the welcome mat for the enemy.”

    Reading Patrick Leigh Fermor’s delightful “A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople – From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube”, which describes his journey on foot in 1933.

    In the chapter on Vienna he recalls a little known aspect of the astronomical ransom demanded from England for the release of King Richard the Lionheart by the Emperor Henry VI. The money paid was used to pay for the construction of the City’s walls; the very walls which were instrumental in helping to repel the invasion and conquest of Europe by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1683.
    The resources of England were taxed to the utmost for the first installments; and to this occasion the beginning of secular taxation levied on movable property may be traced. It is comforting to consider that we assisted so materially, if indirectly, in the preservation of the Christian West, even if the benefit was not realised for nearly 500 years.

  1029. Mmm, I see the rampaging Cardiff Taxi driver who mowed down eight pedestrians is one Majid Rehman. It seems that we are still on track for the treble accumulator: next up Somalia and Khat.

  1030. Austin B – Can you elucidate the technicalities about this Welsh boyo shooting his mouth off?

    I cannot work out from the useless MSM reports whether he was charged with incitement or a public order offence. Some bloke down the pub told me that the second would be ‘harrassment, alarm and distress’, which can be with or without intent, and with or without racial aggravation.

    The four harassment offences seem to require a victim. Is there not a problem here if Stacey concluded the tweet with ‘He’s dead’? You can’t kill a corpse and all that.

    Alternatively, if he was charged with incitement to racial hatred, whence these presumably redundant references in the press to a racially aggravated offence?

  1031. I looked at the law he was convicted under as well and couldn’t find any reason why he was found guilty of any charge. Being a berk isn’t on the list. Using a rude word which refers to a person’s ethnicity does not seem to me to be reasonably called racist unless any reference to any aspect of any person’s physiology and psychology is also to be considered illegal.

    It would surely reduce us to saying, there was this …. person, and this other … person, and this other … person, who went into a bar..

  1032. As I understand it the “harassment” was against individuals who had objected to his original comment and included racial references – hence racial aggravation, but that is not really made clear in the reports or by what the judge said.

    I don’t know whether he was charged under Section 1 of the Prohibition of Harassment Act 1997 for an offence of harassment, which was racially aggravated under the terms of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, or under Section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 which can also be racially aggravated. But the extension of both these to the case in point (comments on Twitter) seems on the face of it a bit tenuous. Perhaps the idea is to establish that extension. The precise wording of both these offences – and the racially aggravated bit – can be viewed online.

  1033. Interesting that another Cardiff taxi driver, sharing the same surname, has also been in trouble…

    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2010/02/17/driver-denies-sex-assault-charges-91466-25849318/

    and the Welsh terror group sentenced in 2010 also included a member with the same surname…

    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2012/02/06/terror-court-latest-plotters-in-wales-had-made-a-high-level-commitment-to-jihad-a-court-heard-91466-30277785/

  1034. Andy Car Park

    Unhappily, I last appeared in a UK criminal matter in 1975 at Torquay Magistrates Court in the case of the Bank Robbing Vicar (wires and candles in his briefcase posing as a bomb) and his elderly housekeeper accomplice – a bizarre and astonishing case that, for a day at least, held the nation in its grip. So, I’ll pass.

    Now, if you want to know about any obscure EU Directive on financial services ….

  1035. Good mornin’, y’all.

    Nicholas re Dr Who … “Intriguing ideas ruined by actors who think self-indulgent mugging and rushing around shouting and screaming …”. I never liked Dr Who, but the actors don’t design their own action any more than they write their own words. Every move is mapped out (and rehearsed) before filming begins. The sound crew know where every speaker will be speaking (or screaming) at any split secod, and are there with a mike. The actors follow orders. There are people monitoring the sound levels of the screams and upping or downig the volume. The actors have absoluely nothig to do with any of this.

    Noa, referring to McCarthy … “McCarthy witch hunts …”. No. McCarthy clarion calls for vigilance, whch we are still not heeding … and McCarthy trying to make sense of a giganic silent conspiracy.

    Ostrich, I have remarked before that the British were able to think quicker than other peoples because of our currency. Everyone figured out his change in a split second and spotted any pennies or halfpennies missing and held out their hand with the change saying along the lines of, “Shouldn’t this be one pound eightpence HALFPENNY?” Dodgy shopkeepers had to be lightning thinkers, and so did the customers. On the qui vive for hours every day.

  1036. Looking through the actual tweets sent by Stacey I can see only one used twice word which could be considered ‘racist’. He calls one or more of his correspondents a ‘w%g’ and of another proposes that his mother is a ‘w%g’.

    I don’t see how either remark could be considered ‘racist’ in a material sense. If he had used the word ‘Geordie’ instead would the comments be racist? If not then surely the original comments are not racist. Surely the intent of his tweets is to be offensive, not racist. He makes no mention of wishing harm to an entire race, he does not seem, in any realistic sense, to be abusing his correspondents BECAUSE they belong to any particular race, but is merely using an aspect of their ethnicity to abuse them. They could not have reasonably been fearful of harm or felt threatened.

    What is ‘race’? There is no French race surely, but is ‘Frog’ now racist? There is no American race at all, but is ‘Yank’ now racist?

    How do we know what is permitted abuse and what is not? Surely we need an Abuse Czar, or F-OFF, a new abuse regulator.

  1037. Clip around the ear from Verity duly noted – the allusion was to the the atmosphere of fear and threat of liberty created by McCarthy hearings, the opprobrium and loss of liberty and livelihood due to one’s holding beliefs not shared by those holding the levers of power…

  1039. Noa, I have always like Simon de Montfort’s reply to a soldier in the Crusades who asked, as there were no uniforms in the day, how they would know the enemy, and de Montfort cried, “Kill them all! God will know his own!” Harsh, but no poncing about with muslims’ “human rights”.

    I don’t understand why MPs are so supine in all this, unless they fear being charged with human rights … in which case someone should introduce a Bill analysizing and categorising “human rights” in detail. That boy who has had his young life viciously ripped to shreds did not, I believe, knowingly commit a crime while excercising ancient right to free speech. Which MPs brought in a bill criminalising what he said? Or is there any such real crime on the books?

    I don’t think there was. This was a put-up show trial along the lines of Moscow and Mao. Some lawyer should get hold of this and help this boy, whose young life is now in shreds, get damages. Some brave MP (I’ll get up off the floor from laughing as soon as I can stop) should propose a defining EXACTLY AND PRECISELY of what a hate crime – and “hate speech” is … in fact, better yet, abolish this grotesque, creepy non-crime. What the hell’s wrong with hate speech? Next they will be abolishing “hate”. Every citizen will be “good” and not cause problems.

    You over there have to heave David Cameron out of office stat. He is ambitious far, far beyond his mental capacities, and he is also as evil as Tony Blair, his template … in my humble opinion. The one comfort is, he is nowhere near as smart as Tony Blair. But the evil intent glitters just the same. I am not stating this as fact, having never seen a Dave IQ test. It is my opinion.

  1040. Nicholas, who wrote, “Rubbish” … and how many TV shows and films have you been involved in? You cannot really imagine that the actors just scamper all over the set!

  1041. Nicholas, on any set in the world, actors have to hit their marks. Their “marks” are drawn on the floor in chalk. They rehearse, and memorise, following those marks so they can move around without looking down. Actors are not free to run about at will with a full camera and sound crew running around after them!

  1042. P from M 14:47 … “It would surely reduce us to saying, there was this …. person, and this other … person, and this other … person, who went into a bar..”.

    You forgot to add what will soon be the mandatory rider … “where a wide range of non-alcoholic, as well as alcoholic, drinks was available for responsible drivers…”.

  1043. “Nicholas, who wrote, “Rubbish” … and how many TV shows and films have you been involved in? You cannot really imagine that the actors just scamper all over the set!”

    Acting, Verity, involves more than just directions. That is why McChicken’s shrill and energetic interpretation of Doctor Who was radically different from that of William Hartnell. You do understand that at least, don’t you?

  1044. P from M, re Stacy … “He calls one or more of his correspondents a ‘w%g’ and of another proposes that his mother is a ‘w%g’. ”

    It would have been far more “appropriate” to use bossy town councillor lingo, if he had called his correspondet a wanker and his mother a whore there would have been no problem.

    Nicholas, the director controls the set and the actors and the technicians. The director has the whole performance that he wants in his mind’s eye. He is the boss of everyone. Everyone obeys the director or is advised to take a hike. All the actors’ moves are witten down.

  1045. My layman’s guess is that Twitter was always going to be caught if the other requirements were met:

    Section 4A(1)(b) ‘displays sign … or other visible representation’

    My blind spot is that the employment definition of harassment was hailed as a novelty at the time (2010?) because harm could be in the eye of the beholder, or indeed of a conscientious observer. The public order offences, being considerably older, would presumably have contained an objective test of harassment, harm or distress. Or was the subjective test of harm surreptitiously transferred to the PO context when no-one was looking?

    The dog that has yet to bark is Eddie, of the ‘Spectator Coffeehouse’, who is both South Walean and a tad thin-skinned. He could be briefing the CPS as we speak. Time to take that shotgun to bed, Nicholas?

  1046. Someone should help this boy, whose life is now in ruins.

    Well, his solicitor and counsel presumably advised him that he had ‘no chance’ and that he would be best pleading guilty and throwing himself on the court’s mercy. Ha!
    I assume he would have received a much higher sentence if a not guilty plea had been unsuccessful and that his only right of appeal is against the sentaence and not the conviction.
    Now then, which liberty loving lawyer will be up for that, I wonder… Matrix Chambers… Yes ,I’d like to speak to Cherie please.. My business?… Oh its about her handling Young Stacey’s appeal…Hello, Evonne! The line’s gone dead!

  1047. I regret you appear to have misattributed that quotation Verity. It seems to refer to ‘white on white’ action:-

    “…The Abbot Arnaud Amaury, head of the Cistercian Order, is most notable for the possibly spurious statement attributed to him during the battle at Beziers, the first and bloodiest combat of the Albigensian Crusade. He reportedly told confused crusaders who could not distinguish between Catholics and Albigensians [Cathars] to “Kill them all. God will know his own.” Estimates from the time, including Catholic sources, claim anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 men women and children were killed in this massacre, although this is certainly an exaggeration as the total population of Beziers was likely no more than eight or nine thousand. As a result, upon hearing of ferocity of the battle, other cities surrendered without resistance….”

    From somewhere or other on’th net. Still, point taken.

  1048. Noa — Very gracious. I will therefore take your point, too. I have always
    felt rather territorial about this quote as I lived just outside Beziers when I lived in France.

  1049. I still strongly endorse a visit to Peter Oborne’s piece in The Telegraph that I recommended last night. The number of comments has swelled considerably and the anger with Cameron and the Tories is heartwarming. Most comments well-argued and literate. The anger and contempt for Cameron are after my own heart. I strongly recommend a visit to get the adrenalin pumping.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9171474/The-Conservative-Party-can-save-Cameron-but-only-if-he-lets-it.html#disqus_thread

  1050. Not just in England. This appeared in the Irish Herald last October. The last sentence is wryly amusing.

    “An man has been sentenced to two months in jail by the Dublin District Court for hurling racial abuse at an election candidate.

    Michael Walsh, 61, was sentenced on Friday after he told independent candidate Patrick Maphoso to get off his street and that “black people made him sick”.

    He denied this, insisting he only told Maphoso, 43, to “fuck off”, because he disliked all politicians.”

  1051. Peter from Maidstone
    March 29th, 2012 – 08:22
    “Why did we go decimal? Our currency was of such great antiquity, with so many interesting varieties of coins. but it was thrown away for what?”

    According to ‘The Great Deception’ (Christopher Booker of the ‘Sunday Telegraph’ & another) it was to prepare us to enter the forthcoming European single currency.
    Yes, that long ago.
    He relies on original government documents for all his analysis.

  1052. Peter of Maidstone and Austin Barry

    Regarding the Cardiff taxi driver, did anybody really believe his name would be Dai Jones the Cab?
    Speaking of names, if I named a child W*G, could I sue the teacher when she/he read his name out from the register?

  1053. Oh Nicholas at 8:45 re decimalisation & inflation.

    Yes you are correct about the inflationary consequences of decimalisation (I cannot comment on your reasoning as I cannot follow it…..).

    Booker explains that the inflationary impact of decimalisation went on for years and was very damaging.
    However, the ‘powers that be’ had factored all that into their decision. Their destructive treachery was well planned.

    The Labor Party is also exposed as just as treacherous as the Conservatives in this text.
    Callaghan lied and lied about ‘renegotiating terms’.
    They were, and are all in it together Lab/Con & the press.

  1054. Yes you could sue the teacher, who would also be imprisoned in any case, since it is not possible to utter or write that word without committing a racist offence in any and all circumstances.

  1055. James Delingpole plays a blinder in today’s Telegraph;

    “It pains me to find myself in agreement with all the chippy Guardianistas and lefty Times class-warriors and BBC apparatchiks who say that Cameron and his crew are a bunch of painfully, out-of-touch toffs who understand little and care even less about the travails of the squeezed middle trying to earn their crust. But they’re dead right.”

  1057. John Richardson 29th, – 17:08

    Boy THAT’s forward thinking! Our first step towards a decimal currency was when the British florin was first minted in (I think) 1840. Guess who it was who insisted that the half crown should continue in circulation?

  1058. I note the following…

    Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard defined w&g as a “common, everyday garden-variety humanoid … He ‘is’ a body. [He] doesn’t know he’s there, etc. He isn’t there as a spirit at all. He is not operating as a thetan.

    Would it have been an excuse for Liam Stacey to insist that he was abusing those with whom he corresponded as being non-thetans?

  1060. P from M … Yes, and the people of the time suspected there was something afoot but the decisions were made over their head. People were suspicious even back then that it was something to do with Europe.

  1061. Hi Mr Ostrich,

    I’m sure we’ve got mixed up somehow.

    Christopher Booker (and the other fellow I cannot recall) base their whole book on Government papers.

    So the contemporary decimalisation was to prepare for what we now call the euro. I cannot cite a direct ref as I read the book last Summer & my copy is at home, not here in London.

  1062. Ostrich (occasionally) … “Guess who it was who insisted that the half crown should continue in circulation?”

    Errr … you?

  1063. Peter from Maidstone
    March 29th, 2012 – 17:21
    “Yes you could sue the teacher, who would also be imprisoned in any case, since it is not possible to utter or write that word without committing a racist offence in any and all circumstances.”

    Huuum.

    I feel at test case coming on.

    As a half W*G would I be half as offensive if I uttered the phrase?

    OK, what about this……

    Right.
    I look in the mirror and I shout.’You half W*G!’
    What if I recorded ‘the incident’ and posted it online?
    Or sealed the recording in a container and left it in the park labelled ‘OFFENSIVE INCIDENT CALL THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY’
    What then?
    What then what then what then?

    I mean who exactly is being offended here?
    Think about it.
    Do I GET FINANCIAL COMPENSATION FROM MYSELF ???
    What if I don’t pay up?
    What if I DO pay up and then use the money (what’s left of it after I employ the outstanding airport car park services that I have recently become aware of…..) to finance even MORE ‘Offensive Incidents’.?
    What if……

    Well anyway, that’s what I can come up with off the top of me half b***d head.

    Someone here is crazy………….

    *Asterix have been employed to protect the innocent blog owner.

  1064. If you disliked the non-white British aspect of yourself then as far as I can see it WOULD be a hate crime, and you might well be able to claim that you were both the offender and the offendee at the same time. If you could get access to some sort of state compensation scheme then you could be on to a winner as you could keep offending yourself and taking yourself to court.

  1065. Austin Barry
    March 29th, 2012 – 13:12

    When I was living in Forest Gate a similar story.
    Imam raped a woman.
    She reported it.
    He got convicted.

    In the Court after the verdict based on DNA evidence, women in veils screamed ‘Whore’ and spat at the victim.
    No-one was arrested for this and that is all that matters. The rest, anyone could have told you was inevitable and has been going on for 1400yrs. It will never stop.

    Why bring it to the country? That’s the question.

  1067. Peter of Maidstone and John Richardson
    Thanks for the advice. If things get much more desparate, I may act upon it.
    Now another hypothetical legal case. Have those two pasty-faced, whey looking politicians, Cameron and Osborne decided what to do about fish and chips? If upon opening the paper wrapping I find the food is cold, am I entitled to a rebate? If my husband orders a salt beef sandwich with sour pickle on rye, and the meat isn’t piping hot, should he pay 20% less?

  1069. Peter from Maidstone
    March 29th, 2012 – 17:54
    “If you disliked the non-white British aspect of yourself then as far as I can see it WOULD be a hate crime, and you might well be able to claim that you were both the offender and the offendee at the same time. If you could get access to some sort of state compensation scheme then you could be on to a winner as you could keep offending yourself and taking yourself to court.”

    Yes.

    I like it. I like it a lot.
    My mind (well half of it anyway…not sure what half yet….) is excited by the possibilities.

    “………….you could be on to a winner as you could keep offending yourself and taking yourself to court.”

    Exactly.
    All those people who said, ‘There are no winners in a racial conflict’ can be proven wrong.

    I’M the winner AND loser and I’ll soon have the cash to prove it.

    “If you disliked the non-white British aspect of yourself……”

    Well, not until now to be honest but I could always do with the cash and I’m prepared to be flexible.
    Times are hard P. from M. and I’ve got principles to think of after all.

    “……….you could keep offending yourself and taking yourself to court.”

    THAT’S just typical me P. from M.

    Again and again I do it. I just knew I would, somehow.
    I don’t know…….
    Perhaps an even larger cash award will teach me a lesson?
    I owe it to myself to find out. Quite literally owe it to myself.

    Yep, a financial penalty of some magnitude will be just what I deserve after my behaviour etc etc etc

  1070. Noa
    March 29th, 2012 – 18:05

    “Now that would surely be an extreme form of self abuse!”

    Keep it clean!

    This is a family blog with the reputation of very distinguished airport car parks to consider!

    …and I have no intention of getting me coat…….

  1077. Why thank you Jennifer.

    ‘The Coffee House Wall’ are a blinking tough crowd…

    By way of reciprocation you were asking about race and human IQ the other day.

    I read a very well sourced essay in ‘The Sailsbury Review’ a few years ago.
    It had a few graph and various tables. It was a extensive review on a book unpublished in the UK.
    You might be able to find it if you go to their web page and search the archive.
    Failing that there are a lot of presentations on ‘You-tube’ and….

    Whoa!

    Waitaminute!

    Race? IQ? IQ….race I’m at it again….when will I ever learn?

    This is really gonna cost me THIS time…….

    As for you Noa…er yeah…I was thinking of that as well ahem. What else?

  1078. I have a few projects I am thinking through and would value advice and comments. I’d prefer constructive criticism rather than crushing and wounding personal abuse.

    i. I’m thinking of an online and serious polling website/organisation that would have enough registered users to be statistically useful. It would then poll on political and social issues. Especially those which are usually ignored by the polling organisations that are very well known.

    ii. Develop a People’s Parliament website. Attract registered users from constituencies. Publish links and materials about a selected range of business and contrast voting on the site with MPs record.

    iii. Investigate if it would be possible to form a co-operative of some sort and gather funding to purchase an island in the Orkneys or Shetlands and declare independence from Scotland under the crown.

    iv. Develop a team to create professional 30 minute documentary radio programmes on important social and political issues.

    v. Develop a professional right of centre news aggregation site to carry stories in one place about the negative effects of various social and political issues and any positive news about patriotic incidents and people.

  1079. Verity 29th, – 17:33

    Errr … you?

    Well, ackshully, it was the Tory party. (but you knew that anyway, I’m sure.)

  1080. Peter

    Great ideas all. How or where do you want comments contributory thoughts etc sent?

  1082. John Richardson

    On the coinage: it used to be beautiful.

    On W%G litigation by half-castes: the way to make some money, without simply transferring damages from the right hand pocket to the left,would be to insist on defending yourselves, claim legal aid, and then charge yourselves high fees (are there any other kind?).

    Peter from Maidstone @ 19.55

    Some very random first reactions:

    i,ii,iv and v: very sound.

    iii: This sounds a bit wacky, and anyway can’t we leave it to the islanders to take care of that one?

    i,ii, iv and v are going to need significant capital. If I make a lot over the next two months (and the chances are 50:50 with the other half being the chance of destitution), I will be in touch – seriously.

    All the activities could be brought under the umbrella of one company, except possibly ii which might work best as a “stand-alone”.

    i: might be developed into a facility for launching petitions and calls for referenda.

    Item iv does not need to be limited to radio. Would you envisage a dedicated radio station by the way? If not, how would you get the programmes broadcast, or do you envisage that the programmes would be sound only and made available on a specially established website?

    iv: could very usefully be extended not only to videos, but also to historical background documentaries explaining the historical roots of the social and political issues.

    Security might become a problem in view of the likely content, and careful thought should be given to this aspect.

    You might find that you risk forming a political party in a fit of absent-mindedness, which is probably something to be avoided at all costs.

  1083. Peter from Maidstone

    What is a “trackback”? I see from the top of this page that we don’t have any. Is that good or bad?

  1084. I think it means that we don’t have links from other blogs. Let me urge people to try and encourage links to the site on those other places they congregate. I do add links to my comments on the DT, and am always trying to do more. But if people can get the site added to other blogrolls that would be useful in increasing our traffic.

    Malfleur, thanks for your comments. You can see the sort of things I am interested in doing. I’d much rather not do them alone.

  1085. Malfleur

    “….the way to make some money, without simply transferring damages from the right hand pocket to the left,would be to insist on defending yourselves, claim legal aid, and then charge yourselves high fees (are there any other kind?).”

    Malfleur you are a innocent in this game.

    Have you learned nothing from my above decent into madness?

    The only logical position would be for me to insist upon defending myself from ME.

    Yes, I would both prosecute AND defend…er..defend MYSELF. Frankly I don’t trust the white/black legal system……

    Further, I simply blame the authorities (Police or whoever, don’t matter) for not taking action to stop my outrageous action when I first showed a distinct inclination to this sort of VIIIIILE and offensive slur. They’ll pay up. It ain’t their money after all.

    You just haven’t grasped the opportunities of this brave new world of offendedness.

  1086. The final proof that Britain is doomed:

    http://news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16199081

    And you’re telling me Peter from Maidstone that there is, as a First Cause, an omniscient, omnipotent God in Heaven? I rest my case for a ‘not proven’ verdict on that score.

    Watching that jumped-up, never-come-down, slimy, treasonous, shitty, shifty, Scottish shit-bag dwarf strutting around the TV studios for the next week, will be worse than having to suffer for the past week the stupidity of the government’s handling of almost everything – and the hypocrisy of Milibrat and Balls trying (and failing) to take advantage of their ineptitude.

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-aaaaahgh!

  1088. Frank P

    Thank you for the links; the first is mortifying. I believe we can expect Labour to be increasingly displaced from the immigrant enclaves they sought to hold forever with newly imported voters, as they gain in political confidence, elect those more pliable to their own alien objectives and replace the establishment party fools who imported them with initially, useful idiots and idealogical travelers, then their own ideological and cultural party representatives. Galloway’s election is the current stages of that process.
    And I am humbled by Mr Rathband’s simple and courageous explanation of the appalling tragedy which he endured.

  1089. Frank P
    March 30th, 2012 – 01:01
    & Noa
    The Night of the Long Knives is alive and well!

  1090. John Richardson 19.39 yesterday

    Thanks for that link. I will trawl around and see if I can find something although I doubt my IQ would be up to it. (don’t let me set you off) Many years ago I helped a Danish friend translate some extracts of her anthropological dissertation into English. It was all about cranial size of various races and IQ and her conclusion was that there was no correlation whatsoever. Mind you, DK was excessively PC even 25 years’ ago and I suppose people do pick and choose their sources. I found it all pretty incomprehensible.

    P of M

    Its taking over a minute for me to upload (or is it download) “the wall” now. Is that due to its great length?

  1091. Trying very hard this morning not to do myself an injury laughing at the balloon Galloway’s boast of a “Bradford Spring”. They deserve each other, Galloway and his Ghetto.

    A young English man in the QT audience ripped into Douglas Alexander, who had spent most of the programme articulating a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party. The attack was coherent, determined and relentless and for a glorious, joyous moment I thought it might actually disrupt the programme. Alexander was unable to respond except by huff and puff but you could see writ plainly on his face the shocked disbelief that a young person (after all they think they own that generation) could be so savage towards his party. Dimblebore, at first likewise reduced to stunned silence (this was not in the BBC script) eventually regained control and quickly moved on.

    Well, George, you obnoxious, preening, over-blown tub of poisonous lard, that was as good as a Spring for me, seeing a young man see right through the likes of you and the rest of your bogus leftist rabble from north of the border. I raise my glass to the young English hero and to this unexpected glimmer of a conservative Spring. The first step must be the young people of this country seeing right through their obnoxious charade. Then will come freedom.

  1092. George Galloway tweets: “By the Grace of God we have won the most sensational victory in British political history.”

    By which, of course, he really means “Al-Hamdulillah, we have won etc.….”.

    Anyway, a great day for the Ummah and Caliphate (Bradford branch) and more such victories to come, perhaps with a win by Ken (peace be upon him) Livingstone in London, Insha’Allah.

    Chums, we’re doomed.

  1093. Looks like the postal voters were out in force in Peshawar North last night although they were probably not strictly required in that constituency.

    The message of Toulouse repeated in a different form.

    Poor old Labour; local man, muslim – but that just wasn’t enough for the good citizens of the ‘stan.

    Hilariously the Beeb are parroting the Labour line, as is Kevin Maguire of the Mirror, that Galloway’s Big Brother appearance was a big help in this.

  1094. Jennifer, yes. I think the wall is too long. I am going to go back to a weekly wall. I think that our conversation here is so dynamic that it is not difficult for us to keep on talking, but the length of the wall is becoming very problematic. On a smart-phone it would become almost impossible to read.

  1095. Frank P, when humans get to choose for themselves they choose stupid and selfish things. One of the purposes of this life is to learn to life selflessly and intelligently. Have you never made a stupid decision? Would you consider yourself more or less human if things had been so arranged that you were unable to make anything other than a good decision?

    Choosing Galloway is surely entirely to be expected. I have asked on the Spectator site how many postal votes were cast, how many people who are not British citizens voted, how many people who were not born in the country voted. Even my Dad now agrees with me that there is an intention to break down societal cohesiveness so that there is no group that can adequately oppose any Government in the future. This is all of a piece with that. Why would the Lib/Lab/Con Party care whether there is yet another clown in Parliament. His corrupt bluster will only serve to distract attention from the real issues of the day, indeed he will be an excuse not to deal with immigration and may well be welcomed on that score.

  1096. As a suggestion, would it be possible to set up the Wall like some other forums where you can introduce a topic and create a thread under that topic? That way those posts that elicit no response can remain in splendid isolation whilst responses to another more popular topic can have their own continuity.

  1097. Nicholas, the trouble is that a forum is different to a blog, and no-one seemed very interested in the forum layout when I started Conservative Voices. This style of an ongoing conversation on a few topics seems to work well at the moment.

    What we need is some more blog posts. I know I annoyed Frank P previously, but that was unintentional and I would welcome another blog post from him, and you and any others.

  1098. Thanks Peter. It’s easier of course just to comment, even at length, than to construct a meaningful blog post – although having said that and looking at some of the Speccie’s blog posts . . .

    Btw I made the same point there about postal votes and overseas votes re Galloway as you. Not in imitation but I de-registered so now my comments go through moderation, a clunky, lengthy and it appears entirely haphazard process.

  1099. I noticed the advertising for the new Spectator publication – Spectator Life. It didn’t sound too much like my life! But what has really put me off ever purchasing it is the report in the DT of the launch party which says…

    Maude was speaking at a party to celebrate the launch of Spectator Life magazine at Asprey, the jewellers, in Mayfair. While there were no pasties on offer, guests – including Viscountess Astor, the mother of Samantha Cameron, Sir David Frost and Emily Maitlis – were served Pol Roger Reserve champagne.

    They ate such canapés as smoked salmon parcels, rare tuna spring rolls with wasabi and coriander, croustade of mushrooms with poached quails egg and béarnaise, and seared scallops with ginger and lime.

  1100. That Eurozone crisis? To use a well worn phrase :- “It’s not gone away you know”.

    Grotesque overspending by left wing city councilors, a bankrupt government, unpaid bus drivers and social workers strikes, protests and occupations. concerns as people can’t pay their mortgages or afford basics and essentials.

    If you like Jerez sherry, be very afraid.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17538224

    It couldn’t happen here? Would you like to bet on it?

  1103. I echo John Richardson’s heartfelt plea for immaculate courtesy and good taste at all times for the sake of this site’s new found advertising revenue. Rough diamonds (Frank P) may wish to refer to my own posts for the relevant criteria.

  1104. Noa

    Thanks for the Frederick Forsyth link; his Byron quote was right on the button, what we’ve been saying in somewhat different terminology, but just as heartfelt in this medium for the past decade or so:

    “Byron got it right, you know. He wrote: “Must we but weep o’er days more blest? Must we but weep? Our fathers bled. Earth, render back from out thy breast one remnant of our Spartan dead.” But for now we must just dream on.”

    Perfect!

  1105. P v M (

    Heh, heh, heh. Good try, but no banana!

    If I were the First Cause (granting free-will for humanity notwithstanding) I would somehow, using my omnipotence and omniscience, contrive to bugger George Galloway with an oil rig-driller, whispering “Bradford Spring off that Georgie Boy” thereby reassuring my faithful flock – and relieving them of the irritations that will flow from his continued presence on this mortal coil.

    Just sayin’

  1106. ACP

    I think that last post was more or less in line with your rules, was it not? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I checked that all the words were in the OED before I hit send. Except ‘sayin’ ‘ of course, which as I’m sure you know is a little colloquialism that pervades even the less raunchy reaches of the ‘sphere.

  1107. On BBC News today: A woman in York very seriously burned and in hospital after she filled a gerry can with petrol in her kitchen. Stupid place to do it in, but even stupider is the so-called government advice for people to store petrol. Surely, hoarding COLD pasties, which can be frozen and then heated up would be safer.

  1109. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 (12:23)

    Hahahahahah. Very clever juxtaposition. You definitely get the banana this morning, but don’t eat it all at once, hard times a-coming!

  1110. PfM 10:22, There was a letter in the Spectator as far back in 1989 by a reader (not known to me) who said that while he enjoyed most of the columns and sometimes entered the competitions he had never been invited to a ‘Spectator party’, which was presumably were and are subsidised with readers’ money. In the circs, he went on to wonder whether it would be too much to ask if various columnists could stop going ‘on and on AND ON’ about how wonderful Spectator parties were. He concluded, sweetly, ‘Don’t you think it’s rather rude of them. Do you think they could stop it?’

    Too right this latest abomination is nothing to do with your life. Nor mine. The creatures of the self-styled beau monde revel in spitting in our faces.

  1111. Andy ‘Airport’ Car Park
    You are right, Andy, but seriously would you want to be invited to a party with such rubbish present? I noted that Samantha’s mum will be there. If she brought her daughter up to attend a Royal wedding without even a hat, then it makes one wonder if Sam is cut from the same cloth. As Groucho Marx said, I wouldn’t want to belong to a club which would have me for a member.

  1112. Actually is anyone a member of a London club. I sometimes visit a club with a member as a useful place to meet.

  1113. I think I’m still a member of Ronnie Scott’s Club, but I’m not at all sure that’s the type of club you’re thinking of. The late Ronnie was of course famous for his awful jokes, such as “My girlfriend’s so shy she eats bananas sideways” and “I used to date a redhead – no hair, just a redhead”. Ah, thems were the days.

  1114. Bradford West

    The political class as a whole and the three main political parties in particular have sown the seeds of civil war in the country.

    In criminal law, persons are considered to be responsible for consequences of their actions which could be foreseen by a reasonable man.

    The consequences of creating a muslim population in Bradford which accounts for 40% and rising of the total should have been foreseen and the political class should be held to account accordingly.

  1115. The Anglosphere

    The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway is coming up in June this year. I think we should prepare to thank our American friends for that critical victory and to remember and celebrate the sacrifices of their young men who took part in it.

  1116. In the Toller ward of Bradford West the Pakistani population alone was 63.6% in 2001. Who can doubt that it is now 75% at least, and all in the gift of the local Imams.

    Malfleur, is the email address you log on as one you use? If not would you drop me a line at peter@coffeehousewall.co.uk if you choose.

  1117. Frank P, in regard to George Galloway and God, I believe him to be a pawn in the hands of real evil. Real evil will be dealt with in due course. But for now the question is how we respond to such evil. It is very easy to be cowed and submit to it. It is easy to be angry and frustrated. But to do something about it and t resist it, there is the opportunity for real virtue in the ancient sense of the word.

    Where are the real men and women for this time?

  1118. Frank P

    Excellent links, thank you. Moving, restrained commentary by the young PC and very funny article in American Digest.

  1119. P from M “think it means that we don’t have links from other blogs.”

    I arranged a link to Chicago Boyz for you two weeks ago.

    BTW, this morning your site was trashed up with rogue, crappy Mexican advertising.

  1120. PfM

    Your attempts to create some sort of right-of-centre alternative force: I have always thought the right were, at times, too disparate and easily separated into squabbling factions to be effective. This may ultimately be our downfall.

    Not sure where our natural leaders are.

  1121. Just read through the details of Mr Galloway’s victory and allied with Mr Livingston’s alleged attempts to alienate Jewish voters in London in order to court the one-million strong Muslim vote: as a few have already said, we’re doomed.

    Do you think we’d get very far trying to set up a Western voting bloc in any of the Arab Spring countries, a reverse-Caliphate, if you will?

    PS I am willing to bet 1,000,000 is a slur on the true Muslim population in London. I would guess there are at least that number of young, female white-converts alone. Just sayin’ (like it Frank P).

  1122. Austin Barry 8:33 “win by Ken (peace be upon him) Livingstone”

    TYPO ALERT!!!!!! “Piss” is spelled thusly. “win by Ken (piss be upon him) Livingstone.

    BTW, I find it unbelievable that non-citizens are allowed the vote in Britain. Voting and deciding on the government of a country is a privilege of the ciitzenry only. I lived in the US for 12 years and had a coveted Green Card, which allowed me to work, buy property if I wished and pay taxes. But it most assuredly did not allow me the privileges of a citizen in deciding who would run the country. Not even a vote in city council elections, or elections for judges or the chief of police. No say in any form of government.

    In Mexico, non-citizens are not even allowed to attend political rallies. Get your picture on TV or in the papers at a political rally and there goes your permission to live in Mexico. Adios!

    In France, British citizens … and other citizens of European countries (I almost typed “European citizens” but caught myself in time) can vote in their local village or town elections … as in, for town councillors and the mayor. That’s the extent of it.

    Why does Britain permit the citizens of Stone Age Third World garbage countries that worship a vicious, not to say raving mad, diety, to have a say in determining the governance of Britain? And possibly being able, in some areas, to over-rule the wishes of the owners of the country whose inheritance it is?

    In the US, working and being a taxpayer does not buy you this privilege. In Britain you allow people sucking voraciously on the welfare tit to have a share in political decisions that affect the owners of the country. It is beyond sanity.

    Limit the right to vote to citizens, like normal countries, and all those “uncles” who organise mass voting of illiterate followers of noted paedophile mohammad, will have to spend more time looking for a job where they pay taxes.

  1123. “Why does Britain permit the citizens of Stone Age Third World garbage countries that worship a vicious, not to say raving mad, diety, to have a say in determining the governance of Britain?”

    The answer is simple. Because for quite some time Britain has been under the control of nasty socialist bastards for whom any nationality, any ethnicity, any religion but their own is to be preferred in every sense of that word. That was the whole basis of New Labour’s intention to “rub the right’s nose in diversity”. Why would any government want to do that, at risk to their own people? It is on a par with the Austrian corporal’s Gotterdammerung and will eventually result in sectarian violence on a huge scale.

    The whole of the government and establishment’s suppressive stance on the race and religion debate is because they are shit scared of the whole mess kicking off – as it undoubtedly will.

  1125. Nicholas:
    The whole of the government and establishment’s suppressive stance on the race and religion debate is because they are shit scared of the whole mess kicking off – as it undoubtedly will.
    ======================
    Nicholas, how I wish it would. Unfortunately, seeing how apathetic all the ‘good’ citizens are, it will probably be “Not with a bang but a whimper” (The Hollow Men, TSE)

  1126. Verity, there was a link on the CB site (thanks for that) but not on their blogroll or as a trackback, which I think is a special kind of link. If we can get the site added to blogrolls then that would really help generate traffic.

    You saw Mexican ads because you are in Mexico. People in the UK see Uk ads.

  1127. Re my post at 15:32 just above AWK’s, will the mohammadan families who arranged this criminal obscenity be prosecuted? Will the little “bride” be removed from the family and taken into care? The way that indigenous woman who ranted against some somali, or similar, stone agers on a bus had her child removed from her?

    Aisha was five when she was forced into marriage with mohammad by the way. “It’s their culture”.

  1128. Peter from M … I don’t understand. You are on their blogroll and have been so for around two weeks. I just went to their site and clicked on Coffee House Wall and it brought me straight here.

  1129. So, given this obscene “marriage” of this five year old child, will Gary Glitter be returning to Britain and claiming compensation? How about the paedophiles in British prisons? Will they be released this week?

    Frankly, I think the Left should be put down like mad dogs. If you need a helping hand, let me know. I’ll pay my own plane fare.

  1130. Noa.

    “If you like Jerez sherry, be very afraid.”

    Surely all sherry comes from Jerez or the neighbouring Sanlúcar de Barrameda where the variety of fino sherry ‘Manzanilla’ is made?

  1131. ‘Did you know there are 96 layers of pastry in a Geordie Dummy (aka sausage roll)?’

    – Hexhamgeezer, Rod Liddle’s blog, 06.04.11

  1132. The comments on Daniel Hannan’s poor, party line blog on the newly elected Caliph of Bradford included the following by “Anders”:-

    “…Islam disintegrates every nation that it comes across. And there is one simple reason for this: Islam itself is a form of nationalism. The word “Ummah” means “nation”. Thanks to the folly of people like you, (Dan Hannan) we now have an alternative form of nationalism growing like a cancer in our midst. Barring extraordinary political interventions, it can only end in mass bloodletting”.

    Yes.

  1134. A funny thing happened on the way to Reading.

    Just the other day, when I got off the train at Reading station (a deathly, windswept wasteland to which I’ve always had an aversion since losing my comfort blanket there as a very young boy) an announcement warned travellers to have their “tickets and travel documents” ready.

    I wasn’t sure to what “travel documents” this might refer so can only assume they’re softening us up for the day (not too far off) when we are required to inform the authorities in advance if we wish to venture outside the M25 or into a different county and carry the relevant paperwork to demonstrate we have obtained the relevant permission. Which, to me, seems only a short step away from innocent people being accosted on the street with the demand “Ihre Papiere, bite”.

    Even the dyed-in-the-wool lefty I was travelling with was taken aback by it.

    By the way, let me introduce myself. More of a reader than a contributor hitherto but an occasional piper-up on the “old” wall that that magazine used to pretend to run.

  1135. On a sliding scale, I place islam way, way, way below scientology and voodoo in the weirdo religion rating. Actually, I put mohammad in sheer nuttiness some way below Jim Jones (Mr KoolAid).

    Shovelling them up and shipping them out in volume is the only solution. The government (yeah, right, with Dave in charge) should put the belongings of the first couple of thousand shipped out on the street in a giant garage sale. Pour encourager les autres … Maybe some of them would leave of their own free will and save the taxpayer the freight for shipping them out cattle class.

  1136. BTW, re the ROP, it’s fun to remember that when bin Laden was taken out he was shielding himself with one of his “wives”. Ever the gent, eh? Why was he so scared, when he was being expedited to meet allah?

  1137. “Nicholas, how I wish it would. Unfortunately, seeing how apathetic all the ‘good’ citizens are, it will probably be “Not with a bang but a whimper” (The Hollow Men, TSE)”

    Don’t you believe it. There is still a heart beating in the shires. The English can be pushed a long way, but only so far.

  1138. David Ossitt – Thank you for that clarification.

    I remember, many years ago, obtaining in Preston’s Yates Wine Lodge, a tumbler of Australian sherry. The taste and texture were affectionately referred to by the boisterous clientèle as ‘paint stripper’. Presumably that was due to the de-natured aspect of any table surface upon which the glass’s content spilled, if not swiftly removed by the barman’s trusty towel.

    Subsequent visits to Australia’s wine growing regions in the Barroso and Murray valleys never really clarified where this substance was made. Anyone who has sampled the delights of a a wine tour, or ‘grog in’ as the most hospitable locals call it, will know that simply remembering one’s own name is an astonishing achievement.

    However, having once asked the question before events became too hazy I was told by a cheery chap from Sydney that export Australian sherry was made “specially for you Poms”, at the Rocks Winery in Botany Bay.
    I believed him at the time. (I would if told it, in the circumstances, have believed George Calloway would eventually be made the Emir of Yorkshire), but have wondered since then if this was so. In light of your clarification, do you think I was mislead?

  1139. PS I was gratified last night that almost the whole QT panel spoke against the persecution – I mean prosecution – of the Welsh boy – except the rather dim Tory MP who seemed to confuse the crass with the criminal.

  1140. David Ossitt – Thank you for that clarification.

    I remember, many years ago, obtaining in Preston’s Yates Wine Lodge, a tumbler of Australian sherry. The taste and texture were affectionately referred to by the boisterous clientèle as ‘paint stripper’. Presumably that was due to the de-natured aspect of any table surface upon which the glass’s content spilled, if not swiftly removed by the barman’s trusty towel.

    Subsequent visits to Australia’s wine growing regions in the Barroso and Murray valleys never really clarified where this substance was made. Anyone who has sampled the delights of a a wine tour, or ‘grog in’ as the most hospitable locals call it, will know that simply remembering one’s own name is an astonishing achievement.

    However, having once asked the question before events became too hazy I was told by a cheery chap from Sydney that export Australian sherry was made “specially for you Poms”, at the Rocks Winery in Botany Bay.

    I believed him at the time. (I would if told it, in the circumstances, have believed George Galloway would eventually be made the Emir of Yorkshire), but have wondered since then if this was so. In light of your clarification, do you think I was mislead?

  1142. Liam Stacey, the Cardiff student sent to prison for 56 days for using the word w&g.

  1143. Nicholas
    March 30th, 2012 – 17:07

    “Nicholas, how I wish it would. Unfortunately, seeing how apathetic all the ‘good’ citizens are, it will probably be “Not with a bang but a whimper” (The Hollow Men, TSE)”

    Don’t you believe it. There is still a heart beating in the shires. The English can be pushed a long way, but only so far.
    ===========================
    I pray that you are right and I’m wrong. No wonder the government is trying to build all over the green land. No doubt they would like ‘affordable’ housing for the overflow from Bradford and the large families of those demanding asylum here, in mansions at the public’s expense. Once they have pakistani and somalis swarming all over the shires, the political picture will be dire.

  1144. Just saw Mr Galloway’s triumphal, post-victory parade: where the hell was that filmed? Goodness knows what our American cousins will think when they see those clips.

    Unequivocally represents the UK’s most egregious example of sectarian voting, out with Ulster. How many other seats do you suspect could be won in this fashion?

  1145. I think I saw statistics on a Muslim site that said there were 26 constituencies with an immigrant majority and which could be won for a Muslim supported candidate.

  1146. Nicholas & AWK,

    Still quite a few “beating hearts” up here too!

    However I suspect our betters will have the patience to wait till we’re so hopelessly overwhelmed by a combination of mass immigration, differential birth rates and an exponential increase in the number of young British girls getting hooked on the gangsta/Koranic way that the hearts will be of no value. We’ll be exsanguinated by then.

    Think we need to precipitate something rather promptly? Having said that, if the sight of Mr Galloway being carried on the shoulders of various, interestingly-attired, bearded gentlemen doesn’t awaken the spirit of King Arthur then we’d be as well moving to Shetland along with the other 12 or so true Brits left…

  1147. You’ve got to get rid of Dave. He is univesally loathed by the citizenry. Read the blogs on The Telegraph. No one … sometimes in a comment attracting 70 or 80 responses … has a good word for him.

    You’ve got to get David Davis in and he has to appoint Lord Tebbitt to a critical post, and bring in the fiercely clever and patriotic John Redwood. This Parliament is the one that should make a firm decision to have a referendum on Europe. If he has any smarts, he would also bring Nigel Farage in pro tem because this is going to need a good heave.

    While I’m at it, a new government (by tea time tomorrow) should also cancel the ability of non-citizens to vote in British elections. Britain should be governed by the owners of the country only.

    Some large, sweeping and strong changes have to be made stat. Limping along like this, with an intellectually inadequate little self-serving creep, whose latest ruse is to pose around in the presence of the press pretending to enjoy working class food, his eye, meanwhile, fixed firmly on the top table in Brussels, is not on.

    Action. Out=Dave. In, Conservatives.

  1148. P de M
    Twenty-six? Interesting: any idea which ones? Would be of interest to know how that would affect the political landscape and to see if it might cause enough of a furore for some sort of aggressive response.

    However, suspect that our soft-Left Tories would immediately go into appeasement mode and start to develop all sorts of anti-British legislation and field all-Muslim fields. Oh well, back to the shooting range…

  1149. Looking in detail..

    There are 25 constituencies with more than 40% ethnic minorities.

    He also notes that although nationally ethnic minorities are 10% of the population, there are actually 25 parliamentary constituencies where over 40% of the population were categorised as being from an ethnic minority in the 2001 census. These include: East Harrow 66.3%, Birmingham Ladywood 64.9%, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath 64.8%, and Brent South 64.6% – full table in notes for editors below

    Constituency Ethnic minority % in the 2001 census
    East Harrow 66.3
    Birmingham Ladywood                                     64.9
    Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath         64.8
    Brent South                                                      64.6
    West Ham                                                        60.2
    Brent North                                                      58.2
    Ilford South                                                      54.9
    Ealing Southall                                                  52.7
    Camberwell and Peckham                                50.2
    Bethnal Green and Bow                                   49.8
    Leicester East                                                  49.8
    Croydon North                                               49.5
    Birmingham Perry Barr                                     48.1
    Bradford West                                                 47.4
    Poplar and Canning Town                                45.7
    Harrow East                                                    44.9
    Tottenham                                                       44.9
    Lewisham Deptford                                         43.4
    Brent East                                                       42.3
    Hackney South and Shoreditch                        41.7
    Leyton and Wanstead                                      41.4
    Walthamstow                                                  40.8
    Vauxhall                                                           40.5

  1150. Noa.

    No I do not think that you were mislead, I too remember at about 18 years of age entering a Yates Wine Lodge in Leeds in the company of a much love uncle, over the course of an afternoon he purchased for me at least two schooners of the dreadfully sweat Australian so called Sherry, I was fortunate that the driver of the tax he pushed me into agreed to take me home.

    There were other similar versions, do you remember the Emva Cream Cypriot Sweet Sherry?

    When first married we had to count every penny and I had a regular routine on late Saturday afternoons (I was then in retail and so worked Saturdays) first I would rush into Leeds City Market just as the butchers were swilling down prior to closing and buying a joint of beef at a knock down price and then on to an off-licence who sold for a few pennies something from a barrel what was described as sweet sherry, you had to provide your own bottle.

    I well remember having to visit my GP after drinking some of this poison it had quite literarily burnt my oesophagus.

  1152. Owain Mitchell @ 16:35

    Welcome! Following the announcement at Reading railway station calling on passengers to have their tickets and travel documents ready, I infer that no-one was actually required to show anything at the exit gate, correct? It does sound therefore rather as though it were a test run for something. I wonder if it was a recorded announcement.

    Some of the more nervous among our American friends sense that in view of the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 when read with the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (signed into law while the country was distracted by revelry on New Year’s Eve), the Obama administration is merely awaiting a pretext to implement its nation-wide martial law powers.

    Frank P

    I’m sorry that you didn’t take a bite at my hot pasties bait on 28th March…

    Peter from Maidstone

    Is there a breakdown of the figures for those constituencies by religion?

  1153. Malfleur, there would be in the 2001 census information, on which those percentages are based. They will be higher now.

    It’s late now and I shan’t be able to look the details out until later this weekend, but I will be interested in the demographics of Birmingham in view of the possibility of an elected mayor.

    I emailed you again.

  1154. Those among you who might have been concerned by the news that the Philippines had introduced Ramadan as an annual national public holiday in 2011 may feel some comfort to learn that twenty people (all men) have volunteered to be nailed to crosses on Good Friday in a town north of Manila. It is not thought that any of them are muslim.

  1155. Malfleur, not a practice I can condone. (The nailing to a cross that is). It is not any part of the Apostolic Faith.

  1156. Unfortunately those who volunteer to be nailed to crosses seem to have missed the point of The Cruxifiction.That it was The Last Great Blood Sacrifce.

  1157. Redford NG 22:23

    My thoughts exactly.

    Do you think it’ll all “go down” in your lifetime? I used to think it might be in my children’s but I am dramatically changing my view: think we’ll need to get ourselves readied?

  1158. It’s 1955, we’re sitting at the table eating our dripping sandwiches. The TV flickers in monochromatic grey. It’s the Grove Family. Dad says he’d rather listen on the radio to Journey into Space with Andrew Faulds and Alfie Bass. Outside the window the fog hangs heavy over Hampstead.

    Grandad rushes into the the room. He’s flushed and sweating. We ask him what’s up. He say’s he has a dream where Africans are rioting in London and Pakistanis are raping young English girls and killing us on the tube. We look at each other. Dad says, “The nursing home can’t take him, but the mental hospital at Shenley has a vacancy in the raving bonkers ward”. We agree that he should be admitted. Clearly the Lithium and lobotomy haven’t worked. On the radio Dickie Valentine is singing. We continue to thank God the war is over. We look forward to the new Elizabethan age.

  1162. I can’t find a post from Clear Memories since 28th March 00:27.
    Has he been black-balled?

  1165. Who do you think I am, Sammy Davis Jnr.?

    Not really felt the urge to comment to be honest. As George Galloway returns to Parliament on the wings of the camel-jockey vote, I despair of my homeland, comforting myself that my permanent residency here in Australia’s ‘redneck’ state is now virtually assured, whilst one child is an Aussie citizen and the other will be in less than a year. And, of course, my lovely grandchildren will, hopefully, never know the despair of seeing their homeland swamped by aliens with irrational, muyrderous beliefs (If you’re an Aborigine reading this, I apologise for the irony – and how the f**k did you learn to read?)

    Queensland has shown the way for Cameron and the USA, throwing off the shackles of socialism after 20 years of Labor ruination. In November, the worst US President ever will be deposed (although he has put in place legislation that would allow him to declare martial law – if he did, I suspect Syria will look like a kiddies tea-party.)

    The ‘free world’ is moving rightwards. Worldwide, socialism has run out of other peoples money and if Cameron waits, he will end up deposed by Farage and a coalition of the extreme right. I remain puzzled why it is OK to be a Scottish or Welsh nationalist, veritably honourable to be an Irish Nationalist yet despicable in extremis to stand up for England or Britain.

    I appreciate your concern at my absence, Frank P. I guess that pr**k Daniel Maris has been breathing deep sighs of relief, but I haven’t forgotten the apologist bugger. Stop trying to be a political slimeball, Maris, and answer the simple question posed (especially after Galloway). You started it – so, what have the swamping influx of immigrants over the last 40 years or so contributed to the improvement and benefit of the United Kingdom?

    G’day.

  1166. “A spokesman for the WWF said: “It’s not to save an hour’s electricity. It’s something much bigger. WWF’s Earth Hour is about people coming together to put the focus on this brilliant world we all share – and how we need to protect it. It’s about realising that the actions we take, from the energy we use, to the food we buy and water we drink, has an effect on the world. We all depend on our amazing planet and need to look after it – not just for an hour a year, but every day.” Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon has pledged support for this year’s Earth Hour. He said: “We do it in solidarity with men, women and children, and 20% of all human kind, who live with no access to electricity. Turning off our lights is a symbol of our commitment to sustainable energy for all. We need to fuel our future with clean, efficient and affordable energy. By acting together today we can power a brighter tomorrow. The UN is strongly behind this cause from Earth Hour. Let us build the future we want.”

    Bollox.

  1167. Clear Memories @10:09

    I think that the Daniel Maris ‘exotic cuisine’ apologia for immigration is pathetic. His apologia for wind farms is equally so. In many respects he reminds me of Reggie Perrin’s son in law. (original series)

  1168. WWF,

    “Turning off our lights is a symbol of our commitment to sustainable energy for all.”

    Nicholas,

    The lights will be going off all by themselves by 2018! Lack of any coherent energy policy and planning (by successive governments) has ensured that! We need at least a dozen new nuclear reactors by 2018, and that aint gonna happen.

  1169. The planned “crucifixions” in the city of San Fernando in the northern island of Luzon this Friday have been condemned by the Catholic Church, but the annual event has become something of a tourist attraction in addition to an expression of penitence by the individuals concerned. At the same time, the government has announced increased security during Holy Week, at places where the public congregate in large numbers. There is a concern that terrorists may seek to take advantage of large gatherings of ordinary people at this time to make a point. The terrorists are not Christians…

    I should perhaps have noted in my post at 01.45 that the video at http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/30/sharia-is-islam/ identifies reasons for concerns that “Belgium is on its way to becoming a totalitarian state”. In the context of the return of Galloway in Bradford West it points up the widespread threat of islamic ideology. There is a prediction on the video that Belgium or at leadt Brussels will be islamic by 2030 – not that far off.

    Given the vigour of the Christian church in the Philippines, the confrontation is likely to be particularly sharp there; although since the division is between the muslim concentrations in the southern part of the southern island of Mindanao and the rest of the country, the fuse is longer than in, say, England or Belgium.

  1170. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123111/Police-officer-suspended-calling-man-n—London-riots.html

    So, the word defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as

    “late 17th century from earlier ‘neger’ from French ‘negre’, from Spanish ‘negro’ “black” is enough to bring down an Officer using either the true meaning – or the street slang:-

    “nigger has been adopted by black people as a mild way of disparaging other black people”

    Hence, as always, anything is OK as long as a black does it but woe betide a white guy! (And that seems true from murder down to language)

  1171. The BBC allowed some mad woman to preach against cigarette smoking in the home and family car even when children are not present, she stated as a verifiable fact (on at least three occasions) that 80% of the smoke was invisible and so even if you were standing at an open door or window to smoke you would be poisoning your children.

    She also stated that there were over 4,000 poisonous chemicals in this invisible smoke.

    She was not asked once how she could measure the invisible 80% nor was she asked to name three or four of the 4,000 deadly chemicals.

    For a balanced point of view; did they have on the program a smoker?

    No, but what they did have was an ex-smoking mother who was convinced that her little one suffered from asthma because prior to pregnancy she was a smoker, another nutter.

    Is it not odd that those of us who lived through the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties where our parents smoked everywhere, at home, at work, in the office, on the bus, on the train, in the cinema while on a flight etcetera, and we ourselves who probably started to smoke in our early teens, are not all dead, quite the contrary most are still here alive and kicking.

    It turns out that the mad woman is part of a government drive (at our expense) to try to stop smoking in the home.

    No mention of the Muslims flouting the law smoking their hookah pipes in these so called cafes.

  1172. George Galloway, hm?

    The only expression I would ever like to see on his face is the rictus grin that would come from finding a large, aids-ridden, bearded guy standing in unexpectedly close proximity astern of him.

  1173. “It turns out that the mad woman is part of a government drive (at our expense) to try to stop smoking in the home.”

    And next it will be made illegal to smoke in your own home if you have children. It will be classified as child abuse. Children at school and neighbours will be encouraged to denounce smoking parents. And after that alcohol and so on.

    Mad women and idiotic feminised men are behind all these “causes”. Their desire to nanny and control finds an outlet in the fake charities and quangos determined to root out anything they disapprove of. Already in so many walks of life ‘disapproval’ is becoming synonymous with ‘criminalisation’.

    I read the other day that Elton John has revealed that people in his adult life were “mentally violent” to him. That is the next thing, already being pushed by the EU as part of their “domestic violence” project to turn men and women against each other, that words people don’t want to hear or which offend them will become the same as physical assaults. We will be held to ransom by the precious and everyone will have to be very careful what they say and hope that they don’t encounter one of these hysteria-riddled harpies (most of whom also seem to gravitate towards the Left of course).

  1175. Clear Memories

    Blackballed: Sammy Davis Jnr.? No I think you will find that was Danny Kaye. Or was that ‘Balling the Jack’?

  1176. Clear Memories:
    Hello There,
    On BBC News I heard that the police are considering prosecuting a policeman who used the ‘N’ word at a demonstrator during the recent riots. The man complained that he was straddled and nearly strangled and called racial names. It’s not nice being insulted racially, I’ve had my share too, but I’m sure it is preferable
    to strangulation!

  1178. I think the line stems back to the old joke about the Teacher offering Friday off to anyone who can answer one question, but the question is always too hard for the kids.

    One day, just as she is to ask her question, young Johnny rolls two squash balls down the aisle, to which the Teacher says “Who’s the joker with the black balls?”

    “Sammy Davies Jnr, Miss. See you Monday”

    By the way, my post 12:14 should end 3rd para ‘is now to be used to persecute a public servant in fear of his life whilst carrying out his duty.’

    The bastards are not just ruining the English-speaking nations, they’re altering the language to suit their own distorted ends.

  1179. Nicholas 11:26 — Double bollox, and I couldn’t fashed to read all the way through this drooling idocy. Surely they don’t think that people believe this garbage – except by government diktat. Cameron is grotesque to make it required reading in schools and “the big society” (why not, following these infantile cues, “the great big society” or “the really, really big society”?) is a figment of his tenth rate failed public relations man’s tiny vision.

    Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Loon has” pledged support” for this year’s Earth Hour. Wow! From whom? And who elected this Korean nonentity? (They had a Burmese nonentity in before, didn’t they? I think they had an African in once in this unelected sinecure. All the achieving nations that have contributed so hugely to the modern world. What are his qualifications to be head of the pig stye of the UN and be reading lessons to achieving, civilised peoples?

  1180. A couple of mentions today of that truly superb all-round entertainer Samuel George “Sammy” Davis Junior, have reminded me of a story.

    Swedish born actress May Brit (I think his second wife) was out shopping in Beverley Hills with her mother, on a street they passed the handsome Harry Belafonta, May Brit said to her mother ‘that’s the one I meant’.

  1181. Earlier this year or was it towards the end of last year ‘Twinings’ the tea people without any warning decided to change the recipe or formula for their specific blend of Earl Grey Tea, a tea that they have been selling since the early 1800’s.

    A public outcry ensued and I heard on the radio a silly woman (head of publicity) trying to defend and justify these changes.

    Since then someone at Twinings has admitted the error of this action, and you can now still purchase the original and the new blend with words added to ‘Earl Grey’ so as to distinguish this latter day imposter from the original.

    I mention this because I can not get my head round the idea that one manufacturer has blithely attempted a sort of commercial suicide by changed what has been for many a year perfection, I am of course writing about McVitie’s the people who up to now made the finest Digestive biscuit in the world, they have been baking this biscuit since 1892.

    But now some idiot (supposedly for reasons to do with our health) has reduced the fat content by 80%.

    Utter madness, try dunking this poor copy and you will end up with sludge in the cup, home made cheese cakes bases will never be the same again, Hawes Wensleydale Cheese will have lost a perfect partner, the nation should go into mourning.

  1182. Let those of you who thought Calle mio Dave told porkies about his voracious consumption of Greggs bakery products consider this extract from Damian Thompson’s DT blog, and then hang yourselves in shame:-

    “”I love a hot pasty,” declares the Prime Minister, and I believe him. My source in the Downing Street kitchen tells me: “Mr Cameron is the most peckish PM I can remember, bless him. He finds the servings at the No 10 dinners a bit stingy, so we often send up a Greggs pasty or ‘steak bake’ as a little amuse bouche he can enjoy before joining his guests. Sometimes I’ll drizzle garlic butter on the pastry – that always goes down well!”

    Even then, however, Dave finds room for a night-time snack. “Greggs do a lovely Belgian bun, ever so moist, and we send a couple upstairs just as the PM is settling down to catch up on The Killing. Last week I thought he needed an extra treat, so I put a little jug of cream on the tray. He didn’t complain, let’s put it that way.””

    Was there an element of tongue in cheek about this mouth watering scoop, given that DT had just been commenting on the creative element in the journalism of lefty storymakers, Messrs Fisk and Hari?

    Heaven forfend it so!

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100148411/lying-lefties-gruesome-polyester-chasubles-and-daves-bedtime-belgian-buns/

  1183. David Ossitt

    In at least a partial defence of Mcvities I would draw your your attention to their restoration of the Dark Chocolate HobNob.
    This amuse bouche shrugs off the risible challenge of being dunked in tea and, sources inform me, may even become a staple at SamCam suppers and damn the cost…

  1184. Noa.

    Far too fancy for my palate, I am more the ‘Nice’ or Malted Milk man myself.

  1185. Good grief! Can you the imagine the social agony of having to admit that you were at a SamCam kitchen supper? (You could always lie ad pray that they didn’t take pictures.)

  1187. “…Far too fancy for my palate…”

    Must be the consequence of gargling that cheap sherry, David. 😉

  1189. After Bradford, Blackburn next…(yes!!).

    An odd echo of the Abbot Arnaud Amaury during the Khazi of Bradford’s campaign rally last Sunday, footage of which was still available yesterday on his own website, quoth:-

    “I’m a better Pakistani than he [Mr Hussain] will ever be. “God knows who’s a Muslim and who is not. And a man that’s never out of the pub shouldn’t be going around telling people you should vote for him because he’s a Muslim.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9177902/George-Galloway-celebrates-Blackburn-triumph-on-Twitter-after-winning-Bradford-West-by-election.html

  1191. If the black criminals are so sensitive, I suggest they find gentler, more amiable surroundings in which to ply their trades. Somalia … Nigeria … Zimbabwe, where that nice Mr and Mrs Mugabe live, Jamaica, Pakistan … In fact, I can guarantee that the British people would authorise their free flights to any of these destinations in return for a mere DNA sample and a retinal photograph. We might even send free ground transport to make sure they made their flight on time.

  1192. Verity

    You said it, let’s stop the pussy-footing here, they’re our enemies, get them to hell out of our heartlands.

  1194. Frank P March 31st, 18:38:
    Yes, two very irritating hyperactive children. Remember, drugs can really screw you up!

  1195. This is the take of the English Defence League on the outcome of the Bradford West election: http://englishdefenceleague.org/bradford-elects-terrorist-financier/

    The article cross-refers to Brendan O’Neill’s article in the DT: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100148251/george-galloways-victory-confirms-the-denigration-and-demise-of-the-radical-left-not-its-resurgence/

    If the short term aim of Neathergate has backfired, namely in failing to provide the Labour Party with a built-in majority, the more sinister lonterm effects, whether intentional or not, seem set fair to be realized. These will be the fragmenting of the national constituency into warring tribes. The EU, and its placemen in our political class, will find it easy to dominate these factions once they have begun to tear each other to pieces. Top marks to our political class! Job well done! Mission accomplished!

  1196. This is the take of the English Defence League on the outcome of the Bradford West election: http://englishdefenceleague.org/bradford-elects-terrorist-financier/

    The article cross-refers to Brendan O’Neill’s article in the DT: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100148251/george-galloways-victory-confirms-the-denigration-and-demise-of-the-radical-left-not-its-resurgence/

    If the short term aim of Neathergate has backfired, namely in failing to provide the Labour Party with a built-in majority, the more sinister long-term effects, whether intended or not, seem set fair to be realized. These will include the fragmenting of the national constituency into warring tribes. The EU, and its placemen in our political class, will find it easy to dominate these factions once they have begun to tear each other to pieces. Top marks to our political class! Job well done! Mission accomplished!

  1197. Probably just time to squeeze in before the new Wall begins … A typically insightful comment from Boudicca over on Daniel Hannan’s blog in The Telegraph:

    “If the Scots must have a straightforward IN/OUT Referendum on the UK, then the British people must have a straightforward IN/OUT Referendum on the EU.”

  1198. Folk, there is a “Clear Memories” posting at the Speccie (in the Galloway threads) who doesn’t seem entirely like our Clear Memories.

    Is it he who shall not be named (and who shall not pass – “You shall not pass!”) shape-shifting again?

    If so, what a little shitbag.

  1199. #1196 If I book my parking at Gatwick by clicking on a link at the top does that generate extra revenue for the site?

  1200. #1999 Does anyone want to buy a second hand Patek Phillipe quality timepiece? (hardly used)

  1204. Nicholas,

    I note that it’s a “Clear Memories.” – with a full stop at the end
    The same MO as the he that uses an apostrophe at the end?

  1205. Quite scary how many pro-comments there are at the Speccie regarding the Gallomonster. I always knew this wretched country had a hard core of bolshy, pro-soviet communist weirdos who since 1989 have masqueraded as various other things and gained considerable influence and power, but when they emerge from under their red flags and write with such smug, supercilious certainty and evident hatred of their mother country you have to wonder.

    Bastards each and every one.

  1206. Nicholas: “Clear Memories” is a poster I always read, but what do I see in the Speccie? Yes, the full stop is a give away. Alas, scanning through the Speccie blog sites it appears to be dominated by bolshie traitors and certifiable lunatics.

  1207. Spotted the best April Fools day story yet?

    Who’da believed it?

    Comrade Baroness Ashton has an image problem. (Children wake screaming in the night, mirrors crack under her stare, groundwort and poison ivy shrivel as she traipses past).

    Her solution?
    The appointment of a £150,000 a year spin doctor to ‘…improve her image and foster better relations with the British Government…”.

    Whos the lucky man? The beneficiary of our largesse who will de-sow’s ear this wanna-be silk purse?

    Go on, you wanna know don’t you?

    Why, none other than than nice policy wonker you all used to saw such horrible things about when he wrote in the other place. Yes, none other than Daniel Korski.

    That should help to to “..get on the front foot and become more stategic..”, and Danny boy has a job for life to meet those objectives.

  1208. Pingback: Albina Wittbrodt

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *