The Coffee House Wall – 13th/19th August

Posted on August 17, 2012

This is the Coffee House Wall for this week. 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.

Please consider supporting the Coffee House Wall by making a donation, of whatever amount, to fund the running of the site using the Paypal donation button provided.

237 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall – 13th/19th August”

  1. I have another interview lined up, and with a bit of luck will begin with this one, which I won’t announce just yet, so that I can have a bit of time to compile some good questions to ask our other interviewees.

    I hope that readers and contributors will enjoy this series of blogs over the next weeks and months.

  4. Elvis Oh Elvis

    She won’t open my letters
    She won’t answer the phone
    When I’m a-ringing her doorbell
    She says there aint nobody home

    Western Union oh yeah
    Send my loving baby back to me

  5. You can see we are all bored now its over
    But was Boris not magnificent
    And Cameron so wet

  7. Doggerel to right of him,
    Prose to left of him,
    Poetry in front of him
    Blustering and boasting
    Storm’d at with cheek and wit,
    Boldly he still tapped and badly,
    Into the jaws of mediocrity,
    Into the mouth of boredom
    Tapped Fergus the Bogeyman.

  8. W-W
    I never boast
    If you are the greatest poet since Shelley, you don’t need to

  9. The official report on Brevik lambasts the police who could have stopped him
    Just like the police here could have found Tia’s body
    We should string them both up by the balls next to each other( Brevik and Hazell )

  11. It was Tennyson that I vandalised rather than Shelley, Fergus. Thought you might know that. Prefer Kipling’s “Last of” personally but hey-ho, thought the Charge was more appropriate for your occasional desperate gallops up this valley brandishing your metaphoric quill dipped in vitriol when the real enemy are on yonder hill.

  12. EC-Poetry?
    You have tried to link me with that odious creep before
    Withdraw goddam it withdraw

  14. And with Pat Condell’s piece in mind, what rough beast slouches its way…

    “Like a pre-written script, the Muslim Brotherhood, via their figurehead, President Morsi, ousted the military elite and thus put an end to the two-headed regime which ruled in Egypt. Morsi feels so confident of himself that he even canceled the constitutional amendment, which granted the supreme military council most of the state’s authority. It was all expected. It was the speed of the moves that surprised. And where is the peace with Israel? At first it lost Mubarak; now the army. All that is left is to trust the Muslim Brotherhood.”

    http://www.israpundit.com/archives/48305

    It seems by the way that the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt in the same blow severed the Egyptian military from the businesses from which it drew its financial power.

    If Spring is here, Winter’s not far behind.

  17. POETRY, n.
    A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.

    Ambrose Bierce
    The Devil’s Dictionary
    (1911; copyright expired.)

  18. I was going to contribute a diatribe on Yasmin Buggerall-Browne but then decided the venamous anti British cow was not worth the effort. What got my goat was that she had a piece in the Mail, which I buy on Monday soley for the pleasure of reading Mel. Why would the editors immagine Mail readers would want to to read anything the bloody woman writes? Just one more slap in the chops from our sneering intelligentsia. If they must have a substitute Foe Mel, and God knows the girl needs a break every now and again, then give Anne a slot.

  20. Seeing that happen more and more – left wing writers having pieces in supposedly right wing magazines and papers. The Speccie does it all the time but it is not reciprocated because as we know only too well here right wing politics is on the way to being categorised as “extremist” and eventually illegal. The establishment seem to have decided that the whole political spectrum has shifted leftwards and Labour’s trolls often assert that this is now the majority view without ever providing polling evidence for that.

    A very successful propaganda coup for the left as even the Tories now have to profess shame for their “unreconstructed” right wing views.

  21. Peter,

    I signed the petition, and then clicked the confirmation link back in my Email but as yet the number count has not gone up.

  22. Wit and Wisdom of the Frankfurt School (no. 1 in a very occasional series)

    ‘The absolute reality of the unreal is nothing but the reality of a phenomenon that not only strives unceasingly to spirit away its own origins in human labour, but also, inseparably from the process and in thrall to exchange value, assiduously emphasises its use value, stressing that this is its authentic reality, that it is ‘no imitation’ – and all this in order to further the cause of exchange value. ‘

    Theodor Adorno, ‘In search of Wagner’

  23. W-W
    Funny I thought it was Stealers Wheel
    But then Resevoir Dogs is not your thing.

    If you read my post again you will see I was self congratulating
    I should however have said Homer

  24. Malfleur
    Walthamstow is the Mecca of the pre-raphaelites and the arts and crafts movement
    There is a fabulous museum there ?Morris
    Perhaps that is what attracts the EDL

  25. Well-Wisher (12.47)

    Indeed – some time ago one of my daughters gave me a BBC Audio Book CD box-set, published in 2005 and entitled Eye Witness 1950-1959, comprising four one hour (approx) discs, produced by Sarah Kilgarriff. It is a selection of radio broadcast clips, using similar methods to those of Juilen Temple last week to make his ‘London – The New Babylon’ TV documentary. The audio book script was written by Joanna Burke (a ‘Professor of History’ at Birkbeck College); the narration was by Tim Piggott-Smith.

    The prompter that caused me to re-listen to it yesterday evening and today, was the overall leftist bias involved in the presentation of the London Olympiad coverage by the BBC, during the opening and closing ceremonies, the Temple documentary and, finally, the last straw, on Newsnight last night, which ‘debated’ the Olympics in retrospect with a panel, comprising four lefties ( I include Temple and the anchor Gavin Esler in that description) and – plonked in to feign balance – (I use the word ‘plonked’ advisedly – a plonker indeed) – was Toby Young the Spectator hack, who once described in nauseous detail, in a Speccy article, his own unhealthy internet porn habit and his wife’s query about his excessive wanking. Balance?

    The Nn programme, for those that missed it, was a real wankfest of agitprop triumphalism. I then remembered feeling that that subliminal message in the Eye Witness audio book was similarly biased and decided to look again for the common methodology by re-running it. Uncanny! The use of recognizable cameos from history, which those who lived through the incidents, will remember; but spinning the interpretation of those events in favour of all things socialist and against all things ‘conservative’ is a skill that the arty-farty literati have now perfected. Expect more of it – and you’re right about useful idiots like Young, supposedly a Tory (?) falling for the Gramsciist counter-culture hegemony game-plan and selling our nation down the river, through self-loathing and guilt.

    I suppose we can’t blame them, given the brainwashing they have been subjected to through academia and by the left controlled media for the past 50 years. The methodology was also present in other series by lugubrious Paxman and the lop-eared Marr, when we expressed the same objections to a few years back: history through a Marxist prism, which needs a Huddle Telescope type adjuster to correct.

    Though I have no desire to swell the already bloated coffers of the BBC, it is worth obtaining a copy of the Eye Witness tapes to study the m.o. of these creepy ideological moles still infesting our institutions and continuing the Long March, as they boast of how they pulled it off. It is also a trip down memory lane, if you ignore the commentary and draw your own conclusions about what led to what. The more senior members of our renegade crew would enjoy it, if they haven’t already acquired it. Perhaps a copy could be obtained from the library, rather than buying it? Maybe it’s on the BBC internet archives , even, but I find it difficult to dredge their sump. Recommended – and certainly reinforces your thesis, WW.

    I call on Fat Pang to earn his money and drain the swamp – unless he’s already in the pay of the Leftist puppeteers, which seems increasingly likely.

  26. Fergus Pickering

    I am sure that you are as fully informed of the reasons as you are capable.

  27. And before anyone picks up my Freudian slip tytpo, I meany ‘Hubble’ telescope. I was perchance thinking of ‘the masses’ huddled around their poverty-stricken Mega TV’s watching Big Brother, after a fortnight of ‘agitprop on steroids’.

  29. Fergus Pickering

    There is also a fine and wide-ranging collection of paintings in the Musée de Picardie in Amiens.

  33. TM’, who has nothing
    He, he who has no one
    Adores you and wants you so
    He’s just a no one, with nothing to give but oh…he loves you.
    You can go to any place you want
    A fancy club or restaurant
    But he will always watch you with
    His nose pressed up against the window pa-aaa-ane.

    (With apologies to Shirley Bassey, yon bloke wot wrote the lyrics and Lennon & Macartney)

    😉

  34. I think Tarantino is a disgusting degenerate and probably very close to the personality of the character he portrayed in ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’.

    I found Reservoir Dogs a disgusting film, not for the gratuitous violence but for the subliminal message (contained in so many of his films) where unpleasant, violent, criminal characters are heroised, even made humorous, and commit their foul deeds with impunity from or in the absence of any vestige of effective law and order. It is like the opposite of the old saying that “crime doesn’t pay” and its proliferation as a genre is not limited to Tarantino. A number of British films have followed this theme and I have no doubt that it has contributed to the prevailing thug sub-culture here where the powerfully violent are admired within gangs and groupings.

    It is concurrent with the modern debasement of the concept of hero and the devaluation of that word to describe “national treasures” like nurses and lollipop ladies, a subject beautifully explored in Baigent and Leigh’s ‘Secret Germany’ (sub-titled ‘Claus Von Stauffenberg and the Mystical Crusade Against Hitler’). Just before Stauffenberg was shot he cried out “Es lebe unser geheimes Deutschland!”, the choice of those words profound and Christian.

    But getting back to Tarantinoism, even where modern fiction has a law enforcement character as “hero” he or she is more often than not flawed, “maverick” or an anti-hero rather than a fictional hero in the classic form – such as Wilfred of Ivanhoe.

    None of this change is accidental but rather quite deliberate, as Frank so perfectly describes, all part of a cultural revolution orchestrated by some very dark forces. It is precisely because that sounds so outlandish and is so easily scorned and dismissed that it has been so successful a subversion here.

  36. Peter (15:39)

    Believe me, it’s the consensus view among real policemen; sadly, most of those are now in retirement it would appear. If they are not, they should flex their clout and start to make the sort of demands that will garner the support of the law abiding indigenes, rather than pandering to inimical newcomers, trouble makers and commie traitors.

  38. I submitted a post earlier. I suppose it must be being moderated as it has not gone up.
    Anyway, I may have been a little hasty.
    From online reports it seems I may have shot the Usain Bolt a little early.
    I have read suggestions that he would be worse off by over 200% of his winnings under the existing tax regime that he boycoted.
    Surly no government would expect someone to be WORSE OFF after arriving in this country and winning their event?
    How the world’s fastest man must wish he could pay the tax that the BBC crew commentating on his event pay; 3 to 5%.

    That takes REAL tallent.

  39. I can’t see any posts waiting to be moderated John Richardson, and I only tend to exclude the troll. Post again if you want, or consider it providential that it was not posted if you have changed your mind.

  41. Re Usain Bolt.

    Right, after some reading it’s pretty clear.

    He DID refuse to race under the existing tax regime.
    So there WAS an amnesty on the tax he should have paid.
    However, in fact he WOULD have been worse off for racing here under the current rules.
    So he WAS actually right to boycote and I DID blog in haste to criticise the poor fella.
    Just to simplify things there IS a tax exemption in every olympic host country but only for GOLD medals (that he was SURE to win as it happens as he runs so very fast).
    So thats that cleared up.

    Then again…….
    Then again we DO need his money in tax so that we can give it in ‘aid’ to India and China for their space programmes and stuff.

    However, that IS totally insane and twisted.

    So…so maybe…so maybe it would have been better NOT to exempt anyone and then have NO athletes winning ANY medals so that the madness of our tax spending could have been at least reduced by a tiny amount.

    The we could have just given ALL the money we spent on the Olympics straight to India and China for their aircraft carriers and other advanced weapons programes.
    Mr Bolt could have stayed at home and everyone would have been happy.

    Sheeesh….who’d have thought the 100m sprint could be so complex??

  42. Peter (17:42)

    Systemic, political, generational! Like Topsy, it growed … and is now endemic. As I said on the other thread – no way back! But a new way forward is required; certainly not the proposals by Nick Herbert. Fuck knows who’s advising him, but it ain’t any of the ‘real policemen’ of whom we speak. This government knows the truth but, like all governments. hasn’t the will or the desire to take decisions which may jeopardize its own elites. Short termism, careerism, and beneath it all the tramp, tramp, tramp of the Long March.

    You may think that I’m a cynic, but I’m not the only one … to paraphrase that twat Lennon (for which I immediately and unreservedly apologise, but that feckin’ tacky toon is still resounding in my head from Sunday night, may as well make you suffer, too). Had not Mark Chapman beaten me to it, I might have been tempted to do the job myself, when that ridiculous semi-religious construct was compiled on Sunday night to the accompaniment of his puerile words and mooshit. I despair not only for my country but for the ‘ooman race – which in competition with the other planetary species will never qualify for a Gold Medal in my book.

  43. Frank P:
    Hi, Frank
    I can’t get a sensible answer from today’s police. Can you understand why Tia’s body hasn’t been officially identified, and why the post mortem hasn’t been completed. Am I paranoid thinking that maybe the police are covering themselves in case a mass murderer is on the loose, and it is not Tia? (Remember the Wests)Also wont a post mortem delay affect the forensic material?

  44. I’m looking forward to Boot on Bolt. I must email him.

    Btw. I’ve got a pal with bolt-on-boots, he had a nasty spill in his jam jar and almost bought it ; it left him in dire straits (not possible to avoid Rock references at the moment, is it?); he calls ’em his ‘orthopedic daisies.’ Poor, brave sod!

  45. AWK1

    Speculation is pointless at the moment, but then when did that stop speculation? So, fwiw, I suspect that instructions from top brass, politicians, lawyers – and all those whose testicles are rotting in the WPB of Bernard H-H are leading to even more of a shambles than obtained during the search. Sex crime and/or drugs is still uppermost in my mind and I suspect that it will be some time before they get their act together. As he’s been charged and committed to the Bailey, I suspect he must have coughed. Which doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be the only one charged – eventually. As he’s charged, the press are pretty hog-tied until the evidence is presented at court. Speculation will continue until then. Perhaps the body, after a week in a loft in those temps, is unidentifiable except by DNA and that takes time.

    All the rest is a circus now and much application of the CYA Principle. Lot and lots of CYA!

  47. From The Mail on Line … The body of an Asian woman migrant was found on a beach near the coastal town of Wimereux (pictured) on Sunday evening.

    (Sorry about no quotes. Borrowed keyboard with 50% capacity.)

    Is The Mail saying all Asians look alike, so it was not possible to say where she was probably from. I mean, did she look Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Egyptian, Pakistani ….

  48. Verity, I looked at the story too. Thanks for pointing it out.

    An obvious question is how do they know that the woman is an illegal immigrant if she is unidentified? She could in fact be a French or British national. Not likely I agree, but I don’t see how the press can jump to creating a whole back story for the woman when they don’t know anything about her at all. They can’t even say she is a migrant really. And if she never made it to Britain then she is at best an ‘attempted’ illegal immigrant.

  49. Fergus Pickering

    You have no doubt rushed off to visit the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, unless restrained by what appears to be the absence of any mention of it in the British newspapers that I can find.

    Even the French press are remarkably coy in their presentation of the attraction of events there, so I have to have recourse to a bit of the inky-pinky from a commenter to an article in Le Monde:

    Cauchemar actuel 14/08/2012 – 20h47

    Tout lecteur averti sait de quels jeunes il s’agit, et ce d’autant plus que la plupart des médias sont silencieux à ce sujet. J’aimerais bien avoir, à la place de la langue de bois actuelle, un débat sans tabous sur le rôle de la religion (du moins l’interprétation qu’en font certains) sur cette culture de violence permanente qui vient en grande partie de quartiers où les musulmans sont majoritaires. A l’issue de ce débat, j’aimerais que les “élites” prennent enfin leurs responsabilités! Rêve?

    http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2012/08/14/amiens-le-gouvernement-promet-de-se-mobiliser-la-droite-accuse_1746085_3224.html

  50. “A number of parks in a town are to be declared “designated smokefree sites”. Signs will go up at entrances to 13 parks and playing fields in Blackpool, Lancashire, to warn visitors that children need protecting from smoking in open air. The initiative of NHS Blackpool, which is supported by the borough council, aims to deter smoking in parks but cannot legally enforce a ban without a specific by-law. The signs read: “Altogether Now. To protect children, this is a designated smokefree site.” Ivan Taylor, Blackpool Council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “The idea is to protect the children who are on the playgrounds. I don’t think it’s reasonable for children who are playing to be suffering from inhaling smoke and to be influenced by seeing adults also smoking. “We’ll have to wait and see what the reaction is but I think most people would welcome the reason for it. Smoking is a killer and we need to do all we can to discourage it.””

  52. Well-Wisher @ 22:36

    As Iain Gordon writes in the Daily Mail article cited by Frank P at 15:32 in a sentence which could also be applied to almost anything reported in Britain these days, “it appears to highlight a worrying breakdown in common sense”.

  53. Frank P, I read your lines last week about 9/11 and they hit a chord with me.

    So much of my everyday life has changed because of 9/11.

    I think I’m right in saying it was an epiphany for Christopher Hitchens and I know it was for Martin Amis (he wrote a book called The Second Plane, the idea being that the second plane tells you this is no one-off, not just on the day but in the wider scheme of things).

    What I don’t understand is why it not has been an epiphany for more others.

    I just do not get it.

    The UK has just surrendered. Grovelled, in fact.

    My epiphany was to dump a huge chunk of my personal politics in the two years that followed. I tried to reason where I was and where I was at and I’m neither Conservative nor Labour, since they are both so craven.

    I guess I’m somewhere on the Right but I can’t say I’m a traditionalist. I’m certainly no Royalist (Charles ‘defender of faith’ wrote the most fawning letters to Gaddafi, do read them if you ever need an emetic).

    My epiphany was to take George Bush to my heart, having hitherto thought him a clown.

    My epiphany was to have raging arguments with friends, with the kind of temperature I have never before or since engaged them with. In some cases, we have simply stopped talking politics altogether. It’s just a no-go area.

    My epiphany was to make sure I never bank or use any company with shariah links.

    My epiphany on that moment – let’s call it the second plane moment – was quite simply: I don’t know what that is, but I’m morally and intellectually against it.

    It’s true, there is little I can do, but I can educate myself as to how all this taqqya is spreading like Japanese knotweed, and make sure I’m not vicariously nurturing it by letting my assets be linked to it. I don’t see why I should be morally and intellectually hijacked by multinational corporations and Big Media into grovelling.

    Morally, I simply cannot sugar the pill to get on with former friends, buy publications I used to buy, bank with institutions I bank with and go along with the herd.

    Tellingly, I think, I am the only one of my friends who bought a copy of The Koran after 9/11. I have memorised certain passages off by heart.

    I want to understand what is going on and not to be intellectually conned when I am confronted with the daily propaganda telling me ‘it’s America’s fault, the West’s fault, it’s poverty, it’s Western decadence, it’s the Israelis’, or whatever else is on the excuse carousel today, so that’s why I memorised certain chunks.

    I am remided of that Olympic imbecile Boris Johnson, who once remarked that non-Muslims should join in with Ramadan. The American Thinker website had this phoney sussed out a long time ago:

    ‘I just saw that the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson): has recommended that non-Muslims take the opportunity of the month of Ramadan to fast, along with their Muslim neighbors, in order to promote “understanding between cultures.”

    ‘Here’s a better idea. One of my degrees is in Comparative Religion. As a result, I have read the Koran about a dozen times. (I have three copies in my library.)

    ‘Instead of fasting for Ramadan go out and buy or borrow or even look up the Koran on the Internet. Read the book. Discover for yourself if Islam is really a religion of peace. Learn for yourself if you would seriously consider converting (of your own free will) to Islam.

    ‘Enough with the pretending to be a Muslim by fasting during Ramadan … go read their book. Find out what Muslims really believe.’

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/i_have_another_idea.html

    The point about 9/11 – and the reason why I liked your poem – is that it has defined and will define all our lives for years to come. There is little we can do, but our moral and intellectual support must never be bamboozled – or worse – bought (we are not BAE Systems).

    And Boris. Your atttitude is like your Olympics: a stinking con.

  55. Clear Memories

    Well, as far as the USA is concerned

    “…their sole claim on our attention is that some of them, through an accident of geology, have acquired a lot of money. And there are people in Washington who are happy, in their desire to do well themselves, to convince the American government that it must bend over backwards in treating of Arabs and Muslims.”

    even if that means re-writing history…

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/43457

    Helen
    In the Philippines, an overwhelmingly Christian country but where organized and foreign-funded muslim bandits, (” the Moro Islamic Liberation Front”) have been engaged for decades in kidnapping, murder, and an attempt to wrest the resource-rich island of Mindanao from the republic without central government doing very much about it, the Philippine government has decreed that August 20th will be a public holiday in honour of some islamic Ramadan thing called Eid’l Fitr and on October 26th something called Eidul Adha involving goats I believe.

  58. @Clear Memories 15th, 2012 – 01:25

    Why are western politicians fawning over these scum? They hate us, abuse their own. What the hell is wrong with them?

    If Moses, when he crossed the Red Sea, had turned right instead of left the Israelites’d have had the oil and the Arabs the oranges.

  59. In the 2003/4 there was a TV comedy series called “Absolute Power” about a Public Relations firm called “Prentiss – McCabe with the partners played by Stephen Fry and John Bird respectively. The former acting the part of the sleazy, amoral Charles Prentiss to absolute perfection.

    Tag lines for the series were:
    “Spin is dead, long live PR”
    “PR means never having to say you are sorry…”
    “Morally Bankrupt, Ca$h Rich.”

    Someone (?) once said that comedy can be distilled down to basically, “three jokes and the rest is the awful truth.” This series, although funny, was so believable it was very nearly a documentary.

    Who would have thought then, that after Blair the actor, that we’d end up with real PR man as PM.

  60. Helen

    Thank you for taking the trouble to acknowledge my own puny efforts to address the evil that so many have decided to accommodate or ignore, either from fear or misguided ‘tolerance’. When the masses, whether from expediency or ignorance, endemically tolerate the intolerable; when governments implement policies to facilitate the enemy, then Dhimmitude is under way. Sadly, I cannot disagree with anything you have expressed. Stick around and let’s have more of your thoughts. It may be too late already, but let’s at least go down resisting.

  61. O(o) – are you inferring that the God of the Israelites, after parting the Red Sea, sent them off in the wrong direction? What an evil bastard.

    Dawkins must be right after all.

  63. Peter (12.21)

    You and I will be dust before they ‘return to the Land of Sand’. And just take a look at what they have purchased in the West before you take comfort from the ‘inevitable collapse’ of the House of Saud. And how many governments in the West are already in their thrall? When money talks, bullshit (including the concentrated form of it – the oppressive cults of religion) walks. “Money makes the world go around, the world go around, the world go around….. that clinking clanking sound, can make the world go ’round!”

    Btw – I set up a SO with my bank today with the detais you kindly provided; let me know when it activates – (I trust neither God nor Mammon :-)).

  64. Peter (12.21)

    You and I will be dust before they ‘return to the Land of Sand’. And just take a look at what they have purchased in the West before you take comfort from the ‘inevitable collapse’ of the House of Saud. And how many governments in the West are already in their thrall? When money talks, bullshit (including the concentrated form of it – the oppressive cults of religion) walks. “Money makes the world go around, the world go around, the world go around….. that clinking clanking sound, can make the world go ’round!”

    Btw – I set up a SO with my bank today with the details you kindly provided; let me know when it activates – (I trust neither God nor Mammon :-)).

  66. I know, I know … and before anyone else says it – it’s probably because it finds my comments indigestible!

  67. May I think those (4) who have made a contribution to the running of the site. (Frank I will check the bank later today and thanks).

    I’ll certainly never put anything behind a paywall, but I will keep reminding people that it does cost (me) a lot to keep this site active and to develop it and I don’t have a lot (any) money, so all and any help is appreciated.

    If you are a reader rather than a commenter at the moment then thank you for visiting and being an invisible part of the community here, but please also consider whether what is produced here is worth a small donation of any amount to help keep it on the net.

  68. Frank P: Frank, once again I would like your opinion. Stuart Hazell, the live-in boyfriend of the late Tia’s grandmother is an unemployed person. He has engaged, with legal aid, a top barrister, Lord Alex Carlile QC, plus a junior barrister. Is it usual for such a high profile barrister to defend such a person? Body still not formally identified, and post mortem not completed. Carlile is quoted as stating that assumptions must not be made, and no doubt facts will emerge at the hearing from family members??????

  69. Helen, I don’t think I have ever read a post that I so agree with.
    I suspect I am far from alone when I say to you that what you have written is what I think and you put it much much better than I could have.
    Your comments about friends rings painfully true.
    If I say blank uncomprehending faces would that ring a bell, we really have been dumbed down and it’s frightening .
    There is a war on, but only one side is participating .
    At the moment I am working in Norway and there is much more understanding of the reasons for the massacre here than we are being told.
    They are well aware of what caused this explosion of anger.

  70. Helen, I should also say that the second plane should be read by anyone who thinks they are well informed on this subject.
    They may be surprised.

  71. John Birch 18:26 – “There is a war on, but only one side is participating .”

    This sums up the entire international mohamman aggression/western hgihfalutin’ passivity scenario in one sentence.

  73. I have said before, and have been castigated for so saying, that islam is the enemy, as it always has been, although it never felt powerful enough to challenge the West before it had oil, and should be blasted off the earth.

    There is no reasoning with them and our leaders must cease and desist kidding themselves that there is. Their mission is to make the entire world islam … not just those willing to be converted, but the entire world, by force, if necessary, as we see daily.

    I have said before that we should sequester the oil fields and flatten the rest.

  74. Let me announce here that there are two new posts on the site.

    One is another passage from The Real Conservative Manifesto, and considers International Aid, calling for the complete withdrawal of all Aid.

    The other is an interview with Struan Stevenson, MEP, on issues relating to the Conservative Party in Scotland. I am very grateful for his prompt support which allows me to make this the first Coffee House Wall Interview.

  78. “I have said before that we should sequester the oil fields and flatten the rest”

    I think that Wahabbism will have had its day soon. There are explorations for oil taking place in Canada, the US and the Falklands. I don’t think we’re going to need them for much longer.

  82. @Dean Street 15th, 2012 – 20:20

    “There are explorations for oil taking place in Canada, the US and the Falklands.”

    I would love to hope that you’re right but…Saudi et al are fully developed fields, in geologically stable deserts, with the oil just gushing out of the ground. Costs are low. In the USA, Canada & the Falklands, when you factor in environmental concerns, crap weather (in the case of the Falklands), the cost of bringing any new discoveries on stream are going to be very high indeed. Unless the products have exceedingly desirable characteristics such as low sulphur content I can’t see them being competitive with the middle east for a very long time.

  83. I think the security of supply will become more important and will make other supplies more desirable. If such supplies attracted lower tax it might encourage bringing them into economic use.

  84. “…in Norway and there is much more understanding of the reasons for the massacre here than we are being told.”

    That’s interesting.

    “…anyone who thinks they are well informed on this subject.
    They may be surprised.”
    John birch

    By the same token, anyone who thinks that they are informed at all regarding 9/11 should search ‘cars toasted on 9/11’.
    Right at the top of the search results go to ‘Dr Judy Wood’.
    You will see the photographic evidence that, whatever you do know; there is still a vast chasm where ‘the full answer’, should reside.
    Amazing and totally mysterious. Over 1400 cars.

    An old friend is an ex-spook. He violently objects to conspiracy theories regarding 9/11.
    Last Summer I showed him the above with the agreement; ‘OK mate, if you can explain this I will never mention any 9/11 conspiracy ever again’.
    We still discuss it.

    ___________

    I didn’t know there were ‘cultural enrichment outbreaks’ across France.
    Amiens, Toulouse and Aix-en-Provence apparently.

    Is there a MS/Corporate media news blackout?

    Someone on a ‘Telegraph’ comment section sneaked the news through.
    More details at…..
    http://galliawatch.blogspot.co…
    (seems quite a hardcore site).

  85. “Using recent archaeological data, Pirenne concluded that classical civilization did not end in the fifth century, but rather in the seventh, when the fragments of the later Roman Empire were overrun by the Arab invaders. The Islamic predators terminated civilization wherever they encountered it, in whatever form it happened to take. ”

    Henri Pirenne’s History of Europe was one of my A Level History texts when studying the European Middle Ages under a great teacher, ‘Taffy’ Watts, brother of the contralto, Helen Watts. The other text for the course was A History of Europe by H.A.L Fisher and, checking Wikipedia, it must have been Volume One – Professor Wikipedia by the way quotes Fisher on Emperor Justinian that ‘he had looked into the gutter for a wife, and picked out a diamond’. I would like to re-read it and Volumes Two and Three which I never followed up. One of these days…

    I wonder what text books, if any, are used for the course now and, indeed, whether medieval European history is on the syllabus? John Richardson, can you help with some information?

    The first quotation above is taken from an article reviewing “Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a Controversy” by Emmet Scott published by The New English Review Press. The review highlights three themes derived from the latest archaeological evidence:

    1. “When the Arab armies overran the Near East and North Africa, their heedless pastoral practices destroyed the topsoil, and thus the agriculture that sustained the wealthy economies of the region.”

    2. “Islam also systematically destroyed the ideas that underlay classical learning, bringing into disrepute any corpus of knowledge that did not agree with the Koran and did not further the spread of Islam.”

    3. “Islamic piracy and predation brought sea trade in the Mediterranean to a virtual standstill. This was not only devastating to the economies of Europe, but it also halted the export of papyrus from Egypt to the rest of the region. The use of papyrus for written material was the major engine of widespread literacy in the Mediterranean.”

    “With the Muslim conquest of North Africa and Spain, a reign of terror was to commence that was to last for centuries…Thanks to Islam, the Mediterranean basin was transformed from a peaceful, literate, civilized culture into a violent, illiterate, and backward one — all in the space of a generation or so.”

    The entire article is worth reading, marking, learning; and inwardly digesting.

    http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/08/who-really-killed-pax-romana.html

  86. Ostrich (occasionally)
    August 15th, 2012 – 23:39

    Thanks for the reply – you have greater knowledge of this subject than do I, so thank you for putting me straight about that. “I can’t see them being competitive with the middle east for a very long time..” – so you do think that *eventually* we will be free of the need to buy oil from that country? How long do we have to wait?

    John Richardson
    August 16th, 2012 – 00:12

    French cultural enrichment has been benefitting the French by way of car burnings in suburbs for a very long time now. I understand that the French have created a new underclass that also includes native thugs, and you can feel the seething tension in the metro system in Paris, particularly at the rail termini.

  87. I have a French friend in Paris who is emailing me every other day to see if his business baccalaureat can be put to better use in London than Paris. “I’ve got to get out” he says. Triste. Tres, tres triste.

  88. John Richardson

    “cultural enrichment outbreaks”

    See references here to the Musée de Picardie above on August 14th triggered by Fergus Pickering’s response to my initial reference to the William Morris Museum in Walthamstow, and culminating at 22:44 citing American Thinker. I had not heard about Toulouse and Aix-en-Provence though.

    See also, as a separate matter, my question on A Level history textbooks in my previous post.

  89. Apologies; part of the previous post should read “triggered by Fergus Pickering’s response to my initial reference to the EDL’s proposed demonstration in Walthamstow on September 1st”. The Museum is mentioned in FP’s post.

  90. “I wonder what text books, if any, are used for the course now and, indeed, whether medieval European history is on the syllabus? John Richardson, can you help with some information?”

    Hello.

    Sorry, no I can’t really.

    I did teach a little History when I was in Guernsey to year ‘9’ & ’10’s. That was 1066 ‘n all that. Some ‘rise to power of the Nazi Party’.
    Otherwise, I’m a Primary Teacher and so I’m afraid the ‘A’ level syllabus isn’t my field.

    Regs.

  91. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188946/UK-Government-threat-storm-Ecuador-s-embassy-seize-WikiLeaks-boss.html

    Can it really be true that Britain is making this threat? Do they not realise the implications? The only nation I can think of that attacked an Embassy was Iran and it remains a pariah State.

    Does Hague actually plan to cede the moral high ground and endanger every western diplomat on the planet who operates in a so-called oppressive regime? Can he actually be that fucking stupid?

    Article 22 of the Vienna Convention states:

    The premises of a diplomatic mission, such as an embassy, are inviolate and must not be entered by the host country except by permission of the head of the mission. Furthermore, the host country must protect the mission from intrusion or damage. The host country must never search the premises, nor seize its documents or property.

    Is that clear enough for you and your TIU? No big words there, even your thick pointy-hatted bullies should be able to understand. Tell Plod to have a good look at the second sentence – Ecuadorians are South American, they’re nearly black! That means you have to fawn over them, make special allowances and turn a blind eye when they break the law – which they haven’t. All they’ve done is allow the world’s biggest gossip to lodge with them for protection because powerful people have been embarassed by his tittle-tattle.

    Morning for me, middle of the night for you lot. By the time you wake up and read this, you might just be living in the most unpopular Country on the planet, holding passports that mark you out as completely uncivilised with Diplomatic relations cancelled across the globe.

    Good luck with that.

  92. Clear Memories

    The Vienna Convention now has to be read in the light of The Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 and the government’s threat appears to be, from the DM article you cite, to revoke the diplomatic immunity of the Ecuadorian Embassy. I have not yet flogged my way through the Convention or the Act, but here is a Law Society on the subject published in 1988.

    http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/the-inviolability-diplomatic-and-consular-premises

    The government has no doubt taken legal advice, but in the context of the specific matter the denizens of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are once again revealed to be among the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

  93. Mal – As I understand it, even if they revoke the Embassy status, they have to guarantee safe passage for the Diplomats therein.

    Either way, this will end in tears. It is the lead story on the midday news here.

  94. Just a note to say to regulars that traffic is building up nicely. Over the last few days we have seen a 50% increase of page views which if sustained will take us to over 80,000 a month. If you are on facebook do please post links to various pages on the site that are of interest. And if you post on the MSM blogs then please consider a reference to particular pages here if they are relevant. It would be a good ambition to reach 100,000 page views each month by the end of the year.

    May I ask those who enjoy reading the material on the site, and especially as much effort and time is being taken in arranging interviews with interesting figures, that you consider making a donation to support the running costs of the site using the donate button in the right hand column.

    Thank you

  95. @Clear Memories 16th, 2012 – 03:09

    Indeed. But you do, correctly, say ‘Diplomats’. What is the status of Assange?
    A question that has occasionally been raised up here in the NH is, “How do they get Assange to the airport?” In the ‘Diplomatic Bag’? Once he leaves the embassy he is no longer on Ecuadorean territory. That is the process that we should be shining a spotlight on. As I recall it, the brouhaha over the Libyan ‘Embassy’ (I know they didn’t call it that but…whatever.) was only solved when we agreed to give unimpeded free passage to the Embassy staff for their journey to Heathrow. But that had to be specifically agreed; it did not apply automatically. Isn’t that also why Cardinal Mindszenty spent 15 years in the US Embassy in Budapest? Can Assange be granted Ecuadorean citizenship, and then accredited as an Ecuadorean diplomat? Is he then immune from arrest on the way to the airport, notwithstanding that he has committed an offence in the UK?
    Lots of possibilities here. We can play a waiting game as long as we like, but there’s no harm in just giving things an occasional prod, to see if we can provoke a resolution, even if we do not intend to escalate our action.

  96. I agree with O(o). It seems that it is only the Ecuadorean Government and our own MSM who are using the language of ‘storming the embassy’.

    It seems entirely reasonable, even in diplomatic terms, to ask that a situation like this be resolved in a reasonable timescale. If Assange is offered political asylum then I would imagine that it would be reasonable that he be allowed to stay in the embassy, or to be perhaps be given safe passage. But he cannot just stay in the embassy without Ecuador saying what status he has.

    I think we need to ask how we would want someone treated, in principle, who had managed to get to the British Embassy in Beijing and was seeking asylum. The fact that Assange is unpleasant should not determine the policy since it has universal ramifications.

    It might be better to allow Assange to go to Equador and seek his arrest whenever he tries to visit another country that has an extradition treaty with us. He would then have to decide if he wants to throw in his lot with the Equadorean people for the rest of his life.

  97. Ostrich (occasionally)

    I don’t somehow think that even if all the other hoops could be jumped through the British government would accept his credentials as a diplomat.

    The classic English solution would be for Assange to disguise himself as a cleaning lady and, with the assistance of the Ecuadorians, make his way to a small, disused RAF airport where an airplane without markings would be awaiting him.

  98. Citizen Chauvelin, Chief agent of the Committee of Public Security:

    Oh, the English, and their STUPID sense of fair play!

  99. Is it not more likely that he will walk out of the Ecuadorean Embassy during the day, with no disguise, buy a first class ticket to Ecuador and travel by a scheduled flight to Quito, while the police are busy searching for him. They will then apologise for a breakdown in the policies and processes regarding surveillance of criminal suspects and will promise that lessons have been learned for the next time someone is holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy.

  100. We pause here, in the anarchic, er, conservative, spirit of this site and in orderr to keep the standard of English here up to scratch,and because the world is too often a melancholy place, for a brief review of some collective nouns:

    a shrewdness of apes
    a bellowing of bullfinches
    a sloth of bears
    an army of caterpillars
    a chattering of choughs
    a bask of crocodiles
    a murder of crows
    a busyness of ferrets
    a charm of finches
    a skulk of foxes
    a gaggle of geese
    a siege of herons
    a bloat of hippopotami
    an exultation of larks
    a tiding of magpies
    a labour of moles
    a parliament of owls
    a congregation of plovers
    an unkindness of ravens
    a crash of rhinoceros
    a rookery of rooks (duh)
    a dopping of sheldrake*
    a pandemonium of parrots
    a fluther or smack of jellyfish
    a dout or destruction of wild cats
    a fall of woodcock
    a descent of woodpeckers
    a zeal of zebras

    * a large crested fish-eating diving duck having a slender hooked bill with serrated edges.

  103. @Peter from Maidstone 16th, 2012 – 10:51

    Oh, you ARE an old cynic. But probably dead on the money, too!

  104. @Malfleur 16th, 2012 – 10:36

    “disguise himself as a cleaning lady”

    Ok, couldn’t resist it…You mean, dress as a Diplonatic Bag?

  105. @PfM 16th, 2012 – 10:18

    “I think we need to ask how we would want someone treated, in principle, who had managed to get to the British Embassy in Beijing and was seeking asylum.”

    Precisely!

  106. PfM 10:51 – Ha ha! This would not surprise. Especially if he walked out dressed in a burka. Who would dare stop him?

  109. @Malfleur 16th, 2012 – 10:55

    “for a brief review of some collective nouns:”

    In the 1950s one that my father tried to give wings was, “A ‘wobble’ of cyclists”.
    This after watching the finish of a cycle race, when the riders lift off their saddles for the final sprint and the whole motion of the bike changes.
    The English department in school merely smiled politely and condescendingly murmured, “Yes, James.”

  110. Re Hastings allotment police:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21

    “strengthening local authorities”. Agenda 21 is beyond democracy. Did you vote for your UN delegation and the UN globalisation manifesto that will be implemented here? Funny how British governments can get busy with those but have problems considering who might be indigenous so they can duck out of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Never mind Arab Spring the most pressing need is for an English Spring.

    The cultural stuff began in 2002.

  112. They should storm the embassy and chop it off
    At least the women of the world would be rid of the threat of the lecherous bastard

  113. If Assange had any sense he’d give himself up and go to Sweden.
    US Navy Seal Team 6 would have no difficultly getting to him in, or getting him out of, Ecuador. If they did their stuff in genteel Sweden then it might cause a bit of a diplomatic hoo-hah.

  114. I posted this in the wrong blog.

    Pakistan is a country whose islamist citizens allow bear baiting. This so-called sport involves helpless bears tied and shackled in an uneven ‘fight’ with savage, especially trained fighting dogs. How I wish the poor bears could be replaced with Pakistanis.

  115. The Ecuadoran Foreign Minister is making a strong statement in resistance to the British government’s [position and in respect of Mr. Assange has just confirmed his status as a political refugee under the protection of the Ecuadoran government.

    A moment of disgrace in British history as the Brussels cabal instructs its London puppets.

  116. Fergus Pickering, August 16th, 2012 – 12:39

    “They should storm the embassy and chop it off…

    Poetic justice from Fergus!

  118. Malfleur :48 a.m. — added to the other swathes of malice and destructiveness perpetrated by the sons of the prophet, mentioned by you, let us not omit the slaving. The capturing of Africans from their families and tribes and shipping them across the Atlantic to be slaves.

    Has there ever been a nastier “religion” on planet earth than the foul practice of islam in its service of a malign god invented by perverts?

  119. @Verity 16th, 2012 – 14:10

    “let us not omit the slaving. The capturing of Africans from their families and tribes and shipping them across the Atlantic to be slaves.”

    Nor the oft-forgotten capturing of English from the coastal villages of Devon and Cornwall, to be sold into slavery in the markets of Algiers and Tunis.

  120. Yes, Well-Wisher @ 12:30, a very worrying document. The first paragraph is clearly a declaration of the direction of the Long March of Common Purpose and its fellow travellers:

    Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regards to sustainable development. It is a product of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action agenda for the UN, other multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can be executed at local, national, and global levels. The “21” in Agenda 21 refers to the 21st century. It has been affirmed and modified at subsequent UN conferences.

  121. @John Richardson 16th, 2012 – 14:05

    “Assange granted political asylum according to MSM.”

    Well, there you are. When we prodded the dozing dog, did we expect any other outcome? So if that is what we expected, it is reasonable to assume that it is what we intended. And, somewhere in the depths of the F.O, someone will be quietly rubbing his hands with satisfaction, believing that the playing field has now been tilted in our favour. Not, of course, that we drones could ever tell the difference, nor that the F.O. will ever admit as much.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9477540/Secret-diplomacy-holds-the-key-to-any-solution-of-the-Iran-crisis.html

  122. HFC – yes indeed.

    “The broadest public participation and the active involvement of the non-governmental organizations and other groups should also be encouraged.”

    Which means fake charities, quangos and lobbying groups, most of them subsidised by government and almost all of them infested by Common Purpose graduates. The “public participation” but is a joke – “leading beyond authority in a post-democratic age” – the rise of the political elite. Nice work if you can get it – pretty terrible for everyone else. Hitler and Goebbels could only have dreamed of wielding such power – the full maturity of the national socialist dream.

  123. HFC
    August 16th, 2012 – 15:29

    Western ‘democratic’ governments are all enforcing Agenda 21.
    This is probably is the most important political/economic development since the war.
    Agenda 21 will have the same impact that the UCHR had on ‘our’ law.

  124. The Foreign Office has got its knickers in a twist concerning Julian Assange. All the poor man has to do is to buy a tin of Blossom shoe polish (the old ‘N’ shade) yell “Al Achba” whenever anybody comes near him, and produce a burkah -wearing wife and at least seven children. He would then have quite a few western powers fighting to host the latest Human Rights victim. In the meantime, Cameron will make sure he has a central London mansion to live in, rent paid by the British citizens, and Yasmin-Ali-Baba will write petitions in his name.

  125. Guess what? Abu Hamza is still here. He can give Assange plenty of tips! By the way, on BBC TV News, Hague looked positively odd. Can’t see him ever accused of starting with the ladies. 🙂

  126. As the Ecuadorians have granted Assange asylum we can respect that and allow him to stay in their embassy for as long as their lease there is extant. We are not obliged in law to facilitate his passage out of our country (the same would apply to a applicant in a British Embassy overseas). If we suspect an attempt to smuggle him out we are within our legal rights to examine any package/conveyance/disguise employed. You won’t find the USA, Chinese, Russians or even Ecuadorians legally disputing that.

    The man and his organisation are masters of the Gramscian and Marcusian worldview. We must not pander to it. It’s quite hilarious that Sweden of all places doesn’t come up to scratch for Julian but Ecuador does.

    It boils down to this. The Ecuadorians are assisting Assange’s attempt to evade Swedish justice and we must decide whether we wish to side with the Alice in Wonderland crew and give priority to Ecuador over Sweden. We must disregard claims regarding future action by the USA. The Swedish assault claims look strange but his case and that of the Ecuadorians and their cheeleaders frankly stink.

    I’m sure that the likes of the UN and Transparency International would agree though I’m not sure about Amnesty, ‘Liberty’ and Fair Trials International.

  127. Has Assange ever set foot in the USA? I don’t know what is agenda is/was, but, regardless of anything else, I think that he is/has been terribly naive.

    I’m afraid that Mr Hague doesn’t inspire much confidence either.

  128. Anne Wotana Kaye 1

    “Can’t see him ever accused of starting with the ladies.”

    Anne am I being dim?

    I have no idea what you mean.

  131. Clear Memories @ 02:26 (further)

    ‘Carl Gardner, a former government lawyer, said the law [the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987] was specifically designed to stop acts of terrorism of other breaches of international law within a foreign embassy, which Ecuador was not guilty of.

    As a result, he said, Britain could be in breach of the Vienna Convention, which protects the status over embassies and diplomats, if it sought to use the law to send police into the Ecuadoran embassy. He said: “We are in uncharted territory here.” ‘ (Daily Telegraph)

    The threat made by Don Biggles’ friend to invoke the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 seems a classic case of legislation passed in haste being later used opportunistically in circumstances for which it was not intended, with consequent erosion of liberty – see for example the abuse of the Patriot Act in the USA and the searching for bombs in caucausian grannies’ knickers passim.

  132. @John Richardson 16th, 2012 – 14:05

    “Assange granted political asylum according to MSM.”

    We-ell, I was interested to see Christopher Meyer’s reading of events this evening. I bet his is far closer to the bullseye than anything else I’ve heard or read to date.

    Earlier I suggested that what started last night was akin to prodding a sleeping dog. I now realise that the Ecuadoreans had done what we all choose to do at times: kick the ball into the long grass. All we’ve since done is say, “Come on; get on with it!”. Or, as John le Carre phrased it in ‘The Russia House’, “It’s time to sh*t, or get off the pot”.

  133. ” – a classic case of legislation passed in haste being later used opportunistically in circumstances for which it was not intended, with consequent erosion of liberty”

    A depressing trend in British law enforcement from Twittering to Fisting.

  134. Well-Wisher – The depressing trend that you refer to is not confined to British law and its enforcement – it has infected both the U.S.A and Canada.

    In the U.S., the two most high profile cases where badly-conceived law has been abused by prosecutors and others in the judicial system are those of Martha Stewart and of Conrad, Lord Black. In Canada the worst abuses have been perpetrated by the quasi-courts attached to the so-called Human Rights Commissions.

    In both countries the general public seems quite unaware of how insidiously these proceedings have acquired frightening similarities to those of the Stalinist Show Trials of the Soviet era.

    Not only that. There was widespread indignation in other countries when Ayatollah Xhomeini in Iran sentenced Salman Rushdie – no matter in what country he might be – to death for writing Satanic Verses. Now we see situations where the U.S. asserts that it has jurisdiction to prosecute people in other countries and demands their extradition from other countries so that iot can put them on trial. The similarity is again rather frightening.

    As for the ludicrous charges that have been concocted in Sweden against Assange, what else can they be but the result of political correctness and mad feminism? It would not even surprise me if bribery is involved.

  135. As so many judges and politicians today are socio-pathes [a term I use for purveyors of political correctness ] extradition applications should be heard before a Grand Jury.Prima facie evidence should have to be presented that there is a case to be answered on a charge that would be a felony under English or Scottish law.This would restrict political cases from America and Swedish Harmanites.It would also stop the Poles being such a nuisance,bringing warrants for parking offences and other misdemeanous here.

  136. “Chilling” the whole population by excessive law and reckless prosecution is a socialist construct – the idea that people have to be constantly monitored, controlled and punished as though in a kindergarten class and the extension of controlling laws and regulations for all aspects of life, including personal and private life.

    “Micro-management from the centre existed alongside ‘community empowerment’ discourses on one hand and liberalisation, outsourcing pushes on the other. New Labour’s determination to ‘bring more offences to justice’, ‘fill the justice gap’ and achieve ‘speedy justice’ also meant bypassing traditional routes by using summary justice and enhancing out of court disposals. It was accompanied by the shedding (or attempts to shed) traditional criminal justice protections (e.g. double jeopardy; attempts to abolish right to trial by jury; use of hearsay evidence and of anonymous witnesses; extraordinary rendition; increased powers of arrest) Building on the populism espoused by both major parties since at least 1993 and pandering to media appetites, New Labour presided over a period of further politicisation of criminal justice.”

    See http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/opus1830/end_of_term_report.pdf

    Some soundbite headlines from the grim New Labour era, when two thirds of new laws were imposed by statutory instrument rather than parliamentary consent and yet have apparently been forgotten in the media eagerness to restore (New) Labour to power over us:-

    “Labour is dreaming up 33 new crimes a month”

    “Labour’s 3,600 new ways of making you a criminal”

    “Blair’s ‘frenzied law making’ : a new offence for every day spent in office”

    “Bad Laws: Labour has clowned around with our freedom”

    “New Labour’s 4,289 New Laws”

    “New Labour – New Fascism – New Racism”

    And we were promised what? The Great Repeal Act that never happened. The Bonfire of the Quangos that never happened. The undertaking to sweep it all away that never happened. The Liberal Democrats, probably the most unsuitably named party of all time, instead of restoring freedom and justice and self-determination to the British people have obstinately connived to keep all this monstrous New Labour oppression – the bad laws and the worse prosecution – in place. It is a disgrace and should be a matter of deep shame for any British Member of Parliament to countenance this as New Labour’s dark shadow continues to besmirch centuries of evolved justice and British judicial tradition.

  137. “The Liberal Democrats, probably the most unsuitably named party of all time…”

    And the first thing that they did when getting their hands on the levers of power was to pass yet another law effectively keeping them in office until 2015!

  138. ” – a classic case of legislation passed in haste being later used opportunistically in circumstances for which it was not intended, with consequent erosion of liberty”

    EXACTY, and everything W-W said above! Blair, aided and abetted by his mates Derry Irvine and Charlie Falconer, systematically set about dismantling Magna Carta and our historic common law rights.

    When I read through Magna Carta, awhile back, the only clause I thought that might still be operative was the one about, “not being allowed to seize the tools of a man’s trade in pursuance of a debt.”

  139. @EC 17th, 2012 – 08:42

    “not being allowed to seize the tools of a man’s trade in pursuance of a debt.”

    I bet gigolos are glad about that. Unless…

  140. George Orwell:-

    “The general weakening of the whole British morale that took place during the nineteen-thirties, was the work mostly of the left-wing intelligentsia.

    “The mentality of the left-wing intelligentsia can be studied in half a dozen weekly and monthly papers. The immediately striking thing about all these papers is their generally negative, querulous attitude, their complete lack at all times of any constructive suggestion. There is little in them except the irresponsible carping of people who live in a world of ideas and never expect to be in a position of power. Another marked characteristic is the emotional shallowness of people who live in a world of ideas and have little contact with physical reality. The really important fact about so many of the English intelligentsia is their severance from the common culture of the country.

    “In the general patriotism of the country they form a little island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. …it is their duty to snigger at every English institution.

    “All through the critical years many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British…if the fascist nations judged we were ‘decadent’ and that it was safe to plunge into war, the intellectual sabotage from the Left was partly responsible.”

    Except of course that now they are in positions of power, inflicting and imposing their barmy ideas on us all – although they still hate their own country. The most vomit inducing spectacles are of Gordon Brown and Ed Milliband trying to suppress their smouldering hate in order to jump on and exploit the patriotism bandwagon.

    All I can say to anyone that is seriously considering voting for these thinly disguised communist traitors:-

    “You’ll be sorreeeeeee!”

  141. Nigel Farage has kindly got back to me and will allow me to ask him some questions, so I will be adding his name and photo to the list of forthcoming interviews.

    I will be publishing my book, A Real Conservative Manifesto, on 31st October with the Happening Press. It is 200 pages of writing about what should be done to take the country back for conservative, patriotic principles. It will retail for £8.99 but anyone who has donated or donates £20 or more to support the running of this site will receive a copy for free on its publication.

    So donate £20 using the Paypal button and you get a book worth £8.99 with free postage sent to you in due course.

  143. Well-Wisher

    When the German army marched through the working class districts of Paris in June 1940 the citizenry welcomed them with shouts of “Comrade!”. I think this helps us today to understand the alliance with the terrorist muslims of the left, the lberals and the bien pensants in England .

  147. Sackur – I don’t like him. A typical Beeboid from the same mold as Bowen, Marr, Essler, Paxo et al. Didn’t Sackur get chucked out of Washington after he was grossly impertinent to Donald Rumsfeld?

  149. EC

    Sackur – agree; another lean-and-hungry traitor. Has some very strange friends. But then – he works for the Beeb, so that goes without saying I suppose.

  150. Ode to Fergus #6

    With intolerance like Enver Hoxha’s,
    He advocates chopping off todgers (16.08.12 12:39).
    He writes verse like McGonagall
    While sporting a monacle:
    Our language he wantonly rogers.

    FOF!

  151. Well-Wisher
    August 17th, 2012 – 10:25

    Well-Wisher, the left-wing intllectuals (ghastly term) indeed loath concerning themselves with anything that could benefit their homeland.

    The Treaty of Versaille resulted in large tracts of German soil being ceded to Poland and Russia. Later, a valiant Britain, led by Churchill fought Germany practically alone, until the treacherous Soviets were betrayed by their equally treacherous German allies, and the Soviets suddenly became allies of the West. We must not forget the eventual entry of the USA into the War and their magnificent sacrifices. So in theory, the Poles should be grateful to England, since for all their proverbial bravery and good horsemanship, the cavalry could not defend Poland. Now they flock here to he UK, grab whatever jobs are going, and any talk of “Jobs first for Britons” is crushed by the mukticultural Leftists. Money earned here is sent back to Poland, and the former USSR satellites. Polish children and other Eastern Europeans are nurtured on Family Allowances and Tax Credits, whilst there is no money in the pot to give British subjects a standard of living that isn’t on par with the Third World. Yes, the leftist intellectuals have a history of perfidity, and the old leaders are replaced by the Millibands, Cleggs and dare I say it, Vince Cable.

  153. ” the left-wing intllectuals (ghastly term)”

    Indeed. An oxymoron, is it not?

  156. Peter — Excellent … EXCELLENT … that Nigel has agreed to an interview with you. It will be one of the most stimulating interviews you will ever publish. He is one quick thinker and he keeps scoring exhilerating bullseyes.

    I can’t wait!!!!!

    And yes, UKIP belongs on our blogroll!

  157. Frank P – Thanks for the Nigel interview above. He always holds more than his own because he thinks faster than any of them. He never gets taken by surprise, and he always bests hostile interviewers.

  158. Oh dear. The poor little sensitive prude who is the moderator over at the other place has removed my morning comment from the “Hague Stands Firm On Assange” thread. Anybody would have thought that I said that the FCO was chock full of arabist poofdahs – but I didn’t.

  159. EC
    August 17th, 2012 – 17:57

    May we see it, pleeese? I don’t get them. I too have been removed, and yet, postings I consider rather ‘edgey’ they let through. Also, I do not understand how they arrange the order of postings, neither according to time received nor popularity.

  160. EC (17:57)

    Yes they removed my follow through, too, (if you’ll pardon the expression). 🙂

    Repeat it here EC – and I’ll respond again in similar (blue) vein; No better still, I’ll do it for you: I had awarded you one liner of the week and it was worth a crafted reply, so let’s repeat it and then link it back to the Speccy, just to piss off telemuchus, who undoubtedly had it removed, as is his wont.

    ” the hum of ‘fibrillating sphincters” indeed! Bwaaahahahahaha! Masterly!

    [Lest EC doesn’t remember AWK1 – in response to the caption “Hague stands firm on Assange” – a thread by Isabel Hardman (ha!) EC rather wittily remarked that he could hear the ‘hum of fibrillating sphincters’ in the arabist FO from thirty miles away’; I responded – by remarking that I could SMELL the hum: from 130 miles away. Fair enough, doncha think?]

    Do you think baldy himself tweaked Nelson’s tale? They make a laughing stock of themselves, don’t they. Now please link this back to the Speccy, if you’d be so kind Anne? Sactimonious twats!

  161. Three-line whip, you renegades: hi-tail over to Nelson’s “”Britain: the country of Mohammed” thread and kick the f*** out of him. What a Kuwaiti Tanker!

  162. Now is is flying his true colours and the Neathergate refusal becomes limpid clear. They always drop their guard eventually, these Gramciist moles.

  163. Anne over on the Spectator click on the arrow next to the word ‘discussion’ at the top of the comments a drop down will open with three choices Best, Newest, Oldest, click on newest and all will then make sense.

    Unfortunately you have to keep on doing it even though the newest will be arrowed it will not be until you do the click.

  166. Another three-line whip (maybe we shouldn’t allow them to benefit from the ‘hits’ but I just posted this Isabel Hardman’s post on the ‘Pussy Riots’. My comment won’t last long over there, so I may as well duplicate it here, now:

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2012/08/britain-the-country-of-mohammed/

    ” Frank P • a few seconds ago

    A publicity stunt – and Putin has a share in the groups earnings? And earns a few Brownie points (and votes) with the Russian Orthodox kool aid drinkers. Period of fun for the gaolers, not to mention for the pussy whores. Madonna and McShit-cart-ney jump on the bandwagon. An earner all round. where’s the downside? Oi-vey!

    Book tickets now for the Hyde Parkski concert – next year, when they get out with remission for good behaviour. Or maybe Stamford Bridge – why not? Roman will invite Jay Tee, Lampers and Ashlee ‘Old King’ Cole for an after-concert orgy. Wayne Bridge won’t be there though – or the Ferdinand bros. Or the Muzzie Bros, I guess, ‘cept in disguise – but no burkas allowed.

    TV special to follow. The New World Order.”

  167. “Three-line whip, you renegades”

    I’ve just given Fraser a Fisking.
    He really is a scoundrel.

  170. Three-line whip, you renegades: hi-tail over to Nelson’s “”Britain: the country of Mohammed” thread and kick the f*** out of him.

    It shall be done, my capitaine, it shal be done-ed. With all speed I go, farewell. Salutes badly, exits left.

  172. At least the Russians still have a sense of decency.Here we have silly Uncle Steven (Fry) and a woman (I will not attempt a description) who has adopted for her public persona the name of the second most sacred name in the Christian pantheon;and no-one condemns her for this:not even the Pope.And in Russia we have these girls—–not girls,women;for they are not silly five year old girls being naughty,they are women—–behaving in a grossly indecent manner during High Mass in a Cathedral.You do not have to know Russian politics or know the language to be disgusted at the sight (as shown on Russia Today).As Mr.Putin said ,when door-stepped,they would have got much worse treatment if they’d done it in a mosque down in The Caucasus.

  173. I need to park another duplicate post here, in response to AY on Nelson’s ‘Mo’ post, as I fear it will not last long there:

    “A perceptive and wonderfully written analysis AY. It should shame the author of this post, but I fear it will not. He [Nelson] is just being commercially provocative, [the magazine is now financed by digital footfalls you see].

    It would be comforting to think that he wrote it to plumb the depth of fury that exists within the British people against the political traitors that have betrayed our country and its heritage; would that he were so cunning, but we know from previous experience that he is shallow, fails to keep promises and has no right to be the editor of what once was a serious and conservative magazine in a country that was once populated by patriots proud of its achievements. He is a Scottish tyro with a Swedish wife who uses London to ply his trade as a journalistic whore on behalf of obermeisters – who reside offshore, along with their money. ”

    I forgot to add that his managing director is also another Scottish political hack who has butterflied around rich magnates, but who currently takes a big chunk of BBC licence-payers fees to run part of their agitprop arm. But then probably ‘AY’ knows that. [Hope it’s not Alan Yentob taking the piss – if it is, nice one Alan, you got me there!]

  174. And if that hasn’t taught Peter a lesson for taking a break in Scotland, then I’m not sure what will. 🙂

  175. btw, Peter, can you keep the Current Wall at the top of the page, mate, rather than that interview with that obscure Scottish chappy, pretty please? The sight of a grinning Jock at the top every time we log in is a bit unnerving. He looks like a cross between unfunny Ricky Gervaise and the inebriate Charlie Kennedy. If it was Nigel Farage, it would be some comfort – he’s fairly photogenic and has some bright ideas for getting us out of Yurrop, unlike your wee jockie, above. He just wants to keep his seat, one feels; Nige is trying to get rid of his – there’s cojones for ya!

    I know which I prefer, but then each too his own, I suppose.

    Just sayin’.

  177. Frank P, August 18th, 2012 – 00:14

    “I need to park another duplicate post here, in response to AY on Nelson’s ‘Mo’ post, as I fear it will not last long there”

    Indeed it didn’t last long, and neather did “AY” s comment- so perhaps it was Yentob after all 🙂

    The squeaky boys in short trews that Fraser employs as moderators at the other place are real zealots. Brillo should recognise their efforts by way of an “intern of the month” award. A few cheap paper “Held der Arbeit” certificates should keep ’em happy.

    I was determined to have another go on the “Hague Stands Firm on Assange” thread. (bbout 6pm) ALL I did was to suggest that they added the caption “I’m Free” to the photo of Assange, because the photo they used (check it out) bore an uncanny resemblance to the character of “Mr Humphries” from the TV series “Are You Being Served.”

    That comment lasted about 5 minutes! From their apparent sensitivity to such matters I can only conclude that the moderators there are, expressed in leftist/gliberal speak, a bunch of “homophobes” (sic).

  178. the caption “I’m Free” to the photo of Assange, because the photo they used (check it out) bore an uncanny resemblance to the character of “Mr Humphries”

    You’re right, it does. 🙂

  180. Radford NG, August 18th, 2012 – 11:03

    Thanks. The latest incarnation of The Spectatesman blogging software is absolutely terrible.

  184. I should certainly like to see a Starkey interview – more so than Redwood – as long as he keeps it cool and doesn’t go off on one. I should be especially interested in why he might think (from a historical societal perspective) the right – the true conservative right – seem utterly incapable of articulating an alternative narrative to the left which is not immediately marginalised by grotesquely caricaturing it as “far right” and its adherents as Nazi fancy-dress wearing loons. Also, why he thinks the conservative right is so fractured (and therefore ineffective) when compared to the tribal, obstinately demanding, bloc-like stance of the left in Britain. Is it the relentlessly narrow messaging of the BBC and Guardian? If so, why is the blatancy of the former so tolerated? Do the basic tenets of conservatism undermine it in an era of propaganda?

  187. Peter

    It would be a coup if you get Starkey; I doubt he does ‘amateur’ work, but you never know. He might enjoy the support here, rather than the howls of derision that follow his QT appearances (which he does for comparatively nowt, no doubt. He never uses his ‘orientation’ for politics either, just the opposite, in fact, so bring it on, if you can.

    Well-Wisher has already kick started the conversation with excellent suggestion, with which I heartily concur.

    Thanks very much for concurring with my suggestion about the positioning of the Wall – much appreciated – and I was only jesting about the Rick G/Charlie K doppelganger as I’m sure you realised.

    I’m not sure what the thinking is behind the layout of the New Speccy comments arrangements. No rhyme or reason: very off-putting. But then we knew that didn’t we? It’s why we’re here.

  188. Malfleur

    Thanks for the h/t on the ‘Gates of Vienna’ link about the Muslim gang. Powerful stuff and good intel.

    I’v just been deliovered of a nice cup of coffee, so I’ll read David Starkey’s piece in the DM now; thanks. Keep the plates spinning.

  190. I don’t have an email for Dr Starkey, but I have an address, so I will write him a brief letter from my Scottish retreat. At worse he says no. He might answer some questions. At best he will allow me to interview him in person.

    Something must be done – that is my motto. What is that in Latin I wonder.

    Aliquid faciendum!

  191. Malfleur (13:30)

    Excellent essay by Starkey; a must read for everybody who still cares about the English folks and the British nation.

  193. Parking another one from the Speccy – just in case:

    “Police commissioners: how a flagship policy could embarrass ministers”
    2 Comments Is

    Frank P • a few seconds ago

    •

    Drop the whole fiasco; it is scandalous, stupid and destructive to public tranquility and the morale of the police, which is at at the lowest point of my long lifetime. Another batch of Trjojan Horses, which will be used by The Left and Islamic Jihad to infiltrate the job and destroy the Job from within. What is Lord ‘Long John’ Stevens; Paul Condon, etc. etc. with their arses on the red benches, doing to advise these idiots? WTF is going on? Has there been a complete surrender at the Yard? I know a few who were instrumental in your success who must be haunting you from the grave in your dreams. Listen to what they are saying, FFS! Get a grip, before it’s too late! You lot have really betrayed all the work we did in the 70s and 80s to ameliorate the force and improve the service. Many of us put our jacksies on the line to enable you to reap the benefits. Why have you leached that success – by submitting to political connivance and political correctness? Herbert is a prat, obviously. Sack him!

  194. Radford NG
    August 17th, 2012 – 21:49
    “…………. a woman (I will not attempt a description) who has adopted for her public persona the name of the second most sacred name in the Christian pantheon;and no-one condemns her for this”

    Why should they condemn her? It’s her real name, and her parents obviously thought it suitable.

  195. Starkey Brilliant
    They let Oscar Wilde keep publishing
    You all need to kick the shit out of Hague and let Assange over here
    We need a piece of him

  197. Frank P — I cannot think that the destruction of The Speccie is anything but deliberate. Anyone who thought the writers and format were attractive to an intelligent, politically interested audience would have to be insane, and the Barclay brothers are clearly clever and long-term thinkers. Hiring Fraser to edit this formerly witty, glistening, intelligent publication was deliberate.

  199. Where’s Anne btw – she must be in the Dolly Varden? Can’t say I blame her; my outside thermometer talks of 85f still (6pm), though. “It ain’t arf ‘ot Ma’am.”

  201. Frank P
    August 18th, 2012 – 18:05

    Watcha, me old China. Nice to know somebody misssed me. Yes I was in the Dolly Varden, a big one, Kew Gardens to be exact. Honestly, I’ve been in the tropics, but the heat here in London on a non-air conditioned bus is a terrible thing to bear. I’m now catching up on the postings, and David Starkey is one of my heroes. I hope Peter adds him to a great list, and I hope too Peter enjoys his Scottish break.

  203. It’s only around 60F where I am in Mexico and it’s early afternoon. Even colder first thing this morning.

  205. “Its only 20 degrees here in Scotland, and 31 back in Maidstone”

    Peter what is that in English?

    We the English must not pander to the metric monsters.

  207. No, P from M. It’s cold. People are wearing sweaters and jackets in the middle of August. It gets a bit warmer towards the end of the afternoon. But I haven’t been this cold in Mexico before.

  208. “It’s 68 and 88 in Fahrenheit. Although to be fair that isn’t exactly a traditional English surname either!”

    Peter, if you’d like something absolutely British then why not use the Kelvin scale. Scotland would be a balmy 293K and Maidstone would be roasting 304K. Meanwhile Verity would be 289K – in a poncho? (or is that just Clint?)

    Consider yourself lucky with the Scottish weather. I’ve spent many a summer’s day when it has been 11C !

  210. Re: Frasier Nelson’s recent posts at the other place.
    (eg. “Mo” and “Ed Miliband, Olympic Winner etc.)

    Desperate stuff. His copy sources have obviously dried up because the propaganda goons at Westminster are on holiday. I think that these are desperate attempts at provocative wind ups in order to get his Coffeehouse “hit count” up. As I just said, why have a dog and bark yourself? Rod Liddle does that sort of stuff far, far better than him!

  211. Peter from Maidstone

    I have difficulty multiplying anything by 10, let alone 1.8.

    I would suggest asking Tommy Robinson for an interview to be posted here as a way of bringing him further into the mainstream, except I am not sure if we are mainstream….

  212. “We do not wish to be a part of the Norwegian society. Nor do we see it not as a necessity to move away from Norway as we were born and raised here. And Allah’s earth belongs to everyone. But give us Grønland. Block off the neighborhood and let us control it the way we see fit. This is the best solution for both parties. We do not wish to live alongside filthy beasts such as you.”

    http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/08/calling-for-sharia-state-in-grnland-and.html#more

    Another twin for Walthamstow?

  215. Malfleur 2258

    Don’t know about you but this type of brazen talk by these critters makes me sick. Don’t these bed wetting lefties see the logical extension of allowing this volume of excrement into our heartlands?

    Geez, it must really be pathetic to enjoy biting pillows…

  216. @PfM 18th, 2012 – 18:22

    “and got wetter as we went North.”

    Aye, it was pretty mankie up here yesterday, on and off. You could’a popped in for a cuppa when you came past!

  217. @EC 18th, 2012 – 22:12

    “His copy sources have obviously dried up because the propaganda goons at Westminster are on holiday.”

    Aye, it’s not for nothing that they call it the silly season. Better watch we don’t get tarred with the same brush, on the backswing, as it were.

  218. For those who drive regularly in the United States (a wonderful experience that will remain with me to the grave – Route One and 17 Mile Drive in Monterey (Steinbeck Country) in particular – and make sure you have lunch at Pebble Beach Club House, while you are at it – Gerard’s post on modern signage is, as he would say, “something wonderful”.

    http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/driveby/signage_how_do_you_really.php

    Can someone jig up an equivalent of our British ‘planners’. The Olympic fuck-up would be a good start, if I may say so, without being thought unpatriotic. As someone who can now drive from my adobe hacienda and continue for forty miles quite often without the benefit of a sign – or another human being outside grockle season – I wish I could afford the petrol to do it more often.

    Obviously Gerard hasn’t been to the UK recently. Can’t say I blame him. I wonder what he’d think of paying about ten about bucks a gallon for his ‘gas’. He’d probably start another cultural revolution – apostate or no!

  219. Malfleur 23:03 — You’d give them an air ticket? Why? What’s wrong with a boat and oars and someone sitting in the prow or whatever it’s called with a machine gun.

  221. EC
    August 14th, 2012 – 08:37

    POETRY, n.
    A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.

    Ambrose Bierce
    The Devil’s Dictionary
    (1911; copyright expired.)

    As you know – he’s one of my heroes. Pity, like him, most of the others are all dead.

    Ogden Nash lingers on. too. I must dig him out again. He didn’t like the English much, though. But I must confess he did have some of us nailed. I liked Anthony Burgess’s appreciation of him in “Candy is Dandy”, an anthology of his works edited by his daughter. I must dig it out sometime. My library is a muddle these days; it’s so easy dredging stuff from the intertubes, one tends to leave the books lying around. I hope nobody has ‘borrowed’ it. But if they have , let’s hope they enjoyed it. The poem I was talking of, about the ‘English’, goes thus, if I remember correctly:

    Let us pause to consider the English
    Who when they pause to consider themselves
    They get all reticently thrilled and tinglish…

    When foreigners ponder world affairs,
    why sometimes by doubt they are smitten,
    But Englishmen know instinctively that
    what the world needs most
    Is whatever is best for Great Britain.”

    Cruel, but true. God alone knows what he would have said about the London Olympic shagfest. As a Yankophile, I’m prepared to admit that some of the brighter Septics have us taped. And they are themselves, of course, among many other things, the most hospitable and generous people on earth, so I forgive him. (Down Nicholas – I can hear your heavy breathing from here. But I did warn you). Don’t tell Fergus Pecker-in, though, or he’ll be parodying him and spoiling the medium.

    Nash wasn’t keen on the Nips, either:

    Ogden Nash

    The Japanese (1938)

    How courteous is the Japanese;
    He always says, “Excuse it, please.”
    He climbs into his neighbor’s garden,
    And smiles, and says, “I beg your pardon”;
    He bows and grins a friendly grin,
    And calls his hungry family in;
    He grins, and bows a friendly bow;
    “So sorry, this my garden now.”

    And that was before Pearl Harbor. Pity he’s not around to address Islam. Now there’s a challenge:

    A poem on Islam in the Nash idiom? How ’bout it, you budding poets? A Nobbled Prize for poetry to the winner. I’m looking forward to Andy Car Park’s effort. I know ACP … WPGTDWI? Now I really MUST turn in, the men in white coats are outside – again. Nurse!!

  222. Behave yourself V. you’ll get us all nicked! 🙂 And you Redneck. You’re not obliged to say anything …. etc. etc. and etcetera. Bugger, I’ve forgotten the mantra! Get in the feckin’ van!

  225. Malfleur @ 1.59.

    I did like the photos comparing the litter between the UNITE nazis spot and that of the EDL. Reminds me of Walthamstow on an average Sunday morning although I guess UNITE etc stopped short of strewing the place with half eaten burgers, kebabs, puke, and dislodged/torched litter bins.

  226. Frank P

    Ogden Nash Competition

    Following the death of Ogden Nash in May 1971, the following unpublished poem was found among his papers and by happy chance is on the very subject set by you for this competition. It was considered too sensitive to publish and it has only been through a private leak that it has come into my possession and in the interests of scholarship i have decided to print it below. Whether Nash, or more properly his estate, is able to participate in your competition is a matter for you to decide.

    The poem, which was written on a piece of toilet paper, in biro, was not easy to decipher, but appears to read as follows:

    Islam means submission
    And adopting that position
    You can force others
    To deflower your brothers.

    You are only thought noxious
    If not orthodoxious;
    And orthodoxy
    Is what you will it to be.

    So bums in the air;
    All ready for prayer.
    As Allah gets ready to stick – – –

    The last three syllables (as calculated by reference to the scansion) are missing from the torn manuscript. and literary scholars have been hotly disputing the possible permutations since the 1970s.

  227. “it to kneelers in the masjid “.

    Doesn’t scan, doesn’t rhyme, but no one else was having a go.

  230. Frank P: “And they are themselves, of course, among many other things, the most hospitable and generous people on earth”

    Agreed, Frank. They are also very bright, and quick to come back, although the Brits would have you believe that they are thick and stupid, which they aren’t.

  231. Frank P re. US road signs: Frank P, that’s sad. The US road sign system is iconic design, like Harry Beck’s tube map and typeface. Did you know that they’ve ripped up all the old “Don’t Walk” and “Walk” pedestrian crossing signs in New York? They’ve been replaced by green and red “men” now, like in Western Europe.

  232. Verity
    August 19th, 2012 – 17
    Thanks, Verity,
    I tried, but it’s so hot here that I feel like the proverbial “young man from Calcutta”. I dare not post it, so maybe if you ask nicely one of the gentlemen here will oblige. 🙂

  233. I see the far right islamic terrorist organization, Hezbollah, marched through the streets of London and demonstrated outside the American Embassy last week where it was addressed by its ally from the far left, Jeremy Corbyn MP. As I mentioned earlier, when German troops marched into Paris in 1940 they were hailed with shouts of “Comrades!” as hey passed through the communist-dominated working class districts of the French capital.This time Corbyn shouts “Comrades!” to islamic murderers who would like to occupy our capital. Plus ça change!

    http://cifwatch.com/2012/08/18/richard-milletts-al-quds-day-report-hezbollah-marches-through-london-again/

    The left love the islamic terrorists because it equates terrorism with revolutionary spirit. Did the Labour Party oppose these hard right islamic thugs? – “no, because they’re our thugs – we have a pact” they might say, if asked.

  234. Silent Witness is interesting. It’s on now. It is a 2 parter about a gang of Pakistani Muslims who are using white girls for sex. It was postponed from earlier in the year when the real and similar case of a Pakistani Muslim gang was going through court.

  235. The Assange Fiasco

    “Experts and ex-diplomats say Britain’s Foreign Office, which warned Ecuador of a little known law that would allow it to side-step usual diplomatic protocols, messed up by issuing a threat it couldn’t back up.

    “It was a big mistake,” said former British ambassador Oliver Miles. “It puts the British government in the position of asking for something illegitimate.” ”

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/18/uk-threat-ecuador-regarding-assange-experts-see-mi/

    To William ‘your country doesn’t need you’ Hague and the Camel Corps, and paraphrasing Talleyrand, from whom you could all learn a thing or two, it was worse than illegitimate; it was a blunder.

  236. Peter from Maidstone
    August 19th, 2012 – 21:20

    “Silent Witness is interesting. It’s on now. It is a 2 parter about a gang of Pakistani Muslims who are using white girls for sex. It was postponed from earlier in the year when the real and similar case of a Pakistani Muslim gang was going through court.”

    And yet it veers from the truth; non of the Muslims prosecuted were in any way handsome or atractive but in the program some are and in Silent Witness all of the girls were well dressed middleclass schoolgirls but in reality all were poor girls from the very bottom of society in dire need.

    One small point it was not one Pakistani Muslim gang but many, there have been at least a dozen similar cases.

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