Michael Howard and tax freedom day

Now this is worth sharing far and wide:

In his first party political broadcast since taking over as party chief, Mr Howard said the day of the year when people stop working for the taxman and start working for themselves should be marked by a public holiday.

When Labour came to power in 1997, Tax Freedom Day fell on May 27. But after 60 Labour tax rises introduced by Chancellor Gordon Brown, it fell on June 2 this year, and will not arrive until June 9 in 2005. That means two weeks' money, that used to belong to the people earning it, is now swallowed by the state.

A plan which will certainly help counter the stealth taxation weapon. Throw in a holiday on St. George's day too for added goodness.

Look, his pants are on fire. What did you expect?

When you run a competition that aims to find the worlds biggest liar you can't accuse the winner of cheating and expect any sympathy. You only have yourself to blame. The competition took place at the Bridge Inn and no doubt there was much in the way of liquid refreshment available but that does not excuse this kind of behaviour:

Spectators at the World's Biggest Liar contest abused the winner for "not being Cumbrian", despite it being open to competitors from all over the world.

By the way, the winner of the competition is also King of the Wasdale Valley.

Well, goodbye then

Zimbabwe 'president' Robert Mugabe is threatening to take Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth. Well, goodbye then. I'm sure Zimbabwe will re-apply and be welcome back with open arms after you're gone.

You can still get a six shooter

Mr Free Market is not best pleased with Hamleys, a large toy store, because he experienced problems finding a toy six shooter there. I feel your pain but I have the solution! John Lewis do them (or at least they did a little while ago), and very nice they are too.

In fact only recently I returned to the shop with my boy who was wearing the very same six shooter we bought for him there. Yes, you heard right, he was wearing it, in a holster, in public and in broad daylight.

We walked under many a security camera too and nothing happened.

John Lewis is the store you want. Yip, sure is.

Shooter for sale

It's this kind of thing that's 'fueling gun crime' in Britain.

It's all going pear shaped

A few years ago I felt something was wrong. It seemed to me that things in England weren't quite the way they should be and it frustrated me. Frustrated me because I couldn't really put my finger on what it was and because none of the people that I socialised with felt it to the same degree that I did.

England seemed to be loosing sight of the meaning of justice and what caring really meant and in its place came a kind of legislative care. The state would tell us what was right and wrong, who was good and bad, who was permitted to punish wickedness and who was not.

This was bad enough for me because I have always been comfortable with my view of good and bad, right and wrong. My own good sense had always served me well in the past and it seemed to be a mainstream kind of sense where goodness was rewarded and wickedness punished.

And then it changed. I don't know when it happened but I started hearing news about how this person was arrested for resisting a burglary, or that person was in court because they had restrained a school bully or some such.

It seemed to me that interpretation of the law (and there was more and more of it with each passing year) and the meaning of justice had passed their closest point and had started on a new route onwards to some kind of apogee where being wicked or being good is not the point. I hated it, but I seemed to be the only one who felt it so acutely.

Of course I was not the only one and the Internet, and more specifically blogging, has shown me that there are many more who feel the same way.

Peter Cuthbertson is one of them and his moving article about 77 year-old Bill Clifford, a good man who took his own life because he could no longer take what life in England was offering him, articulates my feelings perfectly:

What an outrage against the most elementary principles of justice such cases are. What a signal they are of the sick liberal cancer at the heart of British society.

Go and read it. Decide if you agree with his sentiments. If you do not you are not welcome here. The England Project can do without you.

Operation Secret Turkey

I'm not sure I believe this. It says Bush flew to Baghdad today in secret to have dinner with some United States officials and a group of American troops:

Mr. Bush sneaked out of Crawford on Wednesday in an unmarked car, then flew to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where a few advisers and a small number of reporters sworn to secrecy joined him. They then flew on to Baghdad International Airport, arriving around dusk.

It's like in the films.

Fool me once, shame on me

Dear Mr. Obasanjo,

Thank you for kindly offering to clear up all the Nigerian fraudsters that have been plaguing us in recent times. I would like to offer you my help in progressing this worthwhile cause.

I wonder if, as a sign of good faith and provenance, you could send me a photograph of yourself perhaps in your government residence or chairing a government meeting or some such.

I know it seems churlish to make such a request but we've had bad experiences dealing with Nigerians in the past.

Faithfully,

Howard bites

After the Queen's speech Michael Howard had a few words to say to the prime minister. Quite a few as it turns out and some of it nasty:

"Real prime ministers lead their chancellors, you follow yours," he told Mr Blair.

"You may strut your stuff on the world stage, but when it comes to domestic policy, never in recent history has a prime minister been so weak, so feeble, so utterly unable to do what he wants - and all this with a huge majority in this House.

"How utterly humiliating for you, and how very damaging for our country - outmanoeuvred by a politically obsessed chancellor."

That's got to hurt.

The drinks are on you

Londoners, just go and read how the mayor of London pays for his political band standing:

How much did the reception cost and who paid for it?
'It was a few thousand.'

How many thousand?
'A few.'

Who paid this few thousand?
'It came from the Project Development Budget.'

Who finances the Project Development Budget?
'The Greater London Authority.'

Who finances the Greater London Authority?
'Well, you know the answer to that.'

Think about that next time your council tax bill comes through.

Downsize fad hits blog world

Oh no, diamond geezer has gone tabloid. Still, it saves all that folding of the screen and the glass splinters.

He says there will be no dumbing down but I could have sworn that his URL use to be hydrocarbonboy.blogspot.com.

The fools don't know what they are dealing with

This is a mistake:

The European Union has chosen France as its preferred location for a nuclear reactor that scientists hope will revolutionise world power production.

The last thing we need is a strike at an experimental nuclear reactor plant.

The Queen's Speech

The Queen's speech is notable for what it did not include:

The lack of a commitment to a hunting bill will anger some Labour backbenchers after the Lords blocked attempts to ban hunting with dogs earlier this year.

Angry Labour backbenchers? Excellent. Perhaps when they have calmed down a little they will turn their attention to more important things.

The rain! The rain!

The England Project could not really call itself English without some discussion of the weather of which we have had quite a bit recently.

Last weekend it drizzled for two days solid, without let up as far as I could tell. It was a sign of things to come and yesterday we were not let down as the heavens opened up dumping all the cats and dogs it could muster onto us with a few other assorted mammals thrown in for good measure.

The journey home from work was a difficult one, which culminated in a near stall as I drove my car at speed through a rather deep and well hidden (read right in front of my eyes) puddle. “Not as bad as the Great Storm of October 1987” I thought as I hit the revs, beating the stall (are Japanese cars supposed to make that squealing sound?).

Ah yes, the Great Storm of ’87. We lost a chimney in that one. It was nothing, however, compared to The Great Storm of 1703:

We know a lot about the 1703 storm because one man went out of his way to record the experiences of ordinary people across the country. That man was Daniel Defoe, later the author of Robinson Crusoe, and a fine reporter/journalist to boot. He tells how windmills across East Anglia spun so fast that friction ignited the timbers and many just burnt to the ground.

Long live the commonwealth

The commonwealth shows how things should be done:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has not been invited to the Commonwealth summit meeting, to be held in Nigeria.

"He will not have an invitation," said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who hosts the summit next month.

Much better than all that disgraceful handshaking.

Quote of the day

And to lighten the mood, a few quotes on the subject of alchohol:

I'm not as thrunk as drinkle peep I am - unknown

I've never been drunk, but often I've been overserved - unknown

Only Irish Coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat - unknown

No, not yet

Andrew Sullivan thinks that:

Now is surely the time to bring Turkey into the EU and to reassure them of our solidarity.

First things first, there's still the little problem of a divided Cyprus to sort out before this can happen.

What the Turks did to Cyprus and to the unfortunate Cypriot families caught up in their invasion cannot be forgiven just because they have been subjected to terror in their own country. Letting them into the EU without resolving the Cyprus problem will be a disgraceful slap in the face for the Cypriots. It cannot be allowed to happen.

To the core

On pompous French twits

There's a fine posting over at the Edge of England's Sword about Britain's choice of world partner which you should read in full. In it a senior French official is quoted as saying:

"the British must choose. Either they are with us, united in Europe, where they should be, or they are destined to become united with America, something like an American state."

I'm a gut feeling kind of guy and my first reaction to this was anger. It's hard to describe why but perhaps it has something to do with the imagery that went through my mind when I read it. A pompous French twit telling the British where they should be. Worse than that, this pompous French twit is an 'official' so now the pomposity comes from officialdom. That's where the anger starts. Just there, on simmer.

Then there's the wrong headedness of it. Sure we are part of Europe physically but that's not what the pompous French twit was on about and we all know it. He means part of the team, happy in European togetherness, bound by a French document and diluted in a German/French broth that promises little in the way of meaty chunkiness. And we should do this because a foreign official, nay a whole legion of foreign officials (let's call them chefs or cooks if you will), think that's where the British 'should be'. I think the anger is close to boiling at this point.

So what if we don't want to become united? Well the French official is kind enough to give us another option. We can become something like an American state. Right there; that's it. Boiling point.

Much as I love and respect America Britain does not have to become 'like an American state' (though it is by far the most attractive of the choices kindly offered to us). We can, for want of a better phrase, remain utterly and happily British. Distanced from our American friends by the Atlantic, and isolated from our French neighbours by cultural, ethical and historical differences.

Pompous French twits would do well to remember that their sphere of influence becomes smaller each time they open their mouths.

Dance yourself thin

Finally, an exercise regime that's fun to watch:

Emerging invigorated from a pole session, Birte Fehse said: "Everyone should do poledancing - every girl should do poledancing."

I've been saying something similar for years.

New labour, old problems

This kind of thing seems to be part of the British landscape again:

Hundreds of council workers are staging the latest in a series of selective strikes in London over pay.

It's like olden times. I'm going out to buy some candles for when the power cuts come.

A condemnation but....

Denis MacShane thinks that UK Muslim leaders need to condemn terrorist attacks more clearly and with stronger language. This has provoked anger among senior Muslims who branded his suggestion as "disgraceful".

So, into the situation steps Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, offering us this condemnation of the terrorists:

"The Muslim community has consistently condemned terrorism and we condemn this latest attack on the British consulate and HSBC in Turkey."

I would hardly call that strong language but each to his own I suppose. Then we get:

"The attacks only emphasise that the disastrous war in Iraq has not reduced the risk of terrorism, as our own governments had us believe beforehand, but has exacerbated it.

We do not need lectures from a representative of a government that has conducted an unlawful war against Iraq"

And there we have exactly the kind of thing Denis MacShane is on about I guess. A dry condemnation with the passion saved up for the 'but'.

Army regiments to be disbanded?

This BBC report suggests that ten army regiments are facing the axe. It's unconfirmed but when you have a defence secretary who has previously gone on the record with

"measuring the capability of our armed forces by the number of units will no longer be significant"

there is certainly room for speculation.

The liberation of Iraq has shown us that technology and sufficient troop numbers are both important and a reduction in either will be extremely hard to justify especially in the current world situation.

Her army and her navy
Britain shall cast aside;
Soldiers and ships are costly things,
Defence an empty pride.

What is Chirac on?

And here is an alternative take on the England Australia match:

England's rugby champions have won effusive praise from Jacques Chirac, who said their defeat of Australia was "a victory for Europe."

It's always Europe, Europe, Europe with him.

From a neighbour last night: Winning the world cup was good for England. Trafalgar was good for Europe.

My nails, my nails, they suffer so

Australia 17 - England 20.

In summary the Australians were not backward in coming forward when it came to picking up the scraps thrown to them by the English who were in charge for most of the game.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Civil war

In a crystallising post over at One Hand Clapping Donald Sensing suggests that the current terror war is actually a Muslim civil war. It's the al Qaeda view of Islam versus the more moderate and, let's face it, peace compatible view of Islam.

...the Muslim world is faced with defining what Islam really is. If al Qaeda is not in fact the keeper of the true faith, then the rest of the Muslims must unite to destroy al Qaeda just to ensure the survival of Islam itself. They need to understand that the present crisis is not primarily that of Islamists against the West, it is the Islamists against everybody who does not toe their line.

My emphasis.

It seems that the key to this war on terror is to persuade the moderates that this is actually the case, though I suspect that further atrocities in Islamic countries will leave little doubt. However, recognising a position and actually admitting to it are very different things and I think we have a long period of denial ahead of us.

Much hotness

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the past couple of days. I've been unwell. To make up for it here's an absolutely superb photograph from the Rugby world cup:

Sorry, image deleted due to too much hot linking - leeching my bandwidth away.

La la la Livingstone

Did Ken Livingstone really think no one would notice his inability to accept reality? His astonishingly wrong headed verbal ejection has not brought him the kind of help he so obviously needs but, instead, has resulted in a freezing over of an already chilly relationship with the Labour party:

A deal to return Ken Livingstone to the Labour Party was dramatically postponed today amid fury over his attacks on George Bush.

The Mayor's response to the US President's state visit to Britain sparked a ferocious backlash at senior levels in the party.

A lucky escape for the Labour party.

And almost making today's quote of the day:

Mr Kinnock's office said he would not say anything in public but pointed out he was on record as saying that "only the Livingstone Party ever has or ever will command Ken's real loyalty".

Lean times

It's difficult to get a word in edgeways at the moment. The left seems to be exploding all by itself.

Sublime

The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. - Frederick Forsyth

From an open letter to the visiting presedent of the United States of America, George Bush.

Fair play old chap

Did you know that Cleopatra’s Needle was a gift from the Egyptians to the British after Nelson defeated the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798? We keep it in London, on the banks of the Thames. A hard won trophy, I think you’d agree.

Did you also know that the Americans have one? Yes, a needle of their own given to them by the Egyptians in 1881 in the hope of stimulating economic investment in Egypt. They keep it in Central Park, New York.

It hardly seems fair, you know, that we have to sink a fleet to get one whereas all the Americans have to do is buy some Egyptian products or some such to get theirs.

I think a little more US aggression towards the French is in order. Fair play demands it.

Quote of the day

I don't know who said this:

When subjected to extreme feminine heat and pressure, male hydrocarbons will often produce a diamond.

All Party? I don't think so

Here is the report Combating the threat of gun violence from the 'All Party Parliamentary Group on Gun Crime' (PDF).

Apparently the one party absent was any major group representing supporters of private gun ownership in the UK (Airgun Training and Education Organisation is by no means a major or representative enough group). It's not surprising that the report reads like an anti-gun manifesto.

And if we turn to the back page we see:

Published by Saferworld, Secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group in association with the Gun Control Network

Well, no surprise there then.

(PS. The Chair of the group is notably Diane Abbott MP who, as we know, has been a bit loose with her principles in recent times.)

Trust and ID cards

Peter Hitchens wants you to get angry now:

We will become just like other countries where arrogant power will not let us walk down the street without poking its nose into our affairs. When this happens, England will cease to be England for ever and it will be far too late to be angry.

So please, get angry now.

I'm way ahead of you on this one Peter but as you note here:

Hence the dispiriting parrot-like squawk of 'If you haven't done anything wrong, or have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear', which comes from those who are happy to be tagged and docketed and scanned by the authorities

it does seem that many are quite happy with the idea of carrying an ID card around and, presumably, would think nothing of handing it over for inspection for no other reason than they have been asked to produce it.

It's fundamentally a question of trust, I guess, and a great many people's default position is to trust government and to trust that it will always have their interests at heart.

The way to win is to persuade those that have always trusted government that things can take a turn for the worst and that very bad people with evil ideas can get into positions of power. This is extraordinarily difficult to do with the current track record of British government at home throughout recent history.

Unless you have been unfortunate enough to have been a member of one of the minorities that the government has disenfranchised you will not really have a basis on which to mistrust them. You will buy the idea of ID cards and even welcome them with open arms.

You don't say

An 'expert' believes that a ban on hunting with dogs could lead to a serious breakdown in relations between police and rural communities. Well, what do you expect when 40,000 people sign a declaration saying they will deliberately break a law banning hunting before the law is even passed.

I'm sorry, did I say 40,000? That can't be right, the population of a good sized town saying up front that they are willing to break a future law? Ridiculous. Something must be done.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has made it clear it will enforce any ban passed by Parliament.

Indeed, like they enforce the ban on burglaries and muggings. Or better because, you know, at least the hunters have the courtesy to wear a distinctive uniform.

Alistair McWhirter, an Acpo's spokesman, says he is well aware of the implications of a ban for police community relations in the countryside. That's nice to know.

We've been working hard to get the confidence of the people in the rural area and, as a rural chief constable, we work constantly to keep a blue light presence in rural areas and so on.

Blue lights and so on. That's marvellous.

...I would say is that there are quite a few people in rural communities who are anti-hunting just as many as there are pro-hunting. So we have to balance those needs of those communities out against each other.

Yes, that's right, your job is to balance communities out against each other, after all, legislation allows for this kind of balancing doesn't it?

Perhaps you'd like to do a bit of re-balancing between the law abiding home owner and the members of the burglary fraternity, you know, given that you are in the balancing mood?

Or perhaps arresting some fox hunters would be better for balancing out some crime figures.

Again the smiling hedgerow
Shall field from field divide;
Again among the woodlands
The scarlet troop shall ride.

You can't miss them.

Peas in a pod

On the same day that the EU fails for the 9th year in a row to balance its accounts (only 10% of expenditure has been correctly accounted for) the Germans are facing criticism from the European Commission over its huge budget deficit. The EC wants Germany to cut its deficit by 0.8% next year and bring it down to 3% by 2005 after being in violation of EU rules for 4 years.

Germany's finance minister Hans Eichel has rejected the threat of sanctions if it cannot reach a compromise deal.

It seems that the party is not turning out as well as Hans would have liked. Maybe the French can help throw in a few ideas on how Hans can deal with his financial difficulties:

Germany is hoping that France, which has also breached the budget rules, will support its stand.

Oh dear, not much chance of that then.

Micro anarchy

Not only do I not understand how people can behave like this:

An ambulance car responding to an emergency call in Staffordshire has been attacked by vandals.

I don't really want to. I don't care for their reasons. Read the article. Read about what the ambulance was doing at the time. Read about the injury sustained by the ambulance technician from a neighbouring service.

I dearly hope that the thugs that did this are caught, charged, found guilty and thrown straight into prison. That's the kind of use I want to see my taxes put to.

Zoom Zoom

For those interested in this kind of thing here's an animation showing the workings of the Mazda RX-8 rotary engine.

What would you pay...

...to see a couple of anti-anti Bush protesters at the up and coming march holding up a banner saying:

Go home
Anti Bush Protesters
You lefty wankers

Obviously you'd have to include some extra 'danger money' in there.

What a shower

Once again the annual Leonid meteor shower will soon be here.

Experts predict that up to 100 Leonid shooting stars could be seen streaking through the sky every hour.

However, light from the moon will make the meteors hard to spot until about Wednesday.

It wasn't all that long ago that meteor showers such as the Leonids were viewed as divine messages. These days only people who have a failing grip on reality believe that sort of thing.

Look Tarquin, a sign from the heavens. Tomorrow we shall face the demon Bush and crush him.

The grand unified theory of the blogosphere

If Michele really wants to make progress with the grand unified theory of the blogosphere she needs to give up on the Newtonian model and ask herself what string theory says about it. It’s not about stars and planets it’s about multiple dimensions, graviton particles and wormholes.

A dinner party

My wife and I joined six others at a dinner party this Saturday at the home of a good friend. During the main course the subject of ID cards came up (no, I didn't start it) and, not being in the habit of keeping my mouth shut when it would probably serve me to do so, I promptly disagreed with the speaker who was firmly in the "I think they're a great idea" camp.

As it turns out I alone was of the opinion that ID cards would be a bad thing. There were a couple of abstainers and five firmly for the plans with one of those deeply concerned about this whole issue I seem to have with the state. I supplied enlightenment by telling him it was simply the size of the state I had a general problem with but I made no progress with the ID card issue (except for one I know what your saying acknowledgement).

So far this England project seems to be going badly, though our victory over the French on Sunday was some consolation.

Big media

This post over at au currant takes us to a Guardian article which informs us that the Murdoch media machine may switch its allegiance from the Labour government to the Tory party if the Tories, under Howard, can prove themselves a viable alternative.

The media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, last night signalled that his newspapers may switch their allegiance to a reinvigorated Tory party at the next election, in comments likely to cause further alarm among Labour's already jittery high command.

I know that this is the way of the world and that it would be naive to think otherwise but the self importance of this media giant is sickening. It really yanks my chain that they have the power (and know it) to influence the outcome of public elections.

On the one side we have raw media power, on the other we have the political elite and in the middle we have the public, constantly lied to and manipulated in someone else’s dirty game.

England v France

This time it's personal.

Tomorrow England & France go head to head on the rugby pitch. Be in front of your TV screens at 8:50am and set your channel to ITV1.

French toast.

The peasants are revolting

No honestly, they are:

We're getting reports that anarchists will storm Buckingham Palace.

It will be hugely entertaining, watching these anarchists splash themselves against the palace gates. Captain, fix bayonet’s!

In no way does The England Project condone the shooting of anarchists. Honestly.

Results just in

The results of the BBC caption competition are in. My favourite:

Here's to Iain Derrick-Smith, we will never forget you. - Si Clone, UK

Replace this word with "Mechanical"?

In a very strange case of harassment a couple of vampires are sent away:

for making obscene telephone calls which included "howling noises", screeching sounds and mechanical laughing.

Mechanical laughing? Me thinks a spell checker should take the credit for that one.

Then they smash them all to bits.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Best record covers in the world - ever

Being, as I am, in a lazy mood today and prompted by recent "worst album covers in the world" posts doing the rounds in the blogosphere, I thought I'd post what are unarguably the two best record covers in the world ever:
Iron Maiden's, The Trooper We get so close near enough to fight When a Russian gets me in his sights He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow A burst of rounds take my horse below. And as I lay there gazing at the sky My body's numb and my throat is dry And as I lay forgotten and alone Without a tear I draw my parting groan From the title track, The Trooper	Magnum's, On a Story Tellers Night They dispatch their precious cargo Knock him back right off his feet And they pray may no one follow Better still to face the beast When the field has become a garden And the wall has stood the test Children play and the dogs run barking Who would think or who would guess From the track, Les Morts Dansant

Both bands were great to see live, though I feel Magnum lost their way after the Storyteller's album.

More women on the beat please

So, "bobby on the beat" experiments fail while women on patrol initiatives succeed:

Women living on a housing estate in Northamptonshire are so sick of crime they are patrolling the streets at night....in the five weeks since Street Watch had been formed crime on the estate had reduced dramatically.

It's all very peculiar.

Quote of the day

Talking about Mercedes Benz:

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible." - P.J.O'Rourke.

ID cards

The Spectator has an article up on ID cards. There's lots in there but for me these are the money quotes:

In addition, they inconvenience the individual. The Guardian’s Brussels correspondent recently noted how he had visited the Belgian police one morning to make a complaint about noisy neighbours, only to find himself being reprimanded for not having his ID card on him. In such ways do these devices needlessly turn the victims of crime into perpetrators.

I would say that's slightly more than an inconvenience. It's a telling off, if you like, from an agent of the state for not complying with one of their administrative requirements. I'm not sure how I would react to such a situation but if my Italian heritage has anything to do with it I suspect there will be a lot of shouting and hand waving.

Further:

And here’s the rub. Why should I have to have this thing? Mr Blunkett says that although his cards will be compulsory, one won’t have to carry them at all times. This rather defeats the purpose of the whole exercise. In any case, his scheme still undermines individual liberty. Say I happen to pop out to the local shop and find a policeman en route who asks me to produce my ID card. When I can’t, he orders me to turn up with it at the station within 24 hours. Well, why should I have to? I’m not an illegal immigrant. I’m a generally law-abiding person. I don’t mind paying £40 if I know I’m going to get £40 worth of something back. But what am I getting for it beyond a singularly expensive rectangle of plastic? To be forced to pay for something that will only inconvenience me is an outrage.

Anyone who has had to produce their driving license at a police station after a random roadside check will know how inconvenient and annoying this can be. However, with driving licenses it is different because it's not unreasonable to have to prove to the police that you have passed the compulsory competence test. What do I have to prove to the police with an identity card? Well, my identity of course, but why do they need to know that? Surely this would only be acceptable under very very limited circumstances and that does not include a walk down to the local shops.

But of course, the supporters of the scheme will say that this will never happen. It is a contrived example, they will say. You will never need to show your card unless there was a very good reason.

Perhaps I give supporters of the scheme a little too much credit. Perhaps supporters will say that it is perfectly reasonable for the police to want to check my identity to make sure that I have the right to be in the country.

"You do look a bit foreign after all."

The other, more evil, England project

Peter Hitchens, in an interview with The American Enterprise, brings up the EU’s design to break down England into bite sized Euro units:

One of the main purposes of the European Union is to break down the nation-states into other units. The European Parliament will, if you press them, give you a map of these regions. England is divided into things called Northeast Region, Southeast Region, London Region, Eastern Region, which a lot of people don't even know they live in. There are shadow assemblies in these regions already being devised. The British Parliament at Westminster will continue to exist, but its powers, both internationally and nationally, will be sucked away: its international powers to Brussels, and its national powers will disappear to these artificial E.U. regions (along with the powers of our historic counties and city governments).

He also discusses the same issue in his latest Mail on Sunday article which is worth reading for this one paragraph:

Prescott plays cleverly on his resemblance to the comedian Les Dawson, but there is really nothing funny at all about this hardline, anti-British militant, or about his scheme.

I always thought there was something funny about Prescott.

This kind of comparison is completely beneath me:

BBC caption competition

The BBC have got a caption competition up which might be entertaining. Follow the link and you'll see a picture of Michael Howard (the Conservative party leader) holding up a pint of Spitfire looking like he's having a bit of a gloat.

Perhaps he's thinking see you next question time Tony. Or perhaps he's completely toasted and in an I really love you kind of mood.

Mercs4Crims

Iain Murray is lost for words and it’s not difficult to see why:

Prisoners are being ferried about in luxury chauffeur-driven Mercedes cars, it was confirmed today.

The prisoners from Holloway, Pentonville and Wormwood Scrubs in London are driven in £30,000 E-class Mercedes Benz cars with leather seats, air conditioning and professional drivers to hospital and other appointments.

A spokesman for Corporate Cars, based in Whetstone, north London, defended the use of luxury cars today, claiming that the high-class cars were used because of security risks.

“Do you want to know why we use Mercedes?” he said. “What is the most reliable car on the road?

Well, I’m glad you asked. The most reliable car on the road is a Mazda.

It’s those same old myths, if you want a reliable car buy a Mercedes; if you want to be a criminal be one in the UK. No wait, that last one’s true.

It seems that some don't see the problem with using air conditioned mercedes for prisoner transportation. The fact is that, joking aside, it's not just an issue of reliability and economics. It's also matter of justice being seen to be done and this kind of "justice" is hard to swallow for the honest guy that has to take a dirty London bus into work every morning.

The primary responsibility of the prison service is not to cut costs but to ensure that the prisoners pay their debt to society. Many in society do not include mercedes and air conditioning as part of the deal.

I think they're serious

I mean, you couldn't make this up:

The love of drunken revellers for walking off with traffic cones has left one police force facing a costly shortage.....With derby clashes coming up between Southampton and Portsmouth football clubs in the city in December, the police have backed a cone amnesty.

Of course, they'll claim that the amnesty was a massive success, with 40,000 cones handed in when in actual fact all they will have received is a couple of old boots and a hat.

(Not gun related, not gun related, not gun related).

From Tony to Cherie

It seems increasingly likely that the government will be legislating in some way to the detriment of law abiding replica gun owners in the UK. Responding to the publication of the All Party Parliamentary Group on gun crime report the home office concluded

The report rightly recognises that 'gun laws in the UK are amongst the strongest in the world' but that we cannot be complacent. At the moment, we have a number of tough new legislative measures going through Parliament to deal with both criminal use of firearms and any emerging gun culture. In addition, we are carrying out a comprehensive review of firearms legislation and will use that to consider in detail the views expressed here, particularly in relation to replica, deactivated and air weapons.

I certainly wouldn't put it past them to try and ban replicas completely.

Anyhow, I'm trying to cut down on my posting and frothing about the governments attitude to guns and related sports and pastimes because down that route lies madness and it is the primary reason why I gave up my original blogging project. So, hopefully, this will be the last for a while.

From Tony to Cherie

I'll tell you something hun,
That those that use the gun,
Are either hunting pheasants,
Or out there shooting peasants.

What I can't understand,
Is that handguns are banned,
We took them all away,
Yet on the streets they stay.

Another ban I feel,
On guns that are not real,
Will show we really care,
About the peeps out there.

For show is what I mean,
It makes us seem too keen,
These things that failed before,
Are easy to make law.

To catch a crim is hard,
They say so down the yard,
And anyhow the boys,
Want us to ban the toys.

To crush another sport,
Is something I'd have thought,
Would not be far amiss,
To get us out of this.

It matters not to me,
To take their property,
And anyhow my dear,
The peasants have their beer.

Safety in the city

So, you're thinking of moving from countryside to the City. What do you do? Organise the removal service, redirect the post, hire the SAS for some city survival training:

Mr McGrath, who spent 15 years in the army, explained: "We were running the gap-year course, when we got a call from a woman who was worried not because her daughter was going to Cambodia - but because she was moving from Suffolk to London."

Jobs for the boys and girls

Perry de Havilland notes that:

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has announced that it will be pressing for a ban on using technological techniques to allow parents to choose the gender of their children.

One can come up with all kinds of reasons why the HFEA might want to do that (distasteful to the majority of British people, we shouldn't play God etc) but there is only one true reason.

The HFEA has been influenced by the state to take this position because the state is worried that we will either:

i. all choose to have girls, in which case there will not be enough boys to satisfy demand for soldiers

or

ii. all choose to have boys, in which case there will not be enough girls to satisfy demand for secretaries.

Why are you all looking at me funny?

Future blog

Here’s a prediction. Bloggers will increasingly join forces, closing down individual blogs to start up (or merge into) single blogs run by teams of bloggers. These group blogs will attract and merge with other blogs, both single and group, until there are only three blogs left.

It’s like gravity. All these small spinning blogs passing by bigger blogs, eventually getting captured and amalgamated.

These three remaining blogs will be the most powerful media entities on the Internet and will eventually control and dictate what news is reported and how it is reported.

There will eventually be a final power struggle between the “Last Three”, with shady characters hiring assassins to pick off the key opposition bloggers who refuse to turn traitor to their mother blog. It will be a bloody business.

The remaining blog will be despised by all as a corrupt and self serving institute.

A rebel alliance will be put together to try and undermine its authority. This alliance will be led by a beautiful princess.

I've just received an email from my good Lady Lynn:

Can I be the beautiful princess please, can I, can I, can I...

Hmmm, only if I can pick the costume.

Shameful

It’s astonishing, the lengths some people are prepared to go to, in an attempt to show how much contempt they have for their country and for the sacrifices made by others on their behalf.

A man has been arrested after graffiti was daubed on Cambridge's war memorial hours before a Remembrance Day service.

The base of the war memorial in Hills Road was spray-painted with 10 18-inch high monkeys overnight on Monday.

A 27 year old male has been arrested, question and released on police bail without charge pending further enquiries.

Despite efforts to clean the memorial, the graffiti could not be removed. Veterans draped the memorial in flags to hide it during the 11 November service.

"We've tried cleaning it off but it won't budge. I think it will need sand-blasting," said Mr Hawkins, president of the Cambridge branch of the ex-service organisation.

You know, I have a great idea for a bout of community service. It involves a cotton bud, a bucket of water and about three years hard labour.

Here's a picture of the memorial:

This is not the first time that it has been desecrated. It also happened in March 2003 during an anti-Iraq war march.

Here's another interesting factoid about the memorial:

In 1931, however, the Daily Herald headlined 'The Empire's Armistice Call: There shall be no more war', and went on, 'Never again! That will be the vow in every sane mind throughout the British Empire today.' Hannen Swaffer asked: 'Now that Economy has come, will they really cut down those health services...Why don't we do something to stop the next war?' Two years later the first recorded alternative wreath was laid at Cambridge War Memorial, by the Cambridge Student Anti-War Movement, with the inscription: 'To the dead and wounded of all nations, victims of a war they did not make, from those who are determined to prevent all similar crimes of imperialism.'

I guess a few years later the same student anti war movement found themselves battling against Nazi imperialism.

Oh look, another anti-war march by Cambridge students that passes the memorial. This time the Indymedia Tour of Shame.

Sheesh, let the dead rest in peace will you. They've earned it.