On order, oh yes

Would you think any worse of me if I told you I just ordered one of these?

It's a Tokyo Marui SR16 and mine will come custom fitted with an ADDC JS Spring, a Systema Bearing Mounted Aluminium Piston Head, a Systema Polycarb Piston (Red) and a Systema Bearing Mounted Spring Guide.

Unfortunately I could only stretch to the two three hundred round magazines.

Natural History Museum visit - part 2

More pictures from visit by The England Project staff to the Natural History Museum, London. For the whole category click here.

This is the big dinosaur that you get to see as soon as you walk in. I think it's a Brontosaurus. The hall is cavernous and the photo gives you some flavour for what the inside of the place is actually like.

Now this one looks like a Stegosaurus. I love that shadow thrown on the back wall.

I have absolutely no idea what dinosaur this one is. Clues anyone?

I think these are Velociraptors. The base image was used to make this graphic.

Tax freedom day

Tax freedom day 2004 falls on May 30th, this Sunday. Sickening isn’t it, but what choice do we really have about it? Not much really.

I mean we can stop buying beer, stop using petrol, stop going to work etc but none of those options really appeal. I want to enjoy myself a bit and that generally means getting out there to earn and spend a little money. Fast cars, expensive women, grain and grape products; man that’s living but living means paying taxes.

Perhaps history can give us the answer. Let’s see, something about little people and big government. Kings. Lords and Ladies. Peasants. Aaaaha! The peasants’ revolt of 1381.

What a good name for a pub that would be, “The Peasants’ Revolt”, I’d drink there (wow, this train of thought stuff is weird).

Apparently these peasants were really annoyed. I mean really, really miffed. The reasons were complicated but much of it had to do with the insistence that they pay a tax of 5 pence on demand by the King of England, Richard II. Three times in four years they were asked to pay and eventually they couldn’t take it anymore.

The peasants went ape shit.

Some of them decided not to pay, which I guess is a reasonable method of protest. You see back then taxes had to be collected or handed in by hand. There were no computer transfers or pay-as-you-earn schemes. People had to hand real money over to real people, face to face like, so holding back on payment was relatively simple. You just stayed in bed, or wherever.

In May 1381, which was just about when our annoyed peasants were enjoying their own self made tax freedom day, a tax collector went to visit a village in Essex called Fobbing to find out why the people there were not paying the tax.

They kicked the bugger out of the village.

The state, not taking kindly to this kind of proactive protest by the masses, sent a bunch of the king’s soldiers to the village, swords and all, to sort the peasants out.

They too were kicked out.

Fobbing, clearly, was not the kind of village to be taken lightly.

The thing about the English, certainly back then, was that when they had enough that was generally it. No bargaining, no small talk, no dancing around the issue. They were serious people.

So they got together with a whole bunch of other peasants from other villages for a party or something, had a few drinks and thought about what their next move should be. A guy called Wat Tyler emerged as a natural leader of revolting peasants and, given that they now had a leader, a cause and a whole bunch of people the villagers decided to march on London to have a word in the King’s shell-like (he means ear – Ed).

On the way to London our annoyed villages burnt down buildings that housed government records, destroyed tax registers and records and generally left a trail of anti-state propaganda in the form of charcoal on their route. It was a messy business.

They eventually reached the gates of London which, oddly enough, were left open by the townies in support of their countryside brothers (there’s about a foxes chance in hell of that happening nowadays), walked in and marched straight towards the centre of town.

Then something happened that had never happened before and has not happened since. These villages captured the Tower of London. The Tower of London! The French couldn’t do it, the Dutch couldn’t do it, the Germans couldn’t do it. But these guys did. I told you they were annoyed.

Now, just about then things started to go a bit pear shaped and the villages took to drinking heavily in London’s pubs and bars. Had Bohemian Rhapsody been written then I am sure that the city streets would have heard a drunken rendition or two.

Wat Tyler tried his best to keep the peasants in line but what with all the big city lights and the pleasures on offer to the cities rural visitors things just got more and more out of hand. It’s a shame really because the protest was going really well up until that point.

On the 14th of June the King, who was only 14 years old at the time, met the villages and offered them all that they asked for. No more unpopular taxation and no repercussions. He suggested that they now go home, their point having been well made and some of them did. But others were still angry and, I am sure, the hangovers didn’t help.

Instead of going home they wondered over to Tower Hill, near the Tower of London, and cut the heads of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King’s Treasurer. That’s how unfair these guys though their taxes were. No writing to the Inland Revenue, no blogging, no moaning over a pint or two in an unusually named pub. Cutting off heads; that’s the way they protested over taxation in those days.

The Mayor of London, a right old bugger then as he is today, in an attempt to get the peasants out of the city organised a meeting with them at Smithfield (outside the city walls). This meeting took place on the 15th of June during which the Mayor made a point by sticking his sword into the rebel leader, or so the story goes. Seeing this and hearing confirmation of the King’s promises was enough to encourage the villagers to go home.

By the summer the king had gone back on his word. A bunch of peasants were hanged and, though the special tax was not re-introduced, things generally went back to the way they were before.

Nothing changed in the intervening few centuries and this Sunday we find ourselves again enjoying tax freedom day. Perhaps, one day, we’ll see another revolt against high taxes, the state and its half baked ideas. Maybe it will start in rural England again. Maybe it will end up on the streets of London.

If it does the peasants should take my advice. Don’t listen to the Mayor of London. He’s a slick little bugger who’d stab you in the back as soon as look at you.

Where is the boy?

I'm feeling all nostalgic today. For my childhood that is.

This feeling was brought on by my browsing of various photographs that I've taken over recent years. This is the photograph that started off the feeling:

It's the Natural History museum in London and it houses some of the greatest dinosaur fossils in the world. For instance, the moment you walk through the door you are greeted by the fossilised remains of a massive diplomicoticus or something.

Why nostalgia for my childhood? Well, the above picture was taken near the end of 2002 on my last visit to the place. The England Project family spent a good few hours there and we saw most of what was on offer, and very nice it was too.

But gone had the feeling that I used to get when I went there on a school trip, you know, like when they were allowed. No longer am I amazed by the dinosaurs, the splody volcanoes, the meteor remnants.

Instead the thing that I found the most remarkable, the most fascinating was the building. Inside and out it is an absolutely beautiful thing. Magnificent. Splendid.

And I realise that when a boy is no longer excited by dinosaurs he's a man.

Hey, perhaps we should try and get our dinosaur mojo working a bit. Maybe I'll host a picture roll out like I did with The England Project visit to the RAF Museum in Hendon.

I don't know what animals the bones are from (looking, as I was, at the bricks and mortar) but that doesn't matter does it? Perhaps I will have a guess and you guys can phone in my mistakes.

Starting tomorrow, boys, tomorrow.

LA news release on fat

The Libertarian Alliance has issued a news release about the current health fascism that seems to be all the rage at the moment. We're all too fat you see.

The general argument is as follows:

Govt: You're all too fat.
Media: Holy cow, we're all too fat! We're like giant lardy time bombs.
Peeps: Erm, I'm fine actually.
Govt: No you're not. You're fat. You will destroy the NHS then die.
Peeps: Oh, the NHS. Can't I opt out or something?
Govt: No.
Peeps: Wankers.

Wanker seems to be the conclusion the Libertarian Alliance has come to in its news release:

If they want to do something useful, they should look to taking their own bodies in hand, and (l)eave the rest of us alone.

Traditions should be disposed of correctly

The EU really sucks. It's the little things.

Butchers across the UK are to be banned from giving left-over bones to customers' dogs.

"If the bone is waste or for pet food then it's a by-product and cannot be passed to the public."

There goes another tradition that has lasted longer than the EU deserves to.

French families to the rescue

More than 50 D-Day veterans who feared they would miss a trip to Normandy for the 60th anniversary of the landings have been told the trip is back on.

Ha!

The Englishman's got what's good for what ails you. My favorite:

Two fish are in a tank
One says to the other "I'll man the guns, you drive"

Your point being?

Did you know that the UK has dropped from 7th place to 38th in the European competitive rankings for pistol shooting since 1997?

You may not care, which is fair enough, because not all sports appeal to all people. For instance I think athletics is extremely boring doing, as it does, absolutely nothing for me.

But that's not the point.

Did you know that Britain’s most successful medal winner is Mick Gault? He has 11 gold medals to his name which by anyone’s standards is an achievement worthy of a great deal of national and international recognition.

No, I suspect more of you know about that boaty guy, you know, the one that does all that rowing.

But that’s not the point.

Did you know that MPs and peers have been told that the ban on pistols in Britain threatens London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics? It’s all due to the fact that, effectively, the Olympic pistol shooting competitions are illegal in this country and that, apparently, even special dispensations from the ban for Olympic competitors would not be enough to salvage the pistol shooting competitions.

Fancy that, eh? I take no great pleasure in pointing out to all you sporting fans and competitors that the result of the whole world and his dog turning their backs on some of Britain’s finest sporting competitors is potentially the failure to bring to this country the finest and most prestigious sporting event in the World.

But that’s not the point.

Did you know that since the ban on handguns and the total destruction of the Olympic sport in this country handgun crime has gone through the roof? It shouldn’t be a surprise to you to find out that only the law abiding abide by the rules and that the ban has done nothing to reduce the availability of guns to the criminals who desire them. The ban was more about political opportunism than about public safety.

That’s the point.

So as I sit here wrestling with the notion that the UK authorities want to host an international competition which is, in part, illegal for the British to take part in on British soil I begin to hear the voices in my head.

“Oh those pistol shooters. That gun lobby. These pursuers of that most evil of all sports. They always moan and groan and complain. They want their own way, you see. Always their own way.”

But we never get it.

“We need more and harsher gun laws.”, cry the anti-gun organisations. “Young people shouldn’t be allowed to take their airguns like they used to on a Saturday morning to their shooting range. Shotgunners need to be more harshly licensed what with all their clay shooting and all that. We need a ban this kind of low powered airgun. We need more laws”

And they get them.

“Gun crime is a dreadful problem”, cry the media, the citizens, the families that have had great tragedy visited upon them. “We want it reduced; we want it gone. We want a life free from its terror”.

But they never get it.

Erm...

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

The go home prisoners

So, what do you do if you’ve managed to catch a whole load of criminals but have run out of room to keep them all?

The old outdated traditional way: Build more prison units allowing the criminals to pay back their debt to society in full.

The new way: Release the prisoners early.

Call me old fashioned but I still prefer the traditional way. Something to do with my outdated sense of justice which favours the victim and all that.

Now, no doubt someone will soon accuse me of being so right wing that I am on the verge of breaking the right-wing-measurerometer and that we can’t build more prisons because they are expensive or because no-one wants one in their back yard.

Well, to them I say “phooey”. The money is there; it’s just being used in the wrong places. If the politicians who consistently let down the people they are supposed to be representing actually had the will, they would find the way. This is Great Britain; we can afford to build some buildings for Heavens sakes. We can afford to run more prisons.

As for where to build them this, I agree, is an actual real problem. My suggestion is to take a leaf out of the 1960’s hand book of bad design and build up. Then take a leaf out of the Japanese book of modern design and build down. More units, similar footprint.

Also, make all prison furniture out of that orange Formica stuff. That should give the crooks something to think about.

Tony Blair to the countryside:

"Bring it on!"

There's a whole lot of trouble that will soon be coming your way Tony. More, I suspect, than you can possibly enjoy.

The new golf?

This is interesting; shooting seems to be becoming the new golf. A massive rise in popularity particularly with businessmen has seen the pheasant shoot, the grouse moor and the clay club being used as places to network and, you know, do business.

I wonder how true this all is. If it is true and the trend continues then this can only be good news for the sport. When big business gets behind something the insane shouting and posturing of those against that same thing usually fades into the insignificant. The frothing increases due to frustration but that’s about all.

Pro-shooting big business, anti-shooting pro-legislation dinosaurs, an anti-shooting media run by big business tycoons all mixed in with a generous dose of politicians all looking for their next power fix. What a mix.

I doubt it will have much affect in the short term but this might play out quite well for us shooters in the long term.

The dirty games

I have to say that I agree with the result that this samizdata article calls for regarding the hosting of the Olympic games:

For perhaps the first time ever, I and many others are fully backing the French to win. Let's hope a continued stream of bitching and moaning about this ridiculous misuse of taxpayer money will see them through to victory, and bring about Britain's glorious defeat.

I don’t think it fair or principled to host games that are illegal for citizens of this country to pursue.

No blogging today

Off to the local NHS hospital for a spot of bother.

Old ideas that fail to deliver

I'm off now so here's something for the weekend:

The notion that more gun legislation is the answer to reducing gun crime is a distraction that will continue to fail to deliver.

Trenchy

Well, I've ordered this just as the Plastic Gangster suggested.

If I don't like it there's gonna be big trouble.

BASC asks all shooters to respond to Home Office consultation

Dear me, this site is becoming more and more like my previous web site every day. Never mind...

There's a release from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation regarding the governments recent consultation paper on firearms controls in the UK:

21st May 2004………………………………………… immediate release.

Every person who shoots and the clubs, syndicates or groups to which they belong should all send responses to the Home Office consultation on “Controls on Firearms” and contact their MPs to express their views, according to Britain’s largest representative body for shooting, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).

BASC has produced guidelines on how to respond and how to identify and contact MPs. The association is asking all shooting press, websites and connected bodies to encourage their readers and members to take part.
A guide to responding to the consultation, intended for publication, is included.

The consultation runs until the 31st of August, but BASC is encouraging people to make their responses as early as possible. Full details can be seen on the BASC website www.basc.org.uk.

Christopher Graffius, BASC director of communication said “We must make our voice heard, as individuals and as members of clubs, associations and syndicates. Rest assured that those who oppose the lawful ownership and use of sporting guns will be putting their views across. BASC will make a full representation, but each one of us must make the effort to respond to the consultation. Lawful gun owners have not contributed to the rise in gun crime, and tighter controls on our access to and use of sporting guns will do nothing to address the problem.”

Firearms Control Review – How readers can help

BASC is concerned that the Home Office “Controls on Firearms” consultation will be influenced by many “anti-gun” submissions. We therefore ask all who shoot to respond to the consultation and raise their concerns with their MPs as well. This short guide should help you to respond.

You can find copies of the consultation on BASC’s website www.basc.org.uk as well as BASC’s initial summary of the consultation document.

If you don’t have access to the web you can obtain a copy of the document by telephoning Carl Griffiths at the Home Office on 020 7273 3913 / 2697. Copies of the BASC summary can be obtained by telephoning 01244 573 031.

Responding to the Consultation.

Please respond to:

Firearms Controls Consultation
Home Office
5th Floor
50, Queen Anne’s Gate
London SW1H 9AT

firearmscontrolsconsultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Tips on responding to the Home Office

· Consider if you want to respond as a club, syndicate or individual
· Explain your experience as shooter, if you are a BASC member , say so.
· Select the points from the BASC summary response on the BASC website that you wish to raise.
· Briefly set out your concerns with the proposals you have chosen. Key proposals include treating shotguns under the stricter tests for rifles, mandatory testing of those who shoot, and the age limits at which young people can shoot. You will find many other issues raised in the document.
· Keep your letter polite and to the point – it could be published by the Home Office in their summary of the consultation.
· If you choose to respond by email the same tips are relevant.

Please send a copy of your submission to the Home Office and copy it to your MP. You can identify your MP via the front page of the BASC website. Alternatively call the House of Commons on 0207 219 3000 where the Public Information Office can identify your MP from your postcode.

Tips on writing to your MP

· Write rather than email. Personal letters have more impact.
· Explain that you are a constituent, if you are a member of BASC, say so and explain your shooting experience.
· Briefly explain your concerns about the Firearms Controls Consultation.
· Point out that the Labour Party has a manifesto commitment “not to restrict shooting sports”.
· Ask your MP to write to David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and raise your concerns.
· Keep the letter polite and to the point.

It will be useful for BASC to know what has been submitted to the consultation and what MPs and the Home Secretary has written. Please copy your submission and any replies you receive from your MP or the Home Secretary to Christopher Graffius, Director of Communications, BASC, Marford Mill, Wrexham, LL12 OHL.

Thank you for your support

Evil signals of manliness

Now you would expect me to get annoyed at something like this:

A pub chain is banning its managers from flying England flags during next month's Euro 2004 Championships for fear of driving away female drinkers.

The pub chain in question is Arena and it seems that in the mind of the chain’s executives the St. George’s flag (the flag of England for those that do not know) is an unwelcome signal to females. Yes, bizarre I know.

It’s all because Arena want to show all the Euro 2004 football matches on the screens in their pubs.

Now there are basically two reasons why they might want to do this. Firstly out of some kind feeling of patriotism or national pride. England are playing and pubs are a traditional place for supporters to express their support. Arena may feel patriotically inclined to provide venues for this expression.

The second reason is profit. If they don’t show the matches they might feel that their chain may suffer a loss in profits at a time when other establishments are cashing in on the action.

But Arena’s decision to abolish the national flag from their venues does not sit well with the first of these two reasons. Certainly not to my mind anyway. How can they be in the slightest bit patriotic whilst abolishing the flag at the same time?

So it’s basically an exercise in profiteering. They want to show the matches to increase revenue and that’s all fine and dandy because that’s what business is all about.

However the poor darlings are torn. Caught between a rock and a hard place.

You see they are worried that because they are showing the matches their pubs may develop a male-dominated, highly charged, terrace-style football atmosphere during the tournament. This would be an unwelcome signal to females which would presumably discourage said females from putting business their way.

Like I said, a rock and a hard place. In their mind, if they show the football they will put off female customers hence reducing revenue. If they don’t they will put off football loving customers again reducing revenue. What to do, what to do?

Well ban the flag of course because the flag, to their mind, not only has negative connotations of football violence but is also recognised in this way by their female customers. Get that girls? It must be, otherwise what is the point of banning it on the basis that it would put the them off?

Never mind that there will be all these boys sitting and standing in the pub oooing and ahhhing at the TV, shouting at the referee, hooting at the English defence, screaming their undying affection for the English goalkeeper and buying all Arena’s beer. That’s not the issue. The issue is the flag. THE FLAG. Everything else is somehow not so unwelcoming to their female patrons.

Perhaps the flag itself is responsible for creating a male-dominated, highly charged, terrace-style atmosphere? Perhaps girls do actually pick up unwelcome beep beep signals from it, what with their special intuitive skills and what-have-you? Perhaps only men watch football?

Perhaps if Arena didn’t want their pubs to develop the kind of atmosphere that football fans across the land, both girls and boys, love to drink and support their team in they should change their minds about showing the football altogether.

Then they could put the flag up, like I am sure they do each and every St. George’s day without sending out those evil signals of manliness.

Scared yet ladies?

Boo!

Actually, we don't want no stinkin' ID cards

I think my banner will say "BLUNKETT - WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" or something.

Why talk that way?

There’s trouble at a Swindon Comprehensive school. It looks like a bunch of kids walked out in support of a teacher who was threatened with disciplinary action for telling pupils that they were being denied a proper education.

All remarkable stuff and I am sure that many commentators better placed than I will be making their opinions known quite soon.

I, however, wish to bring up the following point of order. Hilary Pitts, the head of education at the local council thinks that the whole thing is unfortunate. She says:

"Clearly the students feel very strongly about this teacher's resignation, but students must now re-engage with their learning environment."

I bet re-engage with their learning environment comes from a list of approved phrases or some kind of council manual. Perhaps it is simply a problem resulting from the translation of an EU educational directive penned in French or what-have-you.

Regardless of its provenance its usage makes me wonder who actually falls for this kind of phraseology? What does Hilary think she is achieving by using it? I find it a complete turn off and think that it undermines the speaker’s authority. It smacks of someone who is trying to impress or somehow prove their intellectual credentials unnecessarily.

I don't get it.

Space is not just for spacemen

In the olden days it took countries to send rockets into space. Things are a little different now, it seems, as the worlds first amature rocket to make the trip is launched

"It just roared off the pad and flew into space," said rocketeer and CSXT avionics manager Eric Knight.

For not upon these hills alone the doom of sport shall fall

Mr Free Market considers the governments current "consultation" on firearms legislation in the UK:

The days of a father taking his son out shooting will be sacrificed to appease the ever more rabid demands of anti-shooting lobby.

When they have finally done what they intend to with the legitimate sporting shot they will, if they have any integrity left, have to spend some time reflecting upon what they have done.

As criminals continue to feast upon each other and the public and as gun crime remains firmly entrenched in our inner cities it is the anti-gun campaigners that will have to shoulder much of the blame. For many, many years they have been responsible for the misdirection of valuable resources, focusing on the law abiding whilst doing nothing to encourage the resolution of the real causes of gun crime.

Millions wasted. Decades wasted. Lives destroyed.

They blame us shooters for gun crime but in truth it is us who should be blaming them.

Monte Cassino

The Plastic Gangster on Monte Cassino:

The whole sorry saga ended in enormous bitterness and recrimination and even Clark's personal (though rather dubious) triumph was rapidly thrust into obscurity by the evolving situation in France.

It's a terrible shame, really. The veterans of the Italian campaign deserved better at the time and they deserve better now.

Can you guess what it is yet?

I think that this little incident is a prime example why Red Ken's demands for a ban on anything that looks like a gun is as naive as it gets.

A Thameslink train driver caused two terror alerts when he mistook a didgeridoo for a grenade launcher.

The efficient herd

In the olden days, when men were men, women were women and children were children one could have been forgiven for believing that the state was on the side of, to nick a lefty term, the people. Now, it probably wasn’t the case (just consider the real reasons for the firearms act of 1920) but at least they were a whole lot more subtle about things.

These days things are a great deal different and the transparency of the real agenda of the state is astonishing. Brazen even:

Parents are to receive tax breaks worth up to £140 a week to hire nannies to look after their children, the government has said.

You see back when parents were generally accepted as the people who would have to bring up their own children the government had schemes like the married couples allowance which basically recognised the traditional structure of a family unit. You get married, you have children and one of the parents (usually the woman) stayed at home and looked after them. Ah, halcyon days. This allowance effectively no longer exists and I use its degradation as an example of how little is actually done by government to help maintain the existence of these traditional family units.

To have a parent at home is now a luxury that many cannot afford. The government provides no help in terms of tax breaks in recognition of the advantages of parent reared children whereas the unavoidable taxes on the family imposed by the government and various wings of its machinery rise steadily. High rates of income tax on 50 something thousand pounds regardless on how many people live on that single income. Massive council taxes that the government pretends it is not responsible for. Fuel taxes that are so high that it makes one wonder if your are filling up with petrol or vaporised gold.

Of course, traditional family units were not efficient means for extracting taxation from people. They meant there was usually one person not earning at home, one person at work with tax breaks in recognition of the family, and no family employed tax paying help. It was a situation that was ludicrous, inefficient and embarrassing for any governments account books.

Better to have both parents working and paying taxes and to help them provide further taxable income for the government by employing a third party to look after the kiddies. Now that’s efficient taxation! That’s how to maximise revenue from the herd!

And don’t you even think about banging on at me at how much working mothers actually want to work. I can understand the draw of the workplace. I can understand how there may be benefits in self esteem and satisfaction. I can understand how expensive it is not to have everyone in the family at work as soon as is possiple. I can also understand how not a single working mother that I know actually prefers to be at work rather than at home bringing up their own children. They just can’t afford to. The cost of living is too high and there are too many unavoidable state imposed costs. Having a parent stay at home to look after the children, like with those old fashioned families, is now the prerogative of the lucky few.

So, when the government announce a tax break to help us employ another tax payer to look after our children you will forgive me when I don’t immediately welcome the initiative with open arms. It’s just another step that brings advantage to the government accounts and is only welcomed by the public because they will grasp at anything to help ease the burden that is modern family life.

At least some still have the comfort of their own parents who often help out with childcare. After all, if you can’t bring up your own kids then grandparents are often the next best thing. They are family after all:

The Child Tax Credit is being extended to cover carers who look after children in their parents' homes - but not relatives such as grandparents.

Moooooooo.

Updated to fix some errors. Where is my editor?

If you can't answer the question you are asked, then answer one you can

Why then has the Government chosen to provide a platform for the anti-gun lobby to push for restrictions on legitimate firearms which they know will have no impact on their stated objective? It probably comes down to the old political fallback - "if you can't answer the question you are asked, then answer one you can". Gun crime is a social problem - its solution lies in tackling the educational and social failures which have created a disadvantaged underclass in our inner cities. There is no quick fix and while the social problems persist gun crime will continue to rise. For a Government desperate to be seen to be tackling the issue this is not a happy scenario. They need to be able to point to 'something' they are doing about guns - and that is why legitimate gun owners are facing illogical, pointless restrictions.

Spiderman innocent

This is great news.

A man who spent six days up a 150ft crane causing widespread traffic chaos in central London has been cleared of causing a public nuisance.

So, you might ask, why would they close the roads unnecessarily? To punish Mr Chick for his protest of course:

He told Southwark Crown Court the police played a "psychological game" to make him look like a "reckless idiot".

Officers said he could fall on pedestrians or cars and stopped work on a £45m office block while surrounding streets were sealed off.

Large parts of the City and east London were gridlocked with frequent 10-mile traffic jams.

But the jury heard excerpts from police logs making it clear senior officers not only treated the road closures as a "bargaining tool" to get him to come down, but felt the prosecution case could be "weakened" if they were lifted.

Blogging not

Lack of blogging due to the painting of the windows and the table with the brushes.

Painting of the windows...


...and the table

It's not the beer that leads to enlargement...

....it's the beer mats:

"It is important that people in Wales are informed about enlargement - and these beer mats will help to do just that."

"Many people in Wales are unaware of the new countries that have joined the European Union.

This means that they don't know of their rights to travel, work and live in these new exciting countries like Latvia and Hungary."

Scorpions do maths

Those who would judge the whole coalition on the basis of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by some should ask themselves if they would judge all Muslims on the basis of the execution of US and Italian captives by a few of that faith. Or indeed by the preaching of murder and hatred by a few of its spiritual leaders. Or, perhaps, by the fire and ash that remains as evidence of the piloting skills of some of its congregation. Or by the missing limbs of a few decadent western holiday makers here and there. Or by killing of bus passengers by its faithful. Or by the murder of it’s fairer members for the sake of ‘honour’.

Perhaps because the criminally guilty troops constitute a larger percentage of the whole than the few Muslim executioners, murderers and professional haters they would consider my suggestion invalid. Let the scorpions think so. As they revel in their arithmetic they must look on in awe at our inability to judge whole families in court for the crimes of a wayward son or daughter.

Many a true word...

Via Laban Tall, who I really must add to my blogroll, we have this revelation about those pictures in the Daily Mirror.

Mr Morgan was forced to write a letter of apology. MGN are refusing to discipline him, but it is believed that Tuesday's front page story on the Royal Marines, 'FASCIST PIG BLAIR'S STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH' was replaced with 'CONCERNS GROW OVER ABU GHRAIB'.

Pictures catagorically not taken in Iraq.

Controls on Firearms - Consultation paper

The governments May 2004 consultation paper on firearms legislation in the UK is available as a PDF document here.

Here are some interesting figures from near the end of the document:

Source: Data from United Nations Development Programme as analysed in the Small Arms Survey Yearbook 2003

For 2000, the US Bureau of Justice reported a rate of 3.6 firearms homicides per 100,000 population in the US.

I wonder if those US figures include justifiable homocides, you know, US gun owners justifiably shooting criminals whilst in defence of their lives or property.

Over dinner

So, at the dinner table last night I happened to say something a little sarcastic about a certain politician.

"Who’s he?", says the good lady.

"A Labour MP", says I.

"What did you say? Who’s he?", says my six year old boy quite rightly wondering why I should be speaking so unkindly about someone he has never met.

So, my good lady goes into one about how these politicians run the country and how normal people decide who should be in charge every now and again.

"Pah", says the boy, "the police should be in charge."

And there it is. From infant to Home Secretary in an instant.

Housing

Because someone thinks it's a good idea to steal housing I decided to take a look at the average value of property in my area; just to work out the value of the kind of stuff some politicians think is worth nicking.

There's some fine plunder to be had 'round these parts.

My house is your house

What a disgrace this is:

Homeowners would be forced to rent out properties that have stood empty for more than six months under proposals unveiled today.
Under an amendment to the housing bill, tabled by Labour backbencher David Kidney MP, councils would be able to take over such properties, restore them to a decent standard and rent them out at an affordable rate. The council could claim its costs back and give the rest to the owner.

Someone should swing for even suggesting this idea. Perhaps tonight I will dream and tomorrow I will wake into a better dimension; one where statist Labour MP thieves are used as toilet paper.

Something wicked this way comes

Via samizdata's David Carr we have this excellent Nick Cohen article on the erosion of liberty. His message? Basically we are saying goodbye to our traditional freedoms and loving every minute of it.

My experience is that he is right. I have grown tired of trying to persuade dinner guests and drinking buddies that ID cards, curfews, stricter gun control laws and the like are bad ideas. Really, really tired. It's so hard to put up a constructive argument when the whole table is against you, throwing extreme and imagined examples of the possible successes of such measures at you quick fire style. It doesn't help that I have usually had a skin full at the time.

Since getting involved in this kind of thing, you know, blogging, political comment, thinking, I've noticed something peculiar. Hardly any of my close friends actually agree with my political and social points of view anymore. Some accuse me of growing more right wing with each passing year (when I know that the opposite, if anything is actually true) whilst others accuse me on being soft on criminals due to my opposition to draconian Home Office measures.

Just this weekend I had a real clash with a very old University friend of mine at a BBQ about Bush and America. Bush is evil. America is evil, was his basic line. Another old University friend nodded frantically in agreement. No says I, and those figures of America supplying arms to Iraq are factually inaccurate. I get a few nasty retorts along the lines of how I always fall for right wing propaganda, other groups of party goers gradually move away to talk about skiing and the like and I'm left feeling a little angry but, more to the point, sad. Sad like the last curlew might feel in late summer finally realising that there is no chance of a mate because there are no others curlews left. Utterly alone.

One of these days I am going to accept a samizdata invite. Find the time to get to one of their dinner parties or chats just to know what it feels like to have someone look at you and nod.

Man, that would be sweet.

The curse of Dart Wars

Look at this macabre tool of evil.

Macabre

It can, apparently, lead to teen nakedness, espionage, crazy things and fun. Needless to say agents of the state want to outlaw it.

Me? I'm just happy that the teen nakedness link is going to get me a lot of hits.

Busy, busy, busy

I shall return tomorrow.

Ha ha ha ha!

No, honestly, ha ha ha!

The flush

I’ve had a very fortunate upbringing. This was largely due to the incredibly stressful and work filled life of my father during my childhood and early adulthood. It meant that I grew up in a nice house, with nice things. We had nice toys, nice holidays, a nice kitchen, a nice dining room, a nice bathroom and nice toilets. Plural. We’ve always had more than one toilet.

Then I left home to go to University and, eventually, my mother and father were left alone. My father gave up work, his health improved and my parents house entered that period where further decoration and modernisation ceases mainly due to lack of funds, lack of desire and basically a lack of need. The frozen age that most houses go through. The one that estate agents label in need of modernisation.

By today’s standards the interior of my parents house would still be judged as satisfactory, if not nice, in a dated 1970’s-1980’s crossover silvery kind of way. The toilets however are exceptional.

You see these toilets flush properly. They were built and installed during a time where water preservation was, well, never really thought about. An age before the recycling of tin cans, the recycling of newspapers and the recycling of catastrophic ice age theories.

They hold a massive amount of water in their tanks and deliver it, on demand, in one sudden and decisive discharge. No evidence of what went before remains behind. One flush one outcome. No more poopy.

In comparison, every toilet that I have owned is a joker. A pale impostor. An amateurish performer. The day of the single effective flush has, along with my childhood, long since passed.

You see since the heyday of the toilet we have seen the rise of the eco warrior and from a small and humble beginning they have effectively touched upon nearly every aspect of our consumerism. Water consumption and, more specifically, water consumption by toilet did not pass under their radar.

Now don’t get me wrong, much of what the eco warrior caste has done to our consumerist ways had been reasonable, though often inconvenient, and I am sure that an example will come to mind quite soon. However, when it comes to the flush they have all but devastated a once proud toilet industry. The need to conserve water has, somehow, overtaken in importance the need to effectively flush clean the toilet bowl first time, every time.

The desire of the eco warrior to maintain our water supply in a closed system has lead to the development of smaller capacity cisterns, twin flush diaphragm systems, short hold and long hold flush options that don’t work and, quite probably, electronic ignition. The result has been the quiet replacement of the traditional flushing toilet with the non-flushing variety.

Well, I suppose that’s a little unfair. They do flush, but not enough. The actual result of the meddling of the warrior is exactly the opposite of what they intended. Multiple flushes are now par for the course, if you know what I mean, and overall water consumption by toilet is quite likely to have increased. If at first you don’t succeed and all that.

Annoying, isn’t it?

There is a chance that from now on every time you flush without achieving the desired results you will think of me. As you contemplate the flotsam and jetsam that lies in your bowl your thoughts may briefly turn to The England Project. A disturbing but perhaps not wholly inappropriate situation. But I urge you to remember who is really to blame. The eco warrior. The evangelical environmentalist.

That poopy in the toilet bowl is their fault. Never let them forget it.