Once more the banner of St George......

Who are these usurpers?

Not content with standing outside the Houses of Parliament waving their nationalistic flags and banners at passing politicians (who probably don’t know what that white one with the red cross in is all about anyway), they have the temerity to place a BlogAd on this site with the strap-line The Real England Project!

I should write a screed or some such and put them in their place but, to be honest, my heart is not in it. You see, the truth of the matter is that they are right.

We don’t want no stinkin’ piecemeal re-hash of what effectively is English local government. Not over here at the Fake England Project anyhow. Proper devolution to England, proper representation for the English and proper political recognition of England is what we want. Man, after thousands of years you would have thought we’d have that sussed by now. Just goes to show how it takes politicians to really screw things up eh?

So, why not go here and sign their petition while I accept my lesser roll, pack my things and go quietly into the night.

(Oh no you don’t – Ed).

Not terrorism

Greg Avery, an animals rights campaigner and activist argues that this is not like terrorism at all:

Animal rights activists are planning a training camp on direct action techniques including unarmed combat, scaling buildings, infiltration and skills for sabotaging hunts.

He could well be right but his idea of what constitutes terrorism may not match your idea and it certainly does not match mine. He says:

It's a funny terrorist movement that's never killed anybody.

Well, no one's laughing except perhaps at the notion that a terrorist must kill to be awarded the title.

A serial offender who admits he has lost count of the number of times he has been in jail, Mr. Avery is determined to keep on the straight and narrow:

I'm quite clear about what I do now; I campaign within the parameters of the law. It's laughable to call us terrorists.

Again, with the laughing. Of course his choice to stick to the straight and narrow is admirable and, though I am not against a certain amount of civil disobedience and law breaking as a valid method of protest, I certainly think his choice of not breaking the law will do his cause more good than harm.

His training camp does concern me, however. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with training people in unarmed combat. It is an admirable quality often called by its other less emotive name of self defence. Scaling buildings is an odd skill to offer but in itself is not in the least bit illegal as skills go and affords one a certain 'super-hero' like quality. Infiltration, well, we all do it don't we? It's rewarding as hell and harms no-one. And sabotage; what other skill fits infiltration in such a glove like manner? Bravo, I say.

No, my concern is not for Mr. Avery and his camp and has nothing to do with the perfectly legitimate skill sets that his graduates will have acquired when they leave. Skills that, I am sure, will never be put to this kind of use.

My concern is for the Home Secretary and his health. David 'Nailer' Blunkett is not getting any younger and his frothing is not getting any, well, less frothy. The mere suggestion of a 'training camp' on British soil could tip him over the edge.

Snap. Silence. Then the white heat of rage.

Boom, boom

DumbJon takes his trusty 12 bore off the wall, points it out of the window and empties both barrels.

Classics on the Common

Cue: A Jeremy Clarkson type voice.

Across the face of Britain, and particularly in the summer, pub car parks everywhere play host to an event that is almost as British as the pint of bitter itself. An event so entangled with the British psyche that it’s demise would signal the final litmus failure of the British way of life. An event so thoroughly ubiquitous that to not accidentally come across one every once in a while would lead one to doubt the integrity of the very fabric of the universe.

It’s the weekend, say an early Saturday afternoon as you drive into your local pub car park with a steak and kidney pie on your mind. You drive up and down looking for a space easily missing the cheeky little Austin Healey parked in between the blue Mondeo and the grey Vauxhall Vectra. You drive right past the Champaign white Triumph Vitesse barely noticing the fact that someone has fitted a chrome straight through sports exhaust to it. You think nothing strange when you drive right past the four gleaming Triumph Spitfires all with their bonnets up, sporting after market oil coolers, Kenlow fans and gleaming K&N filters stuck to the side of chrome dipped SU carburettors. You do little more than take a little extra care as you finally come to rest right next to the sleek green E-Type Jaguar with its roof down and with a proper wicker picnic basket on the front seat. Yes, you’ve driven into a classic car meet, and it hardly registers at all. After all, you almost expected it.

Inside the pub you order your drinks and food and retire to a nearby table where, only a few feet away, a group of three people are discussing the relative merits of replacing a Triumph Stag engine with a Rover V8. Another fellow asks you where one might find a reconditioned gearbox for their TR-4A and you, being British, kindly refer them to the Triumph Sports Six Club; ”they’ll probably be able to help” you remark. A Jaguar owner in the corner gets annoyed at a little old man for daring to accusing him of never actually working on his own car. You nod; it’s a minor outrage.

Yes that’s the scene and, usually, there is generally not a lot more to it than that. Down the pub, with like minded people and a bunch of really rather nice cars.

Except sometimes things go fantastically bonkers.

About ten years ago, in a pub somewhere in a small town called Harpenden, a small gathering of local classic car owners took place. Not an unusual event in itself as we know but this time something odd happened. Perhaps a little too much swarfega had been absorbed during a rather messy engine rebuild or maybe the sun was a little too hot on that fateful day but, whatever the cause, that little innocuous meet grew over a period of ten years into this:

In 2003 it’s reported that this little meet, known as Classics on the Common attracted over 10,000 visitors. And that’s mid-week. From a mere 25 originals at the very first meet this originally impromptu event has grown into a regular yearly show with something in the region of 1600 exhibitors. There is no prescribed parking, no prizes, no competitions and no professional presence other than the odd ice cream van or two. It is the mother of all pub car park meets, except now without the car park though the pub still plays a roll I am led to believe.

So yesterday, The England Project family cycled to the show and walked around the common for a bit and here, for your pleasure, are some pictures of some of what we saw:

For more on the show visit the Classics on the Common web site. Go on, you know you want to.

A hot topic, global warming

Iain Murray writes about some seemingly less than diplomatic behaviour by Sir David King (chief scientific adviser to the British government) and his delegation at an international seminar on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol held in Moscow on July 7 and 8. It seems like the British delegation walked out after failing to, how shall I put this, gain more 'editorial control' over what was said at the seminar. In response to this behaviour, Andrei Illarionov (Adviser to the President, Russian Federation) remarked:

"It is not for us to give an assessment to what happened, but in our opinion the reputation of British science, the reputation of the British government, and the reputation of the title 'Sir' has sustained heavy damage."

This whole thing seems to have turned into a bit of a brawl. Illarionov, someone called Douma and Simon Ostrovsky, a reporter for the Moscow Times, trade 'blows' in this letter exchange.

Science was never this exciting when I was at school, though once one kid did melt the teacher's pen using a Bunsen burner.

Quote of the day

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." - William Brandeis

Very odd invite

My local Conservative councillor has invited me to his place for drinks. I find that disturbing somehow so I don't plan on going. I'm not a paranoid kind of chap but I suspect it's a trap of some kind.

My previous blog, which I had to dump, was read by members of the houses of parliament (I know because of the web stats and because they mailed me) and I think it's something to do with that. I made some enemies and some of them have ninja friends. It took them longer to find me than I expected but it still comes as a shock.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the voices in my head are telling me to go home and clean my guns.

The value of justice

It’s astonishing really, the way some people argue against justice by playing the tax card. Just go take a look at Peter Cuthbertson’s posting 1/7 of a life should mean 1/7 of a life and then read some of the comments.

Not many people enjoy paying taxes, well perhaps people called Polly do, but to object to long prison sentences on the grounds that incarcerated people could be let out to get a job and not live off the state in prison is like slapping the victims (those that remain alive) in the face. No, sorry, it’s even more disgusting than that.

By all means suggest that a murdering toad or thieving swine should be forced to do something useful (perhaps even financially rewarding for the tax payers) while in prison but don’t even look like suggesting they should be let out on tax grounds.

Some people have absolutely no sense of justice and no sympathy for victims.

I simply cannot believe the steaming pile of nonsense that some continue to contribute to the comment section on Peter's site. It's as if these people have never lived in a community with real people suffering from real crime. I can't imagine a single one of these 'intelligentsia' lasting five minutes trying to explain their views to someone who has just had their house burgled, wife mugged or daughter abused. It's all about the criminal and never about the victim with these people.

What!?!!

NO!!!!!! Another British car manufacturer, another foreign owner. TVR is the company that decided to build its own engines rather than see a foreign unit fitted! Bugger, bugger, bugger!

UKIP - really quite naughty

First we had Sean Gabb's Candidlist; now we have the UKIP's “deliberately very, very nasty” letter signing thingy:

MICHAEL HOWARD hit trouble from the Right flank last night as the UK Independence Party (UKIP) promised to give a clear run at the next election to Conservative candidates who back withdrawal from the EU.

In a mischievous move designed to capitalise on a renewed outbreak of internal Conservative turmoil, the anti-European party told sitting MPs that it would not put up a candidate if they signed a letter supporting the UKIP’s policy of pulling Britain out.

Some might consider these tactics stupid but I am far from convinced. I want a strongly Eurosceptic Conservative party; a party that will set in progress our withdrawal from the EUropean project and the UKIP tactics are an encouragement in that direction.

The time has never been more right to push for the kind of Conservative party we (and I mean I obviously) actually want and my gut feeling is that it is not yet too late for the party to come to its senses.

As Robert Louis Stevenson once said, Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences and the more clues about the menu that the Conservative party gets before they finally have to sit down and eat the better.

If they remain clueless on EUrope they may well find themselves eating alone, the rest of us having chosen to eat out with the UKIP peeps. We may prefer the company of Conservatives but if the UKIP place is the only way to get a pint of beer with our meal then that's where we're going to be.

A lonely prospect, sitting down, with only a half litre of Chablis for company.

Dirty games

Do you think that it could be possible that the loony Livingstone has accepted a roll as ‘the dirty appeaser’ or some-such in a filthy wide game of international politics that neither you or I are invited to play in or even watch properly? I mean, it seems so crystal clear that his meeting with the Jew hating Sheikh al-Qaradawi was an unnecessary gamble for any politician to take yet he took that gamble. Why? Is he really that much of a loon? What hidden dirty game is being played out?

Is the state really this enamoured with itself?

This is what the new government emergency booklet (pdf) says about our children in the context of an emergency (eg terrorist attack):

Schools - If your children are at school you will naturally want to collect them as soon as possible in the event of a major emergency. But it may not be safe to do so. Please TUNE IN to your local radio station for advice and for details of the arrangements your local council has made for letting parents know when to collect their children from school.

I don't give a flying spook WHAT the local council thinks I should do in such a situation and the government thinking that I might even entertain such advice reveals, even further, how they think of themselves.

A minor education

By the way, while on our little trip my little six year old boy was shot in the backside by BB gun wielding kid. My boy came running back to the tent from the playground in tears with a couple of other young lads acting as escort. When he told me what happened the universe split into two and the following scenarios took place:

Universe 1: I called the people at the campsite reception who quickly dispatched an on site medical team to our tent to treat the very small red mark on my boys bum. They also dispatched a small security team to see if they could track down the ‘thug and his weapon’. I also called the police who dispatched a helicopter and two Armed Response Unit vehicles which arrived within 20 minutes. These units refused to enter the campsite for a further two and a half hours because they could not be sure of the situation ‘inside the gates’ but they did prevent movement into and out of the site, helping to secure the safety of the local surrounding community from ‘the lone gunman’. The press turned up and did a sympathetic interview with me and my family and took a couple of pictures of my boy holding up a BB towards the camera lens. The next day the story broke in the local papers – ‘CAMPSITE MAYHEM AS SHOOTER BLASTS TODDLER IN PLAYGROUND’. The paper later started up an anti-gun campaign calling for the licensing of all toy guns, BB guns, airguns and shotguns. The ‘crazed gun fanatic’ is never caught.

Universe 2: Within 5 seconds of being told the story I run full pelt from the tent and into the playground where I find the culprit just as he has clearly decided that now would be a good time to run off. I catch him and give him a good old fashioned telling off. I take his gun off him and quiz him about his knowledge of the law concerning such things. He has no idea that he is committing an offence just by having one on him in a public place without good reason. I continue, with some zeal, until he is visibly shaking mainly due to my comprehensive verbal ranting skills. I send him on his way and he never returns to the playground for the rest of the holiday. A number of young impressionable and attentive children in the playground who are within earshot learn an important lesson about BB guns, the law and angry grown up members of the public.

Fancy taking a guess which universe this version of me was in?

Hello again

And so, we are back. As it turns out we ended up in Cornwall rather than Devon, which was a surprise, but that did give us the opportunity to visit The Eden Project which I enjoyed. Great engineering with plants added. Here are some pictures, for your enjoyment.

Quite breathtaking on first sight. Conservatories on an impressive scale.




A juxtaposition of passing interest. Two different types of engineering.




Looking over the canopy.




Some parts of the interior were quite convincing.

I was also quite taken with the beaches where we were. I never really considered England good beach territory but I was clearly mistaken. It was all let down by the weather though. Pesky thing that it is. More enclosed domes and faster please! I dream of never seeing the naked sky again!

Our Grand Tour

Dear England Project patrons,

We write to inform you that tomorrow we embark upon our Grand Tour. We look forward to the trip with great excitement and considerable joy and hope that when we return we will bring with us many great cultural treasures and relics.

I have already contacted the British Museum who say they would be delighted to pass a critical eye over any artefacts that we bring back and have assured us that there will always be a place at the museum for any items of substantial quality or interest.

Our journey will be long, taking a full 9 months on one of Her Majesties fast clippers, the Catty Bark. We will be stopping off at a number of ports before reaching our ultimate destination, the port city of Ostia Antica, where we have been assured of a place at a rather special hostelry for the duration of our stay.

Both myself and my good lady are especially looking forward to some trophy hunting whereas the young lad is intent upon some archaeology.

Naturally we will be unable to contact you once we leave these fair isles and trust that you will forgive us our leave.

Thank you for your patronage.

Rosseta:

Month: Approximately one day.
Clipper Catty Bark: A Renault scenic.
Ostia Antica: Devon.
Hostelry at Ostia Antica: Tent.
Trophy hunting: Drinking of the wine and the beer.
Archaeology: Playing in the mud.
See you after the 26th.

Best amazon book review of the week

For Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book:

My name is jue kwe je master ninja of the 5th dragon clan and I must say that this book is by far the most accurate description on the ninja way i have ever come across. It is a true masterpiece. Several of the chapters sound as if they were written by ninja warriors of the past. The description, the art, the magic that is real ultimate power is unmatched in any other book. Please take my word as ninja master this is the only book you need!

Marksmanship and the occult

I have been a shooter for most of my life. It’s been an on and off affair lacking in any real formal training (except for safety, which was taught to me by my father) or consistent exercise. Sometimes the mood takes me and I’m at the airgun range. Sometimes I feel the urge and I am out hunting clays with the trusty 12 bore. This I do at a rather nice shooting ground where they seem to be very common fair, totally oblivious to the dangers posed by men with 12 bores.

I am often mediocre. Average if you will. But I am mediocre and average in comparison to regular well practiced shooters. I am also much more accurate when I don’t think and especially when I don’t know when or where the target will present itself. This is one of the reasons why I don’t pay too much attention to the instructions about the type of clay each machine at my shooting ground will present (and each can automatically present more than one and also combinations of multiples). I want it to be a surprise and I prefer it fast and furious.

It is also why I prefer to start with the shotgun off the shoulder, requiring a quick mount. A mounted gun obscures the vision and when you don’t know what is coming and where it is coming from vision is everything. I sometimes dust the fastest clays before the stock is bedded and, frankly, I enjoy the bruises.

Some have called me a natural shot. Something to do with the way my brain does calculus or something. I put it down to the occult.

As a 12 year old boy I once took a high flying bird already missed by two 12 bores. Still in its ascendancy, I knew without question that I had it and that my 20 bore would bring it down. Mount, swing, shoot, dinner. I remember the faces of the men, still reloading cartridges, as they looked at me and I remember how long it took the bird to fall to the ground.

I have reflected upon that one piece of marksmanship on more than one occasion. Not for any reason other than I knew, before I had made the shot, that the shot would be made. I would not miss. I knew this before the mount, before the swing and before the shot.

This has happened before and since and there does not seem to be any real rhyme or reason to it. It will be all down to secret calculus, subconscious shot picture memory, other subconscious subtleties and the like but, on the surface, it has the attributes of the occult.

…having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding; "mysterious symbols"; … "the secret learning of the ancients"

Sometimes I just know that I will not miss. And I’m not talking about those easy shots where it would be unreasonable to miss. I’m talking about the ones on the edge of plausibility. I don’t know about “mysterious symbols” but “the secret learning of the ancients” surely rings a bell.

I will recount two other occasions when this happened, though there have been more.

The first of these was at the clay range on the high pheasant stand. It was a Sunday when the traps were manned rather than on shooter control (where the shooter punches buttons and clays are released on a timer). The young man on the trap asked me what I wanted just as an instructor and his 4 students turned up. They stood behind, watching and waiting for their stand lesson to begin.

I asked for two of the fast midis pulled at the same time. Now, this stand delivers them averagely high straight towards the shooter and, as it happened, the clays crossed just at the right time. I hit both with the single shot.

There was general ohh ahhing from the group behind me and the instructor said something along the lines of you couldn’t do that again. Well, what could I do? I did what any self respecting shooter would do. I called for the same again and I didn’t bother replacing the spent cartridge either. Now, the chances of the birds being delivered in the same manner were not that great. There are many inconsistencies that can subtly change the flight of two fast clays. But no matter. This was for fun and everyone, including myself, expected a single hit or a miss. Two single shot doubles in a row are not that common and almost never come when the shooter is being as cheeky and as smug as I was. Not when being watched by a party of novices and their instructor and certainly not after being ‘challenged’ by the instructor to ‘do that again’.

I cried pull and, as soon as the birds were released, I knew they were mine. In that split instance before the mount was completed and the shot made there was no doubt in my mind. I was already embarrassed by the time the shot hit both clays and had to leave quickly while the students clapped and the instructor threw daggers at me. He had a gun you know.

The ancients were with me on that occasion I can tell you.

The other was on the airgun field. The targets were metal plates in the shape of birds. Each had a knock down head and a small one inch disk in the chest which would, if hit right, cause a previously hit (and pushed back) head to spring back to the upright. Nice targets. Shoot the head, and the head flips backwards. Shoot the chest, and the head flips back up.

I was sitting on my shooting cushion, legs crossed and drawn up supporting my arm in that Field Target kind of way. I had already dropped the head of the target at a distance of 40 yards or so and, to complete the cycle (difficult for me at this range) I had to hit the one inch disk which was three or so inches below the head. Crucially the target had been placed in a dip and from where I was sitting the disc was not visible.

Now, I knew that the shot should be possible because I was already aiming high to hit the head. The trajectory was already a dipping arc and, by my judgement, it should have been possible to guestimate the position of the disk on the bird (given that I had seen the target many times before) and how far below the crest of the dip it was. I knew that I should be able to put a pellet somewhere into the dip and, hopefully, onto the plate (I would be able to hear the ding of metal on metal). With luck a shot could be encouraged onto the one inch disk.

I put a mil-dot (a marking on the scope reticule) onto the grass about forty yards away and that was when it happened. I knew I was going to make the shot and I did. The pellet dropped over the crest, into the disc and up popped the head. I was alone when it happened (grrrr). That was with a springer, albeit one tuned by the gunsmiths at the Webley Venom Custom Shop in Birmingham, so there was a little recoil to deal with too.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a great shot. I miss often, just like any other average shot. This is not about making difficult shots when one really shouldn’t. This is about knowing something when one really shouldn’t.

It’s like voodoo shooting, though probably without the voodoo.

Biased, but editorially independent

Chairman Michael Grade of the BBC says that the BBC needs to listen to its captive audience to survive. A good thing, I suppose, given that the BBC governors are concerned about a decline in audience appreciation.

The audience is talking and the Beeb doesn’t like what it's hearing:

What a load of old rubbish.

A remark often heard in The England project lounge.

What’s on the other channels?

Now, to be fair to the BBC the ‘other channels’ don’t normally do much better but they don’t solicit a:

Why do we have to pay for this crap?!

remark.

To heap even more fairness on to the BBC, not all it has to offer is crap as it does put out an excellent programme or two on occasion but I would not say that it was offering anywhere near enough value to warrant the amount we are forced to pay for it.

Mind you the BBC news web site is very entertaining and informative and, amazingly, available for free to all visitors. Free to all except those who have already paid for it of course. To them it’s just an overpriced news resource and to some it’s just an overpriced news resource with various dubious and biased editorial agendas.

Interestingly enough, commenting on the Hutton debacle, Grade declared:

The BBC is not worth having if it is not editorially independent.

A statement which is both right and wrong. The BBC is indeed not worth having (if it continues to be funded in the way that it is) but wishing to continue its editorial independence is not the right way to appease the hecklers in the audience (who would like to leave but can’t because each time they reach the door they have to buy another ticket for next weeks performance).

Balanced, even handed and factual reporting is what is needed and that is not the same thing as editorial independence.

Unusual weather bulletin - TEP newswire

There is a yellow disc in the sky. It burns.

Ignoring history

Clearly, when teaching history, some aspects of the past must be discarded. There would simply not be enough time in the day to go through the whole shooting match. The difficult thing is trying to decide which bits should be ignored or very lightly touched upon and which bits should be studied in greater detail.

On the subject of the British Empire (and like it or loathe it there is no denying its importance in world and, of course, British history) it seems that the Government's education watchdog thinks more time should be spent learning about it.

Shocked at the mere thought of it Gethin Lewis, secretary of teacher's union NUT Cymru said:

The British Empire is one of those things that's not seen as a priority, quite rightly in my view, and not all children need to study it.

I disagree with the fellow. Any attempt to study the history of the world that does not give the British Empire its due care and attention is a lesson in a false history.

Mr. Lewis, without a hint of a personal bias or an agenda adds:

It's not important to us in any patriotic sense to learn about 'the Empire on which the sun never sets'.

Because patriotism is not affected in any way whatsoever by the learning of history? Because history should be avoided if it might have a measurable affect on the way children might feel about their country? Because there are no lessons to be learnt from the history of the British Empire? What does he mean?

I'm pleased that in Wales we're looking at Wales in a global and European setting and not looking back to when Britain was seen to be so powerful and everyone learned English so that everyone in the British Empire spoke the same language.

Looking at Wales in a global and European setting eh? Fine. But how can that be done without giving the British Empire a fair old going over? After all, the 'sun never set' on the bloody thing. It must have been quite, you know, big and, you know, it must have affected places like, oh I don't know, Wales, Europe and, you know, the world.

"Personally I think it's a nonsense that we still talk about honours such as the Order of the British Empire."

Like I said, not even a hint of a personal agenda.

No, you can't learn all history. But some of it is so important that to not give it some considerable attention is a disgrace and, for an educator, a professional failure.

There are lessons to be learnt. Facts to be digested. Delights to be enjoyed. Safety tips to be picked up.

For instance does history not teach us that in Chester after midnight, one may shoot at the Welsh, with arrows?

The BBC reports.

I am an evil genius

It says so in this scientific examination procedure.

You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

Hmmmm, the examination procedure seems to be faulty.

Via many places on the internet.

Have my cake

The England Project peeps are having a little bash tomorrow to celebrate Mrs. England Projects birthday. She, and my memory is a bit hazy here, seems to be 21. Again.

Anyhow, in preparing for this event I had to walk through the high street where I work carrying a rather large chocolate cake in, to my good fortune, a partially see through box.

Why am I telling you this? Because I have finally struck gold.

The ladies could not keep their eyes off of me.

It seems that good looks accessorised with a chocolate cake is a simply irresistible combination. They were drooling chaps.

I urge you to try it.

Give me your body!!!!

The Times reports on a police investigation which seems to be based around the collection of DNA from a large number of people in the hope that one of them turns out to be the criminal that they are looking for:

Some 120 people have refused to provide DNA, prompting police to send letters asking them to reconsider. Those who continued to refuse have been arrested and compelled to give a sample.

I wonder what those airy-fairy liberati types have to say about that:

Barry Hugill, of the civil rights pressure group Liberty, said: “The police appear to have taken it upon themselves that the refusal to give a DNA sample is a criminal act. That means every single citizen is a potential criminal. Simply to arrest in the absence of reasonable suspicion that a person committed a crime and then take a DNA sample is a clear breach of the law.”

The law is such an airy-fairy thing, no?

Terror for life

Source::

Security services have thwarted terrorist attacks in the British capital but the threat will remain for decades, the head of London's police force said Thursday.

``London has been a target of unsuccessful terrorist attacks and some have been disrupted,'' Sir John Stevens, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

``There are over a hundred people ... going through the courts in relation to unsuccessful attacks,'' he added.

``We and the security services, MI5 and MI6, are working incredibly hard and we have massive amounts of resources that we're using to make sure that no one breaks through and has a successful attack,'' Stevens said.

Asked whether he believed the threat from terrorism would remain for the rest of most people's natural lives, Stevens replied: ``I'm afraid I do.''

We all knew this though didn't we? That we'd be in it for the long haul. So what progress has the west made since the start of the war? What have our governments and our military done to improve our safety? What is our greatest victory?

State sponsored terrorism is an extraordinarily dangerous business to be in.

Like the tactics or loath them, its progress.

The England Project "BEST STILLS AWARD" - Rocky Horror Picture Show

One intermittent service provided by The England Project is The Best Stills Award. This is where we take a film and search through it looking for the one or two best stills from the whole production. Stills that, coupled with their actual context, sum up the best that the film has to offer. Stills that distil the film. That show its essence in its full splendiferous glory.

In this issue: The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

I'm Going Home

Please, no arguments. A lot of work has gone into this.

My house

I was in House Harrisons. We ruled all at rugby and computers, though we never managed to combine the two disciplines effectively. I had to wear a school uniform, though it never seemed a trial, and had to face a morning assembly every day of the week.

We also had one of the most well structured and disciplined school prefect systems in England. I was proud to be a member of the best group since the days of the great Harrower.

Now, it seems, others are finding delight in some of these old fashioned ideas.

The sound of failure

Richard North coins a term for the common sound of a house alarm going off whether it is for good reason or due to a faulty system: The Sound of Failure. I think it works well and I also think that it can be extended to car alarms.

The annoying noise is now a normal part of the urban environment. It is the sound of failure - the failure of the police to protect property.

Indeed.

In reality protecting property against thugs, vandals, thieves etc in this country is not something a member of the public can realistically do. Sure, we can install various devices and position the property that we wish to protect in less accessible places but these are just difficulties to be overcome by the thief. He does not fear this kind of strategy in itself but, instead, it is the likely-hood of retribution and retribution itself that he fears.

The house alarm is intended to scare the thief off. Its sounding is a warning to the thief that retribution may be on its way.

The locked door or window is a physical barrier the circumventing of which is likely to bring attention his way, in the same way that an alarm might. It is not a preventative measure in itself but, rather, a contribution to the likelihood of retribution. There are very few domestic doors and windows that can stop a determined thief.

The fear of discovery, capture and retribution are all that stands between the thief and our property.

We are experiencing a failure in the measure of that fear. It is ebbing away.

I have said that in reality the average member of the public cannot realistically protect their property from the thugs, vandals and thieves that have their eyes on it. This is, effectively, because the public has been stripped, at every opportunity, of its ability to do so. The single most effective force for fear and promised retribution for those that pursue the property of others has been castrated by the very people who are notionally supposed to have common cause with the law abiding public. The public has been informed, and in no uncertain terms, that it is not for them to contribute in a direct manner to the fear factor.

They can act as a broker between the thief and the states official bringers of retribution but that is effectively all they can do. That has been the deal struck by the state with the public. They will protect our property and in return we must not harm a hair on any thieves head.

Tragically this deal is a sour one. The process has broken down. It seems that the resources required to maintain an adequate level of cover for the public are greater that the state is either willing or able to deploy. The fear of retribution is ebbing away leaving the general public high and dry, gasping on what’s left of an unfulfilled promise.

The thugs, vandals and thieves do not fear us and it is becoming increasingly apparent that they do not fear a promise of retribution that is rarely fulfilled.

The sound of this failure can be heard every single day of the week in every town and city in the United Kingdom .

Talk about the weather

For the first time and for a limited period only the England Project is opening up its comments section. On this one post. For your pleasure. Someone say something, about anything. Maybe about the weather. There's a storm coming you know.

Well, thanks all for the weather reports! Last night we had a big old barney down here in the south. The wind and rain machine was stuck on FULL. This morning is much better down here, which is bad news for commenter Dave because I believe it's all heading his way. Consider it a gift! Enjoy!

The Liberati - What? Who?

Plain speaking, unashamedly populist and un-PC, the home secretary seemingly never misses an opportunity to take a swipe at any hand-wringing moral guardians, in his own party and beyond, who attempt to stand in his way.

In the past, he has referred to such people as "airy fairy libertarians".

But it now seems he has a new, far snappier, if more sinister-sounding, enemy - "The Liberati".

The BBC is as confused as the next man.

As Ashley from Manchester says:

Did David Blunkett mean to say "Liberace"?

Joint gun crime conference

The gun crime conference that is to be jointly held by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and Mothers Against Guns that I discussed here has received the attention of the BBC:

A leading shooting organisation and a prominent anti-gun crime group will host a joint conference on Wednesday.
Representatives from organisations on both sides of the firearms debate will discuss ways of cutting gun crime.

A spokesman said it was the first time such diverse groups had come together. Some groups from the two usually distinct camps have refused to attend.

Interestingly enough the Home Office is not attending due to diary commitments. Now that sounds like a poor excuse to me, particularly given that the Home Office takes such a keen interest in fighting gun crime.

Incidentally, the Gun Control Network have refused to take part because they cannot agree 100% with all the views held by one of the conferences participants:

Gill Marshall-Andrew of the Gun Control Network, one of the groups which rejected an invitation to the conference, believes there is a link between gun ownership and gun crime.

"The more guns there are - both legal and illegal - the more they are misused.

"This is what the gun lobby cannot accept and it is why we are unlikely to agree on how the guns laws of the future should be shaped," Ms Marshall-Andrew said.

That's the way forward, eh? Only go to conferences on difficult issues if you already agree with all parties present. Very responsible.

There is another interesting aspect to all this. A little incidental but refreshing if you are used to the way things usually are done where guns and the BBC are concerned. How many BBC reports on guns and the gun lobby end on a positive note? Usually any report that mentions something said or organised by a pro-gun group ends with something like ...but anti gun crime campaigners say that all guns are inherently evil. This one ends with:

"We are sure this will be a valuable event and wish the organisers every success," a Home Office spokesman added.

That is one of the reasons I was so glad that the BASC started off this initiative. As I've said before, it changes the traditional playing field and seizes the initiative.

Legislating away legitimate freedom

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the Home Office. Once a respectable part of the British political landscape the office seems to have become a platform from which increasingly illiberal orders and ‘requirements’ are barked at the population. A population who, when they quite rightly question the orders, are called names and accused of talking nonsense.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, is the top dog, the main barker, the big man in office. A man who seems to trust no one.

He wants each and every one of us to have an ID card so that we can prove who we are to the state.

He wants to lower the burden of proof required for a conviction so that it might be easier for the state should it suspect us of certain crimes.

He wants to charge us for board and lodgings for our time in prison should we be wrongly convicted and later released.

He continues to seek more legislation to restrict the legitimate activities of shooting sportsmen and women while being completely ineffective at stopping the criminal use of guns.

Even the police are not safe from his kind of bullying.

He is a man who seems to lash out at every opportunity leaving a trail of bad and illiberal legislation behind him like a slug might leave a trail of slime.

So what has he in store for us today? Hate legislation:

Inciting religious hatred would become a crime as soon as possible, under plans expected to be announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett on Wednesday.

Agree with him or not there is no doubt that these plans restrict even further your freedom of speech. What is incitement to religious hatred?

What of the deep contempt that someone who has no religion might feel for all for those that do?

What if the contempt that a non believer might have is published on a regular basis in a newsletter or on a web site. What if the atheist speaks of how he doubts the intelligence and integrity of true believers of Christianity or Islam? What if he continually refers to them as the stupid people, who wander around in their self indulgent imaginary worlds filled with a historical bigotry complete with a track record of unimaginable violence against men, women and children who are not part of their particular club?

What of the intolerance that believers of one particular religion have for non-believers?

Labour peer Lord Desai suggested that "from a mullah's viewpoint any criticism of religion will be an incitement", and the law change could have seen Salman Rushdie prosecuted, not protected.

Indeed. To criticise a mans God can be very offensive to the believer but is it incitement to hatred? In one way it doesn’t really matter. If the zealot believes it is incitement all it takes is one phone call to send a whole heap of trouble on its way.

And what if a particularly persuasive atheist criticises a particular religion in an extremely effective manner? A manner which encourages others to take his point on the basis of its intellectual merit and to then spread the criticisms far and wide.

Your God is false and here is my evidence. Your whole belief system is based on nonsense and the fact that you continue to have faith in spite of all this evidence is laughable. It makes you look stupid and, frankly, the fact that you continue to believe makes me doubt your judgement or your honesty. I could never employ you or someone from your religion who continues to believe in it in spite of all the evidence.

It’s a belittling position to take but could it be described as incitement to hatred? I am in no doubt that it could.

But is the position taken by our imaginary atheist a reasonable one? I think that it is. He is making judgements about another person based upon their actions, their thinking and their beliefs. We all do it every day and we all act on our observations and conclusions every day. I find it impossible to welcome as justifiable or legitimate any decree that could result in our atheist being criminalized for his perfectly reasonable judgements.

Religion (of all names) has been responsible for the greatest and bloodiest conflicts in all of human history. Spreading this fact alone incites others to look upon religion and the believers implementation of it with a certain amount of revulsion. Would continually reciting particularly horrible historical facts about one religion be seen as incitement to hatred rather than the simple recounting of historical fact? Yes. Yes of course it would because there is a chance it would incite others to hate that religion and all that it stands for. The hatred itself might be irrational but the teaching of the history is perfectly legitimate.

This is the currency the Home Secretary is dealing in. The currency of freedom. He is spending it like there is no tomorrow.

'ello, 'ello, 'ello, goodbye

Dr. Richard North, aka prisoner JW7874 finally had a police officer (in car naturally) visit his street today. A street that has seen more than its fair share of burglaries. Offering only a brief glimmer of hope to the residents, the officer quickly finished up his business and left before managing to actually fight any street crime.

Why was he there? To deliver a speeding ticket of course.

Gay day ruined by queer ruling on faggots

Want to know why?

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's television watchdog banned a supermarket chain on Monday from using the word "faggot" in a commercial, referring to a traditional British dish.

Somerfield's ad featured a husband complaining about his wife's repetitive cooking.

When she told him it was Friday so he was getting his usual faggots, a traditional dish of meatballs in gravy, he said: "I've nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them."

"Three listeners were offended, as they believed the husband's response alluded to homosexuals, faggots being a derogatory term for them," said media watchdog Ofcom.

But Somerfield denied Ofcom's charge. "Faggots were chosen to demonstrate the idea because they are commonly perceived as an outdated and slightly comical product, not because of any allusions to homosexuality," it said.

But Ofcom ruled that the term was "highly derogatory" and banned the advert from being broadcast again.

Excuse me

Rushed off my feet. I will return as soon as I can.

Wouldn't that be shocking...

...If the words spoken by Saddam at his trial mimicked the words spoken by the frothing anti-liberation leftists? Den Beste raises its possibility:

Another reason is that leftists are going to find a lot of their rhetoric being usurped by Saddam himself. Bush is a criminal, right? Saddam sure thinks so.

Would they even bat an eyelid?

Tall stories

Laban Tall has an excellent newspaper roundup regarding a story about a bunch of Schoolgirls rescued from some large hill or something.

Woah, my headline sucks real bad.

Who is good and who is bad?

Richard, over at the EU referendum blog, is in a spot of bother with the authorities. He is refusing to pay for a service he feels he is not receiving.

I sympathise greatly with him. He feels let down and bullied by the very people who are supposed to protect him and who will not allow him to protect himself.

Can we describe Richard as a bad man. No, I don't think so. This is why I find it so frustrating that he will, in all likelihood, be dealt a greater measure of justice than the criminals that have been plaguing him and his family for so long.

Good luck Richard.

Richard was indeed sent down but was sprung by a wellwisher. He has started a new blog called Prisoner JW7874:

dedicated to exposing the incompetence and inadequacy of the police, and the craven stupidity of the magistrates, extolling people to stop paying for a service that we are not getting.

My own robot warrior army

Natalie Solent reflects upon her special power of invisibility and what good she would have brought to the world had this power actually been, you know, real.

When I was younger I had similar dreams and desires where I would save the world from this dictator, that disaster or, and this was a recurring one, be in the right place at the right time to prevent a dreadful crime from being visited upon a helpless victim.

Obviously my special power was time travel, in as much as I could go back and be there when whatever it was that happened, happened, but this was not the limit of my dream. Oh no. I also had my own private army of caring ruthless bipedal robot warriors. Each was humanoid in nature and covered from head to foot in black well tailored leather battle suits. There was never any hint of what mechanical and electrical marvel lay beneath as no actual part of the robot warrior was on show. High black boots, the aforementioned suit and a black helmet sporting a green plastic looking band that went from one side of the helmet, right round the back to the other, both ends stopping just short of the black visor (naturally). This green addition to the helmet was, I think, spawned from my viewing of a certain TV series called Blakes 7 where, I seem to recall, the federation troopers had a similar decoration.

Whole countries would turn their backs on tyranny from a fear of the deployment of my limitless robot warrior army of justice.

Young children would be saved by the swift and violent intervention of a particle beam accelerator based robot personal firearm.

Obviously, at the time, I thought that my moral judgement of what was right and what was wrong was absolute and correct and that the result of my tyrannical grip on the world would not be, you know, tyranny.

Things are not so clear now. How could they be. Since then I’ve been reading more than just science fiction. I’ve watched the news, read the papers, even read some political and historical stuff (imagine that). What’s more, I’ve been reading blogs which, I might add, have been the single most effective medium to date in making me think that, perhaps, my world view isn’t the only one that has merit. Having said that my pre-blog reading positions on most subjects still remain mainly intact; but not completely and I also have a lot more time for listening and thinking about the arguments of those that don’t agree with my thinking.

It can be confusing and frustrating and would never have happened if I actually did have a robot warrior army all those years ago. Perhaps, in the future, a younger me from the past will actually send the older me in the future the army that I dreamed of. The thing is, would I use it now? Would I be able to trust myself in judging where and when it should be deployed and for what reasons.

Yes. Yes I think I would.

The 1st of the month

So, today is the first of the month. I found this out this morning while I was getting ready for work. I felt a pinch on my backside swiftly followed by a thump and at the same time a little voice said ”a pinch and a punch for the first of the month”. I turned to see my young lad standing next to me with a grin on his face. He doesn’t know his father as well as he should because he remained within striking distance for far too long.

”A punch and a kick for being so quick”, I responded. He jumped into the side of the bed which I had vacated earlier in the morning and snuggled mummy, his smile somewhat reduced. An important lesson for the boy well learned, I thought.

“A smack on the nose for such clever prose”, remarked the misses completely failing to deliver any actual violence.

Lazy, I thought. I would have at least thrown something from the bed.

”A clip round the ear for being so queer”, was the only thing I could think of in response but, thankfully, I didn’t say it. Basically for two reasons. Firstly, it was inaccurate. Secondly, I would have had to approach within striking distance to deliver the clip. In truth, I feared the smack on the nose.

So, happy 1st of the month. I should give you a snog for reading my blog, or some such.

The musical box

Here is a box. A musical box. Wound up a ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is in it today?