and up yours too; Mo!

and just in time to ruin it all………

At my ever-advancing time of life, when I had thought I had truly seen the worst of all human lies, chicanery, and of self-serving falsehoods of the worst kind, we now are able to read, in all their tarnished glory, the words of ex-prime minister Tony Blair as he bestows his words of wisdom upon an awaiting and eagerly expectant world; when he talks and ruminates upon the Democratic Process.

And the worst part about this truly cynical and vastly-deluded person is that he believes that he was doing the right thing; all along!

A most ingenious paradox.

Consider the facts.

A young woman claims she has been raped, and a jury finds her case proven, and the defendant guilty.

The defence argued firstly that the sex was consensual, as both participants were drunk, and then that the alleged victim, as she had no true recollection of the events, had not suffered. The accused still claims innocence, and refuses to apologise, even after he is released from prison after serving half his sentence.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the accused is a very well-known and prominent footballer; he claims that, even though he has always stated his innocence, he has done his time, and should be allowed to go on with his life.

His life seems to still revolve around football, and his club, Sheffield United, are allowing him to train with the club, but have not yet signed a contract.

Because of the Club’s stance in even considering allowing the rapist’s return, high-profile patrons of the club, such as Jessica Ennis-Hill of Olympic fame has asked that, if the rapist returns to the club, her name should be removed from the stand. Others have followed Jessica’s stance.

The Professional Footballers Association of Ireland have defended the club for their forgiving attitude, and further stated  “There was no violence and thankfully the victim has no recollection of it. This, I hasten to add, does not make it right, or anything close to it, but it is nonetheless a mitigating factor.”

So, should Jessica speak up or shut up; and should this fine, upstanding role-model go back to the pitch, and his extremely-large pay-packet, and bye-gones should be bye-gones; or should he be banned from all football, for life, for this crime of violence against an unresisting young woman?

by George, I think he’s got it!

When people discuss George Monbiot, when they speak to criticise the man’s works, or beliefs, or indeed his very right to share the oxygen with anyone else, some get very passionate indeed. He has the ability to provoke comment by simply blowing his nose, never mind writing an essay or an op-ed piece for his employer, The Guardian. I, along with many others, dislike his arrogance in his assumption that only he is right; and therefore everyone else is either misinformed, or just plain wrong.

But even George occasionally gets, at least in my own opinion, certain things right. such as his varied and wide criticisms of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is an Intercontinental attempt at writing a Trade arrangement between the EU and the USA. The rights and wrongs of this cosy little deal are many and varied, and I see little benefit for ordinary people on either side of the Atlantic from this huge and intrinsically convoluted deal, but George has placed his digit on one very important device, inserted by huge commercial interests, to vary the usual manner in which decisions are challenged within this Treaty. He asks, as do I, why bring in Arbitration, where three private individuals are entrusted with the power to review, without any restriction or appeal procedure, all actions of the government, all decisions of the courts, and all laws and regulations emanating from parliament; when, up to now, our Courts have been up to that challenge?

As my old Grandmother stated……

 

Adams admitted the IRA’s kangaroo courts for sex offenders meant they were ‘ill-equipped’ to deal with the issue.

He wrote on his blog: ‘This included very sensitive areas such as responding to demands to take action against rapists and child abusers. The IRA on occasion shot alleged sex offenders or expelled them,’ he said.

‘While this may have been expedient at the time it was not appropriate.

‘Victims were left without the necessary social service support and abusers without supervision. It ultimately failed victims and the community alike. That is a matter of profound regret for me, and many other republicans’.

Show me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are!

 

 

The man who ‘Lost it’; or the shades of Chavez!

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–

Of cabbages–and kings–And why the sea is boiling hot—and whether pigs have wings.

Many people said many things in the long run up to the Scots Referendum. ‘First Minister’ Alec Salmond pronounced his usual inflammatory sentences, toned down just a little from his Marxist youth, when he and his ‘comrades were committed to the establishment of a ‘Socialist and Republican Scotland; just a little bit less of the bully in his tone as he knew that he had to speak not only to the Scots, but also to the hated English who have so languidly and so long held the financial reins of the Scots Exchequer. But his was not the voice who, in the end, lost the campaign for that illusory ‘Independence’, he may be a revolutionary but he is no fool. That distinction is held by one man, the former deputy leader of the SNP, Jim Sillars.

Jim Sillars claimed there is talk of a “boycott” of John Lewis, banks to be split up, and new law to force Ryder Cup sponsor Standard Life to explain to unions its reasons for moving outside Scotland.
He said: “This referendum is about power, and when we get a Yes majority, we will use that power for a day of reckoning with BP and the banks.
“The heads of these companies are rich men, in cahoots with a rich English Tory Prime Minister, to keep Scotland’s poor, poorer through lies and distortions. The power they have now to subvert our democracy will come to an end with a Yes.”

He added: “BP, in an independent Scotland, will need to learn the meaning of nationalisation, in part or in whole, as it has in other countries who have not been as soft as we have forced to be. We will be the masters of the oil fields, not BP or any other of the majors.”
Mr Sillars said that under an independent Scotland, Standard Life would be required by new employment laws to give two years warning of any redundancies – and reveal to the trade unions its financial reasons for relocation to any country outside of Scotland.

Earlier this week, a number of banks, including Lloyds Banking Group and RBS, said they would look to move their headquarters south of the border in the event of a Yes vote. “What kind of people do these companies think we are? They will find out,” he added.

“In each and every election to an independent Parliament, parties and individuals can put forward a manifesto of their choosing and the people will decide. The role of Yes is to achieve a Yes vote, so that the people of Scotland will always get the governments we vote for – and never again Westminster-imposed Tory governments.”

That is the tone which scared the living daylights out of the Tory & Labour parties, as well as the multitude of steady Scots who were considering, or even swinging, towards the ‘Yes’ campaign. So, a big ‘Thank You Jimmy’, from the United Kingdom to the fool who just could not keep his big Communist trap shut!

Now where have I heard that ‘song’ before?

If the varied and various headlines published over the past few days, and indeed weeks are anything to go by, the Scottish Referendum should be viewed as a complete change in British Politics. The ‘Independence’ claims of ‘Freedom’ and ‘self-rule’ are there in plenty, as well as the undertones, always evident from the Celtic fringe, of a release from the servitude of centuries, of a forced bow towards Westminster, of having to be allowed to spend tax-payers money which stems from the wealth stemming from Scots oil and gas. Much more has been written, and spoken, by the Scots ‘Yes’ campaign, but all along the, the same theme emerges from these Scots politicians; ‘Trust us, and we shall deliver you and Scotland towards the Elysian Fields, and it will not cost you anything’!

Much the same thing, but on a much more negative note, comes from the speeches of the ‘No’ campaign; more dire warnings from a bunch of politicians and observers gathered together, for expediency purposes, under their ‘No Thanks’ banner. We hear of the terrible things which may befall the Scots, if they decide to ‘go it alone’, and even of the very voice of the Prime Minister ‘breaking’ with true emotion as he implores the Scottish voters to believe him and his confreres in the ‘No’ camp; whilst at the same time asking those same Scottish voters to forget that he shares the same platform with the Labour leader, a bitter enemy, and the Lib-Dim leader, another bitter enemy, but one wrapped in the colours of a Coalition.

But amidst all the clamour, the many and varied promises of a collective bunch of Politicians whom, we are justly remembering, are the same bunch who promised all those things which never came to pass, because they will never, ever, contemplate changing from the ‘status quo ante’; meaning, literally, the same as was before.

Commentators, and there are many of us, despair of being offered a true change, of a movement away from the deadly boredom of Government by Party politics, of the incessant pleas for this special treatment for a small category, or that ‘exception’ to the rules for the rest of us.

If one of the Parties: now scrambling to attempt to undo the catastrophic decisions which came forth after the totally stupid and cowardly ‘Devolution’ schemes of the early Blair/New Labour years, when the paths towards a Scottish ‘Independence’ were first cast in Legislation: had actually presented any new ideas, any faint traces of a proper ‘Democracy’; of changes which would form a Government which reacted to what the People wanted; instead of ramming through policies based on Party dogma, many would have applauded and made those changes work. But the big problem is that, in order to effect those changes, the Party politicians, together with the bulk of the invisible but powerful ‘Inner Government’ which is actually what the Whitehall Civil Service actually is, would have to give up power, and themselves be subject to the considered ‘whims’ of the people who gave their votes, and allowed the parasites in power to milch the public purse unto the tenth generation!

What is not evident, but still present, are the facts that one bunch of the ‘Old Elite’ are attempting to wrest power from the rest of the ‘Old Elite’; with not a new thought, or idea, or proposal amongst the lot of them! If you mention, even in passing, the Harrogate Solution, all you would probably get would be “Whats Harrogate got to do with it”?

Er, what was that name again?

As of the date when the Rotherham Child Betrayal Report was first published, many millions of words have been published on this story of the complete betrayal of a generation of young, female, WHITE children who have lived, or rather existed, in towns and cities where Pakistani Muslim men, mainly from the Pashtun tribal regions of Kashmir, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have systematically raped, beaten, sexually exploited them, under cover of a self-satisfied horde of politicians, social workers and, worst of all; Police, who did absolutely nothing to rescue these girls from this hell-hole of a life. When the girls told their parents, and the parents complained, the Police told them that their daughters were just part of a bunch of white ‘slappers’, who deserved everything they got; and this was the opinion of the social bunch and the politicians as well!

It has taken one fearless woman, Professor Alexis Jay, to rip the veil, or should that be the niqab, from the slime which was the truth behind the Muslim peril which existed, and indeed still exists, just one small step away from the ever-so-righteous Muslims who parade in and out of the Rotherham, Rochdale, and Manchester mosques, as well as those in Luton and in many other towns and cities across this land which once spoke of itself as a free Country.

But we were warned that this sort of thing was happening; the gang-rapes, the fearsome brutality, the organised exploitation of White schoolgirls who had the great misfortune to be sent to a Council ‘Care Home’. We were warned ten years ago! But the problem was that, because  the person who first made those warnings was not politically acceptable; was not accepted as being trustworthy, was in fact accused of criminal behaviour for uttering that very warning, his words and his warnings were rejected and ignored.

Who was that man?

His name was Nick Griffin

 

and I have seen the coming of the Lord: Hallelujah!

 

So there lives in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri; a very large young(ish) black man. He is indeed a handful, and few in his ‘hood dare come up against him, mainly because he is so big. But, and of course it is a very large ‘but’, his ‘family’ has stated he was changing. According to his ‘family’ he had seen a vision, a vision of an angel, being pursued by Satan, but the angel sought protection in the clouds which were the features of God. He was said to be studying religion, and the Bible; and was said to be struggling with life’s mysteries. From being a big bully, a drug-user and petty criminal, his ‘family’ stated that he was turning his life around, as he had taken a picture of the sky, and told them that he ‘believed’; at least, this is what we are told by his ‘family’. He was known to be a ‘prankster’, and this I believe, because if you are big enough, and say you are just joking as you steal two boxes of cigars from a corner shop, and when the shop assistant protests, that assistant is slammed into a display stand; that is indeed a joke He was said to have a smile which endeared him to his neighbours, but these stories have strangely emerged some weeks after his death at the hands and bullets of a white policeman.

So, who do you believe, the words and memories of a huge black thug’s ‘family’ memories, of how he was just misunderstood, how he had, conveniently for those same memories, ‘found the Lord’, how he was just ‘joking’ when he punched a fellow black youth in the face, how he was a drug user and oh, I forgot, a ‘rapper’ who sang glowingly about his stepmother, but who also liked lyrics which ended ‘when the bodies hit the ground’: or do you believe the white policeman who wanted this hulking black man to get onto the pavement instead of swaggering down the centre of the road, and who, after being attacked by this extremely large and strong man, and suffering facial injury, was once again confronted by this six-foot four inches-tall black man, and shot him in self defence! If you believe the ‘family’, I reckon you will believe anything, inclusive of the CIA plot on 9/11, the ‘faked’ moon landings, and the fact that Jack Kennedy was a good man and a great politician, instead of a philandering liar and serial fool.

Oh, and as a simple explanation, it is oft asked why I place quotation marks such as those adjacent to the word ‘family’? I do this because I disbelieve the statements entirely, believing them to be purely self-serving embellishments, generated by groups who detest the very idea of black people being in the wrong at all;  with absolutely no evidence of their being truthful at all!

A ‘law’ for him, but not for her

Maybe many thousands of people have ‘googled’ about the ignoble ‘Lord Rennard’ and his pervy dealings with at least four women (that number is based upon those who actually came forward); the laughable ‘enquiry’ pushed by the LibDems as the only way to shovel this particular pile of manure out of the room; and the truly shoddy manner in which the Party decided that they would be taking no further action.

Now I mentioned the term ‘googled’; but I wonder just how many people noticed that at the base of the first page of search results, if you look diligently, you will read this small line, placed to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling, which states:-

 

 Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe. (my accents)

Now if people are sufficiently intrigued by this notice, as I have maybe stated previously, and institute an identical search on Google.com, you come up with this little gem, which of course gives one of these women’s words in full, as opposed to those blotted out in the original search. Words such as :-

Susan was sitting with seven female colleagues, including Jo Swinson, now the Minister for Women and Equality, enjoying a gin and tonic after dinner when Rennard ‘plonked himself down’ next to her.

‘Physically, I thought he was a fat, bald man who looked a bit sweaty, but he was very charming and seemed to listen,’ she says.

‘He started asking me questions about what my ambitions were and where I saw my future going. I told him I really wanted to be an MP. I thought: “This is a positive conversation to be having. I’m setting out my store as to who I am, what I believe in and where I see myself.”

‘And then his hand touched my knee.

‘I thought, “I’m imagining this” — so moved my leg away and carried on the conversation.

‘He moved closer and it happened again,’ says Susan, her pretty, heart-shaped face expressing genuine revulsion.

‘I shifted a little bit more and that exposed my back, because I was wearing a little pink top. He started stroking this bare bit of skin.

‘It was quite late and we had been drinking. I’d had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner and was on my second gin and tonic, but I was hardly throwing my legs in the air.

‘By that stage the person next to me had gone to bed, so I moved myself from one chair to another. It must have been half-elevenish. When I moved chairs, he moved chairs … and it started again.

‘I thought, “I don’t like this, I really don’t like this” so I finished my drink and said: “I’m off to bed.” He said: “I’ll walk up with you.”

‘I thought: “How do I get out of this?” So I said: “No, I’m going to go to the ladies first because I don’t think I’ll make it upstairs.”

‘I hid in there for about ten minutes, pacing up and down. When I thought he must have finished his drink and gone to bed, I started towards the stairs. It was this sort of winding staircase and he was standing at the bottom. He said: “I’ll walk you up.”

‘We got to the top of the staircase and he brushed my back again. I turned round and said: “I’m off to bed. Really nice to have had that conversation.”

‘He said: “No, no, no. Let’s get a couple more drinks and we’ll go to my room and we can discuss your future political career.”

‘My head at this point was just screaming: “No! No! Susan, what have you got yourself into?” I told him I was really tired and had to go to bed.

‘When I got into my room, that was when the tears started. I phoned my dad and said: “Dad, I think I’ve just wrecked my political career because I turned down Chris Rennard.”’

Now I, and maybe many others, will commence wondering who actually contacted that mighty Search Engine, and insisted that that link be scrubbed away from any results for Susan’s name in conjunction with the pervy, wriggling, nasty twit who goes by the name of Reennard?

And of course the second query is the one that counts. How many women will still work and vote for a bunch as lily-livered and compromised as the Lib-Dems surely are; especially after a decision such as this?

Number please?

I don’t know if any loyal reader has checked out the ‘nightmare in Comcast-land’ where an ordinary American bloke who has had a Comcast broadband connection decided that he and his family wanted to trade away, get another service provider, and break with Comcast completely. To check out this truly-Orwellian conversation, go to this link, and it will be revealed in all its awesome clarity. But the point, made later on any number of Commentary blogs, radio & tv spots, is that the Comcast bloke was literally or seemingly only trying to do his job, which is that of a ‘Customer Retention Representative’. Seems as though Comcast takes the nightmare of losing customers rather seriously, and every CRE gets a bonus for customers retained, for ‘milking services’ presumably, but, if the CRE does not show success, his number comes up on a monthly ‘debit board’, and he either loses his bonus, or gets placed on a Comcast ‘watch list’; which is presumably just about the same as the modern version of Long John Silver’s ‘Black Spot’.

Now I recently bought a new ‘smart-ish’ phone, and signed up with a different Service provider. Now when we in Gt. Britain wish to move from one mobile provider to another, you apply for a Port Authorisation Code, and then you can take your number, and your business, wherever you wish. So I contacted Orange, because I had been with them until alerted that they were much more expensive than others. So I called Orange, and asked for my PAC, and this bloke says, “Who are you moving to?”

Now I don’t normally get all uptight with people in call-centres, mainly because they usually work from  screen menus, but because this clown wouldn’t leave off asking where and why I was placing my mobile business elsewhere, I abruptly told him to ‘f*** off’, give me my PAC number, and cease pissing around.

I would only note that Comcast is seeking FCC approval to take over Time Warner, and wonder if the FCC is noticing they are allowing one big bully to get ever larger!

 

…in sickness, and in health…..

 

 

Before posting on a subject which is worthy of at least some discussion, before being cast into the cess-pool from which it has arisen, I thought I would lighten the atmosphere by posting a photo of what must be the most enchanting small child’s smile published this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long-awaited bill being published by the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has parallels with the 1967 Abortion Act by placing responsibility for authorising the action in the hands of two doctors.

legalise assisted dying

upholding the sanctity of human life without regard to suffering caused in the process

“ethical turning point”

be promoting anguish and pain, the very opposite of a Christian message of hope.”

the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” should not mean prolonging suffering.

in the face of the reality of needless suffering.”

In writing about this pernicious, dangerous and illiberal Assisted Dying Bill, I would attempt to explain my thoughts. The quotations, taken from people who support this Bill, do not state the truth about what is proposed. The Bill is written and introduced to change the Law. Ignore all the emotional rubbish held within those quotations, the supporters of this Bill want, wish and work towards one thing, and one thing only :-

 

Euthanasia!

I knew the girl I met was for me some ten seconds after we first saw each other, but, upon my return after my last trip to sea, I laid siege until she agreed to marry me.  We were gloriously, blissfully happy, our family grew and blossomed; until I was finally made aware that my beloved wife was seriously ill, and I had to have her committed. My wife of now some forty-seven years has been suffering from the effects of schizophrenia for some forty-three of those years. For many years, after she was released to me from the mental hospital where she was treated, she was back to some 95-97.5% of the woman whom I fell in love with, all those years ago in one chance evening at the Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square; but things went downhill some ten or twelve-odd years ago.

She now sits upstairs on her bedside, anxiously awaiting my help for even the slightest move to swivel across to her commode. She depends upon me for everything, and I would be a strange caricature of a man if I ever deserted her. My philosophy of life is now, and has been for many years; ‘you play the hand you are dealt’, and this is what I do for the woman I love. But what might happen to my love if I should die before her? Being totally dependent upon others for everything, and I do mean everything; more than likely she would be headed straight for a care facility, would she not be a prime target for these do-gooders who believe firmly that they know what is best for one who cannot articulate her needs and wishes?

I once visited an old-aged people’s home/complex in Islington to help a mate of mine who was compiling an electrical tender document, and I will be honest when I state that I have never witnessed anything more dispiriting in my entire life. I entered the main room/hall of the home, and there must have been at least seventy or eighty elderly people seated there, but the strange thing was the fact that they were all seated at seventy or eighty different angles to one another; there were two televisions blaring away at opposite corners of the room, no-one was watching either, and this was the first time that I had ever witnessed what is called the ‘Thousand-mile-stare’, where the person’s eyes are focussed over a huge distance away. The staff could safely be described as uniformly useless, as I gathered when talking to the one helpful staff member, a maintenance bloke, who simply sniffed when asked his opinion of his fellow workers, then replied, ‘when they aren’t in ever-extended meetings discussing how much they would not be doing, they are forever looking after themselves; with not much time left for the poor sods in the armchairs and beds’! I spotted one lady, seated in a wheelchair, trapped in the space between a wall and a folding door. She had been left by the ‘caring’ staff member, and forgotten as breakfast had been served, and no-one missed her, until an outsider arrived and gently wheeled her out of her confinement. She was so pathetically grateful to me, a stranger for helping her. Needless to state, I made my own feelings pretty plain to the management, but I don’t believe that my anger even registered!

Reference is made in one of the earlier quotations to the Abortion Act of 1967. I would simply remind readers that one of the ruling guidelines in 1967 was that two doctors should examine and confer with the pregnant woman before agreeing and signing to that abortion procedure. Those guidelines are now so loose that a NURSE can authorise an abortion.  I would remind ATW readers that, in just four years, there have been 731801 babies, foetuses; call them what you will, killed quite legally in this so-called civilised country of ours! Just consider what a bunch of politicians and their fellow bottom-feeding compatriots could do once the Euthanasia Bill becomes Law?

The Assisted Dying Bill, which in reality should be renamed the ‘Euthanasia Bill’ or the even more explanatory The Inconvenience Bill’ or the  ‘Let us get rid of the Old, the Ill, the Insane, the Sufferers from incurable and painful Diseases, those who alarm us by their very longevity, and the Memories of what faces us all Bill’ is a shameful and destructive piece of legislation, and we, along with the dangerous do-gooder Clowns who propose and back this tawdry attempt to change, by euphemism alone, the settled Law, should be ashamed that Legislation as bad, corrupt and disgraceful as this Bill undoubtedly is, even passes across the threshold of the House of Lords in these troubled times.

 

It all depends if they are, or wish to be

In the true spirit of journalism, I had a look at the effects of things similar to Google’s European operations having to comply with EU court rulings on privacy.

Some wonderful things can be highlit by such searches, but the funniest, and possibly the most unwelcome, result of a request for anonymity can be seen here:-

 

1. The Boring Home: Aaron and Christine Boring of Franklin Park Pa. claimed that Google Maps’ Street View feature violated their privacy, devalued their property and caused them mental suffering by posting images of a private road in front of their house. The Borings said that the images of their home must have been taken from their long driveway, which is labeled “Private Road.”

I would have suggested a change of name.

A strange but pertinent fact regarding these requests for ‘anonymity’ is that, by simply swapping your search engine from Google UK to Google.com, all such requests are nullified, because Google.com lives, alive and kicking, in America, the ‘Land of the Free’!

As the Guardian states, it is fairly obvious the Google doesn’t like the ruling from the Court, so it notes that not only do all the stories still exist on the various websites linked, but now not shown, Google itself has begun a small but telling addtion to its Home pages; as if you check down the right-hand base of the screen you are directed to the American home page, and there you will see, as I pointed out earlier, all the links which those shifty people are trying to hide.

the best-laid plans……gang aft a-gley!

It all started with the best possible motives, which was to set in hard memory the vaunted deeds and so-called ‘sacrifices’ of the sacred volunteers of the Irish Republican Army. Other people, with a more settled view of events, would call these ‘sacred volunteers’ by another set of names and adjectives, with ‘murderous psychopaths’ being one of the more printable versions, but perhaps back to the news.

The John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston College was to be the repository for the murderous memories of this bunch of killers, the preliminary meetings, between an American librarian, a journalist and an ex-IRA killer who had served seventeen years for the killing of a Protestant ‘volunteer’ was arranged, and this meeting was to serve as the start point for an ambitious project to record, for ‘history’, for future researchers who foraged after their version of the ‘Truth about the Troubles’. These three starry-eyed idiots, full of beer, patriotism and promises, forgot one teensy-weeny tiny detail. When they promised the killers anonymity, when they promised that no-one would see or hear the recordings until after the death of the person whose words were recorded; when they told the likes of the stone-cold killer Dolours Price that she would be remembered as a heroine of the ‘Freedom fighters’; they hadn’t put any of their ‘contracts’, their silly, stupid legally-binding promises before a trained American lawyer!

And that is why we are hearing of the arrests in Northern Ireland, of the detention of the leader of the gang of killers who snatched a widowed mother of ten from her living room, tortured her and then shot her in the back of the head before burial in an unmarked grave. He may well escape true justice, but there are many voices to be listened to, and the PSNI, in an attempt to maybe get ahead of the ridicule, have even bought new headphones!

Pressure? Us? Never in a million…..

I have written before about my doubts and dislike of most human transplant techniques and proposals, these dislikes being based upon the apparent eagerness of medical people to ‘harvest’ or to slice organs off ‘donors’ while they are still technically alive. My unease was first established many years ago, when South Africa was still getting used to the news that Christiaan Barnard had performed the world’s heart transplant, and that the process actually worked. Following on from this ‘world’s first’ procedure, thousands more have followed, but to this writer, at least, the doubts remain.

I wrote of my own collision with the ‘Organ vultures’ which occurred many years back, when I stated:-

I have personally seen the medical vultures in operation, whilst in South Africa. I had transported the grieving parents of a child, gravely injured in an accident, to the hospital. There they were told, sympathetically enough, of their son’s condition and prognosis, which was fatal. But there was a second medic in the queue to speak with this couple, and all he was asking that the parents sign the various forms which he held on a clip-board. He was very persistent in his requests, but rather vague as to the ends built in to the forms. Being a very interested observer, and also being both hard-headed and willing to speak out, I took this young white-coated clown to one side, and asked, yes ‘asked’ would be a good word, what he wished of my friends. Very reluctantly, he showed me the forms, which of course were a series of consents for tissue and organ removal from their dying son.
I made him, and his Administrator, very aware what would happen if the mortal remains of my friends’ son were not released for burial as complete as possible, as they were in no state to give cogent thought to having their son’s body plundered in the name of medical excellence and study.

To donate is good, if you are so inclined; anything else is theft!

Which is why I write again of the Transplant Industry, of the propositions and proposals now available to people desperate for an answer, a solution to a medical problem which maybe once was uniformly fatal, but that solution comes with its own unique invasion of another person’s right to choose whether to agree to be a donor or not. We read of a seven year-old boy who has contracted leukaemia, and of his THREE YEAR-OLDbrother who was ASKED by his parents to agree to be a bone-marrow donor to his brother. What sort of ghouls are treating this small boy; and more importantly; are the parents from the same planet as the rest of us. Imagine, they are placing a decision, whether to agree to be a part of a life-altering procedure for his brother, onto the mind of a THREE YEAR-OLD boy. Just imagine what his life would be like if this small boy had said “NO!”; and his brother had succumbed to this disease, the same disease which had killed my beloved sister some fifty-odd years ago?

Ghouls and vultures is what I termed them before, and my mind has not changed one iota!

The only crime is to remain silent!

With  their names being published in a news blog, alleging their involvement in a peaedophile ring of alarming proportions, I just wonder when any of these people would commence looking for their mobile phones to dial their lawyers, to institute proceedings against further publication of allegations involving serious sexual abuse done to children supposedly ‘in care’?

Prominent people such as :-

• Sir Peter Bottomley. Worthing MP and Monday Club
• Charles Irving
• Leon Britton, Lord, ex Thatcher Minister
• Peter Brooke, Life Peer
• John Rowe, MI5, former MP
• Ron Brown
• Colin Jordan, ex National Front Leader
• George Tremlett, Former GLC Leader
• Peter Campbell, Monday Club
• Gary Walker, Sinn Fein
• Cliff Richard, aged  Pop Star,
• Jess Conrad, aged ex Pop Star.
• Ron Wells, aged Musician,
• Richard Miles, Monday Club
• Chris Denning, ex BBC DJ,
• R Langley, Buckingham Palace Equerry

I feel that these people should stand up against such scurrilous allegations, as printed online in ‘scriptonite’, take her to court and win substantial damages against a blogger who seems determined to libel these unfortunate people who are all totally innocent!

I also reckon Sir Peter Hayman should sue to protect and clear his name against other scurrilous allegations, as can be found here!

Letter to an Editor

I wrote a small screed to our local newspaper concerning a proposed Development Plan for our whole County, and I thought I might reproduce it here. As I may have mentioned before, I have taken a deep and critical interest in local politics recently, so, as this Plan is so important, I thought I might stir up some effluent.:- (Note; the words in Red are quoted straight from the Plan).

To the Editors,

I am writing to advise your readers of a book that they simply must read. They won’t have to buy it, because it is free to those who wish access, either online, as a download, or as a normal printed book. It is a work of non-fiction, but there is, by this observer’s thinking, a great deal of both fiction and wishful thinking in this book of 301 pages. It has a really zingy title, well chosen for both brevity and accuracy; namely… The County Durham Plan (Pre-Submission Draft Local Plan). See what I mean? The words roll off your tongue like treacle spread over honey! It is a great pity that the contents don’t live up to the title, as there is planning, but not the type which most of us would accept as the result of neutral thought and open discussion. No, this document, which purports to be the Plan under which this whole County, along with all its residents, will be steered towards a happier, more productive and informed existence than they do at present; is in fact the worst sort of Socialist thinking in terms of the old-style attitude of ‘We know what is best, so shut up, pay your taxes, and we’ll let you know when its finished!’

Allow me to expand and explain. The book states, in great detail, The Plan as it purports to lay out the master-plan for regeneration, re-industrialisation and re-vitalisation of the County in which we live. I was not expecting to read a funny book, but there are pages which will generate laughter in the reader, but the laughter will not be of a humorous nature; but instead will be acid, sarcastic and derisory. The excerpts which will generate the laughter are entitled ‘Vision’, and explain, in great and glorious detail, how we shall all be living, some twenty years down the timeline, in a ‘Workers Paradise’, reminiscent of the Stalinist billboards which featured strong, muscular, chisel-featured  men and beautiful women, gazing forth into a rising sun, as they set forth to build that same ‘Paradise’.

We are told that Durham City’s traders and businesses will flourish, aided by the newly-built “relief roads”which will remove excess ‘through’ traffic from its overburdened main roads. Tourists will “flock’ to see the Cathedral and the ‘sensitively optimised heritage and cultural attractions’, whilst staying in the newly-provided ‘quality accommodation’. Major new ‘communities’ will have developed to the North, East and South of the City proper, and the inhabitants of those ‘new communities’ will all be leading fruitful lives in harmony with everyone else. To the East of Durham City, Seaham Harbour is lauded as a new generator for wealth and activity, with most of the new wealth coming from the ‘Marina and Harbour’, the only one in County Durham, and the visionary Centre for Creative Excellence. Peterlee is not forgotten, as the Plan states that it will have a ‘vibrant’ regionally important employment base and new rail access via the new rail station at Horden.

For the South of the County, the planners wax lyrical with the ‘strong success’ of Aycliffe Park and Amazon Park, and Hitachi shall be the home of train manufacturing in the UK. Bishop Auckland has not been forgotten, as it is described as having a consolidated retail centre and well-supports the ‘visitor experience’, what ever that may be. Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor will no doubt be encouraged to learn they will have viable housing strategies, and Crook will still be the ‘gateway’ to the Durham Dales. The West of the County, Barnard Castle, Stanhope and Wolsingham will be delighted to learn that accessibility will have been improved, and broadband access will bring creative and service industries flocking to their environment.

All this will be achieved through ‘Sustainable Development’ and a ‘Spatial Approach’ (no, I don’t know what that means either!); but a big hint is in the choice, by these same Planners, of where and how the major new ‘Communities’ will be sited and built, and then bought by the future occupants of these ‘sustainably built’ and ‘spatially planned’ houses and estates.

The  Durham City Green Belt is proposed, under this Plan, to be de-registered and then raped, in three major areas. To the North of Durham City, a huge new development north of the Arnison Centre, a second huge estate complex surrounding  Sniperley to the North East, and a third, smaller housing development South of  Sherburn Road. The two afore-mentioned ‘relief roads’ shall funnel the extra traffic generated by the occupants of the new developments, mostly riding on public transport and fewer in those nasty, evil private cars, away from the main thoroughfares and trunk roads of Durham City proper, and all in this new-found ‘Garden of Eden’ will be so, so happy!

But the twist in this Planners’ plot comes along when the Plan reveals how all of this will be paid for. Because the bill will be immense! All the industrial parks, the new ‘relief roads’, access roads, sewerage, power lines and cables will have to be provided, but not by the County Council; because the Council doesn’t have any extra taxpayers’ cash of its own. Or does it? No, it will all be paid for by the Community Infrastructure Levy, which is just another name for yet another ‘Stealth Tax’ which states that every house, every shop, store or supermarket, every development within the list will have to shell out huge sums of money to fund these huge bills, and the end users of the houses would have to realise that the inflated prices being asked for these ‘sustainably and spatially’-built homes would be paying, through the veritable nose, for the privilege of living in one of these so-called ‘vibrant’ communities. Just to give you some idea of the range of charges under this Community Levy, the proposed Levy charges for new homes within the Green Belt land would be around £250.00 per square metre, for large retailers (supermarkets) the Levy would be around £400.00 per square metre, and for student accommodation the charge would be £50.00 per square metre. So if Tesco wanted to build another ‘Extra’ around the same size as the Dragonville site, they would have to shell out, on top of all the other building costs, 40,000 * £400.00, or some £16 million quid! The Council really want to attract new investment into County Durham!

So, in winding up this small diatribe, I would end with one piece of advice, and one comment. The advice is simple, grab yourself a long, cool gaze at this bureaucratic wet dream, and then make your objections, if any occur to you, known to the Council, either on the web-site, or by letter.

The comment is the truth that we, as a community, get exactly the Local Government we deserve. An Exhibition on the Plan were held at Framwellgate Moor on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday 23^rd, and the room was thronged with interested people. A similar exhibition was held at the Laurel Avenue community centre in Gliesgate on the 24^th, the  following Thursday, and only two people, one of whom was myself, signed in by 7 p.m.

Regards

Mike Cunningham

I have a dream……..

……….that one day, sometime in the dim and distant future, common sense will rear its head regarding the insane idea that a country, or an alliance of countries will make the Syrian Government back down from the use of poison gas and chemical weaponry by an attack using cruise missiles and ‘stand-off’ bombs.

• The Syrians, led by Assad, are fighting for their existence; and are winning with the able aid of Hezbollah’s fanatics. Who, in this crazy world, believes that an attack, no matter how broad, or threatening, or damaging, or awesome, will deter one swivel-eyed bunch of ragheads from attempting to wipe out another bunch of equally-swivel-eyed ragheads?
• A sizeable majority of the ‘Opposition’ in the field are harnessed and led by Al Quaeda affiliates. Has it occurred to the ‘bomber-boy’ buddies Obama, Cameron and Hollande that when the Tomahawks, Harpoons and Exocets begin to rain down on the airfields and radar stattions of Syria; that this will undoubtedly give heart and volition to even more ‘jihadi’ clowns to fight in the hope of killing the Alawites of Bashar Assad, and replacing them as rulers of an Islamic State along the user-friendly lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The Allies have, rather sensibly, refrained from supplying mobile anti-aircraft missiles to the disorganised clowns fighting Assad, as those same clowns have a rather strange affinity for attacking Western aircraft, and if you give them Stinger missiles, the next thing would be a BA 747 or an American Airlines Airbus slicing into the ground after its engines are blown off the wing!
• The belief amongst the ‘thinking elites’ of Islington and Chipping Norton that Syria will take note of a battering from the skies is ludicrous.
• Where is the proof that Assad’s regiments delivered the poisonous clouds which ‘killed’ hundreds? Assad’s armies are winning. Are they so stupid that they would unleash a deadly gas attack whilst the UN inspectors are seven miles away? What would be the purpose of that attack?
• Immediately upon the first missiles rain down on Syrian soil, the way is open for an immediate counter-strike upon a very close and really jumpy neighbour, who flies a six-pointed blue star, and who is closely allied to the USA, otherwise known as ‘The Great Satan’.
• The only winners in this war will be the suppliers of missiles, aircraft builders and hospital supply companies.

Meat Market; or just modern bureaucracy?

When one reads of a child’s death at the hands of abusive and murderous ‘parents’, we usually shake our heads in mute incomprehension. I am the father of three adult kids, and within the term ‘father’ is held the truth that I am able to state that I helped bring forth into this world three fairly-well adjusted kids, and through a process of learning, adjustment and advice-osmosis; watched with pride as my two sons and a daughter navigated the pit- and prat-falls of youth to emerge as adults towards whom I can acknowledge with pride as mine own. They had the best of my life’s learning to lean upon, and I just cannot comprehend the grievous injuries inflicted upon defenceless young bodies which were similar in all respects to those three youngsters placed in my care.

When the ‘authorities’ finally take notice of neglect and violence inflicted on a child, the actions are usually the result of a ‘Case Conference’ where all interested parties have a chance to put their views forward, and often as not, the child or children are taken from parents deemed, in the opinion of course of the ‘experts’, as unfit to hold those children within their homes. They are then located with suitable ‘foster homes’, or sometimes group homes and many are placed for adoption.

Some commentators, such as the admirable Christopher Booker, have made their passions a crusade to fight against  the ‘Secret courts’ system, where children are taken at birth from mothers deemed ‘unfit’ on the say-so of social workers whose evidence is never questioned, but taken as gospel.

And where do many of these kids end up? They end up here,  in the forms displayed, as though their parents, many of whom are innocent of all crimes or allegations, can see their kids for one last time before they disappear into the anonymity of court-ordered adoption.

tear down this wall

Ignore, if you will, the unpleasant story which the Guardian reporter is telling; where he, along with the Washington Post, is exposing the huge amount of law-breaking by both the NSA and GCHQ. Ignore, as well, the fact that all this stems from an illegal act by Edward Snowden, when he betrayed the trust given him by ‘whistleblowing’ about the secret courts in the USA which demanded that Internet giants such as Yahoo and Google had no recourse but to supply the spies with their customers information.

Concentrate, instead on the fact of which we know; which is that a Brazilian national, David Miranda, was threatened and bullied, totally illegally, into supplying access passwords for laptop and mobile phones. Threatened with jail if he did not comply! We also know that the top civil servant Sir Jeremy Heywood went to the Guardian to bully them into destroying computer hard drives, under the gaze of shadowy figures from GCHQ.

And we now know that the orders for this totally illegal operation came from David Cameron himself.

Touch Me Not!

Some six years ago, I wrote a piece on the astounding number of ‘Untouchables’, or Dalits, to give them their Indian title, in the country which proudly advertises itself as ‘the largest Democracy in the world’. Largest, it may well be; but Democratic? No Way! Allow me to explain.

India is one of the world’s most heavily-populated countries, being second only to China in numbers, but apart from the well-known political and public figures, there is little awareness amongst the wider public in how India governs itself, both in terms of religion, politics and social structure. The main religion in India is Hinduism, and the social structure which has emerged from this belief structure is the “Caste” system, whereby a religion is allowed to dictate that people are only allowed to do certain jobs, marry certain women, and even are dictated how they are treated after their deaths. For the upper circles, who are known as ‘Brahmin’, the professions are religious priests, political and military leaders; land owners are from the ‘Kshatriya’ caste, the vast majority of laborers, artisans and technicians are ‘Shudra’; but the one “Caste” which is not well publicised or even acknowledged are the “Harijan”, otherwise known as the Dalits, or “Untouchables”. These people, sentenced by, and at birth, to be sewage workers, cleaners of filth and human refuse, number some twenty percent of the population, and in a country which prides itself upon it’s democratic roots and government, it is indeed a strange commentary that one-fifth of it’s population is barred from rising out of the sewers and into everyday life!

Although the actual discriminatory process against the ‘Dalits’ was outlawed by the first Independent Indian parliament, in practice this abuse of their ordinary rights as human beings has persisted, and in many areas grown stronger, as the ruling Hindu parties, whether in or out of power, all subscribe to the casual barring of some 220 million Indians from just about all state higher education, all technical education, most jobs which are not akin to the allegedly “unclean” tasks such as sewage workers or latrine cleaners. In many cafes or restaurants, separate glasses are kept for the Dalits, just in case a ‘higher caste’ person is defiled by contact with a “Dirty Dalit”. One Dalit who managed to attain a higher education was severely beaten by his classmates for daring to achieve a higher marks than they did. A practice for certain ‘higher-caste’ people in earlier times was to actually send servants down a road to ensure that they would not be contaminated by a Dalit’s gaze, never mind his presence.

One of the two most famous ‘Untouchables’ was Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, a mild-mannered but strong opponent of all discrimination, who was elected to the Constituent Assembly by the Bombay Legislature Congress Party. Dr Ambedkar joined Nehru’s Cabinet. He became the First Law Minister of Independent India and helped write India’s Constitution. His one regret was that he did not persuade Ghandi to support stronger anti-discrimination legislation, but his attempts were blocked by strong Hindu opposition. In his later years, he saw that opposition to the emancipation of his fellow ‘Dalits’ become further entrenched, despite the supposed end of discrimination.

The other political firebrand was one Kanshi Ram, who attempted to build his own political power base within the ‘Dalit’ community, and in fact managed to engineer the election of a Dalit woman, Mayawati, as chief minister in Uttar Pradesh, but has since accepted before his death that no one “Untouchable” organization is capable of coming to terms with the aspirations of a quarter-billion people!

So the next tactic of hundreds of thousands of Dalits is to convert to Buddhism; the thinking being that if they are no longer ‘Dalit’ in practice, they cannot be discriminated against, and it would be seen as doubly illegal for any to discriminate against a separate religion. They seem to have struck a nerve, because Hindi political parties in several Indian states are preparing legislation which would prevent any Hindu departing from their religion and accepting another God. Rajahstan and Madyha Pradesh have already introduced civil laws which would prevent any Dalit from leaving Hinduism without registering first with the state government, and Gujarat, a hardline Hindu state, is considering introducing a law which states that Buddhism is a version of Hinduism, so desperate are the traditional Hindu people to keep in servitude millions of their fellow countrymen.

 So here we stand, in the second most populous country on Earth, with the prospect of ‘affirmative action’ as one political solution proposed for all commerce in India, where any factory, office or workshop would have to employ a percentage of ‘Dalits’ in order to comply with the law, when it is almost universally accepted that ’Quotas’ never have, and never will, work. Why ‘affirmative action’? Because it’s a politician’s dream, to lay the burden for their stupidity and cupidity on someone else’s shoulders, because they couldn’t or wouldn’t grasp the thorny problem of stating, “No discrimination based on birth, color, belief or way of life is lawful, and thus shall not be allowed!” That is the solution, but it will be many years before the wider world sees an Indian “Untouchable” as a possible Prime Minister, if ever!

I write and recollect this post because, unknown to myself and probably 99% of the population of Great Britain, this disgusting philosophy is both resident and thriving in our cities and towns. According to an item broadcast at 01.30 minutes into the programme on today’s ‘Sunday’ on BBC Radio 4, the Coalition Government has purposely  delayed even publishing legislation covering ‘Caste Discrimination’ until after the next General Election. There are some one million Hindus resident in Great Britain, and in the past I have commented on the ’fact’ that they seem to have merged into our British society with minimum difficulty, with the sole exception of changing our burial laws to allow their open-air cremations in accord with their own custom and religion. It now has emerged that some 400,000 Indians living in these Islands are discriminated on a daily basis because of their BIRTH,  and hence because of the presumed ‘Caste’ and place in the rigid hierarchy of some weird religious writings, all of which, incidentally, were composed by, guess who? The Brahmins, otherwise known as the very top of the heap, and it is some ‘heap’, in daily Hindi life.

I listened to the weasel words of the Brahmin contributor to that Sunday Programme, and I could not help comparing my thoughts to those of the great Playwright and Author himself, when he wrote, “Firstly, lets kill all the lawyers’” Not, of course, because I wished that man evil, but because he spoke of the ‘great complexity’ of the problem; of the ‘great difficulty’ in removing this disgraceful, lunatic and truly hurtful religious discrimination from a large number of people who are suffering innumerable insults because of who their antecedents were some centuries ago!

‘Nanny State’ = 1984

We are told that one man’s will, and one viewpoint, are to prevail over all the images available to the whole of the United Kingdom. Forget, if you will, the alleged reasons for this draconian ban; because, weasel words aside that is what it will be! I think that the alleged targets of Cameron’s anger and ‘dismay’; namely online child abuse, child pornography and ‘rape sites’ are, collectively, an abhorrent issue, and one which all normal people would recoil from in disgust.

But take, if you will, one step further down the road where, for the ‘best reasons in the world’, either the present slimeball masquerading as our Prime Minister or another from a Party with a great deal more history in authoritative ideas of control and surveillance, namely the Labour Party, takes these steps against freedom of thought. The first step, namely the acceptance of a Diktat, no matter how well-intentioned, has been accepted almost without a murmur. Also remember that this Prime Minister hasn’t been elected by you, the voter. He has firstly been elected by a majority of his Party M.P.s; he had then, because of the lack of a Parliamentary majority, to stitch up a Coalition with the leader of the Lib-Dems, who got to where he was based mainly on viewer perceptions of three political debates on television. During that stitch-up process, he was forced to ditch many policies which formed part of the Tory Party manifesto.

So perhaps now, for whatever reason or circumstance, he decides that all of the United Kingdom will watch, whenever they switch on their computers, a five minute celebratory broadcast of the triumphs of the Tory Party in Government; before being able to surf the Web, check their e-mails, or whatevr else they wish. And he now has the power to do just that. Forget the illusion that we live in a democracy, we don’t! We have literally no ‘say’ in how our taxes are spent, we have no ‘say’ about how the many institutions of Government are run, and we have no idea about how vast amounts of our money are squandered. We live in an age where we either ‘toe the line’ and pay up without a murmur; or a squad of uniformed heavies from the localTSG  branch of our Gestapo comes calling with a warrant for our arrest.

Once any politician grasps the power of deciding what we don’t watch, and more importantly what we do watch, that is the beginning of the long slope towards authoritarian dictatorship; and ‘don’t you worry your tiny little minds’  it is all being introduced for the best possible reasons!

(temporary) Fame at last.

The empty benches!

Watching the tributes spoken within the Palace of Westminster as they were broadcast, the truths about the Labour Party, its whole approach to present history, its truly appalling attitude towards the late Lady Thatcher were laid bare. Over half of this collective group of time-serving slime couldn’t even abandon their vitriolic hatred of this dominant personality to the extent of turning up for the tribute she so rightly deserved; so that the empty green leather benches showed their disrespect for a Lady who had adorned to such purpose the same House which they did not enter today.

We watched with disgust as the morons danced drunkenly in celebration on the streets of Brixton and Glasgow yesterday, so typical of a belief system which defies all polite thinking when opposed by anyone who knew that they were wrong both in actions and beliefs. There may have been silence on the Opposition benches because the Labour MPs were absent, but that very silence was so noisy that it reverberated around the whole House. The small minds which represent so many Labour constituencies, by their absence, showed more about the fractious nature of these clowns than any acid speech which they may have spoken during this Tribute.

We were well served by the Lady during her time in office, just as we were betrayed by the jackals who attacked her and brought her down and voted against her in her own Party. Those same jackals whose voices are echoed by her enemies in the BBC, who of course consistently refer to this amazing Lady as being ‘divisive’. Rich indeed, those words coming from an organisation whose very Charter requires independence of thought; but that very independence is shaded and ignored as shown by the total lack of right-wing opinion and voice. They all seem to forget that to be ‘divisive’ requires two parties, and both parties should be heard from.

Lady Thatcher was that rare thing, a politician who believed that Her Country should be shown and led on the correct path, and all programmes, projects and policies should lead towards a better life for all of the inhabitants. She knew what she wanted; yes, she made mistakes both in policy and politics, but she made more progress towards the real freedoms than any of her predecessors or the inheritors of her Office.

It all depends what you mean by ‘odd’.

The Prime Minister has previously referred to UKIP members as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”,

 

“There are some pretty odd people,” he said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Eastleigh By-election results:-

• Mike Thornton (Liberal Democrat) 13,342
• Diane James (UKIP) 11,571
• Maria Hutchings (Conservative) 10,559
• John O’Farrell (Labour) 4,088
• Danny Stupple (Independent) 768

 

So there appear to be 11,571 Fruitcakes, Loonies, Closet Racists, and a whole lot of ‘Pretty Odd People’ within the Eastleigh Constituency, Mr. Cameron.

Do you still believe in your previous statements regarding the UKIP members and supporters?

An alternate view of that Report!

In the earlier part of my life, whilst I lived in England, I used to hold the Police as, generally, a friend. My support for the Police has decreased over the years as they have steadily become more and more politicised and political; in their structure, their controlling philosophies, their attitude towards civil liberties and the Rule of Law. It is a fact that the vast majority of law-abiding British people accept the Police, but don’t really trust them. The failures of Policing over the past thirty years are both well-known and substantial, and many of these failings stem from a grasping of the ‘politically-correct’ attitude at all times. But some of the failures are also known because they literally tried too hard, knowing that the accused were guilty, and therefore attempting to gild that same lily with evidence not manufactured but ‘embellished’.

But after going through the ‘Report’ from the ‘Independent Panel’ ( and you can well believe that the title was given them by the last Labour Government without a single blush), I can see that the Police are being hung out to dry. I did not listen to the nauseating self-justification of the Bishop of Liverpool on the BBC this morning, but I would lay good odds on the inclusion of the phrases ‘Justice for the families’, as well as the well-worn words of ‘the truth finally emerging’ about the deaths of 96 football fans at the Hillsborough ground those 23 years ago.

These questions, after the production of this truly self-serving and nauseatingly-righteous report, should be asked:-

What was the common identity of the clowns who massed against the fences, crowding so much that a mounted policeman on his horse felt unable to move? Answer…Liverpool ‘fans’.

The layout of the fencing and manner of static control within the ground had been made necessary by much previous riotous and threatening behaviour by whom?  Answer………..Football club ‘fans’ of all shirt colours and hues, whose behaviour could best be described as animalistic.

What was the mass identity of the crowd who literally tried to smash the fencing around the entry gates?                Answer……….Liverpool ‘fans’.

Did the ‘alterations’ of police and witness statements provide evidence that any one of those people who died that day could have been saved?  Answer………Probably not!

Did the actions of a panicked senior policeman by ordering the opening of the access gates contribute to the crowd packing into the tunnel?  Possibly yes, but the police were simply outnumbered by an aggressive, booze-fuelled crowd of Liverpool ‘fans’.

What has been the driving force behind the eternal call by the ‘victims families’ for a re-opening of Inquiries etc.   Was it Justice? Was it that the truth finally come out? Was it revenge on a Police Force which, they believed, contributed to the deaths of those ninety-six people?

Or was it just for the Money?

Olympics Ahoy!

I glanced at the latest Internet craze, which is NeverSeconds, a Blog from a young schoolgirl who lives in Argyll. Seems that this enterprising young lady had decided to become a journalist, and therefore thought she needed writing practice; so wrote about her school dinners, including photographs. Her initial efforts were seen by a few, then more, until her photos of soggy croquettes and a stodgy piece of pizza went viral around the world. An unfortunate juxtaposition of a headline alongside a photo of young Martha caused the Council to ban her taking photographs of her food on School property. The reverse came within twenty-four hours as a torrent of abuse and comment landed foursquare on top of the Council.

So, all’s well that ends well? Not really, because I read some of Martha Payne’s blog postings, and you can see, within one small section of that unspoilt young lady’s prose, an underlying fear of the dead hand of officialdom, of legalistic bully-boys, of an autocratic elite who uses the Law to defend what they believe is theirs to control. She was maybe guided to write the words which she wrote by an adult, such as a teacher or her father, but the facts remain, she qualified her writing to avoid the possibility of upsetting or offending a group which should, in my own opinion, should not even be in existence.

The line which young Martha wrote, including the title was :-

Mini Olimpicz

If you think I have spelt Olympics wrong I haven’t! The word Olympics is copyrighted so the school would get a fine if we used it.

 I rest my case!

I’d like to see them try and shut me up!

Author Mike Cunningham states he does not support Olympics 2o12!

Author Mike Cunningham states he does not approve of London 2012 Olympics

Author Mike Cunningham is proposing alternatives to the 2012 Games in the form of extended paint-drying watching, or sitting watching old films.