World semi-exclusive!

As a dedicated observer of the ludicrous ways of modern lives and times, I can now state, categorically, that a new definition for the term ‘DeeerJeezus!’ has made its way onto the pages of our national daily newspapers. 

Readers, I give you the real reason why this man absented himself from the ‘North Sea Country Club’ a.k.a. H.M. North Sea Camp Prison, and occupied a ‘luxury suite’ at the Cley Hall Hotel, which advertises itself as being conveniently located to enjoy Spalding’s Georgian historical town centre only 4 minutes’ walk, this fenland market town offers intriguing shops, restaurants and bars and the Springfield outlet village only minutes away.

Note the evidence of extreme intellect, the total shunning of popular digital technology for self-advertisement, the modest and self-effacing dress and manner of the woman behind Doug Ward’s need to absent himself from prison so urgently. It is rumoured, though these rumours remain unconfirmed, that she had commented  on the discussions in a learned paper which dissected lateral vibrations and damping techniques on bridge structures in London.

Some may say I am being unkind to the woman in the photograph, but, hey, she rings Douglas’ bells; and that, folks, is what makes it worth the 15 months extra sentence in an ordinary slammer.

Choccies; but not Booze!

So you are a Quaker, living life according to the strictures of your beliefs in the late 19th Century. You are also a member of a very successful Cadbury family which has made, marketed and perfected cocoa and chocolate products. To keep and allow for the welfare of your workforce, you build an entire village to house them; you allow for green spaces, shops, places of religion; but the one thing not allowed in your idea of the perfect work/life balance is alcohol.

So Bournville village has remained almost cast in aspic for the past 120-odd years; with every attempt at breaking the booze embargo defeated at the first step.

But times are hard in Bournville, as the Cadbury workforce has been whittled down after the Kraft take-over (that one where they piously stated there would be absolutely no redundancies, before firing half the staff in the next year), and the owner of the local shop has decided that one way to boost his flagging profits would be to commence selling the odd gallon of Stella, or the odd case of vodka to bereft and booze-starved locals, not many of which are actually Quakers themselves.

Now far be it from me to even comment upon another’s motives, or even beliefs; but his name is Kamal Sharma, his name and picture make me believe he is a Muslim, (basing this statement upon the ‘duck’ preposition; in that if it walks like a duck….etc) and didn’t we read something just t’other day about Muslims not being able to even touch a can of booze, never mind sell it?

Just imagine that!

Strangely enough, I am not a fan of the present Pope. He gives off the impression of saying the right thing, etc., but to me, he also represents  a political leader who wishes to be all things to all men. As the spiritual leader of six million believers, he also seems to be something of a scientist, with definite views on such esoteric subjects as Climate Change to feel able to preach that immediate action is necessary to counter the ‘immediate threat’. He also feels it necessary to congratulate the Catholic Bishops as they continue to acquiesce in the wholesale breaking of Immigration Law, as the swarm of Latino migrants grows ever larger.

But I do wonder why this most political of Popes, while it being feversishly confirmed he has not adopted such outlandish causes as his homelands claim to to the Falkland Islands, was persuaded to hold a Malvinas poster, and bingo: the killer photo! I mean to say, the man can read, and he seemed to be listening quite intently to the (presumably) Argentinian and therefore very Malvinas-friendly people surrounding him. All he had to do was reject the poster, but, no, he both took it and held it; knowing that photographers from around the world catch every single motion he makes. Presumably a 99.8% poll outcome amongst the Falkland Islanders wasn’t sufficient to make the case, but an Argentinean President who is suffering from a massive decline in popularity might make him swing towards her viewpoint.

As for his reception at the United Nations, I do wonder how this man of God managed to keep his face straight whilst some so-called pop singer massacred John Lennon’s famously anti-religious song ‘Imagine’ with those telling words of the lyric which go:-

Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try

No hell below us Above us only sky

Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too

Imagine all the people, Living life in peace…..

Nothing to kill or die for: and no religion too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to New York, Your Holiness!

A digital equivalent to Van Gogh

I admire creativity above many things. Especially creativity in the things which make me smile, for therein lies the ideal of the mind behind the advertisement. Who does not remember the small girl with those amazing eyes who features in that advert for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital? Or that superb advert for a Ford car with the small boy kicking the rear fender, and watching the door lift up to to reveal a big stuffed bear,and the amazing smile on the small boy’s face!!

When my kids were very small, I came home from work to find that, unknown to my wife who was napping, my two small sons had opened a large tin of liquid adhesive, and succeeded in slowly pouring it all over my second son’s head and body. I spent the next half-hour peeling large strips of fast-drying plasticky adhesive off my small son’s head, shoulders and chest, alternating with my loud laughter and cuddles.

I present an advert for a building society which seemed to me to be the pinnacle of creativity, of a photograph which literally was taken at just the optimum moment, in that which father or grandfather does not immediately take his mind’s eye back to a time when all was truly innocent, and fun, and no-one could do anything but smile, and cuddle that child to your very heart; in the knowledge that those times would be over too, too soon!

You can fool all the people…..

………..some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time………….Abe Lincoln.

Looks like Old Abe was wrong, but hey; they probably class the former President as a current occupant of the Great Satan’s leadership anyway! But I bet the Economist wishes it hadn’t run that particular piece, with that particular headline, in this particular week!

Footnote.

As Saudi’s take from all the oil they pump grows steadily smaller, it seems as though cash from all the Hajj pilgrims turns out to be a nice little earner. As all devout Muslims are supposed to make the pilgrimage at least once, and the sale of visas, travel documents, and the accomodating of over two-odd million true believers, (or as I prefer to call them, ‘the really thick’); the ongoing cash, which must run in to billions, comes in really handy when times are hard.

These illegal migrants have no business here

They are, simply, thieves and opportunistic vagabonds, and they should be shunned forthwith! 

They take food meant for others; they occupy homes meant for the indigenous British, and they are noisy, totally unlawful and undocumented!

Join me in this mass protest, and we shall remove this scourge of undocumented and illegal migrants who have arrived here without so much as a nod to the Authorities!

Rev. W. Awdry loses Tender bid for HS2 works.

I was composing a piece about George Osborne, China, trade and HighSpeed2, when I remembered a Post which I wrote about David Cameron, China, trade, and Taiwan. I realised that, by swapping Osborne’s name for Cameron, I might not need to write another story, as it applies in just about all criteria, excepting HighSpeed2.

However, when has coincidence stopped a writer from venting his spleen against stupid and silly plans and politicians?

I noted that George Osborne is planning to invite Communist Chinese companies with High Speed Rail expertise to tender for works on the infrastructure side of HS2. I wonder what special expertise the Communist Chinese might have in boring tunnels, building bridges and knocking things down which we, in Great Britain, don’t possess already? I reckon they just might have a better chance of timely completion in certain technical areas than we do here in England, but maybe that was just a hiccup!

totally green and compliant!

As I sit back, enjoying my carefully-selected and recorded tv programmes: just in the past day and evening, as the professionally-filmed adverts of all these shiny cars flash onto the screen; am I alone in wondering how many more lies have been spun from manufacturers both foreign and domestic?

‘No,’ They cried, ‘I will not watch South Africa, win or lose!’

As some may know, and as I have maybe stated previously, Sport; any sort, make and version of any team or individual exertion; bores me rigid. If someone wants to watch, participate, cheer on summat, a team, a single person: well, good luck to them. Just kindly leave me out! I do accept, that, for many, readers, sporting achievement rules almost everything; and whilst I accept this as a human weakness, or genetic miscalculation, I still do not understand it.

The wonderful and inspiring (to some) Rugby World Cup, as the statistics, the commentaries and the predictions roll across our screens and out of the radio speakers suggest; cannot be ignored. The hopefuls, the wanna-be’s, the Rugby giants and the giant-killers: they are all here; their horizons limited to a strangely-shaped ball, a pitch delineated by two sets of skywards-pointing poles, and a set of rules which verge on the impenetrable. But I wish to explore the opinions, the almost predictable reactions, of two people, diametrically-opposed to each other in politics, theology and outlook on life itself. Shakespeare himself could not have imagined the tortured logic of two people, taking the same decision, on whether to watch their National team or not: for very different reasons.

South Africa, with a population split of some 15% white to 75% black, has a very, very different sporting background. The history of the Black population of South Africa, in terms of sporting traditions, acclaim, prowess and following has always favoured Association Football. The ferocious followers of such teams as Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Ajax are somewhere near 100% black; as are the players. The Rugby Union game in South Africa has always been a preserve of the White man, both in terms of players, and of fans and following. The tradition of the Afrikaaner has always been wrapped around the Rugby game, with of course the small niggle that it was invented by the hated English, their conquerors in the Boer War. To grasp the idea of how much was vested in Rugby within the White and Afrikaans population of South Africa, I heard about the central hall of a large Johannesburg hotel, quite busy with a fair amount of people around; when the whisper ran round that a Hero had arrived; then a rugby-playing six-foot seven-inch man mountain walked through the doors, and he couldn’t get to the reception desk to check his room for over a half-hour, coping as he did with all the fans and hero-worship.

So you can possibly understand the frenzy when a black man states he will not be watching the South Africa v. Japan match, because there aren’t enough Black players in the squad, as the Black South African population massively outnumbers the Whites: and then the reverse, where a White South African states categorically that he shall not watch the match; that the South African squad has too many ‘quota’ black players; that they just aren’t good enough, and the real reason the Springboks played so badly was to show how terrible the ‘quota’ black players performed!

As I stated earlier, sport bores me rigid!

Cause; and effect.

Time after time, we see the problems caused directly by the actions of politicians who simply do not understand the ramifications of their policies, orders, and statements. When President Bush Senior agreed with his generals to halt the pursuit and annihilation of Saddam Hussein’s battered armoured columns after the terrible slaughter on the retreat from Kuwait: he could not have foreseen that, once the Iraqi senior military men had pledged utter allegiance to Hussein, the dictator would impose yet more death and carnage on Iraq’s long-suffering Shi’ites and Kurds, outfox the weapons inspectors, and outplay the oil sanctions enforcement people in the manner he did. The Second Gulf War, brought about by the totally-illusory information regarding the imaginary ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’, followed the same path of error upon compounded error; the worst of which was the disbanding of the Iraq military. The mistake in downgrading the American military forces in Afghanistan, to bolster the American army in Iraq, just as they were getting to grips with the remainder of the Taliban, was yet further proof of the Second (Political) Law of Unintended Consequences.

Whilst Libya’s family Gaddaffi was well known as being three bricks short of a wall, at least the country ran, the oil was exported, the water was pumped, and its people were comparatively well-fed; if not being free as we in the West know or understand the term. When the images of Gaddafi’s forces preparing to annihilate the rebel forces in Benghazi came on to tv screens in Government offices in Paris and London, the call was, ‘save the noble Libyans from the mad dictator’s revenge’, and the French Mirages, and the British Tornadoes, aided by the cruciform shapes of the American A-10 jets, armed with 30mm rotary cannons, wiped the desert sands with the sorry remains of Gadaffi’s armoured columns. The rebels persisted, and the Tripoli-Benghazi campaign ended the days of Gaddafi, along with his brutal army: only to be replaced with two warring separate Governments in Benghazi and Tripoli, and the only export adds to the flow of economic migrants making the slow float across the Mediterranean Sea towards Spain, Italy and Greece; with ISIS a shadowy force sitting out in the desert, polishing their armament stocks.

When the European Union officials decided to interfere in Ukraine, aided by wet dreams of EU expansion and territory, and gave succour and assistance to the rebels in Kiev; how could they not have looked at the history of the Ukraine, and thus avoided the massive strike-back from Putin’s Russian armour, as they first annexed the Crimea, and then instigated the Separatist movement in Russified Eastern Ukraine?

We in the West used to breed Statesmen; people such as Churchill, and De Gaulle, along with Dwight D. Eisenhower. we knew we could depend upon them, because they had been through the fire, and had emerged twice as strong. Look at what we have today: a Prime Minister who started out as an advertising salesman, an American President who made a play for the top job based upon a half-term in Congress, a work history as a ‘community adviser’ in Chicago, and a black skin. How indeed have the mighty fallen!

Follow the Money!

Sport: Definition: An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Sport England budget for 2014-15………..£323 millions

I have often written about the true lunacies of those who take part in, or follow, sporting activities. Don’t get me wrong, sport can be an admirable activity, giving great personal satisfaction to both participant and enthusiastic fan; but we often see or read of the problems when sporting stars or the officials running those sports are exposed as being cheats, criminals or both.

But I reckon the latest story about a particular activity sets some sort of seal on the highest mark of true idiocy ever reported. It seems as though a bunch of enthusiasts is taking Sport England to court because they want the regulator to adjust matters to allow Bridge to be named or accepted as a Sport.

The life, and death, of Brian.

I do not, as an everyday practice, read or mull over the Obituaries page. My late mother, used to pour over the ‘despatched’ page, mainly to find out whom she had outlasted. Sadly, her days ended in a haze of delirium, and she never knew who had actually won her own race. But I write in honour of a very special man, Brian Sewell; a person of rare intellect, a ferocious  and astringent critic of the pompous and the false, and, surprisingly enough, a homosexual man who did not wish to parade his ‘difference’, and only expected others to respect his lifestyle choices. He was said to have stated that ‘he did not come out……but instead slowly emerged’

He had a surprisingly affected and almost ‘camp’ accented speech, but his was also a voice free from the snide and the absurd acid which seems to have infected many of his compatriots. His opinion of the ‘Contemporary Artist’ who seemed to think that a dirty pile of bedsheets draped across a grubby mattress constituted ‘Art’ was the same as the vast majority of ordinary British people, who can spot a fraud or a ‘pseud’ at about the same distance as they could see the celebrated formaldehyde-encased ‘Mother and child’ constituting a cow and a calf. Of the now infamous bed, he remarked “The sane man must ask whether he should give any of this pretentious stuff the time of day in aesthetic terms when it seems that this self-regarding exhibitionist is ignorant, inarticulate, talentless, loutish and now very rich.”

His knowledge  and indeed love and admiration of Renaissance art was to colour his entire later life, he worked at Christie’s Auction House, and through his early immersion in great art with the attention and encouragement of his mother drew knowledge of the great artists as though through a sponge.

He was an entertaining raconteur and host of television documentaries, which ranged from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to a potted history of Rolls Royce cars; about which he also wrote a book.  He also made a ten-episode documentary about the Grand Tour. His was a life of depth in art, in painting and in sculpture. He was that rarity, a man who could be depended upon to speak his mind, and woe indeed to the ones who attempted to revile him and his words, because he gave twice as much as he received.  I liked him immensely and shall miss his fruity tones as he pondered on the iniquities of so-called ‘Modern Art’, for I too believe that the whole Modern Art establishment, inclusive of the ludicrous ‘Turner Prize’; itself named after an English genius, is nothing more than the most expensive con-job ever laid upon the British horizon.

Tick-tock

It is a good thing for kids to learn, to experiment, to show their school friends what they have achieved; it is almost a ritual to bring your experiments to school and show that you have done this, all by yourself.

But, given the mood within schools and colleges today, and allowing for the fact that your name is Ahmed Mohamed, you are Muslim, and your skin is Brown: might it not have been wiser to bring along a big label stating, ‘My Dad has confirmed that this is an Electronic Clock’!

UPDATE

Seems as though our Ahmed has been telling porkies, in quite a dangerous way!

A true European Hero

Hungary’s Prime Minister stated the razor-wire fence erected on Hungary’s southern border with Serbia was essential to defending the Schengen zone’s external borders. He denied that the emergency was a refugee crisis, but one of mass migration.

“Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims,” he said. “This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity.

“Everything which is now taking place before our eyes threatens to have explosive consequences for the whole of Europe,” Orbán wrote in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Europe’s response is madness. We must acknowledge that the European Union’s misguided immigration policy is responsible for this situation.

“Irresponsibility is the mark of every European politician who holds out the promise of a better life to immigrants and encourages them to leave everything behind and risk their lives in setting out for Europe. If Europe does not return to the path of common sense, it will find itself laid low in a battle for its fate.”

“Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? There is no alternative, and we have no option but to defend our borders.”

Well, its like Opera, but with a lot more blood

China and Great Britain have agreed further cultural exchanges, according to reports.

The UK government stated:- Groundbreaking digital arts will push creative boundaries, whilst the launch of a major online arts portal will see audiences actively engaging through a variety of integrated platforms. Oh Joy!

The United Kingdom will be sending:-

• A full costumed production, from the Globe Theatre, of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
• The British Museum’s ‘History of the World in One Hundred Objects’.
• A full exhibition of Prince Charles’ typical day, inclusive of the toothbrush with toothpaste already lodged on to brush bristles, a rack of suits, shirts and ties, together with assorted pairs of highly-polished shoes, socks; and a cup of tea with the tea-bag still in place. The inclusion of a tray of organic vegetables was discussed, but it was decided not to imply that the UK either had food to spare, or that there had ever been food shortages within China.

In return, the Chinese will be sending  a few of their most treasured and revered antiquities:-

• A sixteen metre square segment of the Tiananmen Square cobblestones, complete with the bloodstains of some of the five thousand students who were crushed underneath the tank tracks, or shot down by the heavy machine guns of the Mongolian Shock Army, who were specially selected by the Chinese Praesidium as the only ones who were capable of massacring the stupid and idealistic young people who had the simple flawed hope that they could hold civilised discussions with a bunch of geriatric mad men who went by the collective name of the Politburo Standing Committee.
• A new portfolio of photographs showing, in high-definition detail, the welcoming smiles of the Tibetans as they greet the latest emissaries from their fraternal Chinese conquerors compatriots.
• The Chinese version of Shakespeare’s Richard the Third, complete and in accord with the Bard, as well as the Politburo’s definition of the term ‘My kingdom for a horse’.

Never mind the silence; what about the song?

Ignore the lack of mannerly behaviour when remembering those brave and talented young men, who although mostly gone long ago, still resound in our Nation’s memory. They cannot be insulted: they are secure.

Ignore the seeming lack of respect by both not singing or even speaking, the National Anthem. He probably doesn’t believe that Her Majesty should reign over us.  Ignore the scruffy image as projected by the un-matching jacket and trousers, the undone shirt button, the tie literally loitering around his neck, the ‘I don’t care’ attitude: these are just irrelevant.

The real worry, in my mind at least, comes from the inability of the new Labour Leader to answer a question in a straightforward manner. If asked to condemn, out of hand, the tactics and murders of the IRA, he responds by condemning all bombing, violence etc.. Why does he not condemn the IRASinnFein terror tactics? The truth is probably less palatable than he would wish to make public. He probably believes wholeheartedly in the cause of Independence for Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom’ and the creation of a United Ireland. He has held, after all, firm Republican sympathies for all of his political life, and even invited the murderous duo of McGuinness and Adams into Westminster in 1984 weeks after the Brighton Bombing.

We should not smile at this foolish man, we should fear him, and pray that the Labour Party will come to its senses, act as did Henry the Second; and rid us all of this pestilential creature; hopefully without all the blood on the cathedral floor!

Shocked, but also horrified!

When something terrible happens immediately beside or in front of your eyes, you have a right to be shocked. As I recall, I stood stock still, not knowing or indeed comprehending the death which I had just missed; as the bus rammed straight through the front of the pedestrian crowd as we all made for the other side of the road. I was literally unable to move; until another man who had been further behind me moved up, took me by the shoulder, and asked “Alright, Mate?”

If you watch something in real life, on television or ‘youtube’ which is grotesquely evil, and yet not totally unexpected; you have a right to be shocked, because that sort of behaviour is simply repellant to ordinary mortals.

But to claim to be shocked because the majority of passengers, who saw the swift detention and removal of an ‘illegal migrant’ off a ferry before it left from the quayside, applauded the fast reaction of that crew member: that is just false, that is just politically-correct hogwash!

Nudged, surprised, or just plain embarrassed.

Looking back over the past five or seven-odd years, I reckon that we in the Western world have been subjected to a pretty sophisticated mind manipulating operation, all in favour of the clowns with that strange acronym LGBT.

I am writing about one subject and one alone, the strange and nasty push of everything-but full frontal nudity and full-on sex on television. I began to take notice some time back, but it is a fact that, more and more sex acts are being shown in serials and tv films, almost as a matter of fact. I have always considered what anyone does in the privacy of their own bedrooms to be their own affair, as long as they are both above the age of consent. But to have the sex act shown virtually uncensored, with possibly only the actual private parts of both practitioners concealed or shadowed by camera position, is really becoming absurd.

I have seen some pornographic items, hell, you cannot avoid it on T’Internet, but those sites are seen and watched by choice; and if that is your thing (sorry about that), well, good luck to you, but that kind of activity should definitely not have much of a percentage play on broadcast television; mainly because young adults should be taught that porn, and what is shown on many if not most sites which cater for such practices, is deviant, and totally without the driving force which should accompany it, which is human love, and the desire which accompanies that emotion.

So just sit back, and contemplate what is being fed into your mind’s eye every time you watch many television series, some British, but mainly American, and see for yourself how they have changed, with the main characters not just acting before, or after, sex; but right away through it. Apart from anything else, I hesitate to watch some series with my adult daughter in the same room; mainly because I find it intensely embarrassing!

But then we must explore the reasons behind this literal explosion of fornication on television; the push to make, or the expectation of, the showing of the sex act between a man and a woman almost without comment is literally to one end, and one end only; that which has yet to be seen at all on mainstream television. I am referring of course to homosexual sex activity. It is, after all, the next logical thing to be shown; because once homosexuality was firstly legalised, the parade follows on almost naturally. If homesexual acts, same-sex ‘marriage’ is legal, then where, the argument will follow, is the harm in showing or depicting homosexual or lesbian sexual activity on mainstream television: because, the argument will go on, it is all perfectly normal, so what is the fuss?

Believe me, I am old enough to know a little about human nature, and if the ‘push’ is there, and the pressure is applied consistently, the deviants will have their way, and the filth will appear to corrupt your families, and you will not be able to do anything about it, because, hey, it is, after all, perfectly legal: ain’t it? And if any are ‘offended’ by my comments; well, that is just tough!

Stews, brews and not-the-news!

Drawing, as we should, a veil of silence and contemplation over the strange challenges which now await the old Labour Party; I thought I would cast a musing eye over some of the other stories in today’s newspapers and news orgs.

• It seems as though the British are following the US trend towards expensive funerals and memorials for their pets. Now I am the first to admit that sentient humans are free to do whatever they wish with their cash; but, honestly, we are discussing dead animals; so do we really need keyrings with hair embedded within to commence the ‘grieving process’? As I wrote previously, ‘Don’t wrap the action with fuzzy sentiment, don’t attribute human qualities to an animal; the damn dog is suffering, kill him!”

• Facebook was sued by a family in Northern Ireland for allowing their eleven year-old daughter to open a Facebook outline and page. The settlement was confidential, but the problem remains, youngsters are more savvy by far than their parents as far as hi-tech goes, so unless you double-password lock all internet-capable gear in the entire house, the kids are going to ‘chat’ and ‘snap’ and ‘friend’, as well as whatever else passes for social conversations between the tweenies, the teens; and of course, the gormless!

• Online and print rumours abound that the alleged ‘Westminster porn and paeado’ scandal’s top witness is fast losing credibility as no sign of proof emerges from weeks of investigation.

• A high-level cover-up by the Anglican church has been exposed after the conviction for sexual abuse of minor children is announced on Bishop Peter Ball. strange, is it not, that the very charge and conviction was sought after a review by the very own Anglican church which commenced after earlier scandals were making news. Its only twenty-two years since this robed-criminal was let off with a Police Caution after what seems to have been high-level interference from both the Anglican Hierarchy, the CPS and the Tory Party. Seems like another case of the kids; they don’t matter; (take a minute and listen to the recording; it really is quite brutal) they’ll get over it; its not as if anyone was seriously injured! The creeping, slimy, crawling, mewling bastards! What I’d like is access to a muscled bunch of heavies, a long street full of lamp-posts, and a good five hundred yards of strong nylon rope!

• Yet another dreary story on whether any athletics event in the past one hundred years has been won without major assistance from any subsidiaries or off-shoots of the Pharmaceutical empires which also help us get, feel, or keep better. Seems as though a well-known British female long-distance runner has got the galloping whatzits because her sport was casually mentioned in a meeting of a Parliamentary Committee. My only comment would be along the lines of ‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much’, and would be better if she kept schtum!

• The first European Politician to speak the truth about the asylum/refugee/migrant/mobile muslim army is Hungary’s Prime Minister, saying:- “I think we have a right to decide that we do not want a large number of Muslim people in our country,” Orban told journalists outside the EU headquarters at Brussels. “We do not like the consequences,” he said, referring to the country’s 150-year history of Ottoman rule during the 16th and 17th centuries.

you will be taken hence to the prison in which you were last confined

Reasons why the death penalty had to be abolished:-

• The Public mood was against Capital Punishment.
• There had been at least three cases where the dead man was later proved to be innocent.
• The ‘full-term’ life sentence behind bars was deemed to be sufficient punishment
• No-one wished to act as the Public Executioner
• Many felt that, however bad or monstrous the crime, death was too great a punishment.
• Using both Old and New Testaments as guidance, the opponents claimed that retribution is wrong.

Reasons why the Death Penalty should be reintroduced:-

• How about this?

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

A repeat Post from September 10th, 2006.

2996…………When we too were carefree!

The drive for this post came from a regular visit made to Blackfive, a Military Blogger based in America, where I first saw and promptly signed up for this task. The post gave some small detail of the work required of two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six (2996) bloggers each to write about a randomly-assigned person who was murdered by the fanatical scum who masqueraded as human beings in order to board the four jets which ploughed into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a remote field in Pennysylvania.

Joanne Rubino was 45 years old when she took her final journey towards her daily job with Marsh & Mclennan in the World Trade Centre complex in downtown Manhattan. We cannot know how she died, whether she perished in the first conflagration, or whether she tried to escape by ascending towards the roof; such is sheer speculation. We do know that she died as a casualty in a world-wide war waged by ruthless, fanatical, shadowy figures who hide behind outlandish names, and wide-eyed fools who are swayed by inflammatory rhetoric posing as calls from a religion! We don’t know if she was afraid, or brave as death approached; as ordinary humans, such things are sensibly hidden from us. We can but surmise of this lady’s fate, and of her passing; simply put she was one of nearly three thousand who’s lives were summarily snuffed out as a candle flame might dissappear in a momentary gust of wind!

The true reasons why the hi-jackers aimed their jet-powered weapons at the Pentagon, at the highest towers which loomed over Manhattan and where United Flight 93 raced into the ground are many, stupid and in the end, self-defeating! Envy must be high in that sorry list, as well as jealousy, but how could anyone be envious of Joanne Rubino? She lived with her ailing mother, she worked in Manhattan, she was not rich, or famous, or distinguished by huge achievements or accomplishments. She was sufficiently aware of her privileged status as an American that she gave away her scarf to a homeless person because they needed it more than she did! Her memory is enshrined in her family’s thoughts, as well as the collective memorials of her employer and the many listings dedicated to the tragedy of September 11th 2001!

The lists stretch the imagination, the two thousand nine hundred and ninety-six victims almost too large to comprehend; the photo and video montages catch your breath, the sheer physical toll taken out of the Manhattan skyline partly give some estimate of the true disaster which hit New York on that fateful morning, but, imagine, dear reader, if you can, the simple figure of Joanne Rubino who sits, smiling, for a photograph; and then imagine her………………………………………………………………NOT!

and the stage curtains draw back once more…..

Well, well; I note the usual suspects around the top table of NornIron politics are acting out a charade to stand alongside the best acting given on the Globe Theatre, but with an all too different audience. The D.U.P. is pulling out of the devolved Assembly, using the excuse that the I.R.A. is active once more: giving the murder of two I.R.A. thugs as proof that they are on active service.

As a seasoned viewer on N.I. Affairs, I would have thought it apparent to all that this particular ‘outrage’ is nothing more than three sets of politicians manoeuvring to get out of their responsibilities.

As i see it, the DUP and the UUP wish to bring into Northern Ireland the same savings and austerity measures which have been introduced over the past five years on the Mainland. In this endeavour, they have been consistently refused advance by the IRASinnFein contingent in Stormont, who prefer to pay their ‘Community Advisers’ (code for IRA thugs) through inflated sick benefit, unemployment benefit, spurious Disability claims and other financial shenanigans to the tune of over £100,000.00 per year to EACH claimant! As for the ‘claims’ procedure, which civil servant in Northern Ireland is going to knock back a claim for Disability from a vicious thug and IRA member, who is known to carry a gun, or even better a baseball bat?

So the UUP retires from the Administration, and then the DUP follows suit, and then the Westminster Government will suspend the Assembly, take over the Governing of the Province, and bring in the austerity savings which should have taken effect four years ago. The three warring parties will then shake hands, start up again at Stormont, and the wicked British Government can then be blamed for the loss of all that lovely money!

As a final remark on the whole ludicrous idea of a ‘Devolved Assembly’; I honestly believe that the big mistake made by the British Government was to even think of talking to any of the assorted bunches of terrorists and criminals, especially with the understanding that they could be trusted. The only message that scum understand should have been delivered through the barrel of a rifle; and the ‘caring, sharing’ philosophy of the bleeding-heart traitorous Blair Government would have been squashed before it came into being!

‘Sun King’ is a bit tarnished now.

I listened to the blether spouted by Lord Browne on  BBC Today this morning with both awe and contempt in my mind. Here was a bloke who was chanting on about ‘openness’ and ‘responsibility to tell the truth’; in his book, he urges companies to ditch their Corporate Responsibility departments, throw out the PR spin machines, and ‘engage with Society in an open and honest manner’.

Bit rich the ‘openness and honesty’ routine, coming from a man who chaired the BP Board, and:-

• organised a 25% cut in operating budgets for the BP refinery at Texas City, claiming that too much was being spent unnecessarily.
• complacently sat back whilst a catastrophic chain of miscalculations, safety violations and cost-cutting measures were the true cause of the explosion at Texas City cost the lives of 15 workers, with 180 injured.
• only settled, for possibly millions of dollars, the case of negligence brought by Eva Rowe over her parents death in the Texas disaster, when her lawyers tried to subpoena Browne for a trial
• oversaw the reduction in expensive maintenance costs which resulted in an Alaskan oil spill through rusty pipes corroding and collapsing
• authorised, through both complacency and plain cost-cutting measures, in the words of the OSHA; a lack of preventative maintenance on safety critical systems, inoperative alarms and level sensors in the ISOM process unit and the continued use of outdated blowdown drum and stack technology when replacement with the safer flare option had been a feasible alternative for many years.
• dismissed talented engineers with years of experience, in favour of ‘bean-counters’ and sycophants who knew how to kow-tow and honour the ‘Sun King’ in the fashion he was used to receiving.
• tried to have an Injunction upheld, after he lied to a Court about how he had met his homosexual lover,

Don’t know about anyone else, but I wouldn’t believe this clown if he told me what time it was.

But is it ‘Cool’?

‘Exactly what it says on the box’

One of my sons, during the very brief hot weather period a month or two ago, which was referred to as ‘summer’ decided that he wanted to cool himself, along with his kids, in the playroom where the television sat. Now my lad is a talented micro-electronics engineer, with a fair brain on his shoulders, so he checked out the products available on this national chain where all sorts of electronic and electrical goods are sold, and saw the item which advertised itself as being capable of ‘Heating and Cooling’. As this product was designed and built by a manufacturer with a Nationally well-known name, with a reputation for delivering on its promises, he bought the Fan Heater/Cooler, and took it home; but rapidly called me to ask my advice, as he said ‘it might be a good heater, but a cooler, it is definitely not!’

So I had a look, and I discovered that what he had bought was a Fan Heater, a very well designed and manufactured Fan Heater; but just that. The widely- and loudly-advertised ‘Cooling’ was simply the fan boosting air in the room to pass speedily at the occupant, which gives the ‘impression’, if not exactly the ‘reality’, of being cooled. As my son is not a mechanically-qualified engineer, he had been taken in by the fancy advertising and wording. If you wish to cool down your room, house or office, if you wish to alter and lower the ambient temperature of that space, you need a heat-exchanger, a chiller; you need something more than just a fan; you need something like this! So we packed everything back up in the box, got in the car, and went to the local retail park where this chain’s store was situated, but the manager refused to refund my son’s money, as he said that the fan was working perfectly; despite our justified claim that the product came under the ‘Sale of Goods Act’, and my son’s money should be refunded.

So I generated a slightly acerbic e-mail, sent by my son to both the retailer’s and the manufacturer’s head offices, detailing our complaint, which included the legal phrase, ‘Not fit for Purpose’ and also stated that the phrases on the box which claimed ‘cooling’ were unachievable; and demanded that the cash, which was for a considerable sum, be immediately returned.

Needless to say, the next day, we received a reply, which although arguing that the product complied with the specification, decided that some ‘confusion’ had arisen in my son’s mind as to the true purpose of the fan heater, and stated that they had arranged the refund of my son’s money upon the return of the product.

Now I have often been described as having a slightly ‘bolshy’ outlook on life, but I reckon this is slightly unfair; all I ever demand is fair treatment. From arguments with the County Council and indeed with Central Government, to minor disputes with local nuisances, I have taken them all on, and usually, but not always, won through; I have a strike rate of around 96%. With the instance I discussed about the fan, they were so obviously wrong that I really wondered if they thought that they were correct, but I was able to refer to an outside review which stated exactly my argument, and so they caved in once the message got through; but I just wonder how many people would have done nothing, and said nothing; and accepted that their money was gone? We, as a Nation, don’t argue anymore, we don’t get uptight, and we damn well should!

Europe; through the Looking Glass!

Sometime within the next two years, ending at December 31 2017, we here in the United Kingdom are going to answer the question ‘Should we stay within; or leave: the European Union?’ The problem facing voters, politicians, opponents and adherents alike, lobbyists, big business,….the list goes on; is the simple truth that there will really be two questions: ‘should we leave the European Union or stay in?’ and the more probing query; ‘can we trust the very words issuing from the politicians’ mouths on this subject?’

We are told that ‘Our Dave’ and his mob are already planning to fiddle the vote, dodge the truth, falsify the result: anything to avoid the obvious, which is that Europe is not understood; not welcome, and primarily disliked because it does not accommodate or bow to criticism!

So what is this behemoth called Europe? What is this Institution, this overarching and overreaching ‘government of governments’ which we are being asked to make our minds up as to whether we should stay, or, simply leave? The process of power, and of powers, which this huge organisation has held to itself, sometimes by democracy, sometimes by fiat, is truly without definition. We are governed by Westminster’s Parliament, but Parliament has to bring the decrees of Brussels, and the Union, into our Law without dissent; where this power has been handed to Brussels by this same Westminster Parliament. Our very Laws are modified, and many times overruled by the European Court of Justice, along with the Court of Human Rights; and our judges leap at this opportunity to virtually re-write UK Law in the Brussels image. Is the average Orphans reader aware that thousands of men such as my father and my uncle served, fought and died in the European Civil War between 1939-45? That is what is written within the House of European History. Does that same reader realise that European history began in 1946, because the House of European History views everything before 1946 as virtually irrelevant to the ‘Grand Process’, or, to use the European terminology ‘the Project’?

We were taken into the Common Market on a lie, we were further cemented in on a series of political moves, and not once were we, as British, as English, Welsh, Northern Irish or Scot, asked if we wished our very sovereignty as a Nation to be subsumed into a small; significant but still small, section of a pure bureaucratic Administrative dictatorship, along with the unwieldy non-agility of an elephant. It is said that the founders of Europe built it so that there should never be a time when the ordinary People of Europe could ever have a direct voice within the political and bureaucratic machinery which is the juggernaut named Europe. If you have a twenty-four hour day free period, the reader might be able to discern how Europe is, or rather is not, governed. Not for nothing does its own website publicise its own Government as ‘unique’!

There is no true ‘Accountability’ for virtually anything done, spent, mismanaged or achieved within Europe, because everything is done by committees, and most of their work is done behind closed doors, and no-one, not even our so-called representatives can get through the paper blocks built up by these committees. I once asked my own MEP for a costing, an accounting of the huge amounts spent and squandered over CERN, the circular tunnel on the French-Swiss border; filled with high-power electricals, even higher-powered electronics: all in the cause, allegedly, of searching for objects so small they cannot be detected, so fast they cannot be caught, and so ephemeral they don’t really exist, except in the minds of the highly-paid pseudo-scientists and bureaucrats who used Europe’s ever-ready wallets to fund and run this strange concrete circle: and he eventually replied with a GUESS of somewhere between 120 and 173 BILLION Euros. The reader will also not be too surprised to learn that the EU auditors have not signed off the Accounts for over nineteen years.

The spread of Europe, physical as well as political, is truly breathtaking. The pull of cheap money on offer when the accession process is over for candidate countries is the carrot; the mountains of money available once the signatures are dry is absolutely astounding. What isn’t immediately so apparent to the new European nations is that they haven’t been told that when the Commission says ‘jump’; the appropriate reply is ‘Certainly; how high?’ Oh; and by the bye, if new countries joine the EU, they automatically have to embrace the Euro. The rule of the bureaucracy is absolute, if they do not get the required reply to a vote, or a referendum, the offending nation is told to run the bloody vote again until they get the right answer! Europe funds fishing off Africa, mainly because the rapacious fleets from Spain and France have hoovered up all the fish in the Med and half the bloody North Sea; they are setting up their own European GPS Satellite system mainly because the French dislike using the American GPS network; probably because it is both American, and free. They will be shooting 27 satellites along with four spares, the 27 to duplicate the Americans, and two of the spares to replace the pair which WENT THE WRONG WAY: all at a cost of 7 Billion euros; none of which the people of Europe were ever even asked if they would fund: it was just thought it would be a really good idea for Europe’s Galileo system to be available.

So what benefits do we, as British members of the European Union get for our £11.3 Billion; which is approximately our annual contribution to the EU coffers? We get access for travel and trade to all 27 other EU countries; we get, well, erm, er, not a great deal more.  We do receive the annual bill for the EU budget, which, naturally, rises every year. We get to pay for all the lunacies mentioned previously, and; because our demented leaders bowed to pressure, and accepted Qualified Majority Voting in just about all areas of EU competence, we just do not get a look in, or a chance to sway, delay or veto decisions.

So, on balance, if the Common Market still existed, I would happily vote to stay in, because we would be in charge of our own Sovereign Democracy, Country and Borders. As it is, we are in a huge place which is just short of the Federated United States of Europe, and that ain’t a good place to stay, or live in; so I reckon we should, reluctantly, vote to LEAVE!

No images please, religious reasons: you understand?

One murdered girl

One suicidal murderer.

Once you know his name, Yasser Alromisse, that photograph wasn’t really necessary to identify the base of the story!

and will ye nae come back, agin?

This post started by my commencing the writing of a long, well-researched and thoughtful piece on whether we should leave or stay in the European Union. It was to be long, because there are so many facets to both arguments. But then I changed my mind and decided that I write of perceptions instead of arguments.

My question, therefore comes in two parts.

Should this be the image which ensures you vote to stay in the Union?

Or is this the lingering image which ensures that you vote to leave?

The great complexity; and all the other crap!

One of the few, the very few, areas in which the BBC excels is the credible, unbiased documentary. As I have noted previously, the scope, attention to detail; alongside a notable lack of left-wing comment in such areas as the life of Enoch Powell, the World at War, or Carl Sagan, the professionalism shines through. Sadly, even the documentary side of the BBC has fallen prey to the lefty side of the BBC, not so much in what it says; but what it, pointedly, leaves out!

I watched all four episodes of ‘World’s Busiest Railway’ about India’s suburban and continental railway systems which originate in Bombay, a.k.a. Mumbai. It was a truly fascinating in-depth look at the problems and solutions of transporting a million people every day to their work in this huge mega-city. We saw the innovative solutions, such as the train carriages without doors, sliding slowly into the terminus tracks of the CST with a platform on either side of the train: which allow the floods of commuters to debark from both sides of the train, thus easing the flow and pressure on the people. We saw the extremely simple, yet complex safety system for running trains forty seconds apart with automated braking if the drivers ignore a red light signal. We saw the ‘super-crush density’ loading in the suburban rail carriages, with even the women-only carriages crowded beyond belief. We watched the robust maintenance details, checking the brake-linings on each carriage axle wheel-set, designed for ease-of-maintenance and access by unskilled labour; ensuring safe operation and better running.

In the four hours of film, where all three presenters gave, for the BBC that is; a fair and proportionate look at what is truly a massive logistical operation, working seven days a week, for twenty-odd hours of every day, there were only a few noticeable glaring omissions, but only if your objectivity was in top gear. For instance, there wasn’t much of the usual burble and blow about the BBC’s favourite bullshit theme, Climate Change, Global Warming; whichever lie you choose; mainly because just about the entire Indian Rail system is electrified, but 70-odd % of their Electricity Generating Stations are thermal coal-fired stations, belching out the dreaded CO2 by the megaton. Towards the end of this truly impressive documentary, there was another clue to one of the omissions; but again only if the viewer was both alert, and knowledgeable about India. The filmed piece was concentrating on end-of-day servicing, cleaning, removal of trackside and train rubbish, with squads of lithe young women who shovelled, packed and disposed of the untold weight of refuse generated within the CST complex by a million people every day. Yes, these women were filmed, labouring ceaselessly for what Western minds would see as a pittance, because it was a job, and a lasting one, and most were presumably happy to grasp and keep a job which would at least pay them a living wage: but what was definitely not mentioned was the astounding fact that all these women were employed because of their birth, their standing within Hindu India’s Caste system, and also the fact that they would never be allowed to rise above the gruelling grind of heavy manual labour, digging and moving refuse and dirt because of the accident of their birth; which was that of ‘Untouchable’ or, in Indian terminology ‘Dalit’!

It is an acknowledged fact of life that 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 men or 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 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 its democratic roots and government, it is indeed a strange commentary that one-fifth of its population is barred from rising out of the sewers and into everyday life! A British onlooker might state ‘well, thats okay for India, but they are used to it, this casual, crushing, condescending everyday humiliation of a quarter-of-a billion (250,000,000) people, but  this disgusting discrimination is now, imported with the Indian diaspora, evident in England, never mind Assam or Bangalore!

We have, for better or worse within this UK; Laws against discrimination for various reasons. We are not allowed to discriminate, for example, against homosexuals having, or intending to have, anal sex in a bedroom of a bed-and-breakfast establishment, even if this act deeply offends the religious beliefs of the couple who own the B&B. These otherwise ordinary people were prosecuted for this alleged discrimination, and were fined £3,000. So why are a large proportion of our immigrant Hindu population suffering discrimination by members of their own race and religion? Why did this mealy-mouthed Tory Government state that it was considering adding Caste discrimination to the Equality Act, but not take this further? Is it because of the number and voice of a number of high-profile Hindus, who are also donors to both the Tories and Labour Parties?

I commented upon my own site as follows:- 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 greatest Playwright and Author himself, when he wrote, “Firstly, let us 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!

One strange and simple truth about the Hindu religion, and its millions of devotees, is that they are very, very defensive about the caste system, and how a good 25% of India’s population is routinely discriminated against without much sound or fury from the remaining 75%, because they are the ones who benefit from this nasty and thoroughly despicable practice. I used to write articles for a South Korean news website, and I sent the piece I mentioned in the previous paragraph to them, I was told that, due to the presence and opinions on the editorial team of two Indians, reluctantly the news website would not be placing my piece online; despite the fact that there was not a single untrue word in the whole piece. Strange, when your very existence is hidden by censorship!