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Thursday 9 September 2010

David Milliband's lack of perspective

Yesterday Labour leader candidate David Milliband showed a shocking lack of perspective in his below twitter post.

Clegg says govt "acted wrongly" in 1972 in not investigating Father Chesney case. So why no investigation into Coulson?

So David a few questions for you.

1. How many Labour MP's where killed by Andy Coulson?
2. Considering that no final decision has been taken as to whether there will be an investigation why do you feel it is appropriate to claim that there will be no investigation of Andy Coulson.?
3. Why do you think it is apropriate to compare murder with an invasion of privacy?

I have e-mailed these questions to David milliband and will wait to see if he replies.

MP’s narcissism and David Camerons poor judgement


The News of the World phone “hacking”* is still being discussed in parliament. Surely this is another example of MP’s Narcissism. The alleged hacking of MP’s phones is not something for the house to discuss until the police finish their investigation. If the investigation is unsatisfactory in its thoroughness or it is clear that phones where “hacked” but the police cannot prosecute because it is not illegal, Then it is time for a debate and new laws** not before. The cynical side of me thinks that certain labour Mp’s are trying to Pre-judge Andy Coulson and the News of the World to score a cheap political point.

I can have little sympathy for David Cameroon in all this, what on earth was David Cameron thinking appointing a tabloid editor as an advisor! They will always have undesirable skeletons in there closet especially as the news of the world is infamous for its creation of news rather than reporting it. He Clearley was never fit to hold the post of Director of communications. This is like appointing Libya to the UN human right watch dog or Tony Blair Middle east peace envoy. Ohh they did do those things, damn.

*The accusation against Coulson and the news of world are not technically hacking but I use the word for convenience.
** Reading someone’s private messages should always be illegal unless there is a genuine threat to the country and if there is it should be passed to the police before publication.

Book Burning

The BBC today reports that the Dove World Outreach Centre is planning on burning the Koran. With a name like that you might have thought there leader Pastor Terry Jones would recognise the hypocrisy of what he wants to do and this would certainly make him a candidate for hypocrite of the year. Pastor Terry Jones said on Wednesday that his plan to burn the Islamic holy book is intended to draw attention to his belief that "something's wrong." Book burning is a sign that you cannot argue against the ideas contained within that book and that is further confirmed by the quote “something is wrong” So what is it that is wrong Pastor Terry Jones or are you simply seeking attention by burning a book? Sadly this just another piece of evidence that the United states version of christianity is more about attention seeking showmanship and money than the teachings of jesus. Ultimatley book burning is an admission of defeat and should always been seen that way.

Monday 6 September 2010

Labours Iraq and Afgahnistan war failings

The Telegraph today has a pretty obvious report about the Iraq war war by Sir Sichard Dannatt. that labour chronically underfunded the Iraq war was very obvious at the time. One of the most Damming revelations is that by early 2009, at a time when the Army was suffering a punishing casualty rate in Afghanistan, he had not had a face-to-face meeting with Mr Brown for six months. Eventually he was forced to “ambush” the prime minister during a chance meeting in Horse Guards Parade to get his concerns across;

He writes in his book: “History will pass judgment on these foreign adventures in due course, but in my view Gordon Brown’s malign intervention, when chancellor, on the SDR by refusing to fund what his own government had agreed, fatally flawed the entire process from the outset.

“The seeds were sown for some of the impossible operational pressures to come.”

Mr Blair “lacked the moral courage to impose his will on his own chancellor”.

Gen Dannatt warns the Coalition that carrying on with the current rate of casualties in Afghanistan – where more than 100 servicemen were killed last year – would be unacceptable. “We’ve got to have cracked it by 2014, 2015,” he said.

Who is the right choice for labour leader?

The Guardian has chosen to support right of centre David Miliband for the labour leadership. Now considering it is the right to far right of centre policies that got Labour kicked out of office does the Guardian really think that David Miliband is the man to regain Labours lost support?

I would not agree he is a self evident career politician -ok they all are but his desire is more obvious than most- who will say anything to get elected. He would most likely be a Tony Blair II not quite the same policies but certainly the same superficial charm on the service but an amoral machine underneath unable to think of people as individuals with their own dreams and desires and completely unable to grasp the reality that these dreams and desires may be different from his own just like his old master Blair. Finally how can the Guardian a supposed liberal paper support fro Labour leadership a man who as foreign secretary spent his time lying about government complicity in torture and defending the Iraq war. Is this really the man they want as Labour leader and presumably future prime minister?

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Tory peer acts like drunken chav

Today the Daily mail has a story about form Tory MP Lord Tebbit acting like a drunken chav. In what could be called the ultimate expression of Thatchers society of me Lord Tebbit objected to noise a Chinese new year parade was making. He objected by grabbing a drum being used in the parade and then kicked the rear of the dragon taking part in the parade. Unknown to Lord Tebbit he was actually kicking the backside of a child. Lord Tebbit Later apologised to the Owner of the Chinese restaurant that organises the Chinese new year parade.

I expect to see this sort of behaviour on TV shows like booze Britain. But for any to be acting like this is surely unacceptable and should be condemned by all, maybe I'm expecting to much from someone who didn't believe in society. This after all is no different from the me me me attitude of today's chavs and presumably he will be treated the same and arrested for assault on the child/dragon.

Just another politician

After the humiliating defeat in court of the BNPs racist policy of only allowing indigenous people in. Nick Griffin said "we recognise legal reality, so we have done it and now, for one thing, they can't call us racist any more."

Hey I just found a pound coin on the floor you can’t call me poor anymore. Will anyone actually fall for this? Just because they were forced to change one blatantly and overtly racist policy does not suddenly turn them into non racists just like me finding a pound coin doesn’t make me rich. Perhaps if they had done this willingly and started to get rid of there other policies it might be believable.

Of course the really silly thing is that as a self proclaimed Anglo Saxon Nick Griffin is not indigenous to Briton either and technically could not have joined the BNP. Infact the only people who can are of welsh decent and some of Cornish decent anyone who claims to be an Anglo Saxon is not indigenous. Isn't time to admit that Nick Griffin is just another politician who is a bit more dishonest than most and who is using Racism and bigotry to fuel his ambition and desires.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

NHS wasted £4 million on treatments that don’t work.

Today MPs are calling for NHS funding for 2 homeopathic hospitals be stopped. The NHS spends £4million supporting these hospitals whose treatments have failed to show any benefit in clinical trial after clinical trial. The Government should not allow homeopathic “treatments” to be sold let alone support them until it is proven that they work, something which has so far proved impossible. If homeopathy is correct the NHS should only spend £10 on these hospitals as it would be more effective than £4million

• Samuel Hahnemann, a German, is crediting with inventing homeopathic medicine in 1796
• Remedies are prepared by repeated dilution of an active ingredient. The most dilute preparations are meant to be the most potent
• Doses are measured on the centesimal or “C scale”, whereby a substance is diluted by a factor of 100 at each stage. Typical strength is 30C — diluted by a factor of 10 followed by 60 zeros
• Poisons, including arsenic and deadly nightshade, are used as remedies but in such dilute form that even a large dose would be harmless
• The European homeopathy industry is valued at £1.5 billion

Monday 22 February 2010

Thursday 11 February 2010

A very British response

Various news sources have reported today that the new body being setup to scrutinise MPs expenses will cost 6 times as much to setup as what is being claimed back from MPs who broke expenses rules. The new government department will cost about £6.6 Million to setup, most of this money being spent on accommodation and new IT systems. The new body called The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has replaced the Commons Fees Office. If this new body is being setup to replace another, why does it simply not use the offices and equipment that is being used by the current department?

Whilst there is a need to spend on recruitment and small, amount on some new IT equipment. There is no need to purchase offices for the new department when it can simply occupy the offices of the old depart. This is ultimately a very British political response. Spend a lot of money to achieve very little except to make it look like the Government is trying to fix the problem. After all, it is politically better to appear to be fixing a problem than to actually do so but get no publicity. Image after all is everything results nothing.

The politicians who have the most to loss from the expenses report are Labour Mps Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor and Tory Peer Lord Hanningfield all of who will be charged under the Theft Act. All four have denied any charges.

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