Word's Getting Round ...

'Bout Bad News Hughes. Deadpan, tasteless, hilarious. Peter Tinniswood meets P J O'Rourke meets Hunter S. Thompson round at Joe Bob's.

Link from the Englishman.

Much Respect

The Respect Coalition has a new website - sort of. Hat tip to Harry. I have added it to my links and would urge all right-thinking people to do likewise.

I'm particularly fond of the disclaimer.

"As creator of this website, I take no responsibility for its content. This is the age where one is not expected to take responsibility for one's actions, and I fully intend to take advantage of living in this golden era. Anyone who doesn't believe me should read The Guardian or similar left-liberal paper. Remember, I am a victim and this website is my cry for help."

British Bondage Is Best

The Guardian's always first with the big stories. "British people top the league for bondage in the bedroom, according to an independent thinktank", while "Dutch people seem particularly turned on by novelty underwear."

Knitted from extruded Edam I trust, and featuring tasteful scenes of dykes and tulips.

If only I had any skill with these paint packages ! A Reynolds or Gainsborough with added handcuffs or leather mask, or a Vermeer or Breughel with 'novelty underwear'. I'll see what I can do.

The masters of this sort of visual foolery are of course the people who post here.

Left Wing Play At National Theatre Shock

Stephen Pollard on the latest in leftie luvviedom as David Pinter - or is it Harold Loach ? Ken Hare ? clamps his gums once more onto the state-funded nipple.

Meanwhile champion clamper AL Kennedy appears to have undergone an operation. She could have let the anaesthetic wear off before putting digit to keyboard. I think the point of this somewhat disjointed piece (the writing, not the author) is that excessive consumption fuels the evils of imperialism. But I could be wrong.

And two takes on immigration. Most of the left has long accepted that large-scale immigration from poorer countries suited capitalists, but judged the effect on British culture to be worth the price. Polly Toynbee's only just noticed.

"The real reason why we should fear immigration. Labour is using foreign workers to deny everyone a living wage." Uh ? This is the Guardian, isn't it ? Polly ? Are you there ? Wake up, Polly ! Gosh - it was all a dream .... wasn't it ?

The Scotsman draws the obvious (liberal) conclusion from the Morecambe tragedy - as we can't stop illegal immigration, why not put our hands up and legalise it ? After all, Scots politicians have been talking about immigration as a solution to the lack of Scots babies.

I'll believe it when I see it. It must be such fun to be a Scots liberal - abusing the English racists safe in the knowledge that hardly any immigrants or asylum-seekers will end up north of the border. After all, they don't even like English immigrants.

Evil America Fails To Attack Dictator

Simon Jenkins has the moral blinkers on again.

What is the difference between a sadistic oil-rich Arab dictator who must be backed and fêted by the West and a sadistic oil-rich Arab dictator who must be bombed and sanctioned into submission? Answer: none.
The lucky dictator in the 1980s was Saddam Hussein and today it is Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The unlucky dictator in the 1980s was Gaddafi and the unlucky one today is Saddam.

Let me say it slowly. The difference (apart from the lies - when was Saddam ever feted ? And "Saddam did not sponsor any terror network" - what about the payments to suicide bombers' families ?) is that having taken note of Saddam's fate, Quaddafi has decided it's time to stop the anti-Western rhetoric and to forget about developing WMDs, despite all the assistance provided by Pakistan. He's not alone - North Korea and Iran are both getting cosy with US and international nuclear inspectors after years of secrecy.

Of course he's still a very bad man. No doubt of that. And as SJ rightly points out, his change of heart is totally self-interested. But what do you do with bad men ? You can 'engage' or cut a deal with these people, something SJ here denounces as the triumph of cynicism. Or you can strike the bad man down as in Iraq, or bomb as we did with Quaddafi 20 years back, and be slated for only creating more terror.

SJ, along with a large part of the Left, would prefer a Third Way. Our government should roundly condemn and abuse such dictators, thus annoying and alienating them, while doing nothing to stop whatever bad deeds they may be up to. This policy of course was tried by Labour, the Liberals, and half the Conservative Party in the years 1933-1939, with conspicuous success.

Now Quaddafi's no Hitler and Libya's no Germany. But with Pakistani scientists, apparently backed by the Army, handing out the technology to every Abdul, Ibrahim and Youssuf, they don't need to be. The nuclear genie may now be out of the bottle.

Mr Churchill spoke of this Third Way in March 1934.

"The Opposition is very free-spoken, as are most of us in this country, on the conduct of the German Nazi Government. No one has been more severe in their criticism than the Labour Party or that section of the Liberal Party which I see opposite...
But these criticisms are fiercely resented by the powerful men who have Germany in their hands. So we are to disarm our friends, we are to have no allies, we are to affront powerful nations, and we are to neglect our own defences entirely. That is a miserable and perilous situation."

It's also the situation Simon Jenkins, half of Labour, and the whole of the Lib Dems would like us to be in.

Ballet Awful

Ever wonder about the glamorous life of a student dancer ? Admittedly the Twin Cities may not be the Royal Ballet School, but there's no need for this, from the ironically titled Laura's Fun Journal.

"I'm really sick of all this waiting crap. I'm tired of sitting at parties, waiting to go home. I'm tired of waiting for mail to come. I'm tired of waiting for people to return calls. I'm tired of waiting for people who said they were coming right over. For hours. I'm tired of waiting for people to call. I'm so tired. Of all of it .... My life is wasting away ......And there's nothing I can do."

I hope she's not waiting for mail about her blog. There's no address on it.

(original concept by Peter Briffa)

"Even the Guardian ...."

Listening to Radio 4's "The Message" this afternoon, hosted by uber-liberal Jenni Murray.

First part was another example of what appears to be a liberal campaign to make newspapers report asylum and immigration in the approved PC fashion rather than the robust manner beloved of the Sun and Express. Jenni tut-tutted about the demonisation of immigrants as only one who upped sticks from Wandsworth to the (hideously white) Peak District can do.

" ... as journalists at the Daily Express consider whether to complain to the PCC about the papers coverage of asylum seekers, we ask how far can we go in expressing opinions, free from "censorship" or "political correctness" before free speech becomes hate speech?"

The correct answer of course being 'not very far at all".

But it was an aside in the second item, about media coverage of the Democratic primaries, which amused me. Jenni and her guest were bemoaning the fact that no-one actually asks about policies when they compare the Democratic candidates.

"Even the Guardian ran a story comparing their hairstyles the other day ..." said Jenni.

Now I've searched the Grauniad site and I can't find the article. But no matter.

"Even the Guardian ....". Says it all - about the BBC and about its culture.

Free The Care Homes 100 !

I have commented before about the industrial-scale child abuse perpetrated by social workers in children's homes. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it.

But it is probable that many, perhaps a majority, of the 'carers' jailed in the last few years as the result of police 'trawling' operations are, like Anver Sheikh, innocent. These people are not only in prison, but as convicted child molesters occupy the lowest, most despised niche in prison society - the 'nonce'. They are perpetually in danger of attack by other inmates and usually have to be segregated for their own safety. Many are elderly men with previously blameless records

The state, contrary to Polly Toynbee's belief, is not normally the best possible nanny to children - quite the opposite. The child in state care who then gets good A-levels, sails through university and works productively is a rarity. More common is the child with tattoos, a criminal record, low academic achivement and drug or alcohol problems. Sad but true.

Twenty years after leaving care, large numbers of children will have become the kind of adult known in judgemental days as 'low-life'. As Richard Webster writes :

"They are almost always adults, many of them with long criminal records. In a number of cases they make their allegations in prison or while facing serious criminal charges. It is here that the real dangers of police trawling operations become apparent - or ought to become apparent.

If police officers interview hundreds of damaged young people with long records of deception and dishonesty, with the aim of gathering allegations of abuse against those who once cared for them, it would be surprising if they did not succeed in provoking a large number of false allegations - particularly when it is known that such allegations can result in thousands of pounds being paid out by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. "

Richard Webster has updates on Anver Sheikh, links to the organisation Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers, and background on the issues. Read - and make others aware of this scandal.

Guardian of Law And Order

It's now open season on Lord Hutton, who failed to tell the 'left' what it wanted to hear. But the Guardian gets lower than the gutter in choosing a writer to take a shot at him. More the depth of a shallow grave.

In 1990 an IRA volunteer and suspected informer called Sandy Lynch was rescued by police while undergoing interrogation by IRA internal security (aka the 'nutting squad') in a house in Lenadoon, West Belfast. According to his court testimony, Fred Scappatici told him he'd better talk, or he'd 'be able to talk to me the way he wanted, hung upside down in a cattle shed. He said it didn't matter about me screaming because no-one would be able to hear'. He was resigning himself to a slow and terrible death when police burst in and arrested everyone in the house.

Among those present and arrested was Danny Morrison (known within the IRA as the 'Lord Chief Justice' for his power of life and death over informers), Sinn Fein's publicity director.

The man the Guardian thinks suitable to judge issues of the 'contradictions, the lies and the evasiveness' of government evidence.

The Guardian has inadvertantly raised one point in Hutton's favour. Morrison may just possibly be biased against Hutton, who sentenced him to eight years in jail for conspiracy to murder, IRA membership and kidnapping. My respect for Lord Hutton has doubled. Pity the sentence didn't.

(Info from Toby Harnden's Bandit Country, about the IRA in South Armagh)

Blair vs BBC II

Is this as good an outcome as you can get ? The Beeb get a shoeing AND Blair loses yet more credibility ?

Not that BBC culture will change one iota. They don't think they've done anything wrong. They don't think they're biased. After all, all their friends think the same way as they do.

It's also been a week in which the stories of the top-up fees vote and the cancelled Cambridge research centre reveal that a Government with a majority of 160-odd doesn't actually seem able to govern.

What a wasted six years. What an opportunity missed. I had such high hopes on May 1, 1997. But when Frank Field went the project stopped. Blair recoiled from the (tax-funded) vested interests who want to keep the benefit dependency culture alive. In doing so he missed the chance of changing millions of lives for the better, and condemned yet more of the poorest people to the sort of fear and misery that drives some to suicide.

Now I wonder - what exactly are Labour for ? And all the answers are bad ones.

Gilligone

Well, they hired him so that the Today programme could set the news agenda. By that yardstick he should be due for a fat bonus, though there is the minor issue of collateral damage to his chairman and chief exec ...

Greg Dyke - don't set up as a fortune-teller. On January 5 it was 'there are no fall guys, and we'll only accept criticism we agree with'. Today the Shepherd's Bush skies are thick with falling guys.

At such a time magnanimity rather than gloating is in order. Tee hee.

UPDATE - Last Night's BBC News has a wonderful diary of Jan 28, following BBC news from the early expectation - 'This report may lead the government to consider the wisdom of blazing a trail first and then looking back on the wreckage'

through the dawning realisation that the BBC, not Blair, would be where the wreckage was - 'We have just heard Lord Hutton say Andrew Gilligan's allegation that the government knew the 45 minute claim in its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "unfounded". It is not good news and you can not rule out the possibility of BBC resignations'

and on to the realisation of the full horror - 'Gavin Hewitt reports: "The BBC has never suffered criticism like today. Lord Hutton attacked its editorial values, its management, and its journalism". Hewitt says that the BBC's managers never anticipated this'.

A Left And A Right, Babylon On The Ground

Now I know why the BBC gave such coverage to the anti-war protesters.

They're the same people ! I listened on R5 as hundreds of BBC employees, selflessly giving up an afternoon's tax-funded pay (or else I want my refund), gathered outside offices in London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Londonderry, Manchester and Cardiff to protest Greg Dyke's resignation. Lots of (mostly female) chanting - add a few whistles and you could have been in Parliament Square on May Day. These people are still at university. The same chants too ...

Middle class female vocal - "What do we want ?"
"Greg Dyke !"
"When do we want him"
"Now !".

I'm sure I heard 'One, two three, four, we don't want your racist war' in the background when Peter Allen on R5 was talking to staff outside Broadcasting House. Maybe I dreamed it.

And the scenes of hysteria when Mr Hubris, after his interview with that nasty Ms Nemesis, left the building - you'd have thought John Pilger or Michael Moore was there ....

I liked this report ....

"The exclusive party will include the 'Hutton VIP room', which will blast out the Hutton report, mixed into dance music. MPs are expected to re-create Andrew Gilligans now infamous radio report, backed by conga music, whilst dancing hand in hand through the corridors of power."

State Funded Terror

The people for whom Jenny Tonge feels such empathy killed another bus-load of people today. The bomber was a Palestinian policeman, whose wages are funded by the EU.

Currently EU Fraud Officers are investigating the PA budget, according to this report. Given the EUs inability to spot fraud within its own borders, I don't hold out much hope for them on the West Bank. Good liberal EU commissioner Chris Patten denies any wrongdoing has taken place.

Stephen Bloomberg, a British born Israeli, is currently suing the EU after Palestinian police shot up his car, leaving him paralysed and killing his wife.

I hope he wins, but what a thought. We pay taxes to support Arafat's gunmen, then we pay again to support compensation for his victims. Could you make it up ?

Woman Sour

Listening to 'Jenni' Murray discussing anti-social behaviour with a spokesman from the Children's Society. This organisation, believe it or not, was once the Church of England Children's Society. Now they hold sincerely the belief that no child should ever be punished for anything - up to and including the Bulger killers, who should not have been locked up for the abduction, sexual torture and beating to death of a toddler. But they adopt a gradualist approach - the last campaign was against any children being held in secure accommodation (which includes prison where secure council units are unavailable), with a particular focus on Section 130. The people who support the campaign are the usual depressing pro-criminal suspects (Baroness Stern doesn't want adults locked up, never mind children), the childrens liberation movement (NSPCC, Barnados, National Children's Bureau) and assorted liberal bishops. Plus Paul Marsden.

Naturally the CS spokesman was against ASBOs - they were 'too punitive'. Always the criminal, never the victim.

Jenni was sympathetic. Of course, this doyenne of BBC PC had the money to leave Wandsworth for the Peak District when the children reached secondary age, a place where ASBOs are few and far between. So much easier to be a liberal on crime when it doesn't come back at you.

PS - Dalrymple wrote a while back 'beware of contracted first names'. This is a Seventies phenomenon which mostly affects women, though 'Jon's' and 'Miki's' are not unknown. It was hip and liberated for Jennifer to become Jenni, Nicola to Nikki, Susan to Suzi, Debbi, Traci and so on. Really hip girls dropped another letter - so we had Jeni, Niki and Debi. It's as sure a way of dating someone as the name Doris or Elsie once was. Anyone with such a contracted name is likely to be in the 45-55 range.

As one generation dies, its names, usually hopelessly unfashionable with young parents, return after lying fallow for a few years. Names like Ivy, Phoebe, Olive are starting to return. Strange to think a time will come when Wayne, Gary and Darren will be associated with old men.

Tony Sewell

One of my heroes, was the interviewee on Feargal Keane's R4 programme yesterday (RealAudio). I wish they'd just put up a transcript, but for those of you with broadband it's well worth a listen.

Blair vs BBC

Like Leeds v Arsenal, you want both sides to lose. But Melanie Phillips has some wise words on the Beeb,

"What's happened at the BBC is a bit like what's happened in our schools and universities -- a pervasive corruption of the culture and the erosion of its founding values. I don't want to destroy public service broadcasting any more than I want to destroy our schools and universities. But how can one change the culture and restore it to its founding values? How does one cleanse the Augean stables?

..... the criticism made elsewhere that it is wrong for the governors simultaneously to be defenders of the BBC and its regulators -- although correct -- opens up the possibility of putting the BBC under the control of the meddlesome, bureaucratic monstrosity that is Ofcom, which would destroy it."

and on the Tories opportunism over Kelly and Hutton.

" ... by deciding that Blair was the villain of the piece, the Tories were effectively siding with the BBC, when it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the BBC was entirely in the wrong, that its position was utterly indefensible -- and that in the long run, it is the BBC, not the Labour party, that is actually the Tory party's biggest enemy because of the role it plays week in, week out in subverting the values of this country and the nature of truth itself.

But the Tories simply would not listen ..... because they were transfixed by the mantra of 'Blair the liar' which they have elevated to their main plank of opposition. Now they have been well and truly caught out on the wrong side. The roar of derision from the Labour benches that greeted Howard's feeble and glancing nod towards Hutton's demolition of the BBC was well deserved."

UPDATE - Norman Geras isn't too impressed with the Blessed Michael either. Nor is Stephen Pollard. Still, as Greg Dyke would doubtless say, we all make mistakes.

UPDATE 2 - DumbJon isn't too happy either.

"Howard's position was so blatantly opportunistic and cynical that it achieved the almost impossible: it made Blair look principled."

"Just when we were getting ready to enjoy the Beeb catching a full load of consequences, up pops Howard to stand shoulder to shoulder with the self-same people who are normally employed trying to convince the public that he eats babies. Absolutely brilliant."

I wonder if anyone thinks Howard did well or rightly. Out in the big wide world Dyke, Gilligan and co are getting the kicks, but in this corner of the blogosphere there's only one villain. A week is a long time in blog politics.

And I Thought My Blog ....

Covered a limited range of subjects. What does this blogger do in his spare time ?

PC Plod

Remember Richard Brunstrom ? The North Wales Police chief who called a press conference after a pensioner complained about a speeding fine ?

He's in the news again - because a deputy Mayor is suing him for failing to cut Scally-related crime in Anglesey.

And for more sinister reasons - the letter sent to a woman after remarks she made at a public meeting in Llandudno, called to debate the effect of Brundstroms anti-speeding measures on business in the town.

"Mrs Elphick told Arrive Alive project manager Inspector Alan Hughes she appreciated the kind of work the police had to do in places such as Caia Park, Wrexham, scene of last summer's riots.

"But I would beg you not to put the rest of us in the same category as the people you had to deal with in Caia Park.

"The majority of people in here are upright, upstanding, good, honest citizens and I know there are one or two like that in Caia Park," she said.

On the video she continues: "But I have to say if you only left Caia Park six months ago you could stand the danger of judging us all by the same. We are not hooligans and we are not fast drivers.""

After the meeting she was sent a letter warning her that her speech had 'serious racial undertones. In the event of further inflammatory conduct you can be assured of a swift police response'.

The mighty Littlejohn has more.

The Evils of Multiculturalism

I bet neither the BNP nor Enoch Powell foresaw this.

Just A Few Votes ...

Blair survives, thanks to the votes of Scottish MPs. But it's all a little bit more damage ... better to hang on as long as possible, creating a greater fall.

The state of Labour is that of the mine-shaft in Zola's Germinal, after the anarchist Souvarine has attacked it. Planking is holed, water is spraying into the shaft from a dozen places, steel supports are held by only a couple of rusting screws. Behind the planking sands and water are moving. But for the moment it holds, and at pit-bottom things just seem a bit leakier than usual.