Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Canaan Banana - first president of Zimbabwe

Even to someone as PC as I was in 1981, the name raised a smile. at last, a genuine banana republic in Africa ! Another government minister was the delighfully named Ndabaningi Sithole.

But his obituary isn't really very funny. He seems to have a touch of the Lavrenti Berias. If you were hitching and he stopped his limousine, woe unto you

"Out of the public eye, however, Banana was a serial homosexual abuser and rapist who used his enormous authority to threaten and cajole young male aides — whom as ceremonial commander of the Armed Forces he selected to serve him — as well as domestic servants and passers-by, into having sex with him. "

Not sure about this passage, though.

"Tragedy dogged the Banana family. One son, Michael, was named by witnesses as the assailant in a fatal shooting of the partner of a former boyfriend. The incident was covered up by police and investigations much later produced nothing. Another son, Martin, was convicted of armed robbery after he held up a Harare jewellery store with an AK 47 automatic rifle. It is not known if he served a sentence. "

It sounds more as if tragedy dogged those who came into contact with the Banana family.

His ex-wife claimed asylum and lives in England. Bananas split, as samizdata remarked.


Reflections On The Game Against France

Like Arsenal, England possess the ability to play off form and still get the result. Wales could have been 17-3 up at half time had Robert Jones kicked as he did against New Zealand. He missed, and the Wilkinson boot, after an early failure, slowly ground Wales down.

England will be worried by the 3-1 try count to Wales. It was only a couple of months ago that an England second fifteen cruised past Wales by a four-try margin. NZ put 8 tries past the Welsh just the week before.

Nonetheless I still take England to beat France. The French backs are exciting as ever, yet England will face no better handling and running than resulted in Robert Jones' try, created by Shane Williams' great run and pass. The forward battle will be hard, but there's no danger of England being surprised by that. In recent years their dominance over Wales has been such that they were genuinely surprised, not by the Welsh fire, but by their ability to sustain it beyond the first fifteen minutes.

But as long as Wilkinson is upright and unclogged England will be my favourites to win. By his standards he had a poor game on Sunday. Would that Wales had such a poor player - 23 points on an off-day.

"Whatever happens, we have got
Jon Wilkinson, and they have not"
Defend The Firle Seven !

Schoolboy tortured to death, sixteen year old kills two, woman found murdered, more HIV charges - oh, and the Soham trial continues. Another day's BBC news.

And political correctness reaches a new and dangerous phase as seven are arrested for the hideous crime of burning effigies.

Can Guy Fawkes' descendants sue ?

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Why I Love Urban75



Urban75 is a bulletin board for London's radical squatterati and as such is one of the funniest sites on the Web. A typical thread might go :

"God I Can't Stand The Tories."

"Me too. They're so full of hate and bitterness".

"Can't wait till Thatcher dies".

"Nor me. I'm keeping some champagne in the fridge".

"What a party we'll have"

(But sprinkled liberally with (often misspelled) obscenity. Why do they find the female genitals so offensive ?)

Trawling it earlier this evening for evidence of the 'Rioters For Peace' tendency, I came upon this classic.

"20th November 2003 is the 11th Annual Community Police Officer of the Year Awards and Probationer of the Year Awards in the city of london, with the Home Secretary David Blunkett MP - Home Secretary as VIP guest.

At exactly the same time, Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London will officiate over a sex majik ritual on at Buckingham Palace, where George VV Bush, psychically charged by genocide will have sex with the dead queen mother. The US leader and mass murderer will have to
undergo sensory deprivation and fasting before 27th of Ramzaan, Shabbe Qadr (Night of Power). He will stay up the whole night reciting Quran Shareef and completing it, offering special prayers and reading Nafils after which he will "ascend to heaven" on a "winged donkey with human head". This is code for demonic possesion of Elizabeth's grandfather, George V. It is significant that this is to be the queen's mother and not Diana (mother of William, the sun-king in waiting).

While the Queen acts as the titular head of the anglican church, she and her progeny are secretly active in an ancient pagan cult which incorporates islamic cum protestant and catholic teachings to synthesize a particularly sick form of aristo-paedo- fascism and compete alongside other royal and elite families in Amerikkka and Saudia to perpetuate an endless war on the proletariat.

All police and the armed forces who have previously sided with the Windsor gang and other sick leaders are urged to join the proletariat masses in open revolution against the elitist racists oppressors ...."


It appears that after the long dry summer the magic mushrooms are out !
Gulf War II

OK, it's been around for a year and I just found it.

It gives the 'if we do anything all the Muslims will hate us' worldview.

It celebrates mindless destruction.

It slanders Bush, Ashcroft, Powell, Rummy and the lovely Condoleeza.

But it still made me laugh.
An Excellent Site

The Indie wheeled out Bea Campbell on the weekend to rehash her theories about Diana and the royal family (" ... the nature of knowledge and power ... the most powerful people in the land ... sex and corruption... "). Not to mention (ahem) 'Diana's inlaid mahogany box'. How exotic.

Bea has been big on conspiracy theories ever since she and social worker Judith Jones wrote a series of New Statesman articles on "satanic abuse" in the early 1990s. By this time Judith Jones, then known as Judith Dawson, had already played a leading role in the Nottinghamshire abuse scandal, in which social workers created an increasingly unlikely and elaborate fantasy world of ritual abuse.

Judith Jones then went on to a starring role in the demonisation (aided and abetted by a cast of thousands including the Sun, Esther Rantzen, Childline and even Hillary Clinton, Jack Straw and Cherie Blair) of Newcastle nursery workers Dawn Reed and Chris Lillie.

And it was this story that led me to the site of Richard Webster. I confess I downloaded the whole site and have been reading it offline - still plenty more to go. Fine writing - and his stories of increasing numbers of miscarriages of justice (brought about by police 'trawling' for evidence) are compelling.

Monday, November 10, 2003

Handcarts again ..

In the Black Country a 12 year old girl is critically ill after being shot with an air rifle ....

In Northampton two disabled men are kicked and beaten in an unprovoked attack ....

But in Cheshire the Chief Constable has his priorities right ....

Sunday, November 09, 2003

Hell In A Handcart Bloggers ?

Behold, a miracle. Marcus at Harry's Place wonders if every day, in every way, we're getting better and better. Doesn't come to any firm conclusions, but it's so rare to find anyone on the Left, apart from Norman Dennis and Independent Working Class Action, who believe that crime and anti-social behaviour are anything but figments of a Daily Mail reader's imagination.

In the comments he characterises me, not unfairly, as a 'hell in a handbasket' merchant. I wondered who else could fall into that category - Dalrymple, certainly, Melanie Phillips, Peter Hitchens, the grandaddy of them all - Richard Littlejohn, but not too many 'blog-only' writers - perhaps Mr Cuthbertson - maybe even the usually optimistic Jackie, perhaps David Farrer - any more ?

Melanie was exercised by the recent case of the disabled Gloucester man who suffered a campaign of harassment by local youths. The police did nothing about it until he, in desperation, took direct action. Then they were interested - in him.

"He became so desperate that on one occasion he grabbed his airgun and fired a shot above their heads, only to find himself in trouble with police. Four days after officers visited him to say he had to attend an official interview, he hanged himself in his shed on August 20."

I live in a leafy rural area not so very far from the town which Dalrymple described as "a small cathedral city of about 100,000, where the city council has conclusively demonstrated that with the right combination of 1960s urban planning and an undiscriminating welfare policy, the degraded inner city conditions of much larger conurbations may be successfully reproduced in small country towns."

This week the local paper, the Gloucester Citizen, sent reporters to the area where people are driven to the edge of suicide before being pushed over by Gloucestershire Police. No one would be interviewed except on conditions of anonymity, lest the fate of Martin James become theirs also. The only people who would give their names were teenagers and a local youth worker, who blamed Mr James' death on youths with 'nowhere to go'. "Mr Stapleton said this would remain a problem until more funding was given to voluntary groups like the White City Adventure Playground and Community Counts."

As somebody said about the Anna Climbie murder, it's amazing what can be turned into a call for more funding.

With more funding, more documents like this sad specimen could be produced.

The youth worker was employed by the White City Community Project, which has been in the area for twenty-four years, spent millions, and which describes itself as "an independent democratic charity open to all residents working to generate sustainable neighbourhood empowerment and development through the combination of community led services and local statutory and business interests. The Project works to empower all residents and through their individual and collective activities create a strong, healthy and viable neighbourhood."

The local paper desribes the area thus - "Drug-taking, vandalism, anti-social behaviour. All that is familiar to residents of White City as youths run unchecked through its streets."

The White City project has been described as "successful". I'm presuming success is measured by the amount of funding a project attracts and the number of staff it employs.

Just one other story from the Citizen - a pensioner was assaulted while sitting in his car during an attempted robbery. His alleged assailant, whose fingerprints were found on the roof of the victim's car, walked free after testifying that as a habitual car thief, his fingerprints could be found on many cars in the city. Could you make it up ?