Another Unworkable Initiative

Tony Blair's plans to give heads the power to carry out random drug tests on pupils surely has to be one of his most fatuous ideas. He literally wants teachers to take the p***. Given the UK teaching unions, the chances of this being implemented in more than a handful of schools looks near-zero.

This morning it was a hopeful soundbite on BBC news - and by the afternoon the teachers unions were already expressing doubts both in England and Scotland.

The last thing heads will fancy is administering these. Without going into the practicalities of obtaining urine samples too closely, the potential for claims of harassment and abuse looks pretty impressive. And I can just imagine the reaction of a head with for example large numbers of female Muslim pupils.

However there is a grain of sense in this initiative. Not the pupils but the teachers should be tested for dope. Admittedly this would lead to a mass exodus of English, Drama and Social Science teachers, but you can't have everything. The principle should then be applied to all State employees, including those working for the BBC. There must be some social workers and probation officers who don't take drugs - I've just never met them. I remember a probation officer friend complaining that he kept bumping into all his clients at parties, and I know from personal experience that many social workers are more adept at putting together a three-skinner than disentangling their clients troubled lives.

Such an initiative, enforced with draconian penalties such as loss of pension rights, would make Oliver Letwin's plans to reduce State employment seem petty in their scope. They would be tumbling out of the doors faster than you could print the P45s. Admittedly many of them are probably unemployable in the private sector, but they could over time retrain as plumbers, cockle-pickers or gardeners, all of which are in demand in twenty-first century Britain.

UPDATE - This isn't to say that I think all Blair's initiatives are wrong, even this one. It's just that the more likely ANY Blair or Blunkett initiative is to have an actual effect, the less likely it is to be implemented. This follows in that noble tradition. It's just another 'Blair gets tough' soundbite

Stephen Pollard supports the idea and has the traditional smack at the Lib Dems.

Damn, Damn, Damn ...

I would have loved to have heard Sean Gabb vs Yasmin Alibhai Brown on the BBC World Service. Report here. Once again the BBC shows its commitment to free debate.

(Sean has argued for the abolition of the CRE and all race relations legislation) ..

"When Yasmin Alibhai-Brown objected that this would remove all controls on racial attacks and on discrimination, Dr Gabb replied:

"Yasmin, are you saying that the white majority in this country is so seething with hatred and discontent that it is only restrained by law from rising up and tearing all the ethnic minorities to pieces?"

Her answer was yes, though she seemed to think better of this answer immediately after. But she did not take the invitation to deny that the white population was only kept in line by criminal laws to restrain them from attacking ethnic minorities. When Dr Gabb asked if she seriously believed he wanted to murder her, his microphone was turned off and he was "released" from his engagement with 20 minutes of discussion still to run."

Howard Speaks In Burnley ....

And Harry's not blogged on it. Is he late getting home from work ?

The suspense is awful ....

R.I.P. John Daly

John Daly, whose Still Waiting For Greenhouse is the best resource around on climate change, has died suddenly. He'll be greatly missed. Each time a new warming story appeared in the UK media, his site would a few days later provide a careful analysis with links to the research. He leaves behind a site with so much data and so many links that it'll still be a valuable resource for years to come.

A Modern Martyr

Feargal Keane's R4 programme Taking A Stand this morning interviewed Helen McKendry, daughter of Jean McConville, the mother of 10 who was abducted and killed by the IRA in 1972 for the crime of cradling in her arms a dying British soldier, shot in the Divis flats where she lived.

Even at the time PIRA realised that orphaning ten children wasn't good PR. They denied that she had been abducted or killed. The current republican story is that she was killed because she was an informer.

The head of Belfast IRA at the time was one Gerry Adams.

Helen McKendry has been campaigning since she grew up for justice for her mother, despite intimidation of her and her children. Grim but compelling listening. When there's a sound link (the BBC page isn't updated yet) I'll add it. It's here.

UPDATE - Mick Fealty at Slugger O'Toole has a sombre link to last year's funeral.

Iranian Election Latest

When people talk about the 'democratic deficit' or 'stifling dissent' here or in the US, I wish they'd think a bit more about Zimbabwe or Iran before opening their mouths. I can just imagine what the Guardian would say if the Archbishop of Canterbury disqualified 2,400 Parliamentary candidates for not following his brand of Christianity.

Now 100 Iranian MPs have criticised Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for doing just that. Voting is on Friday. If any candidates are left.

Tonight's News

A quick roundup ... George Monbiot leaves the Respect Coalition, already reeling from the 'food-for-oil' revelations.

The DFES rearranges the deckchairs on 'SS Educational Titanic' yet again. I'm convinced there's a strategy here. When league tables revealed the giant gulf betwen State and private education, they brought forward the 'value-added' measure. Surprise - the private schools were best at that, too. Now we have potentially the six-term school year and the recasting of exams to look forward to. Anything but admit that the abolition of the grammar schools was a mistake. And if we shake it about enough no-one will be able to compare the present and the past ...

And Blair gets tough on immigration Episode 94. Does anyone believe anything will come of it ? The Government's immigration and crime policies have been marked by unending 'get-tough' policy announcements. Most are unworkable and those that aren't are overturned by the courts. At taxpayer expense of course. I'll be very surprised if anyone's deported from Holland, either.

And don't you just love that Guardian popup (currently a nice environmentally sound, globaliseresistance-y Toyota advert) that takes forever to load ?

Slash And Burn

The Fabians held their annual conference a week or two back, on the State and human happiness. Paul Richards blogged thereon. Now Paul is a decent democrat, whose political outlook is singularly free of the anger and bitterness which suffuses so many blogs (mine for example), so I feel a trifle ungentlemanly in using his belief that a reduction in the State's share of national income from 42% to 40% would constitute 'slash and burn' as the springboard for this post. I doubt he'll lose sleep.

We await a report on the Fabian website, so I can't be sure if Polly Toynbee's thesis that "only the state can buy the things that make people happiest" was carried unanimously, but Paul's musings don't make me optimistic.

"I was on a housing estate outside Norwich on Friday, visiting the New Deal for Communities and chatting to residents. They have £35 million to spend, a new community centre, neighbourhood wardens, new healthy eating initiatives, and extra money for local schools. The Tories would remove all of it at a stroke."

Now I know nothing about Thorpe Hamlet or Mile Cross, and what follows is painted with my broadest caricature brush, but let's assume the New Deal and Surestart are being implemented as they are in my neck of the woods, i.e. it's the 'bad' estates that are getting the money. Where's it going to end up ?

This £35 million isn't being bunged in cash to the residents - it'll end up in the pockets of middle class social worker types. The new community centre will replace the old one which has been vandalised beyond repair. The only working class people who will benefit will be the builders who tear down the thirty-year old maisonettes (themselves a replacement for Victorian terraces), and replace them with shiny new modern terraces, into which the people who rendered the maisonettes only semi-habitable will be moved along with their victims. If they're very lucky, the elderly will be moved into sheltered housing, completely contrary to a strategy of social diversity but ensuring they can step outside more often. There seems no reason why this cycle of rebuild and rehouse shouldn't go on indefinitely.

New healthy eating initiatives ? For God's sake, these people know where Lidl is ! Fruit and veg are dirt cheap there. It's not poverty of purse which keeps the trolleys full of lager and empty of oranges.

Sure Start ? In one Sure Start area near me, mums have just had a nice day off. Someone else took care of the kids while they had an Indian head massage, facial, aromatherapy and were given tips from a beautician. I'm not sure how this helps people in the long term to make more of their lives, but it keeps a few more quasi-hippies employed. This week, the drumming workshop for seven to eleven year olds with 'behavioural problems' - or 'little sods' as they were known in more judgemental days.

Extra money for local schools ? New interactive whiteboards and more laptops ! Pity about the kids' reading skills, but you can't have everything. Oh, and an extra classroom assistant to give one to one attention and stop young Colum, who's already been excluded from two infant schools, disrupting the education of his classmates for yet another term. That will, at least in the short term, bring a benefit. I'm not so sure about the message it sends out to potential Colums and to their parents.

The neighbourhood wardens are the one idea that seems a good one. But will it work in practice ? Will the bad boys take any notice of Mr NW unless he's as bad as they are ? Perhaps, just as certain northern councils hired criminals to provide security on major building projects, they could find the hardest thug on the estate and make him a warden. "Since all Mile Cross cannot govern Dave Yob, let Dave Yob govern all Mile Cross", as was once said of Kildare.

All this helps soak up that £35 million of our taxes. Some good will come of it, of course. Some young men may have their lives transformed by modern dance classes, as Chris Smith rhapsodised (don't even think about it ... ), some young heroin user may pull herself together and get a state-funded job counselling other heroin users. You can read these success stories in the Guardian. But is this a good return on what Labour insist on calling 'investment' ? I call an investment something on which you hope to get a return. Or does the return in fact consist of more welfare-dependent people, needing the services of more social workers ?

The righteous Richard certainly thinks so.

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."