Busy busy busy

It's been a couple of months since my last posts and I've been busy with a new band.
We played our first show in March and went down really well. Here's the first tune we ever played live, an instrumental called "Jummy Allen"


The band are myself on guitar, mandolin and vocals, Vince Gorman on guitar, cittern and bodhran, Dave Walker on double bass and Chris Clemo on cohon. It's a great sound even if I say so myself. My friend Teresa Brown guested with us and played a mean fiddle.
The band follows on from my 2007 "covered" album where I set out to play songs by one artist in the style of another different one. Here's our version of a well known 1980s song


Since then we've been adding songs to our repertoire and now have over an hour's worth ready to play, with a load more in rehearsal.
The other week we were featured artist at Stevie Jones' Open Mike night at the Artichoke in Moulton and he filmed a couple of minutes of one of my songs "Any Road".



We'll be playing a lot more shows in the coming months. I'm excited about the band. We're versatile and it's a real joy not to have to lug loads of amps and speakers and drums around. And it's also a pleasure to play without hurting your ears.

Watch this space, as they say...

No deposit, no return

Back in the mid 60s I worked in an off-licence in London's Harrow Road. My job was to keep the shelves stocked and to take care of the empties. When a customer bought a bottle of beer he was charged 3d (a nominal but significant sum, probably equivalent to 50p today)for the bottle. When he brought the bottle back, he got his money back.
It was workable and there were no bottles or cans littering our streets.

I have a confession to make. When I was about 10 or 11 my friend and I would sneak over the wall of one of the pubs in our seaside town and steal empty pop bottles and then take them to a local shop and claim the deposit. I made a few bob and put it in a Post Office savings book. Of course I got caught. The pub landlord had seen me and waited until my next visit, catching me red-handed. I don't know which was worse, being caught, being handed over to my mum who beat me and then being told to wait until my dad got home...
He was working in London and didn't get home for almost a month. I lived in dreadful anticipation of the knock on the door from the police, and my father's return. It was a big deal. Don't steal.
Fast forward a few years and Schweppes became the first company to market "no deposit, no return" bottles, followed soon after by "Long Life" the first beer brewed specially for the can.
It was the Swinging 60s, a time of innovation and sweeping away the old. Yes it had its good side, but there were a few casualties along the way. The old breweries like Fremlins, Courage Barclays & Simmonds, Trumans and countless others were taken over and merged into a few conglomerates selling identikit fizzy beer.

Watneys Red Barrel. Ugh! I still recoil at the name.

Along with the innovation that was the Party Seven we had supermarkets selling beer, and they weren't interested in bottles with a deposit, so it all came to an end.
Over the years beer and soft drinks have become cheaper and cheaper in real terms, and the aluminium can and plastic bottle have become the preferred means of delivery.
The manufacturer used to have a vested interest in getting the bottles back. Like the old fashioned doorstep milk delivery, it was cheaper to take the bottles back, wash and reuse them than to keep buying new ones. However, that idea has gone the way of the doorstop milk delivery- consigned to history.
Single use bottles and cans can be found almost anywhere on the earth's surface. They are an eyesore and a menace to the environment. You can read about the soup-like sludge of plastic that is displacing the plankton in our oceans, and threatening the ecosystem, and you can also read about initiatives to ban the use of single-use plastic shopping bags. All good and commendable. I hardly ever take a supermarket plastic bag these days.
It didn't take long to educate me.

But what about the plastic bottles and aluminium cans that litter our streets and blight the landscape?

In today's Telegraph I read that Bill Bryson, author and honorary Englishman (and President of the Council for the Protection of Rural England) has proposed a return to the "1980s bottle deposit scheme". You can read all about it here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8004306/Bill-Bryson-calls-for-1980s-bottle-deposit-scheme.html

About time too. Those of us who are old enough to remember the scheme are also old enough to remember when our streets were free from litter. However, while it's a nice idea and one that will have widespread approval, the manufacturers, distributers and retailers of these products will have something to say about it.

While I've been writing this blog I've been thinking about how a scheme like this could be made workable. Here's my suggestion, based upon my experiences.

First of all, you can't expect the retailers to take the empties back. I worked in retail for many years and it's hard enough dealing with one way traffic of goods into the stores without having empties cluttering the place up. There isn't the room, the time or the infrastructure. There has to be another way.
I'm a fan of small government so state control has to be kept to a minimum, so it has to be private enterprise. At the moment local councils collect domestic bottles and cans (but not from commercial premises). Each council negotiates their own contracts with recycling firms, which is why it's so hit and miss.
What's needed is some private enterprise (and a financial incentive from local and central government)
The government would charge a recycling levy on each bottle or can produced. The income from this would be used to buy the empties back. If someone can earn a few pence from picking up and returning an empty can to a central point (maybe one of the thousands of empty retail units that blight our towns)
The incentive is that the money is only paid on production of the empty bottle or can. Each collector can be given a swipe card where his cans are credited.
Instant job creation. Instant incentive to clean up the towns and cities.

OK loads of flaws. But's an idea.
And most of the people who claim to lead us have no idea.

Drugs- supply and demand

There's an interesting article in today's Mail. An "expert" has come out with a new theory on how to solve the cannabis problem. You can read about it here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1311819/Legalise-cannabis-sales-cut-crime-save-NHS-millions-says-expert.html
This is what he has to say:
"The Aberdeen University professor, who has dedicated the last four decades to researching the drug, said that the current prohibition clearly isn't working and feasible alternatives include producing branded products that undergo strict safety tests. Made under licence, they would be free of contaminants and sold in shops, removing the risk of users also being sold harder drugs.
Those who wanted to use the drug could apply for a licence.
Professor Pertwee told the British Science Festival in Birmingham: 'We have to have a car licence, we used to have a dog licence, so why not have a cannabis licence so you can only take it if it is medically safe to do so?
'That would exclude some people who are have a risk of becoming schizophrenic.'

This won't work for very practical reasons. The government are able to tax alcohol and tobacco because they have access to every part of the supply chain.

Can you for one moment imagine the drugs barons allowing the government access? Or giving away a proportion of their profits?

If so, then what we have have is the drugs barons buying off the police and government in return for registering for VAT?

What about if the government set up its own cannabis supply chain to be sold through Tesco? They would then become one of the world's largest drug manufacturers and suppliers and I can see that going down well on the world's stage.
Prohibition doesn't work. banning something makes it more attractive to some people.
The first and probably only thing I learned at school when studying economics was to do with supply and demand.
When demand is high and supply is low, the price goes up.
When supply is high and demand is low, the price goes down.

Prohibition didn't work because it tried to cut supply without the corresponding cut in demand. Only a cut in demand can reduce the supply permanently. Why manufacture something that no-one wants to buy?

The decline of this country's manufacturing capacity can be traced to a lack of demand for the product they were offering. The competitor's products were better and cheaper and so manufacturing ceased.

So how does one eliminate the demand for cannabis and other drugs? Shouldn't this form the focus of the expert's studies and research?

As an aside, and I'm not suggesting that this is the answer for everyone,I read a lot about the Welsh Revival of 1904/5. Here's an article about it:
http://www.openheaven.com/library/history/wales.htm

"According to the London Times of February 2nd, 1905 due to the Welsh revival many men abandoned dens of iniquity. Employers noticed a great improvement in the work produced by their employees. A judge named Sir Marchant Williams said that his work was much lighter especially regarding drunkenness and related offenses."

The argument against the long term benefits of the 1904/5 revival is that it did nothing for the long term decline in Christian attendance and observance, but they fail to take into account the huge loss of life in the trenches of the First World War, when every church, every street in every town suffered loss. Loss of the young, the strong, the energetic.

Alcoholics Anonymous use belief in a higher being as a cornerstone of their treatment, so maybe that's the way forward for some.

Perhaps some thought should be given as to why people take drugs and drink themselves senseless?

Is it for the same reason as to why some people absorb themselves in the minutae of other's lives- the cult of the celebrity, played out in dozens of weekly magazines?
Is it anything to do with the vast population of this country that have no part to play in the daily outworkings? That are powerless, thoughtless and hopeless- without hope?

Maybe we need another religious revival....

Giving aid to terrorists

Nick Clegg is keeping Callmedave's seat warm while he has a holiday and today he described the West's level of donation to the Pakistan flood disaster as "lamentable".
So far the bulk of money raised has come from UK citizens and that is understandable as many thousands if not millions have settled in the UK since the Indian partition in the late 40s. The act of helping one's relatives is entirely laudable.

So why should any Western government be giving aid to Pakistan at all? For a start they are wealthy enough to have nuclear weapons. If they can afford those then surely they could build flood defences and a decent infrastructure?
Secondly the government of Pakistan is corrupt on a scale that is breathtaking. Last year it slipped from number 47 to number 42 in the list of the world's most corrupt nation. So there is no certainty that any money aid given will actually reach its target. And don't get me started about their president, Asif Ali Zardari, who has amassed a huge fortune at a time when the average wage of the population is tiny.Indeed, he and his huge entourage were swanning around Europe at the Pakistani taxpeyer's expense while the worst of the floods were drowning the country.

The Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif says that Pakistan does not need international relief and that the country could easily raise the money to repair the damage. read it here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/7946687/Pakistan-does-not-need-western-aid-opposition-leader-claims.html
Of course that is unlikely to happen, because there are so many fingers in the pie that nothing can be done unless the West stumps up.
And why the West? Pakistan is a fundamentalist Islamic country. Where is the aid from the rich Arab/Islamic countries. Surely Islam would look after its own?
Don't hold your breath.
And can Pakistan be called a country anyway? Like it's neighbour to the North and West, Afghanistan, Pakistan is a loose coalition of tribal areas. Indeed, each area of Pakistan speaks a different dialect and seems to swear allegiance only to itself. Can political boundaries exist in this part of the world? There is currently unrest in Kashmir where the Islamic population is in revolt against the Indian government.
There appears to be little loyalty to any concept of nationhood among the tribes of this part of Asia.
In a country where kidnap is seen as a legitimate occupation, can giving money be a wise thing?

Next there is the indeniable fact that Pakistan exports terrorism. We've all seen the effects of allowing Pakistani Imams into the country to teach in the UK's mosques. All the recent terrorist atrocities in the UK, India and the US had links to Pakistan.
There are Islamic extremists in Pakistan who hate the west and want to kill us all and destroy us. And Clegg wonders why no-one wants to help them?

Christians may argue that Jesus commands his followers to love those who hate you, bless those who curse you.(matt 5:44).
I have two comments to make. The Christian faith is a private and personal faith. Jesus was speaking to the individual, not the nation. If as an individual I am wronged, then I am commanded to love those who wish me ill. That is a personal matter between the individual and God. It is not and can never be a basis for diplomatic policy.
Secondly and far more importantly- the ability to forgive is considered a strength in the Christian world.
However, it is seen as a weakness in the Islamic world. Showing weakness is unthinkable to an Afghan or Pakistani tribesman. Forgiving your agressor causes him to lose face, and to lose face is unthinkable. Instead of showing him love/care/concern for his well being, you have deeply insulted him and he will vow revenge.

I will not be giving any aid to the Pakistani people, and I strongly advise you not to either. Their opposition leader has said that he doesn't want it, that the country can sort its own problems out. Their worldview is such that to accept aid would be demeaning and they would lose face. And then honour would have to be satisfied.
They really would bite the hand that feeds it.

Back again

I'm back blogging following Nicki Gillis' successful tour of the UK. I had a lot of fun and although it was tiring and sometimes painful as I fought off infections, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
I'm now undergoing my sixth and hopefully final bout of chemo prior to a couple of weeks holiday at the beginning of September.
I have a bone marrow test and CT scan booked for October, and a hopefully final appointment at the hospital in November.

In the meantime I'm fighting nausea and tiredness as the chemo takes its toll on my kidneys. I will start posting again as the fancy takes me. It'll be the usual stuff- politics, ethics, religion, global warming, hypocrisy etc etc.

I've enjoyed playing music again. It's been too long. I must get a band together and start promoting the album I recorded before all this leukaemia kicked off.

The Vicar of Bray

Now that the new government is getting its feet under the table, and the Labour leadership is starting to shape up, it's surprising how many of the ex-labour Government ministers have come out to say that their policy on Iraq, Afghanistan, and now immigration were wrong. Next will be 24 hour drinking, a cornerstone of Bliar's cafe society big idea.
The whole nonsense put me in mind of the Vicar of Bray. I learned about him at grammar school, back when they used to teach history. Apparently they're offering a GCSE in Britain's Got Talent these days. That reminds me of the old joke about the Irish equivalent of GCE exams, where the questions went-
Q. Either- Explain Boyle's law
Or- name the members of Boyzone.

For those who don't know any history can I point you to this site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vicar_of_Bray

And here's the words to the 18th century song-

In good King Charles's golden days,
When Loyalty no harm meant;
A Zealous High-Church man I was,
And so I gain'd Preferment.
Unto my Flock I daily Preach'd,
Kings are by God appointed,
And Damn'd are those who dare resist,
Or touch the Lord's Anointed.

And this is law, I will maintain
Unto my Dying Day, Sir.
That whatsoever King may reign,
I will be the Vicar of Bray, Sir!

When Royal James possest the crown,
And popery grew in fashion;
The Penal Law I shouted down,
And read the Declaration:
The Church of Rome I found would fit
Full well my Constitution,
And I had been a Jesuit,
But for the Revolution.

And this is Law, &c.

When William our Deliverer came,
To heal the Nation's Grievance,
I turn'd the Cat in Pan again,
And swore to him Allegiance:
Old Principles I did revoke,
Set conscience at a distance,
Passive Obedience is a Joke,
A Jest is non-resistance.

And this is Law, &c.

When Royal Ann became our Queen,
Then Church of England's Glory,
Another face of things was seen,
And I became a Tory:
Occasional Conformists base
I Damn'd, and Moderation,
And thought the Church in danger was,
From such Prevarication.

And this is Law, &c.

When George in Pudding time came o'er,
And Moderate Men looked big, Sir,
My Principles I chang'd once more,
And so became a Whig, Sir.
And thus Preferment I procur'd,
From our Faith's great Defender
And almost every day abjur'd
The Pope, and the Pretender.

And this is Law, &c.

The Illustrious House of Hannover,
And Protestant succession,
To these I lustily will swear,
Whilst they can keep possession:
For in my Faith, and Loyalty,
I never once will faulter,
But George, my lawful king shall be,
Except the Times shou'd alter.

And this is Law, &c.


Ah, the benefits of a grammar school education!

Busy gardening

It's a week since my last post and to be honest, it's been warm and I've been in the garden getting green fingers and black fingernails.
Posting may be light for a few days

Microchipped man gets virus

I saw this on Sky News yesterday.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/Dr-Mark-Gasson-Scientist-Infects-Himself-With-Computer-Virus-And-Microchip/Article/201005415638978?lpos=Technology_Third_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region__2&lid=ARTICLE_15638978_Dr_Mark_Gasson%3A_Scientist_Infects_Himself_With_Computer_Virus_And_Microchip

Apparently he was fitted with a microchip and used it instead of a swipecard to get in and out of work. He could open the doors by passing his hand over the reader. He also used it with his mobile phone. Apparently his phone would only work if he held it in his left hand (the one with the chip fitted).
The chip now has a virus and he says that the virus can spread to all the other swipe cards that are used in his building.
I find this both funny and disturbing.
One- why would anyone willingly electronically tag themselves? Some Christian friends of mine say that this is the mark of the beast that is referred to in the Book Of Revelations. Maybe, all I know is that liberty is to be cherished, not given away. Having a chip fitted would mean that someone could track your every move, wherever you are in the world, 24/7. Would you want that?
Then there's the use of these chips in lieu of a credit or cashpoint card. The information on the chip would enable you to pay for your purchases, withdraw money, travel without having to buy a ticket (the cost is debited from your account automatically).
OK, all well and good. But what if someone somewhere decided that you were persona non grata? It might be a mistake, but in the meantime your assets are frozen, you can't buy anything, travel anywhere, and your every movement is tracked via the chip in your wrist.
Not so good.
The article says that Dr Gasson infected himself. Why? Is this another of those mad scientist tales where a doctor injects himself with a deadly disease in the search for the cure?
The risk here is not confined to one person. It's possible that a virus like this could be introduced into the world at large. One terrorist with a virus loaded microchip could infect the security systems of airports and banks around the world.

There are health risks as well. many pacemakers are fitted with these microchips and if they are infected with a virus then lives are at risk.

Whoever thought that fitting people with micro-chips hadn't thought it through. I'm a basically honest person with no wish to do harm to anyone, and if I can see the evil possibilities in this, then those who wish us evil will have as well.

One commenter on the Sky article wrote this, and I agree with him-
"Biometric passports have chips inside of them, so, technically, an aggressor, someone with a grudge or some nerdy guy out to prove how clever he is, could possibly infect the UK's, or indeed any other country with a similar system, passport control system with a malignant virus and cause absolute havoc!"

They still don't get it

The election is barely over and the new MPs are already at it. It seems that they still think they're entitled to spend our money as if it was a birthright.
Today's Mail has this story
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281428/MPs-win-reprieve-expenses-watchdog-agrees-hand-cash-payments-worth-4-000.html
"Parliament's new expenses watchdog last night caved in to pressure from MPs and agreed to hand them immediate cash payments worth £4,000 each.
In a bid to head off a growing backlash over the tough new regime, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority reversed its previous insistence that expenses would only be reimbursed after they have been paid out.
Instead, from today it will offer them cash advances of up to £4,000 each, at a total cost to the taxpayer of up to £2.6million."
And so it goes on.
When I worked in retail it was a condition of the job that I could get myself to work at my own expense. If I had to work in a different location my firm would reimburse the petrol costs only. After all, I had to have the car anyway.
This was hard but fair. The firm kept a tight rein on its finances and as a result was able to expand when others were contracting. It opened 100s of stores during the late 70s and early 80s,when times were bad.
They made money by keeping a rein on expenses. They never advertised, they never employed consultants or fancy head office staff. No frills. It worked.
We worked hard but we were paid well. We did everything. Our shop floor staff worked hard but we paid them well.
I always made sure that their wages were correct. You can get your staff to do the impossible as long as you don't mess up their pay.
We face tough times. Tough decisions must be made. We are all going to be poorer. The only way that the population will put up with the hardship is if they see their MPs are also playing their part.

Hone sweet home

Just back from a week in Whitby. The sun shone every day and I feel much better for it. I've walked further in the last week than I have in the last six months in total. I'm struggling with my back and have to rest/sit down frequently but there's a world of difference between feeling ill and feeling tired.
I have an appointment to see the specialist on Monday and should get the all-clear with the CLL.
I've also received the "final" tour schedule for Nicki Gillis' summer tour. I may be able to take part in some of it.

Blogging break

I'm taking a few days off from blogging. I'm away to Whitby (I've packed a thick overcoat) to take the air and while I'm there I'm playing my first concert since last September (pre-CLL).
The North York Moors railway is holding its Spring Gala so I'll be taking the train and enjoying the unique smell and sound of steam.

What will I come back to? Will the government have taken any steps to reverse the worse of the last 13 years? The Lisbon Treaty comes back to Parliament. Will we have a chance to have a say? Will the government go ahead with the Great Repeal Bill?

They have 100 days to get it right. After that the crap will hit the fan.

Computer says no.

Two recent newspapare articles caught my eye today.
The first is in the Daily Mail. Apparently they are paying an IT consultant upwards of 500k a year.
You can read it here-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270165/Meet-mid-ranking-civil-servant-working-IT-projects-rakes-500-000-year--times-PM.html
"Mr Grinnell joined the UK Border Agency in September 2007 as an IT consultant and was given responsibility in leading projects including Labour's notorious plans for national identity cards.

His job at the agency involves all major IT projects  -  including overseeing plans to issue ID cards for everyone.
The scheme was supposed to be rolled out across the UK in 2008, but has been pushed back to 2014 at a Government-estimated cost of £5 billion.
A London School of Economics study in 2005 put the cost of the ID card scheme, which both the Tories and Lib Dems have pledged to scrap, at up to £19billion.
Lib Dem spokesman for home affairs Chris Huhne said: 'This is another example of extravagant waste in outrageous consultants' fees that should shame the UKBA and the Home Office.'
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism subcommittee, said: 'This is yet more money that is being poured into the best-forgotten ID card scheme.
'The amount of police officers or MI5 operatives we could have bought on his annual salary is astounding. The money would have been far better spent fighting terrorism rather than administering ourselves to death.'
Matthew Sinclair of TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It's clear that the amount being paid to these consultants is getting way out of hand.
'Consultants are the key area the public sector can cut back to help ordinary families struggling in the recession.'

So, all the classic signs of government mismanagement and rampant overspending.

ID cards that nobody wants. Consultants charging the earth and employing their own people at grossly overinflated prices. And the taxpayer pays. That's you and me.

But there is another more sinister spin off. Read it here-

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/people/30-jobs-border-control/article-2082325-detail/article.html

"Dover could be "swamped" by illegal immigrants because of ferocious job cuts by the UK Border Agency.

It has been revealed that all Dover's 24 immigration officer posts will be slashed – despite the team being responsible for almost 40 per cent of all removals in Kent last year.
In a bitter second blow, proposals are also being made to shut down the 60-bed detention centre based at the port. The facility is used to detain offenders before deportation and to hold immigrants awaiting interview. 
Sue Kendal, branch secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, slammed the decision. "Dover is losing its entire immigration officer team and we are in danger of reverting to the bad old days of mass influxes. We risk leaving the door open for a free-for-all, including people who want to harm the UK.
A spokesman for UKBA said: "We are currently consulting with both unions and staff over the planned restructure of our Kent immigration team.
"As a result of the restructure, it is anticipated there will be fewer full-time equivalent positions in Kent, with some of these positions transferring to Sussex.
"It is not proposed the restructure will result in compulsory job losses."
All remaining staff will have to reapply for their jobs.

"The Government talks tough but in reality it is cutting front-line officers."

This is crazy. Lunacy.

Haven't we learned enough painful lessons about relying on computers instead of people on the ground?

The Police watch CCTV cameras instead of patrolling the streets.

The IPCC rely on computer programmes forecasting arctic ice melt instead of direct observation.

The UK airspace was shut down on the basis of a computer prediction rather than direct observation, ie, flying planes in and around the cloud.

And now the government are pouring their money into ill conceived and unwanted ID cards, paying over vast sums of money to consultants along the way, and paying for it by getting rid of front line staff.

They replaced Police Officers with PCSOs (who have no powers of arrest) and hoped that we didn't notice.

The closed all the local HMRC offices and got rid of the skilled tax staff and replaced them with call centres staffed by minimum wage idiots.

And now they are getting rid of Immigration staff who have powers of arrest and replacing them with part timers.

Lunacy.

How to cut £50bn

The Taxpayers Alliance have been doing the sums and have published how it is possible to cut £50 billion in public expenditure.
Read it in full here
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/campaign/2010/04/what-to-cut-the-essential-guide.html

Some highlights
Section 1: Tackling areas of spending that are not performing - Total: £7,705 million

1.1 Abolish the Bus Service Operators’ Grant - £451 million

1.2 End the ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ grants - £15 million

1.3 Abolish Sure Start - £1,150 million

1.4 Abolish Building Schools for the Future - £2,300 million

1.5 Abolish the Education Maintenance Allowance - £530 million

1.6 Reduce ‘business skills’ support - £757 million

1.7 Halt further orders and upgrades for the Eurofighter - £740 million

1.8 Abolish England’s regional development agencies - £1,762 million

That is 7billion for a start. And you wouldn't even notice that they'd been axed.

Gordons gaffe

The one eyed gurner was caught out again today. The mad fool forgot that he was still wired up to the Sky news cameras and told the listening world what he really thought about the woman he d been speaking to a few seconds before.
The Daily Mash has a great twist to the story here-
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/tories-will-scrap-free-tv-licence-for-bigoted-old-hags%2c-says-brown-201004282688/

I particularly like this bit
"Senior Labour figures have expressed unease at Mr Brown's new tactic but there are suggestions that unbridled verbal assaults on elderly widows could strengthen the party's position with the thousands of educated, middle class voters who are embarrassed by their own parents.

One Labour source said: "We'll have to wait for the overnight numbers, but if it's working then from now until polling day we'll be targeting defenceless old ladies, preferably wheelchair-bound after a violent robbery.

"Perhaps he could hit one of them in the face with a spanner."

UPDATE
The Daily Motion has this Downfall parody. Very rude and very funny

The importance of being important

Alan Yentob is all over the Grauniad defending why he has to travel business class. He says he wouldnt be able to do his job if he had to travel with the ordinary folk in steerage.
You can read about it here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/28/bbc-alan-yentob-job-business-class

Why is he flying at all? The BBC are so committed to Global Warming/Climate Change that they take every available opportunity to tell us how bad CO2 and air travel is for the planet.
But that is only for the sheeple. Important people like Alan Botney (he should spell his name backwards so that it sound more like a man of the people)have to travel by air because they are important.

Its the USSR all over again. Peasants with carts on rutted roads while the important people have whole lanes of the motorways for the own personal use.

Important people are important because they are important. Its important you know that.

X-Factor politics

The Last ditch has an excellent post about the current election and the fact that we have three parties all sharing the same centre ground. You can read it here.
http://lastditch.typepad.com/lastditch/2010/04/the-same-difference.html#comment-6a00d83451f09b69e20133ece34e04970b

I just posted this on my Facebook page "Ayn Rand said this "There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil." And we have three political parties all competing for the middle ground."

The author of The Last Ditch has this to say-

As voters peer and struggle to discern the differences between the parties now in contention, the truth is that - in key respects - they are the same. They are all Party X.
Vote for party X and this will happen:

1. You will work (if you work) for half the year for the government
2. The government will take the fruits of your labour and give them to the least deserving people of the world, whether they be African dictators (to buy weapons to use against their people), domestic criminals (to buy weapons to use against you when they burgle your house) or busybodies (to equip them to interfere in your life).
3. The government will believe that it knows what is best for you, despite being staffed by people every bit as prone to error as you are yourself.
4. The government will continue to make you hated or ridiculed in the rest of the world (and expose your warriors to danger) by conducting itself as if a small island nation of no particular current consequence was morally superior to all others.
5. Political games will be played at Westminster, while the laws are made by unelected men and women in Brussels.
6. Most of our children will be tragically denied a decent education while one side of the House of Commons rails but does nothing and the other side stokes envy of the few who do what all decent parents would if they could only afford it
7. Serious criminals will be glamourised, coddled and protected, while decent people will be criminalised to make them docile (and give the police some cheap wins).
8. The government will get larger.
9. The economy will rise and fall periodically, while the underlying trend in terms of the lifestyle an ordinary person's wage can buy continues downwards.
10. Our leaders will try to bask in the reflected glory of our daughter civilisation in America, while the worst (and I fear the most) of us continue secretly to envy it and wish it ill.

Now aint that the truth.

Ash & dust

Heres the map showing extent of the ash/dust cloud from the Icelandic volcano as of yesterday. The area marked in red is the no-fly zone.

Spot the difference? Last week they shut down the European airspace based upon a computer model, without any testing or sampling of the atmosphere.

So the actual risk area is revealed to be tiny, and once again weve been dumped on by numpties who spend all day looking at computers instead of measuring the real world.When they actually sent planes up there to measure how much dust and ash there is, the risk was downgraded and the world was allowed to get back to normal.

Im puzzled by all this. One, planes fly through dust and sand every day without harm. So why was this dust cloud considered so dangerous?
Two, it seems that those who rule us take great delight in keeping us guilty and scared. They manipulate data to try and scare us into believing that the world is going to end in a fireball, or that polar bears are going to swim down my street because the ice caps have melted. Next they scare us into panic over a flu virus that ended up killing fewer people that the ordinary kind.

There is a motive behind it. The only weapons they have to control us are guilt and fear. Its always been this way. For centuries we were ruled by kings who had armies and the church to administer the fear and guilt.
Now we are ruled by......
Whoever they are, their weapons are still the same.

Fuss about nothing?

The airlines have revolted and are flying planes into UK airspace, forcing the airports to open.
Millions have had their travel plans disrupted and the MotoGP race due to take place this weekend has been cancelled.
So what is actually going on?

The Register is reporting this-

"So the UK Met Office closed European civilian airspace on the basis of one computer model, which it didn't check against reality. We already knew that the great volcano shut-down was based on a model, but we didn't know how little atmospheric sampling was performed to test the simulation against the atmosphere. It turns out only four test flights have been made to sample the composition of the cloud.
Matthias Ruete, the European Commission's transport chief, accused the Mystic Met of preferring virtual reality to evidence. "We have a model that runs on mathematical projections. It is probability rather than things happening," he said.
As a result the Met Office continued to issue projections of where it thought the ash cloud should be, but was unable to report its density and composition with confidence. These are critical vital factors an airline needs to know. European airlines sounded the alarm on Sunday, when they noticed that the satellite pictures didn't tally with the centre's output."

You can read the rest of the article here-
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/20/mystic_met_volcano_model/

So what is going on? I assume that the insurers hold the key. Everybody fears being sued and nobody is willing to put their jobs on the line.

Im a big fan of Ayn Rands "Atlas Shrugged". In her book the action revolves around a transcontinental railway as airlines hadn't taken hold in the US when she wrote it.
However, the parallels are uncanny.

Then there is the governments response. What response I hear  you say? Exactly.

A TV presenter named Dan Snow took three inflatable boats to Calais to collect some friends. The French authorities wouldnt let him take them for hours. In the end he was able to bring some Brits home, but not his friends.
The media picked up on this and the government was stung into action.

I can imagine the conversation-
PM- We must do something!
Flunky- That bloke off the TV has taken some boats to Calais in a rerun of Dunkirk. He s getting all the media attention.
PM- Media attention? We must do something about that. Theres an election going on.
Flunky- Why not a rerun of Dunkirk? You know, send a warship or two over to collect our people?
PM- We must do something. Were losing in the polls!
Flunky- This is something.
PM- Let's do it! Erm, do we have any ships left?

Its a fiasco of the worst kind. Knee jerk politics. Media hype and scaremongering.

Ayn Rand was right all along.

You couldn't make this up.

The Times is reporting that the Pope has called for Christians to “do penance” in the face of “world attacks” on the Church over the clerical abuse scandals.
At a Mass in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican for members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission the Pope, who turns 83 tomorrow and is to make a two-day visit to Malta at the weekend, said: “I have to say that we Christians, including in recent times, have often avoided the word penance, which seemed to us too harsh.”
He added: “Now, under attack from the world, which talks to us of our sins, we can see that being able to do penance is a grace and we see how necessary it is to do penance and thus recognise what is wrong in our lives”.
You can read it here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7098470.ece

Well excuse me Mr Ratzinger. I didn't molest the kids and cover it up. Your priests did. And they did it when you were in charge and could do something about it.

Your statement sums up what is wrong with your church.
You presume a moral authority over other Christians.
You rule your clergy by denying them the right to a normal married life.
You rule your church through guilt and fear.
You claim infallibility for yourselves.

And now you want Christians everywhere to do penance for your sins?
Jesus died for your sins. You don't need to do penance. No-one does.
And the idea of making me do it in your place reveals what a den of thieves the church has become.
The Bible says quite clearly that judgement will begin with the church.
It is beginning.

grounded by dust

Here's a picture of the volcanic ash cloud, as seen from space. Although it can be seen from space, the BBC have said that you can't see it when you look up in the sky. It seems a bit far north to have affected the whole of the UK, but many people are enjoying the peace that comes from not having an airplane flying overheard every few minutes.
I live in Northamptonshire and we're on the flightpath for every transatlantic flight that uses the polar route, along with all the domestic flights and the military traffic from the US into Mildenhall.
I've lived here for twenty years and when we first moved in we were regularly buzzed by US A-10 tankbusters flying overhead at zero feet. Apparently they weren't fitted with radar and the pilots had to navigate with an A-Z atlas on their knees. A friend saw two A-10s take evasive action when a Tornado almost hit them head on, just to the west of Daventry. No they didn't see him coming. We used to see all manner of aircraft flying overhead, from modern military jets to vintage warbirds. We don't see so many nowadays.
The most unusual aircraft that I saw flying overhead was a Tupolev TU95 Bear, on its way back to Russia after appearing at an airshow at Fairford. The noise was deafening.
I've seen the Battle of Britain flight overhead countless times, plus the odd Spitfire and Hurricane. When my friends Nicki Gillis and Tracy Dann came to tea last year, I was able to treat them to the sight of a lone Spitfire doing an aerobatic display over a village a mile or two away. There's nothing quite like the sound of a Merlin engine, except two or four of them.
Then there's the B-17 Sally B, once a regular sight overhead, along with Mitchell B-25s, Mustangs, C-47 Dakotas and many more.
The most recent and most stirring sight was the spectacle of the Vulcan bomber accompanied by six stunt planes as they repeatedly overflew the town.
We don't see them anymore.
And the reason why is the same reason why there are no planes flying today.
Insurance.
No Insurance company will insure a passenger plane taking off into a sky that might be full of volcanic ash, a powder that is so fine that you can hardly see it, yet it will scour aircraft windscreens and remove paint from wing edges. It will heat up and turn to glass if it's sucked into jet engines. Only one aircraft has survived flying into a cloud of volcanic ash. That was almost thirty years ago and insurers won't take the risk.
And sad to say but it's becoming harder and harder to buy insurance for classic planes. And that's a pity because there's nothing like the sound of a Dakota from Coventry Bagington flying overhead, except a Merlin powered Spitfire, Lancaster or Mustang of course.


PS- The global warming alarmists must be going spare. All that CO2 being discharged into the atmosphere and nobody to blame. All that dust will affect the weather for some time as well. You can't blame that on us.
Some wag on another site wondered if the cloud was Iceland's response to the UK government's demand to repay their bank debts.