pathetic politics

I was at the count for the Ealing Southall by election and not withstanding that obviously I was disappointed by the result (although it was not a big campaign for us)the behaviour of certain political party members there made me sick.

I walked outside for a cigarette quite late on in the proceedings to be confronted with crowds surrounding the door. On one side were some scruffy looking youths from respect (which I think stands for recently expelled scottish politician espousing communist tyranny) ranting about the war. Facing them, resplendent in their usual sartorial elegance, was a motley crew from the vicious liberal democrats. Why they were shouting at each other about the war, I don't know, seeing as neither party supported it. Neither did UKIP, for that matter, but I suspect for different reasons.

The groups were getting so aggressive that the security guards had to shout at them to stand back and there was no way I could stand outside the door having a ciggy for fear of some missile being launched at one side and landing on me. Like some open-toed Jesus creeper sandals or a picture of Saddam Hussein or something. In the end some nice people from the MET came along and sorted them out, and I could smoke in relative safety.

I don't know what happened to the respect people after that, but I was standing outside having a chat when I heard the crowds making more odd noises. Walking in, I discovered some short, fat balding man making statements to the moth-eaten crowd of placard waving, mentally deranged Lib Dems, who were responding to his statements with great cheers! It was like one of those American God Squad TV programmes. I, kindly, pointed out to one of them that they hadn't actually won the election, but that wasn't what they wanted to hear.

It didn't get any better later on, either. We were waiting for the final numbers to be counted (how thick are people to vote for the current shower of shits we have now? Or maybe, just naive? Or maybe they vote for the people they think will give them the most free cash. I don't know.) when a plump Tory chap who had earlier almost knocked out my candidate with his enormous bottom, went around telling tories to "clap loudly for Tony" as the Lib Dems were planning to "boo him." Oh dear god, thought I. And we wonder why people are turned off politics.

This was followed by the backdrop on the stage shuddering as so many people were trying to cram on: it was full of bored looking women in saris, about 5 to each candidate (no comment) and seeing as there were 12 candidates, it was getting quite packed. Some candidates didn't feel the need to bring their entire extended family down, so luckily it wasn't so similar to the black hole of Calcutta as it could have been.

Then, like waves crashing onto the decks of the stricken Titanic, the Lib Dems came. Not literally, although the look on some of their faces it was possibly the closest they had been to coming for a while. All of a sudden, the room is filled with cat-sick yellow triangles as they pant and push for a place near a camera. The Tories aren't having any of this and join the throng, followed by Labour supporters as the snappers immortalise forever the seething mass of wannabe MPs. It's disgraceful. They are more interested in fighting each other than they are in putting forward policies and listening to what the public wants.

Are we really surprised that most people in Ealing Southall, and in Sedgefield, decided not to vote? Given that voting takes about 10 minutes to do, and you rarely get a moment to do it, thousands of people decided not to have a say in who was going to represent them in Westminster.

That to me is the most important issue. And from the performance I saw last night, I can't blame them. I'm interested in politics and I was disgusted by the scene. By all means, debate on issues, debate on things that matter. But petty squabbling in a town hall? Pass me the puke bucket.

No sane man would support it.....

Another gem from one of the best programmes ever made, pointing out how this ban on smoking in public places is utterly ridiculous...

I had to sit on the pavement outside my office today to have a quick puff instead of sitting comfortably at my desk and, of course, working at the same time. I'm being forbidden from multi tasking as well as providing the government with revenue for them to waste on bleeding heart lefty idealistic yet utterly flawed social programs. How kind I am..

Bummers Nazi Party?

Rumours have reached my pretty, shell-like ears that the BNP in Sedgefield are telling people that UKIP want to reduce the age of homosexual consent to 14. My issue with that is that it's not UKIP policy to do so and the BNP, if these rumours are true, are saying it to stop people voting for us.

Personally, I can't understand why anyone would vote for the BNP unless they had mental problems, but that's not the issue at stake here. The issue is the BNP allegedly engaging in dirty tricks, and making out that being gay is bad in some way. So, I thought I'd post this little gem...

Proof that politics spin faster than a ballerina can be found in the latest revelation to descend on the BNP.

Only last week Richard Barnbrook proved an electoral bonus to the far-right party when he won 11 council seats in the East London borough of Barking and Dagenham.

The shocking success of Barnbrook’s campaign led to much hand-wringing in the media and from the opposition parties.

Labour’s Margaret Hodge was accused of giving the BNP undue publicity when she voiced concern at their apparent popularity.

Despite his success, it seems the smug smile has been wiped from Barnbook’s face following revelations that he was responsible for an arty Marxist, erotic gay movie titled HMS Discovery: A Love Story.

Made in 1989 when Barnbrook was a student, the avant-garde affair shows men in nautical fancy dress, fondling and pulling each other’s clothes off before frolicking naked in a river.

The anti-fascist organisation Searchlight were responsible for leaking the story, which they gleefully handed to the local newspapers who, dutifully splashed the story over their front pages. Anti-BNP protestors bought up the papers in their hundreds and then handed them out at local tube stations.

The BNP leader Nick Griffin is trying to make light of the matter as the tabloids revel in the lurid details, which include a script co-written by Barnbrook featuring some choice poetry unlikely to win literary awards.

‘It bares you like a foreskin’s folds…you will make of yourself a beauty, hard as rusting trucks and slag’.

Griffin is no stranger to rumours of a gay past and is now busily denying Barnbrook’s apparent passion for a man in a sailors’ outfit. ‘Pathetic rubbish,’ is how Griffin described the scandal. ‘Richard is not a Marxist or gay’.

While it’s hard not to notice the subtle homophobia in much of the tabloid reporting of the scandal, it’s equally difficult not to rejoice in the BNP’s egg-laden face.

One of the party’s key policies is that gay sex should be criminalised, though it tends to focus on immigration and housing in order to stir up resentment within multi-racial communities.

Unlike the Lib Dem’s Mark Oaten, the slick-haired Barnbrook will be unable to blame his gay moment on baldness.

I spy....

I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Saturday, and my it was good! I can't wait to go again, especially to see the truly marvelous Bellatrix Lestrange. What a woman.

In between slurping on fizzy pop, eating pop corn and trying not to suffocate from the noxious fumes emerging from the bottom of my cinema-going pal, I noticed a similarity between one of the characters and our new Prime Minister....



Gordon Brown



Grawp

That's why Blair waited until he left office, then!

rather amusing

Just watching the news on ITV and saw a clip from David Cameron talking about the fact that Labour are 7 points ahead of the Tories in the polls. (how? not that I like the Tories, but how is anyone supporting any of the three main parties?)

He said that 'polls come and polls go' but, of course, just being a clip, it could have been spelt anyway...Like

Poles come and Poles go? Except that they don't really....which is presumably why this government is planning on building lots more council houses so people like me who can't afford their own house pay for other people to get houses and then pay for other people to get rich by paying their mortgage from our rent.

Am just sick of this country, I really am. It all seems to be geared up for people who don't try hard. I heard a story the other day about someone who was done for a minor infringement and saw first hand police on first name terms with a repeat violent offender who got treated like it was a hotel, whilst this guy just had to sit there and suffer because he has done well for himself.

We all get taxed so much to pay for health services which don't work, politicians who don't listen and to fund the lifestyles of people who need to get off their arses and do some work instead of living off mine, and other people who contributes, money. These people are doing what they can to make sure anyone who can leaves this bloody socialist bolt hole

It's not like the Tories are any better. They are proving that they haven't gotten to grips with economics by failing to realise that cutting tax boosts economic growth by saying that they will wait for growth before cutting tax. mental.

Food for thought

Let go, release, free yourself from the bindings of attachment.

Whatever you have in your mind, forget it.

Whatever you have in your hand, give it.

Whatever is to be your fate, face it.

This world is all about attachment, yet we get worried because we are all attached.

Gordon Brown: retard?

Following on from the comments the other day by Batshit when he, apparently mistakenly, said that the new 'Not-the-Constitution' Treaty transferred more powers than Maastricht, Gordon Brown has made a little bit of an error.

"A&E have 5,000,000 more attendants each years because of our investment" according to Mr Dizzy is the proud call of our Prime Minister.

Does that mean that because they have thrown more of our taxes at the NHS more people are having accidents and getting ill? Because if that's right (and that's what it sounds like) then that's not really something to be that proud of. Unless Labour are trying to kill us off, which could explain a few things...

interesting...

I have just been reading the terms and conditions of the Downing Street petition and notice that it includes:

We reserve the right to reject:

* petitions which are intended to be humorous, or which have no point about government policy (however witty these are, it is not appropriate to use a publically-funded website for purely frivolous purposes)

Which leads me to believe that the petition to ask the Prime Minister to stand on his head and juggle ice cream is being taken seriously by the government.

Oh, goody!

I've been a bit quiet. I'm in a rather odd place right now and have decided to spend my time going to the gym and seeing my friends, rather than getting all frothy about politics. Because at the end of the day, there is more to life than politics.

Not sure if there is more to life than shoes, though. But I do have lots of shoes, and everything is not rosy. Perhaps I need more?

hypocritical bastards

My name is Trixy and I enjoy smoking. I like having a wee ciggy when I'm having a drink, or after a meal, or when I'm thinking about what to write, or when I'm bored waiting at a bus stop, or...you get the idea.

And now, thanks to this government, I can't enjoy it like I used to. Because Auntie Patsy decided she knew best, and we were going to ban smoking everywhere. Even if the landlord of a pub wanted it to be a smoking pub, or it was a private members club. No, you can't have a cigarette. oh, by all means go and drink yourself into a stupor and end up in casualty (I was in casualty on Saturday night and saw quite a lot of evidence of this) or mug an old lady and get a slap on the wrist. But smoking! Gasp!

Those MPs who voted this through really piss me off. And I'm not even sure any other party in Westminster would overturn the ban, either. Which is another reason why I'm glad I'm with UKIP. You see, it's not a question of whether smoking is bad, it's about civil liberties. First it was hunting, now smoking. What next? No having any bloody fun? We'll have to start off with some kind of 'day' first: no having any bloody fun day, then 'no having any fun' sections of pubs and restaurants, then a ban. Miserable bastards that they are. So imagine my disgust when, having been in 2 pubs and the Houses of Parliament today, I read this on the BBC:

MPs have been accused of flouting the smoking ban - and even sneaking cigarettes in the Commons toilets.

If I see anyone who voted for the smoking ban having a ciggy in the loo I am going to tar and feather them. And then steal their cigarettes.

she (Harriet Harperson) had been pleased to see "smoke enforcement officers in high visibility jackets" on her way into the Commons, which showed the ban was in operation elsewhere.

oh my!

My friend Minge just sent me this!


Am completely behind the appeal!

Come Dancing

Some of you may know that ol' Trix is something of a ballroom dancing fan and has actually become rather good at it. (Instructor told me yesterday my waltz was "perfect, as usual") but it's rather annoying not having a proper partner, as such.

Lots of us girls choose to dance on our own and wait until we can dance with instructor, as it's just easier, really. Better than dancing with Square Bob High Pants or one of the other boys in the class who can't lead and, when you do something like the Viennese waltz, end up dragging you into the middle of the floor and treading on your feet. No thank you.

I did, however, spot someone today who could be my partner. Our new Prime Minister seemed to be dancing around David Cameron today, despite it only being his first Prime Minister's Questions. You would have thought that Cameron would have it fairly easy. It's not like Gordon hasn't been intrinsic in the last 10 years of abject misery and failure which this Labour government have inflicted on this country: as I've said before, he's such a money grabbing bastard I would not be in the least bit surprised if he tried to tax me for loose change I found down the side of the sofa. And yet today Cameron looked decidedly on the back foot like previous Wednesday afternoons.

Surely his biggest problem would be which questions to ask the Prime Minister about failures in the country? I don't know where I would start, there are so many. The increased tax burden, soaring house prices making affordable housing for young people a distant dream for most unless their parents can help out considerably, the lack of a referendum on the new EU Not-The-Constitution, the NHS, funding of the armed forces, the future energy policy....

And yet he bumbles on and lets the one eyed tax monster look as though he is competent enough to be our Prime Minister.

A few friends in the Tory Party have said they hope that UKIP and the Lib Dems do well in the two forthcoming by elections as the Tories don't deserve to do well at the moment. I don't hope the Lib Dems do well as I despise them, but the former I, obviously, hope do very well.

At least we have some policies, which is a start in politics....

polite notice

Can people stop trying to blow up London. It's making my travelling around London unnecessarily difficult, and it was bad enough to begin with.

No one thinks you're big or clever, you know.

Thank you.

Out with the old...

and in with the old...

So considering that the 'new' cabinet is made up of a group of talentless wankers, they are going to get lots and lots of things wrong. Just like the last lot. So who will be the first to go?

Bad Trixy

Mingle² - Online Dating

I don't see why rape and abortion should be naughty words...

sonnets

A friend informed me that my comment about Gordon Brown was so beautiful and romantic, I really should write sonnets. So I have had a crack at my first one. It's entitled,

The love of Polly and Gordon

Dedicated to Polly Toynbee and the new Prime Minister

The lady wept as she listened to his voice
Drone on in his monotone about 'tax and spend'
They think the country we will mend
And then they will rejoice.
Dear Gordon, how I love you so
Said Polly, who of course you know,
Is the guardian of all that's right
If you're really not very bright.

Come whisper prudence in my ear
And feel my heart start to beat fast
My love for you won't be surpassed
No matter what you hear.
Come fill me with your big hard taxes
I, like the nation, will be on my knees
But unlike them I want to please
It's not just my legs the lady waxes

Ithangyew

*comment about Gordon was 'Gordon Brown is a one-eyed gorgon who likes to rape people with his taxes. You can hear the romance dripping off every syllable

which one?

I was having a look on the petitions on Downing Street, and decided to sign up to the one by Tim Ireland calling on the Prime Minister to stand on his head and juggle ice cream. I thought that would be a worthwhile thing for the Prime Minister to do, especially considering that they have just given another chunk of their work away to Brussels (but with no corresponding drop in pay, I notice. Interesting).

And then I thought to myself, 'but which Prime Minister?' For I signed up to the petition about 20 minutes before Tony Blair resigns (as I write this he still hasn't) and yet shortly, he will not be Prime Minister. So who, pray, is going to stand on their head and juggle ice cream?

I think I'd rather see Brown do it, as he's such a bum-head, but Tony is so smug, it would be wonderful to watch him have a go at this dairy dare!

what next?

I am sure we have all seen this morning that the Scottish Executive, to bring Scotland into line with the rest of the EU, have decided to threaten people who wear unlicensed sporrans with a fine, or even prison. Oh, yes. Even if those sporrans were bought 13 years ago, you must dig them out and pop down to the sporran licensing office.

Just one question: How come badgers are now endangered, according to the EU, and yet we are regularly getting debates on the radio (particularly 4) about the need to cull badgers? Am I missing something? Or perhaps it is the law of unintended consequences which normally emerges from the quagmire of doom and ignorance that is the European Union?

I made a quick phone call to the lovely people at MAC to ask what their brushes were made of. They told me that the natural hair ones I have were from pony and squirrel, and that they brushed them off the little creatures rather than kill them for their tails or something, so I am okay. She asked me why, and I said that, well, if I was a water colour painter I could be in trouble and have to register them all or face a fine, because proper water colour brushes are made from sable. And if you don't, then don't put it past these people not to have organised the 'paintbrush police' and 'secret sporran services' since people have already been in trouble for owning an unlicensed having brush. Am not kidding.

She asked me what the world was coming to, with all this bureaucracy.

That's what I like about the girls at MAC: they do great make up, but they're also libertarians. Maybe I should go back to being a make up artist. The people I used to work with spoke more sense than the people in Westminster, I can tell you...

Traitors, the lot

Whilst we've all been out having fun (or sleeping if you're a sick bunny like me) Tony Blair has pretended that he's stuck to his Red Lines (I initially thought he said Red Lions which would have been much more exciting) whilst giving the EU a legal personality.

We already know that the ECJ is the highest court in the land but, as DK explains rather well, this new treaty goes even further. Quelle Surprise?

Our researcher friend made it clear that, in his opinion, from a full reading of the text, that the Constitution treaty, for the first time, explicitly says that member states are subservient to the EU Institutions (which become a legal entity). In other words the EU becomes the supreme central authority, and member parliaments merely subsidiary local authorities.

Need I point out that I consider this to be an appalling—if predictable—development?

Even more fun than that is the news that they have paved the way for an EU Common Defence Policy. Yes, boys and girls. Our armed forces will be under the command of not the nice lady in the hats who lives in Buckingham Palace, but the bad man with the orange tan who you never elected and can't get rid of! That's fun, isn't it! That's Democratic and sensible and a jolly nice idea?

Well, it's not, really, is it. I tend to think that the main function of a government should be that it can protect the state as an entity, which means that it has the ability to 'blow shit up' should the need arise. There are very few areas I would like the government to get involved in, but I think that foreign policy and defence are the ones which are important. So now it looks like it won't be long before our armed forces, badly treated and under paid and yet quite simply the best in the world, will be under the command of some Euro-Prick. We shouldn't be surprised. If the Control Key on my lap top was working properly I would put in the link from Lord Pearson of Rannoch about the deal signed at Farnborough Airshow some years ago, and also point to the demise of the historical regiments which have been replaced with ones on a regional level, to nicely fit in with the idea of the EU.

If people don't get up in arms about this, I seriously do wonder what the point of going on is. We have a nation enthralled with a relationship going on in a room in the South of England somewhere between some chap and a girl who is so lacking in ideas she aims to look like someone else, whilst at the same time our entire relationship with out government, our laws and our neighbours is being rearranged and no one seems to care.

ARGH! I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it! I said, quite profoundly, a few months ago that what it will take for people to actually bother and do something about this is for it to touch them directly. Now I fear that even if it does they won't know it, won't know the real reasons and won't be bothered to do anything about it.

Anyone going to join me in emigrating somewhere lovely? I think Australia looks like a jolly good country to go to. Nice, sensible politics over there. And I could buy a house and get a swimming pool, instead of paying a million pounds a second to rent a room in London. Yes, jolly good idea. Going to start packing right now!

me, me, meme

Yes, thank you to Chippy and Jan for getting me to answer some questions!

I will do so now before I go to bed with a gorgeous black man with green eyes. Well, I say man. I actually mean cat...

What were you doing ten years ago?

I was in the first year of my GCSEs...where did time go?

What were you doing one year ago?

I was moving back to England

Five snacks you enjoy.

The Boy has gotten me hooked on Pom Bears. I also like cherries (just had them for dinner, in fact), chocolate of most descriptions, bagels with marmite and bananas

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics.

I have NO idea! Possibly none. Possibly a couple by Kylie or Madonna or something incredibly cool. Yes! I know all the words to 'Vogue' including the spoken bit in the middle.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire.

Invest it wisely so I could get richer, buy a house, buy an Aston Martin DB9 in Gunmetal, have liposuction, give lots to a cats home. (I don't think I even need to mention in that that I would buy shoes...)

Five bad habits.

smoking, tidying up my nails when I should be concentrating, tapping my fingers on any surface so they make a noise because I have long nails, pouring half drunk cups of tea out of my office window and slouching around in my jim jams

Five things you like doing.

I'm not writing that on here!

Five things you would never wear again.

If it looked that bad to start with I wouldn't have worn it.

Five favorite toys

My rabbit ginger which my dad gave me, and also Pengy the Penguin which he brought back from the Falkland Islands, Arthur the Bear which The Boy bought me and is just very cute, and two special ones which I am not mentioning on here.

So there. That okay?

Now, I'm going to get other people to do it...Dizzy is going to have to, as is The Tin Drummer, I'm going to make Belle de Jure have a go and Croydonian and Lady MacLeod. Enjoy!

Single to anywhere, please

Am not entirely sane of mind. The reason for this is that I am on a rather interesting cocktail of (legal) drugs for the range of symptoms I am suffering from.

They're quite exciting and they're making all kinds of pretty shapes in my vision. It really does make dull things more exciting to look at when there are pretty patterns in front of them! They've also made the headache I've had for what seems a million years go away, but I'm still finding it quite tricky to breathe. It was just as well I didn't go to Brussels really, as it's been quite a kerfuffle over there.

Got a phone call from colleague who is out there that the Belgian police, instructed by we can only guess had ordered a peaceful protest to the new EU Treaty up for discussion to be taken down.

When they asked why they were taking the peaceful protest down, which was placed on an area called 'Area of Free Expression' the officer in charge said "because I can". That's nice, isn't it! He was also asked whether or not the removal of any opposition to the new EU Treaty, which is essentially the EU Constitution but without the dreaded C-word (yes, yes it is. Everyone else in the EU is quite prepared to say so except our lying, cheating politicians who should all be hung, drawn and quartered. Even Merkel herself and the hateful Giscard D'Estaing)was politically motivated, which he refused to answer.

He threatened to arrest three MEPs there: UKIP leader Nigel Farage, the party chairman Dr John Whittaker and the London MEP Gerard Batten. When it was pointed out that they had immunity as elected representatives of some 2.6 million British people the police said they didn't care and that they would "put them in a cell for 12 hours and sort it out there."

I wonder if they would bother to tell them what they were being arrested for? For not agreeing with the Euro-Elite? For having the audacity to point out that sneaking around for months holding secret meetings with civil servants, Ministers being called in front of MPs and not answering their questions about what the Treaty is going to say and for ignoring the calls of people across the EU that they don't want any more integration is a bad thing?

They were asked on what authority they were taking the protest away from, and the answer that came was "a higher authority." That's nice. Someone just says, 'take down the perfectly peaceful opposition to what we are doing here as the TV cameras are on it and they're representing the views of rather too many people' and it is done.

I really do wonder what people think they are doing. Like my favourite journalist George Pascoe-Watson when he refuses to mention UKIP in anything, even when talking about the EU, and in the paper today has an article by William Hague who has completely sold out on the EU, talking about the damage the treaty might do. But hold on, William Hague thinks the EU is a good idea! Ah, well. Why should politicians have to stand by what they promised the electorate when there are political editors out there quite willing to ignore facts and pander to their needs to convince eurorealists that they aren't the EU loving numpties that we know they are.

But back to Brussels. Or not, in my case. On the table is, once again, the possibility that Britain give up her veto in Justice and Home Affairs. Blair has said that he won't do this, but this is a man who took us into an illegal war, told us the EU Constitution was like the Beano and thinks that this country is in a good shape, so quite frankly I'd sooner believe my dead grandma than him.

A quick summary of the main issues on this from one of my previous posts:

Transferring Justice and Home Affairs issues into the first pillar would mean that all proposals to harmonise criminal law across the EU and matters of police cooperation would:
• Be agreed on by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) in the Council of Ministers
• Come under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice which has until now had only a very restricted say on third pillar matters
• Gradually confer more power over criminal matters to the EU. Once the EU gains competence in a certain area the member states lose the right to propose new laws in that field of law
• Give the EU Commission the sole right to initiate legislation in these matters. By gaining a monopoly over the right to propose laws on criminal justice and police cooperation the EU Commission would enjoy greater power than it would have received from the EU Constitution under which it would have had to share the right to propose new laws.

With decisions being made by the Council of Ministers, it has already turned the British Constitution on its head, by allowing ministers - supposed 'servants' if one knows Latin these days - to dictate to Parliament. Now, even if a British minister votes against a proposal in the Council, he cannot put it out to pasture. Instead, the British Parliament would have to enact laws made by foreign ministers, unelected by the British public which were not supported by the British representative.

I'm sure I've mentioned them before, but this EU police force is already in existence:

EGF responds to the need to rapidly conduct all the spectrum of civil security actions, either on its own or in parallel with the military intervention, by providing a multinational and effective tool.

Their logo is a grey cruciform sword pointing upward; a grey flaming grenade, overlapped to the sword and surrounded by a grey laurel crown; 12 yellow five-points-stars upright, around the grenade and the sword.

According to the website:

SYMBOLIC DESCRIPTION

On a background of blue sky, the cruciform sword symbolizes the force, the laurel crown the victory, and the flaming grenade the common military roots of the police forces; the twelve golden stars represent the twelve stars of the EU flag.

If an inflatable bulldozer can result in incarceration based on political opinions are happening only a few miles away where our own Prime Minister is present, what will happen in the future when we have armed police forces who are answerable to people who are unelected and unaccountable to the people of this country, and who are governed by the European Court, who has a mission statement of furthering the cause of the European Union.

I have seen the future, and I do not like it.

a bit quiet

It's been rather quiet here at Chez Trixy and that is because I am rather ill. Took a nasty bang to the head and now keep on going all wobbly all over London.

Thankfully, the boyfriend is being wonderful and looking after me, but I have no inspiration for politics, and even if I did want to blog something I'd probably forget and then not be able to spell things properly.

I am sure once I have seen the neurologist I will be better soon

Trixy
xxx

I have received an e-mail which starts:

'Hello, I am a friend and I am prepared to kill my dog and eat it...'

Let them eat cake..

Trixy is a bit miffed, so she's going to have a rant. Why am I so miffed? I hear you cry?

Because of this greasy, orange, contemptible canker:


who has taken it upon himself to tell our defunct outgoing Prime Minister to 'ignore popular opinion in the UK'.

Erm, what?

Tony Blair was elected by, admittedly the minority, of people in this country to represent them and their views, and therefore his job is not to push ahead with signing a Treaty which may well secure a new job for him but would hand over yet more sovereignty to Brussels but to listen to what they say.

And they are saying that they don't want this Treaty, and that they want a referendum. A referendum which we have been repeatedly promised, and yet have not had since 1975. That means people like me, and even Nigel Farage MEP, have not had a chance to inform our government what we think of the EU in a straight forward question.

Mr Barroso was talking to the European Parliament yesterday when he said:

You know about the UK, and the respect I have for your country. We have to stand up in front of our national public opinions, not give up to some of the populisms we have in our member states.

Right, let me have a little look in my dictionary...

Populism: policies which appeal to the common person rather than according with traditional party or partisan ideologies.

Sounds rather like 'democracy' to me.

So Mr Barroso, who was not elected by the people of this country and yet heads an organisation which even this government admits makes most of the new laws now governing us, who is paid with the contributions of the British tax payer, is telling our Prime Minister to ignore what we, the British people think, because it's not what he wants.

Well, tough, Mr Barroso. You, as an unelected, unaccountable apparatchik do not have any right to tell the person who is supposed to be representing us to ignore us. Why should we not have a say over the future of our country, our jobs, our laws and our lives?

The reason so many people in this country don't want to be governed by the EU is because you make monumentally bad decisions which only further the interests of paid up Commissioners, Eurocrats and businesses and industries who don't want to have to face globalisation and become more competitive. 69% of people in this country according to polls, either want to take back power from the EU (30%) or for Britain to withdraw altogether (29%).

You might not like that, especially in light of our money which you spend telling us and our children (through your one sided, malicious propaganda like the Europa diary sent out to 16 year olds to brain wash them)how great the EU is, the British people can see through your plans. That's tough on you, quite frankly, because it's not our job to make sure you have a cushy little number whether we like what you do or not.

In just over a week Blair will be going to Brussels for the European Summit where he will in all likelihood, sign up to proposals for an EU Constitution. It might not be called an EU Constitution, but that is just semantics. I don't care what it's called, I care what it does, and what it will do is take away more power from national governments, who are directly elected and accountable, and give them to the EU.

Mr Barroso has called on Mr Blair to "have the courage" and scrap more national vetos. This includes Justice and Home Affairs, which I have written about before, which will be devastating to this country and to democracy.

This Treaty is unprecedented in the way it has been formed. We aren't even going to have a debate about it, it's all being done with meetings between Heads of State, so the public and the media can't find out what evil they are plotting and try to stop them in their plans. Normally when we have a Treaty, the details are decided first, people are aware of the content, and the big meetings are to discuss the headlines. This time, the headlines are being discussed (far away from anyone who might object) and the details are being left for another day, hoping that we will all lose interest and not realise what they are putting into action.

So what we have here is an outgoing Prime Minister planning to sign up to a Treaty which he will not give us a referendum on (because he knows he will lose it), the content of which we are not allowed to know or debate and which he is lying to us about by saying, once again, that it's a 'tidying up exercise'.

It's not a tidying up exercise, it's another Treaty which will take powers away. We should be fuming about this. We should be in uproar at the way we are being treated by this government, who are once again taking the chronic piss out of us, whilst we sit back and let them. It's no good expecting the Tories to provide any kind of rational opposition, because they have handed away sovereignty to Brussels hand over fist when they have had the opportunity.

So if you don't want Blair to sign this Treaty, can we all kick up a bit of a fuss? I myself am going over to Brussels for it and shall, hopefully, be running some kind of a commentary as the evening progresses.

I hope the people of this country take an interest and realise what is going on, because if they don't, then to be honest I don't see why we just don't throw democracy away now.

Nothing honourable in killing

Why do we do people who murder their own family members in cold blood the dignity of calling them "honour killings?"

Yet again in the news we have the story of a young woman who was murdered by her father and uncle for doing nothing more than falling in love with someone. My parents haven't always liked my boyfriends (in hindsight, they were probably right but at least my taste has improved with age) but they didn't see it as their business to get involved.

Poor Banaz Mahmod, however, did not have the good fortune to be born to parents who weren't evil, nasty, bigoted arseholes. For her body was found three months after her disappearance, decomposed after she had been murdered by her own family.

There again, my parents aren't very religious, nor are they Muslim, which is the religion where most of these murderers seem to come from. And no, I'm not being an 'Islamophobe' or any other new terms given to people who speak out against things they don't like have been branded. Like Female Genital Mutilation and laws which say that rape must either be proved by the testimony of four men or by a confession from the perpetrator, they are most common in Islamic countries or groups.

Let's expand the last bit further: If a woman has unlawful sexual intercourse, she can be put to death by stoning. If she has been raped and, naturally, her testimony is not sufficient for evidence, then she can be killed by the state for being a victim.

The Hudood Ordinances are a set of laws in Pakistan intended to make the criminal justice system conform with Islamic law. These laws cover offences including Zina crimes (unlawful sexual intercourse including adultery and rape) and Qazf (wrongful accusation of Zina crimes)

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, every two hours a woman is raped in Pakistan and every eight hours a woman is subjected to gang rape. The frequency of rape is thought to be much higher but many rapes remain unreported due to a combination of social taboos, discriminatory laws and victimization by the police. Meanwhile, Pakistani law is punishing victims of rape as though they were criminals while the perpetrators go free.

According to Ms Sood, who specialises in Asian family cases, "honour crimes of some sort" whether or not they resulted in death, were becoming more common in the UK.
"But certainly honour crimes are being perpetrated in the hundreds every year,"

Can anyone tell me what is honourable about them? Why are we calling them that when it's murder? Why are we giving these people any kind of an excuse because of their religious and cultural background? It's illegal in this country to kill people, regardless of whether or not their actions may bring 'shame' on the family, and as these people are living in this country they should abide by those laws. Fine

Bore Da

We're all used to the government and the EU telling us how to run our lives, and small businesses how to run their business (even though I always thought he who paid the piper called the tune, but there we go) but even jaded Trixy thought this was appalling:

The Commission for Racial Equality in Wales says it will write to Thomas Cook asking the firm to explain why staff have been asked not to speak Welsh.
Staff at the travel agents' Bangor shop in Gwynedd have been told all work conversations must be in English.

I presume they have been asked not to speak Welsh because in a small shop like that it helps if everyone speaks the same language. It's not like Welsh is widely spoken in Wales; only about a fifth of people speak it, and in the most populated areas of Wales it is hardly used. The knowledge of the language is on the increase because of the 1993 Welsh Language Act, and the subsequent Act of 1998 which requires Welsh to be taught to all children in Wales up to the age of 16. However, above school age, mongolot Welsh speakers are virtually unheard of.

I, personally, do not like the idea of languages being forced down peoples throats. The Welsh language is being used by the strident Welsh nationalists in their separation agenda and defunct establishments like the Welsh National Assembly are wasting time and money making sure all signs are in Welsh, literature is bilingual and so on. I wish I could remember the Welsh translation for Abergavenny, which is a Welsh name anyway (Aber being 'mouth of') but which has been changed because the English were using it. It's like Aberdovy now being Aberdyfi.

Anyway, back to the point:

A company statement said: "Thomas Cook requests that all staff speak English when discussing work-related matters in the work place.
"This ensures clear communication at all times and is respectful to team members who do not speak other languages.
"Thomas Cook employs staff from many cultural backgrounds, therefore the company appreciates its staff may want to talk to colleagues in other languages for anything that is not business related".

Thomas Cook is a private company who should employ whomsoever they want and tell them how to behave whilst they are working for, representing and being paid by that company. The Welsh Language Board may find it "disappointing" but they should understand that these Acts informing people to learn Welsh and have everything translated had to be done by Parliament / the Assembly because there wasn't the demand from the market to do so before. I should imagine that the number of people graduating with Welsh degrees end up working for government organisations, because the demand simply isn't there in the private sector. English has spread across the globe thanks to the British Empire and, more recently, the Americans. So many people learn it because it's a useful language, and those of us lucky enough to have it as our mother tongue should be able to chose which other language we learn in school besides it. The children of Wales seem to be disadvantaged in that respect, because whilst their peers in England and Scotland are learning French, German, Spanish and for the very lucky, Chinese, they are learning a language for a political point, rather than a business one which could help them in the future.

I think it's great that there are different languages and dialects, but in Wales it's strident nationalism which does rather seem to miss the point.

Nos da, cariad.

Une petite plaisanterie

My flight was being served by an obviously gay flight attendant, who
seemed to put everyone in a good mood as he served us food and drinks.

As the plane prepared to descend, he came swishing down the aisle and told us that "Captain Marvey has asked me to announce that he'll be landing the big scary plane shortly, so lovely people, if you could just put your trays up, that would be super."

On his trip back up the aisle, he noticed this well-dressed and rather Arabic looking woman hadn't moved a muscle. "Perhaps you didn't hear me over those big brute engines but I asked you to raise your trazy-poo, so the main man can pitty-pat us on the ground."

She calmly turned her head and said, "In my country, I am called a Princess and I take orders from no one."

To which (I swear) the flight attendant replied, without missing a beat, "Well, sweet-cheeks, in my country I'm called a Queen, so I out rank you. Tray-up, Bitch."
Thank you for that one, Mel!

Thank you

to all the lovely people who nominated 'Shoes' for prettiest blog! I have been assured me that this isn't 'prettiest blogger', however, which is a disappointment.

You can all vote for me so I get something lovely to put on my blog here

Big kisses

Trixy

Sunday, Sunday...

Well, there's a bit of a to-do going on over at Chez Iain today!

It seems that Mr Dale has been told that the Sunday Lobby were given a story on Brown regarding terrorism but they were not allowed to tell the opposition about it to get comments.

Brown's spinners told these papers* that they would only get the story if they agreed not to carry any quotes from David Davis, Nick Clegg or any other opposition spokesman. Not only that, they weren't even allowed to tell the Tories or LibDems about the very existence of the story. Now, have a look a those links in the above para again. It's not difficult to spot that not a single one of the stories contains a quote from David Davis or Nick Clegg? Coincidence? No.

Well, I am going to disagree with that and go along with Mr Hennessy and Mr Watt (who is rather lovely) when they say that Mr Dale, and whoever tipped him off, are talking rot.

One of the reasons some bloggers are saying that the newspapers are becoming a dash obsolete is that they don't have the potential to react to stories the way we can, or the broadcast media can. It's even more difficult for the Sundays, which is why they usually carry big exclusives and the day to day things which have been carried on the broadcast media the day before are much smaller stories.

I will hazard a guess, then, that what actually happened is that Brown's press people sent around the e-mail with the story to the Sunday papers and everyone knew it was in their best interests to keen schtum so it wasn't covered anywhere else before Sunday. If they call up the Tories or Lib Dems for a comment then PA will know about the story, then the broadcasters will know about the story, run it much sooner than when the papers go to the newsstands and bye bye exclusive.

As it happened, PA got it much later, at 19h30, so that didn't happen, and the Sunday Papers got their story. Shock! they sell papers! Because that's what newspapers are in the business for.

I can imagine that the broadcasters were rather annoyed at this turn of events, but they have the upper hand on so many levels so I think it was rather sensible of the Sundays to do what they did. It's how it used to work in the Sunday meetings, where only people who published on Sunday were invited to so that stories didn't leak out beforehand.

I know that Iain says he 'knows for a fact', but from what I've seen that doesn't add up....

So, that's my take on it all. Well, it's a bit more than my take, but there we go...

how much?

I'm sure it will be lovely when it's finished, but for £400,000 you would have thought they could finish it...

Old birds

According to the BBC, birdwatchers are in a flutter as a heron returns after a 141 year absence.

Fuck me, but that's an old bird...

MPs trying to limit choice again

Old Trix was rather fuming the other day when she heard the comments by Cardinal Keith O'Brien that the abortion laws were responsible for the equivalent of 'two Dunblane massacres a day" and that we should all stop the "wanton killing of innocents."

I think people should stop killing innocent people but a foetus isn't an 'innocent person'. It's a foetus until it is born and the rights of the woman carrying that foetus should be paramount. It's her body, it should be her right to choose and that's that.

I read today that the new darling of the Tory Blog Boys, Nadine Dorries, thinks that abortion should be limited to 21 weeks instead of 24 which I see as a little unnecessary.

But Ann Winterton wants all women who ask for an abortion to have compulsory counselling on the grounds that women who have abortions are more likely to suffer from mental health problems.

I don't really think that's a good idea. If a woman wants counselling, then it is available, but making them have it, and then wait a week before any treatment is basically trying to make them not have an abortion. Also, surely the earlier a woman has the abortion, then the less traumatic it is for her, and the easier the operation is.

Julia Millington, political director of the Pro-Life Alliance, backed moves in the Winterton bill for counselling and a cooling off period as a means of encouraging more women to rule out an abortion.

Most abortions are carried out in the first trimester, according to Marie Stopes which is the best time to have one if you are going to have one. So why would the anti lobby want to delay that? Anything to stop a woman having an abortion, I suppose, regardless of what the woman wants. It's only her body, after all....

UPDATE

I was trying to be nice and rational about this, but having read the blog of that bloody woman Nadine, where she says:

The Abortion Act of 1967 was based on lies and more lies. It was an appallingly drafted piece of legislation which, under intense pressure from the abortion rights lobby, allowed the present day situation of abortion used as a form of contraception to occur.

I can't.

The Abortion Act of 1967 was a piece of legislation which gave a woman some degree of control over her own body. It doesn't go far enough, in my opinion. I think it an insult that a woman needs the signature of two doctors before she is allowed an abortion, that a GP can decide not to refer a woman because they disagree, and that they can delay a woman getting the treatment. Be a doctor, do your job. However, any sanctimonious bitch who thinks that someone would have an abortion as a form of contracteption should not hold any position of power in this country or any other. How can anyone think that having someone poking around with your insides, scraping them and then bleeding for the best part of a month, endless prodding and scans and tests is 'a form of contraception'? You ever had sex, lady?

Some people do get pregnant and don't want to be. And that's not because they're sluts and whores who are going to hell, it's because they are fertile. Contraception fails, regularly. I have a few friends now who have fallen pregnant when they were using contraception. Some now have children, some don't.

Who are you, Ms Dorries, to decide over the future of their bodies? Decide over your own, please, but not mine, not my sister's, my friends' or anyone Else. Just bugger off with your sanctimonious religious clap trap and let the rest of us live our lives.

I don't believe in god, I think religion is just another form of politics when people were stupid enough to be convinced of all sorts and science wasn't around to prove otherwise. I do believe, however, the statistics which show that when you make abortion illegal the number of abortions carried out don't fall, but the number of women who die from them do.

A woman with an unwanted pregnancy will do everything she can to get her body back and as a decent society we should make sure that is done safely and effectively.

gross search term of the day

Harry fucks Herminone

It's a kids book. It's made up. You weird, weird people!

Putin is right about something

It's Russian week here at Chez Trixy, and I have just seen a comment by the Russian President himself that I rather agree with:

After Britain allowed a significant number of crooks, suspicious characters and terrorists to gather on its territory, it ... endangered the life and health of Britain's own subjects, and all the blame for that rests with Britain.

Or, more precisely, it lies with our lying, cheating politicians who have given away the right for Britain to control her own borders to the EU. (Labour and Tories in the UK, and all of them except UKIP in Brussels.)

That's why we can't deport criminals who are from the EU, or deny people from the EU into Britain on the basis of their criminal record, or have embarkation controls between entry ports within the EU, or stop people we don't want to come in, like Bulgarian mafia, from coming in.

Nice one! Go and award yourself a holiday on the taxpayer. And stay there, you horrible little slimeballs. Bleugh. You make me want to vomit.

blog award thingies

Am honoured that I have been nominated in these lovely bloggie award things *

I have been nominating away! Sorry James for being lazy and not sending you urls...forgive me?

Voting starts on Wednesday!!

*I hope they weren't all from my dad...

Cold War Mark II

Russian President Vladimir Putin, not such a darling of the West, has said that Russia cannot be held responsible for any retaliatory steps they may take in response to what they call the 'new arms race'.

The US, they say, has started this second round of brinkmanship because they want to deploy interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar base in the Czech republic to counter threats from 'rogue states' such as Iran and North Korea.

Last Tuesday, Russia tested an RS-24 missile that successfully struck its target 3,400 miles away.

Russia has also been criticised for selling weapons, including surface to air missiles, to Iran.

Putin says that the threat from Iran is 'non-existent' which Iran has backed up, describing the planned deployment as the "joke of the year", adding that Iranian missiles were not capable of reaching Europe.

Putin said,

We are being told the anti-missile defence system is targeted against something that does not exist. Doesn't it seem funny to you?

Iran may be right that they do not have weapons capable of reaching Europe, but I'm sure that their first target would be Israel who, of course, they want to 'wipe off the map'. Nice.

Russia has said Washington had "altered the strategic balance" by unilaterally pulling out of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty in 2002.

"If the American nuclear potential grows in European territory, we will have to have new targets in Europe," Mr Putin said.

"It is up to our military to define these targets, in addition to defining the choice between ballistic and cruise missiles."

A few weeks ago, Russia was accused of launching repeated 'cyberattacks' on Estonia which shut down their government, banking and media websites. Estonia had decided to move a Soviet World War 2 memorial called the Bronze Soldier which, understandably, the Estonians saw as a symbol of Soviet oppression. Ethnic Russians in the Estonian capital of Tallinn rioted over the decision, and the Russians decided to view the move as an affront.

The attacks on the websites came from all over the world, but Estonian authorities identified some attacks as Russian and some from Russian state authorities.

The attacks came in three waves:

27th April: The day the riots erupted
3rd May
8th-9th May: Russia marks Victory Day over Nazi Germany and Putin makes speech attacking Estonia.

Putin has also accused Britain of 'foolishness' for wanting Russia to extradite former KGB worker Andrei Lugovoi so he can face trial for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Putin says the Russian constitution does not allow for extradition of citizens, which is rather convenient for them since the not-really-whispered- rumours are of orders from the Kremlin to murder Mr Litvinenko.

Russia really don't look like a nice country to play with at the moment. I'm glad, in that case, that we still have a nuclear defence capability in this country, no thanks to bleeding heart socialists like our Foreign Secretary, Caravan Beckett. I just wish we didn't have to go along with this stupid EU Energy Policy and instead could build some nuclear power stations to make sure we weren't reliant on unstable countries in the middle east, and bully boy countries like Russia for our power.

Too true

Yet more hypocrisy from the Tories

I read the story the other day that up to 3000 foreign criminals would be released without being deported and wondered how it was once again in the news. Only 250 EU criminals (and I'm not talking about MEPs here) will be even considered for preliminary deportation procedures, according to a probation circular.

Well, I'm not surprised. Last year I was talking about the same regulation stopped countries from denying entry to EU nationals on the basis of a criminal record:

Article 27 (2) of 2004/58/EC says:

'Measures taken on grounds of public policy or public security shall comply with the principle of proportionality and shall be based exclusively on the personal conduct of the individual concerned. Previous criminal convictions shall not in themselves constitute grounds for taking such measures (restricting freedom of movement).'

If we continue:

he Conservatives said yesterday that the revelation was a further embarrassment for Home Secretary John Reid.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: 'Yet again we see that the public will be put at risk as a direct result of John Reid's failure.

'He spun he had a deal to remove these offenders but the rhetoric has not matched the action. John Reid was brought in to deal with the foreign prisoner crisis yet one year on as he quits office we see he has totally failed.'

Oooh, the Tories are criticising an EU law! But why? This law came into force because of EU enlargement to ten new member states, which the Tories were in favour of!

As I have said before, it was also a Tory who wrote the report in the European Parliament calling for Bulgaria to join the EU, and they are also in favour of Turkey joining.

It was under Michael Howard's stint as Europe Minister that laws governing control of our borders were first given away to the EU, and also the Tories are always talking about how much they love the single market, and how freedom of movement must be incorporated into this for it to work properly.

So what is David Davis complaining about? Why is he blaming John Reid? If the Tories didn't like it, they could have voted against it, rather than supporting it....

Important work going on in Poland

Following on from the news that children as young as five in England are being encouraged to read books at schools with the titles 'The Sissy Duckling', 'Hello Sailor' and 'Daddy's Roommate' and teenagers are provided by their local LEAs with a book entitled 'strange boy' which talks about a boy of 10 and 14 getting jiggy with each others bits, Poland have gone one step further....

Poland to probe if Teletubbies are gay

The 10-year-old Teletubbies became a target of religious conservatives after US
evangelist Jerry Falwell suggested Tinky Winky could be homosexual.

Poland's conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as
homosexual propaganda to the small screen today, taking aim at Tinky Winky and
the other Teletubbies.

Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local
magazine published today she was concerned the popular BBC children's show
promoted homosexuality.

She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.

In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late US evangelist Jerry Falwell,
she was quoted as saying: "I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I
didn't realise he's a boy."

"At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby ... Later I
learned that this may have a homosexual undertone."

Poland's rightist government has upset human rights groups and drawn criticism
within the European Union by apparent discrimination against homosexuals.

Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych has proposed laws sacking teachers who
promote "homosexual lifestyle" and banning "homo-agitation" in schools.

But in a sign that the government wants to distance itself from Sowinska's
comments, Parliamentary Speaker Ludwig Dorn said he had warned her against
making public comments "that may turn her department into a laughing stock".

The 10-year-old Teletubbies, which features four rotund, brightly coloured
characters loved by children around the world, became a target of religious
conservatives after Falwell suggested Tinky Winky could be homosexual.

Forget Russia and 'Star Wars mark II'; this is the hot topic of the moment! Could the pure Polish boys suddenly break free of all restraint, eat too many burgers and paint themselves purple before dancing around with handbags saying 'eh oh' and banging their bits into their friend's fundaments? Quite possibly. Which is why we need a ministry to stop it!

are they going to ban draught drink?

Fair enough question from Father Trixy as we sit watching the news that we are soon going to have nanny state labels on alcohol.

Alcoholic drinks will carry new health warning labels by the end of 2008 under a voluntary agreement between ministers and the drinks industry.
The labels will detail alcoholic units and recommended safe drinking levels.

I find alcohol rather useful, actually, particularly if I am stuck talking to someone who is very dull. So, for me, a safe drinking level depends rather on where I am and who I am with.

What gets me about this move, however, is that this is how the smoking fascism started. First we had little warnings, then bigger warnings,(I always go for the ones about smoking cutting ones sperm count because they won't do anything to me) then we weren't allowed to smoke in certain places, then the warnings had pictures on them (some of them are rather amusing) and soon only criminals will be allowed to smoke.

How long before our drinks get covered in stupid labels, and then we are only allowed a certain number of drinks, and then we are only allowed to drink at certain times, and then drinking is banned altogether?

And my father does have a point: how are they doing to put the warnings on pints of beer? Or is that a rather handy way of getting rid of that irksome unit of measurement?

Help required

Rachel from North London is being stalked by an overweight, greying nut job. She needs help to catch the 'lady' in question...

Had a stalker myself. Not as bad as this, though. He just used to buy me lots of presents and appear at my house. Oh, and he wanted to move to our town to be near me. He should have just stuck at the buying presents thing.

Had a bit of an accident last night which has rather knocked me for six so will probably be a bit quiet over the next few days whilst I recover. I will be back as soon as I can, and as offensive as ever, I hope!

Trixy

Galileo is dumb

Not my words, but the words of the EU Commission Vice-President:

Verheugen: Galileo was a “dumb project”

Handelsblatt reports that Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen has made the latest in a series of gaffes. He told journalists that the Galileo EU satellite project was “in some ways a dumb project”. His spokesman quickly moved to correct the Commissioner saying that his remark had been misunderstood and that the Commissioner naturally thought Galileo was “extremely important”. He explained that “Verheugen indeed said ‘dumb’, but he meant ‘simplistic’”.

Thanks to Handelsblatt for that one...

Poor Spam

Back in March the Boy Blunder was in Brussels speaking at the launch of the new group called the Movement for European Reform which wanted a new EU agenda for the 21st century. I'd quite like one of those, where the UK is out of the EU and we can have some democracy, free trade, a free markets approach to business and small government. I don't think Davey-Boy and his pals share my thoughts, though, as they seem to rather like the EU, despite the fact it is holding back development and globalisation.

One of the groups that Spam wanted to join his little group of centre-right fun was the SDS (or UDF in English) has not done that well in the Bulgarian European Elections, though....

Right-wing parliamentary formations SDS and DSB failed to clear the electoral bar of 5.6% and will not participate in the shareout of the 18 MEPs seats that were up for grabs.

What will anyone offer me for Tory MEPs still being in the EPP in 2010?

what people say when they think no one is listening

The kettle broke in my office today so I had to pop along to my club to have a cup of tea. as luck would have it, I had some entertainment in the form of a press conference given by William Hague and David Cameron.

It was ostensibly about Iran and what the UK should do (which from what I gathered was mew pitifully at the feet of the US and the EU) but when it came to questions, it was very definitely back to the subject of grammar schools. I'm not surprised the press aren't giving up on this subject, because it's a good one. William Hague did not look all that happy about what Cameron was saying about grammar schools not promoting social mobility. Maybe he understands that for them to really do that you need more of them, especially in inner cities, to avoid the situation of the 'post code lottery'.

What amused me more was when I popped into the bar afterwards to finish my cup of tea and have a cigarette and Cameron and Hague were there with their team. As people drifted off, it was just Hague left with his press lady, who informed him that he had a live interview lined up where they wanted to talk about the Litvinenko case and road pricing. Old Bill didn't look too happy at that news. In fact, if I recall correctly, he placed his hands on the bar, leaned on them and say he 'didn't know anything about road pricing' and that he wasn't that confident on Litvinenko.

I had a look at the interview on the TV and he was right, he didn't know that much. I'm so happy that a policy being debated in the House of Commons today which is of considerable importance, especially if Galileo has anything to do with it, is off the radar of the Shadow Foreign Affairs Secretary. As someone whose portfolio includes the European Union, he really should know that road pricing using satellites is a nice way of the British taxpayer funding this black hole in the EU budget, which has already cost them £200 million. As UKIP have pointed out:

This government signed up to Directive 2004/52 which will ensure the entire road pricing schemes in EU countries are the same, and can be linked to Galileo.

And as I have written before:

Galileo satellite system: Multi billion pound 'grand project' that is driven by delays, costs and technical problems. Will be superseded by competition. The need to pay for this project is the main reason for the hated road pricing scheme.

So there we go. I'm glad that Mr Hague is so on the ball.

I'm Spartacus

has anyone see?

A little bird has told me that David Cameron has lost his green tie. Come to think of it, it's been a while since I have seen spam parading around with his neck attire of environmental kindness. I wonder if the loss of the tie will mean he'll stop talking bullshit about carbon offsetting and attaching pieces of The Netherlands to his house.

I doubt it.

news flash

I hear that Prince Harry is not going to go to Iraq after all. Instead, he's going to get slaughtered in Boujis.

Bad taste?

Tories hypocrisy on education

I am baffled that the "two-brains Willetts" thinks that

"We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright poor kids,"

In a recent report by Bristol University, it was found that children from poor backgrounds do particularly well in grammar schools.

For the minority of poor children who do gain a place in a grammar school, the advantage this bestows appears to be greater than for more affluent children

Of course, due to the policies of recent governments, there are not enough grammar schools in the country to ensure that all bright children have the option of going to a grammar school. What this achieves is a system where children with richer parents can either afford to send their child to a private school, or they can afford to move house to an area where there is a grammar school, where house prices will be more expensive.

I am please that the party I belong to, the UK Independence Party, believes that there should be a grammar school in every town.

The comments by the Tory party show the sheer level of hypocrisy they are willing to sink to, especially when you consider that five members of the shadow cabinet went to grammar school, as did Baroness Thatcher. So it's okay for them to have a quality education, but not for poor children.

That's nice.

By abandoning grammar schools we are holding back brightest children from all areas of society, to the detriment of the whole country. Simple.

Long arm of the law

A little bird has just sent me a story saying that a court has been told that a police man 'played with himself' in front of a suspect. Nice.

A policeman masturbated in the back seat of a squad car in front of a
woman, a jury heard today. Police Constable Richard Bowen, 31, based at Lampeter Police Station, west Wales, had been sent to London in April last year with the task of bringing back the woman to Wales.

A policewoman drove the unmarked Ford Escort back on the 240-mile journey with Bowen sitting in the rear seat with the 25-year-old woman, Swansea Crown Court heard today.
Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, alleged that along the way Bowen wrote a series of increasingly sexually explicit notes to the woman.

She said among them were the messages "You are sexy. You have got an amazing smile and lush tits", and also "I am hard". She said that Bowen secretly wrote down the messages and propositioned the woman in writing so that the policewoman who was driving would not suspect.

After the final message "he slipped down into his seat, opened his zip and started masturbating. "He then took out a white handkerchief and ejaculated into it."

Classy.

It gets better...

A white cotton handkerchief was discovered among his clothes and was found to be soaked in sperm. But before it was discovered Bowen had spoken to his inspector at the station to explain the state of the handkerchief.

He said: "Inspector, I think you need to know that I knocked one out before I came to work."

Miss Evans said: "I think that it is clear that what he meant by that was masturbating to ejaculation."

The suspect seemed to have raised more than a smile!

But, as my friend points out to me, at least he didn't cover her in custard.

Commies are okay

Very few things irritate the sandal wearing leftie brigade who enjoy knitting their own knickers more than pointing out that the Nazis were National Socialists. In the European Parliament, they hate it almost as much as they hate people pointing out that Communism was, in terms of numbers killed, a far nastier regime than aforementioned jackboot wearing evil bastards. It's just as well for the Communists who sit as MEPs in the European Parliament that they think like that. Oh, yes. There are a group of people who were elected as Communists and who sit as Communists, along with lovely people like Sinn Fein, and no one bats an eyelid.

Not quite the same as the reaction to the 'right wing' group who formed a few months ago, who are made up of MEPs, some of whom were elected on a right wing ticket, where people said that they shouldn't be allowed to form a group. Or sit as MEPs, I am sure.

I dislike both sides immensely. As a libertarian, I find them extremely distasteful. I also find that the biased nature that left wing nut jobs are okay, but right ones
aren't rather raises my blood pressure.

From the IHT here is another example of why Communism is okay in the European Union:

BRUSSELS, Belgium: A leading Polish member of the European Parliament who
refused to submit a declaration that he did not cooperate with communist-era secret police will not have his mandate revoked, his political group said Saturday, after Poland's highest court struck down legislation requiring him to do so.

Bronislaw Geremek, 75, a former dissident and foreign minister, faced losing his
mandate after refusing to comply with the controversial law, which he said violated moral rules and threatened the freedom of speech. The warning by Polish officials that he could be stripped of his duties caused a stir in the EU assembly, and all major political groups stood by Geremek.

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Friday struck down parts of the controversial new law requiring that up to 700,000 Poles be screened for past collaboration with the communist-era secret police. Geremek's group, the Liberal Democrats, said this means he can keep his mandate as an EU parliamentarian

I suppose given that there have been claims made that the former President of the Commission is rather fond of Communism, and some of the current shower of shitsCommissioners have somewhat dubious pasts this should not really come as a surprise.

Eurovision geopolitics

I rather enjoyed watching the Eurovision song contest last night. Not for the quality of music, you understand: I'd like to think that having been a musician since I was three that I could produce something rather better. A demonstration is why it is not a musical competition can be nicely shown here, with the Ukraininan entry:



The other element of the competition which amuses me is the blatant political nature of the voting. The UK, for example, produced a really shit song, full of not-so-subtle sexual inuendo like 'Would you like something to suck on?'and yet Malta, with whom we have very strong ties, gives us 12 points. Ireland still felt obliged to give us seven. It's a game, guessing who will get the points before they are announced, and no one is too surprised when, for example, we guess that Finland gives Sweden 12 points.

My friend said that maybe the musical tastes are more similar in countries in close proximity to each other, especially if they have a land border. I think that's a nice idea, but basically countries can't help but vote in a political way, even in something as camp and irrelevant as the Eurovision song contest. Perhaps that's the way we should decide voting in the Council of Ministers?

And on that point, how come there are now 48 countries taking part in the EUROvision?

odd choice

Does anyone else know why Blair chose to announce the date that he is stepping down as PM at a Methodist barn dance?

A weighty issue

Lots of talk today about imperial measurements being 'saved', which I thought I would just clarify. It's not the most simple of topics and, being rather new to the debate, it's taken me a bit of time to gather the information. The main point it that it is still illegal to sell goods in imperial measurements. Your butcher cannot sell you a pound of sausages, he has to sell you it in metric.
The claims in the papers are regarding a derogation on supplementary indicators. From 31st December 2009 it was going to be illegal for shops etc. to include the price of things in imperial as well as metric, but now that has been dropped, although the Commission and the DTI are yet to make an official statement on it.

What has rather irritated me, as I pointed out in the post below, is the Tories jumping up and down about how they are the St George to the imperialist virgin. They aren't.

If we have a little look at Hansard from the 11th April 1989 we can see that it was none other than the current Conservative Party Chairman St Francis of Maastricht who brought in yet more measures about metrification.

European Community (Weights and Measures)

10.17 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Corporate Affairs (Mr. Francis Maude) : I beg to move

That this House takes note of European Community Document No. 4102/89 on units of measurement ; and welcomes the proposals as providing adequate transitional periods to enable businesses and consumers to adapt and become used to the new measurements. In 1965 the then Government announced their support to encourage the adoption of metric units as the primary system for weights and measures in the United Kingdom.

That was a decision taken for purely domestic reasons, in response to urging by the CBI and others ; it had nothing to do then with possible membership of the European Community. In 1971 the then member states of the Community adopted a directive which established the sole use of the metric system throughout the Community. When the United Kingdom and Ireland acceded to the Community the Government accepted that eventually the metric system should be the only system to be used.

In consequence, a White Paper on metrication was published in 1972. It stated that all practicable progress towards the full use of the metric system should be made within the next few years, in the interests of economic prosperity. This led to the education system moving to the use of metric units in 1974. As a result, 11 million children since then have been taught only in the metric system.

he goes on:

Under the present weights and measures legislation, which has been in existence, subject to amendment from time to time, for a long time, it is, and has been for many years, a criminal offence to sell goods in measures which are not authorised under the legislation

Which does rather make a mockery of the statement by Giles Chichester MEP that:

The threat to miles, yards and pints is off the agenda after Giles Chichester MEP, Conservative Industry Spokesman, got confirmation from Industry Commissioner Verheugen that "dual marking" of goods in imperial and metric will 'continue indefinitely'.

I'm still smelling that smoke...is anyone else?

Giles Chichester says: "After saving the crown on the British pint, I am happy the Conservatives have persuaded the Commission that it is good not only for international business but for the British people that traditional measurements are kept. I just hope there won't be any more need for metric martyrs and that the government will avoid forcing metrication down the public's throat."

But you don't mention that it's still illegal to sell in imperial? Still trying to convince your voters that you're eurosceptic, are you? You're an embarrassment to the nation, Giles, and I hope you and your cronies are thoroughly ashamed of yourself. I also hope you don't get elected in 2009 and you have to find a job in the real world. One that then gets shut down because of all the harmful EU legislation that you and your other MEP colleagues have helped to bring about to justify your own existence.

Shame on you.

predictive text

A friend has just text me saying that thanks to predictive text, she almost sent a rather inappropriate text message to her boss. She wanted to talk about the preso (presentation) but her phone decided that actually, what she wanted to talk about was sperm. Nice.

The ones which amuse me are the dirty type which don't come out quite as planned. A male friend of mine was rather bemused when he received a request from a young lady asking him to 'duck my aunt', which he felt was rather unusual as he hadn't even met her parents. Even more strange was the request for him to'Kick my yet puppy'. Odd what gets some people off.

Also, why would I want to use the word 'sub' instead of 'pub'? Why does my phone not know my name, and instead use the word 'concaldekle'? Why has it not learnt that while 'knickers' is a word, 'logaless; isn't. Neither is 'locales?' a suitable alternative for 'knackered'.

It's all rather strange.

Giles Chichester: telling porkies

It seems that there is some good news emerging from the EU that the Commissioner for Industry has said that in 2009 there won't be forced metrification in the UK.

If this is the case, and our government doesn't decide to gold-plate EU legislation on measurements, it must be claimed as a team victory.

It's a shame that Tory MEP Giles Chichester doesn't see it like that. The man who wrote the legislation which ended the crown stamp on pint glasses is now claiming that:

"After saving the crown on the British pint, I am happy the Conservatives have persuaded the Commission that it is good not only for international business but for the British people that traditional measurements are kept...

No, Giles, you didn't. What you actually did was allow a pretty picture to go on a pint glass as long as the EU CE stamp to validate the measurement is also on there.

I smell smoke. Is that because your pants are on fire?

Deaf and Dumb?

Isn't it annoying when you're in a bar or a club and you're trying to order a drink, but the bar staff can't hear you properly?

Well, just thank your lucky stars that the Royal National Institute for the Deaf aren't in government:

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People said staff working where loud music was played should get ear plugs.

Classic. It's such a stupid idea, I'm surprised it didn't come from the EU. Oh, hold on...

Under EU directives, firms have to ensure staff are protected where noise
exceeds 85 decibels.

Most clubs and some pubs and bars will exceed this, but the music and
entertainment industry has been given an exemption until next April.

And after that? Are we all to carry round note pads and pens to write down our orders and flash them to the staff? Or perhaps we could all learn sign language? Or, even better, perhaps people could realise that rather like staff working in pubs and having to deal with smoke, people are aware of the downsides of jobs when they take them. I can't imagine it coming across as a real shock to someone starting a job in a nightclub that they play loud music.

What next? Ear plugs for the clubbers as well? Don't laugh; with the EU you know it's a possibility...

elections

Am so tired; haven't been to bed since Wednesday night, but am alert enough to be unimpressed with the election results. Labour didn't do as bad as they could have, but they didn't do well. And Cameron's Conservatives did make lots of gains, yes, but they've also sold out. And considering the state of this government, they should have done better.

Am disappointed by the UKIP results in Wales: the BNP did too well, sadly, and ruined our chances of getting a list seat in North Wales. However, there were seats we stood in for the first time where we secured some respectable results: Bruce Lawson scored 10.1% in Montgomeryshire, to name one. The party has also secured some new council seats and some very good places with high percentages, which means we are building up a good local network in places in the country.

I think the thing which stands out about all of this, though, is the bloody shambles of the Scottish votes. How can they have independence when they can't even get ballot boxes to the mainland?

Doctors refuse abortion forms

Yet another reason why the need for two doctors to sign a referral for an abortion should be removed.

Up to one in four GPs is refusing to sign abortion referral forms because of moral objections – and nearly one in five wants terminations banned.

I could write and write about this topic, but I'm not going to. Instead I am going to agree with these words:

A spokesman for family planning clinics Marie Stopes International, which carry out about a third of the 180,000 abortions in Britain each year, said: 'Doctors are not gods. Parliament in this country passed the law 40 years ago and women are entitled to access this procedure legally and safely. What right do doctors have to judge?'

But he added: 'We still have this anachronistic legislation which that says women cannot take control of their bodies and can only have abortions with two signatures from doctors.'

I think I will start up a petition at the Downing Street site...

The FCO EU site

I complained about the quiz they had on there, which was, well, factually incorrect. However, it does rather piss me off that money from the public purse is being used to make lies and inaccuracies, which can be found on the EU section of the FCO website. I personally shall be writing in to complain. I hope all you right thinking people do too.

How to bring elderly relatives into the country

Any of you out there have relatives living abroad who could do with some free health care? Perhaps you have a new wife who you'd quite like to bring into the country without the bother of the usual immigration obstacle course?

THE owner of a fish and chip shop says he was shocked to be contacted by an advice centre for immigrants offering to help him bring elderly relatives into the country for health treatment.

Evan Llewellyn-Jones, who runs Llew’s in Bridgend, says he was so incensed that he contacted the head office of Ukip, the UK Independence Party.

Mr Llewellyn-Jones, a former miner and oil rig worker who set up his own business in the 1980s, said, “Some people who don’t realise that Llew is a Welsh name appear to think the fish and chip shop is a Chinese takeaway. I have received material in the past in Chinese which I haven’t understood but which I assume was offering to sell me rice etc.

Well, that's nice, isn't it. It's not as if the NHS, monumental statist, centrist Stalin-like organisation that it is, isn't already failing miserably at providing a decent service comparable with the rest of the developed world. It's not like the welfare bill in this country is massively exceeded by national insurance payments; indeed, that source of government income, despite a rise of 10% under this 'government' does not even cover pensions.

What state have we got to that private businesses are reduced to this pitiful state of money making which, conversely, make the country worse off:

“A few days ago I received a leaflet from an organisation called the Newport Immigration Advice Centre offering a range of services, including ‘advice and application on how to bring elderly people to the UK for medical treatment’. Other services include advice on bringing elderly parents or relatives to visit the UK, howhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif to bring people to the UK on a work permit, how to bring a newly married wife or husband into the country, how to bring students to the UK and so on, including helping people to extend their stay in the UK and appeal when they are turned down.

“Obviously the body from Newport also thought that I was running a Chinese takeaway. Perhaps they looked us up in the Yellow Pages.

I suppose we are lucky that they made a mistake in who they sent their literature out to and the Western Mail and UKIP exposed this company for the morally bankrupt, unpatriotic bastards that they are.

You can read the whole thing here

So funny....

A few of my favourite things

Shoes and Trade!

It seems that Clarks shoes have finally felt the sting of the harmful and economically backward decision by arch numpty Peter Mandelson:

Profits at C&J Clark, the family-controlled shoe company, fell last year after the EU imposed tariffs on shoes imported from China and Vietnam.

CandJ Clark's profits fell last year as a result of EU imposed tariffs on shoes imported from China and Vietnam.

Turnover at the company, which owns Clarks, Britain's largest shoe retailer, rose from £920.6m to £972.7m in the year to January 31 2007, but pre-tax profits slipped from £71.9m to £69.4m, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

In his statement to shareholders Peter Davies, chairman, said that the "politically inspired decision to impose anti-dumping duties on footwear imports from China and Vietnam" had cost the group £4.8m and warned that it was likely to cost a further £13m this year.

As I have written before, the decision by the EU to impose tariffs on shoes coming from China and Vietnam was nothing but a politically motivated decision designed to appease the countries in Europe who have not, and do not plan to, adapt to globalisation.

What was particularly stupid about this decision was that the European Commission team went to Brazil to decide whether or not China and Vietnam were engaged in anti competitive practises.
The GDP per capita in China is $8600
The GDP per capita in Vietnam is $7600
The GDP per capita in Brazil is $3100

So they aren't exactly identical now, are they. What's more, with the sheer numbers of people, particularly in China, their wages are much lower. Now, whilst not paying workers very much might cause a huge tizz amongst the bleeding heart socialists, in order for countries to develop and get rich, they take advantage of the resources they have in abundance. If poor countries develop then yes, the rich get rich first, and then there's a trickle down effect. If you have a look at the Kuznets curve we see that inequality rises initially when there is a switch away from primary products markets to the secondary sector.

There was no real reason for these protectionist barriers to free trade to be imposed on Chinese and Vietnamese exports, apart from countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal not being able to compete with them, because they like the over regulated, union driven markets which the EU holds in such high regard. And as a consequence, British firms and consumers have suffered.

As Nigel Farage MEP said to Commissioner Mandelson:

How can 25 countries have one single trade policy? One size does not fit all, whether it is trade policy or shoe sizes.

Quite. It doesn't. We are the world's third largest trading nation, and it is outrageous that we don't have UK representation at the WTO.

So, can we leave yet?