Police Waste More Time and Money on Chris Huhne Case
That’s what it looks like according to this report on the BBC.
Enquiries started in May, so surely even the dimmest officer in the Essex Constabulary could have ascertained what the truth in this case is.
Either Chris Huhne was driving the car, in which case he should take the consequences or his wife was.
As they are both fairly high profile, I suspect that proof as to their whereabouts at the time should be fairly easy to obtain. I suspect too, that the CCTV at Stansted Airport would show the answer too. Unless of course Chris Huhne had dressed up as his wife, so that he could get off a speeding charge. But of course, nothing in his past life would indicate he would do that! One of the biggest problems men have with this, is often they are a totally different size to their wife.
It sounds to me that this case might end up with a more serious charge.
Whatever happened to the beloved criminal quote of “It’s a fair cop, officer!”
Ken Calls For Water Cannon
Ken Livingstone has called for water cannon to control rioters. How very progressive!
The Twisted Logic of the Far Right
If the tragic events in Norway on Friday show one thing, it is the bizarre twisted logic bordering on paranoia that those on the far right use to justify their behaviour. If reports are to be believed, Anders Behring Breivik, the alleged suspect, was a radical Christian, who held strong anti-Muslim views. He must have believed too, as did Timothy McVeigh, that by attacking Government targets and children and young people that he would start a backlash against the policies he hated. America seems to have carried on as before since the Oklahoma City Bombing and I suspect Norway won’t change tack by a great deal, if at all.
I could have called this post the Twisted Logic of the Far Left or Mad Dictators, as you could include Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Gaddafi, Mugabe, Assad, Bin Laden, Botha, Galtieri, Ahmadinejad and various others. All seem to have been deserted by any logic that any intelligent person would understand. Most though believe strongly in the death penalty and denying everybody who disagrees with them any human rights.
In some ways, one of the reasons such as Breivik are encouraged is that our free society doesn’t really stop these dictators abusing their own people or in many cases those who have no connection to them.
So do the Breiviks and the McVeighs, who have a personal grievance, see impotent governments, who can’t stop the injustices in the rest of the world and this means they lose their jobs to immigrants, pay excessive taxes and lose some of their precious freedoms, like the right to have firearms.
We currently have more famine in the Horn of Africa and whatever the main problem, the twisted logic of the millitants in the area isn’t helping. But only last week we had a report from Ethiopia about how long term aid and fair commercial trading of coffee, is making the lives of small farmers and their families so much better.
John Major Talks Sense Again
I told a story yesterday about John Major and today he pops up on the BBC’s web site talking about Scotland and its political relationship with England.
Here’s an extract.
In a rare intervention into politics, former Prime Minister Sir John Major calls for the Scottish Parliament to be given powers to control everything except foreign affairs, defence and the economy.
Sir John warned against the dangers of devolution before the 1997 election. Today he calls for what some call “devo max”.
If you are wondering why the former Tory leader’s dressing in tartan, he explains that in return the English (and, of course, the Conservative Party) would see the end of the hated Barnett formula which gives Scotland more money to spend and a cut in the number of Scottish (usually Labour) MPs.
This may not seem like a live issue today, but it will be in the run-up to the next election. Scotland’s re-elected First Minister Alex Salmond has always believed that the Tories were most likely to give him at least some of what he wanted.
This is how Sir John puts it:
“The present quasi-federalist settlement with Scotland is unsustainable. Each year of devolution has moved Scotland further from England. Scottish ambition is fraying English tolerance. This is a tie that will snap – unless the issue is resolved.
“The union between England and Scotland cannot be maintained by constant aggravation in Scotland and appeasement in London. I believe it is time to confront the argument head on.
Everybody should read the full article, as it talks a lot of sense.
I particularly liked this comment by a reader on the report.
Wow!
Major speech by a major politician
How on earth, gold help us, did we ever end up with New Labour
So let’s hope the British Parliament does the sane thing in the next few weeks and makes sure that they control the country and not the owners of a few newspapers.
At least none of these proprietors are no Berlusconi!
Did John Major Dye His Hair?
I doubt it, especially as a few years ago I shared a lift with him in the Grande Bretagne hotel in Athens, as he was going down to his car to make speech at the British Council. His hair didn’t look dyed to me.
It must have been about 1994 or so, when I saw him speak to the Cambridge Chief Executives Club. He was rather embattled at the time and he gave a speech which predicted what would happen to Europe in the next few years. He got it substantially right especially about the Balkans. He also criticised the Germans for their reunification policy over the Deutschmark.
But he reserved his biggest bile for News International and especially The Times, which at the time had just discovered Tony Blair and NuLabor. He used the phrase, “The Times which used to call itself a newspaper” and said that it had accused him of dying his hair. He then joked that would anybody in their right mind dye it this colour.
It was a very good speech and it often makes me feel, that if he’d had a better set of cards, he might have made a very good Prime Minister.
I remembered it today, when Harriet Harman called for the power of News International to be reined in.
But of course, it was perfectly alright for them to exercise that power, when they were backing NuLabor. Pots and kettles come to mind.
Incidentally, I wonder if Ms. Harman has searched the Internet for sites about herself!
Roy Jenkins’s Lunch in Holloway Prison
Roy Jenkins is best known for being a prominent Labour politician of the 1960s and 1970s. I suspect he was someone who knew his food and drink, as many of those educated in one of our oldest Universities do.
In the early 1970s, C used to visit Holloway Prison as part of the Cameron Group. She often described the group in the way the inmates did and that was “The Ladies in the Pink Hats”. It probably applied to some of the group, but not to C.
One night she came home and told the story about the new Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins and his visit to the prison. He said that he wanted to go everywhere and this didn’t go down well with the governors and the guards. But remember Roy’s father had been in jail because of a riot during the 1926 General strike, so quite rightly, he probably had strong views about how inmates should be treated. He certainly wasn’t a hanger and flogger.
After the tour, the governor suggested lunch and had probably prepared a lunch to impress the Home Secretary. But Roy said he wanted to eat with the prisoners.
After a heated argument, he pulled rank and did so.
Halfway through his meal, he pushed it away muttering something like, “I wouldn’t give this to my dog.”
Being Home Secretary is not an easy job.
Is Rick Perry What the United States Needs for President?
It is being reported that Rick Perry is seeking to gain the Republican nomination to stand against President Obama.
Let’s face it, he’s for capital punishment, the NRA and against publicly funded health care to name just three issues.
He may not be good for the US, but just as with other right-wing presidents of the past, it may well mean that the rest of the world benefits from immigration of some of the United States brightest thinkers, scientists, doctors and engineers.
Does Ed Milliband Want To Be Labour Leader?
Ed Milliband is one of these people, who are very anonymous. Take most senior politicians and you have an image of them in your mind. If you look at Labour politicians of the last few years, there were a few characters, whether you liked their policies or not.
Surely though Ed Milliband must be one of the most unrecognisable Labour politicians of recent years as he just looks like so many of the others.
So why is this a problem?
If say I see someone on the television news saying something that I might find interesting, I like to know who’s speaking. With Ed Milliband, unless there’s a caption under the screen, I have difficulty recognising him.
And it’s not just Labour politicians, it’s a good percentage of all of them. I suspect that the selection process is so tight these days, that people like Kenneth Clarke, Boris Johnson, John Prescott and many others would not be selected. If you look at the women politicians, the ones that stand out have their little quirks. Just like my neighbour many years ago, Gwyneth Dunwoody.
To illustrate my point, there’s a government minister on the box at the moment, and I’ve no idea who he is.
I would think that Ed Milliband could rectify this anonymity problem, but he diesn’t seem to be trying hard.
So why did I give this post the title I did?
It would appear that he is not backing the strikes today. Is this because he is trying to be sensible or because he doesn’t want the job. The BBC puts their view here.
If he isn’t backing the strikes, his stance is surely a very simple way to alienate a large proportion of his supposedly core support.
You might ask what my view is on the strikes. I’m usually against strikes as in most cases the fact that a strike is called is a failure of company and employees to see the sensible solution. I’m not going to name them as I don’t want to shilt them, but there are lots of good companies and organisations, where there has never been a sniff of a strike.
With pensions, there was bound to be a problem, as the numbers just don’t add up. And they haven’t for years! So the blame for this problem is all of those politicians of the last fifty years or so, who put their head in the sand and hoped that some new disease would start to kill people at 65.
Should High Earners Be Allowed Subsidised Housing?
I have always felt that houses should be used to provide the maximum number of individual dwellings.
For instance, I don’t believe that people should own two houses, that they keep for their personal use. But if they want to, then they should not get any reliefs on the second house. In the past I’ve owned and lived in two houses and it doesn’t have too much to recommend for itself. Some may claim it’s nice to live in London in the week and go to their cottage at the weekend, but do they ever realise that that cottage probably causes someone to not have a house. If you live in two houses, then the second house should be taxed to provide subsidised houses in the area.
Buying to let is different, as you are providing a service of housing for someone else. And if you are successful, then you pay tax on it.
But what really gets me is those, who live in Local Authority or Housing Association properties and earn enough money to either rent privately or even buy their own house. The case of the ex-Labour Minister, Frank Dobson, reported in the papers today is scandalous. He should be booted out forthwith, so that someone else, who needs it, can have the property!
All of these abuses should be tightened up and hopefully the government is doing something about it. And while they are at it, they should be tougher on those, who illegally sublet their properties.
I should also say that sometimes, I feel guilty about having a reasonably large house all to myself.
To return though to the Dobson scandal! In my year at school, Animal Farm was the set book for GCE O Level. George Orwell was so right and it is fairly obvious, what his view of NuLabor would have been!
The Anonymous Widower 