Nick Griffin on Question Time
I’m actually quite looking forward to Nick Griffin appearing on BBC Question Time.
I should say that this is not because I support his politics in any way at all. In fact, my father always claimed he caught one of Nick Griffin’s predecessors, Oswald Mosley, with a tomato at the Battle of Cable Street. Interestingly, my father was not of the left, but had voted Conservative most of his life and sat happily at the left of that party. But he was of Jewish ancestry and Mosley’s march was all about baiting the Jews.
So why do I want to see him appear?
There is nothing better than to see someone odious taken apart in a totally humane way. Especially, if it would not be the way they would deal with their critics.
I can remember the great Bernard Levin‘s interviews on That Was The Week That Was. Griffin would just be an hor’s d’oeuvre for Bernard. I also watched David Frost demolish the evil Emil Savundra, one of the first crooks to be destroyed by television.
If I have a doubt about Griffin appearing on Question Time, it is will the calibre of the other panelists be in the same class as Levin and Frost.
So who will be appearing with Griffin?
Jack Straw, Labour – Very much a worthy guy, but is the Justice Secretary the right man from that party? Perhaps John Prescott would be a better choice, as he is more combative and would rightfully claim to represent the same people that Griffin says he does. I should say that I’m not a fan of Prescott, but at least he is someone who would be entertaining on a long flight. A point to make about Jack Straw is that his great-grandfather was a Jewish immigrant. I wonder if this will get brought up on the programme.
Baroness Warsi, Conservative – She is of Pakistani origin although she was born in Yorkshire. She is also on record as saying, “People who back the BNP, criticised for its racist and homophobic agenda, may even have a point. They have some very legitimate views.” I doubt that this will not be brought up.
Chris Huhne, Lib Dem – He will be interesting, as he is a good debater and his pro-Europe views will be attacked by Griffin.
Bonnie Greer, Playwright – Another good choice and someone who will bring some fire to the discussion.
I shall be watching.
Should MPs be Banned from Employing Spouses?
A report in The Times, says that MPs will be banned from employing family members and would have to sell second homes.
I think this would create an even bigger can of worms.
Let’s take the case of an MP who has employed his spouse for twenty years to run his office. There are actually quite a few if the reports are to be believed. In probably the great majority of cases, we as the tax payers probably get good value.
My wife was a barrister and for much of her career, I was her very part-time unpaid helper. If she was in Court and a brief needed to be collected, I’d pop in to her Chambers to get it. Or if her computer needed updating, that was my department. Many partners work as a team, to their own advantage.
So even if we ban spouses from working for their partners, does this mean that they can’t do any work, unpaid or not?
And what about the situation, where an MP lives with someone, to whom they are not married?
As I said it will be an even bigger can of worms.
In my view, an MP is in effect a small business, so should they be under any different rules! Everything should be approved by the Inland Revenue and if your wife, partner, husband or grand-daughter is the best person for the job, then why should they not be employed.
I’m also reminded of a tale told to me by an MP. He was doing a series of speaking engagements for his party in the year running up to an election. As he would be tired after speaking and may have indulged in the odd glass or two, he did not feel it was a good idea to drive home. So he went to the Job Centre and said could they find him a driver, who could also help with moving his computer about, between home and the House.
The Job Centre said no, as he had said the job would not be permanent.
So in the end he employed one of his friend’s son’s in the year before he went to University.
Prudence in Cloud Cuckoo Land
I’m watching Prudence this morning on BBC Breakfast Time.
He just doesn’t believe the mess he’s got us in. He even had the cheek to use the P-word.
Sian Williams isn’t one of the most forceful of interviewers, but seems to have a very different grasp of figures. She is quoting organisations like the OECD and he is saying that they are just wrong.
The sooner he goes the better!
Saying Sorry is Good for Your Business
I first heard this story on Radio 5 and it’s here in full in the Daily Mail.
Nottingham University does a lot of excellent research and this detailed study shows how a simple apology can be better than offering unsatisfied customers a cash payout. The experiment was interesting too, in that it was carried out using a company that made sales on eBay. I wonder how much other good research can be performed in this manner?
The levels of satisfaction were actually 42% with an apology and 23% when a cash payout was offered. So it wasn’t just a small difference!
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post talking about the service I got with a freezer from John Lewis.
So perhaps things are getting a lot better.
They may be in commercial companies, but we will really only have completed the customer-relations revolution, when the various Agencies of the Government get their customer focus perfect. There are ones that are good, but there are others that are terrible.
Get it right and it could help the next government govern for a long time.
An interesting aside to saying sorry, is that an old friend used to run a large hospital department. They implimented an immediate sorry-policy and it cut the level of complaints drammatically.
Is There Racist Opposition To President Obama?
I’ve always respected Jimmy Carter. He drew a lot of short straws as President, but I think since leaving office he has shown himself to be a proper statesman. Often this is the test of a good politician, as when they are removed from the ties and responsibilities of office, they show their true colours and dreams. Sometimes they lose all respect and rightly so.
So when Jimmy Carter says that opposition to President Obama is racially based, we should all listen.
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
The full quote is.
If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try and try again.
Strangely, I can’t find the origin on the Internet, although there is a version, which adds “Then Quit” to the end.
But obviously, Prudence’s law officers don’t have quitting in mind, when they consider the case of three accused of a bomb plot to blow up airliners. They are dint to try, try, try and try again until they get the right result.
I don’t look at this with any view of justice, but it strikes me that if they’ve failed twice to get a conviction, that there’s every chance that a third attempt will fail. Especially, as it will be impossible to find a jury that has not heard of the case.
I think now is the time to give up!
The CRB/ISA Farce
It’s not often that those two newspapers at the opposite end of the political spectrum; the Guardian and the Daily Mail, agree on anything. And Esther Ranzten is in the same camp too.
We need to have checks on those that work with children, but are we looking in the wrong place and the wrong way for a start? I don’t have the figures, but aren’t don’t a lot of serious cases involving child abuse and even murder down to the parents or those that live with one of the parents?
So perhaps we should do checks on all parents. And while we’re at it, lets check grandparents, like me! And au-pairs too!
Everybody too, was getting under the collar about this on Nicky Campbell’s phone-in this morning. And probably rightly so, as estimates say that over eleven million of us, will have to be checked.
No-one seems to have done any risk analysis on this. Does anybody look at the statistics of harm that comes to children?
Lets take fire for a start. This bland set of statistics gives the number of fire deaths in 2005. It shows that 200 or so died in domestic fires, of whom a proportion were children. Do we insist on smoke alarms working? No! A fire officer once told me that kids remove the PP9 batteries from them for their toys and game machines.
And then road accidents!
We need a proper holistic strategy that gives maximum protection to everybody and not just children. And it needs to be done through education, training and watchfulness from everybody.
Not by the heavy hand of bureaucracy!
One caller on Nicky Campbell’s show suggested that it was a government money-raising exercise. I couldn’t possibly comment, but eleven millions at upwards of fifty pounds a time is a lot of revenue for Prudence and his cronies.
But perhaps the most chilling example of how this will all fail concerns the case today of Russell Carter. He had been convicted of armed robbery in the US, but this was unknown in the UK and he was able to get jobs that put people in danger. In the end he murdered his boss.
Michael and Rochelle
Michael Shields, who was jailed for an attack in Bulgaria has now been released by the Home Secretary using his prerogative. The conviction was always dubious, especially when it involved such a horrendous offence. You just feel that in such cases, everyone should make their best efforts to get the right conviction. I don’t think they did here and preferred the anyone would do to discourage the others. I have not seen the evidence, but because that eminent organisation, Fair Trials International, have been supporting Mr. Shields, the conclusion is most likely just.
Rochelle Adams is a 19 year-old Canadian, who made the mistake of falling in love and getting married to Adam from Wales. In fact, she was just a few months younger than my late wife was when we got married in 1968, We succeeded and were married for 39 years until her untimely death.
A few years ago, Rochelle would have been allowed to stay in the United Kingdom, as is fit and proper for anybody setting out in that noble joining between two people. But because we must protect people against forced marriages, she can’t, and so Adam and Rochelle must start their married life for eighteen months five thousand kilometres apart until she is 21. She should then be able to get a spousal visa. Or one would hope so, but if Prudence’s disreputable bunch are still in power, you could imagine a different result.
Now the Home Secretary has the power under the Forced Marriages Act to allow Rochelle to stay. As the BBC says.
He had the discretion to let Mrs Wallis remain with her husband at their home near Aberystwyth but refused to do so because many other innocent victims may also be caught out by the same rule.
But he remains stubborn and is hiding behind the bureaucratic mess that has been created in the last few years. We need to protect against forced marriages, but there are better ways of doing it. After all one forced marriage case involved a thirty-year-old or so doctor! Did their Act help?
Perhaps though you can see his reasoning. Allow one exception and he’d have to allow many more because of a very badly drafted piece of legislation. And let’s face it Prudence and his cronies have been responsible for a lot of that!
Or could I just be cynical and say there are more Labour votes on Merseyside than in the Aberystwyth area?
Japan’s New Wacky First Lady
It’s in the Independent so it must be true.
