I read on CNN that Pres. Bush appeared with relatives of jailed Cuban dissidents last Wednesday and denounced the Caribbean country as a "tropical gulag."
True! Well it is since he started to use Guantanamo for that purpose...
This hypocryte just beggars belief doesn't he?
Sunday, 24 February 2008
So - Is this another 'expenses embarassment'?
The Commons Speaker, Michael Martin was appointed the chair of the review panel looking into MPs spending in the wake of the allegations against MP Derek Conway.
That choice may now look a little shaky as Mr Martin becomes embroiled in a potential expenses scandal of his own.
Once again, however, our elected representatives are 'circling the wagons' in defence of the accused rather than doing what they should for their electors and insisting upon a completely transparent system of accounting for MPs.
As for Mr Martin's guilt? Who knows? Guilty or innocent however - his chairmanship of the said review panel must be brought to an end. But hang on - what if that is the 'end' which is being 'engineered' here?
I read that Lord George Foulkes claims that the stories about Mr Martin were part of a class battle and was part of a long standing campaign against Mr Martin. Apparently, started years ago by “people who went to private schools and Oxbridge who didn’t like someone from a working class background in Glasgow getting into the highest office in the land".
Somehow that has more than a ring of truth behind it as the House is full of such chinless wonders who probably aren't even capable of tying their own shoelaces (perhaps we should check for slip-ons before we vote next time?).
Michael Martin must be investigated and dealt with in the same way as Derek Conway should be if there is any substance in the claim.
If, on the other hand, a contrived 'smear campaign' turns out to be what's behind this particular case, then a full investigation aimed at identifying the source/s of any 'character assassination' should be pursued rigourously, as that would be even more serious than the fiddling of expenses.
Why? Well for a start deliberate character assassination is not a million miles away from the real thing and can have tragic consequences.
But also consider this. If Mr Martin was just about to investigate MPs expenses, and he can't be relied upon as a member of the 'old-school-tie brigade' to look after his friends when the chips are down, then what better way to 'dispose' of him than this?
Yes indeed mon ami, the leetle grey cells are working overtime...
That choice may now look a little shaky as Mr Martin becomes embroiled in a potential expenses scandal of his own.
Once again, however, our elected representatives are 'circling the wagons' in defence of the accused rather than doing what they should for their electors and insisting upon a completely transparent system of accounting for MPs.
As for Mr Martin's guilt? Who knows? Guilty or innocent however - his chairmanship of the said review panel must be brought to an end. But hang on - what if that is the 'end' which is being 'engineered' here?
I read that Lord George Foulkes claims that the stories about Mr Martin were part of a class battle and was part of a long standing campaign against Mr Martin. Apparently, started years ago by “people who went to private schools and Oxbridge who didn’t like someone from a working class background in Glasgow getting into the highest office in the land".
Somehow that has more than a ring of truth behind it as the House is full of such chinless wonders who probably aren't even capable of tying their own shoelaces (perhaps we should check for slip-ons before we vote next time?).
Michael Martin must be investigated and dealt with in the same way as Derek Conway should be if there is any substance in the claim.
If, on the other hand, a contrived 'smear campaign' turns out to be what's behind this particular case, then a full investigation aimed at identifying the source/s of any 'character assassination' should be pursued rigourously, as that would be even more serious than the fiddling of expenses.
Why? Well for a start deliberate character assassination is not a million miles away from the real thing and can have tragic consequences.
But also consider this. If Mr Martin was just about to investigate MPs expenses, and he can't be relied upon as a member of the 'old-school-tie brigade' to look after his friends when the chips are down, then what better way to 'dispose' of him than this?
Yes indeed mon ami, the leetle grey cells are working overtime...
Saturday, 23 February 2008
The Last Post - continued
Having got the fact that I wasn't invited to the local rally off of my chest (previous post), I now want to get serious.
I got to thinking about the current situation with the post office closures, and the Beeching railway closures of the '60's. Prior to that we had a service based national railway. The then government saw that it was costing the treasury money (many millions) and they couldn't have that could they?
So - they got in Dr Beeching (slasher to his friends). And that's exactly what he did, he slashed and burned his way through the service tearing up its infrastucture as he went. Public opinion was completely dismissed as irrelevant along the way. Big Mistake!
Then further down the line - we got railway privatisation. Even bigger mistake!
The Tories have actually admitted that now. Back in 2000, Bernard Jenkins said as much when he 'agreed wholheartedly' with Gerald Corbett (Railtrack) who said that railway had been ripped apart at privatisation and that the resulting structure was designed to maximise the proceeds to the Treasury, not safety or investment.
Nor, dare I add, service.
The similarities with the postal service are striking. The old railway was a comprehensive service backed up by a comprehensive infrastucture. It served the whole of the people of Great Britain and served them well, but it had to be subsidised. Once the notion of a subsidised service was sacrificed on the altar of profit, then we were lost.
You may be suprised to learn however, that British Rail at the time, received lower subsidies than did other European nationalised railway services. Now the so called 'private' rail companies that we have, are subsidised to the tune of at least £2bn p.a. Just imagine what BR could've done with that level of investment.
No matter, the benefit of this level of investment ultimately will go to the shareholders of these companies who must get a return on their investment.
Fast forward now to the current situation with Royal Mail. See the similarities? If you can't then I'm not going to spell it out. Suffice to say that we let politicians tinker with these essential services at our peril. These are people who are not to be trusted. If history shows anything, it shows that.
As with the old, closed, railway stations, so with the post offices. You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone.
I'm sad about this, but saddened most of all to see a so-called 'Labour government' presiding over this 'rape' of what we have all collectively invested in, built up and relied upon over the years.
One might almost (but not quite) forgive the Tories of their past crimes as they are made up of chinless wonders like Cameron, Johnson and that idiot Redwood. People who don't seem to have any connection whatsoever with real people living real lives and people who will only ever know the cost of everthing and the value of nothing. You just have to look at Conway's offspring for an insight of what their values and aspirations are (see here if you've forgotten).
For Labour, given their roots and history, this is indeed a deep, deep betrayal of the working people of this country and only serves to confirm that Blairism is the new Thatcherism and that Brown hasn't the intestinal fortitude to do something about it.
I got to thinking about the current situation with the post office closures, and the Beeching railway closures of the '60's. Prior to that we had a service based national railway. The then government saw that it was costing the treasury money (many millions) and they couldn't have that could they?
So - they got in Dr Beeching (slasher to his friends). And that's exactly what he did, he slashed and burned his way through the service tearing up its infrastucture as he went. Public opinion was completely dismissed as irrelevant along the way. Big Mistake!
Then further down the line - we got railway privatisation. Even bigger mistake!
The Tories have actually admitted that now. Back in 2000, Bernard Jenkins said as much when he 'agreed wholheartedly' with Gerald Corbett (Railtrack) who said that railway had been ripped apart at privatisation and that the resulting structure was designed to maximise the proceeds to the Treasury, not safety or investment.
Nor, dare I add, service.
The similarities with the postal service are striking. The old railway was a comprehensive service backed up by a comprehensive infrastucture. It served the whole of the people of Great Britain and served them well, but it had to be subsidised. Once the notion of a subsidised service was sacrificed on the altar of profit, then we were lost.
You may be suprised to learn however, that British Rail at the time, received lower subsidies than did other European nationalised railway services. Now the so called 'private' rail companies that we have, are subsidised to the tune of at least £2bn p.a. Just imagine what BR could've done with that level of investment.
No matter, the benefit of this level of investment ultimately will go to the shareholders of these companies who must get a return on their investment.
Fast forward now to the current situation with Royal Mail. See the similarities? If you can't then I'm not going to spell it out. Suffice to say that we let politicians tinker with these essential services at our peril. These are people who are not to be trusted. If history shows anything, it shows that.
As with the old, closed, railway stations, so with the post offices. You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone.
I'm sad about this, but saddened most of all to see a so-called 'Labour government' presiding over this 'rape' of what we have all collectively invested in, built up and relied upon over the years.
One might almost (but not quite) forgive the Tories of their past crimes as they are made up of chinless wonders like Cameron, Johnson and that idiot Redwood. People who don't seem to have any connection whatsoever with real people living real lives and people who will only ever know the cost of everthing and the value of nothing. You just have to look at Conway's offspring for an insight of what their values and aspirations are (see here if you've forgotten).
For Labour, given their roots and history, this is indeed a deep, deep betrayal of the working people of this country and only serves to confirm that Blairism is the new Thatcherism and that Brown hasn't the intestinal fortitude to do something about it.
The Last Post?
So - they wanna close our Post Office huh?
Well - they've bitten off more than they can chew this time!
I tell you what we'll do - we'll organise a rally and get everyone along to show these 'bozos' our feelings!
Enter stage right Rugby and Kenilworth MP Jeremy Wright (Con) - he'll get this show on the road - you just wait and see...
A public 'anti-closure' rally ensues. I didn't see it on the news at ten, but the Kenilworth Weekly news reported it.
They even got a 'post rally' ('scuse the pun, but I couldn't resist it...) quote from 'our Jeremy', and I quote their quote;
“The response was incredible. There were a good 150 people there maybe more and it just goes to show the level of passion people have on this issue.”
Passion eh? Maybe more than 150 eh Jeremy, eh? Hey - are you awake?
What, like we got 151, or 152 - or perhaps even 155?
What have we got here in this town - a population of 23-24,000 people, and you managed to get a whole 0.65% of them mobilised? And the 'Cons' claim that they don't 'spin'!
Just how was this event organised Iwonder? Did Jeremy muster all of his local supporters for this rally? Ahh - that'll explain it then, and the other 100 must've been curious passers-by...
This also explains why I wasn't at the rally, despite my support of its purpose.
I didn't know it was happening!
In a previous blog-post I spoke about our local conservative party's claim to to have joined the 21st century. Their justification for this claim? Well - they now have an email address (yeah I know, but don't laugh at the poor dears - they are trying).
I suspect that they haven't worked out how to 'send' yet, or perhaps they aren't carefully maintaining their address book.
Never mind though, they could've posted notes through letter boxes (like they did with their, less than rivetting newsletter). Had they done this, and resisted the temptation to stamp 'conservative' all over it, people might have even read it and we might have seen a thousand at the rally.
Whatever else you do Jeremy, if you organise something like this in the future, don't rely on the post-office to communicate the arrangements - there might not be one left!
Well - they've bitten off more than they can chew this time!
I tell you what we'll do - we'll organise a rally and get everyone along to show these 'bozos' our feelings!
Enter stage right Rugby and Kenilworth MP Jeremy Wright (Con) - he'll get this show on the road - you just wait and see...
A public 'anti-closure' rally ensues. I didn't see it on the news at ten, but the Kenilworth Weekly news reported it.
They even got a 'post rally' ('scuse the pun, but I couldn't resist it...) quote from 'our Jeremy', and I quote their quote;
“The response was incredible. There were a good 150 people there maybe more and it just goes to show the level of passion people have on this issue.”
Passion eh? Maybe more than 150 eh Jeremy, eh? Hey - are you awake?
What, like we got 151, or 152 - or perhaps even 155?
What have we got here in this town - a population of 23-24,000 people, and you managed to get a whole 0.65% of them mobilised? And the 'Cons' claim that they don't 'spin'!
Just how was this event organised Iwonder? Did Jeremy muster all of his local supporters for this rally? Ahh - that'll explain it then, and the other 100 must've been curious passers-by...
This also explains why I wasn't at the rally, despite my support of its purpose.
I didn't know it was happening!
In a previous blog-post I spoke about our local conservative party's claim to to have joined the 21st century. Their justification for this claim? Well - they now have an email address (yeah I know, but don't laugh at the poor dears - they are trying).
I suspect that they haven't worked out how to 'send' yet, or perhaps they aren't carefully maintaining their address book.
Never mind though, they could've posted notes through letter boxes (like they did with their, less than rivetting newsletter). Had they done this, and resisted the temptation to stamp 'conservative' all over it, people might have even read it and we might have seen a thousand at the rally.
Whatever else you do Jeremy, if you organise something like this in the future, don't rely on the post-office to communicate the arrangements - there might not be one left!
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Kenilworth Police Getting Ahead - Cam
Reported in the Kenilworth Weekly News (a paper I trust) - our local police are to take part in a three-month pilot scheme to pilot new headcam technology.
See the full article Here.
Now this intrigued me because I was really not aware that we had local police on 'on the beat' in our Town, let alone officers who have been 'technologically advanced' in this way.
My reasons for labouring under this, obviously mistaken, illusion?
Well - the last time I needed to access the 'thin blue line' - I had a real job on my hands. Not seeing (or expecting to see) any bobbies 'on the beat' - incidentally are WPC's also 'bobbies' ? - I called in at the local police station only to find it closed up.
Now this wasn't an emergency, but something less urgent that I needed to report. It was very inconvenient and impressed I was most definitely not!
So - to learn that we now have police officers patrolling locally is good news. To hear that we have our own versions of 'Robo-Cop' is even better news - as any 'edge' that we can give the police is to be welcomed.
However, every town still needs a police station in my opinion. I'm not sure if ours is still partially 'moth-balled' as I've not needed it lately, but if it is, perhaps the said 'tooled up' officers could do a quick tour of the inside of the station and post the resultant video on YouTube as a 'virtual tour' so that we don't get to feel so deprived...
See the full article Here.
Now this intrigued me because I was really not aware that we had local police on 'on the beat' in our Town, let alone officers who have been 'technologically advanced' in this way.
My reasons for labouring under this, obviously mistaken, illusion?
Well - the last time I needed to access the 'thin blue line' - I had a real job on my hands. Not seeing (or expecting to see) any bobbies 'on the beat' - incidentally are WPC's also 'bobbies' ? - I called in at the local police station only to find it closed up.
Now this wasn't an emergency, but something less urgent that I needed to report. It was very inconvenient and impressed I was most definitely not!
So - to learn that we now have police officers patrolling locally is good news. To hear that we have our own versions of 'Robo-Cop' is even better news - as any 'edge' that we can give the police is to be welcomed.
However, every town still needs a police station in my opinion. I'm not sure if ours is still partially 'moth-balled' as I've not needed it lately, but if it is, perhaps the said 'tooled up' officers could do a quick tour of the inside of the station and post the resultant video on YouTube as a 'virtual tour' so that we don't get to feel so deprived...
So - Conway Objects...
Mr Conway is reported to have insisted there was nothing wrong in keeping parliamentary jobs in the family. In his first interview since Monday, he told the Mail on Sunday: "I am not a crook... I still believe I have done nothing wrong."
Well o.k. 'Del-boy' - perhaps your inability to grasp the issue and appreciate how others see it is at the real root of the problem - just perhaps...
Well o.k. 'Del-boy' - perhaps your inability to grasp the issue and appreciate how others see it is at the real root of the problem - just perhaps...
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