a very Unusual Mayor

ROBERT HARDMAN: The un-PC supermayor who has slashed public spending, axed pointless jobs and banned the word 'diversity'

Lights Out

BBC TV News tonight on lightbulbs: not a mention of the EU (no surprise) and a bit evasive in the description of what's happened, ie no use of the words 'banned' or 'illegal', only 'phasing out'.

Home Office Admits Larger Data Loss

Home Office coughs up to larger data loss • The Register

The Home Office has admitted to losing a quarter of a million more records than it originally thought.

The figure is revealed in its Resource Accounts for 2008-2009. PA Consulting lost a memory stick last September, which was originally reported to contain details on 127,000 people. In fact the stick, which remains lost, contained records on 377,000 people, Kable reveals.

Enough said.

EU Water Scottish Pellets Waste Bilge

Taxpayers Face Massive Legal Bill Over Illegal Burning Of Sewage (from Sunday Herald)

TAXPAYERS COULD be lumbered with a large legal bill because Scotland's environment watchdog is allowing 200,000 tonnes of sewage sludge to be illegally burned in a polluting power station.

A secret Scottish Executive memo, leaked to the Sunday Herald, reveals that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has made a deal that enables sludge to be incinerated at Longannet power station for four years, in breach of European law.

The memo, to the first minister Jack McConnell last year, warns that Scottish ministers risk being taken to court by the European Commission and landed with substantial costs as a result.

Interesting presentation. The article talks of 'burning sludge', which gives a rather different impression from burning solid pellets, which is what actually happens. Those pellets help to produce cleaner energy than coal or oil. The article also accepts without question that the law is sensible (a stupid thing to do when it's an EU law). Add to that the slant, ie tax-payers having to stump up to defend companies breaking 'the law' and you have an excellent example of pro-EU propaganda.

If you can bothered to wade through the legal sludge produced by the EU directive which throws up the problem of what can or cannot be burned in an incineration plant or a co-incineration plant to produce energy from its heat or not, then go here.

ID Cards To Be Linked To Police Records

ID cards to be linked to police records - NO2ID Press Releases » 2009 » August.

ID cards to be linked to police records for millions

Millions of people working in education in health or as volunteers
could come under pressure to be fingerprinted and obtain a national ID card, it was revealed today.

Bastards.

More Special Advisers? No Thanks.

We need more ‘squabbling gossips’ in power | Daniel Finkelstein - Times Online.

Special advisers have a terrible reputation. But if ministers want to stay in touch with voters they need more, not fewer.

That's according to Daniel Finkelstein, who obviously needs someone to keep him in touch with the voters.

Jesus Christ.

Useful Documents On Scribd

Visit Charters & Caldecott's site on Scribd to read various documents relating to the UK government policies, the EU, education and other related matters.

All documents are freely available on the internet.

Link here.

Tories Offer Our Arse (Rebate) In Advance To The EU

Tories would increase cash to EU if farming subsidies are cut - Telegraph.

Mark Francois, the shadow Europe minister, said that a Tory government would be willing to put Britain’s EU budget rebate, won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, on the table...Mr Francois, himself a strong Eurosceptic, insisted that talking about the rebate was simply a sensible negotiating position. He also pledged to make a “much more robust defence of the rebate” than Labour had.

What a brilliant move! Tell the bastards in the EU what our bargaining strategy is well in advance, let them know we're stupid enough to reduce our rebate (again), then tell them we'll make the same mistake as before.

Are all our MPs total fuckwits?

Irish Experts Challenge EU Innovation Mantra

Irish experts challenge EU innovation mantra | EU - European Information on Innovation & Creativity.

A report by a government-appointed expert group in Ireland makes uncomfortable reading for EU policymakers invested in Europe's 'knowledge economy'.

Published this month (July 16), it questions whether Ireland's investment in science, technology and innovation (STI) is really economically worthwhile and whether producing 20% more PhD students might be counterproductive.

Oh dear, that won't go down well. Best just to ignore it, eh?

No Author Without Smoke

'Smoking Martyr' Lynn Barber pulls out of festival | Books | guardian.co.uk

Author and journalist Lynn Barber has withdrawn from a literary festival after the local council refused to include a photograph of her smoking in its brochure for the event. Her ferocious interview technique earned her the soubriquet Demon Barber, but this is the first time she has been branded a potentially corrupting influence.

Jesus.

Pompous Meerkat Twat

Meerkat forces? Not good enough | Peter Jones | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I were watching TV at home when the advert for comparethemarket.com appeared on our screen. I had seen the ad before and not thought anything of it. However on this occasion, my girlfriend, who is Ukrainian, turned to me and said: "I don't like this advert, it is very offensive to me." I mentioned it to a friend who said his Latvian lodger also found it offensive.

Jesus.

Beware Bulb Snoopers

Public told to snoop on lightbulb law breakers - Telegraph

From September 1, it will be illegal to import conventional pearl or frosted bulbs of any shape or wattage. Traditional incandescent bulbs of 100 watts will also be banned under European law aimed at reducing energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions...

A Defra spokesman said: ''The public could tip off trading standards if they know someone to be illegally importing 100W or frosted light bulbs, just as they would if they found dangerous toys or appliances.

I shall be out there snooping for bulb criminals - but only if I'm paid.

EU Scams UK By Extra 60%

UK's payments to EU jump by 60 per cent.

The Treasury statistics show that the UK's net contribution to the EU will increase from £4.1 billion this year to £6.4 billion in 2010/11.

The figures were published in the Treasury's annual Community Finances statement, which was slipped out last month just before parliament broke up for its summer recess.

Thank you, Tony and Gordon.

The Testicles Of Language Control

Quangos blackball ... oops, sorry ... veto ‘racist’ everyday phrases - Times Online

Children's Care Criminal Vetting Costs £600m

Children's care crisis as criminal vetting fees approach £600m | Society | The Observer

Useless bastards.

Deportations Under EU Warrants Likely To Treble

Deportations under EU warrants likely to treble - Telegraph

Bastards.

Motorists may be forced to pay EU congestion tax

Motorists may be forced to pay EU congestion tax.

NORTH East motorists could be forced to pay congestion charges following the intervention of the European Union, it was claimed last night.

Campaigners allege that the Brussels bureaucrats are drawing up rules on that will result in the introduction of road tolls across Europe – including in the United Kingdom – despite overwhelming opposition from motorists.

The European Commission is developing a long-term transport strategy and supports congestion charging as a way of raising money for cash-strapped Governments.

Decisions made by the commission have resulted previously in public reaction to road charges being gauged across the North East.

Options investigated included a £3 charge every time motorists entered Newcastle city centre or a flat £2 daily rate as well a 5p per mile fee for major roads like the A1 and A19.

A 10p per mile weekday charge for any road in large swathes of Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside was also explored.

The claims come from the Open Europe think-tank, which is openly sceptical of the EU’s current role.

It also argues for reform of Brussels institutions, which it regards as over-loaded and ill-equipped to deal with today’s economic challenges.

Director Lorraine Mullally said: “If Ireland votes Yes to the Lisbon Treaty in its second referendum in early October, the UK Government will lose its ability to veto any proposals it doesn’t like the sound of.

“Congestion charges and road tolls should be decided regionally or locally and as close as possible to the people who will have to pay them, not by the unelected European Commission in Brussels.”

There will be no area of life that the the EU will not seek to control if it is not stopped.

Burnham's Fitness Prescription Wheeze

GPs to give fitness ‘prescriptions’ - Telegraph:

As part of the Government’s Let’s Get Moving campaign, GPs are being encouraged to write out detailed programmes, with a weekly plan of activities such as gym sessions, evening sports classes and weekend team events.

Elderly and less active patients will be steered towards walking groups, yoga sessions in community centres or even ballroom dancing lessons.

Then Happiness Therapy backed up with lots of Soma. If that fails there's always ASBOs and tasers.

Andy Burnham is a prick.

Keep Them Paki Pipers Out!

Pakistani politicians and pipe band denied entry to Scotland - Times Online

Yes, can't have these Paki terrorists coming into Britain pretending to be bloody bagpipe players, can we?

The Border Agency are to be congratulated on their efficiency and deft handling of all such foreign Johnnies.

New 'totalitarian' home education plans drive families north to Scotland

New 'totalitarian' home education plans drive families north to Scotland | Education | The Guardian

European Union Shyster Bastards

EUobserver / Irish media get new rules for Lisbon treaty coverage:

New guidelines for Irish media to cover the Lisbon Treaty referendum take effect at noon Friday (7 August).

Announced by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), the new guidelines clarify that there is no requirement to allocate an absolute equality of airtime to opposing sides of the referendum debate during editorial coverage.

The guidelines cover "commercial, community, institutional and temporary broadcasters," but do not mention the internet (Photo: EUobserver)

The proportion of airtime allocated to opposing sides must however "be fair to all interests and undertaken in a transparent manner."

The Irish are to vote on the Lisbon treaty for a second time on 2 October, after a majority rejected the document in a referendum 12 June 2008.

In previous referendum campaigns public broadcasters were obliged to give equal coverage of both the Yes and the No campaigns, after a former professor at Trinity College, Anthony Coughlan, made a complaint at Irish courts in June 1997 over unbalanced media coverage by the public broadcaster RTE, which gave 42,5 minutes coverage to the yes-camp and 10 minutes to the no-camp in a referendum on divorce.

The BCI has also announced a black-out on Lisbon treaty media coverage from the morning of the 1 October until polls close on 2 October.

During this period broadcast output must not include "material which relates directly to the content of the Treaty of Lisbon and/or the constitutional amendments associated with the Treaty."

The new guidelines cover "commercial, community, institutional and temporary broadcasters," but do not mention the Internet.

The outcome of the Irish referendum will be eagerly awaited in the rest of Europe, with the text to create important new posts in the EU hierarchy, give more voting power to large EU states, reduce the scope of national vetos and give more law-making

I think there's only one way of interpreting that, isn't there?

HT Mr Eugenides.

You Obviously Have Something To Hide

State Spied On 500,000 People Last Year - Yahoo! News UK

The row over using surveillance information to spy on people has intensified after its was revealed that 1,400 requests to snoop on the public were made every day last year. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
State Spied On 500,000 People Last Year Enlarge photo

Councils, police and the intelligence services asked more than 500,000 times for approval to access private email and phone data.

Each one allows public authorities access to communications data - which includes records of phone, email and text messages - but not their content.

The Home office says the new figures "offer reassurance that the powers are being used appropriately".

But the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne says the figures "beggared belief" and says the country has "sleepwalked into a surveillance state".

"It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year.

"The Government forgets that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, and not a blueprint."

The figures were published in the annual report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy.

It showed 504,073 requests for communication data were made last year, or nearly 10,000 every week.

Although slightly down on last year, the total is up more than 40% on two years ago.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Of course it's vital that we strike the right balance between individual privacy and collective security and that is why the Home Office is clear these powers should only be used when they are proportionate."

Sloppy Journo Ferguson Gaia Lovelock Bollocks Meme

Euan Ferguson, one of the Observer's finest, reveals himself to be just another sloppy journo in talking of James Lovelock:

What he's always wanted to see, since he formulated the theory back in the Sixties and Seventies, was Gaia: the Earth as an entity which could be described as "living". "Gaia theory", while once ridiculed, is now accepted by most scientists, so many of its predictions having objectively been seen to come to pass.

Not true, Mr Ferguson. Lovelock's Gaia 'theory' is not and never has been 'accepted by most scientists' for the simple reason that it is a load of baloney.

The State Will Shaft You

High Court shields database state from blame • The Register.

The state is our enemy because it has declared war on us, the people.

Twelve Minute ID Card Cloning

ID card cloned in 12 minutes. "This chip is the vital security measure that, so the Government believes, will make identity cards 'unforgeable'.

But as I watch, Laurie picks up a mobile phone and, using just the handset and a laptop computer, electronically copies the ID card microchip and all its information in a matter of minutes.

He then creates a cloned card, and with a little help from another technology expert, he changes all the information the card contains - the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and so on. And he doesn't stop there."

Alan Johnson (above) is 59. He is also a prick.

Iraq Lies Trauma

Lying about Iraq made me quit, press officer claims - Home News, UK - The Independent

British Visa Arts Warzone

Would you cross a warzone for a British visa? | Henry Porter | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

More on the nonsense of the government's new visa restrictions.

How Thick Do They Think We Are?

Answer is: very.

Brown to do holiday voluntary work.

Like, volunteering your resignation would be an act of immense benevolence to us all.

Enemies Of The State - All Of Us

Criminal Records Bureau errors lead to hundreds being branded criminals - Telegraph.

Well, of course. What else would you expect from a bunch of fucktards?

An incisive rejoinder from Old Holborn.

Sin Bins Or What?

What is a Family Intervention Project? - from the Home Office's 'Respect' site.

Government calls for tough family intervention to prevent youth crime: a copy of the press release issued by the Dept for Children, Families and Schools on 22 July 2009.

No mention of CCTV cameras or in-house surveillance.

Is the stuff in the press merely kite-flying? Or is it a typical combination of New Labour PR-stuntery and political fuckwitedness?

This Is How The EU Works

FT.com / Europe - French farmers refuse to repay €330m

French farmers have rejected a demand to repay hundreds of millions of euros in state subsidies that have been ruled illegal by the European Commission.

And there you have it.

If this happened to UK farmers our government would be hounding every last one of them to pay up, happy to bankrupt all of them in order to satisfy their puppet-masters in the EU.

Meanwhile the French, co-founders of the whole European Union scam, do as they like.

False Democracy Left Consciousness Shopping

Do we want to shop or to be free? We'd better choose fast | Neal Lawson | Comment is free | The Guardian

Self-righteous left-wing ideologue condemns shopping.

People want stuff because they just want it; because it makes their life more convenient, more pleasant, more comfortable. And maybe they want stuff to boast about status. Who gives a fuck?

If this is such an affront to the puritan Righteous of the Left then why has New Labour assiduously pursued Thatcherite policies over the last 12 years, encouraging people to get into debt in order to spend beyond their means? Why has New Labour basically turned politics into a form of shopping, pretending to offer the electorate a variety of 'choices' in this and that?

Most people are the same. That's because, as human beings, our differences (individuality) are greatly outnumbered by our similarities with regard to needs and desires. The left-wing concept of 'false consciousness' or 'bad faith' is operating here, and it is itself false. The best expression of the relationship between rulers and the ruled can be found in Machiavelli:

The people are more honest in their intentions than the nobles [politicians/ruling classes] are, because the latter want to oppress the people, whereas they [the people] want only not to be oppressed.

People just want to be free - not particularly for anything but just to be able to do what they want, or not do anything at all. This is an affront to the sanctimonious totalitarian impulses of the Righteous.

If I can afford it and I want to shop then I'll shop. If not, I won't. What I won't put up with is authoritarian liars presenting me with false dichotomies and false choices to cover up their own mendacity and to bully me into accepting their totalitarian policies.

Put Politicians Under 24 Hour Surveillance

Worst families in Britain will be put in 'sin bins' - Telegraph.

This scheme ought to be extended to all politicians, their officials, advisers, consultants and PR people.

Badly conceived, ethically unacceptable, unworkable, intrusive and expensive. A typical stunt by a flow-blown corpse of a government.

Thomas Paine:

But how often is the natural propensity to society disturbed or destroyed by the operations of government! When the latter, instead of being ingrafted on the principles of the former, assumes to exist for itself, and acts by partialities of favour and oppression, it becomes the cause of the mischiefs it ought to prevent.

Family Intervention Projects

Comments by Anticant.

Old Catholic Fool Foxed By The Interweb

Facebook criticised by Archbishop.

Yet another ignorant fool prating about something of which he knows nothing.

Makes a change from journalists and politicians.

Obama The Snooper

YouTube - Obama passing new law to allow searching of PC's, Laptops, and media devices.

So much for the Obamabastard.

They're all the fucking same.

Fatty Boom Boom You're Dead

War effort is being hampered by troops too unfit to deploy.

Organo-Stalinist Prickfaces

Alan Johnson says he can't stop McKinnon's extradition to the States. In other words he can't be arsed putting up a fight on behalf of one of his own citizens. I think we ought to refuse to send him purely in order to fuck the bloody Americans off.

Alan Johnson is a prick.

One in the eye for the organofanatics: organic food is no better than non-organic. I don't give a damn but obviously all those rabid believers won't accept it, whatever the facts are.

And Harriet Harman shows once again what a moron she really is: you can’t trust men in power. You can't trust anyone power, you stupid, talentless, incompetent little Stalinist. I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw a used condom.

Alan I'm A Prick Identity Card Johnson

Picture: UK ID card unveiled | 30 Jul 2009 | ComputerWeekly.com

Alan Johnson said, "Given the growing problem of identity fraud and the inconvenience of having to carry passports, coupled with gas bills or six months' worth of bank statements to prove identity, I believe the ID card will be welcomed as an important addition to the many plastic cards that most people already carry.

Alan Johnson. Prick.

Melissa Shite Journo Minger Twits

Wittering in public makes twits of us all.

Such is the judgement of Melissa Kite in the Telegraph. This is an unspeakably awful piece of 'journalism' - the main part is trite, ill-informed and superficial, while the end veers off into another subject altogether.

And she gets paid good money for this garbage.

Read the comments as well. You'll want to kill yourself.

HT Witterings from Witney.

European Creativity Bollocks Innovation Year

The European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009

Fuck me, the EU's propaganda machine may be leaking millions of euros but it's fucking useless at communicating. I've only just heard that 2009 is the 'Year of Creativity and Innovation', and it's nearly over! So where's the money? Where can I line up with my literary fingers out, demanding cash to be creative and innovative?

Well, I know the answer, obviously, and it's NOWHERE. This is just another bureaucratic cash-splash in which only other bureaucrats get any of the money. The eurocrats can sit there congratulating themselves thinking they're doing a really good, important job communicating the 'values' of the EU to their hapless 'citizens'.

A moment's thought reveals the utter vacuity of the concept and the fuckwitted mentality of the eurocrats - as if creativity can be neatly generated, promoted, packaged and slotted into their authoritarian agenda. The word 'innovation', of course, is a tell-tale sign that you're dealing with members of the global political class who don't give a shit about anyone else and are determined to impose their worldview on everyone else, even those who disagree.