tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51271946069697928572024-03-05T06:30:44.180+00:00Charters & Caldecott"There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly." <i>On the Duty of Civil Disobedience</i>, Thoreau.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger742125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-24190145590224023282010-12-12T17:22:00.003+00:002010-12-12T17:26:16.464+00:00Scandinavia going down the Islamic tubes?<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11978389">Explosions in Stockholm</a> 'terrorism', but nobody's yet willing to say if they're Islamist attacks.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; ">"Danish MP Jesper Langballe pleads guilty to hate speech <a href="http://europenews.dk/en/node/38110">after being denied the right to prove his case.</a></span><a href="http://europenews.dk/en/node/38110"> </a>" That's right; in Denmark you're judged guilty without evidence or defence.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-2010425150287713952010-12-07T18:26:00.005+00:002010-12-07T18:35:35.231+00:00The political war becomes visible in cyberspace. Operation Payback.The war waged by the political classes on the people, supported by their friends in big business, has started to become visible in the actions of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Payback">Operation Payback</a>, a group of individuals keen to preserve the freedom of the internet and to attack those it considers the oppressors. <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/212701/operation_payback_wikileaks_avenged_by_hacktivists.html">Recent targets of their ire</a> have been those companies involved in trying to suppress WikiLeaks and freeze its accounts (Visa, PayPal, etc).<div><br /></div><div>All power to them. It's about time that people started fighting back against these bastards. However, it's not just in cyberspace that this war needs to be pursued. There will come a time when all those who support and further the institutions of the state in its encroachments on our liberties will have to be targeted individually. That includes the undemocratic commissars in Brussels.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-41357029117107551712010-11-27T07:54:00.003+00:002010-11-27T07:59:54.762+00:00Ed Miliband. My God, what a wanker.John Humphrys <a href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9231000/9231239.stm">interviews Ed Miliband</a>. With a leader like this Labour is guaranteed to wither in the wilderness. Thank God.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-53487910095075114002010-11-22T17:27:00.002+00:002010-11-22T17:31:22.591+00:00And then we kill them - when do we start?Is this not inevitable? And how we do we make sure the right people get it in the neck? From <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-then-we-kill-them.html">European Referendum</a>:<div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, 'century gothic', Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; ">"The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today," <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331654/March-Euro-police-The-shocking-powers-prosecution-EU-us.html?ito=feeds-newsxml" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">writes Mary Ellen Synon</a>.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, 'century gothic', Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; "><br />This is the result of a <i>Mail on Sunday</i> investigation, which has "uncovered an alarming array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public."<br /><br />Of course, the reason why most are "unknown to the public" is because the media rarely talk about them and, <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/02/does-nobody-care-any-more.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">when they do</a>, "no one seems to care". More specifically, no one in parliament seems to care for, as we wrote when that plaintive statement was made, in legislative terms, "the parliament has collectively lost the will to live".<br /><br />Parliament is no longer really interested in its primary functions, we wrote, and has turned in on itself, to the extent that its internal, petty politicking has assumed an overweening importance, to the exclusion of everything else.<br /><br />That was over two years ago, when Philip Johnston was railing against the creation of "a powerful new EU interior department, called the Standing Committee on Internal Security (COSI)." He had devoted some space to then home secretary Jacqui Smith's failure to mention it.<br /><br />But then, as now, this was our old friend the <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2004/11/telling-it-like-it-us.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">Hague programme</a>, about which we were <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2004/10/galloping-integration.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">sounding the alarm</a> in 2004. But, if you had then asked the average British political blogger or MSM political correspondent about it, they would have thought you were referring to young William's last television appearance.<br /><br />But since then, <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/06/you-do-have-to-wonder.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">more than enough</a> has been written about it for those who wanted to know about to keep themselves informed, not least the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200405/ldselect/ldeucom/84/8402.htm" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">European Union - Tenth Report</a> of 15 March 2005. And therein lies another part of the problem.<br /><br />This does go back <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2004/10/hague-programme.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">all the way to 2004</a>, when we saw the European Council <a href="http://www.poptel.org.uk/statewatch/news/2004/oct/hague-programme-draft.pdf" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">reaffirm the priority</a> it attached to "the development of area of freedom, security and justice", claiming, as always, that it was "responding to a central concern of the peoples of the States brought together in the Union". Despite <a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2004/10/common-european-danger.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">our concerns</a>, nothing happened then and, six years later, as the <i>Mail on Sunday</i>raises the alarm (and not for the first time), precisely nothing will happen now.<br /><br />Therefore, the <i>real</i> problem is that, unless the issue can gain political traction, and there is a felling that this is an issue that can get resolved, there is and will be nothing to drive it forward. People, and the media – in the short-term, at least - will take a lead from the politicians. And if the politicians do nothing, the issue dies.<br /><br />But that is the short-term. As Booker reveals <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8148987/Forced-adoption-another-win-for-the-child-snatchers.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; background-color: transparent; ">in his column today</a>, more and more we see the "authorities" working to their own agendas, which have nothing to do with the principles of justice or good administration.<br /><br />When it also dawns – as it eventually will – that the authorities are also working for an alien power (not "foreign" - but alien), as is increasingly the case with the police through the Hague Programme, then the last vestiges of consent will break down. The divide between "us" and "them" will become a permanent breach. And then we start killing them.<br /><br />This is not a warning, nor a threat, nor a prediction, nor indeed an instruction. It is simply an observation. When the compact between the people and their rulers breaks down, the result is always the most extreme form of violence.<br /><br />In Britain, however, having been tolerably well administered for several centuries, we have become slow to turn to serious violence. Thus, our rulers have got lazy and complacent and they think they can continue along the route they have taken. They can't. The worm will turn eventually. When it does, people will die. That now is the only certainty.</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, 'century gothic', Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; "></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-33338481135198515732010-11-22T09:42:00.004+00:002010-11-22T09:53:02.356+00:00Education, grammar and the squealing of the Left<i><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8148093/Education-pupils-will-lose-marks-for-poor-grammar-and-spelling.html"><blockquote></blockquote>The Telegraph</a></i> reports "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 19px; ">Pupils will be penalised in exams for poor spelling, punctuation and grammar under a sweeping overhaul of the education system."</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Just listen to the lefties squealing about this. Learning grammar, punctuation and spelling is obviously soooo hard. Amazing how someone like my late mother, who left school at 14 before the war and who had no other formal education, could write English that was grammatically correct and properly punctuated. Many of our young people lack these basic skills. And they get to university. Believe me, I have to mark their papers.<br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); line-height: normal; font-size: 10px; "><blockquote><div class="firstPar"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Teenagers will lose up to five per cent of marks in GCSE examinations if they fail to display high standards of written English.</p></div><div class="secondPar"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">The rules, which are likely to apply to all subjects, including mathematics and science, follow claims that thousands of children leave school without being able to compose a sentence, spell difficult words or write a coherent letter or email.</p></div><div class="thirdPar"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">The move, to be outlined in an education White Paper next week, would reverse a Labour decision seven years ago to scrap rewards for good literacy.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 10px; "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said the building blocks of English had been "demolished by those who should have been giving our children a solid foundation in learning". Business leaders such as Sir Stuart Rose, the Marks & Spencer chairman, have complained that too many young people leave school "not fit for work".</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Last night, the change was backed by educationalists who suggested it would give schools a greater incentive to train pupils in the basics of spelling and grammar. The written English requirements will be among a string of radical reforms designed to restore rigour to the examination system in England and promote the study of traditional subjects.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Next week's White Paper will also propose:</p><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>A return to traditional A-levels by moving away from bite-sized "modular" courses in some subjects in favour of tests at the end of two years of study.</li></ul><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>Allowing universities to script A-level exams and syllabuses to ensure sixth-form courses act as a better preparation for a degree.</li></ul><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>The introduction of an "English Baccalaureate" that rewards pupils for gaining five good GCSEs in English, maths, science, foreign languages and a humanities subject.</li></ul><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>A ban on schools using vocational courses as "equivalent" qualifications to boost their ranking in GCSE league tables.</li></ul><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>A review of the National Curriculum to outline the key "bodies of knowledge" that children should master at each stage of their education.</li></ul><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>A reading test for all six year-olds to identify those struggling the most after a year of school, ensuring they receive extra tuition.</li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">The Coalition reforms are being billed as an attempt to reverse 13 years of "dumbing down" by Labour. Mr Gove has been critical of changes to the exams system which he claimed had widened the gulf between independent and state schools. Many fee-paying schools have shifted pupils towards alternative exams following claims that mainstream tests are too easy.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">In a speech, Mr Gove attacked Labour's decision to abandon requirements for pupils to spell correctly and use proper punctuation and grammar in GCSE exams.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">In the past, five per cent of marks in all GCSE exams were ring-fenced for high standards of written English. But the rules were scrapped in 2003.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Good spelling and punctuation is still rewarded in some exams, but the number of marks available differs between subjects and often candidates are only rewarded for good English in certain questions. They are usually told which questions these are.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Mr Gove said: “Thousands of children – including some of our very brightest – leave school unable to compose a proper sentence, ignorant of basic grammar, incapable of writing a clear and accurate letter.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“And it’s not surprising when the last government explicitly removed the requirement to award a set number of marks for correct spelling, punctuation and grammar in examinations.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“The basic building blocks of English were demolished by those who should have been giving our children a solid foundation in learning.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“Under this Government we will insist that our exams, once more, take proper account of the need to spell, punctuate and write a grammatical sentence.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">The move, which will not at first apply to A-levels, was given a cautious welcome by examiners. Jim Sinclair, director of the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents exam boards, said: “The previous system fell into disrepute because of cases where candidates were writing competently, spelling flawlessly and using correct grammar – therefore picking up the five per cent – but the subject content of their answers was rubbish.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">He added: “I wholeheartedly support the desire to ensure that when young people leave formal education that they are functionally</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">literate and numerate but I would caution against using crude instruments to disproportionately reward spelling, punctuation and grammar.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “Clear expression is evidence of clear thought. It is reasonable to expect accurate spelling and good use of grammar in an exam.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“The results mean less if the examiner is trying to project on to a poorly written answer what he or she thinks the candidate was attempting to say.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "></p><blockquote></blockquote><br /><p></p><p></p></div></blockquote><div class="thirdPar"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 10px; "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "></p><p></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "><br /></p></div></span></span></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-91999720270329188262010-11-18T20:32:00.003+00:002010-11-18T20:36:38.392+00:00Was it for this? Ireland shafted. Now they realise.<p>From <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1118/1224283626246.html">The Irish Times</a>. At least it shows that there are people in Ireland who've realised what shit the EU really is. Their political class sold them out, just as ours have.<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p>IT MAY seem strange to some that <em>The Irish Times</em> would ask whether this is what the men of 1916 died for: a bailout from the German chancellor with a few shillings of sympathy from the British chancellor on the side. There is the shame of it all. Having obtained our political independence from Britain to be the masters of our own affairs, we have now surrendered our sovereignty to the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Their representatives ride into Merrion Street today.</p><p>Fianna Fáil has sometimes served Ireland very well, sometimes very badly. Even in its worst times, however, it retained some respect for its underlying commitment that the Irish should control their own destinies. It lists among its primary aims the commitment “to maintain the status of Ireland as a sovereign State”. Its founder, Eamon de Valera, in his inaugural address to his new party in 1926, spoke of “the inalienability of national sovereignty” as being fundamental to its beliefs. The Republican Party’s ideals are in tatters now.</p><p>The Irish people do not need to be told that, especially for small nations, there is no such thing as absolute sovereignty. We know very well that we have made our independence more meaningful by sharing it with our European neighbours. We are not naive enough to think that this State ever can, or ever could, take large decisions in isolation from the rest of the world. What we do expect, however, is that those decisions will still be our own. A nation’s independence is defined by the choices it can make for itself.</p><p>Irish history makes the loss of that sense of choice all the more shameful. The desire to be a sovereign people runs like a seam through all the struggles of the last 200 years. “Self-determination” is a phrase that echoes from the United Irishmen to the Belfast Agreement. It continues to have a genuine resonance for most Irish people today.</p><p>The true ignominy of our current situation is not that our sovereignty has been taken away from us, it is that we ourselves have squandered it. Let us not seek to assuage our sense of shame in the comforting illusion that powerful nations in Europe are conspiring to become our masters. We are, after all, no great prize for any would-be overlord now. No rational European would willingly take on the task of cleaning up the mess we have made. It is the incompetence of the governments we ourselves elected that has so deeply compromised our capacity to make our own decisions.</p><p>They did so, let us recall, from a period when Irish sovereignty had never been stronger. Our national debt was negligible. The mass emigration that had mocked our claims to be a people in control of our own destiny was reversed. A genuine act of national self-determination had occurred in 1998 when both parts of the island voted to accept the Belfast Agreement. The sense of failure and inferiority had been banished, we thought, for good.</p><p>To drag this State down from those heights and make it again subject to the decisions of others is an achievement that will not soon be forgiven. It must mark, surely, the ignominious end of a failed administration.</p></blockquote><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-57158636112026727542010-11-16T15:54:00.005+00:002010-11-16T16:00:55.844+00:00Bailouts battering the bastard EU<div id="main-article-info"> <h1><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/16/ireland-bailout-government-says-no-need-to-panic"><span style="font-size:100%;">Ireland crisis could cause EU collapse, warns president</span></a></h1> <p id="stand-first" class="stand-first-alone">Herman Van Rompuy, president of the EU, has warned it faces a 'survival crisis', with the risk of contagion spreading from Ireland across the continent</p> </div><h1><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Oh, if only.</span><br /></span></h1><h1><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/austria-withholds-greece-bailout-2010-11"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Greek Bailout Crackup Is Here, As Austria Refuses Payments</span></a></h1>Still, that's a bit of good news.<br /><br />Then there's Portugal to come.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-55486523100791627872010-11-15T17:19:00.003+00:002010-11-15T17:28:57.904+00:00Well happy being index nudged<h1><span style="font-weight: normal;">Happiness index to gauge Britain's national mood</span><br /></h1>This is the kind of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/14/happiness-index-britain-national-mood">squit-brained nonsense</a> you'd expect from the last government, but it's no suprise the new lot are just as interfering, autocratic and intellectually vacuous.<br /><br />One thing that would guarantee most of us feeling just a little bit happier would be to have politicians (and the whole bloody cabal of think tanks, advisers and pressure groups - as well as the fucking Civil Service) just bloody leaving us alone.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-68225034581437943792010-11-07T13:11:00.001+00:002010-11-07T13:13:47.624+00:00The Taliban ain't your mates, lady, even if you do convert.<p></p><blockquote><p>WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A Canadian freelance journalist kidnapped in Pakistan has died, an Indian newspaper reported.</p> <p>Khadija Abdul Qahaar, 58, of West Vancouver, British Columbia, "died following prolonged illness in the custody of the Taliban somewhere in northwest Pakistan or Afghanistan," The Indian Express reported.</p> <p>Her death was not independently confirmed and the newspaper did not name its source or sources for news of her death, nor did it indicate when she died.</p> <p>Qahaar, known as Beverley Giesbrecht before converting from Catholicism to Islam, was frail when she and two Pakistani men were kidnapped in November 2008, The Vancouver Sun reported Thursday.</p> <p>Her unidentified captors demanded a $150,000 ransom for her and released video footage of her pleading for her life. </p> <p>The Pakistani men were eventually released, but Qahaar was not heard from after August 2009.</p> <p>Before the kidnapping, she was interviewing Taliban leaders in Pakistan's violent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or North-West Frontier province, for a documentary, the Sun said.</p> <p>Qahaar changed her name and converted to Islam in response to the U.S.-led "war on terror" that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.</p> <p>She gave up her career as a magazine and Internet publisher, sold her assets and April 21, 2002, and started a Web site called Jihad Unspun with a stated aim of presenting uncensored reporting of global anti-terrorism activities and news from several Islamic Jihad groups.</p> <p>Its articles were often highly critical of U.S. foreign policy, and critics accused it of being a hate site.</p> <p>United Press International was not able to access the Web site Thursday.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Should we tell Lauren Booth?<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-13066421796303509682010-11-06T14:22:00.003+00:002010-11-06T14:25:18.087+00:00More statist shit - National Citizen ServiceFirst we had Gordon's Brownshirts, not quite getting off the ground; now we have Cameron's Commandos, implementing the Big Society via <a href="http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2010/100722-citizenservice/national-citizen-service.aspx">National Citizen Service</a>.<br /><br />Fuck 'em.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-9801273667237897582010-10-31T15:31:00.002+00:002010-10-31T15:35:33.449+00:00Useless ex-Labour Twat Lands Big JobJacqui Smith, useless ex-Home Secretary and now ex-Labour MP, has just landed <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8098993/Jacqui-Smith-wins-lucrative-jobs-with-Labours-friends.html">a plum post with KPMG.</a> Nice to have contacts, isn't it? Especially when you're a talentless, useless twat.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-67290743502821769792010-10-30T15:59:00.003+01:002010-10-30T16:06:46.684+01:00Fat Arsed Talentless Labour Minger Fucks Ginger VoteThe unspeakably abhorrent Harman calls LibDem Danny Alexander a ginger 'rodent'.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zVecUQKVkbg?fs=1&hl=en_GB&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zVecUQKVkbg?fs=1&hl=en_GB&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />That's fucked the Ginger Vote.<br /><br />Labour lost the election in May, if you remember. You can tell, can't you?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-17070812612764188272010-10-30T08:09:00.002+01:002010-10-30T08:18:14.964+01:00Irish Resistance Blarney Bollix Elite EU What?Lecturer Geraldine Moane suggests the Irish people should learn from their colonial past how to <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1015/1224281154805.html">resist the impositions</a> of the 'elite of financial and political decision-makers' who have wrought such economic damage on the country.<br /><br />She talks of Ireland as being 'postcolonial'. Obviously she hasn't taken into account the fact that although Ireland is no longer a British colony it is now a colony of the European Union. The political class of the country is completely bound in with its EU masters, as evidenced by the cowardly and undemocratic behaviour of Cowen in caving in to Brussels bullying over the re-run of the Lisbon Treaty referendum.<br /><br />With traitors like that what chance have you got? Your enemy there, as here, is your own government, your own political class. The financiers and business people are only part of that elite.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-63274552210398160562010-10-26T17:54:00.002+01:002010-10-26T17:59:02.992+01:00Bastard puritans alcohol whingeI can hear it now, drifting in from the tv in the other room - 'young people...alcohol consumption...'<br /><br />When will these interfering, statist, puritan fascists just fuck off and leave us alone? <a id="publishButton" class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" target="" onclick="if (this.className.indexOf("ubtn-disabled") == -1) {var e = document['stuffform'].publish;(e.length) ? e[0].click() : e.click(); if (window.event) window.event.cancelBubble = true; return false;}"><div class="cssButtonOuter"><div class="cssButtonMiddle"><div class="cssButtonInner">Publish Post</div></div></div></a>Every bloody week there's something in the papers or on tv about drinking. Most of the time the figures they provide can't be trusted. A lot of the time it's OldNewLabour's fake charities still peddling their dogmas.<br /><br />FOAD, the lot of you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-46411278337399678262010-10-26T09:44:00.003+01:002010-10-26T09:56:21.636+01:00State Snoopers - Data Retention Revived in UK (on the orders of the EU)The previous government's <a href="http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Intercept_Modernisation">Intercept Modernisation Programme</a> has been revived by the new Coalition. This is,in plain language, the reintroduction of a plan to spy on all our telephone calls and internet activity - although, at the moment, that spying does not cover the actual content of communications.<br /><br />This moves clearly contradicts claims by both Coalition partners that they would cut back on Labour's surveillance state.<br /><br />Why, then, are they reviving this programme?<br /><br />Simple.<br /><br />They have no choice. This is an EU requirement. <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:105:0054:0063:EN:PDF">Directive 2006/24/EC</a>. Not that you'll get the British media mentioning the fact.<br /><br />What's worse is this: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4230254.stm">Clarke warns on phone terror plan</a>. That's the jug-eared Labout twat, not the cigar-smoking twat now back in office.<br /><br />Labour were very keen to push this programme through the EU. For which they ought to be strung up.<br /><br />Pity they didn't ask us about it.<br /><br />Pity the UK media couldn't be bothered to tell us about it either. One thing you can be certain about - neither the politicians nor the useless twats in the media are going to admit the truth.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-1571356485885551272010-10-25T16:43:00.002+01:002010-10-25T16:54:20.737+01:00Gaza, the prison camp with a university, shopping mall, leisure parks, etc.I'm surprised that <span style="font-style: italic;">The Observer</span> printed <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/gaza-theme-park-attack-arson">this</a> article ('Gaza hardliners launch arson attack on family leisure park') after all the progressives' descriptions of Gaza as a prison camp and a humanitarian disaster in the making, etc. Presumably too much of the truth has started to leak out and they've decided to change tack. Now they acknowledge the existence of leisure parks and restaurants, but it's not Hamas who are setting fire to them or shutting them down. No, it's <span style="font-style: italic;">hardliners</span>.<br /><br />Not to forget, though, that in the end it's really the fault of the west and those pesky Jews in Israel:<br /><br /><blockquote>For some, the west, and Israel, must shoulder some of the blame. "The broader picture of isolation in Gaza – international sanctions and closure – is a recipe for extremism to flourish," said Shaqqura. "We are gradually moving to a monolithic society as interpreted by the ruling party. Their ideology flourishes in poverty and isolation. You can see the impact of this clearly."</blockquote><br />That's presumably the west that pumps billions of dollars and euros of aid into Gaza.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-86866365891423489022010-10-17T11:30:00.004+01:002010-10-17T11:38:11.812+01:00The multikulti cockup. Multiculturalism cracks.Angela Merkel has said the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11559451">multicultural experiment</a> has failed: German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has "failed, utterly failed."<br /><div class="zoomMe"><p></p><blockquote><p>Merkel, speaking October 16 at a meeting of her Christian Democratic party in the city of Potsdam, said decades of allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating into mainstream society has not worked for Germany.</p><p> "In Frankfurt on the Main, two out of three children under the age of five have an immigrant background,” Merkel said.</p><p> “We are a country which, at the beginning of the 1960s, actually brought guest workers to Germany. Now they live with us and we lied to ourselves for a while, saying that they won't stay and that they will have disappeared again one day. That's not the reality. This [multicultural] approach -- saying that we simply live side by side and are happy about each other -- this approach has failed, utterly failed."</p><p> Merkel called on immigrants living in Germany to do more to integrate, including learning quickly to speak German.</p><p> Merkel's remarks come as she faces pressure from within her party to take a tougher line on immigrants who don't show a willingness to adapt to German society.</p><p> Her comments are also the latest from a mainstream German politician warning of problems allegedly connected to immigrants.</p><p> <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Merkel_Says_German_Multiculturalism_Has_Failed/2192683.html"><em>compiled from agency reports</em></a></p></blockquote><p><em></em></p> </div>Unfortunately, this is probably just a sop to the growing number of people angry about immigration, since Merkel's government are unlikely to restrict immigration or do anything about the problems they already have. But we can hope. What with Sarkozy also deporting Roma, and the Sweden Democrats breaking through in the elections, there may be signs that the political elite of Europe are having to realise they were wrong to ignore their electorates over this issue.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-29776378277107583072010-10-16T07:53:00.002+01:002010-10-16T07:55:45.869+01:00Geert Wilders Not GuiltyInteresting to see if the BBC can bring themselves to mention this news on their main programmes:<br /><br /><h3></h3><blockquote><h3>Wilders not guilty on all counts - Update</h3> <p><span class="date">Friday 15 October 2010</span></p> <p>The public prosecution department on Friday afternoon stated that Geert Wilders is not guilty of discriminating against Muslims. Earlier on Friday it announced he should also be found not guilty of inciting hatred.</p> <p>Prosecutors Birgit van Roessel and Paul Velleman reached their conclusions after a careful reading of interviews with and articles by the anti-Islam politician and a viewing of his anti-Koran film <em>Fitna</em>.</p> <p>They said comments about banning the Koran can be discriminatory, but because Wilders wants to pursue a ban on democratic lines, there is no question of incitement to discrimination 'as laid down in law'. </p> <p>On the comparison of the Koran with <em>Mein Kampf</em>, the prosecutors said the comparison was 'crude but that did not make it punishable'. </p> <p>Dealing earlier on Friday with incitement to hatred, Van Roessel and Velleman said some comments could incite hatred against Muslims if taken out of context, but if the complete text is considered, it can be seen that Wilders is against the growing influence of Islam and not against Muslims per sé.</p> <p>On Tuesday, the prosecutors said the MP should not be found guilty of group insult.</p> <p>The public prosecution department was forced to take the case by the high court after anti-racism campaigners protested at its refusal to prosecute Wilders.</p> <p class="date">© DutchNews.nl</p></blockquote><p class="date"></p>Or, indeed, how most of the main broadcasters deal with it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-21999072947596910042010-09-14T16:22:00.002+01:002010-09-14T16:33:33.746+01:00The NUJ Can Go Fuck Themselves<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.euractiv.com/en/pa/journalists-call-internet-tax-rescue-media-news-497723">Journalists call for 'internet tax' to rescue media</a><br /><br /></span><blockquote>The main journalist trade union in Europe and the UK wants citizens to be given 'European Democracy Vouchers', funded by internet service providers, which can be used to buy newspapers and pay for online media subscriptions.<br /><p> The vouchers, which would work in the same way as restaurant vouchers currently used in several countries, would be funded through a levy on internet service providers (ISPs), according to the National Union of Journalists in the UK (NUJ).</p> <p> The idea was aired in a submission to the European Commission's consultation on creative industries, published in April (<a href="http://www.euractiv.com/en/innovation/eu-turns-spotlight-on-cultural-industries-news-491989">EurActiv 30/04/10</a>).</p></blockquote><p></p><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Faced by the fact that their industry can't adapt by itself to changing market conditions, ie the internet, journalists are now demanding the taxpayer fund them (via a levy imposed on ISPs). If the arts can receive public subsidy then so should journalists, they argue, among other things.<br /><br />Anyone familiar with the jourmalism produced by the British media will be aware that many of these goons are not worth being paid at all.<br /><br />It's such an insane, ridiculous idea that the EU will probably give it serious consideration.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-38008584549550100442010-09-10T18:56:00.002+01:002010-09-10T18:58:56.803+01:00Kelvin MacKenzie does the business.I used not to like Kelvin MacKenzie particularly but I've warmed to him after this:<div><br /></div><div><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0JPayLYV2Uo?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0JPayLYV2Uo?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-88560973248002772422010-09-10T18:43:00.002+01:002010-09-10T18:48:09.635+01:00Cameron's nudge.David Cameron has a 'behavioural insight team', tasked with the purpose of showing us how we can be made to do as we're told without beating us with a big stick (like New Labour). He got the idea of 'nudging' from a book from an American (where else?) Richard Thaler.<div><br /></div><div>David Cameron can fuck off. And his team can fuck off, too, and get themselves useful jobs cleaning toilets with toothbrushes.</div><div><br /></div><div>And Richard Thaler can fuck off as well.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-83812135889152104092010-09-10T18:40:00.002+01:002010-09-10T18:43:18.195+01:00Roma expulsion must stop NOW: EU parliament stamps its useless feet.Bad Frenchies! The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7992097/Roma-expulsions-must-stop-now-MEPs-tell-France.html">EU toy parliament</a> has demanded that France stop the 'illegal' expulsion of gypsies back to Bulgaria and Romania.<div><br /></div><div>This report is so full of delicious ironies I wouldn't know where to begin. Let's savour the sight of our Europhiliac 'colleagues' arguing among themselves.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-17663942602544854762010-09-10T18:22:00.003+01:002010-09-10T18:38:55.020+01:00Royal Mail and the (deliberately) concealed hand of the EU.Privatisation of the mail has resurfaced, as it was bound to do.<div><br /></div><div>No mention anywhere, though, of the primary cause of this, ie <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/post/legislation_en.htm">EU directives</a> requiring 'liberalisation' and 'full market opening' of postal services. Not in the BBC, anyway, though I don't suppose any of the rest of the British media will have the honesty to mention it, either.<div><br /></div><div>Strange, too, that the media dutifully follow the falling profits/too much competition line they've been given, despite the fact that for the two previous years the whole group has actually been <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/21/royal-mail-profit">making a profit</a>.<br /><div><br /></div></div></div><div>Service has noticeably declined here in Lincolnshire over the past five years. Most of what gets delivered is junk mail, different posties seem to appear every week and there is no consistency in time of delivery (except that it is always late morning at the earliest). Many items either sent to us or posted by us now take a week or more to arrive.</div><div><br /></div><div>All our politicians conspire to keep the truth from us and the media aid them, irrespective of party bias. The unions oppose the changes but also refuse to point the finger at the EU (they can't, can they? because they support the Labour Party, who are as firmly wedged up the EU's arse as the LibDems).</div><div><br /></div><div>So you can look forward to higher prices and lower standards. And you can kiss goodbye to six-day delivery as well; EU directives only require a five-day minimum service.</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-14057799352935471872010-09-08T19:01:00.005+01:002010-09-08T19:15:21.135+01:00Wallstrom - another pointless professional politician.I had the misfortune to see an interview on BBC News tonight with Margot Wallstrom, who is the UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. I shit you not. I thought the name sounded familiar - Wallstrom is one of the EU's apparatchiks, having been the (unelected) Commission's (unelected) Environment Commissioner. Among other things. Wikipedia lists <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Wallstr%C3%B6m">her outstanding career</a>.<div><br /></div><div>Wallstrom was talking tough about chasing down and bringing to justice the perpetrators of regular mass rapes taking place in the Congo - some of which seem to have happened when UN troops were a mere 20 miles away. Well, of course, 'we' won't do anything of the sort. The UN has proved increasingly useless in its peacekeeping activities over the last 20 years (witness Bosnia) and the idea that anyone will be brought to justice over these crimes in this God-forsaken part of Africa is pathetic.</div><div><br /></div><div>What makes this more disgusting is the fact that the politicos are so in love with themselves that they create these well-paid, ineffectual, self-important positions, with our money, and constantly share them among themselves. I shouldn't think a single useful thing has ever resulted from all their talks, papers, committees, investigations and communiques.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wallstrom's career is that of a model 'progressive'. These people are the bane of our lives and a danger to our freedom. How can we get rid of them?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5127194606969792857.post-36791174689529370862010-09-04T17:07:00.004+01:002010-09-04T17:31:53.822+01:00The anti-drink lobby can fuck right off.Various righteous journos are aboard the minimum pricing for alcohol bandwagon. Today Patrick Collinson signs up with the puritans in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2010/sep/04/binge-drinkers-priced-out">Guardian</a>.<div><br /></div><div>The Scottish Executive (to give the pretend 'government' its proper title) floated this idea over a year ago and had to back away from it because it would most likely break EU law on competition. Presumably that remains the same. If this is the case and it prevents minimum pricing it will be the only time the EU has done anything remotely useful.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whatever the outcome, I am vehemently against this for one very good reason: the price of booze, who drinks what and how much is no business of the state; the state can fuck off out of my life.</div><div><br /></div><div>The leftover New Labourites and their quangos and fake charities are busy complaining about binge drinking and the fate of the homeless, etc. Binge drinking is obviously not good, but the problems caused are law and order ones to be dealt with according to existing legislation. If you drink till your liver explodes then it's a heath problem. Good job you've been paying huge amounts of tax to pay for your health care, then. It's also quite possible that binge drinking (no doubt exaggerated by the media) will prove to be a passing fad and will become less of a problem. As for homeless alcoholics, I'm sorry, but until I'm one of them I don't care. Putting up the price of booze will just make them poorer and probably drive them to worse alternatives (didn't they used to drink meths because it was cheaper than decent alcohol?). Does Mr Collinson and his self-righteous colleagues really care about alcos and the homeless? I doubt it. One thing is certain: they've got no right to increase the cost to me just to sate their ersatz concern for a minority.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mr Collinson quotes Sweden as an exemplar of reducing alcohol consumption, etc. Well, this is not Sweden and I'm not Swedish. Mr Collinson can fuck off.</div><div><br /></div><div>Add to this the fact that according to official figures <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11170814">we are drinking less in the UK than before</a>, and you begin to see the impetus behind my ire. And we're paying more in duty than anyone else into the bargain.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's the incessant fucking self-righteous preachiness of this that's pissing me off. Already this week alone we've had two big media stories about alcohol.</div><div><br /></div><div>Leave me alone, you twats, and fuck off.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0