Story here, here, here, even here.

My view here. (NSFW)

I met the local UKIP Candidate on Saturday, he struck me as a bit of a Div.

Last week, I saw a cracking blockpost about the four elephants in the room that none of the Political parties are mentioning. Trouble is, I can’t find it again. Does it ring any bells with either of my readers?

It wasn’t anything to do with Discworld and the great A’Tuin. The elephants were the EU, the National Debt, the Energy Crisis & something else that will be obvious with hindsight.

EDIT- Found it- Christopher Booker in the Telegraph.

Contrast that with a trip to Forbidden Corner, for a Charity Barbecue. Forbidden Corner is a Folly near Leyburn in North Yorkshire, we have wanted to go there for a while but it is necessary to pre-book and the thought of doing it in bad weather did not appeal. Fortunately it was a balmy evening and a fun couple of hours searching through the rather peculiar attraction for stickers to put on our collection card for the prize draw. There were surprises all over the place, but the biggest one of all was in the toilets in the car park. You entered through outhouse Privys (fortunately out of order!) into luxurious surroundings. The Ladies was smart but undistinguished, whilst the Gents was decorated with an exotic mural and you were able to pick a Continent of your choice for the purposes of micturation.

Dig out that old shirt and send it to 10 Downing Street with a note of what you really think of this budget- let us know that you have done it on 1984@lpuk.org

Gordon Brown
10, Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA.

I have one that is suitable which I have featured before.

In the meantime, have you ever visited friends on a new housing estate and wondered why the streets are totally cluttered up with cars these days?

Blame John Prescott. In a nasty piece of anti-car social engineering, developers are no longer permitted to provide adequate provision for two car families. I heard all about his when I was on the Morley planning Committee where I had naively assumed it was the developers skimping to squeeze more properties into the land available. It turns out to be something called PPG13.

I’m informed that the same applies to offices as well, in or out of town.

Needless to say, a Libertarian Party Government would sweep away allauthorative  restrictions on people being able to do what they want with their own property without Government interference.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

That was set on April 4th, 1984, although George Orwell actually wtote most of it in 1944 and was originally going to call the book Nineteen-fortty-eight.

Twenty five years (and two days) later, the total panopticon ratchet tightens up several clicks. From tomorrow, for Britons, every phone call you make or receive, every email you send or receive, every web site you visit, will be logged and retained. 

We are told it isn’t the contents of your communication, (yet), the State isn’t opening every virtual envelope, just making a note of what is written on the outside. That is an awful lot of data and is very useful for fishing expeditions.

How long before anonymizing services get blocked by ISPs, on a “voluntary basis” of course?

This is all to do with The War Against Terror, being implemented on behalf of Yoorop by those T.W.A.T.ters in Parliament.

Here is one way to give the spooks the finger, courtesy of Ian PJ at the Libertarian Party.

Meanwhile, the lyrics to this song get more sinister each time I hear them.

Knowing that Morley’s new candidate had dropped in on Facebook, I posted it up there to see if he would rise to the challenge.

I’m pleased to say that he has and here is his reply.

Hi Ian,

I’ve just noticed this on Facebook. Thought I’d have a stab at answering it:

As I have said to you before, I am on the libertarian wing of the Conservative party in nearly every regard. I certainly believe that we are, as decent honest people, being persecuted by the state which has just one paranoid goal, to snoop on what we are doing. The fact we have 1 CCTV for every 16 people in this country is a damning endightment of the last 10 or so years of its proliferation. There is absolutley no security need for many of these cameras, indeed one of my local Conservative councillors in Outwood recently led, and won, a campaign to remove the cameras Outwood Grange School had installed in the pupils toilets. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour from the school, which attempted to justify this by claiming they needed to see whether antisocial behaviour was taking place there. Cllr Betty Liles, who led the campaign, was featured on BBC Radio 2 after the national media picked up on it.

I consider the surveillance state we are now part of is a mendacious attempt by the government to control our lives. By using the excuse of terrorism as a raison d’être for doing this they risk granting the real evil in our midst, Al Qaeda, a huge victory; the demolition of the fundamental freedoms that separate us from them.

Of course there are areas of libertarianism where I may differ from you and from those who advocate this philosophy in its purest form. I would never permit the consumption of drugs to be in anyway acceptable in society, despite many urging government to decriminalise and legalise it. The war on drugs is failing because the Labour government have precious little clue as to how to win it. The easy option, say many on the arch-liberal wing of politics, would be to legalise cannabis, decriminalise the harder drugs and force out the dealers. This approach has so many flaws it is not even worth contemplating. Just arguing that we should permit individuals to chose whether or not to begin taking drugs, as it suits a libertarian belief, is wrong. I would never vote to decriminalise any drug as I know the harm addiction can cause.

In practically every other test of whether or not I pass as a libertarian my credentials, I would argue, are sound. I agree with David Davis about the disgraceful nature of the government’s inept bundling through parliament of the imposition of a 42 day detention period without trial. In this age of information sharing and digital competence it is both extreme and dangerous for the country that gave the world the principle of the modern judicial system to so blatently disregard the tenets of habeas corpus so quickly. I remain opposed to 42 days and intend to vote in favour of it’s repeal. I will never support any measure which ristricts a trial by jury and thoroughly support any attempt made to roll back the political correctness and health and safety scaremongering that is also contributing to the slow erosion of our rights.

I know we will not agree on everything, Ian, but I do hope you find this explaination useful. Please feel free to diseminate any of this for the Facebook discussion.

Regards,

Antony

Please write NOW to your MP - http://www.WritetoThem.com is a single click away – telling him or her that you *refuse your consent* to the arbitrary sharing of your information under any ‘Information Sharing Order’ and that you want him or her to vote to have Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill (currently being debated in Parliament) *completely removed* from the Bill.

If you care about our fundamental rights and freedoms, the time to act is now – before we lose yet another one!

For those who don’t have time to read Clause 152, it would enable any Minister by order to be able to take any information gathered for one purpose – across the public and private sector – and use it for any other purpose.

All by itself, it is more dangerous than the entire Identity Cards Act – it literally provides the powers to build the Database State.

Please write to your MP *now* – and tell everyone you know about Clause 152, and ask them to write to their MP too.

http://www.WritetoThem.com - “I refuse to consent, stop Clause 152?

We CAN stop this. Over to you…

Well, Phil, I tried, but my Watermelon MP already seems to be on the glide path to his future career saving the planet.

Sorry! Something’s gone wrong.

Sorry, we do not currently have contact details for this representative, and are unable to send them a message. We may have had details in the past, which are currently not working (perhaps their mailbox is full) or incorrect. We’d bereally grateful if you could spend five minutes on the website of the MP, the House of Commons (or even the phone, 020 7219 3000), finding out the contact details. Then email us with the email address or fax number of your representative.

Did you used to play knocky-nine-doors as a kid? Where you rang the bell then ran away and hid giggling? It stil goes on, although these days it’s called Parcelforce…

I have a love/hate relationship with the Royal Mail. All of the people I come into contact with in Morley sorting office are great, but the system sucks big time. From a reliable predictable service, it has deteriorated to the point where the delivery can happen at any time of the day and if you aren’t in then sometimes you can’t collect it until 48 hours later. (The excuse I was given was that the Postie doesn’t finish his round until the sorting office is shut again. The other version of this is that sometimes packages are reposted in post boxes and they have to go back to Leeds again to be re-sorted).

Last time I was in, I read this notice with bemusement.  It seems that the card they leave you isn’t good enough any more, they can demand other bits of proof to prove you are who you say you are. Why the hell is this? If I’m in, they don’t demand proof when I sign for something and unless I am a perticularly stupid burglar who goes round breaking in to steal red parcel cards then I remain who I would have been if I was standing on my doorstep.

Now the reality is that they only ask for ID to people who need to sign for something and their response to me is frequently “Hello Ian, I think there is something else for you in the back” and it looks a bit silly asking me for ID when they have just greeted me by name!

I do wonder, however, if they will be told to tighten the thumb screws once the “voluntary” national ID card scheme is rolled out? After all, a small plastic card is so much more convenient than many of these scrappy bits of paper.

A call to all concerned with attacks on our fundamental rights and freedoms under pressure from counter-terrorism, financial breakdown and the database state

There will be some very strange bedfellows at this event and it says something when the Guardian and the TUC join Liberty in saying that the State is too big and intrusive.

Meanwhile, if youy want to download a free book, go over to Craig Murray’s site. Craig is a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan and there is a big story to all that description implies.

(There is Direct book link here, 3.5Meg, best to right click and save)

Lots of people don’t want you to read it because it exposes a lot of corruption and “Solicitors to the shits” Schillings have been bullying all and sundry, including Murray’s publisher. However it has now gone viral and wherever they try to pull a cease and desist it will pop up 10 places elsewhere.

I haven’t read very much of the book yet, but I was struck by the frontispiece which has a verse of lyrics from Supertramp’s Logical Song:

Now watch what you say! they’ll be calling you a radical,
Liberal, fanatical, a criminal.
Won’t you sign up your name? we’d like to feel you’re
Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable

Very pertinent.
As the song finishes:-

B-b-b-bloody marvellous!

(Stories like this don’t help…)

Well, let me tell you another unintended consequence of righteous rule making.

12,000 lives turned upside down through Government Agency incompetence

25% of the adult population to go through these checks, & more intrusive ones

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has been created to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults.

We will do this by working in partnership with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), which will gather relevant information on every person who wants to work or volunteer with vulnerable people.

Good old Samizdata put it succincty

And people wonder why there is sometimes a shortage of volunteers for things like youth clubs and the like. The destruction of civil society, of the bonds of trust that are vital to such an organic, grass-roots cluster of non-state institutions, is remorseless and deliberate. This government, in its totalitarian way – I use that word quite deliberately – wants to make all human interactions subject to its tests. The consequences for the long term health of civil society, and of the ability of people to grow up normally, are ignored.

Well, I’ve had enough. I’ve had three CRB checks for volunteering with children but there won’t be a fourth. The school where I used to be a parent governor was happy with list 99 checks in my time but now want an enhanced disclosure. If I’d still been there I would have resigned on principle as it is entirely disproportionate to the risk and the system is seriously flawed anyway (as well as being yet another way of raising money, just ask Thunderdragon).

So, I’m quietly going to drop out of the reading scheme when it is up for CRB renewal. The community radio will also get forced down the registration route and the decision is to either only accept adults or to struggle to find people willing to go through the grief. It won’t be my decision though.

Do tou know a third unintended consequence?  Fine buildings not currently in use are being demolished because it isn’t viable to let them stand empty now that the business rate relief has been abolished. Perhaps that is why the Morley Pavilion is back on the market. Yours for £2k a week or so (plus £400 rates) if you don’t have a Million or two to spare to just buy it.

(You can’t knock it down I’m afraid, it is in a conservation area).

It is the best blogpost that I have read this year and worthy of much, much wider reading.)

First, a parable. Apply it to whatever you like.

There was once an unfenced hill where a flock of sheep lived.

One rainy day, a man came to talk to them. “It’s cold and wet here. How can you stand it?” he asked.

“It’s not so bad,” said the sheep. ” We get up when we like, there’s plenty to eat, and life is pretty good most of the time. It’s raining now but we can just go under the trees if it gets too much. It will stop eventually. We have our freedom, and to us that’s the most important thing.”

“It looks awful,” the man said. “And how do you know it will stop raining? It might go on for weeks. Your land might become swampy and all your grass might be washed away. Tell you what, there is a big building over there. It’s warm and dry inside. I will make it let you in. It’s only fair. You deserve better than this.”

“Is there grass to eat?” the sheep asked.

“No, but I will make the building provide hay. I will make it provide a place to sleep and food to eat and you need do nothing to earn it. You’ll be warm and dry and still you’ll be free. Really, it’s best to take my offer just in case, don’t you think? Surely you can see it’s for your benefit?”

Some of the sheep were suspicious. “What do you get out of it?”

“Me? Nothing.” The man smiled. “And once in a while, I’ll invite the most special of you to come and live in a special flock where life will be more wonderful than you have ever known. Of course, you won’t all be able to join that flock at once but I promise, every one of you will pass through the Golden Doorway eventually.”

The sheep considered. A few distrusted the man and refused to go with him, but most accepted his kind offer. They laughed and scoffed at those who chose to stay in the rain while they filed obediently into the man’s dry, warm abbatoir.

_________

And now, a rant.

Does anyone remember the ‘stiff upper lip’ of the British? The fighting spirit? The indomitable people who once ran a big chunk of the planet, and who could chase away armed guerillas with a walking stick and an angry voice? A people who, nevertheless, could laugh at themselves and had a great, if sometimes cruel, sense of humour? What happened to them?

Those people would never have set off a security scare because a schoolboy dressed up as the Joker and waved a plastic gun around. Those people would never have arrested a man in fancy dress because he had a plastic knife as part of his outfit. Those people would not have shrieked ‘Terrorist!’ at the sight of a plastic halloween skeleton. The first might have earned a caning, but not expulsion. The second and third should not even have raised an eyebrow. Neither should Old Holborn’s walk.

The people who replaced those real British are spineless weaklings who jump at shadows. Who call the police if they are slightly offended by a word or two. Worse, the police respond not by saying ‘It’s nothing, don’t worry about it’, but by harassing and usually arresting anyone complained about, no matter how trivial and all too often, no matter whether an offence has been committed or not.

These new people are quaking, trembling jellys. They are frightened by mere words, and terrified by a raised hand. They take offence at anything they’re told to take offence at. Those who consider themselves strong are those who have not yet experienced adversity because when they do, they run to the government for help. They cannot help themselves. They will not try.

Oh, there are a few real people left, for sure, but they are only a few. Most are now soft, weak loathsome creatures who stare at the unreality of reality TV from their well-pressed sofas and aim their rage wherever the Righteous tell them. The two minute hate. One day smokers, next day drinkers, next day hoodies, next the obese, next Eurasia… or is it Eastasia? Doesn’t matter. We are at war with the terrorists. We have always been at war with the terrorists.

These people who once called themselves the Great of Great Britain (can we still use that name for this country, or is it not considered sufficiently self-humiliating now?) are useful only for rendering into animal feed. They accept every word they are fed and have no problem at all with the doublethink required to accept it all. Coal-fired power stations will kill us all through global warming. We must build huge windmills everywhere to save the environment and we must not install new power lines underground because that would harm the environment. Snow in October? That’s caused by global warming.

They obsess about their carbon footprint while having no idea what carbon is, they accept that the same number of alcohol units apply to each and every person, that if they allow a ninety-year-old smoker within a hundred yards of them in the open air, they will die the next day from lung cancer. They accept that one ageing rock perv who everyone recognises because his face has been all over the news will sneak up unnoticed and steal their children, and they accept that social services can take children from parents for any reason they feel like making up.

They accept that everything that happens to them is someone else’s fault and that they are entitled to compensation for it, and they accept that events on the other side of the planet are all the fault of the British.

Doublethink. All of it. And those minds, once the envy of the world, are now so numb and feeble that they cannot see any contradiction in the information drifting into them. None of it is sorted, categorised, analysed or considered. Every last bit of nonsense is accepted as if God himself delivered it to them.

Today I heard that Sainsbury’s is offering education, including basic literacy and maths education to its staff. Good God, what is going on when the supermarkets have to do the job our schools once did? Basic literacy and maths. Hardly a part-time degree, is it? They have set a target of 25% of staff having a qualification within five years. While I think what Sainsbury’s is doing here is commendable, the fact remains that they should not have to. We used to have schools. Now we have indoctrination centres and that is just accepted by those sofa-bound parents. They will see no contradiction in wasting years at school only to start earning basic GCSE’s after a spell of trolley-pushing.

When did this happen? When was the spirit sucked out of the people of this country? It was no overnight thing. It started small and spread like fungus throughout the land. It began with the best intentions, as these things always do. It began when those who had no jobs were entitled to a small government payment to keep them going until they found work. That, in itself, was not the problem. Work was always the better option and the dole was an embarassing place to be. Oh, yes, there were a few who were happy with that dole cheque and happy to sit back and do nothing but for most, it wasn’t enough.

Then came free housing, free gas and electricity, a host of freebies and a wide range of tax-funded benefits until unemployment was more profitable than most of the lower-paid jobs. The idea that those lower-paid jobs were just a start, that they could lead into better-paid jobs, seems to have been lost. The people settled back to claim, spend, and claim some more. Their bodies fell into disuse, their brains atrophied by the drivel pouring from the little box in the corner. That box now occupies half the wall in some living rooms, in accordance with its status in those people’s lives. In many houses, most rooms have them. You can even buy pocket ones. The mind-numbing output is everywhere.

Now they are confused by contradictions their conditioning insists they accept without question. Why question, when some vestige of their minds already knows there is no answer? Just accept it and have another beer. Drown the confusion with a chaser of something fluorescent. Bodies flaccid, minds baffled, they accept that they are obese because they eat the wrong kind of food, not because they eat too much and do too little. It’s not their fault, you see? If only they had more benefits, they could afford fruit to eat while they watch three hundred channels on their 60-inch flatscreen with surround sound. The contradiction is whisked away by doublethink.

There are a few real people left. Some who are fit and healthy, some with intelligence, some to whom these contradictions are obvious. A few who would, if they could, wake up the zombies the British have become and urge them once more to innovate, to fend for themselves, to reach for those stars they once looked up to see.

To dismiss insulting words not as ‘offensive’ but as ‘the ramblings of a fool’. To stand up for those rights they once had instead of allowing them to be taken away one by one. To think their own thoughts once more. To see those contradictions for what they are, and to analyse and deny them. To take back their lives.

Can they be woken? I am sure some can. I am sure some of the British can be revived. If I thought there was no hope at all I would not be writing this.

For many, it’s far too late. For many, there can be no escape from that sleep they believe to be real life. They will spend their time displaying Pavlovian offence at anything that is pointed out to them. They will bleat ‘Baaan’ on command. They will enjoy the daily two minute hate, and agree like those sheep that while they can no longer do the things they used to enjoy, the slaughterhouse is at least warmer than the field. Those are the British now. Those are the ‘vast majority’ the Righteous love to quote at dissenters.

It can be dangerous to wake sleepwalkers, and we know that the shepherds will try to prevent it, but if we do nothing then that abbatoir will expand up our hillside until it is covered. In the end, the choice is simple. Take the risk or join them in the warmth of oblivion.

The rain does stop. They just need to be reminded of that.

(Original post & comments here)

She looks as though she has done a bit of a double-take in this photo and I reckon that she has been snapped in a moment of cognitive dissonance, where her brain hemispheres have just reconciled themselves to holding conflicting opinions. George Orwell called the concept Doublethink.

A couple of days ago, Hazel blears made a speech to the Hansard Society conference on political disengagement.  
There were two headline points she made. The first one was about political blogs:

There are some informative and entertaining political blogs, including those written by elected councillors. But mostly, political blogs are written by people with a disdain for the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy.

Unless and until political blogging adds value to our political culture, by allowing new and disparate voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.

But, she also said…

Politicians must not live on ‘Planet Politics’ and behave in ways which are alien and strange to the electorate.

This happens partly because there is a trend towards politics being seen as a career move rather than call to public service. Increasingly we have seen a ‘transmission belt’ from university activist, MPs’ researcher, think-tank staffer, Special Adviser, to Member of Parliament, and ultimately to the front bench.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but it is deeply unhealthy for our political class to be drawn from narrowing social base and range of experience.

Yup. Hazel, pet, cannot you grasp the causal relationship between the latter and the former?

Matt Wardman has found the text of the speech and it is actually OK, except the bits where she blames bloggers and the Press for them being basically, statist authoritarian useful idiots to the EU.

Lots of excellent blogposts on this, here are a choice few across the political spectrum- Ellie Seymour, Bob Piper,  the Guardianistas at CiF, Lib-Dem voice, Alex Mortimer, The Thunderdragon and Underdog.

I’ve left a comment on her own blog:

“Dear Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, would you like to put up a posting up on how bloggers are not “adding value” so that we can add some value?

Regards,

Shades”

It is awaiting moderation and I noticed that as I’d typed it in a hurry, there is a redundant up, but I’m not holding my breath that it’ll get past the censors. (“They don’t like it up ‘em”, as Corporal Jones used to say).

Meanwhile, if you want to hear how a blogger blagged his way into the conference and well, shall we say, disagreed with her robustly whilst dressed as Guido Fawkes. check out b’staard old holborn.

Now I’m not certain that I’ve actually added any value here because much of what I have said has been made already elsewhere (and probably without the author being distracted by a pressing charity accounts deadline) but, as Ed Balls says, So what? It’s my blog and no business of the Government, particularly not this one.

You know these BBC feelgood stories about 9 out of 10 people being happy, people wanting to sign up for the ID card as soon as possible and the Glenrothes by-election result being a strong mandate for the leadership of Gordon Brown? They must live somewhere else because I haven’t met any. Most people are happy, but not with our politicians.

When we compare how things are with how they used to be, it becomes apparent that our law enforcement has slowly and perniciously changed in many ways from a common law system to a Napoleonic one, i.e. you now need permission for stuff rather than being able to do anything that isn’t forbidden.

I think that the human condition is frequently denial- we hear about rules, think they are ridiculous then forget all about it until they bite us in the bum at a later date. One such example is the burning of bonfires. Notice the tone of this piece from the Wednesday Obtiser.

Identifying quantities of debris and stockpiles of wood for unauthorised bonfires?

Unauthorised bonfires will be removed?

A bit of a definition here. It applies to Council land it would seem, so private land should be OK, except that you are strongly encouraged to register them and the next slice of the salami will be obligation, then vetting,then local authority approved events with a vague Guy Fawkes theme, then nothing other than the sanitised approved list of equality and diversity sparkler free simulated fire events. (I know one or two display firers who are concerned with the increasingly crippling compliance they have to abide by which as usual favours the big Company over the small one).

It seems that this seek and destroy mission creep does go on, as James Higham reported, in his Bonfire live blogging.

Of course, fireworks and bonfires can be very dangerous if handled irresponsibly, but people enjoying themselves independently out of nanny’s control offends the righteous.

(It seems that the Government is no longer collating and publishing fireworks accident data, I’m not entirely sure why, although the trend in recent years has been downwards (pdf)).

Think of the chiiiildrennnnn… 

See Spyblog, the BJP  and The Register. (Don’t miss the El Reg article comments).

Meanwhile, the Plod demonstrate why they are in need on guidance. Schoolboy terrorists in Cheam, Middlesborough Jobsworths, snapping Letitia, Curly in Shields and harrassing the press.

Today is Halloween and the inevitable Trick or Treaters. Children, enjoy it while you can, because by next year, you may only be allowed to knock on doors that have a large Tick sticker on the door, showing that the householders have been approved by the Criminal Records Board for young persons interaction. Also, on no account take photographs of the people who come whether tricking or treating.

The way things are going in Britain, soon the only place you will be able to take photos without getting treated with suspicion is in Second Life.

Speaking of which, here is a delightful photo of the Wicked Witch of the Great White North. Apparently Halloween is big over there. 

Shouldn’t you have a crooked pointy nose & warts? You look cuter than Mrs. Shrek here!