George Galloway humiliates labour

In a bit of a turnaround the ex-labour MP and aspirant cult leader that is George Galloway has won the Bradford West by election.

Considering how unpopular the current government is, and how much the labour opinion poll lead it is an upset. Worse than that Galloway started out at 33/1 so the labour vote collapsed.

The other parties, except UKIP, cannot gloat as all their votes collapsed, it's just not as disastrously as labour's.

Galloway is a horrible, vain, and utterly ineffectual man who brings nothing but empty rhetoric and wind. This is a man who greedily worked for the Iranian government broadcaster and setup his own party when his idiotic comments became too much even for labour.

The worst of it is is that his win marks the worst balkanisation of the electorate. He set out to appeal to one narrow slice of the electorate rather than all the people. His sucking up to the more radical elements is utterly divisive and damaging.

He feeds into the ridiculous idea that we are at war with Islam and gives succour to those who use the idea to promote violent acts. This isn't good for anyone.

We may be lucky that he is so ineffectual that all his bluster and speechifying are just vacuous wind but he isn't good for our body politic.

People think that this farcical man adds colour and fun, but he is a man who accepted fortunes from a anti-woman, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay government and humiliated thus country by sucking up to Saddam Hussian in the most nauseating manner.

That's not funny.

The people of Bradford West, all the people, deserve better than Galloway.

SPC Dennis Weichel: a true hero

The world seems grim sometimes and the murders of innocent Afghani children by and American soldier makes one think the worst of the US military and humanity in general.

However there are true heroes out there, including American troops serving in Afghanistan.

The Rhode Island National Guardsman SPC Dennis Weichel is a hero. He is an example of the best we aspire to. Dennis sacrificed his own life saving the live of an Afghani child. He gave his own life to save that of a little girl.

I can conceive of no greater heroism.

For all the criticism the US military receives, some justified, others not, there are good people in the US military.

To give your life to save others is incredible.

Dennis is a true hero and my deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.

Emily Benn: Another Benn hypocrite

I've written here before about the frightfully posh rich kid Emily Benn, she of the inherited wealth and no discernible talent. She was terribly upset when us unwashed refused to make her a labour MP as she thought it was her right to rule over us. Now how could any kid aged twenty be thought to have the life experience and history needed to be an MP is beyond me.

For a posh kid cushioned by vast inherited wealth and no discernible talent, charisma, or abilities to even be put forward by the labour party is an insult to the working people of this country. Luckily they are not so idiotic to vote for the airhead and she was denied he seat due to her by the hereditary principle.

Strange how so many on the left are dead set against hereditary power, wealth, or access....except when it applies to to them and theirs.

Any road up the raving socialist so against fat cat bankers and the wealthy has shown her real colours: she's secured a very lucrative position (surely not using her family's connections and power to deprive a real working class person with a chance to better themselves...) at the equity department for the uber rich, and elite bank UBS.

And so spin gives way to greed. All they vacuous talk about working tirelessly for the vulnerable and the working person gives way to using her family to make as much money as possible.

Pathetic really, but them again all the Benn's are hypocrite multimillionaires playing politics whilst enjoying vast wealth and luxury.

How can the supposed party of the working people be so controlled by posh people who haven't worked a day in their lives? I have never been able to understand that, or American football.

Why do the left say evil but not see it?

It is a true cliché that left leaning types are eager to call others evil. The recent example of changes in tax rates and NHS reforms are an example. Labour supporters don't just say they disagree with the policy (though after all the froth about the wrongness of cutting the 50% tax rate labour abstained in voting against the move, except 2 labour MPs, I think this shows you what labour really think), they call those who disagree with them evil.

This is par for the course. The left have always been keen to demonise others. The brilliant quote about for evil to succeed good men do nothing is wheeled out to support their bile.

It always depresses me as it cheapens real evil and crimes the quote is aimed at, genocide, pogroms, and torture are evil, fiddling with the tax rate, even if you disagree with it, isn't.

However what really gets me is that labour supporters are calling the coalition government evil when the labour party they support are responsible for over 600,000 innocent people Iraqis in an illegal war. Labour have been complicit in US torture, labour hounded a great man to his death.

How can their supporters remain silent on this real wickedness? How can they be so blind to real crimes of their own party when going over the top in attacking anyone who criticises the crimes?

It is like Germany in '46 if the Nazi party had remained in tact and Germany was not de-Nazified.

Over the top? Yes. But real crimes and real deaths are at labour's feet and yet their supports remain silent.

Why is it only the left who do this? I find it very odd.

Murdoch settling scores

Rupert Murdoch is cock-a-hoop with the revaluations in his Sunday Times that the now ex-Tory party treasurer seems to have been promising access for cash.
Oh how Rupe is loving it demanding inquiries and heads on spikes.
It's all about Rupe getting his an back on Cameron launching an inquiry and prosecutions into him or his minions.
Karma is a biatch in Murdoch's world.
Now it needs to be made clear that investigating political crime, corruption, incompetence, stupidity, or misdeeds are what the free press should be doing. Shamefully too often the supine press let iffy politicians off because of fear, common beliefs, or favours.
That demeans the press.
If I were PM, and surely it is only a matter of time before I am, I would see Murdoch's gloating as a declaration of war. I would widen the criminal inquiry into his empire, remove his broadcast licence because of his companies criminal acts, and issue an international arrest warrant for Murdoch and freeze all his assets until he complies.
But that's me. I'm mean.
All political sleaze and worse needs to be stamped out but for Murdoch to gloat when so many criminal acts are at his feet is wrong.
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Labour cheek regarding cash for access

The now ex-Tory treasurerPeter Cruddas had to resign for what looks like offering access to David Cameron to £250,000 if it's donated to the Tory party.

It was right that he went. It's probably legal but it simply looks bad.

However what gets me is the arrant cheek of labour to criticise the whole Tory party for the perceived cash for access.

Labour sold peerages for cash.

Labour have had MPs crisitsed for selling access to the labour government.

Labour has a club that grants people access to senior people, ministers when they were in power, for money.

Labour is actually structured to allow their financial backers a say in governemnt and party policy. Labour allows unions an undemocratic say in law creation. They allow those who pay them to it there wishes before ours. That cannot be right.

I am not saying that Cruddas' was right in his actions, it looks sleazy if it is not illegal. It's just labour sleaze and outright corruption is infinitely worse than Cruddas' actions.

The rank hypocrisy of labour and so many leftwing types really sticks in my craw. They see the wrong in anyone else but are blind to their own misdemeanours and crimes.

Why do rich thespians decry tax cuts for you and demand them for themselves?

The Twittershpere is full of lefty actors, comedians, and the like decrying the supposed tax cuts set out in the last budget. Apparently it is supposed to be a disgrace to allow ordinary people keep more of their money. Wearing their socialist beliefs as a totem they are angrily against it claiming it will cost lives.

Now you can believe them or not, it's all about opinion and a really crap budget.

However the same actor and comedian types have been vocally demanding tax cuts and more government aid for film, theatre, and tv production. They've been successful in this. So ordinary people pay more tax. The companies who employ most people pay more tax and get the help they receive cut, and yet the same media types who want more tax for others get a tax cut.

And still they whine.

As it happens I like British film, though most of it is middle-class crap which is akin to ghetto tourism. Rich people revelling in the squaller of the lower classes is unappealing. Most British films are never released even at the cost of millions in grants. There are some real crap films made by these people, and they still get paid. However is it right that tax breaks and massive grants are given to actor types when most of what they do makes a loss. How is it right that the taxpayer pays a theatre actor the minimum of £2,000 a week for them to appear in a play no one wants to watch?

Surely tax breaks and such lucrative largesse would be better served in helping real firms who make real money and who will exist for longer than one film or play. It is proper business who employ most if us and it is they who contribute tax.

It sticks in my craw somewhat for rich media and acting types to call for more taxes on us and less tax and more grants in them.

For all the self-proclaimed socialism for many it seems they are all after screwing the most money out of us to enrich their own pockets.

It is strange to see that the vast majority of those calling for more money to be funnelled to themselves are the very same people who could not make a living outside the bosom of the BBC and subsidised British film or theatre.

And still they make their fortunes out of the working man and women they demand lay more tax to pay for it.

Strange that.

How is Richard Madeley having lunch news?

I've never been a fan of the tv presenter Richard Madeley. There is no real reason for this as I've never really seen his work, except on Have I Got News For You. We all have these petty long grade prejudices.

However I have to say I'm bemused by the low rent pap 'story' in today's Daily Mail about him.

We will leave aside the use of paparazzi photographs which the DM promised not to used after they helped hound Princess Diana to her death.

We will deal with how it's an utter non-news story.

The whole thing is that Madeley had lunch with his daughter in a restaurant. He had a glass and a half of what looks like wine and then drove home. And that's it.

We don't know if it was alcoholic wine but even if it is, and even if the effects of the alcohol were not diminished due to being drunk with a meal, it is totally legal to drink such a small amount and drive.

Madeley has not broke the law, unlike the way the DM seems to insinuate.

It's a total non-story.

Now I don't know if the DM are just doing another hatchet job on a journalist who writes for another paper, as they do repeatedly on Jeremy Clarkson who dares write for someone else, or they are just desperate now they are denied stories derived from illegal hacks.

Whatever the reason it's pathetic.

As it happens I never drink and drive. I don't meant drink to an illegal extent and drive, I mean I don't drink any alcohol and drive. However that's just me. I've nothing against people under the legal limit driving.

The worst thing about this story is how creepy it is. Come on stalking a man having lunch with his daughter to publish a hatchet job when he hasn't done anything wrong is really seedy and well creepy.

Is this the best our press can do? If it is god help us.

There is no cause worth murdering a child

As I write this the events in Toulouse, France, is unfolding. Two French Muslim brothers have been implicated in the horrendous murders of Muslim French soldiers, a Jewish teacher, and three very young Jewish children. One bother has been arrested, the other is besieged by armed police after injuring two of their colleagues.

How can a Frenchman escape arrest in France after escaping from prison in Afghanistan for being a terrorist bomb-maker? I would have hoped the French government would have at least looked to see if he was in France.

However the thing that really gets me is how anyone could set out to target children. The shooter in this case held a little girl a executed her be shooting her in the head.

What type of monster can do that?

Like the US solider who murdered innocent Afghani children it is the work of utter wickedness.

The French racist murderers do not even have the excuse of brain damage and psychological trauma. Their murders were a cold blooded, deliberate act to further a religious and politcal aim.

It is an obscenity. One which all Muslims should condemn explicitly and without trying to link it to Palestine, or the child murders committed by a deranged American. For too long Muslims interviewed in the media prevaricate and refuse to simply condemn attrocities. It is an insult to the majority of the Muslim community, the victims, and actually increases anti-Muslim feeling.

I, and most sane people, condemn any attorcity conducted by people from our country, political belief system, or religion. And that is only right. An atrocity is an atrocity no matter who does it. There is no excuse nor protection for those who commit them.

Those Muslim leaders interviewed about this French racist murder of innocent children need to be just as clear in their disgust and horror of the act and condemn the action and the perpetrators. No confused words of linkage to other event.

No cause excuses or justifies the murder of children.

It really is that clear.

Alex Jones is wrong on the NHS

I just heard the American radio host and would-be personality cult leader that is Alex Jones tell his listeners how changes to the US medical system is all a plot....not sure what for but I am constantly amazed by the plethora of plots Jones has 'bravery' uncovered for his gullible, and paying public.

 

Any road up as part of the Jones rant he warned his followers that it would create the evil that is the British NHS in America. This would lead to death panels, ill people being killed do to lack of drugs, rationing, and you have will have to go to the government to beg to be allowed to get private medical care. Apparently this is what we have in the UK, which is news to all British bods.

 

All very good fire and brimstone stuff, it's just a pity it isn't true.

 

Far from being consigned to a early, painful, death British people, with some local differences, live longer than Americans so the NHS cannot be doing that poorly.

 

All medical systems in every country has limits and rationing. No health system, public or private, could afford unlimited resources. Even if you have the greatest medical insurance in the world there is a time when the insurance company will refuse to pay for your treatment. It's simple economics. Companies, or countries cannot bankrupt themselves to save one, or even many lives, however precious those lives are. It is a tragic and universal truth that is childish to deny.

 

In the nineties the Japanese built a machine to treat a very specific, life threatening, ailment. It was an amazing machine. A true wonder. One machine was the size of a office block.

 

One machine.

 

This was the best machine in the world. It still is as no one else has built one. Now this marvel may be amazing. It may save lives when no one else could but it still remains unique. The reason being that this one machine cost around $1 billion.

 

No one else can afford it. Rationing limits what is available. Decisions have been made that the economics of providing treatment Outweighs the saving of lives. Its sad but it is true. It's wrong to suggest otherwise.

 

This effects the US just as much as the UK.

 

More than this Jones is wrong when he says you need government permission to get private medical care. You don't. I've been to exactly two private doctors, both paid for by the government strangely enough, and at the government's insistence. I didn't need permission to do so.

Nor would I, or anyone else who wanted to see a private medical person. My local NHS doctors also have private patients. Years back I hurt my back a little, luckily not enough to burden the busy NHS, that was fixed by priviate medical people, including a retrained medical doctor. My dentist, like most people's is private.

 

Neither I or anyone need permission from the state or a license to go private. It's a free country.

 

The way in which Jones keeps pushing a line, and spinning a story to make himself look good, regardless of the actual truth is worrying when one considers he's talking to some very paranoid people who have killed themselves becuase of the falsehoods he espouses.

 

The brilliant writer Jon Ronson has written about Jones and what he does. It's a very good book I suggest you read to see how Jones may be likeable in person but twists facts.

 

One would have hoped after the deaths of so many listeners to his show Jones would be more careful in whipping up fear in people, especially as gun ownership, fear of the state, and preparing for social collapse and fighting the state forms a key part to his audience and promoted by his show.

It's sad Jones is so stupid.

Ivory Towers

My late father had to spend months in hospital during the last three years. It was hard but he exhibited bravery, charm, humour, and humanity that astounded everyone he met. I don't think I could have come through it so amazingly.

He was a nice man.

Every day for these months I visited him every visiting time. There is nothing worse than having no visitors, or having no one to make sure you're ok, bring cool drinks, and the occasional treat. During these long days I'd go to the hospital restaurant for the hours between visits as it was too much hassle to do anything else.

The restaurant was on the third floor and has a curved wall of windows. I used to get a rubbish coffee, a bottled drink, and a bag of crisps and sit facing the window reading or doing work. It always strikes me as ironic that hospital restaurant food is so unhealthy, but there you go.

So for hours a day, seven days a week, week in week out, for months I sit and work, sit and look out the window.

The view was amazing. The hospital is on a ridge with two of the most iconic, stunningly incredible buildings in the world in the valley two miles or so distant. My father was an expert in one of the past residents of the millennia old building and the land where the hospital is situated so it seemed right somehow.

Old buildings, trees, greenery, and sky ravished the eye. All the godawful buildings hidden by trees and luck.

Time after time my eye was drawn to the other side of the valley about twenty miles away. Houses, farms, and trees abound.

And when light was right a ivory tower captured my eye. Too far to see details but a white tower for all to see. In one view two iconic buildings and a white tower.

Breathtaking.

Unless the light was right you could see nothing, but when it hit the tower shone like a beacon.

Before my father got really ill I'd been studying mystic texts about the afterworld as past of my academic research. For some reason the white tower keeps reminding me of the mystic writings of the kingdom of heaven with the white citadel housing God and the blessed surrounding him.

When I read the words it didn't move me but during the hours waiting its strange what comes to you. Once the image is lodged its hard to shake. Not that I'm a believer but it's a striking image when faced with a white tower.

My father actually knew the area around the white tower well and had for many years done voluntary for a club situated in the shadow of the tower, and for many others worldwide. In one glorious panorama my father's life, work, interests, and passion was represented.

I sometimes visit the hospital and when I sit by the plate glass window my eye to still drawn to the ivory tower.

It's a nice, seductive image.

I happened to drive past the 'tower' on Sunday and took a photograph.

It's still an amazing structure.

Can you guess what my ivory tower is?

It's a cement works!

 

On Mike Savage

The American talk radio host Mike Savage is a person I've never really heard. He's controversial I know that as he was denied a visa to the UK by the current government. This was a pathetic decision thrown out to placate the extremist Islamic community when some of their leaders were denied entry. You may not like Savage's views but he's never killed anyone, called for the murder of homosexuals or women unlike some of the extreme terrorists who are allowed free entry to the UK.

Anyway I heard about four minutes of his programme and was surprised that the whole thing was about how it was the Russians who won WWII and how over 400,000 of thier troops died taking Berlin.

You don't expect any American, much less a conservative one, to admit that it was the might and blood of the Russians who won the war. OK it's not totally accurate as without the UK and Commonwealth forces fighting until Russia entered the war Russia may not have won, but once they entered and had Allied support they made victory assured, though bloody in the extreme.

You don't find many American voices to praise communist Russia.

The Afghan massacre

The murder of murder of sixteen Afghani civilians, including children is an obscenity. The alleged perpetrator the US soldier Staff Sgt. Robert Bales has been returned to the US to face trial.

If he is brought to trial that is.

Now the US military doesn't have a good record of bringing those who massacre foreign nationals in war. If you need proof of this scandalous fact one only needs to think of My Lai to see this. Even recently an American serviceman was let off with a pathetic sentence for murdering civilains for fun.

This is a scandal.

However my question is this: should Bales be prosecuted if he is judged mentally incapable due to his injuries,experiences, and mental health? Politically he should be, and the families of the innocent victims deserve justice. Should these wider imperatives override concerns about the Bales' competency to stand trial?

I do not know if Bales is competent to face trial for the attorcity he committed. If he is than justice needs to be done and be seen to be done. If he is sane he needs to be dealt with to the full extent of the law.

But if he isn't competent.....

If he isn't responable for his actions there is a danger that he'll be thrown to the wolves to placate the wider poltical and military need.

I don't know what will happen. The fact that the US has an scandalous history of letting US military murders go unpunished is going to cause severe criticism if Bales is not deemed responsable for his actions.

The strange this is that a lot of the criticism is going to be from the left who are usually the first to excuse the actions of criminals by excusing the crime as being due to social pressure, psychological damage, or even better brain damage.

The massacre of innocents is an utter obscenity and the fact that the Taliban kill more innocents doesn't excuse the atrocity or reduce the pain and scale of the crime. The problem is what do you do if the perpetrator is insane, or brain damaged.

My sympathies go to the bereaved. The may far away in geography and culture but the pain and anger they must feel unites us all. I truly hope justice us done to all.

Undemocratic labour

Something's I simply don't understand: processed cheese for one. It isn't cheese!

A greater mystery is labour's cavalier attitude to actual democracy. You see this with the way one person one vote goes out the window with the union block vote comes to play. It's simply wrong that a bunch of union bosses can wield the power of millions of votes and negate the wishes of real people.

It's not right.

And today with the lefties and labour whipping up their peers to go against the House of Commons' decision to change the way the NHS is run.

Labour are all for lords and ladies stopping MPs doing what the have decided. As long as they support the labour cause that is, if they don't they should be guillotined.

How can labour support UNELECTED peers, who under labour tend to be stooges, placemen, and those who bought their titles and power, if the scupper the decision of ELECTED political representatives?

It's hypocritical.

As it happens I am a supporter of the House of Lords. I feel that the randomness of hereditary peers gave rise to some great parliamentarians with a strong sense of public duty. I also like the idea of real experts being given a role in making our country better.

But I'm not a party who keeps spinning that the HoL is the last bastion of feudal power and a disgrace.

Not such a disgrace that they'd scrapped it, or refuse a their own lucrative title and unelected power, but there you go.

This isn't about NHS reform rather about hypocrisy. You cannot call something Undemocratic and then use it to overturn the will of democratically elected politicians.

It makes you look like a bunch of shifty liars only interested in spin.



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Why do stars always call for others to die in their causes?

The situation in Syria is tragic. The way the dictatorship kills and abuses people is obscene.

However I am struck by the plethora of celebrity Tweets today demanding that we do something.

The same old lefty celebs jumping in a new bandwagon and demanding we do something. But they never say what.

Should we assassinate Assad, say rude things about him, ban trade, arm the rebels, invade....what. To spend a fraction of a second pressing the retweet button is not being politically engaged or being a freedom fighter. To criticise others for not doing the right thing whilst having no solutions is vacuous.

The only thing they are calling for is for more people to die. But it's never them. They call for assassinations, or British troops to fight and die in their cause but thy never place themselves in harms way or take the blame if it goes wrong, or the guilt if it works.

If these stars were really serious to the Syrian people they would take up arms and fight for them. This is what happened in the Spanish Civil War. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the situation you cannot say the foreign fighters were not committed to their cause.

Until the stars show equal commitment I'll not take them seriously.

How can the bribes of the papers only have criminals on one side?

As anyone who reads this blog knows I want to see all the media types who have broken the law prosecuted. I don't care who they are, how powerful, rich, or connected if they are criminals they deserve punishment. I also have been consistent in my calls that all the guilty should be punished and that such guilty people are not confined to News International, or indeed the tabloids. It's not even limited to the print media as the BBC employed the same disgraced private eye the News of the World did.

If they're guilty punish them without favouritism.

I am a tad bemused by the fact that unique in the annals of crime the crimes of the press are totally one sided. The journalists can be arrested for bribing the police, and rightly so, but not one police officer has been arrested.

How is it possible that one party to a bribe can be arrested but the recipient of the bribe goes free with reputation untarnished?

The criminal act of bribery requires two parties. The briber and the bribed. If there were no corrupt police officers than there would be no bribes.

Now I'm not expressing sympathy for the bribing press, I'm not, they deserve prison. I am calling for those police officers, civil servants, and politicians who accepted bribes to be imprisoned with them.

For too long corruption and doing favours for 'friends' has been seen as a nice little earner and a perk of the job rather than for what it is: criminal corruption.

All those guilty, on both sides of the equation, deserve jail and not just the demonised press.

Ed Miliband's lie

The labour leader Ed Miliband isn't just a liar, he is stupid.

One of the issues he and his party have been making hay with is the reform of the NHS. It is a big part of their bid for reelection. Now it so happens that there was a big anti-reform event that Ed promised to attend. However he cried off going day he was at death's door, or at least to ill to appear in public.

All very sad, but we are all only human and trivial illness can scupper our best intentions.

But it was a lie.

He wasn't ill. He was going to a football match being driven there in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce.

Now lying isn't an attractive trait however it is more than this. It shows the labour bluster about how only they can save the NHS and that it is the most important thing to labour is a lie. If it wasn't vacuous spin designed to dupe the gullible the so-called leader of the campaign wouldn't prefer to swan around in posh luxury at someone else's expense than attend an event to 'save' the NHS.

But it takes great skill to compound the mistake by being seen being driven around in such luxury.

It's hardly fits the image of the leader of the party of the working-class. It just shows Ed to be what he is: a very posh multimillionaire eager to indulge himself with freebies.

More than that it just shows how stupid he is. What type of idiot doesn't realise that swanning around in Rolls Royces and being at televised football matches will show that you lied about being sick?

Ed is utterly immature. This is the type of bunking off you'd see with a school kid not an adult. Alas Ed, and many of his fellow MPs have never had a proper job and remain posh kids.

Being a liar and a freeloader are not attractive traits.

Regardless of a what Rush Limbaugh says America isn't inherently good

So I was listening to the American radio programme of Rush Limbaugh when he tells his listeners that America is a good country.

Fine.

However he went on and told us that America was unique and inherently good which is bollocks.

America isn't inherently good. No country is.

Let me explain. I like America and am not anti-American. America is full of good people and as a country it has done many good things. However it isn't good by its nature. God didn't decide to make America uniquely good by divine writ.

America isn't blessed by the almighty and can do no ill.

Ask the remnants of the indigenous population if Americans are inherently good. Or the decedents of the slaves owned by the founding fathers. Or the survivors of American wars launched to make money. Let us not forget America launched wars to allow American companies retain banana rights when democratically elected states decided to take control of their own resources.

These aren't the action of a divinely good country.

It is idiotic to suggest otherwise. This ridiculous mentality is akin to the extremists in Iran and their views on their divinely empowered state.

America isn't inherently good. It does bad things and has bad people as it does wonderfully good things and has amazing people.

This isn't an attack on the US. Every country is the same. All have wickedness in their past and present. All have monsters as well as the nice.

Countries are made up of people. As such we can be horrible and great.

The US is the same.

This concept of manifest destiny and US exceptionalism is an insult to any thinking person and is frankly idiotic.

On why Mrs Rathband didn't attend his funeral

The late PC David Rathband had a service at Newcastle Cathedral yesterday. His wife chose not to attend. I do not know why she didn't, it is her own choice. I do not judge her.

I criticise neither person. To have one's sight so viciously taken can only do severe psychological damage. The anger, frustration, and hurt such a senseless act gives rise to must be unbearable. This pent up emotion resulted in him being arrested for assaulting his wife.

The damage done to Rathband was unbearable and resulted in his suicide.

And so Mrs Rathband did not attend the service. She has kept a dignified silence and has done nothing to upstage or damage her husband's memory.

And yet there is a disgraceful story in today's Mail on Sunday, which they stole from the Sunday Mirror. It's supposed to be the truth of why she chose not to attend. And yet it contains to actual quote from her just unnamed 'friends'. We don't know if this is her, actual friends, or made up. The use of such friends always strikes me as wrong.

It's all very tabloid.

However the real shocking aspect is the readers comments.

Such ignorance and stupidity is sickening. How can people dare to judge or criticise another person like this. How can they say she abandoned him because she couldn't be bothered with him once he became blind? His attack on her was so bad his own police force had to arrest him. For that to happen we are talking about a serious event yet to some it seems she is at fault.

To make her the bady and say that it was her that forced him to his death is wrong.

To think we can know what anyone else, especially someone we never met, is thinking, feeling, and opportion blame of lives wrecked and traumatised by violence is presumptuous in the extreme.

None of us can judge or criticise the lives of the Rathband's.

It is hurtful to try.

I only hope the family and the bereaved find the comfort the need. My sympathies rest with them.

Joyce let off!!

And so it I'd that Eric Joyce has been let off. Big fucking surprise.

No jail, a community order, £3,000 fine, and a three month ban on visiting bars. See here.

He still remains an MP in a huge wage and £200,000 a year expenses.

It's a joke.

He attacked four people. He did so in public. He did so in front of the police, he resisted arrest telling them that they couldn't touch him as he was an MP.

And still he remains an MP. Still remains free. And still decides what laws the law abiding gave to follow.

It's a joke.

Alas the jokes on us.

Eric Joyce admits his crimes

In a move which slightly surprises me the labour MP and ex-minister Eric Joyce has confessed to his crimes of beating up a wide range of MP's and councillors. He has confessed to attacking four people.

It just goes to show you that even in the protected world of politics there are some crimes which cannot be hidden. I do wonder if the fact that MPs were attacked stopped him being let off. I mean to say the last time a labour MP attacked someone in parliament they were let off, see previous posts.

Then again that thug wisely chose to attack a working class person not an MP.

Joyce has played the sympathy card by letting it be known that he will not stand for reelection. This is a plea not to jail him.

I hope it doesn't work. If you attack four people in front of witnesses and the police in an unprovoked attack you deserve jail.

Criminal thugs like Joyce should have no place in our politics.

Phone hacking and the dangers of politics scuppering a trial

I have been consistent when I say that all those who broke the law - the current law not some future press censorship law that will protect the powerful and the rich - should be prosecuted. I don't care who they are. I don't care who they work for.

Though I dislike Murdoch and his minions muchly I have always said that it would be naïve to think that such illegalities were confined to his stable. However much we dislike him and his it shouldn't blind us to the misdeeds of others. All newspapers, broadsheet as well as tabloid, who break the law need to be prosecuted.

However in the preemptive move to scupper her trial Rebekah Brooks/Wade/whatever's legal team have raised concern that the Leveson and Parlimentary Committee Inquiries, specifically the statements from witnesses, especially senior police officers so recently eager for her support, that she was at the centre of illegality makes it impossible that she could receive a fair trial.

Such a move is part of the course for any high profile person. It does however carry weight.

There is a real danger that the poltical grandstanding and ass covering be people in the police who are embarrassed by their own ties, and polticians trying to distract people from their own misdeeds and sycophancy towards Murdoch in the very recent past will stop justice being done.

Now that would be a scandal.

It would be a mistake if the various inquires decend into show trials and deny justice being done.

The politicans and others need to take the legal aspect of criminal prosecution of the guilty seriously otherwise the guilty will remain unpunished.

Poltics and spin doesn't trump the need for justice.

On the Remploy closures

I am an admirer of Remploy. The support and employment they give to the disabled, initially disabled servicemen, is fantastic. The minor subsidy they recieve is more than made up by the good they do in allowing the disabled to work. It provides them with a sense of worth, helps with their social integration, and massively reduces the benefit bill by giving them meaningful employment.

I am therefore saddened that the government is sacking 1700 of them in the stupid idea that it will save money.

It's idiotic. All it does is to push up the benefit bill.

However I find the false anger of labour to these closures pathetic. The last labour governemnt closed more Remploy factories and sacked more disabled people than the current governemnt has done. They didn't support the disabled I'd vulnerable when in power.

It is the sheer cynicism and lies of politicians that does the greatest damage to our country.

This is a perfect example of this sad fact.

For the rich in all parties with no experience of work or the realities of disability to destroy the lives of the disabled in so cavalier manner whilst squandering billions on themselves and their pet projects is obscene.

Horsegate

OK I think everyone who reads this blog know my views on the Murdoch empire, and Rebekah Brooks/Wade/whatever.

Suffice to say I'm not a fan.

Indeed I think they should be jailed if found guilty. I think the same about any media types who have broken the law. And those police and officials who took bribes.

It is beyond doubt that the closeness between some of the press (not limited to Murdoch's mob) and some police are at best wrong and out worst illegal.

However I don't understand how David Cameron riding a retired police horse is a scandal. It is odd and perhaps a scandal that Rebekah had a retired police horse lent to her. It does seem a tad peculiar. It may not be wrong. Indeed it may be a longstanding scheme to loan retired police horses to people. I've never heard of it. And the fact that such a horse was lent to a powerful media boss close to the police and not a school for the disabled leaves a bitter taste.

But I still don't see how the fact that Cameron rode said horse reflects badly on him.

Labour under Blair and Brown had Rebekah as a houseguest so they cannot attack Cameron.

The thing is if I were a house guest with people with horses, and I don't know any, and I was offered one to go for a ride with the host I wouldn't ask if the horse was on loan from the police. I'd assume it was theirs. The same thing would happen if I was offered a go on a quad bike or whatever.

You'd assume it was theirs.

More than that even if you did ask, which none of us would do, you'd assume it was all above board.

For all the scandalous ties between labour and Murdoch it just strikes me as a pathetic to attack Cameron, and I don't like the man, on riding a horse.

He's posh he's supposed to rude horses!

Rupert Murdoch promises to move Sky tv to an indepdentnent Scotland

It is a well known fact that the lapsed Australian Rupert Murdoch hates the British. This is a man who is against knighthoods and honours handed out by the British, who greedily accepted a Papal knighthood when offered by a controversial Pope. (As an aside how could a church award a knighthood to a multiple married, unfaithful, man with dubious tax history who made a fortune out of semi nude women and now owns both gambling and porn sites?).

Anyway his empire strove to have the Australians replace their Queen with a politician. He failed. His press in the UK are republican when they can be. (why would any proud Australian follow the advice of a man who hates them so much he became American to get away from them?)

Any road up Murdoch has been in talks with the Scottish First Minister and has apparently told him he'll move his Sky empire to an independent Scotland if they reduce the business tax to 10%. That he'll use all his empire to secure an independent Scotland.

The rumour is that Murdoch's hatred has grown since the British government dared to uncover his numerous crimes. So he wants to move to Scotland as revenge. It also would allow him to have a weak government to bully.

The thing is would you believe a word the proven liar that is Murdoch says?

Worse than that, for the Scottish perspective, is that Murdoch is only a minority shareholder in Sky who may find the newly independent majority shareholders refuse to move.

Put it this way, Sky makes a fortune. Would you want to gamble this income by moving to a separate country from that which makes you the money. It's even worse since Scotland may be outside the EU and so have no guaranteed access to the EU airwaves.

If I were the Scottish government I wouldn't trust the siren call of Murdoch about the loverly tax he'd bring. Murdoch doesn't pay tax anywhere. He won't start with Scotland.

And as for Murdoch I'd be much more scared about prison. His idiot son may have ran from the country when it became clear he is at risk of arrest but that may not protect him. Extradition would still hang over him. Worse than that he and Rupert both have the threat of arrest and prison in America hanging over them. Even if the crimes uncovered in the UK, hacking, bribery, etc., did not occur in the US, they face the very real prospect of being charged under US law for bribing foreign officials.

Against such serious trouble Murdoch's Scottish dalliance is unimportant.

If I were in charge of the UK government (and I'm sure we all agree i should be!) I'd take this as a declaration of war. As such I'd destroy him. I'd reopen the inquiry into the scandalous tax affairs of Murdoch that the labour government scrapped for his support. I'd also make sure that charges are brought against the Murdoch's in the UK and US courts. I'd demand their extradition.

I'd even use the longstanding NI crimes as an excuse to ban non-EU ownership of EU media. I would confiscate all their assets to commentate the victims of their crimes and to ensure that others don't break the law.

But that's just me. I can be mean and I really don't like Murdoch!

MP's greed part 2: Adrian Bailey

There is greed and there is contempt for the dead.

 

The labour MP Adrian Bailey has both.

 

To gain political brownie points with his voters he attends a Remembrance Service for those who gave their lives for their country. Such attendance looks good to the voters as it spins the image of a decent man in tune with our shared losses.

 

It's an easy vote grabber.

 

However Bailey charged the taxpayer £13 for the event, and another £3.15 to attend the Poppy Appeal launch.

 

I'm sorry you have to be mean and greedy to earn over £80,000 a year and scrabble around for such a trivial amount.

 

However it's worse than that. It's pathetic to seek political capital by joining in with our remembering of the dead and turn round and claim it on expenses. If you claim it's just an excersise in spin nothing more.

Like I've said before its the minor things which show you what a person is. He isn't the first labour MP to have been caught claiming for poppies and attending such services, Gordon Brown, did the same. However Brown was damaged politically by this greed.

Bailey is too stupid and greedy to realise how it looks to the public or learn from the criticism of Brown's greed.

It's this insidious sense that our money is theirs by divine right and that poltics is only about making them rich we see time and again. This attitude is what does so much damage to our political system and why they are held in such low esteem.

It's pathetic.

MP's greed part 1: Justine Greening

Transport Secretary is wealthy. With her Minister's wage, free taxpayer funded homes, and expenses, she is, by most standards, well off.

It is therefore pathetic that she would stoop to claiming 10p for bus fare on expenses.

10 pence!

It takes spectacular greed and a sense of entitlement to demean yourself in this way. Who claims for ten pence?

PC David Rathband commits suicide

PC David Rathband has tragically died. My deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.

David, as readers of this blog will remember, this was the officer shot in the face by the murderer Raoul Moat. By some miracle David survived but was blinded. David dealt with the devastation of the attack with incredible strength and courage. However it seems the trauma of this insane and wicked attack proved too much and he felt the only option was suicide.

For many people it is the psychological damage caused by violet acts which do the most damage. For an active  person to have to cope with blindness on top of this must be unbearable.

The love and support of family, friends, and colleagues could not save him. Our saving rests with ourselves so however much others want to help, however deep their love, we sometimes they cannot save someone in such pain.

It is a sad and dark day.

I can only add much voice to the others who wish David, and those he left behind all my sympathies.