A View from Middle England by Arden Forester

It's a mad world out there!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:43:00 +0000

I've just been having a wander around the political websites and have been looking at a BNP one. It carries Google Ads. Quite incongruously one popped up and caught my eye.

Because You are an Indian
You can get a loan for a home in India. While you are in UK. Enquire

Well, I never!

Parliamentary interns exploited?

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:03:00 +0000

The House of Commons has been doing everything on the cheap it seems. By that I mean it seems to want to get the maximum benefit out of a very small purse. We must be the only country in the world where foreigners get to have a good laugh at our expense. That's the British way - make do and mend. Currently, we're trying to mend a ridiculous system of expenses. Now another problem may have arisen.

MPs have been used to having young graduates work in their offices for nothing. Or virtually nothing. Pete Barden spent the past summer working as an intern for a Liberal Democrat MP, dealing with duties ranging from opening mail to campaign work and engaging with constituents. He says, "I was exploited but everyone's exploited. It's the way it works." Not all interns agree with the exploitation bit, but nearly all think they should be treated better financially. Maybe travel expenses would be a start, they think.

This is just another element of the crazy way MPs are scared of allowing a proper payments system to be implemented. It is also a real problem in that these interns are mainly apprenticed MPs, hoping to move onto the green benches in a dead men's shoes routine. We need proper researchers on proper pay.

I am still convinced that the next general election will be about the way MPs are paid as much as it is about their approach to the monumental debt crisis. Most voters will be so enraged come next June that votes will go all over the place. What was once a two-horse race will now be a political version of the Grand National. Pity there won't be a political version of Mrs Topham to oversee events!

Sir Jock stirs it up over Afghan mission

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:18:00 +0000

Only this last week, the hapless Gordon Brown was telling us all about that nasty Alky Ada he keeps on about. Well, today Sir Jock Stirrup rode into town to appear on the Andrew Marr Show.
He said, amongst other things, this -

"It is true that al-Queda are not operating in Afghanistan at the moment. It is also true that over the last couple of years in particular the al-Queda core has suffered significant damage".

Not in Afghanistan? Where are they, then? Oh, don't tell me, it's Pakistan. But we aren't going after them there are we? Not a chance! We don't want uprisings in Britain do we?

What a shower! Brown waffles on about his wretched Afghan campaign. He has about as much clue as those hopeless First World War generals. As with most British people, I have a relative laid to rest in that battlefield. Have we learnt anything?

Safe in our beds with Pauline?

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:53:00 +0000

Shadow security minister Baroness Pauline Neville Jones was on the Today Programme this morning. She was with the chairman of the Royal United Services Institute, Sir Paul Lever. I got the impression that Pauline was a tad muddled up. She got all muddled over the idea that Islamic terrorists are "home grown". It seem to her like an awkward question. Her claim to be in Afghanistan is apparently based on terrorist training camps. But Gordon Brown is claiming it is about democracy as much as training up the Afghan police. Nobody in political circles has clarity.

Personally I'd feel a lot safer with Sir Paul Lever in charge, but then he's not where Pauline is. Pity!

School racist hunters go OTT in barmy episode

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:37:00 +0000

You have to hand it to the politically correct. In bucketloads! They are so keen to root out what they consider racist behaviour that they associate harmless remarks with the vilist Nazi propaganda. Teachers have signed up to a morons charter, designed by this ludicrous government, to jot down every word, phrase or remark with a scintilla of assumed racist content.

So it was that a six-year-old girl has been branded a racist for telling a black girl she had chocolate on her face. Innocence turned into a gestapo-style report. When the girl's mother went to collect her she was told the incident was "racist" and that a complaint had been logged.

The school claims it was blown out of all proportion. I hardly think so. Not if it was put in the book! These people are supposed to be running a Church school. They'd be far better off binning this ridiculous book and just taking children's remarks as they come.

All that the school has done is unnecessarily causing the girl to feel guilty about an innocent remark just because they put their political correctness in front of common sense. They do themselves no merit and they are a cancer in society that needs eradicating.

Gordon Brown's Afghan egg displeases curate's congregation

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:56:00 +0000

The curate's egg was good in parts. He was implying that something which is partly good can be ruined by the bad bit.

Right Reverend Host. "I’m afraid you’ve got a bad Egg, Mr. Jones!"
The Curate. "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellect!"

We could say the same about Gordon Brown's speech this morning. He is still trying to persuade us that his nemesis, Alky Ada, is about to strike out in London on a savage rampage all due to the problems starting in Kabul. Cut off the Afghan terrorists and Britain is a safer place. It's all poppycock. He ruins a basically good premise by including untruths and speculation. Al Queda are in Pakistan giving grief to that benighted country. If they ever were in Afghanistan they have long since fled. Terrorists are not insurgents. Fine point, maybe, but the aims are different. It is the Taliban, a group of warlords and displaced poppy farmers, that are the anti-social scourge of the Afghans. We don't wish to seize the moment in Pakistan to go after Al Queda. Probably because we would get an uprising in Britain as well as in Pakistan.

So the Afghan war is about telling us we are fighting terrorism to make Britain a safer place. The Taliban are enemies of the democratising process of Afghan society. We are telling Karzai about corruption. Gordon Brown lectures him on good governance, suggesting that a government must not stand back and let corruption take place. Excuse me! What has Brown beeen doing in Westminster? Trying to hide MPs expenses, his own cleaning bills and Sky Sports subscriptions, by invoking parliamentary privilege, stifling freedom of information and redacting documents. Nice one.

The country is not behind this war because the premise is false. We are behind our soldiers and each and every one of them has put themselves where virtually none of us would go. But the government needs to do far better than come up with this travesty of the truth.

There are four countries in the world that the "West" has difficulty with. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Not one is a fully functioning democracy. All have despots waiting to take over. All have simmering grievances. The peoples of each country want peace and prosperity. They don't care if it is with democracy or with a benign overlord. They just want peace. In that, Gordon Brown is right to say that the first duty of a government is the security of the nation. But he negates his good reasons by including fancifully bad ones.

Until the truth is out, this war will go nowhere. Until our objectives are crystal clear, we have only the curate's opinion to guide us.

Democracy? Did we ever have it?

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:19:00 +0000

I'm of the opinion that democracy doesn't really exist in the so-called "western countries". Free speech is a far greater asset and one which the authorities allow and support. But they are woefully scared of true democracy. Witness the antics of the EU hierachy, all hellbent on getting YES votes in referendums, the very polls they fought hard deny most voters in the 27 countries. Witness also the ridiculous way in which a candidate in the USA has to get vast numbers of voters to support his/her candidature just to get ballot access. All manner of hoops and hurdles are placed in the way of parties which dissent from the agreed two-party arrangement.

I think it was summed up for me when something remarkable happened in East Devon in 1989. Stuart Hughes, now a Conservative councillor, although a maverick one, was a candidate for his Raving Loony Green Giant Party. Having fallen out with David Sutch of the OMLRP, he ploughed his own furrow. He stood against a matriarchal Conservative and beat her. She waspishly queried the result, saying "What have they done?" and then rounded on Mr.Hughes by stating he better not lark around in the council chamber. She took defeat very badly. Many have done so in the past and no doubt will in the future.

Democracy is not that welcome in the corridors of power. Free speech doesn't bother them. I'm entitled, allowed, or whatever, to sound off on this blog. That's not going to twitch an eyebrow. But if I mobilised an army of voters to unseat MPs, then I would be in trouble. It's a form of poking my nose in where I'm not welcome.

Daniel Hannan has a good line in his blog entry yesterday. He says -

"It’s not chiefly about Europe – it’s about democracy. Regular readers will know that I have always seen the repatriation of jurisdiction from Brussels as a means to an end. Having got the powers back, we should pass them down to local authorities or, better yet, to individual citizens. I want decisions to be decentralised, diffused, democratised. I want open primaries, popular initiative procedures, elected sheriffs, self-financing councils, an end to quangos, recall mechanisms and, yes, referendums – lots and lots of referendums."

An end to quangos? I seem to remember a lot of us campaigned hard for that when Margaret Thatcher came to office. Democracy is yet to be accomplished in full, but it will be achieved because of the free speech of people like Daniel Hannan.

Bouncing Czech puts Cameron's current account in the red!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:36:00 +0000

So the Czech's have signed, ratified and sealed the Lisbon Treaty. Democracy is the poorer, weasel wordsmiths are having a field day. David Cameron and the higher echelons of the Conservative Party are u-turning as I type. All manner of reasons as to why a referendum is now out of the question. Cast iron guarantees are being melting down tonight. EU alchemy is trying to make gold ingots out of this cast iron. Well, let them! They know no better.

My fear is that come the general election the two largest parties in Britain will be defending political records of scheming, subterfuge, u-turning, deception, and a wilful acceptance of the greed of mates and pals and the dismissal of those MPs of lesser worth and political value.

David Cameron's current account has suddenly gone into the red. UKIP must be sensing a real victory in that those who thought Cameron would deliver now find a man whose word is as worthless as the fictitious money transactions that the conniving banks were doing when they turned toxic sub-prime loans into the grandchild of the South Sea Bubble. Many Conservative supporters will drift away, others will run enthusiastically into the UKIP fold.

Politics needs a new start. No good lecturing the likes of Afghanistan's President Kazi, when the EU variety has far more corrosive arrangements for denying true democracy.

I sincerely hope David Cameron knows what has befallen him. Gordon Brown barged into Tony Blair's No 10 bunker to declare that he didn't believe a ****ing the then PM said. The people may well say the same next year about Cameron's referendum guarantee melting like a chocolate soldier in the desert.

Harry Potter puts in for EU Presidency

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:54:00 +0000

Harry Potter as the new President of Europe? Well not exactly. It's not the fantastical character of cinematic and book fame but the lookalike Dutch prime minister. Jan Peter Balkenende is a man who knows about deals in smoke-filled rooms (actually smoke-free now due to the smoking ban). Each Dutch election is followed by a Jan'll Fixit arrangement. Seems the EU chief bottlewashers are dead against Tony Blair knocking on the door. At least they have some sense in that direction. So they've given Jan Peter the nod and the wink.

According to this Dutch website, the majority of the Dutch people want Balkenende to go to Brussels if he gets the chance so they are rid of him. That's the most-heard opinion apparently. Various polls indicate a majority of the electorate also want general elections if 'their' premier is picked.

Now that kind of rings a few bells. I hear the sound of Tony Blair's name being mentioned in likeminded tones. One has to wonder what it is about the political infections our national leaders pick up in Brussels. Old Biffo Cowan was implicated in undemocratic stuff in Ireland. Sarkozy is up to his tricks again, in cohoots with Frau Merkel (Tippytoes and the Hausfrau - what a combination!), trying to stitch up a deal over this EU Presidency thing. And Baldenende dismissed the Dutch NEI! as a temporary blip.

None of them is remotely democratic when it comes to keeping the EU Gravy train on its tracks. Chief among the democratic dissemblers are Blair and Brown. Both are cheats when it comes to giving the people a say. So it comes as no surprise that the Dutch want to give Harry Potter a good kicking. A pair of the finest clogs will do. To unclog the democratic deficit!

Wal-Mart starts selling coffins

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:37:00 +0000

Wal-Mart doesn't miss a trick. They've reckoned that, as everybody eventually dies, selling coffins is not a bad idea. Even if they got a tiny fraction of the deceased people's purchasing power, that would produce a tidy sum.

I've had a look at these coffins. Actually, they're not coffins but the far more grandiose caskets that Americans have come to cherish. These are the satin-lined plush interiored things that open halfway so you can get a peek of the dead relative or friend as you pay your last respects. These weighty things make for better profits but they are hellish for pallbearers. If fact in most cases they give up trying to lift them. No, these things are usually wheeled in on a folding trolley, many times looking as if trolley and casket are going to come to grief in some way.

I favour coffins over caskets. But Wal-Mart won't be selling coffins. Far too deathlike for their liking. The casket seems to be a more sanitised way of coping with death. I was told once of a good Anglo-Catholic church in America that wanted a funeral with pallbearers carrying the coffin shoulder high into the church. The priest was being fobbed off with a fancy casket. He wanted this parishioner to have a nice oak coffin. Nothing doing. So he went on the internet and found a Jewish coffin maker in California, many miles away, who had just the right thing. With a bit of redecoration the wooden coffin did the job and he was able to escort the deceased into church, shoulder high with pallbearers in attendance.

Wal-Mart may well sell quite a few. On the other hand, if you don't buy your casket from a fancy funeral director, are you expected to arrange your own Wal-Mart funeral? Maybe, but don't be late for it!

Different planets and parallel universes

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:07:00 +0000

The BBC reports that a man of 112 has "married" a girl of 17 in Somalia. In itself it must send shock waves throught the western world. However, all is not as it may seem, I think.

The old codger might be up to some tricks. So might the girl and her family. He says, "I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry". At his age he needs to be careful over affairs of the heart. He could just conk out any minute if he overexerted himself.

My guess is that he has a bit put away on the money front. He'll have a Cecil Colby moment, fade away gracefully, and she becomes queen bee of the village. Probably works out fine for all concerned.

In the scheme of things, Somalia is definitely a law unto itself!

Has Tony McNulty any honour?

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:32:00 +0000

It seems that MPs are split into two camps. Those that do an honourable job in an honourable way and are seemingly honourable people. Then there are the fiddlers, the backsliders and the muckrakers. Was it any different? Thankfully the honourable members are in the significant majority.

Tony McNulty has been huffing and puffing that he "played by the rules" but when it comes to the Fees Office and the House of Commons, for some this was no better organised than the tuck shop at Greyfriars School. "Crickey! It's old Quelch. Better hide these receipts jolly fast!" McNulty was investigated by the Parliamentary standards watchdog for claiming the second home allowance for a property in which his parents lived. This house was only nine miles from his own home! Any honourable person would have thought, wouldn't they, that a quick train or tube ride would have worked most evenings. But not Tony, oh no. He decided to pocket the maximum he could get his hands on.

It's because of his apparent greed that he has been given the parliamentary equivalent of six of the best. Plus the humiliation (well, maybe not in his case!) of handing back £13,837. And he has, along with others, given Parliament a bad name and allowed the public to think that every MP is just like him. No wonder Suzy Gale is upset by it all. She works hard for her husband and his constituents. But fellow MP Derek Conway abused the system. So his abuse is an assumed systemic cancer that every MP's spouse is capable of contracting, including Suzy? It's nonsense, of course. But it is the sad times we live in.

Common sense has left the minds of most people currently. Nobody takes responsibility. Blame the other guy. Don't admit to anything in case you get sued or arrested or whatever. It's fast becoming a polecats' paridise. Instead of allowing the dodgy characters to continue, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon should have been allowed to recommend that certain MPs just left the House. So what if we had a load of by-elections. Far better that then letting the matter drift on.

Tony Blair for EU President? Stuff of nightmares!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Give me strength. Gordon Brown is said to be actively lobbying for Tony Blair to be the new-fangled president of the EU monolith. Why on earth would the good people of Europe deserve this?

Can you imagine it? Tony Blair knocking on the EU door. "Anything I can do for you Europeans?". He's been knocking on doors and cheesily moving into position since his weaning days. I very much hope there will be those who see this as not in our best interests, I really do.

He is a dissembler par excellence, his Iraq war history an example of low politics. His ambition outsmarts his convictions. His convictions appear to be at odds with his conscience. His general message is one of opaqueness rather than transparency. There must be other candidates, surely?

BNP do better in the Bahamas!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:19:00 +0000

The BNP is trumpeting the fact that they are the most visited political website in the UK. As my mother would say, bully for them! I visited Alexa, the web tracking service, to find that the BNP is warmly received in the Bahamas. 230th most popular site. In India it ranks at 89, 566 but that is curiously interesting given the number of sites emanating from that country.

So the BBC has helped to unleash something. Are we capable of debating the points that arise or are we not? Given Jack Straw's lamentable performance last week, I think a new drawing board is required!

'Hate crime' grandmother considers suing

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:35:00 +0000

Free speech in Britain is becoming one-side. Or should I say lopsided? A 67-year old grandmother, Pauline Howe, has been investigated by Norfolk police for 'hate crime' after she wrote a letter to her council objecting to a gay pride march. Now she is considering suing the authorities.

It's a funny old world. It is perfectly acceptable for some people to say all manner of things about the Pope, to castigate the Bishop of Rochester as an evil this and that, but it is not acceptable to say that one is, at least, uncomfortable about overt displays in public of a homosexual nature.

Bridget Buttinger is Norwich City Council's deputy chief executive. She wrote back warning that the grandmother could face criminal charges. She wrote, "The content of your letter has been assessed as potentially being hate related because of the views you expressed towards people of a certain sexual orientation." So basically Ms Buttinger is saying that anyone minded to express a traditional Christian opinion is deemed a hateful person. Ms Buttinger probably hoped Mrs. Howe would be jailed!

I know that certain homosexuals would rather spit blood than let Mrs. Howe express her views, but views they are. Many people share them. Norfolk Constabulary has defended its action as "proportionate". I wonder what a disproportiate action would be in the chief constable's mind?

'Younger wife' for marital bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:37:00 +0000

According to the BBC reports, the secret to a happy marriage is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you. This is what UK "experts" say. Couples are more likely to go the distance (presumably unto death), particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.

Well, I fit the bill on both counts. My wife is at least five years younger that me and is a lot smarter. And neither of us has been divorced.

So thank you Bath University experts. You've made my day!

Lord Carey takes on the BNP

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Lord Carey has come out to denounce the BNP and to pronounce an unsettled view of the Pope's invitation to Catholic Anglicans. The two topics are not related, but have been scrambled together as a soundbite piece. The former Archbishop came onto the Today programme yesterday to say he didn't say this and he didn't say that about the Pope's announcement.

So what did he say about the BNP. Apparently that their views are 'irredeemably evil'. I'm glad he said views and not the people themselves, because the Christian gospel tells us that nobody is beyond redemption. The archbishop should have clarified this point. In the heat of the moment all kinds of things can be misinterpreted.

Lord Carey spoke of views, plural. I have an overriding problem with the BNP's policy on promoting racially based policies likely to cause favouritism for white people (DNA tested, no doubt!) above others. However, on paper, this is the only detestable policy. All their other policies seem fairly anodine and stand up to scrutiny. I have an issue with the emphasis on "command and control" but that's about it.

What we have now is not a debate, because that would allow the BNP to become "equals". No, we have a crazed demonisation which allows Nick Griffin to sell himself as a political martyr. If all the media has in their arsenal is likening Griffin to Hitler and telling us what a bigot he is, then that won't change a thing. Tell us something we don't know.

So, my question is this. Can the mainstream politicians debate the policies of the BNP other than turning Griffin's personal bigotry into the main discussion topic? If they can't, then the BNP gets to go under the political radar and into pastures new!

Man arrested for making coffee in own home while naked

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:11:00 +0000

An American man who made coffee in his own home while nude is facing charges of indecent exposure. This is a bizarre case indeed. The police who arrested him, Fairfax County Police Virginia, said they believed he wanted to be seen naked by the public. He faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if he is convicted. He is fighting the charge and seeking damages from police. Quite right too.

If police officers can arrest people because they think someone is going to do something or wants to do something, it's definitely turning into a police state world. This is not the same as a conspiracy to commit a crime. That is when there is evidence of pre-planning but without commission of a crime.

Police officers could arrest someone sitting in a car because they believed they might drive off at an illegal speed. Or they could arrest someone entering a store because they thought the person wanted to shoplift. It could go on.

We live in a society now, or at least the so-called western world, where any innocent occurrence immediately has impure connotations placed on it. This man claims he did nothing abnormal in his own home. Just got out of bed, naked, and went to make a cup of coffee. Unfortunately he now faces the prospect of a court case with people mulling over whether he is a sick pervert or just a naked man making coffee.

Some people get their lives turned upside down in a day. It just goes to show that we do not know what tomorrow will bring.

Lies, deception and press claptrap!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:52:00 +0000

I'm not in favour of dealing with political opponents in the way that the liberal elite and chattering classes have with regard to the BNP. All they do is conveniently cover up their own political crap and try to rubbish the far right with juvenile epithets and illogical soundbites.

The BBC is now being exposed as having entered into some kind of conspiracy to debunk Nick Griffin. All they have done is succeed in looking mightily dodgy as far as "a duty to impartiality" is concerned. In fact, the Deputy Director General of the BBC, Mark Byford, might as well have said the reason they wanted him on was to have a kind of "man in the stocks" reality show.

The audience was partially selected. Dimbleby is said to have encouraged booing. With what result. The BNP goes up in the polls because the programme was seen as a martyr's slaying. What a stupid lot they are.

Now for some real fibbing and deception. In the Daily Mail, a paper known for its epistolic abuse of asylum seekers and people of an economic migrancy tendency, Edward Heathcote-Amory says this of the BNP -

RHETORIC: 'Our immigration policy is supported by 84 per cent of the British people at present.'

REALITY: The BNP's immigration policy is voluntary repatriation of 'immigrants' (ie non-whites) regardless of whether they were born here. There is no evidence that any but a tiny minority of British people support such a plan. Mr Griffin himself recently suggested that if there was a problem working out where to send immigrants back to, he would 'drop them out of a plane somewhere over Africa'.

The inference is that the BNP is the only party to have a policy of voluntary repatriation. Edward is being partial with the truth. Ever since the Immigration Act of 1971 came into force, the government has a policy of voluntary repatriation.

The BNP’s policy is to:
- Deport all the two million plus who are here illegally;
- Deport all those who commit crimes and whose original nationality was not British;
- Review all recent grants of residence or citizenship to ensure they are still appropriate;
- Offer generous grants to those of foreign descent resident here who wish to leave permanently;
- Stop all new immigration except for exceptional cases;
- Reject all asylum seekers who passed safe countries on their way to Britain.

The New Labour government is trying to deport people, they are trying to reduce immigration and they have a voluntary repatriation scheme in place (not rescinded!).

If we are to have a debate let's cut out the lies and deceit. I do not favour or support the BNP because they do not give me the feeling that they will treat all Britons with equal fairness. Neither do I think their draconian policies will help. But we have to find a way to argue on the facts.

It seems those in positions of authority have abondoned arguing on facts in favour of demonising and deceiving. Question Time has come up to give the BBC a kick up the backside. Those who manipulate the truth will be found out. By all means attack Griffin on his ideas to 'drop people out of planes' but do not add untruths into the bargain!

Balloon family Heene "admit" hoaxing the world!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:37:00 +0000

The Heene family of Colorado are just a product of our age. An intelligent father is seemingly seduced by the charms and apparant riches of reality television. He thought that, by staging this stunt and getting half the Colorado law enforcement officials up from behind their desks to go chasing a saucer-shaped balloon, he would get a better chance of being picked. Instead, he entered the largest reality show by default.

Most of the world knows of this family now. The children think it is all great fun. The sheriff is hopping mad and threatening jail time. And the world carries on.

I hope the lessons learned from all this is that irresponsible parents have an influence on their children. The sins of the fathers, etc. No good will come of jailing the parents. Possibly a hefty fine. But as in all things American, the fine is a crazily high amount for the particular crime. In this case a maximum of $500,000!! If it ever came to court and that was whacked onto the couple, the children would be the sufferers.

It's a salutary lesson in greed and ambition getting ahead of proper reality. So-called reality television is nothing of the sort. It is just another form of humiliation dressed up as entertainment.

One in five "considering" voting BNP!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Would you Adam 'n Eve it! The BBC has done the BNP proud. Not just by putting Nick Griffin on Question Time, but by allowing a dodgily selected audience (enticed to boo at appropriate moments like a 19th century music hall crowd) and by the fellow guests ganging up on him, thereby making him look "got at".

As Griffin himself says, this parody hardly touched the BNP policies. Now we have, according to Sky News, an opinion poll suggesting that 22% of the British people have allowed their minds to loosen overnight and for them to consider voting BNP. With a crowded field in many constituencies, that could see MPs elected. Now that would turn the House of Commons into a bear pit.

Remember, New Labour, who trumpet the fact that they "won" three general elections in a row, only managed to get 20% of the total electorate's support last time. Put's it into perspective a bit!

The BNP needs to be quizzed not on immigration or race - we know what they stand for there. Let's confront their command and control economic policies and their quick fix law and order solutions. But above all, please, please let the mainstream parties just stop the spinning, deceipt and cronyism. It's just helping to bolster the 22% as they mull over the benefits of a BNP government!

The hype was better than the show

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:22:00 +0000

So Nick Griffin has done his Question Time. I can't say I was impressed, by him or the BBC. In fact, the hype was more exciting than the actual programme. The only person to come out of it well was Bonnie Greer. She did her best to chivvy Griffin along and I think she succeeded. At one time I thought they had the making of a double act.

David Dimbleby seemed to have come with a type of Twenty Questions format, all ready to grill Griffin. The audience, which appeared anything but a cross-section of British society (more the BBC's insurance policy against being labelled a patsy for the BNP), were there to lob pot shots at "Nick". Chris Huhne did OK and Baroness Warsi was able to stick a few damp squibs on Jack Straw. I thought Straw was his usual evasive self when the questioning got tough on immigration.

But truth to tell, I don't think this will harm the BNP or do it many favours. My wife, who is anything but a BNP sympathiser thought Griffin enhanced his situation. That surprised me. I thought he looked like a controlled but shifty character, his bottom lip quivering as one insult too many struck home.

On tonight's showing Jack Straw won't cut the mustard nationally with the BNP. He might stir it up a bit in Blackburn, but he's got too many dodgy skeletons in his political cupboard. I'm surprised Griffin didn't use any (apart from his father's war effort). So the end result for me is that the BBC came off best with regard to the ratings and Bonnie Greer came off best with regard to the best way to treat your foes - with a grand mixture of humour, dignity and slight chiding!

The Borrowers

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:53:00 +0000

As human beans, we are being slowly put into the bean counter to maximise our worth to a profligate government that sees borrowing as a means to an end. Paying back is someone else's business. Gordon Brown may as well be a tiny person living under my floor boards. He appears to have tiny minds living under loads of floor boards, all over the country, popping out to borrow stuff from us human beans.

We now live in a country where most of the top corporations are crazed in their devotion to "driving down costs" and "reducing prices". We have banks that are so big that they have the government to ranson. They have become like an emboldened Oliver Twist, completely assured that they will get some more. Mr. Bumble the Beadle has buzzed off! Angela Knight, ex-Tory minister and persuasive moral blackmailer of the British Banking Association - she continously stresses that if banks don't get what they want, they will buzz off to Switzerland or the Cayman Islands or somewhere - is unperturbed by criticism. And we have a workforce wondering if their jobs are safe.

So on the one hand we have a situation where the tax take is diminishing and on the other where the borrowing is being stratispherically increased. Is there an accountant out there who knows how to join the dots up?

BNP given succour by Labour's failures

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:22:00 +0000

This quote from BBC Newsnight on the BNP in Stoke-on-Trent -

"Dave Gore is a 40-year-old tradesman. He has just been made redundant. He says there is work out there but immigrant workers have pushed wages so low, he refuses to do it. He has voted Labour all his life. Now he is getting ready to vote BNP for the first time. "Labour took us for granted," he says. "They've done nothing for us. Now I'm going to give the BNP a chance."

Give the BNP a chance! That's what New Labour has given us. Because of their poncy behaviour with the banks, sucking up to dodgy corporatists and generally paving the way for self-engrandisement (Blair's multi-million pound financial caravan is a good example!), we have been left with an underclass that is bitter and resentful, together with an artisan class that is fearful and demotivated.

Perhaps Gordon Brown might do the decent thing and hand the keys of No 10 back in the morning! Oh, and Darling's borrowing bonananza. It won't be an extra 7% on income tax at payback time. It will be Denis Healey's squeaking of the pips for all of us. OUCH!

Brown and Cameron both aim shots at traditional thinking!

noreply@blogger.com (Arden Forester) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Gordon Brown says gay MPs and peers should to be allowed to hold civil partnership inside Parliament. Parliamentarians and their children can marry in the Palace of Westminster but civil partnerships are not allowed, which Mr. Brown thinks is wrong. He said politicians had to do more to "take on prejudice".

David Cameron says MPs have to "push" to change people's attitudes.

Sounds like a couple of mindbenders at the fair. It is one thing to be rude and threatening about a person's lifestyle, to upset someone or to be downright unpleasant. It is quite another to believe that certain lifestyles are wrong.

The Pope is vilified by the likes of Peter Tatchell. I see loads of contemptuous remarks about Christian orthodoxy. If Gordon Brown thinks that traditional Christian teaching is a prejudice that needs to be taken on then he has left the manse behind in a big way. He is speaking in a simpleton's soundbite manner.

As for David Cameron's remark I find it rather odd. Conservatives don't push people around to change their attitudes. I hope my Conservative candidate doesn't adopt a hectoring tone so that the voters of Solihull get their attitudes pushed into shape!