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| A View from Middle England by Arden Forester |
| A Conservative-minded Midlander from the Forest of Arden, with a slight libertarian streak in his make-up. Against a centralising, law-mongering European Union - for a dynamic, enterprising Commonwealth of Europe of individual nation states. For positive Transatlantic co-operation - backing Ron Paul's Revolution and watching events. |
| Language: English |
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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 130 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 172646 |
| Visitors Out: 502 |
| Total Visitors Out: 502 |
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| Blair scared of Brown says Prescott |
| 2008-05-10 19:08:09 |
John Prescott apparently urged Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown but he claims the prime minister was "scared" of his chancellor. This is what Prescott says in his memoirs. Amazing these New Labour people. All making money, or trying to, faster than a one-armed bandit.The former deputy prime minister said Mr Blair reneged on several promises to resign in favour of Mr Brown. So it was true. No wonder Brown was so moody. He still is. Prescott describes Brown as "annoying, bewildering and prickly". He says Mr Brown would sulk silently in meetings so often they had to be abandoned, while on other occasions, he could “go off like a bloody volcano”. So it takes one volcano to know another volcano, does it?Prescott adds very neatly that he brokered "hundreds" of reconciliation meetings and phon...
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| Ron Paul to get more GOP delegates? |
| 2008-05-10 17:00:51 |
In a possible surprise GOP rule switch in Utah, things could get interesting in the Republican race. State convention might release Romney delegates from voting for Mitt. This means Ron Paul could benefit. It is very evident now that the Ron Paul Revolution will not go quietly, as, of course, it has nowhere to go other than onwards. As they have done in Nevada, Minnesota and elsewhere, a number of Utah Ron Paul backers are trying to get elected today as delegates to the Republican National Convention where, under a proposed rule change, they could be free to vote for whomever they want.I get the impression most city slickers, TV pundits and politico pollsters haven't bothered to follow the Republican race in detail, so these things are not publicised to ...
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| BA chief Willie Walsh to get £700,000 bonus! |
| 2008-05-10 16:56:40 |
After the chaos of the Terminal 5 opening, the British Airways chief is in line for a £700,000 bonus. You couldn't make it up if you tried. His airline loses bags, doesn't train staff properly and thinks things will all work out on their own. This week, he admitted to MPs that he was ultimately responsible for the farcical scenes shown around the world on TV. He told the Travel Select Committee that he had been aware of problems with the £4.3billion terminal before it opened, and had discussed delaying its first day. Mr Walsh said, "It was a calculated risk and one I decided to take. You can't point the finger at anyone else."It'll be alright on the night? Is Willie Walsh running British Airways or Denis Norden? Come off it Willie, you fouled up. How can ...
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| Man spends 18 hours in police cell and has his DNA taken for 'dropping an apple core' |
| 2008-05-10 09:54:37 |
The Daily Mail has a really horrendous story about how a man got into trouble from meeting an over-zealous PCSO with a stubby pen and a wad of tickets. Keith Hirst was banged up in jail simply because he protested at how he was treated. He said yesterday he would fight to clear his name in a case which could leave him with a criminal record and cost taxpayers thousands of pounds. "The way I was treated you would have thought I had robbed a bank," he said. "My family are law-abiding people and I would help if I saw a gang of yobs attacking a police officer. This kind of incident does not help in improving relations between the community and police." I agree entirely.I cannot understand why the police seem totally oblivious to certain crimes and testosterone...
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| Gordon Brown is no class act! |
| 2008-05-10 08:56:47 |
Gordon Brown obviously thinks its funny to bring up the old class war stuff. There are plenty in the Labour Party who can't stand "gents". They have an abiding hatred of public schools and "anything proper". So, because David Cameron went to Eton, they think it fair game to have a go at him. Just like they got rid of hereditary peers, or most of them, from the House of Lords, they try to sneer and jape at someone's background.Is Gordon Brown so great? He was recently telling us his family was "ordinary". Do we care? Not really. I am much more concerned about him saying he made "a mistake" over the 10p tax fiasco, when in fact he knew at the time he was deliberately causing the poor to suffer. It was no mistake Gordon. Personally, I prefer toffs to liars!In the Crewe and Nantwich by-electio...
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| Boston cell phone party - no danger at all! |
| 2008-05-09 17:43:40 |
In the "I can't be bothered" department of politics, I think Massachussetts Senate President Therese Murray takes the prize for this month's Clutz Award! She says of a bill to ban people from holding cell phones or sending text messages whilst driving (which may die in the state Senate this year), "I haven't given it any thought. No one has asked me for it, so it's not something that is at the top of my radar." Such a casual approach to potential death and injury on the roads. What does she care? Not a lot, because she hasn't given it any thought. Well, she has actually because she's talking about it, but this is arrogant politician speak for "I don't care!".I know that using a mobile phone whilst driving is a potential hazard. When it was still lawful, or at least not illegal, in England ...
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| Lesbians come out fighting - nominally speaking! |
| 2008-05-09 17:42:46 |
What's in a name? Sometimes not a lot, other times it is your very identity. If I was a Lesbian I would not be too pleased if everytime I told people I was one it provoked amusement, silly laughter and innuendo. That is apparently the sort of thing that happens to Lesbians every day. They have the good fortune to live on the Greek island of Lesbos. Now, as we know, female homosexuals have appropriated the name. In fact, for most people around the world, it is the latter they think of before considering the people of Lesbos (if they ever do).A similar fate beheld the people of the French region of Alsace. Alsatians are a people of distinct background with a language and culture. Canine it is not. For some reason, they managed to get dog owners and breeders in England to call the animal a Ge...
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| Polling day for some of us |
| 2008-05-09 17:41:31 |
Those living in London get to choose a new Mayor today, plus electing those who ostensibly look after the devolved powers of the "London Region". Whatever else happens, I hope that Ken Livingstone has more time to spend with his newts!As for the rest of us in England, some have elections others don't. I have a vote (actually two because I've got a proxy for my wife as Continental Airlines don't provide ballot boxes!) and I will be wandering off later today in the direction of the polling station. Being that this is Solihull, nothing that the hapless Prime Minister does will affect the outcome much as we are a Conservative/Libdem battleground. However, I do hope that he gets a proverbial bloody nose today.Welsh councils are voting also and they should provide the best territory for giving M...
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| Boris is the next Mayor of London |
| 2008-05-09 17:40:41 |
Boris Johnson is the new Mayor of London, his rivals conceded tonight. The Evening Standard in London is predicting that the Tory MP scored a stunning election victory to end Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign and round off a disastrous 24 hours for the Labour Party. Gordon Brown is sitting in the Downing street flat with his cocoa wondering where it all went wrong. Probably on the day a certain Tony Blair waltzed into his office in the House of Commons for the first time and almost immediately began a cheesy relationship. Gordon's antennae were on the blink that day!So now it is Boris. The liberally-minded libertine-leaning fellow travellers of New Labour think Boris is a buffoon. Far from it. He is a very clear-headed thinker who will be a great asset for London. A character who can play...
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| BNP take seat on London Assembly |
| 2008-05-09 17:39:56 |
For the first time the BNP is represented on a "top tier" level of government. The regional assembly for London is the only one that is elected, all the others being quangos not wanted by the rest of England. So this Assembly allows for a proportional representation element and the BNP got above the 5% threshold. Richard Barnbrook, the mayoral candidate, will be the first BNP AM. He will be hoping this is no false dawn! One thing is for certain. I won't be around long enough to see a BNP PM if ever that eventful day should occur.London Elects is the body that oversees this marathon adventure. The BBC was getting excited about turnout. Up to 45% - that's why the count took so long. "They were expecting a much lower figure!", they squeaked. Oh, really? So if it went to 60 or 70% would we be ...
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| BNP's Barnbrook shunned as a pariah |
| 2008-05-09 17:38:34 |
The wonders of democracy work well with some people. In a free vote it's up to the people to choose whom they want to represent them. If you don't like the result, well, you've probably lost the argument. Labour lost much of the argument in London and elsewhere due to the 10p tax fiasco. Now we are getting crodocile tears mixed up with cupboard love. I've seen Harriet Harman dishing out this mawkish monotone today and it is unconvincing.In London, Richard Barnes, the Conservative leader on the 25-member assembly, has said, "The BNP will have problems finding secretaries and getting support from the staff here, and I will totally support people's right to say they don't want to serve them. They may have a foot in the door but they won't get anywhere near the levers of power." Mr.Barnes may ...
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| Rumsfeld in the frame |
| 2008-05-09 17:36:52 |
I always had a feeling that Donald Rumsfeld was a dodgy character. To men like Rumsfeld, the political skullduggery comes easily. Ken Livingstone, the defeated Labour candidate for London mayor, said that he preferred political intrigue and committee "work" to the actual managerial activity his post required. Rumsfeld's certainly no Livingstone, but in this they have a certain kinship.Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004, has written a new memoir, Wiser in Battle - A Soldier's Story, an account of his life and his service in Iraq. Sanchez basically blows the lid off Rumsfeld's rotten barrel of political poison. Remember, Rumsfeld was the man who gladhanded it with Saddam Hussein. That was before Saddam fell out with the Americans and started selling Iraqi oil ...
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| All change at Crewe - Oh, and Nantwich too! |
| 2008-05-09 16:39:17 |
The Crewe and Nantwich By-election will be upon us very soon. An unseemly rush to hold the election, an unseemly scramble for candidates to be nominated. All very unseemly in the unseemly world of New Labour.The election will be on the 22nd May and Labour have announced that Gwyneth Dunwoody's daughter Tamsin will fight the seat. There has been a long tradition in British politics for spouses or other relatives to take over the party cause in by-elections. Some would say this is a way to keep the electorate on side with a sympathy vote, others think it gives a natural feeling of dynastic continuity. After all, an MP in the Westminster model of democracy is very much wedded to a constituency. In fact, constituents are known to get the hump on occasions as with Mark Woodnutt in the Isle of W...
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| John Edwards - damned if he does, damned if he doesn't! |
| 2008-05-09 16:35:08 |
Senator John Edwards isn't exactly sitting on the fence. That would put him slightly above the fray. No, I put him in the corner of the stockade with a fiesty filly on one side and a charasmatic steer on the other. Whichever way Edwards goes, he's bound to get kicked!In a People Magazine exclusive (as they say!) John and Elizabeth Edwards have been waxing in a fairly lyrical way about what they like (and dislike) about Clinton and Obama. All very good, but it's more that just curate's egg philosophy. It's really just saying they aren't telling us who they support. At least Jimmy Carter said everyone in his family was backing Obama, but he couldn't go that far (nudge, nudge; wink, wink) as he was a Super Delegate.So what is the bottom line? They can't say. After all North Carolina is John E...
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| New Labour Joke of the Week! |
| 2008-05-09 16:33:46 |
"Labour sources in Crewe last night claimed voters were not raising the 10p issue with them."From the Daily Mail....
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| It's all over for Hillary |
| 2008-05-09 08:47:53 |
I felt that Barack Obama had the Democratic nomination in his grasp weeks ago. I still think he will be the nominee and that Hillary Clinton has missed the boat this time. She needs to decide whether she folds her tent now, at the end of the month or in June. Fold it she will have to.This particular race is not about her being a woman and him being from an ethnic minority background. This is all about change. Obama has sensed that, as did Ron Paul for the Republicans. Americans are fed up with having to do two or three jobs to make ends meet. They are at the end of their tethers over fickle financiers and corrupt corporations. The war in Iraq has stretched their patriotic hearts to bleeding point and they see their jobs exported in return for cheap Chinese merchandise.Is it any wonder that...
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| Republican Race goes round in circles |
| 2008-05-09 08:46:27 |
According to the Daily Telegraph, the Republican race is really over. Click on to their "Republican Nomination Race" link and you go straight to the Democratic one. Ron Paul is still in with the desire to get as many delegates as possible, but there is no desire to show it from the Telegraph's point of view. Ron Paul got 8% in North Carolina, and Mike Huckabee did even better on 12%! In Indiana, Mitt Romney was on the ticket as well and managed 5%. These guys are out of the race apparently, but that doesn't stop some people wanting to vote for them!The press is very "sided", so the maxim "don't always believe what you read in the papers" is very true....
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| Only us criminals! |
| 2008-05-09 08:44:47 |
In order for me to be a Junior Church helper, I've had to undergo the "robust" checking of the Criminal Records Bureau. Thankfully they did not get me mixed up with somebody else with a similar name who has a string of convictions. On BBC's Watchdog there were a number of people that were not so lucky.I am now the proud owner of an Enhanced Criminal Record Certificate. It all sounds so Orwellian, but then that's par for the course in New Labour Britain. Anybody coming into the country for the first time and being shown such a document would think that we are all potential crooks and miscreants. I've passed OK on all five categories. The first category is the "Police Records of Convictions, Cautions, Reprimands and Final Warnings". It is all a bit reminiscent of school. "This is your final ...
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| Richard Dawkins - Deity denigrater and general grump! |
| 2008-05-09 07:39:44 |
I heard Richard Dawkins on the Today Programme this morning. He's a million-dollar book seller and all-round serious atheist. Nothing wrong with that. We can all be what we want to be. But does he have to be so petty, so denigrating of others, and generally so mean-spirited when he talks about believers? It sounds like he has a chip on his shoulder about this. He wants Britain to be a "God Free" zone. Well, to use a phrase "a snowball's got a better chance in Hell".He appears to want to be nasty rather than nice in discussion. There is a real venom behind his words. He trivialises peoples' belief by referring to God as "an imaginary friend". He tries to suggest that believers should not be taken seriously.Personally I think it a bit of a waste of time Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor debati...
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| Ten green bottles hanging on the...... |
| 2008-05-09 06:13:11 |
The Crewe and Nantwich By-election has managed to interest ten candidates to stand for election. As we know, only one will be hired, the others will be fired.They are:-Tamsin Dunwoody - LabourEdward Timpson - ConservativesElizabeth Shenton - Liberal DemocratsMike Nattrass - UK Independence PartyRobert Smith - Green PartyDavid Roberts - English DemocratsThe Flying Brick - The Official Monster Raving Loony PartyPaul Thorogood - Cut Tax on Diesel and PetrolGemma Garrett - IndependentMark Walklate - Independent...
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| UKIP in Crewe and Nantwich |
| 2008-05-09 06:12:45 |
UKIP are getting more professional and they have just launched a by-election site for Mike Nattrass MEP who is the UKIP candidate in Crewe and Nantwich. They have a battle bus too, so this should add to the fun as well as the publicity!...
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| A blogger's life! |
| 2008-05-09 06:08:42 |
A blogger's life indeed. One of the joys of modern blogging (as opposed to a couple of years ago, that is) is the number of interesting widgets that you can get. I was keen on Spotplex and thought they were very good. So it is with some sadness that I find today that they have gone offline, closed down. Maybe they were just too good and got big before their time. That can happen. I don't know, but the message has gone out that they have gone. It's a pity as we need all the good ones to survive.I sort of new something was up when my posts were reacting rather erratically to the visitor counts. Oh well, it's a blogger's life indeed. I genuinely wish them well in the future....
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| Ron Paul Republicans on the rise in NC |
| 2008-05-08 18:44:12 |
An interesting post from Conservative Heritage Times. If you thought that Ron Paul's campaign had bitten the dust think again. All over the USA little pockets of Pauline political power are stirring the loins of Americans who want change. The CHT says "Kudos last night to North Carolina voters for nominating B.J. Lawson, a bonified Ron Paul Republican to the nomination for the 4th Congressional District and re-electing Walter Jones Jr. to the sixth CD. Jones was the only GOP member of Congress to endorse Paul for President".Jones’ election is important as it shows Republicans that oppose the war in Iraq, even in a district filled with military bases, do not have to face a political death sentence. Something that J...
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| The vulgarity of New Labour |
| 2008-04-30 10:46:08 |
Just after PMQs today the Government moved the writ for a by-election in Crewe and Nantwich. This election is caused by the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody, the fiesty Labour MP who was a long-serving proponent of traditional socialist values. Because of the undue haste in pushing this election through (the funeral hasn't yet been held) some members rightly felt this was unfortunate. Nicholas Winterton (Conservative MP for Macclesfield) and Simon Hughes, for the Liberal Democrats, both voiced sadness at this move. When Ann Winterton (Conservative MP for Congleton and wife of Nicholas) spoke, she was interrupted by John Spellar. When Spellar eventually rose, it was to speak in the typically vulgar tones associated with his side of the house.I noticed Geoff Hoon, the Chief Whip, looking decidedly ...
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| Obama shows no reverence to the reverend |
| 2008-04-29 17:50:28 |
Barack Obama has quite rightly distanced himself from the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who has some flaky ideas indeed. Whatever else one may think the American government has done or not done, only a moron could think that it might have brought AIDS to black neighbourhoods and that it has conducted terrorism. Obama said of Wright, "I may not know him as well as I thought". That is true of many friendships and relationships.Some are saying that this may be a pivotal moment in Obama's campaign. I can't think why. Just because an ageing pastor comes up with some odd-ball comments, it does not mean anyone remotely associated with him thinks the same. If that was the case, we could all catch this thought disease and end up thinking all kinds of stuff....
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| As the woman vicar said to the bishop! |
| 2008-04-29 17:32:05 |
For those who say the Church should get modern I suppose adultery and infidelity are not what they are thinking of. The real world has both in spadefuls it seems. It is therefore very sad when such things encroach on the lives of Church members and clergy. Not that those of us in the Church are less capable of falling short. Far from it.In the Church in Wales, the Right Rev. Carl Cooper resigned as Bishop of St David's yesterday. He had apparently been having an affair with a married woman who was also the bishop's chaplain and communications officer. The Daily Mail erroneously described her as a vicar, but then all priests in the Anglican Church are vicars to the popular press, even if they are curates, chaplains, rectors, assistant priests or priests-in-c...
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| Brown dismisses Levy's Blair claims |
| 2008-04-28 18:06:21 |
In the "Well he would say that" department of political life, Gordon Brown brushes aside assertions made by Lord Levy. When something like this is revealed, it is either true, partly true or a fabrication. I've said that I feel it is true, or at least as true as Lord Levy remembers it. These kinds of remarks are not normally forgotten.Either Lord Levy is a liar or Tony Blair is a liar. Lord Levy writes in his memoirs that "He (Blair) kept saying that he had never realised how duplicitous Gordon was, and what 'a liar' ". So Tony Blair thought Gordon Brown was a liar. There's a lot of them about in New Labour, that's for sure.Gordon Brown told the BBC in an interview that Blair's office "has made it clear that this in not an accurate reflection of what Mr Blair has said". Not an accurate ref...
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| No love all in Levy/Blair tennis match |
| 2008-04-27 13:53:33 |
Tony Blair must be some kind of rotten chum to his friends. When the going gets tough, let them hang out to dry. When they fight back, call them liars. It's all a bit pot calling the kettle black. Blair's been dissembling since his schooldays. It seems to be an inherent character trait. Those at Fettes with him felt a sensible distance was required at times, otherwise they too could be hauled up in front of the Headmaster. Gordon Brown came to believe that he couldn't trust Blair's integrity. No doubt, Blair felt likewise. It had long gone past the point where the dog was chasing its tail. The tail had a life of its own!Blair first got to be friends with Michael Levy at a Jewish fundraising dinner party in 1994 and they eventually ended up as tennis partne...
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| No Playboy at playtime for the boys in Baghdad |
| 2008-04-25 19:41:36 |
Censorship? No, it's more about decency. That's what Paul Broun unveiled in his House bill last week (April 16). The upstanding Congressman from Georgia says his Military Honor and Decency Act would amend a provision of the 1997 Defense Authorization Act that banned sales of “sexually explicit material” on military bases. Paul's all worried about the morals of the boys fighting the insurgents and renegades in Iraq and elsewhere.“Allowing sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes, feeding a base addiction, eroding the family as the primary building block of society, and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad,” Broun said. Now don't you hold back, Paul! You tell those guys that...
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| O'Connor not 4 Justice 4 England (or London)! |
| 2008-04-25 18:05:33 |
Matt O'Connor, the substitute candidate for Mayor of London on behalf of the English Democrats, says he has halted his campaign to become mayor. O'Connor replaced Garry Bushell, the well-known columnist, social pundit and all-round diamond geezer. Appearing on Vanessa Feltz's radio talk show on BBC London, O'Connor complained about lack of publicity. I can't think what he is meaning, as he got quite a bit. The trouble was it was all about him and his past exploits in Fathers4Justice.As Sir Alan Sugar might say on firing a hapless candidate in The Apprentice, "You're a complete shambles. You're fired!". The English Democrat campaign had an air of mystery laced with a we-know-something's-going-on-behind-the scenes inclinati...
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| Ken Clarke to propose a dog's dinner for England! |
| 2008-04-24 15:24:36 |
The West Lothian Question has been asked again. The Conservatives are thinking like mad, especially those in the Democracy Task Force set up by David Cameron. But I fear they've failed to make good grades. No straight A's coming from Ken Clarke.He's implacably opposed to an English Parliament. "We've got one!", he says, meaning the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. This Victorian pile is the British Parliament, build to glorify the political embodiment of the Empire. It is not an English parliament.So we will get, as The Daily Telegraph reports, a compromise between those who want English votes for English laws and those who would leave things be (undemocratically so, but they wouldn't mind!). Legislation affecting only England, an education Bill, for ...
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| Tony Blair caught out as fare dodger! |
| 2008-04-24 14:41:07 |
He had a lame excuse. He doesn't carry money, or at least not this time. However, the guard on the Heathrow Express allowed him to carry on, as someone paid up for him. OK for some. The press have had a field day, pointing out the ironies of it all. But I like the overseas press the best, especially The Hindu. This is what they think of "the 54-year-old mega-rich Middle East envoy"!Tony Blair may have earned millions since leaving office last year but when it came to paying his own train fare, the former British Prime Minister was found short of cash. The 54-year-old mega-rich Middle East envoy recently jumped on the Heathrow Express which allows passengers to buy a ticket on board.But when the ticket collector came round to first class, a red-faced Bl...
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| Blair gives Livingstone a helping hand |
| 2008-04-24 08:54:26 |
A week today it is polling day in London for the mayor. Ken Livingstone looks like he is just a bit behind. Who else to get to help him out? Why Tony Blair, of course! All in the aid of securing victory for Labour, so Gordon Brown doesn't cut such a pathetic figure.Three glorious sides of a dodgy triangle. All three corners pointing to trouble.Come next Thursday, I say - DON'T VOTE LABOUR! If the 10p tax band fiasco is anything to go by, New Labour (and Ken's Maverick Labour) don't deserve any further time in the corridors of power. Now we know. Labour don't give a fig about the poor.The last straw was seeing Yvette Cooper wingeing on TV about it all. She's got a nerve. She and her husband Ed Balls have seen to it that they feathered their own nests b...
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| Dutch director Paul Verhoeven's "realistic" rape thesis of the Virgin Mary! |
| 2008-04-24 07:09:33 |
In the "probably happened" theories this one is added to a long line of debunking books about the life of Jesus. According to Paul Verhoeven a Roman soldier got a basic instinct and raped Mary. Joseph said nothing of much significance. The Catholic League in America is up in arms. I wouldn't bother. An omnipotent God can look after Himself.Verhoeven can answer for himself. St. Paul will simply ask, "Where did you get such a preposterous idea from?". I'd far rather "let all grow until the harvest" than seeking to ban his book, or put him in jail or something.Fox News has the story....
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| Innocent customer dragged from his bed at 3 am! |
| 2008-04-24 05:05:13 |
Another story in the "if you've nothing to hide, what have you to fear" department. Quite a lot! In this case, a man went to Tesco to do some shopping but the myopic security guards took his car registration and gave it to the police. Why? Because some thief had stolen a plasma screen TV ( a feat in itself!) and managed to walk past the guards. In a totally separate incident, a woman claimed that this man, Simon Brasch, who works for a hospice charity, had scratched her car. One thing led to twenty-four and later, at 3 am, Mr.Brasch was dragged from his bed after the bizarre mix-up following his visit to the supermarket eight hours earlier.“I felt humiliated and degraded, I felt like a criminal. I was left to languish in a prison cell, my individual rights were completely put aside for a...
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| John McCain's running mate? |
| 2008-04-23 14:15:18 |
Who do you think Mccain">John McCain should pick as a suitable running mate in November? He's just got round to considering who might be the one.If a choice is not listed in my poll, tell me who I left out!...
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| Uncle Sam saw you drive from Bognor to Brighton! |
| 2008-04-23 08:00:29 |
For those who keep bleating about the anti-terror laws and how effective they are should think again. Saying, "well, if you haven't done anything you shouldn't be worried", and sounding all prim and proper about it is no good. Jacqui Smith is living up to her status as a typical prying New Labour Home Secretary. All apparatchik and no common sense.She has discreetly (or by stealth!) introduced new measures which will allow images of cars captured on road-side cameras, and "personal data" derived from them, including number plates, to be sent overseas to such august organisations as the CIA. The Daily Telegraph has uncovered her weasley ways. When she announced last year that British anti-terrorism police could access "real time" images from cameras used in the running of London's congestio...
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| St.George and the New Dragons |
| 2008-04-23 07:21:32 |
Today is St.George's Day. I hope everyone will have a happy day. Of course, that depends if people remember. It is all too easy for the English to forget in their busy lives. After all, its a fairly muted affair. The BBC mentioned the day, but suggested that more people celebrate Guy Fawkes Night than bother with giving St.George much attention. He got the short straw in the patron saint stakes. Some wags have even suggested he didn't exist.However, as the 21st Century dawned so too did a re-awakening in being English. What is so wrong in being proud of one's heritage, country and culture? Nothing! Everywhere else celebrates and has parties, so why not us?Today in the Daily Mail, Justice Secretary Jack Straw bemoans the fact that right-wing groups have hijacked the flag. He says we should ...
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| Ron Paul's followers fall foul of the old ways! |
| 2008-04-22 11:35:17 |
Robert's Rules of Order are no good in the Republican Party. Mugabe's Rules of Order (watered down version) more likely. So the Republican Party cracks down on Ron Paul activists. The Missouri GOP is determined that nothing will stop John McCain getting all 58 of Missouri's delegates. Ron Paul activists marched into the cafeteria of Kirkwood High School on Saturday to attend a meeting. Don Griffin is a conservative Republican activist and Paul supporter. However, according to convention chairman Rich Magee, "These are not Republicans, in my opinion." A stand-off ensued, with Griffin shouting, "It was a ramrod job!'', as he was denied proper access to the cafeteria. Angry Paul allies were escorted out shortly after the meeting began.Brent Stafford, the pr...
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| Alitalia alinogood for Air France-KLM |
| 2008-04-22 08:36:07 |
Alitalia has been jilted! No shot-gun wedding, the courtship's over. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Franco-Dutch carrier "has definitively yanked its offer off the table". So no wedding feast.Silvio Berlusconi will have to come up with an emergency rescue plan if this ailing airline is to keep flying. Italian taxpayers should ready themselves for their new prime minister knocking on their doors with a big begging bowl....
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