Lies, lies, more lies and damn statistics

Interesting article from Alan Caruba:

The Tyranny of Numbers

By Alan Caruba

When America hit the 300 million mark in October the U.S. Census Bureau held a press conference and their electronic display was on the evening news shows ticking off the numbers of new citizens until it showed…what?

It showed there are just way too many people in America if you worry about things like the provision of sufficient energy, dependency on unfriendly nations for our oil imports, overcrowding of cities, uncontrolled immigration, unfunded entitlements, and a whole list of other problems.

Hard core ecologists—environmentalists is another name for them—if you get a few drinks in them will tell you we will just have to get rid of a couple of million people every month or so if the Earth is to sustain the six billion taking up space, expecting to be fed every day, driving around in cars or on motorcycles, and making more people.

Mark Steyn has written one of the most important books published this year. It’s America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It (27.95, Regnery Publishing). Steyn deals with demographics, a topic most people in that particular field of scholarly endeavor manage to make so dull you just want to run screaming from the room. It is the study of human population trends. Steyn, however, is a talented writer and therefore knows how to turn statistics into a lively discourse.

Demographics have a way of sneaking up on you unnoticed. It’s all those cars and trucks on the road, seemingly driven by maniacs who have no regard for their own lives or yours. I’ll bet you didn’t know that in 2005, traffic deaths reached an all-time high. While the headlines scream about each new U.S. casualty in Iraq, 43,443 people were killed last year, up 1.4 percent from the 42,836 the year before. It was the highest number in any single year since 1990.

The ecologists have a virtually unbroken record of getting demographics wrong. As Steyn notes, in 1968 Paul Ehrlich declared in his bestselling book, The Population Bomb, that “In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.” Wrong. In 1973, a landmark study by the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth, announced that the world would run out of gold by 1981, of mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, and petroleum by 1992. Wrong.

The dumbest man Americans ever elected President, Jimmy Carter, predicted in 1977 that, “we could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of next decade.” It is a tribute to the Constitutional system that America actually is able to survive the occasionally stupid or venial man we put in the Oval Office. Former President Clinton is showing up everywhere these days telling anyone who will listen that global warming is going to end life as we know it if we don’t give the United Nations the opportunity to run everything everywhere. Wrong.

Meanwhile, most of us toiling away at our daily lives need to focus in on “what really did happen between 1970 and 2000”, says Steyn. “In that period, the developed world declined from just under 30 percent of the global population to just over 20 percent, and the Muslim nations increased from about 15 percent to 20 percent.”

Ask the French what that means. They are now into their second year of an all-out Intifada being fought by young Muslims (the press always calls them “youths”) who are burning cars and now buses with people still in them. There are areas in cities throughout Europe where no non-Muslim dares to go these days.

“The salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia,” says Steyn, “is that they are running out of babies.” It’s all about fertility rates and, in one developed nation after another the native-born population is not replacing itself as they continue to age and retire, living off the largess of the few young people left to do the work. This is what happens when you create a socialist system that pays for just about everything and promises to take care of you in your old age in case your kids will not.

When a nation loses its survival instinct, releasing its native population from the responsibilities of adulthood, someone is going to have to pick up the tab and do the work. Europe imported Muslims. America is ignoring a wholesale invasion of Mexicans. It’s all about the tyranny of numbers.

America, we’re told, is the lone superpower in the world. Lord knows we have a mighty military machine. We need it because our major export to the rest of the world is defense or, to put it another way, protection.

We’re protecting the Saudi oil fields. We’re protecting the Japanese and South Koreans against a crazy man with nukes. We protect the world’s sea lanes to keep oil and products of every description moving around. We have been protecting Europe since the end of World War II against the Red Menace despite the fact that they have embraced socialism.

And do we get any thanks for this? Hell no! That’s because we have lost our talent for waging a really nasty war to reduce our enemy’s cities to rubble and destroy their armies in the field. That’s how wars have always been won in the past.

But World War II was a different kind of war you say. You’re right. However, the stakes of the war in which we now find ourselves are no less critical. Thousands of young Muslims led by a fanatical core and funded by those afloat in oil money and religious passion have decided that America does not have the stomach for war.

“Our enemies,” Steyn says, “have made a bet—that the West in general and the United States in particular are soft and decadent, and have no attention span.”

If your attention span to this brief polemic on demographics and the guts to defend America has begun to wander, Steyn is right.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. His new book is “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, from Merril Press.

© Alan Caruba, 2006

Iran - what a lovely place it is

Iran Bans Da Vinci Code

Bestsellers and literary classics on Iran's Index Librorum Prohibitorum

Iran's extremist cultural ministry has announced a crackdown on publishing, banning a list of classic works as well as modern foreign and Iranian novels in an attempt to end what it describes as a "poisoned dish to the young generation."

Along with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Tracy Chevalier's best-seller Girl With a Pearl Earring and books of lyrics by bands like The Beatles, Queen and The Rolling Stones will be prohibited. Contemporary Iranian writers, some of whom are feted outside Iran, will no longer be published in their home country, while pre-revolutionary novels will also be banned.

The Guardian quotes the culture minister Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi - a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"We have complaints against those who see books as only a market and are acting as assistants for evil... Sometimes the humiliation of Iranian youth is implied or suggested in the books. Sometimes the media transmits the concept that we Muslims and easterners lack proper means and, therefore, we should stretch our hands towards others."

Culture ministry spokesmen complain that under the rule of Ahmadinejad's reforming predecessor Mohammed Khatami, the Islamist regime relaxed its grip too much, creating "a climate encouraging immoral behaviour, sex before marriage, mockery of religious traditions and secularism."

Ferenc Puskas R.I.P.

There's a bit more here

The Bloody mad Irish being bloody mad again

Lovely article by Kevin Myers of the Irish Independent. Taken from "Israpundit"

Israel deserves our sympathy, not knee-jerk anthems of hatred

Kevin Myers, Irish Independent

HOW does Israel choose its ambassador to Ireland? If he was struck by lightning two minutes after he was born; if his mother had inverted nipples so he could suck no milk; if the rabbi’s scalpel was rusty and blunt, leading to full amputation of the organ in question; if his school was infected by scabies and he spent his childhood scratching himself almost to death; if he went bald at the age of 14, and lost his teeth at the age of 18 - well, then clearly he is a chap who is used to misfortune, and is thoroughly qualified to be Israeli ambassador to Ireland.

For this appointment would wipe the smile off the face of the happiest Jew in the world. Indeed, when Danny Kaye was offered the job, he promptly became a Mormon, and grew a foreskin. Because, there is in this country almost no popular sympathy whatever for the plight of the Israeli people, and wherever the wretched Israeli ambassador goes, he’ll be met by renta-mobs of ignorant hullabalooing know-alls, howling their anthems of hatred.

The apex of this anti-Israeli pathology is in the Seanad - surely the most redundant, conceited and dim-witted upper chamber of any state in Europe. This is the home of that grisly and self-congratulatory Michael D Norris-tendency, with their regular, shrill peacock-screeches of denunciations of anything to do with Israel (usually after some disingenuous declarations about
their love of Jews). University campuses, in their more modest undergraduate way, tend to follow senatorial example, typically with their banners proclaiming, “Lesbians, Gays & Trans-Sexuals Against Israel”.

What welcome would the Seanad or our university campuses extend to Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose forces have ruthlessly showered Israeli civilian areas with rockets? What greeting would they give the Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, or the Hamas political leader, Khalid Misshal? These fine fellows want to introduce full-blown Islamic law to the entire area of Palestine, including Israel. Would they howl these creatures down, as they do the Israeli ambassador every time that gallant tries to speak in public? Do you know, I rather doubt it.

The truth is that any anti-Zionist Arab who comes to Ireland, regardless of the vileness of his general opinions, will be greeted as if he were the recently discovered love-child of Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa. No inconvenient questions for him about by which manner he
prefers to execute homosexuals - by pushing walls on them with bulldozers, as Taliban did, or the rather more existentially satisfying one of the crowd being allowed to stone them to death, as in Iran and Saudi. Ditto harlots. Ditto women who have been raped and can’t prove they didn’t
give assent.

It is not merely the sheer stupidity of the reflexive anti-Israeli attitude in Ireland, but its
counter-emotionalism which is so stunning. If most people judge an issue by consulting their feelings - which, regretably, is usually the case in this country - then surely some hearts, if only out of sentiment alone, should be moved by Israel’s dilemma. After all, the Jewish state is
smaller in area than Munster, and is surrounded by a hostile Arab landmass the size of the continental United States. It has not known general peace in 60 years.

Instead, almost all traditions of supporting the underdog, of siding with the weakest, of sympathising with those who have been oppressed for hundreds of years, vanish completely when the weak, oppressed underdog is Jewish and Israeli. And please, please spare me talk about the powerlessness of the Palestinians compared to the military might of Israel.

Both are meaningless illusions when confronted by the demographics of the region and the cult of the suicide bomber. Laser-guided missiles can do nothing to prevent the Arabs of the region dramatically out-breeding Jews in the next half a century: smart technology cannot thwart the smarter suicide-bomber, who in a heterogeneous and open society like Israel will sooner or later blow apart the school bus or the bar-mitzvah.

The generalised Arab intifada against Israel took a new shape earlier this year, with the ceaseless rocket bombardment of Israeli cities - usually from the very areas which the Israelis had, under international pressure, obligingly just vacated. The Israeli response was exactly in
line with the expectations of Hizbollah. The latter’s men used civilian areas to attack Israeli towns, largely inaccurately, and imbecilic; but largely accurate Israeli counter-fire then killed sleeping civilians, as intended. Both sides were obediently following some abominable
master-plan in which Hizbollah behaved with diabolical cunning, and the Israelis with abysmal stupidity. The result? Thousands dead, and Israel’s international reputation even lower then before. Hizbollah is now the great political and military force of Lebanon, just as Hamas
is amongst Palestinians.

I write this today because I have just read - with weary predictability: and I say that with some justification, because I did, with great weariness, predict it - that Hizbollah are back in business on the Israeli border. Armed militants are re-establishing themselves in bunkers there, and Israeli intelligence reports they have 20,000 rockets. Their leader, Sheikh Nasrallah, disagrees. He says they actually have 30,000.

No doubt we’ll see who’s right over the coming months.

UKIP on the way up?

The Devil highlights a brilliant media coup for the United Kingdom Independence Party.

Hezbollah (Iran) back on Israel's Northern Border

This article below is from the Jerusalem Post. It's just a matter of time.





IDF: Covert Hizbullah units return to northern borderBy YAAKOV KATZ

Exactly three months after a UN-brokered cease-fire ended Israel's war in Lebanon, IDF officers told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that Hizbullah gunmen disguised as civilians were back on the border and collecting intelligence on IDF positions.
Although 15,000 Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and 8,000 UNIFIL soldiers were deployed in southern Lebanon, between the border and the Litani River, the IDF said Hizbullah still had a presence in the area.
"They [Hizbullah] are still there," an officer in the Northern Command said. "We are watching them and they are watching us."
Armed Hizbullah men, the officer said, were no longer along the border like it was before the war, when it maintained military outposts right next to Israel.
But he said, the Hizbullah operatives lived in villages along the border and were spotted conducting surveillance on Israel.
"They are there but they cannot operate freely like they used to," the officer said. "There is UNIFIL and the LAF there and this does complicate things for them."
UNIFIL rejected IDF allegations that Hizbullah guerrillas had returned to the border. The UN force's chief liaison officer, Col. Alexan Lalan, told the Post Tuesday that the IDF's actions, in particular the daily IAF flyovers, were strengthening Hizbullah and creating new militants for the Shi'ite group.
"The flyovers harm the credibility of UNIFIL, the credibility of the LAF and the credibility of the state of Lebanon," Lalan said in a phone interview from his office in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.
"Every flyover creates new Hizbullah militants and new sympathy for Hizbullah since it shows and demonstrates that UNIFIL and the LAF are not powerful and able to stop them," Lalan said.
Following the cease-fire that went into effect on August 14, UNIFIL set up a liaison office in Northern Command headquarters in Safed and stationed several officers there. Lalan said the officers were responsible for maintaining a good "flow of information" between the IDF and UNIFIL.
UNIFIL also complained about the continued IDF presence in the northern part of the village of Ghajar, split in half by the border between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF has been in the Lebanese part of the village since the beginning of the war, saying it would only withdraw when it felt that UNIFIL and the Lebanese army had deployed effectively both inside the village and nearby. Ghajar was the scene of a thwarted Hizbullah attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers last year.
"I cannot say when the IDF will withdraw from Ghajar but we hope it will be soon since it
is important for the implementation of [Security Council] Resolution 1701," said Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the UN group and a civil affairs adviser to its commander, French Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini.
Strugar could not confirm IDF claims that weapons were being smuggled into Lebanon from Syria - the justification for the continued IAF flyovers - but said Hizbullah was no longer present in UNIFIL's area of operations in southern Lebanon.
"UNIFIL is not deployed along the border with Syria and therefore we do not know what happens there," he said. "In our area of operations, there is no physical presence of Hizbullah armed people, and on a few occasions UNIFIL came across weapons and [Hizbullah] assets and we informed the Lebanese army and they came and destroyed them."
The IDF officer said he thought the Lebanese army would prevent Hizbullah from taking up arms and returning to the border in the same numbers as before the war. "The Lebanese government does not want to repeat the events of this past summer," the officer said. "To ensure this they need to enforce their sovereignty in southern Lebanon."•

Rememberance

Having made the decision to eschew a gentle stroll over Hampstead Heath and to walk to the Cenotaph, I managed to get to within 50 yards of the light grey monolith at around 10.30am. My final vantage point would have been reached earlier had it not been for the extra security measures and the sheer volume of spectators.

After the usual 2 minutes silence at 11.00am, Her Majesty the Queen laid the first wreath of poppies, followed by other members of the Royal Family, politicians, service chiefs and Commonwealth envoys. Did you see a very frail Margaret Thatcher on John Major's arm?

Above left, are the wreaths left by the Royals and to the right those left Messrs Blair, Cameron et al. Unusually, the Prime Minster of New Zealand, Helen Clark left a wreath. This followed yesterday's unveiling of a new memorial, at Hyde Park Corner, to those Kiwi's who fell in battle in the two World Wars. My favourite wreath is the one, left this year, by Margaret Beckett, on behalf of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. It's the one which includes myrtle and snowberry.

After the brief ceremony, some 8000 veterans marched past the Cenotaph to "old favourites" like "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"; "There'll always be an England", "Rule Brittania and so on. I'm eligible to march wearing my fathers medals. Something to consider next year.

Europe must be destroyed!

No, not a Dalek rant but some words of wisdom from Tim Worstall's excellent blog and endorsed by the Devil himself

Latin You Can Use. (from a post in October 2004)

A phrase that we all need to learn, one that can unite us as Europeans in defence of our freedoms, lives, rights and properties while ending the rise of a faceless bureaucracy over us.

"Ceterum censeo Consilium Europaeum esse delendam"

And, therefore, I conclude that "the European Union must be destroyed".

Poppies

"Longrider" has written a brilliant article about the "white poppy" issue.

He describes Jonathan Bartley of Ekklesia as a sanctimonous arsehole. Quite rightly, in my opinion.

Here's Longriders article

A religious think-tank said today that red poppies have become “politically correct,” with many people wearing them simply because they feel obliged.

Public figures in Britain are urged to wear the red poppy almost as an “article of faith” while simultaneously being told not to wear items such as the crucifix, the director of Ekklesia, Jonathan Bartley, said.

He added that although a symbol of hope, the red poppy was not a good Christian symbol because it implied redemption can come through war.

Jonathan Bartley is a sanctimonious arsehole. There is nothing “politically correct” about the red poppy. It is a reminder of the fallen on the fields of Flanders during the Great War – and, subsequently, their comrades in more recent conflicts. For this loathsome group to attempt to pervert the red poppy in this manner is deeply, deeply insulting to the war dead and the surviving veterans. I don’t give a damn whether the red poppy of Remembrance Day is a good Christian symbol or not. It isn’t a symbol of religious faith at all; it is a symbol of remembrance; of sacrifice and irreplaceable loss. Of the gift, given by one generation that the next may live free. It does not and never has represented redemption through war. That is merely Bartley and his odious cohorts projecting their ridiculous prejudices on something that they do not, nor cannot understand; the honour and the legacy of the fallen. They disgrace themselves and slur the memory of the dead with their cheap tactics.

But whilst apparently banned from wearing one symbol of hope, the cross, public figures in Britain are simultaneously urged, indeed in many cases, required, to wear another, the red poppy, almost as an article of faith.

There is a political correctness about the red poppy, which often goes unnoticed.
Oh, what utter, utter bollocks! Wearing the poppy (besides contributing to help veterans) is a symbol of remembrance, of gratitude for the sacrifice; a way of saying “thank you”. You don’t need faith to wear a poppy. You don’t need faith to be grateful for a generation’s sacrifice. You don’t need faith to hope that the sacrifice was not in vain. To draw a comparison with the current silliness over religious symbols is nothing more than cheap point scoring and typical of the persecution complex trotted out by the religious at every tiresome opportunity.

Mr Bartley’s remarks come in advance of Remembrance Sunday on November 12 and will anger war veterans.

Undoubtedly. Should he ever enquire, I have a suggestion as to what the egregious Bartley may do with his white poppy.

I, meanwhile, intend to honour the fallen with a red poppy. In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row by row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard among the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe;To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If yea break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

Oona King..............

was one of the panelists at a JCC do the other evening. Very erudite, intelligent and charming.

I'm sure the House of Commons is missing her.

It may not be the Times but...............

any publicity for my Trek is welcome.

( The Archer is a community newspaper for East Finchley run entirely by volunteers )

Neville Jacobs

My father (above in Burma c. 1944, just after the battle of Kohima) is staying with me for a few days.

This afternoon, we spent an hour or so in Golders Hill Park, literally a stones throw from the Bull & Bush and close to Hampstead Heath. Despite the lowish temperature today, the cafe's terrrace is a bit of a sun-trap. On most days, for nine months a year, (if it's not raining) you'll see the great and good of Golders Green nattering away to various family members about all subjects under the sun.

Today, it was just pleasant to hear my father reminiscing about the immediate post-war years and how he would have spent time in the park with my sister. "It was such a long time ago", he remarked. He's right!

Lemley and the 2012 Games

Mihir Bose, writing in the Daily Telegraph, did this piece about Amercan businessman, Jack Lemley, ODA Chairman.

"Lemley quits through ill health" By Mihir Bose


Sources close to the organisers of the 2012 London Olympic Games have told the Daily Telegraph that the reason for the resignation of Jack Lemley, chairman of the Olympic Development Authority — the body responsible for venues and infrastructure — was due to ill health and problems created by having to commute between America and Britain.
Lemley, who was responsible for the Channel Tunnel project, had been appointed last year and at his press conference promised that he would set up home in London. Although he rented a flat there he still travelled back to the United States where he has extensive business interests.
Lemley has also recently had some heart trouble and the strain of constantly jetting back and forth across the Atlantic took its toll.

I'm told matters came to a head quite quickly about 10 days ago when it was decided that it would be best if he resigned.

One source told me: "It is now widely recognised that Jack Lemley was not the right choice and we will have to make sure that the next chairman of the ODA is the right one."
It is not unusual for cities that stage Olympic Games to change the top personnel. The London 2012 bid for the Games also saw a major change of personnel when, a year after the bid was launched — and with London ranked a poor third to Paris and Madrid — Barbara Cassani, the bid leader, resigned and was replaced by Seb Coe, who took London to victory.
One source said: "The difference is Barbara's resignation was well flagged inside London 2012 whereas Lemley's has come up very suddenly and caught many people by surprise."

Late last night, television news suggested that Lemley had resigned and returned to Idaho for quite different reasons. One was to do with the compulsory purchase of land and property in East London. Apparently Jack couldn't cope ( and I'm paraphrasing here) with the internecine wars going on between local politicians.

This is so typical of our country isn't it. Petty-minded individuals trying to put their "inconsequential two-bobsworth in". But of course there will be consequences. Inevitable delays to the construction of the 2012 site, budget goes through the roof, blah, blah, blah - and who'll pick up the tab - you've guessed it.

Jeremy Paxman on Bulgaria & Romania

In one of his tamer interviews this evening on BBC's Newsnight, top TV presenter, Jeremy Paxman asked Sir Chris Fox (former very important person at ACPO) about controlling criminals from EUssr's two "new" states. Bulgaria & Romania.

Both parties, in an awful exchange, just couldn't bring themselves to say that the way to stop the next wave of gangsters is to have proper border controls (which of course this country hasn't had for some time). Our borders at one time were Dover, Ramsgate, Heathrow et al, now they're Minsk, Omsk, Tomsk parts of Poland, Moldova and other lands that God forgot.

The subject of restricting immigration through "controls" was mentioned, or rather, waffled through. The truth is of course, this country can't do diddly-squat about immigration from any EUssr state.

Ellee a Blog Bore - Never

My new friend and colleague in cyberspace Ellee Seymour has left a comment on my November 1st post below. Her family accuse her, quite unfairly in my view, of being a Blog bore. Whilst I understand their point, they ought to realise the importance of "alternative news & discussion groups".

In a free society like Britain, (I mention that grittng my teeth) it's essential we promote and foster free speech and democracy. Both given scant regard by certain bad broadcasting organizations. I'm certain other "cyberspace peeps " like the Devil, Guido, SP, Eastcliffe Richard et al will all agree.

November 1st

Do you mind telling me where the year has gone?

"Spooks" on BBC last night

Melanie Phillips wrote this article following last week's episode.............

The British Bigotry Corporation

Although I didn’t see it, a number of people have reported that the BBC TV series ‘Spooks’ has been a sickening example of sheer unadulterated antisemitism, complete with conspiracy theory and accusations of dual loyalty. A reader writes:

Anti-Zionism may be unremarkable on the Beeb, but this skidded well over into antisemitism. The take-home message was that Al Qaeda are a bunch of amateurs and can be managed as a law-enforcement problem but the real danger are those devious, murderous, all-too-clever Jews. The main plot involves a group of ruthless Mid-East hijackers who take over a London embassy and shoot people every hour. They turn out (of course) to be Jews in disguise. We have a Jewish traitor in high places with dialogue invoking the classic ‘can’t serve two masters’ accusation: ‘I asked which side he would fight on in a war between Britain and Israel. He just gave me his answer.’ The plot also relies on the same argument as the 9/11 conspiracy theory that Mossad blew up the twin towers because Muslims aren’t smart enough: MI5 realise the baddies must be Jewish because they’re too clever for their own good (and merciless and self-serving, naturally). The Jews in this episode may not be drinking the blood of Christian children but they are certainly bloodthirsty. There is even a fat, heavy-featured Mossad officer looking evil and inscrutable as he mouths ’shalom’. Plus the ringleader gets a cathartic booting at the end from the hero which had me in mind of Kristallnacht.

Nor was this a one-off rush of blood to the BBC head. Eric Lee, who wrote about this double episode on his blog here was forced to return to it again here, since ‘Spooks’ has now used the ‘diabolical Israelis’ angle three weeks in a row. Are they really so short of plot ideas?
Only a few days ago, people were taken aback to read the brazen admissions of bias made by BBC bigwigs at their ‘impartiality’ seminar. But this is much more than political bias. This is deep, culturally embedded, venomous bigotry. Yet to my knowledge there has been no inquest at the BBC, no expressions of concern by staff, no sign of life from the Governors. Astounding.

What does one expect from the institutionally anti-semitic, anti-Zionist BBC?

Last night, "Israelis" were once again in a bizarre story-line. This time a supposed Mossad hit squad went after this weeks "Baddie". The "Baddie" got wasted, much to the annoyance of MI5 who couldn't tolerate such interference from a foreign power. Bless.

I wonder if the Devil cares about this?

Muddy fields in Kent and a haunted pub

For those of you who normally venture here , can I apologise. Today was very special. Why? you may ask. Well, the training programme is really kicking (or hiking) into gear.

Very soon, I'm going to have to join the Ramblers Association! - About 8 miles were covered, on foot, from the well known village of Sutton-at-Hone to Farningham and back. My guides were the infamous Lord & Lady Pay. The "first-half" was spent dodging sheep, Sevenoaks District Council (very near to Iain Dale territory) dust-carts, very small dogs and navigating tunnels, above which were the M20 & A20. The conversation was peppered with current affairs, politics; reminices about schooldays in Broadstairs, political speeches; (like the nonsense from Bliar this morning) tv & radio coverage and so on..................time was taken out for a photo shoot. ( see above - do you like the boots?)

After about 2 1/2 hours, when the three voices were getting a little hoarse, a pub was stumbled upon. Not any pub, but one run by daughter Katherine. An excellent repas was served and copious amounts of shandy were imbibed. The pub in question is the Pied Bull. This former coaching inn is haunted by a "friendly ghost". "Is that right", I said with a certain degree of sarcasm. "Certainly is", said Katherine. She then explained about various goings on and comings off, up and down the staircase. The ghost sometimes laughs. Katherine tells it to shut-up. It does!

The return leg (I know a terrible pun) resumed at about Chinese dentist time - two-thirty. ( some of you will get that) and finished around tea-time. A brew was gulped down before I headed towards the M25 and civilization.

October Sunshine

A quite brilliant day today. I've already dropped a note here about todays marching over Hampstead Heath.

Tomorrow(correct, I'm having a day off) shall be spent circumnavigating various parts of the Darenth valley in North Kent. Later on, I'm being presented with some sponsorship money by some kind souls from England's garden. That'll put me past the 2K mark.

The day will be spent with Lord & Lady Pay. One of them shares my passion for da 'Gate

The oldest football club in London

No not Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham or even Brentford but lowly Leyton. Formed in 1868, that's 28 years earlier than us , their current side were walloped by the glorious 'Gate 4-0 yesterday afternoon.

I've been to some ropey grounds in my time but Leyton's, bless them, does take the biscuit. To be fair, their supporters, all 17 of them, were friendly and the tea bar served excellent chips, but I'm afraid the "stadium" has a long way to go to meet modern standards. (Mind you, so has Hartsdown Park, Margate, but that's another issue).

Just down the road from Leyton's ground, new facilities for the 2012 Olympics will start to spring up very shortly. That's all very well but IMO, sports grounds in this country are sadly lacking in number and quality. One just has to visit many non-league football grounds around the country. To that you can add the lack of hockey, lacrosse and rugby pitches. Compared to the Continent (where sport& recreation are taking more serioiusly) sporting ground choices for our citizens is awful. Did you realise that we've lost 34000 playing fields in recent years? Whether this is down to deliberate Government policy, greedy speculators or just plain incompetence, it is high-time this serious issue was tackled.

A day off

No sports reporting or radio broadcasting for me tomorrow. Instead, household chores, training and watching rather than commentating on football.

Oh and one more thing - the car needs cleaning.

Breast Cancer Awarness Day

Is virtually over and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a couple of calls concerning my preparation for "the" Trek.

More details can be found here.

With a bit of luck, I may be asked to give a talk at my public-speaking club about my fund-raising efforts.

Campaign for Common Sense

After reading Ruth Lea's piece in today's Daily Telegraph, I'm thinking of starting one.

Gordon Brown's squandered legacy By Ruth Lea


Gordon Brown is currently preparing his last Pre-Budget Report, which could be his last shout or, possibly, his penultimate shout as Chancellor. Doubtless his analysis of his management of the economy will be strong on self-congratulation and weak on self-criticism. A balanced assessment will not be on the cards. In truth, his management has been very mixed indeed.
On the plus side, there is little doubt that his move to hand over interest rate decisions to the Bank of England was sound. The Bank has performed a splendid task and delivered "low inflation stability" most satisfactorily. But even here the Chancellor has been unable to resist interfering. Quite gratuitously, he changed the inflation target from one based on the retail prices index (excluding mortgage interest payments) to one based on the less comprehensive, but euro-friendly, consumer price index.
Also on the plus side, the economy has performed reasonably creditably. Given worse management, it could have performed far worse. This may be seen as damning his management with faint praise. It is meant to. An analysis of the economy that Mr Brown inherited from the beleaguered Tory government, whose reputation for economic competence collapsed on Black Wednesday, and today's equivalent does not make happy reading.

In 1997, the economy, after the traumas of the early 1990s, was performing remarkably well. Post-Black Wednesday, Norman Lamont made hard, but very necessary, decisions on fiscal consolidation and introduced inflation targeting. These policies were consolidated by Ken Clarke and, along with the supply-side reforms of the Thatcher era, provided the conditions for economic recovery. Inflation moderated, growth was strong, unemployment fell, the balance of payments improved and the public finances were transformed.

Indeed, when Mr Brown made his triumphant entry into the faded Edwardian grandeur of the Treasury building (since refurbished at great expense), the healthy state of the economy was explained to him. Apparently an official had said to him: "These are fantastically good figures – the state of the economy is much better than predicted." To which his reply was: "What am I supposed to do about this? Write a thank-you letter?" He did not write a thank-you letter. Instead, he vilified the Tories' record, not least on the public finances.

Fast-forwarding nine years, it is clear that, while the economy has not been wrecked, it no longer performs as well as it did in 1997. You will not be hearing this from Mr Brown on Pre-Budget Report day. GDP growth has slowed when compared with the Major years, especially when allowance is made for the impact on growth of the large-scale immigration experienced since mid-2004. And this is at a time when the world economy has been, on the whole, remarkably benign. The performance of the manufacturing sector has been dire. Even though there has been a rise in employment, much of it in the public sector, unemployment is also now increasing quite sharply. Productivity growth has decelerated significantly, despite Mr Brown's procession of policies for "meeting the productivity challenge". Even inflation is now picking up.
The deterioration in the current account of the balance of payments has been dramatic. In 1997, it was almost in balance; last year, the deficit was £27 billion. Deficits of this size can be financed – but not without damaging Britain's net asset position with the rest of the world.

But the biggest macroeconomic horror relates to public finances. When the Tories left office, public sector finances were moving towards surplus. The Chancellor added to this potential treasure chest by raising taxes – most notoriously by removing tax credits for dividends paid to pension schemes, which has so damaged occupational pensions. This was Mr Brown's "prudent" phase, when he was storing up treasure for a "purpose".

The purpose was, of course, the subsequent massive injection of funds into public services, especially the NHS. It is difficult to comprehend just how rapidly public spending has shot up on the Chancellor's watch. It is huge, even allowing for inflation. In financial year 1997-98, total spending was about £320 billion; by 2005-06, it was £520 billion. And its share had risen from 39 per cent of GDP to 42 per cent.

The folly of injecting huge chunks of cash into the unreformed public services and the ever-expanding public sector has been debated on many occasions. The evidence of falling productivity and wanton waste of hard-earned resources is little short of scandalous. And, of course, taxes have been increased substantially to pay for Mr Brown's folly. Britain's tax-GDP ratio is rising at a time when most other OECD countries have realised that heavily taxed economies underperform and destroy individual incentives.

But even with Mr Brown's tax increases, public finances, far from heading towards balance as they were in 1997, are now stubbornly, structurally, in the red. Even on the Chancellor's own forecasts, which should always come with a health warning, public sector borrowing is expected to be £36 billion for the current financial year. Given that the economy has been growing since 1994, the unhealthy state of the public finances should be regarded as a major achievement of irresponsible mismanagement.

Sadly, too, general economic competitiveness has deteriorated over the past nine years. Not only have corporate taxes risen, but the horrendous complexity of the tax system is self-evident to anyone who ventures inside the covers of Tolley's Tax Guide. Regulations, some home-grown, many from the EU, insidiously creep into and fur up enterprise. The extension of employment regulations is especially troublesome. The Chancellor talks the talk on being business-friendly, but most emphatically does not walk the walk.

The Chancellor's record is nothing to be proud of. He inherited a golden legacy, and has squandered much of it. One thing is for sure. His successor's inheritance will not be golden. But he will have one thing in common with Mr Brown. He will not be writing a thank-you letter, either.

Ruth Lea is the director of the Centre for Policy Studies

2am on Sunday morning

The bi-annual hiatus of clock changing will be happening over this weekend. "Don't forget to put your clocks back" the voice on the radio will say. Then they bang on about that extra hour in bed. As if that's going to make such a difference to our lives!

Woman are meat - it's official

According to an Australian Muslim Cleric.

I suppose he's entitled to his opinion.

YouTube

A fellow London Corinthian sent me an e-mail yesterday imploring me to join YouTube. Jenny Cutler is a real star. Brilliant at public-speaking and story-telling, she's a stalwart of Toastmasters International.

Why, I asked myself. Will there be some global catastrophe if I don't?

I'm already (or rather my showreel is) on Google Video so why bother with these other types of self-promoting video sites?

Bulgarians & Romanians

The comment by Serf in his Blog is self-evident and more than worthy of a mention.

Here it is in full:
Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Tough on Immigration

Our Glorious Leader, in the knowledge that his lies on immigration have been rumbled, has vowed to be much tougher this time. His tame Pit Bull has been telling the world that Romanians and Bulgarians, will not have the automatic right to work in the UK next year, unlike their more fortunate Polish counterparts. Thats the theory anyway. The reality?

EU law means the Government can’t stop people coming – so permits will only drive people into the illegal economy.Read that carefully. Under EU law, all Romanians and Bulgarians have the right to come to the UK. The system to be put in place simply means that they cannot work legally. So my question to you is this: A Bulgarian who has been unable to find a job at home is now faced with an option

1. Stay where he is unemployed
2. Come to the UK and work illegally

Personally I would choose option number two.
Something which not enough people are aware of is exactly what free movement of people means. Open Europe spells out one very big problem with it:

While EU law allows the Government to restrict numbers coming to work for companies in the UK it currently forbids it from stopping dangerous criminals from entering the country, or deporting them if they commit a crime in the UK.

Seeing as crooks have more reason than most to wish to move around, this part of the law is a complete criminals charter. Probably in place to make a power grab in the area of justice much easier.

English Language - usage and abusage.

Had to laugh on the way back to Euston from Manchester ( the 15.11) earlier today. The Virgin train "manager" came on the intercom and delivered in his best gutteral, "nah wot I meen" dialect and uttered something like - "the twain will be stoppin' at Stoke-on-Twent soas we can sort out the electrix". He continued bravely. "we will be there for about four to five minutes".

Unfortunately, the speed of his oration, meant that certain fellow passengers ( or customers, as they are now called) thought he said "Fawty-five". "Oh my Gawd"! shreiked the chavette over to my left. (She was no doubt pondering about the fact that her assignation with "Terry" or "Lee" would be delayed) Within a few seconds normal service had resumed, as our magnificent train manager, realising the error of his ways, slowly repeated over the intercom "four......to......five minutes.....so about five minutes, not fawtyfive minutes". Ironic applause would have been heard all over the Potteries.

You see, this could have been avoided if one just enounciated one's speech a little better.

Aw wight!

What a difference a week makes!

From beautiful Bordeaux to miserable Manchester.
The contrast couldn't have been greater. On the one hand, there's sophistication and on the other scruffiness, foul-language and anti-social behaviour. Most of it, of course, in the centre of town!
Luckily for me, I was staying with some friends near the relatively civilized suburb of Altrincham. Mind you, I was dead impressed with the new Hilton Hotel near the G-Mex centre. The lower half of this "thin" skyscraper is the hotel, then above it are private apartments. The tallest residential building in the UK.

Clare Short

I have to wholeheartedly agree with Iain Dale's comment in his Blog about Clare Short.

"I'm not sure what to make of Clare Short's decision to resign the Labour whip today and continue as an independent MP. If I were a Labour supporter I would be furious at the kick in the teeth she has administered to the Party which made her. And she does it at the very time that Tony Blair is on his way out. I would have more respect for her if she had done it much earlier, but she was of course very happy to earn her Cabinet Minister's salary for six years and keep Blair's patronage".