Don't Panic Mr Mainwaring, Don't Panic

A wonderful 'the world's going to end' headline from the Daily Mail today:

Radioactive particles are discovered in...wait for it...capital letters...Oxfordshire. Not only that but in the....sleepy village of Chilton.

Nothing to do with the fact that one of the UK's main atomic research centres is based just around the corner - a 1 minute's drive away - and has substantial radiation measuring facilities, which were used to inform the Government during the Chernobyl crisis.

Portugal Downgraded Again

Portugal has now been downgraded twice in less than a week. Default looms unless there's a bailout:

LISBON/ATHENS, March 29 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece and Portugal on Tuesday, citing risks that the countries' debts could be subordinated to any future European bailout mechanism, and sending their bonds sharply lower.

Interestingly (my emphasis):

The downgrades left Portugal one notch above junk and Greece's creditworthiness below that of Egypt, deepening the debt troubles for two of the weakest countries in the euro zone.

When will this nonsense end?

Eg Hitler

I was searching the Daily Express website for an EU story, and the suggested option in the search field for typing in 'EU' came back with this (click to enlarge):

However other searches come up with different suggestions in 'search the Daily Express' field.

Oh What A Web We Weave

It looks increasingly likely that the EU-fanatic - that is David Cameron - is coming unstuck over the impending bailout of Portugal. It was always inevitable; the UK policy of speaking pro-EU to Brussels but pretending to be anti-EU to UK voters, becomes harder and harder to maintain with each EU power grab.

And so it proves, with Cameron desperate to blame Labour for what will be an unpopular bailout of Portugal, it now seems, unsurprisingly, that the Tories were just as enthusiastic all along. Richard North has the details:

Of course, it is a classic Cleggeron tactic to blame Labour – as indeed we got so used to hearing about eighteen years of "Tory misrule" from Labour, but in this instance, the blame lies fairly and squarely with our membership of the European Union.

And there we see the real Euroslime coming to the fore. He is quite happy to slag off Labour, any day of the week, but when it comes to his darling EU, not a word of criticism will he utter. It would never do to let the voters know that he is just as powerless as the rest of them.

This is developed further by Bruno (above). Alongside The Mail, he also relays the claim that Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor, in the dying days of the last Labour administration, sought and obtained "cross–party consensus" before agreeing the establishment of the fund.

A document to that effect has now emerged (below), and we have Darling denying that, during an emergency meeting in Brussels on 9 May he ignored advice given to him by Mr Osborne. Darling says: "What we discussed was not voting against but abstention, recognising that Britain could have been outvoted".

Now Dave is having to come to terms with the reality of EU membership, and he doesn't like the idea of being seen as a powerless clone, who has to fall into line with whatever our masters decide. But that is the reality. He can scweam and scweam until he is thick, but it won't make the slightest bit of difference.

Douglas Carswell is, predictably, not happy.

Libya And Farage

Again Russia Today is the place to receive some kind of anti-EU media exposure.

hattip: Muffled Vociferation

Different Class

Aside from Miliband's 'gaffe, what's been revealing about the 'uncut march' violence is the Police's response on Saturday, and indeed to other similar recent protests. Their relative restraint to wanton damage to property and intimidating violence has been obvious. My view apparently puts me in the 'passive' territory argued by Boris Johnson:

They will be content to see the police being unfairly attacked on all sides, for being too passive (the Right-wing press) or too brutal (the Guardian)

Now, I have no wish for the Police to go overboard in their response and I understand that they were overwhelmed by numbers and that; they faced being attacked with light bulbs filled with ammonia, fireworks filled with coins and smoke bombs. However it seems odd to me, that shops weren't as protected as they could have been and only now are stop and search polices being implemented because of the threat to the Royal Wedding.

It is my view that if the Police had experienced similar problems from another group of people then their reaction would be far less passive.

The much larger group of people I refer to face far more draconian measures by the Police on a weekly basis. They also do so despite having exactly the same problem of a minority of people grabbing the headlines by wanton violence. The majority, however, endure such measures largely without the same sort of sympathy from others. These vast majority of peaceful people are:

• 'Kettled' as soon as they arrive at a train station
  
  
• Sometimes being kettled in an area too small for the number of persons held. Crushing happens and panic ensures. The response to the panic is a vigorous use of Police batons. Children are being crushed. People outside the kettled area desperately trying to help to pull children out of the crushing are also batoned, as are the children themselves. 10 and 11 year olds feel the full force of the law!
  
  
• Forced by the Police to reside in the nearest designated pub regardless until said Police decide to move them on.
  
  
• Not allowed outside the pub, even for a cigarette if it's outside the pub's boundaries, and the pub doesn't have a garden.
  
  
• Marched to the place of destination deliberately 15-20 minutes late.
  
  
• Subjected to a Section 60 search, usually without one being granted - it will be done retrospectively. Details such as names and address etc will be taken under Section 60 though the Act does not permit this. Any objection will be dealt with appropriately i.e. a threat of a trumped-up charge. Coins, newspapers and shoe laces are confiscated because they could be used as weapons.
  
  
• Subjected to another Section 60 search which takes place minutes later by a different policeman. No coins in the wallet apparently raises suspicions, but the answer that a previous Policeman confiscated them is not accepted either.
  
  
• Removed from destination and given a 'Rodney King' style beating down an alleyway separating back-to-back terrace housing. Other Policemen look on and laugh.
  
  
• Deliberately marched, after said activity, to the wrong platform and put on the wrong train.
  
  
• If put on the right train, it sometimes involves no lights, no bar, no seats and no toilet. Too many people crammed - standing - on such a train for a 3 hour journey.
  
  
• Forced out of a city or town, by the Police, under Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, even if they have not committed an offence and even if they did not originate from the Town/City that the Police want them to return to.
  
  
• Legally disadvantaged because anyone convicted of a Section 2 offence at this event will receive a harsher sentence than other section 2 convictions - sometimes it is double the custodial sentence usually given.
  
  
• Legally disadvantaged because anyone convicted under section 2 at this event will be banned from large areas of every city and town in the country on certain days for years.
  
  
• Legally disadvantaged because anyone convicted at this event will be banned from taking holidays at certain times of the year.
  

The large group I'm referring to are football fans. I do not condone violence at all but had it been football fans involved in the wanton destruction on Saturday the reaction by the Met would have been much much different.

All people are equal, but... The so-called anarchists should consider themselves lucky.

Still Second

Despite winning the Labour leadership, Ed Miliband still comes second to his brother, not only here, but...on Google results:

Dear Portugal

A wonderfully caustic editorial from the Irish Independent today, I reproduce here in full:

Dear Portugal, this is Ireland here. I know we don't know each other very well, though I hear some of our developers are down with you riding out the recession.

They could be there for a while. Anyway, I don't mean to intrude but I've been reading about you in the papers and it strikes me that I might be able to offer you a bit of advice on where you are at and what lies ahead. As the joke now goes, what's the difference between Portugal and Ireland? Five letters and six months.

Anyway, I notice now that you are under pressure to accept a bailout but your politicians are claiming to be determined not to take it. It will, they say, be over their dead bodies. In my experience that means you'll be getting a bailout soon, probably on a Sunday. First let me give you a tip on the nuances of the English language. Given that English is your second language, you may think that the words 'bailout' and 'aid' imply that you will be getting help from our European brethren to get you out of your current difficulties. English is our first language and that's what we thought bailout and aid meant. Allow me to warn you, not only will this bailout, when it is inevit-ably forced on you, not get you out of your current troubles, it will actually prolong your troubles for generations to come.

For this you will be expected to be grateful. If you want to look up the proper Portuguese for bailout, I would suggest you get your English-Portuguese dictionary and look up words like: moneylending, usury, subprime mortgage, rip-off. This will give you a more accurate translation of what will be happening you.

I see also that you are going to change your government in the next couple of months. You will forgive me that I allowed myself a little smile about that. By all means do put a fresh coat of paint over the subsidence cracks in your economy. And by all means enjoy the smell of fresh paint for a while.

We got ourselves a new Government too and it is a nice diversion for a few weeks. What you will find is that the new government will come in amidst a slight euphoria from the people. The new government will have made all kinds of promises during the election campaign about burning bondholders and whatnot and the EU will smile benignly on while all that loose talk goes on.

Then, when your government gets in, they will initially go out to Europe and throw some shapes. You might even win a few sports games against your old enemy, whoever that is, and you may attract visits from foreign dignitaries like the Pope and that. There will be a real feel-good vibe in the air as everyone takes refuge in a bit of delusion for a while.

And enjoy all that while you can, Portugal. Because reality will be waiting to intrude again when all the fun dies down. The upside of it all is that the price of a game of golf has become very competitive here. Hopefully the same happens down there and we look forward to seeing you then.

Love, Ireland.

Sunday Independent

Idiot

That Ed Miliband has compared himself with previous historical civil liberties campaigners is rather ill-judged:

"We come in the traditions that have marched in peaceful but powerful protest for justice, fairness and political change," he said.

"The suffragettes who fought for votes for women and won. The civil rights movement in America that fought against racism and won. The anti-apartheid movement that fought the horror of that system and won."

The difference is that Labour lost a democratic election. All of those that Miliband compares himself and Labour with, never had that option. Therefore Miliband is, in effect, trying to dismiss the views of an electorate who threw his party out of power by pretending that our country didn't have a choice.

Open Letter To Cameron

There's a letter today in my local paper, that I thought I would reproduce here. The popularity of the Tories is only going to go in one direction - plummet - particularly as the economic realities hit home. So you would have thought that Cameron would want to keep as many of his Tory friends on side as much as possible. Not so, he has more 'important things' to consider.

'Wait til we're in power' they cried, well we're still waiting:

THE following is an open letter to David Cameron.

I voted for your party. I thought you might have reformed the Human Rights Act. I thought I was told you would, or perhaps scrap it altogether. I was mistaken.

I thought you would give me a vote on Europe. I was mistaken.

I never in my wildest dreams thought you would put someone in a high position who wants to give prisoners the vote and cut compensation for close relatives of people who have been murdered; someone who wants to release people early and close some prisons. I was wrong.

I thought you might have cut foreign aid until we are in a better financial position. I was mistaken.

I am sure you told me, when petrol was 20p a litre cheaper than it is now, that it was too expensive and that you would introduce a fuel stabiliser.

Am I imagining things as I get older? I hope not; the NHS may not be able to help me.

I thought immigration might be stopped or severely curtailed, to allow us to absorb the immigrants we have, until our infrastructure is suitable to accommodate more people. I was wrong.

I thought I was voting for someone who would be tough on crime. I was mistaken.

I thought I was voting for someone with guts, who would stand up for the hard working people of Great Britain, against the unelected parliament in Europe – the accounts of which auditors have refused to sign off for 16 consecutive years.

One of its latest directives, that we have to obey, will put up car insurance for female drivers.

Europe needs us more than we need it. Show some of the guts that we thought you had when we voted for you; put a referendum to the people: in or out?

I had hoped I voted for someone who had good old common sense.

I voted Conservative, but now I don’t know why I bothered.

Steve Chandler, Sandford Lane, Kennington