False sense of security...

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Quel dommage.

So unions and charities will be hit (£) by a clampdown on lobbyists? Well, whodathort it? 

One can only hope that the consequences of any such new regime, if it ever comes about which I doubt, will mean that bully-unions and fake charities will get less taxpayers' money. Genuine charities will always attract support from millions like me who want to help thy neighbour but object to organised fakery on the public teat. 

As for the unions, don't (as they say) get me started. Their political arm is the Labour Party, right? OK, the Eds can do the politicking while the Brothers get out of their Whitehall-bound limos, take a bus back to where the workers are and do what their members pay their subs for - negotiate better working conditions for them. If they want to lobby the gummint, let them stand for Parliament. 

All of which is not to say that I am against lobbying by outsiders in principle. It will happen, whatever you call it. People are entitled, in a democracy, to put their views and concerns to ministers, and to band together to do so, appointing a spokesman who is entitled to be paid for his labour on their behalf. To repeat, whatever you call it, it will happen. To assume, as one's default position, that lobbying is ipso facto corrupt is mad.

It is the abuse of the right to lobby which needs examination. Let's hope Dave gets it right. I am not hopeful.

In answer to James's (irony-fail?) question a day or two back, no, I am not now and never have been a political lobbyist and the prospects of my ever being one in the future are nil. I would go further: mwahahahaha… 

Bubble gummint

Here's an idea.

Let ministers, politicians and mandarins talk to each other and NOT to outsiders.

Let's actually make it illegal for government ministers and their senior civil servants to have conversations with ANY third parties who might corrupt them, including those purporting to offer (well, they would, wouldn't they?) expert opinions, specialist or technical information, or hands-on arcane know-how. And definitely no suspicious foreigners and no foreign trips to meet 'em.

Let's stop all those bleeding-heart outfits sneaking around Whitehall and party conferences, plucking at politicians' sleeves with hard-luck stories about people who are dying of neglect, starvation or poverty. Lobbyists, see?

Ban think-tankers from talking to politicians. They're just lobbyists for their own worldview, dammit. Likewise commercial organisations, eliminating risk of cash-for access. No unions - and no bastard lobbyists for them, either, whispering in ministers' ears.

That'll keep the buggers pure and guarantee that we get the impartial, evidence-based government (and foreign policy) which we all want, pure and unprejudiced except by the personal opinions of the ministers and mandarins - oh, and backbenchers.

That'll show 'em.

It's bound to work.

Whatever

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Whaddya mean, MORE assertive?

"Without more assertive patients, the (NHS) producer interest will continue to dominate the consumer interest." - David Hughes, Telegraph

More assertive? Assertive, even? Eh? With notices displayed prominently in every NHS ward and corridor warning of dire consequences for 'aggression towards NHS staff'? 

Which weak, sick patient, bullied in the night (no witnesses) by a vicious, two-faced, Unison-badged nurse as my 80-year old aunt was, or which visiting family member observing, as I did, uncaring neglect bordering on torture of their parent, would - even if they could - unhesitatingly *dare* to 'assert' their right or that of their relative to decent nursing, to be treated courteously and humanely, knowing that they risk being accused of 'aggression' by hospital staff and a 'health union', which would probably make their situation even worse?

The system protects its own. 

Be very afraid.

Sent from my iPad

NEET!

 

   "Earlier this year, it was also revealed Britain has become the ‘Neet’ capital of Western Europe, having more young people out of work or education than even Romania.<\p>

    "Only four of the 27 European Union nations have more poorly educated and unskilled young people. In just five years, 12 EU countries have overhauled Britain and now have fewer youngsters without qualifications."

http://goo.gl/Vt2r7

Well done, Labour Party education policy commissars, NUT, NASUWT, ATL - and let us not overlook the NUS which serves its future-NEET members so well. Take a bow, Comrades. The culmination of the Project is in sight! 

Just a few more years, just a couple more shoves, and we shall have NO employable adults to create the wealth we need to run our hospitals, banks, manufacturers and social services. I mean, who will pay your pensions and rents? 

At that point you can take to the streets in a professional way and show the amateurs of the July 2011 riots how violent revolution is done by serious people who know how to do it.

But who will treat your heroic wounded when you have made sure that no-one can read, write or calculate your drug dosage? 

Sent from my iPad

Jesus was an economic realist

Politics Home tweets that Vince Cable told Sky News, 'We clearly do take enormously seriously the commitment, **which is legally binding**, to eradicate child poverty'.

Compare Jesus Christ: 'The poor you will have with you always.'

Oh, and 'Love your neighbour.' Not, 'Give money to your rulers who will save you the bother.'

The *actual* Saviour of the World, as opposed to the Fabian fantasist, Gordon Brown, who only thought he was, did not believe in fairies.

Gordon 'Saviour' Brown, Son of the manse, made 'the elimination of child poverty' a legal obligation on government.

Mwahahaha.

Tip for you, Gordon. Chuck out the economics books which you so bloody obviously cannot understand. Dust off your old dad's Bible. You might learn something.

Sent from my iPhone

Coming and going

Blogging here and elsewhere will be sporadic at best until late November. Travelling. And taking a forced break from the keyboard. Which will be nice, I hope. In case of withdrawal symptoms, I'm taking the iPhone.

Behave yourself while I'm away, and keep your eyes on those bastards who think they control us.

KTHXBAI.

Sent from my iPad

Miss, Miss! Excuse me, Miss!

"But the NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates attacked his education policy as being motivated by "ideological fervour".  

She said the coalition government's education plans were "driven more by the desire to create a free market and lining the pockets of business than ensuring that all children have the highest standards of education."

Source: Mail. (Problem embedding link... effing Blogger on iPad...)

'Ideological fervour' is no part of her unions's antipathy to Gove's plans, naturally.

So, Miss Keates, if academies and free schools give children a better education than your preferred school-model, would you, as a professional educator, care to explain your educational reasons for objecting to them, and tell us why you think it matters a tuppeny fuck who, if anyone, makes money by doing your job better than you do, to our relief as parents and society at large, and most especially to the great benefit of our children?

Excuse me? Chap here with a question.

"English political history has been described as a 1,000 years of our gaining the power to insist that the State ask us nicely for our tax money, ask for it every year, tell us where it goes and give us an opportunity to say “No”.

Quite why we should have to give that up just so that Germany doesn’t invade France again I’m not sure.

Perhaps you could explain why keeping a bureaucracy accountable would increase the risk of war?"

Tim Worstall.

Do we support diversity in education policy?

The question is put in the Salisbury Review by Oxford postgraduate Vernon Rogers, to which he answers:

'Yes, we support the greatest possible diversity of marks given to students.'

Now there's a thought.


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An expert writes

A madwoman called Orzala Ashraf Nemat has written a report on the situation of women in Afghanistan for fake charity Oxfam. She was interviewed on the Today programme at 06:52 this morning. (Invisible link to the report at Oxfam's site.)

'Orzala'... spookily similar to 'Orla'... probably no relation, though.

Like Orla, Orzala speaks assertively and with authority, in her case that of Britain's best-known, best-funded, most Righteous, possibly most economically illiterate, Robin-Hood-tax-advocating, warble gloaming suction-pump for the surreptitious appropriation of your money and its transmission to... 'experts' like Orzala.

Among the gems which Orzala gave us this morning:

• Women in the UK and the USA do not have equality with men (so save your breath and stop bleating about women under Islam especially in Afghanistan where things are really improving!) 

• Sharia law gives women more rights than any other religion 'that I know about' (so hush your damn mouth about Islam oppressing women)

One wonders what Oxfam looks for when picking its report-writing experts. Sorry - I lied. One knows precisely what Oxfam looks for.

Though Humphrys snorted audibly, there wasn't time to for him to ask whether Orzala had ever heard of those famous martyrs to sexual oppression, Margaret Thatcher, Condi Rice and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There was no time to mention that, unlike Sharia,  neither British nor American law brings charges of sexual crimes carrying the death penalty against girls from the age of nine on the grounds that 1,500 years ago a desert preacher had sexual intercourse with his nine-year-old wife and therefore all nine year old girls are sexually adult, responsible and capable of corrupting male adults for which they may be held legally culpable and killed.

There was no time to point out that the UK and USA have no laws which would arraign and convict a 16-year old girl who has been repeatedly raped on a charge of immorality on the word of a single male accuser, possibly her 'dishonoured' father or brother whose word, naturally, they being male, outweighs defence statements from two female witnesses because they are women.

There was no time to point out to Orzala that no American judge would sentence such a woman to be killed by being buried up to her shoulders in a park in Bumble Bee, AZ, so that her pious American (male) neighbours would not be inconvenienced by her running off while, supervised by the judge, they are trying in to smash her skull with rocks in the name of Jesus - Hallelujah, brothers!

There was no time to mention that no British judge would sentence her to be hanged from a crane specially erected in the market place of Chipping Norton so that, supervised by the judge, its pious English townsmen (sic) could cheer and cry Alleluia! as they watch her hauled into the air by chains around her neck, writhing and choking as her face turns black and her eyes bulge from their sockets, praise the Lord!

There also wasn't time to mention that it was English and American Christians, notably Anglicans and Quakers, who fought successfully for the abolition of slavery which is (nothing to do with Islam, obviously) rife in Islamic countries, the slave-owners mostly being pious Muslims and the slaves mostly kuffar.

There was no time to mention that it was mostly not Muslims, funnily enough, but Christians, notably Methodists and Catholics, who fought for and are still demanding the enfranchisement of all adults including women, a right withheld from women by men in most Islamic societies and in particular in Islam's holiest city.

Still, we have a nice report from Oxfam, written by an expert carefully chosen because she knows  all you need to know about important wimmin stuff and freedom and all that.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Cor...

... blimey.

Chuka is not an MP. He is a concept. A lifestyle choice. Most new MPs enter Parliament determined to make their name. When Chuka first strode through Westminster Hall he had already been identified as “One of Ten People Who Could Change The World”. One colleague ungraciously remarked that he’d do better to concentrate on changing Streatham.  

[...] 

Chuka set himself the modest goal of constructing a new global economic programme. Though a new MP for only eight weeks, he published an “alternative budget” in an open letter to George Osborne, secured election to the prestigious treasury select committee and was appointed Ed Miliband’s PPS. He certainly attracted attention; not all of it flattering. “He’s always there, floating around as part of Ed’s entourage”, said one hack, “God knows what he does, but I suppose he does it elegantly”.

POEWAS

Further to this, John Rentoul:

Journalists can therefore safely ignore the [Labour] party until about 2014.

When Tony Blair's Ambassador to All The Earthlings, a leftie like Dan Hodges and a swivel-eyed wingnut like your humble servant all think you're fucked, you probably are.

POEWAS*.


_________

* 'Poor old Ed - what a shame' - the updated version of POGWAS.

O rly?

David Cameron “I don't suppose anyone gets up in the morning thinking 'I wish the state were smaller.' ” Fraser Nelson.

Funny old game, politics.

The Politics of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition and how they is done - Part 2

1. You spend years fucking everything up and telling voters that they're stupid or wicked or both. 
2. You call an election.
3. You're thrown out because after years of fucking everything up everybody can see that you're stupid or wicked or both.
4. You spend five years explaining that you would make a super government.
5. Every time you say this, everybody jeers and puts their fingers in their ears.
6. The other lot run the country.

Moral? Shut the fuck up. Nobody wants to hear from you. The great thing about the gaps between elections is that we get a nice long rest from listening to the horrible bastards we threw out. Actually, we'd like to string you up but there are laws about that. Be grateful, and be quiet. You had your turn and now someone else has got the Talking Stick.

No, Ed, you can't have it back.

Nobody loves you. Not even the Guardian. No, they don't. They just hate the Tories. It's not the same thing. 

Take a break, Ed, Get your strength up so that you're ready when Yvette parks her tanks on your lawn in about, oh, nine months from now.