JUST AS WE THOUGHT

THE COATING OF RUST GROWS EVER THICKER

2012-01-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

I always feel a slight coating of shame when i realise just how much i really hated thatcher. It wasnt just milk she snatched, just about anything was likely to disappear in her metallic grasp. starting with the kids milk which was easy but there seemed no end.Virtually the whole of Northern industry had the life squeezed out of it by the time the Iron Lady finally had to quit. and by that time there was virtually no one except the die hard psychophants to lament here passing. I always tried to remain rational about Thatcher but i really did come to hate and despise the way she treated and disrespected everyone in the Tory party. Some of the old tories were not all that bad, sure they lived in the past but many of them were certainly well to the left of B Liar when he had been in power for a few years and swiped Thatcher worshippers.

SEVERAL REVERSALS FOR THE COALITION PILE UP

2012-01-05T00:13:00.000-08:00

First of all this year things dont look good for the Lib Dems, OK, they got into government al be it by the back door but todays figures look like those who did vote for the lib dems are pretty pissed off about their record since they did so.Apparently only a quarter of those who voted Lib Dem would vote for them again. A coalition with a third or more of the elected members, not even in government does not look like a proper coalition at all and the reversal on government student grants was certainly a flop and gave little confidence in their loyal membership that it was going to get a. ny better

Odn top of this the last three or four governments have been talking up reform of the house of lords making imostly elected and limited to thrr hundred members. This would have the effect of limiting the numbher of members toaround 300making the lords too small to dail with their work load

2011-12-31T02:03:00.000-08:00

When i consider the realities of the last year and what is likley to happen in the coming year its very difficult to find any reason to laugh. However, having been compared with Woody Allen on many occasions, i think he owes me at least one usable joke. so here goes, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans" I know its an old one but in truth I am no spring chicken myself and There is definitely a element of tragi-comedy in my own life and if you can still laugh when you are as old as God, maybe there is hope for all of us. I have always imagined that God is also a Radio Four listener so he may also enjoy one of Les Dawsons finest bon mots which reappeared during

one of my bluer moments in the countdown to Christmas According to Les, he still remembers when the Archers only had an allotment.

Not so funny however was the spectacle of Clarkson and his assistant buffoons trying to race the Mumbai train to deliver packed lunches. to workers in the city. I promise you that these three stooges are about as entertaining as a trio of sun baked Kerbside quiches. Each week they become less funny and more insulting, this time trying to get their so called band on an already overcrowded commuter train. If i had been the guard, i would have cheefully thrown the bastards off at the first stop. A waste of time, space and fuel not to mention the TV license,

FLUORIDE, THE NEVER ENDING STORY

2011-12-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

This week, an Official in France has warned against their breast implants. Poly Implant Prothese made by a defunct company in France is known to leak cancer-causing silicon, Health Ministry says. Dubai: The Ministry of Health yesterday advised doctors and hospitals against using silicon breast implants made by a French company which reportedly leak and cause cancer.

A senior official said the advice is a precautionary measure since the implants are not available in the UAE as they are not registered with the Ministry. But he said the advice is if they have been imported here "through other means". This is believed to refer to industrial silicon products not subject to the high quality standards normally required for medical products and thus avoiding meeting the high quality standards. This may remind followers of the pro fluoride shenanigins that the allegedly "safe and effective " monosodium fluoride, used in toothpastes and other dental products that this is very different from the toxic waste which supposedly helps prevent tooth decay when its added to drinking water supplies. this is a fine example of the dangers which can result from failure to maintain standards when corners are cut to save money. How fortunate we are that in the UK, we never cut corners like this and risk peoples health. So obviously, it can't happen here.

BBC LOCAL RADIO ALREADY RUINED BY ROSS AND BRAND

2011-12-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

After Kelly affair, it became fairly clear that Tony B Liar was axious to get even with the BBC, especially its news services with the result that news services even in Local Radio was savagely cut. My spies told me that more than a third of news staff were given the boot, even in local radio where there had been little coverage of B Liars exploits, especially coverage of the demonstrations agains the Iraq war, I was always until then, ready to defend the impartiality of BBC news coverage with a clear conscience but under the cover of the cuts regime this is not so easy.

Since the corrupt Bankers ran off with our money causing a huge crisis and then the British government paid the bankers debts by using our money again the excuse of necessary cuts has been used to reduce staff in virtually all our public services, including NHS, Councils, and even the BBC. This has resulted in cuts of 30% or so in jobs and never more unfairly that following the Ross and Brand debacle. This was a major network scandal caused by infantile dickheads on huge salaries who thought it was clever or funny (neither of course) to resort to a tirade of personalised insults and obscenities because neither the miscreants or their inane programs contained enought wit or intelligence content to excuse any such excursion. This gave the governors and the government appointees the only excuse they needed to make swingeing cuts in content and freedom which in turn affected the BBC Local radio stations very unfairly . They had not only done no wrong in the first place, they were virtually free to run as many contributors and broadcasters were operating for free or just expensens and then suddenly found that they needed to employ BBC producers who were staff members to check and sign off local radio programs in case they dared say shit, or fuck or that the BBC locally and nationally were run by psycophants and incompetent . |Or as veteren and respected broadcaster put it in a cautionary letter to me in a previous contrtemps with Bush House "Good luck with your campaign Brian, but i must warn you that you are battling dickheads" How right he was even then and all the more so now.

Now such things are common knowledge especially to the poor bastards who live in the Middle East who still have to talk with him and his ilk.

CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE LOCAL SYCAMORE - MAPLE TREES

2011-12-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

4th December 2011

CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE SYCAMORE - MAPLE TREES

This tree, as much as any other, has been a big source of debate which has tended to split the opinion of conservationists. Some hate it and others defend it with great vigour. I count myself amongst the latter The trees are found widely in Europe and Asia and in our case migrated from Europe to Britain at the end of the Middle Ages. They can grow widely in most parts of the UK but they really came into their own when Dutch Elm Disease spread by the bark beetle destriyed virtually all our Native Elms.

Many individual and neighborhood planting schemes were undertaken, especially during the "Plant a Tree in 73" and "Plant some more in 74 " national campaigns and proved very successful at filling in the voids left by the millions of lost Elms. Our own particular trees are a part of this campaign promoted by Pendle Council. It is a fact that the dense crown can slow or even stop ground flora from thriving and the soil under the canopy tends to be dry and bare but in the case of the Trees in Duke Street, the ground is often water logged during wet weather therefore its drying properties are fairly beneficial rather than troublesome. A sixty food specimen is a very efficient pump and can lift a hundred gallons or more of water per hour from roots to crown. Without the Duke Street trees the green strip could quickly become a quagmire due to lack of proper drainage. Some conservationsts point out that sycamore can alter the structure and thus the eco-system, particularly of birch and alder woods, should it invade such woodland. They insist that the sycamore should be eradicated from semi-natural woodland.

On the plus side the flowers are an important source of nectar for bees and other insects. Aphids are also numerous on the foliage of sycamore thus providing an important food source for birds, particularly when they have chicks to feed. I have also observed long trails of ants which capture the aphids and keep them as a source of food. The seeds are eaten by woodmice especially when other sources of food are in short supply. Many assert that the Sycamore is just a Weed but this is far from the case. Its true that it does seed and spread readily in the right conditions and grows quickly from a sapling. It has been realised that 150 creatures are associated with the tree either for food or in some other connection. Sycamores are robust and can tolerate environments which soon polish off less adaptable species. Consequently they are used extensively as park land and town trees,.

LOCAL HISTORY OF THIS LAND

I moved here in 1980 and observed that the land occupied by the sycamores was little more than wasteland. There was a thick cover of dead brambles and weeds, so thick that grass and plants were not able to penetrate it and grow. Helped by some neighbours we cleared and burned the dead cover. This revealed the ground beneth to be in a very poor state, dozens of bags of dumped waste was collected and removed but this also reveal dumped paint, broken glass, oil, scrap metal, asbestos and old plastic sheeting. This covering was so thick that it was impossible to dig without mechanical help. One of the older residents said that some soil had been brought from the old Tannery site at Ball Grove.We removed some of the more serioius contamination and covered the rest witl whatever soil and turf we could find from the allotments and gardens. We had hoped that the site could be used for growing fruit and veg but in view of the obvious and less obvious contamination, this plan was abandoned and it was decided to simply encourage more grass and turf with wild flowers which would serve as an amenity for the houses on Duke Street.

REMEDIAL ACTION FOR TREES

Of the six sycamores which had been planted, one had already died and another one was clearly destined for the same fate. we pruned and shaped the remaining trees with some degree of success as the trees grew more foliage. Since then they have been pruned twice more and together with other neighbours a hedgerow of thorns and silver birch and beech has been planted. The sycamores have not grown to any great height but are much bushier with the exception of the sycamore at the field end which appears diseased although further pruning may help restore it to some semblence of health. Of the two other sycamores height could be reduced by lowering the crown and further pruning which would allow more light for ground planting. and infil. Having made it this far it would seem unnecessary to cut down or dig up the remaining trees, pollarding is not recommended as this is a cruel and ugly fate for any tree. Even if they are left alone completely, they are unlikely to grow to any great height due to the thin soil cover and previous pruning.

When we arrived in this village most of the gardens had been abandoned due to the uncertain fate of the M65 Motorway but as we have planted and cultivated we have noted a dramatic increase in numbers and diversity of wild birds including song birds and sparrows which have been placed on the RSPB Red List due to rapid decline of numbers. By providing tree and shrub habitat we are continuing this process. We now have regular visitors and residents of specis such as Jays, Wood Pidgeon, Redpoll, Nuthatch, Tree Creeper, flocks of Long Tail Tits, and even Greater Spotted Woodpecker and bats . In terms of habitat and biodiversity, this can only be described as a success and one which we hope to continue to develope. In terms that council officers might understand it is my recommendation that we " Do Minimum," ie, lowering of crown height, prune straggly and diseased branches, and infill with other shrubs and ground cover. I personally applied for Conservation status for this area and all that i am suggessting is that we continue with this process.

The Japanes Maple is now suffering a spreading disease in the UK due to Climate Changebut this is just the tip of the iceberg. Imported plants have brought diseases that threaten to kill millions of British trees Our obsession with gardening has opened the door to exotic species that bring deadly pathogens and pests. A bacterial infection called acute oak decline threatens mature oaks in Britain.

In the south of england Horse chestnuts were being attacked by a bleeding a rust-coloured liquid down its bark last week. As it dried, it left a black, tar-like stain several feet long. Two streets away, another horse chestnut had prematurely shed its leaves in July. A fungal pathogen known as bleeding canker was killing the first tree from the inside, while the horse chestnut leaf miner moth was destroying the second. Neither tree will survive the winter. Plant pathogens are on the rise globally and Britain is susceptible because of our increasingly warm, wet winters and the globalisation of trade, which has enabled us to fuel our love of gardens by importing millions of exotic plants, many of which can arrive diseased

Plant pathogens are on the rise globally and Britain is susceptible because of our increasingly warm, wet winters and the globalisation of trade, which has enabled us to fuel our love of gardens by importing millions of exotic plants, many of which can arrive diseased.

"We now have six to eight organisms in the British Isles that are a real concern. In the 1960s and 70s it was Dutch elm disease, which killed 30m trees; in the 1990s it was a new Phytophthora which devastated alders along river banks. But in the last 10 years we have had as many new diseases as we had in the previous 40 or 50 years," said Joan Webber, principal pathologist at Forest Research, the Forestry Commission's research arm.

More than 3m larches have had to be felled in the last three years to try to stop the spread of an airborne disease called Phytophthora ramorum. Meanwhile, hundreds of cases of a bacterial infection, acute oak decline, have been recorded in mature oaks; a disease called red band needle blight is affecting many conifers; and beeches and ash trees have all come under sustained attack by exotic pests, fungi and diseases. Most are confined to one species of tree, but they can potentially jump species into others.

Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which has 14,000 trees and has seen many attacked in the last few years, said some of the most serious threats came from the oak processionary moth. These have been seen in Britain before but were first found breeding in 2005 along a stretch of the A40 and in Kew and East Sheen, west London. The caterpillars can cause serious defoliation of oak trees, and weaken the trees to the point that they are prone to other diseases. "This is serious stuff. It will change the landscape of the British Isles if it is not checked.

"It's a very challenging time for anyone who manages trees. Bleeding canker is spreading right across southern England, and is now moving north quickly, as far as Wales and York. Wherever you go in southern England, horse chestnuts are struggling," Even tens of thousands of beautiful Larches are now being felled to try to stem a disease which in only a year has spread from the South West of England, through Wales, and reached Lancashire only last month. All this will have a devastating on the appearance and the ecology of the UK. We must not 0take great care with all the trees we cherish, even the most humble.

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH in PENDLE

EXTRACTS FROM THE FRIENDS OF THE EARTH FLUORIDE NEWSLETTER

2011-12-02T04:40:00.000-08:00

D. Mail 29.11.11 “MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN”

A new study by Waterwise - a group that campaigns against water waste - shows that some modern showers waste so much water, their owners would be better off soaking in the bath. According to the study a typical Briton uses 150 litres or 33 gallons of fresh water every day.
LOOS: Nearly 33% of drinking water piped into our homes is used for flushing toilets – 2 billion litres of water every day. Yet it is all treated & chlorinated to make it safe to drink.
BATHS & SINKS: 21% of household water goes on bathing, washing & teeth cleaning.
POWER SHOWERS: 12% of UK water goes on showering.
WASHING CLOTHES: 15% of water is used by washing machines.
WASHING DISHES: 8% of water goes on washing dishes.
GARDENS: 7% of water is used for watering gardens & filling padding pools etc.
DRINKING: Waterwise estimate that much less than 4% of water is used for drinking if waiting for the tap to run cold, over-filling kettles & boiling pans without lids are taken into account.

A great deal of water is used to produce food, clothes, paper, household goods, electricity & cars. This is known as ‘embedded’ or ‘virtual’ water because it’s used to create something else. It takes 170 litres of fresh water to make 1 pint of beer. A cotton T-shirt takes around 4,000 litres of water to make. It takes 2,400 litres of water to produce the animal feed & sustain the cattle needed for just 1 hamburger!

My comment: This shows the folly of fluoridating the whole water supply.)

Ann

BRIAN JACKSON WRITES....

I compile a regular Fluoride Newsletter for Friends of the Earth which is taken from sources Worldwide as well as here in the UK. If you wish to subscribe (its free and you dont have to be members of FoE . Just follow these instructions......
List address: fluoride@foe.co.uk
Subscribe: fluoride-subscribe@foe.co.uk
Unsubscribe: fluoride-unsubscribe@foe.co.uk

DO SOMETHING DAY !

2011-11-28T01:01:00.000-08:00

On Radio Fours Today News Program this morning one of their roving reporters went out to find a small but well organised tented Protest in the Leeds City Campus. Generally, passersby were sympathetic to the cause of greater equality and wealth distribution which anyone in his right mind will tell you is well overdue. Not so good however when they drove forty minutes away to Skipton. Here, There were no tents and those stopped or assembled in the street were more than prepared with their excuses for doing nothing, or nowt and of course the usual platitudes from the usual bunch of soft conservatives were more concerned in covering their own arses than actually doing anything.

One fella who managed a commericial radio station clearly wasn't going to say anything in any way censorious about the current system of gross inequality and even this was daring compared with the old councillor who was more concerned about people taking up space on the pavement for some reason. Perhaps he would be willing to criticise those in the main market street of Skipton who had the temerity to set up market stalls and peddle their wares.....(Surely some mistake Ed!) Another geyser with a long memory was clearly much more concerned with the War of the Roses and very unhappy that the Lancastrians had given the Yorkists a sound thrashing. Presumably the Yorkists had sat by their fires and said, things like, "Looks like Rain," or "don't be Daft, even a Lancastrian would not come to Skipton in weather like this." Wrong again old fella, and it can happen again, This time of course it wont be quite the same. This time it wont be a pikestaff, it will be more likely a mortgage foreclosure on nicely printed headed notepaper. A slower death than at the hands of the Lancastrians maybe but the end result probably is the same.

So much for political awareness hereabouts, its not that the Conservative Yorkists were not brave enough or capable enough of putting up a good fight they just got used to hoping and then assuming that everything would be all right eventually. After years of this, it was easy to fail to recognise the sound of marching feet and in towns like Skipton they are quickly overrun by the greedy buggers with more to lose. Sadly, in Sheep Street, Skipton, the Sheep don't look up at least not untill its too late.

A couple of people stopped me and pointed out that few people if any had done anything about Buy Nothing Day. Sad but true i suspect and those that actually had done something, delayed their Saturday Shop, or just taken the dog for a walk etc were hardly likely to stand up and make a fuss like the nomark who claimed to manage the local commercial radio station. His job is to advertise anything that comes his way and to confess he was not doing this even for one day, would be more than enough for the powers that be to give him his marching orders. Imagine if McDonalds took a day off from selling Burgers.??? Its the symbolic value thats the important thing in this action. We all waste and spend far to much, throw away loads of food just because we are the lucky 2 Billion whilss the rest of the world population exist on crumbs or dont exist at all. Sooner or later famine on a large scale will finish us off with this kind of attitude, but it doesnt have to be this way, Any day can be a buy nothing day... a day on which you do something really useful.

PM CAMORON IN A BUBBLE

2011-10-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

Now that the big banks and the building societys especially in the USA have plunged us all into a financial slump which may last for many years our coalition Government is as one might expect, looking for scapegoats, or worse still, like Emperor Nero, fiddling whilst Rome Burns. The Jobless totals are soon likely to beat all records and the rate of inflation also continues to rise. Clearly, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic did not work so now they are repainting them, a stratagem which promises continued failure.

Stuck here in Blighty, we can only look on in amazement as Cameron, tours the Antipodes bringing joy to Royalists by tinkering with the law of accession. Ok up to a point, but this kind of thing could have and should have been done years ago, not now.

WHY I VOTED NO !

2011-10-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

In the 1970s we had a referendum in this country. It was about Joining the Common Market and was quite simple, Did we want to join the Common Market? Yes or No?? We were given an opportunity to decide our countrys future by Harold Wilson but we did know that there was a list of differences between the Common Market which was a very useful trading partnership and the EU which was more than a hop skip and a jump in the general direction of Federilisation. Including surrendering our countries decision making over laws, finances etc. The British people voted YES to the Common Market and ever since have been waiting for the chance to vote NO to a Federal Europe.

Having been of a suspicious nature almost since birth, I Voted No to even the Common Market because i already knew that politicians, whatever party they belong to, and no matter what they say right now, are always likely to change their minds if it should affect the Party Power Base or their individual futures. And often with disasterous results. Who would have thought that a Labour Government would take us into several wars. A Common Market which was all about peace and harmony and trade, certainly! But wars, no no no. Untill after waiting for many years of Thatherism, along came Tony Blair aka. Tony B Liar who was prepared to stop at nothing in order to do the bidding of W Bush. Even, if it meant falsifying evidence and even when it meant murdering Sadam Hussein. Its not just the Russians that have show trials.

When it came to monetry Union we would already be exchanging Euros had not our own Governments incompetence intervened. That little jaunt into the unknown cost the UK many billions when he had to hurriedly extricate ourselves. So where are we now? Well it would seem that not content with having to pay for our own stupidity we now have to pay for the incompetence of the Federal Reserve in the USA and of course for the follow on problems of Greece, Ireland and probably Italy and Spain..... there may be even more before this mess is sorted out and even the new deal hammered out by the 27 last night is no guarantee of success in the mid to longer term.

I thought it was pretty rich of the US Gov telling the EU that we had better get a move on and sort all this before any more damage was done. They should have told that to Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae. Its no use turning round and saying that it was the greed of small house purchasers just because the Freddy and Fanny et all was handing out suicidally priced mortgages to people they knew could never pay. But. such is the Alice in Wonderland nature of the financial markets, Banks etc.

Leak of liquid waste at Dounreay Nuclear Power Station in Caithness

2011-10-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency is currently investigating a leak on the site of the former Dounreay Nuclear Power Station in Caithness Although the power station is decommissioned and is currently being demolished it is demonstrating just how dangerous nuclear sites can be and just how difficult cleaning up contaminated sites can be.

Radioactive liquid effluent is understood to have leaked inside a treatment facility.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said the leak was minor and did not get outside the plant. Its quite a small plant when compared with modern installations but there can still be dangers it it leaks out and people are exposed. I remember several years back when the site was first being decomissioned, they had disposed of waste rather hurriedly by chucking it down a mineshaft.

Although it was not at that time supposed to be high level waste and was apparently gloves and protective clothing and other litter, but they had sealed and capped the dump and as organic stuff rotted down, gas pressure built up and eventually an explosion blew the top off it. It was one of the first examples which demonstrated that disposing of nuclear waste was neither practical nor safe and consequently very expensive.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said that nobody was put at risk by the incident but SEPA has launched an investigation. Dounreay is currently undergoing a £2.6bn decommissioning process but a lot more will need to be spent before the site can be in any way described as safe.

DISPATCHES ON CHANNEL FOUR SHOW HOW RACHMAN IS BACK.

2011-09-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

Jon Snow and the dispatches team showed on Channel 4 TV how the slum private landlords are back. As they say on their websight...

"The housing charity Shelter estimates that there is a shortage of a million homes in the UK. Britain today has a housing crisis on a level with that at the end of the Second World War but is building fewer homes than at any time since the First World War.

We were told by a number of housing officers that local authorities dare not inspect many establishments for fear that they will have to re-house those inside.

This is yet another problem that can be laid at the door of Margaret Thatcher. She actually ring-fenced housing which mean that Councils could not aquire social housing or build any new council houses as this was what she called Municipilisation. At the same site she set of a council house buying spree by promoting the idea that "Everyone should own their own home and should have the right to buy their council Houses. So thats how we ended up with yet another and greater shortage of affordable houses.

The recession has speeded up this process and there is nowhere near enough social housing to take up the slack. I have been fortunate myself but i do have first hand experience of just how bad it can get. In the Mid 70s me and my partner were rudely woken when a literal torrent of rainwater poured through an unknown hole in the roof at a grotty little house in Salford... Since demolished and redeveloped. The landlord was only available you knew his address and literally followed him home to get any repairs done. The Mice were totally tame and used to come out to play in broad daylight. A terrible stink in the bathroom was tracked a rat which had under the bathroom floor boards. The electric wiring was dreadful and dangerous and this actually electrocuted our cat. We needed to slam the front door because it was badly fitted and one day as we shut the door, the entire rear window frame, wood glass and plaster jut fell out onto the floor. Probably this had been loosened by constatn traffic vibration from the heavily conjested A 57 main road but it had never been fettled or repaird and our only luck was that no one was sat by the back window or they might have been maimed or even killed.

which was the kind of place a friend of mine from Bradford Yorkshire referred to as a typical Fuckin Ratter. I couldnt wait to get out of that place

I searched west and north Manchester and found a wonderful detached house with a nice wooded garden and a landlord called Mr Robinson who was surely an angel. The flat was an entire ground floor with huge picture windows lookin out over the Church at the front and patio and hidden garden at the back with french windows. The rent was actully lower than the dump we had left and the landlord would turn up to mend a burst or anything that needed attention almost as soon as you put the phone down. We even had a nice dry cellar which we painted and turned into a band practice room. This was the hottest summer of the Twentieth century.... 1976 and that room was a good place to sit and read to avoid the heat.

For the last 30 years i have stayed at my current address. I and others found some housing in reasonable condition but under a threat from the Clutches of the Department of Transport and the Lancashire County Council who planned to demolish lot of houses to make way for the dreaded M65 motorway which was rumoured to be running from Preston to Hull on the East coast. The County Council compulsoraly purchased the houses in this village and moved in low rent tenants as a temporary measure so I and others moved in, formed a Friends of the Earth group in Pendle and fought the M65 to a standstill. A housing association took charge because Pendle Council had been prevented from acquiring them due to Thatchers legislation and after a slow start gradually undertook repairs although we had to shame them to force them to start this work.

The Housing association were not without sin however. Social housing is supposed to be reserved for people who cannot afford to buy but our housing association made quite a prophet which mysteriously disappeard by puttin up individual properties in the village for sale on the open market when existing tenants moved on. The original buying price for these properties was as little as £4000 at what was known as demolition value. but the housing association was selling them off instead of moving in new tenants and for as much as £120K, a considerable prophet which then suddenly appeard to vanish.

One day the truth will out no doubt but the latter half of the 20th Century seemed to be repleat with scams and illegal rake offs so I suppose they were no worse than a bunch of MPs, Bankers, Journalists or Police Officers. Now of course those "Caring" (surely some mistake) Tories propose to make squatting in domestic properties, a criminal offence. Thats going to do a lot of good for the homeless isnt it.? At the risk of sounding like a trot i can only say that someone once said, "Property is Theft. and i feel i must agree.

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, FLUORIDE NEWSLETTER, 4TH SEPTEMBER 2011Sunday

2011-09-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, FLUORIDE NEWSLETTER, 4TH SEPTEMBER 2011Sunday, 4

　
A New Sense of Urgency .... HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE BILL
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE NEXT WEEK.

After very many years of active and detailed campaigning against fluoridation, there have recently been some slight signs of commonsense and improvement particularly in the USA where many towns are rejecting and pulling out of fluoridating their water supplies. In addition the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reduced the ・recommended・ maximum levels for fluoride in water supplies. I would go much further than this and agree with Dr Griffin Cole, a dentist in Austin, Texas, who said in response, "I still don't think it's enough, honestly, I don't think there should be fluoride in the water at all. As a veteran FoE water and toxics campaigner, I strongly believe that fluoride in all its forms and combinations, should be kept well clear of the food chain for humans and animals. I make little distinction between the so-called "naturally occuring" fluoride or the even worse industrial waste so beloved of water companies. Fluoride is in our food and drink both accidentally and on purpose and is now coming at us from all directions such as water, milk, salt, processed foods etc. Indeed if this muck can eat its way through glass should not its most avid proponents amongst private dentists and the usual suspects at the Department of Health spend some quality time on the couch of Mr Sigmund Freud?"
The latest UK Government fluoride proposals are rapidly becoming what could be called a 'Hard Hat' area. The USA spear-headed and promoted fluoride in the USA and across the world and the UK Gov., as usual, has eagerly supported the idea in the UK. Some great ideas have come from the USA, but, sadly this is not one of them. Perhaps it's now well past the time for the UK Gov. to call a complete halt to all future plans to fluoridate in the UK and call a halt to existing schemes in the West Midlands and the North East. There is no point in arguing the toss with them over the hotly disputed science and medical qualities and values. Even a cursory look at fluoride leads us to rule it out as a useful medical product and bearing in mind the Precautionary Principle, take much greater care with all other industrial and technological uses of this stuff. We could go on rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic for ever-and-a-day but this is a total waste of time. Governments don't actually make many useful decisions: they are usually made by high-ranking and apparently quasi-immortal civil servants who are not democratically elected but who are merely appointed, and once appointed seem to become eternal. Even Margaret Thatcher occasionally said something sensible and, in particular, once remarked that ・advisers advise and ministers decide.・ Many civil servants, however, seem to think that they should make the decisions as well. In a situation where MPs and Ministers think they are elected to rule rather than to serve by representing the views and opinions of the electorate, it's about time that Civil Servants in the Department of Health realised that they dwell much further down the food chain.
Clearly they need to be made to remember that the unelected members of our government possess even fewer privileges than their political bosses and can be called on to give testimony to 'M'learned friends'. It is only then that proper expert scientific and medical opinion can be placed before the Courts so that a well-informed verdict and policy can be determined. The tiny number of scientifically trained MPs can be counted on one or two fingers so it's not surprising that our scientific discourse has fallen on deaf ears. The fact is they just don't understand the importance or significance of this evidence, and in some cases, may simply not even care. The Department of Health's civil servants listen only to their favourite and trusted lobbyists and advise Ministers accordingly. No wonder the NHS is such an unhappy place nowadays;
Dame Sally Davies, the Government's leading advisor, has just now criticised medical staff in the NHS, calling them "selfish・ because many of the staff had not taken her advice to get the swine flu jab. Perhaps this is because they, like many others, had little faith in the judgement of the said Dame and probably like me, they would rather listen to the advice of medical professionals whom they could trust rather than to the advice of politicians and their appointees, no matter how elevated they may be. When the recommended medication may be full of fluoride or mercury, perhaps this is not so surprising.
The time for legal challenges may now be drawing closer. It has dawned on many that despite the scientific and medical tennis and attempts to reinvent the wheel over facts and figures of fluoride and its effects, the only figures that ultimately matter are the number of votes received for the various MPs and their parties. This is just one of the reasons why many of us are eager for voting reform and voted for change in the referendum which the main political parties spent so much time and money on destroying. We need a far more representative lower house which is truly representative and not stuffed with the usual 'yes men' and cronies.
Now you can read underneath just how dishonest and clannish the politicians really are. Before the last election, as many of you know, MPs and leaders of all the parties were lobbied and polled by FoE Members, This included Clegg, Cameron, Brown et al. They assured us that there would be no compulsion over fluoride against public wishes. Suddenly we learn that once the new Health and Social Care Bill becomes an Act after a hurried debate next week, the parachuting in of fluoride henchmen from the PCTs and SHAs will ensure that unwilling anti-fluoridation Councils will toe the Department of Health line. The most galling part of this is that the cost of this exercise in the further erosion of democracy will be paid for by all of us, via our Council Tax. As this tax cannot be increased, if Cameron is to be believed, some other Council services will have to be axed to pay for it. The cost of this is believed to run into hundreds of millions of pounds. In short, as per usual, Undemocratic, Unethical, Unacceptable and Illegal. No wonder, as one comic remarked, ... "nappies and politicians should be changed frequently.".... and for the same reason.
Brian Jackson
Pendle Friends of the Earth
Fluoride Campaign
01282 860985PS.
Dont give up act now. Phone your MP at his constituency office or buy calling the House of Commons on 0207-219 3000. Ask the switchboard for your MPs office and either talk to him or her or their assistant and if they are not in the office, Leave a message on their ansafone with your number and contact details and ask them to call you back. Remember they do work for you if you force their hand.
You can also call your local councillors especially those on the exec commitee or scrutiny committee, Explain the urgency of recent developments and remind them that they are likly to be sidelined by the Government and have to further cut services to make up even greater Council Tax cuts. You can also remind your councillors that unlike water companies, they may not be insurable against damage or accidents caused by fluoridation. You should also advise your local press and media about the local implications of the New Government Home and Social Care Bill.
Finally there is a guide to making more effective Press Releases for your group or organisation. The template shown is of course for Friends of the Earth but the tips shown apply to anyone trying to make an easy to read Press Release. You can find the information at this link.... http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/how_tos/cyw_64_press_release.pdf

Brian Jackson
Pendle FoE
01282-860985
FROM JONATHAN EYRE

LEEDS FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

Dear Greg Mulholland MP

Greg, thank you for the letter you wrote to Yorkshire Water on my behalf regarding Fluoridation of the regions drinking water.

Things have therefore gone up a notch, and NEXT week Parliament will be debating a bill 'The Health and Social Care Bill' which effectively change everything, putting a Government hack in all Councils to secure fluoridation of all our drinking water with the demise of the Strategic Health Authorities!

Doug Cross of United Kingdom Councils Against Fluoridation (UKCAF)

http://www.ukcaf.org/index.html has worked very hard reading the 460 pages of the Bill before working on his professional assessment which is attached to this email.

I advise you and your team to read this attachment through as a matter of urgency. The apparent changes to how Fluoridation will be rolled out is worrying and of grave importance.

As I am sure you are aware, any medical treatment should only be given with consent, should be appropriate for the individual and for their underlying health condition and should have a set limit on the dosage they receive. Dilution of Fluoride compounds into drinking water allow individuals to receive varying amounts of the toxic substance depending on the amount of water they drink, and their size and age and with NO reference to their underlying health condition!

Fluoridation is an attack on all Individuals rights and their health status!

I would hope that you will oppose the sections in the Health Bill next week that relate to Fluoridation of the Public water supply, and perhaps could also ask some questions about this to the Government Ministers, such as

・E 'why is Fluoridation put into this Health bill, it seems out of place here being the only medical intervention covered in considerable operational detail'

・E 'will the Government extend the protection of prosecution extended to all water companies (in the 2003 Water Act) to all Council's, as this would seem to place Councillors under legal threat of encouraging the medication of the public with a non-registered medical drug (Fluoride) and against their will'

・E 'what cost is estimated for the forced medication of public drinking water by the Government, and will the Government meet this cost fully to all Councils?'

・E 'will local authorises be entitled to increase council tax to pay for this medication of the public practise above any Government set tax threshold, if not how will authorities afford to pay for this?

FROM LIZ VAUGHAN AT UKCAF

URGENT

The issue of water fluoridation included in the 'Health and Social Care Bill due to be debated in the House of Commons on Sept 6th and 7th as soon as Parliament returns hence the urgent nature of this email.We have studied this Bill very carefully and its implications for councils. Please circulate to your councillors and officials as soon as possible.

1 We are advising councils to seek a Judical Review about the incompatibility of fluoridation provisions in the Bill with European and English law on medicines, food and protection of human rights

2. The Bill will force councils to employ the NHS Directors of public health, who are all known advocates of fluoridation. These will be required to force councils to implement Government public health policies regardless of public opposition.

3. Fluoridation always causes substantial damage to children. Councils will be required to repay the cost of fluoridation projects to the Secretary of State from their own income, meaning that the public will be paying for the privilage of poisoning their children

4. We have checked with the head of local government insurance at Zurich and this cannot come under normal council insurance and would be seen as an uninsursable 'foreseeable risk'.

. .

We have contacted the LGA to ensure that councils are protected from excessive or unlawful government policies they need to consider urgently the implications of this Bill both for member councils and the wider public for whom they are responsible.

We have had a long and successful experience of working with councils on fluoridation issues What we think people should do besides protest to their local councillor and make sure their MP is very aware of their opinions and feelings before Tuesday Sept 6th.is to also ensure their local media are aware that this is happening next week. Doug has worked very hard reading the 460 pages of the Bill before working on his professional assessment which is attached to this email.

If you have a website please put all of this on your site so everyone is aware that the fluoride pushers and their trade union the BDA have managed to convince Government of the need to fluoridate.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Liz Vaughan UKCAF.

URGENT

1 We are advising councils to seek a Judical Review about the incompatibility of fluoridation provisions in the Bill with European and English law on medicines, food and protection of human rights

4. We have checked with the head of local government insurance at Zurich and this cannot come under normal council insurance and would be seen as an uninsursable 'foreseeable risk'.

. .

If you have a website please put all of this on your site so everyone is aware that the fluoride pushers and their trade union the BDA have managed to convince Government of the need to fluoridate.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Liz Vaughan UKCAF.

　
From:
"Joy Warren" <wmaf@live.co.uk>Add sender to Contacts
To:
"Brian Jackson" <brianjackson77@btinternet.com>

A really useful database - right-hand pane

http://www.epa.gov/ncct/toxcast/files/summit/48P%20Mundy%20TDAS.pdf

Joy
FOI REQUEST FROM JOY WARREN
1a. Is the DH aware of the database maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US: HYPERLINK "http://www.epa.gov/ncct/toxcast/files/summit/48P%20Mundy%20TDAS.pdf" http://www.epa.gov/ncct/toxcast/files/summit/48P%20Mundy%20TDAS.pdf

Fluoride is listed as a developmental neurotoxin in the middle column of the right-hand-pane.
1b. What steps have been taken to add fluoride to similar databases in the UK?
1c. If no steps have been taken, why not?
2a. Is the DH aware of the ARCPOH statistics received by the Australian Government relating to dental decay in Australia collected during 2003 which shows that fluoridated Australian children experience a delay in tooth eruption due to the presence of fluoride in their water and food? Fluoride-induced delayed eruption of teeth has been supported by research by Komarek et al. in 2005. (A Bayesian analysis of multivariate doubly-interval-censored dental data. Biostatistics (2005), 6, 1, pp. 145–155 doi: 10.1093/biostatistics/kxh023 )
2b. If the DH is aware of these statistics and Komarek’s research, please explain why the DH has chosen to ignore the serious implications of fluoride causing a delay in children’s dental development.
2c. Since fluoride is a developmental neurotoxin, please also explain why the DH has failed to realise that delayed eruption of teeth also means disruption to other physical development.
3a. Is the DH aware that the Centers for Disease Control in the US has recommended that the concentration of fluoride in public drinking water be reduced to 0.7ppm?
3b. If the DH is aware, what steps has the DH taken to follow suite?
3c. If no steps have been taken, why not?
4a. Is the DH aware that the reason why the CDC has recommended a reduction in concentration of fluoride is because more than 40% of people born after water fluoridation began in the US have dental fluorosis. Instead of regarding dental fluorosis as being a cosmetic issue, the US Government Department has noted that dental fluorosis is undesirable and has accordingly recommended a reduction in the concentration of fluoride. Likewise, The Republic of Ireland and Hong Kong have reduced the concentration of fluoride.
4b. Why has the DH not told the Secretary of State that a downward variation in fluoride concentration is advisable?
5a. Why has the DH refused to acknowledge research (mainly from China) which points to a reduction in intelligence in communities where drinking water contains natural calcium fluoride? (Note that the Newcastle University research (Maguire et al (2005). Bioavailability of Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Human Experimental Study, J. Dent RES 2005:84; 989) showed that both artificial and natural fluoride are equally bio-available.)
5b. Even if the DH dismisses the validity of Chinese research, please explain why the DH has failed to apply the Precautionary Principle.
6a. Fluoride crosses the placenta so that the unborn child is poisoned with a developmental neurotoxin. Please explain why the DH recommends that pregnant women refrain from alcohol and cigarettes prior to and during pregnancy but has failed to advise them to refrain from drinking and eating fluoride.
I look forward to receiving a full reply and hope that you will observe the statutory 20 working days condition.

UK Against Fluoridation: Southampton fluoride meeting with Prof ...
Southampton fluoride meeting with Prof Connett. A public talk and question time with one of the world's leading experts on fluoridation Professor Paul Connett ...
ukagainstfluoride.blogspot.com/.../southampton-fluoride-meet...

KIDS IN THE WILD AND MISSING LEADERSHIP

2011-08-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

No one can seriously say that stealing from and torching businesses is really excusable but it must also be said that the majority of recent rioting was down to a lot of young people who come from privation and dont come from a Janet and John background in a nice middle class area, even despite the occasional anomaly from a good backgroundd which the media like to feature.

For a few moments lets look at the lack of leadership for these kids and some of the recent role models. First we have corrupt well paid reporters and journos who were quite prepared to hand dosh to equally corrupt police officers.for tips and rumours, to add to the factoids which they had already hacked from private cell phone messaage boxes. Once again we are confronted by the poacher-gamekeeper dual roles beloved by people in leading positions. Its truly criminal to hack phones and even more criminal to bribe coppers for private gossip and info. Worst of all as an example of criminal hipocrisy is that there were high flying rozzers willing to enter into into these mutally satisfying arrangements. And if this was not enough right at the top were the fine examples of law and order in the Houses of Parliament. These fine and upstanding crooks were fiddling expenses claims out of the public purse.

And... lets not forget the crooked and greedy activity of leading bankers etc who have literally brought many people to levels of privation . Off course this is white collar crime and therfore not nearly as serious as blue collar crime irrespective of the collossal sums involved and all the more galling to ordinary honest folk that these same crooks aka bankers are actually getting bonuses and rewards for their outrageous activities. It is people like these scumbags who have acted as fine icons of our modern society for rather too many poorly educated kids from sordid backgrounds about as far from a Janet and John book as they can get and with little if any future.

Fukushima a disaster waiting to happen, just like Sellerfield.

2011-08-08T01:09:00.000-07:00

Well just as we thought the money wasted on Thorpe chicken has come home to roost. A scheme that required and depended on ships and trains full of nuclear waste travelling between Japan and Cumbria was never going to be sane let alone profitable. The only person who wanted this kind of thing was the insane old bag known as Margaret Thatcher and her equally insane cohorts at British Nuclear Fools. The scheme and site in Cumbria has never been anything but intrinsically dangerous and certainly not viable but it was just the kind of thing one might expect from a pair of nutters like Reagan and Thatcher.

This dreadful duo are the people who brought us the Starwars plan which couldnt be made to work or be afforded and of course the the Big Bang in the Stock Exchange, part funded by a consortium apparently headed by the Dirty Digger (Murdoch) and other luminaries such as Robert Maxwell aka the Bouncing Czech. The original idea seemed to require the closing down of what remained of British manufacturingindustry and the ramping up of the banking and money markets sector of which Britain was so proud. It never seemed to the practitioners in reagonomics that there was anything wrong in abandoning all pretense of making things we might sell abroad. Instead, the banks and markets were deregulated and allowed to operate an automatic business based on the 80s loadsamoney principle. Litte wonder is it that both the nukes business and the doshateria melted down and at about the same time.

Now, both the UK and the USA which it emulates so brazenly are presiding over economies which are up to their ears in debt and surrounded by the smouldering rubble of their earlier exploits.

THE DAILY DIGGER

2011-07-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

BBC Radio Four tells me today that Rupert (Dirty Digger) Murdoch is at a meeting of moguls in the US with people including the billionaire owner of Facebook, whatever that is.

Whatever happened to PC Ned Strangelove (aka The Bent Copper) the police correspondent of Private Eye fame. ? Perhaps Chief Superintendant Knacker of the Yard Knacker would like to comment

If Andy Coulson of News of the World Phone Hacking and Prime Ministers advisor fame, reports to the Police or is arrested later today as expected, should we not ask if the officers dealing with this are the same ones, who were apparently on the take from Journos for information or will this issue disappear in the smoke. I think we should be told.

The BBC just now referred to the News of the World as part of the nations furniture. My suggestion is of a comode

NUCLEAR NEWS FROM CUMBRIA

2011-06-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

NUCLEAR NEWS FROM CUMBRIA

Fw: LAKE DISTRICT NUCLEAR DUMP - 'TRUMP CARD' IN BID FOR SELLAFIELD REACTOR

Thursday, 26 May, 2011 21:29

From:

"Liz Vaughan" View contact details

To:

"Brian Jackson"

#yiv1423151351 .yiv1423151351hmmessage P { PADDING-RIGHT:0px;PADDING-LEFT:0px;PADDING-BOTTOM:0px;MARGIN:0px;PADDING-TOP:0px;} #yiv1423151351 .yiv1423151351hmmessage { FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma;}

----- Original Message -----

From: jean mcsorley

To: mcsorley

Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 2:37 PM

Subject: LAKE DISTRICT NUCLEAR DUMP - 'TRUMP CARD' IN BID FOR SELLAFIELD REACTOR

LAKE DISTRICT NUCLEAR DUMP - 'TRUMP CARD' IN BID FOR SELLAFIELD REACTOR

16 May 2011

Evidence leaked to Greenpeace and released under the Freedom of Information Act shows local nuclear consultation on nuclear waste disposal is a sham and pro-nuclear lobbyists know Sellafield is not a suitable location for a new reactor.

In January 2012, the three councils - Cumbria County Council and Copeland and Allerdale Borough Councils will decide whether to proceed to the preliminary siting process for a radioactive waste dump in West Cumbria to take all the UK 's legacy and new build wastes and spent fuel.[1]

The documents reveal that the three Councils which have made an 'expression of interest' in West Cumbria hosting a national nuclear dump secretly view hosting the dump as a 'trump card' in getting new reactors at Sellafield.[2]

They also show that the nuclear champions are aware that electricity from new reactors at Sellafield will not be used in Cumbria requiring large pylons around the Lake District National Park to transmit the electricity to other parts of the country. That information was withheld from the public, as well as details about problems with the Sellafield site geology and that existing radioactive contamination in the sea off Sellafield could pose problems in cooling a new reactor.

The people of West Cumbria have a right to expect the highest standards of openness and transparency from those seeking to dispose of dangerous radioactive materials into their region. Instead, Greenpeace had to force local councils to release information in the public interest through Freedom of Information requests and threats of complaint over non-compliance with information legislation.

Greenpeace said today:

'The Councils, and others who initiated these meetings, seem to view West Cumbria and the Lake District as their private fiefdom to be offered up for nuclear waste dumping. Their blind pursuit of nuclear jobs will cost jobs and income in the tourism, food and drink and agricultural sectors dearly.'

'These minutes expose the cynical machinations behind the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely stakeholder engagement programme. Claims about openly discussing nuclear waste disposal with the people of Cumbria are nothing more than a sham based on a hidden agenda. The discussions on disposal should now be halted. The Councils should not be allowed to take any further steps on this matter until there is full disclosure and examination of all the documents concerning new build and wastes from all parties involved.'

The documents also reveal the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was heavily involved in the closed door meetings, yet it is not meant to actively promote nuclear power. The NDA will be the developer and operator of a national nuclear dump, but it role in these behind scenes meetings raises questions about conflict of interest.

Notes for editors:

What the documents say:

Minutes and presentations at meetings from January 2008 to February 2010 reveal[3]:

l The pro-nuclear lobby knows that Cumbria can't use all the electricity from new Sellafield reactors: ' Cumbria is in the wrong place' in terms of electricity demand (one 'solution' mentioned in the minutes is to get a major energy user to move to Cumbria ). (15/1/08 - page 2)

l Information was withheld from the public regarding the scale of the impact of massive 50 metre pylons around the Lake District National Park - to connect new reactors to the national grid. (19/3/09 - page 56)

l the geology of land around Sellafield is problematic and would add significantly to reactor construction costs (15/1/08 page 2 minutes and slide 19, page 7, of presentation).

l Plutonium contamination in the sea - from Sellafield's reprocessing discharges - could cause problems for cooling new reactors: there is 1/3rd tonne of plutonium in a mudbank offshore where the reactor cooling water would be extracted (13/8/09, page 11)

l the link between new build at Sellafield and using the UK 's plutonium stockpile as a fuel in reactors on site 'is an artificial construct' (11/6/08 page 28)

l the NDA would be asked to make land available at Sellafield at a 'favourable commercial rate' (slide 4, page 11 presentation)

l the name of any new build site would have to be changed to distance it from Sellafield and to avoid 'reputational damage' (3/9/08 p 41 and slide 8 page 13 presentation)

What the documents are:

118 pages of minutes of meetings of pro-nuclear interested parties from January 2008-February 2010 released under Freedom of Information by Copeland - April 2011.

The minutes can be found here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/document/building-case-nuclear-new-build-sellafield

The meetings involved - at different times - councillors and officials from the NDA, Cumbria, Copeland and Allerdale Councils, Cumbria Vision, West Lakes Renaissance, Sellafield unions, the North West Development Agency, Invest in Cumbria. Sellafield Ltd, Mercury Stone (Marketing company) AMEC (nuclear service company, Furness Enterprise, as well as a representative of Jamie Reed, Copeland MP and John Hetherington an independent consultant.

Leaked: two presentations (shown 15/1/08) for West Lakes Renaissance (an urban regeneration company) written by the nuclear services company AMEC.

l Meeting the Energy Challenge Assessing the Business Case for Nuclear New Build at Sellafield Stage 3 - First set of slides - 26 slides over 9 pages. Dated 10/01/2008,

l Meeting the Energy Challenge: Influencing Strategy to Attract New Build to Sellafield Stage 4 - second set of slides - 10 slides over 4 pages. Date 10/01/2008

l All slides with West Lakes Renaissance and AMEC header

The slides can be found here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/document/amec-stages-3-and-4-energy-coast-deal

Documents released by West Lakes Renaissance - 3 papers

1. Influencing Strategy and Implementation Plan (undated)

2. Pre-approval for expenditure and brief - WLR 05/7/2007

3. Copy of summary for Energy Coast Master Plan

How we got the documents

After a series of FOI requests to the NDA on David Hayes (then Special Projects Manager) we were told (1 February 2008) that they had:

'not found any paper work associated with these meetings, I understand that one of them was informal, there was no paperwork and it was not minuted. The other meeting did have papers, but they are not held by the NDA i.e. David Hayes didn’t keep anything.' Yet in early 2008 we had been mailed copies of slides from a presentation at a meeting of 15th January 2008 at which, we were informed, David Hayes of the NDA was present. The minutes confirm this.

In February 2008 we emailed WLR to ask for information regarding its work on new build at Sellafield (see above for reply received). In its email on releasing information, WLR said that as a limited company it was not under any obligation for respond to FoI requests. Despite further letters, challenging this, it has refused to answer any more queries.

In December 2010 we emailed both Cumbria County Council and Copeland Borough Council requesting copies of: 'all emails, memos, minutes of meetings or powerpoint presentations involving Copeland officials or councilors and representatives of Britain's Energy Coast West Cumbria, along with records of any relevant discussions (formal or informal)on this matter between the two organisations.

It took four months and the threat of a complaint over non-compliance with Freedom of Information legislation (from 7th December 2010 until 5th April 2011) before Copeland responded to the FOI request which resulted in the minutes been sent.

Despite an exact same email to Cumbria CC (sent 7/12/2010) and again on 2/2/2011 (and an email of complaint (26/3/2011 that it is potentially in breach of FOI legislation) Cumbria has yet to respond to the request.

Contact

Niall Sookoo, Greenpeace media office, 07 711 156 881

Jean McSorley, Consultant, Nuclear Campaign, 07 801 212 959

A NO VOTE FOR AV WILL BE A DEFEAT FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE UK

2011-05-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

I have for many years supported reform of our voting system in this country. The majority of countries in the EC vote using PR and i do not see any damage to the European electoral system. I do however see a much more democratic and responsive system which embraces a much wider range of views and opinions than i see here in the UK.

Was Osama Bin Laden responsible for the Twin Towers attacks. ?

2011-05-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

No one can blame the American people for wanting the capture and punishment of the man (men) behind the attacks upon the Twin Towers in New York or the Pentagon in Washington DC but, was he guilty? I heard him deny it in the media on a number of occasions which seems strangely out of tune with the Al Quaida organisation which was always proud of its attacks on the American imperialists and their puppets.

There have always been conspiracy theories about the 911 attacks and the way that Bin Laden was allegely dispatched. In the aftermath of 911 the USA under neocon leadership was ever eager to lash out at anyone who was either a terrorist or even someone who acted or looked like one and this has not won the USA many friends. The timing of the 911 attacks themselves suggested a good deal of inside knowledge about simultaneus War Games and exercises, not just in the USA but also in the UK during the 7/7 attacks in London.

Although Sadam Hussein was clearly no friend of Osama or Al Quaida and no proof existed to even susggest this, the USA were quick to attack and overrun Iraq and insist upon Sadams capture and kangaroo trial. Many lies were told and circulated and sexed up to support this illegal action. Similarly the Taliban were treated as obvious cohorts of Al Quaida and evidence to implicate was either falsified or at best exaggerated. Anyway i am surely not alone in asking these questions below is the cutting from todays UK Guardian Newspaper carrying an Item from Robert Burns (AP Washington)

"Knowing there would be disbelievers, the U.S. says it used convincing means to confirm Osama bin Laden's identity during and after the firefight that killed him. But the mystique that surrounded the terrorist chieftain in life is persisting in death.

Was it really him? How do we know? Where are the pictures?

Already, those questions are spreading in Pakistan and surely beyond. In the absence of photos and with his body given up to the sea, many people don't believe bin Laden — the Great Emir to some, the fabled escape artist of the Tora Bora mountains to foe and friend alike — is really dead.

U.S. officials are balancing that skepticism with the sensitivities that might be inflamed by showing images they say they have of the dead al-Qaida leader and video of his burial at sea. Still, it appeared likely that photographic evidence would be produced.

"We are going to do everything we can to make sure that nobody has any basis to try to deny that we got Osama bin Laden," John Brennan, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, said Monday. He said the U.S. will "share what we can because we want to make sure that not only the American people but the world understand exactly what happened." Lets all hope they are right. It seems to be getting very popular to kill leaders without trial or witnesses rather than do anything in the public nowadays. This is another threat to real justice.

KELVIN McFRENZY

2011-03-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

I watched with some dismay as Kelvin McKensie raved and yelled on Question Time. Of course for many years he was Rupie (Dirty Digger) Murdochs henchman and worked for the well known Toilet Paper aka, the Sun. He has plenty of bluster and lots of opinions all of them stupid, out-dated and clearly dictated to him by other meddling right wing buffoons. (see Dirty Digger)

He loves Nuke power of course. so i think we should ask him when we can start disposing of dangerous nuclear waste in his garden. Its only radio-active shit and keeping all the shit in one place makes sense although Kelvin lacks sense and knows only subservience to his financial puppet masters. What can i say about such an ass-hole other than "Kelvin, shut the fuck up and give us all a rest."

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH - WARMER HOMES CAMPAIGN

2011-03-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

Warm Homes

Millions of vulnerable people in Britain live in cold homes that make them ill and cost a fortune to heat.

Spending time in a cold, damp house can make heart disease, strokes and flu more likely. And there's an increased risk of illness and death among older people, young children and those with a disability.

Homes with shoddy insulation and inefficient boilers don't just harm people's health and leak heat.

The wasted energy means tonnes of climate-changing emissions are needlessly pumped into the atmosphere. More than a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions come from heating our homes and water.

Making our homes energy efficient is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to slash CO2 and help avoid dangerous climate change.

And a nationwide overhaul of our homes would:

Protect people's health.
Save families money on fuel bills.
Create tens of thousands of jobs.
Save the NHS millions of pounds.

Sounds like a good idea? It is. But it won't happen by itself.

What we're doing

Friends of the Earth's Warm Homes campaign is calling for the coldest two thirds of British homes to be improved.

We need to cut emissions from heat-leaking houses by 42 per cent this decade, to meet our legal targets for tackling climate change.

And tenants need special protection. Houses rented from a private landlord or through a letting agency are the most likely to be the worst insulated.

We're calling for the Government to:

Set a minimum energy-efficiency standard for private rented homes.
From 2016 make it illegal to let the worst homes until they're improved.
Ensure all houses are brought up to scratch by 2020.
Support landlords and homeowners to make improvements.
Ensure people know what it costs to heat a home before moving in.

The Government will introduce a new energy law in 2011.

Please join Friends of the Earth's campaign for the Energy Bill to warm our homes, not the planet.

COMIC RELIEF... DONT MAKE ME LAUGH

2011-03-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

Actually there is little chance of me laughing at anything on comic relief. Perhaps it should be re-titled Relieve me of these comics. At least that would sound more promising. Especially at a time when large areas of Japan were apparently disappearing beneath the waves and three nuclear reactor were leaking and of course not to mention thousands being injured and killed in Libya.

Meanwhile whilst your not laughing, nurses, doctors, policemen, firemen, teachers, lecturers and of course broadcasters are all being sacked to help plug the the deficit caused by ever more greedy wankers (surely bankers. Ed)

One of the cheapest shots is probably the axing of BBC Local Radio programs which is where the BBC is irreplaceable. We don't want formulaic, cheapo radio five pap or Clear Channel style pop radio with a rotating diet of the same dozen records 24/7 and inane DJs with verbal diarrhea. nor do we want shedloads of money wasted on lo-fi digital radio.

Its fine to do stunts for charity but the cost to us all and to the environment should be factored in before they decide to let a bunch of Z List numpties scramble up Kilimanjaro with a couple of film crews. heedless of carbon footprints.

And finally, most of the so called comedy is both lamentable and sad. Instead why not stop this sanitising of the news, by showing the bodies and the missing limbs and the true horror of war and natural disasters. We can take it. and in fact true suffering shown on TV is much more likely to make me reach into my pocket for somethig to give to "charadee" than are mindless pop songs and ever more teenagers shaking their bits.

2011-03-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Closing the BBC local radio stations and replacing it with Five Live is like replacing a bar of soap with a fresh turd.

BRITAIN AND THE USA CANNOT WAIT TO SEND THE MILITARY INTO LIBYA

2011-02-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

No one can really deny that Gadafi is fairly obviously off his trolly. "my people love me" he told the BBC on TV. I heard him say it. I also heard him raving on about how the people in the streets were not protesting against him and any that were did so because Al Kaida (sic) had paid them to riot and had even supplied people psychedelic drugs. Somehow i dont think this is true.

Having said this i also heard people in the streets saying that not only did they want to rid themselves of Gadafi and his regime but that they wanted to do this themselves and did not want the West to intervene. A brief look at the mess the west made in Iraq and are currently making in Afghanistan, this should not surprise us. Ghandi once said "its the right of India to misrule itself as it sees fit" and this applies to most other sovereign nations.

Another good reason for not getting involved is that we really dont have the militarly hardware or manpower to get involved in yet another ill advise expedition into oblivion and shame. We have more than enough of such conflicts over the last twenty years and for all these reasons we should keep our big noses out of it. If people need aid or protection then fine but it must be genuinely requested and not made up by stupid lying dickheads like Tony Blair or the Bush Baby. and especially we should avoid the gutter press and the warmongering scum that live there like the Dirty Digger and the Red Top press who will say anything at the behest of their puppet masters to foment widespread violence as an excuse for foolish intervention with inadeuate forces.

BIG SOCIETY OR LITTLE ISLAND ?

2011-02-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

It seems sad to me that we now have to destroy our air force by now sacking hundreds of pilots which cost more than a £1M each just to train. Of course we wont be sacking any pilots who might be required for their work in Afghanistan which for some reason must continue at all costs. Surely it must be time to get out of Afghanistan. Its just another unwinnable war which costs billions to persue yet at the same time we leave ourselves open to lots of attacks and danger elsewhere. So the future looks like a 3rd or 4th rate country on a tiny, defenceless, overcrowded island with no friends and no role in the world. Well done coilition government.

Now we have three Tory parties for the price of one do we. All of them determined it seeems to close down the country and hit out at soft targets such as the disabled and unemployed, all of them bullied and frightened into going after jobs they cannot really perform at a time when there are ever fewer jobs.

BBC -- HOW DRUGS DONT WORK - CANNABIS

2011-01-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

I could hardly believe my ears when i watched the above program on the I Player. I had not heard such an out of date bunch of shite about cannabis for at least 15 years. It seemed to be fixatated on THC and Skunkweed and how dangerous this stuff could be. Well Really. All drugs, and for that matter, all repettive behaviour carries with it dangers both physical and psychological but to single out THC in this infantile way does not do the BBC any credit and paints a sorry picture of drugs research into the bargain.

At the last count ther3e were supposedly 421 chemcials in cannabis, 420 of which are not THC. several of which were found to be useful or potentially useful in the treatment of a number of physical and mental ailments. Surely the BBC program could have found a little time for some of these. And before you way, what do you know about all this i must point out that i worked with my Local MP in the 90s on the issues of cannabis pharmaceuticals and decriminilisation. In the course of this i prepared evidence for the House of Lords Select Committee and even discussed it with the Police Foundation.

Another issue which i find genuinely offensive is the failure of this type of programming to differentiate between use and abuse. There is a long distance which seperates the person who smokes a joint from the person of smokes cannabis in joints, pipes, bongs, etc etc from dawn till dusk. If we apply this kind of misguided logic to much of human activity we find we are surrounded by comparatively few abusers of cannabis but these are certainly well exceeded by sugar addicts and abusers, chocaholics, alcoholics, nicotine addicts, and i havent even begun to consider all those who regularly use and abuse prescription drugs such as aspirin, paracetamol, etc etc.

Captain Beefheart Dies.

2010-12-17T18:01:00.000-08:00

The BBC World Service just told me of the sad death of Mr Don Van Vliet alias Captain Beefheart. He was one of those wonderful musicians who was introduced to me by the equally very wonderful DJ John Peel. I have to hold my hands up and admit that the first few times i heard Beefheart and the Magic Band, i didn't really know what the hell was going on but suddenly one sunny afternoon in my bedroom at my mothers house with an old friend and the aid of a small joint of rather nice Mexican Marijuana, everything fell into place. The seeming cacophony resolved itself into a series of tour des force journeys into the unknown, or at least unknown to me and the majority of the members of the world of Rock and Roll which was already getting bogged down into12 bar heavy metal repettition and seemingly headed for early oblivion.

The Good Captain, aided by one of the most skillful and inventive stage or studio bands i have ever heard even to this day prevented this however. Mixing Blues and African melodies and rhythms, Strange meandering melodies and polyrhythms to die for, many of them worked out on two fingers by the Captain at an old piano and interspersed by concrete and free form verse he saved me from death by mainstream obscurity and awakened me to new possibilities. The result was that i learned an entirely new way of listening and was thus ready to absorb Reggae, Folk, Dub and all kinds of World and classical Music when they eventually evolved.

I saw him play three times, twice with his magic band and once when he paired up with the equally disturbing Frank Zappa. Three of the most stimulating evenings of musicl culture i ever experienced. After ,my first taste of the live sound of the Magic Band, my musicl blood brother Joseph Seaberg turned to me, his eyes shining and said, "now do you see why they are called the Magic Band. ?" Indeed i did, Joeseph,, and indeed i still do.

I first heard a couple of tracks on John Peels legendary Perfumed Garden Show in the late sixties when Peel said, there goes a man who knows how to walk the fine line between Genius and Madness. Surely an essential skill in the late 20th Century. My faveorite moment happened in his first gig in Manchester at the Free Trade Hall, a fine classical venue but not blessed with accoustics suitable for strongly amplified music. Because of this and the strongly folky audience which attended virtually any famous act who ventured into Cottonopolis, the FTH could be a tough room as the comics say. At the end of two barely recognisable tunes, distorted by white noise and standing waves from the PA system, the Captain paused looked around and up into the high vaulted ceiling and said. I would like to apologise for the sound quality, everything seems to be going right up there, as he gestured a large arc over head. Bob Dylan should have learned this lesson from the Captain and he would have avoided being called Judas. He was right of course but so was the other old time freak at the back of the hall who shouted an immediate response " In that case, take us all up there Captain. Cued only by the fall of the drummers monocle, the ensemble launched into a truly rousing rendition of Big Eyed Beans From Venus.

Dont let anything come between us Captain, not even Death!

AMAZON COWARDS AND HIPOCRITS

2010-12-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

The News that Amazon is refusing to carry Wikileaks is very disappointing but probably not that surprising. Wikileams has even been referred to as a Terrorist Organisation by a total nut case in the the US Government but so far no missiles have been fired by Al Wiki and no planes have been flown into buildings.

It may be a bit of an embarassment to the US Gov and indeed any other Government including the UK who have been telling Porkies as a matter of course over maany years. Clearly if they dont want to be exposed as liars or hipocrits, they need to stop telling lies.

I have always hated laws like our Official Secrets Act because its usually used like a sledghammer to crack a nut. It stifles the so called Free Press which is only an illusion anyway. I know from personal experience that our oh so brave news papers will not print factual news if their bosses in the Government tell them not to.

So all i can say is, Well Done Wikileaks. Keep up the excellent work in telling us what we had already either guessed or at least strongly suspected. The only thing really at risk in all this is the reputations of the cronies, exaggerators, liars and hipocrits. If they told the truth and did not spend so much time covering up for their puppet masters, they and us, would probably have much less to fear. In the meantime i suggest that Amazon just goes and fucks off.

PENNINE TOURS

2010-11-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

My friend Jonathan and I spent a pleasant afternoon in the hills yesterday (Sunday)
Years ago in the 70s, I happened on a place in South Yorkshire called Slaithwait. Local prounounciation is of course Slowitt and there hangs a tail.

Many years ago i had a silly job between gigs delivering not coal to Newcastle but rather, Steel to Sheffield also Barnsley, Doncaster, Hull, Lancaster and even Carlisle. I had one delivery to make in this place called Slaithwaite which was somewhere between Stocksbridge and Barnsley but could i find it? could I buggery. I narrowed it down to somewhere near Goldthorpe but no matter how often i drove back and forth there was no sign of the place.

I stopped people two or three times and asked them for Slaithwaite but all I got was head shakes and shrugs. No one it appears had heard of the place. Finally I gave it one last shot and stopped again to ask a retired miner sat on a bench, sucking his pipe and watching the world go by. He was in fact the only person for miles around or so it seems. He was just about to repeat the never heard of it mantra when he grabbed the delivery note and scanned the address. Suddenly he laughed and said, "Oh you mean Slowitt, your here now, its just down that lane at the big mill by the canal." I followed his gaze and spotted a stone build mill at the bottom of a valley. Of course he was right it was slowitt. but who would have thought that a lancashire lad who regularly met up with people from all across the UK and who had friends in France, Germany etc etc could have been caught out so thoroughly by a local Yorkshire dialect prounounciation.

I quickly found the old mill but Already running late I had little time to explore the delights of Slowitt but swore that one day I would complete my admittedly hazy knowledge of South Yorkshire and add Slowwitt to my tour guide. and yesterday, i did just that. Jonathan my friend from Leeds, supplied the wheels and fortunately shared my intrest in far away places with strange sounding names.

After a wet or even very wet week we were blessed with a dry and calm day on Sunday so we had a pleasant walk round the town. And, i have to say it was well worth the effort. Plenty of walkers were taking advantage of the day and the four cafes i found, were well used and welcoming. and after a nice cup of tea and a piece of banana cake, we took in the impressive delights of the Globe Worsted Mill, the old canal, re excavated in the 50s, the Free School and the very pleasant setting. It appears that the folks thereabouts, had taken more care of their home than had the burgers of Pendle for example, who had covered or ripped up all their cobblestones, bulldozed the ancient shops, built really tacky 60s and 70s ugliness in their place and allowed road planning and one way systems to run riot to the benefit of cars and trucks and little else.

The 17th,18th and 19th century architecture formed an attractive mix and there was much evidence that old trees had been spared the axe and softened the pennine stone.

BIGGEST LEAK IN US HISTORY

2010-10-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

Governments and the Military are the people putting peoples lives in danger and not just the military but many civilians as well. (sticks head out of window an listens for drones. )

Daniel Elsberg famouse for his leaking of Watergate but a mere 7000 pages which he carefully xeroxed. He says he is jealous of the 400,000 documents leaked this time over Iraq and Afghanistan. You can watch Mr Elsberg on democracy now on video via the wikileaks web site. I agree when Elsberg says leaking these documents is not the big deal that American and British sources claim.

As a person who has always hated official secrets I am glad to see that AP reports that no one has been injured or killed as a result of the wikileams releases. and as usual they are leaning on the leakers and threatening them with the espionage act. Obama may promise a more open and transparent government but so far there are few signs that he will actually really attempt this. Guantanamo is still open and there are no obvious plans to turn over US bases to Iraqis or Afghanis. A president who lies like nixon or Bush or Clinton is always going to more of a liar than he is a president.

Perhaps if there are even more leaks and of course a wide variety of whistle blowers and whistles to blow they can play tunes on them, Suggestions for such tunes and a playlist are of course always welcome on this blog. Meanwhile, if you see a presidents lips moving, you can be fairly sure that he is llieing. If you want to make a difference and join the army then of course neither I nor wikileams can prevent you but if you do, please try to avoid killing or injuring yourself or anyone who isnt in uniform. This doesnt include medical staff and emergency staff who are generally believed to be trying to save lives. As a friend of mine known as chip used to often say satirically in the 60s whenever a low flying jet roared by in the middle east "Is that a Mirage in the Sky or just an Illusion passing by.

2010-09-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

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TAX OFFICER -- ACCUSED OF WORRYING ARROGANCE.

2010-09-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

When the issue is one of tax and revenue debt, as in Council Tax, PAYE, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Sickness Benefits, Pensions etc. If the authorities makmistake, a clerical error, a computer failure or an out right blunder, it is always our fault and never theirs as i know from bitter experience. I am still paying off council tax debt which in truth i should never have been forced to pay. And if you get totally cheesed off with this because you are ill, totally broke or the victim of outrageous circumstance or all three, Tough luck my friend, you should have started a career in banking.

People like him should be elected and not appointed every year so that should they prove worrying arrogant, we can get rid of them. Thes people are not appointed by God but more often by the Buggins Turn principle. and ultimately paid for by we the general public... the taxpayers. Normally Isolated from public Gaze Dave Harkness

DIGITAL RADIO HAS A NASTY SMELL

2010-07-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

When I was still only a kid i loved to listen to the radio. Even at the tender age of seven there was a little brown Bakelite valve radio by my bed, which i used to listen to avidly. I loved the smooth warm Bakelite that never needed polishing, the comforting low hum which my mum could hear from downstairs when she used to call upstairs and tell me to turn it off and go to sleep. But i always turned it back on again, and slowly and carefully spun the dial through the Long, Medium and Short wave bands lit in red green and white with lines of exotic station names such as Athlone, Moscow, Dublin. and of course Luxembourg. We had no FM at that time, but at least there was the Light Program from the BBC and of course the Home Service.

I loved it all, especially the early Rock and Roll tunes from Luxembourg and the American Forces Network which were the only sources of such music in those grey British prim and proper, post war days. Even when there was no interesting music there was always the proto psychedelic sounds of the short waves, fading in and out of the BBC World Service in a couple of dozen unknown languages. motors and generators, overhead power lines, the piping and whistling of morse code and the ever present ionosphere as the solar waves ebbed and flowed. and this even stimulated an early interest into electronic and ambient music. Yes, from the earliest days i loved my radio.

Later i discovered, Presley, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, and Carol KIng and in the sixties, the globally successful sound of local bands from Liverpool and Manchester "making it big" For me, motorcycles, football, gangs and tribes were of little or no interest. I had my music and my radio. As the Pirate stations, Radio London, Caroline, et al arrived round our coasts, the Beatles and the Stones ruled the world. FM's clear and interference free tones made it possible to be much more discerning and selective. I even built my own stereo and found popularity because of the music I collected and the clear stereo that made it so much more accessible. I discovered Reel tape machines and made my own recordings, copied illegally of course all my favourite tunes and then made my own music with my friends who were also addicts. The invention of the cassette tape machine made it all much easier and We recorded and listened to blues and R n B when our schoolmates were listening to Billy J Kramer and Adam Faith, I became knowledgeable in folk and blues music, (even supplying music for Northern TV documentaries) and later Jazz, I went to clubs met wonderful artists and musicians, and eventually ran a couple of clubs myself which were excellent although not really hard nosed enough to become a regular source of income. But that was never really my reason.

When Progressive rock turned into hard rock and heavy metal with screaming guitars and feedback, i made my excuses and left and found the much more mellifluous land of West Coast Country Rock, and collected, Country Joe, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, The Doors Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, etc and all this from FM radio and the specialist programs which emerged from the deeper end of the musical gene pool. I hung with poets, musicians, philosophers, smoked some of the best dope in the world. I worked as a DJ, a sound engineer and a broadcaster. I watched rather amused as some of my closest friends became famous singers, musicians and bands in their own right, found my specialist love of black music in its many forms and to this day give thanks and praise to the Lord for giving me the BBC and FM Radio. I couldn't have done it, whatever it was, without that eclectic and ambient soundtrack that kept me sane and brought me and my friends such joy.

And why this long preamble you may ask? Well now after digitising, recording studios, film and TV they have finally got round to planning the digitising of our radio networks and local stations and for me this is quite simply, a bridge too far. FM radio may not be quite as bright as a CD or a high quality tape recording, but both vinyl and CDs sound pretty good in stereo FM. If they hadnt how would our heroes such as legendary DJ John Peel or Andy Gillett have become such a vital part of our Radio experience. OK maybe there was a little interference on FM when there was a thunder storm or some idiot was using an un suppressed power tool but for the most part FM was crystal clear with a good stereo image. Then along came Digital radio and its handful of inferior sounding stations.

There was no clamour from the public for this because most people were quite happy with FM. It worked at home and passably well in the car with the cassette player or CD. The clamour seemed as usually is the case from business interests. No doubt the recording companies thought it would help them cut down the amount of illegal copying or downloading. Ditto the manufacturers of radios which often worked for decades with no problem other than a bent ariel or a lose volume control. But now we had to have new Digital radios, which always sounded rather dead and certainly not vibrant. All they had done was digitally suppress the hiss and compressed the rest using a codec which made everything sound like it was coming through a pipe of insufficient diameter. In the process resonance was lost, harmonics were lost and consequently some of the art was lost. Of course idiotic government ministers, probably with too close a connection with the manufacturers got behind this Gadareen stampede to make more shedloads of money and full digitising of radio with abandonment of FM by 2015 became the goal. They just don't get it do they ? Digital radios just have no charisma, they look and sound crude, ugly and cheap like many of the digital programs which were spawned early in the scramble. Not surprisingly several of these stations quickly disappeared from the air waves, or should that be chunks and packets.

As I am writing this I hear with some relief that the Governments proposal to switch off FM and lose hundreds of stations has been relaxed and possibly (or hopefully ) abandoned. The BBC was in on the research early on but the Codec of compression they decided on was crude and gave up much sound quality. This is not just my own crackpot idea, its one shared by many professionals in the recording and broadcasting industry. This is always the problem with early adopters. Being first is not usually the best in audio technology, its just being the first and becoming legendary. As the truly legendary music producer Adrian Sherwood of On-U- Soundz said to me, its usually much more profitable to be second rather than first. Possibly more research can lead to much improved sound quality with the minimum loss of bandwidth space but of course this kind of research is better placed on the net where it seems much happier. Until such time however the government should abandon silly ideas of making redundant tens of millions of FM radios and replacing them with energy munching, second rate sounding audio, and plans to dump these older radios on the third world as usual and start listening to the public or the electorate if they prefer that word.

All government decisions whether they concern banking, the economy, trade and employment and especially the Arts and Music should be guided by the public, by artists and in some cases by scientists and they must listen to these people who know what they are talking about and plan accordingly. Just because you are in a governmental or merely a leading position does not automatically give you the key to the cupboard holding the Holy Grail it gives you the responsibility to consult those who know things, not just about personal profit and loss but about real progress and quality and only then should they attempt to make changes. If they continue with the Nanny Knows Best philosophy, they will find it increasingly difficult to get re-elected or to be listened to. Government and leadership should be actually more about consultation and co-operation and most of all, Service. That is what they sre elected to do. People are tired of seeing everything dumbed down. So my message to the newly elected Coilition Government is simplle. I dont claim to have the key to the cupboard with the Holy Grail in it, but i certainly can recognise the box containing the dead rat. so please take your inferior, money grubbing, art strangling Digital Radio with all its waste and loss of choice and quality and stick it where the sun dont shine. Innit!

JOHNNY PRESCOT AND THE GARDEN GRABBERS

2010-06-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

No sooner had I mentioned Labour MP and well known class traitor than up he pops again doing his bit to further impoverish the natural environment. He emerged from his pit only this morning in order to justify destroying gardens by defending the building of houses in Urban Gardens.

Garden grabbing is very bad for the environment, gardens are a truly vital source of habitat for a very wide range of birds and mammals as well as plants and shrubs. Blustering Prescott has never understood the value of the natural environment. Its no use protecting all the so called green spaces when industrial farming techniques have virtually destroyed farmland and rendered it actually hostile to wildlife. Although a life long socialist (an endangered species) I am with Zack Goldsmith on this issue. If we wish to protect the fast declining song bird population our gardens are literally the front line.

PS. We should also not over react to the recent Fox row, such incidents are rare and its fare to say if we are stupid enough to leave our doors wide open we put our families at risk from dogs and cats, foxes, rats and mice and any other oppportunist scavenger. There is a vocal minority in this country who hate all wildlife, not just foxes and badgers and they will go to considerable lengths to increase the opportunity for blood sports.

Good Riddance John Prescot, you certainly wont be missed.

2010-05-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

Try as i might, i find it impossible to come up with anything remotely complimentary about the former Deputy PM. When New Labour came to power, Blair rewarded the buffoon with a vast Whitehall Department. Environment, Transport and the Regions. any of those would have taxed the abilities of the most able of politicians but Prescot was certainly not one of those so he chose the path of least resistence. ie; he did bugger all.

NATIVES OF WINEWALL ARE RESTLESS AGAIN.

2010-05-26T22:28:00.001-07:00

NEW THREATS FROM THE COUNTY HIGHWAYS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN SAY VILLAGERS.

　Its nearly 20 years since the residents of Winewall together with many others from Colne succeeded after many years of struggle and much expense, in ending the threat of the M65 which would have rampaged through the South Valley of Colne and the villages of Winewall, Cotton Tree and Laneshawbridge. As soon as the Motorway threat ended, it took another struggle to also end the blighted line of the motorway and best of all to introduce Conservation Area Status to first Winewall and Cottone Tree and then later, the whole of Trawden.

The main motorway threat was believed for many years to be the work of the Government which had long favoured major road building and cars over Rail travel since the era of the late unlamented Doctor Beeching who trashed the Rail system in the UK and made motorways and car transport inevitable. It turned out that the real threat to Winewall was actually from Lancashire County Council which had plans for the extension of the M65 in its bottom drawer and all it ever needed was a government which was gullible enough to fall for it AND FUND IT. Fortunately for all of us and our environment, time and money ran out before this nightmare could be made a reality.

Now a new threat has appeared and of course as usual, its the Highways Department in County Hall, and the Planning Department in Pendle Council, or at the very least their contractors. The expectation in the village was for some re surfacing work but what we actually got was the worst excesses of heavy handed local and regional Government. large cobblestones dating back at least a couple of hundred years were dug up using machines, cobblestones which were not just part of Winewalls Heritage for 2 or three hundred years but which also helped stabilise the road its self and the footpaths. The deep drain at the field boundary on Winewall lane was not so much improved as destroyed and replaced by a large plastic drain and horrible plastic bollards.

The current arrangement would look horrible and out of place in most locations even in an Urban area, but here we must remember that this is a Conservation area and theoretically at least, building and renovation work within and adjacent to the conservation area should use traditional materials and styles. Replacing ancient cobblestones with concrete slabs and plastic bollards which serve no useful purpose whatever and only make the steep and narrow lane even more dangerous. Incidentally much of this work will be designated as work to improve Health and Safety. Even doors and windows, slates, extensions etc should all be built in keeping and replaced like for like. Sadly it seems that the Highways department are unaware of this and as usual are literally steamrolling the environment to fit their plans, and plans I should add which the previous government secured as unreachable by the public who are paying for it all.

We wish to know how much is budgeted for the work in Winewall and Cottontree.

Who drew up the current proposals and who granted permission.

Who in their right minds would be prepared to spend tens of thousands on doing unnecessary road works, clearly altering the look of the Conservation area when what was needed was merely a re setting of some cobblestones and relaying a few paving slabs. The lane itself needed only a layer of tar and gravel and repainting of white lines and warnings. TBC

2010-05-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

ARE THE TIMES REALLY CHANGING ?

2010-05-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

So Rupert "Dirty Digger" Murdoch is putting his online papers behind a "Paywall" is he? Well tough titty Rupie, I have never yet seen any of your news paper or publishing acquisitions actually improve although they do dive downmarket and swing to the right with great zeal. I have never actually bought a copy of The Bum although her indoors once bought one at Christmas to find out what was on the Telly over the holidays. It did have the TV schedules in it so all was not lost.

The Times was once the worlds premier and most reveered Newspaper but now its not so much The Thunderer as the Grumbler. and as for the Sun, how much cheap cheese can one really swallow without having nightmarees. I remember one commentator describing the Digger not as a publisher but as a Right Wing politician with interests in publishing. and though he would no doubt deny interfering in the editorial independence of his various organs his intentions are clearly known by his editors and staff who dont even need to be told but willingly apply self censorship to echo His Masters Voice.

MY WISH FOR A HUNG PARLIAMENT COULD SOON BE GRANTED

2010-05-02T01:34:00.000-07:00

Since my last posting, aided by the TV debate it would appear that my wish for a Hung or Balanced Parliament has caught on with the electorate. They are tired of being lied too or being kept in the dark and fed on crap like mushrooms. They also appear to be tired of the consensus of silence about the true scale of the economic crisis which many think we are only just entering. The politicians however are afraid of straight talking because they probably realise that whoever wins, will probably be held responsible by the electorate, the press and of course History.

Like it or not, the truth will of course eventually out so someone has to be blamed. A Hung Parliament with a tiny majority that only a feeler gauge can fit between is probably the best we can hope for. In this way we can all share the blame and all share in the cost when the economy comes back from the repair shop. It lays open the option for either the best bit of political co-operation we have seen since World War 2 or the worst riots since 1982 as the extremist literally go head to head to apportion blame.

I woulds suggest that the former is the best course of action. Just as politicians will be blamed for the current cock up. (After all it was Thatcher and her Stock Exchange Big Bang back in the early eighties who freed up the banking and exchange profiteering and removed many of the checks and balances which let the banks off the lead). So it will be politicians who will also be blamed if they cock up the repair job. If they fight and argue, the ones that fight the most will probably be blamed the most, the ones who co-operate will not give the various pundits.

So with all of the above in mind lets now assume that there will be no outright majority for any of the main parties, and they will have to co-operate, and instead of arguing the toss about whose fault the credit crunch is, why not agree genuine political reform and initiate Proportional Representation as soon as poss. Who cares that it might slow down debate a bit, there will be no quick fix for the predicament we are now in so better arrive at a sensible decision than a hurried credit crunch dangerous dogs act which will only further delay the inevitable. It works OK in most of Europe and it can work OK here too. Don't be afraid of minorities. welcome them, they deserve to be represented as much as does any other political colour. Lets say good bye to massive majorities of power maniacs elected by a minority of voters and replace it with lots of minorities which genuinely represent people rather than just themselves or a Party Hierarchy. As a Sage once said, "In the work of a Master, no material is too poor. !

GENERAL ELECTION 2010

2010-04-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

BUSINESS AS USUAL DESPITE ALTERCATIONS

Well here we are in the first week of the General Election campaign and its just like old times. Gone is the cross party co-operation which was never much in evidence anyway but now the only time its mentioned is when they confront the distinct possibility of a Hung Parliament.

Bring it on I say. A hung parliement destroys the dreams of the megalomaniacs because it weakens the party structure and reduces the need for adversorial shananigins and forces the major parties actually co-operation and discuss and debate the issues. For example if Thatcher had had only a small majority do you think she would have got away with shutting all the coal mines in the 80s and virtually closing down the North of England. I very much doubt it.

Similarly do you think Blair would have been able to lead the UK into two Wars at the behest of the Madman Bush and his cronies. ? I doubt that two. Ironically the current crisis in the finances is now spreading to the employment arena, both public and private and as its going to get mighty tough no matter who wins this election, its pretty certain that no on party will have adequate power to pass laws unless its receives help from the opposition or the minor parties.

I can see why the Tory and Labour Party hate this prospect so much but i have absolutely no sympathy for them. and if the Greens or the LibDems have a little more say in what happens in the next decade, then good show i say, this is more democracy, not less and lets have more of it. And if environmental pressure groups etc have a little more say, then even better.

ONLINE MUSIC, ANOTHER GOOD REASON NOT TO VOTE LABOUR

2010-04-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

THE DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL

Today in Parliament they will be discussing the latest piece of nasty repressive legislation. Not content with Government meddling with Biometric Passports, ID Cards etc, they are now sticking their big, and ill-informed noses into our freedoms on the Internet. Their latest piece of meddling is supposedly to stop illegal file sharing and copyright infringement on the Net. This despite the fact that those people who download music actually spend much more on it than anyone else.

People will no longer shell out £12 or £14 for a CD on which there are a couple of tracks worth keeping and prefer to listen first and even then only want the tracks they like, not the whole package of formulaic tosh dished out by the big music Moguls. Nanny Brown and his out of touch bunch of neredowells hasbeens and never will be's has a solution to this. Not for the benefit of artists or songwriters or the consumers of course, just the already rich and powerful music publishers and recording companies.

They are hurriedly forcing new legislation through the house which will force the ISPs who supply internet services, such as BT. Talk Talk, Virgin et al, to keep records of what people download and from where, and those who download free music will find themselves disconnected and facing lengthy and very expensive appearances in Court. There is unlikely to be any system of appeal of course, that would spoil the greedy governments fun, and fun is not what New Labour is about.

Because of the General Election which was announced today there will be little time for any proper debate and the whole farce will be hurried through the house. I smell another Dangerous Dogs Act, ie a badly thought out piece of rubbish which far from improving the situation, will in fact make it much worse and eventually prove unworkable. There are many ways of disguising ones details and locations online and to track file sharers, and other scum down will mean lots of complicated data base stuffing from BT etc. They wont be paid for doing this of course and the end result will be loss of revenue as the ISPs have to disconnect their own customers.

Wifi Hot Spots will probably shrink as these can mask so-called illegal file sharers and the overall trend will be to shrink the Digital market and further damage music. Sometimes i think this Government really does want to wreck our society and economy: i doubt they could make more of a mess if they intended to. This will not particularly damage new artists who are Net Savvy and who tend to promote and sell their songs and tunes via My Space and who cut out the whole EMI, Sony, Warner Music circus entirely. These formerly big players are not falling on hard times, not really because of file sharers but simply because their new products are just repetitive crap and nor worth buying and thus they are forced back upon their oldies and re-issues as people replace worn out vinyl or badly made and scratched CDs and a few young people who have newly discovered some Old Wave artists.

Sadly for the Record Company Giants and the old Dinosaur Rock Bands this trade even if everyone paid for every tune, is simply not big enough to keep them in the way they seem to think they have a right to continue living in till the end of time. Its pretty safe to say therefore that no matter what Boy Browns Banana Bunch do about all this is only going to make matters worse.

Its not as though the Universal audio standard on the net the MP3 is a high quality product. It can be of course but to save space on drives, Ipods etc and facilitate quick downloads on Broadband networks which are often slow and clunky the compression rates are often very poor and certainly not up to the HIFI which discerning musos prefer. Indeed an old friend of mine and professional MUSO who has owned several record labels and managed top line Rock Bands described some of the downloads he had tried (professional legal ones) as simply a waste of time and frankly appalling. I can but agree.

Its hardly surprising that young people are not interested in voting at local or National elections when all they seem to get is meddling, Miss Whiplash type Nannies who seem hell bent on ruining anything which has the nasty smell of freedom or democracy. Unless of course they are busy elsewhere preening themselves in front of the TV Cameras or finding yet another way of fiddling their expenses claims. But... and its a big one, Please don't use this as an excuse to not vote, because if you don't vote the biggest Turd gets elected. You just have to be more choosy and you mustn't be afraid to collar them in the street or on the door step or via phone or email and ask them what appalling legislation they are going to vote for, and if you don't like what they tell you, tell them you will be looking elsewhere for someone who you feel you might not be wasting your time voting for.

CHARLIE GILLETT DIES AFTER HEART ATTACK

2010-03-17T18:47:00.001-07:00

All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival) 7-9 May 2010.

2010-02-20T22:52:00.000-08:00

As they said in New York in the 80's " If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. !" In the musical sense, this has always been my natural habitat. I tired of rock and roll when it degenerated into heavy metal or became pretentious and masqueraded under the nake of Fusion Jazz etc.

My First real love had been blues and folk music and yes, i must confess, it had to be authentic although i always found the finger in the ear squad a little tiresome. In recent years as the era of classic Reggae and Dub came to an end (Jamaican Folk Music of course) and Blood and Fire Records more or less completed its Jamaican catalogue. I rediscovered folk music but this time under the guise of World Music and in particular i love what they are now calling "Freak Folk" exemplified by a duo of sisters known as CocoRosie.

As it says in Wikipedia, (so it must be right ! Right?) "CocoRosie is a musical group formed in 2003 by sisters Bianca "Coco" and Sierra "Rosie" Casady. The sisters were born and raised in the United States, but formed the band in Paris after meeting for the first time in many years. Their music has been called "freak folk", and incorporates elements of pop, blues, opera, electronica, and hip hop."

I find them eerily wonderful when at their best and discovered them not on Late Junction but whilst wading through a lost world of Ambient dub. They can be haunting and amusing at the same time. Whilst one of the sisters sings with a pure and possibly trained voice whilst accompanying herself on guitar, the other sister sings like a cross between Billy Holiday and Marc Bolam. Although they have toured in some interesting places, the UK does not seem to have been one of them. Which brings me to the good news.

In the Spring they will apparently be appearing at the All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival) amongst a very eclectic and diverse bunch of musicians and performers put together by none other than Mat Groenig. The Line up so far is .....

Iggy & The Stooges, Joanna Newsom, Spiritualized performing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, The xx, CocoRosie, Built To Spill, She & Him, James Chance And The Contortions, Liars, Boredoms performing 9 Drummer Boadrum, The Raincoats, Toumani Diabate, Danielson, Anni Rossi, James Blackshaw, Viv Albertine's Limerence, Panda Bear, Daniel Johnston, The Residents, Deerhunter, Broadcast, Shonen Knife, Ruins (Solo), Amadou & Mariam, Ponytail, Konono No1, Thee Oh Sees, Juana Molina, Lightning Dust, Hope Sandoval, The Tiger Lillies, Hello Saferide, The Soft And Onlys, Cold Cave and Trash Kit.

TERRORIST THREAT LEVEL RAISED

2010-01-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

The British Government today raised the Terrorist Threat Level in the UK to only one step away from total paranoia. Up until yesterday the threat level stood at Level 3 Bricking It but as of midnight last night it was raised to Level 2 - Totally Bricking It. Security at Government Buildings will therefore be tightened up even further although to the ordinary person there will not be much in the way of obvious changes. Phones will continue to ring unanswered and large queues will form at Ports and Airports as usual.

THE FUNERAL OF DAVID ROSE, A SIMPLE AND TOUCHING OCCASION

2010-01-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

It rained heavily on the morning of last Friday the 15th January but this did not deter an impressively large group of friends and loved ones from attending Davids funeral. My friend Jamie kindly provided me with transport to Rathmell and luckily we got there in plenty of time. Even the weather seemed to recognise the importance of the occasion and the rain obligeingly stopped before the ceremony took place and the viscious freeze turned to slow thaw.

As we waited for the courtege to arrive the small crowd swelled to international proportions and i recognised people many of them mutual friends i had not seen for 25 years or more, some of them from the other side of the world. Not unnaturally there was a strong Green presence with members of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Earth First, organic growers, and a wide group of community campaigners. artists, musicians and writers. Even David would have been impressed.

To the very end, Davids environmental credentials were impeccable. The coffin was bio-degradable, the grave was shallow but the setting of Brocklands burial site was truly magnificent. In the meeting room it was standing room only and many of us spoke of our meetings and deeds with David or read from his favourite verses or stories whilst holding his walking cane. We were all clearly moved by this shared experience. As we followed the coffin to the graveside, The fells which surrounded us were still covered in deep snow and even with the low clouds and patches of mist the vistas were stunning. On a clear summers day, the Three Peaks are visible from there and i for one will be going back to visit his last resting place....

JONATHAN WAS

2010-01-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

At last some good news. Jonathan Ross is to leave the BBC and not before time if you asked me. I know he is popular with some folks but surprise surprise, i am not one of them. I think its sad when the chief quality by which he will be remembered is probably his minor speech impediment whether its intentional or not. I find it very difficult to remember anything else he has done which has given me any pleasure going all the way back to his early TV appearances.
His trivial and often mindless questions, frequently left his guests looking bemused and probably wondering whatever had happened to the once respected BBC.

Sadly he was much worse than that, his arsing about with the other plonker Russell Brand and obscene phone calls to blameless Andrew Sachs were literally the ultimate in childish posturiing and barrel scraping. Even more sadly some misguided elements amongst Thatcher children seemd to think it all rather funny. Presumably these these are the type of audience who would find an Ant and Dec tour of Auswich highly amusing as well. Fortunately i am not one of t hem and have no wish to be.

The damage to its reputation and the financial costs to the BBC are the Plonker Bros lasting legacy. All radio programs now have to have a couple of producers to sign off programs and once cheap and cheerful local radio programs now have a burden of extra staff and lots of paperwork. Dont get me wrong, i dont have a problem with occasional swearing or obscenity on radio or TV but out of any context and reason it just becomes boring and plays into the hands of jungle media predators like Murdoch and his ilk who snap at any chance to knock the BBC and thereby gather power and influence for their own brand of cheap tack.

I must presume that Ross and Co will eventually wash up on the Fox Network or some other equally tacky place if such exists, after all this must be the natural home of smut and smirk TV and the high tide mark round the media bath tub. How wonderful that such dross is now deemed deserving of an OBE demonstrating as it does the depths of dumbing down that is now the yardstick for others to follow. Andrew Sachs was a fine actor and comic and still makes me laugh. Ross however just makes me want to puke. Good Bye Mr Woss and please dont come back.

DAVID ROSE DIES

2010-01-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

"It is with very great sadness that I have to announce the death of my friend and co-campaigner Mr David Rose, of Colne in Lancashire. He was founder and Chairman of the Millennium Green Trust. a long term member of Friends of the Earth at both the National and Local Group levels, and A tireless campaigner against pollution in its many forms, for wildlife habitats, and against planning outrages, and the red tape which often protected polluters. When FoE and local groups and residents halted the building of the M65 extension through Colne, it was his idea and hard work which led to the transformation of motorway-blighted land into the Colne Millennium Green. I and many others will miss his creative energy, his wit and his companionship and we send all our condolences and blessings to his wife and his daughter.
BRIAN JACKSON
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

NO JESUS IN CLITHEROE

2009-12-31T02:26:00.000-08:00

Now, I have never been a huge fan of major religious iconography but it's a small world and we all have to share and get on with each other. This of course requires a little give and take. On Tuesday last, in order to forget my Birthday trauma the previous day, my friend Jonathan and I went on a little jaunt which after a very pleasant day taking photos of the snow covered Pennines, ended up in Clitheroe in Lancashire. Considering the main indulgences of Christmas were now over it was surprisingly bustling and many festive lights adorned the town.

We did the usual things that touriests do of course, including a bitterly cold ascent of the lethally iced steps up to the Castle and took in the panoramic views. On the way back down thinking only of a hot cup or tea or coffee and a warm place to drink it and shelter from the Siberian style wind, we passed Clitheroe's Nativity. "Hold on a Mo" said my friend, who was scrutinising the tableau "something's wrong here the Baby Jesus is missing. And so it proved. There was Joseph, Mary, the oxen etc, but it was true, the Crib was empty and Baby Jesus was nowhere to be found.

So who would do such a thing? could it be social services has taken it away because of the Arctic conditionss which were certainly not suitable for rearing a newly born infant, or, had local Pagans decided to exact their revenge, Perhaps even Mary and Joseph had failed to pay the local Romans the full applicable amount of Council tax ? Sadly the most likely solution to this mystery was that local Yobboes had nicked it whilst out on a drunken Xmas spree.

As i mentioned earlier, i don't go large on this kind of religious stuff but I do respect other people and their beliefs and even the traditions which go with it. and I think its s sad reflection of the times we now live in that some sniggering twat thought it was funny to nick the baby from the Christmas Nativity. I know from friends in that area that this is not typical of the people of Clitheroe but more likely a manifestation of the legacy of Thatchers Children served up with a Garnish of New Labour who together, had stolen the goodness from our society and replaced it with sniggering greed and materialism.

Hard to believe i suppose but it also later made the local press and Media, and they don't lie do they ? So whats the moral of this tale, is it my political rant about stolen values or merely a reminder that if you should go to Clitheroe, next Christmas, don't forget to take your own Baby Jesus with you. It may just come in handy. I think we should be told.

I PLAYER ON YOUR TV SET, DIRTY DIGGER IS FURIOUS AGAIN

2009-12-23T05:37:00.000-08:00

The BBC has come up with a plan to extend the use of its much used IPlayer which enable people to watch most of its TV programs on demand once they have been shown on live TV. It works well though my own PC is already groaning under the pressure of running HD TV streams which are very processor heavy.

The new plan is to extend the the I Player so that other TV companies such as Independent TV and Channel Four or Five can also stream their progs on it. Most people are in favour of this except of course (step forwared the Dirty Digger) Rupert Murdoch the well known Right Wing Neocon Politicians with extensive interests in all kinds of Meda. His Sky TV in the UK has already achieved his stated target of 10 million users which rivals the Free View System which also has 10 million users. A number of other suppliers and ISPs also survice another two ro three million viewers and toegether this accounts for the majority of the digital market.

Mr Dirty is already whinging of course which he usually does whenever anything is suggested which might threaten his monopoly, especially if it is more left wing than his own org which of course, everything else is. My own view is that his sky service other than for sports fanatics is actually a crock of shit and most of us can manage perfectly well without it. The BBC may have a number of faults, who doesn't/ but it does also provide a wide range of good programmes which far surpasses in quality and diversity, anything that Mr Dirty can muster.

I wish the BBC good luck with its new sharing of video platforms proposal, it will make it easier for those who might other wise find it technically or finanacially difficult to set up streams and replays for the on demand market. And if it gives Mr Crappy a hard time, i would regard it as a welcome bonus. The new service provisionally known as "Canvas" coult begin as early as the New Year.

UK ARMY -- WHAT ARMY?

2009-12-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

If ever proof were needed that Britain should not be involved in the Iraq or Afghani conflicts then todays announcement by the British Government that there will be major cuts in the armed forces merely to pay for more helicopters in Afghanistan must surely be it. Not only should we never have sent our troops into these conflicts at the behest of the notorious liar Tony Blair, we now know that we could not afford it anyway. Undoubtedly the credit crunch has hastened this realisation but for the last two or three years the armed forces have complained bitterly that lives are being lost because of an acute shortage of helicopters. Now we lear that we will at last get the choppers but to do so, bases will be closed, non front line jobs will be axed, a couple of Navy ships will go and one of our two aircraft carriers will not even have aircraft to carry other than the helicopters of course. Even training exercises will be be reduced.

For far too long the UK has tried to Punch above its weight but now this can be seen to be little short of posturing and for no good reason. We have been selling our own troops and airmen short for far too long as it is. Now we will at last get the choppers that our troops need but so much more will be lost. What a total disgrace and most of this can be laid at the door of our totally discredited ex-prime minister. To make a mistake is human but to follow an asshole like George W Bush into battle must top the lot. In the Iraq conflict the UK component was little more than a stocking filler and now the enquiry currently underway into the Iraq blunder shows how we were totally ignored by the US President. Presumably Blair held on to W Bushes trouser legs hoping for favours in the future. What an indiot he was, we didnt even get any thanks or respect. Not in our name please, not in our name.

RECORD INDUSTRY GREED HITS CHARITY SHOPS

2009-12-11T05:52:00.001-08:00

I learned today from BBC Radio Fours program You and Yours that the greedy bastards in the Music Biz are at it againl this time its the charity shops who are being nailed. Currently, if a couple of people who are unpaid volunteers have the audacity to listen to the radio in the shop whist sorting through old clothes, books and bric-a-brac. the shop has to pay the Performing Rights Society £100 per annum for the privalage. Now we learn that the PPL the Phonographic Protection are also set to demand another £100 per annum. Those of you who would like to send hate mail can contact them at this address. PPL, 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE

ANYONE FOR COMPULSORY NUCLEAR POWER ?

2009-11-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

As a long time campaigner against nuclear energy and "that monstrosity in Cumbria known to many as Sellafield" I can strongly endorse much of the atatement from Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth's Exec Director who said....

" building new nuclear reactors is not the answer to the challenges of climate change and energy security.

"Nuclear power leaves a deadly legacy of radioactive waste that remains highly dangerous for tens of thousands of years and costs tens of billions of pounds to manage. And building new plants would divert precious resources from developing safe renewable power, while doing little to bring about the urgent emissions reductions that are desperately needed within the next decade."

"Ministers must develop the UK's huge renewable energy potential and embark on a massive national programme to cut energy waste. This will create tens of thousands of jobs, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, cut emissions and make Britain a world leader in developing a green economy."

Sadly of course anything of even the slightest use from Gordon Browns continuing New Labour Project, soon to disappear under the fast rising waters of Political Climate Change comes with a sting in the tail and of course a reduction in democracy. This will be felt most notably in the changes the Gov have made to the planning process which allow them to fast track major projects such as Nuke Power Plants, Airports etc etc.

The previous planning system may have had some weaknesses or been a little slow but surely its better that all interested parties should have a say in the decision making when health and safety of the public are concerned and surely, few things can have a more disasterous effect on the environment than a new Nuke Plant or the "safe" (sic ) disposal of Nuclear waste.

Daily this appalling government are becoming more authoritarian and use any excuse to increase their powers and reduce our freedoms. If we vote this appalling bunch of shits, then we sure are like Turkeys voting for Christmas. Unfortunately the other bunch of nonentities show little sign of being an improvement. Nuclear Power No thanks, Not in Anyones Back Yard.

NEW LABOUR LIES NOW NEW TORY LIES

2009-11-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

After nearly 12 years of New Labour porkies, involving WMDs, War mongering, the NHS, and finally a referendum on Europe, we have become accostomed to what we all really knew already, ie; our Government cannot be trusted and any promises made are just hollow posturing. Now we find that Camerons New Tory project is coming apart at the seams even before they get to Government.

At least New Labour waited till they got in power to begin breaking their promises to the electorate, but now, not to be outdone, Cameron has already broke his promise for a referendum even before he gets in. There will now be no referendum on the Lisbon treaty. Of course he must have known this before he made the promise, after all its easy to make promises when you know you wont be able to keep them. At least we now know that we definately cannot trust either New Labour or Camerons Conservatives and will have to look elsewhere for someone we can vote for.

Obviously Griffins bunch of thickos are beyond the pale and other than a small handful of worthy independents, we are really left with either the Lib Dems or the Greens. Both of these are unknown commodities other than at the local level but I am fairly sure that neither of the above will lead us into another senseless and unwinnable war which is at least a step in the right direction. And, they are also much more likely to approach Green issues with a bit of practicality and common sense rather than the "do as your told, not as we do approach of the two major parties.

Common sense is needed most of all at this time because not voting is not an option if you believe in any kind of democracy and want to see it realised for a change. The internet is playing an important and growing part in the electoral process. Face book and its childlike offspring Twitter are being taken seriously by politicians because of the damage the can do to political reputations in no time at all. but in the case of Twitter i am not sure that rule by text message is a step forward rather than merely another example of the dumbing down of the population.

Certainly bloggers can do a lot of damage to old myths and misconceptions and some of them are actually very good although my own efforts are probably below average except in my areas of expertise. Even if i cannot be a mover or shaker of governments and a catalyst for regime change, at least i can get a lot of my chest and clear my psyche for more ennervating matters.

MUSIC INDUSTRY SCORES OWN GOAL OVER ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING

2009-11-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Research published by Demos today shows that the Music Biz has got the wrong end of the stick yet again over people who are allegedly illegally downloading. It turns out that those who admit to illegally downloading are actually spending much more money on music than those who claim they dont download music illegally

People who illegally download music spend more on official releases than those who obey download laws, a survey suggested.
The think-tank Demos said it found illegal downloaders spent an average of £77 a year on genuine music, £33 more than those who claim never to have wrongly accessed music for free.
Nearly two thirds of people who admit to downloading music illegally also said that new and cheaper music services would encourage them to stop accessing illegal services.

The results come amid warnings from the Government that people who persistently download illegally face being disconnected from the internet.

The average "spend" on music by normal Joes and Josephines, is around £44 per ye

ar whilst those who admit to illegally downloading spend and average of £77 per year

Lets hope that this is not yet another bit of expert advice which our no nothing government ignores.

LOW ENERGY STREET LIGHTING SPREADS

2009-10-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I talked with several local and County Councillors about low energy street lighting. The reasons were fairly obvious. not only does the Sodium glare rob us of the glory of the Night Sky its public money down the drain and a major component of CO2 emissions which helps to fuel climate change.
I put the case for low energy lighting, not the types using the traditional mercury filled orange bulbs so common on British Streets, but the even newer and lower energy LED lights we are so familiar with in our electronics in the home. LED lights have become much more efficient in producing light of virtually any colour and higher intensity. A standard lighting unit as seen on your street would probably be using 40 or 50 watts of energy but the new LED units being developed use as little as ten watts, a considerable saving for the council and our council tax bills. They also last up to ten years, Illuminate the street or pathway rather than your house or nearby fields and the blue white colour is much less strain on the eye and is more aesthetically pleasing.
The really good news is that work has been going on behind the scenes to help meet the UKs energy and CO2 emissions reduction plans. Here in Pendle i have already noticed some of the new lights appearing on our lanes and when i contacted Lancashire County Council for more details i was told there is now a plan to roll out 30,000 of these new lights ASAP. I also discovered that there is a similar plan being hatched in West Yorkshire.
Its nice to get a bit of good news for a change and it could get better. As newer and higher intensity bulbs are developed we could see them spreading to our major dual carriageways or motorways and as the technology developes, truly interactive lighting which turns itself off when there is no traffic or people on the roads. If security lighting can work this way then why not the majority of our unneeded lighting. Who knows, we may soon be able to see the stars again. I for one look forward to that.

DANDELION RADIO

2009-10-06T04:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the On the Wire Blog for the following information about Dandelion Radio. Its an Internet Radio Station for those who like me stayed a loyal listener to John Peel and his shows no matter where or when the BBC suits dumped him.

His programs were and still are unique, he inspired and encouraged thousands of new bands and artists and played music which just could not be found anywhere else on the BBC schedules. The most notable and honourable exception being On the Wire itself, which John Peel himself listened to and enjoyed.

He even gave his name to the campaign to save On the Wire when the Birtistas at the BBC parachuted in a new manager to destroy the stations individuality. On the Wire listeners wont forget Johns help, energy and enthusiasm and it therefore gives us great pleasure to honour him and Dandelion Radio which is a part of his legacy.

As Andrew Morrison says on the Dandelion web site....
"Dandelion Radio marks the 5th anniversary of John Peel's death with "Peel Legends" month in October. Andy's 3-hour show features brand new sessions from past session guests on John's BBC Radio 1 show. You'll hear exclusive material from Eat Static, Davey MacManus (of The Crimea), The Aphrodisiacs, Decoration and Martin Carr, as well as some classic tracks from Extreme Noise Terror. On top of all this is a "New Legends" session from Atomizer, whom Andy feels John would've approved of. You'll also hear a New Order jukebox track from their 1998 Peel session; Teresa and Scott's monthly selections; and details of the 2009 Festive Fifty."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ON THE WIRE NOW YOU ARE TWENTY-FIVE

2009-09-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the pleasure of joining with some familiar faces and voices from the last 25 years of On The Wire at BBC Radio Lancashire's studio in Blackburn. Most notably an old and outrageously talented friend called Adrian Sherwood the Genius behind On-U-Soundz who has recently released another Lee Scratch Perry album. The entire show lasting 4 hours featuring an interview or two with Adrian is available for download at this link http://otwradio.blogspot.com/2009/09/playlist-19th-september-2009-on-wire-is.html which you may have to paste into your browser. When you get to the page look for the audio link and you can download a podcast of the full show. The same will apply to the next couple of shows which will be featuring more special anniversary guest mixes from stations in the USA.

On the Wire is still available each Saturday night in the North West of England on FM at 10 pm, British Summer Time and via the BBC Radio Lancashire Website and later on listen again and at the On the Wire Blog address above.

In this increasingly commercialised and dumbed-down world, music programs catering for more rarefied and diverse musical and cultural tastes are about as rare as rocking horse shit and since the sad loss of John Peel it has become glaringly obvious how blinkered the BBC has become. It tried to end On the Wire in the early nineties when the John Birt reign of terror and rolling news threatened to squeeze every bit of individuality and regional accent from Local Radio in the UK. Only thanks to a truly enormous and indeed magnificent response from its many loyal fans was it saved at the last minute.

The North of England and its major cities harbour a truly extraordinary volume and quality of musical talent but without programs like on the wire and the work of Steve Barker and Michael Fenton (Fenny) much of it would probably never even get a first chance to be heard. And this dedication to music and creative talent rather than merely the latest D rated Celeb which has earned not only its loyal audience here in the UK but also many new fans via the net and even DJs and presenters on stations across the Pond. Maybe its now impossible to credit all who have contributed in their various ways but there's no harm in trying. It gives me great pleasure to reprint the Roll of Honour of those involved with On the Wire over the last 25. Thank you one and all and here's to the next twenty five.

Mike Martin, Jethro Binks, Steve Baldwin, Nick Shimmin, Gaynor Hegart, yAjay, Sarah Champion, Allison Martin, John Kerr, Roger Brough, Dr. Steve Redhead, Dr Alan Woods, Uncle Joe Wilson, Twin Boys, Mark E Smith, Mike Chapman, Ian Cooke, Christian Virant. Baked Goods Boys, Comix boys & girls,Black Banana, Brian Jackson, John Peel, Andy Kershaw, Harry Hawk, Terry C,Dr Starngedub, Eastern Bloc, Martin & Graham & 808 boys, Action, Gordon & AckerBoomkat, Shlom & Alex,Probe, Annie & Bob, Steve Hardstaff, Geoff Davies, Roger Eagle, Gary Hickson, Daniel Miller, Mrs Cakehead, Adrian Sherwood, Kishi Yamamoto,Blood & Fire boys, Dom, Bob and Steve Barrow, Alex Fenton, Brian Cox, Hovis Presley, Fredd Dootson, Phil & Mick Orch, Nigel Blackwell. John Tree, Buzz Bury, Pete Haigh, The Madhatter, Colin Joseph, Jah Wobble, Alan Bishop, Paul Rooney, Enrico la Rocca, Andrew Neal, Marvin Scott. Professor Les Scott, Neil Robbins, Phil Smith, John Cuckold, Astonihing Sounds, Beatherder Boys Nick & Tim, Gary Ward @ Darwen Music Festival, Richard Finlayson, Mr Wiz, Krispy, Gerry & Brenda Kenny, Coldcut, Negativland, Dave Katz, Martin Kelner, Russell and Melissa at Dubhead, Ray Hurford, Paul Meme, John Eden, Laurent at WTM, Martin Mills, Annie Bandez, Alison at Southern, Tony, Chris and all at the Wire, Charlie Gillett, David Toop, Dennis Bovell, Jan & Christoph at Jahtari,

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TRUST ?

2009-09-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

As a grass roots community and environmental worker over the last forty years, I can say with confidence that the main cause of of lack of trust and waste of time and resources on both sides of the pond and the political devide are the political party systems and the absence of proportional representation which they protect like gold. This in turn acts as a template for the corporate financial and business systems.

I have met throughout my life only a small number of politicians and businessmen and civil servants who i can really say i trusted and even fewer who I still trust. The rest are at best unreliable, many are personally motivated and some have little concern for anything other than personal power and financial advantage over others. Especially when in a Party or a corporate body a good individual tends to be swamped by the collective desire for power, influence and advantage. and the majority close ranks when anyone strays from the local orthodoxy. The same applies when someone commits a criminal act, or merely displays complete lack of ability or reliability.

The Party and Corporate system always looks after itself and those who toe the party line. Good is swamped and bad is protected against exposure. Large political majorities only breed arrogance and high handedness. and when I got the opportunity and challenged our former "leader" Tony Blair in a live radio phone-in, a couple of days before the 2000 AD election, his only excuse was that it would only give power to minorities. Events since then have only proved that we really do need more power in minorities and PR as this would actually increase democracy, force proper debate and prevent bad legislation and the outrageous conduct of the Tories in the Thatcher Era and and the Labour party in the Blair era.

The parties are still at it. They exaggerate as a reflex action to defend their policies and telling lies has become a virtue. Not suprisingly greed and dishonesty are now being elevated to virtues in this far from Brave New World. Thatcher and the Tories promised prosperity and property ownership but only to the few and to the detrement of the many. She also released control to the financial and banking systems, paving the way to the Credit Crunch and the chaos we are now experiencing. In the process she virtually closed down industry in the North of England and transformed the UK into an unsustainable service economy. When Blair was elected after many wonderful promises, he merely picked up Thatchers baton and ran with it to the detriment of the elderly, the sick and disabled and of course the unemployed with helped him finance his war mongering.

As long as we continue with the Party System and First Past the Post, we will always be at the mercy of clever marketing, ruthless politicians and our own weakness. Its time to introduce PR as in the Scotiish Parliament and make it possible for more independent candidates. Only then will we be able to lecture the rest of the world on the meaning of Democracy and of course restore the badly needed trust in our political and financial system.

ON THE WIRE, BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE 25th BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-09-09T04:11:00.001-07:00

Here's the final reminder that on Saturday 19th September the long running and unique program for real music and real fans, will celebrate 25 years of shaking the North of England with its unique blend of Musics. Special studio guests should include Lee Scratch Perry, the true Genie of Reggae Music and Dub, Jah Wobble and Legendary music producer and operator of On-U-Sounds Adrian Sherwood music journalists and special dub mixes from the USA furnished by Doctor Strangedub and Andy Swiss at The Echo Chamber on KFAI Minneapolis and St Paul, and Terry Collins aka the Turntable Terrorist at Echo Beach from WLUW Chicago.
Normally On the Wire can be heard on BBC Radio Lancshire on FM in the North of England and of course Worldwide via the Internet. For this special the normal slot of 10 PM till Midnight on Saturdays will be extended to 2 AM which gives us four whole wonderful hours of fun and tunes. So to be on the bus rather than under it. tune in at 10 PM and Join presenter Steve Barker, Fenny and Jim Ingham and their guests. If you cannot be there, it should be on BBC Radio Lancashires Listen Again list for the next seven days. I will be there with my video camera hoping to catch some highlights from the occasion which will then be available on You Tube and also on this Blog and the BBC web site.

AMERICAN HUMBUG over LOCKERBIE

2009-08-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's very sad to hear all the humbug from the USA about Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. I can easily understand the families of the Lockerbie victims being upset, especially when they like most people have been kept in the dark about the full story but i am very disappointed that Obama, who I thought was an intelligent man, jhas joined in the humbug.

Perhaps it would help him moderate his ire if he called for ALL the documents and evidence surrounding both the Bombing of flight 103 and the trial. For example, the evidence suggesting that the bomb was put on the plane in Frankfurt or the Mediterranean. Most of the evidence suggested it had been placed on the flight at Heathrow. According to security personnel talking to one of the bereaved British families, There had been a break in at Heathrow the day before the bomb outrage and luggage had been apparently tampered with. Something else I recall from the time was that the bomb was fairly sophisticated and had some kind of pressure trigger, designed to detonate when the plane reached cruising altitude. If this was the case, then one would assume that the bomb would have detonated before it arrived at London rather than after it left.

Two hundred and forty-three passengers, 16 crew members and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie lost their lives when the plane was blown up. 21 Nationalities were represented, not just Americans English or Scots people. The Americans especially have no monopoly on outrage and to the best of my knowledge, Megrahi. has no connection with the 911 attacks. America prides itself on its justice and sense of write or wrong, talks about freedom and democracy, human rights and many other things which sound fine and dandy which it seeks to export to the world. But it may not seem like that if you are an ordinary American citizen and have to suffer, surveillance, police harassment, the use of the armed forces in civil issues, compulsory vaccination, fluoridation etc etc, yet at the same time have little access to Medical care if they have no money and have to go cap in hand and throw themselves at the mercy of whatever charity still has some resources.

I talk to Americans daily, they are almost always, frank, honest and friendly, they seldom whine about their own situations but increasingly I meet up with members of the once broad church known as the Middle Classes who have been reduced to penury, who have lost their homes and families having been lifelong hard workers and tax-payers. They no longer live in the USA but a place better called the United Corporate States. Where the discrepancy between the richest and the poorest grows daily and the Middle Classes gradually dissolve into the newly unwaged and dispossesed.

I have never, unlike many of my generation, been opposed to capitalism with a small C,and I am pleased that people can make a profit or a living and create wealth and jobs for other people. But when resources, technology, the media, medicine, industry and even the military fall increasingly into a declining minority of already super-rich hands then the symptoms of this, such as power mongering, political manipulation, fraud war wongering, expansionism and greed are in no way surprising.

Using bombs and missiles, the USA has bombed, missiled, manipulated, over-run, occupied, robbed and stolen the resources of other nations and cultures more than any previous nation. Whether this was at the behest of or financed by either the Government or various interest groups and vested interests matters little, the fact remains that it has done so. It even controls its neighbours. It has walled off Mexico and seems to have bought out Canada. Its dabbled in the politics of many South American countries, especially those who dared to experiment with any other forms of government Any one who disagrees is either labele a Commie or a pervert it seems yet the biggest commies and perverts seem to hail from the "Land of the Free"

America needs to realise that the world and its people do not work like clockwork, which can be wound up by the White House whether they be in South America, Europe or the Far East, If Megrahi. really is guilty then maybe Karma has finally caught up with him, or maybe he has just been a very unlucky man. Whether innocent or guilty, its better and cheaper for him to die at home in his home country and with his family. The state of Libya and his family can pay the costs of his medical care and/or burial. Clearly he is not a well man and medical experts agree he has three months or less to live. Perhaps America feels its missed out on another opportunity to torture someone but as new evidence surfaces about its activities agains alleged terrorists in its internment camps one would have thought they had more than enough to waterboard and threaten with electric drills.

When Flight 103 exploded and fell out of the sky over Lockerbie on the Scottish Border every sane person wept for the dead and the bereaved, America of course went further and wanted vengeance like some Old Testament prophet. No Justice or Compassion was to be shown, Someone should be jailed or executed or both. As the saying goes, An Eye for and Eye leads to a blind World, a world which sees, if it sees at all, the whole planet as a cruel and violent place, full of cruel and violent people. But, if humans are to survive on this small planet then we must aspire to higher standards of truth and compassion, not double speak, double agents, deals behind closed doors and only justice at gun point paid for by the latest corporation. True power can exercise itself through grace rather than violence and it is this which the super-powers should practice rather than just preach about. Scotland has tried to do this and they are to be congratulated for doing so.

Here in the UK we are perhaps much more acquainted with senseless and bloody terrorism than the USA. For one example out of many thousands, lets look at the Birmingham Pub Bombs from the 70's On November 21, 1974 two bombs exploded which killed 21 people and injured 182.^[The devices were placed in two central Birmingham pubs: the Mulberry Bush, at the foot of the Rotunda, and the Tavern in the Town, a basement pub on New Street (now renamed the Yard of Ale). A man with an Irish accent telephoned the Birmingham Post newspaper and said that there was a bomb in the 25 storey Rotunda office block housing the Mulberry Bush pub. Police went to the Rotunda to investigate. The police started to check the upper floors of the building but failed to clear the crowded pub which was situated at street level. Just minutes later, at 20:17, the bomb exploded, devastating the crowded bar. Warnings had just reached the equally crowded Tavern in the Town pub nearby,^[1] when at 20:27 a second bomb there exploded. A passing West Midlands PTE bus was caught in the blast and subsequently written-off. A third device, outside a branch of Barclays Bank on Hagley Road, failed to detonate.

Not surprisingly there was much grief and anger. I know, I was iI was orking in Birmingham the following night and the fear was tangible. Spurred on by a rabble rousing press the hunt was on for anyone with an Irish accent. This was the only description really necessary. Random beatings of Irish locals took place and the police arrested and of course beat up several suspects themselves. Six men were immediately accused of carrying out the attack; they were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. They all spent 16 years behind bars, before their convictions were overturned only after the scientific evidence was discredited, and the documents setting out the confessions were found to be unreliable due to police tampering (i.e., the police wrote the "confessions" that the men signed after several days of torture). They were all released from prison after the ruling by the Court of Appeal on 14 March 1991.

Someone had planted the bombs and therefore someone (anyone) should be punished for ever and ever amen. Its a terrible thing to be guilty of being a foreigner, especially an Arab, Black or Irish one and therefore deened automatically guilty of whatever happens to be the problem. this bombing was just one of thousands of atrocities carried out by the IRA and the Loyalists factions who fought tooth an nail on first the streets of Ulster and eventually on the streets of mainland Britain. Tens of thousands were killed, and maimed and the emotional wounds have still not healed. Perhaps this is the time to explain that most of the explosives, guns and ammo was paid for with money collected in the USA from sympathetic groups of Irish descent. and much of the weaponry, ammo and explosives was purchased from Libya. Only after the 911 attacks in the USA did the majority of the American people discover what it was like to be on the receiving end of thiss kind of terrorism and fortunatelly much of the funding dried up.

It is just possible that that Megrahi. was in some way responsible, or at least connected to state terrorism but this was never proved satisfactorily and much evidence was never produced. Perhpas he was at some time employed by Libya, or maybe Iran or even Syria. Maybe he was just a patsy, framed for political advantage and fours. Or maybe he was just the man in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he has consistently protested his innocence from the beginning and still does even now after his release.

So, Mr President, please stop for a few minutes and think about six innocent Irish men who spent more than 25 years behind bars for no other reason than being Irish and living in Birmingham UK. and about countless others in the USA, Iraq, Afghanistan etc who have been arrested, tortured, renditioned (*sic) and killed for being Iraqi, Afghani, black or maybe just coming from somewhere which still has oil etc etc. And leets not forget the unknown thousands killed and injured by the assorted "Black Ops" carried out by the West. What do you want, Mr President, a world with its eyes open and hearts full of compassion desirous of a better future or a blind world full of hate and revenge and terror. ie; Bush thirde term. as a good starting point, please call off Judge Dread aka Mr Mueller at the FBI who seems to wish to out do the CIA and remember, if you are a religious man, "Let him who hath not sinned, cast the first stone!"

PORTIA:: The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:(190)
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;(195)
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

PIRATE PARTY LAUNCHES IN THE UK

2009-08-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

The Pirate Party UK

The world is changing. The Pirate Party understands that the law needs to change to match the realities of life in the 21st century.

We have 3 core policies:

• Reform copyright and patent law. We want to legalise non-commercial file sharing and reduce the excessive length of copyright protection, while ensuring that when creative works are sold, it's the artists who benefit, not monopoly rights holders. We want a patent system that doesn't stifle innovation or make life saving drugs so expensive that patients die.

• End the excessive surveillance, profiling, tracking and monitoring of innocent people by Government and big businesses.

• Ensure that everyone has real freedom of speech and real freedom to enjoy and participate in our shared culture.

In recent years we have seen an unprecedented onslaught on the rights of the individual. We are treated like criminals when we share entertainment digitally, even though this is just the modern equivalent of lending a book or a DVD to a friend. We look on helpless as our culture and heritage, so important for binding our society together, is eroded and privatised.

Now there is a democratic alternative. We, the people, can take back our rights. We, the people, can overturn the fat cats and the corrupt MPs who hold our nation's cultural treasures to ransom, ignore our democratic wishes and undermine our civil liberties.

The internet has turned our world into a global village. Ideas can be shared at incredible speed, and at negligible cost. The benefits are plain to see, but as a result, many vested interests are threatened. The old guard works hard to preserve their power and their privilege, so we must work hard for our freedom. The Pirate Party offers an alternative to the last century's struggles between political left and political right. We are open to anyone and everyone who wants to live in a fair and open society.

Following on from the wildfire success of our sister parties in other countries, the Pirate Party UK offers a new way to tackle society's problems, by releasing the potential of ideas, at the expense of corporate monopolies and the interests of a controlling state.

Outdated laws must change, and will change. The only question is when will we change them. Join our cause, and help make this change happen now!

Success or failure will depend upon how many people join this party and of course on how many of those actually get active. In the real world of politics (which actually sounds like an oxymoron), even a petition with a million names on it only counts as one letter so its the number of individual letters which really count.

ID CARDS IN MANCHESTER, NO THANKS!

2009-08-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

+ Insecurity in the Home Office +

This week the Daily Mail reported that the biometric residence visa card
that the Home Office brands as the "ID card for foreigners" could be
cloned in 12 minutes using a standard mobile phone, a laptop, and some
freely available software.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204641/New-ID-cards-supposed-unforgeable--took-expert-12-minutes-clone-programme-false-data.html

The experts were then able to alter the data on the cloned card (the
original being unharmed and unaltered in any way) - and re-sign it to
appear genuine to a standard card reader. Our thanks to the NO2ID
volunteer (who must stay anonymous) whose residence card was used for
this demonstration.

The Home Office response to this was a classic of misdirection: They
denied something that hadn't happened (altering the original card) was
possible; then they tried to imply that if anything had happened it
couldn't do so in the future because the encryption on the next
generation of chips - none of which will be issued for a couple of years
- can't be broken that way. The ID cards to be issued to volunteers in
Manchester within the year (it is said) fall somewhere in the gap
between those denials.

The truth is, just as with e-Passports, that there is a fundamental
conflict between the official convenience of having databases and
smartcards that collate and share our personal information
automatically, and the privacy and the security of the individual. The
system is designed to give personal information to the authorities. So
when it does so to other people, whoever they may be, it is only doing
what it was designed for.

The demand that people identify themselves officially at every turn
doesn't just create insecurity. It is actually a sign of insecurity.
Unless the Home Office can know what we are up to, it fears we may be
out of control. Your privacy and your individual security do not count
in the pursuit of that sort of "security".

When some cards *have* been issued we will be eager to repeat the
demonstration for anyone who believes in the scheme and who has
volunteered for an ID Card. They are the people who need to appreciate
what handing control of their identity to the Home Office means for them
personally, because for them there will be no way back but scrapping the
scheme completely.

From NO2ID Newsletter No.129‏

HEMP - REDISCOVERING THE WONDER DRUG

2009-07-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

SPINELESS LABOUR MPs? -YOU BET THEY ARE

2009-07-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

For most of my life i have regarded the Daily Mail as a reactionary, right wing shit stirring rag nut now, when I am certainly old enough to know better I must confess I am beginning to agree with its stance on many issues. The warning signs have been there for a while now. As a life long Private Eye reader I tended to rely on Lord Gnomes organ for for both news and laughs. After all, the Guardian which i grew up to associate with detailed news coverage and balance lost its credibility for me in the 80s when it grassed up a Cruise Missile whistle blower to Inspector Knacker after only a little pressure from the Government. More recently the BBC has lost its credibility following the Kelly affair as it too caved in on a variety of issues, surrendering its independence for the sake of a Guaranteed license fee money supply which the Government has now reneged on.

Today, I read the Mails article on Gary McKinnon, the low grade hacker and Aspergers sufferer whose only real problem was his obsession with UFOs and suspicion of American Military and Governmental cover up. Armed only with a bog standard computer and on a dial up link he apparently managed to access a wide variety of military and Pentagon web sites and computers. Of course his job was made easy because many of them did not even have an active password to protect them. This was far too embarrassing for Uncle Sam, particularly following the 911 attacks and the widespread paranoia so McKinnon has been charged with every offence they could find from causing "tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to Government defence systems." (this would be most unlikely as all he did was look, he wasn't messing with code) to crapping on the White House Lawn, or so it seemed. What a travesty of justice there is in this world when the McKinnons of this world suffer so yet scumbags like W Bush and Tony Blair walk free.

There is of course a million to one chance that he did stumble on some officially hidden pictures of UFOs which would blow the Yanks out of the water after years of cover ups and conspiracy theories from professional Ufologists, but somehow i think not. I became interested myself in UFOs in the early 70s and read all the books and soaked up all the theories. It quickly became obvious to me that the vast majority of UFOs were actually misperceptions, another large chunk were apparently new Air Force hardware being tested and another large chunk were actually things such as Earthlights. The small number of genuinely mysterious and unexplainable sightings were it seemed to me electro-magnetic in nature. They could move and manouvre at incredible speeds and seemed to have no mass. They were able to leave behind even the fastest and newest US jets and rockets and many though not all, did not even show up on radar.

There are some genuine mysteries even mentioned in the US Air Force official Blue Book investigation and these are always worth reexamination using the latest tech and data. But, the real secret that was kept from the public was not what they were or were not but rather that the Air Force simply did not know, and, having decided that they did not present an immediate threat to national security they decided on a mums the word policy and the UFOs and those who chased them were usually debunked and humiliated, irrespective of their individual reliability and expertise. McKinnon, unlike the flying saucers he sought was comparatively easy to find and therefore a convenient scapegoat for the Americans total computer incompetence.

As many have said of him. He did a valuable service to the USA by exposing the holes in their computer systems big enough to fly a Mother Ship through. Aspergers Syndrome is a disability and to desire to sentence him to decades in the clearly vicious and inhumane penal system is a travesty of Justice.

Many people have campaigned to have McKinnon set free or at least charged with a minimal offence and maybe given help rather than a prison sentence and until recently many MPs apparently agreed and wished to see him not sent sent to the USA where justice costs even more than it does here and is probably completely outside the means of this rather ordinary man. Worst of all is to see this bunch of MPs turn from democratic believers in justice and freedom to a bunch of weak lilly livered cocksuckers and arslickers as soon as the PM, or the Home Sec or the Chief Whip clicked his fingers. What a bunch of shits they are. Possibly to fight McKinnons corner would actually expose them to some real work or principals, all of which is thin on the ground in Westminster nowadays, where the real task is to trouser as much dosh as they can in expenses, or to accept money and privileged from organisations which directly conflict with their offcial positions, like for instance that little lickspittle, Andy Burnham.

As a life-long labour voter i find i can no longer even contemplate voting for any of them with only a handful of noble exceptions. They have let down the Party system which was never in good health anyway, and the rest of the country who believed in democracy. Worst of all they have let down the poorest in our society, the ones who really needed some help and who stayed loyal to Labour through the darkest days of the Thatcher reign. All of this was wasted as the poor, the disabled, the sick and the elderly were sold down the river. Shame on Tony B Liar, Gordon Brown and the rest of the rag-bag or opportunists and bottom feeders.

I only wish i had met Gary McKinnon some years ago, possibly i would have been able to divert him from flying saucers and conspiracies to some genuine leading edge research into EM phenomena like the Meadon Vortex, or Plasma. Perhaps i could have give him a copy of John Keele's excellent book, "Operation Trojan Horse" which explains the whole gamut of UFOs, and other varied occult phenomenon in a very readable yet concise fashion. It could save you and many others on this path a lot of time and brain cells.

SLOW FOOD INTERNATIONAL

2009-07-13T09:03:00.001-07:00

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.Today, we have over 100,000 members in 132 countries.

OH WHAT AN UGLY WAR!

2009-07-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

I was one of the many millions in this country who opposed the Iraq war and of course the Afghanistan war. I was never convinced that Sadam Hussein was more than a minor irritant. Vicious, brutal and power mad he may have been but he was only ever in the second division when it came to dictators and despite his many faults, many of the Iraqi people liked him. His kind of "strong leadership" is popular in much of the Middle East or at least they often profess to do so. And anyway, lets not forget, he was the West's boy. We put him there, we armed him and kept him there. When he went to war against Iran he used weapons of mass destruction that we in the West had provided against Iran. Little wonder that there is such suspicion of the current motives of the UK by the Iranian leader, the Man inna dinner jacket. Tens of thousands of Iranians were killed by weapons supplied by the USA and Britain.

I have never perceived any real Glory in war. Death, mutilation, starvation, refugees, innocent bystanders, cruelty humiliation and torture for sure, but no glory and as usual, the first victim of the war was truth. And if ever lies were a weapon of mass destruction then Tony B Liar was the very effective delivery system. We all saw him posturing in Parliement, then posturing with W Bush and even eventually, posturing and posing for photo ops with "our brave boys" out in Iraq. For me and many others this was the final straw from Blair. He had let down the Labour party and all those who remained loyal during the lean times the Beast Thatcher, then when in power he had let down all those who had voted for him, making the mistake that this time, this politician would be different. Alas it was not to be, he carried on with Thatchers policies of privatisation and market freedom, and paid only lip service to the Environment. Talk is cheap and never cheaper than when he lied in order to go to war to help his Champanzee friend Bush.

Now before you get the wrong idea about me, i must stress that i am not a Peacenik. I have had several soldier friends and i have always respected them for their courage and the difficult choices they made. I believe that we should have an Army because who else would defend us if we were attacked or threatened. Certainly not the likes of Bush unless we had oil of course. And if we have an army, we should train them well in peacekeeping as well as warmaking. We should clothe and equip them to the highest standerd possible and we should not send them into danger for trivial reasons.

Sadly we have let them down, or at least the likes of Blair and Brown have let them down. We sent them into battle in Iraq for no reason other than a pack of lies and exaggerations. We skimped on body armour and all kinds of weaponry. We over stretched them individually and regimentally. We expected miracles when we knew they were only flesh and blood. We sent them against an invisible enemy, strong and secure in its own territory and then feighned shock and surprise when they were injured and killed in their hundreds. Shame on you Blair the warmonger and Brown the apologist

You cannot win a war against a people who you have invaded and overun even when people are killed by the hundreds of thousands. Sooner or later they will repay the complement and gain strenghth and allies who will join them in their hatred and quest for vengeance. Bush and Blair and their ilk have made the USA and the UK hated in the middle east and lowered our reputation in many other parts of the world and made us a target. And all for the sake of oil which does not belong to us.

It would be nice to think that now we and the Americans are leaving Iraq, the country could get back to normal but I have my doubts. And now that are concentrating all our force on Afghanistan we will only compound our mistakes. Britain tried long ago to subdue Afghanistan and despite our power and weaponry we failed abysmally. Even the monster that is or at least was the Russian Red Army, the biggest military power in the world could not bring them to heal. How can we in the UK or the USA think that we have the secret which the previous invaders lacked? How can we think that we can ever really win? Its time to get out now, not next year but now.

BAD PHORM

2009-07-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

An email from my Leeds correspondent alerts me to a morsel of good news as published on the BBC News Web Site. UK internet service provider TalkTalk has pulled the plug on its agreement with online behaviour tracking firm Phorm.
It follows news earlier in the week that BT had no immediate plans to use the service.

Phorm has developed technology which collects information on web use in order to better target adverts but it has proved extremely controversial.
The loss of its key partners saw Phorm's shares tumble by more than 50%.
TalkTalk's plans were not as advanced as BT which had undertaken three trials of the technology.

"The directors note that this relationship had not extended to any form of trial in contrast to BT and some international internet service providers," a statement from Phorm read. It also noted that "privacy was not a factor" in BT's decision to pull the plug on the technology. (Yeah Right!)

Surprise surprise, Virgin Media, which also expressed interest in the system, was still reviewing it, according to Phorm. Phorm is also currently trialling its software with South Korea's largest ISP and is in discussion about the use of the technology with ISPs in 15 other countries.

I first came across this outfit a couple of years back when BBC's "You and Yours" carried an item about them and their activities. There was much concern amongst some journalists and technorati that although this info gathering technology was theoretically anonymous, it could actually be used to gather much more than merely marketing info. As if we needed any more surveillance in this septic isle.

As i was just switching from the rapidly sinking AOL to BT i was concerned that I was literally leaping from the frying pan into the fire. I contacted BT by phone and spoke to a few of their staff, none of whome claimed to know anything about Phorm or its activities. I did warn them that if they went ahead with plans to use it for info gathering it would be Sayanora from me and probably many more of its customers. They of course promised to get back to me but never did. (Bad Buggers, BT),

I can only surmise that their plans were greeted by much opprobrium amongst their customers and that this outweighed the perceived beneifts. No doubt it would have course also fallen fowl of the Credit Crunch as BTs plans to dump 10% of its staff this year confirms. A funny name Phorm, seems that they have left the F Off, and glad I am that they did.

MORE SPIN ABOUT ID CARDS, VOLUNTARY MEANS YOU WILL HAVE TO HAVE ONE

2009-07-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

The ID scheme has NOT been shelved, cancelled, or even significantly changed ** Once more government spin has triumphed and much of the media has got it wrong. The new Home Secretary Alan Johnson has not made any significant changes to the scheme. Compulsion by stealth is still the order of theday, just as it always was. Someone joining the ID scheme 'voluntarily' will still be placing control of their identity in the hands of the IPS for life. The Home Office line remains the same.

No compulsion (as the Home Office defines it) was going to be applied until almost everyone had 'volunteered' and then it was only a matter of rounding up a minority of resisters and marginalised people. The Home Office's idea of "voluntary" is not the same as yours and mine. Since 2004 the scheme was (and it still is) to proceed by "designating" one-by-one under the Identity Cards Act 2006 other documents issued byofficial bodies -- in the first place passports.

Once a document has been designated, you won't be able to apply for one without also applying to be entered, for life, on the national identity register. If you don't agree to be registered it won't be that you are refused (say) a passport; you'd have voluntarily decided not to apply. There's no compulsion to have a passport. It is useful for travelling. But you aren't compelled to travel. Or (say) to drive. Or to work as a security guard. Or with children. Or in healthcare. To get parole from prison. To practice as a lawyer. ...Any official licence, registration certificate or permit can be designated, and -- in the home office's skewed logic -- handing control of your identity to the Home Office's Identity and Passport Service will still be entirely voluntary.

That they were due for a confrontation with the air side worker's unions over designating new passes at Manchester and City Airports is an illustration of just how voluntary "voluntary" really is. But the fact they have now ducked that fight for political convenience suggests saying no does work - if you say it loudly enough. ---

It is still not too late for MPs to derail the scheme by repudiating theregulations due to be debated next week and detailed in the last newsletter. Only one of those statutory instruments has been dropped. If you have not done so already, please contact your MP: http://www.writetothem.com

(NO2ID's lobbying guide, written for us by the former assistant of avery distinguished retired minister, is brusque but absolutely to the point: http://www.no2id.net/downloads/print/NO2ID-HowtoLobby.pdf ) Peers will also have a vote on this; so if you happen to know one (or be one), then it would be a good idea to alert friends in the Lords nowthat the matter is soon to come up.

GOVERNMENT THUGGERY VERSUS COMPASSION -- NO CONTEST

2009-07-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

It's not every day, and in fact very seldom indeed that i find myself agreeing with Ann Widdicombe. But today was the exception to the rule. She took exception to the fact that Ronnie Biggs, now 79, in very poor health and unlikely to see many more summers, will not be paroled despite a recommendations from the Parole Board that he should be. Biggs, who is suffering from pneumonia after breaking his hip in a fall, said that "they would seek a judicial review of the Justice Secretary’s decision as soon as possible. " Biggs, who will be 80 next month, has suffered a series of strokes and is unable to speak. He communicates through gestures and by spelling out words with an alphabet board. He is fed through a tube in the stomach and can walk only a few steps unaided.

Mr Straw wrote yesterday to Giovanni di Stefano, who represents Biggs, setting out his reasons for rejecting the parole board's recommendation that Biggs be released. Whitehall sources said that it was unusual for a minister to refuse to accept a parole board’s recommendations for a prisoner serving a fixed term. Mr di Stefano was shocked by the decision. “All the preparations were in place for him to be released,” Mr di Stefano said. “It is a cruel and unusual punishment for him not to be released. Mr Biggs legitimately expected that the parole board’s recommendations would be adhered to.”Straw’s decision was also criticised by a probation leader, the former Prisons Minister Ann Widdecombe, and prison reformers. Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation officers’ union, said: “It’s difficult to see how he poses a threat to anyone apart from politicians.”

Ms Widdecombe said: “The prisons are bursting at the seams. The courts are being urged to let burglars go free, but one fairly doddery and very frail old man is being kept in prison. If you have got a prison place, for goodness sake use it to lock up someone who is genuinely a risk to the public.”

I would suggest a few names from this Government who are a greater risk to the public than Ronnie Biggs and Jack "Judge Dread Straw is certainly one of them. Ten years back, i was smuggled into the opening ceremony of the M65 motorway by TV journalists. I was an anti-motorway campaigner and no doubt the TV boys thought that the several hundred police lining the motorway was a grave threat to both the Peach and Jock Strop and hoped that a veteren Greem campaigner would at least add a little balance to what would otherwise be a gungh ho Petrol Fest led by Jack.

I waited patiently till jack had delivered the usual speech about how the motorway would would bring jobs and inward investment and then had the temerity to ask our Jack a question. Before another word could be spoken I was pushed violently to the floor by Government employed thugs. Even the pro-motorway big wigs in the audience were shocked by this and some of them came to my aid when i squared up to my assailents.

The Blair Government had just been elected for its first term and i told the assembled journos that this was a worrying portent of what New Labour would bring. Until that time, in all my years of Green campaigning i had never once experienced any violence from the police or anyone else, even during the Thatcher years.

Not for one moment would i condone robbing trains or using violence but stepping back and looking at the bigger pictures, i see a government and its corporate cronies who have stolen vast sums from both the private and public purse and then come back for more. Even so i at least thought the death sentence had been abolished in this country, that was until Blair and Straw released their Rottweilers.

NOW ITS A HANDBRAKE TURN ON ID CARDS

2009-06-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

I used to believe that Gordon Brown was gung-ho about ID Cards but the news that Alan Johnson, the ex-health minister who is now Home Secretary has done a handbrake turn on them and promised that the Cards would never be compulsory for British people, could indicate that Brown is no longer in control of the Labour party. I must be one of millions who welcome this move but there are still various flies in the ointment.

The DNA database is still on the agenda and when you have a Government that acts on issues it really doesnt understand in a high-handed and far from democratic manner and does frequent U Turns, one can never be sure what they will do next. Perhaps the only sure thing is that whatever they turn too will be repressive, undemocratic, badly crafted and both highly expensive and wasteful. It almost goes without saying that whatever they do, will simply not work.

The latest change on ID cards certainly does not mark a change to a more responsive and benign type of government; they have a long way to go before that could be said of them and probably nowhere near enough time left in office to complete their lamentable agenda. Whatever Brown and his cronies may say publicly, its almost certainly because the credit crunch has robbed them and everyone else of many options. I know from many environmental campaigns in the past that when push came to shove, the big decisions were imposed not as a result of environmental pressure or enlightened and intelligent government but actually by accountants and lawyers.

The people of Britain have never been convinced on the value of ID Cards. They have credit and debit cards, driving licenses and much other parathrenalia which clearly identifies who they are and there is also much resentment at the prospect of having to take an ID card with them even if they are only walking the dog or nipping down to the corner shop. Both the LibDem and Tory opposition parties have opposed ID cards since they were first mooted and even that old authoritarian Winston Churchil abandoned ID cards as soon as World War 11 was over. Even the effects of 911 and the London bombings did not convince people who realised that ID Cards would not tackle either terrorism or ID fraud and indeed might even help promote it.

Before Alan Johnson was awarded this poison chalice, no less than three (count them) home secretaries have failed to progress them. First there was Jock Strap, then Blunkett and of course Fungus Big Ears. Just as one swallow does not make a Spring, three incompetents do not constitute a Home Secretary. The latest nonentity, Johnson is well up to standard it seems.

He's probably very glad indeed to have left the NHS behind. After all, he was confronted with the prospect of cutting £10-15BN off its budget and may yet, and hopefully, have to abandon plans to fluoridate the whole of the UK. Opposition to this useless and dangerous process is growing World wide, not just in the UK and so much that even in Southampton, not noted as a hotbed of militants. he and his Government had to lie through their teeth and bulshit about "consultation" (sic) and with the consent of local people, only to to abandon all pretense of trust and even the democratic process when it became obvious that the people of Southamption were really not that daft. As i write, plans are being drawn up to refuse to pay the water companies for water polluted by fluoride and as the Government cannot actually disconnect the water supply the Government is going to have to find large sums of money to recompense the water companies. Of course the whole process may soon be abandoned because of this and all the logistical problems that they face.

When Andy Burnham was unmasked as a double agent, working for the Government and also Vice Chair of the British Fluoridation Society it probably reduced the total amount of dosh he was trousering. If on the other hand he was only promoting fluoride for a hobby or in his spare time or regarded it as a charitable activity, then I am sure I am not the only one who would like to hear the details. And now that he is Health Minister (please dont laugh it might hurt his feelings) he will no doubt have to find promotional funds out of his own pocket. This at least marks a big improvement as in the past it all seemed to come out of our pockets.

BROWN DOES A U-TURN OVER IRAQ INQUIRY (SORT OF)

2009-06-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

So Gordon Brown of You Tube fame is to do a U Turn on the controversial Iraq Inquiry or so it appears unless you read on. It later appears that it will only be partially public. The Prime Minister had originally said that the inquiry would be held in private but, after widespread anger, today opened the way for some of the hearings to be held in public. Decisions on what will actually be public will be made by the Chairman, Lord Chilcott enabling Brown to appear independent of all blame.

Based on past experience however this will mean that important matters such as the amount of toilet paper or ipod downloads will now be fully disclosed whilst trivial matters such as why we had such poor intelleligence about WMDs and why we joined with the Americans entering into this whole debacle will be heard only in private.
Stay tuned for more developments and of course. excuses.

Government Business as Usual? -- I Don't Think So

2009-06-10T03:31:00.000-07:00

So the Government of New Labour crisis is over is it? The bad boys and girls of New Labour (and the Tories) have been unmasked by the Telegraph and have left for Heavens knows what and faith in the Leadership of Gordon Brown has been restored. Somehow I don't share this confidence and I know I am not alone. Usually the Phony war comes before the real thing but in the current case it has set in after the expenses and loss of confidence punch up. What is predictable, is the phenomena where the crap floats to the top. Some things do remain eternal.

A good example is that our once proud Cabinet is now reduced to Ant and Dec, alias Alan Johnson and Andy Burnham. The Rats have deserted, and continue to desert the sinking shit taking their brilliant ideas with them. And as the days dwindle down to a precious few along with their polices, very soon, the only surviving policy will soon be fluoride instead of the NHS. Some say its been this way since 2003. But, with the NHS now facing a shortfall of £15BN and major cutbacks coming over the horizon the future looks exceeding bleak.

It makes little difference which Government is elected next year or for that matter for the next twenty odd years. Taxes will have to go up which will dismay the Tories and their supporters and investment in Education, Transport, Health, the Military etc etc, will have to be reduced, in some cases, severely. Vast sums have been dished out to salvage the greedy and incompetent bankers which even Brown admits will remain outstanding till 2032 and many think it will take much longer than this.

Swedish pirates capture EU seat

2009-06-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

Sweden's Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament.
The group - which campaigned on reformation of copyright and patent law - secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote.
The result puts the Pirate Party in fifth place, behind the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Moderate Party.
Rickard Falkvinge, the party leader, told the BBC the win was "gigantic" and that they were now negotiating with four different EU Parliamentary groups.
"Last night, we gained political credibility," said Mr Falkvinge.
"People were not taken in by the establishment and we got political trust from the citizens."

The profile of the Pirate Party and issues surrounding copyright law have dominated headlines in Sweden over the past few months.
Rallying cry. In April, a court in Sweden sentenced the four men behind The Pirate Bay, the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, to a year in jail and ordered them to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.
Mr Falkvinge said it had played a significant role in getting them the vote.
Many people just don't see illegal file-sharing as a crime, however hard the media industries try to persuade the public that it's just as bad as shoplifting.

Rory Cellan-JonesBBC technology correspondent
Read dot.life in full
"The establishment is trying to prevent control of knowledge and culture slipping from their grasp.
"When the Pirate Bay got hit, people realised the wolf was outside the front door.
"That happened one month before the ballot opened, so it had quite a rallying effect," he said.
Parties within the European Parliament tend to join one of the big voting blocs, otherwise their MEP can become marginalised.
Mr Falkvinge said they were still considering their position.
"We're looking at four different EU Parliament groups," he said.
"However, we're probably going to join either the Green block or the ALDE group."

The biggest loser in Sweden's election was the eurosceptic June List party, which saw its share of the vote fall by more than 10 points to 3.6% of the vote. The Left Party also saw its vote halved to 5.6%

SOURCE. BBC NEWS

BAD NEWS THEN MORE BAD NEWS

2009-06-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

Andy Burnham replaces Alan Johnson.

Now we have all vented our fury at the greed of our MPs we should be grateful that we have disposed of so many of them. A pity that some good Councillors have suffered for no good reason of course but i suppose being in any way related to this nasty allegedly Labour government is good enough reason for most. And lets not forget that this was all made possible by Thatcherism and Reagonomics. The Big Bang in the City of London and deregulation made the Credit Crunch not just possible but probably inevitable. And as Thatcher froze MPs salaries she also freed up the expenses system for MPs; ( a pay rise in disguise as many MPs clearly seemed to think)And as the end of the Thatcher and Major regimes, drew near, it was blindingly obvious that no one was going to re-elect the Tories for a very long time. So what did the Thatcherite Neocons do to get elected. I would suggest that they simply joined the Labour Party, gained the majority position, elected a new Thatcherite leader, Tony B Liar and the rest is history. Tony was not the Bambi they thought but rather Tonasaurus Rex whose gleaming teeth were soon sunk into the soft underbelly of the Welfare State. Single parents, the sick, the disabled, the elderly the unemployed and small brown people with oil were all sitting ducks.As the end of days for New Labour draws nearer, Brown in desperate straights has retrenched and brought together his most loyal (at least for now) henchmen. Chief Fluoridista and Health Minister Alan Johnson is now elevated to Home Secretary. No, please don't laugh, its not funny, its actually all rather tragic and dangerous. Now he can lock us up for opposing fluoridation if he wishes. He already has more than enough laws to use against democracy and New Labour are always ready to pass some more at a moments notice.But surely, Johnson, who appeared to believe that fluoride was actually safe or even helpful, has been replaced by a safe pair of hands in the Department of Health? Sadly no. Step forward Andy Burnham, Minister for Dirty Jobs and original Pusher of Fluoride for Blair in 2003 and since then, such popular and useless measures as ID Cards and DNA databases. Here I will pause till the sobbing dies down and sick bags have been handed out...... OK time's up!Johnson and Burnham are probably the Ant and Dec of the Labour government, a pair of buffoons for sure but not as funny or clever. Even more horrifying is the distinct possibility that Johnson could be the next Prime Minister if Brown finally agrees to go and this may be sooner than we think. Brown may desperately wish to stay in the Job he preyed for so long but Events may yet get the better of him.Labour is now the lowest in the polls that it has ever been and may yet fall lower. The Local Elections have just been disastrous for Brown with the Labour candidates being pushed into third and fourth place. And on this coming Sunday, the omens are not good for them as the results of the European elections are pretty sure to rubbish Labour yet again. Calls for Brown to go will probably increase and some more resignations and defections are probable.Which ever Government assumes power after the next election which could be as soon as this October and certainly no later than next year. They will not have any money to throw around. Rail spending has been cut and eduction and health will also soon come under pressure. Its possible that Fluoride will be dumped as an unnecessary and expensive waste of time. Unfortunately we cannot depend on this so the best thing we can do is step up the pressure. We have to kick the Government whilst it is down, after all this is what they always do to us. The Council Tax comes to mind but i digress.At the same time we have to renew the pressure on prospective candidates for the future Government of whatever party. If candidates do not categorically state they are opposed to fluoride and especially water fluoridation then tell them to their face that you will not vote for them and will recommend to your friends that they do the same. Friends of the Earth have always steered clear of Politics with a capital P and have never recommended that we should vote for anyone, not even the Greens who we are often associated with, but we have never hesitated to Not Recommend those who pollute or exploit the environment. It is bad enough that many of our MPs have been on the make but surely when they desire to pollute and poison us as well, its time for them to go. Say No To Fluoride and those who promote or push it.

DONT WASTE YOUR VOTE - NOT VOTING ELECTS A NUTCASE

2009-06-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

So who can we vote for this coming Thursday? The Tories? These are the jokers er... the party that closed down our industry and production, wasted our natural gas and made us dependent on the Russians, and paved the way for the Privitisation of the NHS and everything else not nailed down, and who allowed the banks to get away with all the cash as we now know to our collective and individual cost.

Or maybe you would prefer New Labour in which Tony B Liar smiled and waved and lied and wore Thatchers Knickers as he licked W Bushes bottom and persueded Thatchers policies even further to the right than she did. Despite all the talk of democrasy and even electoral reform in the run up to the 97 election, all this was dropped once Blair had his huge landslide and just like the Thatcher regime, then proceeded to persue arrogant and high handed repressive and undemocratic policies. He Kicked the enemployed, single parents, the disabled: Made the council tax even worse and even buggered it for small businesses via business rates and Health and Safety. Even the old right wing warhorse Winston Churchill abandoned ID cards once the war was over but not B Liar of course for whom the War is never over. New Labour was and is a party of hipocrites and charlatans, greasing their palms and trousering the cash: paranoid and crooked to such an extent that they think everyone else is as bent and dishonest as they are and therefore desirous of more CCTV cams, Biometicr passports, Finger printing of kids, and ID cards you must carry if you are just taking the dog for a walk. Their crowning achievements probably the overturning of Magna Carta and the rendering of the Labour Party as Unelectable for ever and ever Amen. Traitors to those who backed them through thick and thin and traitors to the traditional Labour Party who misguidedly thought the new intake of candidates were supporters when in fact they proved to be Neocons. No, I dont think I can vote for them either.

Of course there is always UKIP and as a man who voted NO in the original referendum on entry into Europe I might be expected to give them a chance, but they are a single issue party with a single mouth piece and anyway, I could not trust them to organise a piss up in a brewery even if I took my own glasses. Despite their big talk about reforming Europe and taking us out, some of their number when given the opportunity merely signed up to the EC gravy train. This leaves only the Real Socialists for whom I do have some sympathy. but in an era when all the newspapers are at leaste a couple of steps to the right of Atilla the Hun and the vast majority of people no longer know the difference between Socialism and Communism they don't really stand a chance. A pity really, imagine the fun we could have with Arthur Scargill in Number 10.

Having looked at all the others, I think I will be voting for the Greens in the Local and European Elections this coming Thursday. We have not had many Green candidates in my part of the world so i will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are not telling lies about abandoning all fluoridation and hope that they keep their expenses claims under a close watch. As I said earlier, we cannot vote for the main parties who still believe in First to the Trough so its got to be whatever reasonable alternatives are available and of the smaller parties, the Greens are the only ones who are not out and out nutcases or thugs and who know what sustainability actually means. Hopefully we can go for some form of Proportianal Representation so that all the smaller parties can elect a few members and have some say in the debates. True it may slow down the enactment of laws in some cases but generally people usually find a way of agreeing if the issue is important enough and i think Slow Government is much preferable to Bad Government and surely we have had more than enough of that since the end of World War 2.

the alternative is simply not tenable. not voting at all merely lets in the biggest twat or nutcase as they are always the most determined. Enough loonies seem to get a seat without any help so we should do what we can to whittle them down.

CAN I SEE YOUR PAPERS PLEASE (LUV) ?

2009-05-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

So King Canute aka Gordon Brown wants to press ahead with his clearly insane ID Cards scheme and who better to help him in this grotesque folly than Jacqui (two houses) Smith The opposition parties will scrap this idea if elected; so its probably safe to say that they will indeed eventually be scrapped; But of course the financial whizz kid (surely some mistake) is so confident that his financial acumen will help us escape from the debt he has so ably assisted in racking up that he sees no reason why we shouldnt have some more of the same. Lots more !

Of course when you are facing almost certain defeat, even in once traditional Labour heartlands like Manchester you wont be picking up the bills yourself anyway. You can make a nice living out of selling your memoirs, "United Kingdom, My Part In Its Downfall" and an international lecture tour explaining to a slumbering audience, how you managed to not only lead the country to financial collapse but even managed to make things worse.

The choice of Manchester for the first ID Cards pilot scheme which is apparently to be announced today, is revealing too. Could it be revenge for the unwelcome (to him) rejection of Fluoridation in the North West, or merely a dagger in the Labour Heartland ?? So as Manchester Punk rocker Jilted John would have said, "Gordon Is a Moron" Well we knew that didnt we but one mistery remains. Why a Home Secretary like Smith who herself is not unaquainted with failure and incompetence? After all, many are suprised that she is still in Government or even Parliament at all in view of her recent and widely publicised shenanagins over housing. The answer seems to be rather simple New Labour Proverb: When you're in a hole, keep digging and get someone equipped for little else to help you with the spade work.

According to your ID card Mr Brown, you are from Scotland, may I ask you what brings you to Manchester? I think you better accompany me to the Police Station to help us with our enquiries. And ar these porn movies yours Mr Brown? No i think they are Jacquis. !

Since yesterday when i wrote the above, the Government has announced that it will make new provisions over the ruling on Databases from Europe, As one might expect there is more tokenism and those who were arrested for but not charged with an offences will not find themselves free of the stigma of being on a database.

Up to 850,000 innocent people in England and Wales who appear on a national DNA database will have their profiles wiped.
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker says keeping the DNA of people who are arrested will ensure murderers and rapists who would otherwise escape justice will be convicted.
Shami Chakrabarti, head of civil liberties organisation Liberty, says that while DNA evidence is useful, the bigger the database is, the bigger the risk it will be abused.

Minor suspected offences will remain on the database for up to six years and serious offences will be held for more than twice that. It would appear that in its attempts to not conform fully with the Europan ruling it has abandoned the presumption of innocence. They claimed on radio that the mere fact of them being arrested for an offence was an indication that the innocent suspect would at some time in the future commit an officen and that further charges or offences were literally only a matter of time. Talk about weasel words.

In Scotland if a suspect is arrested and subsequently charges are dropped or he is found innocent, the database records will be removed immediately. Even if some people do go on to re-offend, this should not be used as an excuse to keep long term records. One definition of a Police State is that the authorities keep records of innocent people. If that was the only indication of creeping fascism it might not be so serious but over the last fifteen years, the Police have been given major new powers over individuals and groups.

So what we have here is a police forece that is presumed to have powers of prophecy and the next stage is that police officers will have to be present at every birth. As each new life emerges into the world a constable will be make a note of its "particulars" and turn to his seargent and say "Looks like a wrong-un to me sarge, shall i cuff him ? Presumably the proud mother will be charged with aiding and abetting.

The Credit Crunch could be a good IDea.

2009-04-28T03:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that correctly, the Credit Crunch does have an upside. The shortage of dosh is forcing the government to back down down from its ambitious spending plans and in particular, it desire to create yet another database to monitor all our emails, phone calls and faxes, This is allegedly because its not popular but in fact, its more likely to be because it can no longer afford it. Even the most optimistic forecasts, are saying we are now in such deep financial doo doo that we cannot hope to clear it till at least 2032 and that is thought to be ambitious by those who study these things. That of course assumes that nothing else goes wrong with our economy such as another oil price hike, (an unheard of possibility) or maybe even a pandemic flu virus ?

In The Independent today they are also splashing a scoop (although even the Mail seems to be speculating about it as well ) about the Gov pulling out of the entire ID cards and data base fiasco. Well in view of the fact that I and everyone with even a moderate handful of braincells can tell you that ID Cards dont prevent fraud or terrorism and cost a bloody fortune then this could be the first good and practical idea that this government has had for a very long time. My Doctor is far from impressed by the proposed, Medical database and even my american friends are amazed at the audacity of a Government that wants to take the finger prints of schoolkids and even put fluoride in the primary school milk without anyones wish or permission. As my friend from Austin, Texas put it. "In some ways, Britain is even further down the road to fascism than the USA." But following the money as our cousins across the pond say, all this could now be in jeopardy. I remember when millions of £.s was a lot of money but over the 8Os it became Billions that was the impressive word, now its Trillions and somehow, (maybe i have just got a bit blasee about it) even Trillions doesnt seem to impress. Maybe its because Trillions of Debt doesnt seem to have the gloss that a similar figure in black would have.

We should all hope now that that the ISPs such as BT, Virgin, et al will tell the government that they dont want to do Phone and Email snooping on their behalf and why dont you just bugger off. Well, the way poor old Gordy is going on, he may soon have to do just that. Clearly Tony Bliar, did prepare a Toxic cocktail for Gordon to drink and in no way could it be described as the elixir of life but possibly the opposite.

Personally, I am hoping that another toxic cocktail (fluoridated water) will also be abandoned, for like ID cards its a great deal of money to spend on something that just doesn't work and is very unpopular and even dangerous. I dont distrust Brown the way I did Blair and hes probably a sincere man but it would seem that the pundits are right and Brown was not the financial wiz at the treasury that he was reckoned to be and as he stumbles from one blunder to the next either with policies or strategies, he's not really up to it as Prime Minister. When he listens and confers with his colleagues its not to bad but when he cuts loose on You Tube he not only makes a bit of fool of himself but also infuriates those who are supposed to be his boys and girls.

Obviously Brown is not responsible for the world wide financial collapse, he would need to be a genius to achieve that but we do seem to be in a bigger mess than any other European country and our particular balls up does seem to closely resemble that of the USA. This is what you get when you hold on to the coat tails of W Bush and allow anything so long as it fills the gap and looks profitable whether political or monetary and, lets face it, hanging on to Tonys' coat tails was as close as you get to holding on to Bush without an actual three point landing.

We are now approaching the County and more importantly, the European Elections. The word on the street is that the Labour vote is going to hit the wall and little wonder with the reputation they have aquired on democratic issues, or at least the lack of them. The Tories are sure to take advantage of this and who can blame them. The most worrying thing though is that someone like Nick Griffen, a BNP candidate might gain a seat which will alarm many. As a believer in democracy, i still believe that PR is a better voting system than firs to the trough or whatever they currently call our system. True occasionally parties like the BNP can get seats but its important that our system actually reflects the realist out there. And anyway, most of the BNP councillors i have seen soon either resign or get kicked out when the electorate see how incompetent they really are and return to the main party fold. If Brown wants to win some votes then dumping wastefull ID and Fluoridation schemes and actually listening to people, Obama style might help him avoid total collapse.

DONT INCREASE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TILL YOU REDUCE DEMAND

2009-04-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

Although few people would deny that switching to alternative and sustainable sources of energy such as wind, wave and solar as the oil runs out makes a lot of sense, But we should first examine what energy demands we have before we do this and try to reduce this demand before we start wasting time and money on a vast scale and getting little back for our efforts. A few slightly boring but nonetheless up to date facts and figures gives us a good and realistic starting point.

The government seems to regard Nuclear power as "green".

I disagree of course for all the usual reasons that a fully fledged and veteran tree hugger could be expected to use, ie; expensive, slow to get online, dangerous, terrorist targets, dependence on dwindling uranium fuel from dodgy sources and waste impossible to dispose of safely or cheaply. 25 years of campaigning on Nukes has not convinced me one jot that it makes any economic sense. If we were to replace all our coal and oil burning power stations with nukes, it would take. (wait for it) 300 of them. According to American calculations this would cost £750BN and dont forget we still have no idea what safe disposal of all that waste would cause let alone where we would put it.

Current favourite with many but not me is Wind Power.

The Tory leader has a small windmill on his roof. Forwared thinking, setting a good example etc etc. Sadly no. His wind turbine will produce probably less than one percent of his electricity needs if he is a typical user, ie washing machine, TVs Hi Fi, computers, microwave, dishwasher and if he uses air conditioning or electrical heating his percentage supply is even less. If he was really radical, disposed of many of his gadgets, converted his house to 12 or 24 volt DC system with battery back up and converted his lighting to very low energy, LED sources, then he is in with a chance but in the meantime, a windmill on his (or your) roof is at best tokenistic.

But what about serious modern windfarms? Surely they provide much more energy. Sadly the truth is its not much better and expansion has a number of serious limitations. If for example we as a nation chose to replace our coal and oil power stations with not Nuke power but in stead, Wind Power, more than half the entire UK land mass would have to be covered in windmills. So half the country covered in windmills or 300 nuclear power stations and enormouse amouts of dangerous waste for half a million years. ....TBC

So what do we do then, well we could do the unheard of thing and actually reduce the demand by using low energy technologies.

COULD WHITE ROOFS AND ROADS, SAVE THE POLAR ICE SHEETS?

2009-04-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Most schoolkids have seen simple scientific experiments at school demonstrating that light coloured surfaces reflect light and heat whilst dark surfaces absorb it and get hotter. So would painting our roofs in our major cities white, actually help reduce the temperature of our major cities in summer and reduce some of the effects of global warming? The answer seems to be a straight forward "Yes".

Experiments carried out in California for example demonstrated that some houses with their roofs painted white, lowered the internal temperature so much that they were able to turn off the air conditioning. This not only reduced the residents power bills but also of course lowered their carbon foot prints and as we know, small carbon footprints are very sexy nowadays.

Our larger towns and cities are usualy a few degrees hotter than the surrounding country side during both summer and winter and major cities in the lower lattitudes can become insufferably hot during summer heatwaves. This can result in a high death toll for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those with heart conditions as they discovered in Paris in the summer of 2003. It makes sense therfore, to do anything we can to reduce this danger and if it saves lives, global emissions, energy and expense in one fell swoop then this idea probably has legs.

It is estimated that if the 100 largest cities in the world replaced their dark roofs and their asphalt-based roads with concrete or other light-colored material, it could offset 44 metric gigatons (billion tons) of greenhouse gases. This is more greenhouse gas than the entire human population emits in a year. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, this could also offset the growth in carbon diooxide emissions for the next ten years.

The physicist Hashem Akbari, says that it takes about 10 square meters of white roof to offset 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide. and in warm climates, white roofs have the additional benefit of lowering the cost of air conditioning by up to 20% in hot months, By these means, cities could be cooler in summer and suffer less smog. It was these costs that prompted the state of California to require in 2005 that flat-roofed commercial buildings must have white roofs. In 2009, California will require that new and retrofitted residential and commercial buildings with both flat and sloped roofs, must be installed with heat-reflective roofing. These requirements are now part of California´s energy-efficient building code.

It would seem that this is a fairly low tech fix for several of our problems both local and global and if these ideas catch on in the worlds larger cities, their may still be hope for those glaciers and ice sheets at the Poles and the wildlife that depends upon it including millions of lives in coastal areas threatened by sea-level rises. For once we seem to have a problem for which Politicians do have some expertise, for after all, who better when it comes to whitewash. My message to our PM is therefore, cut the crap and grab a brush.

WHO IS ABOVE LAW AND ORDER ?

2009-04-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

There must be something very wrong in the UK when we are confronted by a situation where all of us are regularly filmed and photographed by thousands of CCTV cams in the streets, the Bus and Rail Stations shops and stores and last but not least, by the police. All without our wish or permission but when the situation is reversed, even for perfectly innocent or justifiable reasons, we break the law and are sacked and/or prosecuted.

For example, as of February this year, we cannot legally photograph or film police officers, at any time whether they are allegedly using violence or not, if we do, we can be detained and our film confiscated even if we are a journalist or a blogger. What are we supposed to do if we witness an incident of police violence or brutality, and they do this? Prosecute them for withholding evidence ? And similarly if we see NHS patients or people in care homes being neglected or abused even if we are working in co-operation with the BBC we can lose our job and our future livelihood as one British nurse found out this week. If we are employed by the NHS and our filming is discovered or heaven forbid, we own up and blow our whistles with pride as we are supposedly encouraged to do, we are not only dismissed but are also then prevented from continuing nursing.

One could be forgiven for believing that we are supposed to be attacked or abused and further punished if we object or bring any evidence or proof of such activities despite laws which are supposed to protect us from reprisals. The NHS has now reached a position where it seems to consider itself above the law. The PCTs are a law unto themselves and take no notice of democracy or their own rules as the people of Southampton have found out this year in the so called "consultation" over fluoridation of drinking water.

As i write there are now more than 90 complaints against the Metropolitan police being investigated following the G20 and Climate Change Camp last week. Its true that some hotheads broke a few windows but generally the occasion was peaceful as had been planned. One begins to wonder are the stories of the actions of agent provocateurs often mentioned on the conspiracy theory websites, not so far from the Truth after all. As a long time protester against Pollution, Nuke Power, Grotesque Planning, Insane Road building and all kinds of environmental degradation I know that any violence or damage to property does not win either the argument or any beauty contests. In fact, get into a fight in front of the TV or CCTV cams and you have lost the sympathy of the very people you wished would join you in your protests. Moderate and civilised people do not really like brawling in the street, I know because I am one of them. (surely some mistake! Ed.)

In recent years because of Trade Union actions such as picketing and more recently the Terrorist outrages, lots of new, and often draconian new laws have been introduced allegedly to keep public order and protect property but the effects have actually stifled any kind of spontaneous action. You don't need a noisy mob to get yourself in trouble nowadays, even one woman reading out the names of those killed by the illegal war in Iraq is now illegal and can result in fines or detention and of course DNA samples which will be kept as long as they can get away with it. Even a silent Peace Vigil is likely to be filmed by police officers with telephoto lenses. When this kind of thing happens things have gone more than far enough and its time to protest against the laws themselves and the people who are introducing them. If we don't, we are in imminent danger of losing not just our democratic freedoms of expression but even our liberty.

We have been promised that cabinet papers from discussions about the Iraq war will be made public and that there will be a public enquiry but they keep coming up with excuses and even the MPs have not been allowed to see or discuss it. Meanwhile the Government pushes ahead with ID Cards, Biometrics, Retinal Scans and other technology which is not only very complex and extremely expensive but also completely useless in fighting fraud, ID theft and of course terrorism. What kind of plonker seriously believes that terror attacks will cease if terrorists have to carry ID Cards when its clear that such measures didn't prevent the 911 attacks in the USA. Even the much vaunted "chip and pin" technology is becoming increasingly unsafe as crook find new ways of circumventing it. Chief plonker must be Gordon Brown who still expresses confidence in ID Cards and of course there is a long line of Home Secs past and present who believe in fairy stories.

The usual excuse for all this bullshit is of course terrorism and public order but what about Government public order and honesty not to mention accountability. Clearly you can lie with impunity if you are an MP or a Government minister or at the very least think you can. You can subvert the expenses rules for MPs and have as many houses, real or illusory at the expense of the taxpayer. If we are to believe our eyes, its also OK for Police Officers to hit people with sticks and shields and to forget to carry any identification numbers on their uniforms. They can also corrale people into confined spaces for hours on end without water or toilet facilities irrespective of whether the people they round up are involved in the demonstration or not.

Do the commanders of the Met seriously believe that people will not photograph them, legally or otherwise when such offences are being committed. Offences they certainly are and wearing a police uniform should be no guarantee of immunity from prosecution for them. The police have more than enough laws to help them keep order without any more being introduced and they should start by obeying the laws themselves, all the way from the officer on the beat right up to the Chief Constables and Commanders. They are, like Civil Servants and elected members of Parliament, our servants after all and not our masters. We elect them, they must carry out the will of the people. If the people are not above the law then neither are they.

We are now living in a society that is ruled by people who never say sorry, never resign, assume they are always correct and seem to think that the people of the United Kingdom are as corrupt, dishonest and dangerous as they are. Some no doubt are but the vast majority of us are not and we are coming to resent they way we are being treated and the assumption that are being made about us. If they really want honesty and law and order, they need to show a little more trust otherwise our trust in them will finally run out.

IAN CARR DIES -- THE REST IS SILENCE

2009-03-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last year it occurred to me that I had not heard anything for some time from iconic Trumpeter, Ian Carr, founder of the Nucleus group and representative of the Golden Age of British Jazz. Ironically I must have been one of the last to hear of his passing courtesy of Last Words on BBC Radio 4.

I discovered Ian Carr's music at the end of the 60s when I was already becoming disillusioned by most of British Rock and folk music. I loved the Blues and had done since I was 12 and bought records by John Lee Hooker and Howlin Wolf but Jazz was somthing of an unknown territory to me and my peer group. I suppose you would loosely categorise Ian Carrs' at that time as Jazz Rock fusion along with people like John McLaughlin's Mahvishnu Orchestra who worked with Carr, but to my mind, McLaughlin always seemed to get carried away in his haste to outdo the virtuoisity of Rock musicians and Jazz sometimes came in a poor second. So generally I had left Jazz alone.

Ian Carr however, won me over. He didn't make this mistake and the Jazz always seemed to win through. I loved his long and usually unhurried phrases and melodies and also the excellent and sometimes explosive rhythm section in his band nucleus. He could also turn his hand to exquisite ambient textures with incursions into psychedelia of the most transcendental kind. I also grew to love the haunting vocals supplied by Norma Winstone which finished off some of his arrangements as devinely as a cherry completes a Bakewell Tart.

In the early seventies when I was roadie and sound engineer with a touring band, I often used to get home at 3 or 4 am after a long drive and eating my supper - breakfast whilst listening to Labyrinth or Solar Plexus was the perfect way to unwind. I saw Ian Carr with Nucleus in Manchester and was amazed at what I heard. So much so that I engaged him in conversation about his music and asked him where his next gig was happening. it turned out to be Leeds University the following night so I told him that we would be there.

Sure enough our little posse hit the recently opened M62 the following evening en route for Leeds. The traffic was heavy and we were a bit late arriving, and made the mistake of parking a good walk from the venue. The rain had stopped, and the sun came out just in time to set, so we walked in the gathering darkness towards the campus. Halfway there, the sounds of Nucleus started to drift towards us coming and going in the breeze and echoing around the towers of the University as the lights of the buildings came on.

It was a free gig and nucleus were set up outside with a few hundred people watching. He had just finished a number as we arrived and spotting us he gave us a wave as he went into the next song. It was one of those special gigs that happen every so often, though usually not often enough. The venue, the occasion, the music the time all combined to make it a truly magical experience. If anyone who reads this was there, I feel sure you will agree.

His radio programs were always a delight whether he played or merely talked about music. He had a soft voice, easy on the ear and he really knew his stuff and I always learned something whenever I listened. Besides, writing a regular column for the BBC Music Magazine, Carr wrote biographies of the jazz musicians Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis. He was also the co-author of the reference work The Rough Guide to Jazz which has passed through four editions from 1994 (originally Jazz, The Essential Companion, 1988). In addition he contributed sleeve notes for the albums of other musicians (eg "Indo-Jazz Fusions" by Joe Harriott/John Mayer).

In 1987, he was appointed associate professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he taught composition and performance, especially improvisation and was founder of the jazz workshop at the Interchange arts scheme, where pianist Julian Joseph, amongst others, was one of his students.

Thank you for your music and your inspiration Ian. Now I must search for those albums I have intended to buy for far too long.

The CIA and NSA Want You to Be Their Friend on Facebook

2009-03-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

According to the "US News and World Report" website
The CIA and NSA Want You to Be Their Friend on Facebook
The spy agencies are using the popular social-networking site as part of their recruiting efforts

"The online social-networking service Facebook works for finding old classmates or arranging happy hours, so why not use it to help recruit the next generation of spies? That's what's happening now in cyberspace, as the country's intelligence community turns to such sites to attract a wider range of résumés. "

The CIA now has its own Facebook page, as does the hush-hush National Security Agency, which vacuums up the world's communications for analysis. Both invite Facebook members to register and read information about employment opportunities. It's part of a larger, multiyear hiring push to boost the size of the U.S. intelligence community.

This story is not new to those like myself who study these things but certainly worth a rerun in view of the continued growth of Face Book which has outstripped other Social Networking sites such as Bebo. How successful the CIA might be at recruiting the hordes of todays unmotivated and disillusioned youth its difficult to say but the sheer size of Facebook and its data mining potential should not be ignored. What they are doing however is a serious amount of data mining about all those punters who think that anything short of 10,000 "friends" on facebook is tantamount to social exclusion.

In an era when we are constantly warned of the dangers of identity theft through poor online security, its perhaps ironic that more than ever, people are prepared to reveal and publish astonishingly private and personal details on these sites, making it easy for criminals to compile far more than enough facts and figures to get a strong picture or profile of who we are, where we live, what we do or do not like, where we go, who we socialise with etc etc. With such info, invading our bank and credit card accounts becomes easy peasy and otherwise impersonate us for profit or other criminal activity. Would you really like some unknown person to install a bot on your PC which logs your keystrokes, steals your passwords or worst still uses your IP address to download bomb making instructions or illegal porn, none of which you know anything about untill the Vice Squad come to call.

Like many early adopters and users of technology i only give the net what is essential for it to function or better still, what I want it to have. Personal details I keep to a minimum. I never bank online as even the governments own security advisors have admitted that the net is still not secure enough to entrust our life. Most of the websites I have registered with have different passwords, ages, Zip Codes etc and the seasoned techies I refer to on the net for advice, tend to recommend the same.

Of course this does not guarantee security or anonymity especiall since the 911 attacks in the USA and the bomb outrages in London. The CIA, Homeland Security, MI5, MI6, and others of which we know little or nothing, have spent large fortunes on sledge hammers to break a few nuts. Britain actually seems to be leading the attack on civil liberties and even free speech, often out of all proportion to the real scale of terrorist problems and the whole trend has been to ratchet up surveillance and intrusions into our privacy. Be that as it may however, and bearing in mind that i dont really have any dark secrets other than the occasional embargoed Press Release, I still see no reason why i should make life easier for them and nor should you. Sites such as Facebook therefore are little short of an abdication from our private lives.

If you want to get active and fight the increasing intrusion into our lives via, ID Cards, biometric passports, finger printing and retinal scans, none of which will actually slow down let alone prevent terrorism or fraud then you can visit the Say No To ID campaign website here..... http://www.no2id.net/ For more info on Facebook and links to the CIA, you can watch the informative video here. ......... Even the much vaunted "chip and pin" technology is now being cracked by the crooks and in the long run no information can ever be said to be completely secure. The only answer therefore is to keep your personal and financial details to a minimum. So be careful Number 6, online or off they want your information. Make sure they dont get it!

THE AGE OF STUPID on Channel 4 News

2009-03-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

RIAA NAZIS DETERMINED TO DESTROY NEW AND FRINGE MUSIC

2009-03-15T00:48:00.000-07:00

NEW BROADCAST RULES WILL BAN SPECIAL FEATURED ARTIST PROGRAMS

I just got this new directive from the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) in the USA that applies to all public radio stations. Here's an excerpt:

"In any three (3) hour period you can transmit up to three (3) different selections of sound recordings from any one CD, but you can transmit no more than two (2) consecutively. Additionally, in any three (3) hour period you can transmit up to four (4) different selections by the same featured artist, or up to four (4) different selections of sound recordings from any set or compilation of CD's, but you can transmit no more than three (3) consecutively.”

So no more dedicating of programs to artists when they die or honouring birthdays. No more Bob Marley or Billie Holliday specials. Want to talk to some real wankers? Look up the RIAA in the phone book and give them a call.

WHY I ALWAYS AVOID APPLE.

2009-03-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

Personal Computers certainly have problems, most of them usually as a result of naff, software from Microsoft. I know i am not alone in being irritated by the constant need to download security updates from them, some of which seem to cause me even more problems. It would appear as many believe that when Microsoft brings out a new operating platform, its really only a Beta version which we then have the dubious pleasure of working in for three or four years till it actually works properly. Then of course our Bill, brings out another version which we have the pleasure of paying for.

I say this just so you won't think i am some kind of geek with nothing better to do with my time. Far from it however. I spend the majority of my time answering emails and scouring the net for the latest research on this or that chemical pollution or danger and i could do without all the tweaking and freakin. Despite this however i would still much rather spend my money on a budget PC than shell out through the nose to improve the lifestyle of Steve Jobs.

Obviously Apple computers have some advantages but despite this, I have long thought of Apple as over-priced and over rated. In recent years Jobs has combined increased desire for commercial success with increased restriction of operability unless you pay the price of course. but, his sucking up to the RIAA and the Music Biz Greed Monsters with his own brand of Net freedom or restriction continues to benefit him. The following piece from the Electronic Frontier Foundation is a good example of what i hate most. If you are an Apple addict and prepared to see only fluffy bunnies and choc ices when you think of Apple, then read no further......

Apple Adds Still More DRM to iPod Shuffle
Commentary by Fred von Lohmann
Even as it attacks DRM on music, Apple is continuing to add more DRM to its own hardware (we recently documented all of Apple's various hardware DRM restrictions). The latest example is the new iPod Shuffle. According to the careful reviewers at iLounge, third-party headphone makers will have to use yet-another Apple "authentication chip" if they want to interoperate with the new Shuffle.

Normally, of course, independent headphone makers could simply reverse engineer the interface. The "authentication chip" is there so that Apple's lawyers can invoke the DMCA to block those efforts. So this shows us, yet again, what DRM is for -- not stopping piracy, but rather impeding competition and innovation.

iLounge sums up what this means for consumers:
This is, in short, a nightmare scenario for long-time iPod fans: are we entering a world in which Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to re-purchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality? It’s a shame, and one that consumers should feel empowered to fight.
Couldn't have said it better myself.

One final thought: why have so many of the reviews of iPods failed to notice the proliferation of these Apple "authentication chips"? If it were Microsoft demanding that computer peripherals all include Microsoft "authentication chips" in order to work with Windows (or Toyota or Ford doing the same for replacement parts), I'd think reviewers would be screaming about it.

BE SEEING YOU, NUMBER 6

2009-03-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

At the tender age of 14 I aquired the habit of watching Danger Man on TV starring Patrick McGoohan mainly because my mum watched it. But, i became hooked on the stories and on the actor himself, who seemed to posses all the attitudes that a punk kid could relate to and who was best of all, "cool"

Danger Man or "Secret Agent" as it was known in the USA became a minor cult and i even learned that he lived close to a place i regularly walked my dog and rode my bike. One day being typically inquisitive, I clambered through a hole in a hedge and found myself in a large garden replete with a built extension containing an indoor swimming pool. As i was a regular swimmer and member of the local club i peered in through the window. Of course there was no one there and nothing to see, but as i turned to make my escape I found myself confronted by an imposing figure in casual clothing who i instantly recognised when he spoke. "What do you want?" he asked sharply, Had it been a few years later i would have probably said, "Information" but I just said i was exploring which was the truth. "Well you better fuck off then!" he replied.

I was not offended or concerned by this and in fact, regarded it as quite a compliment coming from the Secret Agent himself. A few years later of course i was like many of my age group totally hooked on the prisoner, but because i had actually been confronted by Mr McGoohan his plight and attempts at escape were somehow more personal. I am only sorry that i have not honoured Patrick McGoohan till now.

The Prisoner was not just a cult TV program, it was strangely prophetic. Living now as we do on a prison island full of CCTV cams, constrained by an ever growing number of repressive laws and half witted paranoid Government Ministers who treat us all like we are the enemy, its hard not to identify with the Prisoner. All the more credit should go to McGoohan for not just the vision to see this but also the ability to write, direct and act the story. I only regret not having had the temerity to engage him in a longer dialogue but se la vie. You will be missed Number 6, but also long remembered. And the information they were always trying to get from you? They never did get it, did they? "Be Seeing You"

FRANK ZAPPA -- WHY THE MUSIC BIZ IS PANTS

2009-03-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Just in case you didn't know already, Uncle Frank explains in simple everyday terms why the Music Biz and the people who run it are full of shit. The bleeped out words are apparently "shit" "masturbation" and "hand relief" or words to that effect.
Censorship laws in America still demonstrate that being killed off by AIDS is preferable to saying "masturbation" whatever that means.

See Below....

2009-03-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

ON THE WIRE-- 25th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

2009-02-15T01:24:00.000-08:00

Amazingly, in September this year, BBC Radio Lancashires specialist music program "On The Wire" will be 25 years old. Even before the start of this series, there was an embryonic program called Spin Off but when it became On the Wire and moved to Sunday afternoons, it really took of and became an institution.

To some it was no doubt just that weird program that made a racket on a quiet Sunday Afternoon, but to the programs many fans and officianados it was a way of life. Although not a powerful radio signal in the scheme of things. this did not stop people parking camper-vans on tops of mountains in Wales because this was the only way to get the show in those parts. Strange maybe but don't forget, there was and still is nothing quite like On the Wire. Tapes of classic shows eagerly changed hands and the late great John Peel regularly used to listen to tapes of Steve Barkers shows in his car travelling between his home in Norfolk and the BBC in London.

Although Steve Barkers shows and those of John Peel were different in many ways there were undoubtedly overlaps. Both shows explored the fringe and peered behind the facade of modern and classic music of practially all genres and the music, often challenging, was presented in an informal yet very informative way. In both cases, talking over the tunes was a Capital Crime and the music was always allowed the last word.

Sadly Uncle John is no longer with us, but Steve Barker and On the Wire still carry the torch for both new and experimental music. Blues, Jazz, Folk, Rock, Indie, Dub, Drum and Bass still find a safe refuge on Steves Saturday night shows and once a month Andy ‘Madhatter’ Holmes and Pete Haigh present their Funkology show. Over the years Studio guests have included people such as Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, Jah Wobble, Natacha Atlas, And lets not forget Steve's Rock Steady Crew, featuring Michael "Fenny" Fenton spinning indie tunes and local bands and the ever vigilant Jim Ingham platting the wires and stirring the tech in the background.

Many local bands and musicians have graced the airwaves from Radio Lancashire on record, tape and even in the flesh but so have some remarkable stars of the alternative and the underground. I for one will never forget the spectacle of Lee Scratch Perry doing a three hour show with Steve whilst the Legendary DJ and promoter Roger Eagle pulled Scratch tunes out of his bottomless bag of vinyl, many, so rare that even Lee could not remember them. Happy Days indeed.

Not surprisingly, On The Wire could not let such an important milestone as this go by without some degree of celebration. Consequently, Steve Barker and the team will be hosting a special all live show, probably extended beyond the normal two hours (if a producer can stay up that late in these appalling Post Jonathan Ross times) featuring special guests and probably not so special guests such as moi.

Either side of this will probably be all blues or all dub specials just like Mama used to bake. I have also had a chat with Terry in Chicago and Michael Rose in Minneapolis about doing another "Tunes Across the Big Pond" event. This could involve them sending pre-recorded pieces over to us which we could paste into our shows and an edition of On the Wire sent over to them to be re-broadcast over there. Steve says he is hoping to secure a variety of DJ mixes to be played throughout the month. It worked fine last time so lets see what happens this time.

Thats the story so far but its early days yet and nothing is confirmed. So stay tuned for more info as things are finalised. Remember, The Revolution will not be Broadcast (but you might be able to download it)

PERFORMING SHITES SOCIETY

2009-02-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

The Performing Rights Society, in the UK, the body supposedly responsible for collecting and distributing fees for musicians, is now trying to make itself as hated as the RIAA in the USA. They are now putting pressure on small businesses, garages, shops etc and trying to extract money for any music played on the premises where more than four people share the space. One would have hoped that they would have had a little more common sense.

Firstly, this is a time of recession and demanding yet more money from small businesses who are already experiencing big problems with cash flow is both ill considered and ill timed. As one garage proprieter said on radio, "It't yet another tax!" Secondly, this is also a time when lots of young people are downloading music from the net some, illegally. and this measure will only drive more of them away from the traditional routes. Clearly the PRS are only semi conscious and have forgotten that if people en masse cannot hear the music, then why would they ever want to buy it.

The idiots at the PRS dont seem to realise that music and musicians, depend on the public hearing hearing their creations, whether this be on radio or on a CD or tape in a shop or a garage or wherever. in order to develop a liking for it. This is especially so if the music is ethnic and well off the mainstream as it does not often get played anywhere else.

The PRS are already getting money from the Radio stations for playing the music which they should also be supplying free and though they are quick off the mark at demanding the dosh, they can take many months to actually distribute it to the waiting artists as several of them have told me. Its not just recorded music thats being threatened by these plonkers, even those punteres who attend live gigs and which are now the mainstay of income for even the biggest bands have to hear the tunes somewhere otherwise, why would they want to go? This load of bollocks comes from the same source as the whinging about how cassettes would destroy the music industry and VHS recorders would be the end of Hollywood. See also, CDs, DVDs, MP3s etc etc. Suffice it to say that the only thing that really will destroy the music and movie businesses is outragious prices for CDs and DVDs and crappy formulaic tunes and masturbatory soap operas.

These people are nothing less than greedy philistines, (apologies to practising philistines. ) and I hope that they rot in musical hell for eternity for their hypocrisy along with their brethren, the Bankers destined to listen forever to the most dreadful imaginable musak provided by third rate tribute bands.

CANNABIS AND THE GOVERNMENT YO YOs

2009-02-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

I was dealing with my mail last week with one ear on BBC Radio Four's Women's Hour and was well annoyed when some bod or other arrived on the prog and starts waffling about cannabis. Sadly it was mostly the same old tosh. I used cannabis for over 20 years and of course, inhaled it enthusiastically. It never made me ill unless I was stupid enough to drink copious amounts of alcohol first, and I only recall a couple of people who it really seemed to disagree with.

I gave it up overnight without a problem or even intention, when I realised I was hopelessly addicted to tobacco and gave that up for health reasons. I had tried to stop smoking for years without success but finally succeeded via the cold turkey method. After a fortnight of taking long walks, sucking on mints, munching comfort foods and occupying myself with various distractions, i realised i had finally succeeded. I also realised I had not smoked any cannabis for a fortnight although this was not my intention.

I have never believed that organic natural cannabis was particularly dangerous or addictive and many years of experience have only served to convince me that i am right. I do however believe it should be eaten rather than smoked (smoke of all kinds is not good for the lungs unless you are keen on developing cardio vascular problems) and I also believe it should not be used by people under 18 who generally dont seem to be able to use it wisely. I really do not recommend the use of "skunk" which is usually just genetically manipulated crap often full of unknown chemicals, and as I always avoid GM crops, I see no good reason to make an exception here.

Skunk weed is of course very high in THC which does get you very high, but there's more to getting high than THC. Normally, Cannabis also contains other cannabinols which do seem to stabilize and regulate the high so users dont normally go doolally, or develop a grumbling psychosis and acute symptoms of paranoia. This latter, is usually controllable with organic cannabis and a bit of paranoia is quickly recognised as an indication that the dope is of reasonably good quality.

Having said this, i still think that getting off your face all day and every day, starting with a death bong for breakfast and finishing off the day with a fat spliff for bedtime is not a good idea. If you have important or urgent or dangerous work to do, smoking dope is best left till after you finish. When health and Government bodies started to take a serious interest in the issues associated with cannabis use, I did what I could to help. I worked with my MP who was a supporter of Cannabis for pharmaceutical purposes and also gave info to the Police Foundation and to the House of Lords Select Committe on Cannabis in the hope that any new legislation would be sensible and based in facts rather than the usual ill-informed meddling. I viewed the downgrading of the drug to Class C as a move in the right direction and as this removed some of the naughtiness and glamour, use amongst young people seemed to fall.

There were always however, many who hated and resented this and who seized upon any opportunity to reverse this change. Skunk weed was just the weapon they needed. Quite a few young people used it but could not handle the effects and fetched up at the local psychiatric ward thinking they were talking to god. Young people often do this with whatever they can get their hands on, whether it be alcohol or solvents but the authorities should wise up to the fact that no matter what the drug, there is an important difference between use and abuse.

Seizing on poor evidence the Government next decided to reverse its declassification despite evidence and advice to the contrary from is own advisors. This has ???????? torestored the illegal glamour and seems likely to actually promote cannabis use rather than reduce it. This is what happens when you have a stupid government which is convinced it knows best and proceeds to make repressive laws in a high handed manner. This lack of knowledge combined with the urgent need to be seen to be doing something is rather well illustrated by the fact that people are criminalised for taking a recreational drug such as cannabis or extasy but then forced to take fluoride in their drinking water under the mistaken belief that it will reduce tooth decay. As usual its a case of do as we say, not as we do.

In this tedius and repressive nanny state it is little wonder that many young people become bored and disillusioned and drift into doing nothing at all except smoking dope. The sixties generation were often attacked for getting wasted but the fact remains that many of us did in fact "get our shit together" If we had not done so, i dont think that there would be the trend to alternative medicine or organic farming or even the active environmental movement that there is today.

I firmly believe that cannabis does not make you anything you are not already. So if you are artistic, creative and active, it can enhance it, but equally if you are an unmotivated and lazy sod who just like to tosh about with like minded friends, then cannabis will help you perfect your laziness and self indulgence. Alas even larger numbers are doing the same with alcohol but I would certainly rather put my fate in the hands of a cannabis smoker than a drink sodden MP or Peer who seems to have only a very slight grasp on life and reality. We are ruled by people who should serve but who enter politics with the intention of ruling because they have low self esteem and like to feel important by talking about things which they know little or nothing of and then passing ill-judged legislation to compel everyone to do things they dont want to do and generally conform to a grey template cobbled together by a political halfwit and seat polisher who hasnt had an original idea since he or she left school.

Everything we eat and drink will have an effect on us depending on our personal level of sensitivity and the addictiveness or ability to form habits in our personalities. We should all stop living in this ad world fantasy and behaving like Homer Simpson, lay on the couch all day, eating crap food and watching crap TV. There is more to life than this and we should get off our collelctive arses and not blame cannabis, a natural euphoric and mild sedative for our own stupidity or laziness. If you, your son or your daughter smoke a lot of dope and turn into a lazy unmotivated layabout or basket case, its usually because that is what you or they were before they took it.

Cannabis often strips away the thin veneer of acting often referred to as personality and reveals the true being within. The only reason that many drugs including alcohol have any political power is because people make a lot of so called legitimate money out of them. Hemp is an extremely useful if not essential plant which could save us all from environmental disaster if we used it properly but do we use it sensibly? of course not. Its an easy soft target with no strong lobby in parliament or business to promote it, so no change.

If i was to put fluoride in your drinking water I would be condemned as a terrorist, but a government can do whatever it wants without proper consultation with those it effects and then proscribe anything that the public discovers on its own, whether this be cannabis or dancing all night. What breathtaking hypocrisy. I could go on about psychosis, crime and much else but when people are so stupid as to believe anything that politicians say, why should I bother? My only advice is both tried and tested and and dates back well before New Labour and its dire focus groups and the ravages of Health and Safety tyranny. ...... Do What Thou Wilt and Harm No One, For This Is The Whole of The Law