History as Propaganda

On his blog, James Bartholomew describes a visit to St Pauls - a leading boys' independent school in London.

The sixth form boys had very little idea of the reality of life before today's welfare state, greatly underrating health and education provision in the past, and with little conception of past generations' independence, a partial view fed by their highly left-wing teachers.

As Bartholomew says, if it is like this even in private schools, what sort of message is being promoted in state secondary schools?

No wonder people find it so hard to consider moving beyond the welfare state.

Abuse of Terror Act

An 82 year old man, Walter Wolfgang, a refugee from Nazi Germany and a Labour Party member since 1948, was yesterday ejected from the Labour party conference for heckling. According to the Telegraph:

When he tried to re-enter the secure zone, he was stopped by a police officer citing the Terrorism Act.

... At first Sussex police denied that Mr Wolfgang had been detained or searched but a spokesman later admitted that he had been issued with a section 44 stop and search form under the Terrorism Act.

Another example of a law passed for one purpose but used for another - moral: never trust the state.

And if the Sussex police denial was made knowing its falsity, an example of self-serving lack of integrity.

Blair U-Turn on Kyoto?

Those of us who failed to pick up the great scoop from James Pinkerton at Tech Central Station on 15th September 2005 are only now learning from the MSM of Blair's change on Kyoto. The Sunday Times reports Blair saying:

“The truth is no country is going to cut its growth or consumption substantially in the light of a long-term environmental problem. To be honest, I don’t think people are going, at least in the short term, to start negotiating another major treaty like Kyoto.”

... In his comments, Blair suggested he no longer had faith in global agreements as a way of reversing rising greenhouse gas emissions. Instead he appeared to place his faith in science, technology and the free market ...

Perhaps he'll tell his 'scientific' advisers now, and we'll have to endure less of the sanctimonious claptrap we've been getting from the likes of Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, reported by the Telegraph saying:

... the intensity of the hurricanes was caused by water in the Gulf of Mexico being warmer than usual and was consistent with the latest scientific predictions of how the climate will behave as a result of man-made warming.

"If this makes the climate loonies in the States realize we've got a problem, something good will come out of this situation," said Sir John.

And yet Sir John had only to look at the US National Hurricane Center's statistics on hurricane strikes on the US mainland over the past 150 years to see that while there is a lot of variation, there is no pattern of increasing frequency or intensity in recent years.

As I've said before, and maybe Blair is coming round to this too, if there is global warming we are better off adapting to climate change than trying to control the weather, which is still subject to greater natural forces than we can deal with.

Most People Want To Leave EU

A YouGov opinion poll commissioned by UKIP shows 50% of UK voters want to leave the EU in favour of a free trade area, while only 34% want to remain within the EU.

How can it be that on something as fundamental as national independence the main political parties remain committed to the EU against the majority of the electorate?

No wonder votes ebb away from them, and there is disillusion with UK politics.

Must we suffer a terrible crisis before the incumbent parties recognise reality and are stirred to action?

For how much longer must we voters watch this EU show which has no clothes?

How To Help Someone Near Death

The greatest thing one can do for another (letter from the Telegraph):

Sir - The death of

Dame Cicely Saunders

(Obituaries, July 15) is a great loss to the hospice movement.

I spent the whole of my career in nursing and in the early 1970s I heard a lecture given by Dame Cicely, who described the three important things that the terminally ill need. They are given as if the patient were speaking - Stay with me - Speak to me - Hold my hand.

These few words perfectly describe the needs of a dying person and were so powerful that I remember them every time I think of that situation. May I commend them to every person who is a carer, be they a relative, a friend, or anyone in the medical field. To carry out these three things is the greatest thing one can do for another person.

Jeanne Yates, Devizes, Wilts

Something to remember in these troubled times. Thank you, Jeanne.

Justice Is Fallible

It always surprises me how much confidence people place on the verdicts of the courts.

The justice system is a human construct and so subject to error, both of fact and reason.

Professor David Taylor is spot on in his letter to the Telegraph regarding so-called expert witnesses:

Sir - Judge Thorpe (letter, July 20) recognises the failure of the way that expert witnesses are treated in this country, but not the cause of the failure.

The fault lies not with insufficient expertise on the part of the witness, but in the fact that even the best experts can be wrong. I very much doubt if Prof Roy Meadow would have failed Judge Thorpe's tests.

The answer is that expert witnesses must be treated like any others, and be subject to challenge. It is true that this can lead to undesirable contests, but even so, this is preferable to the present system.

Prof David Taylor, Scarborough, N. Yorks

Council Pygmies Oppress Giants

Brian Culbert and his wife Fiona wish to extend their house in Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire. Mr Culbert is 6 ft 10 in and Mrs Culbert is 6 ft. As they keep banging their heads on the ceiling and doors, they want their extension to have a higher ceiling.

But, after 18 months, the council has refused them planning permission, Councillor Peter Argyle saying if they allowed it because the Culberts are above average height,

Then in theory that would open the door to anyone else who is tall getting applications approved on the basis of their height. That is just not logical.

It seems perfectly logical to me: if you're tall you need higher ceilings and doorways than if you're not.

Councillor Jenny Watson, height 5 ft, said they should just "buy a bigger house". Well thanks, Councillor Jenny Watson, perhaps you'd like to pay for it, and suffer the inconvenience and disruption too?

But perhaps councils should just stop telling people what they can and can't do with their own houses, and to their own land? The planning process is slow, expensive, and wasteful; the bureaucracy pettifogging, harsh and oppressive (and, of course, with a vested interest in itself).

Does anyone imagine the world would fall apart if the Culberts built an extension fitted for someone of 6 ft 10 in? Like hell!

If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out!

Government Uses EU to Bypass UK Constitution

The UK government is using the London bombings to advance its Big Brother agenda. It wants internet and mobile phone companies to retain data about user activity for extended periods, ostensibly for intelligence purposes. This agenda has previously run into considerable opposition, both in Parliament and among civil liberties and other groups.

Now the government intends using the device of an EU inter-governmental agreement - which is not enforceable by the EU - to enable implementation within the UK without an Act of Parliament, and hence without normal Parliamentary scrutiny, and without the possibility of Parliamentary amendment.

As the EU Referendum blog points out in an illuminating post, the UK government is using the EU to legislate in the UK outside the normal Parliamentary process, effectively bypassing the UK constitution.

It is an extremely important point to grasp in understanding how Britain is losing its constitutional safeguards, and Parliament has lost a large part of its power, not simply to the EU, but to the executive.

Commons Sidelined, Again

The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, is reported to have caused outrage in the Commons when it became apparent that amendments to the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, will be introduced in the House of Lords. The Commons will be unable to debate them, and the limited debate they were allowed yesterday had to be conducted in ignorance of what they would be.

Kenneth Clarke, a former Tory home secretary, said the proceedings were "a complete outrage" and the Government was treating the Commons with "intolerable contempt".

Other MPs expressed anger at being cheated of consideration of the new legal moves before being asked to approve the Prevention of Terrorism Bill. But attempts to force the suspension of the Commons to allow time to consider the changes were unsuccessful.

Amazing that MPs (especially arch-Europhile Kenneth Clarke) should get so worked up about being sidelined in this debate, when Parliament has been completely cut out of the picture on so many matters by the EU, is often ignorant of where power now lies, and while its decline continues apace.