'Quotes'

Bits n pieces about the world we live in

WOULD YOU MIND SLOPPING OUT, SIR?

The Sunday Telegraph made grim reading on the 24th October. The front page carried the stomach-churning images of pensioners, beaten almost beyond recognition by various muggers and thugs. The paper also reported on the teacher who was stabbed to death in his own home by a burglar - the victim dying in his wife's arms. Meanwhile, the BBC News Online service carried a report of how schoolchildren in the once "clean and green" suburb of Bromley, Kent were violently mugged by a gang of black girls - yet another example of the out-of-control crime and yobbishness now infesting our country.

So what do the authorities have to say about all this? Well, the prison service is certainly doing its bit to help things along. According to The Sunday Telegraph, new guidelines have been issued to warders: apparently, they must now refer to the criminal as "Mr" - so as not to hurt his dignity. Aaah. Welcome to the world-turned-upside-down that is Blair's modern Britain. Still, at least Mr. Blair and his parliamentary colleagues are going to be safe. The state has invested in a multi-million pound barrier and surveillance system to protect the House of Commons from a terrorist attack which could be launched "at any time" from the Thames.

DON'T ARGUE WITH LABOUR

In The Times of September 8, Tom Baldwin writes an astonishing, Socialist Worker-style attack on the "4x4-driving", Barbour-wearing Countryside Alliance. This is Baldwin's stylisation of them. He says that the Alliance made matters worse for itself by daring to "challenge the authority" of ministers, and that the "Livelihood" part of the countryside march - the idea that the protest was about rural jobs etc - was, at best, a sort of cover for their nasty main agenda. His exact words: "The Countryside Alliance will say that its march was as much about livelihood and the neglected needs of Britain's rural communities as it was about liberty and fox-hunting. Yeah, well, maybe..." Such elegance.

Some of you may remember that in 2001 Baldwin was head of a little trio of journalists who repeatedly attacked Right Now! magazine (the others being Melissa Kite, now on The Sunday Telegraph, and Andrew Pierce, who currently writes a rather thin and unfunny "People" column on The Times). At first, these people (forever moaning about "far-right links" and "racism") wrote in the same style as hacks for Searchlight rather than writers for an establishment newspaper!

Baldwin has a certain resemblance to Alastair Campbell, and his idea that anyone who "challenges" Government policy deserves to get it in the neck, seems to echo the style of Blair's former "communications chief". Certainly, Baldwin brings some heavy stuff into his article - an allegation that countryside "extremists" are planning to poison reservoirs! He'll be saying that they have weapons of mass-destruction next!

Now all this seems very odd, especially as Baldwin's paper ran a story earlier in the week about various anarchists and "sabs" who hold terrorist-style training camps in Kent, in preparation for their protests at hunts and scientific establishments which conduct animal research. Why is that Mr. Baldwin is not ranting and raving about this - a real threat to law and order?

LOLLIPOP LOUTS

August has truly been the silly season for North Wales police. BBC Wales reported that officers in late-night trouble spots, such as Wrexham, would be handing out lollipops to drunken young thugs in an effort to "calm them down". (North Wales, you will remember, is the area controlled by Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, whose views on heroin are reported elsewhere on this website.) So, you decent, quiet citizens of Wrexham. As you try to walk through the streets of your town late at night, dodging the violent, swearing, young drunks (not to mention puddles of you-know-what) you can retire to your home safely - knowing that Richard Brunstrom's force is out there... with its lollipops and smiles.

You couldn't make it up.

NOT VOWING TO HIS COUNTRY!

The Church of England bishop, the Rt. Reverend Stephen Lowe, should be pitied by all Christian people: pitied for despising his own nation's past, for equating the kindly, churchy patriotism of "I Vow to Thee My Country" with Nazi Germany, and for trying to suppress the very Englishness of England, in the name of a profoundly un-Christian multiculturalism.

Thanks to such "Church of England" bishops, very little future for either the church, let alone the survival of our country.

SANITY OFFENDS THE TORIES

A bead of sweat trickles down the collar of a middle-aged man as he sits watching a banned video with like-minded punters behind drawn curtains in the summer swelter.

As a local politician, his career could be in jeopardy if this got out. What are these taboo images flickering on the screen? Some filth from a paedophile ring or secret footage of badger-baiting? No, just a 30-minute compilation of statistics about the European Union, produced by an organisation called Subjects Against the Nice Treaty (Sanity).

As soon as Central Office discovered that members of the Falmouth and Camborne Conservative Association had watched the video, the entire local leadership was suspended. Their sin was to screen a video that, before the closing credits, promotes the UK Independence Party.

The Falmouth association has been given "supported status"; in other words its administration has been taken over directly by Central Office. With support like that, who needs political opponents?

The resolution of the case awaits a hearing, with QCs, top brass and full-volume publicity. UKIP may be "cranks and gadflies", but they are hardly Militant. Is it not possible that Central Office has over-reacted?

YOBBERY

As a loyal Englishman, weary of the politically-correct discouragement of patriotism, I have always been pleased and proud to see the flag of St. George flying, especially alongside the Union Jack.

However, during the current European football championship, I have found myself increasingly depressed to see our noble "red cross" flaunted and besmirched by what seems to be an ever-growing army of foul-mouthed and violent hooligans. Is there not a High Street in England free of the nasty, often shirtless, baseball-hatted gangs who spread fear and misery among ordinary people - gangs who seem to hate their society and everyone around them?

Of course, there are countless decent followers of soccer, who genuinely follow and appreciate their sport, but it does now seem that the public space has been surrendered to a dangerously feral element which uses this game as an excuse for its apparently innate thuggery.

Just recently, quite late at night, I had cause to pass through Bromley South station in suburban South London. The station and forecourt (with just one helpless member of staff on duty), was given over to screaming, drunken, fighting gangs, some of whom were kicking traffic cones across the main road. Needless to say, there was not a single policeman in sight, despite there being a large, new Metropolitan Police Headquarters nextdoor to the station.

Just what is going on in this country today? England - once a civilised place, respected the world over for its manners and "stiff upper lip" has become a nightmare of disorder and decay. For the first time in my life, I weep to see the flag of St. George...

Letter to Daily Telegraph from Stuart Millson

MEET 'EMMA' - NATWEST'S NEW CUSTOMER!

For those of you who thought that political correctness was confined to Labour councils and left-wing quangos, think again. Customers at various NatWest branches (principally, it seems in London) are being confronted by an advertising campaign for the EMMA awards. Oscars are well known, of course, but who, or what is EMMA? EMMA stands for the Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy, and NatWest's blurb states the following: "NatWest are proud to sponsor the NatWest EMMA Awards that celebrate cultural diversity within the UK. We are pleased to introduce NatWest EMMA Futures in 2004. For a chance of winning a �10,000 bursary to support your burgeoning media career and to find out more, please visit www.emma.tv"

Just as NatWest is spending tens of thousands on EMMA, the Commission for Racial Equality has warned that multiculturalism is divisive to our society.

WE'RE ALL RESPONSIBLE!

(for Blair's asylum chaos)

New Labour's negligence and failure on the immigration question continues to undermine the Prime Minister - not to mention local communities and the British economy. A centre which will accommodate nearly 1,000 "asylum seekers" has finally been given the go-ahead in rural Oxfordshire, despite huge protests by local residents. (Isn't it strange how these centres are never placed near the homes of Labour Cabinet ministers?!) Des Browne MP - the successor to Labour's former immigration minister, Beverley Hughes, defended the decision to open the centre between the villages of Arncott and Piddington, stating that: "At present, inner-city dispersal areas take on virtually all responsibility for asylum-seekers and it is only fair that all parts of the country share responsibility." So there we have it - New Labour expects YOU to bear the responsibility of its endless failures. Next time you write out your council tax cheque, think of the words of Des Browne MP...

A BIG CONTRIBUTION TO BRITAIN?

Claims by Tony Blair and David Blunkett that immigration "benefits" Britain to the tune of �2.5 billion a year have been challenged by Cambridge professor, Robert Rowthorn. Professor Rowthorn of the university's Department of Economics described the Government's assertion as "unwarranted", and that the financial impact on Britain may well be negative. The Government's think-of-a-number approach to politics, not to mention its lazy, shallow spin, is clearly being taken to pieces by the experts. Now who would you rather believe, an economics expert from Cambridge, or a third-rate soft-soap salesman from 10 Downing Street?

HOWARD - THE 'EUROSCEPTIC'...

As British trawlermen, farmers and self-reliant small businessmen continue to drown under a tidal wave of EU regulations, thank goodness that "Eurosceptics" such as Michael Howard are around. The "Opposition" leader was quick to set out his stall on the issue - in Berlin of all places!

"I am determined that Britain shall remain a positive and influential member of the European Union," said the Tory leader on the 12th February 2004. Tory supporters should not forget that Michael Howard's old boss, John Major, was the man who signed the Maastricht Treaty - the document which put us on the road to a single EU state.

MUST BE ON SPEED

"What would be wrong with making heroin available on the state for people who wanted to abuse their bodies? Why is that anathema?"

Is this the view of some inner-city drug dealer, perhaps, or spaced-out, benefit-assisted, squatter in Haringey - or even a Tory-libertarian policy wonk? No - the quotation which began this piece comes from no less a figure than Richard Brunstrom, Chief Constable of North Wales. Brunstrom caused a storm (reported in The Times on the 6th February) for his comments, earning the condemnation of everyone from the local Plaid Cymru MP, to Norman Brennan, Director of the Victims of Crime.

We wonder how the parents and grieving families of those killed by heroin addiction feel about the "policeman's" comments? And what about all the poor doctors and nurses, late on a Saturday night, who have to mop up the terrible drug-induced mess, so favoured by brave Richard Brunstrom? Still, that's nothing compared to an individual's "right" to abuse his or her body - especially "on the state".

Meanwhile, North Wales Police continues with its excellent work. Recently (at Brunstrom's command) they tripled the number of speed cameras in the locality. Aren't our policemen wonderful?

A DEVIL OF A TIME

The Tory heartland (i.e. the Isle of Wight and a bit of Kent) was shocked by a Times report on the 21st January concerning the fate of IDS - (you remember, Iain Duncan Smith, the former party leader?)

To those who DO remember him, Iain has been sunk in a miasma of depression since his blunt ousting by the ever-nasty parliamentary party. The Times headline pulled no punches either: "Duncan Smith exposes the depths of his bitterness and humiliation". According to the reporters, "friends" of Iain say that he is very down, his finances not in the best shape after losing half of his �120,000 salary.

And that's not all. Dunkie's attempts to launch himself as a writer of fast-moving political thrillers has fallen flat. His debut novel, The Devil's Tune, was regarded by the publishing world as a bit of a flop - the work coming in at number 51,188 on Amazon's list of books.

Maybe all this has finally sent him over the edge. Certainly his latest statement might indicate a temporary loss of sanity, brought on no doubt by the trauma of being a failed author (and failed Leader of the Opposition): "We should be proud of the fact that when people flee persecution, we would have them here. That should always be at the heart of our policy." Iain's keepin' things PC. Protecting those fleeing persecution is a standard mantra recited by politicians to avoid people looking too closely at the flood of illegal immigrants they have allowed to enter Britain.

Who said the Devil had all the best tunes?

'Freedom campaigner'