So much for the anti fracking frenzy that has gripped Sussex in the wake of the incidents at Balcombe (or so we have been told by both green zealots and the always-happy-to-over-hype-a-story media)

Storrington…..West Sussex County Council By election 26/09/13….turnout 22.53%

Of course Caroline Lucas and George Monbiot might say the good people of Storrington are oblivious of how fracking would destroy their rural idyll.

But maybe it’s because the villagers have a different perspective.

For the last few years there has been a ‘Nodding Donkey’ oil rig tucked behind the trees off the A283 just to the east of Storrin

 gton, and opposite the entrance to historic Parham, an Elizabethan house open to the public.

It’s so quiet and unobtrusive few knew it was there…

“Campaigning Charities” like the Tax Payers Alliance and The League Against Cruel Sports are extrememly upset by the proposed Lobbying Bill according to Mark Wallace who has worked for several “Campaigning Charities” including the TPA.. As a result lots of them are so upset they have briefly put aside their differences to campaign against the bill.

Fortunately not every reader of his article felt convinced by his sob story and I thought this one hit the nail squarely on the head.

I have no objection to people campaigning. I do object to taxpayer funding for fake charities – something that should be addressed by ensuring that such organisations are not allowed the privilege of charitable status as an enhancement of their credibility.

Precisely.

Charitable status should only be reserved for those organisations which actually use donations to provide a service rather than outwork for PR consultants and contacts for advertising agencies

I’m a great supporter of the work done by the TPA. But I certainly don’t see why I, as a taxpayer, should help subsidise its staffing and campaigning. In fact the whole notion of a Charity Industry makes me very nervous about motives….

The row over energy prices and the green levy (6% for gas, 11% for electricity) has brought out the real David Cameron – the snake oil salesman who will say anything to sell his product (which is, of course, his and Sam’s continued tenure in No. 10.)

So what is the con this time?

telling voters that he’ll cut their bills by cutting “green charges” on energy. “We need to roll back some of the green regulations and charges,” he said.

Sounds good, doesn’t it – defying his masters in Brussels and giving the finger to his green loving coalition mates in the Lib Dem party…..and maybe scooping up a few UKIP voters at the same time.

Trouble is we all know the EU and Clegg & Co. wouldn’t let him do it. They, like Miliband are wedded and glued to high energy costs to combat the mythical monster of man made global warming. (Remember it was Labour who decommissioned coal fired power stations and introduced the green levies)

So Cameron slips into PR mode. He won’t “roll back” the green levies – he’ll pay for them out of general taxation. So essentially there won’t be any reduction of the green levy – but it will be paid for by taxpayers (i.e. “hard working families”) rather than energy users.

It’s a tax increase – but in the current moral panic nobody will notice…until the next moral panic.

Job done, PR style

Hey you licence paying suckers – yes, you over there worried about your job, your bills and the fact you are being priced out of the housing market. You can relax because the BBC is at last responding to your cri de coeur.

The Beeb feels your pain and knows exactly what you want.

So they are paying a hundred women from all over the world to assemble at Broadcasting House on Friday October 25th

We’ll ask them to tell us where they think the world’s women are today, and to set out their goals for the future.

That’s right…air fares, hotel bills, plenty of food and drink over the weekend.

Plus fee payments, of course…..making it, at a conservative estimate, half a million pounds at least – courtesy of the ever generous taxpayer.

Who are these women?

They hail from all over the world, and from walks of life. They do all kinds of things: they make music, save lives, raise children, run businesses, write, preach, act and tell jokes. 

Here’s a taster

Salwa Abu Libdeh Palestinian TV journalist

Madawi Al-Rasheed Saudi academic, gender expert @MadawiDr

Nadia Al-Sakkaf Editor, Yemen Times @theyementimes

Sreymom Ang Cambodian fashion designer

Joyce Aoko Aruga Student teacher, Kenya

And who do we have from Britain? Here’s a sample

Anna Arrowsmith English porn film director @annaarrowsmith

Sarah Walker (No picture) Head of the English Collective of Prostitutes

Kate Smurthwaite British stand-up comedian and activist @cruella1

Jacqui Smith Former UK Home Secretary @smithjj62

Oh and I almost forgot….

Cherie Blair British barrister and philanthropist @CherieBlairFndn

Cherie Blair…..philanthropist…..lol…

Don’t get me wrong. Some of the 100 women listed are worthy of respect and have achieved a great deal against immense odds. But too many are failed politicians, international bureaucrats, scribblers or obscure inhabitants of The Guardian Arts pages. If they want to meet together to produce a bland concoction of anodyne declarations that are heavy on good intentions but empty of substance then that’s fine. But let someone pay for it out of their own bank account – not out of the taxpayer’s pocket.

No…this is yet another example of the profligacy of the BBC. Pumping out middle class therapy for the chattering classes paid for you and me via the BBC Poll Tax.

You’ll be able to follow every development on BBC TV, radio and online.

No thanks – I’ll be busy rubbing bleach into my eyes. It’ll be far less painful…..

Wow – that was unexpected..lol…

The country’s top GP yesterday rejected a Government crackdown on health tourism as ‘xenophobic’.

Dr Clare Gerada, of the Royal College of General Practitioners, insisted doctors would not act as ‘a new border agency’ by asking about the immigration status of patients.

And she cast doubt on the findings of a Government report warning of the huge cost of foreign visitors and short-term migrants.

Of course, I mean since they gave up after hours care our GPs have so little time in which they can spend their six figure taxpayer funded salary.

Once again the medical trade unions pose as monks and nuns, serving the people with no thought of enriching themselves – it really beggars belief that they still feel they can pretend they have no wish to be soiled by the mere mention of money.

Now it so happens that Cameron, May and company are trying to dodge a bullet by getting doctors, landlords and bosses the responsibility of operating border checks on behalf of those who are supposed to protect our borders. As UKIP has suggested we can cut out all this franchising out of border control by ensuring that entry to the UK via our seaports and airports is implemented in a robust and efficient way and “health tourism” costs could be reduced by making the possession of an adequate health insurance policy is a condition for the granting of any visa, or even, going further than UKIP, a condition of entry for any non UK passport holder who wants to come into Britain

However it must be made clear to Dr Gerada that it is not for her to refuse the instructions of an employer to administer/collect such charges. Fortunately it appears that she does not speak for a majority of her colleagues.

It is an undeniable fact that UKIP’s performance in a number of Parliamentary by elections earlier in the year and the party’s astonishing breakthrough in the May local elections have left the political class and much of the media racking their brains for some sort of explanation that conforms to their worldview. Only a few observers have dared to think the unthinkable…that people are coming to UKIP because they are tired of the carefully choreographed puppet show that passes for party politics in 21^st century Britain

The traditional party hacks pretend that if we vote for them they will strain every sinew to transform Britain. Yet, once in power, very little changes except the window dressing – because, of course, nearly three quarters of the rules and regulations that govern our lives emanate not from Westminster but from the EU in Brussels. Our energy policy, our legal system, our trading, our immigration rules  and much else are all eventually beholden to an unelected bureaucracy in Brussels

The Punch and Judy knockabout which passes for parliamentary debate is therefore mostly shadow play. In the three traditional parties the bulk of the leadership cadre has followed this pathway..university > research intern for an MP > brief stint in charity/think tank/PR > parachute into safe seat > cabinet/shadow cabinet. Most have had less than five years experience of real work outside politics/media. Yet they are quite content to tell us what we should or shouldn’t do, even how we should think.

UKIP is different. Our members live in the real world. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some have been active in other political parties. A surprisingly large number have never belonged to a political party at all. Yet we all have one thing in common – we are sick and tired of being patronised and intimidated by a political elite who despise our values and traditions, who promise much but rarely deliver.

If you feel like this why not join UKIP.  One thing is for certain – you will not be alone.

The Police Federation and several senior officers do not appear to be emerging from the Andrew Mitchell “Plebgate” affair in a particularly savoury light. Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph has launched a blistering attack on the Police over this and other issues. He talks of lies, cover ups and weak leadership

It is time to acknowledge that the police force faces a crisis of such gravity that it can only be solved by setting up a Royal Commission.

The Independent Police complaints Commission (IPCC) has criticised three Chief Constables for not taking any action over quite well substantiated accusations that three officers had lied about a discussion they had with Andrew Mitchell.

Three police officers have been criticised for apparently giving a false account of a meeting with the former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell, which the MP had secretly recorded.

What makes this affair so troubling for the police service is less that individual officers may have lied – although that is clearly toxic in itself – but the suggestion that when entrusted with investigating wrong-doing, chief constables did not take appropriate action.

Now David Cameron and Theresa May have made statements deploring what appears to be a stitch up of Mitchell orchestrated by several police officers.

But it appears to me that Cameron is shedding crocodile tears. His behaviour during the whole episode has been rather half hearted. He asked a senior mandarin to investigate the whole incident but the subsequent probe was desultory and rather amateurish. Cameron knew of the CCTV evidence (subsequently used by Channel4 News to undermine the police case) yet did not choose to take it seriously.

As a comment on this post pointed out

Hmmm strange how it took that hotbed of left wing subversion C4news to go carefully through the CCTV footage, and those two well known lefties Jon Snow and Michael Crick to present it to the public and show that Mitchell was being stitched up. It does make you wonder why the Cabinet office and the PM in particular didn’t take the time to do exactly the same thing: I’m sure they must have been aware that the whole area was monitored by CCTV.

Something smells about this whole affair and it’s just not emanating from the boys in blue – it’s also coming out of Number 10 Downing Street

Seeing the significantly unamusing Marl Steel introduced on last week’s HIGNFY as a “left wing comedian” was the last straw. OK so Hislop suddenly came on fire re Leveson/Press Control and there was a joke about Mehdi Hasan – but notice Steel and Merton didn’t join in.

As Will Self has said the prospect of Merton and Hislop sounding off against bankers and assorted “fatcats”  is a bit rich when you consider they get paid several thousands of taxpayers money per programme and both must be raking in very generous six figure incomes (and using perfectly “legal” tax avoiding strategies).

Add  the regiment of left wing “comedians” who pop up on HIGNFY and scores of other panel shows and you have an overwhelming barrage of left groupthink moulded along Guardian/BBC lines bombarding us practically every evening.

So, time to pitch a new “concept” panel show to BBC/ITV/Ch4. Usual studio set up, long bench, MC in the middle, arselicking fawning audience laughing at every remark as if THEY ARE, LIKE, JUST THE FUNNIEST EVAH….

But, with a different panel..

MELANIE PHILLIPS

DOUGLAS MURRAY

DAVID STARKEY

DANIEL HANNAN

All chaired by NIGEL FARAGE…

It would be called MTL….Mock The Left…because the constant target would be the beloved icons of the left…Atheists, the EU, the UN, Barack Obama, Greenpeace, Hamas, Hollywood. Kirsty Wark etc. Points would be given for biggest Lie, the worst example of Hypocrisy and the most barefaced manifestation of Outrageous Outrage emanating from the North London chattering classes. A permanent feature of each show would be three balloons bearing the faces of Polly Toynbee, John Prescott and George Monbiot. Every week each balloon would be pricked to great cheers from the audience after a particularly pompous and self opinionated quote from the appropriate individual.

The show would end with a classic pseuds corner extract from the arts pages of The Guardian and the paper would then be burned and stuffed down a toilet to great cheers from the audience…

OK BBC/ITV/Ch4……I’m waiting for your call…..

via the inestimable Michael Yon  ….a spoof, of course, but it might touch a few nerves…

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

———————–

1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

————————

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’

——————-

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

—————–

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

———————-

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

———————-

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

——————–

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

——————-

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

——————-

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

———————

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

———————

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

———————

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

——————–

13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

—————–

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

—————

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

 

“Let’s have a debate about immigration” is politics speak for “I am about to fob you off with meaningless blather and pretend that something can be done.”

Always beware of politicians who call for a “debate” about an issue. What they really mean is a series of carefully orchestrated statements from key figures within the Westminster bubble. The one thing they do not want to hear about is anything from the great unwashed who live outside that bubble.

Which is why  Yvette Cooper deserves some praise for blurting out the truth…

 Labour’s Yvette Cooper surely had a point today when she said that politicians of all sorts should be more candid about how much – and how little – they can really do on immigration.

She said: “It’s also about being honest with people about what impact you can have and what practical measures there can be, rather than getting into a kind of arms race of rhetoric on immigration, which doesn’t help anybody because they just don’t believe it.”

• You see there is absolutely nothing that any British government can do about immigrants from within the EU because we have unilaterally surrendered control of our own borders to Brussels.
• There is also nothing we can do about immigrants who arrive here either legally or illegally from outside the EU because we have unilaterally acknowledged the European Court of Human Rights as superior to British courts of law.

So when messrs Cameron, Clegg and Miliband give us “straight talk” about immigration they are simply telling lies – unless they also advocate leaving the EU…

…..and they would never ever advocate that, would they?