One Blunder After Another

You want me to be scared, to view my countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my liberty for my security.
You lost.
( Antoine Leiris, in an open letter to the cowards who murdered his wife Helene in Paris )

Tremendous Sums Are Squandered On Debt Interest.
Tax is a necessary nuisance, not a moral duty.
It is not, as the Leftists chant, ‘the price we pay for a civilised society’.
It is the price we pay for handing over too many of our responsibilities to the State.
A huge amount of it is wasted.
Tremendous sums are simply squandered on debt interest, in many cases paying for failed or useless schemes of long ago.
It does terrible damage to the economy, shrivelling the rewards for hard work and diverting wealth into the wrong hands.
It falls very heavily on the poor, especially in the form of indirect taxes such as VAT.
In my view, our whole attitude to it is wrong, and well summed up by the fact that Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs seldom if ever say ‘please’ when they demand our money and never say ‘thank you’ when they get it.
And now there is this plan to let them seize money from private bank accounts without a court hearing.
These are the methods and attitudes of a haughty autocracy, not those of a public service in a free country.
( Peter Hitchens, 18.05.2014 )

Scientists claim that middle-aged people with a dark sense of humour who laugh at tragic events have a higher chance of developing early Alzheimer’s. With Whitehall claiming George Osborne is taking sadistic pleasure in imposing his savage cuts let’s hope the boffins have got this one bang-on.
( Brian Reade, 14.11.2015 )

An Era Of Corruption In High Places.
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.
Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.
( Abraham Lincoln, 1864 )

A recent study in Australia found that men with beards were more likely to show signs of macho behaviour and a tendency to degrade women.

A Mystery To Everyone Except Her Friend.
Good to see Esther McVey, who was kicked out by Wirral voters in May, finding not one, but two highly-lucrative jobs.
Not only have her political connections earned her a senior advisor post for an international lobbying firm, she’s also been handed a cushy quango job, Chairman of the British Transport Police Authority, which pays £35.000 for 60 days work – the equivalent of £210,000 a year.
How the former TV presenter, with no known experience of the workings of British Transport Police, landed such a specialist job is a mystery to everyone except her friend, Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin, who signed it off.
( Brian Reade, 28.11.2015 )

Western media and politicians are full of praise for Turkey’s new and menacing President Erdogan, who is more repressive than Russia’s Putin and memorably once said, “Democracy is like a tram.
You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.”
( Peter Hitchens, 17.08.2014 )

Mr Cameron will be remembered as the prime minister who allowed the rich and, sometimes, corrupt from China, America, Russia and the Middle East to take over our industries and swathes of property.
And who plunged the poorest and most vulnerable into despair.
( Sunday Mirror, 06.12.2015 )

Who Won The Bloody War, Anyway?
My parents’ generation used to believe that a devilish con-trick had been played on them by Germany.
They would look with envy on their world-beating productivity, prosperity, living standards, even football teams, sigh, reflect on sickly Britain, and ask: “Who won the bloody war, anyway?”
Although I never bought into it, as the years passed I realised defeat in 1945 had brought Germans one huge slice of luck: Being excluded from permanent membership of the UN’s Security Council, alongside the so-called superpowers of America, Russia, China, France and Britain.
It meant not having to spend billions on defence and a nuclear deterrent.
It meant, unlike us, not feeling obliged to enter every global conflict, living the lie that we were still the policeman of the world, when we were distinctly part-time specials.
( Brian Reade, 28.11.2015 )

The Blairs’ property empire now stretching to seven houses and 27 flats.
How long before he owns more homes in Britain than he bombed in Iraq?
( Brian Reade, 14.11.2015 )

Mosques Are About Money And Power.
Political leaders pay lip service to the Muslim community, turning up at religious events, usually when in need of votes.
They should go to mosques and look closer at what is going on.
Mosques are much more than a place of worship.
They are about money and power, too.
Most are wealthy and, unsurprisingly, the people with their hands on the purse strings wield much influence, meaning they have become power bases.
Mosques are run by what are known in Muslim communities as tribal elders.
No qualification is needed to become one.
It often has more to do with age or family connections than wisdom.
Sometimes elders appoint themselves and, once there, it is impossible to remove them, no matter how badly they perform.
( Lord Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim Peer, 31.08.2014 )

Tory Dirty Tricks Brigade.
I wish frothing right-whingers would make up their minds because Jeremy Corbyn can’t be both a pacifist and a terrorist ally.
He’s neither.
And the contradictory insults show the Tory dirty tricks brigade doesn’t care what they throw as long as it sticks.
My hunch is Cameron wouldn’t apologise for his “terrorist sympathisers” slur against opponents of bombing Syria since that’s what he really thinks.
Tory HQ is demonising Corbyn, dripping poison in the ears of journalists to do to him what Cameron supposedly did to that pig.
( Brian Reade, 07.12.2015 )

They Still Walk Around As If They Had Done Nothing Wrong.
The Blair creature has taken to making speeches about doing good in the Middle East, where his Iraq policy helped to ruin the lives of millions for decades to come.
It also cost this country billions we could not afford, not to mention 179 British lives.
I still think the only way for him to regain our respect would be to take a vow of lifelong silence in a very austere monastery, where he could perhaps clean the lavatories.
But he still thinks he was right, and many of his accomplices also still walk around as if they had done nothing wrong.
( Peter Hitchens, 27.04.2014 )

David Cameron talked boldly about attacking the head of the ISIS snake, without mentioning that its biggest funders are the Saudi Arabians, whose heads he was bowing and scraping before only last month, as he begged for their funds.
( Brian Reade, 21.11.2015 )

Crime Figures Have Been Massaged.
The figures have been massaged.
Robbery is now classified as theft from a person.
Burglary is downgraded to criminal damage.
Cautions and reprimands are used to save police time.
But you ask the people who walk about the towns and cities at night if crime has gone down.
( Judge Richard Bray, April 2014 )

The Least The British People Are Owed Is Honesty.
David Cameron, like Tony Blair before him, appears to have an almost messianic desire to lead us into battle.
He says we have to join in the Syrian Civil War because “our allies need us”.
But since when has that alone been a compelling reason?
During Suez, the USA diplomatically opposed Britain and stayed neutral during the Falklands, a war in which France supplied weapons to our Argentine enemy.
France also stayed out of our recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, because they knew at least one was immoral and both were un-winnable.
Russia just does what suits them.
Cameron has tried to morally blackmail MPs into backing him by claiming they’re faced with a stark choice of being the bulldog Churchill or the appeaser Chamberlain.
But what about the pragmatic Harold Wilson who refused Lyndon Johnson’s pleas to send British troops to be slaughtered in Vietnam?
Did our decision to stand on the sidelines then, like the French and Russians in Iraq, diminish our standing?
This rush to take part in one of the most complex civil wars the world has seen, when we’re unsure who our allies and enemies are, we don’t have a clear objective, we can’t rule out a long ground war, we have no plan for the aftermath, we don’t know if our extra bombs will make a positive difference or if they will spawn more jihadists, is fraught with danger.
Surely, after the lies of Iraq, the least the British people are owed is honesty.
We need to be told if joining this war is more about bolstering our national self-esteem than our security.
Because at least then, when we start bringing home our troops in body bags, we’d know why.
( Brian Reade, 28.11.2015 )

Being nasty doesn’t require intellect.
Any moron can be abusive.
The distinguishing factor of great wit is to be nasty with style.
( Kenneth Williams, 1926-1988 )

Darkness is the hiding place of lost souls.
( Florence Emily Hookins, 1892-1956 )

The Darkness Lifted.
As a show of solidarity with the French, I’d like to remind you of a time when Paris was the scene of heart-bursting joy.
Exactly 25 years ago last night, a rattled Margaret Thatcher stomped down the British Embassy steps in the French capital, shoved the BBC’s John Sergeant out of the way and announced she would fight on after failing to win enough votes to stay Tory leader.
Within two days she was gone.
And the darkness lifted.
Which is why, for me, Paris will always be The City of Light.
( Brian Reade, 21.11.2015 )

Old Etonians treat the Tory crown like a goblet being passed around at a Buller dinner.
( Kevin Maguire, 04.08.2014 )

The Heir To The Throne Is Nobody’s Creature.
I have long predicted (and in a way hoped for) a clash between Prince Charles and the Government when he eventually comes to the throne.
When it arrives, many who now fashionably despise the Monarchy will find themselves unexpectedly siding with him.
The Prince is silly on some things but in most matters he is far closer to the nation’s heart and soul than the political class.
And he has just as much of a moral claim to speak for us.
Think about it.
It’s the party machines, not us, who actually choose MPs in safe seats, and then boss them around.
And it’s money from rather fishy billionaires that pays for their campaigns, and they expect their reward.
Whereas the heir to the throne is nobody’s creature, and hasn’t sold himself to the highest bidder.
( Peter Hitchens, 27.04.2014 )

Katie Hopkins, the preposterously toxic waste of oxygen, today announced that she thinks I have ‘a crush’ on her.
On the scale of probability, this is right up there with me harbouring a secret desire to emigrate to an Icelandic igloo with Heather Mills.
( Piers Morgan, 04.01.2015 )

Research shows that the poor have eight fewer teeth than the rich when they’re 65.
Is that because the poor are bred to have their teeth kicked in by the rich?
( Brian Reade, 22.11.2014 )

I can only miss the true and I can only mourn the brave.
Cowards make it easy to let go because you’re not losing anything worth having.
( Donna Lynn Hope )

One Blunder After Another.
ISIS is an ugly phenomenon, but it’s largely the consequence of one blunder after another by the US and its allies in the region, who shouldn’t have been meddling there in the first place.
If ISIS poses a threat to anyone, it is to countries in the region, and they are the appropriate parties to address it.
If the US and its allies want to reduce terror in the region they need to stop participating in it.
( Julian Assange )

Timeout for Cadbury when its U.S. owner isn’t paying a Button in British corporation tax on more than £2billion in sales.
The chocolate maker left a bad taste in the mouth when it shut a 400-job factory near Bristol, breaking a promise to keep it open.
Either MPs order the boss to explain or Parliament’s a few peanuts short of the full Picnic.
( Brian Reade, 07.12.2015 )

State Sponsors Of Islamist Terrorism.
Immediately after 7/7, sporadic reports from the mainstream media revealed links between the British security services and Islamist militants living in London.
Some of these individuals were reportedly working as British agents or informers while being involved in terrorism overseas.
Some were apparently being protected by the British security services while being wanted by foreign governments.
Whitehall has been colluding with two sets of Islamist actors which have strong connections with each other.
In the first group are the major state sponsors of Islamist terrorism, the two most important of which are key British allies with whom London has long-standing strategic partnerships – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Foreign policy planners have routinely covertly collaborated with the Saudis and the Pakistanis in their foreign policy, while both states are now seen as key allies in what was until recently described as the War on Terror.
Yet the extent of Riyadh’s and Islamabad’s nurturing of radical Islam around the world dwarfs that of other countries, notably official enemies such as Iran or Syria.
The oil price boom of 1973 propelled Saudi Arabia to a position of global influence, and has been the source of billions of dollars that have flowed to the radical Islamic cause, including terrorist groups, around the world.
A good case can be made that al-Qaida is partly a creature of Britain’s Saudi ally, given the direct links between Saudi intelligence and Bin Laden from the early years of the anti Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
( Mark Curtis, 16.11.2015 )

Private education is big business, hence predictable howls of rage from public school executives over Labour’s plans to curb their tax breaks if they don’t work more closely with the state sector.
Public schools are not charities.
They are the commercial incubators of the next generation of the ruling class – and should be taxed as such.
( Paul Routledge, 28.11.2014 )

Two Deaths Went Largely Unnoticed.
The deaths of two peculiarly British characters, Warren Mitchell and Cynthia Payne, understandably went largely unnoticed this week.
One was a left-wing Jew who played a right-wing bigot in a brilliant sitcom.
The other a middle-class lady who ran a brothel where she made judges pay for sex with luncheon vouchers.
Both of them carried off that contradiction with a joyous pizzazz and both remind us why our inherent eccentricities which don’t conform to a strict religious code, and our freedom to express them, should be treasured.
( Brian Reade, 21.11.2015 )

The EU Seeks To Expand Its Power.
We snatched Kosovo from Serbia.
They have snatched Crimea from Ukraine.
It would be wise to stop being so lofty about what the Russians are doing, and pretending that our side are the nice, law-abiding freedom-lovers.
We should ask instead what this conflict is really about.
I will tell you.
It is an old-style territorial clash over a very valuable piece of territory, in which the EU, as Germany used to do, seeks to expand its power and influence into areas long dominated by Moscow.
This can only be resolved through compromise.
Yet, on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War that almost ended civilisation, I am amazed by the partisan enthusiasm for conflict and confrontation that has infected so many politicians and journalists.
Why wait for future historians to tell you that you were rushed into stupid, ruinous war by crude, one-sided propaganda?
Tell these people now that you want no such thing.
( Peter Hitchens, 20.04.2014 )

Fewer rapists are being brought to justice because of cuts to police forces.
Despite a massive increase in the number of cases reported to police, fewer arrests are being made and both prosecution and conviction rates have fallen.
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that recorded rapes rose 30% between 2011 and 2014, but the number of arrests fell by 8%.
( Mail on Sunday, 28.12.2014 )

Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, who called his Cabinet rebels ‘bastards’, says UKIP has taken over from his Tories as ‘the nasty party’.
That’s not quite how I see it.
From here, they just look like two packs of bastards each vying to be nastier than the other.
( Paul Routledge, 21.11.2014 )

The owners of a shuttle bus between Bath and Bristol airport, claim it is the country’s first vehicle to be powered by human poo.
The first?
I hope Richard Branson sues because I’m sure his Virgin trains already run that way.
Or am I mistaking the stench from the toilets?
( Brian Reade, 22.11.2014 )

The Dismantling Of Moral Barriers.
Shock fades into numb acceptance, as it has over and over again.
Much of what is normal now would have been deeply shocking to British people 50 years ago.
We got used to it.
How will we know where to stop?
Or will we just carry on for ever?
As the condom-wavers and the sex-educators advance into our primary schools, and the pornography seeps like slurry from millions of teenage bedroom computers, it seems clear there is no defence against this endless, sordid, dismantling of moral barriers.
( Peter Hitchens, September 2010 )

People Forget.
Gordon Brown is the best Labour Prime Minister we never gave a chance.
Against opposition not just from the Tories but from seditious Blairites, Big Gordie put in place the national minimum wage, tax credits for the working poor, ditto for pensioners and made massive investment in schools and the NHS.
He brought our boys home from Iraq.
People forget that it was Gordon Brown who saved the country from a complete collapse of the banking system.
The economy was on an upswing when he left office.
The NHS was in better shape.
Lying Tories have the cheek to call it ‘Brown’s recession’ when it was actually caused by the reckless, profit-crazed, corrupt City types who bankroll the Conservative Party.
( Paul Routledge, 28.11.2014 )

He’s An Elitist Snob With A Dangerous Ambition.
Were he Prime Minister, the nation would soon see through the right-wing media spin and realise that Boris Johnson, not Jeremy Corbyn, is the self-obsessed extremist who threatens our security.
Don’t take it from me, but the Palestinian authorities, who this week cut short Bojo’s visit to the West Bank after he dismissed backers of a boycott on Israeli goods as “corduroy-jacketed, snuggle-toothed, lefty academics”.
Palestinian politicians refused to meet him and events were cancelled after London’s mayor was deemed a “security risk”.
Imagine the backlash if that had happened to Corbyn while representing Britain on a Middle East tour.
Naturally, Johnson faced no backlash, his powerful chums playing it down as “Boris being Boris”.
Just as they did when he called Africans “picaninnies”, slammed the minimum wage, claimed apartheid was a “minor tyranny”, promised to give a convicted fraudster the address of a journalist so he could be beaten up, and was sacked as a Tory front-bencher for lying over claims he’d had an affair.
This clown would not be taken seriously as a politician in any country except this, where it’s not what you know but how many fellow on-the-make, upper-class bluffers you know, that counts.
Johnson perfects the populist image of a blond Michael McIntyre spouting a Jeremy Clarkson script tailored to suit whatever gallery he’s playing up to.
But in reality he’s an elitist snob with a dangerous ambition.
( Brian Reade, 14.11.2015 )