Quote of the Day 12.6.2008: David Davis - The Only Honest, Princpled Man Left In British Politics

"The name of my constituency is Haltemprice and Howden. The word Haltemprice is derived from the motto of a medieval priory, and in Old French it means "Noble Endeavour".

I had always viewed membership of this House as a noble endeavour, not least because we and our forebears have for centuries fiercely defended the fundamental freedoms of our citizens. Or we did, up until yesterday.Up until yesterday, I took the view that what we did in the House of Commons representing our constituents was a noble endeavour because with centuries or forebears we defended the freedoms of the British people. Well we did up until yesterday.

This Sunday is the anniversary of Magna Carta—the document that guarantees that most fundamental of British freedoms—Habeus Corpus.

The right not to be imprisoned by the state without charge or reason. Yesterday this house decided to allow the state to lock up potentially innocent British citizens for up to six weeks without charge.

Now the counter terrorism bill will in all probability be rejected by the House of Lords very firmly. After all, what should they be there for if not to defend Magna Carta.

But because the impetus behind this is essentially political - not security - the government will be tempted to use the Parliament Act to over-rule the Lords. It has no democratic mandate to do this since 42 days was not in its manifesto.

Its legal basis is uncertain to say the least. But purely for political reasons, this government's going to do that. And because the generic security arguments relied on will never go away—technology, development and complexity and so on, we'll next see 56 days, 70 days, 90 days.

But in truth, 42 days is just one—perhaps the most salient example—of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms.

And we will have shortly, the most intrusive identity card system in the world.

A CCTV camera for every 14 citiziens, a DNA database bigger than any dictatorship has, with 1000s of innocent children and a million innocent citizens on it.

We have witnessed an assault on jury trials—that balwark against bad law and its arbitrary use by the state. Short cuts with our justice system that make our system neither firm not fair.

And the creation of a database state opening up our private lives to the prying eyes of official snoopers and exposing our personal data to careless civil servants and criminal hackers.

The state has security powers to clamp down on peaceful protest and so-called hate laws that stifle legitimate debate - while those who incite violence get off Scot free.

This cannot go on, it must be stopped. And for that reason, I feel that today it's incumbent on me to take a stand.

I will be resigning my membership of the House and I intend to force a by-election in Haltemprice and Howden.

Now I'll not fight it on the government's general record—there's no point repeating Crewe and Nantwich. I won't fight it on my personal record. I am just a piece in this great chess game.

I will fight it, I will argue this by-election, against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government.

Now, that may mean I've made my last speech to the House—it's possible. And of course that would be a matter of deep regret to me. But at least my electorate, and the nation as a whole, would have had the opportunity to debate and consider one of the most fundamental issues of our day—the ever-intrusive power of the state into our lives, the loss of privacy, the loss of freedom and the steady attrition undermining the rule of law.And if they do send me back here it will be with a single, simple message: that the monstrosity of a law that we passed yesterday will not stand."

This must already be one of the greatest speech ever made. It certainly a historic one; a speech that may change the course of British history for the better. Mr. Davis is the heir to Churchill; may he be successful on his quest for liberty.

Poll shows voters don't trust Brown on economy

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown is less trusted than any other major western European leader in being able to steer his country through the global financial crisis, a Financial Times poll showed on Monday.

It was the latest blow to Brown's reputation for economic competence as the housing market faces a sharp downturn amid the international turbulence.

Concern over the impact of the credit crunch is growing and mortgage lenders called on the Bank of England on Friday to increase efforts to ease the impact, warning home loans could halve from last year's levels.

In the Financial Times/Harris poll, 68 percent of Britons said they were "not confident at all" in the ability of the government to steer the country safely through tough times.

In contrast, voter confidence in their government's abilities to ride out the financial crisis was 52 percent in Germany, 51 percent in the United States, 50 percent in France, 43 percent in Italy and 36 percent in Spain.

"Gordon Brown has forfeited his trump card," the Financial Times concluded. "The mantle of economic competence, the ruling Labour Party's most potent electoral weapon, is up for grabs."

Asked if the poll's findings worried Brown, the prime minister's spokesman said: "These are difficult times for the global economy. It is entirely understandable that people are concerned about their well-being."

Brown believes Britain is well-placed to withstand the turmoil. "We were the fastest-growing economy in the G7 last year and the IMF is forecasting for us to be the fastest-growing economy this year," the spokesman said.

A Sunday Times poll showed that Brown, widely admired for steering Britain through a period of uninterrupted growth in his decade as Chancellor, suffered the biggest drop in personal ratings since polls were first taken in the 1930s.

The YouGov poll in the paper showed the resurgent Conservatives on 44 percent with Labour on 28 percent and the centrist Liberal Democrats on 17 percent.

But the biggest blow was delivered in the soundings on Brown's personal ratings -- they have fallen from plus 48 last August to minus 37.

"The collapse is the most dramatic of any modern-day prime minister, worse even than Neville Chamberlain who in 1940 dropped from plus 21 to minus 27 after Hitler's invasion of Norway," the paper said.

The Conservatives pounced on Brown's woes. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: "Brown rested his claim to economic competence on three pillars -- stability, prudence and productivity. Those three pillars lie broken."

Brown, who took over from Tony Blair in June last year, does not have to call a national election until 2010 so time is on his side if the global economy recovers.

The leader is holding a breakfast meeting with leading executives and bankers from London's financial district on Tuesday before flying off to the United States where the global downturn is bound to dominate discussions.

He is to meet Wall Street bankers in New York on Wednesday and President Bush in Washington on Thursday.

Olympic Torch Relay Cut Short

The Olympic torch relay in Paris has been cut short after chaotic protests by anti-China demonstrators.

The flame had already been extinguished four times by security forces after repeated clashes with pro-Tibet and human rights campaigners.

The city's mayor also cancelled a ceremony to mark the torch's passing as officials draped a Tibetan flag over the city hall's facade.

Mayor Bertrand Delanoe announced the cancellation after Green party members of the city council flew the flag.

Thousands of police sent on to the streets to protect the torch relay as it made its way around the city were unable to prevent demonstrators hijacking the event.

The torch had to be repeatedly extinguished amid safety fears caused by the demonstrations and several activists were arrested.

Two campaigners brandishing a Tibetan flag were arrested for trying to bar the torch's path.

And two members of media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) - which disrupted the lighting of the flame in Athens - were held for trying to vault over the security cordon protecting the torch.

A member of the French Greens party had earlier been restrained by police when trying to grab the torch from the first of 80 torch bearers, former world 400m hurdles champion Stephane Diagana.

Several hundred demonstrators waving banners gathered on the Trocadero esplanade, just the other side of the river Seine from the Eiffel Tower, where the relay started.

Three RSF members climbed up the steel tower and unfurled a 13ft flag showing the five Olympic rings turned into handcuffs.

They then handcuffed themselves to the structure more than 200ft in the air.

Sky News Europe correspondent Greg Milam said extinguishing the flame was significant because the torch was supposed to be kept alight on its journey around the world.

"It's supposed to symbolise peace between nations," he said.

"It's clearly a massive blow to the organisers - the demonstrations along the route have had the desired effect."

Similarly chaotic scenes were seen when the Olympic flame was carried through London.

One demonstrator tried to snatch the torch from former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, while another attempted to put out the flame with a fire extinguisher.

By the time double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes lit a cauldron at the O2 Arena, some 37 arrests had been made.

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge has expressed concern at the demonstrations but said there was no momentum for a boycott of the Beijing Games.

Tibet's capital, Lhasa, was hit last month by Buddhist monks' protests against Chinese rule.

The demonstrations, which saw many people killed, sparked widespread media attention across the world.

HA! Serve the Chinese commie bastards right!!!

Gene Hunt

The excellent speech that Philip Glenister's character gave to Lord Scarman about the future state of policing in the BBC's Ashes To Ashes sums up everything that is wrong with the fascist New Labour regime that is doing it's very best to turn this country into a future North Korea. Adolf Blair and McStalin both promised to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crimes and they lied. They've robbed money from the middle-classes to fund the degenerate lifestyles of violent drug-addicted criminals, yobs and chav scum and they robbed the money of the wealth-creators to line their own pockets and entrench utter cunts like Harriet Harman, Antonia Bance and Terry Kelly in power.

We, the oppressed masses should lock every MP and peer of the realm up in the Palace of Westminster, release canisters of Zyklon B into the building, and once each and everyone of those fuckers have died, start the political process again from scratch.

Quotes of the Day 27.3.2008

"LEGIS CANTIO CONTRA INEPTOS CRITICOS. (Incantation of the law against inept critics)" - Michel De Notredame

"In Terryworld, however, the benefits truck would drive into Feegie each day distributing parcels of banknotes indiscriminately." - Anon (but I suspect that it is FIDO The Dog)

LEGIS CANTIO CONTRA INEPTOS CRITICOS

It looks like someone didn't appreciate my little rant against the attention-seeking media whore in a local rag and wrote in to complain.

It was fascinating to read Sir C4's scatter-gun and ill-informed diatribe against MP Adam Price, Plaid, the European Union, Cuba and Carmarthenshire Council (Carmarthen Journal, March 12).

I trust his BA (Hons.) thesis was better researched and better presented.

Those of us who wish to be citizens of an independent Wales want our own membership of the EU and our own seat at the United Nations.

In this, we follow the pattern set by the Republic of Ireland as one of the most successful and prosperous nations in Europe, yet still independent, because they have embraced the realities of the 21st Century. None of this is anti-English; I am an Englishman who chooses to live and work in this country.

I wonder if Sir C4' has even visited Cuba, toured the country and met the people as I have.

Yes, there is a concentration camp on the island, where people are incarcerated without charge, without trial, and without access to lawyers, and are subject to the torture that is officially sanctioned by Washington. It is the American base at Guantanamo Bay.

If Sir C4' is reluctant to go to Cuba, he could visit Florida where five Cuban citizens, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labinino, have been imprisoned in Miami for the past nine years, following a travesty of a trial, which had little to do with justice but a lot to do with US politics.

I would be happy to furnish Sir C4', or anyone else, with full details of the plight of the Miami Five, and anything else that may open closed minds.

Philip D Whitehead
Foelgastell
Cross Hands

Oh dear, I've hurt the feelings of a poor little left-wing hippy. Here is my retort:

I would like to thank Mr. Philip Whitehead for his reply (Journal, March 26) to my previous letter (Journal, March 12). I feel honoured and privileged that he took the time to defend the indefensible.

Does any rational person actually believe that the Irish Republic (or Britain for that matter) is at present a truly independent country within the European Union when it has been the openly stated goal of the EU in all it’s guises over the past fifty-one years to bring about a ever-closer economic, military and political union all the continent’s nations? The EU is the fulfilment of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler’s shared dream of a sinister European Super-state; an Orwellian nightmare that if it is allowed to usurp our time-honoured traditions of liberty and justice, will reduce our human rights and living standards to those of Cuba (or worse still, North Korea).

I am well aware of the harm Guantanamo Bay does to its inmates and America’s reputation as the self-proclaimed leader of the Free World. I’m also sure that Mr. Whitehead would agree with me that American sanctions against Cuba (as well as Iraq and North Korea among others) have been counter-productive, as the political leadership have exploited them to further entrench their power at the expense of the people whilst simultaneously making America the scapegoats for the hardships of the citizenry.

However, despite these serious injustices and the plight of the Miami Five, the crimes against humanity committed by the Castro clan, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and their cronies cannot be overlooked or excused. Cuba viciously represses dissent against the regime, tortures and executes its people (particular minority groups such as homosexuals and until the mid-1990s, Christians) and exported mass-murder and terrorism to Central and South America, Africa and the rest of the Caribbean during the Cold War. I’m also sure that despite the rights or wrongs of what has happened to the Miami Five, they have been treated far better than poor Normando Hernández González and the fifty-eight other journalists imprisoned in Cuba.

It’s for that reason that I wouldn’t want to visit Cuba or any other third-world socialist hellhole like Venezuela, Zimbabwe and China (though I must confess a certain perverse curiosity to pay a visit to the Stalinist museum / death camp known as North Korea). Yet I can understand how hard it is for apologists like Mr. Whitehead to remove their rose-tinted spectacles (circa 1960s) and realise that all the socialist dogma they consumed with their mothers’ milk was a fatal conceit for billions of people during the last century and still is for over a billion souls to this day. He and his ilk have my pity, the organ grinders of tyranny will have to eat the metaphorically lead of my trusty scatter-gun.

P.S.: LEGIS CANTIO CONTRA INEPTOS CRITICOS.
(Incantation of the law against inept critics.)

Brilliant, don't you agree?!? Only a women's reserve team goalkeeper for Romford Hockey Club could get the better of "Mr. Marmite".

Happy Easter

I don't mean to preach, but over two thousand years ago, the greatest human being to walk the face of the Earth willingly sacrificed his own mortal life to save ALL of us from just punishment in the next life because of our wrong thoughts and actions. His death for our salvation is, was and forever will be the greatest gift given to anyone in the history of humankind.

If you are passing by a church or know of Christian-related group in your neighbourhood, please go and join it and give thanks for Jesus Christ's gifts of forgiveness and life after death. Thank You.

Israel Is Evil (According To Terry Kelly)

I sometimes wonder if the infamous Cllr Terry Kelly lives on the same planet as the rest of us. Take this question I asked him for example:

"Are you aware that Israel is the only true democray in the Middle East, surrounded by half-a-dozen Arab and Islamic dictatorships that would love nothing more than finish what Hitler started (not that they would admit to there being a holocaust in the first place)?

Under those circumstances, Israel has every right to defend itself against such aggression."

However, the self-appointed champion of the Palestinian people sees it differently:

"I can’t see anything or anyone in the Middle East that comes anywhere near the crimes committed by Israel."

This remark though has me questioning his sanity:

"They are not a good advert for democracy, they are the cause of the problem ."

And Cuba is?!?

Terry's Insults

"He would laugh at a burning orphanage" [about RfS]

"Right-wing vermin" [about me]

"A squalid wee fantasist" [about me]

"A squalid low-life character" [about me]

"You are either a lazy incompetent or a liar."

"You are a non person"

"What a miserable excuse for a human being"

"what kind of creep are you"

"makes you a bit of a low life. I take it you are a Nat."

"It was Kruschev not Kennedy who saved the world."

"If you want to come back make it briefer."

"if you want to come back and try to make sense, make it shorter."

"I’m not difficult to find tough guy"

"They are not his soldiers they are his grannies." [about Prince Harry]

"that makes you a fool then"

"OK so you can get more stupid then"

"Try an argument."

"Can you get any more stupid ?"

"The SNP and wee Alex (the spiv) love the English."

"What a strange place you inhabit."

"I don't believe you"

Get Well Soon Maggie!

Baroness Thatcher remained in a stable condition overnight in St Thomas' Hospital, in central London, the hospital said.

The 82-year-old former Prime Minister was admitted to the hospital on Friday night and was said to be undergoing medical checks.

On Saturday morning a spokeswoman for the hospital said: "Baroness Thatcher has remained stable overnight and we have nothing further to add at this stage."

It was reported Lady Thatcher was taken to hospital by car.

Two red Metropolitan Police cars were parked just outside the main entrance of St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth Palace Road on Saturday morning.

It was not clear whether this or any other extra security was in place for Lady Thatcher.

Lady Thatcher very rarely speaks in public, following advice from her doctors, but she does still sometimes say a few words at private functions.

Friends say she is lucid most of the time but occasionally drifts off in the middle of conversations because of difficulties with her short-term memory.

Earlier this month she urged Conservatives to "hold firm to their beliefs" as she was honoured with a statue at the party's HQ.

Lady Thatcher was prime minister from May 1979 until her resignation in November 1990. She was Britain's first woman prime minister and the first leader to win three elections in a row.

The Price Of Hypocrisy

I have just sent off this letter to two of my local rags:

My friends and I are extremely concerned about the judgement and philosophy of our MP Adam Price. While Mr. Price is to be commended for trying to impeach Tony Blair and for putting Carmarthenshire on the political map, we believe that he seems to be more concerned with developing his own media profile than doing the job he was elected to do and represent us, not himself at Westminster.

Many of Mr. Price’s constituents have found it strange and disappointing that it took him two years to publicly express his opposition to the controversial gas pipeline running though the constituency.

Mr. Price supports his party’s oxymoronic Europe policy, even though it runs contrary to Plaid’s long-term goal of an independent Wales. Does Mr. Price really believe that Welsh lives and issues would be better served in Brussels and Strasburg than they are at present (however imperfectly) in Westminster and Cardiff Bay? An ‘independent’ Wales within the EU isn’t independence at all! Plaid’s policy smacks of anti-English prejudice for it’s own sake rather than a stance based on a conscious, rational process of thought.

Perhaps most disturbingly of all, Mr. Price signed Early Day Motion 982 (February 20) in support of Fidel Castro’s tropical gulag in Cuba. Though Plaid’s leader in Westminster, Elfyn Llwyd’s support for this EDM came as no surprise to me, Mr. Price’s support for an EDM also signed in favour of by controversial figures such as George Galloway and Paul Flynn certain did. Does our MP really believe that liberty and human rights are less important than having supposedly “first-class free healthcare and education provision for the people” and “very good dentistry” as claimed by some other MPs?

Is Mr. Price aware of the plight of journalist Normando Hernández González who has been imprisoned by Castro and his thugs for ‘endangering national security’? Is Mr. Price aware that Mr. Hernández is in poor health, but been denied the right to take up a generous offer of asylum from the government of Costa Rica by his jailers? Is Mr. Price also aware that Cuba jails more journalists than any other nation bar China, with 59 presently in captivity? Would Mr. Price and his Plaid comrades like to see an independent Wales governed according to the Cuban model?!?

It’s ironic that a man that was recently named Gay Politician of the Year and according to his profile on the social networking website “Facebook”, claims to be a Libertarian should give his support for a regime that has outlawed homosexuality and imprisons, even executes gays in labour camps.

Adam Price is not a bad man, but he urgently needs to pay more attention to us, instead his own ego and Elfyn Llwyd, otherwise he may find himself on the dole after the next general election. May I suggest that Mr. Price focus his energies on fighting for a better deal from Carmarthenshire Council, who continue to treat Iori Jones, Trish Breckman, Eddie Roberts and all of us with casual contempt.

I must give credit to FIDO The Dog for some of the background information.

Quote of the Day 4.3.2008: Thinking The Unthinkable - Abolish Income Tax

I love this argument by the new Director of Communications for the Libertarian Party UK and fellow blogger "Devil's Kitchen" Chris "Fuck You All Lefty Cunts, I'm Better Than You" Mounsey:

"The usefulness of income tax is that it was introduced not too long ago and for a specific purpose: to fight the Napoleonic Wars.

It was abolished in 1802, having been in force for three years, and had to be levied again in 1803: again, because hostilities against France recommenced. It was abolished in 1816, a year after we won the Battle of Waterloo, and wasn't levied again until 1841, when Sir Robert Peel reintroduced it.

Peel, as a Conservative, had opposed income tax in the 1841 general election, but a growing budget deficit required a new source of funds.

Or, to put it another way, the government had been so profligate with its funds that it was forced to take more money off the hard-working people of Britain so that the state could continue to expand. Who would have thunk it?—a state, unable to balance its books, shakes down the taxpayers in order to pay for the state's failure. I've never heard of that being done before...

Some people, of course, have said that the state didn't need income tax then because it was much smaller. My reply?

"Exactly.""

Awesome! I love it!! It's simple, logically, popular and effective.

Quote of the Day 27.11.2008: Deluded Terry

"Ele Commandante Fidel Castro, scourge of America and no fewer than 10 of it's wretched presidents, those who are still alive can still be heard muttering "why me, why me, why did my years in office have to be overshadowed by this giant of history, why oh why me" ?" - Cllr Terry Kelly

ROFLMAO! OMG!! My sides are splitting!!!

Someone call the men in white coats for El Tel?

Quote of the Day 26.2.2008: How To Ruin A Nation In Less Than 11 Years

Read it and weep lefty scum:

"People flee communism or even its wet-arsed sibling, socialism. This means it is demonstrably a rubbish political system which has catastrophically failed in its stated mission: to improve the lives of "the people". Those people vote with their feet for capitalist oppression. This destructive political creed is the scourge of the third world, creating refugee crises in countries neighbouring every socialist state and killing millions in the process. The countries with the highest per capita rate of exodus are just such third-world toilets, generally as a result of decades of such socialist misrule causing the most able people to seek better lives in better governed places - yes lefties, even America. But it's not just communism which makes a mess, its aborted foetus: progressive leftism or social democracy (or whatever you want to euphemistically call drippy PC leftist whingeing) does so too, but in an insidious and subtle way.

The highest rate of exodus in the OECD is the UK, which is not yet quite as bad as somalia - which is why Somalis still want to come here. This exodus of highly educated Native Britons is because of Labour policies like taxing people to penury, then spending the proceeds to subsidise crime, using the welfare state. In a vicious circle, the state tries to replace these migrants by recruiting Somalis, who aren't quite the paragons of virtue presented to the immigration officer. The state then sets its attack dogs in the police to criminalise the rest of the British population for driving, whilst turning a blind eye to labour voters benefit recipients burgling your home. None of the money expropriated from the productive classes in this way is being spent on services they use. Councils can't even empty your bin once a week any more! Over a third of Government managed expenditure is being pissed away on Lambert & Butler in the form of direct benefit payments. To little cash is earmarked for roads, and what is, is spent on speed bumps and road narrowing, increasing frustration on your ever lengthening drive to work. The schools, still in thrall to leftist dogma, seem to think that actual teaching facts and morals is a denial of a child's human right to be a grotty little chav, while little Tarquin no longer gets any dosh to spend on his 3-year drinking sabatical university course. The poor too are betrayed: They are herded from sink comprehensives on un-policed estates to universities which used to be polytechnics, in order to take degrees of zero credibility, which simultaneously raise expectations whilst offering no advantage in the Labour market, which they enter £16,000 in debt. This at vast cost to the tax-payer for the simple purpose of massaging the unemployment statistics. Meanwhile, the only job open to many disadvantaged young men without a university "education" is the Army, which is being eviscerated by decades of underfunding and 10 years of over use. Ancient regiments are being amalgamated, whilst shiny arses in the MOD argue about procurement programmes while denying the boys the kit they need now, fighting two (soon to be 3) hot wars simultaneously. There are now more civil servants in the MOD than Front-line infantrymen - a microcosm of the growth in the utterly pointless bureaucracy by which this Party seeks to cement its regime: by the creation of a bureaucratic client state.

So if you've worked hard, own a home and drive a car, this place is shit - especially if you've committed the thought-crime of doing so in the private sector. The Dude will never leave - I have faith that the great tradition of liberal England will return after a century's hiatus, but my parents have already left for Costa-del-Solshire along with most of their friends, where the sun is hot, the beer is cool and the tax is reasonable - as a result, the locals don't have to beat you up for your pension money (or at least they do so less often than they do at home). It is the best people who are leaving, because they can. The politics of the UK will soon be that of the shit that's left behind: and ever more insanely socialist as a result. Perhaps that's all in the Labour plan, though that would be giving them credit for a competence and forethought I doubt they possess.

Gordon Brown, you really are an incompetent cunt who, despite the brilliant economic legacy bequeathed to you by your predecessor in No11, has fucked the country up, and it's only the remaining checks and balances, which I notice you're still busy trying to "modernise" away, have prevented you turning this country into 1978-9. Why don't you fuck off and kill yourself, you mendacious socialist bastard, before you do more harm?" - Jackart

Scenes of a Graphic Nature

It's been a while since I've had a go at the Gormless One, so lets do so!

Out of sheer boredom (El Tel is rather quiet at the moment), visited Gallas' official web site and clicked on the 'Cartoons' section. I was greeted by a series of crude, unflattering and even offensive images of the looney left's pet hates (Thatcher, Israel, the United States etc.). Some of the stuff wouldn't be out of place in the infamous Der Sturmer.

Quote of the Day 21.1.2008: The 900th Post

I found this gem in today's Western Mail newspaper:

"It is disturbing that in a modern and supposedly progressive democracy the freedom to openly discuss and comment upon certain aspects of contemporary society, in even the most rational and constructive manner, has been so heavily curtailed that the individual citizen has been effectively muzzled and rendered politically impotent.

In the present political climate an over-developed sense of political correctness and horror of causing offence has been instrumental in promoting a type of linguistic fascism that connives at the suppression of any unpalatable fact that may reflect negatively an issues to do with race, religion or immigration, however accurate these facts happen to be.

Imposing censorship or suppressing legitimate comment in the context of human rights abuses for the purpose of advocating diversity and multiculturalism can only be counterproductive as the toleration of unacceptable practices by our groups will always be resented by others where values and cultural norms are different.

Cultural diversity has often come to be seen as a blanket excuse for the toleration of bigotry and extreme views by radicals of every persuasion and as a divisive rather than unifying factor in society.

Rather than the cosy utopian melting pot of the popular political imagination, multiculturalism has resulted in the polarisation of different communities and initiated a form of cultural and socio economic apartheid that has become much more deeply entrenched than it otherwise need have been." - Stuart Walters

Bravo! It could not have been put better by anyone else.

Fidel Castro retires as Cuban president

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.

Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public for almost 19 months after undergoing stomach surgery, said in a message to the communist nation that he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on February 24.

"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honour in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief," Castro said in the statement published on the Web site of the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.

The National Assembly or legislature is expected to nominate his brother and designated successor Raul Castro, 76, as president. Raul Castro has been running the country since emergency surgery to stop intestinal bleeding forced Castro to delegate power on July 31, 2006.

Cubans on the empty streets of Havana were not surprised by his retirement.

"Everyone knew for a while that he would not come back. The people got used to his absence," said Roberto, a self-employed Cuban who did not want to be fully named.

"I don't know what to say. I just want to leave. This system cannot continue," said Alexis, a garbage collector.

In a deserted Revolution Square, site of many hours-long speeches by Castro to massive crowds, a lone soldier stood guard at government headquarters and the city was calm.

'COMANDANTE'

The title of "Comandante en Jefe" or commander-in-chief, was created for Castro in 1958 as overall leader of the guerrilla forces that swept down from the mountains of eastern Cuba to overthrow U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

His retirement draws the curtain on a political career that spanned the Cold War and survived U.S. enmity, assassination plots by the CIA and the demise of Soviet bloc communism.

A charismatic leader famous for his long speeches delivered in his green military fatigues, Castro is admired in the Third World for standing up to the United States but considered by his opponents a tyrant who suppressed freedom.

"It's incredible that 50 years of dictatorship can be accepted by Cubans and will continue to be accepted," said Ninoska Perez of the anti-Castro Miami-based exile organization, the Cuban Liberty Council.

Perez said Castro's retirement did not mean anything would change in Cuba and the news was unlikely to bring cheer to Cuban exiles waiting for an end to communism in their homeland and an opportunity to return.

"The real celebration will be when he (Castro) can no longer write about it," she said.

Castro's illness and departure from Cuba's helm have raised doubts about the future of the one-party state.

"Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process," Castro said in his statement.

"They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement," he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in Rwanda while on a trip to Africa, had no immediate comment on Castro's plans to step down, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Johndroe said "the president was informed" about the developments with Castro and that he would receive a briefing later. Washington has maintained a more than four-decades long economic embargo against Cuba to try to isolate Castro.

Castro has been seen only in pictures and video film since he handed over power provisionally to his brother, looking gaunt and frail. His health improved enough a year ago to allow him to reestablish a public presence by writing reams of articles published by Cuba's state press.

"This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of 'Reflections by comrade Fidel.' It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful," Castro said in Tuesday's message.

Castro could remain politically influential as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party and elder statesman.

Raul Castro, Cuba's long-standing defence minister, has run raised expectations of economic reforms to improve the daily lot of Cubans since standing in for his brother, but he has yet to deliver.

"It was logical for Fidel to quit because he has been saying that he is not well," said a musician leaving a cabaret. "But nothing will change until the government makes economic reforms that Cuba needs," he said.

I bet that poor Terry will be crying into his porridge when he finds out.

Multicultural UK "soft target" for terrorism

LONDON (Reuters) - Multicultural Britain is a "soft target" for terrorist attacks because its aims, values and political identity are divided, a leading defence think-tank said on Friday.

How much to integrate ethnic communities in Britain has been a hot political issue since four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system in 2005.

The attacks sparked a debate on whether Britain's policy of avoiding imposing a single British identity and instead promoting a multicultural society had led to segregation of ethnic minorities.

In a report strongly rebutted by the government, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said: "We look like a soft touch. We are indeed a soft touch, from within and without."
The report, based on the findings of former military chiefs, diplomats and analysts, concluded:

"The country's lack of self-confidence is in stark contrast to the implacability of its Islamist terrorist enemy."

"The security of the United Kingdom is at risk and under threat," it said.

The report called for the creation of a new cabinet committee to oversee security policy.
It said another parliamentary committee should seek to build consensus and identify security weaknesses.

"The United Kingdom presents itself as a target, as a fragmenting, post-Christian society, increasingly divided about interpretations of its history, about its national aims, its values and in its political identity," the RUSI report said.

"That fragmentation is worsened by the firm self-image of those elements within it who refuse to integrate.

"This is a problem worsened by the lack of leadership from the majority, which, in mis-placed deference to multiculturalism,' failed to lay down the line to immigrant communities, thus undercutting those within them trying to fight extremism."

That provoked a robust response from the government with a cabinet office spokesman saying: "The government rejects any suggestion that Britain is a soft touch for terrorists."

"We have a detailed and robust strategy for countering international terrorism."

Labour MP Keith Vaz said the report was wrong to blame multiculturalism for fostering terrorism.

"I think one of the problems with this report is that they've not actually looked at our multicultural society to see what benefits it has given the country. It hasn't been a soft touch for terrorism," he told BBC Radio.

Happy Valentine's Day

I love Her!

The Dude Is On A Roll

Jackart has got a lot of bees in his bonnet at the moment, producing some cutting and brilliant articles on what's wrong with Britain today.

• Legalise Drugs. Now.
• A Review of my position on the EU
• Fuck off if you're Young.
• Labour's Mess
• What's wrong with Britain - Petty Jobsworths

Go read them NOW!