I Am An Evil Super GENIUS!!!: Chavs' Army

Earlier today, I saw an advertisement from the BBC requesting people to submit their ideas for the new series of one of my favourite Radio Four shows, Dave Gorman's Genius. Never one to pass up a golden opportunity for self-advancement like this, I submitted this politically incorrect but brilliant Genius idea:

Sending chavs abroad to fight our wars.

My Genius idea is to send Britain's chavs abroad to fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble-spots. This would kill three birds with one stone as not only would it cut crime at home, but the chavs and Al-Qaeda would also wipe-out each other on the desert battlefields.

My Genius idea would save taxpayers billions as chavs wouldn't need uniforms (they're already instantly recognisable by their hooded tops, Burberry and fake bling), high-tech weaponry (as most chavs already carry their own guns, knives, baseball bats and broken beer bottles) or training (as they spend hundreds of hours playing Grand Theft Auto IV and Halo 3 on their X-Box 360s and kill each other for real on the streets).

We could even sell our chavs' services to foreign powers such the United States in their quest to invade Iran, Syria and North Korea in order to bring in some extra revenue for the government.

In conclusion, chavs are cheap, expendable cannon fodder. They would obey orders without question because chavs are either drunk, high on drugs, stupid or all three. It would cut crime at home while simultaneously providing our enemies with an inexhaustible supply of violent, fearless and beer-soaked infidels from council-housing estates to eliminate during their martyrdom missions. The only costs that would be incurred by my Genius idea would be transportation and the government subsiding free beer for chavs to consume at recruitment events across Britain’s council-housing estates.

Forget Grand Theft Auto IV....

....I'd rather play this!!

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".

Archbishop's sharia comments:"Recipe for disaster"

LONDON (Reuters) - A government minister accused Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams of concocting "a recipe for disaster" for suggesting the introduction in Britain of some aspects of sharia was unavoidable.

Main political parties distanced themselves from Thursday's comments on Islamic law by Williams, the spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, who is already battling divisions within his church over gay priests.

"You cannot run two systems of law alongside each other. That would be a recipe for chaos," said Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, joining a chorus of condemnation for Williams.

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said "On this I think he is wrong" while former Home Secretary David Blunkett said formalising Islamic law "would be catastrophic in terms of social cohesion".

The Sun said on Friday: "It's easy to dismiss Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as a silly old goat. In fact he's a dangerous threat to our nation."

The issue of integrating Britain's 1.8 million Muslims has been widely debated since July 2005, when four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport system, killing 52 people.

Those attacks prompted questioning of a long-standing policy of avoiding a single British identity and promoting a multicultural society, which some argue has led to segregation of ethnic minorities.

Speaking to the BBC, Williams said other religions enjoyed tolerance of their laws in Britain and called for a "constructive accommodation" with Muslim practice in areas such as marital disputes.

Asked if the adoption of some aspects of sharia was necessary for community cohesion, he said: "It seems unavoidable."

His unexpected comments were welcomed by some Muslim groups, but the government said it was out of the question that the principles of sharia could be used in British civil courts.

"The prime minister is clear that in Britain, British laws based on British values will apply," a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law based on the Koran, the words and actions of the Prophet Mohammad and his companions, and rulings of Islamic scholars. It covers issues including worship, commercial dealings, marriage and penal laws.

Williams said he was not endorsing the harsh punishments meted out in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, where murderers and drug traffickers are publicly beheaded or hanged.

But that did not placate critics.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, called Williams' intervention "muddled and unhelpful".

"Raising this idea will give fuel to anti-Muslim extremism," he added.

And Labour MP Khalid Mahmood had no doubt about where he stood: "I, along with the vast majority of UK Muslims, oppose any such move to introduce sharia here. British law is the envy of the world."

Lord Carey defends Islam comments

The former Archbishop of Canterbury has defended a speech made in Rome in which he accused Islamic societies of contributing little to the world.

Lord Carey said his lecture on Thursday also contained criticisms of Western culture and was a balanced appraisal of Islam and Christianity's relationship.

The former Anglican Church head told BBC's Newsnight: "I do not apologise for the things I say."

But Muslim leaders said he was "ignorant in the true faith of Islam".

Authoritarian regimes

Speaking in Rome on Thursday, Lord Carey said Islamic regimes were authoritarian and committed to power and privilege.

He said not enough moderate Muslim leaders had condemned suicide bombers.

Referring to the culture's contribution to society, he lamented the lack of any great invention saying it was 'a puzzle'.

'Muslim people are not bereft of brilliant minds. They have much to contribute to the human family,' he added.

On Friday, he told Newsnight that while he defended his comments about Muslims, he said: "I honour them as people. I honour the Muslim faith."

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, responded angrily, saying: "One is surprised to find Lord Carey recycling the same old religious prejudice in the 21st century."

Manzoor Moghal, Chairman of the Federation of Muslim Organisations in Leicester, England, where 40,000 Muslims are based, said Lord Carey's understanding was poor.

"People are going to see the whole thing in a light which will portray him as a person who is ignorant in the true faith of Islam," he added.

No! No! No!: Sharia law unavoidable - Archdruid Of Cunterbury

The adoption of some aspects of Islamic sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable", the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Dr Rowan Williams said there was a place for finding a "constructive accommodation" in areas such as marriage - allowing Muslim women to avoid western divorce proceedings.

Other religions enjoyed such tolerance of their own laws, he pointed out, but stressed that it could never be allowed to take precedence over an individual's rights as a citizen.

He said it would also require a change in perception of what sharia involved beyond the "inhumanity" of extreme punishments and attitudes to women seen in some Islamic states.

Dr Williams told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system.

"We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances."

He added: "There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with aspects of other kinds of religious law.

"It would be quite wrong to say that we could ever license a system of law for some community which gave people no right of appeal, no way of exercising the rights that are guaranteed to them as citizens in general.

"But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them. In some cultural and religious settings they would seem more appropriate."

He said people needed to look at Islamic law "with a clear eye and not imagine, either, that we know exactly what we mean by sharia and just associate it with ... Saudi Arabia, or whatever".

Rowan Williams is without doubt the worst Archbishop of Canterbery in living memony. We already have a situation in Islamic countries such as Kuwait and Malasya where the decisions of the civil courts on divorce, blasphemy and conversion to a non-Islamic faith have been overruled by the religious courts and that must not be allowed to happen in this country where the law of the land has already been hampered by an unholy alliance of New Labour fascists, EU directives, the PC brigade, European Courts and the loathsome 1998 Human Rights Act.

I am not bigoted against al-Islam in general, but I must also be objective and state that 'modern' Islam as enforced by far too many so-called Muslims is as intolorant, barbaric and inhuman as medieval Christianity and until the Islamic world realises this and makes a real and concerted effort to reform their attitudes towards each other and the 'people of Kuff' (non-believers), we non-Muslims should ourselves be as uncompromising towards their own uncompromising bigotry, violence, racism and intolorance.

Nintendo Wii grasses up cheating wife

A US soldier discovered his missus had been playing away at home after spotting a suspicious "Mii" on his Nintendo Wii, the Evening Standard reports.

The man, known only as Tony, returned from a year in Iraq to reports from chums that his wife had been cheating on him. He'd had the Wii for company while on service in Iraq, but had mailed it back to the States prior to his return.

His other half claimed she'd only kissed the suspect, a professional bowler, once, but the Wii said otherwise. Tony emailed a Nintendo messageboard admitting he'd was "confused about his wife's denials of any indiscretion".

However, he continued: "All that changed when I plug in my Nintendo Wii for some Wii Sports. I flip through the Wii menu and visit the Mii channel so I can peruse the many friends that I have created with the guys that I played with in Iraq. As I go through the characters I see there is a Mii that I have not created."

Tony concluded: "I went into the Wii message board and click on the calendar option. Through this menu I was able to identify the many nights my wife's Mii and this other Mii character played Wii bowling."

And for good measure, the offending Mii was apparently "strikingly similar" to the bowling philanderer.

The end result? "Tony has separated from his wife and filed for divorce," the Standard notes.

I Am Saddam Hussein

Not exactly something to be proud of, but maybe you will do better than Right For Scotland and myself have at the What Famous Leader Are You? test?!?

Unprecedented Muslim call for peace with Christians

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 130 Muslim scholars from around the globe called on Thursday for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying "the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake".

In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars said finding common ground between the world's biggest faiths was not simply a matter for polite dialogue between religious leaders.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants," the scholars wrote.

"Our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake," they wrote, adding that Islam and Christianity already agreed that love of God and neighbour were the two most important commandments of their faiths.

Relations between Muslims and Christians have been strained as al Qaeda has struck around the world and as the United States and other Western countries intervened in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such a joint letter is unprecedented in Islam, which has no central authority that speaks on behalf of all worshippers.

The list of signatories includes senior figures throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. They represent Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi schools of Islam.

Among them were the grand muftis of Egypt, Palestine, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Bosnia and Russia and many imams and scholars. War-torn Iraq was represented by both Shi'ites and Sunnis.

Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti who prayed with Benedict in Istanbul's Blue Mosque last year, was also on the list, as was the popular Egyptian television preacher Amr Khaled.

"MAINSTREAM VOICES DROWNED OUT"

The letter was addressed to the Pope, leaders of Orthodox Christian churches, Anglican leader Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the heads of the world alliances of the Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and Reformed churches.

Williams said he welcomed it as "indicative of the kind of relationship for which we yearn in all parts of the world".

"The call to respect, peace and goodwill should now be taken up by Christians and Muslims at all levels and in all countries," he said.

A Vatican official in Rome said the Roman Catholic Church would not comment until it had time to read the letter.

Aref Ali Nayed, one of the signatories and a senior adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme at Cambridge University in Britain, said the signatories represented the "99.9 percent of Muslims" who follow mainstream schools and oppose extremism.

"In Islam we have had a problem for some time now where the mainstream voices are drowned out by a minority that choose violence," he said.

Nayed said organisers of the letter had set up an ad hoc network among Muslim leaders that could lead to more cooperation in future.

"These people don't take their signatures lightly," he said. "We are trying to institutionalise this so we don't lose it."

The overture to Christians could be followed by similar letters addressed to Jews or secularists, he added.

Pope Benedict sparked Muslim protests last year with a speech hinting Islam was violent and irrational. It prompted 38 Muslim scholars to write a letter challenging his view of Islam and accepting his call for serious Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Benedict repeatedly expressed regret for the reaction to the speech, but stopped short of a clear apology sought by Muslims.

The new letter argues in theological terms, giving quotes from the Koran and the Bible that show both Christianity and Islam considered love of God as their greatest commandment and love of neighbour as the second greatest.

"The basis for this peace and understanding already exists," it said. "It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the one God and love of the neighbour."

At last, an outbreak of common sense, decency and sanity in the world. I applaud this message from the Islamic world, but these fine words still needed to be reinforced by fine actions from both Muslims and Christians such as myself in our daily lives.

Quote of the Day 3.10.2007

"New Liebour pro moslem, pro terrorist, anti-semitic, pro parasitic illegal migrants." - FIDO The Dog

It's True! It's Damn True!

David Shayler - Fruitcake

LONDON (AFP) - A renegade former spy who was jailed after blowing the whistle on alleged wrongdoing in the intelligence services has claimed to have new-found powers as a mystic.

David Shayler told cable channel More4 News that he had visited a psychic who he believes channelled the spirit of Mary Magdalene and anointed him as the Messiah.

"Suddenly my whole life made sense," the 41-year-old former officer with the domestic intelligence service MI5 said in an interview broadcast Thursday evening.

"I felt a sense of peace, I suddenly realised why it had been how it had, why I seem to get such a strange deal from the universe, when I seem to be trying to tell the truth about everything."

Shayler told the programme his new powers included the ability to change the weather and that he had helped prevent the attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow in June through meditation.

He also claimed that his favourite football team, Premiership side Middlesbrough, won a place in the 2006 UEFA cup final against Spanish side Seville because he had "channelled the light". Boro lost.

Shayler was released from prison in in 2002 after serving seven weeks for breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act.

He left MI5 in 1996 and subsequently made a number of allegations, including that the overseas intelligence service, MI6, plotted to assassinate the Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

He has since tried his hand as a novelist and a conspiracy theorist about the September 11, 2001 attacks and planned to run against then prime minister Tony Blair in the 2005 general election on an anti-Iraq war ticket.

More4 News said his latest claims would provide ammunition for his critics within the security service that he was a loose cannon, comparing his comments to those of former BBC sports presenter David Icke in 1991.

Wearing a lilac-coloured tracksuit, Icke was publicly derided after proclaiming himself the "son of God" during a television chat show. He believes the world is run by giant shapeshifting reptiles.

But Shayler denied the reporter's suggestion that he had "lost it".

"Do I look mentally ill? Do I sound mentally ill?... I'm absolutely convinced, as convinced as I can be, that the universe is changing shape, that humanity has to change, that I'm here to help teach people," he said.

Galloway to be suspended from Commons over Iraq

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who campaigned against the Iraq war, is to be suspended from parliament over his links to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

The parliamentary standards watchdog will rule this week that Galloway failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as “Gorgeous George”, is one of the most severe given to an MP.

Galloway, who was expelled from Labour, is now an MP for the Respect party. He may also be asked to apologise to the Commons for his behaviour but will launch a robust defence of his conduct. He denies any wrongdoing.

The UN oil-for-food programme was set up to allow Saddam to sell Iraqi oil to buy humanitarian supplies, but he corruptly awarded oil contracts to politicians and businessmen around the world.

In 1998 Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal, which campaigned for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. The appeal, which paid Galloway’s wife and funded international travel for the MP, received almost £450,000 from Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman who was also a trustee of the appeal. It subsequently emerged that more than half of this money came from the proceeds of Iraqi oil sales. An investigation by the American Senate alleged that the Mariam Appeal was used by the Iraqi regime to finance Galloway.

However, the MP strenuously denies that he was complicit in any such arrangement and claims he is the victim of a smear campaign. He says he had no idea that the money donated had come from Iraqi oil sales.

The Mariam Appeal, which raised more than £1.4m, has never filed any accounts and the parliamentary authorities have been unable to account for some of the expenditure.

About bloody time! I hope the Gormless One's next stop is a prison cell.

Quote of the Day 30.6.2007

"Saddam was not religious. He was from a Sunni tribe, but Saddam's only religion was Saddam, and his personal glory was the only higher power he recognized." - Iraqi Air Vice Marshal Georges Hormis Sada on Saddam Hussein

Proof that Saddam Hussein was a man of the same mold as Adolf Hitler, Iosif Koba Stalin, Tony Blair, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot

The End Of The Fourth Reich & The Birth Of The Union Of Scottish Socialist Realms

Our Fuhrer, the Antichrist Adolf Blair resigns this afternoon as our master so that he can cause more chaos, death and destruction in the Middle East in according with the prophecies from the Book Of Revelations. He and his Fourth Reich will be replaced by Comrade Doctor John Gordon Macbeth Stalin Brown and his new U.S.S.R of cunts such as Harriet "Johann" Ha(i)ricunt and Alister Boring.

Bring Back Thatcher!

Lingerie company chief rejects MBE

The co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur has rejected his MBE because he finds Tony Blair "morally corrupt".

Joseph Corre was awarded the title for his services to the fashion industry in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

But he knocked back the MBE on Wednesday, saying he could not accept the Prime Minister as "someone capable of giving an honour".

Mr Corre - the son of fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood - said he had initially been "flattered" to have his Agent Provocateur work recognised by the establishment.

"However after some serious reflection I have decided that I cannot accept it," Mr Corre, 39, said in a statement.

"I have been chosen by an organisation headed by a Prime Minister who I find morally corrupt. Who has been involved in organised lying, to the point where thousands of people including children! have suffered death, detention and torture in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Mr Corre's wife and Agent Provocateur co-founder Serena Rees is "delighted" with her own MBE and will not be rejecting it, a spokeswoman for the chain said.

The couple opened their first store in Soho in London in December 1994. The chain has since expanded to 30 shops worldwide.

"To accept this MBE as an honour would mean to me that I would have to accept the Prime Minister as someone capable of giving an honour i.e. an honourable man, which I cannot find it in my heart to do," Mr Corre's statement added.

"This in no way reflects on my opinion of the Queen whom I respect and would be honoured to have as a customer."

Bravo!!!

Terry Kelly Rewrites History

"'Iraq' my position is clear I opposed the war and I still do. 'Solve the problem' ? that's harder, an elected Iraqi government must be restored which has the respect of all Iraqi's and governs for all"

Yes, lets overthrow the democratically-elected and American-backed government and restore the Baathist tyranny that oppressed, tortured and killed it's own citizens, invaded it's neighbours, stole their oil, fired SCUD missiles at a neutral third-party just because it was predominantly Jewish and then caused an environmental disaster in the Persian Gulf Sea when it couldn't get it's own way.

El Tel needs to lie down before he hurts his fragile little mind.

Here We Bloody Go Again - Beria & The Nulabs Will Never Learn

LONDON (AFP) - Home Secretary John Reid has announced plans for new anti-terrorism laws on Thursday after it emerged that three terror suspects had absconded from a controversial form of loose house arrest.

Lamine and Ibrahim Adam, aged 26 and 20, and Cerie Bullivant, 24, are on the run after failing to report to police Tuesday, as required by the so-called control orders, a form of house arrest for terror suspects.

The Adams pair are the brothers of Anthony Garcia, 25, who was imprisoned last month for his involvement in a fertiliser bomb plot aimed at attacking targets in London and across Britain.

Their disappearance is the latest embarrassment for the government over control orders -- there are currently 17 in effect and a total of six people have now absconded.

In a statement to parliament, Reid said that orders were imposed on the men "because it was believed that they wanted to travel abroad for terrorist-related purposes."

"They are dangerous and we can take nothing for granted, even though the security services' assessment is that they are not considered at this time to represent a direct threat to the public here in the United Kingdom," he added.

But the head of London's Metropolitan Police, Sir Ian Blair, appeared to contradict this by saying there was no guarantee they were not a threat to people in Britain.

Lord Alex Carlile -- the government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation -- has said there is "solid intelligence" that the men wanted to target British and US soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere.

Reid also threatened to reignite a rumbling row with judges, MPs and civil liberties campaigners by introducing new legislation to bolster control orders.

"Within the next few weeks, I will be outlining further measures to combat terrorism which we propose to include in a new counter-terrorist bill," he said.

He indicated he would consider taking the radical step of opting out of the European Convention on Human Rights if necessary.

Control orders, which are made by the home secretary, were introduced in 2005 after the government was forced to abandon detention of security suspects without trial when judges ruled it incompatible with human rights law.

Since then, ministers have repeatedly argued that their efforts to deal with terror suspects have been hamstrung by this move.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that control orders were "very much a second best option" and "not a strong method of keeping people under control."

"Unfortunately, we were unable to maintain the legislation which we wanted to do which would give us the power to detain people and, in the end, that is the best protection for the British people," he told reporters.

But civil liberties campaigners argue that the orders are no substitute for due legal process.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of campaign group Liberty, said that she hoped control orders would be reconsidered under Blair's successor, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who takes over at the end of June. Reid has also said he will step down from the government when Blair goes.

"We look forward to a new prime minister and home secretary leading a cross-party, non-party consensus that rejects blustering rhetoric for unity in bringing terror suspects to real British justice within the rule of law," she said.

Carlile said in February that plans to replace control orders must be put in place "as a matter of urgency."

Iraq: Prince Harry & WMDs

Another day, another news story concerning Iraq! If someone is whinging about whether the 2003 war was legal or not, others are complaining about the lack of WMDs or something else.

Recently, the burning issue has been about whether Prince Harry should be deployed to fight in the south of the country. First he was to be deployed, then his deployment was under review, then reconfirmed and now cancelled because of a combination of new intelligence and existing fears of the Prince and those under his command being at greater risk of attack from insurgents than would normally be the case. The whole issue has been mishandled by both the army and the media, with the later in particular being guilty of abusing their freedoms by being prepared to put the Prince’s life at greater risk of death to increase their revenue. Not content with having a hand in his mother’s death and harassing his brother’s ex-girlfriend almost to an early grave, now the media are out to bury Harry himself six feet under.

Should Harry be deployed in Iraq? Yes, he should and he wants to serve his country. The army should have respect his wishes not to be treated differently from his army colleagues and the fact that he is spared from conflict but others are not and would be court-marshalled for refusing to deploy in Iraq is the height of hypocrisy and a national disgrace. When Harry decided to join the army, he knew full well that he was potentially signing away his life. Thus, if Harry’s deployment in Iraq meant that the insurgents would spend more of their time and resources trying to harm and kill him and his friends instead of innocent civilian men, women and children, then that would certainly be more preferable than the continuation of the bloody and evil status quo. If the army are not prepared to deploy Harry in Iraq, yet compel other service personnel into action against their will, then the government are morally obliged to withdraw all British ground forces from the country as soon as is possible. It is either all for one and one for all or nothing at all!

The issue of WMDs

Were there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? It is quite clear that there were and thus both George W. Bush and Tony Blair were telling the truth on that score. Not only were WMDs smuggled out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein to Russia and China via Syria and international shipping docks such as Rotterdam, Netherlands in exchange for cash to finance a Baathist insurrection after the then-impending Anglo-American military liberation, but also some WMDs are still being discovered in Iraq today. Over the past six months, American forces have discovered hundreds of WMDs still left over from Saddam’s rule. Let us not forget, that shortly before the Coalition of the willing launched their military liberation campaign, United Nations’ weapons inspectors still found Iraq in possession of illegal WMDs in violation of previous UN resolutions. Even when hostilities between Iraq and the Coalition finally broke out into open conflict, Iraq still launched illegal missiles at Kuwait in a futile attempt to destroy the Anglo-American bases in the country.

Two more things should be noted with regard to WMDs. Firstly, Saddam himself was often misled about the reality of his WMD programme by his own scientists. These scientists took advantage of Saddam’s intellectual ignorance to gain greater financial and material privileges from themselves by overstating the progress they had made in his realising his objectives. If Saddam Hussein himself could be misled into believing that he had a stronger hand militarily than was the reality, can anyone blame the United States and Great Britain for taking him seriously? Secondly, what exactly can be considered a weapon of mass destruction? The consensus is that any biological, chemical and nuclear weapon is a WMD, but doesn’t common sense remind us that anything can become a WMD if it is in the possession individual or group that intends to use it in a violent and homicidal manner?