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Monday, 1 May 2006
Mayhap Good News At Last »
This is all very good. tehgrauniad (I hate to agree with the Decents, but it’s getting worse) Prescott faces inquiry into abuse of perks.
John Prescott was facing an internal Whitehall investigation yesterday into favours given during his affair with a former diary secretary, Tracey Temple, including the use of government cars to ferry her from secret trysts and liaisons.
My RSS reader tells me that the story was filed after 1 am this morning, which explain the almost Prescottian way with words.
No one — whether they are Labour or Tory — is expecting Mr Blair to sack him for private peccadillos, but there was a feeling, articulated by Alistair Darling, the transport secretary who is close to Gordon Brown, that there might be a case for a dignfied exit from government if the deputy PM became more of a figure of fun and lacked credibility with the electorate. The danger was perceived through his new nickname — “two shags” rather than “two Jags” — replacing his passion for classic motors with a liking for affairs with women.
If I ever buy a newspaper, I’m going to give journalists strict allowances. This shouldn’t be so hard now all copy is submitted via software. For instance, hacks will be able to use the word “passion” at most twice a year. So they had better use it carefully. I don’t think anyone called the Groper “Two Jags” because of a “passion for classic motors”. It was flagrant hypocrisy and ostentation which earned him that one.
You can imagine the dressing down in Number 10. TB: “I’ve heard a rumour that you have a liking for a affairs with women.” JP: “Did you think I’d have a liking for affairs with men? Peter Mandelson been getting his hopes up?”
David Hencke gets two things right:
Most MPs support the view that Mr Prescott, 67, has been stupid …
And:
He would even be automatically entitled to a peerage without having to loan the party a penny.
BBC: Prescott faces more calls to quit.
A former Conservative minister who resigned 10 years ago over an affair said Mr Prescott should go because of his “dreadful” behaviour at that time.
Rod Richards said Mr Prescott — then an opposition spokesman — had been “one of the nastiest… judgemental people”.
Iain Dale has a post on one of John Prescott’s speeches. I don’t think he should go over an affair. Sexual harrassment and smug hypocrisy are a different matter.
Torygraph: Don’t resign over sex claims, Blair tells Prescott. Look guys, it’s not just an affair. It’s against civil service rules, and it’s probably harrassment. I’m very surprised that the feminists at tehgrauniad aren’t making more of this. What he didn’t wasn’t illegal, but it sure as hell was unethical.
Torygraph: Blair admits: I might be forced to sack Clarke. Er, Tony, you turned down his resignation twice. What does this say about your judgement? (Update. Clarke did not offer to resign. "He has lost some of the PM's goodwill by wrongly blurting out his claim that he had offered his resignation and had it turned down." via Backing Blair. I dunno, surely Clarke did the right thing, made up a plausible story. That is New Labour policy, isn’ it?) Trevor Kavanagh: BBC: Clarke ‘took weeks to tell Blair’. tehgrauniad has more bad news for Clarke: Detainee ‘beaten’ after talking to press. Brutality inside detention centres, incompetence outside. What kind of country is this?
I don’t know about where you are, but the sun is shining here. It looks like a glorious day.
These 334 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:21am GMT Permanent link.
Wednesday, 3 May 2006
UK Breaking News »
No time. Hurry over to Harry’s Place for all the latest news and left-wing talking points on Charles Clarke, John Prescott, Patricia Hewitt, and John Reid.
Harry’s Place. First stop for UK politics.
If they’re quiet, try Norm. Norman Geras, the acerbic left-wing commentor politicians fear.
Bloggers4Labour, a collective of … well you guessed it, give the lowdown on all the current developments. What the media doesn’t want you to read.
These 71 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:07am GMT Permanent link.
There's Only One Man Who Can Do It »
Alice Thomson in the Torygraph There’s no one left to be reshuffled.
So how can Labour keep going over the summer and reinvigorate itself in time for the autumn? “There’s only one man who can do it,” a Labour aide said to me yesterday. “That’s Wayne Rooney.
“Everything rests on his foot. Winning the World Cup is our only chance now, otherwise we’re going to be limping into the next election.”
I don’t know if this is Torygraph spin, or if Labour really has lost it. Harold Wilson was joking about only winning the World Cup under Labour. Rooney plays (when he does) for England. Labour did worst in England; its strongholds now, as ever, are in Scotland and Wales. And winning the World Cup, are you serious?
So Labour is now in the hands of two pie-eaters. Jesus wept, how did it ever come to this?
These 88 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:04am GMT Permanent link.
The Horse Has Bolted, So Lock The Stable Door »
tehgrauniad: Clarke plans tougher laws on foreign prisoners.
That’s work, jug-ears. You’ve lost a few hundred dangerous ex-cons, and you don’t know how to catch them. So rather than make the existing laws work, let’s just add a few more to the books. And you’ll probably phrase them as badly as everything else you do.
Torygraph Jails ignored deportation guidelines a year after their issue.
The Prison Service Order, circulated throughout the prison system, made clear that foreign nationals convicted of criminal offences are liable to be deported if they have been sentenced to at least one year in prison, or if they are persistent offenders serving a lesser sentence for a third or subsequent crime. The only exception is for prisoners from within the European Union who must be sentenced to at least two years to be considered.
The regulations state that “all cases in which a court recommendation has been made must be treated as deportation cases”.
However, in 160 cases of the “missing” 1,023 foreign prisoners released without being considered for deportation, judges’ recommendations to deport were apparently ignored.
Judges’ powers to recommend the deportation of foreign offenders are contained in the Immigration Act 1971, as interpreted by the courts. They apply where a judge concludes that an offender’s continued presence is detrimental to the United Kingdom.
It’s not the laws, you fat clown, it’s the execution of the laws and the regulations. Laws are for the House. How prisons, courts, and the police act is the Home Office’s territory. This is an unpardonable fuck up. New laws won’t help. Neither will a resignation, but it’ll be one useless bastard fewer in the Cabinet.
These 122 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:28am GMT Permanent link.
Reverse Psychology »
I think I’ve said this before. The more David Cameron calls for Charles Clarke’s head, the deeper Tony Blair digs his heels in and refuses to be told what to do. So Cameron rants across the dispatch box. And Blair is unmoved. Michael White may be correct: Clarke will stay.
So a totally useless jug-eared cunt keeps his job in the Cabinet and makes New Labour look even more stupid.
I’m warming to David Cameron. (And riding a bike does not make you look like a dick.)
These 87 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:56pm GMT Permanent link.
Thursday, 4 May 2006
Like Deja-vu All Over Again »
BBC: UK commander ‘ready for Taleban’. Did I dream the year 2002? Funnily enough, I can’t find a Wikipedia entry on the Coalition invasion. There is an entry on Afghanistan.
Exploiting the chaotic situation in Afghanistan, a few regional bedfellows including fundamentalist Afghans trained in refugee camps in western Pakistan, the Pakistani secret intelligence service (ISI), the regional Mafia (well-established network that smuggled mainly Japanese electronics and tyres before the Russian invasion, now involved in drug smuggling) and Arab extremist groups (that were looking for a safe operational hub) joined forces and helped to create the Taliban movement.[2] Backed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other strategic allies, the Taliban developed as a politico-religious force, and eventually seized power in 1996. The Taliban were able to capture 90% of the country, aside from the Afghan Northern Alliance strongholds primarily found in the northeast in the Panjshir Valley. The Taliban sought to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law and gave safe haven and assistance to individuals and organizations that were implicated as terrorists, most notably Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
Massive bombing and invasion of the country by the United States and its allies following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks helped opposition factions and forced the Taliban’s downfall. In late 2001, major leaders from the Afghan opposition groups and diaspora met in Bonn, and agreed on a plan for the formulation of a new government structure that resulted in the inauguration of Hamid Karzai as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) on December 2001. After a nationwide Loya Jirga in 2002, Karzai was elected President.
As the country continues to rebuild and recover, as of late 2005, it was still struggling against widespread poverty, continued warlordism, a virtually non-existent infrastructure, possibly the largest concentration of land mines on earth and other unexploded ordinance, as well as a sizable illegal poppy and heroin trade. Afghanistan also remains subject to occasionally violent political jockeying, and the nation’s first elections were successfully held in 2004 as women parliamentarians were selected in record numbers. Parliamentary elections in 2005 helped to further stabilize the country politically, in spite of the numerous problems it faced, including inadequate international assistance. The country continues to grapple with occasional acts of violence from a few remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban and the instability caused by warlords.
Emphasis mine. Good old Saudi Arabia gets its inevitable mention.* And there is an entry on Invasions of Afghanistan.
Most recently, the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was publicly stated to have been launched to capture Osama bin Laden, who the US say masterminded the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. Although they did not capture him, they succeeded in toppling the radical Islamic government of the Taliban, who gave shelter to Bin Laden and had become notorious for their human rights violations. The Taliban leadership survives in hiding and continues to launch guerrilla attacks against forces of the US, its allies, and the current government.
What say those weren’t written by the same author?
*FWIW, here’s a thumbnail portrait of the opinions of an ignorant hack (ie me) on the Middle East. Iran had a popular revolution, and has a limited democracy. You may not like much of its political system; I hate almost all of it, but it’s governed in more or less accordance with the political and religious views of its populace. Some minority religions (not all), including Judaism and Christianity, are protected by the state. Whatever President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says about Israel, he doesn’t persecute his country’s Jews. It’s not hard to find nutters willing to say stupid things about nuclear strikes (try Ronald Reagan). Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is in no way a democracy, and in no way popular. Its government encourages anti-Semitism, prevents Jews from even entering the country, practices torture, and is behind almost every Islamic terrorist attack in the world.
Sorry, this was supposed to be a quickie post. Turned into a rant. I have work to do.
These 221 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:11pm GMT Permanent link.
OCD »
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder seems to be the mental illness of the moment. David Beckham’s OCD seems to be getting worse (the Star called him “bonkers” which is merely offensive).
Neville told the Daily Star: “He’d always tidy up. I’m not sure tidiness is a bad habit really, but we don’t make very good room mates that’s for sure. …”
And the Telegraph reports that Parachute death man had OCD.
A 27-year-old man thought to have killed himself by cutting the lines of his parachute after jumping from an aeroplane was suffering from a mental illness, police have said.
David Crowcroft, 27, of north London, had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) which was “progressively debilitating”, said a police spokesman.
This doesn’t explain why he killed himself in such a bizarre way which must have caused distress to many people.
Until recently, Beckham’s main compulsion seemed to have been his attempt to cover as much of his skin as he could with ink. Tidiness is a far more salubrious habit.
These 88 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:28pm GMT Permanent link.
Friday, 5 May 2006
The Horse Has Bolted, So Lock The Stable Door 2 »
Torygraph: Prescott’s staff train in inappropriate behaviour.
John Prescott’s staff are to get special training on tackling inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.
The news came as the Deputy Prime Minister faced calls for his resignation over an affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple, who he allegedly made love to in his office.
Now it has been revealed his staff will go on workshops to learn to treat each other with respect and dignity.
Earlier this year the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) came under fire over bullying and discrimination against staff.
One in 10 workers said they had been bullied in the past year, and there was particular concern about discrimination against black and disabled staff.
My emphasis. Picking on women isn’t enough, clearly. Why the hell did I vote Labour in 1997? And why the hell did I allow myself to believe we achieved something? The fucking Taliban probably have a lower head count of sexist racist bullying pigs. Though to be fair, it’s probably not the ODPM staff at fault. It’s like finding that 80% of burglaries are down to one delinquent kid: there’s one fat tosser to blame for this.
And is this mealy-mouthed or what? It can only be tehgrauniad, “John Prescott appears to throw a punch at a protester who had thrown the egg.” Fucking ‘appears’? and “at a protester who had thrown the egg"? So the protester threw the egg [fact] but Prescott only appeared to throw a punch. Someone call Paul Daniels.
Cocksuckers.
These 141 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:15am GMT Permanent link.
Yes! »
Goodbye fuckwit: Clarke sacked as Home Secretary.
Tony Blair will hope his rebuilt Cabinet will boost morale after the party’s worst electoral bloodbath since Mr Blair came to power.
In yesterday’s local council elections, Labour lost more than 250 councillors across England as well as control of 16 town halls.
Spin that one, Tony. Now you’re a liability.
With heavy losses likely to trigger calls for Mr Blair to name the day for him to leave No 10, Geoff Hoon, the leader of the Commons, confirmed that the Prime Minister would seek to reassert his authority with a bigger than expected reshuffle.
He said it was “time for a new team” to take over.
I never thought I’d agree with Buff, but he’s right. Sadly, the “new team” looks like the Tories.
Labour appeared to have avoided a meltdown, but lost overall control of seven councils, including Stoke-on-Trent, Bury, Redditch, Derby and Camden.
Thank you, Daniel.
These 45 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 11:39am GMT Permanent link.
Backword Welcomes New Home Secretary »
On behalf of dopes and dope smokers everywhere. What a wonderful choice by Tone Scottish Sunday Mail.
Last September, he shared centre stage at his son Mark’s wedding with a villain on the run from police.
Reid and fugitive Ronnie Campbell — the father of the bride — stood side-by-side on the steps of Westminster Cathedral.
Yesterday Campbell claimed he knew “all about” the cannabis found at Reid’s home but declined to comment further.
One political ally said: “The drugs are far more likely to have belonged to friends, or friends of his sons, than to him.
Splendid.
These 18 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:05pm GMT Permanent link.
Best Year So Far, 2 »
800 NHS jobs axed in one Trust!
As Patricia Hewitt said, the NHS is having its best year ever.
Craig Brown reaches the parts of Patricia Hewitt other columnists don’t.
2) Born in Australia, Patricia originally trained to be an actress. Among the many lead roles she played at the Adelaide Astoria was Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. “Patricia Hewitt brings out an organised, highly efficient side to Hedda Gabler that other actresses have overlooked,” wrote one critic. “So that instead of entering into a doomed love affair and going to pieces, her Hedda simply gives everyone handy tips on the best way of tidying up the house for the duration of the play. In a tragic denouement, the other characters — her husband, the maid, her lover, her friend - can take it no more, and shoot themselves.”
…
9) As a child, Patricia Hewitt once dropped a tray of 50 glasses, all full of a runny chocolate pudding. The glasses smashed and the runny chocolate pudding went all over the floor. When her parents complained, she explained that it was a necessary step in the process of modernisation. “I am delighted to say that the scene we now have before us is a remarkable improvement, in real terms, on what was there before,” the young Patricia announced to her assembled family, as she surveyed the floor. “And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But now is not time for self-congratulation. We must continue to push forward with the momentum. And may I add this: I welcome this discussion.”
She’s kept her job. Hooray!
These 35 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 1:09pm GMT Permanent link.
Monday, 8 May 2006
The Morning Of The Short Straws »
I don’t agree with the many CiF commenters (who include myself), Andrew Rawnsley (who wrote a pretty nasty book about the PM’s first term) isn’t bad.
When Harold Macmillan tried to prolong his tenure at Number 10 by sacking seven ministers, it became known as the Night of the Long Knives. Tony Blair, another actor-manager of a Prime Minister who is wearing greasepaint that has worn thin, produced the Morning of the Short Straws.
The reshuffle was designed to assert his authority and his longevity by removing Jack Straw as Foreign Secretary, sacking Charles Clarke as Home Secretary and stripping all power from John Prescott to leave him looking like a spare cocktail sausage at a Whitehall party. It had clearly been decided by the Prime Minister that it was not enough to be brutal; he had to be seen to be brutal. The heads not only had to roll, but they had to be observed rolling all the way down Downing Street.
The second para is already cliche. Blair’s rejects were rejected into the massed flashbulbs of Fleet Street (oh, I’d pity Moira Stewart if she had to read my copy). The first is more original and more worthy. I’ve said here and in various comments that Blair’s not a good sacker, and that’s one lesson he hasn’t learned from Thatcher. There is a reason for that, and I almost said it in Matthew Turner’s comments on Friday, and then thought better of it. I think Blair’s learned too much from Thatcher, especially her downfall. I think he’s taken in Denis Healey’s opinion of Sir Geoffrey Howe, noticed that Maggie sacked him (Howe not Healey), and remembered the consequence. Blair has silently resolved never to sack anyone. This is why he offered Charles Clarke another post, when the realpolitik (dread word) choice was “sack or back”. I’ve said this before: Blair is weak. He should have moved Gordon Brown before 2001 for both their futures. His own to prove that he really was in charge (Brown has simply waited like an iceberg for Blair to crash into); and Brown’s for the career history which would make him fit for the premiership. [I ought to be a Brownite, but Brown’s being stuck in the Treasury for so long makes him a one-trick pony in my view. You don’t have to be more than a good footballer to be a great coach: look at Alex Ferguson, Sven Goran-Erickson, Arsene Wenger. In trying to be the perfect Chancellor, Gordon seems to have missed what the Prime Minister does.]
Well, yes, David Miliband is invariably short-handed by the media as a Blairite because he served at Number 10 as head of policy. In truth, that is a misleadingly crude guide to his politics which are generally quite a bit to the left of the Prime Minister.
I take this as the unequivocal Rawnsley backing of David Miliband. Left (ie more Labour) of the PM and still young.
Clarke really is an idiot. tehgrauniad: 150 serious offenders among released foreign criminals.
Mr Reid, speaking on his first day in his new job, admitted that the final figure of serious offenders may increase to “several hundred” if armed robbers are included in the most serious criminals category.
Well, duh, who would ever consider armed robbers as “the most serious criminals"? Presumably criminals commit crimes for personal gain, and if armed, are prepared to injure or kill anyone who gets in their way. Of course that’s not serious. What kind of idiot would suggest including “armed robbers” “in the most serious criminals category"? Lunacy, clearly.
I need a sarcasm reload, and I haven’t even mentioned James Brown yet.
Tim Hames of the Times has one of the best appraisals of Tony Blair so far.
It has long been plain that he does not “do” personnel effectively. Margaret Thatcher mused that a Prime Minister has to learn to be a “good butcher”. After nine years in Downing Street Mr Blair remains an incompetent vegetarian.
He agrees with me, in other words.
It does, after all, take some effort to achieve the following. To humiliate the Deputy Prime Minister by reducing him to a state where it looks as if he is leeching off the taxpayer for a large salary, official automobiles and several properties. To alienate the Chancellor and heir presumptive by conspicuously choosing not to consult him over crucial appointments. To defend a Home Secretary to the hilt in the House of Commons on a Wednesday and yet stab him in the back less than 48 hours later.
If the treatment of Mr Clarke was harsh, that of Jack Straw was heinous. The only alibi that anyone close to the Prime Minister can offer for Mr Straw’s sacking as Foreign Secretary was that it was necessary to shift him to show that it was a major reshuffle. This is potty.
It was not, after all, thought appropriate to elbow Patricia Hewitt out of Health to indicate that Mr Blair was being tough and radical. The only justification I can think of for letting her stay is that in the long term she might save the NHS a mound of money by draining the electorate of the will to live. So, Mr Straw, who was a rather impressive Foreign Secretary and whose reputation and weight had become an asset for British diplomacy, is shunted elsewhere. Margaret Beckett, who would have been an excellent Health Secretary, is asked to brush up on her language skills and she will be served by poor Geoff Hoon who, after carrying the can for the Prime Minister on Iraq, has been treated more unfairly by him than Baldrick was by Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder.
It’s all good stuff.
There are various trolls on CiF who allege that TB is the once and future king. I’m not even sure they’re people now. Their purpose seems to be to run down any possible rival or even high-flying ally of the premier, and insist that only TB is the man for the job. One such, Scoobysnack or something, thought Labour’s past lay with the Sun reading working class. (Quite possibly true, if it wasn’t for “lefty” [to you; “socially conscious” to me] do-gooders, half the working class wouldn’t be able to read.) At last a Labour leader looked beyond class war! Well, I’m with Chris Dillow here, the working class are the majority for the foreseeable future. Evidence contrary to his position just brings invective faster and louder. (I doubt he can name any Labour leaders before Blair, anyway.) There’s another who goes by “earlofessex” who claims to have a history degree but hasn’t studied war and doesn’t know about Suez or the Falklands (while insisting that the Yanks always stood by us) and doesn’t understand the British electoral system.
These 599 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 11:53pm GMT Permanent link.
Tuesday, 9 May 2006
Dark Matters »
Mike Power has discovered a link to Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds:
Far be it from me to add anything to the trenchant political analysis already available. But as a Physics Blog, we feel it’s our duty here to point out the exciting scientific consequences that our more humanistical friends have thusfar missed: the possibility that Prof. Reynolds has discovered a new state of wrongness… Reynolds has managed to fit five units of wrongness into only four declarative statements! This is the hackular equivalent of crossing the Chandrasekhar Limit, at which point your blog cannot help but collapse in on itself.
Collapsing in on itself ain’t what it used to be. ’Starquake’ explosion rips neutron star open. I thought neutron stars were made of neutrons; apparently they’re not. Where’s the Trades Description Act when you need it?
It seems the “uni” in “universe” may be a misnomer as well. Universe ‘child of previous one’.
“At present there may be an alternative ‘dark matter’ universe that exists at the same time as ours, but we could never reach it,” explained Professor Turok.
“The best way to think of this is to think of a pane of double glazing with a fly on it. The fly is unable to cross over from one side to another, just like we are unable to get from one universe to another.”
That’s probably a good thing.
These 68 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:18am GMT Permanent link.
Wednesday, 17 May 2006
Ayaan Hirsi Ali »
I’ve never paid a great deal of attention of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali refugee and Dutch MP, and neither, going by the contradictory stories, have many gentlemen of the press.
Mad Melanie Phillips naturally thinks that the Clogs are some kind of subhumans who live below sea-level or something: Submission in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands appears to be in the throes of a pathological moral convulsion. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the immensely courageous Dutch MP of Somalian origin who is guarded day and night because of the threat to her life from Islamist terrorists, is being hounded out of the country – by the hostility of the Dutch, who far from protecting her have now turned against her. Tomorrow, she is due to hold a press conference at which she will announce her resignation from the Dutch parliament and her intention to leave the country (although stories circulating today about a move to the US would appear to be premature).
The stories may have appeared premature, but they were right. (Mal Mel does a good line in poorly chosen words: Ms Ali was a premature baby.*)
The best resource for Ms Ali’s opinions and her political growth is an interview with tehgrauniad, Danger Woman (via Reason). It’s a complex tale, and one misrepresented on just about every level by Melanie Phillips.
Two blows have felled her. The first was the ruling by a Dutch court which upheld a complaint by her neighbours that her presence in her apartment was putting them in danger, and which gave her four months to leave her home.
This is true. There was such a ruling by a Dutch court, and as I don’t read Dutch, I’ll take the reason Ms Phillips gives as correct. Time says:
Last month, a judge ordered her out of her house in The Hague by the end of August because neighbors regarded her presence as too much of a risk to themselves. Faced with the prospect of moving to an undisclosed location again, she chose the U.S. as a refuge. As she told the Volkskrant newspaper, in the U.S. only two bodyguards should suffice; the Dutch government has accorded her six.
I can’t make out the logic of the last sentence, are US bodyguards bigger than ones from the Low Countries? Yet during CSI just now, there was a trailer of Jean Claude van Damme (the “Muscles from Brussels") beating hell out of Americans. Surely this isn’t more Hollywood anti-American propaganda?
The timing, note, is at odds with Ms Phillips account; Ms Ali’s move to the US seems to have been, as they say, a done deal.
The BBC finds one more little detail which does not bother Ms Phillips in a profile.
The controversy comes at a time when Ms Hirsi Ali was already reportedly making plans to leave the Netherlands for the US.
A court had also recently ruled that Ms Hirsi Ali must move from a state-owned “safe house” in The Hague, after neighbours complained of a security risk.
She may expect a warmer welcome in the US, where Time magazine has named her one of the most influential thinkers of our time.
Chron.com which seems to be the Houston Chronicle finds a different reason for the neighbours’ complaints.
The Dutch state had been scrambling to arrange new housing for her after her neighbors in The Hague complained successfully last month that security arrangements for her had become an unbearable nuisance.
This is either badly written, badly translated from the Dutch, or a whole new version.
The Times is as unsympathetic as its headline Critic of Islam is exposed on claim of asylum suggests.
Ms Hirsi Ali was granted asylum in 1992, claiming that she had to flee war-torn Somalia to escape an arranged marriage. However, she had spent the previous 12 years living an affluent lifestyle in Kenya. Ms Hirsi Ali, who became a Dutch citizen in 1997, accused her critics of a smear campaign, but confessed to reporters: “Yes, I did lie to get asylum in Holland. I invented a story that would be consistent with the conditions for asylum.”
The “affluent lifestyle” isn’t disputed, as far as I can tell, whether it was a harmonious one is. Reuters:
Hirsi Ali has long acknowledged that she changed her surname, date of birth and former country of residence for her asylum application. “I was frightened that if I simply said I was fleeing a forced marriage, I would be sent back to my family,” she said during an emotional press conference in the Hague today. “And I was frightened that if I gave my real name, my clan would hunt me down and find me.”
So she lied a bit. Time thinks there’s something else behind this fall from grace. (Phillips thinks it’s two-faced, lily livered Continentals of course.)
The affair has more than a whiff of political fratricide about it. Verdonk is currently standing for election as party leader of the liberal VVD party, and her tough line on immigration is the central plank of her campaign. Many believe her parting shot at Hirsi Ali — the only liberal politician more controversial than Verdonk herself — was a bid to show just how tough she’s willing to be on the issue.
This touches on Ms Ali’s own political growth, which tehgrauniad covers in great depth.
Hirsi Ali’s frolic in the pastures of Dutch liberal education was not to last long, however. In 2000 she read an article by the well-known leftwing writer Paul Scheffer, entitled The Multicultural Drama, which was to mark the beginning of a convulsion in the Dutch immigration debate. Scheffer’s argument was that unemployment among immigrant communities was bringing the Netherlands’ welfare system to a point of crisis, and that the country’s failure to integrate large numbers of new citizens was turning cultural diversity into a social problem. At the time, it was widely dismissed as racist scaremongering by the political classes of the then ruling Labour party. Hirsi Ali herself remembers reading Scheffer and thinking, “He doesn’t live in the same country that I live in. He’s exaggerating. And the unemployment statistics — living in Leiden, I couldn’t see them.”
But shortly after leaving university, Hirsi Ali found herself researching precisely this issue for the Labour party. Working for a leftwing thinktank, she says, was a bit like an extension of student life, with everyone agreeing with each other. But the Labour party itself was increasingly divided over immigration, and the rising popularity of Pim Fortuyn was stripping away the party’s support. “There were those who said we have to keep the welfare state intact, and we don’t want newcomers taking the jobs of old labour members,” Hirsi Ali recalls. “And there was the other side which said, no, we must accept other cultures.” Unsurprisingly, the policy unit assigned its bright new Somali researcher to an immigration brief. No one expected her to come back with proposals for a reversal of 100 years of Dutch history.
As far as I can tell, Ms Ali herself hadn’t come for a job — just an education, which she got. Reuters.
Hirsi Ali, who took odd jobs after arriving in the Netherlands before working as a translator for asylum seekers while she studied political science, won Dutch citizenship in 1997 and was elected to parliament for the VVD in 2003.
I can’t tell from this whether she paid for the degree, or whether the Dutch state did. No source is clear on this. tehgrauniad.
By contrast, the main difficulties Hirsi Ali encountered with the immigration system, were just dreary bureaucracy and the ponderous well-meaning labour officers who kept directing her to work she didn’t want. The idea that she might go to university was dismissed so she called up a social academy herself, was allowed to enrol, gained a diploma and, in 1995, got a place at Leiden University to study political science. The choice of subject speaks for itself, she says. “I wanted to understand why all we asylum seekers were coming here, and why everything worked in this country, and why you could walk undisturbed through the streets at night, and why there was no corruption, and why on the other side of the world there was so much corruption and so much conflict.”
At this point, she seems to have thought that Dutch society worked. Later, she decided that it “was not very good at integration” which implies that there was corruption and conflict.
What Hirsi Ali found herself confronting was the central feature of social organisation in the Netherlands, known as “pillarisation”. It is a principle that dates back to the 17th century when Amsterdam was Europe’s busiest mercantile centre and when common sense dictated that, if business were to thrive, religious differences had to be set aside and antagonistic groups kept physically separate. Article 23 of the Dutch constitution, which established rights for the setting up of separate schools and institutions, is itself a central pillar of the Dutch system, and, in the 1960s, was conveniently reinterpreted as the standard of a new multicultural orthodoxy — officially expressed as “integration with maintenance of one’s own identity”. It was in this respect that Dutch society found itself in seeming harmony with the new Muslim populations who began to arrive from the 1970s — partly from the former colony of Surinam, but mostly from Morocco and Turkey. Muslims wanted their own schools and mosques, and the Dutch government happily provided for and funded them. Just as there had been Catholic, Protestant and secular “pillars” in the Netherlands, there could now be a Muslim one too.
tehgrauniad is unclear on dates, but by this point, Ms Ali had been secularised.
And her Muslim observances slowly fell away. She took off her headscarf, began eating during Ramadan, found herself a boyfriend and began to avoid other Muslims who reminded her of her fall. One day, some students declared they were going to take her drinking. “And I said, ‘I can’t; it’s forbidden by God; I’ll go to hell.’ And they said, ‘Wooah, that’s cool!’ And my first drink was a martini. After one glass, I was completely drunk.”
I’m largely with Nick Cohen here, I think all religious schools should be closed, and all education integrated and multicultural (dread word).
Hirsi Ali’s recommendations to the Labour policy unit were blunt and radical: close all 41 Islamic schools, put a break on immigration and change article 23. Jaws hit the table. The reaction she got indicated how badly she had started trampling on taboos. Job Cohen, who would emerge as one of the key bridge-builders in Dutch-Muslim relations, suggested that Hirsi Ali focus on integration. Influenced by the events of September 11, however, she began to publish articles arguing that Islam was not capable of integrating into a society that was itself not very good at integration. Furthermore, she concluded, if you looked into the condition of women in Muslim communities you found an intractable problem, one which liberals and multiculturalists refused to address. “I called it the paradox of the left,” she says. “On the one hand they support ideals of equality and emancipation, but in this case they do nothing about it; they even facilitate the oppression.”
I think the description of liberal, tolerant Holland as “a society that was itself not very good at integration” is far too glib, and the proposed solution unacceptable. I think that the suggestion that the political status quo here and in Holland does nothing about oppression is untrue: we insist upon education for all; marriages are subject to our divorce laws. With education and equal employment laws, as Ms Ali found, the world is indeed your lobster. Remember that Ms Ali worked as a translator for asylum seekers, a line of work it seems she is keen to end.
In 2002 she accepted an invitation to stand as a member of parliament for the opposition VVD party and — disillusioned with the Dutch left — accepted. After the death of Fortuyn, Labour suffered a historic defeat at the polls. Hirsi Ali found herself in government, under guard and in the middle of a dispute about Islam and democracy which continues to rattle through Europe.
At this point, Ms Ali had been a political researcher, the daughter of a political prisoner, and a party defector. She may still have been naive, but she wasn’t ignorant or stupid. She chose a right-wing party opposed to immigrants. What was she to expect?
Reuters says of her opponent:
Verdonk has championed a plan to expel 26,000 failed asylum seekers and taken other controversial decisions, recently rejecting fast-track Dutch citizenship for Ivorian striker Salomon Kalou to allow him to play in the soccer World Cup.
Yet the introduction to tehgrauniad interview claims “[she] arrived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker” which she is supposed to have denied since her selection as a candidate in 2003. Mad Mel sees a conspiracy.
Ms Hirsi Ali has never denied that she told lies on her application for asylum. The lies involved a false surname, a false age, and saying that she had fled from Somalia. This was in itself true, but omitted the fact — which is salient to an asylum claim — that she had landed up in various other countries before coming to the Netherlands. Of course, this was wrong, and she shouldn’t have done it. However, the fact that she was a refugee from Islamist oppression was true. More pertinently, she has frequently acknowledged that she told these lies and even informed the leadership of her party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, when she first stood for parliament.
She doesn’t appear to have informed the press or the electorate. It may be hypocritical of her VVD colleagues, but that’s politics.
I largely support her political views: greater integration and I even agree with:
Every country must have firm control over immigration and — is no exception. All applications, however, should be dealt with speedily and fairly.
Though that’s the 1997 Labour Party Manifesto (back in the days when, ahem, they still believed in “human rights").
I hope she sees through her new Neo Con allies. If not, then maybe she is just someone who was keen to drag the ladder up after her.
The first biographical detail that those who have painted Hirsi Ali as a trauma victim point to is her extremely premature birth, shortly after the Somali government had been overthrown by Siad Barre. Her father had been jailed, and the family believed that the shock of this brought on the birth. Hirsi Ali was expected to die.
These 725 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 1:03am GMT Permanent link.
Verbal Ectoplasm »
Oh, we may have laughed at Simon Hoggart’s abortive amatory antics in the past, and perhaps tehgrauniad’s parliamentary sketchwriter, and the Sextator’s wine critic deserved some of that, but compared to his coworkers on Comrade Stalin Says (well Michael White* and Martin Kettle) he’s Woodward and Bernstein.
Hoggart is good not only at mocking those who deserve to be mocked (almost all politicians) but also at giving credit where it’s due, and recognising the rare representative who may actually be straight. Sir Gus stays shtoom, but Newport MP Paul Flynn remains perhaps the only hope that there is for the Labour Party.
Sir Gus wasn’t saying nuffink. He was well shtoom. The committee asked him about the recent “monumental maladministration” at the Home Office. How many officials had been sacked?
G O’D: You’re getting to part of a constitutional issue. We could have a different system for accountability on the civil service side … it is difficult to divide policy and delivery aspects…
Committee chairman, Tony Wright (impatiently): Well, that’s all fascinating. But what I asked you is, how many heads have rolled?
Sir Gus doesn’t give up that easily. “Under a strong accountability regime … ” he began. Then Paul Flynn, a Labour troublemaker, got to work. Mr Flynn has a somewhat bleating voice. To be questioned by him must be like, to misquote Denis Healey, being savaged by a rather lively sheep.
Mr Flynn: All this verbal ectoplasm you’re emitting … how many heads have rolled? Is the word you are looking for “none"?
G O’D: Er …
Flynn: Yes or no?
G O’D: I have learned you have to answer carefully …
Flynn: (becoming a very angry ewe) It’s the unimportance of not being right. Isn’t it a matter of “yes, minister, no, minister, may I lick your boots, minister?”
G O’D: That would be rather bizarre, and I rather resent the suggestion that that is how I have arrived where I am …
Still no “yes” or “no” there. Which is rather telling.
*See CJCJ’s brilliant comment here. White, May 10 (same link) “Increasingly, he’s [Blair’s] the past.” White, May 8, “I suspect that he will remain Prime Minister long enough to ensure that the next Labour election manifesto has his imprint firmly upon it.” tehgrauniad pays for this. No wonder I don’t buy it.
These 164 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:47pm GMT Permanent link.
Blair Reshuffle Fails To Make Top 100 »
The upcoming C4 chart show “100 Top Cabinet Reshuffles” will not feature Tony Blair’s restructuring of his government following the May polls, Backword can reveal. Host Jimmy Carr said, “It didn’t really register with the public,” while evicted Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, said the reshuffle was ‘not the best.’
Today Mr Clarke gave an interview to his local paper breaking traditional etiquette by criticising the reshuffle.
He told the Eastern Daily press: “It was not the best of reshuffles. We never do have the best of reshuffles.”
Mr Clarke made clear that his remark did not refer only to his own dismissal, but to the effect of the changes across the government.
“I thought the point was to give a clear sense of redirection for the government,” he said. “But in the end it hasn’t worked out like that, according to the commentators.”
Oh, he listens to the commentators now. And of course he’s not even slightly miffed to lose the ministerial salary, power, and perks.
Pop pickers will have to wait until the broadcast to find out which were the best reshuffles in history, if they can take four hours of mind-numbing clips, at 20 minutes of ads per hour, and Mr Carr’s “jokes”.
These 111 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 3:11pm GMT Permanent link.
Defending Steyn From The Charge Of Plagiarism »
Popular opinion former Mark Steyn’s Canadian vowels* lost some of their Beltway drag as he tried to find words which did justice to the dreadful crime of which he found himself accused. Steyn’s assistant responded (and I paraphrase rather than quoting here) <
Here, for your delectation and edification are Geoffrey Pullum’s pieces on the Da Vinci Code: The Dan Brown code and Renowned author Dan Brown staggered through his formulaic opening sentence. They’re good pieces; amusing in themselves and insightful as a linguistics expert can be on poor (or in this case bloody awful) writing.
This, for the purposes of comparison is Mark Steyn The Da Vinci Code: bad writing for Biblical illiterates.
Steyn has evidently read the books in question (the first pages anyway), and he cites Pullum. So what is the problem? Many of the comments on Unfogged think this is straightforward plagiarism. Steyn didn’t come up with “the anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier” but he doesn’t pretend that he did. He grows very fond of “anarthrous” which he may have known before (I didn’t); certainly he kicks it around casually as if any fule should know it.
Mark Liberman, Pullum’s co-blogger at Language Log notes Some striking similarities.
Now, in Steyn’s favour, he knows about writing style. He also writes some parody. So finding him writing a parody of a poor book (and one which seems to offend many of his natural conservative audience, and has been made into a Hollywood (boo!) film) isn’t that surprising.
But when I started this post I’d read the Steyn piece and the two Pullum pieces (more or less in that order, flicking between them for comparisons), and I didn’t see that much similarity. But I think Liberman has convinced me. Not enough that I think it’s worth taking Steyn to court (he’s adapted some one else’s idea, much as Brown adapted The Holy Blood etc), except the idea happens to be true, and the observation that Brown can’t write isn’t, ahem, novel. BBC News Magazine: The Da Vinci phobe’s guide:
Novelist John Mortimer dismisses the Da Vinci Code in one word: “Unreadable”.
“The first page is terrible. It is so badly written, it couldn’t be read by anyone who respects the English language.”
The begetter of Rumpole’s assessment is echoed by a less distinguished author.
Former minister, and now broadcaster and author Edwina Currie also said she had found it impossible to get past the first page.
“It is extremely badly written — full of cliches. It was actually painful to read. My husband, who does a bit of buying and selling on ebay, said he would sell it to the first bidder.”
True, Steyn does get through more words than are in both Pullum pieces combined, so he must have added something. And he’s not claiming credit for the ideas. (I don’t think Steyn ever really does; most of his politics are others’ first, and he hands them down from Olympus or translates them into the vernacular.) But there is an element of misdirection here. He does credit Pullum, but with the lesser credit — that of finding the right name for what’s wrong with Brown’s writing, not for seeing why it’s wrong.
He did give credit, and there’s not enough at stake to justify any legal action, so he’ll get away with it.
I came here to defend him, but this can be yet another post which links to Liberman in agreement. For shame, Steyn.
Now we’ll get links from Little Green Mothballs calling us ivory tower pedants or some such.
*Look, I know I’m shite at this, but I’m still going to try. It’s my blog.
These 526 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 4:36pm GMT Permanent link.
Great! I Hate CCTV »
You can tell when my workload starts to pile up. Blogging becomes frenetic.
I love this in the Torygraph: Asbo for dancing beggar who licked CCTV cameras.
He then climbed on to a ledge to lick CCTV cameras to obscure their view of his antics.
Quite ingenious, say I. Now I’m a regular, somewhat tremulous, citizen and I’d have thought these amounted to trespass and damage to property, so were illegal, and if I did these, I’d end up in court with a fine. But I was wrong. I can do this if I like. (I don’t think I will, who knows where pigeons have been?)
Farran has now been handed a two-year Asbo banning him from interfering with CCTV cameras or attempting to wash cars in the Cleveland area.
Now he has an Asbo, he’s banned from licking CCTV cameras. Ergo, before he had the Asbo, he wasn’t. I don’t have an Asbo (remiss of me, I’m sure), ergo so I’m not banned either. What larks! Even better, his Asbo bans him from “attempting to wash cars…”. But:
Keith Farran took money from motorists in a car park with the promise of washing their cars, but never carried out the work.
That’s taking money under false pretences, also know as conning, I believe. And he didn’t even attempt to wash them, so why bother banning him from something he clearly has no intention of doing?
The beggar has also been ordered not to harass or intimidate anyone, swear, or loiter in car parks the area.
I really thought that I couldn’t do these things anyway (apart from swear). Someone remind me of the point of Asbos.
These 192 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 5:19pm GMT Permanent link.
Thursday, 18 May 2006
If Seven Maids With Seven Mops »
“If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
Torygraph: Ben Nevis piano mystery solved. Short version: it was an organ. Brilliant Holmes!
But it now appears that the instrument is actually an organ, and that it had been up the mountain for more than 35 years.
Kenny Campbell, a woodcutter from Bonar Bridge in the Highlands, has come forward to say that he carried it up the summit to raise money for a cancer charity in 1971.
Mr Campbell said: “It took me four days to get the organ to the top and when I did I played Scotland the Brave.
Well, that’s one mystery solved. But not the real one.
Volunteers clearing stones from the 4,4118ft peak stumbled across the musical instrument on Ben Nevis at the weekend.
Look at the picture on the article. There’s nothing there but stones. It’s a bloody mountain. WTF?
These 41 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 1:48pm GMT Permanent link.
No Thanks »
So now you’re feeling nice and safe, the Torygraph reveals Nuclear error: Britain’s record revealed. (Are they quoting Clash lyrics now?)
Tony Blair’s hopes of winning public support for a new generation of nuclear power stations have taken a knock after it was revealed that there have been 57 incidents at existing sites around Britain since 1997.
The problems ranged from radiation leaks and machinery failures to contamination of ground water or employees’ clothes and a fire.
That’s around 7 a year (depending on when the record starts and stops). If this is right, there are 18 sites for the British Nuclear Group in the UK, of which seven are active stations, five are being decommissioned one is a low-level waste repository and the rest seem to be hydroelectric stations or administrative buildings. So that’s, give or take, one incident per station per year. Which isn’t bad.
In the comments on D2’s latest post Nukes and Nukemen (clearly too trivial for Comment is Free, which is tied up today with [Arsenal fans] always celebrate before they win* — no others sports team’s supporters do this, of course), Alex mentions:
Ah. French ladyfriend’s dad worked on building a nuclear power station. One day he came home in a paper suit because all his clothes had been burned when they were found to be contaminated. He died on Sunday of a completely unrelated condition, at a ripe old age.
Nuclear “contamination of … employees’ clothes” isn’t necessarily terrible, but the groundwater ones worry me more, and machinery failure can mean anything.
I’m a lot less hardline anti-nuclear than I used to be, and I could have been swung by a proper independent review. Tony Blair of course put his foot in that one.
Environmental campaigners said Mr Blair’s unequivocal signal in favour of nuclear power meant that the Government’s own energy review, which is expected before the end of July, was a smokescreen.
And then there’s the consequences of the reshuffle.
Elliot Morley, who was sacked as environment minister two weeks ago, said building new nuclear reactors would cost the taxpayer “very large sums of money”.
Ah, so did the War in Iraq. It’s not Tony’s cash; he’s not bothered. TB is a zealot: he knows the answers before reviews by experts. We’ve been here before. That one got us 111 soldiers dead. Count me as an anti, and if Greenpeace get back to doing what they should be doing and drop the GM malarkey, I might even rejoin.
*Hey, dig that URL! i_am_glad_aresnal_lost.html Hee hee.
These 268 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 9:20pm GMT Permanent link.
Shabaz To Win »
Big Brother is back, and this may be the Shahbaz fan club blog. I like a man who describes himself as “intelligent and unemployable” and says:
In the words of Oscar Wilde ‘Know thyself’ - I do and I sleep well at night for this knowledge.
He’s also the only Scot, so I’d have liked him anyway. There are two Welsh speakers and one Tourette’s sufferer. Are we going to do language jokes? No.
Mikey should go first, for being a sexist prat and from Liverpool, but it’ll probably be one of the bland girls.
They’ve clearly been picked to get on even worse than in previous years. George the posh bloke doesn’t like flamboyant gay men so sharing a room with ’Sexual terrorist’ Richard (how soon we forget) will be a challenge. I suspect Richard will be shallow from day 1 while Grace may be a lot more complex than she appears.
Sezer seems the most intelligent (his favourite book is Written on the Body by Janette [sic] Winterson) and could go most of the way. While Dawn (Book: No novels, just textbooks) may be close to autistic and is bound to go early.
Like all first impressions, these are likely to be wrong.
These 185 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:59pm GMT Permanent link.
Friday, 19 May 2006
Still Shahbaz To Win »
Though I’m having doubts that he won’t be murdered, or at least the first out. Today’s BB news:
Dawn was the next to appear, looking like a cross between an Olympic sprinter and a Dutch flower girl. But if Dawn was hoping for a quiet moment, she was out of luck. For who should emerge from the Diary Room but Shahbaz who, in between singing a selection of pop songs from the Eighties and skipping around like Heidi on acid, had not been to bed. Rummaging around in a cupboard, he managed to unearth a bottle of lemonade which, he declared, might “keep me going the rest of the day on a sugar rush”. Clearly the man is on the edge[.]
I watched some of the E4 coverage last night, and there’s only so much “let’s all be HAPPY” one can take. Still, if the BBC can quote him as a “Paki poof” (which overly PC-ness prevented me from last night) then so can I. He hasn’t worked for 21 years, he’s gay, he’s Muslim, and he’s Scottish. So he’ll get a few backs up. (I call this race hate. England for the English, but, er we’ll keep the Labour Party: Kier Hardie, Scot; the NHS: Nye Bevan, Welsh; 18th century rationalism (David Hume); capitalism (Adam Smith) and television. Wankers.)
This is merely unfair.
Asked to collect some batteries, Big Brother took the opportunity to tell him [Glyn] off for speaking Welsh with fellow dragon, Imogen.
“But Welsh is British,” he countered.
“It’s not English and could be considered to be talking in code,” asserted a schoolmasterly voice.
There are people from Birmingham and Liverpool in the house. You need a Babel Fish in your ear to understand them. This is rank discrimination. But this was clearly the intention of putting two Welsh speakers in. Ditto for the two clearly incompatible gay men.
Update: I missed the earlier item, Let’s Talk Tourette’s. Apart from the cruel impersonations that we’ve all probably done, or at least seen, very few of us really know much about Tourette’s Syndrome. So, in the early hours of the morning, when Shahbaz and Pete struck up a conversation about it, we were all ears. Sadly, our ears were mostly filled with the sound of Shahbaz’s voice as he repeatedly talked over Pete’s answers to his questions. Although we did manage to gather that Pete frequently feels worn out by his condition and that he has had a rough time growing up with it. But that was about as much as we got before Shahbaz went off on a tangent talking about how it hadn’t quite sunk in where he was. “I’m not getting it”, he said, “I’m not getting it, but I’m not getting it, but I’m not getting it”, like some sullen teenager. Pete did say “w***” a few times during the dialogue, but we’re not sure whether that was the Tourette’s or not. BB may have done a good thing here, or they may just be running a circus. Oliver Sacks wrote some good stuff on Tourette’s but I can’t remember where, so I’ll have to look it up. Shahbaz may be great television, but he may also just be an inconsiderate tosser. Then again, he could just be treating Pete the way he treats everyone, which ought to be good.
These 166 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 11:50am GMT Permanent link.
WTF Watch »
Via Bloggerheads, this is unbelieveable. I’ve heard some poor arguments for nuclear power in my time, but …
THE Chernobyl nuclear disaster has spawned a generation of ‘mutant’ super-brainy children.
Kids growing up in areas damaged by radiation from the plant have a higher IQ and faster reaction times, say Russian doctors.
They are also growing faster and have stronger immune systems.
Radiation from the Ukrainian Chernobyl plant swept the globe and affected more than seven million people.
Professor Vladimir Mikhalev from Bryansk State University, has tracked the health of youngsters growing up in areas hit by the fallout since the 1986 accident.
He compared their mental agility and health to those in unaffected areas and found they came out top in tests.
The kids had been exposed to radiation in the atmosphere and their food supply.
In other news, Nuclear tests in the desert result in the growth of gigantic mutant ants, Following the French atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific, an unknown creature is spotted passing eastward through the Panama Canal …, and of course a bite from an irradiated spider gives you spider like powers.
Don’t worry if they build a nuclear power station near you, it’ll make your kids into superbeings. Yeah right. Also, ignore that BBC anti-nuclear propaganda.
So far, I haven’t been able to find any online literature to support the Professor’s claims. There is Pravda (like the Sun a byword for journalistic integrity). And this google search yeilded a 971KB 2 page PDF which somehow ties Chernobyl with Mayan prophesies and chakras. The professor’s other admirers believe in alien sightings and god knows what really, but he seems disinclined to publish in peer-reviewed journals. I can’t imagine why.
These 167 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:37pm GMT Permanent link.
Tuesday, 23 May 2006
Shabaz, Shabaz, Shabaz, Shabaz, Shabaz »
My referer files are full of one word hits. And that word is? Oh go on, you can guess.
This post isn’t going to be about him. This blog — in this form — is about to be no more. I’m a good way through rewriting the code, and it’ll look different and have comments and everything.
I got envious of The Sharpener’s and Mike Power’s sidebars with quick links to good things elsewhere, so I done got me one, too. And I’ve tinkered with the blogroll, and finally added a lot of the people I’ve been saying I will and then forgetting about. While I’ve lost a few others (which maybe I’ll write about some other time). Anyway, I’ve given myself a nice page where I can add news stories and blogs and take others off, and it’s more or less idiot-proof in that if I add a blog whose url is already in the database, it just assumes that the name is different (if it’s not, it still gets overwritten; I don’t end up with two links), and if the name is the same, it just changes the url. So I’ve been putting blogs in and taking blogs out, like Eeyore with his burst balloon and I haven’t broken it, well, since it stopped breaking.
So that was pretty dull wasn’t it? I’m off to watch Shabaz. To make it worth your while reading this far, here’s a joke from Stewart Lee in tehgrauniad (via an unamused Worstall).
Three priests hold a meeting to discuss where life begins. The evangelical priest says, “No question about it, life begins when the child is born.” “No, no,” says the Catholic priest, “it all starts when the sperm meets the egg.” “You’re both wrong,” says the Rabbi. “Life begins when the children have left home and the dog is dead.”
These 250 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 9:02pm GMT Permanent link.
Shahbaz Has Left The Big Brother House »
Shahbaz has left! Oh my god! Oh my god! I can hardly believe it! I’ve not even spelled his name correctly and now this.
And here’s me thinking he’d win.
Shahbaz Has Left the Building and Shahbaz leaves the Big Brother house.
That’s almost as strange as the revelation that Sezer was in the BB5 test run (I didn’t even know that they did test runs). For a thrusting stockbroker, he gets more time off than George Galloway.
These 78 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:48pm GMT Permanent link.
Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Power Whine »
Via (fellow cat-lover) John Cole, No Pet Left Behind.
Running Scared is a new blog to me, but one with the goods. Founder Jazz reads “Deacon” so you don’t have to: White Man’s Burden… more racism at PowerLine. That’s Euston Manifestation supporting and Normblog profilee Paul Mirengoff. Here he is on local politics.
Ray Nagin, who came up so short during Hurricane Katrina, has been re-elected mayor of New Orleans. Nagin captured 53 percent of the vote to defeat Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. The defeated candidate is the son of Moon Landrieu, the last white mayor of New Orleans (nearly 30 years ago), and is the brother of the current Senator from Louisiana.
How could the voters reject the son of the last white candidate? Jazz of Running Scared finds the only possible interpretation.
It sounds as if Deacon from PowerWhine is a little cheesed off that Ray Nagin was reelected as mayor of New Orleans and the *cough* not-so-black *cough* candidate lost. But true to Powerline form, he’s quick to disparage the winner and come up with excuses as to why the misguided, foolish people of New Orleans wouldn’t pick the white guy.
Deacon also compares Nagin to Marion Barry. Oaf.
These 82 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 3:23pm GMT Permanent link.
Speaking Of Cats »
Another good Running Scared link: Attack Cat. CNN: Even Prozac can’t tame Lewis the six-toed cat.
Janet Kettman says she and her neighbors on Sunset Circle are always looking over their shoulders in fear the stalker will strike again.
“He attacks from the back,” Kettman said Monday. “You never see it coming. He has six toes on every foot, which constitutes a very formidable weapon.”
Judging by the picture, that’s either one very small woman or a whole lot of cat. He looks a fine, handsome, and fun-loving animal.
“They want to kill a cat for a scratch,” said Marisa Sampieri of Fairfield, one of the cat’s supporters. “These people have to get a life.”
Neighbors say they have been terrorized by Lewis, saying the cat’s long claws and stealth have allowed the cat to attack at least a half-dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.
Is the Avon lady’s personhood in doubt? I mean why count ” half-dozen people” AND “the Avon lady"? This is just cat humour. Those people need to get lives.
These 69 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 3:42pm GMT Permanent link.
Links (aka Lazy Blogging) »
Peter Black AM is in good blogging form at the moment. On Sunday, he posted on our old friends the English Democrats which occasioned emails withering with invective, the like of which has not been seen since Ian Birchall wrote to Polly Toynbee.
Not content with annoying one minority party, he then turns on another: to wit, my MP Alun Michael who re-opened “an old row with [Welsh Assembly] Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas by suggesting the PO ignored legal advice.”
What Alun Michael describes as immaturity, I would characterise as the Assembly asserting itself as an independent voice for Wales. By casting off Tony Blair’s man in Wales they sent a message to Westminster. It was unfortunate for Alun Michael that he was the victim in all of this.
That sounds about right to me. I think the Assembly is an enormous waste of public money and effort, and has damaged the Labour Party in England as predicted long ago by Tam Dalyell. But if it had to do one thing, it was assert its independence from Westminster. As Alun Michael was perceived as a Blairite appointee, quite a few in the Labour Party wanted him gone as well.
He also posts on the midnight ejection of Brian Haw, as does Mat Bowles. Peter:
If they [the police] did not want to give the impression of a Police state why did they not execute this act in broad daylight when we could all see what they were doing?
Because the media are all biased against the government, of course. D2 has a very amusing post on the very silly things Euston Manifesto signees say.
The Left needs to relearn the meaning of the words comprimise, core values, and practicality. Lets throw civility in there too. I can’t tell you how many times I turn on the news(CNN, FOX, NBC, etc) and see some red faced liberal trying to sell his ideas, while the calm conservative sits there and lays forth a rational viewpoint.
(Insert Christopher “The Dupe” Hitchens joke here.)
Overheard at Normandy two days ago a conversation between the French tour guide and a Dutch tourist at a colossal WWII concrete German Bunker (defending France from Allied invasion…) Dutch Tourist: ” How do you feel about giving tours here?” French Tour Guide: “It is important to show that not all Germans were bad. You know some of the Allies were not so good.”
The old “it’s not black and white” thing. What more proof do you need that the left is soft?
Matthew Turner has one of my favourites.
Kerry Walter - We need a sea-change in America, or our great democracy will be mere history even within our lifetimes. She is already on life-support, and the religious right and neo-cons have become so powerful that I predict that the Bushies will not relinquish the White House even when their candidate loses. They will just devise another false-flag operation (see 911), and create pretense to place the U.S. under martial law, and then hang onto power indefinitely. The press will remain silent. The Democrats are spineless. God help us all
So… 911 was a “false-flag operation”. Does that mean Bush dunnit? Those crazy Eustonites! Another goody (we’ve been passing these around in emails):
Mardy Kranksy - How many people here have lost friends, because we just couldn’t sit at a dinner table where toasts were made to Osama Bin Laden? We felt we couldn’t speak out about the relative merits of liberating Iraq without our former friends thinking we were sell-outs, stupid or brainwashed. We felt uncomfortable having our principles endorsed by the ham-fisted Newscorp media, yet we would rather stand alongside a lampooned US President than a syncophantic perversion of our progressive ideals. We saw how the first world screwed the world trading system not just for the profits of corporations, but also to sustain welfare states and labour protectionism to keep their left wing constituencies happy. And there were even times we felt the foreboding attractiveness of the new right and wondered if we should be embracing the other side. Time to make new friends.
I’m not sure what he’s advocating exactly. An end to capitalism and welfare? Yeah sod the workers, I’m alright Jack, I don’t need no welfare or labour protectionism. Some of us have jobs and fear losing them.
These independent thinkers are brill as well.
Xavier Pericay, I belong to a group in Barcelona opposed to nationalist politics implemented in Catalonia and in Spain today. We are about to create a new political party, based upon principles similar to those expounded in the Euston Manifesto. We believe it is of the utmost importance that people across Europe who share these viewpoints come together and make an effort to promote sound and rational political agendas.
Veronica Puertollano, I live in Madrid, and I belong to a group in Barcelona opposed…
Arcadi Espada, I belong to a group in Barcelona opposed…
Teresa Giménez, I belong to a group in Barcelona opposed …
Ana Nuno, The Euston Manifesto describes in detail not only an agenda for left-wing and liberal orientated politics, it also aptly analyzes current radical errors by most left-wing parties and organizations. As such, it is an extremely valuable tool for analysis and action. I belong to a group in Barcelona opposed …
These 291 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 9:15pm GMT Permanent link.
Chronicle Of A Departure Foretold »
I feel dirty. Even though I knew that Shahbaz has left the BB house, his final hours on the show are excrutiating. What a bunch of bastards.
Nikki is a really nasty piece of work. Pete is a good lad. Only one of them cries tears.
She’s been great now: Mikey went to the diary room and therefore took Shiraz’s role as leader of the Big Brotherhood. Nikki: rolling on the couch: “Awwww. Why didn’t I go? [Kicking her legs] What’s wrong with me?” Where do you want me to start?
These 91 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 9:46pm GMT Permanent link.
Thursday, 25 May 2006
Educashun, Educashun, Educashun »
tehgrauniad Politics RSS Feed: “School bill passes with less rebels.” Fewer, for fuck’s sake, it’s fewer!
The article has a different headline, Education bill passes with smaller rebellion. Fixed? Here’s the first para:
The government’s controversial education bill easily passed its third reading in the Commons tonight but Tony Blair was again forced to rely on opposition support after 46 Labour backbencher’s rebelled.
These 33 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:20am GMT Permanent link.
More Pedantry »
If Polly Toynbee won’t call me a pedant, I’ll have to do it myself. Simon Hoggart calls for standards of public speaking.
The Tory leader assailed the prime minister over the failures of the Home Office. John Reid had said on Tuesday that the department was “not fit for purpose”.
(I hate this new, endlessly repeated phrase. It is ungrammatical. “Not fit for its purpose” would be fine. What’s wrong with “not up to the job”, or just “incompetent"? I’m told it may be an engineering term, referring to a part which does, or does not, do as it’s supposed. Politicians should learn that, like all cliches, it deadens the argument they are trying to make.)
Simon Hoggart should write on Comment is Free. He writes well. He’s amusing. He knows his subject. Ah, I see the problem now.
The prime minister started to blame the Tories. As he always does. Mr Cameron snapped back: “To try to blame previous Conservative home secretaries just won’t wash. You’ll be blaming Sir Robert Peel next!”
Tories, who have started to enjoy these bouts, cheered loudly. Mr Blair began a new riff: the Tories had voted against every measure designed to reduce crime. This riled them. They barracked. The Speaker intervened: “You must give the prime minister the right to reply.”
Speaking of the Home Office and, indeed, measures to reduce crime, Transylvania’s finest, Michael Howard, wrote an open letter to John Reid in the Torygraph, You must tell Tony to stop interfering.
As you may recall, it was during those four years [1993-7] that we turned the tide on rising crime. For the first time ever, crime fell by 18 per cent. There were nearly a million fewer crimes committed in 1997 than there were in 1993.
So it is possible to get a grip on the Home Office.
A few days earlier in the same paper, We’ve failed on crime, says Blair.
So, according to Michael Howard and Home Office statistics, crime fell under the Tories. According to Blair, New Labour has “failed on crime” and it has risen again. Also according to Blair, the Tories opposed Labour measures “designed to reduce crime”. These measures passed anyway. Crime rose. Were I a Tory, I don’t think I’d be hanging my head in shame.
These 152 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 10:52am GMT Permanent link.
Break Of Dawn »
Dawn is Shown the Door. She said she wanted to leave and criticized the show — and then they threw her out. I think this means that there won’t be an eviction tomorrow (as it’s only between two people now). I hope it means that because Uri Geller predicted that Bonner would leave on BBLB. After he “psychicly connected” with the house and discovered that “they all want to win.” Incredulous!
The more I know, the more I support Dr Andrew McCulloch, the chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation who complained to Channel 4 over the treatment of Shahbaz. (Via Stephen Tall.)
The Mirror has more than you’ll ever want to know. BIG BROTHER EXCLUSIVE: GAY HELL.
HOUSEMATE Shahbaz Chaudhdry was battered by his father in an “honour beating” hammer attack after he was caught wearing high heels to school.
Shahbaz, 37, was later disowned by his strict Muslim family after admitting he was gay.
Shocked friends watched as his father Muzammil — who was later prosecuted for assault — beat him with a claw hammer outside his school in Glasgow.
No wonder he’s a little odd. SHAHBAZ: I WILL KILL MYSELF. BIG BROTHER’S SHAHBAZ TELLS OF HIS PAIN.
The gay Glaswegian, 37, is said to be on suicide watch in a countryside hideaway following his tearful walkout.
And he told spin-off show Big Brother’s Little Brother last night: “I had to leave. I had no choice. I am disturbed.
“I never saw the breakdown coming. It’s because of everything I’ve been through from childhood to adulthood - home-lessness, starvation, sexual abuse, molestation and ostracisation.”
Camp Shahbaz did not reveal who had molested and abused him.
This is one of the worst pieces of hackery I’ve read since tehgrauniad “backbencher’s” piece this morning.
A Channel 4 insider confirmed: “Since he left the house, Shahbaz has been holed up in a hotel room. We have had security and mental health experts constantly keeping the closest eye on him. He’s not a well man.”
Ironically, it emerged yesterday that the former Big Brother star was sternly warned in August last year for allegedly pestering men for sex at a Glasgow gym.
It came after several fellow members of the council-run Kelvin Hall centre wrote to bosses accusing him of fondling, pestering and making appropriate comments to gay and straight men.
See? My emphasis. This BB is too much. This is feeble: Shahbaz misled Big Brother psychologists.
Shahbaz has now revealed how he cheated the process, admitting: “I volunteered only things Big Brother wanted to know — because I’m quite clever. I have been prescribed anti-depressants in the past and had some very, very low moments, but I thought I had got over it.”
It’s not you being clever, dear; it’s them not being up to the job. Who else have we in there?
EXCLUSIVE: BB LEA ‘HATED BODY AND TRIED TO KILL HERSELF’. Nikki is supposed to have been an anorexic. I can’t remember now where I read that, but someone who knew her when they were both in a clinic is supposed to have recognised her, and her theat to be sick if she drank bottled water makes it quite credible.
BUSTY Nikki Grahame had her breast implants free on the NHS because her flat chest was distressing her, it was claimed last night.
The promotions model’s one-time pal Yasmin Hasson said: “Nikki was completely flat-chested at 15.
But about four years ago the NHS paid for her to have breast implants.
“Her lack of a cleavage was damaging her psychologically.”
Yasmin, of Ilford, Essex, added: “Nikki’s ambition was to be famous. She talked about it all the time.”
And last night it emerged Nikki, 24, from Middlesex, had lied about coming fourth in Miss Hertfordshire 2004.
Event co-organiser Rhona Shafik, 55, said: “You can’t enter the competition if you’ve done topless modelling.
“I know all the girls who’ve reached the finals and I have never seen her.”
That’s at least three really disturbed people they’ve got there. You need a few screws loose to apply for BB, of course, but a 100K prize, free accomodation and food and possibly money from the press means that some balanced people apply. The psychologists are supposed to pick those.
These 301 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 3:23pm GMT Permanent link.
Friday, 26 May 2006
Not News »
Via P O’Neill, Washington Post: Bush, Blair Concede Missteps on Iraq.
The Telegraph has it slightly (but significantly) differently. Blair and Bush urge world to ‘stand firm’ on Iraq:
Both leaders accepted that mistakes had been made.
Mr Bush said that the scandal of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was the biggest from the US point if view.
Put like that, I’d agree. That is, the “the scandal of the abuse of prisoners” part. The WaPo feels inclined to elaborate.
He also said the “biggest mistake” for the United States was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which guards photographed themselves sexually tormenting Iraqi prisoners, spawning revulsion worldwide. “We’ve been paying for that for a long period of time,” he said.
The problem here seems to be that the guards “photographed themselves” and in doing so “spawn[ed] revulsion worldwide.” NPR has a Transcript of Bush-Blair News Conference and what he actually said was:
President Bush was asked: “…Which missteps and mistakes of your own [do] you most regret?” He replied:
“Saying “Bring it on.” Kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. That I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner. You know, “Wanted dead or alive,” that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted. And so I learned — I learned from that. And, you know, I think the biggest mistake that’s happened so far, at least from our country’s involvement in Iraq, is Abu Ghraib. We’ve been paying for that for a long period of time. And it’s — unlike Iraq, however, under Saddam, the people who committed those acts were brought to justice; they’ve been given a fair trial and tried and convicted.”
That’s more sensible than the WaPo gave him credit for. P O’Neill observes, however:
One of the few interesting moments in the Bush-Blair news conference was when they were both asked to describe their own mistakes in the Iraq war. Bush specified the “Bring it on” remark — note, he admits only to a rhetorical mistake and not any tactical mistakes, …
Indeed, Bush admits that the conduct in Abu Ghraib was unacceptable, but talks as though he believes that the fault lies with individual soldiers, and if there was a mistake further up the heirarchy, he’s not going to say what it was.
Can bloggers change the world? Well, as long as they have better memories than journalists, perhaps.
These 155 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:01pm GMT Permanent link.
Individual Conscience »
Harry Hutton considers the “thorny potato” of “blowing up Blair.” He considers the drawbacks:
Others would argue that blowing him up will only give him the publicity he craves.
And comes down in favour of good old British moderation.
Opinion on whether we should assassinate the PM has become dangerously polarised in recent months. It is time to take a step back and consider these questions calmly and dispassionately. And let us focus on the things that unite us, not those which divide us. At the end of the day, it is a matter of individual conscience whether one assassinates the Prime Minister.
Well said, sir.
These 27 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:20pm GMT Permanent link.
Monopoly Of Force »
Last Saturday, Mark Holland of Blognor Regis quoted Peter Hitchens in a post called Rights versus Freedom.
One of the things it should not have is a monopoly of force. Did you know you have a right to bear arms? Well, you do, except that in Britain it has been quietly whittled away and liberal judges - who don’t understand why this matters — haven’t defended it.
Perhaps Peter or Mark will now defend that right from liberal judges. BBC Girls ‘ordered out’ at gunpoint.
Three teenage girls have been ordered to leave Londonderry by a gang of masked and armed men who broke into a house in the city on Thursday night.
Six men armed with a handgun and a baseball bat entered the house at Galliagh Park at about 2230 BST.
The men put the gun to the head of one of the girls before ordering them all to leave the city within 24 hours.
I’m sure liberal judges are to blame for this somehow. I’m not crazy about either the state or the police, but if it’s a choice (as I believe it is) between state monopoly of violence and any tanked-up vigilante thug exercising his rights, I’ll take my chances with the former. And I hope the police catch those bastards.
These 93 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 12:42pm GMT Permanent link.
Tuesday, 30 May 2006
Panic In The Streets Of Oxford »
This blog is dead. It will rise again, but the code is kind of fiddly.
Morrissey, however, is god. Morrissey threatens Oxford vivisectionists. That’s the Torygraph (splendidly not saying “Who is Morrissey?").
Image pinched from here. There are more happy pictures there. Go on, vivisection is great. It’s science. Descartes says so.
The singer Morrissey has waded into the controversy over the new Oxford animal research laboratory, using a concert as an opportunity to warn those working on the site “we’ll get you”.
During his concert at Oxford’s New Theatre on Thursday night, the singer hit out at the £20 million biomedical research laboratory site currently under construction in South Parks Road.
He branded Oxford “the shame of England” for allowing the laboratory and told fans: “If you agree with vivisection, go and be vivisected upon yourself”.
…
The singer, who counts Tory leader David Cameron as one of his fans, also said he understood “why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence - it is because they deal in violence themselves and it’s the only language they understand”.
They experimented on people in Auschwitz. That research could have saved lives, but there are principled people who won’t let it be published. That’s a very sound point of view. As those results haven’t been published, it’s hard to reach any conclusion, but maybe they learned something — and there are people suffering as a result. What bastards, eh?
An Oxford University spokesman added that the singer had a right to express his opinions “within the law”.
Ooh, rights and law, there’s a difficult one. There are state-given rights and there is what one considers right. Go on, Moz, you speak for me.
These 138 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 9:21pm GMT Permanent link.
Blair Invites Head Of International Paedophile Ring To UK »
This headline occurred to me yesterday, and I rejected it, but I’ve had a drink, and it sums up how I feel. Not as a guard, this time: Pope heads to Auschwitz.
Oliver Kamm, who I infrequently agree with, is spot on: Did Benedict XVI need to apologise at Auschwitz? Is the Pope Catholic?
Torygraph: Tony Blair to invite Pope to Britain.
Last word to The Onion: Pope Forgives Molested Children.
Very last word to John Paul or whatever his new alias is: “Anti-Semite, me? I helped them meet their maker. A little early, but what’s a few years? Sieg Heil! Er, that last part is off the record, Ja?”
These 110 words were hurriedly scribbled by Dave @ 9:52pm GMT Permanent link.