They are undoubtedly the worlds greatest Ras and Bomba clarts. The Purser I dealt with had all the charm of an Ustache or Chetnik torturer. Value for mone? My arse, as a foot passenger it is ridiculously expensive. How does someone writing about crossings by ferry on the Irish Sea constitute a "security risk"? You have not heard the last of this...

Tags: xanthous
Current Mood: working

An unwritten constitution will get one as far as an unprinted five pound note. The theme "A broken constitution?" is being mooted by Centreforum yet "some" see this as risible. With figures such as Baroness Helena Kennedy involved along with Lord Carlile it seems most of the progressive cognoscenti of the legal world disagree with the Blair Fan Club, most shabby. Still, a question that must be asked is "When should direct action be launched?" I cannot see the nations favourite Portia being aux barricades but there comes a time (rapidly approaching if not here already) that one must adopt what Mishima termed the "Harmony of pen and sword".
Now to the maghreb where on 15th May last year a group of peaceful students decided to stand up to another regime. Amnesty are publicizing this case.
Finally, what happened to the comments (very few of which were complimentary to Insp Truscott and P.C Plod) on the Birmingham Six post? It has reappeared denuded of any criticism. I would just like to say..........

Tags: law & order
Current Mood: loved

Barry Horne, 18 years for arson, Tracey Connolly less than 7 for Baby Peter. Barry Horne was an animal rights activist, his offence if one wishes to use that nomenclature was to wage what became, in effect, a one man war. Labour pledged an enquiry into animal testing in 1997 yet this has never happened. Blair et al would not lie to us would they? Barry Horne died as a result of hunger strikes on 5th November 2001, hardly the actions of an old lag. P.C Bill Barker of Cumbria is already being eulogised and for obvious reasons will not receive any here. There is a visceral hatred of the police in the far left, where does it originate? From every "fitting up", from every de Menezes, Tomlinson, Alder, Stanley, Ashley, .....
There was not much bible study at any of the demonstrations I attended from Clifton Rise in Lewisham in 1977 to the City Hall of Belfast 2009. Yet the quote from Romans "Vengeance is mine" has a resonance.

Tags: law & order, violence, zebus
Current Mood: loved

Channel 4, 800 p.m GMT. Very close to saying "The Jews control the media". It can be taken as read that Israel is willing to put up a good P.R campaign. Yet surely opposing buying Israeli boycotts (for which read Do not buy at Jewish shops) is on a different level from supporting all actions of the Israeli government (I do not, by the way). Starting with B.I.C.O.M, I looked at their website and surprisingly it is an organization that supports British-Israeli relations. Turning to the Zionist Federation when I visited it all I got was a blank page and a security warning for my laptop. (Is it a goy computer, I wonder?) The Board of Deputies of British Jews (established by the sephardim in 1760) was mentioned. Yes, of course political pressure can be brought to bear (as with economic pressure) but that is of a very different order to saying that any remarks against Israel are censored by the media here. C.A.M.E.R.A (based in the United States, or as Ezra Pound called it the Jewnited States) had a website on the middle east. Your biased reporting is someone elses unbiased reporting. Finally Honest Reporting were mentioned. Thus far they have not alerted Mossad to my blog. Only joking Shin Beth. So now, a fairly pro-Israeli blog. This raises a few points. Months ago I was castigated for not being "anti-Islam". Why should I be? I upset (some) of the Umma for being "too nice" to Jews. This is where the argument falls down. If the Jewish lobby are so powerful and wealthy where is my villa in Italy? My bulging wallet? What am I, a schmuck on wheels?

Tags: israel, judaism, meshuganah, sephardim, yiddish
Current Mood: sympathetic

Once upon a time Noddy drove west trying to find out what was going on at Rossport. With massive cuts to pensions, welfare payments and special needs schools surely the government in Ireland weren't going to hit the poorest people whilst bailing out wealthy banks and financial institutions? "Parp, parp" Noddy sounded his horn at the roadblock. Lots of police stood about ensuing democracy by arresting anyone who did not support Shell and by extension the Irish parliament. It was a typical County Mayo day, rain followed by more rain. Noddy stopped to buy a copy of "Socialist Worker" and discuss smashing bourgoise revisionism. P.C Plod came up the road, he had been playing "Catch your cabbage" which was an essential part of training at Templemore. "Surely the salient point of a democracy is to permit dissent?" Big Ears asked but before he could get a reply Plod had whacked the peaceful protesters over the head with a truncheon. "Ouch" Noddy said before going into political asylum.

Tags: foxes

It is exactly a year since I was abroad, in Belgium on the Ypres salient where my paternal Grandfathers eldest brother's luck ran out in the pre-dawn darkness in 1915. Why should a bullet shot by a German (or Bulgarian or Turk?) miss my Grandfather yet kill the man beside him? Happenstance or guardian angels take your pick. I visited nearly all the cemeteries on the salient, one struck me as unique. A line of gravestones with titles, double-barrelled surnames and ranks of at least divisional level. A book enlightened me, there had been a direct hit by German artillery on H.Q. General The Honourable Tarquin Featherstonehaugh-MacCorquodale lies forever beside Private Bill Kelly. Land fit for heroes? We are still waiting. The introduction of FIND (Facial Image National Database) and MIDAS (Mobile Identification At Scene). The obscenity of war weighed against the increasing obscenity of peace. PHOTOGRAPH.

Tags: salonica
Current Mood: sad

Shlomo Sand may not know who "the Jews" are but their detractors certainly do. "How the Jewish people was invented" is causing quite a stir. Were the Khazars proto-Ashkenazim as claimed? Indeed Wexler addressed a related issue with "Non Jewish origins of the Sephardim". Where does the truth lie? With Sol Nazerman in "The Pawnbroker" telling a Puerto Rican "You start with a great bearded myth..." Sand is said to have uncovered proof that early Jews were proselytisers, tending to fly in the face of orthodox wisdom (no pun intended).
Another hot topic is that the Arab Palestinians are the true inheritors of the mantle of the old pre roman kingdom of Israel. Fukuyama said that we have arrived at "The End of History" yet I am unsure that millions of Jews and tens of millions of Arabs will concur.

Tags: judaism, sephardim
Current Mood: sympathetic

With Remembrance Sunday at the weekend (though it is mid week the 11th Armistice Day falls on) we will see an outpouring of , well, what exactly? Banal nationalism? Glorification of war? Labour trying to convince us that if Afghanistan falls we will be fighting Johnny Taleban in Somerset? Following on from the previous post it is the aspect of commemoration ,and an opportunity for third rate local politicians to place a wreath on Brentford War Memorial, as they did at my last English appearance two years ago. (Last year was the real deal, when I was at the Menin Gate). The far right will use the occasion to tub thump along with their armed and uniformed wing, the police. Funny how plod tries to steal the laurels that rightly belong to dead men. The U.A.F have a few plans of their own
http://action.hopenothate.org.uk
Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, Sunday 8th Nov 11a.m, Walthamstow, Saturday 7th Nov 11a.m and others. For a Labour government that whinges on about supporting the armed forces the idea of having a national holiday (as the rest of Europe) seems distant.

Tags: meshuganah
Current Mood: mellow

 If "V" were set in Rotherham instead of Los Angeles the aliens would die of hypothermia and everyone would keep their clothes on. "Fast Forward" has an excellent premise but is bogged down with longeurs into the characters love-lives. The same promising start with "Lost" was dissipated by an over-long elaboration. The sci-fi element of  Fast Forward is engaging - Higgs Bosons, the uncertainty principle with a side order of Schrodinger's Cat. Is the future immutable? Determinism, covered by the Calvinists, pre-destination. Or perhaps we just want to see Babes and Hunks getting naked, instead? Hard to know when to stop a good film or series, "Das Boot" and "Magnolia" could do with some judicious editing.  
Finally, 

Tags: quarks
Current Mood: quixotic

Here is the cut for the top ten, an eclectic mix you will agree.
1.Barclay Bros, BNP and Torygraph.
2.Why Australia is better than Britain.
3.Convention on Modern Liberty.
4.Spratly Islands.
5.Stop Islamophobia.
6.Anglo-French differences.
7.Men who have sex with men.
8.Ghost Road, Galway, 1929.
9. Italy and illegal immigrants.
10. Sveiks and schmucks, Storm-troopers in  a tea cup.

Tags: internet
Current Mood: impressed