A tale of two by-elections

Pictured above, and leaning to the right as always, I give you Mr David Davis, former Shadow cabinet minister, currently feted as the only man with backbone or principles in the Houses of Parliament who threw his rattle out of the pram over the busines of 42 day detention of ..... well who, exactly ? In theory people who the forces of law and order feel are a terrorist threat, but in practice probably anyone who takes a dislike to Gordon Brown's policies and stands up and says so at the next New Liebour Party Conference. After all, that's what happenned to an OAP with the bottle to give Tony Blair a piece of his mind, wasn't it. Tony's plod chums used the anti-terrorist legislation to remove the said OAP from the hall.

So maybe Mr Davis has a point of principle after all. It's such a shame no-one in New Liebour feels inclined to come and stand against him on a 'intern the buggers and throw away the key' ticket. And the "Lib Dems" won't field a candidate because they say they agree with him. Such a shame, and such a waste of time and money.

But fear not, where one door closes another often opens. And enter (or rather exit) the man pictured above. Step forward and take your (farewell) bow Mr David Marshall, currently the New Liebour member for the constituency of Glasgow East. A man with a majority of over 13,000 who has apparently served his country as a Member of Parliament since 1979 (and probably collected a few million in expenses as a result). But Mr Marshall has found ill health is forcing him to take his snout out of the trough and disembark from the gravy train. An act that has precipitated a by-election.

"Not Flash Just" Gordon Brown must be REALLY enjoying his first anniversary in Number Ten. And look, here is a golden opportunity for the sheep to line up and show their appreciation by voting in another red rosette wearer eager to dip their snout in the westminster trough with the others.

I'll tell you what would make me REALLY impressed, David Davis. Why not abandon this waste of money by-election in your old constituency and go stand on the same 'No Erosion Of Personal Freedoms" ticket as the Tory candidate for Glasgow East.

You never know. With the way Gordon's popularity is shrivelling you might just be the start of a Tory revival north of Hadrian's wall.

Two Damn Good Reasons New Liebour Must Be Defeated

It's been an interesting week.

The British National Party will no doubt see their ranks, and coffers, swelled thanks to the action of Gordon Brown's Equality Minister. As of now, it is no longer illegal to discriminate against a white man. Those of us living west of offas's dyke have always known the ENGLISH-SPEAKING white man is treated like a piece of shit, with Employment Tribunals upholding refusals on the part of Carmarthenshire companies to employ people who can't speak welsh on the grounds that "they would not be able to understand instructions given to them in welsh by their managers", planning consents being refused on the grounds that "they represent an unwarrranted intrustion of english language speaking people", and the Police Force - or at least that part of it bribed by the welsh druids - refusing to employ people who cannot speak the language.

Well, to add to that, it is now legal across the UK for an employer to turn away a white man. Harriet harman says this is to be encouraged to the fullest extent posible. And she should know, she, after all, considers men unneccessary and berates women who choose to stay at home to bring up their children.

And how is Gordon brown this morning, one year in to his Prime Ministership ? Well, he probably choked over his morning toast and cornflakes today, on finding that his party came fifth in the Henley by-election. Now I must admit that henley-upon-thames is hardly the place where fuel poverty would rear its head, so perhaps it is not surprising that some people are still willing to stand up for the green party - who STILL feel we need to be taxed of the roads even more than we are now, and I am surprised to find that a constituency which elected the descendant of a muslim to westminster should boast a level of BNP support in exces of that for New Liebour, but there we are. Today, Gordon Brown's party has come fifth behind David Cameron's man, Nick Clegg's candidate, The Green Man, and Mr Griffin's offering.

Had the BNP been a little more democratic towards the english and fronted a candidate with as much 'front' as two of the "also rans" they might even have made new Liebour's candidate look a bigger tit than they already have been shown to be.

Happy Prime Ministerial Birthday Gordon. Keep this up and you won't get another !

Stonehenge too far ? There's always Barry Island

It must be a terrible thing to be an eco-pagan. There you are, all excited at your own little 'hajj' to the greatest feat of engineering Britain has ever seen, when you are overcome with a guilt complex that has nothing to do with the worry of footage of you prancing starkers in an english field being plastered on youtube and from there reviewed by a million blogsites....

No, your fears are more primaeval and strike at the heart of your eco-warrior religion. For it occurs to you that in order to travel to this crossroads of our ancient civilisation to worship the earth you have to hammer another nail into the already pretty well crucified body of the earth mother goddess. So to salve your conscience, why not go here instead.


You'll be in good company. A group of pagans are celebrating the summer solstice at Barry Island rather than Stonehenge - because the town's beach offers convenience and quiet. Around a dozen devotees are taking the train to the seaside town to mark the passing of the year's longest day. Their sacred ritual of dance and music finishes with them leaping a bonfire. Organiser Kim Huggens said: "Barry Island will be as sacred to us at that moment as Stonehenge is to the druids."

And the best bit is that they don't have to bunk off college to do it. The members of Cardiff and Swansea universities' pagan societies say the midsummer ritual is a "spontaneous" event as it falls outside of term time.

I've been up since an hour after dawn, in my office loking out across the river. The cloud cover is impressive and it is drizzling in the way that only the welsh weather knows how.

You'll need that bonfire at Barry, Pal. You'll catch your death of pneumonia. And enjoy it while you can. If the carbon footprint Nazi's have their way, you'll end up with a beach bonfire ban like these yanks are facing

"I didn't vote. I couldn't understand it properly"

Chilling evidence this morning from the BBC website.

If you pop over to here you will find something most unusual. Under a banner headline "EU grapples with Irish 'No' Vote" the BBC say this :-

"Governments in the European Union are exploring what to do after the Irish Republic's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty to reform the expanded EU. France and Germany have described the No vote in the referendum as a serious blow but have urged the EU to press ahead with the project. European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said the treaty was not dead. But Czech President Vaclav Klaus said the treaty was finished, since any further ratification was impossible. His is a lone voice among EU leaders, but his views will probably resonate with many European voters who did not get a say in a referendum, says the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels."

And then at the right of the page you see a picture of a smiling young woman. Click the image and you are presented with the chilling facts as the slideshow opens to show seven pictures, seven people, and prints their seven opinions. I feel compelled to cut and paste the lot, it is so important, but that would be unfair, so I shall paraphrase.

I click the link and the first picture I see is of a man about half my age with a friendly smile. His hair is short, he wears an open necked denim shirt, sports a large but plain round ear-ring in each ear, and what I suppose used to be called 'designer stubble'. Or maybe he's half way to growing a presentable beard. And yet this man is the saviour of us all. The words under his picture say it all. "I voted No because I believe Ireland's sovereignty and neutrality are extremely important. The whole European Union regime is getting ridiculous and is too underhand to even follow. Ireland was oppressed for 800 years and we've only been free for 80 years. To hand it over to Europe now would be ridiculous"

The next picture is of a clean shaven dark haired younger man. Clean shaven, fresh faced, eyes wide open but with a strange look. He reminds me of a youthful David Nimmo in his role as the curate in All Gas and Gaiters. But his expressionless stare worries me. This chap, with a greek-sounding name, says he voted yes "because there is no point in being separatist" and worryingly for me he believes that "next time we won't be asked to vote". Why is that worrying ? well, the only reason the Irish voted this time is because THEIR constitution demands it. It would be typical of the EU to oil and bribe their way by hook or by crook to a position where they could indeed sidestep this little stumbling block to conquest. Your words, young man, are prophetic, and you know it not.

Next up is a woman of 54. The first thing I notice about her is her hair. When she was half her age I bet those flame-red locks would have turned the heads of every man in the street. Now I see she, like me and like Mrs JoG too, is going grey gracefully at the edges. She voted No and is delighted with the result because she felt a lot of people did not understand the issue, and she felt it was really important to vote No because a lot of people in other countries were denied a vote, and so she was voting for them, too. Thank you, Mrs Doyle. Are you listening, Gordon ?

Next up is a young man of 22 who looks like Bob Geldof did when he was 22 but this chap is ALREADY an accountant. He voted Yes because he "didn't really see it is a major issue. I didn't see that there were going to be that many changes as a result of it - other than make it a more equal union. And I didn't like the No side - they exaggerated things, played on peoples' fears - and told too many lies". Really ?

Next up is a blonde woman about the same age as my eldest daughter who voted No and is glad because "a Yes vote would have been bad for Ireland ... I don't agree with a lot of Europe's policies - which seem to be taking power away from our parliament ... I don't think that's fair". Now then Mr Accountant, can you explain why taking power away from your parliament is not really a major issue ..... It's that sort of talk that will have you denied a voice when the EU Overlords make their next assault.

Last but one is a bloke who bears more than a passing resemblance to my father in his later years. This chap voted yes and had no problem with it, and is astonished the vote was lost, saying that he knows someone voted No because they did not like the present government and feels they have made a big mistake. He may be right, the conquerors often come with beads and trinkets before they come back with swords.

Last up on the list is a girl of 20 with deep red hair and I bet the 54 year old Mrs Doyle, pictured earlier, looked just like her when she was 20. Just like Mrs JoG bore a stunning resemblance to Kate Beckinsale as pictured in the promotional material for Van Helsing. Ah, what it is to be a man of fifty looking back three decades and remembering with a wry smile what it was like to be a man of twenty. But this young student's words worry me most of all. Indeed they chill me to the bone. She admits "I didn't vote. The reason is the brochures they sent out were full of language that was so convoluted I couldn't understand it properly. I didn't really have a clue what I was voting."

It isn't her fault that politicians seek to obfuscate the truth. That is, after all, what they do. When Marcus Brigstoke met the former Tory Front Bencher David Davis ona train to Rugby to do an interview with him on the cynicism of the electorate, the man who walked over the 42 day limit said it wasn't the electorate's job to come up with the answers, thatw as what he and his 650 odd fellows were paid to do. But it was his job to listen to the electorate before coming up with the answers. Prophesising his own actions, no doubt. Mr Davis is being held up simultaneously as "our last honoirable politician" and "a grand egotist pulling a futile stunt".

I don't know which is closer to the mark. But I know that today Gordon Brown will take solace in the words of that young redhead. For while there are people that can be bamboozled into standing idly on the sidelines as he railroads us headlong into oblivion, he can still hope he will get away with it and by the time we realise, it will be too late.

Hurrah For The Irish

In this post I point out the political ends to which the horse has been put by politician and campaigner alike.

Well, as I got to find out first hand whilst writing software for one of the largest chains of bookies in the country, the Irish know a thing or two about horses and how they behave on a race track. Cheltehham Gold Cup Day and all that.

And the Irish know a thing or two about lying scheming politicians too.

And today I doff my hat to every one of them and offer to stand any I meet this afternoon a pint of Guinness.

For we have, today, been saved from the latest attempt by Brussels to ride roughshod over us.

Read the glorious details here

Please Sir, Can I be arrested as a Terrorist ? I could do with Forty Two GRAND

Latest in the I just don't fscking believe it line from the bunch of nutters someone (not me, pal) elected to run this godforseken hellhole we call Britain.

If the reports on The Toady Programme are to be believed, New Liebour is so bloody acared of being told NIET to it's "we gotta bang 'em up for six weeks" demands that they are now proposing to pay COMPENSATION to people detained for between 29 and 42 days and rthen released without charge.

How much compensation ?

THREE GRAND A DAY that's how much

As one person e-mailed into the programme, "Excuse Me Mr Policeman, I am an Explosives Inspector and I have many asian friends. Could you please arrange to lock me up on suspicion of imparting my knowledge to them, as we could really do with forty two thousand pounds"

Madness. Utter, utter madness.

Yesterday's Men Recycle Yesterdays News

There are times I think I have borrowed the little blue home of the green arrow and set the gear lever in reverse. There really are.

A comment left on on one of my earlier posts led me to an Unofficial Wigan and Leigh BNP page where I doff my hat to them for finding this little gem

Hundreds of manufacturing jobs heading to Newport

"Four hundred and sixty manufacturing jobs will be created at Newport, where one of Ireland’s leading companies has purchased the former LG Philips building from the Welsh Assembly Government. The Quinn Group is making a £133 million investment to consolidate and expand its domestic radiator manufacturing operations."

Sounds Good. Until you realise that in order to "relocate" the company destroyed the lives of several hundred workers in its former site at Leigh.

But NOW things get wierd. I decided to see if google would be my friend and dish the dirt on this little number, and star billing in my search went to this page on the Welsh Assembly Government site

It won't take you very long to realise the Welsh Assembly Government page is a word for word clone of the Newport Burghers effort. Even down to quoting "Councillor Erryl Heath, Newport City Council cabinet member for development and employment".

Well so what ? It's merely one arm of government recycling the lies and spin created by another, the gordon brown "say it often enough and the fools will believe it" approach. And maybe it is. But that Welsh Assembly Government Press Release is in the ARCHIVE section of their site and is dated AUGUST 16TH 2005.

And it doesn;'t take much playing with Newport's Find My Councillor page to discover no councillor named Erryl Heath.

We had two momentous local elections in Newport. New Liebour were reduced to scrabbling for scraps from the waste bucket on May 1st, and only last week we hammered the last nail in the coffin by electing three lib dems as the only effective way not to give New Liebour back overall control of tis rotten borough that became a jumped up johnny come lately city a short while ago.

I think Yesterday's men have recycled yesteryear's news

The home of the green arrow

I would like to take a few moments to shamelessly plug, and shamelessly thank for a similarly shameles plug, an old friend of mine, The Green Arrow. A man who poses such a threat to New Liebour and their professional thugs that they see fit to create a spoof site and indulge in a bit of blogspot identity theft in the process.

But what's this ? I fear we have a security breach. Here for all to see is the secret entrance to the BNP Batcave, sited momentarily just around the corner from the latest employment opportunity for those who "enrich" our society straight after leaping out of the lorry that brought them throught the tunnel.



Well, I am afraid it is time to reveal the secret weapon that GA has at his disposal. You see, he's being a litle bit cheeky here. He's only shown you the rear view of 'Chez GA'.

Here's the view from the other side.....

Ah, The enthusiasm of the young

Ah, what it is to be twenty two on a bright sunny summer evening. The sun glinting off the river, the long grass swaying gently in the breeze. The scent of wild flowers that almost, but not quite, overpowers the less fragrant aroma wafting downriver from the sewage works ... yes, in the midst of life, we are in shit. And what better way to know it that a stroll along the bank of the River Usk after a hot sunny early summer day....


But today is no ordinary day. Today is the day New Liebour face up to the reality that they no longer call the shots unaided in the Unitary Authority of Newport. For today is the day that the voters of Bettws and St Julians get to elect the final six nails that will be hammered into Labour's coffin.

Bettws of course is the sink estate from hell west of the A4042. Famous in my book for housing the unlicenced taxi cabbie that drove his cab straight through my front lawn, taking my fences with it, and the uninsured piece of shit that shot the red lights to race across into Malpas Road, taking the corner of my Mini with her. Neither of which the plod showed any interest in pursuing. A sink estate from hell that will almost certainly return three New Liebour cronies.

And the sickening thing is, unless I vote for the "Tabibin" Liberal Democrats, staunch supporters of rising petrol prices on the grounds that being unable to drive to work is good for us, even stauncher supporters of the Pikey's right to soil our playing fields with their filth in their illegal caravan encampments, and positively wetting themselves over the fact that jackbooted council workers can sit on their arses paid from the astronomical council tax to sit around by their un-driven dustcarts whilst our streets stink from a fortnight's uncollected refuse, unless I vote for those worthless pieces of shit who think it is an achievement to get a street light working, I will find my home and the land it stands on ruled once again (ridden roughshod over, more like) by the red scum again.

Where the hell are the BNP when you **REALLY** need them, and where the hell is a PROPER electoral system that makes these gravy train rides cower in fear at the thought of being handed a P45 ?

But what's this I hear ? A knock on the door, and a fresh faced youth carrying a collection of 'Vote Labour' leaflets is ushered into my living room by my elder daughter, who recognises him from the time they were in school together just a few years back.

Apparently employed as a researcher by our local MP, the chap has taken a day off to deliver party leaflets. Now this in itself is interesting, because in my day it was illegal to canvass on polling day, but apparently the oficials in charge of this election have agreed it is ok to deliver leaflets today which urge you to vote labour, just so long as the people delivering the leaflets don't ASK you to vote labour, and as long as, when challenged on the subject by people like me who recolelct how the law USED to be upheld, respond that the leaflet itself merely points out what the party has done......

It occurs to me this chap will do rather well for himself in the party. He's already sounding like the Attorney General after the advice of the illegality (sorry, non-illegality) of our participation in Bush's military adventures in Iraq was revealed to all and sundry, and he's quite good at keeping his cool under pressure.

And he's actually looking forward to going to the count tonight which he expects will keep him awake until at least 3am.

I'm impressed.

No, I really am impressed. Im impressed that someone that young is actually interested in getting involved in politics. It's a shame I'm paying his salary out of the bungs Jessica Morden gets courtesy of my tax bill, but hell, at least I'm not funding Lee Jasper.

But I wonder if this fresh faced chap will still be this interested in the subset of Liars Buggers and Thieves led by 'Not Flash, Just Gordon' when he starts paying the sort of tax bills I get.

Still, at least he will know who to blame when the time comes !

Boris Johnson's Rolling Stone Moment

Could Radio 4 be sensing the mood of the country at last ? And that their persistent fawning over politicians is going to get their heads firmly stuck on a spike ?

So it would seem.

Radio 4's "Front Row" arts programme is not, perhaps, the place you would expect to hear a politician getting "paxoed" in a way I have not heard since John Nott stormed out of the studio after Robin Day correctly identified him as "A humble politician, here today and, if i may say, gone tomorow"

However, at a press conference organised for the purposes of damage control, Boris was savaged by Radio 4's Front Row presenter over his "Rolling Stone Moment". Referring to Mick and Keith's track "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (which I will now forever associate with David Duchovny getting a Blow Job from a nun in the opening moments of "Californication") the normally placid mild mannered reporter crawled out of his Geoffrey Howe Dead Sheep costune and gave Boris the interview from hell.

Boris, of course, made it an election campaign point that he would terminate the competion, launched by yesterday's Man Red Ken, which will see the latest offerings in the line of unmade beds and dead cows in formaldehyde on that hallowed ground, and erect in its place a permanent statue to a world war two veteran. Bit once "in power" he has been forced to admit that Red Ken stitched him up as he has "no powers to do anything to stop the fourth plinth commission" ?

Go listen to the recording while you still can, or download it as a podcast from the BBC Radio 4 website. It is a truly tide-turning moment.

Edit: tell you what, do yourself a favour. Click here and listen for yourself at leisure

The pikeys are coming - and plod is on their side

Two stories from the BBC news website which should raise alarm bells for every council tax payer in the land.

The first one is from the 28th May where it is now "inappropriate" for pub landlords in North Wales to tell the world that pikeys are not welcome to drink in their homes. Read it for yourself here

"A senior police officer has raised concerns about a "bigoted and unpleasant" sign banning travellers from entering a pub. North Wales Police assistant chief constable Ian Shannon was on a licensing visit when he saw the notice. Writing in his blog, Mr Shannon said it was worrying that the owner did not recognise the sign was inappropriate."

Now if you know ANYTHING about licensing laws you know that a pub landlord has the absolute right to deny admission to his premises and there is **NO** right of appeal. The rationale is simple; the bar and lounge are in law considered part of the landlord's home and you are there as his/her guest. I recall drinking in many establishments up and down this fine country of ours all displaying signs saying "NO TRAVELLERS" and damn fine drinking establishments they were too.

But no more it seems. these days we are required to roll over and take it up the arse. For the story goes on "The matter was reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the sign has been removed."

Ominously this worthless piece of shit in uniform went on to suggest that "the prejudice that underlies" violence against italian gypsies cannot be allowed to lurk in the background here.

Really ? Well Mr Shannon I suggest you keep your Taser fully charged pal as you are quite likely to need it. Because while you are telling the law abiding, tax paying majority of good citizens on their patch that they must be nice to pikey scum, you refuse point blank to do anything about a horde of them that have decided to set up home without asking for planning permission to do so on land outside Wrexham.

Frankly, I am surprised you have done nothing, Mr Shanon. After all, your boss Mr Blue Clown Brunstrom is on record as saying heroin should be legalised so you can concentrate on the real criminals in your community - motorists. And we all know that every pikey wagon is towed by a clapped out, un-MOT'd. uninsured transit with a guinness label where the tax disc should be.

Now I was going to insert in here a link to the fact that MY council tax bill included the cost of the SEVENTY THOUDSAND POUNDS the council spent clearing up an illegal pikey site round the corner from Junction 28of the M4 but when I went to look for it I found something MUCH, MUCH Better. As the NUJ guidelines require that I must, when discussing pikey's, always give THEIR point of view, I thought I'd put in a link to THIS BBC News Talking Point page, where I will quote the comment our TV licence fees are giving the oxygen of publicity

On that comment page you will see "RG, Traveller" has said As a traveller, I don't see why I should pay taxes to a country that neither welcomes me or caters to my needs. Why should I contribute to a system which is weighted against me?

I'll tell you why, you thieving, tax avoiding piece of shit. Because this bloody government, and the one before it, and the one before that has done piss all for ME and taxed MY arse off, that's why. Because this bloody government has forced a man who lived round the corner to demolish the conservatory he had built to enjoy his garden before he died of cancer after some piss-head of a jobsworth found it was six inches too big, that's why. because while they were forcing a dying man to knock down his only chance of enjoying his garden for one last summer they were at the same time taking a SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND POUND BACKHANDER laundered by a property developer who wanted to say thank you for swinging a planning decision his way, that's why.

And because if you want to live in a bloody caravan then pay Haven Holidays Five Thousand Pounds a Year to have it put in one of their holiday parks you piece of shit.