The three lies that prove the scam

Booker on wind energy in The Daily Mail. "Why the £250bn wind power industry could be the greatest scam of our age - and here are the three 'lies' that prove it," runs the title.

"Only in Britain is our political class still so imprisoned in its infatuation with wind that it is prepared to court this dangerously misguided pipe dream", says Booker. Well worth the read. In the old days of steam journalism, this would have been one to cut out and keep.

Meanwhile, The Guardian is bitching about the Tories ditching a key element of their "green" policy – the green ISAs. Hailed by the child Osborn, he told his admirer in 2008 that: "Green ISAs will engage the public in a new way in the issues around climate change and show them very clearly the economic benefits of green investment."

This either makes the Tories hypocrites about as big as Charlie Boy, or suggests that they might be seeing the light. The former is more probable, reflecting the simple truth that greenery is costing them money we haven't got.

COMMENT THREAD

This cannot continue

The Daily Mail tells us a story about an Englishman's home being his castle, or so the saying goes.

However, after squatters moved into John Hamilton-Brown's new £1million five bedroom home he has been forced to beg them to get out through his letterbox. Yet the group of foreigners who have taken possession, have been granted legal aid to fight an eviction order - while Hamilton-Brown has been forced to represent himself.

The father-of-two was having the property renovated for his wife and two young daughters before they moved in when a dozen people from France, Spain, Poland and England sneaked in during the night. The occupants are part of a growing army of squatters banding together and seeking out empty homes.

And now we come to the money quote. The group occupying Mr Hamilton Brown's home qualified for legal aid because they are EU citizens and unemployed.

Sometimes words are not enough. But for the moment, they are all we have got. We can only record, therefore, that this is what happens when you break down national barriers and lose control over making your own laws. If these people were not given legal aid, they could sue for compensation under EU law.

You will not get many saying this in the media, but it exemplifies why we must leave the EU. The other day, talking to the MP person as I was, I suggested that if this sort of thing continued (I gave different examples), we (generic – not necessarily EU Ref readers) would eventually start killing people.

He did not turn a hair. A few years back, I would have politely been shown the door. They know ... we know. This cannot continue.

COMMENT THREAD

Reform of the BBC

Don't think about it – it has gone too far down the rotten road. It is beyond redemption. Just stop paying the BBC tax.

COMMENT THREAD

A nation of people

Huge numbers of Britons would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party if it was not associated with violence and fascist imagery, according to the largest survey into identity and extremism conducted in the UK. This is according to a Populus poll, reported by The Observer.

It finds that 48 percent of respondents answered their questions in such a way as to allow their answers to be construed as demonstrating their willingness to consider supporting a new anti-immigration party committed to challenging Islamist extremism. That's not the sexiest way of putting it, but perhaps more accurate.

Similarly, the majority responded in the affirmative to an embedded question which asked whether they would support policies to make it statutory for all public buildings to fly the flag of St George or the union flag.

This, incidentally, is the Populus that has its founder Andrew Cooper taking leave of absence to become director of political strategy at 10 Downing Street working directly to the Prime Minister. Perhaps he might take the findings with him and lay them in front of his new boss – not that the Euroslime Dave would be able to take them on board.

However, whatever the detail of the findings, they do lend support too a suggestion that there is room for a true, mainstream nationalist party. That is perhaps where the true political divide lies. At the moment, all three main parties are tranzie-orientated, which means that the majority of the population are no longer politically represented.

This further suggests that the main political objective must be to recover and rehabilitate nationalism, projecting it as a force for good. It has been tainted by Nazism and Fascism and the tranzies have dined off the disorder ever since.

That, though, was state nationalism. I'm thinking we need people's nationalism – early days yet, but the germ of an idea is forming. A state run by a nation of people, not a nation of people run by a state. It is a question of who is in charge.

COMMENT THREAD

No Greens in the Emerald State

The complications of the Irish voting system mean that the results are still not fully in, and the election count is not a lot more exciting that a synchronised paint drying contest. Only forget the synchronised bit - we're saving that for the burnings.

State of play, if you can call it that, is that Ireland's main opposition party Fine Gael, looks set to take the final seats, giving it a record 75 plus. That isn't enough for a majority in the 166-seat lower chamber, so it will have to do a deal with the Labour Party which is close to its all-time record of 33 seats.

The greatest joy is that the Greens have been totally stuffed, losing all their six seats. It's funny how it works that way. They do alright until they get a bit of power – then people realise how absolutely crap they are, and they never get another look in. That's what's happening in Germany.

Happily Fianna Fail was set for a record rout with just 14 seats and Sinn Fein, best known as the political wing of the now-dormant Irish Republican Army, is close to trebling its 2007 election result with 13 seats. Some 14 seats have gone to independents.

Whether any of this makes any difference at all remains to be seen, but at least we don't have to look at Cowen any more ... until he turns up again with a nice little earner, courtesy of the "colleagues". A napalm sandwich would be a better idea, but then these people never get what they deserve.

COMMENT: IRISH ELECTION THREAD

Follow the money

Booker today focuses on one of those groups which have a huge interest in keeping the great global warming scare alive.

This is the re-insurance industry, which charges retail insurers for "catastrophe cover", paid for by all of us through our house insurance premiums, on the retail insurance market. And, as Booker says, no financial interest stands to make more from exaggerating the risks of climate change than this sector. In a process close to market rigging, if it can talk up the specific risks of weather events, then that justifies premium hikes which can be worth billions.

One of the biggest players in this scam has been Munich re, but most of them are in it up to their armpits in one way or another. But even if they weren't, nothing by climate risk prediction financed by the reinsurance industry can be trusted as it is a direct beneficiary from elevated perceptions of risk. The industry is bent and the links take you into some very dubious corners.

Anyhow, Booker has now shone a light into another very dubious corner, this one occupied by eight authors of a paper published by Nature on 17 February, which claims to show for the first time how man-made climate change greatly increases the risk of flood damage.

Among the of the paper are two of the most influential scientists at the heart of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Prof Peter Stott of the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre and Dr Myles Allen, head of Oxford’s Climate Dynamics Group. Two of their co-authors are from Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a California-based firm which is the world leader in advising the insurance industry on climate change, a company with interesting connections.

Booker has a very serious look at the paper, and the implications, which are worth careful study, as is the piece by Willis Eschenbach. But the bottom line, as always, is that if you want to know what is driving this scare, follow the money. The re-insurance industry is a major player, and with the billions that it has invested in rigging the results, it really should be totally unsurprising to lean where the trail leads.

COMMENT THREAD

Irish general election

Polling for the Irish general election was yesterday, only you would be extremely hard put to pick that up from the terminally parochial British media, which has barely mentioned the campaign.

With 566 candidates contesting 165 seats, turnout is believed to relatively high, close to 70 percent against 62 percent in the 2007 election.

The main opposition party, Fine Gael, is expected to lead the next government but without an overall majority, according to an exit poll for state broadcaster RTE. Some 36.1 percent of respondents claimed to have given their first preference votes to this centre-right party, its best result since 1982, but below that needed for an outright victory.

COMMENT: IRISH GENERAL ELECTION THREAD

The joys of democracy

I had an entertaining few hours yesterday discussing diverse issues with an MP. Nevertheless, it troubled me to find him displaying the usual naïvity of the elected official, in extolling the virtues of the "democratic" system of elections which had brought him to office.

In the cut and thrust of the discussion, I cannot quite recall how we came to be rehearsing this precise issue, but it may have emerged after the said MP had raised the idea of elected judges – elections being his idea of ensuring that officials were "accountable". Unless I am thoroughly mistaken, he seemed to have some vague nation that the process of election confers accountability, and was a superior form of achieving this desired state.

Remarkably, our man seemed unconscious of the irony that that the electoral system, of which he had been the beneficiary and of which merits he was extolling, had delivered the Cleggeron administration. This is the very same which has so exercised The Daily Mail that it today handed over its front page to the headline: "Makes you proud to be British".

And just in case some of its readers don't do irony, the message is hammered home with Richard Littlejohn likening the performance of the Cleggeron duo to something out of a Carry-On film. The real irony, though, is that "British" is the last thing a tranzie like Clegg would want to be thought of.

Nevertheless, the only thing one can hope for is that very few people are surprised. It should have dawned on just about everybody by now that PR spiv Cameron and his golden-boy Cleggy are not very good at politics and even less good at anything which resembles competent administration. Thus, that they should be guilty of "shamefully mishandling" the Libyan evacuation mission is only to be expected.

The sad thing, of course, is that the Euroslime Dave was elected leader by the Tory Party, in what was said to be the most democratic contest in its history. Through this we end up with a man pretending to be prime minister, heading a party that was not voted to power, who is neither accountable nor democratic, and who is supremely incompetent.

One might recall incidentally, that the 1940 Churchill was in a similar position, heading an unpopular coalition government, presiding over an emasculated parliament. However, Churchill had some advantages. Rather than Miliband, he had Hitler as an enemy – by which comparison even the British government looked benign - and he enjoyed rigorous media censorship which allowed him to keep his more egregious errors out of the press.

Neither that nor this period was any great advertisement for democracy. But then, as Churchill once said, it is the least worst system – even if during the period of his greatest fame, he almost completely abolished it and ruled with greater powers (on paper) than even Hitler.

Maybe though, if he was right, we ought to try it some time – because, elections or not – what we have is not even close. On the other hand, that is just as well. Any system which throws up the Cleggerons as our rulers has to be all bad.

COMMENT THREAD

Déjà vu all over again

"Cuts will put lives at risk", warn forces chiefs. Which, I suppose, makes a change from "Cuts 'cost lives of soldiers'" says former chief of the defence staff.

The one, of course, is today – life under the Cleggerons. The other link is from The Times on 4 March 2010, when the target was Gordon Brown - said General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, who led the Armed Forces from 1997 to 2001, to The Times: "Not fully funding the Army in the way they had asked ... undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers. He [Brown] should be asked why he was so unsympathetic towards defence and so sympathetic to other departments."

It hasn't even taken a year. I wonder how long it will be before someone actually admits that the military were better off before the Cleggerons took over – something which will tell us quite how bad things have now become. But did anyone really think you couldn't get worse than Gordon?

Welcome back to the real world.

COMMENT THREAD

Steel yourself

The Corus Teesside Cast Products site in Redcar has been sold, ending an unhappy chapter in the history of a plant which was opened by the Queen and ended up being owned by Tata Steel.

They have now disposed of the business in a deal which is said to value it at $469 million dollars (£291 million) – another sign that the world has gone barking mad, when Arianna Huffington's little empire was recently sold for $315 million.

Corus has been bought by SSI, Thailand's largest steel maker, and we have Cleggeron Business Secretary Vince Cable, nicely off the hook, saying the deal will help to secure 700 jobs at the plant. That remains to be seen, but it does at least look as if there will be steelmaking from the site again – until the next little drama, whatever that might be.

Then, as they say, you need to steel yourself for the bad news ... ?

COMMENT THREAD

Synchronised burning

It feels almost like a race – whether I finish the book first, or civilisation as we know it collapses. Actually, this is a no-brainer. As we knew it, civilisation collapsed some time ago but, like the proverbial nails on the corpse that keep growing (but actually don't) we haven't yet noticed that the thing we loved already curled up and died.

One of its executioners is called David "Euroslime" Cameron – but there were a lot more before him. You really wouldn't like me to list them all.

What we are watching, therefore, is death throes – Tunisia, Egypt, Libya ... the collapse always starts at the fringes. But add Belgium, a country that has now broken the world record for the most number of days without a government – and also add Greece. Ireland will follow shortly, and behind that, Portugal, Spain and then who knows ... Italy, maybe. Even Germany. Dark things are happening there.

Greece, needless to say, is dead man walking, or more like live country rioting. Violent clashes, in a long line of violent clashes, broke out again yesterday - between protesters and the police. Now there's a surprise. Police have a punch-up with rioters. Well, I never.

This time, there were about 20,000 to 30,000 protesters, in two rallies that converged outside Parliament in the early afternoon. The numbers, we are told, were not particularly large by Greek standards, and the violence was moderate, if slightly spectacular if you're into police burning. But there was also the first general strike of the year, putting two fingers up to the government's austerity drive, paralysing public services and disrupting transportation.

And all this is supposed to be about reforms, but no one is really watching them any more, or really cares. Rioting has become a way of life. Soon it may become an art form, and there will be EU grants on offer to develop the genre. The money, at least, would be better spent than on the current raft of corrupt projects. Perhaps it will be called performance art – live police burning.

But when the burning starts for real we will see the contagion spread. The likes of Euroslime Dave and all those who went before them used up the patience, have used up the quotient of goodwill and, most importantly, have exhausted trust and respect. Both of those are far more potent than fire extinguishers, water cannon or armour, and when they're used up, no amount of fire extinguishers, water cannon or armour can replace them.

Better get the grant applications in – looks as if synchronised burning will be the new Olympic sport.

COMMENT THREAD

Terminal decline

Almost two years ago, we were bitching about The Daily Mail which, in turn was bitching about the power giants' "energy saving lightbulb scam".

The reason, at the time, why we were bitching about the bitching was that the newspaper had not pinned down the reason for the scam and was only telling half the story. But all good thing come to those who wait. The paper is at last running the full story about the Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT) scheme. The headline parades: "The great green con that'll cost you £300 a year".

The Government, we are informed, has set energy suppliers stiff targets to make their customers more "green". And, as we have so often complained, suppliers pass on the cost to their customers, but most people don't even realise they're paying for it because the charges do not appear on bills.

With that firmly lodged, the paper has already told us that every home in Britain could be paying £300 a year through their gas and electricity bills by 2020 to fund climate change schemes. The cost to consumers is £84 a year, most which comes from the CERT which currently costs each household £45 a year and will increase to £52 a year from April.

So the story goes on, but the detail does not matter – to us at least. Two things here are significant, the headline and the tone. Once Middle England's favourite newspaper starts talking seriously about a "green con" and then gives chapter and verse, the greenie days are numbered and the honeymoon is over.

Basically, this confirms that the global warming religion is in terminal decline. It might have a long, long way to go before it finally slides into the obscurity it so richly deserves, but no faith-based movement can be labelled a "con" by one of the nation's best-selling newspapers and survive. Even if the politicians don't realise it yet, it's over.

COMMENT THREAD

She don't get it

The Grand Old Duke of York marched us up to the top of the hill, and marched us down again. That's Euroslime Dave for you. Having raised a faux campaign in order to give the impression he was doing something about the ECHR, he is actually doing nothing at all.

Now he has taken us to the pinnacle of nothingness, though, he can't even be bothered to lead us back down again. That has been delegated to his good and filthful servant, Kenneth Clarke. It is he who thus tells us that Britain will seek to kick-start reform of the Convention – which wasn't what was promised - just as Lord Woolf says there's "very little chance" of change, because it would mean persuading 47 countries who are all signed up to the Convention".

As we knew all along, Dave is full of BS. Absolutely nothing is going to happen.

But what is really terrifying is Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty. This madam really doesn't get parliamentary democracy. "We have a Bill of Rights in this country: it's called the Human Rights Act and is thoroughly British, European and universal in its values," she says:

It protects all of us from the whims of politicians and when the current frenzy of misinformation has died down, voters will worry about MPs who seek to put themselves above the law.

Somebody ought to lead this little Shami gently by the nose and tell it that, in a parliamentary democracy, it is Parliament that matters. Parliament is sovereign, but it is not above the law. Parliament is the law. Which is, of course, why the "colleagues" are doing their best to destroy it.

COMMENT THREAD

What for?

"Man shot dead for eating popcorn too loudly during Black Swan" - Police say they have arrested a 27-year-old man suspected of shooting him.

Why? This is a crime?

COMMENT THREAD

Learning how to rebel

A long piece in The Daily Mail today argues that Labour's "open-door immigration policy" led to the largest population explosion since the Saxon invasion more than 1,000 years ago.

This is on the basis of an audit of official figures, which suggests that during the party's 13 years in power Britain’s foreign-born population increased by three million. At the same time, nearly a million British citizens left the country.

In recent years, migrants have been arriving at the rate of around one every minute, and that figure that does not include illegal immigrants – of whom there are around one million in the UK. That put net immigration at three million-plus extra people, equivalent to the creation of three cities the size of Birmingham’.

The implications of all this are, of course, profound, and more so given the instability in the Middle and Near East. The unrest in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya can only increase the pressure on migration, pushing more asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants into the system. This is very much the fear being voiced in Italy, where the situation is not far from crisis point and we can start to see some serious upsets.

The real issue, though, is what to do about it, and here there is no easy answer as long as the conventional political paradigm is maintained. Anyone who has been watching the performance of William Hague recently knows full well that we are not going to get a robust expression of national interest out of this man – or from anyone around him.

While keeping a weather eye on this deteriorating situation, I am nevertheless more than fully occupied writing the book on the Battle of Britain, which is now due out on Battle of Britain day – 15 November.

And no, that isn't a mistake, and nor is the reference to the book a digression. The history of that period – the real history – shows it to have been one where the people had to fight and win the battle, while the government largely stood on the sidelines.

The myth of "the few" was introduced to support the status quo fiction of a top-down élite rushing to the support of the civilians, "a helpless passive lot, so many skins to save, so much weight of tax-paying stuff to be huddled out of harm's way", as J B Priestley put it. That élite hated the idea of an independent, capable citizenry, which would look after itself.

The point here – the one the élites, the political classes wish to obscure – is that if anything is to change in this country, it is going to be we, the people, who make it happen, just as we did in 1940, while the ruling classes were in a blue funk, skulking in their luxury bomb shelters in the Dorchester and Savoy.

This can only happen initially in a small way, as we relearn the art of rebellion – a census coming up is an excellent place to start – and one small thing can be used to build on another, until we get the message through that the people are back in charge. Then we have to decide what we do with three million uninvited guests, and the means to ensure that there are no more.

It strikes me that, to do this, we are going to have to bring back nationalism, reinvent it in a big way, and recover it from the likes of the BNP – unless we consider taking over that Party.

Either way, we have to learn how to stop being sorry for what we are – British, to take pride in it, and to make it mean something again. From small acorns do giant oaks grow ... our parents did it – they told the élites where to get off. We have to learn how do the same.

COMMENT THREAD

That's shocking

A three-year investigation has revealed that criminal gangs are shipping recycling out of the UK and sending it to rubbish dumps in the Third World. This is the result of a "probe" by the Environment Agency, which has discovered that at least thirty groups are sending material earmarked for recycling in Britain to Africa, Asia and the Far East.

We are told that this "shocking news" is set to increase cynicism about the value of strict EU directives and household recycling rules. It comes just a week after a Defra study found some UK councils are asking residents to sort their trash into as many as nine bins and are slapping them with heavy fines if they fail to comply.

A shipment of tens of thousands of broken computer and TV monitors, we are told, was intercepted by the agency on its way to Africa. If they had made it to landfill sites in the country, the electronic items, which are no long allowed in UK rubbish dumps, would have leaked poisonous metals into the ground.

The point though, is that it isn't in the least bit "shocking" in the sense of it being novel. This sort of abuse has been known for ages, and thoroughly investigated. The only thing actually shocking is that it has taken so long for the problem to be officially recognised. As for increasing cynicism, that is not possible. We met our quota there, a long time ago.

Alongside this, though – where CO2 Tech Ltd, a "publicly traded company that lured investors with claims about products and services to fight global warming", has been labelled a fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, it simply reinforces our belief that the green movement is fuelled by one vast scam.

It begs for people to be ripped off, so when they are, we are not surprised. But alongside the total lack of surprise is the most profound resentment – that supposedly sensible governments have fallen for the scams and keep falling for them, while expecting us to pay for their stupidity. Now that's shocking.

COMMENT THREAD

When chaos rules

The Ghastly Guardian is reporting that the European Union "faces legal and political challenges" over its handling of the recent carbon markets crisis, when some markets had to close hurriedly after thieves had made off with rather large quantities of carbon allowances.

What is entertaining – although not in the least surprising – is that the markets remain in chaos. The novelty comes with EU officials due in a Belgian court today to answer a demand to name companies in possession of stolen allowances. This follows a legal challenge by TCEI of Italy, a holding company for trading house, The Cube Energy, which is hoping to recover 267,991 allowances that were stolen.

Not least of the problems that the parties are trying to resolve, it seems, it who currently owns what, after stolen certificates were bought unwittingly by innocent traders. No one seems to know who should take the loss – buyer, seller, or issuing governments. TCEI is hoping that transfer of the stolen allowances will be frozen until this is sorted out, allowing recovery action to be taken.

On the other hand, the EU seems confident it will win its case, and withhold the information asked for, a move which might not exactly inspire future confidence in the system.

The EU's committee on climate change, meanwhile is looking to reassure national governments and carbon exchanges that the EU has the right level of security in place, while energy minister Greg Barker is endearing himself to the Euroslime by demanding that standards be raised to UK levels "to prevent further thefts". You can almost predict the glee when the UK gets turned over by hackers.

The obvious lesson, though, escapes the "colleagues" – the very obvious lesson that, if you start selling something of no greater substance than moonbeams, someone, somewhere is going to get ripped off. So far, it has been taxpayers and energy consumers, so no one is going to lose much sleep over a few traders on the slab. In fact, in certain quarters, there might even be the occasional smile.

COMMENT THREAD

It's Foxtrot Oscar time

Millions of households face an inflation-busting rise in water bills this week, with some increasing by up to 8.5 percent, or so we are told. Well, I haven't paid my water bill for two years, and don't intend to start now. A local monopoly, top-loading its charges with unnecessary regulatory costs – on the back of EU legislation – riven with inefficiency and unable even to guarantee the water supply, is not one which naturally invites sympathy.

All I actually want them to do is come to my door, as an honest trader would have to do, look me in the eye and tell me they're worth the money they want me to pay them. They don't do that. Instead, they inflate the charges and send in the debt collectors.

Well folks, it's Foxtrot Oscar time. You know it makes sense.

COMMENT THREAD

Surrender of the euroslime

A spokesman for the British Armed Forces Federation, said: "The Conservatives made a lot of noise before the election about how they would treat the Armed Forces if they got into government but so far all this talk has proved hollow".

Of course, it was the British Armed Forces Federation – amongst others – that was flying the flag about how hard done-by the armed forces were under Labour. But now we get one defence source saying: "When Britain withdraws from Afghanistan in 2015, the Treasury will be knocking on the door of the MoD with a very big hammer – there will be a substantial reduction in troops numbers leaving an Army with a strength of circa 80,000".

Then we get told: "We will be moving into an era of sharing capabilities with our European allies. The days of being able to do everything are long gone."

And there it is ... the Euroweenies are taking over. Euroslime Dave and his European Army are on the march, with Liam Fox out in front. The Euroslime have abandoned the idea of an independent nation, with our own foreign and defence policy. Now we have to get it back - once we've got rid of the slime.

COMMENT THREAD

Even our rubbish is rubbish

Refuse disposal is one of those issues which I find seriously depressing – on several levels. On a professional level, trained and qualified in the arcane ways of managing Britain's waste, I find it offensive that our effective and economic systems have been destroyed, to be replaced by a shambolic mess.

At a second level, my status as a taxpayer kicks in, where it becomes doubly offensive to see the waste shambles set to cost us an additional £10 billion in set up and infrastructure costs, plus an additional £8bn a year to run, all for absolutely no gain – in fact, quite the reverse, a worse system. It is difficult to know what is more offensive – that it is to cost more, or that we get a worse system for the extra money.

The third is the political level. This is one hundred percent EU law, adopted by a docile, compliant British government, while MPs sit on their hands and look the other direction. The money adds up, and in twelve years comes to well over £100bn.

Here, the pig ignorance is as offensive as anything. Slated as an environmental measure, the genesis of the current policy is, in fact, anything but. It starts in the '70s as a Single Market measure, eliminating the trading advantage the UK enjoyed by virtue of being able to dispose of waste in what we used to call controlled tips – compared to our sodden neighbours whose Rhineland territories would not allow the cheaper option.

So it is that we get a Booker lament today, under the heading of "Britain's system of rubbish collection is a marvel of waste and mess" online, and different in print.

I hadn't seen the headlines until they went up, and I might have put my oar in had I seen them. This is not about bins or collection, but waste disposal, an altogether different issue. We have a chronically bad law in the EU Landfill Directive, which is so shambolic that even our current generation of useless bureaucrats can't seem to deal with it.

So says Booker, we once had a refuse disposal system admired across the world, which made landfilling a public benefit, not something to be looked on as almost as evil as smoking. He then asks: "So why do our bureaucrats appear to misuse an EU directive, to create an unholy shambles which so signally fails to realise the benefits claimed for it?"

And that's the fourth level at which depression sets in. The question will not be answered. The issues will not be addressed, and the policy will go rolling on, as the system gets worse, more expensive and, to use that bullsquit word, unsustainable.

But it's a good analogue for a political system that's gone off the rails. When even our rubbish is rubbish, you know that we have not far to go before we reach rock bottom. Instead of doing something about it, we get witless politicians pratting about with things like double summer time, things that they should leave well alone. They should concentrate on issues that matter and need changing. That they do not tells you all you need to know.

COMMENT THREAD

They can't jail us all

The Matt cartoon has its man calling on people to take to the streets for a Day of Apathy. This is about voting reform. Matt, as so often, has captured the mood – more so that the phalanx of political commentators and reporters that the Failygraph employs. Another panegyric from the oleaginous Oborne about Euroslime Dave and murder will be done.

But, I suspect, it is not apathy that keeps us off the streets but powerlessness, the inability to get at people like this and rip their throats out.

No matter how much Phil Dolan, 54, thinks that he deserved £569,000 of taxpayers' money in salary, pension and redundancy payments after leaving his post as chief executive of South Somerset district council – and he clearly thinks he is "worth it" – no local authority official, ever, should be paid this much.

That he is now acting as a consultant for other local authorities, and that there are two other executives at South Somerset district council who also benefited from the extraordinary system of payments is just adding insult to injury.

These people, I suspect, are so out of touch that they do not realise how much they are hated. Or how much the system they represent is hated. And, as services are cut back to pay for this larceny, and the officials come round with their hands out for still more money, the murmur of rebellion grows. If a few people refused to pay – as I do every year until they send in the bailiffs – they just pick us off, one by one.

But, as they throw thieves and murders out of prison to make room for the next batch of refuseniks, they may find this year there is not enough room for all of us. And what will they do then?

COMMENT THREAD

Inevitable

To make cuts effectively, it is best to look at individual department, decide whether they are necessary, how they are performing and whether they could do their work cheaper – if indeed the function is necessary. What you don't do ... or shouldn’t do, is impose across-the-board cuts.

But, inevitably, this is the way it is done – so losing front-line staff in the NHS was inevitable, while Council bosses still get rich, at public expense.

Going to war on them, and then on the estimated 750,000 non-jobs, is a much better idea. But, despite the rhetoric and the good intentions, we still end up seeing the front line services and staff cut. And not long now, the Councils will putting their hands out for more. The sound of tumbrels grows louder.

COMMENT THREAD

A real liberal

The Lord Monson. Irreplaceable.

Go no further

They're in it for the money. Thieves, by comparison, are honest. They have no pretences. And the corporates are climbing on the band waggon as well – as you would expect. There is no honour amongst these thieves.

COMMENT THREAD

Giving in to your rational side

Having been royally stuffed by the EU, one wonders what the Irish must be thinking today when they read their newspapers to find that the EU Brusslime have initiated a second legal action against them over the failure of their government to adopt a farming environmental directive.

Shylock and his pound of flesh come to mind when one then learns that the Euroslime are going to ask the ECJ to fine Ireland (i.e., Irish taxpayers) at least €3.27 million for breaching an earlier ruling.

A spokesman for environment commissioner Janez Potocnik says Ireland's proposals to meet its obligations "didn't meet the requirements of the directive" on the protection of the countryside heritage. "Two years after the judgment, Ireland has still not adopted legislation to address the issue."

Confronted with this, the irrational side starts fantasising about rolling up these "obligations" and stuffing them somewhere extremely painful about the person of Janez Potocnik. One wonders how much more these people think we will take before the irrational become the norm.

But then we see this drivel and you know that a different type of irrationality has taken over. Only someone in the deeper realms of fantasy could begin to believe that Euroslime Dave will in any way "end this subservience to Europe". He is one of them ... Dave is part of "Europe".

And this is where the simplistic view of "Europe" – the UKIP "little Englander" view of the EU (shared by the Mail tendency) - goes so badly wrong. The EU is a system of government, shared by the élites of Europe. Dave is part of it, and the reason he and his cronies – and any government in power – like it so much is that it provides mechanisms for short-cutting democracy and by-passing the people.

Thus, the battle is not between "plucky little Britain" and the big, bad Euroslime in Brussels. It is what it has always been, the constant, unending battle between us and them. Our Dave, and the media in general, is very good at confusing that issue. Like the pickpocket in the crowd who makes good an escape by shouting "stop thief!", he creates disturbances and slithers away when attention is elsewhere.

So, the irrational is good ... there is no harm in spending an idle few moments fantasising about the yelps of pain (or, preferably, long drawn-out screams) emanating from Janez Potocnik. But then the real work has to be done. Part of that is to understand the enemy – something too many people on "our" side of the argument seem loathe to do. They seem to think that just because we are the good guys and they are the villains, we will necessarily prevail.

But, as the joke goes, the little girl asks daddy whether all fairy tales start with "once upon a time" and he says, "no, some of them start 'when I get elected'". Well, the fairy tale got elected, and turns to nightmare. We have to turn that into their nightmare, not ours. And this is not the way. That's what happens when we fail. We need our rational side as well.

COMMENT: REVOLUTION THREAD

We are revolutionaries now

We are moving to a period when politics no longer matters, when it has no relevance and bears no further analysis. These people are not our people. We have nothing in common with them or they with us.

There is no discussion, there can be no discussion – there is no common ground, nothing we can relate to. We use the same vocabularies but we speak different languages. Our politics have been stolen. The process started a long time ago, and the theft has been incremental. But it is almost complete.

Now, we have to get it back. And this is no longer a question of changing the government, in the hope of getting something new and different, something closer to our way of thinking. That is not going to happen. We need something more fundamental. There is a name for that ... revolution.

Here, there is the hard way and the easy way, the violent way and the peaceful way. We have to continue trying the latter, in order to stave off the former. But either way, let's call a spade a spade. We are no longer interested in politics. We are revolutionaries now.

COMMENT: REVOLUTION THREAD

Pex

Bringing you up to date on the Pex story, I put through a bank transfer of £300 to Elaine Laga's account this morning, doted by generous EU Referendum readers through Paypal. Others have made their payments directly and Elaine will keep us informed of how the fund goes. The Regiment (Mercian) have agreed to reimburse Elaine for the £500 she paid for his appeal, and Royal British Legion case officers have finally contacted Pex, although we have no detail of the outcome.

I'm a little disappointed that other British newspapers didn't pick up the story and run with it, and that so few other bloggers covered it. Some did, like Tim Worstal, who also made a generous donation.

It's quite instructive to see who steps up to the plate, when the cause is out of fashion. I cannot recall how many "heart-on-sleeve" e-mails and other communications I had this time last year, when the "Military Covenant" was all the rage, with people imploring me to write about PTSD and other military welfare issues. But now there is no political mileage in it, and "Our Boys" can't be used as a stick to beat Gordon Brown, much of the concern somehow seems to have evaporated.

We saw very recently, the episode of long-serving Warrant Officers being "fired" by e-mail. You can bet your bottom dollar that, this time last year, the blame would have been laid at the door of Gordon Brown. Now we have Euroslime Dave squawking about it, him forgetting that he is in change now, notionally responsible for the actions of his subordinates.

Actually, the action of Major Andy Simpson does not surprise me in the least - it's exactly the sort of crass,  stupid heartlessness you come to expect from the Military, in a long line of crass stupidity that goes with the breed.

This is from the same wellspring that had "Pex" dumped, quite literally, on the streets with only the clothes on his back. On his discharge from Colchester, he should have had his personal possessions returned, but the Army could not even manage that simple task - and the fate of Pte Hewett's personal possessions is still unresolved, five years down the line.

But then, I've never been much taken with the myth of "military efficiency" - how those two words ever came to be linked is an ongoing mystery. Like every bureaucracy, there is good and bad, and that is what the Army is, first and foremost, a bureaucracy. Unfortunately, in my long and less than illustrious career, I have found that there is one constant in life: a bureaucracy is a means by which good men do evil.

For once, though, EU Ref readers have had the direct ability to undo a little bit of that evil. I thank you all.

UPDATE: The money has gone through and the cheque from the Mercian Regimental Benevolent Fund has also arrived. Radio Australia has been in touch, and the Fijian press have been running the story. Here, the media is not interested in how the Army treated this Iraq veteran.

Picture: Pex, front right, with colleagues in al Amarah - taken by Philip Hewett before he was killed in the same Snatch Land Rover where Pex sustained his injuries.

COMMENT THREAD

The wages of instability

Reinforcing the well-worn saw that "no man is an island", we note with concern the wave of Tunisians who have landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa, there demanding asylum. Some 2,000 of the 5,337 who arrived in recent days have remained on Lampedusa, awaiting transfer to immigrant holding centres elsewhere in Italy.

But where it gets distinctly worrying is that interior minister Roberto Maroni is raising concerns of  80,000 North Africans heading to Europe – i.e., the territories of European Union member states. In the short term, Italy has asked the EU for about €100million following this "biblical exodus" and is asking the European border agency Frontex to launch a mission to beef up border control.

The big deal though, is that anyone being processed through this system is going to end up with rights under EU law (to say nothing of the ECHR, which is getting to be the same thing). And, from past form, sooner or later, a goodly number are going to end up knocking at our door.

There then comes the spectre of these people acquiring the right to import their spouses, children, grandparents, and even siblings and cousins. The 80,000 or so very quickly grows to about a million, and that is just the first batch. Of course, we can sympathise with Italy's plight, and in these sorts of cases, there is an argument to be made for offering aide and practical assistance. Beyond that, we should have control over what we accept and what we do not.

But, when we start seeing ranks of Tunisian asylum seekers queuing at Calais, awaiting their transport to Dover, we are going to find once again that membership of the European Union carries with it unacceptable penalties. And when are our masters going to wake up to this? Or are they going to wait for the next race riot?

We already have the murder and mayhem, so there is only that left to come.

COMMENT THREAD

Money for Mr Pachauri

In a decision which would struggle to crawl out of a primeval swamp with sufficient vigour to qualify it as moronic, the formless creatures that pass for our leaders have decided to continue the £1bn aid programme to India, paying it £280m a year until 2015.

This is the country which has, as the Daily Mail observes, three times more billionaires than the UK. It has its nuclear power, its own £1.2 billion space programme and spends £20 billion in defence each year, maintaining a standing army of over a million. It is rich enough to donate money to African nations each year – to say nothing being a major donor to Afghanistan.

The sad creature Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, says Britain will channel its aid to the three poorest states in India ... which is why, of course, we are giving £10 million to Rajendra Pachauri for his thieving outfit ... in New Delhi, while he continues to live in millionaires' row.

Our masters are beyond stupid ... beyond venal, regressed to below the level of the slime from which they have so recently emerged. They bring new meaning to the word crass and new hope to imbeciles, who can now aspire to the highest office. Bring on the tumbrels. Putting them out of our misery would be a blessing.

COMMENT THREAD

Snow bomb

South Korea has been buried by the biggest snowfall in a century. Rescue operations are under way as approximately 12,000 soldiers have been mobilized while the country suffers through it coldest winter in years. Hundreds of vehicles have been stranded on local roads and several buildings have collapsed after more than three feet of snow fell. More snow is forecast for today.

The snowfall follows recent dramatic falls in temperatures. Record low have caused Seoul's Han River to freeze over for the first time in years. North Korea also recorded its coldest January in 26 years. One local newspaper says it's as though the region has been hit by a "snow bomb". A local resident, Park Chae-ran, says, "I am 83 years old. It's the heaviest snow in my life. I am really grateful for the soldiers’ help."

Lucky it didn't happen here ... we don't have 12,000 soldiers.

COMMENT THREAD

Too far ahead

Spread all over the front page of The Times (no link) was the putative cost of the defence equipment being junked – nice cuddly things like Harriers and the Ark Royal, all at £12 billion, putting us firmly into the third-rate. Yesterday, I pointed up other areas where saving could be made, but on this particular figure it is interesting to see the near-symmetry with another figure, the £10 billion required to finance our waste policy.

This is taken up in detail by The Independent which tells us that the CBI is calling for a "coherent waste policy", to make sure Britain is making the most of its rubbish.

Reading into this, we see the CBI arguing "in the context of 300 landfill sites set to close in the next 10 years, and the need for 2000 new waste management facilities to replace them, at an estimated cost of £10bn". Missing, of course, is the magic elephant words, the European Union. But as we know, the closure of these sites is entirely due to EU law.

But what struck me particularly was the figure of £10 billion. It looked familiar, and indeed it was. That was precisely the figure I tracked down in January 2006 - a little blog bleating away about an amount of money so absurd that no one took any notice of it (pictured).

I found this a lot when I was dealing professionally with regulatory affairs. Warn people too early about a new set of regulations or other impost and they will not respond – it is too far ahead, too unreal. It lacks impact. You have to wait until the threat is closer before sounding the alarm. The trouble is, by then, it is often too late.

So here we go. Five years ago was too far ahead. Five years later, it is that much closer and now the CBI is touting the sum. But, alarmingly, it cannot see the absurdity of closing down our holes in the ground and spending £10 billion for their replacement ... then cutting up £12 billion of our defence equipment, presumably to put in holes in the ground that we haven't got any more.

It is our fate, however, to be too far ahead too often. It struck me that if we shut the blog down for a couple of years, our competition might just have caught up with us. But that's clearly not that case with The Independent and the CBI. For them, you have to wait five years - and they still don't get the point. But the really big joke here is that our original source was The Guardian. All these years and we end up virtually where we started.

COMMENT THREAD

The knee bone is connected to the ...

Now let me see, we had this thing called printing money ... what was it called ... rendition, or summat? And now they've got inflation. Would they just possibly be connected?

Myrtle, meantime, is getting worked up about the cuts that never were. Four months behind the times - about par for the course - he is discovering that you can't beat the narrative, no matter how hard you try.

COMMENT THREAD

Sad, bad and dangerous

I could understand the Nimrod decision. The aircraft had been condemned as not airworthy, and there was a case to be made that we were throwing good money after bad. However, the capability represented by the Nimrods is still needed – especially maritime co-ordination in the event of a major incident. We need a replacement.

We also need emergency tugs, and for £12 million a year we have four, covering the whole of the UK on contract to the Coastguards, ready to pull ships out of danger before a crisis becomes a disaster. One was called to recently to help HMS Astute on its way after its Captain became too attached to the seabed.

But now, we learn, ministers have decided to cancel the contract for the tugs, from September onwards, to save money. Alongside plans to withdraw Nimrod rescue aircraft, and also, it will be recalled, to close coastguard stations, this is dangerously depleting our ability to deal with coastal and maritime emergencies.

Add to this, the abortive plan to privatise the helicopter air-sea rescue service – which also bodes no good – we now have the added spectre of a serious lack of RAF pilots, as the government insists on sacking a quarter of the current intake, wasting the £300million already paid for training them - plus the cost of redundancies.

As regards the tug contract, Mike Penning, the Cleggeron shipping minister dead-bats complaints, saying he understood the concern felt by coastal communities. "But if we are to tackle the deficit then difficult decisions must be made."  This is a chilling response.

The current rash of so-called decisions seem more like cop-outs . To junk expenditure on climate change – such as abandoning the £360 million on the FIT for solar ... now that would be a decision. Dumping the EU and its £12 billion or so annual subscription fee, would be an excellent decision. Even ditching our £9 billion aid programme, with its £1.2 billion to help out India's space programme, would also be a happy way of helping the books balance.

We get the impression though that this administration is not so much throwing the baby out with the bathwater as ditching the baby and keeping the cold, dirty bathwater. This is not sensible government – these people, increasingly, are sad, bad and very dangerous.

COMMENT THREAD

Is Fox serious about the "Military Covenant"?

During the height of the Iraq insurgency – and to the same extent as the campaign in Afghanistan built up – what we got mostly from the then shadow defence secretary was wailing about the "Military Covenant".

Now Liam Fox has assumed the office of defence secretary, he is still mainly parading his heart on this sleeve, unable to break away from his background as a GP. But, writes Booker today if Fox, is as keen on the Covenant as he claims to be, and had not all along been milking sympathy for the Armed Forces for political gain, then he might begin by addressing himself to the plight of Epeli Uluilakeba, a 28-year-old Fijian, known to his friends and comrades as Pex.

His story is inexorably linked with that of Private Philip Hewett. Philip was one of three of a crew of five in a Land Rover "Snatch" who were killed in 2005 by an explosively formed projectile while on patrol in al Amarah. That they should never have been there, that they should never have been in a "Snatch" and that the Army has been covering up ever since, is not the story here.

In that Land Rover, along with Pte Hewett was Pex, Pte Uluilakeba. He had been serving in the Army for just a year and, unlike Phillip he survived. Despite being seriously injured when the blast tore their vehicle apart, he sought to give first aid to one of his dying comrades, who lay beside the corpse of their patrol leader.

In this bloody chaos, Pex saw and experienced things no human being should ever have to see. Unsurprisingly, along with his physical injuries, he emerged with severe psychological trauma. But he was what his commanding officer described as "a dedicated, enthusiastic and very capable field soldier, whose team spirit and loyalty is first-class".

Within a year he was deemed fit to be sent back to Iraq, where he endured the terrifying siege of Basra Palace. When he returned from that hell hole, once more to England, he was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But, contrary to its "caring image", the Army failed – as it so often did and still does – to arrange anything like adequate care or treatment.

Still deeply disturbed by his experiences, he took to heavy drinking – mainly, he says, to blot out the lurid memories. In the small hours of one morning, when an over-zealous corporal was shouting to evacuate the barracks for a fire-drill, Pex drew a knife on him. For this, he was court martialled in 2009. After a short spell in Colchester prison, the Army discharged him as "no longer being of service".

A devout Christian, Pex pulled himself together. He became a teetotaller, and set about training to qualify as a plumber. But, being a Fijian citizen, he was not allowed to work, claim benefits or even sign on with a GP. (He still has to pull bits of shrapnel out of his own legs, because he has no doctor.)

Supported by the charity of members of the Fijian community, with whom he has been living, Pex last year applied for permission to remain permanently in Britain. Last month his application was refused by the UK Border Agency, on the grounds that he had been court martialled. He was told that if he did not leave the country by 7 February, he would be deported.

Such is the bizarre state of our immigration laws that, thanks to European legislation, we cannot deport a citizen of an EU country, even a rapist or murderer. Meanwhile, judges prevent the deportation of a Pakistani who knocked down a 12-year-old girl and caused her to "die like a dog" as she was dragged along by his car.

But a man who has sustained permanent injury in the field in the defence of Britain – for which he has not yet been paid any compensation - cannot be allowed to live in our country, although his only wish is to stay peaceably and to work for his living.

Fortunately, Pex has good friends, including Sue Smith, the mother of Philip Hewett, who is still trying to sue the Army for negligence, and being given the right royal run-around by the MoD and the legal aid commission.

Also on-side is Elaine Laga, a widow who also lost a soldier son, in a deeply suspicious Army Land Rover "accident" in Germany. Despite legions of Service charities, their staffs living comfortably off the charity of well-wishers, it was she who paid £500 from her meagre savings to enable Pex to apply to the Home Office to re-examine his application to stay in Britain. That is why he is still here, despite the deportation deadline having passed.

Sue Smith, who has also been behind the scenes on all this, says in her own robust style: "I cannot believe this country has allowed rapists, child molesters and terrorists to stay here, yet a man who is quite willing to give his life for Queen and country is being booted out."

Elaine Laga has a different, more tempered style, but is no less passionate. She adds: "When you consider who we let into this country and provide for, it is a shame that we cannot look after a war veteran and a hero, a man who would be getting on with his life if allowed to."

So, if Dr Fox really is committed to the "Military Covenant" that he wants us all to honour – he has one very easy way to start proving it. He could order a review of the case of Pex, Mr Epeli Uluilakeba, as a top priority. He then needs to ensure that the hounds of the Border Agency are called off, that Pex is properly compensated and then given the UK citizenship he deserves.

- - - - - - - -

Several contributors to the ST comments and here have asked how they might contribute to a fighting fund for Pex. At very short notice, Elaine has turned over her savings account to Pex. Cheques can be made out to : Elaine Laga ( as Pex is not allowed to open his own bank account):

Send to :- Christopher Booker ( Pex)
Sunday Telegraph
111 Buckingham Palace Rd
London SW1W 0DT

Electronic payments to: EM LAGA – sort code 40-47-68 account number 30052043

There have been some suggestions that I set up a Paypal account for Pex. This is not as easy as it would appear. With the new money-laundering regulations, there are all sorts of complications, which would make it almost impossible to turn it into cash, and get it to him. However, if anyone wants to put money in my Paypal account - mark it "Pex" - I will add it to my amount and send it on to Elaine.

COMMENT THREAD

We've been there before

Same crowds, same adulation, same stupid comments in the media ... but it all went wrong. People in the streets is a symptom of a larger malaise. Symptoms are not necessarily the cure – most often medicine is needed as well. We haven't seen that yet, but we do know that the last lot nearly killed the patient.

The time for celebrating, therefore, is a long, long way away. Pankaj Mishra has got it right in one sense - in one sense only ... the battle is only now about to begin. Now is the time to be worried ... seriously worried.

COMMENT: EGYPT THREAD

A smile passed my lips

In normal times, this piece wouldn't get a look-in, although it does have a certain interest, with the headline: "Heavy snow forecast to continue in wide areas". What really makes the story though is the picture.

As for the detail we learn that snow covered the city of Osaka on Friday for the first time since 2008, shutting down highways in Osaka Prefecture and Shikoku. The Meteorological Agency warns that snowfall through today in wide areas of Japan could cause traffic disruptions and accidents.

Heavy snow is expected even in relatively dry flatlands on the Pacific side of the country, and after light snow Friday night, heavy falls are forecast for today, the agency also says. But what is really interesting is that picture.

Anyway, in the Kinki region, snow starting falling Thursday night, including in lowlands. Osaka had two inches and Nara had over four by 1 pm. Friday. Both directions on the Hanshin Expressway in Osaka Prefecture were closed, while part of the Hanwa Expressway that links Osaka and Wakayama prefectures was also shut down.

But what is really interesting is that picture.

Some highways in Shikoku, readers will also be interested to learn, were blocked on Thursday night. Train services on the JR Wakayama Line were temporarily suspended due to a snow-caused glitch at Takada Station in Nara Prefecture, while trains were cancelled and delayed elsewhere in other parts of western Japan.

And apart from being fascinated with that picture, they might also be intrigued to know that eight inches of snow is forecast for the Chugoku region through today, and that lightning and strong gusts is predicted for the Sea of Japan off the Sanin region.

So what's so special about the damn picture? Ah! it's the Byodoin Temple, a World Heritage site in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. Snow in Kyoto! Kind of neat, eh?

COMMENT THREAD

Sucking it in

Despite Mubarak having resigned and handed over to the Army, and now reported having left the capital and travelled to his residence in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheik, the Egyptian situation is still only an echo of the 2008 food riots.

And reported by Bloomberg today is another such echo. The EU is considering taking emergency action on feed grains and sugar, to hold down surging prices and ease shortages. Its initial plan is to suspend some cereal-import duties and take administrative measure on sugar stocks which will also ease the supply situation. This is exactly what was happening in 2008, although then the Commission went further by also reducing set-aside requirements releasing more land to food production.

What is spooking the EU is that food prices rose to a record in January, with grains up 44 percent in the past year and sugar 12 percent higher, setting a new record. Thus, the Commission hopes to suck imports into the EU-27 area, a stratagem it hopes will help stabilise prices.

This is very much a beggar-your-neighbour policy, as it has prevented developing countries accessing the lucrative European market in the good times, while now threatening to suck supplies from those same markets. Since European prices in the protected market are in many instances higher than world price, the net effect may be to add to upwards pressures on the global market.

As always though, the EU commission is focused inwards, concerned only with reducing tensions on the European markets. The boarder policy issues of no immediate concern to it. It special concern is the European pig industry, where the meat market is "struggling".

Similarly, sugar users "are desperate for cheaper sugar" and want extra volume to stop the market from overheating. EU sugar stocks for food use in the domestic market may tumble to a "historical low". The overall situation has, of course, been developing from some time and, as in 2008, is not helped by the push for biofuels here, in the United States and elsewhere, to meet mandatory renewables quotas. Not for the first time, major policies are in conflict.

What is for sure though, is that food mountains are distant memories and are likely to remain so. What will not change is the EU's inept production and stock management system, which seems to be able to square the magic circle of impoverishing farmers while ensuring that there are shortages of key supplies while prices are getting higher.

And, as any economist will tell you, it takes real genius to do that - a level of genius that, despite the jubilation in Egypt, is going to make sure things do not get much better there. What we are seeing is merely the froth.

COMMENT THREAD

Scraping the barrel

It's always fun to see the MSM make stupid mistakes on their website, for no other reason that they are soooooo superior about their editing and fact-checking, and so anal about us lowly blogs.

However, the headline could well be a Freudian slip, as it's one of those hardy perennials about stopping the two-ring circus of the EU Parliament, and consigning the Strasbourg operation to history. Perhaps this is Bruno Waterfield's subliminal protest at having to produce a garbage story, featuring the lowlife, Edward McMillan-Scott, for the ever-failing Daily Failygraph.

Still, it does no harm to remind ourselves that this totally unnecessary monthly trek costs £150m a year, of which the British taxpayer coughs up £28 million. That is yet another reason why we should be having nothing to do with the EU, especially as there is nothing at all we can do about it – apart from leave.

I wonder though, how philosophically, you legitimise the extortion of tax for a purpose for which no-one approves, which cannot be justified and which nobody wants to pay. And to refuse payment would be?

COMMENT THREAD

Wise choice

In anticipation of the Barnsley by-election contest, after the seat was suddenly vacated by the latest in a long line of crooks, Euroslime Dave has asked Darren Gough, the former England cricketer, to stand for the Conservatives. Apparently, Euroslime made a personal telephone call to the man, who quite sensibly thought it was a prank and hung up. A hapless Tory MP had to call Gough back and tell him it was the real thing.

However, the former Yorkshire and England cricket sat star, and the man who won TV's Strictly Come Dancing in 2005, finds that he has too many commitments for him to waste his life being a Tory MP - not that he would actually get elected. A donkey with a red rosette would stand a better chance in Barnsley - although one understands that there aren't too many donkeys willing to stand either.

COMMENT THREAD

And now if you want to weep

Go and read Mary Ellen Synon about Euroslime Dave's little games with the ECHR. They are games, and Mary Ellen is spot on in her analysis. Young Dave is indulging in his usual sport of micturition, using us plebs as targets.

If I had time, I would do my own analysis, but it wouldn't look much different – so we need not reinvent the wheel. But don't get angry ... that's bad for the blood pressure. Get even. That's going to take a little time, but remember also that revenge is a dish best eaten cold. My plate gets colder by the day.

BTW: the quality of her writing is delicious ... on the sale of HuffPuff to AoL: "Really, AOL could have got any of that for a lot less than $315m. It's all free on almost any lavatory wall in any Detroit bus station." I wish I'd written that.

COMMENT THREAD