We are slowly being castrated

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Businessman is arrested in front of wife and son... for "anti-gipsy" email that he didn't even write
A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written. The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’ Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’. 

Sussex Police said they had arrested the businessman over ‘suspicion of committing a racial or religious-aggravated offence’.Chief Inspector Heather Keating said: ‘Sussex Police have a legal duty to promote community cohesion and tackle unlawful discrimination. ‘We are satisfied we acted appropriately in identifying the owner of the computer used and through this, the identity of the writer of the offending line. Police said they would hold the innocent men’s DNA indefinitely, which they said was in line with national policy. A council spokesman said: ‘As far as we were concerned it was an offensive comment, so we got in touch with the police.

So just writing a word that rhymes with another word which itself is deemed "offensive" is enough to get you arrested, locked up, fingerprinted and DNA sampled? And all in the name of 'community cohesion'.

Laying a concrete block on a piece of rural land 200 yards from an important historical site in an area of outstanding beauty and then erecting a hideous mobile home on it - all done contrary to the laws of the land and in the face of opposition from the local community doesn't seem to me like like something likely to encourage 'cohesiveness'. Yet it is the complainers who are arrested and harrased while the real law breaker hides behind ludicrous racial discrimination laws.

The Mail should watch out, using the term "gypsy" in its headline. Isn't that 'offensive'? I thought these people had to be referred to as 'travellers' or 'members of the travelling community'. Seems an inappropriate term to me, given that so many controversies surrounding them concern not 'travelling' anywhere but staying put, illegally and cynically wherever they feel like it. Something the rest of us certainly cannot do.

Jeeeezus!

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Heresy Corner: The God Squad
In a little-noticed press release on Wednesday, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced a group of 13 "inter-faith" advisers to act as its "sounding board" on all things faith. The statement expresses the hope that the lucky thirteen will "will enhance ministerial understanding of, and engagement, with faith communities nationally."

Here's your handy guide to the thirteen people the government thinks represent the cutting-edge of faith-based community engagement in 2010...

Let it snow...or not

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PM pledge on cold snap gas supply and salt
Gordon Brown has pledged the UK's gas supplies will not run out during the current cold snap, and that road salt will get to "where it is most needed".
It's OK, stocks of salt have been ordered from abroad and they are winging their way to Britain and will arrive in 12 days time on the 21st January - by which time, I suspect, we won't need the bloody stuff. AA spokesman Paul Watters told the BBC that councils had reduced stocks by 250,000 tonnes during the past 10 years. Part of the council's plans for dealing with global warming, I have no doubt. After all, Mr Monbiot thought we might never see another cold winter:
I have spent the last two evenings skating. Last night we laid lanterns out across the ice and swooped and swung and fell flat on our faces on this silent lake in mid-Wales, for hours by moonlight...I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. For the exhilaration of this primal game was shaded with sadness: all of us knew that this time might be our last. It is many winters since most of the lakes in England and Wales have frozen hard enough to support a skating party; with every year the chances of another one recede. The fuss this country has made about the current cold snap reminds us how rare such events have become.
As Mr Eugenides points out, Monbiot said that on 9th January...  last year. 

But not everyone thinks we've seen the end of cold winters:
Can you get it into your thick skulls? If global warming turns out to be true, Britain's weather will go bonkers. It will snow all the time. Weather might be like this more often, not less. Those unseasonably sunny early springs are exactly what there will be fewer of, not more. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
There will be less snow, there will be more snow. Talk about hedging your bets.

Decent man murdered by scum

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Have-a-go hero fatally stabbed after confronting robbers who stole a woman's bag

Sukhwinder Singh chased the thieves who robbed a 28-year-old woman near Barking station in east London yesterday evening. When he caught up with the pair a fight broke out and the 31-year-old was fatally stabbed. Police are seeking two black men in their 20s or 30s and between 5ft 7in to 6ft.

Detective Inspector John Sandlin said: 'This is a tragic death of a man who was killed for attempting to stop others committing crime, and our thoughts are with Sukhwinder's family. However, I would also to reassure the wider community that tragic events such as these are very rare.
Fatal stabbings pehaps but...
A 36-year-old resident, who asked not to be named, said the roads near the station were well-lit at night but added: 'There are quite a lot of robberies around here because it's quite secluded and there is a bridge by the station so people can run to the other side quickly.

What would Jesus say?

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When the tedious meets the self-righteous...

How not to do schadenfreude

Yes, Dale is a twat. But so what? And who the fuck gives a toss about the 'First Family of Northern Ireland"? Indeed, who gives a fuck about Northern Ireland at all, or the murderous bigots on both sides of the political divide?

As for the Robinsons. Mrs Robinson is a liar, cheat and hateful homophobe who, as a born-again Christian managed to justify her villification of homosexuals by quoting the Bible but had no religious problems with lying on her back with her middle-aged legs wrapped around the neck of a teenager who busied himself fucking her brains out.

We are supposed to feel compassion for her because she attempted suicide. Why is that women 'attempt' suicide so often but just don't seem to be able to manage it? It's not difficult. Express trains, tall buildings, car exhausts, strong medication...  What you don't do is take a handful of Valium and immediately dial 999. That isn't attempted suicide it's attempted snoozing.

I find it offensive that this hateful old bigot and cheat holds any public office at all and the sooner she fucks off the better. If she can manage to bring her husband down with her that'll be a bonus.

He's behind you!

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Wootton Bassett: a political pantomime - spiked
The bizarre political stand-off over the proposed Islam4UK march in Wootton Bassett might just be the perfect metaphor for the ‘war on terror’. On the domestic front the ‘war’ is frequently talked up as a clash of civilisations, or at least a battle of values, between decent, liberal, tolerant mainstream Britain on one side and foreign-influenced, Caliphate-building fanatics on the other. Yet the hoo-hah over Wootton Bassett shows that it is no such thing. It is in fact a pantomime clash between fancy-dress Islamic radicals and principle-free politicians and military men, with both sides trying to out-victim each other rather than win a battle of ideas.

Wossy Lossy

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Humiliated Jonathan Ross sensationally quits BBC (but insists it's not about the money)
Humiliated Jonathan Ross walked out on the BBC yesterday after it emerged the corporation was ready to axe all his flagship shows.
The controversial star quit as TV chiefs were also planning to scrap his lucrative 'golden handcuffs' contract - leaving him with a 'pay as you go'-style deal. Crucially, bosses had made up their minds last summer not to renew Ross's £6million-a-year contract after the embarrassment of the Andrew Sachs phone calls and pressure over the corporation's vast budget.
Personally, I'm happy to see Ross go. Friday Night Live is little more than a tedious promotional vehicle for the guest that appear on it, pushing their books, films, records or shows. I've never liked him as a replacement for Barry Norman, but I fear we will now get someone (almost certainly female, this time) even worse. But then I haven't watched the programme for years in any case so it won't really affect me. 

Ross say's it's a good time to move on, yet not long ago he replied to me on Twitter saying he was happily staying with the BBC and had recently turned down a much more lucrative offer to move elsewhere. Looks like he should have taken it. I'm sure this isn't a Simon Dee moment for him. He is talented and knows his way around the medium so it won't be long before he pops up somewhere on the schedule. But at least he won't be getting paid millions out of the licence fee.

It's the military-industrial complex

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Overspent and Overextended
Why is Washington spending so much on the military?

America spends more dollars on the military today than in 1986 or at any other point since World War II. The numbers are striking. Using 2000 for constant dollars, the U.S. devoted $774.6 billion to the military in 1945, the last year of World War II. In 1953, the last year of the Korean War, military outlays ran $416.1 billion. Peak expenditures during the Vietnam War hit $421.3 billion in 1968.

In contrast, in 2010, before the Afghan surge and other unplanned expenditures, the administration expected to spend $517.8 billion ($700 billion including Afghanistan and Iraq). That is more than during two large, hot wars. More than during a lengthy, often warm Cold War. And two-thirds as much as during the worst conflict in human history.

Whatever

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Liberal Conspiracy  -  Iain Dale appoints himself arbitrator of blogs

The first comment (by Tim J) sums the whole thing up:
Sooo… Iain Dale writes a blog post based on evidence that is misinterpreted at best, and downright incorrect at worst. Liberal Conspiracy write a long post saying how shoddy this is. This is a Good Thing.

Left Foot Forward writes a blog post based on evidence that is misinterpreted at best, and incorrect at worst. Iain Dale writes a post saying how shoddy this is. This is a Bad Thing.

Accurate summary?
And Sunny Hundal's response sums up Mr Hundal:
Yeah alright Tim, whatever.