Moussa Koussa

Why would Moussa Koussa choose to defect to Britain? He risks being prosecuted here not only for involvement in the Pan Am/Lockerbie bomb but for his participation in crimes against humanity carried out in Libya. There are plenty of other places he could have fled to where no such risk of a criminal trial would arise. If the government is to be believed, and I can see no reason why the government should lie about this as the lie would soon be found out, no deal has been struck with him. What are his motives? At the moment we are told he is being kept in a safe house where no doubt he is being questioned about all those issues we would all like to know the answers to - what is the state of the Libyan regime, what is the state of the Lybian military both personnel and materiel, who are the regime hardliners, who else might defect, how likely is it Gaddafi will flee into exile and if he does decide to go when would that be likely to happen, are there others who are likely to defect and who and when, who was responsible for the death of PC Fletcher, who was responsible for the sale of arms to the IRA and who were the IRA counterparties the Libyans dealt with and who was responsible for the Pan Am/Lockerbie bomb and carried out the atrocity? There are no doubt many more questions to be asked. Those asking the questions will no doubt first of all want to ensure that Moussa Koussa is genuine and not just a stooge of some kind. Could he for example be an envoy from Gaddafi rather than a defector - here to sort out Gaddafi's departure from Lybia? All good spook stuff about which no doubt books will be written and television plays will be made. The English love nothing better than a good spook story, real or imagined.   

Hmm

I don't know about you but I find the Miliband brothers a bit odd. I cannot quite put a finger on why but there is something about both of them which is a little off beam and makes me wonder why they are involved in politics at all rather than doing some kind of boffin or similar job. Or perhaps they are not quite as clever as we are led to believe and politics is all they can aspire to. David Miliband made me think this on a number of occasions but particularly as a result of the unfortunate photograph of him with a banana. Ed Milband has made me think this on each occasion I have heard him speak and particularly when I heard his unfortunate speech comparing the greedy trade union marchers last Saturday with the Suffragettes, the American Civil Rights marchers and the Apartheid protestors.
My wife attends Italian and History adult education courses and today being the last day of term for Italian has enrolled for next term's course but was informed that next time she enrolls she must produce her passport. This cannot be for money laundering reasons - there is simply not enough money involved. It must presumably be as a result of the clampdown on the issue of student visas although for the life of me I cannot see why. Someone applying for a student visa would have to have a course already lined up before making application to the Home Office and as part of such application would have to produce a valid notification of acceptance on the course. The need therefore to provide one's passport to enrol on an adult education course is a regulation too far and should be abolished.
In my youth when London was still an English town and when one waited for a bus or whatever one queued in an orderly fashion for the very good reason that it was only fair that if space on the next bus was limited it should be taken by those who queued first. Today there are no queues but a melee waiting around the bus stop when those with the strongest elbows get on first. Some things were better in the old days. 

Piccadilly

I have walked down Piccadilly twice today and have been amazed by the success of the clear up work. Fortnum and Mason in particular have removed all external signs of the damage perpetrated on their premises. There is till some evidence of the violence though and on a temporary bus sign towards the Circus end of the road there were two signs - one was written and said "Fuck Cuts" and the other was a sticker which said "Boycott Israeli Goods". We all know that the anarchist title given by the media to the rioters is a euphemism for the workers socialist party so the curious juxtaposition of the two signs is not so strange as all that. The socialist workers party as a Labour party wannabe annex is nothing other than the Nazi party with a different name. The police of course were compromised by being given the task of overseeing the march as they are public servants with an axe to grind and could not possibly be impartial and do a proper job. Nor did they. Those who work in the private sector simply cannot understand the audacity of the trades unions in running a march against the so-called cuts solely for members of the public sector. If we ran India with 600 civil servants why do we need to run a much smaller country with 5 million of them with well paid jobs, job security, early retirement and better pensions than the rest of us. Are they worth it? Definitely not so why the march? Have they no conscience? They already have their hands deep in our pockets and what makes them think we have any sympathy for their demands to go deeper. Our problems could be solved by culling a good many of them and we would not miss them at all. I suspect hat the employees of the private sector are getting to get very angry with the feather bedded mostly useless public sector.       

The Romantic

Some may see Ed Miliband's speech yesterday as the utterances of a romantic. Others may well feel that to compare the march in London yesterday by those against "cuts" made necessary by the economic policies they voted for was to denigrate the memory of the Suffragettes, the American Civil Rights protestors and those who stood up to Apartheid. At what level can the march by those in favour of more borrowing to feather bed their jobs at the expense of those working in the private sector be compared to the noble causes pursued by the Suffragettes, the American Civil Rights and anti Apartheid protestors? There is no comparison at any level between yesterday's selfish marchers and the others. By Ed Miliband suggesting there is an equality of nobility between them all is to demonstrate that he has no contact with reality. We now know what kind of person Ed Miliband is - someone who believes in nonsense and is prepared together with Ed Balls to say or do anything to achieve power. By his pretentious speech yesterday we will know him. By his support of the marchers we will know him. By his surprise at the disgraceful antics of those who caused mayhem and destruction around the fringes of the march yesterday we shall know him. We shall not forget when it comes to the next election either.   

On the March

An acquaintance works as head of education at a London local authority. He tells me that the main hospital in his borough has to make cuts of £60m next year and that wards will have to close. He went on to say that today's protest march at the cuts will be as nothing compared to what next year's march will be like. I told him that as the government are increasing spending each year it was impossible to understand why the hospital would need to close wards and that it makes me extremely angry that the last government so mismanaged the country's finances. My acquaintance seemed to think that what the government is doing is appalling which also made me angry. What about a bit of humility and what about a bit of gratitude to those of us in whose pockets he and his ilk have their hands to pay for their high end salaries. I am made even more cross by the people passing by my window carrying banners to the march. They were responsible for voting in the Labour government and neither they nor any Labour politician has had the decency to apologise for the incredible mess in which they have left this country. Shame on them. I would go out and shout at them and call them scum but the last time I exercised my right of free speech at demonstrators I was told in no uncertain manner by the police that if I didn't stop they would arrest me for breach of the peace. 

The BBC

Louise Bagshawe wrote a most interesting article in the Telegraph today castigating the BBC for its anti Israel bias by not reporting the gruesome murders of various members of the Fogel family and the celebrations in Gaza afterwards, always reporting Palestinian rocket attacks as the result of Israeli incursions into Gaza and never suggesting that perhaps the Israeli incursions may be as a result of rocket attacks. Ms Bagshawe found out that when she complained on twitter about this bias she was disappointed that the BBC just shrugged it off. This smug, know-all attitude of the BBC is something that those who have the temerity to complain always seem to meet with. The BBC is really far too superior for this world and should be brought down to size. First of all the tax levied to keep it afloat should be abandoned and the whole shebang, television and radio, should be privatised. It should be broken up so that it no would no longer hold a monopoly position and so that other stations with a different political bias like Fox News could be floated to compete against it. It will need a brave politician to carry out these urgent and necessary reforms so that I doubt we shall see any reforms at all happening any time soon. Lord Patten of Barnes is certainly not going to carry out the reforms and is unlikely to even take another look at the structure of the BBC which was so gerrymandered by the last Labour government to bolster its own purposes rather than those of the BBC paymasters. 

The Budget

I thought Osborne delivered his speech well and that ED Miliband's reply was rather tame, or so it sounded over the radio. As to the contents it was rather like the curate's egg. The main bad bit was all this nonsense to to do with the Green Bank and the carbon price. the science on anthropogenic global warming is unproven and thus to spend money as if it were proven is crazy. As to the rest of the budget the reduction in fuel duty is clearly a good thing but a pity he could not reduce fuel duty further but he is of course constrained by the Labour legacy. The increase in the personal allowance is a good thing as is the help for home buyers and also the Gift Aid out of Inheritance Tax. Most particularly though the cut in corporation tax will help as will the other business aspects, including changes to planning law, Osborne announced. He said at the beginning of his speech that he would not change his deficit reduction plan and neither should he. Osborne has to stick to his guns on this. It will not be seen as an exciting budget rather more a steady as she goes type of thing but none the worse for all that.     

Tripoli Blair

I have read that Blair supports regime change in Libya. After all the lies and damage that this man has done by meddling in the Middle East I would have thought he would have had the sense to keep very quiet about Libya at this time. We all remember the photographs of him embracing the murderer Gaddafi. We all remember the release of Megrahi and the fact that he is still alive. Perhaps though Blair is so full of himself that he is totally oblivious to the embarrassment any normal person would feel at the re-publication of those photographs and the reminders of an abject policy failure. 

Tomorrow's Budget

Not that he will take the slightest bit of notice but as everyone else seems bent on giving him advice on what he should put in his budget I am going to give Osborne the benefit of my thoughts too. First of all Osborne should look at the economic history of Hong Kong from which he will learn that its rise to become an economic tiger relied almost entirely on small and medium size businesses employing less than 100 people. There was little regulation of these enterprises and no government industrial planning although the Hong Kong government did spend on considerably on social housing. Taxes were low, employment laws minimal and there were no restrictions on trade. It is true that there was also no government debt. We have a heavily indebted government which we are trying to bring under control. To help do so Osborne should now concentrate on doing the same things as were done in Honk Kong. He must go for low taxes, loosen employment laws for enterprises with less than 100 employees, remove barriers to trade and encourage home building. Although it may not be practicable to leave the common agricultural and fisheries policies and any other organisation which restricts free trade we should at least urgently examine what can be done. We can though ensure that both our employment and planning laws are changed to give flexibility and thus to reduce costs. As to taxation even if politically he feels he cannot reduce the headline rates he should at least announce when he is going to reduce them.  

There are Other Countries

Whilst all eyes are on Japan and Libya we learn of turmoil in other countries such as Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and the Ivory Coast. Yemen seems the most likely next to have a change of leader with senior army officers having defected to the rebels. Will it go the way of Egypt where the army's support was crucial in getting rid of Mubarak, the holding this last weekend of a referendum and the promise of a general election in a few months time or will the army simply impose another despot to rule the country? We can but hope that the Yemeni army follows the Egyptian army example and that the Egyptian army accepts the choice of the electorate no matter which party is elected to office.    

Killing Heads of State

In the days when kings led their troops into battle they were a perfectly legitimate target for the enemy. When kings ceased to play a part in battle their generals remained legitimate targets. In our history the most famous 'general' was Nelson, specifically and successfully targeted by French snipers but fortunately for us too late to alter the course of the battle.  If Gaddafi were an elected head of state of a civilian government then I can understand that to target him would be wrong as in effect one would have to authorise an assassination squad to kill him. If though he were killed in an attack not directly targeted against him but at say a military target in Tripoli he would merely be a casualty of war. Thus in my view such a death would not be immoral. However as Gaddafi is engaged in a generalship role in directing his troops against the rebels he must be a legitimate target in the same way as any soldier in an army. There is no moral outrage when snipers are ordered to target specific enemy soldiers so what is the difference between that kind of target and Gaddafi whilst Gaddafi is acting in a generalship role? General Sir David Richards (in effect supported by the Americans) says that targeting Gaddafi is not allowed under the UN resolution although the government do not seem to have ruled it out. If Sir David is right it is a pity. No quarter should be given to the murderous Gaddafi.

Heads of State

A friend sent me the link to a youtube video of Nigel Farage questioning that great man His Excellency the President of Europe, Mr Von Rompuy, the ex Prime Minister of Belgium. Although I do not agree with Farage about the no-fly zone I do think his point that it is extraordinary heads of state (yes I know Europe is not a state in name but it is a serious wannabe) are not only willing to shake the hands of a murderer who also happens to be another head of state but also to joke and exchange pleasantries and to be photographed with him. I wonder whether von Rompuy, Blair, Brown and Bummer have any remorse about having treated Gaddafi as an equal or whether their attitude is that statecraft makes it mandatory to ignore blood on the murderer's hands. I know the answer since without exception the individuals concerned will shrug and say it was statecraft.      

No Fly Zone

So the no-fly zone has been put into effect with attacks against military targets initiated yesterday and continuing over the next several days. The Arab League are said to be having cold feet although Hague does not seem to think so even though the Secretary-General of the Arab League is reported as having said "What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of civilians." I do not believe the Arab League is showing cold feet and I believe no one can argue against the Secretary General's statement. No one wants the bombardment of civilians, merely the destruction of Gaddafi's ability to murder his own people which clearly involves taking out anti-aircraft weapons, tanks, troops and the like. Civilian deaths have been reported by Gaddafi's regime but in light of his history it is almost impossible to believe what Gaddafi says. If there have been civilian deaths caused by our weaponry is it because, as reported, Gaddafi has placed tanks and the like in or near civilian living quarters? Do we believe Gaddafi's call for a second ceasefire? I wouldn't and I trust those in authority will not believe him either but continue with the destruction of his military hardware.  

No Fly Zone

A side benefit of taking part in the no fly zone is of course that those that had believed that as a result of the defence cuts we had become completely toothless will have to reassess this lion's capacity to defend itself and its interests and to help bring justice to the world. This, as Nial Ferguson will hopefully say in his series on television about Civilisation, is one of our apps. 

Kazakhstan

My sources from this country tell me that the President is half way to becoming their Henry VIII. He sired three daughters by his first wife, two daughters by his second wife and a son by his third wife. I am also reliably told that rumours about his fatherhood of his third wife's son are scurrilous and completely untrue. It also seems that the claims made against him in the US courts are being set aside as he tries to rehabilitate his regime but I wonder whether Days of Rage are likely to manifest themselves in Kazakhstan and other similarly 'democratic' countries in the old Soviet empire or whether they will all be put down with the ferocity that the Russians are famous for in order to maintain their hegemony in that part of the world. Proper democracy has yet to bloom in Russia's tragic garden.

Cameron and Hague

Congratulations to both Cameron and Hague for having persevered when others were sneering at their efforts to introduce a no fly zone in Libya. How they managed to persuade the UN Security Council members either to abstain or vote in favour of the no fly zone is something we shall presumably learn about over the next few days. Some thanks also has to be given to the French for once, even if Sarkozy's reasons for supporting the no fly zone proposition in a johnny come lately fashion are somewhat dubious. The sneerers include not only the Labour hierarchy but also the Bummer administration and misguided commentators like Max Hastings in the FT today - shame on them, although the Americans did do the right thing in the end. Shamed into it? Just before I had started writing this blog I learnt that Gaddafi had announced a cease fire. It is difficult to believe that he will comply with this self imposed constraint and the allies will have to be cautious about Gaddafi trying to pursue his fight in a more surreptitious manner. After all all is fair in war and someone like Gaddafi is not to be trusted. But the concern now must be what happens next. Surely conversations need to be opened with the 'rebels' to find out what exactly their ambitions are and whether we can help promote a democratic agenda in any way, assuming that that is one of their aims. It was vital to set up a no fly zone to demonstrate we will not support dictators (what about Mugabe?), that we will support democrats in the Islamic world (as opposed to imposing democracy on them) and that we intend to support proper democracies in that world in the same way we support Israel. This should give us not only the respect in the Muslim world which we have lacked hitherto but should also make Israel see us in a different light as well - hopefully for the benefit of all in the Middle East.  

Let's Pretend

The enormous advances in technology, in medicine, in the standard of living for the vast majority of those living in the West has blunted our awareness of what our great grandparents took for granted. That life was full of appalling and frightening events such as infant mortality, death in child birth, diseases and deformities of all kinds as well as crippling accidents, squalor, poverty, ignorance and of course war. It is only when there is a natural disaster, an early death in the family, a bad congenital defect, loss of income, war or civil unrest that we can no longer pretend to ourselves that we have escaped all the nasty things in life. It seems that we are encouraged by politicians and advertisers that things can only get better but we are guilty of deluding ourselves that nothing bad can ever happen. Bad things can and do happen all the time as the coal mine disaster in New Zealand, the earthquake there and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan remind us. We are also reminded that we do not control the earth but it controls us. When it comes to war and civil unrest though we are not entirely powerless and we should thus be doing something to help those wherever they are who want the yoke of an undemocratic regime removed from them. David Frum has an interesting article in the Telegraph today http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8386511/Libya-Barack-Obama-is-in-no-hurry-to-see-Gaddafi-go.html in which he theorises that Bummer is procrastinating about doing anything in Libya because it is possible Bummer believes it is better for the US if Gaddafi remains in power. This is a theory which is almost too horrible to contemplate but if true makes Bummer even less fit to be President than I had previously thought.     

British Passports

It has been said many times before by all sorts of people but it is nonetheless true for all that and well worth repeating that the old British passport was an attractive thing. The new passport is that awful burgundy colour (remember Joan of Ark burnt by the Burgundians?) and has references to the European union on it. What an insult. I never voted for the EU, never would have done if given the chance and the inclusion of a reference to it on a British passport is unacceptable, embarrassing and upsetting - particularly when you think of the pusillanimous, cowardly way the EU is behaving towards Libya. Let's have our honour back and our passport with it.      

Shame

I was never wholly in favour of the so called Blairite doctrine of regime change by force of arms. I was though in favour of the use of military intervention against dictators waging war against their own people and even more so if their own people were demanding democracy. Thus I was in favour of military intervention against Saddam Hussein whilst he was killing Shi'a and Kurds. Having failed to take proper action against Saddam Hussein at the time he was murdering his own people I never felt it right to go after him later, particularly on the basis of what even then appeared to be a dubious claim about weapons of mass destruction. The idea that Iraq could have launched these weapons in 45 minutes as Blair claimed was at the time cloud cuckoo land as far as I was concerned. Gaddafi is murdering his own people and I strongly believe therefore that we should be doing everything we possibly can to support his opposition. It is a mystery to me that America is holding back. If there was ever any doubt about Obama's lack of fitness for office and how his nickname Bummer describes him perfectly there can be no argument now. Not to intervene in Libya, not even to impose a no fly zone is a disgrace. Europe being good for absolutely nothing one could never count on it doing anything and I tear my hair out in impotent rage at Britain's lack of military strength. Labour ruined us financially and as a consequence our ability to undertake missions to cut out cancers. The only consolation is that at least Cameron seems to recognise the need for something to be done and done now. Archbishop Cranmer has an excellent blog post on this subject today - http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/  

Public Sector Pay

It is perfectly true that public sector pay is way over the top particularly when you take into account the job security attached to working in the public sector as compared with the private sector and the advantages public sector employees have over their colleagues in the private sector when it comes to pensions. Will Hutton has said that those public sector employees should have their salaries reduced by up to 20% if they under perform. As any fule knows the devil is in the detail and fule will then ask how many times the under performance rule will be applied - never will be his reply. There is every reason for reducing public sector salaries as we all know that many public sector employees hardly work at all what with their sickies and this and that. A salary of considerably less than they are getting should be the norm if they are to continue to be given the level of job security they currently receive. Whether 20% is the right figure or not I do not know but it certainly should not be less and in my waters I feel a reduction of 33% is reasonable. 

Energy

Despite what those like Huhne believe there is considerable doubt amongst the scientific establishment about global warming and about man’s contribution to it. In light of the climate we have been enjoying recently it really does seem silly to rush in and impose another tax, build more fairly useless wind farms, cut back on carbon emissions etc rather than wait say another 20 years to see what the result of the current climate leads to. In the interim the time should be used to carry out further uncontroversial analysis into global warming so that if at the end of the 20 years even the current sceptics are convinced something should be done then we can all support the necessary legislation/taxation. The only thing Napoleon said that I agree with is ‘when in doubt do nothing’. As Huhne is no doubt an admirer of that awful tyrant Napoleon like my French father-in-law (he had an excuse - he was French) one would expect him to follow the little man (about the same size as Huhne?). The 20 years should also be usefully used to push forward the development of/search for alternative energy forms including nuclear.

EU Referendum

Please read Dan Hannan's blog post at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/danielhannan/ and sign up to support the campaign for an in/out EU referendum.

Olympic Tickets

Further reasons for getting out the EU. It truly is a nonsense that the initial allocation of tickets for the Olympics should not be exclusively for those who are paying for the whole show. In other words the taxpayers who live in these islands. As the rest of the EU has not paid a penny to this circus it is incomprehensible that other EU 'citizens' (yes we are apparently now EU citizens although I have to say that I reject being so designated as I was a freeborn Englishman and shall so remain for the rest of my life) should have any right to buy tickets ahead of the rest of the world and in particular ahead of Commonwealth citizens. It is also a nonsense that the EU is trying to impose or has imposed its financial services rules on the City of London and its ridiculous and pretentiously named 'droit de suite' ( a kind of droit de seigneur but instead of getting a virgin an artist gets a cut of the secondary sales of his works). The only reason for these impositions is to reduce this country to a vassal state by ruining the businesses we excel in. However there is a time coming soon when there will be an English rose revolution against the whole EU idea in this country and one which will be won by those who believe in democracy. Down with all eurocrats and the politicains who support them and long may they suffer in hell for their deceit.    

No to AV

The greatest fear with the AV referendum is that the No to AV campaign will be so far ahead in the polls by the time it takes place that those of its supporters who would otherwise make the effort to go and vote will be overcome with apathy thinking the result a forgone conclusion, particularly in those areas where there is no local elections and the like taking place at the same time. It is essential that those who support No to AV win the referendum as the likely result if those who vote Yes to AV win is that we shall end up with a permanent coalition of the left ruling us. It is quite clear that the LibDems would have gone into a coalition with Labour if the number of seats Labour had won would have given a Labour/LibDem coalition an overall majority in the Commons. If AV passes it is quite clear that thereafter and except in exceptional circumstances only the LibDems and Labour could form a majority with an increasingly leftward agenda. Nothing that I have seen about the LibDems gives me any confidence in their governing abilities. Witness the vote today on the NHS reforms at their Spring Conference. Witness that prating fool Menzies Campbell who wishes to take over as Foreign Secretary from Hague. Hague is probably the best Foreign Secretary we have had for over a century even if he is not concerned with fighting the internal political war. Both Straw and David Miliband were capable of fighting the internal political war - a pity though that they were so lousy at being Foreign Secretary. Incidentally I hear that the SAS mission was to take out weapons of mass destruction and not to make contact with any rebel group. If true it is a great pity it failed if the Gaddafis retain power.  

Sea Level Rising

A couple of days ago the BBC's Environment Correspondent Richard Black reported that research shows ice loss from Antartica and Greenland has accelerated over the last 20 years and will soon become the biggest driver of of sea level rise. Scientists calculate from satellite data and climate models (hopefully the flawed Met Office climate model is not one) that the two polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to to raise sea levels by 1.3mm per year. This rise is apparently likely to be significantly higher than the level projected by the IPCC if present tends continue. We know that the IPCC projections are also flawed and thus in my view it can be safely assumed that this is just a scare story and can be ignored for all the reasons that those scientists who poured cold water on the IPPC's findings will explain in full once the report on which Black's article is based is published. Global warming and cooling is cyclical as in fairness Black seems to realise by having said 'if present trends continue'. If sea levels have indeed risen over the last 20 years they will surely reduce as the current cycle ends. That mere man can change the climate is a conceit that has been fully exposed by today's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Nature's power is indeed awesome.   

Kevin Maguire

It is difficult to know why anyone should take this man seriously. Sky News often has him pontificating on the papers and occasionally for my sins I watch him do his thing. I have also seen him in the Punch Bowl in Farm Street or did before it was closed for refurbishment or whatever. He is a twerp of the first water and it is very difficult to take anything he says seriously. Guido Fawkes http://order-order.com in one of his blogs today refers to Maguire's story in today's Mirror that some left wing Libyan (a natural supporter of Gaddafi then) he met in London is saying that the SAS squad involved in the UK's failed mission was carrying explosives because it was a sabotage mission to destroy rebel positions and blame the resultant atrocities on Gaddafi's forces to stir up civil war and win international sympathy. Maguire says he's sceptical but the SAS expedition has created huge mistrust, presumably amongst the Libyan friends of Maguire's Libyan friends in London. I doubt that any such mistrust has been created as I think Maguire has been taken in by his friend. Maguire vouchsafes that his friend is left wing without making the connection that as Gaddafi runs what is called a socialist government his friend is or was quite likely a Gaddafi supporter. Maguire surely would have mentioned this if he had asked his friend the question. That  is why Maguire in my view is a twerp. Hague has in my view handled the whole affair with great aplomb and if he had any thoughts about resigning I would urge him not to do so. His country needs him and the stories of him losing his mojo are in my view total bunk. He may not get on with Bummer and La Clinton but who could blame him for that?

Hague again

Following on from yesterday I was pleased to read Guy Walters in the Telegraph today that in his view the SAS mission to Libya was not botched, at least not botched by us. It must be right to have tried to contact those rebels who had asked for talks even if the mission failed. No doubt there will be another opportunity for talks and one perhaps that will not get leaked to the press, at least until it has proved to have been a success. As for the press, they are a strange lot of people. On the one hand they maintain they need to reveal all they find out about everyone and everything to the world but yet on the other hand they like to foster cosy relationships with politicians. The result of these cosy relationships is that they fail to report information about our leaders that we as voters might find not only interesting but essential to understanding what makes some of our politicians tick. The hypocrisy of the press is only overwhelmed by the hypocrisy of politicians. There are of course honourable exceptions but none as yet come to mind. Craig Oliver, the new No. 10 communications chief, is not liked by the lobby as he has not been appointed from amongst their ranks. That is why I imagine we are being told that the spin against Prince Andrew came from Oliver. Maybe it did and maybe it didn't but the wording of the reports looks like score settling. We'll see how the press deal with the report into police pay. If the police authorities really want to bring policing costs under control then they should do away with the useless community support officers, a really bad Blairite idea like so many of them.   

Don't be Vague, Ask for Hague

So the embarrassing 'capture' of British diplomats and their SAS escort was due to a 'serious misunderstanding' of their role, whatever that might mean. Misunderstandings generally signify a cock-up as a result of someone misinterpreting someone else's intentions. Is it significant in the great scheme of things? Probably not as all's well that ends well. We will have to wait for thirty years to know what exactly happened unless of course there is a prior leak. What is certain is that for the failed politician Menzies Campbell to state that the infiltration of the diplomats into eastern Libya to talk to the rebels was 'ill conceived, poorly planned and badly executed' is irresponsible. What does he know that we don't know about the events surrounding this embarrassment. If he knows more than we do then he should tell us what happened in order to justify his remarks and so that we can then judge whether his criticisms are pertinent or not. On thing that is concerning though about the various Jasmine Revolutions swirling around the Middle East are the reports of attacks on the local Christian communities. Archbishop Cranmer has the story about all this in his excellent blog of today - see http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/        

Cameron's Speech

Cameron is right, there is far too much regulation and much of it should be withdrawn but how is he going to do this when so much of it comes from the EU? How is he going to control the burden put on business by quangos when the burning of the quangos proved to be such a damp squib? How is Cameron going to keep down the cost of doing business in this country when energy prices are so high and will be increased as a result of the madness of the wind farm policy where the electricity these farms produce has to be paid for at twice the market rate? How will his natural supporters be kept onside when the tax regime hits them hardest? Why doesn't he reduce both the corporation tax rate as well as those of individuals to incentivise the entrepreneurs he wishes to encourage? Why is biofuel encouraged when it reduces the amount grown for food and is hardly environmentally friendly? Why do we not expand our nuclear power stations and oil from shale extraction? We know that politics is the art of the possible but syou cannot please all of the people all of the time so you have to take risks and do so for the right reasons. Following Labour's bankrupt policies on the EU, on global warming and taxation is not the way to go.   

Bank Bonuses and Other Evils

To use that hackneyed expression, 'back in the day' bonuses were only ever given for some truly exceptional work which was above and beyond the call of duty. More recently bonuses were given for over achieving a target but it seems many bonuses these days are part of the contractual compensation package and are paid for simply doing the job with the amount being a specific percentage of the bonus pool. This easy money leads inevitably to arrogance on the part of the recipients, to sloppy performance and an attitude that the money is a God given right and worse that it is deserved. Many of the recipients often carry out only the most mundane of tasks in order to achieve their bonuses which anyone could perform if they were lucky enough to be employed in the right part of the bank. It seems there are quite a number of such lucky employees which I for one would not complain about if the games the bankers got up to had not contributed significantly to the recent banking crisis and which are set to bring about another such crisis if there is no reform. Charles Moore has a most interesting article about all this in the Telegraph today as well as his interview of Mervyn King. Yes something has to change so that banks can never be too big to fail and bonuses can go down as well as up and where there is bank failure clawed back.  

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

The lives of the rebels do not belong to Gaddafi. Gaddafi came to power on the back of a coup and thus even though he has been in power for over 40 years can hardly be said to have any legitimacy other than the spurious kind given him by other nations. His fellow Libyans, the only ones who can give him real legitimacy, have themselves never had the chance to appoint him their leader in any meaningful elections. In these circumstances it is hardly extraordinary that knowing they will never have the chance to vote on who should be their President a significant number of Libyans have decided that regime change will only happen following a successful rebellion. As we believe the least obnoxious form of government is that of a democratically elected one we should be ready to support by all means possible those rebels who ask for our help. It is odd to say the least of it that the Americans are seemingly pouring cold water on the no fly zone proposal. Is it because the Americans or NATO do not have the capability of enforcing one or is it because the idea was not proposed by the great Bummer but by that upstart Cameron? NATO could certainly operate a no fly zone and in my view should do so straightaway. 

Freedom

When is it a duty to ignore the rule of law? When the rule of law relates to a decision made by  institutions that have not been democratically approved. If the European Union as currently constituted  had been accepted by us the people rather than imposed on us fraudulently then the stupid decision by the European Court of Justice made this week about premium rates for young women would have to be accepted. We the people though did not approve the current constitution. We were told we would have a referendum on whether or not to approve it but the then government reneged. This thus gives us the people the right to ignore every decision taken by the EU and its Court even if approved by our Parliament because Parliament cannot approve anything coming from the EU or its Court as we have not authorised parliament through the referendum to do so. Thus all directives etc that emanate from the EU are void ab initio as far as we are concerned. There will no doubt come a point in the future when a crisis in the relationship between this country and the EU will come to a head. VAT is an EU tax so no taxation without representation (and do not tell me the the EU Parliament is other than a sop, without any powers) seems to be a good issue on which to fight. We need our own Jasmine Revolution.

Gaddafi Fightback

It is very difficult to know what the overall position is in Libya. Gaddafi is saying that there are no protests in the east of the country although presumably he is not saying that because the east is now under rebel control. He is presumably saying that by way of confirmation that everything in the garden is lovely.Who is to say? The journalists do not believe Gaddafi has total control but is that wishful thinking? It would be awful if true. This morning there were reports of explosions in Tripoli whilst Gaddafi followers were demonstrating but who was responsible seems to be a bit of a mystery. Might it have been those follower? There has been fighting in Brega with reports of a fighter plane circling overhead. Each side is now claiming they are now in control. Two fighter planes are also said to have attacked Ajdabiyah which is being defended by the rebels. Is Gaddafi a total Walter Mitty figure making it all up or is there a fightback and if so how is it going? Do the rebels have sufficient support to oust Gaddafi once and for all or do they need help and should we give it to them? Do we even know who the rebel leaders are? We ought to help if the rebels are truly democrats. If Gaddafi falls will the Syrian dictatorship be far behind? If the Syrian tyrants go how will this affect the Iranian regime? Can we dare hope it will be the next in line to fall? Giddy stuff. Also most interesting that there has been no or very little said in the media that all these regimes style themselves as socialist regimes. It was only when the spotlight on Mubarak that his socialist party was expelled from the socialist brotherhood. That tells us something about our media.     

European Court of Justice

The trouble with logic or indeed philosophy is the places it may lead you. We all know the French love logic/philosophy and indeed insist that it is taught in school. We prefer common sense and common sense tells us that the decision today of the European Court of Justice may be founded in logic but it is sadly lacking in any common sense as it ignores human nature.  There is a difference between the sexes which indeed the French are supposed to celebrate. 'Vive la difference' as they say. The difference between boys and girls is well known when it comes to driving. Boys are in general aggressive drivers and become involved in more accidents than girls. There is a difference between the age to which men and women live with the women beating the men hands down. These factors have sensibly been taken into account by insurers when calculating car insurance premiums and annuity rates. The ECJ has decided such calculations by the insurers are wrong as they infringe the EU equality laws. In other words the Court is denying that there is any difference between a man and a woman. Admittedly this equality fad has gone too far as we know with Harriet Harman's equality law that was passed in the dying hours of the last Labour government. Admittedly the EU thinks it necessary to meddle in all sorts of things it should keep away from but for even the ECJ to come to the conclusion it has on this issue is staggering. This will prove to be another nail in the whole EU project as far as this country is concerned. On that issue I await with baited breath to learn how the Eurozone is going to deal with the Irish request for a re-negotiation of its bail out terms, assuming that the Irish have the guts to pursue their cause to the end. There is no question that if they were dealing with the nasty English as opposed to the nice Germans and French they would be intransigent.