The May 7th Election Dilemma

When it comes to elections I've always been a keen supporter of the 'none of the above' candidate. I have, at different stages of my political evolution, voted with a spoilt ballot paper, Green, Labour. That was a long time ago, and even then it was more of 'vote Labour with no illusions' idea that was predeominant on the far Left. Later, when I started thinking rather than knee-jerking, I stopped voting for a long time simply because there was nobody that was even close.

More recently I voted for UKIP, but again it was more of a 'vote UKIP with no illusions' thing that is common with people pissed off with the other three. And so this time round I've got the same dilemma. But now, thanks to a stream of election leaflets from the Lib Dems I've made up my mind to sling my vote at one of the big three. You see, I would be inclined to go for the UKIP protest vote again - but I can't say this with any great joy. There's more that I like in UKIP then the others, but there's also a lot I don't like. But I live in the constituency of a Lib Dem cabinet minister - and thanks to his party's electioneering I now know that the polling shows it's a straigh race between the Tory and the Lib Dem.

And therefore I am now poised to do something I never imagined muself doing - come May 7th I will vote Conservative. Not through any great love for David Cameron or even the personal qualities of the Tory candidate. Nope, it's a simple vote to punish the Lib Dems, who are a poisonous presence. This is about a vote against their statism, there climate change mania, their pro-Europe stance, the anti-science idiocies of their energy policies and more. So, this time it's going to be 'vote Conservative with no illusions' for me.

Greek Election - Wait and See

While the program on which Syriza was elected appears to be utterly and irrevocably broken, we can at least enjoy the prospect of maximum levels of discomfort in the rest of the EU. The Greeks have given the finger to the Troika and colonial misrule from Brussels. They've done that thing that French situationists used to recommend: 'demand the impossible'.

Take one look at what Syriza is asking for and you'll see that it's economically illiterate in the extreme. It's a mishmash of red-green demands that's heavy on the rhetoric but light on anything that is concrete. Rather than demand economic development to get people into work and freed from the shackles of the state, it's all about 'sustainability', 'a new model' etc. In other words more of the same - top-down state control and central planning in the 'common good'.

It's the same with the core demand. Tell the EU to get stuffed but stay in the Euro. The radical demand would have been to drop the Euro and tell the EU to get stuffed. The conservatives campaigned on the fear of leaving the Euro and the EU, but Syriza didn't tackled that head-on, they just insisted that they could renegotiate and stay in the Euro.

Still, better a victory for Syriza than more of the same - despite the economic illiteracy and the environmentalist orthodoxies. At the very least it has excited a mood for radical change in the population that will be hard for the bureaucrats to deal with.

Climate Alarmist Paper Retracted Due To Fake Peer Review

A favourite taunt of climate alarmists is that The Science has spoken and it's spoken in a decidedly alarmed and warmist fashion. But as we saw in the Climategate emails, subverting the process of peer review has been a key tactic of the warmists. Sometimes this subversion is through the process of pal review, sometimes it's through applying pressure to keep stray editors in line and sometimes, as in this case, it's outright dishonesty.

Pakistani economist Khalid Zaman has just has a tranche of publications retracted by Elsevier because of faked peer review. In all 16 papers have been withdrawn according to Retraction Watch, due to irregularities in the peer review process. In this case Zaman had set up fake email accounts which he then used to create fake peer reviewers. These fake peer reviewers, were surprisingly open to Zaman's work for some inexplicable reason.

Of the 16 papers retracted, one stands out in particular: Causal links between greenhouse gas emissions, economic growth and energy consumption in Pakistan: A fatal disorder of society. In this paper Zaman and co-authors set out to show that carbon emissions are destroying Pakistani society. The abstract concludes:

 ...emissions caused by consuming the energy [sic] is causing harm to the society by enlarge, and it reaches to the conclusion where we are heading toward a systematic fatal disorder of our society.

So, just to get the story right, according to the good Professor, it's not poverty, rampant corruption, military interference in politics, the Taliban, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism or proxy war with India that is destroying Pakistan, it's too much CO2. No wonder he had to make up his own peer reviewers. No sane person would have let that one go...

Peshawar School Massacre

The latest count of the dead shows 132 children and 12 adults. It's a massacre in true Islamist 'let God sort them out style'. Of course we can expect that there will be plenty out there assuring us that Islam is the religion of peace and that the slaughter of innocents is not approved of. And there will be those who will seek conspiracies to explain the massacre - it was a false flag operation to turn the Pakistanis against the Taliban, it was the CIA/Mossad etc.Or worse than the barking mad conspiracy theorists we can also expect those who will assign moral responsibility on the West. If we hadn't done x, y or z then this would never have happened.

It's bullshit, all of it. Anything but facing the fact that there are significant numbers of Islamists motivated and supported by their religious leaders to slaughter indiscriminately in the name of Allah. The problem is in Islam, and seeking excuses just shifts the blame away from those responsible.

Maoist Sex Slaves

It was just over a year ago that the story broke about the "Domestic Slavery" case in Brixton. I guessed at the time that the likely culprit was Ara Balakrishnan and his Workers Institue of Mao Tse Tung Thought. Well, the story is in the news again today when the police revealed that charges are to be brought. It turns out that Comrade Balakrishnan is being charged with:

...one count of cruelty to a person under 16, four counts of rape and 19 counts of indecent assault.

Of course there's plenty of precedence for this. Did not the Great Helmsman himself not have a little harem of young women to satisfy his need for dialectics? On a smaller scale there have also been well-publicised cases of sexual exploitation by comrade Gerald Healy (WRP), and lots of stuff going on the in the SWP.

Still, the court case should be interesting...

Scotland Lowers Drink-Drive Limit

According to the BBC this morning, Scotland is lowering the drink-drive level to below that of the rest of the UK. Well, this is the revenge of the SNP - pay-back time for not supporting Yes in the referendum. And they've reduced it not by a tiny bit but by a fairly big chunk (80mg to 50mg in every 100ml of blood).

Well, let's make some predictions then...

1. There will be a rise in the takings in pubs just south of the border.
2. In five years time there will be nobody in Scotland in possession of a valid driving licence except Muslim taxi drivers
3. This is will make practically no difference to death or accident rates on roads in Scotland
4. Activists in England will be demanding that we meet or exceed the lower Scottish limit
5. There will be a rise in the number of junk science 'public health' research papers that will seek to show that the Scots are healthier, wealthier and wiser because of the change

Rochester's poop-powered BioBus

The people of Rochester, Kent, are today celebrating their newest contribution to the rest of the UK. They have announced a new Biobus - a vehicle completely powered by methane and human waste. Reporters were stunned by the arrival of the bus, which was preceded by the LibDem candidate losing his deposit after the party garnered less than 400 votes in the bye-election won by UKIP.

It is hoped that the Rochester example is followed in the rest of the country.

Ched Evans - Twitterati Victory Again

It was bound to happen - the onslaught of the Twitterati mob was bound to win out in the end. It needs balls to stand up to the mob, and it seems balls are a commodity that is scarce in the UK at the moment.

For those not in the UK Ched Evans is a professional soccer player who, along with another man, was accused of raping a woman in a hotel room. The woman herself did not report rape. There was no physical evidence of rape. There was no corroborating evidence. The facts are pretty much not in dispute - she was drunk, agreed to have sex with the first man, asked for oral sex from Ched Evans. She later passed out. In the morning she was upset because she could not remember what happened. When she went to the police she did not report rape. The police suggested it was rape because she was so drunk she could not have consented to sex in their opinion. When asked both men agreed that they had had consensual sex with her. The police decided a crime had been committed, and it went to court. The jury found the first man not guilty, Ched Evans they found guilty. He was sentenced to prison, served his sentence and was released.

Now I'll admit that I think this sounds a lot like a miscarriage of justice to me. The whole thing is suspect. But let's just accept that he is a rapist who was found guilty and has served his sentence.

Since his release his attempts to get back into football have been dogged with controversy. The mob have decided that it's not enough that he has done time, he has to be made to suffer permanent disgrace. If he was convicted of a violent rape or an abduction it would be understandable. But that's not the case. At worse he has had sex with a woman who was too drunk to make a decision. She didn't struggle. She didn't say no. There is no suggestion of coercion or violence.

But the mantra is 'rape is rape' -- it's another of those simplistic slogans so beloved of the left as it does not leave room for ambiguity, complexity or thought. It effectively short-circuits any kind of consideration of evidence or doubt. And that's why it - like 'tax the rich', 'the war on Islam' and the rest - are so dangerous.

Illiberal Britain

I admit that I know very little about Julien Blanc, and to be honest I don't want to know any more than that. He sounds like a creep, but so what? The world is full of creeps, liars, hypocrites and people I just don't like the look of. Take a peep at any of our leading politicians - you've got a plethora of liars, creeps and bullies to pick from just there. But what I don't expect is that my personal opinion should in any way impinge on their right to free association. I don't expect that my opinions should influence that person's right to travel. Or go about their legal business. But then I'm not part of the Twitterati mob who get to make these decisions.

And, thanks to our deeply illiberal politicians, particularly the Lib Dems and Labour, the mob gets to make the call. And the Home Secretary intervenes and hopes to scour a few of the triumphant Tweets along the way.

Really, this is the pits. Where's the outrage? Why aren't the newspapers demanding that Julien Blanc be allowed into the country? For f*cks sake, I thought we were a democracy that assumed the citizens were adults who could decide for themselves who to like or dislike. But no, we're assumed to be ignorant feral scum who have only listen to someone make stupid comments and then we'd be goaded into violence. We'd listen to Blanc and be turned into rapists.

This is what it comes down to in the end. That Twitterati mob really believes that we are children who cannot decide anything for ourselves. We have to be protected from nasty people or else we will act on whatever it is they are saying. At heart, they think we are a lynch mob ready to rampage at the mere utterance of a provocative word.

Welcome to Britain 2014.

Ed Militard - Trying Too Hard

Sorry to Labour the point - but the latest petulant outburst from young Ed doesn't do him or his comrades many favours. Insisting that you 'absolutely be PM', as he is reported to on the BBC today, just sounds like teenage stroppiness on being told he can't stay up late. Just when you want to be taken seriously, strutting around and pushing out that trembling lower lip is not likely to convince.

It's not helped of course by things like this...

Diane Abbott - Ed Militard: 'not going anywhere'

How very astute of Ms Abbott to outline her beloved comrade Leader's trajectory. Let's hope she's 100% right. Unfortunately, she's normally wrong about everything, so if she's wrong on this as well let's hope he's making a bee-line for the dustbin of history. As it is, the current problems of the Labourious Party give us hope that they implode still further into the internecine warfare that is their normal situation.

Of course, given a constant diet of BBC news there is still time and space for Militard to recover. His attempts to appear like a normal person are destined always to fail, but there might come a time when he abandons the task and just lets the Tories do the job for him.

Riot as recreation

The pics from last night's 'Million Mask March' looked like lots of fun was had by all. Masks, fireworks, naughty words, celebrities - this was an event that had it all. Indeed, a joyful post on Indymedia said it all:

Co-ordinated by the anonymous movement the demonstration was a statement of not just the dissatisfaction with the present system but also a rejection of the so called radical politics we have been offered by the SWP, Anarchism, Black Bloc and the rest of the Middle Class.

Although it was Russel Brand that got most of the mainstream media coverage he was only a very minor part of the night. We took the fight to the gates of Buckingham Palace as the Royals were evacuated by special forces helicopters in scenes reminiscent of the last day of Nicolae Ceaușescu. The cops there knew they no longer had the power - it was us who would decide if they lived or died. We owned the streets, all the streets.

Trafalgar Square, a fading symbolism of the British Imperialist past was taken over and used as a coordination and party center throughout the night as white, black, sisters and brothers came together to show their refusal to accept the austerity cuts, the rigged vote for Scottish independence, the slaughter in Palestine, the Health Service privatisation and the other policies from the last days of Neo-Tory Liberal Capitalism.

The revolution has begun brothers and sisters !
What will you smash, what will you build ?
Take the power !
Own the streets ! 

Yes, there you have it. The revolution has already begun. Can't you see the difference in the streets today? Don't you realise that the old world has been over thrown and the new world has begun? Sorry, you're too busy working? Too busy sending your kids to school or caring for your family? How very bourgeois of you. Now is the time to invest some of your trust fund in a funky anonymous mask and join the revolution...

Vegetarian Sperm Counts

So, research is confirming what we've long suspected - vegetarians have significantly lower sperm counts than men who follow an omnivorous diet. Not only does the research, reported here in the Telegraph, show lower sperm counts, it also shows that the sperm have lower motility - in other words they're not that good at swimming. What does this mean? It means it's evolution's way of removing vegans from the gene pool.

Now, if only someone can do the research to correlate sperm count and motility with climate alarmism we might have something really positive to report...

Go With The Flow - Pissing In The Wind

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the 'go with the flow' campaign has picked up so much momentum. For those who've missed it, this is the campaign to encourage people to piss in the shower as a way of preserving valuable water resources. Picked up by the BBC (naturally), and subsequently it's gone pretty viral. How many people who take a sneaky leak in the shower knew they were making a political statement?

Personally, I find the whole thing pretty depressing. Is this what it's come to? The campaign hails from two students at the University of East Anglia (Climateh=gate central to you and me). It somehow says a lot for the limited horizons of today's student eco-activists. The poverty to ambition is there. The pant-wetting excitement and endorsement from our establishment. The focus on limiting our ecological foot-print, trying to make us as invisible as possible. The incredible smugness of it...

How is this radical? Access to clean water is a real issue in lots of parts of the developing world. But not in Norwich as far as I know. Last time I was there it looked like there was plenty of water to go round. Will the water saved from not flushing the toilet after peeing in the shower get shipped to parts of the world where it could be useful? Nope. This is more about the illusion of radicalism than anything else. If they really want to make a difference then why aren't they campaigning for access to cheap electricity and infrastructure devlopment that will make a lasting difference to poor people without access to clean water? Why aren't they campaigning for more development not less?

And why stop at peeing? If they really want to show solidarity with poor people without access to resources, then why not take a dump and use the dried turds as a cooking fuel? Why not disconnect from the electricity grid and go to burning dung inside - then they can really experience what it's like to have no resources.

Saving Tesco

There was a time, not too long ago, that Tesco was the epitome of high-street evil. It was the supermarket par excellence, the destroyer of all that is good and the target of campaigns of vilification from the middle-class commentariat. They hated Tesco for a variety of reasons - it was successful, it sold cheap food and other goods, it was ferociously competitive and so on. Of course the idea that the proles should have access to a wide range of cheap food was never going to go down well. Personally, I grew up on a south London council estate with only one small supermarket (it was called the Wavy Line if I remember correctly) to serve the entire estate. Like a lot of people we didn't have access to a car for a lot of the time, so our weekly shop was done there. Prices were high and choices limited. Once we got a car we did the decent thing and drove to a Tesco or Sainsbury's where the food was cheaper, fresher and we had a whole lot more choice. And I admit it, I think big supermarkets are miracles of logistical science and that they've been a huge factor in the improvement in peoples diets, they've helped broaden our palates in ways that were unimaginable in the 1970s.

But back to today. With Tesco ailing, profits falling and the company no longer as successful as it once was, I'm wondering how long it is before someone starts campaigning to save it. You see, here's the thing. While Tesco was successful it was the epitome of evil. Now that it's limping there will be those who decide that it's the job of the state to intervene. They'll discover the good things that Tesco does - jobs for local people, for example - and they'll say that it's the job of our tax money to save this wounded giant. Success is equivalent to evil in this mindset, failure is a mark of virtue and virtue must be preserved using our tax money.

The Fake 'People's March'

As a former leftist I still like to look at what the comrades are up and what they have to say. Occasionally one is even surprised to find evidence of intelligent life in the stagnant pond. One port of call for me is the UK Indymedia site, still a good place to catch up with what activists are up to, particularly those not aligned to Respect or the SWP. Which is why it's interesting that there's nothing posted on the site about the People's March for Climate - you know the one, the one advertised on the tube and in a slick PR campaign of co-ordinated marches internationally.

Now the normal thing would be for demonstrations like this - which the anarchoids will see as reformist and led from above - would attract the attention of the more militant types. They will join the march so that they can leaflet and paper-sell in order to propagandise for more 'direct action' tactics. This happens on a range of issues - anti-war, anti-austerity, anti-fracking etc etc.

But in this case there's nothing. Not a sign of interest at all. Is this because the 'People's March' is so devoid of contact with activists that they've decided to ignore it completely? Or is a realisation that the whole anti-climate change tack is busted and of no value at all.

Like I said, I still look for signs of intelligent life in the pond, but these days it's hard to find any signs of life there at all...

Still, the BBC are covering this stroll by a tiny number of people. And the corporate organisers will be happy with that - as though a few lines on the BBC website is a good result for the hundreds of thousands they've spent putting this together.

UK Politicians North of Hadrian's Wall

In a last bid attempt to get the Scots to vote yes, Alex Salmond has managed to persuade David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown to journey north of Hadrian's Wall. Hell, they even got Farage in a job lot. In a fantastic move for the Nationalists, the sight of the UK's 'leading' politicians has probably done more to convince people to dump Westminster than anything that the SNP could dream of. Not even the endorsement of the North Korean's could compare to Ed Miliband trying to convince a sceptical Scots public that he was a politician worth listening to.

If the vote turns out to be a No, then it will have more to do with fear of change than any love for our political classes. And let's not underestimate the effect that various business leaders have had here. The likes of Standard Life and RBS probably carry more weight than our small-minded politicians singing the praises for the Union.

Douglas Carswell to UKIP

While it's a being seen as something of a coup for UKIP, the defection of Tory MP Douglas Carswell to the party might turn out not to be the unalloyed joy that supporters think it is. For one a set-back in the by-election will signal yet again that voters are not convinced that the party is fit for Westminster. More importantly Carswell represents a different beast to those that Nigel Farage prefers to surround himself with. If Carswell stays and does well, by winning his seat back for example, then he naturally becomes a counter-weight to the great leader himself...

Thank you, Australia

Thank you for ridding yourselves of the Labour Party, it's Green allies and the environmentalist dogma that still has the political classes in the rest of the Western world in thrall. Thank you repealing your carbon tax and showing us poor and oppressed masses in Europe and the US what is still possible. Thank you for showing that another world is possible.

Now, if you could just drop Al Gore into one of your croc-infested rivers we'd be even happier. And make sure you get Obama and Cameron to wade in to the same waters to rescure Al...

Owen Paterson - Not Green Enough?

How Ed Davey and the rest of the Limp Dums, and environmentalists in general, must be pleased that the latest reshuffle sees Owen Paterson out as Environment Secretary. Having someone not sufficiently alarmist in the position was always too much for them to cope with. And he was known for being a Eurosceptic. A double whammy. No wonder he's out...

And of course the NUT and other teaching unions are probably deliriously joyful at Gove's departure from Education.