A visit to London

Have just got back from a two day visit to London - what have I learnt?

1) That the smart colour for a smart car is black

2) That the ultimate smart car is a Range Rover - in black of course - bye bye Mercedes  nobody -or at least not the uber rich in Knightsbridge/St James area - seems to love you anymore.

3) That- although it is now the season of  ' mist and mellow fruitfulness'  the enthusiasm for London by Chinese tourists is unabated - and - therefor - the chorus of pleas for the government to relax visa requirements on Chinese tourists seems a waste of space -the British Museum - which -not having visited it for forty odd years I spent a morning in - was swarming with Chinese and later - while wandering down Knightsbridge -and my wife and I decided to pop into Harrods that too was simply awash with them.

4)   Harrods: If you need to know the price of something - anyway a handbag -you shouldn't be shopping there.  We wandered through the leather goods and handbag department peering at the goodies but slightly amazed that nobody had bothered to put the prices on them ! My wife - happy though with her look alike Prada bag slung over her shoulder - bought from an obliging black man  on a pavement in Barcelona for £15 - eventually summoned up the courage to ask an assistant how much some perfectly ordinary looking - to me - handbag was - be told £2,250!

Have I learnt anything else - Oh yes - the best museum experience in London is the Sir John Soane Museum Lincoln Inn Fields - it is intimate, eccentric and a monument to a great architect and Englishman and it is free (not many Chinese either) 

Jeremy Corbyn

Hurray for Jeremy Corbyn. British politics has suddenly become interesting, actually that is a under statement, British politics has suddenly become fascinating.  First reactions from 'commentators' are predictable.  The Labour membership has collectively committed suicide, the Conservatives will walk the next election, Labour will tear itself apart etc.

What do I think? Well I think Jeremy Corbyn's election is part of a world wide groundswell of opinion among electorates in developed countries away from blancmange politicians like Our Dave and the alternative Labour leadership candidates. I mean let's face it what does Yvette Cooper actually stand for, what, if anything, does she actually believe in? You don't know? of course you don't because professional politicians like Yvette and Our Dave make very sure that they don't advertise their beliefs and try to be all things to all men.  Todays professional politicians are, as I have said before, too afraid of being hated ever to be loved. Say what you like about Jeremy Corbyn but at least we all know what he believes in and that is why some people love him and are prepared to fight for him.

I think that Corbyn's election is part of a reaction by the electorate away from blancmange politics and politicians and that is why I cheer it. The success of Nigel Farage and UKIP and now Corbyn's election is a warning to politicians of all parties that there is a movement against 'non confrontational' politics as practised by the Metropolitan elite for the last decade or so towards conviction politicians.

Not just in the UK either. Witness the success of the right wing buffoon Donald Trump in America. In France next year there is a very real possibility that the Presidential elections will be won by the National Front, in Poland a right wing part is poised to take power next year, while in Spain an extreme left wing party has emerged to challenge the established parties and don't mention Greece!

So who in Brit politics are going to be the winners and losers as a result of Jeremy Corbyn's election. Well the biggest winner is of course UKIP.  Around 20% of those who voted Conservative at the last election would have voted UKIP if they hadn't been frightened of letting Milliband into No.10.  So, all things being equal, I can see UKIP gaining 30 -50 seats at the next election if- and it is a big if - Corbyn remain as leader of the Labour party.  Will he do so? Well he has one major piece of luck -in eight months time elections are due to the Scottish Parliament - Corbyn is a great campaigner and a great speaker in the rabble rousing tradition. He could reverse the disastrous collapse in the Scottish Labour party and if he does then he would become very difficult to get rid of.  Finally the Liberal party which was virtually dead and buried has been offered a life line. surely the Liberal party is the obvious home for disaffected Champagne socialist and Blairites.  Lastly what of the Conservatives. Well It all looks like a walk in the park from here on in for our Dave and his friends but he ought to remember Macmillan's answer to a reporter who asked him what the was afraid of:

"Events my boy, Events'  The Old fraud sagely replied.

Chris Packenham of the BBC

Good to know that there is at least one Institution where Political Correctness doesn't reign and employees are allowed - even encouraged - to voice insulting opinions of ethnics and minorities. Yes -You've guessed it -I'm referring to the BBC.  One of their star presenters-Chris Packenham-who bizarrely is a presenter of Country file has called farmers - who- together with landowners - oddly manage and look after virtually all the countryside - 'Brutalist thugs, liars and frauds.'  Wow. That's pretty hot stuff and I expect you remember the fuss the self same BBC made when Jeremy Clarkson mouthed - but did not speak the rhyme,  which everyone of his generation knows by heart "eeny meany mini mow catch a N****** by his toe...." Good to know that the BBC has now moved on from that frightfully PC attitude they adopted to Jeremy's antics ( an attitude incidentally which has probably cost the license fee payer - you and me -some £20 million a year in lost revenue from Top Gear) and now embraces Non PC presenters with -shall say -controversial -and highly prejudiced  attitude to the people who are the subject of much of their programmes.

Now I want you to play a game -substitute the word 'Farmer' and instead insert any other noun - for instance - let' try Imans - Wow again -or Human Right Lawyers -or Gay Right Activists and then ask yourself what would the BBC have done if Packenham  had used such language to describe one of these groups -would they have:

a) Announced an enquiry and called him in to explain his actions prior to forcing him to make a grovelling apology

b) Sacked him on the spot for having grossly insulted a group of people and having demonstrated total ignorance  of the way of life of the very people he was meant to be making programmes about.

c) Done absolutely nothing -because -you know -basically - Chris has justifiably reflected the views of the Metropolitan elite - and hey -that's us.

New Peers - a volunteer

Oh dear - Our Dave has had seven of his nominations for a peerage rejected as being unworthy - or unsuitable - to be elevated to the House of Lords. Makes you wonder what sort of dross he was proposing when you see the sort of people who have sailed through the vetting process over the last decade or so.  Also proves -once again- two maxims of mine - Change for the sake of Change is always Bad and -If it isn't Broken don't Fix it.  The old unreformed House of Lords may have had it's faults but it was cheap, reasonably free of political corruptions and it worked.   Contrast it with what has replaced it.  A top heavy behemoth of a legislature - full of free loaders and people who - routinely- abuse their expenses- all of whom -apart from an honest rump of hereditary peers - owe their presence their to political patronage. How much better - how much more honest -was the old House of Lords dominated instead by people who owed their place  there to their birth rather than their ability to grease political palms and lick political bottoms.

As someone who has never done either I realise that I am totally unqualified to be a modern day peer but I am still prepared selflessly to put myself forward as a suitable candidate to be a member of the House of Lords.  

Syrian migrants - bunch of cowards

There was a picture in yesterday's paper of a long line of Syrian men waiting to get on a Cruise liner chartered by the Greek government where they will stay while their asylum applications are processed.

They all looked pretty fit to me so what on earth are they doing running away from their country. I mean if you don't like the Assad regime then there are plenty of opposition armies you can join ranging from the totally nasty ISIL to militias raised to protect the various minorities who live in Syria.

I wondered -looking at the picture - on what was the anniversary of VJ day - what we would have thought of a similar line of fit young Brits applying for asylum in the USA in 1940 - but we know the answer don't we - we would have considered them the scum of the earth.       

 

Ted Heath is innocent

I am no fan of Edward Heath -  a conceited blob of lard - who is well up there among the worst Prime Minister this long suffering country has had inflicted on it over the last hundred odd years. I do though believe that there is not a shred of truth in the allegations against him regarding young boys.  Sexually I think our Ted was neuter - just totally uninterested in anyone but himself.

However being a very high profile bachelor it is unsurprising that a couple of unsubstantiated allegations were once made about him - what is more surprising is that only two such allegations were ever made.  In this modern world though two old nutty allegations about the sexual activities of a long dead man are all that is needed for the press to start screaming 'Cover up' and demanding a 'investigation'  and the police - who can't be bothered to investigate burglaries  in some parts of the country  suddenly find enormous amounts of energy and 'resources' to carry out an investigation into a man who is dead!

Actually it gets better - for the police that is. As not content to investigate and then debunk these old accusations they have come up with the wonderful idea of appealing for new allegations. Not surprisingly- in a country of 60 million - of whom according to MIND -at least one in four suffer mental health problems in anyone year- there has been a good response. So good in fact that soon virtually every police force in the country will have a dedicated Sir Edward Heath investigation team- burning up the miles and overtime as they carry out a totally pointless task.  The pursuit of accusations against the dead has taken the modern Witch Hunt to new extremes of absurdity. How we laughed at school at the stupidity of the Charles II and his advisors on digging up the remains of Cromwell and hanging them in chains after his Restoration in 1660. It is nice to know that the stupidity of our rulers has not altered one wit over the last 450 odd years      

Lord Thomas of Cwmgieed - a twit

The Judiciary needs taming. At present they consider themselves omnipotent, that they have a right to force their Metropolitan elite values on the rest of us. Totally disregarding the democratic will of the majority and totally disregarding the will of Parliament. Until the judiciary is tamed the security of this country is in jeopardy. The sheer arrogance and arrant stupidity of our highest court judges is beyond belief.

As an example let's look at the latest effort of  Lord Thomas of Cwmgieed -the Lord Chief Justice who - fully aware of his duty to ensure that the gravy train of legal aid continues to flow in an uninterrupted stream to such well deserving people as Sapna Malik - a female human rights lawyer who specialises- to her enormous profit -  in bringing cases against the British Army by alleging that soldiers broke suspects human rights in such peaceful countries as Iraq and Afghanistan - has just delivered his latest infantile judgement   The Noble Idiot -Lord Thomas - naturally found that it was illegal for the army to hold a suspected bomb maker in Afghanistan in detention  and naturally His Idioticy will-no  doubt - soon announce an enormous sum of compensation must be paid to the said suspect bomb maker - a sum - almost certainly - far in excess of that given to serving soldiers as compensation for loss of limbs or life in bomb explosions  

What is wrong with people like Lord Thomas - why do they hate their country? why do they hate the Army and lastly why can't it ever be the likes of them who are blown up by a terrorist bomb?

Immigration - Grandmother's footsteps

When I was a child we played Grandmother's Footsteps - remember it?  One of you is 'Grandmother' and faces away from everyone else - The AIM is for the rest of the players to creep up on Grandmother without being spotted by her when moving as - periodically 'Grandmother' whizzes round and if she spot you in motion then you are sent back to the start line. 

Well I can't help thinking that the current chaotic situation over illegal immigration at Calais is much like Grandmother's Footsteps.  The illegal immigrants, pseudo asylum seekers and the rest of the riff raff know that the only punishment that awaits them as they cause chaos and damage in their attempts to get into the UK is to be sent back to the start line where they can try again. It is frankly pathetic. If we are serious in sorting the problem out the solutions are both simple and cheap.

1)  Electrify the fences.  Put 50,000 volts through a wire fence and I somehow doubt if any would be illegal immigrant would try it on.

2) Put any illegal immigrant/asylum seeker who has made it through the tunnel and is then caught straight back on the next train to Calais - no if's or buts.

Calais though is only part of the problem.  Libya is where most of those who end up at Calais make their initial crossing from on their way to 'the Promised Land' of the UK where housing and benefits will be generously provided and where your chances of being deported are virtually zero.

Libya -is of course a joke - so worried are European countries, including the UK as being lacking in humanitarian concern that - weirdly - we provide a ferry system for the illegals - once they leave Libyan waters - to the safe haven of Italy. The result is that we have made the journey both safer and quicker for illegals thus further enriching the people smugglers.

 

I hate BING and Microsoft

I've got a programme on my computer called 'Bing.'  Apparently it is  Microsoft's pathetic attempt at producing a search engine to rival Google and it is completely and utterly useless- the problem is I can't seem to get rid of it.  OK -it's my fault - never again will I allow myself to be conned into buying Microsoft latest software package -but that is 'lessons learnt' -question is how I resolve the issue.

The obvious answer is just download Google Chrome - but clever Microsoft have thought that one up and put numerous obstacles in my way - for instance two thirds of the way through downloading Google Chrome a message pops up saying 'download unsuccessful as permission of Personnel Administrator Required.'   Even when I do seem to have finally -somehow - managed to get a version of Google Chrome on my computer it doesn't seem to work properly.

The end result of this rant about Microsoft and Bing is that I hate Bing and Microsoft and will never ever buy anything from that bunch of toe rags again and so -if they think fucking up my computer  so I can't access Google like everyone else is a 'great marketing idea' then they are mistaken - I can't -surely - be the only person - who has a fucked up computer courtesy of these clowns. I would welcome any simple advice on how to beat these little shits at their game and have Google Chrome up and running as my search engine of choice.

sexual harassment in the army

Blogging is like running - you need to get into a routine and -once you break that routine- it is quite difficult - for me anyway- to energise myself into writing again.  So what has inspired me to take up again? A complete 'fuck wit' report from the MOD who says - I quote:  "..that a culture of sexual harassment in the army will harm the country's ability to protect itself from attack"  Apparently the problem is so bad that it will affect the armed forces  "Operational Effectiveness."

Actually they are wrong -it won't but what undoubtedly will effect 'Operational Effectiveness' is political correctness within the MOD in particular writing stupid reports such as this. Apparently 90% of women in the Army have been in situations where colleagues told 'sexual jokes or stories.' I'm sorry -what is so strange about that? Actually I should think 90% of women full stop have been in just such situations and one has to wonder about the normality of the 10% who haven't.

The Army job is a simple one - kill the country's enemies. In order to do this effectively you need lots of fit young men with pretty high testosterone levels and - frankly - if girls want to join the army and serve with such men then they are going to have to live with the odd joke -if girls don't like it then  they shouldn't join or they should leave.

the election

Suddenly everyone in the Conservative Party loves me.  No longer am I - being an old fashioned anti EU, pro immigration control, pro defence Tory an embarrassment - no now I am being being urgently wooed. Ian Duncan -Smith himself urges me and other UKIP supporters to return to the fold and he makes an -almost - convincing argument.

Vote Tory and Cameron will give you a referendum on Europe- vote UKIP and you will get Miliband and no referendum.

Well that almost convinces me and, if I had a Tory MP or candidate who I believed reflected my views then I would vote Conservative as I would vote for him not for Cameron. My MP though is a deputy whip which -frankly - says it all - so I will be voting UKIP.  But I will also be voting UKIP for another reason - I owe Farage. The only reason why Cameron is offering a 'guarantee' on a referendum is because of Nigel Farage, the only reason Cameron now takes immigration seriously is because of Nigel Farage. Nigel has changed British politics - he has taught the Conservative party a harsh lesson - if you move too far left in your ridiculous pursuit of the 'middle ground' you will lose your hard core support. Now - at the eleventh hour they have woken up to the fact that their 'hug a hoodie' strategy has delivered them 'fuck all'  new supporters while it has alienated around 5/10%  of voters  who where previously hard core supporters - that 5/10%, if they returned, to the fold would of course let Cameron in with a decent majority.

Sadly my loathing for Cameron and his acolytes -not to mention my distrust of my current conservative MP  cannot be quite overcome by the siren voices from Conservative Central Office because - when push comes to shove - I - and the for that matter every single patriot - owes one to Nigel Farage.

Visiting Syria

Why is visiting Syria now a crime?  Apparently the Turkish police have arrested nine Brits who wanted to enter Syria -on what possible basis in  law I wonder where the arrests made? They had committed no crime in Turkey. Now I actually want to visit Syria.  Everyone I suspect has some 'wonder of the world' that they want to see before they die and mine is the great castle of the knights of St John of Jerusalem- Krak des Chevaliers.  It may - at the moment - be a bit risky to visit this fantastic monument to the Crusader - but so what - it is my life - if I want to risk it it is my affair. Equally I cannot see what business it is of this government or any other stopping people who want to go and live in Syria from doing so.

Admittedly they may be going to join the extremists but that is their choice - personally I would lay on free flights from London airport to anyone who wanted to go and fight for ISIS though there would be one condition attached - give up your passport and British citizenship to qualify

House tours

Strangely a lot of people seem to want to look round my house!  Sadly as we don't open on a regular basis I have to charge a pretty outrageous minimum charge of £135 for a private tour -  otherwise I would spend my whole time wandering round my house with the odd visitor for somewhat less than the legal minimum wage!

Luckily I have found the answer to this problem - it is called Invitation to View (www.invitationtoview).  All prospective viewers have to do is look up their web site, then click on PROPERTIES and scroll down till you come to Great Fulford - click on that and you find dates/times when you can, as an individual, book yourself in for the doubtful pleasure of a 'tour and tea with me!'

Sometimes a solitary character turns up and on other times it develops into quite a party but it has proved - I think - to be rather good fun - not just for my viewers - but for me as well.

     

Food Banks

I felt a bit sorry for David Cameron being ambushed by Paxman on the subject of food banks. Paxman seems to think that the growth in Food Banks and the growth in people using them equals more poverty - it doesn't.  If you offer people free anything you should not be surprised that people take advantage of your offer as even Paxo would discover if he offered his books for free.

Free food is frankly an opportunity too good to miss - it means more money to spend on fags,beer, 40 inch Plasma TV's and other essentials.  Food is actually very cheap - not just my opinion it is official. fifty odd years ago food took some 40% of a households budget now it takes around 10%.  So three cheers for Britain's -and the World's - farmers - they have done a cracking job, as incidentally, have the food retailers - at feeding the people of this country at incredibly cheap prices.  No cheers though for Paxman who - with his massive brain - must have known that his food bank question was pathetic.    

Richard III

I watch spell bound with disbelief  as one of the nastiest rulers this country has had  is given a heroes burial in Leicester Cathedral.

The facts are simple, Richard Duke of York was entrusted by his brother with the care of his children. He totally abused this trust in spades. First he, together it must be said with a fair few of Edward's closet friends and allies, conspired to wrest control of Edward's sons from his wife, the Queen, and her family, the Woodvilles, who most of the Yorkist nobility hated and regarded regarded as upstarts.

This they achieved swiftly. Richard had Lord Rivers, the boy king's uncle, lord Richard Grey his half brother and Sir Thomas Vaughan his chamberlain arrested and sent North to grim Pontefract where later he had them executed. Now with the king in his possession he advanced on London but within a month he had, in a rage, had Lord Hastings, one of his principal allies in his coup d'etat hauled out of the council Chamber and executed there and then on a old log. Meanwhile he spread rumours about the legality of his brother's marriage and thus he moved towards declaring his brother's children bastards and locking them up in the Tower. All evidence points to him ordering the killing of his brother's children.Now this is the monster who is being lauded every where by the 'great and good ( or rather the completely fucking ignorant).

Within five months of Richard assuming supreme rule first as Lord Protector and then as king  the Yorkist nobility, who at first welcomed his coup against the hated Woodvilles  woke up to the monster within their midst and rose up in rebellion.  This, known as Buckingham's rebellion. failed but within two years Henry Tudor, a man with only the slightest claim to the throne, had landed at Milford Haven and marched unopposed, with men of all classes flocking to his standard - why? Because virtually the whole country knew Richard for the monster that  he was and so he died at Bosworth rightly reviled by Shakespear and historians down the century

I will be fascinated to see what historical morans turn up at his funeral service to pay respect to a child murderer and I will be- probably - violently sick as I read the eulogies these ignoramuses write and say about a king who while he may not have been bent in body as Shakespear represented him was most certainly bent in mind .  

  

Jeremy Clarkson

The thing which really puzzles me over the Jeremy Clarkson affair is that he is alleged to have punched a producer. Now if it had been a camera man/director or  the director himself I could have fully understood it - but a producer just doesn't make sense.   Let me explain why.

Doing TV work is actually very hard intense work for all concerned and tempers do get frayed not least because good directors will constantly want you to repeat everything umpteen times.  They do this because they are perfectionist which is fair enough but you, the talent, know that 99% of the footage shot everyday is going to end up on the cutting room floor and the chances of this scene doing the same are therefore virtually 100%. What's more it is now seven o'clock in the evening and you are -literally -dying for a pint. And then the director says; 'Oh Francis could you go round and drive over the bridge once more as the battery on the third camera went dead - or whatever- and you feel like screaming - NO I FUCKING WON'T -I'VE DONE IT FIVE FUCKING TIMES ALREADY -I'M GOING FOR A FUCKING PINT and them you remember that you are -actually -being rather well paid- so meekly -but with grinding teeth - you do it once again and again until he/she is satisfied.
Sometimes -as well - you and the director will just disagree .  He/she will want you to do something and you - for whatever reason won't -again tempers will become frayed, and high words will be exchanged but then -like a thunderstorm -it will be over -hands will be shaken and the incident forgotten.

So if the news item had been that Jeremy Clarkson had laid out his director I would have thought- fair enough. Producers though are different animals. They are responsible for the schedule and for ensuring that the right locations, hotels,flights, train tickets  etc. are booked. Now it is -I suppose -possible that the producer in this case fucked up but I just find it difficult to believe that Jeremy Clarkson would have lashed out at a producer for just a fuck up. The most puzzling thing about the whole incident though is that it has ballooned up into such a big deal. In my limited experience of working in TV you - the talent - and the crew- eat, drink, and travel together and bond into a team -us against them.  So that's the puzzle - who let the cat out the bag and why?    

Wolf Hall

Oh my God this is just so boring.  But not only is it tortuously slow and dull TV but it is bad history, added with a script which tries, pathetically, to be 'relevant' and to 'connect' with modern audiences by sprinkling modern idioms about and making the 'hero' Thomas Cromwell behave in a 'modern' way.

Perhaps I should not surprised at how awful this series is as I did try to read the book - yes I really tried - but it was just so badly written I gave up.  Now actually I am a bit of an expert on historical novels having been bought up in a house with no TV and by a father who considered that the only books worthy of being read by his children where those which contained masses of bloody thirsty scenes where plucky English lads whacked smelly foreigners.  This love of GOOD historical novels continues to this day - sadly though - with the odd exception like Robert Harris - really good historical novelists are very scarce

As with historical novels so with historical TV and films.  If you want to see what I mean get the box set of the superb Henry VIII and his Six Wives TV series of 1970 starring Keith Michell or the follow up, Elizabeth R, starring Glenda Jackson to see just how good historical drama can be with a decent script or give yourself a treat and settle down to watch the superb film Man of all Seasons  starring the incomparable Paul Schofield as Sir Thomas Moore.  Because it is by these yardsticks that Wolf Hall needs to be measured and - when it is - you see just how dreadful it is.

Still - I suppose I will keep watching it - if only because my wife enjoys it and I don't want to miss out in him getting his come uppance and having his head chopped off.

Paternity leave

What planet does Ed Miliband actually inhabit? I ask because if he actually thinks extending 'paternity leave' from a fortnight to a month is a vote winner he is barking.  Apparently he wants to do so to allow fathers to 'enjoy more of the first crucial days of their child's lives.'  Well speaking from experience (four children) there is not much to enjoy about those first 'crucial days' in fact the complete opposite.  I have vague memories of white slug like creatures who needed endless feeding and - of -course - nappy changing. Not -and I put my hand up here- that I got involved in much of the latter but, because we had twins I did do sterling work with the bottle once our brilliant monthly nurse-Ollie of blessed memory - had departed.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the Election Poster - I can just see it - a smiling dad with a smiling partner (But wait - a question - should the partner be same sex as the Dad or should the partner perhaps be obviously 'transgender' and - even better - from an ethnic minority? or why not make it  really EDGEY and make Dad a Lesbian?  I only ask)

The slogan could read -  VOTE LABOUR AND GET TO CHANGE NAPPIES - to which some unfair wag would probably add VOTE LABOUR AND GET COVERED IN SHIT -

Ofstead Inspectors -

In the Walker Gallery in Liverpool there is a brilliant picture by the Victorian historical painter Frederick Yeames, it is called ; 'When did you last see your father?'   In it a small young boy of about six or seven, clad in brilliant blue cavalier garb, is standing on a stool in front of a table, the other side of which sits his interrogator, a kindly looking Puritan. Gathered round the table are other, more severe looking, sombre clad roundheads, while behind the little boy his mother and sisters cower under the guard of pikemen.  It is a great picture.

What a pity there is no Fredrick Yeames alive today. If there was he might well be tempted to update the picture. Now surely the scene would be set inside a school. The Puritan interrogator would now be an Ofstead inspector, the cowering girls in the background, would now be teachers terrified of the consequences of how an innocent answer to a question by the little boy might be interpreted by the Inspector. And the title of the picture?  Well I think I better leave that to your imagination.      

This not far fetched. This is modern Britain. Durham Free School faces closure after being branded an 'educational failure' because some pupils displayed 'discriminatory views.'  Allegedly the inspectors quizzed children as young as ten on how they would react if someone 'gay or Muslim' came  to the school and one ten year old girl was apparently asked to define what a lesbian was, an eleven year old girl was asked 'whether she knew any lesbians and whether any of her family had gay friends?'

I am sorry such questioning is not just disgusting but the mindset of the people who ask such question of little children must be twisted beyond belief. But that is the trouble isn't it. These inspectors are as sure of the righteousness of their calling and of their questioning as that roundhead officer in the picture was or -say - of a Gestapo officer questioning a young Jewish boy - yes I'm afraid I don't see much difference between a modern Ofstead 'right on' Inspector determined to root out any 'discriminatory' thoughts and Gestapo or KGB operators equally determined to root out  'anti social elements.'

Andrew Caplen -President of the Law society and Human Rights

Yesterday the Telegraph published a self serving letter from the President of the Law Society a position that equates to that of a  trade union boss.  In it he burbled on about his fears over the Conservative proposal to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights. He wrote '....the Law Society has consistently questioned the necessity of a Bill of Rights and has stressed the importance of the Human Rights Act and the need to promote it not replace it'

He ended his letter with this supremely arrogant sentence;

"Human Rights belong to us; they are not within the gift of the government" 

Yes that's what he wrote - showing a complete contempt for the democratic process.  I said earlier that the position of President of the Law Society equated with that of a trade union boss perhaps what I should have added was a trade union boss from the 1960's/70's i.e. one who had a contempt for the general public and for the will of the people.

The Human Rights Act is a disaster for everyone but the lawyers who are milking it via Legal Aid for hundreds of millions of pounds. No wonder the Solicitors leader is so worried about it's abolition. Virtually any day of the week you open a newspaper and read of a judgement which seems to be without a iota of common sense. So on the day his letter was published there was an item about a foreign doctor wanted in America for child rape. The court ruled that his 'right to liberty and security' under the Human Rights Act was at threat if he was extradited. Wow - what a surprise. Yes if you go round raping children and get caught your 'right to liberty' is -one would have thought - at risk and so it should be.

Today I open my newspaper and find yet another moronic judge, Mr Justice Gilbart- has ruled that Mr Pickles policy, bought in to stop gipsies repeating the Dale Farm fiasco,had breached the Equality Act and -you've got - the Human Rights Act.

This country is a Democracy - something the legal profession and the Judiciary seem to have forgotten. In their arrogance and in their desire to line their own pockets at our expense they feel they should be above the will of the people. Exactly like the trade union bosses of yesteryear.  In his  determination to abolish the Human Rights Act David Cameron should have every thinking persons support - and when lawyers like Andrew Caplen,President of the Law Society squeal - just remember who is profiting from the Human Rights Act - his members.

Public expenditure - Clare Barnfather Director (Grade 6) Stakeholder and Engagement team ...

The row over public expenditure is bound to dominate the coming General Election and I am indebted to a letter in the Telegraph from a Mr Andrew Given who drew attention to the following recipient of an MBE in the New Year's Honours List:

Ms Clare Barnfather, Director (Grade 6), Stakeholder and Engagement Team and No.10 Relationship Manager-Marketing Department for Business Innovation and Skills (London) .

That such a complete and utter waste of rations is awarded an MBE is bad enough but what is worse is that she is operating under the very nose of David Cameron.  If No. 10 is still providing employment for such a nonentity then the mind boggles at how many other such time and money wasters are employed in the public sectors.