The Things One Finds Out By Accident

My oldest friend is an expatriate in Italy.

Had I not phoned him two days ago to wish him a good New Year, I'd never have known I'd been quoted in the dead tree 'Sunday Times'.

God Save The Queen

Today is the Act of Union's 300th anniversary -

"God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and Glorious,

Long to reign over us;

God save the Queen!

O Lord our God arise,

Scatter her enemies

And make them fall;

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix,

Oh, save us all!

Thy choicest gifts in store

On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign;

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause

To sing with heart and voice,

God save the Queen!

Not in this land alone,

But be God's mercies known,

From shore to shore!

Lord make the nations see,

That men should brothers be,

And form one family,

The wide world over

From every latent foe,

From the assassins blow,

God save the Queen!

O'er her thine arm extend,

For Britain's sake defend,

Our mother, prince, and friend,

God save the Queen!"

Blogiversay!

Is 2570 posts in 365 days a productivity record?

Foreign Criminal Of The Day - Le Hir Of Le Dog

Zut Alors!

Louis Le Hir isn't necessarily the best advert for Continental style cafe drinking.

Particularly not after driving the wrog way around Glasgow's main square.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day - The Magyar Monsters

Hungarian people traffickers Atilla Makai and Kinga Andrea Borcsok have been sent down for 40 and 28 months respectively.

Yes, I did say months.

McNulty's Days Are Numbered

The ministerial career of the hapless oaf Tony McNulty, whose sacking I called for when he was minister for immigration, may be drawing to a close.

And not before time.

'Patriots Of The World Unite'

That is the proposed slogan of 'Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty', a group of Members of the European Parliament who intend forming a bloc to 'properly defend Christian values, the family and European civilisation'.

According to its spokesman,

"If the defence of one's identity is racism or negative, that is a major new political development. That is not the way we see it."

It's hard to see how one could.

To paraphrase Jared Taylor, do we need more Somalis?

Well, That Didn't Take Long

From The Times -

"Molly Campbell, the 12-year-old girl at the centre of an international custody battle, is wearing a burka and living in a religious seminary suspected of harbouring Islamic militants, The Times has learnt.

Barely four months after fleeing her mother’s home in the Outer Hebrides to live with her father in Pakistan, Molly, who wants to be known by her Islamic name Misbah Rana, has enrolled at the Jamia Hafsa madrassa in Islamabad, known for its pro-Taleban views and suspected links to al-Qaeda.

Just two hours after facing the press yesterday dressed in a traditional purple headscarf and shalwar kameez, she spoke to The Times at an office at the madrassa, with her face only partially visible behind a black burka. Surrounded by officials at the madrassa and appearing slightly overwhelmed by her surroundings, she spoke briefly about the latest twist in the custody battle between her parents.

Molly’s mother, Louise, has given up the fight for her daughter’s return because of the strain it has put on her health, it was disclosed yesterday.

Molly did not talk about her new education, but Sajad Rana, her father, confirmed that his daughter had moved out of his home in Lahore to study at the seminary. Admitting that he did not know when she would be back, he said: “She is a grown person, she is an adult. I would have liked her to be near me, but she wants to study Islam and she has joined this group for her education.”

He added: “The last time we were in Islamabad she spent a day at the madrassa, but now she’s made up her mind and she’s going to join it.”

The Jamia Hafsa madrassa is affiliated to Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, which has been repeatedly accused by President Musharraf’s Government of providing shelter to Islamic militants wanted on terrorism charges. Both the madrassa and mosque were raided after the London bombings of July 7, 2005, when Tony Blair called on Pakistan to crack down on radical Islamic schools.

The clerics who teach there include Mullah Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who has praised Osama bin Laden and has described his students as “the local Taleban”. He has said that Muslims are “obligated” to rise up in holy war against Americans in Islamic countries occupied by US troops.

The Lal mosque was also raided in 2004 by police looking for six clerics who issued a fatwa declaring that Pakistani soldiers who died in operations against al-Qaeda militants did not deserve an Islamic burial.

The Lal mosque, the oldest in Islamabad, is run by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a pro-Taleban party and part of the powerful Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal religious alliance that rules the Pakistan North West Frontier province.

Molly’s father said that his daughter had decided to attend the seminary after meeting human rights activists in Islamabad at a demonstration last month organised by the Islamic Centre for Research and Defence of Human Rights, which called for the Government to release suspected terrorists. Asked whether he knew that the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, which teaches about 3,500 girls aged 5 to 20, had been accused of harbouring terrorists, Mr Rana said: “I don’t know about that. What concerns me is whether my daughter is happy. If she is happy in Islamabad then it doesn’t matter to me what kind of views they have, I am not bothered with that.”

It was a jihad all along.

A jihad in whose face those responsible for upholding the civil law fell silent.

Or apologised.

Well, It Really Was Inevitable...

that somewhere in the UK of 2007 would live under the threat of vigilantism.

And our police services' politically correct inefficacy means it's going to become more common.

Mark my words.

Ah Yes, Migrants And Inflation

O dear, all those hard working migrants who do so much to keep inflation down haven't prevented the necessity of an interest rate rise, have they?

Never mind, a good bout of inflation will ensure that there will be plenty of properties and jobs for them.

Although not as many as there used to be.

Never mind, the call centres are doing well...

Streamlining Jesus

Totnes Town Council is ditching prayers before its meetings.

According to the BBC,

"Mayor Pru Boswell said: "We are trying to reflect the different needs of different councillors. It is nothing to do with being politically correct."

She said: "We took the decision that rather than inviting a member of the church to come and lead us in prayer, that we would exchange it for a moment of quiet reflection when people can pray or meditate or reflect in their own way.

"Some of them are religious and some of them are not. Each to their own."

She said the council's work was being streamlined to "bring it into the 21st Century".

Crucifixes were not known for being particularly aerodynamic.

The Windmills Are A Bind

(With apologies to Michel Legrand and Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

Round, see the windmills' arms all turning

They're a vision to behold

All the fossil fuels we're burning

Just won't keep away the cold

We must slash our greenhouse gasses

So Barroso seems to think

But in Europe thinking passes

For New Jersey's dreadful stink

If it's left to the Commission

They'll direct us what to do

But without the power stations

We'll all watch our toes turn blue.

American Liberty Is Safe In Nancy Pelosi's Hands

She's just Bloomberged Congress. Fascist.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part I - The Englishmen Abroad

According to the BBC,

"The Home Secretary John Reid has clashed with the Conservatives over reports the Home Office ignored files on serious offences by Britons abroad.

Of 540 serious criminals - including rapists and murderers - 280 are still not on the Police National Computer. Mr Reid has promised a full inquiry."

Britons convicted of crimes overseas are eligible for inclusion as 'Foreign Criminals Of The Day' - so included they shall be.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part II - Our First Portuguese Speaking Child Murderer Of the Night

God bless poor wee Patricia De Carvalho Braga!

If all you read was the BBC you'd think she was a character straight from the pens of the Bronte sisters!

According to their report,

"A woman has admitted killing her baby after the infant's body was found in a disused freezer in a garden shed.

The baby had died from severe head injuries and its head was wrapped in tape, a court at the Old Bailey heard.

Patricia De Carvalho Braga, 22, from Winchmore Hill, north London, pleaded guilty to infanticide. "

Life Style Extra provides a fuller account of her tragedy -

"An illegal immigrant who battered her new born baby to death and then wrapped its face in sellotape 'like a mummy' pleaded guilty to the killing at the Old Bailey today.

Brazilian overstayer Patricia De Carvalho Braga, 23, hid the body in a freezer after giving birth to the infant girl secretly in a shed at her home in Barrowell Green, Winchmore Hill, north London on March 31 last year.

Pathologists said the cause of death was from "severe head injuries."

Her family only made the gruesome discovery when they found De Carvalho Braga covered in blood.The mother of three, who has a history of depression, today (Mon) denied murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of infanticide. She denied concealing the birth of a child. The charges were left on file.

Sentencing was adjourned until January 29, but De Carvalho Brage was warned that all sentencing options were available, including a term in jail.

Addressing the heavily built young woman, The Common Serjeant of London Judge Brian Barker said: "I can't sentence you today and need information that will be contained in a pre sentence report.

"In those circumstances your sentence will be adjourned until January 29 when you will be back before me, then I'll be in a position to consider everything.

"I make it clear, however, you should not draw any inference that I have asked for the report. All sentencing options remain open to me."

So she's really just a fat slob of an illegal Brazilian who killed her baby and who sounds as if she needs lobotomised.

Jeez, why are the BBC so coy?

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part III - Our Second Portuguese Speaking Child Murderer Of The Night

Number two, a Portuguese who for some reason must remain anonymous, murdered his daughter and attempted to murder his son.

Without wishing to seem lacking in compassion, it's a pity he didn't finish the job he started.

On himself.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part IV - Canadian Pervert

Canadian Internet pederast Graeme Brown is probably one of the dumbest users of child porn ever to come before a Scottish court.

He was into grooming, for sure.

Except he was the one being groomed.

By a cop in New Hampshire.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part V - Kimchi With His Porridge

Anyone who attempts to break into 10 Downing Street demanding to see Tony Blair while carrying a knife would ordinarily be regarded as a national hero.

However in this case the audience seeker was South Korean homeless illegal Jin Byung Lee, presumably finding himself at a loose end without advanced maths classes or Suzuki violin lessons to distract him.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part VI: Carousel

Although the Globalisation Institute would prefer to close down discussion of trade deficits, they can't really get over the injunction of Adam Smith they quote as part of their contention -

"But that trade which, without force or constraint, is naturally and regularly carried on between any two places is always advantageous, though not always equally so, to both."

As far as VAT carousel fraud, still rendering the true extent of the UK's trade deficit virtually impossible to gauge, is concerned it's the 'though not always equally so' bit that's the problem.

The carousel fraud masterminded by Franco-Belgian gangster Emmanuel Hening robbed the British taxpayer of £54 million.

And earned him 15 years.

Another one bites the dust.

Some Thoughts On The Education Of The Semi-Disabled In Mainstream Schooling

While the head of Ruth Kelly (who to the best of my knowledge and belief is not a relation) is being demanded on a plate with chips and brown sauce for sending her dyslexic child to a private school, one thought keeps tumbling through my own.

If my physical symptoms had exhibited at a normal age like seven, instead of 21, I would very probably not have proceeded to study law but done something else instead.

And that might not have been a bad thing.

O, Russia!

When will this kind of garbage stop?

While I will defend Russians' right to be Russians, and their right to use their resources as they best see fit, until the cows come home I'm right behind Angela Merkel's criticism of the oil shutdown through Belarus.

This is the sort of stuff that plays directly into the hands of Russia's enemies, whether they be Boris Berezovsky and his loathseome coterie or the leader writers of the Daily Telegraph.

Maybe the threat to withdraw expertise, as the 'Telegraph' suggests, might restore a measure of sanity - mind you, the Russians would be perfectly within their rights to complain that it's never been threatened against the Saudis.

Another Myth Concerning Scotland's Aging Population Busted

Less than two weeks after Dean Baker rewrote Scotland's migration policy with his observation that productivity growth almost always swamps the economic impact of population decline comes news of a study that further gives the lie to the idea that Scotland's aging population means a future economic crisis.

According to the BBC,

"Scotland's ageing population does not represent a "crisis", according to a Holyrood think tank.

A year-long study by the Scottish Parliament's Futures Forum says the nation can afford to grow old, if it rethinks its approach to retirement...

...the forum, headed by Lord Sutherland, believes the ageing crisis is a myth and an older population does not represent an economic time bomb.

Lord Sutherland, who wrote the blueprint for elderly care, has concluded that an older population need not cost the nation more but that working patterns for older people should become more flexible.

"Perhaps the word crisis comes from the associated belief that an older population will cripple the economy and be a drain on health and other public services," he said.

"However this need not be the case. An awful lot of people are peeling out of the workforce at 50, burned out.

"That shouldn't happen. There's something wrong with the way that we're operating in society if that's the case.

"If, however, we begin to modulate the pattern of working so that people are perhaps working less in the currently final years of working life, that may encourage them and make it possible for them to continue for a longer period to contribute."

The report recommends the introduction of "phased" retirement though shorter hours, job shares and increased leave, as well as mentoring schemes allowing skills to be passed down the generations.

It also urges free 'financial MoTs' at key life stages, and the founding of a National Ageing Forum to monitor strategies.

A Scottish Executive spokesman claimed the report matched much of its own thinking on ageing.

"This is an interesting document and contains a number of ideas for all of us who are involved in the issues of ageing in Scotland," he added.

For many Scottish elderly the principal 'issue' concerning their ageing is an overwhelming desire for the Scottish Executive to just stay out of their faces; however this report would certainly indicate that the touting of mass immigration as a solution to yet another non-existent crisis is just not borne out by facts, or immune from criticism by creative thinkers.

Some Thoughts On The Synergies Between The Cost Of Living, Environmentalism And Immigration

If the Conservatives are in the least interested about the true cost of living, why do they persist in spouting this 'green' rubbish?

How will 'going green' stop British workers having to jam their fingers into the piggy bank two days before payday every month?

How will 'going green' 'improve average wages' (ie ameliorate rural poverty) in the Scotttish Borders? How will it do this? How?

Will 'going green' stop migrants from displacing native workers in Northern Ireland? Which the natives have to subsidise through the publication of 'guides for migrants'? Written in "English, Tetum (the language of East Timor), Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovak, Russian and Chinese"?

Will 'going green' prevent Iraqi illegals from working in food processing?

Or Vietnamese from killing each other in Wales?

Will 'going green' prevent busybodies from harrassing smokers in their own homes? Or restore freedom of conscience to those who do not wish homosexuality to be practiced under their own roofs?

It will do none of these things.

So why push it?

I Want...

one of these...

'Holland's Post Secular Future'

A hat tip to Logical Meme for pointing out this piece on Christinaity's resurgence in Holland; after the banning of the burqa perhaps another sign that, as I wrote over two years ago, the Dutch 'will not go down so easily'.

And it's not much of a pity that a pan-European Christian revival would ruin Mark Steyn's career.

George W. Bush Remembers The Alamo

Hat tip for picture - Auster.

Take One Step Forward And - SPIT!

According to the BBC,

"South Africa says it is considering a request to send troops to Somalia".

So, like, the Somalis need carjacking lessons?

Clyde Wilson On History

From Chronicles Extra -

"People who are ignorant of and indifferent to their background (and those who misrepresent it for present-time advantage) are barbarians—that is, people without a civilized culture. Our leaders view American society as a commercial enterprise in which profit and consumption are the only values. After all, a customer is a customer and yesterday is just a past opportunity for sales. Who worries about where the customer comes from? As a society we have lost sight of the truth that economic abundance is not a self-perpetuating technical trick but rests ultimately on mental and moral qualities. Mental and moral virtues are declining in power and the evidence is already there of the loss of prosperity that necessarily follows.

But a society without ancestors (bastards?) is not the worst of the American decline. The worst is a lost future. Our forebears felled forests, planted trees, built houses, fought wars in the consciousness that the benefits would accrue to their descendants more than to themselves.

A people who took any thought to the welfare of their grandchildren, much less future generations of their own blood, could not possibly tolerate the ongoing destruction of our human environment by politicians and plutocrats. Burke defined civilization as the awareness of the interconnection of past, present, and future. Conservatism was the preservation of the essence of civilization amidst the inevitable flux and chaos of existence.

But I can’t worry about that right now. I have to watch Oprah and then go to the mall. Only in America."

Oil Price Notes

While the Russians are playing silly beggars with the oil pipelines, is now really the right time to be thinking about attacking Iran?

Uzbeks In Ireland

Abduazim Sulaymanov.

Or he was in Ireland, at least for a while...

What The Labour Party In The West Of Scotland Looks Like

Councillor Terry Kelly.

Does Larry Kudlow Read William F. Buckley, Jnr.?

The answer is probably no.

Yesterday, Kudlow wrote on 'The Corner' that,

"However, if the Dems raise the top rates for capgains and dividends and income, all of which would penalize investment and drive capital offshore (to China, India, Eastern Europe), then it would damage our economy across-the-board. Using $150K as a threshold means a school teacher and a cop. Not exactly rich people. "

It is the rare day indeed that this blog praises John Podhoretz, but JPod immediately took Kudlow to task, writing that,

"You say a "cop and a teacher" together make $150,000 in America? You might want to reconsider that claim. Maybe in the suburbs of New York City, but nowhere else. Salary.com indicates that the median pay for a police officer is around $50,000 and for a teacher around $46,000. Only 5 percent of American households report earnings higher than $157,000 a year."

He continued,

"I'm getting flack from e-mailers who are saying, "Oh, cops make a lot where I live too, and so do teachers." I'm sure they do, and it's very nice. But it's still the case that 95 percent of American households have incomes lower than $157,000 a year. Five percent is a lot of households, true — 5 million or so. But to write as though a $150,000 salary in America puts you smack dab in the middle of the middle class, which was Larry's rhetorical purpose, just doesn't jibe with the way lives are lived in America. "

Kudlow might have done better than to read his own publisher's thoughts on the subject of police pay from January 17 2003 -

"I stare at a report undertaken by the Stamford Advocate in Stamford, Connecticut, which lists the 100 highest-paid city servants.

One learns that the mayor of Stamford, Mr. Daniel Malloy, comes in at #83. His pay is $107,000 — (I will round out the last three digits). For whatever reason, he took home a little more than his base pay, grossing $110,000. Without digging out mayors' salaries in other cities of equivalent size and resources, one's reaction is: That's about what to expect.

The city employee at the bottom of the list of the top 100 is a "police officer." But mark this. His salary was $59,000, but he took home $107,000. Roughly speaking, twice his salary.

Move, now, to the top-earning city servant. He is the superintendent of schools. His salary was $251,000, his gross, $244,000. It isn't explained why he lost $7,000. Maybe an illiterate student was found, and laid at his door.

But now it becomes interesting.

The second-highest-paid worker is described simply, "Police captain." His salary was $85,000. But wait. He grossed $207,000. That's overtime or supplementary pay of $122,000. That means the police captain earned in extra pay a sum greater than the base pay of the mayor of Stamford.

So it goes. The #3 earner is "Police sergeant." Sergeant, not admiral, or general. Base pay is $65,000, take-home pay, $169,000. Two-and-one-half times base pay.

The Advocate's headline: "Police Are/Prominent/On City's/Pay Chart." Subhead: "21 of 25 Highest-paid/Workers Are Officers."

The writer parses the pay of Captain Richard Conklin, who is head of the department's narcotics and organized crime unit. Capt. Conklin made $85,000 in base pay, $44,000 in overtime, $76,000 in extra-duty pay, and $1,420 in overtime paid by the Board of Education.

The reader tends to ask, what is the difference between "overtime" and "extra duty?" Can someone do both at the same time? If not, and if compensation is even, and $85K was right for 40 hours per week, $44K would suggest an additional 20 hours. And $75K yet an additional 37 hours. That would be a work week of 97 hours per week. Assuming he did not work on Sundays, that would have him working 16 hours every day, six days a week, which makes life tough on the family, to say nothing of Capt. Conklin.

The mayor was defensive about all of this when questioned by the reporter. He said that some of the "extra duty" work is paid for by "non-city" sources. Thus, the police officer who does "extra work" for the Stamford Mall is paid by the mall. The mayor adds that it is cheaper to pay overtime to existing staff than to hire brand new police officers to do the work. All of that has not closed off criticism. Board of Finance member Joseph Tarzia said police salaries were "outrageous."

And all of this, on the New York City scene, will be intensively examined in the quarrels and palaver over Mayor Bloomberg's proposed cuts. The Stamford preview will cause a burdened citizenry to ask not only the obvious questions — Have payrolls got out of hand? — but derivative questions: Are the police overburdened? How much of their time is consumed smelling out 18-year-olds smoking marijuana? And at the other end of the scale, every policeman on the Stamford list is, by the rhetoric of the Democrats who rail against the Bush tax cuts, including Mayor Malloy, "rich." Your local police officer in Stamford, by the ranking of critics looking for the rich and starting in at $100,000 — is rich.

Only in America."

Stamford, Connecticut might be typical - on the other hand it might be the exception that proves JPod's rule about the outlying suburbs of New York.

However, one can fairly assume that not every officer in the Stamford Police Department would be as diligent at performing overtime and other duties as those listed by the 'Stamford Advocate'; which would mean that even in a department containing a captain who can pull down $207,000 in a year, the joint average wage is much more likely to be nearer JPod's figure than Kudlow's - and the only way a cop could earn as much as Kudlow thinks year in, year out would be by milking the system for every last cent of taxpayer value they could find.

'The Disappearance Of Down Syndrome Kids'

Although inevitably homosexualocentric, an interesting observation on the eugenic genocide of Down Syndrome children from Andrew Sullivan.

Well, have you seen any recently? I haven't.

First they came for the Downs. We said nothing.

Then the gays. We said nothing.

Then the Tourettists...

Some Thoughts On Papist Posturing

I was otherwise engaged for much of yesterday; accordingly I missed Bishop Peter Moran's pastoral letter on Trident.

According to the BBC, the letter states that,

"We are all aware of the suicide bombs, the revenge-driven attacks, the indiscriminate slaughter, the wholesale devastation. We can see violence breeding violence.

"Yet people who would never consider such barbarous behaviour, people who long for peace just as we do, are still prepared to threaten death and devastation, out of fear.

"The world's most powerful governments, including our own, seem determined to base our security on having nuclear weapons available."

Although Bishop Moran is an extremely clever man (a school contemporary of my father's who, if memory serves, achieved a very high ranking in the Glasgow University Bursary competition), one wonders whether he realises that all of the instances of violence he refers to are not committed by Christians.

Suicide bombings are a strictly Muslim gig.

Non Muslims are as likely to suffer Muslim, not 'Islamic', not 'Islamist' but Muslim, violence and aggression while queueing to top up their Oyster cards on the Northern Line as they would be if they were to patrol the Green Zone's outer margins.

Muslims do not 'yearn for peace'; they yearn for Islam. Islam is not peace.

Muslims do not 'threaten death and devastation, out of fear'; they do it for Islam.

The Meccan's violent, corrupt, Satanic heresies render the Muslim very much more prone to the violence and barbarism Bishop Moran deplores - indeed, Islam is barbarism; and the sooner he and his brother bishops realise that they are in the jihad's crosshairs and start holding sit-down protests outside the mosques while publicly praying for the conversion of the Muslims, the healthier the Catholic Church will be.

Poland's Road To Nowehere

Posted without comment.

East Asian Anti-White Racism In London

Yesterday's 'Mail on Sunday' reported that,

"When author Jane Furnival took photographs after a minor car accident she believed she was acting responsibly.

But the other driver went berserk and Jane claims his girlfriend violently attacked her...

Her nightmare began last February as she drove home from Hackney, East London, with her two sons, Charlie, 14, and Henry, five.

A silver Audi in front hit her Volvo as the driver attempted a U-turn. The car drove off but Jane followed it. After it stopped about a mile away, she produced her insurance documents and the camera, which had been provided by her insurer, Norwich Union, for use in an accident.

She said: "The driver, a man of Asian appearance, went mad, crouching on the road and screaming, "No photos, no photos." His girlfriend punched me twice on the face. I suffered severe bruising. I was stunned and I pleaded with passers-by to be witnesses, but nobody would agree.

"Both the driver and his girlfriend were racially abusing me, calling me 'white trash' and 'a fat bitch'. It was like something from a Quentin Tarantino movie.

"I called the police. When I gave a statement at Stoke Newington police station the officer told me, "You were foolish to take pictures. That's why you got hit. Nobody round here likes having their photos taken. You brought it on yourself''....

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police in Hackney said two enquiries had run simultaneously: one into the accident and another into the assault. He said: "Both offences were thoroughly investigated. Officers were able to trace the registered vehicle, identify the driver and pass all relevant details to the victim to ensure she could pursue the matter through the relevant insurance channels.

"In relation to the assault, officers identified an address for the driver and visited it to arrest him. But he no longer resided at that address and there was no forwarding address."

Norman Brennan of the Victims of Crime Trust said: "It is bizarre that the insurance company can liaise with this man but the police have seemed unable to do so."

According to Life Style Extra,

"Mrs Furnival's nightmare began as she drove through Hackney in east London after visiting godparents with her two sons, Charlie, 13 and Henry, 5.

A silver Audi car tried to do a U-turn, but could not make a complete turn and reversed into her four wheel drive Volvo causing £2,000 worth of damage.

Describing the events after she caught up with the car, the added: "He jumped out and started jabbering at me.

I said I wanted their insurance details and in the meantime I will take pictures.

"Of course he wrote down his address and name. I thought I don't know who you say you are so I took a picture of him and the car registration number. "

He went completely berserk. He started pulling up his hood over his head, crouched on the ground and started this ridiculous act as if he was film star and screamed 'no photos, no photos.'

"Then the girlfriend jumped out and started being abusive saying don't take pictures, then she punched me on the side of my face. I was astounded. "

I told her you just assaulted me, don't you realise you have committed a criminal offence. Then she really went for me and punched me twice."

The man thought it was really funny. I was not fighting, I was just standing there astounded. He was laughing and started shouting to his girlfriend, 'slap her, slap her, she deserves a good slap. I will give her one when you are finished.'"

The girl then started racially abusing me and started to go on about 'the white bitch, the fat cow."

Slamming the police she said: "They don't have any excuse. They just had no interest in dealing with this. "

Joining The Hanging Party

It would be very interesting to know whether this report is true.

If so, the whole exercise has failed; and the protests of Gordon Brown, who has stood shoulder to shoulder with Blair throughout the whole Iraq adventure, will be pointless.

Citizen M

Citizen M, otherwise known as my much beloved maiden great aunt, passed away this afternoon.

She was a whopping 96 years old.

She had been hospitalised since Christmas Day; my father and I were with her as she died peacefully in her sleep - the death she had always said she wanted.

She loved greatly and was greatly loved in equal measure; 'sorely missed' won't begin to describe it.

RIP.

Change And The Lie

Congratulations are due to Dennis for securing a post at Stanford University Medical Centre.

He writes that,

"I think it was Clinton who used to say that change is good, but obviously change can be either good or bad, so I've never been much interested in it for its own sake. Nevertheless, I needed it. But at my age and condition, it isn't without its drawbacks and fears. What I did with alacrity and eagerness when I was twenty, I do with fear and trembling at fifty-one."

With all due respect to Dennis I'm several years younger than he is, but can echo his sentiments exactly. My condition's recent decline, a decline which rest and medication have halted to the extent that I've been able to return to work, has meant that one might yet face the possibility of neurological referral.

When you're 22, being wired up to an EEG is an adventure; but the prospect of doing it all again at 36 is forbidding.

I would make one qualification to Clinton's 'change is good' comment. In my experience, change brings nothing but anxiety and penury.

Change stinks.

And anyone who says that we are solely responsible for the negative changes that occur in our lives is a liar.

Snakes On A Plane

If one enjoys movies containing sex, swearing, violence and reptiles then 'Snakes on a Plane', the renting of which in my name my fiancee insisted was a fair and proper use of the video card, is the movie for you.

However, there is absolutely no way it should carry a '15' certificate; and one would be very interested to know precisely what criteria the British Board of Film Classification applied to determine it should not be released to the public as a very much more appropriate '18'.

How Green Was My Plankton

is now up on The Devil's Kitchen.

The Joys Of Cousin Marriage In Leeds

A reader points out the tragic tale of Sabia Rani.

The reader asks, 'what should we do with people who commit this sort of crime?'

I have no idea.

Can Corrupt Nations Win Wars?

While Melanie Phillips froths and rages, throwing 'it’s those wretched Jews again' at a critic, Adam Lawson has pointed out an intereresting article by Joshua Brilliant on corruption in Israel.

Brilliant writes that,

"Corruption seems to have worsened in recent years. Almost all recent prime ministers -- including Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon -- faced investigations though the suspicions never evolved into charge sheets against them personally. Former ministers are on trial. One of them, Zahi Haegbi accused of making illegal appointments, is still chairman of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. President Moshe Katsav is suspected of having forced himself upon women and the attorney general is expected to decide whether to charge him with rape. Katsav vehemently denies the claims.

Hebrew University political science professor Menachem Hofnung told United Press International Israel had been among the 10 most honest countries in the world. It dropped to number 34 in a list of some 130 countries.

Hofnung attributed the decline, in part, to the political system of primaries in which politicians bought influence by providing jobs, permits and tax benefits.

The Likud's Central Committee earned a notorious reputation. Former minister Limor Livnat once asked that committee whether it elected the ministers so that they would provide jobs and the resounding answer was: "Yes."

Professor Avraham Friedman, former dean of the School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, who was also Civil Service Commissioner, said Israeli society has gone through a "radical change" and has become "very materialistic."

People judge themselves by their economic achievements and the barriers society put up are weak, Friedman indicated. Israeli income tax suspects people of cheating in their reports but when it catches them it shows leniency.

The Israeli system is also doing a better job in exposing wrongdoing, Friedman added."

It's perfectly reasonable to note that the British Labour government is currently being investigated on suspicion of corruption, that corruption in Poland seems to be rife and that in 2006 a former US Congressman was sent down for eight years on corruption-related charges.

Corruption exists and will always exist even in the most stable societies, that's a sad fact of human nature; however the extent to which it is tolerated is inversely proportional to a society's cultural strength. Poland has had no Magna Carta and is still coming off the back of totalitarianism, so tolerating low grade corruption in the form of a brown envelope stuffed with five hundred bucks in order to lubricate the grant of a building warrant might still be culturally acceptable.

However Brilliant's article indicates that the reason for Israel's malaise is precisely the same as Britain's. The cultural focus of both British and Israeli society has shifted away from civic values towards individual materialism, weakening the bonds between fellow citizens; the getting has become all important, with the ends justifying the means.

Civic corruption is an expression of cultural decline, and sadly we're likely to see more of it; however, one is doubtful whether nations full of people determined to do everything they can to pursue their own interests can properly be described as nations - or whether they have the capacity to bind together to do one of the few things that nations must do together.

Win wars.

The War Nerd On Saddam's Execution

Whilst I've not always agreed with Gary Brecher's analyses, one finds little to fault in his description of Saddam's death -

"Saddam told the ski-mask monkeys they weren't real men. And he had the right to say that too. Call him what you want, but Saddam was a man, a real man. One of the last. To me, watching that execution was like watching Planet of the Apes: a bunch of de-evolved primates killing the last man. Saddam looked like the 20th century in that overcoat and hat. He'd lost weight in prison. Never flinched, not once. You try that: going to the gallows with your blood enemies screaming insults at you. See if you can hold your bladder, never mind answer back as fast and calm as he did."

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part I - Our First Malaysian Murderer

Sun Choy murdered Yuk Ying Phuah by wrapping 21.5 meters of brown tape around her head during the course of a robbery.

He had gambling debts of £20,000.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part II - The Skin Game

Meet Yinka Oluyemi.

Yesterday, the BBC reported that,

"A couple believed to have earned £1m selling toxic skin lightening creams were ordered by a court to pay nearly £100,000 in fines and costs.

Yinka and Michael Oluyemi sold banned bleaching concoctions from their two cosmetics shops in south-east London.
They admitted 10 charges of flouting medical and safety regulations between July and December 2005.
Customers who bought the preparations, risked permanent skin and blood vessel damage and even infection...The couple ignored official warnings and even previous convictions to sell banned bleaching cream from their two cosmetics shops.
Their shops, Yinka Bodyline and Beauty Express Cosmetics, were in Peckham, Inner London Crown Court was told.
Judge Nicholas Philpot, sentencing, told the couple they were "hard-nosed business people determined to make money regardless of the danger to public health".
He said while a custodial sentence was justified, exceptional personal circumstances meant he could suspend nine-month prison sentences against each of them.
They were fined £70,000 and ordered to pick up the prosecution's £22,000 legal costs. They were also disqualified from being company directors for five years. "

The previous conviction was incurred in 2001.

Ah, vanity of vanities, all is vanity!

No doubt Yinka will now have to rewrite her entry in the National Black Womens' Network Online (the one that tells us she's Nigerian, a fact the BBC omitted to mention) which states,

"Yinka is currently married with children and her future plan is to encourage more enterprising Afro Caribbean's to go into self-employment, which obviously holds the joy of self-fulfilment and job satisfaction, which she enjoys in her business."

Hopefully she will also endeavour to tell them that crime does not pay, and that the love of money is the root of all evil.

The Christmas Drink Driving Figures

Northern Constabulary - up 23% over Christmas.

Strathclyde Police - up 37%.

Grampian Police - up 3%.

Northern Ireland - up 10.3%.

One does hope that there weren't any Lucas Sonta's among them.

Dogs Of Death

Fighting dogs captured in both Merseyside and Northern Ireland.

What a civilised nation of dog lovers we are.

Well, some of us, anyway...

What The Productivity Boom Looks Like Up Close

The upper graph charts the depressing fact that while British productivity growth increased during the third quarter of 2006, unit wage costs did not increase at the same rate; in fact, they went into decline.

The Office of National Statistics reports that,

"Whole economy unit wage costs in the third quarter of 2006 were 1.9 per cent higher than the same quarter a year earlier, unchanged from the second quarter of 2006. This is due to the increase in growth rate of average wages and salaries matching the increase in growth rate of output per worker."

To try to hide wage rate decline behind an annual trend of year on year increase while admitting that unit wage costs did not rise from quarter to quarter is an interesting sleight of hand, but one easily given the lie by ONS' own graph.

The lower graph charts British corporate profitability in Q3 2006; according to the ONS,

"The overall profitability of UK private non-financial corporations in the third quarter of 2006 was 15.2 per cent, which was higher than the revised estimate of 14.9 per cent recorded in the previous quarter."

The graph shows profitability to have been trending gently upward during every first quarter since 2002.

One wonders what dent actually paying workers in Scotland and Northern Ireland for the incredible volume of unpaid overtime they provide would make on those profitability figures.

After all they're being productive during these hours, doing their bit to make us wealthier and more competitive - why can't they be paid for it?

Why aren't they being paid for it?

They don't have a lobby, and without a lobby they just can't compete; the Romanian Embassy in London acts a lobby for Romanian immigration and Bulgarians seem to know which precisely which skilled and high-tech jobs they feel entitled to.

Bulgaria is the sort of country where if you die there, your organs get stolen and they send your body back packed with sawdust.

That's the competition.

The NHS will always plead 'lack of staff' as an excuse for more immigration to keep people working harder while earning less, even when the official immigration figures are so thoroughly flawed that nobody can rely on them.

Sooner or later the hard pressed British worker may have to consider selling their citizenship to keep their head above water; or worse, moving to France.

Or China. You might only earn four cents a day, but at least you'll be more likely to be living in a flat tax economy - an idea too revolutionary for Blighty. The multi-billion pound tax avoidance lobby, the lawyers and accountants, would never wear it.

No, we're too busy coddling foreigners and tolerating the spread of religious sedition to worry about the humiliation corporations heap on fellow citizens simply looking for a job; and that's even before anyone starts bitching about their 'productivity'.

A Foreign Criminals Of The Day Update

Lithuanian gun runners Orestas Bubliauskas and Andrius Gurskas, and a compatriot accomplice named Darius Stankunas, have been jailed for a total of 32 years.

Not long enough, really - life sentences might have discouraged other trigger happy Litvaks from trying to make some easy lolly in London.

Gold And David Blanchflower

is now up on The Devil's Kitchen.

The First 'Ethnic Minority With A Bad Haircut' Award...

goes to Sarfraz Mansoor for his idiotically bigoted suggestion that only Muslim children are well brought up - a statement with which the families of Kriss Donald and Sharon Beshinivsky might disagree.

Give the man a chatshow.

Clare Bernal, Collateral Damage

If they aspire to credibility, all those who say mass immigration is 'good for us' or 'increases the sum of human happiness' should confront the murder of Clare Bernal (pictured).

Clare's killer, the Mitteleuropan Michael Pech, was the very first Foreign Criminal of the Day. Pech would not have been in the UK had it not been for Tony Blair's insistence on opening Britain's borders to every piece of psychotic foreign trash who might care to enter.

Although Pech smuggled the gun that killed Clare from Slovakia and pulled the trigger, Blair might as well have given him the bullets.

The adjourned inquest into her death seems to be focussing on the 'stalking' aspects of the case when the broader facts indicate they deserve to be considered as an effect and not the cause of why a pretty wee lassie with everything to live for should be gunned down in the centre of London by a person with no connection to this country whatsoever and whose path she would not have crossed had it not been for a political decision that was quite fascist in character.

'The Times' reports that Constable Bibi Shah 'wept as she told a court of the moment she learnt that a beautician she had been trying to protect from a stalker had been shot dead in Harvey Nichols'.

Constable Shah's tears are unjustified. No matter what finding the Westminster coroner might make in respect of police procedures, she wasn't to blame for Clare's murder. Tony Blair is to blame.

Clare was an innocent victim of Blair's War on Britain, but hey, every war produces collateral damage.

Case closed.

A Busy Day Following A Busy Evening...

thwarts the mojo.

Back tomorrow.

A Very British Fascism

In a post arising out of the revelation that Simone Clarke is a member of the British National Party, Tim Worstall and his commentors have been tying themselves in knots over whether or not the BNP is of the left or right.

As if it really matters; but the admission of a commentor calling himself 'James of England' that he makes his living offshoring British business to India is not without some comedy value.

Such debates are redundancies, distractions borne from the desire to seek refuge under ideological labels' comfort blanket rather than serious attempts to address what opponents of civilisation such as the BNP actually stand for.

The best way to hammer the BNP forever would be for the Conservative Party to debate it on the BNP's terms; but the Tories will never do that while led by David Cameron, because doing so would tacitly acknowledge that his agenda is not the country's.

That he should be so far removed from the country's roots isn't surprising - he has nothing in common with 99.9% of the population - but this deliberate dereliction of what is his most important duty is just another symptom of the cause of much of what has hobbled British public life since the end of the Second World War.

During the 20th Century, the century of ideology, its nature mutated according to ideological vogue; however, the Blair era has facilitated its final crystallisation into a philosophy whose success has far surpassed Oswald Mosley's wildest dreams - British fascism.

Mussolini described fascism thus -

"The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State. The conception of the Liberal State is not that of a directing force, guiding the play and development, both material and spiritual, of a collective body, but merely a force limited to the function of recording results: on the other hand, the Fascist State is itself conscious and has itself a will and a personality -- thus it may be called the "ethic" State...."

Thus, only a fascist state could first develop and then insist on the maintenance of a 'National Health Service' and a welfare state of the size present in the UK.

He continued,

"...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone...."

ID cards...smoking bans...limits on free speech and rights of assembly...all present or proposed for the UK of 2007, and all depriving the individual of what fascists would describe as 'useless and possibly harmful freedom'...

The old nutter went on,

"For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; and renunciation is a sign of decay and of death. Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies and the aspirations of a people, like the people of Italy, who are rising again after many centuries of abasement and foreign servitude. "

While it is historically and indisputably true that many Africans and Indians led better and more ordered lives when they faced the possibility of being beaten by a Scottish colonial policeman, the idea that we should go and retake Nigeria for the Nigerians' sake is absurd - yet since 1972 our governments have all believed in the expansion of the nation; not the British nation, but the fictional 'European' nation.

Mussolini continued,

"Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies and the aspirations of a people, like the people of Italy, who are rising again after many centuries of abasement and foreign servitude. But empire demands discipline, the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense of duty and sacrifice: this fact explains many aspects of the practical working of the regime, the character of many forces in the State, and the necessarily severe measures which must be taken against those who would oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of Italy in the twentieth century, and would oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the nineteenth century - repudiated wheresoever there has been the courage to undertake great experiments of social and political transformation; for never before has the nation stood more in need of authority, of direction and order. If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time. For if a doctrine must be a living thing, this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith; and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have suffered and died for it."

The 'spontaneous and inevitable movement' of the UK in the 21st century is exemplified by the Guardian's analysis of the difficulties in which Simone Clarke's outing has placed the English National Ballet -

"The company, which is publicly funded and is therefore obliged by the Race Relations Act of 2000 to promote good race relations, will be asked to explain how one of its highest profile employees was able to use her position as a platform for the far right party".

It would appear that The Race Relations Act of 2000 abolished freedom of both conscience, expression and association as far as race is concerned, at least where citizens receive a proportion of their livelihood from public funds. No doubt ENB's punishment will be both 'necessary' and 'severe'.

Let's see...'the courage to undertake great experiments of social and political transformation; for never before has the nation stood more in need of authority, of direction and order.'

Yep, there's Tony Blair's 'We are change makers' speech and the 'War on Terror' rolled into one.

"...a doctrine must be a living thing, this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith; and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have suffered and died for it."

That is the chant of the zealot; a chant echoed by the egregious Home Office spokesman and the mouthpiece of the CBI who were both quoted by Sky News as touting migration's benefits when they are at best marginal and its downside visible.

However, the extent to which Britain is now fascist can be seen in those parts of the CBI spokeswoman's comments that were carried by the BBC -

"Migrants to the UK bring valuable skills and ideas with them and help to fill job vacancies where Britons are unable or unwilling to do so.

"Their taxes help pay for our public services and our pensions, long after many migrants have returned home.

"Their presence also helps keep inflation low at a time when there are many forces pushing the other way."

Migrants also bring crime and disease; they provide a subsidy for theose members of the CBI unwilling to pay British wages to British workers; and they haven't helped keep inflation low at all.

But that a representative of the employers' body should so willingly endorse a harmful practice on the basis that it helps 'pay for our public services' when such 'public services' do nothing but sap the human spirit is indicative of corporate collusion in the state agenda - fascism.

According to Wikipedia, fascist economic theory,

"...also operated from a Social Darwinist view of human relations. Their aim was to promote "superior" individuals and weed out the weak. In terms of economic practice, this meant promoting the interests of successful businessmen while destroying trade unions and other organizations of the working class. Lawrence Britt suggests that protection of corporate power is an essential part of fascism. Historian Gaetano Salvemini argued in 1936 that fascism makes taxpayers responsible to private enterprise, because "the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise... Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social."

If those are the economics of fascism, how do they differ in any way from British fascism's aggressive pursuit of the globalist policy, the effect of which has been to radically reduce the wage proportion of GDP while radically increasing capital's share?

And given that 'The Times' has taken to designing him 'Sir Peter Sutherland', Suds is going to wind up being described as 'The Rich Man's Bono' before he's done.

The United Kingdom is now fascist to its core, a fascism which depends for its success largely on tolerance but which is willing to back itself up with force of law and to which all mainstream politicians have willingly subscribed. It perceives the nation to have no higher goal than to suicide itself into a greater European entity for no higher purpose than profit; and for all that the BNP are nutjob racial nationalists, they could take lessons from the mainstream in real, but very British, fascism.

Foreign Criminal Of The Year 2006

Given the gravity of his crimes and his status as a serial offender in his home country who was admitted to the UK without scrutiny, the Foreign Criminal Of The Year Award for 2006 goes to Viktor Dembovskis.

Prediction Of The Year

Hopefully I'm wrong; hopefully the slow start to mass Romanian and Bulgarian migration continues; but keep an eye out for reports of intra-migrant unrest in either Inverness, Crewe, Wrexham or Slough over the next 12 months.

Paul Craig Roberts On Offshoring

From VDare -

"Offshoring is destroying the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society."

Amen, PCR, and it's the same all over.

A Canophobe Bites Back

Yesterday, 5 year old Ellie Lawrenson was mauled to death by a pit bull.

The British attachment to the dog is a constant source of wonder to me, that a nation replete with human beings seemingly incapable of social interaction above the level of the glandular should bestow such enormous amounts of time, money and affection on disgusting, filthy, aggressive and sometimes lethal creatures with whom their owners will never be able to converse.

Dogs are wild animals. They cannot be properly domesticated and should be barred from all households containing young children.

They should be muzzled and leashed at all times when being walked.

And the second a dog turns on a human who is not its owner and so much as barks, the human should be entitled to kick it without fear of prosecution; the explanation 'I was only wanting to be friendly' providing an absolute defence.

Bubbling Britain...

Perhaps...

Booming Britain...

Not!

Dancing The Tyburn Jig

When 'military families campaigner' Reg Keys tied a noose round his neck and climbed a pylon outside the 2004 Labour Party conference, I distinctly recall urging him to jump.

Keys is a textbook, if particularly vicious and nasty, example of the kind of fractious English crank whose existence blights British public life. A ruthless narcissist who would have remained deservedly unknown, on a fat public sector pension, had he not been determined to milk his own son's death for every ounce of publicity it was worth, in that moment Keys lost all sympathy I had for him - and showed himself worthy of the kind of summary justice that the English used to be good at dealing out to each other, to be dragged up an alley and have ten bells kicked out of him by the creations of Dornford Yates, in the process.

If that seems harsh, one really couldn't care less - Keys has clearly never had to support a loved one through the aftermath of a suicide by hanging.

I have. It's not fun.

Nearly seven years after the event, I still occasionally have to warn that loved one that the newspaper they're about to pick up contains an image they might find distressing; so the pictures that the world's media have all lovingly published over the weekend, of Saddam Hussein getting ready to swing, has made for rather awkward news viewing.

However this morning's 'Guardian', that bastard bastion of secular liberal values, goes one better; it publishes a picture of Saddam actually hanging.

Eat your heart out, Reg! They'd have been talking about you for ever if you'd stepped off the pylon! You'd have become Solihull's answer to Jan Palach! You wouldn't have been around to enjoy it, but hey - your name would liveth for evermore!

Quite what statement the 'Guardian' sought to make by publishing that picture isn't clear. Was it to show capital punishment's barbarity? If so, it fails - execution involves one person inflicting controlled yet homicidal violence on another. It's barbaric by its very nature.

Was it to show the futility of the invasion of Iraq, that it has not created the new model democracy that we were assured that it was going to be?

Again, we know this is not the case - while Arab Islamic savagery holds sway, Arab Muslim savages will behave like Arab Muslim savages at all times and under all circumstances. Radical change will only come to the Middle East when its people reject the Meccan's Satanic heresies and accept the Gospels as the path to peace in this world and the next - there's no other way, but it's not likely to happen for the forseeable future.

The very worst case is that the 'Guardian' is seeking to inflame the dreary 'passions' of softcore heathen Muslim bigots like Osama Saeed and hardcore heathen Muslim bastards like Mohammed Siddique Khan and its own old trainee Dilpazier Aslam.

If that's the case, it is nothing less than an act of sedition.

Liberal elites proud to proclaim their enlightenment and tolerance never fail to rub the darkest elements of the human character into the public's face and soul in order to make their point. The Abortion Act of 1967, brought to pass by David Steel, an absurdly pompous little youth in a hurry to make his mark who matured into an absurdly pompous little old man who made no mark of any consequence other than introducing the culture of death to our shores, was passed by Parliament under the tyranny of the 'free vote' by citing the menace of the largely mythical 'backstreet abortionist', untouched by carbolic and wielding a wire coathanger - now, according to Life News,

"New statistics from the British Department of Health show that more than 100 teenage girls every month have a second abortion and some of those girls are having a multiple abortion. The statistics show some teenagers are using abortion as a method of birth control and may prompt calls for tighter regulations.

According to the figures, 1,316 girls under the age of 18 had a second abortion during 2005 with 90 girls having a third abortion.

Another 44 women had undergone eight or more abortions including 20 who were under the age of 30."

Never mind the genocide and the false pretences, after 1967 everyone knew who David Steel was. The worst aspect of the Scottish Presbyterian character is its unfailing default mode of stamping, scratching and clawing at everything and everyone around it to get what it wants - because you've just got to get on in life, don't you know?

One can almost sense the piety and sanctimony oozing out of the Guardian's editorial conference. There would be Zac and Che, making the case that publishing the picture would be 'daring' and 'edgy'; there would be Drusilla and Tristan, flagellating themselves for having been born British, connected, rich and white and demanding that everyone else feel their pain.

No matter how sincere or insincere their motives, the consequence of their actions has been to restore the spectre of public execution to Britain's streets and homes, the pages of the 'Guardian' becoming a Tyburn for 2007.

They are selling execution as entertainment, and differ in no way whatsoever from those who sold gin to another generation of drink-soaked, barbaric Brits who thought that going to see men, women and children being put to death was just a good day out.

How progressive.