What an utterly stupid woman

I don't normally post on the rantings of Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, 'blogger without comments', and "Mad Nad" to her many fans.  This is not because I agree with her but because Ben, Unity and John do a far better job of it (and can be bothered to go and look up the correct statistics).

She may be a wonderful constituency MP but, as far as pretending to govern the country is concerned, she is a one-trick pony.   She doesn't like abortion.  Of itself, not a dishonourable position to hold.  However, instead of campaigning for an outright or an 'except in these special circumstances' ban, she is mendaciously trying to force through salami slicing reductions in the maximum permissible foetal age for terminations.  

As well as her blog article linked above, she also appears in today's Torygraph^*, reported as saying:

I think this report insults the intelligence of the public and MPs alike.  No improvement in neonatal care in 12 years?  Really?  So where has all the money pumped into neonatal services gone?  This report is the most desperate piece of tosh produced by the pro-choice lobby.

Referring, of course, to the University of Leicester report, lead by Prof David Field, into 12 years of premature births & survival rates in the Trent health region. 

I have a number of basic points to make:

• Judging by recent history, I do not think it is possible to insult the intelligence of MPs.
• You seem to believe in the managerialist politicians' delusion that throwing money at a problem must result in improvements.  It 'should' but, especially in the public sector, it rarely does.
• You ignore, in your insistence that the only important group of neonates are those born before 24 weeks - those which further your cause, the 30% increase in the survival rate for babies born at 24 weeks - clearly a valuable improvement.  The fact that such an improvement was achieved without any statistically significant improvement for your preferred group, is actually quite telling.

Let's be honest here or, at least, I will be, because you seem to be constitutionally incapable of it.  With your utter pig-headed refusal to recognise facts, your mendacious twisting of scientific evidence and your clear inability to accept criticism, an invitation to join Gordo's Government of all the Talentless must be just around the corner.

* The Telegraph's search engine is crap - I actually initially couldn't find this online then got it as link 3 when googling David Field. The mind boggles.

Two different tangos

(And, no, not much to do with Hain.)

Well, two quite distinct withdrawals of whips from Tory politicians (as well as the additional ones who merely had to hand it back to the poor lass when their time was up.)

Derek Conway. Fool, charlatan and fraudster. Thrown out of parliament for, frankly, taking the piss. Yes, MPs have employed family members for years¹. Jackart has a list. There is nothing wrong with this, provided that they do the work. Conways Junior did not. Dad broke the rules. Mind you, if we were going to throw out every MP who broke either Parliamentary rules or British law, we could move them to a much smaller office building. There are still some old-style telephone boxes near Westminster.

Dan Hannan. Eurosceptic and MEP. Thrown out of the 'European People's² Party' for asking the European Parliament to follow its own rules. Remember their smoking ban? Fat chance, mate, but you knew that. Rules are for the little people. Now, it's not as if MEPs actually have any work to do, either - remember that the rules are made by the Commission (TEBAF Margot, twice-sacked Mandy etc) and then rammed through the national parliaments - the Parliament is just a federalist hot air factory³. And, of course, with their pay deal, no MEP needs to employ their wife or mistress - that's a perk for the Commissioners.

There has been lots on blogs recently about pin factories and whether Adam Smith ever visited one (the consensus is that he did - or something very similar, anyway). Where is the discussion of the clearly-necessary piano wire workshops?

1. If I was stuck in London all week (or most of the week) and especially if I had a job that regularly made me attend (they don't actually 'work', do they?) until 10pm, I'd get Mrs S-E a job that meant she could accompany me. And if I could have an arrangement with her boss that meant that when my life was tough, she could get a bit more time off ...

2. This reminds me of the axiom that any organisation with "People's" in its title, almost certainly isn't.

3. See:

Urges the Commission to establish

- pointless, powerless, hideously expensive statist fools. Democratic window-dressing on the tyranny of the retro-Napoleonic federal Europe. With Bliar, the Sedgefield Cat himself, about to adopt Corsican citizenship. Well, we still have St Helena!

Excellent Work

Manic, aka Tim Ireland, who runs Bloggerheads, is of not entirely subtly^* different politics than this author. But he is passionately concerned about the appalling infringements of their responsibilities and our liberties that the current bunch of egregious statists have inflicted.

Here is his well-thought and superbly presented take on the current pretence consultation regarding the law about demonstrating near Parliament, as enacted in Sections 132-138 of the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act, 2005.



Absolutely brilliant.

* Well, he is Australian, what can we expect?

As Bad As Each Other?

Well, as the Hain fiasco rumbles on, Wendy Alexander seems to be all but forgotten, Dizzy and Guido seem to have found issues with the funding of Monocular of Kirkcaldy, himself, The Mail on Sunday blats out "Hypocritical Tory Sleaze". (Hat-tip to Tony, especially as I don't want any of you to think that I actually read the "Mail on Sunday"!)

What a bunch of utter incompetents the Tories are employing now - and I am not talking about Mr Osborne. As soon as they looked like there was any media traction in the various donations rows, all of the Shadow Cabinet should have been called in to see or visited by some Central Office staffer, with a couple of forensic accountants in tow, and their accounts should have been given a thorough beating. At that point, George's little discussion with Ms Barry would have become apparent and he could have been pointed towards David Willett's procedure as an example of good practice. It doesn't matter that he probably hasn't done anything wrong and that he went and asked the opinion of the official responsible^*.

So:

• George Osborne: probably legally correct (the money has been declared by the party) but what an utter pillock for handing their opponents such a media coup.
• Hain: just fucking resign, you piece of filth. At best you are an orange mong, at worst you are a self-confessed (once you had been well and truly rumbled) crook. You should not be in the cabinet.
• Alexander: where is the report? She should have resigned weeks ago.
  
• Brown (Dizzy): Hmm, this is actually a difficult one and, despite loathing the evil shit with every fibre of my body, I would say that benefit in kind is remarkably difficult to determine accurate valuations for; as Dizzy says, "domains are cheap as chips"; and Silverfish are not the Smith Institute so, much as I would like the tumbrils on Downing Street - he should apologise to Parliament and correct the Register.
• Brown (Guido): Internal Labour party matter - but that shouldn't stop us crowing about it. It just shows that "Dear Prudence"'s economic prowess is fog and myth.
  

* - this, of course, assumes that the Office of the Commons Registrar operates on a more equitable standing than that adopted by HMRC: "You give us inaccurate information, your fault, a penalty fine or jail: we give you inaccurate information, your fault, a penalty fine or jail - for you. We're all right, Jack!"

As I Can Turn Back Time

No, not the musical (if slightly plastic) one:



Lo, "Feel The Power of Socialism" ^(TM) as the very sun obeys my duly elected democratic mandate to be an utter moonbat:

Venezuela creates its own unique time zone on Sunday, putting the clock back half-an-hour on a permanent basis.

President Hugo Chavez says that an earlier dawn means the performance of the country will improve, as more people will wake up in daylight.

...

The time change is the latest in a series of reforms implemented by President Chavez, who has already changed the country's name, coat of arms and flag.

At least he hasn't gone completely gaga (yet) and changed the names of any months to honour his mother (although, the way he is going, the huge gilded statue is probably not too far off.)

However, you don't have to go as far as Latin American proto-fascists for this sort of idiocy. We breed them locally, too - Update:

Energy Saving (Daylight)

Mr. Tim Yeo, supported by Mr. Crispin Blunt, Peter Bottomley, Sir John Butterfill, Mr. David Chaytor, Mr. David Heathcoat-Amory, Mr. David Kidney, Mr. Robert Marshall-Andrews, Lembit Opik, Richard Ottaway, Dr. Desmond Turner, Mr. John Whittingdale and Sir George Young, presented a Bill to advance time by one hour throughout the year to create lighter evenings, for an experimental period; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 7 March, and to be printed [Bill 21].

Look. It is simple. The sun reaches its zenith at astronomical noon. Yes, for convenience, we slice the world up into hour or half-hour chunks. Everything else is just human behaviour. And we know how competent governments are at regulating that.

Bizarre Personality Cults

The postman has just delivered my postal voting form (which I won't actually need this year am now forced to use even though I will be working locally on Thursday and could readily have fronted up at the polling station. Ho hum.) However, I was very interested to spot the total absence of the Scottish National Party.

Instead, we have "Alex Salmond for First Minister". Go on, explain that one.

I would also note that we have "Christian Peoples Alliance - Leader Teresa Smith" and "Solidarity - Tommy Sheridan".

Well, at least that will stop more arguments with my wife 'cause she couldn't believe I was going to tactically vote SNP. They, even under their assumed name, have lost one by being such fucking prats. Makes the "smug useless gits" look nearly vaguely competent.

Oh well, Independent for councillor(s) & Tory, once more, for consituency and list, I suppose. Hell, when I finally thought my vote was going to count.

What a bunch of utter wankers. No wonder we have pathetic turnout election after election.

S-E

No Change: Scots Tories STILL Smug Useless Gits

And can't update their web-site - no mention of it at 16:30, the BBC article was published just after noon ...

Update: Manifesto is now up here. Still not headline on the home page, though - "Standing Up for Families", from 28th March, is still their main point. Says something about how they see their election chances, doesn't it?

Today saw the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto for the May Holyrood elections. Just what difference this will make is unclear, given that the last 2 weeks have seen the launch of their "Defeating Drugs and Cutting Crime" manifesto and their "Standing Up for Families" manifesto. Just for the record, they also have manifestos for affordable homes and a "buzzing economy".

Given that they have absolutely no chance of forming the next Scottish Executive, what is this positive deluge of electrons, and the odd shiny dead tree copy, meant to mean for us? I would remind you that tactical voting aside, I am a life-long Tory supporter (and they will get my list vote at the election). Despite the odd recent bit of common sense, this from David Mundell's speechwriter (yes, they are allowing him out in public again):

In his stealthiest tax yet, he has paid for his 2p cut in income tax by abolishing the 10p rate and putting national insurance contributions up for professionals like doctors. This is a tax con, not a tax cut and will place a disproportionate burden on those worse off.

there is nothing here or otherwise coming from them that the seething mass of the Scottish electorate will even bother to ignore. So let us have a look at the message (as stated, from the BBC summary, not from the unavailable reference document) and see if we can spot a missed opportunity or two:

• Scottish Government - a minor proposed reduction in MSPs and more power to the egregious numpties that form, for example, Renfreshire and Falkirk Councils? I am also unsure that community councils would survive the rapid and toxic politicisation that would overcome them if they ever were actually given spending authority.


• Communities Okay, so helping the poorer sectors of society buy their homes is a reasonably good thing but surely some form of loan guarantee scheme (just as we do for exports) would have allowed the private sector to take on more of what I assume we must now call "sub-prime" lending?


• Environment Nope. This is bollocks. Mind you it is Cameron / Goldsmith style faux-knitted-yoghurt bollocks so I assume they had to include it.


• Justice Better - possibly 3 out of 10. Drug treatment and treatment orders - good. More authoritarian reduction in the rights of the oppressed citizen (abolition of double jeopardy) - very, very bad. Briefings for victims - intent good - but I bet you are going to need all of the additional coppers to meet the demand so, overall, bad (as they are spending our tax money). More elections - bad - more money & no real accountability. Polygraphs - why don't we just pick a treatment that would work - normal people can beat the polygraph without too much trouble, never mind sex-obsessed perverts.


• Transport Opposing more road charging - good. Everthing else here is symptomatic of small-minded autocrats.


• Economy More small-mindedness. £20 million per year is going to do what for Paisley, Cumbernauld and all the rest of the mid-C20 eyesores town planners have inflicted on us?


• Education Parental choice and head-teacher independence are good in and of themselves but are not new, newsworthy initiatives. Where is the thought and the enthusiasm?


• Health Yawn. I hope the additional IT is better project managed than the national projects.

You know what this is? This is the random posturings of a bunch of failed pols who truly and honestly believe that they are not going to be the next Scottish Executive. I believe that but I am not running for election. They have given up already and the electorate know it. The Scottish Conservative Party is a minor irrelevance - like the Greens without character, cause or self-belief. I despair.

S-E

Shock News: Scots Tories are smug useless gits

It may come as a bit of a shock to denizens of this benighted socialist worker's paradise of Caledonia but there are Tories amongst you. I am one (head above parapet) and there are others about. There is even, supposedly, one representing us at Westminster but nobody has seen him for years.

Actually, that is demeaning our august presence in the (cough) glory fucking expensive waste of your and my money that is the Scottish Parliament. There are 17 amongst the vermin infesting the Holyrood debacle who, according to their website:

work for their constituents and hold the Executive to account, arguing for change and reform to our public services and standing up for Scotland.

Bollocks. What a bunch of utter (and soapless) tit-wank. These people are the biggest waste of political energy since Arthur (and don't I thank Larry and Sergey for that link.)

We also have a couple of poltroons at Brussels, Strasbourg or whichever Michelin-starred restaurant is currently being patronised. They clearly are orbiting nowhere near Planet Cameron because they claim to:

fight to bring some powers back to Scotland and Britain, arguing for a new Europe of freely trading sovereign nations.

Then show some fucking spine for once in your pathetic lives and join up here. It's the only way it is going to happen. And once it's happened, you can go and get a real job.

(Interestingly, the index page on their website is explicitly titled "Untitled Document", which says a lot about Scottish representation at the Eurocratic Federation. I am not kidding - I thought they had just failed to set the title attribute, but look at this:

< !-- InstanceBeginEditable name="doctitle" -->
<>Untitled Document< / title>
< !-- InstanceEndEditable -->

I don't presume that you write your own web-sites - you are politicians therefore you clearly haven't got real world skills - so get more competent staff. Smug euro-federalist cunts.)

Well, back to the point. Despite having fewer voting members than that other well-known bunch of weasels in a sack, the Scots Tories have fallen out with each other. On the face of it, this one called the rest of them a bunch of useless tossers (why this was news, I don't know - hardly required lengthy investigation and profound insight. Politician writes divisive memo, subsequently leaked to press ain't news either.)

If we are ever going to get these cunts out, without letting either of these two members of the Presbyterian fun-police in, the Tories are going to have to do some fairly difficult but basic things.

• Get some sensible policies backed by hard evidence and economic fact.
  
• Convince the electoral sheep that the hard lessons of the 1980's were necessary, otherwise our economy would look like this (right down to the bit about fishing.)
• If you can't get on, keep it to yourselves. Crap like this is a gift to the Nu-Lab spin-meisters.

Remember, it is about getting people out to vote for you so you can form the next government and undo the looming economic disaster that is the legacy of Bliar (not to neglect Prudence herself), not scoring petty points off each other. You utter bunch of useless twats.

S-E

Another day, another media "disaster"

Well, yet another Tory racist. What a beautiful gift to the Trots.

Patrick Mercer's downfall has been blogged about fairly endlessly. From the political point of view, it is clear this is on a par with a typical Donald Findlay karaoke moment and he had to go. The media would have just crucified Cameron. Hopefully, DC has had a quiet chat with Patrick and said something along the lines of "Look, we know what you said was honest and not intended as racist. You are going to have to go but the media have the attention span of a gnat on acid and you are an asset to the party. You will be an asset to the next, Tory, government. Mandy came back twice, and he was a crook!"

Let me look at the realities of the situation, however. The fact is that everybody in the military, at some point in their career, gets the piss taken out of them (more on Rachel's blog.) This is generally not the witty repartee of a polite dinner party - more the snap-back gratuitous vileness of the playground or, say, Terry. Now, the overt insult can be about many things - it can be about a fuck-up you have just made, about the hideous bird you pulled last night, or about something you can do nothing about.

"Effing short-arse git", or "speccy twat" is a lot easier to deal with than "You fucking moron, you do something that effing stupid again" ... I, and I am not the tallest person in town and I wear glasses, can do nothing about either of those - therefore I, at least, find that sort of mindless insult easier to take. Often it is about whatever makes you stand out from the rest: place of birth (especially, Geordie, Scouse, Welsh, Scots, or anything seen as "posh" amongst the troops), hair-colour, as Mr Mercer pointed out or, especially with their lack of representation, ethnic origin.

There is direct racism in the military, as there is in every large organisation - political parties (of whatever hue) not excepted. This needs to be actively discouraged and, where detected, punished. Drill sergeants or training staff yelling nearly-random insults is not direct racism.

Not promoting a soldier to Company Sergeant Major because of his ethnic origin would be direct racism - but this appears to have been something that Mr Mercer was clearly not guilty of.

On a slight tangent - the "British Commonwealth Soldiers' Union". I am sure that there is direct discrimination against servicemen of foreign origin - just look at the way our government treats the gurkhas. There will also be some direct racism - the KKK incident, if true, is despicable. I suspect, however, that most of the course selection and promotion issues would be the same for, say, a foreigner serving of European ethnicity (along the "not really one of us" lines) - needs to be stamped out, certainly - but not "just cause you is black." Also, I would have pointed them here, or here or here. I seem to remember there is a harassment and bullying help-line as well, there usually is, now-a-days.

Update: Actually, there seem to be at least 3 relevant helplines (a search on "helpline bully" on www.army.mod.uk revealed) - Equal Opportunities Helpline (0800 731 4880), The Confidential Support Line (0800 731 4880) and the Army Welfare Information Service (01722 436569 or email).

S-E