25 Years Ago ...

"It was a bright cold day in April [4th], and the clocks were striking thirteen."

Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell.

More Righteous Mission Creep

More reasons why Jacqui Smith simply can't be trusted on ID cards. She can argue till her face is bluer than a lads' night in with her hubby that they will just be used to fight terrorism, but for every new legal or technological toy that is devised, there is always some righteous self-aggrandiser who will use it for other means (think anti-terror laws for bin indiscretions here).

Here's another example of a decent idea, from last year, being hijacked.

A council is giving its lollipop men and women a new weapon to fight aggressive drivers.

Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire has mounted mini cameras on lollipops, one facing forwards, the other backwards.

The pictures can be used as evidence against drivers who hurl abuse or put the children crossing the road at risk.

Yep. If it cuts down on selfishness and intolerance towards childrens' crossings, can't argue much with that. Some might even say say about time too. Hillingdon Council in London started using these 'lollicams' in February.

CCTV cameras have been installed in lollipop ladies' sticks in a west London borough to help keep them safe.

Hillingdon Council has introduced "lollicams" to catch drivers who break the law by failing to stop when school patrol staff command them to do so.

The council has said there are 60 reported cases of abuse or intimidation every month.

So far, so good. But then you just knew that something like this, as reported on the BBC today, was coming.

Fergus Chambers, managing director of Cordia, said: "We are not just talking about people who fail to stop when they see the lollipop sign. We have 390 crossing patrol across Glasgow and every week our lollipop men and women report at least one or two incidents where drivers have been speeding or driving dangerously.

This technology will also help the police secure convictions against irresponsible drivers."

Slice by tiny slice.

Quick! Look Busy, It's The Boss

What's the point of this?

Ofcom has fined the BBC £150,000 over the lewd phone calls Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made to actor Andrew Sachs on Radio 2 last year.

A broadcasting company, paid for by us, is being made to hand over a cheque to a regulatory body, paid for by us. It's the public sector equivalent of pushing documents round the desk to appear busy when the boss is looking, isn't it?

Now if it was Jonathan Ross stumping up ...

Public Consultations That Are Anything But

Ever wondered where the likes of clinically obese Liam Donaldson get their quite astoundingly false figures? They are always via a 'public' consultation ... to which the public are not invited.

Clever, huh?

Well, we are invited, but you'd have to be Sherlock fucking Holmes to find them. You also need a computer, an internet connection, and an incredible ability to trawl the bowels of government web-sites for the merest sniff of one.

Some examples. If you live in Scotland, did you know that there are two such consultations, on various issues to do with smoking, which close in the next few days? Plus one which closed two days ago? Nope, thought not. Not much of a surprise really seeing as it's not the point of the exercise. They are circulated widely to groups who agree with whatever legislation is being planned, dissenting views aren't very welcome.

The public do tend to get in the way of a good, new-fashioned, public sector consultation. The professional busybodies, fake charities, and health stalinists are invariably lining up to give their view on what the government have paid them to ask for. The only thing generally missing is the public being aware of what is going on.

So, what's on the menu for you Jocks at the moment, then?

Well, firstly, we have that much advertised 'consultation' on "Achieving smoke-free mental health services in Scotland", the deadline for which is Monday 6th April. Psychiatric hospitals are exempted under the terms of the scottish smoking ban, but this just irks the righteous so very much. Best ban that then, but just not where people can see it and object.

This document is so packed full of lies and leading statements, it is absurd. For example:

The researchers also interviewed mental health professionals in Scotland, and found them strongly in favour of moving towards smoke-free environments. It was felt that allowing smoking to continue - when almost all other workplaces are smoke-free - would:

reinforce the stigma attached to mental ill-health

How so? This is purely opinion is it not? Where is the research?

We would like to hear what you think about achieving smoke-free mental health services in Scotland, and how best we could reduce exposure to second-hand smoke in psychiatric hospitals and units.

So that's what everyone wants, is it? I thought you were consulting here. It very much appears that the 'consultation' has a pre-determined outcome it wishes to achieve.

Data from a national evaluation of the smoke-free legislation indicate that it has been a great success. After the ban was introduced there was:

a 17% reduction in heart attack admissions

Cough! No there wasn't. This was a selective survey by Prof Jill Pell on cherry-picked hospitals. It didn't compare like with like (it omitted two months of the year to bolster its propaganda), and picked and chose which heart attacks it wanted to include in order to reach the conclusion that was desired. What's more, it was a sample study prior to actual hospital figures being released, and guess what? The true statistics showed nothing of the sort.

Yet this is presented as fact. It's a fucking lie, pure and simple. Even the BBC said it was crap FFS!

As for the flurry of excitable headlines, what appeared to be hard medical evidence now looks more like over-hasty and over-confident research, coupled with wishful political thinking and uncritical journalism.

Christ, I could go on all day pointing out the nonsense in this 'consultation', it is riddled with it. There is a heavy use of the words 'may', 'could', and 'likely', but, unlike that which bloggers are required to do to be taken seriously, no linking to any sources or solid evidence.

The whole exercise is a farce. An exhibition of how your tax is being thrown around on illiberal ideals by vacant, overpaid shitsticks who should be given no more responsibility than a lollipop and a zebra crossing.

You may not know about this process, but these cunts make damn sure that their chums know about it. It is circulated amongst a whole host of other professional righteous whingers.

NHS Boards
Local Authorities
Public Participation Fora ( PPFs)
Patient Focused Patient Involvement groups ( PFPIs)
Scottish Recovery Network
Mental health service user groups
Carers organisations
SAMH
RCN
VOX
HUG
ACUMEN
Alzheimers Scotland
Depression Alliance.

Now, forgive me for being a bit obvious here, but shouldn't the very first people to be consulted be those who have to live in these institutions? And what's more, their views should be weighted heavily over and above a 'medical professional' considering the former is not entitled to leave the premises at will, while the latter is afforded choice?

I mentioned one which closed two days ago? It was on behalf of the Grampian NHS Trust and dealt with banning smoking on any hospital grounds. Again, it was kept hidden from all but those who are likely to agree. Fortunately, a union actually did something useful for a change and objected. Big time.

Unison said it issued a survey to its members and other staff, and that the response showed that 87% of those who took part had concerns about the proposed total ban.

Bows and arrows against the lightning I'm afraid, UNISON. This is happening, no matter what those who are affected think of it. They'll simply blast you out of the water. You are just one group, amongst a dozen or more, who are paid to respond to such documents. You may even find that your response has been erased anyway if it isn't on message. It wouldn't be the first time.

Members of the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, a coalition of 25,000 independent retailers, have expressed outrage that their views were excluded from a Government report into retail displays of tobacco.

There is another squirrelled away on the Scottish Parliament site regarding tobacco displays, which ends on Wednesday 8th April. Didn't know that? Probably not. Because you're not supposed to.

This is just a tiny snapshot of modern British 'democracy'. There are hundreds of these consultations at any one time, all hiding away from the people who will be affected by them. On all manner of subjects, all with the same objective, to screw you before you know you've been royally fucked.

It's not now enough to get your vote on a certain manifesto promise and then change the terms, that is too obvious. The fashion under Labour and the SNP is to simply change the rules without even bothering to ask you. If you complain, they can point to your lethargy in not finding out about it, even if buried under a mountain of deliberately-placed bullshit.

Or, as Arthur Dent found out in The Hitchhikers Guide.

"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine month."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a torch."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."

Still think you live in a democracy? You're wrong. It's a cuntocracy.

UPDATE: Raedwald has another one to get angry about. Same story, government washing their dirty laundry out of the public view.

the consultation as issued has an inbuilt bias against implementation; the civil servant's letter asks specifically of councils that "you could ensure that copies of this letter are shared with officers / employees within your organisation who may have an interest in the proposals (i.e. have details about their remuneration package published). Individuals' views will also be considered in response to the consultation"

Milk: Enemy Of The Soviet Republic Of Scotland

If there is one saving grace about living under a Labour government, it's that at least we don't have to suffer one administered by the SNP.

PARENTS have launched a bid to scrap a new law that bans every school pupil in the country from drinking full-fat milk.
They say parents – rather than the state – should decide what their children drink in school.

You know what? I think they may have a point.

Ministers are under pressure to tackle the country's obesity crisis.

And their answer is to ban full fat milk in contravention of medical advice?

Sue Baic of the British Dietetic Association sought to reassure parents. “Children need a lot of energy, and full-fat milk for the under-fives is entirely appropriate."

And ...

Janet Fyle, a professional policy adviser for the Royal College of Midwives, said full-fat milk was crucial to a child’s development.

She said: “Milk is still important for young children.

Whole milk and full-fat dairy products are a good source of vitamin A, which helps the body to resist infection and is needed for healthy skin and eyes.”

Dr Rafe Bundy, a lecturer in nutrition at Glasgow University, said: “Full-fat milk has 4 per cent fat. Compared with a lot of foods, milk is low-fat because it is mainly water: it is water and vitamins and calcium and protein. I must admit a ban doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

So who, exactly, is exerting this 'pressure'?

A report from the Scottish Public Health Observatory said obesity among adults had risen by 46 per cent since 1995. One in five primary seven children was estimated to be obese in 2004-5.

Why, it's yet another offshoot of the Department of Health, of course.

All that pressure exerted on the Scottish government, by those the Scottish government pay to lobby them, must be nigh on irresistible at times. Those poor saps who find themselves unfortunate enough to live in Jockland, though, will no doubt find it more difficult to be heard.

Angry members of Aberlady Parent Council, in East Lothian, have submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament, to be heard next month, after a storm of criticism from health experts, who claim the government's healthy-eating drive is excessive. They say young children are being denied the essential fats they need as part of their development.

You just know where that petition is going. They'll be ripping it to pieces and playing pooh sticks over lunch on the Water of Leith.

Best April Fool Of The Day

Bill Quango with a particular piece of brilliance.

Although the whole picture has yet to emerge it looks increasingly likely that the United kingdom will abandon Sterling and join the Euro before the end of this parliament.

It is expected that Prime Minister Brown wishes to make the announcement during the G-20 meeting of world leaders to demonstrate his commitment to finding global solutions and his belief that nations must join and work together and forgo protectionism.

Check out the coins, a work of art.

Fought For Our Country? So Fucking What?

Patricia Hewitt, clinically obese Liam Donaldson, Alan Johnson, Caroline Flint, Dawn Primarolo, this is all down to you, you hideous, self-righteous cunts.

War veteran fined £100 for smoking in hotel room

War veteran Cyril remains astonished at today's prices but little did he imagine that a single cigarette would ever cost him £100!

But that is the price that former RAF airman Cyril was forced to pay when he was "fined" after lighting-up in his room at four star hotel.

Retired bus inspector Cyril and his wife Lydia, 93, of Birkdale, Southport, decided to take a mini-holiday in their home town and booked into the £150-a-night Ramada Plaza.

But to their astonishment when they came to check-out the couple had a £100 "smoking fine" slapped on their bill.

I'd have just walked out, telling them I'd see them in court, after a string of expletives, but then I'm not 96.

"They kept us for nearly an hour waiting at the reception and they would not let us leave until we paid the fine."

Angry? I'm fizzing! But let's listen to the other side of the story first, eh?

A spokesman for the Ramada Hotel Southport said: "It is hotel policy to fine guests who smoke one hundred pounds.

The cost of preparing a room where someone has been smoking is closer to two hundred pounds."

Oh do fuck right off, you ridiculous cunt. £200 for a bit of air freshener and a minimum wage Polish cleaner to open a window?

Asked wether the fine might be waived in light of Cyril's age the spokesman added: "If we waive a fine for one then we would have to waive it for all."

OK. How about this, then. How about I take a few members of your family, starve them for a couple of years, shave their heads and then throw them into a concrete room and gas them for being related to you?

Not fair? Perhaps not. But it fits entirely with the thinking of people who Cyril fought against on your behalf. Do you get the idea yet why you might be viewed by some as disgusting, ungrateful fucktards?

Labour have actively encouraged behaviour like this. The cult of the 'now'. The eradication of individual value in favour of a generalisation of character defined by lifestyle choices. They've brainwashed so many of the intellectually-challenged in our society that some are already implementing their health-extremist ideas. Another prime example being Alan Johnson's cockmongering idea of 'health mentors' being enforced already without payment.

Thick as shit people will always believe thick as shit advice from thick as shit politicians. The blame for the abuse of this guy can be laid squarely at the door of Labour and their free-spending, dictatorial chums at the Department of Health (the ones who have been slapped down by the Advertising Standards Authority twice recently, remember).

So much for Labour's support for war veterans then. Not that they really meant it anyway, the filthy lying shits.

If you value freedom in your life. Don't. Vote. Labour.