The truth about nuclear weapons

Many years ago, I watched a television documentary about pacifism.  It covered conscientious objectors in the First World War, which was fine, and then moved on to conscientious objectors in the Second World War, which was also fine.  It then interviewed a couple of CND supporters who lived in a caravan outside RAF Greenham Common.

I was annoyed that anyone should be so dishonest as to classify CND supporters as pacifists.  There is a difference between pacifism (objecting to war) and wanting to scrap a particular kind of weapon.  Furthermore, the difference ought to be obvious to anyone, so why should the programme makers want to attempt such a deception?

Then again it was not a deception originally of their making.  So far as I can recall, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has always tried to pass itself off as a pacifist organisation.  I have just looked at their website, and a photo of a recent conference shows a banner with the word peace on it in large letters.

Of course a CND supporter may be a pacifist in the same sense that he or she might be a vegetarian, but I have begun to wonder recently if CND might not be part of a sinister plot to undermine opposition to war.  The answer is probably no, but if someone who supports scrapping nuclear weapons can be brainwashed into believing that he or she is a pacifist, then the evil politicians who take Britain into illegal wars are unlikely to complain.

CND may in fact have nothing to worry about.  I have recently watched a video which argues that nuclear weapons never existed.  [Update: this video appears to have been withdrawn, but please feel free to seach on Youtube using the words nuclear weapons do not exist.]

To sum up its arguments, it claims that Little Boy, the nuclear bomb supposedly dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, may have been a daisy cutter, and that there was more than one bomb. The explosion was followed by fire storm, which helped reinforce the myth that the nuclear bomb was a devastating new weapon.

Fat Man, the nuclear bomb supposedly dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, may have been a thermobaric device.  As at Hiroshima three days earlier, there may well have been more than one bomb.

Nuclear bomb tests at such places as Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll were fakes using either thermobaric devices or large quantities of TNT, with witnesses ordered to cover their eyes and plug their ears.  This is similar to the deception techniques used by magicians.

Any government can claim to have nuclear weapons, because those countries which already claim to own nuclear weapons are unlikely to admit to their non-existence.

The supposed existence of nuclear weapons allows governments to lie to the public.  Governments can pretend that they need to be secretive because their nuclear weapons require a veil of secrecy. 

So that is the basic premise of the film, and I will now add my own observations.  It has been pointed out to me that many people who witnessed nuclear tests over the years have suffered from cancer as a result of exposure to radioactive materials.  My first answer to that is that the evidence for this is disputed.  My second answer is that even if there is a link between cancer and nuclear tests, then all this proves was that some form of radioactivity was present at the tests.  This is not the same as saying that the tests were not faked.

The nuclear weapons deception has been perpetrated by governments which have abundant resources of money and manpower - which helps.  When Harry Houdini made an elephant disappear, he was not the greatest magician in the world, but he was one of the few magicians in the world who could afford to employ the services of an elephant in a large venue.

Another point to make is that governments can conceal the truth using what I call the Mondrian principle.

 

In his 1978 novel The Human Factor by Graham Greene, one of the characters refers to the paintings of Piet Mondrian.  Mondrian painted patterns of rectangles, and in the novel a man who works for the secret services is advised to stay on his rectangle and try not to look at the big picture.

It would be very easy for a government to have large numbers of people supposedly working on nuclear weapons development and testing, but with each one having very little idea what other people are doing.

Let us consider the situation at the beginning of 1945.  The USA and the Soviet Union are at war – not with each other, but with Germany and Japan.  This is however a temporary arrangement.  The USA and the Soviet Union hate and fear each other, but the USA has a plan.

It claims to have developed a devastating new weapon, which it allegedly uses against two Japanese cities.  It thereby creates a psychological shield to protect itself against the Soviet Union.  It has often been pointed out that the USA would not have used nuclear weapons against Japan if Japan had also had nuclear weapons.  The Soviet Union does not have nuclear weapons, and so has to stand in awe of the USA - at least for a while.

The Soviet Union has spies in the USA, and allegedly learns from them the secrets of nuclear weapons.  It is then able to produce its own nuclear weapons – or rather it does not.  Analysis of information obtained from espionage leads them to conclude that the USA has no nuclear weapons. It is just a big hoax.

The Soviet Union then has a choice.  It could argue that nuclear weapons do not exist, and that the USA therefore has none, but this would return both countries to square one – the pre-1945 situation.

Instead the Soviet Union claims that it too has nuclear weapons, thereby creating a situation whereby neither superpower dares attack the other.

The USA has the option of claiming that nuclear weapons do not exist, and that the Soviet Union therefore has none.  However this would inevitably lead people to conclude that the USA also has no nuclear weapons, and so both countries would be back to square one.

The Soviet Union allegedly received most of their nuclear secrets from Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel, who were executed in 1953.  Julius Rosenberg was an expert in communication technology, and his wife was a secretary.  Would either of them have understood technical documents relating to nuclear weapons? If the documents they were passing to the Russians proved the non-existence of nuclear weapons, would they have realised it?

Other people who assisted in the process of passing nuclear secrets were jailed rather than executed.  Is it possible that these people knew the true intent of the documents they were passing to the Russians? Is it possible also that they were jailed rather than executed as part of a deal to secure their silence?

The Soviet Union also received British military intelligence from a woman called Melita Norwood.  She was a secretary whose boss supposedly worked in industrial research, but who actually worked in military research.  Mrs Norwood had access to military secrets which she passed to the Russians, but she was never prosecuted.

Why was Melita Norwood, who made no secret of her communist leanings, given access to military secrets?  I can think of two possible answers.  The first, which is apparently what we are expected to believe, is that this was just one huge blunder on the part of the security services.  The other is that she was given access to military secrets in the expectation that she would pass them on to the Soviet Union. In other words, maybe the British government wanted to share certain information with the Soviet Union.

Another important point is that Mrs Norwood was a secretary, not a scientist, and so I wonder if she really understood any of the secrets she was passing on.  It is possible for example that she was passing documents which she thought were important but which were actually fraudulent documents aimed at wasting the time of the Russian scientists who would be called upon to examine them.

The only objection I can think of to this is that if all the information she had passed to the Russians had been bogus, then they would at some point have told her that they no longer valued her services.  Then again, she may occasionally have been given some genuine information to pass on so as to lend credibility to her activities.

Another question is why Mrs Norwood was never prosecuted for treason.  While explanations have been offered, which may or may not be true, I think it is fair to point out the possibility that she was not prosecuted as part of a deal to buy her silence.

And so I find myself once again pondering the CND question.  Did any of the founding fathers of CND know that nuclear weapons were a hoax?  On balance I suspect that they did not.  Nevertheless, I could be wrong.

Update: a national newspaper has commented on the rebuilding of Hiroshima.

Are you hungry?

It seems that many people in this once-proud country are borrowing money to buy food.  Many of them face losing their homes as a result of the high interest rates charged on these loans.

I am baffled.  How bad do things have to get in this country before people realise that LibLabCon politicians cannot be trusted?  Are you going to wait until you are hungry before you decide never to vote LibLabCon ever again?  Or will you keep on trusting the LibLabCons even when you are hungry?

I've just eaten a very nice lunch.  However I do not use that as an excuse to support evil politicians.

Stop being nasty to those less fortunate

Here is a comment from a national newspaper about the inability of many young people to afford to buy a house.

I earn £16.5k a year and can't afford to rent a bed-sit. I have been told by older people who had a much easier ride that I am "not trying hard enough". I wasn't aware that the extortionately high price of rent was due to my "lack of trying", and rather thought it was partially down to the same older people buying second and third homes, then renting them out for extortionate prices, but there you go. It's clearly 100% my fault and I should go and flog myself.

If you are one of the nasty people who makes unkind comments about people less fortunate than yourselves, then please stop at once.

Never tell an unemployed person to get a job unless you are offering him a job.

Never tell someone who cannot afford a home to try harder unless you also object to anyone owning more than one home and have no objection to our green fields being turned over to new housing.

Never tell someone who lives in social housing that they should not be in social housing unless you know how hard it is for many people to find anywhere else to live.

If we all behave considerately to one another, then we can all get along just fine.

Tory voters need to get real

Tory voters feel betrayed by Tory government - or so it seems.

The government is squandering billions on HS2, a planned high speed rail link between London and Birmingham.  This new line will apparently blight the lives of many people living along the route, and I will take their word for it.  It appears also that very few of them are in line for any compensation.

It appears also that many of them are Conservative voters, and I can believe that.  Melissa Kite of the Daily Mail tells us of her father:

A lifelong Tory voter, he was convinced that a Conservative Prime Minister would do the right thing and treat him fairly.

The last Tory government ruined the lives of millions of people.  Many suffered long term unemployment, many were victims of crime and anti-social behaviour, and some even had to live rough on the streets.  How many of these people were treated fairly by the government?  How many were paid compensation?

I have a simple message for Melissa Kite's father, and for other Tory voters.  If the Tories are nasty to other people - and they are - then do not be surprised when they are also nasty to you.

Another baby killer

Here I go again, unfortunately.  Rebecca Shuttleworth has been convicted of murdering her infant son, but has not been sentenced to the gallows.  And so, dear LibLabCon voters, I have a question for you:

How many more innocent children have to be murdered before scum like you stop voting for scum who don't care about the lives of children?

If you are not a member of a political party which supports bringing back hanging as a punishment for people who murder children, then what is the matter with you?

Communists please explain

Police in Derbyshire are investigating an arson attack on a medieval church as a possible hate crime.

Not being a communist, I fail to see the relevance of hate crime legislation.  Surely this arson attack should be treated the same as any other arson attack, regardless of the motive.  To put it another way, if this arson attack is to be treated more seriously than any other arson attack, then it should be with regard to the scale of the damage, and not to the possible motive.

To all communists out there, if there's something I'm missing here, then please leave a comment below.  Why should any crime be classified in terms of a possible motive?  What purpose does it serve?

The story of Peter Francis

Peter Francis claims he worked as an undercover police officer in the 1990s, investigating the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The former officer said he came under ‘huge and constant pressure’ to ‘hunt for disinformation’ that might be used to undermine those arguing for a better investigation into the murder.

This comes just a couple of years after the revelations about former undercover police officer Mark Kennedy.

I have never served on a jury, and I hope I never will.  For years now I have come across one instance after another of police officers either lying or tampering with evidence, along with allegations of prosecutors withholding evidence from defence lawyers. For years I tried to kid myself that these cases were exceptional, but I now feel that if I were ever to serve on a jury then I might well feel morally compelled to find the defendant not guilty.

Quite simply I am not sure I could bring myself to convict someone on the basis of evidence put before the court by people who cannot be trusted.  I urge the government to bring in new legislation to clean up the police and the CPS.  It is long overdue.

I have previously commented on the police as follows:

Police priorities

Police and Muslims: get real

Is your bus route safe?

MPs are worried about the effects of government cuts on bus services.  The government has replied with predictable waffle.

If you value a good bus service, then do yourself a favour and NEVER vote Labour or Tory or LibDem as long as you live.  The LibLabCon monster is happy to waste billions of pounds on illegal wars, but cares little for bus routes.

Reality alert: expect people to keep on voting LibLabCon, and do not be surprised if bus services in your locality are cut back.

High risk? Really? Who says?

The Daily Mail is reporting that certain countries in Africa and Asia are "high risk".  They are apparently quoting the government.

It appears that the government and the national press can get away with saying that certain third world countries are high risk.  I somehow suspect though that if the chairman of either the British National Party or the National Front said the same thing, he would be prosecuted for incitement to racial hatred.

The baby killers have millions of friends

Shane Hawkins has been jailed for killing his infant son Kaydon. In other news, Matthew Atherton and Anne Turnbull have been jailed for their baby son die of natural causes while they got drunk.

And to think that millions of people in this country vote for political parties which do not support the return of the death penalty.

The Jeremy Forrest saga

Teacher Jeremy Forrest has been jailed for having a sexual relationship with an underage girl - and rightly so.

I have just searched for his name on the internet, and a lot of national newspapers are reporting his conviction.  I have also just searched for the name Ybrah Haylemaryam on the internet, and it appears that only one national newspaper is reporting the fact that this illegal immigrant has just been imprisoned for raping two women.

When will your daughter be raped by an illegal immigrant?

Update: a second national newspaper has reported Ybrah Haylemaryam, but neither newspaper has given his crimes anywhere like the coverage given to Jeremy Forrest.

Glasnost in the NHS

The ConDem government is apparently taking action to reduce the number of people who die needlessly in NHS hospitals.

Some people might see this as a reason to vote Conservative, but it is fair to point out that talking about action is not the same as actually doing anything, and also that the last Conservative government did absolutely nothing about this.

I also think it is rather hypocritical of the government to want the NHS to be open and honest about its various failings, given that the government is not exactly known for being open and honest.

Rough sleeping: when will it be you?

The number of people living rough on the streets of London has risen - again.

The number of homeless people just keeps on rising, and yet the government does nothing.

A lot of these rough sleepers are recent arrivals from eastern Europe, but not all of them.  Maybe one day dear reader you too will find yourself living in the gutter.  So far as I am aware, the gutters of Mayfair are no less wretched than the gutters of Brixton.

Of course you could take steps to reduce the likelihood that you will ever become a rough sleeper.  For example, you could join a political party which is determined to stamp out homelessness for good.  But will you?

Evil Tory communists

I have said it before and I will say it again: the Conservative Party are a bunch of communists.

The vile communists who govern France are planning to prosecute Marine Le Pen for daring to make a valid comment about immigration.  As she is an MEP she enjoys immunity from prosecution, but this can be revoked, and the evil communist MEPs are doing just that.

British Tory MEP and legal affairs committee member Sajjad Karim said: "There is a red line between freedom of speech and inciting racial hatred."

Like a typical communist, Karim is not opposed to free speech.  Instead he is merely opposed to anyone saying anything that communists like him deem offensive.

If you vote Conservative, then you are the enemy of free speech.

What exactly is affordable housing?

House prices in the UK are rising.  This is not good news.  If house prices are going up, then it is harder for people to afford to buy a house. House prices should be allowed to fall to a reasonable level, and remain more or less static thereafter.

If you disagree with that, then maybe you are not concerned by the plight of people living rough on the streets or forced to live in crowded homes.

Every now and again we hear politicians talk about the need for affordable housing, and yet they never seem to want house prices generally to fall.  Is anyone else puzzled by this?

A woman scorned

Caroline Mathiesen is a rich divorcee who is upset that her ex-husband, company director Per Mathiesen, is able to pay himself £2m each year from the business he runs.  Apparently she thinks that he should earn less so that she can have more.

I will not comment on this case in detail, but I sincerely believe that far too many company directors in this country earn far too much money without good reason.  I used to own shares, but nowadays I will not own shares.  One reason is that it is so hard to find a company whose directors put the interests of shareholders above their own.

What does a company gain by paying its directors huge salaries?  Certainly not immunity from bankrupcy, that's for sure.  Likewise huge salaries do not grant immunity from either litigation or criminal prosecution.

Why can't there be a law which regulates how much money company directors can earn?  Let me think ... could it be because government ministers enjoy having lunch with rich company directors?

Ian Brady is right.

Moors murderer Ian Brady has claimed that he is no worse than politicians and soldiers.

Brady abducted and murdered five children in the 1960s.  He deserves no sympathy.  Nevertheless I entirely take his point about politicians.  Has the United Kingdom ever had a Prime Minister who was not either a murderer or an accessory to murder?

When David Cameron bombed Libya, it was reported that one missile killed seven civilians.  That one missile killed more innocent victims than Ian Brady ever did.

Readers may be thinking that Brady tortured his victims, which is probably true, and which is terrible - but people killed in wars do not always die neatly.  Bleeding to death in agony is a form of torture.  Lying trapped under rubble while your family stop breathing around you is also a form of torture.

If you vote Labour or Tory or Liberal Democrat, then you are no better than Ian Brady.  You are an accessory to mass murder.  You are the scum of the earth.

Police and Muslims: get real

In yet another shining example of the mulicultural enrichment of our nation, four men have been stabbed in a mosque in Birmingham.   A Somalian man has been arrested.

Three of the stab victims were Muslims. Maybe the Muslim man who stabbed them considered that they were not good examples of Muslims.  The fourth victim was a police officer.

In recent years I have come across a number of incidents in which supporters of the British National Party - or less frequently the National Front - have been persecuted by the police.  In fact I have personally met at least seven patriots who were either arrested or threatened with arrest without good reason.

I have a simple message for Muslims: when you follow an ideology based upon a book which says what The Koran says, then you should not be surprised if another follower of the said ideology turns violent.  It might even be a good idea to give up being a Muslim altogether.

I also have a simple message for police officers: get real.  If you persecute the small group of people who are actually on your side, then do not be surprised if the people who are not on your side try to kill you.

The Cornwall hamlet that lost its sons

A national newspaper is reporting the sale of real estate in the hamlet of Hille in Cornwall. Apparently this hamlet lost all of its men to the evil First World War.  It appears also that there is no war memorial in the hamlet.  That does not upset me.

War memorials are not good things.  They tend to place an entirely inappropriate patriotic veneer on mass murder.  Are we really supposed to be proud of the fact that millions of British men in two world wars answered the call of the anti-patriotic scum in Downing Street?  Can we not recognise that Hille lost its men because the British people cannot resist the siren song of evil politicians?

Two cheers for the Taxpayers' Alliance

Like many people, I can get annoyed about money being wasted in the public sector.  However I do not always agree with other people about what actually constitutes a waste of money.  Check out this link regarding a report by The TaxPayers’ Alliance.

I will agree that a lot of the things they list do seem hard to justify, such as the motivational magician and the biscuits.  Nevertheless there are some things there which might be reasonable.  For example, light bulbs do not normally cost £22, but maybe occasionally the government needs an unusual light bulb which costs more than is normal.

Wherever anyone is allowed to spend public money, there will almost always be some waste.  Things will be bought which turn out to be unusable, money will be lost through fraud or theft, projects will go over budget, and so on.

The best advice I can give to anyone wanting to reduce waste in the public sector is to try to remove certain areas of expenditure altogether.  For example, bringing the troops home from Afghanistan, abolishing overseas "aid", and taking the UK out of the EU and the Council of Europe will save many billions of pounds every year.

Abolishing "aid" would not only save the money spent, but would also allow the government to sack the civil servants whose job it is to oversee that area of expenditure.  Fewer civil servants would result in a lower salary bill for the civil service, and might even result in a few quid less being spent each year on biscuits.

Two more reasons to bring back the rope

It is reported that a 17yo boy has been stabbed to death in Bristol, and that two teenage boys have been arrested.  Even if they are found guilty of murder they will not face the death penalty because the British people cannot be bothered to vote for it.

Face facts - if you vote Labour or Tory or LibDem, then you are an accessory to murder.  In fact you are an accessory to lots of murders.

Goliath comes to Margate

Back in 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron recruited Mary Portas to oversee the regeneration of Britain's high streets.  She achieved very little, and the government has just agreed to allow a large Tesco to be built in Margate.

Let's be honest.  This is a David versus Goliath battle, but one in which David has pretty well no chance of winning.  If you want to save your local high street, then spend money there.  Use it or lose it.

I accept that many people in these impoverished times have to watch the budget, and will therefore shop in supermarkets simply because they are often cheaper than high street shops.  Likewise, many people shop on the internet.

Nevertheless, those of use who are not watching the budget would be well advised to shop on the high street from time to time.  We must not be surprised when the powers that be allow big supermarkets to be built.  Politicians respond to public opinion (sometimes), and it is only natural for politicians to conclude that people want supermarkets.

Are you a friend of the cop killer?

I am not at all surprised that the father of one of the police officers murdered by Dale Cregan has called for the return of the death penalty.  Are you, dear reader, a member of a political party which supports the return of the death penalty?  Would you vote for such a party?

Most people in Britain are happy to vote for political parties which do not support the return of the death penalty.  People who vote for trashy anti-British parties like the LibLabCons are the scum of the earth.  They are the friends of murderers like Dale Cregan.

Will the NHS kill your loved ones?

Evelyn Agbeko, a nurse at Stafford Hospital, failed to notice that an elderly patient had died.  She puts this down to the stress of a busy night shift, and I am quite prepared to believe her.

Are the British people going to go on forever voting for revolting Labour or Tory or coalition governments which do not care about ordinary people?  Or are they at some point going to start putting themselves first for a change?

How long will it be before someone you care about dies needlessly in an NHS hospital?  Do yourself a favour, and stop voting LibLabCon before it ever happens.

Muslim family face losing home

Munir Farooqi is appealing his conviction for terror offences, and it is feared that his family will be evicted from their home if he is not successful.

If I've got it right, the house lived in by Farooqi and his family is not rented.  It is owned by two members of his family. Neither are they in arrears on their mortgage, and so this is not an eviction as we would normally understand it.

Even if Farooqi is guilty, then that does not make it right that his family should be forced out of a home which he does not own.  Or does it?  I am allowed to sit on the fence on this one.

Maybe it would help people like Farooqi's family if Muslims in this country took a more active role in opposing terror.

They could all refuse to vote for political parties - Labour, Tory, LibDem - which support open door immigration.  They could all refuse to vote for political parties - Labour, Tory, LibDem - which support murdering Muslims in foreign countries like Libya and Afghanistan.  They could even give up being Muslims.

Shark fin soup: more waffle from the Beeb

The good news for lovers of wildlife is that a shark has been rescued after it became trapped in a storm drain in Dorset.  The disturbing news is that people - to quote the BBC report - were trying to catch it when it was rescued.

Why can't the BBC just come clean and say that the people who were trying to catch the shark were immigrants?  They were Chinese men who only wanted the shark's fin.  They freely admitted that had they caught the shark, which was a pregnant female, they would have sliced off its dorsal fin and then left it to die.

Apparently these men wanted the dorsal fin for a local Chinese restaurant which would have turned it into soup.

I am sure that many people in Britain will be outraged that anyone living in this country would want to leave a shark to die in this way, but let's face it - poaching is one of the many benefits of open door immigration.

If a Chinese restaurant ever has shark fin soup on the menu, then please DO NOT EVER eat there.

Nasty NIMBYs

Apparently Britain's young people are finding it increasingly hard to buy a house in the countryside.  Of course this is no surprise, as people are finding it increasingly hard to buy a house anywhere.

What makes it particularly difficult in the countryside is that many elderly people are buying houses as retirement homes, thereby pricing out the younger generation.  As a result, many villages now run the risk of being taken over by elderly people, thereby putting local primary schools at risk.

One solution is to rip up even more of our green fields so as to make way for more housing, but that tends to meet with opposition from local NIMBYs.  Honestly, who is so nasty as to be a NIMBY?  People need houses, and they do not need nasty people standing in the way of house-building projects.

Another solution would be to stop immigration, thereby reducing the demand for new housing - but of course the British people love to vote for politicians who support open door immigration.  LibLabCon voters, if your children end up homeless, blame yourself.

The impact of the Euro on tourists

Once again I pick up on a Daily Mail report, this time about a couple who were arrested and prosecuted while on holiday in Spain. While dining in a restaurant, they refused to pay for a paella that had not been ordered, and the waiter flew into a rage and then called the police.

Many years ago, when the Euro first came into existence, I saw a couple of British tourists being interviewed on the television.  They were touring Europe, and were able to use the same coins in each country.  They remarked that this was definitely the way to go.  Apparently the convenience of the single currency to them far outweighed the terrible impact it would inevitably have on the people of the countries they were visiting.

Now, largely as a result of the single currency, Spain is desperately poor.  It is therefore not at all surprising that the waiter in a Spanish restaurant should want to add an extra paella to the bill.  Here is simple advice for holiday-makers: either pay up for the paella you never ordered, or risk being jailed, or else just stay out of countries which have had their economies trashed by the Euro.

Another NHS horror story

A former NHS employee has described the hospital where her elderly father died as the worst she had encountered during her 30-year career, reports The Daily Mail.

James Bollen, 92, died last week after contracting three illnesses during a four-week stay at Weston General Hospital in Somerset.

Readers of this blog who live in the UK will presumably know that this is far from being an isolated case.  The NHS is increasingly being run for the benefit not of patients but of selfish staff.

While there are still many good NHS hospitals in the UK, I fear that the situation will continue to decline until we elect a government which will take a stand on ensuring good standards in all hospitals - but will that ever happen?

Keeler and Mandela

Christine Keeler has admitted to betraying her country.  Well done her.  Now would David Cameron and Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and John Major like to admit to betraying this country to a far greater extent?

In other news, Nick Griffin has tweeted unkind remarks about the retired terrorist Nelson Mandela.  Just how evil do African communists have to be before communists in this country stop treating them like heroes?

We don't need to drink Bud.

It is reported that the American brewing company Anheuser-Busch has threatened a small British brewery with legal action which could bankrupt them.  The small British company - with just one employee - has decided to cave in rather than risk being ruined with legal bills.

We do not need to drink any beer marketed by Anheuser-Busch.  Click here for a list of their beers.

Is it legal to hate private landlords?

Football player Lee Barnard told tenants of a house he owns in Chelmsford to leave with only two weeks notice.  He claims that this was a mistake, which I hope is true.

He does not need to give any of his tenants notice to leave.  If he wants to refurbish the house, then he should wait for the tenants to leave of their own accord.  He could also speed things up by offering to pay them to move, but merely giving them notice is cruel.

If I read in the press tomorrow that Lee Barnard has been eaten alive by crocodiles, then I doubt very much that it would upset me.

The Craig Alexander saga does not surprise me

Craig Alexander first made headlines in a local newspaper in 2007 when he was convicted of an armed robbery committed six years earlier.

At the time of his prosecution, Alexander was a project manager with the NHS, but it is not clear how he obtained such an advantageous position at such a young age.  Although project management can be studied at university, Alexander had little in the way of academic qualifications.  One possibility is that he lied about either his qualifications or his experience when applying for the job.

Depending on when he secured the post in question, such an act of dishonesty would have put him in breach of either Section 16 of The Theft Act 1968 or Section 2 of The Fraud Act 2006.

Alexander was dismissed from his job with the NHS, and spent nearly two years in prison for the crime of armed robbery.  Nevertheless upon his release he quickly returned to employment as an NHS manager, and held four lucrative jobs over the next four years.

The Daily Mail reports that: in the four years or so since his release, he has been a senior executive with Bristol Community Health, NHS Sutton and Merton, South West London NHS Cluster and the Brent Primary Care Trust.

The last became NHS Brent in March when responsibility for patient care was transferred to new clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across the country.

The major issue here is that a convicted armed robber was able to secure one senior post after another within the NHS without anyone bothering to check his background.  He was eventually uncovered by a junior staff member.

Another issue is that Alexander was paid an obscene salary, and was expected to implement budget cuts, but apparently saw no reason to seek to reduce his own salary. In that respect at least, he may be very typical of public sector management.

My own view of the public sector - as a former employee - is that it is full of people, even at the highest level, who are completely out of their depth.  The public sector ought to exist to serve the public interest, and yet far too many of its employees are obsessed with their perceived divine right to a taxpayer-funded salary.

In many cases these salaries are huge - way in excess of what most ordinary people can ever hope to earn.

There is very little accountability in the public sector.  Why should there be?  If you are an elected politician with your snout in the trough, then why should you want to tackle the pen-pushers who share the trough with you?

Some readers may be thinking that large public sector salaries are justified on the grounds that you have to pay well if you want to attract talent, but that is just plain silly.

Paying large salaries makes it more likely that you will end up employing people who are just in it for themselves.

Update: I can find no mention of Craig Alexander having been prosecuted for fraud.  I wonder also if the junior staff member who exposed him as a convicted criminal was rewarded in any way for doing what others far senior to her should have done.

Don't lower yourself

There is actually quite a lot of immigrant crime in the news today - including a young woman murdered by a Polish man, a gangland murder involving Turks, and a black teenage rapist.

Far less serious than any of these is the case of 21yo Deyka Ayan Hassan from Harrow, who has been found guilty of sending a malicious electronic message.  She tweeted that certain people deserved to be beheaded, and apparently she meant it as a joke, and yet that is not how large numbers of people took it.

As well as being prosecuted, she has received online threats to kill or rape her.

Please, no matter what the provocation, do not lower yourself to the standards of people like Hassan.  I hope that the people who sent her the threatening messages will be prosecuted as she has been.

When will this happen to you?

It is reported today that a 75yo woman was attacked recently by an immigrant who injured her and stole her shopping bag.  This would not have happened if the attacker, Josef Szelong, had not been allowed to enter the country in the first place.  This would not have happened if the government did not allow foreigners with criminal convictions to enter the UK.

Sadly, Britain has open door immigration, and it is very easy for large numbers of career criminals to enter the country.  There is therefore good reason to believe that you could be the next victim of an attack and theft by a vicious immigrant.

Cheer up though - at least you would be doing your bit for diversity.

What is a Muslim extremist?

Six Muslim men are at the moment standing trial for attempting to explode a bomb at an EDL rally.
The Daily Express refers to them as "Muslim extremists.  I would like to know what a Muslim extremist actually is.

First, what is an extremist?  Presumably it is someone who adopts an extreme point of view, someone who is not a moderate. But who is to decide what constitutes an extreme point of view?  Or indeed a moderate point of view?  Are these things not in the eye of the beholder?

I try to avoid using the words extremist and extremism because I recognise that they are meaningless.

Second, even if we allow that the concept of extremism exists, what is a Muslim extremist?

I have already in previous posts cited passages of The Koran which incite violence and even murder. Therefore, a Muslim who attempts to murder non-Muslims can reasonably be described merely as a Muslim.  Qualifications like extremist and fanatic are redundant.

Terrorism explained.

I urge readers of this blog to watch this fascinating video which is new to Youtube.

A message to Muslims - get real

An Islamic centre in Muswell Hill has been torched, and graffiti links the arson attack with the EDL.

It has been suggested that this may in fact be the work of people who want to discredit the EDL, which may be true.  However I am going to assume that this attack is in fact the work of someone who has a problem with Islam.

First of all, I do not condone the arson attack, but neither do I condone Islam.  This is after all an ideology which incites to violence and even murder:

The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered The Koran 5:33

Fight those who do not believe in Allah The Koran 9:29

I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. The Koran 8:12

My message to Muslims is simple: get real.  Do you really think that you can revere a book which condones murder and not make enemies?  Even if you yourself do not attack or murder anyone, then another Muslim almost certainly will, and it is inevitable that you will be the object of hatred in some quarters.

If you do not want your Islamic centres to be set on fire, then feel free to shell out for some CCTV.  Better still, give up being Muslims.  You do not need to be Muslims.  No one needs to be a Muslim.