Oi! FSA leave my bloody Cornflakes alone!

What I eat is up to me and me alone. Now thanks to our lovely Labour government I have to eat low salt Cornflakes. Did I, or any other customer ask for this change to the recipe? NO. Is this the Nanny state interfering in our lives again? YES.

Kellogg's have tried to hold out against reducing the salt in their cereals because of the taste that it provides. Thanks to the Food Standards Agency, we are going to be enjoying dull breakfasts because they think they know what is best for us. It really does make me effing sick.


God I bloody hate Labour.

New Book: Climatism: The 21st Century's Hottest Topic.

Steve Goreham is an engineer, a former business executive, and a U.S. citizen. Steve has just published (ink not yet dry) the book: Climatism! Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century's Hottest Topic to add weight against climate change alarmism and for sound science and common-sense energy policy.

Steve says: Climatism! covers the science, politics, and energy policy impacts of global climate mania, which I call Climatism. It's written in a down-to-earth manner for world citizens, with much discussion on events in the U.K., Europe, the U.S., and around the world.

What Others Have Said about Climatism!

“This is a serious book that carefully examines the issues that have been used to create the current climate change/global warming crisis…I endorse Climatism! for its easy-to-read, well-illustrated presentation of complex science.”

–John Coleman, Meteorologist and Founder of the Weather Channel

“If you care about the 21st century society, you must read this book. In my 55-year career as a scientist I have written over 1,000 book reviews for various journals. No book has pleased me more than Climatism! by Steve Goreham.”

Jay Lehr, Ph.D., Science Director, The Heartland Institute

“Climatism! is a myth-buster of a book. If you are interested in climate, carbon or energy, you need this common-sense book on your reference shelf, especially if you are a politician, a journalist, a teacher or a parent. Steve Goreham identifies the origins, symptoms and cures for the societal sickness of Climatism. His book is comprehensive, interesting, logical, factual and well-referenced. He also has a marvellous collection of quotes. You will enjoy reading it.”

Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition

“Before your future disappears under piles of climate model printouts and fraudulent carbon credits, read Steve Goreham’s new book Climatism!”

Dennis Avery, Hudson Institute

Climatism! will be available on Amazon in the near future, but you can pre-order your signed copy by clicking HERE.

Climate Change - Andrew Neil's gate round-up.

I've always liked Andrew Neil and today he has impressed me even more with a great post on his Blog:

The bloggers are all over the UN IPCC 2007 report, the bible of global warming, which predicted all manner of dire outcomes for our planet unless we got a grip on rising temperatures -- and it seems to be crumbling in some pretty significant areas.

The dam began to crack towards the end of last year when leaked e-mails from one of the temples of global warming, the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, suggested that a few sleights of hand were being deployed to hide facts inconvenient to the global warming case. An official investigation into these e-mails is on-going.

But the flood gates really opened after the IPCC had to withdraw its claim that the Himalayan glaciers would likely all have melted by 2035, maybe even sooner.

This turned out to have no basis in scientific fact, even though everything the IPCC produces is meant to be rigorously peer-reviewed, but simply an error recycled by the WWF, which the IPCC swallowed whole.

The truth, as seen by India's leading expert in glaciers, is that "Himalayan glaciers have not in anyway exhibited, especially in recent years, an abnormal annual retreat."

So the 40% of the world's population that relies on the seven major river systems supplied by these glaciers can sleep a little more soundly in the knowledge that their water won't run out in 25 years after all.

Then at the weekend another howler was exposed. The IPCC 2007 report claimed that global warming was leading to an increase in extreme weather, such as hurricanes and floods. Like its claims about the glaciers, this was also based on an unpublished report which had not been subject to scientific scrutiny -- indeed several experts warned the IPCC not to rely on it.

The author, who didn't actually finish his work until a year after the IPCC had used his research, has now repudiated what he sees has its misuse of his work......Continue reading.

The best joke in the world? Sir Clement Freud.

I don't know if this is the best joke in the world, but it has got to be in with a shout:

Department of Work and Pensions - not fit for anything.

It's hard to believe that ten people could have been overpaid more than £1m in benefits. If that is just the top ten, how much has been overpaid altogether? No wonder the country is skint.

From hansard:

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the 10 largest benefit debts owed to her Department by individuals were at the latest date for which figures are available; and to which principal benefit the debts related in each such case.

Helen Goodman: From October 2009 we have set up a special task force to address debtors who owe the Department over £10,000. This will include debtors who have more than one debt.

Since its inception, the task force has recovered an additional £1.2 million between mid October 2009 and the early January 2010 from the high value debtors.

Since 2005-06, the Department has increased recoveries from £180 million per year to over £280 million.

We try and stop overpayments occurring in the first place. The Department's error reduction strategy will help to achieve this. It is based on preventing new error from entering the system; ensuring that customers and staff comply with benefit rules and identifying and correcting existing errors.

The 10 largest debts owed to the Department are as follows. These all relate to income support.

£136,567.94

£111,529.90

£105,028.81

£103,823.07

£101,430.23

£99,105.49

£98,689.61

£98,149.32

£96,657.81

£95,531.98.

Calling all political Twitter users!

Calling all political Twitter users! This is a begging post to ask you to follow my new Twitter account. Like the idiot I am, I forgot the password for my old account which had close to a thousand followers and I've been unable to reset the password as I've changed my email provider and the old one (NTL) cancelled my old email account. Anyway, please click on the button below to follow me on Twitter.

Cheers

Steve.

GMTV (Guido Morning TV) : Brown, Darling and financial incompetence

Last out?

If you Vote UKIP, you will get Gordon Brown.

To any natural Conservative voters out there who are considering voting UKIP, here is a poster for you:

It is that simple. You can give Gordon Brown another five years by wasting your vote on a party that will never see power, or you can vote Conservative. A protest vote for UKIP will only allow Labour to drag this country further into Europe and deeper into the gutter.

This is not an official poster.

Why we really can't wait for a General Election....

As I write this blog post, the country is floating on stormy seas, and no one with any kind of competence has a hand on the tiller. On Thursday it emerged that poor financial decisions by the government have led to many of our anti-terror projects being cut back or scrapped all together. Today we have more signs that we have been cast adrift by Gordon Brown and his Labour party. The head of the civil servants' union, Jonathan Baume, told the Guardian:

"At the moment No 10 is seen as a blockage. There's almost a mood where civil servants try to keep No 10 out because you can't get clear decisions. It's not sustainable in the longer term. The next government has got to work more clearly, it's got to take decisions at the centre, because you don't have that now.

"The dysfunction is partly political and partly organisational. No one is clear how the Treasury, the prime minister's office and the Cabinet Office actually loop together and come up with a coherent policy initiative. When Gordon Brown became prime minister no clear direction ever emerged from him." He added that there was: "a sense of malaise at the political level. Some ministers have clearly given up the fight and are focusing on what happens after the election. It's a very strange atmosphere."

In the Navy we had an acronym for this kind of behaviour. In the last few months of a three year sea draft you would become RDP. It stood for "run down period", and it basically meant that you were treading water, just keeping things ticking over, knowing that you would soon be leaving the ship (probably), never to return. The saying was "Don't ask me, I'm RDP". This is exactly what we are seeing from Gordon Brown and his Cabinet, and the sooner the General Election comes, the better.

We have also had former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown telling the Telegraph that:

"In the Ministry of Defence we have a department that is not fit for purpose. We have a department whose performance against its Public Service Agreement targets has been steadily declining since 2005. "At the moment the MoD is sclerotic and resistant to change – the very faults identified by Kipling after the Boer War. It is hamstrung by an inter-service rivalry that is out of date and now manifests itself publicly in arguments about cuts. "We are currently trying to maintain the myth that we can have full-spectrum Armed Forces ready to operate anywhere in the world. "Only the Americans and perhaps the Chinese can afford to do that."

The Ministry of Defence being not fit for purpose does not - as Jonathan Baume pointed out - make it unique amongst government departments. We need change now, we need leadership now, but most of all, we need a General Election now. We can't go on with an RDP government.

English votes on English Laws - Vote Now.

From Power2010:

Our democracy is in crisis. MPs fiddle while the planet burns. Our rights and freedoms are under attack. Bankers blow billions and the taxpayer foots the bill. We can't go on like this.

We need a healthy democracy that works for all of us and not just a powerful few. POWER2010 exists to help create it. It gives you the chance to have your say on how our democracy works so that together we can change it for the better.

Do you want cleaner funding? Fairer voting? More accountability? You decide. Tell us your ideas for changing the way we run our country. Those with most support will become the POWER2010 Pledge and the focus for our national campaign at the next election.

I'm personally in favour of the idea of "English votes on English Laws" that someone has put forward:

Currently Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own parliament or assembly with devolved powers over education, health and other areas.

MPs from these countries sitting in the UK Parliament, however, still retain the right to vote on laws that will apply in England and not their own countries.

A system of English votes on English laws would mean that only those MPs in Westminster representing English constituencies would be permitted to vote on England-only laws.

Why you should vote for this reform:

• It prevents laws being passed due to the votes of Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh MPs who won't be held accountable for how they voted because the laws don't affect their constituents.

• It ends the fundamental unfairness of MPs from one country voting on issues that affect another country whose MPs don't enjoy the equivalent right.

• It gives the English nation a political voice at the national level, which at the moment it lacks.

You can vote for this HERE

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Gordon Brown cares more about saving his job than our lives.

Our Armed Forces are fighting in Afghanistan and good people are dieing. We have had terrorist attacks on our streets and innocents have died. Gordon Brown tells us that he is committed to fighting terror, so why are essential foreign office operations and projects being cut back, or totally scrapped?

Brown claims that spending has increased and that's true, but thanks to the government's removal (in 2007) of the protection that was in place to guard foreign office projects against fluctuations in exchange rates, the foreign office now has less money to protect this country. It speaks volumes that Gordon Brown can spend millions on vote winning bribes like the "Bribo" laptop, but cannot bring himself to spend money on what he claims to be our "number one security threat".

Shadow Foreign Office minister David Lidington said:

"We have a government, and in particular a prime minister, which is indifferent to the point of negligence towards the global interests of the United Kingdom".

Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davey said:

"Cuts to essential counter-terrorism work in Pakistan are simply unacceptable. "When our troops are in Afghanistan to fight the terrorist threat, it is a betrayal of their sacrifice to slash the diplomatic budget crucial to crushing the very source of that threat."

Gordon Brown is not fit to run this country.

General Election Poster - Tony and Gordon deride again!

It must be incredibly sickening for Gordon Brown to have to consider asking Tony Blair to save his neck. Tony on the other hand must be all a glow at the thought of Gordon begging him for his help. Brown knows no shame. Does he honestly believe that we don't know that they can't stand the sight of each other? How anyone can consider voting for a man who thinks the public are gullible fools is beyond me.

Labour plan to shaft us with a council tax rise after the Election.

If labour are still in power they plan to shaft us with a council tax rise after the General Election. Shadow Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, Caroline Spelman Explains:

New evidence emerged today of Labour’s plans for a council tax revaluation after the general election – as the Government were caught red-handed procuring a key council tax revaluation contract to start in June 2010.

Gordon Brown’s council tax inspectors are advertising a £2 million contract to help build up its revaluation property database. This contract replaces one that was originally signed with estate agent property portal, Rightmove, for the postponed 2007 council tax revaluation.

Caroline Spelman MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, said Labour Ministers have been caught red-handed. "This is a tax bombshell – primed to go off after the general election, hitting families and pensioners with soaring council tax bills".

"Labour’s class war politics is all about punishing those who have saved and worked hard with even higher taxes", she said. "This Big Brother contract is yet another sign of how Labour Ministers have no respect for people’s privacy and how they want to snoop inside your home".

Spelman emphasised that the Conservatives would scrap Gordon Brown’s plans for a council tax revaluation and abolish council tax inspectors’ rights of entry into our homes. "We are putting the Government and potential suppliers on notice that a Conservative Government, if elected, will cancel this contract outright", she said.

That is one more very good reason to vote Conservative.

Labour's "Phoney Bribo" laptop - a massive success on ebay.

Last week I designed the "Phoney Bribo" Laptop in response to Gordon Brown's promise to give 270,000 of them away to low income families. There is no doubt that this offer is nothing more than a General Election bribe - get ready for more on the run in. One of my readers Brillo211 had the great idea of putting the "Bribo" up on ebay and it has been a massive success. So much so that Brillo has changed the auction to a charity status for the Haiti disaster. So far there have been 21 bids and the winning bid currently stands at £72 with four days to run.

The interest in this auction has been amazing with 16,500 people having viewed it as of now. Another bonus of this auction is the buyers questions section. There a loads of questions being asked and the seller Brillo211 is giving some very amusing replies (unless your are a Labour supporter).

You can see the Auction by clicking HERE, don't forget that the winning bid will go to help those in need in Haiti.

BBC Bias, Now undeniably supporting Labour.

If you had looked at the BBC's online news/politics section yesterday you would have seen that it's three main stories where all about Labour. And surprise, surprise, if you go there now you will see exactly the same thing. There were massive revelations about Gordon Brown last night, but are they covered by the BBC? No. Nick Clegg was on the Andrew Marr this morning, does he get a mention in the main headlines? No. We have just three more stories about the Labour party. One day I could put off as a fluke, but two days of pure Labour propaganda shows that something is rotten at the BBC.

Poster: Gordon Brown loves the middle class.

Gordon Brown has more neck than a jar full of Giraffes.

From David Cameron - Haiti needs our help now.

A message from David Cameron:

On Tuesday, the poorest country in the western hemisphere was hit head-on by an enormous earthquake.

I’m sure you’ve seen the heart-wrenching images of Haiti. The full impact of the earthquake is still emerging, but it’s clear that hundreds of thousands of people have either been killed or left homeless.

It’s essential that this small nation gets the help it needs as quickly as possible.

Britain is an incredibly compassionate and generous nation. We showed that five years ago when the British public raised £350m in the wake of the Boxing Day Tsunami, and I’ve no doubt we will show it again.

The best way for you to help, if you haven’t already, is to donate directly to the Disaster Emergency Committee. Whether you can afford to give £5 or £500, it all makes a difference.

Call 0370 60 60 900 or visit the DEC website now to make your contribution.

In the meantime, I know our thoughts and prayers are with all those people who have suffered so much in that country over the last few days.

Andy Burnham - What a prize pillock! - Health Donations.

Andy Burnham has made a right old tit of himself today. The London Evening Standard's Paul Waugh writes:

Burnham demands answers on Lansley/CareUK link

Looks like the CCHQ donations vetting team must have missed this one.

The Daily Tel's eagle-eyed Holly Watt and Rosa Prince spotted yesterday's Electoral Commission new register had a key addition.

Andrew Lansley's personal office received a cool £21K from John Nash. So far so boring, in that Nash is a private equity boss. But Nash is also chairman of Care UK, one of the largest private providers of healthcare to the NHS, via walk-in centres, GPs surgeries etc.

On the face of it, this risks a potentially glaring conflict of interest. Here's a firm which gets huge chunks of its £400 million business from the NHS and a politician who hopes to be the next Health Secretary running the NHS.

CCHQ say that John Nash has "a wide range of interests of which Care UK is just one". "Mr Lansley did not solicit this donation. Donations from private individuals in no way influence policy-making decisions" a spokesman says.

But policy, as it happens, includes opening up the NHS to even more private provision.

Still, CCHQ says there are no plans to hand the cash back.

Now, Andy Burnham has written to David Cameron to demand a few answers.

Unfortunately for Jungle Burnham (he's thicker than forest) he forgot to take account of the law of Sod. It turns out that our glorious leader Gordon Brown is not whiter than white. Paul Waugh has a follow up story:

Gordon's links to private healthcare

I've posted separately on the Lansley link to CareUK. Labour are v keen on a row here.

But what's this?

Turns out Gordon Brown himself received a donation from a man with strong links to the private health world.

Lord Leitch, the Chairman of BUPA, a private healthcare company with customers in 200 countries, donated £5,000 to Gordon Brown’s leadership campaign.

On 21 May 2007, Gordon Brown received £5,000 from Lord Leitch for his campaign for the Labour leadership. Two years previously, in June 2005*, Lord Leitch had become a non-executive director of BUPA and in November 2006, he was elevated to the role of Chairman.

On top of this, the last time Lord Leitch spoke in Parliament, he spoke in favour of the work of the private sector within the NHS:

‘When we debate healthcare in the UK, all too often the focus is on the NHS alone. Yet the independent sector is more important than ever, providing services directly to patients, residents, insurers, and to the NHS itself. Going forward, all of us must think in terms of partnership, not rivalry…I hope that this legislation will help consign to the dustbin of history the false dichotomies between public and private, and also between healthcare and social care.’ (Lords Hansard, 25 March 2008, Cols. 485-6)

Will Andy Burnham be writing to ask his PM about the connection?

Oh dear, oh dear. Gordon will not be happy with Andrew.

Thick of It spin doctor Malcolm Tucker uses the "C" word.

The Thick of It legendary spin doctor Malcolm Tucker has taken to the air to warn British men about the biggest threat to their health in the modern age - their own silence.

Peter Capaldi, renowned for his character’s unbridled profanity, is issuing a new party line for Macmillan Cancer Support’s Cancertalk Week, which runs from 18-24 January. And the ‘c word’ he is ranting about might not be the one you would expect.



http://twitter.com/MacMillanCancer

www.facebook.com/macmillancancer

The 174th Magical Mystery Blog Tour Bus Leaves in 5 Minutes!

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Climate Change - WSJ - The climate is changing

Great article from Tom Switzer of The Wall Street Journal, on how opinion around the world is turning against the religion of climate change.

When I say the climate is changing, I do not mean, as many people do, that man-made global warming is destroying Planet Earth. I mean that the politics of climate change is changing rapidly all over the globe. Al Gore's moment has come and gone.

In the United States, Democrats, nervously facing midterm elections, are calling on President Obama to jettison the cap-and-trade bills before the Senate. In Canada, the emissions-trading scheme—another term for cap-and-trade—is stalled in legislative limbo. In Britain, Tories are coming out against David Cameron's green stance. In the European Union, cap-and-trade has been the victim of fraudulent traders and the carbon price has more than halved to $18.50 per ton. In France, the Constitutional Council has blocked President Nicolas Sarkozy's tax on carbon emissions that was set to take effect in the New Year.

In Copenhagen, meanwhile, the United Nations' climate-change summit went up in smoke. And in Mexico City later this year hopes for any verifiable, enforceable and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases—and to bring in developing nations such as China and India that were, insanely, omitted from the Kyoto protocol in 1997—are a chimera.

Add to this that Washington was buried by record-breaking snowfalls last month, that hurricane activity is at a 30-year low in the U.S., that London is bracing itself for its coldest winter in decades, and that there has still been no recorded global warming this century, and it is no wonder public skepticism is rising across the world.....Continue reading

Labour's "Phoney Bribo" Laptop now available on ebay!

I am pleased to announce that Labour's new election winning laptop: the "Phoney Bribo" is now available on ebay. One of my readers Brillo211 has kindly put 270,000 units up for sale HERE.

Please do read the auction's question and answer section!

The 173rd Magical Mystery Blog Tour Bus Leaves in 5 Minutes!

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It must be really cold when a Labour MP........

Hat Tip Autonomous Mind.

A first look a Labour's new free laptop!

A first look a Labour's new free laptop! The Phoney Bribo:


I am pleased to announce that Labour's new election winning laptop: the "Phoney Bribo" is now available on ebay. One of my readers Brillo211 has kindly put 270,000 units up for sale: Get yours now!!!!

New Conservative General Election Poster.

Here's another one:


More HERE

This is not an official Conservative poster

Calling all political bloggers, Links - left, right and Chelsea.

It's time to update my links and blogrolls again. If you run a political (ish) blog and you don't appear in my Picroll or Blogroll, then either use the contact button above or leave your blog URL in the comments of this post. I would also ask that if I already link to you, that you consider adding my blog to your rolls.

Cheers

Steve.

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Climate Change - Christopher Booker sums up.

From Christopher Booker in the Telegraph:

Impeccable was the timing of that announcement that directors of the Met Office were last year given pay rises of up to 33 per cent, putting its £200,000-a-year chief executive into a higher pay bracket than the Prime Minister. As Britain shivered through Arctic cold and its heaviest snowfalls for decades, our global-warming-obsessed Government machine was caught out in all directions.

For a start, we saw Met Office spokesmen trying to explain why it had got its seasonal forecasts hopelessly wrong for three cold winters and three cool summers in a row. The current cold snap, we were told with the aid of the BBC – itself facing an inquiry into its relentless obsession with “global warming” – was just a “regional” phenomenon, due to “natural” factors. No attempt was made to explain why the same freezing weather is affecting much of the northern hemisphere (with 1,200 places in the US alone last week reporting record snow and low temperatures). And this is the body on which, through its Hadley Centre for Climate Change and the discredited Climatic Research Unit, the world’s politicians rely for weather forecasting 100 years ahead.

Then, as councils across Britain ran out of salt for frozen roads, we had the Transport Minister, Lord Adonis, admitting that we entered this cold spell with only six days’ supply of grit. No mention of the fact that the Highways Agency and councils had been advised that there was no need for them to stockpile any more – let alone that many councils now have more “climate change officials” than gritters...... Continue reading.

Retweet and Facebook Sharing on the Daily Referendum.

Hello readers and visitors, I've added Retweet and Facebook Share buttons to the bottom of my posts. If you like what you read, please give them a click!

Cheers

Steve

Uh oh! Labour unleash yet to be used weapon - the truth.

Bad news for Conservatives this morning comes in the form of Alistair Darling's interview with the Times. It looks like the failed coup attempt may have been bad for the Conservative party after all. It has been speculated that Gordon Brown has been put on a leash, and the unfortunate outcome of this is that Darling has started telling the truth.

It has been long accepted that one of Gordon's many faults is his inability to tell the truth when it comes to the economy. Gordon has always assumed that the great British public are thick and that if he lies enough then we will believe him.

In his interview Darling (for the first time) gives it to us straight: "The next spending review will be the toughest we have had for 20 years". He goes on to finally confirm that their will be a budget before the General Election. This sudden found honesty is very bad news for Conservatives as it has been Labour's spin and lies that has alienated so many potential voters.

We can only hope that the people do not have short memories, because as sure has eggs are eggs, Gordon will be back to his old devious ways once the election is over.

Update: Iain Dale has more on this.

Geoff Hoon faces No Confidence vote for having a spine.

The Labour party never fails to amaze me. It is being reported that Geoff Hoon could be facing a vote of No Confidence from his constituency over his failed coup attempt. What a bunch of chimps his local party must be. Never mind the outcome, Geoff acted with the best interests of the Labour party in mind. What members in Ashfield need to consider is that Geoff fully expected his coup to be successful and was surprised when several Ministers did not take the bait. We are all exceedingly aware of the unstable nature of the Cabinet, constantly briefing against Gordon Brown off the record, but lacking the gumption to show their hand in public.

No matter what Geoff Hoon and Pat Hewitt may have said, they were sure that at least six senior ministers would support the coup. Those six, and others, took an awfully long time to drag their sorry backsides in front of the cameras to pledge their half hearted support for Gordo. They all lacked the metal to be the first to stick the knife in, preferring to see which way the wind was blowing across the back benches. The daft thing is, if one of them had come out, then back bench support for the coup was likely to follow.

So Geoff now faces a vote of no confidence for doing what a majority of the Cabinet agree needed to be done. I wonder if any of those Ministerial whisperers and plotters will have the decency to speak up for Geoff? Going on past form, I think we all can guess the answer to that one....

Climate Change - IPPC wrong over Himalayan glaciers

It turns out that serious doubts are coming to light over the IPPC's claim that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. In fact one scientist, Graham Cogley, a geographer from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, says: "At current melting rates it might take up to 10 times longer". I make that 250 years, and with the next ice age just around the corner, I think we can call the IPPC's report alarmist to say the least.

For all the IPPC's claims of their work being peer reviewed, it appears that the evidence of deglaciation of the Himalayas was taken from remark made in a one off magazine article from 10 years ago.

Full Story HERE

The European Superstate - And so it starts...

The following was left in the comments by a reader:

Call for Proposals - Town Twinning Citizens Meetings

The European Commission has announced the first call for proposals under its Town Twinning Initiative, which is part of the new Active Citizens for Europe Programme (2007 -2013). This call for proposals is under Action 1 - Measure 1.1 Town Twinning citizens meetings. Under this Measure grants of between €2,000 and €20,000 are available to support Town Twinning citizens meetings.

Town twinning citizens' meetings consist in bringing together a wide range of citizens and citizens' groups from towns already twinned to; further develop strong, informal and personal relations between their citizens, to reinforce the participants' commitment to European integration; and to contribute to the development of an active European citizenship.

To be eligible the applicant needs to be the municipality or its twinning association in which the meeting will take place. The deadline for applications is the 1st February 2010.

Link

Nice!

Cision's Top 50 UK Blogs 7/1/2010

Here is Cision's latest top 50 UK blogs. Yes I'm only posting this because I made the list at No48.

The Top 50 UK blogs

1. Mashable
2. Iain Dale's Diary
3. Guido Fawkes
4. Political Betting
5. Eurogamer
6. Pickled Politics
7. Bad Science
8. John Redwood's Diary
9. Photography Blog
10. Conservative Home
11. Style Bubble
12. NHS Blog Doctor
13. Facehunter
14. All About Symbian
15. Dizzy Thinks
16. Devil's Kitchen
17. Archibishop Cranmer
18. Environmental Graffiti
19. Spoon Graphics
20. Harry's Place
21. Samizdata
22. Kingdom of Style
23. And Another Thing
24. Burning Our Money
25. Hecklerspray
26. Coolest Gadgets
27. Mr Eugenides
28. The Adam Smith Institute Blog
29. Neville Hobsom
30. Warren Ellis
31. Adam Westbrook
32. The Policeman's Blog
33. Random Acts of Reality
34. Stumbling and Mumbling
35. Slugger O'Toole
36. The Magistrate's Blog
37. An Englishman's Castle
38. UK Resistance
39. Biased BBC
40. Bloggerheads
41. The Diary of Samuel Pepys
42. Luke's Blog
43. Liberal Democrat Voice
44. Tim Worstall
45. Luxury Travel Blog
46. http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/
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Harriet Harman gets £350 fine and cheats the law?

Why is it still one law for us and another law for them? Harriet Harman has got away with a £350 fine and 3 points for driving without due care and attention. What happened to the charges of leaving the scene, or driving whilst on the phone? Could it have anything to do with the points she would have received? Failing to give particulars or to report an accident within 24 hours gets you 5-10 points. Driving without due care and attention gets you 3-9 points. Using a mobile phone gets 3 points. Don't forget she has already been caught speeding three times. She was caught doing 99mph (not 100 - how lucky can you get?) en route to Bristol in 2003, and clocked up another three points on her license in both 2007 and 2008.

From the Guardian: The court heard that she already has six penalty points on her licence after being caught twice speeding in a 30mph zone. The first speeding incident happened in April 2007 and the second in April 2008. Motorists who accumulate 12 points on their licence face a ban. Harman now has a total of nine.

Lets face it, if it were you or me we would have been looking at a ban.

The shambolic state of our Labour Government.

I seems that yesterday's attempt to get rid of Gordon Brown was a failure not because of why or when it was done, but rather how it was done. It can almost certainly be said that it came pretty close to succeeding. Six cabinet ministers were waiting to see which way the wind was blowing before making their move. If just one of the six had shown the slightest indication of supporting the coup, then it would have (excuse the pun) snowballed.

Channel 4's Gary Gibbon writes:

One of the plotters tells me there were indeed 6 Cabinet Ministers who were ready to jump – there was, I was told, “an expectation not an understanding, something stronger than an impression” that in the right circumstances they would act. (This plotter estimates the Cabinet is made up of 4 or 5 diehard loyalists to Gordon Brown, 2 neutrals and the rest had various degrees of hostility and criticism.) Full Article

What a state for a government to be in. 4 or 5 supporters? We are being governed by a lie. When the vast majority of Brown's cabinet want to see the back of him, how can they ever hope to run the country?

The Telegraphs James Kirkup writes:

One Labour rebel said: “There is no question that Harriet put Patricia up to this. Patricia clearly thought that if she moved, Harriet would come out in support. Then it didn’t happen.”

A Government source said: “Her fingerprints are on this. She might have backed down in the end, but she was clearly involved.”

Miss Harman is understood to have held a 45-minute meeting in No 10 with Mr Brown at around 4pm on Wednesday. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, was also present.

Both Cabinet ministers are said to have made clear that they shared the doubts expressed in the Hoon-Hewitt letter about Mr Brown’s presentation of the Government strategy and overall performance as a political communicator.

The Prime Minister assured both Miss Harman and Mr Straw that he would listen to criticism and improve his performance.

The assurance was just enough to persuade Miss Harman not to give any public support to the coup, and she eventually issued a terse statement that ministers are “united in our determination to do what's best for the country, which is for Labour, led by Gordon Brown, to win the general election."

It's good news for the Conservative party that the coup failed, but bad news for the country (and his own party) that we have to endure another four months of Gordon Brown.

Video, Cameron and Osborne launch their draft health manifesto

George Osborne and David Cameron launch the draft health manifesto

Climate Change - Thousands Gather to protest.

Thousands gather to protest about Global Warming:

Hit Tip: Donal Blaney

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