interesting times
EDL leaders arrested
Just seen over at Old Holborn go read what he’s said and it’s worth following the few links in the article as well it won’t take long. But the gist taken from EDL Media is that:
On Saturday 20th February 2010 Members of the leadership team of the English Defence League were arrested as they traveled to Scotland to support the Scottish Defence League demonstration.
While in custody the team members homes and families homes were raided by police armed with automatic machine guns which terrified the leaderships family which included small children and other older family members. Computer equipment was seized during the 3 hour raid.
It doesn’t say on what grounds they’ve been arrested and will be charged so it’s possible they’ve been up to something they shouldn’t and arresting them en-route to a demo like that was just a convenient coincidence. But on the other hand it does look a tad troublesome from the point of view of awkward demonstrators of all sorts. The various comments and sound bites in the articles linked to by OH also don’t paint a very reassuring picture with the police seeming to co-operate with counter protesters to prevent the EDL from exercising their legal right to make a static protest. This comment in particular doesn’t suggest that the anti-EDL protesters the police were helping had entirely peaceful intentions in mind:
Student protester James Nesbitt, 23, from Glasgow, said: “We had spotters out across the city looking for fascists in pubs. We got here quickly but the police are doing everything they can to keep us away from them.
Certainly a situation to watch to see how things develop.
The spoilation of Parliament
Just when you think that the mendacious scoundrels that sit in the palace of Westminster might have learnt to shut up and keep their heads down, they find new and interesting ways to dig up past scandals and heap more disrepute upon their heads. In this case we have three labour MP’s claiming that parliamentary privilege protects them from being prosecuted for fraud over dodgy claims (hat tip: Dizzy). However there may be a silver lining in this dark and stinking cloud, in that as observed by Captain Ranty it may yet test and revalidate the 1689 Bill of rights which could have very interesting repercussions (see comment thread over on Captain Ranty for a discussion).
WTF! no really I mean it
It seems as though all those conspiracy theories about mass immigration being a deliberate policy to change the culture of the UK may have had a point. According to a report in the Telegraph (hat tip to Iain Dale)
He wrote: “Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.
“I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn’t its main purpose – to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.”
Currently I’m not angry about this, I’m still going WTF! The idea that there could be even a grain of truth in this, that any government could even briefly thing that such a policy was in anyway a good idea. Especially as from tales from some immigrants that arrived here to work and marry and form a life it seems that they must have had a very specific idea of which immigrants and what sort of diversity they wanted. So really what on earth where they thinking?
For now I’m going to go to bed, and hope that when I get up in the morning this will prove to be a bad dream or a hoax or something. On the off chance that it isn’t Leg Iron has a more coherent response and possible reasons (I think the David Icke being right theory may make the most sense).I expect there wil be some choice words over in the comments at Old Holborns
I am more than a little pissed off at the possibility that there’s even a grain of truth in any of this.
Islam, Treason and print
Yesterday I commented about a march/procession that is being organized by “Islam for the UK”. Discussing this matter with other people elsewhere I’ve come to realize that this march may be more significant than at first site. Assuming of course that it’s not just an elaborate hoax which if you read the site seems almost creditable.
However there are two aspects to this march which I think are really worth further consideration.
1) How this march will be policed, and if it will be allowed to go ahead.
2) If the published material for this march is considered either treasonous or seditious and what action if any is taken.
› Continue reading
What are the laws on sedition again?
A rather interesting event has been brought to my attention thanks to Anna Raccoon which really does need to be brought to wider attention. It seems that the Islamic group “Islam for the UK” are planning an openly seditious march that may also be treasonous, as it will be calling for the abolition of Parliament and the monarchy (they’re also calling for Gordon Brown to be thrown out but that’s hard to argue with).
Full details of the march can be found here. The march is on the 31st of October so just before Old Holborns gentle stroll, which will make it very interesting to see how it’s policed and even if it’s allowed to go ahead, as sedition is still illegal.
Go read the whole procession (Not demo obviously because those are naughty) details but mean while some choice highlights:
Undoubtedly, Islam and the Shari’ah have reached new heights in the United Kingdom, Muslim communities up and down the country have brought forth a culture and system that is not only superior to the British way of life but also a shining example of what true subservience to Almighty God can bring to a society drowning in disbelief and oppression.
…
We hereby request all Muslims in the United Kingdom, in Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow and all other places to join us and collectively declare that as submitters to Almighty Allah (SWT), we have had enough of democracy and man-made law and the depravity of the British culture. On this day we will call for a complete upheaval of the British ruling system its members and legislature, and demand the full implementation of Shari’ah in Britain.
Now whilst I do agree with some of what they say, Gordon should go and that the government is indifferent to the populace, I think to borrow a phrase from Pink Floyd that it’s now quite clear where out where these folks really stand. I hope that this march gets lots of publicity both before, during and after the event as how our glorious leaders and beloved police force deal with it will I think be most educational.
Germs the new terrorists?
So far it seems as though swine flu isn’t co-operating with the governments/media’s plan to turn into a pandemic. So far behaving no differently from any other seasonal flu. Of course the more cynical among us might wonder if the rapidly approaching end of shelf life for all those tamiflu capsules the government bought for bird flu back in 2005 has any relevance, it’s certainly hasn’t done Roche’s share price any harm in the past. According to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation the shelf life of Tamiflu capsules is 5 years in capsule form but with 2 million doses stock piled from 2005 at about £100 a dose that’s a bit of change about to expire.
Meanwhile whilst the rest of us are being suitably afraid or not, perhaps it’s British pig farmers who have most to fear. With Egypt already using swine flu as an excuse to kill off it’s pig farms can DEFRA be far behind? Private eye and others have long documented DEFRAs apparent dislike of British farming, especially it seems small farms, so if this initial out break doesn’t give them an excuse for a cull they can always repeat the same trick as they used for foot and mouth and release the virus again from their own labs.
Across the pond, and remember this all started in America Fox are wondering what impact swine flu might have on civil liberties (hat tip Towards Mutual Benefit). For the record I’m still fairly convinced that it’s far more likely that it will be some out break of disease that triggers the civil contingencies act and not terrorists (unless of course no obliging disease happens along).
Mind I still haven’t got my leaflet from the government telling me what to worry about.
Events elsewhere
Today Guido Fawkes claimed another scalp assisted by the mainstream media, even if Mr McBride did reign in advance last night to try to limit the damage. I’ve not really got anything much to add to the excellent commentary that can be found elsewhere.
Being horribly meta and doing the whole blogger talking about blogger thing which is terribly dull here’s a bit of a round up. It’s great to see Tom Harris talking a lot of sense:
“We screwed up, big time. We have no-one — absolutely no-one at all — to blame for this but ourselves.”
Sadly he seems to be a lone voice from that area of politics, with others such as Tim Cheetham bemoaning the fact that this story of interest (apparently) only to “the political in-crowd” has driven more important news, that wasn’t being reported much anyway, from the headlines. With the added compulsory moan of how easy it is for people not working in politics to just moan and bitch without offering ideas of how to fix things (which oddly I thought was what we paid the politicians to work out, as we can’t actually do anything), but it seems it’s our fault that we don’t have decent politicians as we’re not following the agenda he’d prefer. Hopi Sen at least admits that it “looks bad for Labour” but again we should all be more interested in other stuff – Look there’s a wooki! Hopi then moves on to attacking the messenger failing to see that the standards a private individual such as Guido can be expected to be held to are different to those that a senior Civil Servant such as Mr McBride are held to. If nothing else as has been observed elsewhere we don’t pay for Guido, we did pay for McBride and the systems used to send the emails in question, hence it’s reasonable to have a lot more interest in the latter than the former.
Mr Draper has been alleging that someone’s emails must have been “hacked” for this sorry mess to have been found out, which as Dizzy observes is amusing given this week the Government is requiring all ISPs to record the envelope of every email we send and are on record of wanting to log everything. This of course is unlikely to be the end of it, as if ntohing else Douglas Carswell MP is asking Tom Watson (Labour MP & colleague of Mr McBride) what he knew. Of course as Anna Raccoon reminds us we were told that:
“In future, under a Gordon Brown regime, we need to have no spin, no briefing, no secrets and respect for parliament”
So that went well then.
There’s is a rather good/amusing analysis of Mr McBrides resignation on the Ranting Penguin and a better summary of events than this by Devils kitchen.
To end on a cheerer note for a sunday Iain Dale has the now compulsory downfall video, and as both Samizdata and Gaby Hinsliff observe today may well be the day when UK politics sees blogging make itself really felt and we all have the ability to create a blog and write about what matters to us and potentially to make a difference. Finally LegIron has a somewhat cheering review of the general unravelling of things.
Footnote: Contrary to what several people linked to above the Government still don’t have the right to read our emails (much less the ability if you’re careful), they just get to see the envelopes.
Update Far more thorough list of saturdays coverage of this story over at Iain Dale
Interesting times
A rare occurrence honesty and forthrightness being spoken in the European parliament:
Also also reported by:
Samizdata , Douglas Carswell, The Salted Slug, Guido, NightJack, Pox Angolorum, More to life than shoes, Iain Dale and Cranmer also on the front page of the Drudge report
(A transcript can be found: here) and finally some words from the man himself.
It’s well worth spending three and a half minutes listening to and then sharing far and wide. Apart from the excellent speech Brown’s behavior during it (only shown towards the end) also seems quite informative to me at least.
Meanwhile reportedly the Queen is having private chats with the governor of the bank of England (see also here). Mr King has subsequently warned that spending more may not be the best idea, which I’m sure is a shock to no one.
UK terror threat status
- Severe 2010/01/25