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Equalities chief Trevor Phillips was accused of contempt of parliament for trying to influence a Commons investigation into his controversial leadership, it emerged yesterday.
MPs and peers complained the £112,000-a-year chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission had approached them to try to influence them ahead of the publication of a report they were writing into his leadership.
"Manifesto Pledges are Not Subject to Legitimate Expectation" Gordon Brown 2008
Jail or a fine are the maximum penalties that can be imposed on anyone guilty of trying to obstruct the work of parliament.
Mr Phillips could also be forced to make a public apology if the allegations are proved.
He is accused of approaching at least three members of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in advance of its publication of an explosive report into his quango.
His leadership has led to an exodus of senior staff, and accusations of creating a 'culture of intimidation' and playing the 'race card'. He rejects all such criticism.
Committee members were outraged to find out at a meeting on Monday that at least three of them had been approached by Mr Phillips, who was hand-picked for the role by Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman.
Committee chairman Andrew Dismore referred the case to Speaker John Bercow, and an investigation could begin within a fortnight.
A source close to the inquiry said the report would be 'highly critical' but would underscore the attacks that had already been widely aired about Mr Phillips’ running of the commission.
'In all my years in parliament, I have never seen so much unanimity as there has been with this report,' the insider said.
'The people he tried to nobble could have told him to b*gger off but we felt as a matter of principle that this was a serious breach of privilege.'
A School has become the first non-Islamic primary in Britain to get strict accreditation for serving Halal food, it emerged yesterday.
Although it is a non-faith school, 95 per cent of pupils at Daisyfield Primary School in Blackburn, Lancs are Muslim.
In an illustration of the rapidly changing face of Britain, it is the first state, non-Muslim, primary school to get the certificate from the Halal Monitoring Committee.
Although many primary schools in the UK serve Halal meat, they are certified only by the Halal Food Authority.
The Monitoring Committee enforces tougher checks on packaging, delivery and preparation.
Headmaster Peter Fenton, who received the certificate from local councillor Salim Mulla, said: “I am pleased our self-managed kitchen has been recognised as meeting the standards of the Halal Monitoring Committee for purchase, storage and preparation of our meals.”
Moulana Hanif, Halal Monitoring Committee local area representative, said: “I would personally like to thank Daisyfield for taking this very important step towards supplying genuine Halal products to the children attending the school.
“We hope all schools will follow, so that genuine Halal products are provided to Muslim children, which is a very important part of our faith.”
Tory MP David Davies said it was important for Muslim children that their faiths and beliefs were recognised. But he warned: “It is also important that we allow the full integration of immigrants. Concentration of certain ethnic groups in small areas does not help that.”
The ritual method of slaughter practised in Islam has been criticised by some animal welfare organisations who claim it causes severe suffering to the animals as they bleed to death.
In 2003, an independent advisory group – the Farm Animal Welfare Council – concluded the way Halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals.
FAWC argued that cattle took up to two minutes to bleed to death under Halal practice. The chairwoman of FAWC at the time, Judy MacArthur Clark, said: “This is a major incision into the animal and to say that it doesn’t suffer is quite ridiculous.”
Halal butchers deny that their method of killing animals is cruel.
Majid Katme, of the Muslim Council of Britain, stressed that it is “a sudden and quick haemorrhage. A quick loss of blood pressure and the brain is instantaneously starved of blood and there is no time to start feeling any pain.”
Daisyfield’s move has provoked anger among some locals. One claim on an internet comment board was that it “forced kids to eat Halal meat”. Another said: “It’s the Islamification of Britain.”
Sad news: George Monbiot, the high priest of the AGW cult, is feeling frustrated and depressed. He is oppressed by the realisation that, as the politicians phrase it, he is not getting his message across.
And this blog, at least in a small way, bears some part of the responsibility. From his pontifical throne in the Vatican of global warming – The Guardian – he has issued an anathema. Quoting from a recent anti-AGW scam posting by me, he observes: “The attack on climate scientists is now widening to an all-out war on science.”
Don’t get carried away, George. It is only an all-out war on bogus science, such as the global warming superstition you champion. The good guys can carry on inventing antibiotics and curing diseases with our whole-hearted support. It is the con men who have taken Al Gore’s shilling that we distrust and despise. Monbiot even has some insight into this. Of the perception of scientists as sinister schemers he concedes: “Sometimes this isn’t far from the truth.”
He cites those scientists who have weaponised anthrax, or isolated terminator genes for biotech companies to prevent farmers from saving seed, or written misleading endorsements of drugs for pharmaceutical companies. He even denounces the practices of scientific journals “whose monopolistic practices make the supermarkets look like angels”. I wonder if he has had a word with Phil Jones about that.
Despite these flashes of insight, George of course remains committed to the warmist creed. He even deplores “the hatred and derision the passionate and persuasive Al Gore attracts”. Steady on, George. Passionate? Well, yes, with what he has at stake in the way of investment in carbon companies, that is understandable. Persuasive? Not when his home movie An Inconvenient Truth turns out to be riddled with transparent untruths; not when his house is guzzling so much energy it is the only human habitation visible from space; not when he is trying to charge punters £1,200 a shot to be photographed with him at Copenhagen.
The central thesis of George’s Grand Remonstrance, however, is that the battle to persuade the world of the reality of global warming is lost. “No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us.” By George, he’s got it! Reality has dawned. The penny has dropped. The world knows AGW is a crock and nothing is going to change that reality. And the problem all along, George, was the very “evidence” to which you refer. The wider distrust of scientists was provoked by the thousands of white-coated whores who trousered the IPCC’s cash, chased the grants and plaudits, and clamped their gobs firmly around the UN and EU teats.
“There goes my life’s work,” concludes Monbiot, who appears to be undergoing some dark night of the soul. Aw, George, don’t be like that. Every prophet knows his moments of despair. You cannot be right all of the time. Lord Kelvin, former president of the Royal Society – today a bulwark of your cause – told us heavier-than-air flying machines were an impossibility and radio had no future. Many of us continue to believe you have a promising future as a national treasure, like one of those eccentric end-of-the-world sandwich-board men giving pleasure to the public. In time, as the affectionately renowned Moonbat, you could become the Michael Foot of global warming. Bear up, lad.
With the general election only weeks away the pressure on the Tories is becoming intense.
In a democracy it is right to scrutinise an opposition party which aspires to rule the country but parts of the media now act as if the Conservatives are in office and Labour is in opposition.
So the Government’s spectacular incompetence and extremism are too often ignored while every utterance from the Cameron team is subjected to ferocious analysis and criticism.
Since January there has been a non-stop narrative of Tory gaffes and errors over everything from advertising posters to the use of statistics in press statements.
Yet these minor misjudgments pale beside the appalling policy disasters that Labour has made over the past 13 years, dragging our country to the brink of bankruptcy and destroying our national identity.
Labour has done far worse than just commit a few gaffes. the party has saddled us with soaring debt, corrupted our democracy, torn apart our social fabric and created a vast authoritarian, dogmatic state bureaucracy.
What is entirely missing from the current debate is any balance.
It is absurd to treat Labour and the tories as if they were both starting from the same point. Government ministers should be held to account for their deeds, not merely assessed on their words.
The lack of fairness can be seen in the furore over the donations given to the Conservatives by Lord Ashcroft, who has used his non-domiciled status to avoid paying tax in Britain on foreign earnings.
Continued below
It is not a particularly edifying arrangement but from the way that Labour and the Left-wing media have been screaming about Ashcroft you would think Brown’s party never accepted a penny from any non-domiciled supporter.
In truth Labour is heavily bankrolled by this kind of backer. indeed between 2001 and 2008 Labour accepted more money from non-domiciled donors than the Tories, £8.9million compared to £5.6 million. It is the height of hypocrisy for Labour to pose as the champions of rectitude on the issue of political funding.
Over the past 13 years Labour has been engulfed in endless scandals over its financial arrangements, such as the notorious cash-for-honours saga or the dodgy donations affair. Moreover 60 per cent of Labour’s funding today comes from the trade union movement, which is completely dominated by the public sector.
It is no wonder, therefore, Brown has been so generous to public employees, rewarding them with higher pay, generous conditions, gold-plated pensions, job security and a massive expansion in the number of positions. In every area of policy where the Tories are under attack Labour’s record is a disgrace.
Recently the Conservatives were lambasted for getting some figures wrong about crime rates. Yet the Labour Government has presided over a complete breakdown in public faith in our justice system.
Violent crime has doubled, the police are drowning in bureaucracy and sentences for serious offenders have become a joke, thanks to Labour’s notorious human Rights Act.
Similarly the Tories were ridiculed for making a statistical error over the annual number of teenage pregnancies but Labour’s entire approach to family policy has been a catastrophe. Lone parenthood and male irresponsibility have been directly encouraged by the perverse incentives provided by the welfare state.
Tory critics are fond of talking about “splits” in the Cameron team but in reality any such disputes pale into insignificance beside the bizarrely dysfunctional nature of Labour.
This is a Government whose Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed on television last month that Downing Street had “unleashed the forces of hell” in its briefing operation against him.
Bullying, dishonesty, feuds and back-stabbing have become integral features of Brown’s administration.
Tory hesitations over economic policy are nothing compared to the shambles that Labour has made, leaving our nation even more indebted than Greece and racked by mass unemployment and welfare dependency.
Labour might sneer at George Osborne yet this is the party that abolished the 10p income tax rate, presided over a doubling of council tax bills and the introduction of a new 50p tax band which will only hurt enterprise. In the same vein Labour is fond of accusing the tories of “racism” and “extremism” if any concerns over immigration are raised but what could be more extreme than Labour’s systematic destruction of our borders, the import of more than 500,000 migrants a year and the refusal to take any action over one million illegal immigrants who have settled here?
Furthermore Labour’s fixation with the creed of multi-culturalism has accelerated the creeping Islamification of parts of our country as evidenced by the growth of sharia courts and the prevalence of the burkha. Cameron has been condemned for reneging on his pledge to hold a referendum on the EU’s Lisbon treaty but Labour made a similar promise.
Unlike Cameron Labour had the power to give the people a say before the treaty was ratified but refused to do so.
Instead Brown decided to speed up the destruction of our independence. that is so typical of Labour with its contempt for British democracy and nationhood. Whatever the tories’ failings Brown’s party does not deserve to stay in office a moment longer.
Election Looms and so it Begins...
A Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate has come under fire for writing his own fan mail to send to a local newspaper.
Councillor Jeremy Hilton, who hopes to become MP for Gloucester, asked a member of his PR team to write a letter describing him as 'the best man to do the job'.
It was then sent to former Gloucestershire County Council leader Peter Clarke, who was asked to sign it and forward it to his local newspaper.
But the original email, which claims that 'Jeremy would make a better MP' than his Labour rival Parmjit Dhanda, was also sent to The Citizen.
Dhanda, who is the current MP for Gloucester, today branded Cllr Hilton's 'bizarre and unnecessary' self-advertising as 'dirty politics'.
He said: 'The letter says more about him than it ever would about me. I think people are really put off by these types of dirty politics.
'People shouldn't be writing their own fan mail.'
Conservative parliamentary candidate Richard Graham added: 'It's a sad business.
'There have been several letters printed in The Citizen over the last few weeks, ostensibly coming from people extolling Jeremy Hilton's virtues.
'They do have the look and feel of something written for them. If he's having to write all these letters for other people, then that's just a bit sad.
'The people of Gloucester will have to make their own minds up about it.'
The letter, which was written by a member of Cllr Hilton's PR staff, was sent to Peter Clarke along with an email penned by Cllr Hilton himself. Continued
Technology to fight terrorists is being used by “town hall Stasi” to hike parking fines and rake in cash from motorists, the Tories said yesterday.
Patients’ confidential medical records are being placed on a controversial NHS database without their knowledge, doctors’ leaders have warned.
Those who do not wish to have their details on the £11 billion computer system are supposed to be able to opt out by informing health authorities.
But doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object.
The scheme, one of the largest of its kind in the world, will eventually hold the private records of more than 50 million patients.
But it has been dogged by accusations that the private information held on it will not be safe from hackers.
The British Medical Association claims that records have been placed on the system without patients’ knowledge or consent.
It follows allegations that the Government wanted to complete the project before the Conservatives had a chance to cancel it.
In a letter to ministers published today, the BMA urges the Government to suspend the scheme.
Hamish Meldrum, its chairman, writes: "The breakneck speed with which this programme is being implemented is of huge concern.
"Patients’ right to opt out is crucial, and it is extremely alarming that records are apparently being created without them being aware of it.
"If the process continues to be rushed, not only will the rights of patients be damaged, but the limited confidence of the public and the medical profession in NHS IT will be further eroded."
At present 1.29 million people have had their details placed on the system. A further 8.9 million records are due to be added by June. By the end of next year, the NHS hopes to have more than 50 million uploaded.
The "summary" records contain basic medical information including illnesses, vaccination history, and could include medication patients have been given. Ages and addresses are also included.
Patients are supposed to be notified by letter at least 12 weeks before their details go live on the system and given the chance to opt out.
The BMA says that letters have gone to the wrong addresses and that many patients have been unsure what they mean.
Doctors point out that there has been no national advertising programme to explain the scheme, as has been the case with other government initiatives.
David Wrigley, from the BMA's GP committee, said: "The concern is that people may not be aware, because they did not receive the letter, they did not read it or they thought it was junk mail and threw it away."
The BMA also criticises the fact that the information packs do not include the form which allows patients to opt out. It can only be obtained via the internet or by calling a helpline.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: "The Health Service should not put in place bureaucratic obstacles to patient choice because they are worried about what patients might choose to do."
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "The Government needs to end its obsession with massive central databases.
"The NHS IT scheme has been a disastrous waste of money and the national programme should be abandoned."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said that ministers "absolutely support" the right of patients to opt out of the scheme, adding that various options were provided to make this straightforward.
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An incoming Conservative government could come under immediate pressure to call a UK referendum on a new European Union treaty being suggested by Germany.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has raised the prospect of new EU treaty only months after the Lisbon Treaty took force.
Mrs Merkel said that a new EU accord would be required to create a new European Monetary Fund able to bail out crisis-hit members of the euro like Greece. “We would need a treaty change,” she said.
Talk of a new EMF has led to warnings that power of tax and spending could be centralised in European institutions.
When the Lisbon accord was proposed, European leaders said that it would be the last attempt to change the EU’s basic rules for many years.
But some European politicians have taken the recent financial crisis as an opportunity to suggest more changes. The European Commission has said the crisis is a chance to improve Europe’s “economic governance”.
Britain is not a euro member, but it is a signatory to the Maastricht treaty that created the single European currency. Maastricht bans one euro member giving direct financial aid to another.
EU rules mean that any change in the union’s fundamental rules must be approved by all EU members in a new treaty.
Any new treaty that creates a “gouvernement économique” based in Brussels and Frankfurt would face stiff opposition from Eurosceptics across the British political spectrum.
Both Labour and the Conservatives signalled they would oppose any new EU treaty, and the issue has the potential to be a political embarrassment to both.
When David Cameron dropped his commitment to hold a referendum on Lisbon last year, he reassured voters and Eurosceptic Tories that a Conservative government would put any future treaty to a referendum.
Conservative officials confirmed that the referendum “lock” would be applied to any new EMF treaty.
Mark Francois, the Conservative shadow Europe minister, said: “A European Monetary Fund must create no financial or legal obligations on Britain.”
However, the Conservatives are wary of letting Europe become a major issue at the general election, fearing that Labour could use the subject to portray them as an unreformed right-wing party.
Labour promised a referendum on the European Constitution, the forerunner of Lisbon, but then dropped the commitment.
Mr Brown told the Commons in 2007 that he would not accept any change in Europe’s rules for another decade.
Downing Street confirmed on Tuesday that the UK would oppose any new treaty brought forward to set up an EMF.
Downing Street said: “The Government opposes further institutional change in the relationship between the EU and member states for this parliament and the next.”
Asked about Mrs Merkel’s remarks, No 10 said: “We don’t actually expect further institutional change.”
Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, a think-tank, said that any new treaty could be a move to centralise power over tax and spending policies.
He said. “This will be seen, rightly, as a step towards fiscal federalism. That would be a step in the wrong direction for the UK.”
Even though Britain is outside the euro, Mr Persson said it was “not inconceivable that the UK could take part in some way” in a new European bail-out fund.
As an example, he said, the UK pays to help fund the running costs of the European Central Bank, despite not being a member of the European single currency.
Nigel Farage, a UK Independence Party MEP, said: “British participation in a European IMF will prove to be a bottomless pit down which taxpayers’ money can be poured in an attempt to save a lost cause.”
A School in Blackburn has become the first state school in Britain to receive accreditation for serving Halal food.
Daisyfield Primary is the first non-Muslim school to get the certificate from the Halal Monitoring Committee which enforces strict checks on the killing, preparation, packaging and delivery of animals.
Halal is the ritual method of slaughter practised under Islam and it has been criticised by animal welfare organisations who claim it causes severe suffering to the animals as they are left to bleed to death without pre-stunning.
While campaigners point out that a cow will take up to two minutes to bleed to death under Halal, the Muslim Council of Britain argues that it provides a quick haemorrhage with no time for the animal to feel pain.
This claim has angered the Farm Animal Welfare Council which published a report that concluded the way Halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals. It responded “This is a major incision into the animal and to say that it doesn’t suffer is quite ridiculous.”
Daisyfield’s changeover to Halal has upset local residents. One told the local newspaper that the move will force children to eat Halal meat, while another said it was further proof of the Islamification of Britain.
EUReferendum
Recognising a bargain when they see it, the investment firm Low Carbon Accelerator (LCA) has invested £500,000 in wind and solar power project developer Vigor Renewables in order to cash-in on UK feed-in tariffs (FITs).
Halal: Make your own minds up with these videos 1 of 3
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You will have to visit here to view and you may also be required to log in as the video is very distressing to watch as is the next one which we have just linked to in order to spare distress to younger readers.
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UKT is against all forms of animal cruelty and we call upon the spineless government, RSPCA and the gutless Animal Rights organisation to speak out for those they claim to protect and represent!
What these sick Mad Marxist Bast*rds are doing to your children!
A group of primary schoolchildren were left traumatised after their teacher told them they were to be taken away from their families during a bizarre Holocaust classroom 'game'.
Pupils became hysterical after a number of them were separated and told they were being sent away or might end up in an orphanage.
The terrifying ordeal was meant to give the students at the Lanarkshire school an insight into the horrors faced by Jewish children during the Second World War, when they were plucked from home and sent to Nazi death camps.
But the ill-conceived exercise, which was sprung without warning on the children at St Hilary's Primary School in East Kilbride last Thursday morning, went badly wrong with many pupils, aged just 11, reduced to tears.
Deputy head teacher Elizabeth McGlynn was responsible for segregating the pupils and telling them they were to be sent away.
One angry parent, who has lodged an official complaint about the project, told how the 'barbaric' role play left children crying their eyes out in class.
In a letter sent to council bosses, the unnamed mother said: 'Mrs McGlynn told the children they would probably have to be sent away from their families and that their parents had been informed about this and knew all about it.
'When one child asked if that meant they might have to go to an orphanage, they were told that might be a possibility.
'At that point many of the children became very distressed.
'One boy kicked his chair over, one was angry and demanded to speak to someone in charge but most were crying on a scale ranging from mildly to severely.
'Their ordeal lasted between 12 and 15 minutes before the children were informed that it was all an act but that the role play would continue until lunchtime.'
One girl said her classmates began crying when Mrs McGlynn told them she had a letter from the Scottish Executive saying nine children had to be separated from their classmates.
She told the shocked youngsters those who were born in January, February and March had lower IQs than other children, 'due to lack of sunlight in their mother's womb', and that they had to put yellow hats on and be sent to the library.
The mother added: 'When I asked why on earth they thought it was appropriate to deliver a role play situation to the children in this way, Mrs Stewart informed me that they didn't inform the children beforehand.
'This was because they wanted the children to experience an "accurate emotional response" to this scenario in order for it to be reflected in their story writing.
- Perhaps the teachers should be kidnapped by a mock terrorist organization and held hostage overnight so they could experience an "accurate emotional response" to this scenario before telling them it was an exercise? this wouldn't be entertained of course yet they do similar things to YOUR children's minds (Ed)
'Mrs Stewart then invited me to come up to the school and see the excellent work that had been produced as a result of the exercise.
'I declined and my position and opinion on the method used to extract emotive story writing from the children was cruel, barbaric, traumatic and totally, totally unethical.
'My daughter and indeed no child needs to feel the terror, fear, panic, segregation and horror that a child of the Holocaust experienced during one of the worst atrocities in history to be able to empathise with them in order to produce good story writing.'
A South Lanarkshire council spokeswoman, who confirmed that a role play activity took place, said: 'The council can confirm that a parent handed in a letter to Education Resources on Monday, March 8, 2010, and this will be responded to shortly.'
An estimated six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Jewish children in Nazi Europe had to wear yellow Star of David badges during the Second World War.
They also had to live apart from the rest of the population in ghettos.
Finally they were taken to concentration camps, where most were separated from their parents then killed.
As usual the need of the few outweigh the Right's of the Many
Pharmacist refuses to give mother, 38, contraceptive pills for period pain 'because of her religion'
A pharmacist refused to serve a mother-of-two with a prescription for the contraceptive pill because it went against her religious beliefs.
The Government must be held to account
The British National Party’s candidate in the Nottinghamshire seat of Sherwood will be the ever-popular Councillor James North, the party’s East Midlands press officer, John Ryde has announced.
“Cllr North will contest Sherwood thanks to generous donations by Derek Butler and Cliff Brown to fund the deposit and leaflets,” said Mr Ryde.
In a joint statement, the two donors said that the “attempts by Trevor Phillips and the EHRC to drain the party financially through the courts had failed spectacularly.
“Mr Phillips has so angered lovers of democracy that he has single-handedly opened the floodgates of financial support to the BNP, enabling us to stand far more candidates than we have ever anticipated,” they said.
Cllr North is the BNP councillor’s representative on the party’s Advisory Council, a local parish councillor and the organiser of the successful Melton Mowbray group. Sherwood is a Labour stronghold was last contested by the BNP in 1997.
'Dirty tricks': Cllr Jeremy Hilton asked one of his PR staff to write a fan letter for his local newspaper
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor
Inquiry: Trevor Phillips 'tried to influence a parliamentary committee drawing up a report'
Green Arrow & Friends
Let's Roll. Nothing British was set up with the sole purpose of attacking the patriotic British National Party. Their full site title is actually Nothing British about the BNP.
As you can see from their contact address:- 5, The Sanctuary, Opposite Westminster Abbey, London, SW1P 3JS, their offices are located in one of the most exclusive areas in London and are within easy walking distance of the Houses of Parliament - spitting distance in fact.
This prime location, of course, makes it a very convenient place for MPs and other traitors to drop in for "friendly" chats. Hopefully we will soon be able to provide you with images of just who does call into their offices.
The key players behind Nothing British, say that they are a cross party organisation created to attack the British National Party and deny that they are a conservative attack dog. But as you can see from the following videos - and I urge you to watch them, you can see just what sort of slimy liars they really are. Video
Sent to her DEATH by the Government
Right, at 1.20 in, Nick Griffin MEP BNP, reveals just who James Bethell really is. Bethell responds with the lie at 2.03:
We are not a tory front.
That is completely untrue.
Ok. Let us leave the lie resting on the table for now as we go to the next video, that again I urge you to watch, if only to see what a Grade A tory slime-ball from Nothing British talks and acts like.
At 3.20 the interviewer asks "Are you a front for the tory party?". Watch Cousins squirm.
Cousins replies with "Absolutely Not. We - although some of us are members of the conservative party."
Interviewer interjects with "Your a member of the conservative party."
Cousins "I am yes."
Interviewer "Tim Montgomery your co sponsor is a member of the conservative party"
Cousins "Yes, yes"
Interviewer "So its entirely run by the conservative party"
Cousins then waffles "No its not."
My experience of life is this. If something walks like a duck, quacks like a duck then it is a duck and on this site it is always Open Season on ducks. So lets go duck hunting.
So just who are the "Names" behind the conservative site Nothing British. This is what they say about themselves. Below you will find what we know about them.
Lord James Bethell
James Bethell, is a Director and co founder of Nothing British who is better known in High Society as the lipless and chinless wonder, the 5th Baron Bethell, who was one of Rupert Murdoch's scabs who helped put 6,000 printers out of work during the Wapping Strike.
Bethell, who tries to portray the Nothing British site as being run by ordinary people is of course ordinary. Ordinary that is, if you come from a wealthy banking family and count people like Rupert Murdoch and the Rothchilds amongst your friends.
Maurice Cousins
Maurice Cousins is the Deputy Editor of Nothing British and is a "British Citizen" who is part of David Cameron's inner circle of "chums" that really runs the conservative party. He is a former researcher for the Searchlight linked Friends of Israel and who worked closely with Douglas Carswell, the MP responsible for The Plan that David Cameron works to and another Friend of Israel.
Maurice also writes for the other conservative site, Conservative Home that until recently employed the paedophile Alister Cooling. Maurice is a war monger and has written over on Conservative Home that the government should be attacking Iran.
Tim (nice but dim) Montgomerie
Tim Montgomerie. Another Director and founder of Nothing British and responsible for the creation of the ConservativeHome webesite, Montgomerie has been described as "one of the most important Conservative activists of the past 20 years" and is frequently consulted by Conservative Central Office.
Jonathan Dupont.
Jonathan is their tea boy.
This article will be updated on a regular basis and as such is a work in progress. As you can see, their claims that Nothing British is an independent organisation is nothing more than an in your face lie by people worried about the coming changes.
Vigor, we are told, is a new company formed to take advantage of changes to UK FITs, which aims to partner with land-owners, as well as commercial property owners and managers, to build and operate renewable power generating assets across the UK.
Each of the solar and wind energy sites they build will be designed to qualify for the FITs which come into effect in the UK on 1 April 2010 and "guarantee an inflation linked income for sub-5MW renewable energy projects."
For solar projects, the incentives are available for 25 years and for wind 20 years.
In an unfortunate turn of phrase, Vigor managing director Oliver Hughes says the FIT has created a "wealth of opportunity" for renewable energy developers in the UK.
"We are pleased that LCA, as a pioneer in clean-tech investment, has recognised this opportunity and the return potential for investors and for property and land-owners," Hughes said.
So it starts ... the pigs rush to the trough, scooping up the cash by the handfuls. They would be mad not to do so.
The government has devised an utterly mad system designed to put £8.6 billon a year into the kitty, available for anyone able to afford the initial investment. AND THE REST OF US PAY.
This one, like so many, has crept in under the radar, a perverted, distorted reverse Robin Hood scheme where the poor are robbed to give to the rich. And even with today's debauched currency, £8 billion plus A YEAR is a lot of money – you could build four aircraft carriers a year with that, every year.
This is money which is going to be siphoned out of our pockets, all to produce electricity in one of the least efficient and most expensive ways known to man. On our backs, will arise a vast, bloated "green" industry, milking the poor and the less-well-off, just to pay homage to a mad obsession. In Zimbabwe, runaway inflation produced scenes such as the one shown. If you see something similar in Britain, you are looking at a solar energy developer.
AND IT IS OUR MONEY.
Read here. The pro-IPCC climate scientists predicted that mudslides and landslides (debris-flow) would increase due to global warming.
Researchers examined the historical evidence and found the prediction to be without empirical merit. It appears that the left/liberal/progressive global warming, alarmist scientists (and IPCC) are again caught hyping calamitous predictions without the requisite scientific evidence.
- "Matthews et al. report they could find "no obvious correlation between debris-flow frequency and a relative warm climate." In fact, they say that "debris-flow frequency was lowest post-8000 cal. BP during the Holocene Thermal Maximum," and that most of the "century- to millennial-scale phases of enhanced debris-flow activity appear to correlate with Neoglacial events," one of which was the "Little Ice Age."....they report that "there appears to be no consistent upward trend in debris-flow frequencies over recent decades," when one might have expected them to be growing in both number and magnitude if climate-alarmist claims were correct."
You couldn't make this stuff up. It's always those filthy sceptics, flat-earthers, deniers. Here we are, just ordinary climate scientists going about our daily lives, fudging data, deleting emails when we get FOI requests, and threatening journals that dare to publish papers that challenge the consensus, and you nasty mean sceptics somehow find that objectionable.
If only we could just get on with our skulduggery without your annoying interference:
CSIRO scientists say they are coming under political attack as part of an orchestrated campaign by climate change sceptics.
A delegation of scientists is in Canberra this week to push for bipartisan political support for open debate and diversity in government science. [Open debate? That'll be the day - Ed]
CSIRO Staff Association president Michael Borgas says scientific integrity is under threat. [Yes, it certainly is, but not from the sceptics, it's from the climate scientists who have forgotten what being a scientist is all about - Ed]
"It's a very large concern both internal but in particular externally," he said.
"Now we're seeing some quite unprecedented attacks on the integrity of science in the CSIRO, that was in senate estimates recently."
Dr Borgas says scientists need more support from management.
"We frankly think that the management does make matters worse by appearing to gag comment and exert too much control of the scientists," he said.
"But we can see that they are attempting to manage the risk that they see from these attacks which are coming from the outside."
Whose fault is all this? Get your own ship in order before looking for excuses elsewhere.
Read it where? You guessed it. In the ever-impartial ABC.
UPDATE: And Stephen Schneider gets in on the victim act, with this outlandish claim:
”I have hundreds” of threatening emails, Stephen Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford University in California, told Tierramérica.
He believes scientists will be killed over this. ”I'm not going to let it worry me... but you know it's going to happen,” said Schneider, one of the most respected climate scientists in the world. ”They shoot abortion doctors here.” (source)
Schneider, like all the others, was strangely silent when threats of "Nuremburg Trials", jail or execution for climate sceptics were being made. Funny that.
Labour is adopting a 'scorched earth' policy by rushing through expensive projects before the an election is called, the Tories claim.
The Conservatives are accusing ministers of making 'reckless and irresponsible' spending decisions, which will leave any incoming government with projects that will prove difficult to finance.
Ministers are pushing through several massive computer projects in the run-up to the election - including the controversial £12.7billion NHS IT patients' record scheme.
They have also signed a £1billion logistics software contract for the Ministry of Defence as well as speeded up a £600million contract to run new personal pension accounts.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: 'Labour's actions resemble a dying administration making reckless and irresponsible spending commitments to wreck the finances for any incoming government.'
Rules state that ministers must postpone contentious procurement decisions until after the election.
But these only apply once the date has been announced.
Four soldiers including Cpl Sarah Bryant, the first female to die in Afghanistan, were unlawfully killed after troops were given "inadequate" training, a coroner has ruled.
Wiltshire Coroner David Masters said he would write to the Ministry of Defence to raise concerns about "theatre-wide" equipment shortages and gaps in training which led to the deaths.
"I intend to submit a report to the Ministry of Defence which will take up a number of these issues which this inquest has quite properly canvassed," Mr Masters said at the conclusion of a six-day inquest into the deaths at Trowbridge Town Hall.
Cpl Bryant, 26, and special forces reservists Corporal Sean Robert Reeve, 28, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin, 39, and Private Paul Stout, 31, died when their Snatch Land Rover detonated a roadside bomb hidden in a shallow ditch near Lashkar Gah, Helmand in June 2008.
Following Mr Master's verdict, Cpl Bryant's mother Maureen Feely read a statement in which she said that none of the issues raised in the inquest should detract from her attributes as a soldier.
"Sarah would not have wished to be treated any differently from any other of her colleagues," she said.
"She was a soldier who died with honour. We do not want some of the issues this inquest has raised to detract from Sarah's bravery, dedication and selflessness."
The use of the Snatch Land Rover has long been controversial due to the numbers that have died in them and the inquest heard that it had been nicknamed the "mobile coffin" because of the lack of protection it afforded troops.
The vehicles could not cover soft ground and became stuck in a little water, which restricted the unit to driving along dangerous tracks, witnesses said.
The commanding officer of 23 SAS regiment, the Territorial Army battalion, told the hearing that he had raised concerns about the lack of safer vehicles and was told that he would have to make do as no others were available.
Mr Masters said the commanding officer, named only as Colonel A at the inquest, had wanted the better-armoured WMIK vehicle to replace the Snatch - even though it too might been badly damaged by the "massive" bomb concerned.
"There was a limited pool of vehicles available, a general shortage of vehicles available during that period," said Mr Masters.
"He wanted WMIKs because of the nature of the territory. He put in a request and justified it but he didn't get them. That shortage meant that they were unavailable to him. There was only a finite supply of vehicles to be allocated across the whole brigade."
Major Sebastian Morley, Cpl Bryant's SAS squadron commander in Helmand, later resigned, accusing the Government of being "cavalier at best, criminal at worst" for ill-equipping troops.
Mr Masters heard that shortages of metal detectors meant soldiers had not been shown how to use them before deploying to Afghanistan and were forced to ask an expert on base in Afghanistan how to do so.
An Ebex metal detector became available only four months into the deployment, until which point the soldiers had to scan the ground for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
One witness told the coroner of his training on the Ebex: "We worked it out ourselves with the use of the manual."
"There was a theatre-wide shortage of that piece of vital equipment," Mr Masters said.
He said that the lack of Ebex meant convoys took longer to move along a route and their slow pace opened them up to increased risk of attack.
"In my judgment there was an inadequacy in training for this unit and its members," he said.
Salim Mulla presents the Halal certificate to head Peter Fenton who seems to endorse barbaric slaughter (Ed)
HMC defends the non -stunning law on BBC programme
Outraged parents have hit out at a school in Birmingham after pupils discovered CCTV cameras in the school's toilets.
Youngsters at Grace Academy in Chelmsley Wood claim they returned from half-term to find staff had installed the cameras without notifying them or their parents.
Some parents are furious at what they say is a "total invasion of privacy" and claim some pupils are so anxious about being watched they are refusing to use the facilities.
One mother whose teenage daughter attends the school is concerned the footage could fall into the wrong hands.
She told the Sunday Mercury: "She came home from school and told me security cameras had been installed in the girl's toilets but we didn't know anything about it.
"You would expect the school to have consulted parents first yet we received no information and no letters have been sent home explaining this decision."
Grace Academy claims the cameras only cover the sink areas and have not yet been activated.
School principal Terry Wales told Sky News: "It's to safeguard our youngsters, many schools are using cameras now.
"We had a parents' forum last night, we explained the arrangements and the parents were satisfied.
"We've found that when it comes to health and safety, children want to feel secure."
But privacy campaigners warned about the psychological effects of the feeling of being watched, even if cameras are not switched on.
Dylan Sharpe from Big Brother Watch told Sky News: "Children are entitled to privacy like anyone else.
"We're raising a generation of children accustomed to being constantly watched and monitored, whether cameras are switched on or not."
Grace Academy already has 26 CCTV cameras watching other parts of the school.
The incident is the latest row to erupt between schools and parents who are concerned about safeguarding their children's privacy.
Last year police were called to a school in Salford after parents were horrified to discover children had been filmed changing into their PE kit.
Although the footage was not misused, police seized the film after negotiating with the school.
In 2007 it was revealed schools had fingerprinted thousands of primary school children without their parent's consent.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families later ruled that if schools want to obtain and store biometric data from children, consent is not required from parents.
Grace Academy in Chelmsley Wood
The terrifying ordeal was meant to give the students at St Hilary's Primary School an insight into the horrors faced by Jewish children during World War Two
Seven Muslims were arrested in Ireland today over an alleged plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.
Al Qaeda put a $100,000 bounty on the head of cartoonist Lars Vilks after a newspaper published his cartoon in July 2007.
The controversy came less than a year after the furore surrounding the infamous cartoons in a Danish newspaper which sparked death threats against the editor and worldwide protests.
The four men and three women were detained after an investigation involving European security agencies and the United States' CIA and FBI. It is understood that some of those arrested hold Irish citizenship and a number are originally from the Middle East.
They were detained by police in Waterford and Cork in the south of the country for conspiracy to murder Mr Vilks. The men and women arrested range in age from mid-20s to late 40s and can be held for up to seven days.
Mr Vilks, who lives in an isolated area of Sweden, was put under police protection after threats were made against his life. When Al Qaeda put the bounty on the cartoonist's head in 2007 it offered a 50 per cent bonus if Mr Vilks was 'slaughtered like a lamb' by having his throat cut.
Another $50,000 was put on the life of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the local newspaper which printed the cartoon. The Swedish paper had orginally printed the cartoons after they had been banned from being put in display by art galleries for fear of causing offence.
The paper defended its publication of the cartoon, saying it was in defence of free speech. 'This is unacceptable self-censorship,' the newspaper wrote in an editorial referring to the reluctance by galleries to exhibit Vilks's drawings.
'The right to freedom of religion and the right to blaspheme religions go together,' it wrote. However those arrested are not believed to be members of the terrorist group. It understood some have converted to the Muslim faith.The arrests were made at around 10am as officers conducted a number of raids.
Gardai said the operation was supported by members from National Support Services and the Republic's anti-terrorist Special Detective Unit. A Garda spokesman added: 'Throughout the investigation An Garda Siochana has been working closely with law enforcement agencies in the United States and in a number of European countries.'
Demonstrators outside the Danish Embassy in London to protest controversial cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed in 2006. Peaceful religion? Hmn'
Five men linked to a UK terror plot which would cause 'mass casualties' were arrested days before they planned to strike, a court heard today.
A senior British intelligence officer, identified only as ZR, told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that the group was set to stage an atrocity between April 15 and 20 last year.
He told the hearing that that the alleged plot ringleader Abid Naseer exchanged coded emails with an Al Qaeda operative called Sohaib while planning the attack.
The pair used girls' names to cover their tracks, the officer said.
He told the hearing: 'On the face of it the emails are designed to look, without knowledge of the surrounding context, they're designed to look like correspondence between two people about girls.'
ZR went on: 'I don't assess this to be two young men simply talking about girls. I think it's two people discussing attack planning on behalf of Al Qaeda.'
Naseer and Ahmed Faraz Khan, who are both 23, are appealing against their deportation to Pakistan on the grounds that they are a national security risk.
The pair were held by police as part of Operation Pathway in April last year.
Police and the security services said they were part of a major plot, but there was not enough evidence to charge them with criminal offences.
Another three men - Shoaib Khan, 31, Abdul Wahab Khan, 27, and Tariq Ur Rehman, 38 - have already been sent back to the country and are appealing to return to the UK.
ZR compared the alleged plan to the July 7 2005 attacks and the trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot of 2006, but refused to reveal details of the similarities in open court.
He said: 'The overarching similar fashion was that they were all planning a terrorist attack in the UK under the direction of Al Qaeda and these were aiming for mass casualties.'
The officer went on: 'I'm comfortable that there are similarities between those plots and I'm comfortable to talk about that in closed session.'
Representing Naseer, Joel Bennathan QC said Naseer and Sohaib used women's names because as Muslim men this was the only way they could access certain websites.
The subject of two of the emails was 'Sohaib here', which showed they had nothing to hide, he said.
Mr Bannathan told ZR: 'You know, don't you, that in Pakistan in public, senior figures in the Pakistani government have been saying "these boys are innocent, they should be allowed to carry on with their studies".'
The officer replied: 'The claims that these individuals are not involved in terrorism are wrong.'
MI5 claims that in their emails Naseer, 23, and Sohaib used names of girlfriends to refer to different explosive materials needed for homemade bombs.
They also mentioned a wedding which was in fact the alleged attack, the security service maintains.
Mr Bennathan read excerpts to the court which said: 'Gulnaz sounds OK but she's fond of money and in order to approach her I must find work.'
Another read: 'Fozia is sometimes bulls. She lets you down sometimes.'
He asked ZR how Sohaib would have known what the code words meant, but the officer would not comment.
In other plots members of the terror cell had gone abroad to learn how to make bombs and had amassed the necessary materials weeks in advance, Mr Bennathan told the hearing.
But no bomb-making equipment or ingredients were found in this case and the security services claim Naseer was getting advice via e-mail on how to make a device.
Again, ZR said he could not respond in open court.
The five men were arrested during anti-terror raids in Manchester and Liverpool in April last year.
MI5 was forced to swoop early after Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick accidentally showed secret documents with details of the plan to photographers outside Downing Street.
The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
The senior British intelligence officer, identified only as ZR, compared the alleged plan to the attacks on London on July 7 2005
Up to half the food aid sent to the hungry millions in Somalia never makes it to those who need it most, according to a shock United Nations report.
Instead the aid ends up in the hands of corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local United Nations staff.
Much of the £340million a year in food aid is held to ransom by a corrupt cartel of Somali distributors who then sell it illegally and use the funds to buy weapons.
Somalia is now known as one of the most dangerous places in the world with pirates roaming off the horn of Africa and hijacking cargo ships that are held for ransom.
A British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, have been held hostage for over four months after being snatched from their yacht as they sailed toward Tanzania.
The damming report into corruption in the UN's food programme was made by the organisation's own Security Council.
It follows claims by that millions of pounds raised through Bob Geldof's Live Aid project in the 1980s ended up being used by guerrillas fighting the Ethiopian Government.
According to the UN report some 3.7m people in Somalia are dependent on foreign food aid distributed by their World Food Programme.
But it says the distribution is beset by rampant corruption on a local level.
Transport lorries carrying food are routinely hijacked and forced to run the gauntlet of roadblocks manned by militias and insurgents.
The report even names a local businessman, Abdulkadir M. Nur involved in the distribution process who hijacks his own trucks and later sells the food on the black market.
The report said his wife plays a prominent role in a local aid agency and signs off reports on food distribution.
The report also reveals that three Somali businessmen who hold the pds160m worth of contracts to distribute food are suspected of links to Islamic insurgents.
'Some humanitarian resources, notably food aid, have been diverted to military uses,' the report said.
'A handful of Somali contractors for aid agencies have formed a cartel and become important power brokers -- some of whom channel their profits or the aid itself -- directly to armed opposition groups.'
The report says that fraud is widespread with about 30 percent of aid skimmed by local partners and local World Food Program personnel.
A further 10 percent is taken by the ground transporters and 5 to 10 percent by the armed group in control of the area where it is to be distributed.
In January, the US halted tens of millions of dollars of aid shipments to southern Somalia because of fears it was falling into the wrong hands.
American officials believe that some aid may have been taken by members of Al Shabab, the most militant of Somalia’s insurgent groups.
The Security Report calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Programme's Somalia operations.
The World Food Programme's deputy executive director, Amir Abdulla, said officials have not seen the report.
Abdulla said:'We will investigate all of the allegations as we have always done in the past if questions have been raised about our operations.'
Francis Maude accused Labour of 'reckless and irresponsible' spending
At present 1.29 million people have had their details placed on the system. A further 8.9 million records are due to be added by June
The number plate device used to collect parking fines
Councils routinely use Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology to clamp down on parking offences, they claim.
The device scans 3,000 vehicles an hour and cross-checks in seconds with police, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and insurance databases.
This allows parking tickets to be issued by computer.
Minister for Security and Counter-Terrorism Lord West said the technology is for fighting serious crime. In a parliamentary written answer, he told how it is “used by police forces for intelligence-led policing and investigative purposes”.
Shadow Communities Minister Stewart Jackson said councils are using “spy technology” to penalise motorists for “minor breaches” of parking rules.
“This is yet another sign of the march of the town hall Stasi under Labour,” he said.
“CCTV has a role to catch criminals, but it will lose public support if it is being used to create a surveillance state.”
In a Parliamentary written answer, Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said Department for Transport records show councils in Nottingham, Hackney, Bournemouth and Basildon have used or still use the technology for parking enforcement. He said it helped “assist the visual identification of vehicles when the evidence is reviewed”.
Director of Big Brother Watch Alex Deane, which campaigns against the surveillance society, said: “This confirms what every driver will have suspected – that ANPR cameras are about revenue raising, not law enforcement. This sneaky network is really just another tax.”
A Local Government Association spokesman said: “If people park illegally and drive in bus lanes they block traffic, cause accidents and stop emergency vehicles getting through. ANPR can be an efficient way of using council taxpayers’ money to prevent people driving illegally.”
A Transport Department spokesman said: “Using the cameras is up to each council.”
AA president Edmund King said: “Technology takes no account of common sense. A motorist could be in a bus lane after pulling over to let an emergency police vehicle with blue flashing lights go past.”
Shocked Janine Deeley, 38, initially thought the female pharmacist must be joking, but became angry when she was told to try another chemist or come back the next day when someone else was on duty.
Miss Deeley said she is prescribed the pill by her GP because she suffers from a condition which causes painful periods.
She said she was furious at being 'treated like a child' and having to explain herself like an irresponsible teenager.
She said: 'I couldn't believe the arrogance of the woman. Who is she to refuse to give me properly prescribed legal drugs? I am a responsible adult.
'She had no right to refuse to dispense my prescription except if the drugs weren't in stock or if she thought the dosage was incorrect.'
The branch of Lloyd's pharmacy adjoins the doctor's surgery and Miss Deeley said she had used it for years without a problem. But this time the pharmacist took her to one said and said she could have the painkillers she wanted but not the contraceptive pill.
'I asked "oh why not?" and she said "I don't give them out because of my religion." I honestly thought she was joking and I said "Pardon?"
Shocked: Janine Deeley, pictured at her Sheffield home, thought the pharmacist must be joking when she refused to serve her
'She repeated it and I said "You're not giving me the pills because of your religion?" and she replied "Yes." I was absolutely stunned. I was fuming and just stormed out.'
Miss Deeley, of Wybourn, Sheffield, added: 'I had no idea what religion the woman was and I don't remember if she has served me before. The other staff looked very embarrassed but obviously it was the pharmacist's decision.
'There's a lot of things in society you might not like or agree with, but you can't do anything about them.This type of thing shouldn't be happening, it's not right.'
The jobless single mother has daughters Carlie, 18, and Lauren, 14, and she is concerned about the implications of such a refusal policy.
She said: 'My daughter is 18 - she might want to go on the Pill and she has got that right. I'd rather have that than an unwanted pregnancy.'
A spokeswoman for Lloyds pharmacy said an investigation had been launched: 'We are very sorry Ms Deeley was refused supply of her prescribed contraceptive pill at our Duke Street pharmacy.
'We have launched an investigation into the incident and been in contact with her to apologise for any distress and inconvenience caused.'
Yesterday the pharmacist - who has not been named - was not at work. She is a locum who is said to occasionally fill in when the regular pharmacists are on holiday or on a day off.
A spokeswoman from NHS Sheffield, the primary care trust responsible for how well pharmacies and other health bodies across the city perform, said it would investigate the matter if a formal complaint was made.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) said the pharmacist was acting within her rights.
The spokesman said:'While the Code of Ethics and Standards does not require a pharmacist to provide a service that is contrary to their religious or moral beliefs, any attempt by a pharmacist to impose their beliefs on a member of the public seeking their professional guidance, or a failure to have systems in place to advise of alternative sources for the service required, would be of great concern to the RPSGB and could form the basis of a complaint of professional misconduct.'