Before I was side-tracked by buying a present for my eldest’s girlfriend I was compiling a few interesting links to demonstrate how the world was flowing. Unfortunately, my i/n connection crashed and I hadn’t bookmarked them 🙂 Once I’d pulled them up from memory, it then crashed again so … here’s what we’re left with:
Belgium on the brink. Without a national government for more than a year, this EU member-state is fast becoming a testing ground and prototype for European federalism. Believe it or not, some people actually herald Belgium as a success. There’s one big boss in Brussels (unelected) and many provincial governors: layer upon layer of governance and bureaucracy.
If your blood isn’t rising already then you’re not English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh. The lovely Belgians can go back to De Standaard and their moules frites with mayonnaise.
Perhaps Cameron thinks we don’t notice; perhaps he’s right. Q. When is the Freedom Bill not a Freedom Bill? A. When it increases the power of entry into people’s homes.
A report from the joint committee on human rights warns that the measures contained in the ‘freedom bill’ actually create new risks to individuals’ civil liberties.
The government is reviewing its existing powers of entry to private properties, including homes.
It is also proposing to authorise ministers to extend existing powers of entry and roll back safeguards, prompting criticism from committee chair Hywel Francis.
“The proposals in the bill are overly broad and give ministers carte blanche to change powers of entry as they see fit,” he said.
“This power needs to be limited to provide real protection for individual privacy, and existing powers of entry need to be examined carefully to reduce their scope and number.”
We don’t need a Freedom Bill; we don’t need a British Bill of Rights – we already have them.
The man in demand, the man who owns much of the planet, the lobbying groups and the vested interests still has a criminal record. I can’t believe this man still holds the position he does. Didn’t he once brag that he made his billions on the back of Great Britain’s Black Wednesday?
Shock! Horror! Hedge Funds and private equity make up 27% funding to Tories. Tsk. How awful, let’s get a slot on Newsnight.
Oh! Wait a minute… Trade Union donations account for 91.3% funding to Labour. Oh well, let’s not mention that.
Testing on live animals: It must stop. Sentient beings and all that.
There’s been a record number of people evicted from their homes in Spain. This is pretty much how Greece was first reported.
Not the real thing: Olympics 2012. Sponsors accused of breaking “the spirit” of the games. Whoever negotiated the contract to win Olympics 2012 is a muppet if he couldn’t foresee what would happen. We were warned last year to get out of London, close businesses and go on holiday.
Tony Travers, a transport expert at the London School of Economics, said: “It is hypocrisy for the Games organisers to issue an anti-car message which does not apply to the sponsors.
Ah well, Tony, some of us live and learn.
Are Green Tea supplements already banned by the EU? If not, they soon will be. Au Revoir, to Green Tea supplements in France. I assume this is all on the back of the EU demanding stricter regulation of non-BigPharma natural medicines. After all, why let people go out into woodland or meadow and find a dock leaf to cure an itch? Much better to prohibit picking the dock leaf and let BigPharma patent some artificial derivative and charge us for it.
Are you a journalist in America? Get ready to be told how to report about Islam. We’re so touchy-feely here in Britain that you only have to look at our newspapers to see how we were one of the first to implement the edict.
Britain will comply with this, of course, but some member-states will not. There’s a disagreement about battery hens. Once upon a time this is something our own government could have done but now we’re just at a competitive disadvantage within the EU. It’s “clearly unacceptable” says the EU Commissioner but nothing will change.
This one surprised me: the National Union of Farmers is supporting the Govt’s new planning regs. I bet their President, Peter Kendall, has been on a Common Purpose course with his talk about smart farming.
“…speaking in Manchester this week, Mr Kendall said the planning reforms could help farm businesses increase food production by making it easier to get permission for the likes of new farm buildings, polytunnels and anaerobic digestion (AD) plants.”
Lovely, can’t wait. Think of all those subsidies they’ll get and the cheaper food costs are sure to be passed down to us (1972 and CAP re-visited ad nauseam). Forget those rolling hills and infinite horizon meadows – let’s have polytunnels instead.
Florida installs fingerprint scanners on school buses. Apparently it’s because they can’t keep track of children attending school. Whatever happened to the School Register? How many parents in Britain know whether their child is being finger-printed before entering the dining room or the library?
Syria warns Jordan not to participate in Turkish/Israeli “large-scale manoeuvres”:
“If the Hashemite Kingdom lines up with Turkey and Israel and deploys extra troops on the Syrian border, Assad will order his air force to bomb Jordanian towns.
And if Israel intervenes to engage Syrian bombers, Damascus would launch surface missiles against Jordanian cities.
It was the second time this week that the Syrian ruler had threatened to punish an enemy with ground-to-ground missiles. Tuesday, Oct. 4, debkafile revealed that Assad had threatened to demolish Tel Aviv by missiles within six hours of an attack on Syria.”
Russia and China veto UN Resolution re sanctions on Syria. They fear it will turn into an excuse for bombing, like Libya. Russia has a good deal on arms sales.
Sorry, I’m dashing for dinner now so the rest is short.
An in-depth report on Peak Oil, Climate Change and the threat to food security
The lies and the futility:Â Obama’s “Millionaire Tax” Collected Over Next Ten Years Will Plug 4 Months Worth Of Deficit.
Unrest is spreading to Toronto. Taxpayers world-wide are unhappy at the way their taxes are being spent yet governments go on, regardless.
Bernard Howe-Hogan, the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has issued his first statement: “I will fast-track ethnic minorities”. I bet he’s been on a Common Purpose course.
More on Dexia An interesting video.
Let’s finish with this:Â The nannied and pampered new generation.
Check this out:
Calling England 