The final straw? - by Richard... Friday, June 04, 2010

The final straw? - by Richard... Friday, June 04, 2010

Several newspapers note that the Cumbria killer Derrick Bird (pictured) may have been in trouble with the tax authorities and feared being made bankrupt by them. There is thus speculation as to whether this was the final straw which triggered his lethal rampage in which 12 people ended up dead.

Certainly, there is good evidence that being on the receiving end of the implacable ministrations of the authorities is indeed enough to trigger a violent response.

If that was the case here, as my newsagent remarked yesterday before even this was known, it was a pity Bird expended his energies on largely innocent people. It was a shame, he said, that he had not put his anger to more productive use and run amok in the Inland Revenue offices or the local town hall.

With a bill for £1,210.33 sitting on my desk – the latest peremptory demand from Bradford Council for its Council Tax – I would quite endorse the choice of the latter target, where the idea of contributing to the £182,000 annual salary (plus pension, perks, etc) of a useless chief executive is not at all appealing.

If it was the contact with officialdom which triggered Bird's rampage, I can quite understand. Reaching into the depths of my own soul, I can touch a portion of my psyche which reserves the blackest hatred for the insouciance of mindless officials, calling themselves the "Department of Customer Services", who would have me committed to jail for failure to yield to their extortion.

And extortion this is. Unlike any other debt, failure to pay this one results in an automatic prison sentence. It makes a total mockery of the idea that we are free men. We are out on license, on payment of an annual fee to the authorities – failing payment of which the forces of the State are despatched to root you out, with unrestrained violence, to arrest you and commit you to jail. 

Yet steal as much and you are unlikely to be treated as harshly. If you are an MP you can steal £40,000 and still be called "honourable", while you keep your job which you gained under false pretences.

Fortunately for these mindless, faceless officials, we are civilised people – we do not (yet) come for them and slaughter them in their beds, even when we should. And when a creature like Bird finally snaps – if that is what happened – usually the wrong people get killed. 

But, that will not always be the case. There are people who have the effrontery to call themselves "consumer services" as they steal our money. For that alone they should be slaughtered. Societies, as well as people, have their breaking points. Ours cannot be far away.

RANDOM SHOOTING THREAD

Print ready

Israeli "attack" - by Richard...

Actual footage taken by the peace-loving activists as they welcome the Zionist aggressors aboard the Mavi Marmara.

PROVOCATION THREAD

Print ready

That amazing "own goal" - by Richard...

In the not too distant future, when the Cleggeron administration crashes and burns, one of the key stresses that will have brought it down will be the totally unforced error made by David Cameron in adopting the previous government's Afghan policy and thus locking himself in to an unwinnable war.

Quite how politically crass this move really is can be seen from two similar articles, one in The Daily Telegraph and the other in The Guardian. The theme is identified by the headline from the latter, which tells us: "Afghan police failings fuelling Taliban recruitment, say UK army chiefs," painting "a devastating picture of the corrupt and ill-disciplined local police force." 

What one has to appreciate is that the role of the Afghan police is absolutely pivotal to the success or otherwise of the current strategy. Not unless or until the police are able to take the load can we – according to the agreed doctrine – even think about withdrawal. But, not only do we have the British Army cast serious doubts about whether the force is at all capable, this comes on the back of the complaints by the US Forces in the New York Times earlier this week.

Then there is another piece, this one in the Washington Post, with a US commentary which notes: "Afghanistan Police: Still Corrupt After All These Years." The WAPO narrative runs as follows:

"The hardest nut for us to crack is to build faith in the institution of the police," said Haight, the regional commander. During home searches for weapons or insurgents, he said, Afghan police often "shake down the house like criminals." In terms of training and morale, he said, the police are about five years behind the army. "We have to show them what right behavior is, to secure the people instead of being corrupt and victimizing them," he said.

This in turn elicits the comment: "It's not unreasonable to wonder why, if the culture hasn't been amenable to change after years of intensive efforts, why it ever will." But the "killer point" here is the date – 8 March 2009. More than a year ago, exactly the same things were being said that are being aired right now.

In the current Guardian piece, we get Brigadier James Cowan, commander of 11 Brigade stating that the police are "most often cited as why there is a problem and why people joined the Taliban", the problem being compounded by Taliban propaganda. Taliban fighters wore Afghan police uniforms as they stole money and possessions from innocent people at checkpoints.

Afghan security forces appear in many ways to be as much part of the problem as the solution, Cowan says, and his comments are echoed by Lt-Col Roly Walker, commander 1 Bn Grenadier Guards, with an added twist. He says the Taliban exploited grievances to "incite insurrection" but then adds that the Taliban are not the biggest obstacle to success. Rather they are "consequences of much deeper social and political grievances".

And that is very much the case, all of which stacks up to the fact that Cameron has indeed shackled himself to a policy that cannot succeed, no matter how much resource he throws at it or political capital he invests in it. If he is going through the motions, despite having told parliament (and through that the nation) that he would fully support the military, then he has the worst of all possible worlds – a failed policy for which he has accepted full responsibility.

You don't get much more crass than that. Yet, bizarrely, the Tory Boy Blog believes this is an achievement. You can see how the Tories managed to win the election so convincingly. 

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

Suicide activists - by Richard... Thursday, June 03, 2010

The "new" tactic – trading lives for publicity against Israel. And the Western media is in the market ... although the truth is beginning to emerge, even in the British media .

PROVOCATIVE THREAD

Print ready

Not drowning but waving - by Richard...

"Pacific islands 'growing not shrinking' due to climate change," headlines The Daily Telegraph, one of several media outlets to carry the story of a new study that has revealed significant growth in coral island chains. 

Some islands, it appears, have grown by almost one-third over the past 60 years. Among the island chains to have increased in land area are Tuvalu and neighbouring Kiribati, both of which attracted attention at last year's Copenhagen climate summit. 

These have been very much the "poster child" for the warmists, and the subject of numerous stunts, not least the holding of an underwater cabinet meeting last year (see video above) to highlight the threat from rising sea levels as a result of global warming.

Much to the discomfort of Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, seven islands in Tuvalu actually grew, one by 30 percent. In Kiribati, the three of the most densely populated islands, Betio, Bairiki and Nanikai, also grew by between 12.5 and 30 percent.

Professor Paul Kench, of Auckland University, co-author of the study with Dr Arthur Webb, a Fiji-based expert on coastal processes, said the study challenged the view that the islands were sinking as a result of global warming. "Eighty per cent of the islands we've looked at have either remained about the same or, in fact, got larger. Some have got dramatically larger," he says.

If there was any justice, the Nasheeds of this world, who have been making a living out of milking concern for global warming, are now going to have find something else to bring in the cash. All that crap about "drowning" was, it seems, only waving. But then, we already knew that.

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

Those "peace" activists - by Richard...

From the security cameras aboard the Mavi Marmara: the passengers of the Gaza flotilla are seen here preparing for confrontation with the IDF. They put on gas masks and arm themselves with rods, slingshots, broken bottles, metal objects, and water hoses. As the IDF approaches the ship they attack the forces by hurling these objects at them.

PROVOCATIVE THREAD