On the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother
Recent Events in the House of Lords
Legal Affairs (sentencing policy)
Sexual Tension
Dying for Drugs (it's a very sick World)
Contemporary Troubles and the Jacobite claim to the Throne
Developing the Nuclear issue 01/06/06

Forest crime files
April 10 2002

UK Government fuelling the destruction of Africa’s Forest of the Great Apes

The Cabinet Office refurbishment project was raided by Greenpeace today, it is using more than £400,000 worth of sapele from Central and West Africa for doors and windows. Greenpeace has uncovered a chain of supply that ultimately links the UK Cabinet Office to a number of the most notorious international logging companies operating in Africa’s last ancient forests, all with records of unsustainable, destructive and illegal logging.(So much for ethical Tony and the social conscience of our hard drinking fast living Government!) It hardly needs to be added that ecological infractions are widespread and that the Government doesn't give a sh*t about anyone's forest unless there is a reporter on hand to provide them with undeserved publicity about their non existent green policy.

The Monarchy and the State of the Nation

The Queen today 30/04/02, renewed her pledge to serve the Nation in an address to both Houses of Parliament. Given the extent of corruption and self interested abuse of power rife and untrammeled in a Country where the Judicial system was once the most respected in the World, I'm glad to know that such important dignitaries find the question of service to others as having some kind of moral significance. Perhaps we are going to witness a change from the usual round of social engagements and ogling of young Guardsmen on parade ; there are plenty of run down Comprehensive Schools in East London (and elsewhere) who would be glad no doubt of the opportunity to put to good use the Monarch's excellent command of German for example, in teaching the children from deprived and run down areas of our inner Cities. The insights into ordinary lives could thus gathered form the basis of an invaluable course of re-education for Prince Phillip who is known to have or has at least been persuaded that he has a poor grasp of what it is advisable to say to the media about the lives of the hoi polloi.

On the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother

My impulse is to say, despite the charade of the nauseating flattery evidenced by so many schoolchildren upon the death of the Queen Mother, most of whom had quite likely never heard of her until the media furore had invaded the TV screen, for which there must be good reason, that I personally have not met any member of the Royal Family and offhand can conceive of little reason why so many civic notables who usually curse such preeminent members of society quite fully when representatives of the media are not present, should be falling over themselves in an effort to entertain someone who could hardly be in less need of hospitality of any sort.

No Royalist has done anything for me and as far as I am concerned the country is in an appalling state with corruption, nepotism, violence and endless questionable courtroom scenes being about all the civic life that is to be found whilst politicians talk about their non existent democracy, and to be honest I can see little reason for any kind of smug complacency about the realities of the inherent dangers of indulging in hero worship of individuals as responsible for the parlous state of the world today as the British Royal Family is. If you ask me the late Queen Mother had following the death of her daughter Margaret, expired from sheer boredom at the thought of much further existence with her elder sibling's dreadful boring sycophantic voice droning away and completely unmindful of the circumstances of her fun loving Uncle's abdication.

I find it at least approaching the outrageous that the death of the vivacious Princess Margaret can have occasioned so little healthy debate about the role of the institution of monarchy and so much blandly insincere fawning on those who like the Queen Mother were keen enough to see their in laws deposed or abdicating for contemplating marriage to a divorcee whilst conveniently overlooking it in her Nieces and Nephews. Neither have we had any input into the question of how this led to the fifty year reign of a Queen whose undeserving and inability has in this nation all too arguably fostered an almost unnatural conservatism and an unwillingnes to think about the challenges of the coming century. It hardly needs saying that in a society racked by so much distrust and too many evident shortcomings this is not the way to provide realistic solutions to short and medium term problems: I refer to the fact for example of the matter of a succession of hapless Junior Ministers being consistently blamed for a failure to end the troubles in Ulster. My opinion for what it is worth is that we? British ought to bite the bullet in this respect and admit that eg the hereditary title of King should be consigned to the history books along with those of Dauphin and Kaiser. The arguments that have consistently been advanced for the retention of such a thing are I feel largely irrelevant at best nowadays and I really feel that justice would be served if our cowardly Greek looking Prince were relieved of the responsiblity for holding such a title and attempting to be the nation's premier role model: I really don't think that the nation can afford the brewing civil war between Windsorians and non Windsorians in respect of which I should point out that Newspaper editors have for example been remarkably quiet about the amount of homicides perpertrated by supporters of the ruling family amongst army recruits in particular since the Chinook Crash and the death of the Princess of Wales, which ensued whilst a certain Provincial Police force have been lying about some of the circumstances of the former mishap.

Recent Events in the House of Lords

AUG 2002
If anyone needed any evidence that there was in fact any sense in at least the semblance or pretence of an attack on the institutions of privilege that once formed part of this government's ideological identity along with it's ethical foreign policy, it so happens to be the case that the Daily Telegraph this month published details of how a whole raft of ecological measures passed quite democratically by the lower house has been thrown out of the Lords at the instigation of certain members, blatantly bloodsucking financial incentives from the Industries and Organisations that would have been adversely affected by the new legislation which would have, amongst other things set up a number of additional wildlife sanctuaries around our coasts for everyone's long term benefit.

We are often sold the Monarchy and the House of Lords by interested parties feigning to be traditionalists upholding noble values who tell us that our unwritten Constitution allows for a system of 'checks and balances' to be imposed on the will of the people, probably because they are too easily misled by 'dumbing down' newspaper magnates, a point of view which does have some validity but could more easily be effected by requiring those wishing to vote to pass an intelligence test insofar as I personally don't see why those who obviously don't know enough to have an opinion worth listening to should be part of the decision making process. In this case however it is all too clearly the case that far from having any kind of altruistic interest in the ignorance of their social inferiors, that the only sort of checks and balances that the peers are really interested in would in the first instance be correctly spelt cheques, and in the second instance are bank accounts held in a good credit 'balance' and accruing interest.

Legal Affairs (sentencing policy)


10 / 01 / 03

Today's awful event of a young tearaway driver facing a maximum ten year sentence for a second killing (this time of the most innocent imaginable six year old) only two months after having been freed for the first, and the public outcry over the philosophy and rationale behind sentencing at a time when reaction to various crime stories especially with war looming, raises a number of question marks about the way that those in power and authority spend their time: not least in view of the fact of the considerable amount of attention having been spent on the Cannabis issue of late not the least of which is the decision to increase sentences whilst apparently downgrading the offence by meaninglessly placing it in another category. I'm afraid Mr Blair and Co. will have to do more to convince me that their Art of Government, or should I say Art in government, has very good reasons for resembling something other than a quaint and badly rehearsed theatrical children's rendition of the Wizard of Oz before I will consider wasting my time casting a vote for such mendacious characters.

I'm not quite certain as to exactly what chicanery Mr Bliar is seeking to concoct with this completely meaningless debate but perhaps I am better informed than the average character in today's Britain in that for my money the only single worthwhile conclusion that has evolved from recent debate on the drugs issue for example is that the Government simply does not have the ability to persecute millions of people who are good naturedly minding their own business and that the attempt to persecute Cannabis users or users of soft drugs over the last few decades has bene one of the most damaging disingenuous experiments in social engineering that Western European Society has ever inflicted on itself. Presumably Mr Bliar has some kind of manipulation of conservative audiences in mind with the promotion of this debate, which is to many quite obviously a complete waste of everyone's resources as it has been concluded eg (especially by themselves) that any attempt to use the Police force to persecute such persons is a logistical impossibilty. I would also wager that what is really happening behind the scenes is that the question of drug prohibition in general is breaking down and that the Government is increasingly having to resort to lies and propoganda as the machinery for monitoring an escalating black market is in fact breaking down and that Police Officers are having to use their commonsense whilst waiting vainly for sensible legislation from people who are far too busy pretending democracy and profitably sucking up to the Windsors to be able to construct anything of the sort. In any case the event serves as an unmentionably shocking reminder of the potential disregard for others so commonplace in the unashamedly self seeking world of the 20th century: I honestly wish I hadn't had the profound displeasure to acquire this particular piece of news information and I'm certain that this is one of those sad occasions when the entire human race must surely be unanimous in commiserating with the family in their most unfortunate and profound distress.

Sexual Tension

I've simply got to include the gist of an article which appeared in the Ipswich Evening Star on Friday April 18th though it refers to an incident at the Castle Pub, Ketts Hill, Norwich.

Apparently a male customer was asked to leave after chatting up Lesbian drinkers in what he may or may not have realised was a 'gay pub.' He returned with a machete and smashed up the windows from outside after staff had locked the door, then put his head through a broken window saying "I am going to kill you," then disappeared and has yet to be caught.

I hope I'm not the only person who can see the funny side of this: I have long been a critic of the holier than thou airs of many members of the pink fraternity who imagine they have some moral basis to regard themselves as superior to ordinary people. Whilst I don't condone violence or threats in any circumstance I have to admit I practically laughed myself into a stroke when I read this particular story. For people who often claim to suffer from insensitivity and prejudice the tale is an exemplar of the fact that prejudice is prejudice whoever practises it and that we should all practise toleration of others' views. I think it is a particularly dangerous practise to allow some people more rights than others on any pretext and the handful of Gays I have known in my provincial world have had far too much help in effectively terrorising others whilst feigning an innocuous non violent disposition.

Dying for Drugs (it's a very sick World)

If anyone needed any evidence that the World we live in is rotten to the core and that evil is real, alive, well and flourishing in our so called liberal democracies, the Channel Four Programme Dying for Drugs screened at 20:30 GMT on Sunday April 27th 2004 will have dispelled quite a few illusions about the ethical policy of western civilisation and opened many eyes as to just quite how low one human being will descend in order to exploit another.

I can only hope that the family of the young boy whose death from preventable AIDs related illness was filmed, will derive some tiny crumb of comfort from the humiliation of such an event as begging fruitlessly to TV cameras for the money to pay American investors for drugs they won't give away cheaply to save the lives of desperate individuals in that it is likely to shame those who talk casually of legitimate investment returns. I found the programme shocking and chastening even though I had some idea of what was going to be screened, the sight of the family desperately worrying about their doomed skeletal son and trying to appease his death throes with Spider Man videos made me feel absolutely disgusted, ashamed to be living myself, ashamed of the human race and nauseated at the wolfish morality of so called Christian nations who have just lately been trumpeting their values around the region of the middle east.

Have we really endured so many numerous millenia of progress: the wheel; the pen; the Industrial Revolution; permisive society; the space age; so that we can try screwing money for medicine out of desperately indigent peoples in this utterly shameless manner? Right up to the point of watching impassively whilst an effective death sentence is pronounced to protect profits: I wanted to believe ti was a joke or a hoax and that people really wouldn't do such a shocking thing. I still cannot quite believe that what I witnessed was true and that anyone could ever possibly wish to be asociated with a Nation or a Company that could prevent such things and did not: what greater reward can there be than the gratitude of such simple ordinary people for the life of their child.

I am absolutely at a loss to find words to describe the disgust and contempt I feel for people who would refuse to save another life because of money; all this business about people needing financial incentive and profit is just so much sh*te. I suppose that most who saw the documentary realised that watching Spider Man videos was about the high point of that Kid's what, six seven year life span and he was actually grateful for them: I hope this made a lot of Americans happy. I simply cannot comprehend the vile iniquity that makes people seek to profit from this sort of misfortune and wonder if they call it caring conservatism in the US? Or whether anyone trying to duplicate these expensive medicines without an expensive licence will be labaelled a 'terrorist' like anyone who dares to challenge US Imperialism in a military sense, or are they merely thieves?

Contemporary Troubles and the Jacobite claim to the Throne

I thought I'd throw this one in and not just for interest value: we do live in troubled times for all the wealth that is walking in the World (at least this part of it) and replacing the Royal family with for instance a few Jacobites who have been given a brief of sorts to be elaborated upon is but one option that could be considered for a slimmed down monarchy as the new Millenium tries to get underway: I'm sure there are plenty of European Aristocrats who could make a decent or better Job of consulting with and advising Mr Bliar on the interests of the inhabitants of the British Isles than the present incumbent of the throne.

James 2 had a Son called James Edward Stuart (the old pretender) whose son was called Charles Edward Stuart (the young pretender) who passed the right of succession to the Stuart claim to the throne onto his brother when he died in 1788. Cardinal Henry agreed to pass the claim onto Charles Emmanuel 4th of the house of Savoy who was a great great grandson of James 2's sister Henrietta. His brother Victor had a daughter called Mary Beatrice who married into the house of Habsburg Lorraine, her grandaughter married into the Bavarian Wittelsbachs who still use the title of Duke, and the present holder would be the King of England by hereditary or divine right if you will, at least according to eg the Will of Elizabeth the first! I mean, it isn't as if a very strong argument hasn't emerged given so much publcity about the death of Diana and the fact that (or so it has been alleged) that post hanoverian dynasty British army intructors have killed many times more soldiers than the IRA since the latest round of the troubles erupted. If I could find much enthusiasm for the stability of the nation I'd really love to introduce Wills and Harry to a couple of wonderful Anglo Irish girls of suitable dimensions but I'm afraid I really haven't the time to search for such an ideal and amazing pair.

Music
I see Dolores O Riordan of the Cranberries has been having strange trouble with childminders. Well Dolores we all need to understand just how difficult it is to bring up children, here's hoping you get over it soon and happy warbling!

Developing the Nuclear issue

I'm afraid I'm appalled to find so much careless encouragement of the Nuclear Power programme in the Papers recently. To my mind there's never been enough justification for creating the kind of risks that any nuclear technology inevitably entails and I have always said so quite categorically. Surely people don't imagine that events like Chernobyl can only occur in countries which have been safely demonised by by a docile well fed Fleet Street. I'm personally quite disgusted to find that politicians can concurr so readily in an energy policy that can so easily be viewed as a political expedient when the acquisition of cheap green renewable energy as the phrase now has it for the harnessing of natural forces like wind and waves to generate Electricity is so obviously one of the few real major identifiable challenges for the political establishment of our time and it's failure to address this all too clearly underlines much of what I have had to say elsewhere about the meaninglessness of Windsorian-Blairism and abuse of the political will in the name of a Democracy which is effectively supervised by probably less than about a dozen media barons.

Instead of so many cute little rationalisations about how supremely destructive elemental forces can be safely manipulated I think we should hear a litle more about the other side of the argument and the increasingly respectable seeming viewpoint of those who have opposed their development including for example the fact which might not be widely known that Germany has abolished Nuclear Power. I'm very concerned that Mr Blair will try and sneak this through whilst palming us off with stories about his Deputy surrendering perquisites which he clearly shouldn't have had in the first place if half what he says is to be believed. I do think the question of energy generation inthe long term would be best addressed by serious and large scale works to encourage solar panelling to be a more standard fitment in new houses and a much more tough no nonsense attitude toward getting such innovations used for everyone's benefit and such a domestic programme really needs to be accompanied by a renewed drive for meaningful international co-operation in the development of such resources. It really is a glaring illustration of various appalling inadeaquacies for which these characters can reasonably be blamed, that poor folks who have heard so much about what the biggest parliamentary majority in a hundred and fifty odd years is supposed to mean for them, that it is specifically the political will that should seem to be so remarkable by it's absence in so serious a matter that is so clearly the task of the political establishment to deal with.