Local government: confusion over cuts

by Richard North
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=84042

Local government: confusion over cuts

Councils in Britain are responsible for £114 billion of taxpayers’ money – more than double the defence budget – says the Daily Express, then going on to complain about “waste” and “perks” amounting perhaps to several hundred million, as recorded by a Channel 4 Dispatches programme.

Brief Thoughts on the Modern British Class System: An Old Tory Writes

by Edward Frostick

Contrary to some opinions, I don’t believe there’s anything wrong, or ever has been, with the traditional working class.

The underclass is something different. There’s a lefty book called ‘Chavs: the demonization of the working class’, which is an insult to the working class. By definition, chavs aren’t working class, no matter how much the Left like to pretend they are. They’re underclass; and more often than not, unemployable underclass.

Water: what can they have been thinking?

by Richard North
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=84035

Water: what can they have been thinking?

Even if they had sought to do this deliberately, I don’t think it could have been possible for the establishment to deliver a more graphic and insulting “two fingers” to the British people.

Public Enemy Number One: The Public

by Kevin Carson
http://c4ss.org/content/19761
Public Enemy Number One: The Public

It’s important, when listening to the official shapers of opinion in the media, to ask ourselves what they really mean by the words they use. As Orwell pointed out in “Politics and the English Language,” those in power use language to obscure meaning more often than to convey it.

A good example is the recurrence of phrases like “endangered our national security” and “aided the enemy,” from people like Eric Holder, Peter King and Lindsey Graham, in reference to leaks by people like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. Now, they certainly intend to evoke certain associations in the minds of listeners with their word choices. If you’re not careful, you may find yourself responding in just the way the users intend — allowing their words to conjure up in your mind homes, families, neighbors, churches, a whole way of life, threatened with invasion and destruction by a nameless, faceless enemy — in the words of Orwell’s Two-Minute Hate, “the dark armies … barbarians whose only honour is atrocity.”

Do not view this unless you are over the age of 18 and have a strong stomach – or unless you are William Hague

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/06/10/syrian-jihadist-rebels-did-this-to-a-15-year-old-boy-yet-senator-john-mccain-wants-to-send-our-military-to-help-them/

I’ve been dithering about whether to post this. It is a most unpleasant picture, and I have no doubt it is of a genuine atrocity. Also, I accept that, in any civil conflict, both sides will tell lies. I have no doubt that I am giving access to an atrocity photograph. But I can have no certainty who committed the atrocity. Do not click on the link given above if you are likely to be upset by an image of violent and horrifying death.

This being said, the British Government is among the coalition of troublemakers that is committed to escalating the civil war in Syria, by supplying weapons and other support to men who seem to be bloody savages, and who might, without the assistance already given, have been defeated by now. They seem to have targeted Christians in their campaign of atrocity, and they seem to have among their objectives the destruction of a fairly secular order of things in at least the main cities of the country.

Why is the British Government so keen to support these evil men? Why is it on the brink of pledging our tax money and our moral responsibility for further atrocities of this kind? It is not enough to say that the current government in Syria is a tyranny. The world is full of tyrannies that the British Government either ignores or supports. And most tyrannical governments, unless they are also run by ideologues or lunatics, limit the number of their atrocities unless they are attacked.

We need answers from William Hague that go far beyond the bland propaganda he has been mouthing – mouthing in full knowledge of what he helped to bring about in Libya. SIG

A Reassuring Message from FaceBook

by Mark Zuckerberg
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10100828955847631

Note the use here of adjectives and adverbs: “direct,” “blanket,” “carefully,” etc, etc. I take it for granted that every electronic communication I send may be read by some agent of the Secret State. I also take it for granted that Mr Zuckerberg knows which side his bread is buttered. SIG

Emma West and the State – The State has its way (sort of)

by Robert Henderson

Emma West has finally been worn down. Eighteen months after she was charged with racially aggravated intentional harassment and racially aggravated assault , she has agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress with the original charges being dropped (http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/EXCLUSIVE-Emma-West-pleads-guilty-racially/story-19182717-detail/story.html#axzz2VKmkpyXr).  The lesser charge does not,  unlike the original charge,  mention  intent and is unlikely to result in a prison sentence.

Somebody Might Get Hurt

Kevin Carson
http://c4ss.org/content/19461
Somebody Might Get Hurt

Every once in a while I’m inspired to write a column by looking through my feeds and stumbling across two items that dovetail together so well the column almost writes itself. This is one of those times.

There are several hard realities that most liberals — as opposed to those of us on the genuine Left — are constitutionally unable to admit into their “Why Mommy is a Democrat” view of the world. Among them are the following: First, any legislation they reflexively pass pursuant to a moral panic over people getting hurt will also result in people getting hurt. Second, the kind of society they desire can only be achieved through the large-scale, lawless exercise of power by the state. And third, the state is inevitably run by the kinds of people who enjoy exercising such power.

Emma West in Court Today – 23rd May 2013

According to “Jeff Bean,” posting to some of the comments sections of this Blog: “I have just seen Croydon Crown court listings and it shows 23rd May 2013 Emma Louise West is appearing now. She has well and truly been slipped under the radar.”

I’ve just checked the listings too. Though I can’t find a permanent url for linking, the name certainly appears. She was in Court 4. Whether she will be there again tomorrow I’m not able to say.

Talkin’-’bout my Generation

David Davis

In the late afternoons of our lives, various thoughts occur. I had a cyberchat with my colleague, the Dear Leader of the Libertarian Alliance, Dr Sean Gabb, at some indeterminate time overnight last night. We both agreed on some things:-

Very Brief Reflections on Welfarism

Sean Gabb

My women and I spent yesterday with some friends who live in South East London. They gave us chapter and verse on a thoroughly dispiriting symbiosis of financially corrupt bureaucrats and quasi-bureaucrats and an underclass almost too radically degraded to count as human. To do justice to what I heard would take a long essay that I don’t currently have time to write. But I will give the instance I heard of an illiterate youth admitted to a college. He was let in so the college could get funding for him. Because of his illiteracy, he was provided with a “reader” and a “scribe,” presumably at further cost to the taxpayers.

It’s clear that, even if seriously intended, the Government’s welfare reforms are misconceived. I suspect that the only answer, short of cancelling all welfare entitlements without exception, is something like this:

Save Your Freedom – Please Retweet!

by Anna Raccoon
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AnnaRaccoon/~3/EumMDBkP-kM/
Save Your Freedom – Please Retweet!

We need to ‘gird our loins’ and go to battle folks, I need your assistance on this one! Please retweet this post to anyone you think might pay attention, and kick into action those who you think will continue dozing. I know its easier to continue playing solitaire – but you could put your computer to better use this morning, trust me.

I shall explain.

A year ago, I wrote of a worrying case where Social Workers went to the High Court for permission to enter the home of a person of sound mind because ‘it was thought’ that possibly they were making decisions as a result of ‘undue influence’ by their son who lived with them. No one actually knew whether they were or not, but on the basis that they might be – such permission was granted. Fair enough, a judge had listened to the arguments from ‘a’ social worker – we are not allowed to know who – and a document was drawn up delineating what subjects the son was allowed to speak of to his parents in their own home…in particular, he should not discuss with his parents any arrangements for securing the family home. What happened to the home in which he and his parents lived was to be entirely a matter for the local authority to decide if and when they thought it should be sold…..presumably if and when the parents became vulnerable through mental incapacity.

Sean Gabb on the Horrors of Internet Pornography

The Beeb woke me at the crack of dawn to deal with these fatuous and endlessly-recycled lies about the tendency of porn to turn good men into sex-crazed zombies. Don’t be surprised if I sound as bored here as I felt. The most interesting thing for me about the interview was staring up at the contours of my bedroom ceiling.

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/2013-05-14-sig-porn.mp3

Everyone said “You can’t unseat the Political EnemyClass by voting them out. Well, I say: “it has never been tried before, and we shall have to see.”

David Davis

Clown or fruitcake?

(from Matt at the DT)

Today, for the first time a rather historically large number of British voters get to be able to elect, if they like, candidates for “Council Seats” (this to say in honest countries – “socialist Soviets”) from the United Kingdom Independence Party. Now, the Libertarian Alliance goes out of its way to be perennially nasty to all the parties extant in the UK, from time to time, and sometimes all at once. But it’s natural that a little more of our ire and frustration is reserved for those which are more truly socialist than others: for I at least can’t figure out how it might be possible to be what some people call themselves, which is “libertarian socialists” (yes I have heard that one) or even “left libertarians”, although that might just be possible.

This round of elections for regional soviets councils is notable for the frantic and public attempts by other parties, particularly the Tories, to make direct and sometimes ad-hominem attacks on the reputations and backgrounds of rather a lot of UKIP candidates. I’ve been watching British elections since 1959, more or less, and haven’t noticed any such thing on this scale ever before. If they occurred, such assaults tended to come from the socialist left.

The entire British political-class, ably egged on by the BBC, appears to have taken fright at the idea that, for once, letting people vote for who they’d like might actually change things, and not to that class’s liking. As I type, there are no results yet from vote-counting, but the morning may be interesting.

I want to continue by offering a libertarian-based policy position document for a party such as UKIP, were it to, let us say, win a majority in a regional soviet, or even a general election. But as rheumatoid arthritis is making my elbows increasingly non-functional tonight, typing is a little strenuous and exciting. So I’ll save that for a post in the next couple of days or so when the painkillers have kicked in.  Meanwhile, commenters might like to add their own suggestions.

 

(Incidentally, the headline owes a little credit to Air Marshall Arthur “Bomber” Harris”, who used a similar expression when someone suggested that “you can’t win a war by bombing the enemy alone”.)

Afghanistan: the Taliban sends a message

by Richard North
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83855

Note: I am minded of these lines from Kipling:

I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

The Usual Suspects v. Syria: WMD for We but not for Thee

by Thomas Knapp
http://c4ss.org/content/18619

Note: Of course, I’m against any war unless it’s for the most unambiguous reasons of self-defence against aggression – eg the Norman Invasion. What really gets on my tits nowadays, though, is the endless chorus of self-righteous lying that accompanies our attacks on foreign countries. Where weapons of mass-destruction are concerned, Topolčaný is about 300 miles up the Danube from Belgrade. Even so, my father-in-law told me how, in 1999, his tomato crop and those of all his neighbours turned to black slime. God knows what the RAF was dumping on the Serbs. SIG

Black People: A Marxist Clothing Accessory Writes

“We’re going to do for Negroes exactly what Negroes did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.”

“The Negro is indolent and a lazy; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving, which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself, even independently of his own individual aspirations.”

“The Negroes, those magnificent examples of the African race who have maintained their racial purity thanks to their lack of an affinity with bathing.”

“Given the prevailing lack of discipline, it would have been impossible to use Congolese machine-gunners to defend the base from air attack: they did not know how to handle their weapons and did not want to learn.”
                                                                                                       (Che Guevara, Diaries)

He also apparently had people shot for being homosexuals.

Any chance we’ll see fewer of those stupid shirts?

Libertarian Alliance Statement on an Earlier Defamation Act

From Free Life, Issue 26, December 1996
ISSN: 0260 5112

Defamation Act 1996
HMSO, London, 1996, 19pp, £4.30 (pbk)
(ISBN 0 10 543196 6)

This may loosely be called “the Hamilton Act”, as its most famous provision is the one allowing Neil Hamilton MP to continue his libel action against The Guardian. Before looking at this, however, we will examine the other, equally important, sections of the Act.

These are on the whole excellent. We believe that there should be no laws whatever against defamation. People should be free to publish whatever they like about each other; and public opinion should be the only arbiter of truth where any dispute arises. At the least, a plaintiff should be required to prove damage before winning a libel action; and perhaps should be required to prove malice as well. Certainly, the existing law gives no protection to those who cannot afford the £20,000 that the average libel action now costs, but serves mostly to protect rich or well-connected villains like Robert Maxwell, Jeremy Thorpe, and others whose names we currently dare not mention. There is no chance that our belief will ever be accepted by the rulers of this country. Even so, the present Act does reform the law in a more liberal direction.

The good is oft-interr-ed with their bones

David Davis

Since Margaret Thatcher is to be in-terr-ed tomorrow, I just thought we’d throw one last punch at her enemies and ours. I found this wonderful piece on The Last Ditch the other day, and one para deserves to be highlighted in our usual way:-

“If you want to know who freedom’s enemies are, mention her with approval. Mad eyes will light up all around you and foul sentiments will fill the air. Note their names and never leave them alone with anything you value; material, spiritual or ethical.”

Yes of course, I _know_ that we object to her having

(a) made the British State more efficient – as a recipe for disaster one would recommend this since the British-Political-Enemyclass is efficient already at making a powerful tyrannical state, and

(b) because she failed to absolutely destroy socialism at home and in the world, before members of that same EnemyClass destroyed her.

But I think that Tom Paine’s paragraph sums up who we are up against, whatever we as classical liberals think of Thatcher herself. I think we can lay her to rest now. May The Iron Lady Rust In Peace.

Guess Who?

by James Oliver Deckard

So let’s start by talking about someone who lives off the state and has little experience of the world of work you and I know.

He is 58 years old and has suckled upon the publicly-funded teat for most of his life.

He’s signed on the dole. He’s had four children and received child benefit for all of them. He has put them each through private school, too.

His wife hasn’t worked since they married, except for 15 months in which he got her a job paid by the taxpayer.

He and his colleagues eat and drink food you subsidise in a palace you pay for, he is driven around in a car you own, and when he is too old to ‘work’ any more you will pay for him to have a better pension than you, too.

He started out at the age of 21 with six years of taxpayer-funded military service, during which he acted as bag-carrier to a Major-General.

Then in 1981, aged 27, he left the Army and signed on the dole for several months.

He then began a period of ordinary work based upon the skills he had gained at the taxpayer’s expense, and worked in sales for arms dealer GEC-Marconi.

He then moved on to a property firm, where he was made redundant after six months, and then sold gun-related magazines for Jane’s Information Group.

After 11 years of this all-too brief career he succeeded in once again boarding the publicly-funded gravy train in 1992.

In the intervening 20 years he has been paid by the taxpayer every year more money than most taxpayers earn. He has topped it up, along the way, to more than six figures for a few years here and there by being more pompous than the other pigs.

In 2001 he helped his unemployed wife to have a suckle, arranging for you to pay her £15,000 to be his diary secretary.

These days he is given the grand total of £134,565 a year from the taxpayer.

He lives for free in a £2million Tudor farmhouse on his father-in-law’s ancestral estate in Buckinghamshire.