Do you want stars with that?

Highly embarrasing, but somewhat telling error in Malta where the Commission started hading out a new version of the Maltese flag.

The EU Representative Office in Malta has issued an explanation after small Maltese flags handed out at a public event at City Gate did not feature the George Cross but the eight-pointed Maltese cross superimposed on a George Cross outline.

The small plastic flags were being handed out as part of a road show on citizens' rights, called "European citizenship: not just words, but also concrete rights!", organised by the European Commission in Malta.

The George Cross was awarded for extreme courage and resilience and should not be downgraded. It appears that the Commission are a little embarrased,

"The Commission was in no way trying to insult the Maltese flag and any indignation this incident might have caused is greatly regretted. The organisation of this event had to serve the purpose of informing as many people as possible of their rights as EU citizens something which was still achieved despite the incident," the Representation said.

Their rights to be ridden over roughshod (think shooting) and have their ioconography and identity downgraded it seems.

So if you see a subtle alteration of the Union flag, then you will know where it comes from.

Farages reprimand stands

So Farage went to see Jerzy Buzek this afternoon, to have his hand slapped after his speech

Jerzy Buzek, the parliament’s president, has summoned Mr Farage for a meeting
where he will be told to “restrain his language and refrain from making improper
comments in the chamber” or face disciplinary action.

The meetig took place and went something like this.

NF: "So, what is my punishment?"
JB: "There will be no punishment but my reprimand stands"
NF: "What was wrong with my speech?"
JB. "We didn't like the tone".
NF: (trying to stifle a laugh) "You didn't like the tone!"
JB: "And the language"
NF: "The language?"
JB: "You shouldn't have called them (Cathy Ashton and Herbert Van Rompuy)
pygmies".
NF: "Well they are hardly giants are they?"

So Farge can make th implication that Baroness Ashton was in her past implicated in a Soviet attempt to subvert British democracy, but he cannot describe the appointment of the Belgian and her as political pygmies. I am sure they would have been even more upset if he had called them dwarves.

What he should have said is that they "failed to acttain the sufficient political stature".

Oh boy. So it seems that Pygmy is now classified as "unparliamentary language" in Strasbourg and Brussels.

I wonder how our vertically challanged Speaker would rule on the subject?

Two videos that say much of our new system of Governance

The next one follows on and shows an attempt to slap Farage down from the chair. I think Buzek believes that Farage uses unparliamentarily language. But he doesn't. What bothers Buzek is unparliamentarily thoughts.

"Near where the chartered Thames does flow"...

stands the Speaker's House. From within we hear the untuous sub-Sinden tones of the Speaker himself.

And boy does he want evereything to be centralling controlled.

Next up applications to stand for political parties. According to the Independent,

"Political parties are to be forced to declare how many women, ethnic minority and disabled applicants they reject as potential parliamentary candidates under cross-party plans backed by Commons Speaker John Bercow. "

"To monitor progress properly requires data from all stages of the selection process, from the initial call for applicants to the final outcome," it said in its report. "Otherwise we will only ever know about the individuals who are successful."

Anne Begg, the vice-chairman of the Conference, said: "Unless the performance of the different parties can be compared with each other, or with the performance of parties throughout the world, there is likely to be insufficient pressure for the political parties to pursue the cultural change which is needed from them before we can have a House of Commons fit for the 21st century."

Which is all very well if you come from a political establishment that centrally controls applications for seats. If you come from say, The Tory Party, or the Labour Party or indeed the Lib Dems. For those parties that impose candidates upon their associations then this would be a mere matter of flicking a switch, but for those who allow local asociations the right to decide who stands for them then this is an absurdity.

It is also open to abuse by rights activists, who apply, whether capable or suitable or not, and them denounce the party that they have targetted. To make a plan like this fair the entire selection procedures, all cv's, all memberships, all the committees would have to be on some government held record, would have to be open to the public.

What if a party fails to attract sufficient one legged Asian women, what sanctions is the political cross-dresser and dwarf Mr Bercow going to take?

And is this plan entirely legal, can a party - which is not a public body may I make clear, bve forced to hand over that sort of information. Will it include religious denomination? And in the end so what. Pedople vote for parties on the candidates they put up and the policies they present, and indeed whether they trust them.

They do ot vote for them on the candidates they don't put up.

If you want to vote for a party that is compromised of short types with slightly too large heads - blown up with their self importance, than fine if you live in Buckingham, you too can vote for John Bercow.

Should the Commons sit through the summer

Just a thought on the Guardian's reporting of the Tory proposal to have the House of Commons sitting through August next year. A proposal welcomed by Con Home amongst others.

If these could be described as the 'Re-Peal Sessions' then yes there is value in the idea.
But, but are you sure that you want a bunch of politicians spending even more time coming up with legislation?

Hundreds of politcians all trying to make a name for themselves. It is said that the worst thing that happened to US politics was the invention of air conditioning. It meant that the Congress and Senate could sit during the summer, allowing politicians to spend more time devising ways to interfer in the lives of citizens.

My concern is that this proposal has the same drawback as American air conditioning. It could be another case of being careful of what you wish for.

It must be an awful lot.

Bob Spink asked a pertinant question of the Home Office a couple of days ago,

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what grants his Department made to charitable organisations in each of the last five years.

The Minister's answer is rather chilling,

Mr. Woolas: The Department's funding of charities can not be provided, without incurring disproportionate cost.

Note that this is just for one department, and they are not prepared to admit to the level of government involvement in the so called third sector. Across government as a whole the numbers must be astonomic.

So not only are they corrupt themselves, but this points to a wholesale corruption of the voluntary or NGO sector, or as I prefer to call them the Para-Governmental sector

EU Foriegn Minister: The only way to do the job would be by breaking the law

Well that has never stopped them before. After all the Commissioners are currently on pretty dicey legal ground now.

Anyhow, according to the EU Observer this new post will be a little difficult,

"Although the Lisbon Treaty does not mention the possibility of having a deputy, and the legal service of the council, representing member states, says it would be illegal, delegating parts of the job to others is likely to be the only way to manage it."

Back to the dark ages

Some Maori bones are being given back to New Zealand by the Museum of Cardiff today.

From what they were it seems that they were collected for scientific study, rather than as pure trophies as was so much of our national museum (particularly ethnographical) collections stock. The rights and wrongs of this particular exchange does not concern me greatly. They had never been on display, and nobody seems to know if they had ever been studied which suggests not.

However the comments by Mike Houlihan the Director General of the Museum of Wales sent shivers down my spine,

"Science may have been the reason human remains were brought to the museum, but that's not as important as the human spirit or honouring and respecting ancestors."

Science is not more important than what! Surely science is in many ways the human spirit distilled. To honour our ancesters by standing on their shoulders, to learn and understand more about ourselves and the earth and the unviverse is, to me and anybody of a rational disposition the very epitome of the human spirit. To pander to emotionalism like this creates a real threat to our rationalist heritage.

Not least as the chap is also Chairman of the British chapter of the International Council Of Museums.

What are ID cards for?

Well according to today's announcement from the Home Office,

"2. The National Identity Service will deliver recognisable benefits to residents, businesses and local authorities. They include:

• a universal and simple proof of identity that brings convenience for organisations and individuals and means an end to the use of photocopied bank statements, phone
bills and birth certificates;

• ensuring that foreign nationals living, working and studying here legally are able to easily prove their identity and prevent those here illegally from benefiting from the privileges of Britain; and

• travel in Europe, using the identity card which fits in a wallet or purse.

The Minister states that it will help "entering a nightclub". I just wonder if she is so ugly that the style police won't let her in?

But £250,000 a day for this. ID cards were in the past going to protect us from terrorism, next week we will be told that they can help us to knit and ride out bikes.

They are wrong, in practice, in principle and economics. They are threatening to liberty and they and the databse state that they reveal are something that all of us should oppose.

Ancona is barking over Barking

Mathew d'Ancona is badly wrong when he calls for the three main parties to "collaborate and field a single candidate to ensure that Griffin is defeated comprehensively and definitively".

Utterly nuts.

An object lesson in how to play into the hands of the BNP. Again we would see the sight of the political establishment closing ranks against the BNP. All well and good, but of course this allows Griffin and his supporters to (accurately?) portray themselves as victimised by an establishment that doesn't care about the white working class.

All parties must work the patch hard, they must explain why they are relevant, and what they will do to deal with mass immigration, poor schools, disasterous housing, and dire crime rates. Then and only then will the BNP threat subside.

Not by gangimg up against him and allowing him to portray himself as a villain.

Who'se a naughty Europe Minister?

In a piece of rather splendid timing, just weeks before Spain takes over the EU Presidency we discover that Diego Lopez Garrido is up for fraud.

Madrid - Spain's secretary of state for Europe is to be questioned by a judge over allegations he misappropriated public funds, just weeks before Madrid takes over the EU presidency, judicial sources said Friday.

The judge ruled admissible a complaint by a conservative law centre that Diego Lopez Garrido granted tens of thousands of euros of government aid to the Alternatives Foundation, a think-tank close to the ruling Socialist Party and which he used to head.

He has met up with Chris Bryant our internet model come Europe Minister. What with our expenses scandal they will no doubt have much to talk about.

But if they had it would be less damaging than what the did talk about. It appears that they

joined to discuss the UK’s Climate Change Act and how similar policies may be introduced in other European countries.

PC Garnett must have been born in Spain

Following the discovery that Spanish authorities are teaching people to be wankers, comes the realisation that we don't need that sort of training here at home. We have enough of them already. Take PC Garnett of Reigate nick. He has no doubt passed the course cum laude. I hand you over to the Surrey Advertiser, I do so in full so you can appreciate the full horror of the story, and how much of an onanist PC Garnett, and his backers are.

"A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: "I didn't think for one moment I
would be arrested. "I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the
streets."

The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.

In his statement, he said: "I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.
"I didn't know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.

"At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall."

Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at
Reigate police station, and taken to the cells.

Defending, Lionel Blackman told the jury Mr Clarke's garden backs onto a public green field, and his garden wall is significantly lower than his neighbours. He also showed jurors a leaflet printed by Surrey Police explaining to citizens what they can do at a police station, which included "reporting found firearms".

Quizzing officer Garnett, who arrested Mr Clarke, he asked: "Are you aware of any notice issued by Surrey Police, or any publicity given to, telling citizens that if they find a firearm the only thing they should do is not touch it, report it by telephone,
and not take it into a police station?"

To which, Mr Garnett replied: "No, I don't believe so."

Prosecuting, Brian Stalk, explained to the jury that possession of a firearm was a "strict liability" charge – therefore Mr Clarke's allegedly honest intent was irrelevant.

Just by having the gun in his possession he was guilty of the charge, and has no defence in law against it, he added.

But despite this, Mr Blackman urged members of the jury to consider how they would respond if they found a gun.

He said: "This is a very small case with a very big principle. You could be walking to a railway station on the way to work and find a firearm in a bin in the park.

"Is it unreasonable to take it to the police station?"

Paul Clarke will be sentenced on December 11.

Judge Christopher Critchlow said: "This is an unusual case, but in law there is no dispute that Mr Clarke has no defence to this charge.

"The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant"

Where to start?
Well obviously to arrest him was stupid, maybe PC Garnett might have considered saying to Mr Clarke something along the lines of, say,
"Thanks for bringing this in, best check it for fingerprints and the like, it might well have been used by local nere-do-wells and could lead us to the arrest of a criminal hoodlum or two. I joined the police to protect public spirited chaps like you from the ruffians who previously owned this piece".
Then the Judge might have advised the jury that though the law was strict they, the jury, were in their rights as an English jury to overturn a stupid law. So might his defence council for that matter. Because if they cannot what is the point of them?

Then the jury itself might have had some gumption.

Come on, the good people of Guildford, Reigate and Merstham, get down to Guildford High Court on December 11th and stop this travesty of justice taking place. Mr Clarke could have used this gun in a robbery and he would almost get less time.

HT Dick Puddlecote

They don't need training surely?

Extroadinary tale of official waste, but this time from Spain. The good bureacrats of the Extra Madura have alighted upon a percieved lack of skills amongst their people. And for every lack of skills there must be a training course,

"The region's socialist government has launched a €14,000 (£12,600) campaign
aimed at teaching young people how best to set about "sexual self-exploration and the discovery of self-pleasure".

Yes they are teaching themselves to be wankers.

"The campaign includes leaflets, flyers, a "fanzine" and workshops for the young in which they receive instruction on self-pleasuring techniques..."

Workshops!
Anyhow, just set someone off to dscover if this is part funded by you, the EU taxpayer. If it is, then the story rather writes itself, but not in a family newspaper.

What to say?