Thief Caught With Fish Hooks in Backside
"An unmistakeable sign that he had been inside the store was the presence of several fish hooks in his backside," police said. "Price tags from the damaged store were still attached to them."
There was a tremendous Hoo-haa at the kensington planning committee meeting last night over Lipki's antiques arcade in the Portabello Rd (In my Bailywick).
The Tory council in their greed have allowed a local developer to run roughshod over the planning rules, close a couple of hundred antiques stalls and turn it into a clothing megastore. Massive audience had to be accommodated in the Great Hall baying for blood. Screaming Antique dealing old queens burning their sequined Jockstraps. Mascarra running in the gutters.
We all had to be searched for bombs, IN KENSINGTON !! Apparently threats were made!!!!
National.VICTORY for any of the “old failed” main parties would be a disaster for Britain, the anti-European UK Independence Party said yesterday.
Unveiling a campaign poster featuring the faces of Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg under the slogan “Sod The Lot”, it urged voters to break the mould of British politics.
Mr Farage said the election campaign so far had been a 'piddling irrelevance' and the mainstream parties had not addressed the reality of the UK's economic problems.
He added: 'It really is time for some straight talking. We are skint. We need some massive cutbacks in the public sector.
'We can't have our own immigration and asylum policy if we remain members of this European Union.'
In its manifesto, Ukip promises an 'end to uncontrolled mass immigration'. Britain would leave the EU, and workers from within the Union would require work permits to enter the UK.
There would be an immediate five-year immigration freeze followed by a new stricter points-based system.
It reaffirms a plan to ban Muslim face coverings such as the burkha and pledges to 'scrap political correctness in public affairs'. The prison population - currently 84,000 - would be doubled.
The party's new poster features the faces of Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg alongside the slogan ''Sod The Lot''.
Ukip leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch said it was time for a new politics and argued that leaving the EU would save up to £120 billion a year - with no jobs or trade lost from Britain.
In Buckingham, the party’s best hope of a seat, the contest is just as baffling. With the main parties standing aside, Nigel Farage, UKIP’s former leader, is challenging the Speaker, John Bercow. While Mr Bercow is the firm favourite, Ladbrokes is offering 10/3 on Mr Farage.The Independent states,
“We see him as our only hope against John Bercow,” said Sue Moore, a 50-year-old IT sales manager. “It’s expenses; Bercow’s not a good ambassador for Buckingham. He flipped houses.” Ms Moore, who has previously voted Labour, says that only one thing might make her waver in her support for Mr Farage: “I’m very pro-Europe.”
Mr Farage hopes to exploit such oddities. “There’s a lot of confusion about the election here,” he said. “I’m in this campaign to say to people, ‘You can send an earthquake through British politics by toppling the man who is the symbol of the last
Parliament’.”
Lord Pearson argued that leaving the EU would save Britain £120bn a year, but that negotiating a Switzerland-style free trade deal would mean trade and jobs would be unaffected. The party that finished second in the European elections in June also plans to ban Muslim face coverings such as the burqa. Ukip pledged to grant local and national referendums supported by 5 per cent of the population. It also promised to end "uncontrolled mass immigration" with a five-year immigration freeze.Simon Carr has fun in his sketch,
John Bercow is to be banned from all public buildings in Britain. Brilliant! A bit un-British, but a bold stroke in the Ukip manifesto. Clear, clinical, a little brutal, popular with all right-thinking people who regarded the Speaker's election as a stain on the Constitution.But goes on, Farage is
I'd arrived for Ukip's manifesto launch and couldn't see very well at the back there, half in and half out of the packed little room. But there it was, loud and clear, "banning the Bercow" (he's already been banned, apparently, from public buildings in France).
in short, what the people of Buckingham would recognise as a proper Tory. And to watch him watch the Tory launch is to watch what proper Tories think. That's very different from what the leadership thinks, and it's a measure of how far Cameron has taken his party. All credit to him and so forth, because proper Tories only number 30 per cent of the vote. But it's most probable that most Tories in most pubs think what Farage was thinking. That nobody wants to see Theresa May and Andrew Lansley talking about anything. That Osborne might at least have learnt his speech enough not to stumble. That there was "nothing you could get hold of", and "nothing about Europe or immigration". That the leadership manifesto consisted of "aspirations and platitudinous nonsense" – and that it would probably get Cameron into Downing Street.Otherwise
That presents Ukip with its best opportunity, Farage says. "Two years into their term, millions of voters will realise they don't have a conservative government." And then... what? Ukip will strike? I couldn't follow the opportunity but asked how it might present itself.
"It'll be immigration that does it. In April of this year, the eastern European populations will get full benefit rights in Britain. After 12 weeks' work, all EU migrants will be able to claim all benefits that Brits can claim.
Other Stuff, in the Daily Mail Jan Moir bigs up the appearance of Caroline Pearson as the UKIP candidate in Kensington, However, even if she did live in Kensington for years and even went to school there, has she any idea of what she is letting herself in for?
'Of course I'm nervous,' she said. 'I want to be a player not a spectator. I don't want to stand there discussing how domesticated my husband is.'
Is she saying how wet the other political spouses are? 'I would never say such a thing,' she said. Yet despite those who dismiss the spouses as frivolous, her sudden elevation emphasises our fascination with wife power in this election.
None of it cut much ice at the Ukip launch, where Nigel Farage, the party's ex-leader, MEP and wannabe MP for Speaker Bercow's Buckingham seat, held court with his successor, Lord Malcolm Pearson of Rannoch, and Lord David Campbell-Bannerman, the descendant of a Liberal prime minister. They all complained that the election so far has been boring and ducked the real issues.The BBC covered it, and again and again and again. As did Sky and so on.
What is a week's debate on £6bn worth of national insurance charges when we pay £16bn a year to the EU and borrowed £170bn last year, they asked. "We are no longer a single-issue party," insisted DCB before rattling off a long list of implausible policies such as leaving the EU; electing county health boards; putting matron in charge on the ward; including non-academic skills in the 11-plus; cutting out red tape, especially EU red tape; spending 40% more on the army ... And so on.
Lots of gorgeous stuff in the small print, but idealistic and well-meant in its way. They are all oozing sincerity in this campaign. It's the ungrateful voters who drip with cynicism.
But Ukip's package struck me as the sort of manifesto lots of Tories would write after drinking a pint or so of white wine and a couple of pink gins on a Saturday night, but bin when they woke up with a headache and read it on Sunday morning. That's probably what most floating Tory voters will probably do on 6 May too, the temptation to vote in a winner after 13 years is too great to resist.
'"Don't write off little Ukip," says Farage, a likeable rascal, I've always felt, who shook off Andrew Neil's complaint at today's press conference about his £2m worth of EU expenses since 1999.
All spent on staff, not a penny on me, he said. And the wife's salary? She worked for free until 2007, he replied, unblinking. And that's the new politics talking ...
What is undeniably new is Ukip's policy of urging voters not to vote for their candidate in places where six Tory MPs and one Labour are so Eurosceptic that they win Ukip's approval. Posters are going up saying "Ukip says vote Tory here, but vote Ukip if you really don't want to." Fun, eh?
Try as it may, Ukip keeps coming back to its core subject: Europe. Pearson said this was the last chance to resist the European superstate; it would soon all be over for Britain as an independent country. Yet the three most contentious policies of the last decade – Iraq, the unfettered banking system and the unbalanced UK budget – were all carried out in express defiance of EU sentiment and policy, I mused aloud. We had an enjoyable spat, mediated by Andrew Neil's heckles.
My eye was taken by this bit in the Labour Manifesto,The Post Office has an invaluable role to play in our communities and in serving local businesses. To promote trusted and accessible banking, we will transform the Post Office into a People’s Bank offering a full range of competitive, affordable products.Well aparty from the obvious fact that after following the EU's Postal Sertvices Directive half the Post Offices have closed down, I thought this was a little bit odd. And old. Very Old.
"National Savings and Investments (NS&I) plans to launch a new savings account in early 2004. In recent months, NS&I has been investigating a range of straightforward savings solutions to provide the flexibility that meets the needs of today's customers.
The new savings account has been created in response to changing customer needs and will be launched in place of the Ordinary Account, which opened in 1861, but has not kept pace with other savings accounts. Ordinary Account customers will be able to use their accounts until July 2004, but will be invited to transfer to the new, more flexible savings account from the end of January 2004."
Ordinary Account/Treasurer's Account/SAYE/Yearly Plan/Deposit Bonds
All the above accounts and investments have now been closed completely and any remaining funds transferred to the NS&I Residual Account.
Priceless story in the Norwich Evening News,There were red faces all round when a high street bank unveiled its new look in Lowestoft town centre.Whoops.
The HSBC bank, in London Road North, has undergone a major transformation but the new sign above the main entrance caused a stir among customers when it was put up last week because its message read “Welcome to Lowerstoft”.
Paul Sheldrake, public manager at HSBC - which refers to itself as the world's local bank - offered his apologies to the people of Lowestoft.
Shouldn't we have a chance to vote for getting out of Afghanistan now? Or for drastically reducing our defence spending? Or for radically changing our relationship with Washington? Or for leaving the EU? That option is, of course, offered by the UK Independence party.
And here's the rub. Hague & Cameron's Finest Fudge cannot conceal the fact that many Conservative voters instinctively sympathise with the Ukip position. Their prejudices are reinforced every day by the Eurosceptic press. The new intake of Tory MPs will be even more Eurosceptic than the outgoing lot. Last summer, the conservativehome website surveyed Tory candidates in Conservative-held and top target seats. While only 5% wanted "wholesale withdrawal" from the EU, 38% sought "a fundamental renegotiation" and 47% the repatriation of some powers.
To be sure, there is no new Lisbon treaty in the offing, but there are hard choices coming down the track. Within the first weeks of a new government, Brussels will produce a directive on hedge funds. Britain's new leaders will need all the friends they have in Europe – or no longer have, in the case of the Tories and the EPP – to make that directive compatible with the vital interests of Britain, which is home to most of Europe's hedge funds.
By the end of this year, there will probably be something called the European investigation order, joining some 90 other agreements covering terrorism, serious crime and illegal immigration to which Britain has already "opted in". Will the Tories put their ideological hostility to "Europe" before doing what is needed to combat terrorists, murderers, paedophiles and illegal immigrants? Then there's a major EU budget negotiation; the future of the eurozone; European defence procurement – every one of them touching vital British interests. And anyone who has spent time in Washington knows that our heft in the United States today depends on the extent of our influence in Europe.
So for all the invisibility of foreign policy questions in the campaign launch, for all the consensus, for all the Conservative leadership's change of tone on Europe, there is a big foreign policy choice in this election. It is the one that has haunted Britain for 50 years. It affects everything, from the economy to the environment, from crime to our relationship with Washington, and it will determine our destiny. Ignore the Tories' muzzling at your peril. That dog will soon come back to bite them – and you.
I was confused about whether I could fill this in for my daughter. So, I rang the NHS Care Records Service Information Line on 0845 603 8510 and enquired as to how I should proceed. The gentleman on the other end told me that I could complete the form for my daughter but my GP had the right to ignore my request if he or she thought it in the best interests of the child.
So who is responsible for my daughter?
Fe fyddai dyn yn meddwl y byddai pob plaid yn gweithio'n galed i geisio osgoi cydymffurfio a stereoteip anffodus. Ydy UKIP yn gall felly i drefnu ei lansiad Cymreig mewn Clwb Hwylio?
Oce, dyw blasers yn orfodol ac fe fyddai Clwb Golff yn waeth. Serch hynny...
Gan fy mod wedi crybwyll y Gwyrddion yn gynharach mae'n werth nodi bod UKIP yn bwriadu sefyll ym mhob etholaeth yng Nghymru y tro hwn.
Mae na ambell i stereoteip anffodus arall. O'r 38 darpar ymgeisydd sy'n cael eu rhestri ar wefan y blaid mae 36 yn ddynion. Does na ddim llawer o Gymraeg ar y safle chwaith.
some of his films also contained plugs for Ukip in the closing credits
UKIP, which opened an election “shop” in Buckingham town centre last October, certainly presents the most organised opposition. Almost every bus going through the town has a UKIP election poster on it, and the shop, which sells brightly-coloured UKIP mugs, sweatshirts, pens, necklaces, towels and even “keep the pound” dressing gowns, is by far the most visible symbol of the fight to come.We can gloss over the reference to dressing gowns...
The gaudy campaign headquaters is also helping to attract some of the significant minority of the 75,000 registered voters who would normally vote Labour.
Ben Jones, manager of the proudly working-class Three Cups pub, has noticed a definite swing towards UKIP among his regulars.
“There isn’t a Labour candidate so people are discussing which way to go. At first there was quite a lot of talk about the BNP, but I think since the UKIP shop set up, and people find out more about them, they are moving in that direction. But I do think that ultimately the fringe candidates will split the vote and Bercow will get in again.”
There are two wild cards in this election. The first is Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, who have belatedly grasped the importance of restraining public spending and supporting working people yet still adhere to lamentable policies on issues such as Europe and immigration. The second is the performance of the smaller parties, most notably the broadening appeal of UKIP under the energetic leadership of Lord Pearson.With UKIP polling between 4% and 7% across the country our impact in marginals could be the difference in this election.
And on a local level, as well as at a national level, unpredictability abounds. Ukip's Nigel Farage is defying convention to challenge Speaker John Bercow in Buckingham. To borrow a phrase from Henry Kissinger, I hope they both lose.For that matter so does Max Hastings,
On May 6, each of us will nominally choose a mere constituency MP. Some people will vote Lib Dem, Scottish or Welsh Nationalist, even - heaven help us - for UKIP or the BNP.What pray is Max's problem with UKIP, that they may overturn his cosy consensus?
"We are fighting our campaign on the policies of straight talking and common sense, things that have been sadly missing from our politicians over the last decade.Business Matters give a basic rundown of UKIP's business policies.
Leave the EU
Take tax off the minimum wage by raising the tax threshold to £11,500
A 31% flat tax rate
Phase out employers’ NI contributions over five years
Axe government quangos
Release businesses from 120,000 EU laws
Replace VAT with a ‘Local Sales Tax’ to help councils and local businesses
Create one million new skilled jobs with public and private investment in a five-point public works
programme to provide defence equipment, nuclear power stations, flood and coastal protection, transport infrastructure including high-speed rail lines, and new prisons
Abolish costly EU schemes such as carbon capping, emissions trading, and landfill taxes
Amend the UK Takeover Code to prevent foreign interests from gaining control of strategic British companies
Mr B gone to Commons hairdresser for election haircut. Hard to get an appointment apparently :)and the vital news that,
Mr B & I had porridge this morninghas now gone on to have a Guardian blog.
• Don't go near the media. Unless you are standing for election yourself – in which case, it's totally acceptable to blog for the Guardian.
The euro declined for a third day against the dollar amid speculation that a plan for Greece to obtain European Union and International Monetary Fund help in cutting its budget deficit may falter.
Greece is not seeking to renegotiate an EU-IMF safety net agreement, a senior finance ministry official told Reuters on Tuesday after media reports that the debt-laden country had wanted to amend the deal. "There is no request from Greece to renegotiate the agreement. There is a deal on the support mechanism and we are sticking to it," said the official, who requested anonymity.
So Cameron says he's fighting this election for the "great ignored". Can't the LibDems do their own campaigning?
For Ukip, the best chance of a Westminster breakthrough will come in the true blue seat of Buckingham, where the party's former leader, Nigel Farage, hopes to oust the Commons Speaker, John Bercow. Precedent dictates that the main parties do not run against the Speaker, but the constituency offers Mr Farage a unique chance of success.
On the face of it, victory for Mr Farage seems improbable. At the last election, when the seat was contested by the other parties, Mr Bercow's majority was a colossal 18,000 votes over Labour; Ukip limped home with just over 1,400 votes. But Mr Bercow's position on the far-left outposts of the Conservative Party has led Ukip's leadership to believe that he is vulnerable to an attack from a candidate who espouses the traditional messages of the Tories.
National strategy is overseen by the party's new leader, Lord Pearson, and the campaign director, James Pryor, who formerly advised Margaret Thatcher and John Major. No doubt it is Mr Pryor's involvement that has led Ukip to focus on Tory heartland issues such as grammar schools and clamping down on crime, as well as on its popular anti-EU message. However, the profile that Mr Farage has built for himself, through the odd outburst in Brussels and his aggressive performances on Question Time, means that he is largely left to run his own show in his quest to win the Buckingham seat. The party reckons it is his strong performance at hustings that will win him crucial Tory votes, so the strategy is simple – long days on the campaign trail.
Recent successes have buoyed party officials. They believe Ukip's strong performance in the Norwich North by-election last year went largely unreported. All the attention was on how the Greens would perform, but it was Ukip that made the biggest leap, with a swing in their favour of nine per cent. The party secured more than 4,000 votes – only 800 behind the Liberal Democrats, and enough for them to beat the Greens to fourth place. Resources have already been found to fight a high-profile campaign in Buckingham, with Stuart Wheeler, the spread-betting millionaire who has previously donated to the Tories, handing around £100,000 to Mr Farage's campaign.
Douglas Fraser-Hague, 51 and out of work, said: “Anglo-Saxon people are now a minority in this town. I’ve always been a Conservative but Cameron doesn’t talk about immigration. He’s not in the real world, or a patch on Maggie Thatcher. I might go for UKIP.”
UKIP I can sort of understand; after twenty years in the FCO, more or less in the belly of the beast, I have little time for the Belgian scam and its aficionados.
How UKIP plans to stop a Cameron regieme surrendering to Brussels
"Pearson is marshalling his outnumbered forces with all the guile of Henry V at Agincourt. All Eurosceptics should wish him well"
the only scientist to date who has been given access to the data. “To be honest, I’m shocked by the sloppy documentation",Worrying stuff for Jones despite this week's Commons whitewash.
Did Jones proceed correctly while homogenizing the data? Most climatologists still believe Jones' contention that he did not intentionally manipulate the data. However, that belief will have to remain rooted in good faith. Under the pressure of McIntyre's attacks, Jones had to admit something incredible: He had deleted his notes on how he performed the homogenization. This means that it is not possible to reconstruct how the raw data turned into his temperature curve.
'One of the Biggest Sins'
For Peter Webster, a meteorologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, this course of events is "one of the biggest sins" a scientist can commit. "It's as if a chef was no longer able to cook his dishes because he lost the recipes."
Helpucover.co.uk, a leading provider of pet insurance in the UK, urges Britain's dog owners to keep their furry friends away from chocolate this Easter.They helpfully advise us,
- Keep chocolate out of reach from your dog. You may not feed them chocolate but if it's in reach it can be tempting for your pet to helpthemselves.
- Remind children that Easter chocolate is for them, not for their furry friend. No matter how sad they look, or how sweetly they beg for some.
- If you're planning an egg hunt in the garden, keep your dog indoors and away from temptation until all the eggs are found and out of reach.
- If you want your dog to feel part of the family why not buy dog
friendly chocolate. Chocolate treats are available at pet stores and by most big brand dog food producers.
- If your dog does eat a lot of chocolate do not wait for symptoms, call your vet immediately and ask for advice. If you have pet insurance you can also call your insurer's 24 hour helpline for advice and guidance.Oddly enough, and I am sure you would be surprised to discover,
Helpucover.co.uk pet insurance costs an average of GBP20 a month for "life" cover for a dog and accidental poisoning by chocolate would be covered by the policy.That's it I am getting my dog insured in case of accidental chocolate death.
The European Agency for Fundamental Rights is seeking "to contract a poet or other experienced individual to devise a poetic composition based on the articles of the EU charter".
Friso Roscam-Abbing, the rights agency's spokesman, explained that poetry could turn the dry, legal language of the charter, into something "more relevant to European citizens".
This "Charter in Poems" (working title) should be composed in English (literary language). The piece will then be performed at the Fundamental Rights Conference 2010, to take place in Brussels on 7 December. This performance should be approximately 80 minutes in length, and should be supported by multimedia elements and/or other artistic performances (dance, music, etc.). It should be a group performance that reflects the diversity of the EU. The performance itself need not be limited to just English, and indeed is encouraged to include other official languages of the EU.
"There's an immense and unrequited public anger about the expenses scandal, and the danger is that the beneficiaries of that are going to be Ukip," he says. "John Bercow is in real danger in this constituency, and without an alternative he will lose his seat to Mr Farage."
As a behind the scenes gossip column on the in-fighting and machinations of the European parliament it's pretty good and the writing is as flamboyant and recriminatory as Nigel Farage's dress sense.And after last night's Have I Got News For You I suspect it is my dress sense that will be in for a bit of grief. - It wasn't me, it was a doppleganger.
Unlike most bloggers Gawain Towler is not keen to be the focus of attention. You would need to be a serious political geek to know that he's press officer and chief of staff for UKIP in the European parliament.
But then, that's exactly who this blog is aimed at.
“I didn’t know I was Ukip!” shrieks a Labour stalwart – who then confesses that, actually, now she thinks about it, she probably is going to vote Ukip.I have had similar responsesby friends who work for other parties. I suspect that many many more will find the same. Now if we could only persuade people to vote how they believe, rather than as this commentor does, then finally we might have the government we want rather than that we feel we have to have.
I came out UKIP but I’m still going to vote Conservative as it is the best hope we have for getting rid of Labour and rebuilding the ecconomy. I think you over estimate your own and the blogosphere’s influence on voting intentions. UKIP have no chance of power and can therefore say what they like. The consevatives have to be very careful what they promise as the are still odds on favourites to win the election.Or this one,
This seems a good tool and obviously a lot of thought has gone into it. I came out strongly UKIP with the Conservatives and Lib Dems equal second.Vote for what you want, not what you fear.
My intention was to vote Lib Dem in order to keep out an unsatisfactory Conservative candidate in the Cheadle constituency. However, if I come to believe that UKIP has a chance of substantial electoral success to become a large thorn in Parliament I shall vote for them.
Humourless, spade-faced ginger Lib-Dem (is that a multiple oxymoron?) Sharon Bowles has struck Easter paydirt.MEP hits out at excessive Easter Egg packagingFor pities sake, what a miserablist,
"Opening an Easter egg can be a bit like pass the parcel, tearing off layers of useless wrapping to find, in some cases, a very small prize."Obviously she gets dull pressies, but looking at her it is hardly a surprise. She comes across as the sort of person who would stop a condemned man from a final cigarette because it is bad for his health.
Now we see what those conditions are, bizzarely the first Para of Article 24 seems to refer to Common Foriegn and Security policy - unless I am just stupid.4. Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the European Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.The procedures and conditions required for such a citizens' initiative shall be determined in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 24 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
On Wednesday, the European Commission suggested how the petitions process would work, and said proposals that went "against the values of the union" would not be accepted.What so a proposal to have an EU wide referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would be rejected? Who knows, who knows what these values are until they decide arbitrarily at the time?
EU officials want to be able to stop a petition once 300,000 signatures have been collected in order to check whether the demand was something they could act on. The EU executive cannot propose laws in some areas where member nations take charge, such as security.The thing is, of course that as people who do not 'get' democracy they do not understand that in a democracy, nothing, nothing whatsoever is something that cannot be debated, or indeed acted upon by the Government. After all they are merely the servants of the people.
