Author: coldwaterjohn

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William Dalrymple’s latest book has won the Duff Cooper Prize for history. He writes well, and engagingly – a recommended read.

I read that the murderer, who will serve a minimum twenty year term, apparently, may apply for asylum in the UK after his sentence is served, since homosexuality attracts the death penalty in his native Saudi Arabia. (as does murder, incidentally, but perhaps murdering your servant doesn’t count if you are a member of the Saudi Ruling family?)

Apart for the question of why a life term does not mean life imprisonment in the UK, what on earth is this country doing providing asylum to foreigners who commit offences in this country which would result in their receiving the death penalty if returned to their own country? Is this more Labour Luvvie stuff?

As a nephew of the Saudi Ruler is there a concern that he may be set free, if shipped back immediately rather than remaining a burden on UK taxpayers for the next twenty years? Or is the concern that he would be provided with an appointment to present himself in Chop Square on the first available Friday following his return?

This morning’s DT carried a report on a heroin addict in the UK who accepted an offer from Project Prevention, an American Charity, to undergo sterilisation, for a reward of £200. They have apparently already paid 3,500 addicts in the States to undergo similar procedures, on a voluntary basis.
The usual suspects leapt up and down – morally reprehensible – social engineering – exploiting vulnerable people, etc., etc. “Women who use drugs can access all types of contraception free on the NHS, including a number of ‘long-term’ options” (i.e. sterilisation)
Given the near certainty of passing on their addictions to their children whilst in the womb, it seems to me to be an extraordinarily cheap way of bringing the vicious cycle to an end, or at least reducing it substantially.
The fact that drug addicts can access contraception for free on the NHS, clearly is not working, whereas a small cash incentive may well ignite their initiative and save the rest of us a fortune in the treatment cost of future generations of involuntary addicts, created thus, in the womb, without any choice in the matter. I am convinced that a cost/benefit analysis would come out clearly in favour of voluntary sterilisation for drug addicts being available with a reward of a suitable sum…

Stand by me

Why Europeans can\'t have a tea party

One feature Hannan highlights in this article which hadn’t occurred to me before in terms of differences between the USA and the rest of Europe in their political systems, is that in the USA members of Congress are chosen by the people, in open primaries, and are not taken from political party lists, whereas in the UK for instance, it is the party leader who chooses generally who may stand for the party in a particular constituency. Within that framework the will of the people cannot be expressed as strongly as when someone is elected free from having been put forward as a candidate by a particular party. For this reason he argues that it is unlikely that we will ever see a tax revolt in the UK, and both parties can continue to govern as they see fit, whilst in power, disregarding popular opinion.

Why does the BBC feel it necessary to send 55 employees to cover this performance?

A complete culling of their management seems to be the only thing which will ensure they join the real world.

The sooner someone gets a grip of economic realities at the BBC the better.

It is long overdue that tuition fees were allowed to function as part of the free market.
That students are given a loan at all to pay them is a concession to those who could not otherwise attend university. That they need to be earning more than £21K before repayments commence is a further concession, as is not having to repay them if they do not obtain gainful employment, or are in poorly paid employment.
The economists tell us that a graduate can expect to earn approximately £100,000 more over his working life than a non-graduate. If taking on a mortgage-sized loan to pay for tertiary education wipes out £80,000 of this theoretical gain, many more may question the wisdom of chasing the university-degree-for-all dream, and we may return to a situation where degrees may mean something once more, and the percentage of the population with degrees in particular subjects is more closely matched to the jobs available which require those degrees.
Academically poor universities should certainly be allowed to fail; the many whose degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, will either need to buck up or bail out. HR departments already know which these are – it is their graduates who don’t seem to realize why their job applications don’t even receive the courtesy of a reply.
Our best universities will be able to charge premium rates as do their American cousins, and their degrees will continue to be valued accordingly, with none of this envy-driven Stalinist meddling with positive discrimination forcing the Oxfords and Cambridges to take on so many students whose pre-entry results already highlight their likely incapacity in coping with the intellectual workload. That they are failures of the state education system is no reason to foist them onto the few worldclass universities we have.

The so-called “citizen journalists” will never offer a real replacement to newspapers and television news, he told Cheltenham Literature Festival.
He said: “Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all.
“A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting. They are very angry people.
“OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk. But the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night.
“It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism.”
Responding to a question from his audience at Cheltenham Town Hall he added: “Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. It is vituperative.
“Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things on line that they wouldn’t dream of saying in person.”
Marr was giving a talk about how modern technology is rapidly changing the way people receive news and current affairs information.
He said change is happening frighteningly quickly with newspaper sales slumping as people turn to the internet.
It was a sad fact that the media would be employing fewer journalists as sales of hard copies declined, he said. But he believed that we are in a transitional phase and that in future people will be willing to pay for online news and information in the way that they now do for newspapers and magazines.
“I am spending a lot of money on my iTunes account, I am already buying journalism on line, I am buying information on line, I am buying books on line,” he said.
“Even if you are not going it, your children and your grandchildren will be doing it.”

A few days earlier there was another headline about drones killing nine German Terror suspects…then we read that Abdul Jaber/Mohammed Yaseem/ Jalil Al Khalili etc., etc. have been identified as having been wiped out (successfully).
Why does the media persist in referring to these individuals as British/Germans/Europeans, when quite clearly they are Dual Nationals owing their allegiance to a state other than the European state which they seek to attack?
What is the UK government’s position vis-a-vis their continuing to hold British nationality, following evidence of their treasonable activities? Please don’t tell me that their citizenship can’t be revoked and they cannot be returned to their countries of origin, for fear they will be tortured/maltreated/disciminated against.
Whom do we have to thank for that piece of legislative twaddle?