Captain Hook

It is somewhat ironic that the hooked Hamza spent 8 years in the UK evading deportation to the USA.

Considering how much hatred he preached in Finsbury mosque you would have thought he would have been delighted to leave our shores, wouldn’t you? Perhaps the free council house and benefits for his vipers nest of a family were just too good to leave?  Or our misguided sense of justice extended seemingly only to murdering wogs in our midsts? I gather all mod cons are extended to such in British holiday camps/prisons.

I am delighted to see the Yanks had a private jet tooled up with engines roaring at Mildenhall ready to whisk him away before he could speed dial his barristers in their wine bars on a Friday night.  I am delighted to imagine him in the regulation orange jump suit with full shackles in 23 hour a day solitary, because that is where its at currently and for the foreseeable future.  It is so fortunate that American ideas of hospitality in prisons isn’t quite what he will be used to.  My only regret is that they didn’t take him straight to Guantanamo and water board him very, very slowly.  Not only that, we got 5 for the price of one!

I wonder how long it will take of the rest of his life behind bars for him to come to appreciate his unwarranted hospitality accorded to him in the UK and so carelessly derided and abused?  When they give him his first bacon sandwich?  He once compared the UK to a toilet, personally I would drop him in an oubliette and fill it slowly with sewage and sell tickets to see how long he could swim, but then I’m a  marginally vengeful type of human!  Thank heavens the Yanks who run such places are not too overwhelmed with the milk of human kindness towards terrorists and are not going to indulge him.  I suspect that he will remember his council house and benefits with great fondness in due course.  What chance of deporting any other of his relatives?

One silver lining to having him in New York, we will be able to watch him wriggling in court in due course, somehow I really don’t anticipate him being done any favours! Unlike those extended to him within the European so called justice system.  For once as a tax payer we might just get some entertainment for our tax dollars!

Feel Good hit of the Summer*

The last ten days have not been the best. I have been suffering from severe pains at the back of my head. I have a high pain threshold and while the ache was not excruciating it was an annoying jabbing throb. With great reluctance and as a last resort I booked an appointment with my GP.

Before I get to the nitty-gritty (no nits were found in my hair, for the record) I must recount my waiting room experience. Continue reading “Feel Good hit of the Summer*”

Windies win

England’s defeat by 15 runs looks respectable by comparison with the bashing Australia have taken today. 74 runs deficit is alot! And Chris Gale makes it all look so easy

Give England back KP (joke) and there’ll be no stopping ’em next time.

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States and morals

Yes, this is the Chariot’s Law Week! And this time, Auntie Beeb is getting it in the neck! She’s paying some staff via their own private companies rather than direct, which means they can pay substantially less income tax. The Public Accounts Committee reckons that’s morally, if not legally wrong, having already forced a couple of thousand civil servants to give up a similar arrangement.

Now this strikes me a something of a conundrum. Either it is legal to employ people in this way (as I have been during one of my incarnations) or it isn’t. The Gordian Knot is the gubmint’s to cut, but what it cannot do,  imho, is to play the morality card whenever they suffer PR problems. It would be like giving special tax breaks to, say, married couples and then implying that such couples were exploiting the system.

Of course the Dept. of Envy is quick to point out that some of the Beeb’s beneficiaries are famous names. So what? Does that somehow validate their gripe?

What do you think?  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9587937/BBC-complicit-in-tax-avoidance-for-household-names-say-MPs.html

M.A.S.H.

Shortly before midnight just over 3 weeks ago, I was wakened by a call from my sister in London. Given that I had been staying with her a week earlier and with the knowledge that she does not normally call to exchange idle banter, even in my sleep-soaked state I was immediately prepared to expect bad news. And indeed it was pretty damn shocking. She told me that my 31 year old nephew and god-son, had committed suicide a few hours earlier; not her son, but that of one my brothers. It turned out to have been a very considered and deliberate act, but horrific in its fulfillment. Continue reading “M.A.S.H.”

The Law – again

Another heart-breaking story about tug-of-love children, this time from Australia.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2212640/Four-girls-dragged-aeroplane-Australia-judge-rules-return-father-Italy.html

It seems to me, from what I’ve read, that the mother should have sorted things out as soon as she took the children to Australia and decided to keep them there.  I’m sure the father would have objected, but being forced to return the girls to Italy after a fortnight’s holiday would have been less traumatic for them and then discussions could have been started between the parents.  Acrimonious discussions perhaps. But to subject the children to this – hiding out at granny’s and being forcibly removed by the police – is cruel.  The judge would have had no option, under the law, but to order the return of the children to Italy.  The mother must have known she was breaking the law, but did she stop to think about the consequences for her children?

Photo Competition #33 – Indoor Art

Indoor Art

On the left you will see three fish, you should have seen my face when Mrs.S arrived home with them, purchased from a local flea market, ‘its art’ she told me.

I dutifully ‘strung them up’ (fishing gut) hung them from a suitable spot and I’ve got to like them. They are easy on the eye, always on the move and much easier to clean than a fish tank!

So, show me what you’ve got, a picture, ornament, sculpture, anything that adorns your home (or somebody else’s but extra points if it’s yours!)

There, that can’t be too difficult, you don’t even have to leave the house to submit an entry.

As usual I’ll accept multiple entries from cherished colleagues.

Closing date 27th October.

Now then, now then, Jimmy Savile

I’m surprised if anybody of my advanced years hadn’t already heard of the DJ’s disgusting practices during the ’60s and ’70s. As a family man with a Yorkshire spouse, based oop narth and inevitably aware of ‘pop’ culture, not least from my children’s conversations, I certainly knew that he had a ‘dodgy’ reputation among teenage girls. For all his much-vaunted good deeds as an unpaid porter at Leeds Infirmary, he was widely reputed to have ‘unusual’ sexual preferences. The fact that he was never nailed for them was probably due to the laissez faire attitude surrounding the whole entertainment industry at the time – and before the social media even existed to report what was really going on. It is a moot point whether the higher echelons of the BBC were aware of Savile’s activities or even considered them their business. Weird was (and still is) very good for audience ratings.

Photos #32 – A Winner

Sorry I am late, it has been a bit hectic around here the last few days, more about that later perhaps.

Anyway Photos,  a good selection of entries from many of the usual suspects, I thought they were all good but there can only be one prize.

It came down to being between Soutie and John Mackie in  the end.  Both captured the theme perfectly and both are good shots taken in difficult circumstances.  John’s cephalopod is of course a champion at camouflage and can render itself almost invisible on any background.    Soutie’s ‘bok ( I’m not smart enough to distinguish the difference between a Springbok and an Impala except that an Impala here would have four wheels and a big engine) has headgear so obvious that one wonders how it could become inconspicuous, but the thorny bush provided a perfect hiding place.    It was a revelation to me (no pun intended) that so distinctive a set of horns could become part of the background.  A well deserved win for Soutie and a very honorable second for Mr. M.   Thank you to all who entered and over to Soutie for the next.

In case you missed it here it is.

The housing market will rise from the bunker

The party conference season gives MP’s a chance to play rough and have a swing at existing arrangements. At last week’s excellent Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, Vince Cable, business secretary in the coalition government, made proposals to increase the stock of social housing. As well as introducing regulated Mortgage Rescue Schemes to allow families struggling with repayments to sell all or part of the equity in their house and rent it back from a housing association or private firm to help keep them in their homes, Mr Cable said.

“After years of this Government’s apathy, which allowed the housing market to boom hopelessly out of control, millions are now feeling the painful consequences of a market in freefall.
Now is also the time to allow councils and Registered Social Landlords to borrow against their assets to buy up unsold properties and sites from building companies in order to replenish the social housing stock, to deal with the current 1.67 million households on social housing waiting lists.” Continue reading “The housing market will rise from the bunker”