Allen Branley edition

Former South Shields councillor at the coconut shy.

10 “virtual pints” for the winner who submits the wittiest caption in the comments.

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When will NuLabour desist from pushing people towards the fascists?

Via Tim Worstall

Go read his post first, then consider this, whenever you take the illiberal attitude of banning, censoring, or sending to the “naughty corner”, human nature dictates that you want to know more, want to involve yourself in something which isn’t viewed as “acceptable” by the establishment. It has ever been thus.

So just when will NuLabour and South Shields MP David Miliband’s cohorts at the Foreign Office learn the lesson and stop driving the disaffected towards the BNP by making them look like “victims”?

They have been elected whether we like it or not, so let them get on with the job of embarrassing themselves in front of the world, a little sunshine on them will do us all some good as we see exactly how poor they will be.

Notwithstanding the fact that the civil service is meant to be impartial and apolitical.

Numbnuts!

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Supposed vision shows in felled tree stump.

I’m left wondering if this type of manifestation was in any way similar to one seen by a certain Mr. Keane when he saw Sunderland AFC’s next saviour in Cork?

A certain Roy O’Donovan.

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A typical government project?

If NHS computers can be infected by more than 8000 viruses in a year one has to ask the question, which software/IT Development/IT management company is fleecing tax payers’ money from us?

More to the point, which numpty of a minister approved the spending?

Let me be clear, I have only one PC and it has never had a virus at all in over five years, I use freeware anti virus protection, and freeware open source anti spyware and malware protection, as well as a freeware firewall, it has cost me nothing!

To me this looks like another typical government project involving computers and technology, the politicians haven’t got a clue, so they put it in the hands of NHS managers who similarly haven’t got a clue, they spend millions of pounds on the project (which the minister approves) then come back for more when they find it isn’t working. Those in the business of looking after the software needs are laughing all the way to the bank as they find more and more NHS super bugs to fix!

But it is only your appointments and personal medical records that they are screwing around with.

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Let’s put the record straight

Following another two page spread of readers letters in yesterday’s Shields Gazette, where every last one of them criticised the decision of Allen Branley to seek immediate re-election to South Tyneside Council after being thrown out for a second time for non attendance, the Independent Alliance Deputy Leader Ahmed Khan once more shows no appreciation for the level of public anger generated by members of his party.

For the avoidance of doubt here are the relevant tweets from Cllr. Khan

Not for the first time has some commentator ridiculously attempted to line me up with the nazis and fascists or label me as an extremist nut case.

To help Cllr. Khan gain a better understanding I posted this message on Twitter, so he can appreciate that my letter in the Shields Gazette had been subject to a minor edit and that I intended to convey the idea that those who have been repeatedly removed from office in local government for failure to attend and represent their constituents ought to be barred from seeking immediate re-election. A concept that might perhaps gain popular support and provide us with councillors who are committed to attending meetings on our behalf instead of staying away.

For those looking in from the outside you may gain a better appreciation of Cllr. Khan’s apparent dislike for the Shields Gazette by looking at the other letters published yesterday, including one from the Head of Corporate Governance of South Tyneside Council.

• Letter 1
• Letter 2
• Letter 3
• Letter 4
• Letter 5

Six letters in total chosen from a larger number writing in to express their anger at Mr. Branley’s decision to force an expensive by-election to prove a point (this is all bum fluff, as we all know he failed to attend the meetings and was unceremoniously thrown off the council).

So to be part of that general feeling of disgust, and to be angry that the people of Westoe ward in South Shields have been woefully under represented at council meetings , and to call for such poor quality politicians to be prevented from immediately seeking re-election is extreme councillor? I think you fail to understand the under current of anger in this town.

May I publicly ask Cllr. Khan and the remaining few Independent Alliance councillors if they continue to support the land developing Mr. Branley? Will they publicly attest that support and will they willingly without grudge go out on the streets and campaign for a man who plainly has little time at all for the people of Westoe, and little time at all for supporting his colleagues in the council chamber?

Can we have a public statement from the Alliance councillors to that effect please?

More Allen Branley posts

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How will David Cameron react?

I asked in my last post about whether the Conservative leader has the balls to try and emulate David Davis in taking a stand for the individual against the state, and the story in the Guardian about News International’s phone tapping business, although nothing to do with the Conservative party, will tell us a little more about Cameron, who at the mamonet is reported to be “relaxed” about the affair.

Andy Coulson was not working for the Conservatives at the time that these allegations are about, and there are no similar allegations about his activities at CCHQ, but the big trouble is that Cameron’s trusted advisor is about to become the story courtesy of one John Prescott. As far as advisors go, Coulson has pretty much managed to stay out of the headlines since he left the News of the World, unlike some of Labour’s spin doctors, now though Labour’s machine could well make a co-ordinated move to drag his name through the mud.

Cameron may not be quite so relaxed by tomorrow and pundits will be observing to see what his reactions will be. Will he stick by Coulson or will he take a dim view of the phone tapping allegations? Despite talk of rolling back some of Labour’s “Big Brother” legislation it may come as something of a shock to learn that “Big Brother” is actually a newspaper and media magnate – time to call in 007?

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He was implacably right to expose our complicity in torture

Maverick Conservative MP and former shadow Home Secretary David Davis used Parliamentary privilege on Tuesday night to reveal in some detail our government’s shameful involvement and complicity in the process of allowing third party states to torture those suspects who we believe to be involved in terrorism. Notwithstanding the fact that we are dealing with some pretty fanatical elements here who may stop at nothing to blow themselves and others up in a quite barbaric fashion, it would be harmful to our way of life if we as a nation we were to condone, accept, and allow the same barbaric methods to be used to elicit answers.

Those who have been tortured will readily admit that there are only two doors to open, one leads to your freedom and release from pain (to open  that door you must provide information, either credible or deceitful) the other leads to your death – most choose to live. The reliability of information elicited under torture is often less than imagined and as credible evidence it is often close to useless.

To condone or in some way to participate in such a process puts our security services in the same odious arena of those nations whom we seek to harangue and criticise over their poor record on human rights. Simply, there ought to be no place for it in our jurisdiction.

There is quite a debate going on over the issue at Iain Dale’s place where commenters are split between those who look as though they are happy to fight fire with fire in a revengeful mode, and those more concerned over the correct role of the state in ensuring some basic rights and freedoms and a sense of fair play. Two comments strike a chord with me first Unsworth says:

‘War on Terror’ – WTF is that? It’s merely a catch-all to allow nefarious, illegal activity by this (and the American) government. To declare ‘War’ you must first identify the ‘Enemy’ and also have scrutinisable evidence of this Enemy’s intents.

Davis was/is absolutely right to raise the matter in Parliament. There is a direct contradiction between the Government’s stated and actual positions.

If the Government actually believes it’s OK to torture by proxy it should say so quite clearly. If not, it should condemn such actions outright – and take action against the perpetrators and their enablers. What the Government cannot do is have it both ways.

Something for the South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband to think about, perhaps before the next court judge drags some action out of him.

Secondly Wegand says:

David Davis was, of course, right to do this.

I hope that I am wrong but one fears that it will have only added to the bad odour in which he is held by DC; which would say much about both of them.

Davis is proving to be a man of principle who has little fear in raising these issues from the back benches, this gives us some hope for the future so long as there are MPs like him willing to take a stand and fight the brave fight against the power of the state. This leaves an unanswered question about his leader David Cameron and how he would approach the erosion of our civil liberties after more than a decade of Labour’s meddlings and the use of TWAT (The War Against Terror) as a cover for draconian measures which have immeasurably tilted the balance away from the individual and towards the state in a shift which has without doubt “changed the way of British life”, and the greatest change right now (unsurprisingly) is the way in which our Muslim communities view our policies and the way in which we view them.

Isn’t this partly what the terrorists wanted to achieve in the first place?

Further reading

• Ian Cobain – The Guardian
• David Davis’ statement – The Guardian

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Fancy some local history?

Get yourself along to the Old Town Hall in South Shields Market Place on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday (11th to 14th. July) where you will find an interesting exhibition capturing the spirit of South Tyneside and how it’s history interacts with the River Tyne and the constant changing faces of our river frontage.

The Old Town Hall will be open each day from 10:00 am till 4:00 pm and entrance is free.

Should be fascinating insight to our maritime background, and if you would like to know a little more about the South Shields Local History Group then why not pop along to one of their meetings in the Central Library in Denmark Square, they meet on the third Monday of every month at 5:30 pm.

For further details email Jim3(at)blueyonder(dot)co(dot)uk

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This is worthy of a spot in Private Eye

Brian Coleman is a Conservative member of the Greater London Assembly, he claims a fair bit of cash from the tax payer but doesn’t want to do so openly like every other member of the GLA.

Paul Waugh has the details, but Coleman’s comments are astounding:

“I won’t do it voluntarily. It’s none of the public’s business. They have coped well without knowing this kind of detail for more that 75 years.”

“They are not entitled to drool over our personal lives. I’m not going to help the mad, bad and the sad, the bloggers on the internet. I’m not pandering to mob rule. It undermines democracy to suggest that all MPs, all politicians are the spawn of beelzebub.

“Nobody is going to go into public life if they think the minutiae of their grocery bills are going to be looked over.”

Coleman should be advised to take a choice from the following courses of action

Wind your neck in and shut up.

Get on with being transparent

or

just get out!

Also on this man’s back (metaphorically) is Iain Dale and Tory Bear.

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You thought Johnson was killing them off?… Think again.

On Monday evening Gordon Brown’s Labour government pushed further measures through the House of Commons that would allow the authorities to fine you up to £1000 for failing to update your details on the National Identity Register being set up to support the ID Card scheme.

That’s a pretty harsh smack on the wrist for something that Johnson promoted as being voluntary huh?

So he thinks that we will voluntarily give our details away when applying for new passports with biometrics built in, or voluntarily ask for an ID Card, and he thinks that should we forget to inform the government when we move house, get repossessed, marry, change name by deed poll or accidentally lose the passport or ID Card that we should be hauled before some kangaroo court that can fine us up to £1000. Wow, what is so voluntary about that?

The shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, told MPs: “One of the first acts of a Conservative government will be cancelling the ID cards scheme. The scheme and the register are both an affront to British liberty and will have no place in a Conservative Britain. They are also a huge waste of money.”

The Conservatives’ Home Affairs spokesman, Damian Green, asked how the scheme could be “voluntary” when they were penalties for failing to provide information for the database: “If it is a voluntary card, why are there penalties attached for failing to provide that information?” he said, adding that the government should warn people that once they “volunteer” for a passport or ID card it was then compulsory for the rest of their lives.

With both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats pledging to scrap this scheme and it’s odious register which can be shared by up to half a million civil and public servants, you might have thought that a rebellion by more liberal and free thinking Labour MPs might be on the cards – I suppose we can but hope.

Perhaps David Cameron would care to make a few more headlines in a fake German accent:

“Your papers please”

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