"Fleet Street's Equivalent Of The Rampton Secure Unit"

Marvellous stuff from Rod Liddle.

The self-righteous and hysterical arrogance of Moonbat and fellow eco-wankers seems to increase daily, and Liddle isn't the first to remark that eco-Fascism has become a sort of secular religion.

Two things occur to me.

The first is that Moonbat's bonkers argument that denial of climate change by somebody like Clive James (and give me Clive James over Moonbat any day of the week) proves that global warming is real is uncannily similar to the ontological argument of St. Anselm and others.

The second is that this too demonstrates that the hysteria which accompanies eco-wanking has certainly gone beyond science into some sort of quasi-religious fervour. Forget the scientific method and any suggestion of calm, ponderous empiricism. Those days are gone; in which case it's probably too late to refer the eco-wankers to lessons which might be learned from history. Well, we might as well try anyway. Let's start with- oh, I don't know- Galileo, for instance, and remind ourselves of what the religious loonies did to him, and what he said:

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same god who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

Mind you, even if someone did quote Galileo to Moonbat it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference, because like all fanatics he and his fellow wankers are too certain of their own Righteousness to listen to fair and reasoned argument. All you get is posturing and finger-wagging and tut-tutting.

Patronising Lies And Seigneurial Arrogance

I didn't pick up this rather splendid bit of Labour-biffing by Minette Marrin in the ST straight away, but came across a link to it in the comments on Michael White's explanation of Alan Johnson's apologia.

White dismisses Neathergate as so much tinfoil-hatted blethering; but he's wrong:

'In the process he claimed to have seen "an early draft" of a long-forgotten No 10 analysis paper that saw inward migration as a means to "rub the right's nose in diversity".

'That was enough for conspiracy theorists'.

The analysis paper may be long-forgotten (and the conspiracy theorist would also suggest well-hidden), but the policy wasn't because we've seen the result and Johnson has just apologised for it, for Christ's sake. It clearly was not a throwaway comment and White should not dismiss it as such.

Ignoring his own attempts to make light of the situation, White continues:

'The text included a large wedge of apology and explanation: apology for "maladroit" handling of sensitive issues too long ignored by governments of both parties, explanation of what Labour has done to put things right since 2004.'

Naturally, since Labour can do no wrong in the eyes of Guardianistas, we get a quick tour of Labour immigration policies. But wait- what's this?

'As asylum applications rose UK ministers also declined to join EU neighbours like France in restricting workers from the new member states, notably Poland, heading west in 2004. That was almost certainly the moment Labour was seen to lose control of its policy. Instead of the predicted 13,000 new arrivals, up to 1.5 million eventually arrived.'

Er- that was in 2004, Michael, when according to you, Labour began to 'put things right'.

If you've been sussed by a sizeable majority of the electorate as having lost control of your borders with a failed immigration policy then an apology is in order. Johnson made no mention of Neathergate, probably because the story seems to have had no resonance- why, when it would seem to be yet another example of what Marrin rightly describes as Labour's "patronising lies and seigneurial arrogance", I don't know.

One thing is certain- Labour and their useful idiots such as White can posture and condescend all they like, but this isn't going to go away.

Muddied Thinking

I'm a football fan; hopeless at the game myself, but alive to glory and daftness and the friendship that comes with supporting your team, which in my case is Burnley FC. Life as a Burnley fan is currently pleasant on the whole, but I remember the days when we were in the basement division, and that particularly awful day in 1987 when the extinction of my beloved club seemed to be a real possibility.

Detailing how that near miss came about would fill a book, but there's no doubt that woeful mismanagement of the club's finances in the preceding seasons was largely to blame; this was in the days before the Premier League of course, when journeymen made decent wages and the superstars were paid as much as a surgeon or a QC as opposed to today's Hollywood extravagances at some stellar clubs (and at some non-stellar clubs with aspirations- read on).

However, our story, and the more recent travails of the likes of Leeds or Southampton, appears to have no resonance with anyone on Planet Football, where every figure- from player salaries to debt- seems to have acquired two or three extra zeroes on the end.

Leeds United were spectacularly badly managed off the field by a board which included Peter Ridsdale who contrived to rack up debts of £100 million; the Leeds United "business plan" basically consisted of betting the ranch on transfer fees and exorbitant salaries and would only have worked had Leeds reached the the semi-final stage of the Champions' League every season.

After a less-than-succesful sojourn at Barnsley, Ridsale ended up at Cardiff City and seems to be working his magic there. Cardiff moved to a new stadium recently, and although Cardiff City Council stumped up 70% of the costs, the club sourced the remainder by way of a bridging loan from developers- by my reckoning, that comes to £15.6 million. According to Wales Online, Ridsdale insists that the new stadium will be "debt free" within 12 months:

“I am confident that the stadium will be debt-free in 12 months by paying the money we borrowed off PMG,” said Ridsdale.

“The funding for that fee will be done through normal financial institutions and nothing to do with any new potential investment.

“The stadium debt is a totally separate debt to Langston.”

I'm not sure how borrowing from Peter to pay Paul equates to being "debt free", and that reference to Langston is significant, as Cardiff City owe (depending upon whose version you rely on) either £15 million or £24 million to that company which seems to be associated with former chairman Sam Hammam.

That's about £30.6 million, then. Hell's bells.

Meanwhile, Hull City's finances are in disarray, with auditors attaching a "going concern" note to the recently-published accounts. The club's wage bill is £40 million, which effectively means that just about every penny they get from Sky TV/Premier League goes straight out again. They need to find another £23 million from somewhere to meet existing liabilities.

£23 million debt and £40 million in wages. Bloody hell.

Things aren't looking too good over at Ipswich Town, either as debt under the ownership of Marcus Evans now amounts to £35 million quid and Ipswich have plummeted to the bottom of the Championship so quickly it looks as though the club has a very large but invisible anvil tied around its metaphorical neck.

Three middling football clubs owe nearly £90 million quid between them. Jesus H. Christ on a little pink tricycle, where will it end?

Moral Insanity

Sometimes I think I might be in some kind of parallel universe scenario; there seem to be two entirely incompatible realities, and I flit from one to the other. It's baffling and frustrating- I lose my temper a lot, which can't be good for me.

Like this, for example- *flip*- it's just happened. Yeah, that's right. We're giving away millions to a country which has nuclear weapons and can fire stuff into space, but which has real, grinding poverty and massive social and religious divides. Can't be true can it? Why would they need our money, for Christ's sake?

"There are more poor people in India than the whole of Africa … if you are serious as a global community about [meeting the millennium development goals] then you have to do something about the level of chronic poverty in India," said a useless sanctimonious tosser masquerading as a Cabinet member. (Just thinking about that horrible little twat makes me want to go to the gym and pound the living shit out of the heavy bag until my arms are ablaze with lactic acid and my knuckles are skinned and raw. Like I've said before, it's all about keeping fit).

Now that's bad enough isn't it? I mean, they can make reactors and fly stuff to the moon but they still have millions of people living in shit.

Then- *flip* - it's happened again, because this can't possibly be real, can it? One-eighth of the IMF's gold reserves? Nuclear reactors? Space missions? They shouldn't need our money- but they're going to get it because the whole world is governed by moral cretins.

Bluebottle's Big Adventure

Bluebottle at the F.O. yesterday




Liquorice-and-string "Foreign Secretary" Miliband has done it again.

Not all that long ago, he fucked up royally by telling the world that sometimes terrorism was "effective" and "justifiable". This was, of course, said in connection with the death of ANC activist and, er, terrorist, Joe Slovo who was apparently a mate of Miliband's dad. What is it with Hampstead Lefties and their inability to come to terms with the notion that the end does not justify the means? And what is it with this dozy little fucker, who cannot even grasp the simple proposition that even if you do have some sympathy with some kinds of terrorism, whilst holding the post of Foreign Secretary, it might be a good idea to keep your gob shut on this one. For fuck's sake.

Anyway, he's done it again. So desperate are Labour to smear the Tories with anything that Miliband has ended up pissing-off all of Poland and all of Latvia. Whooo. Well done, son. Party before country every time. Nice one.

Miliband has been touted recently as a potential "EU Foreign Minister", and even more remarkably as a future Labour leader once he's done a Granita-style deal with Bluebottle Minor. Well, it looks as though the ever-more contagious curse of Brown has rubbed off on David as well as Tone and neither will be off to Brussels anytime soon. Which leaves Rachel Sylvester's remarkable suggestion that Labour's problems could be solved by putting either one of these overrated shitheaded policy wonks in charge. Christ, they must be desperate if this is really their best option.

The Twelve Commandments

A design for life.

And Now An Unexpected And Unprecedented Outbreak Of Common Sense At The Guardian

Who'd have thought it?

Not quite the whole story, of course, because as more than one of the commentators points out, this farrago was created by the kind of shithead who takes the Guardianista line on social affairs very seriously indeed. Are we going to see an end to tut-tutting at people who are "judgmental"? The demise of "diversity" and "inclusivity" making a mockery of everyday standards of decency and discipline?

God knows.

Coming soon- "Bears shitting in woods do not exacerbate AGW".