[old poll down] new poll up

Old Poll

The direst threat we face is:

Police state 31%

Climate change 2%

Earth destruction 0%

Consumer debt 2%

Social breakdown 12%

State of education 7%

Warmongers 7%

Leisure time loss 2%

Bad sex 5%

Idiots 12%

Other 19%

42 votes total

Of course, silly me, I forgot to put 'Global terrorism' on the list and this skewed the results somewhat but I asked people to vote 'Other' if they went for global terrorism. So this is therefore a significant result, the 19%.

Comments

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Posted by Jeremy Jacobs on April 11, 2007

I presume the EU is the police state.

Bad education really ought to worry us. The dumbing down of education in this country is appauling

Post a reply

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Posted by Lord Nazh on April 11, 2007

Are you including terrorist/islamic extremists in the warmongers category?

If not, why isn't that a choice?

Post a reply

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Posted by Dave Petterson on April 11, 2007

My two are Social breakdown and Police State. I think they are linked.

New Poll

Do you think the progressive removal of citizen's freedoms is:

# governmental agenda

# just to counter terrorism

# not happening at all

# a lizard plan to invade earth

By the way, I've started a Dave Petterson fan club.

[europe] surreptitious criminalization of the citizenry

There are things this blogger strongly resents and one of them is the criminalization of the average person, the average citizen. Tom Paine referred to this in his guest post here about the EU:

The British Government, despite originally opposing the idea, now plans to go along with it - at least when the Commission criminalises things that Labour might criminalise itself, had it the time. New Labour has criminalised more than 3000 activities since it came to power - an average of more than 1 new crime a day. I guess the Government feels it needs help to achieve its apparent goal of putting us all on the wrong side of the criminal law.

Now I see that the estimable Bag has made reference to it:

Just shows how easy it is to become a criminal and once you start flouting the small laws the slightly bigger ones are so much easier to flout as well. The unintended consequence of our current spurt of legislation is we are all criminals.

This was in reaction to Guy Herbert over at Samizdata:

I emerged from Westminster underground station beside the Houses of Parliament wearing a NO2ID button, which almost certainly constituted an unauthorised demonstration contrary to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2006.

And, before proceeding southwards across the bridge to continue the same criminal conduct in Southwark and Lambeth on the way to where I was going, I took a leaflet from a young woman advertising a hairdresser, smiling and thanking her.

If that is not 'counselling and procuring an offence' against the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005), given that Westminster City Council has taken the powers granted by the new Schedule 3A to prohibit the distribution of free literature, then I do not know what is.

Perhaps the most savage indictment of the process is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which Gavin Ayling quoted excerpts from. Horror!

Section 22 says:

It is necessary on grounds falling within this subsection to obtain communications data if it is necessary-

(a) in the interests of national security;
(b) for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder;
(c) in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom;
(d) in the interests of public safety;
(e) for the purpose of protecting public health;

… and on and on and on. This is what these bstds are doing to us, readers. Blair and his EU masters are working us exactly where they want us for the picking off of.

They can already come and get you for anything. And Perry talks about Russia.

[samizdata] sorry, they got it wrong this time

Summer scene on the Volga

Perry de Havilland is a top blogger, as is Johnathan Pearce and Samizdata rightly takes its place as one of the original and one of the best blogs.

However, occasionally they mess up and I was goaded to respond to Perry's post and to his comment at the Tin Drummer. He originally wrote:

Yet the Kremlin seems to think it can murder its political opponents in London and at home and that is just fine and dandy. Who says Russian politicians do not have a sense of humour, eh?

I replied:

Perry, I have the greatest respect for you and your writing and for Johnathan. However, you're talking through your backside on this thing and jumping on the UK pundits' bandwagon without examining the other side of it.

Berezovsky is a toad who held the country to ransom in the 90s and looked after just himself. Now he's trying to protect his butt. That's all. And which country does not try to hit its traitors? Britain? Give me a break, Perry.

You made a comment over at Tin Drummer which I've just answered. A lady has just left who made the comment that she hopes they get him [Berezovsky]. I do too.

Sorry but that's the general opinion over here, not what the vocal minority and demonstrators purport to be the case.

Come over here and see for yourself.

What I forgot to add was that the people understand what Putin is doing for the country and recent polls seem to support that.

As for the charge that the ballots were rigged, that also is garbage. I walked to the polling station last time and saw people casting ballots in booths the same way we do and then putting them into the ballot boxes with no one showing the least interest in the process.

Of course there are digruntled people over every imaginable issue [are we all enamoured of Tony Blair?] but that's a far cry from wanting a legally elected Putin out and Berezovsky and his criminal mates back in.

And yet Britain harbours and abets this criminal and his cronies. Why?

[alstec] the issue which just won't go away

It might have been Shuggy who once wrote that some of his pieces which he didn't rate as particularly great were avidly taken up and read and some of his best posts were all but passed over.

Whoever it was who wrote that, every blogger knows the feeling.

So it was with my Alstec piece below, lampooning biz-jargon and following on from this post [point 5]. The one person I intended it for, The Cityunslicker, has not yet read it but Colin Campbell has and has added a very straight comment below and thank you very much, good sir.

If I were to say that I consider it one of my best and that I was chuckling all the way through writing it, would that occasion you to give it a second read?

Not really, eh? Oh well, you can't blame me for trying.

[literature quiz] ten puzzlers for the well-read

Shakespeare's ghostwriter?

1. What were the real names of the following authors?

(a) Mark Twain.

(b) Lewis Carroll.

(c) George Sand.

(d) O. Henry.

(e) Currer Bell.

2. Conversely, under what names did the following writers
achieve fame?

(a) David Cornwell.

(b) Francois Marie Arouet.

(c) Hector Hugh Munro.

(d) Eric Blair

(e) Mrs Willian Heelis.

Smith and Hunt: The Nationwide Book of Literary Quizzes, Nationwide, 1980.

No peeking, now!

1. (a) Samuel Langhorne Clemens

(b) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

(c) Louise de la Ramee

(d) William Sydney Porter

(e) Charlotte Bronte

2. (a) John le Carre

(b) Voltaire

(c) Saki

(d) George Orwell

(e) Beatrix Potter

[wolfowitz] question of time

On this Day of Paraskavedekatriaphobics, a question:

When is a wolf just like a pig?
Answer: When he's caught with his snout in the trough.

What Wolfie did was no surprise. That he was caught was more of a surprise. Either:

1] someone shopped him or
2] he was very, very careless or
3] he was very, very arrogant or
4] all three of the above.

Encouraging, that with this headlong charge for the police state cabalocracy, the guys up the top are seemingly too incompetent to effectively carry it out.

We have to hope so.