Dick Turpin was hanged for helping himself to people’s money – [Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs] wants it to be legal
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All you have to do is take up cigars! July 5th, 2007 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
 Nice to hear that all eight suspects arrested concerning the recent attempted Islamic terrorism in the United Kingdom worked for the National Health Service (and the person arrested in Australia was recruited by the Queensland Department of Health), so perhaps Michael Moore will entitle his next film Bombo. Still, it could be argued, that is just as well that they were NHS people. Had they not been their enterprise might have successful. July 3rd, 2007 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
In the Daily Telegraph of Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 there is the following letter from Lesie Watson of Swansea (in Wales).
If the report is true Lesie, it means that there is still sometimes a reason to be proud to be English. July 3rd, 2007 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
The British master of literary parody, Craig Brown – who lives in my old stamping ground of Suffolk – had this absolute blinder of a sendup of the whole, ghastly Prince Diana industry of ropey biographies and kiss-and-tell stories that cropped up after she was killed in that Paris car crash almost 10 years ago (I remember the headlines the following day so clearly, I cannot believe 10 frickin’ years have elapsed). Here’s a sample of Brown in action:
I nearly spilled my coffee all over the desk at that one. I can also recommend this for students of history with a twist. July 2nd, 2007 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
Sean Gabb is in blistering and delightfully acerbic form in an article titled Two Wasted Hours in Doughty Street. I had a similar experience surrounded by Tories at an otherwise interesting Adam Smith Institute event once, so Sean, I feel for you old chum. The article reminded me of an old and not particularly distinguished movie with the line: “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” June 30th, 2007 | 15 comments - (Comments are closed)
The attempted London bombings were, we will be told, a consequence of US/UK actions Iraq or Palestine or Afghanistan or something or other about George Dubya Bush or Halliburton or Global Capitalism or Social Injustice. You may be certain that all these bullshit excuses will be trotted out by the disingenuous left who crave the accusations or the deeply provincial Americocentric faction of libertarianism who pretend bad people will leave you alone if only you stay in your mountain bunker in the Ozarks, do not ever send soldiers abroad and refuse to trade or interact with the rest of the world. However I wonder what these people will make of the possibility that the attacks could well have been about Britain daring to grant an honour to Salman Rushdie. Yet again I am delighted that Rushdie was so honoured, thus subjecting so many of western civilisations’ enemies, domestic and foreign, to the harsh light in which their true natures are revealed. Of course I have no doubt this will all be used to bring in yet more regulation of our lives, reducing even more of our already grotesquely abridged civil liberties whilst leaving us not even slightly safer. June 30th, 2007 | 91 comments - (Comments are closed)
I received an e-mail asking why, as many of the Samizdatistas live in London, we have not commented on the attempted mass murder by followers of Islam (also known as “the Religion of Peace”). Well, firstly we Londoners are fairly used to people setting off bombs in this city ever since Irish terrorists started doing that in the 1800’s. The current crop of homicidal nutters trying to kill civilians happen to be less discriminating that some in the past (though please do not forget the none too discriminating Irish pub-bombers of days gone by), but in the end it is nothing we have not seen before. And whilst I am delighted this was attempt to kill people was thwarted, it is not something that will actually have the slightest impact on my life or the lives of most Londoners. We will continue to act today much as we did yesterday. Frankly I am more worried about the pervasive threat posed to my civil liberties by Gordon Brown than the more or less random threat to my life posed by Al Qaeda. So not much more to say about it other than… oh, that sucks…now I am off to dinner at a nice Thai restaurant tonight with my inamorata. Update: looks like we were very lucky it was not a suicide bomber this time… thanks to some brisk and highly commendable work by a member of the Plod (who yanked some wires rather than wait for the bomb squad) this was a close call rather than a catastrophe. Our tax money well spent for once it would appear! June 29th, 2007 | 70 comments - (Comments are closed)
…a new career for Brown… Melanie Brown. “You mean Gordon Brown, the new Prime Minister, don’t you?” you say. Hell no, what could be interesting about that? I mean Melanie Brown. The fact we have a new Prime Minister makes bugger all difference. In fact it is hardly worth reporting. Gordon Brown says he wants to govern for ‘change’. Well the catastrophic abridgement of the civil liberties of all Britons during the Blair Years was certainly a ‘change’. And no doubt we will indeed get more ‘change’ under El Gordo, all of it for the worse… so that is hardly newsworthy at all. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. No, the most interesting news worth reporting is all about Melanie Brown. 
A singer called Brown. Vastly more interesting that some kleptocratic power crazed political hack called Brown June 28th, 2007 | 19 comments - (Comments are closed)
The EU Referendum blog, a euro-sceptic site that I read regularly, has few doubts about a key part of Tone’s legacy:
I would also add that a badge depicting Blair – and Brown’s – utter contempt for the traditional liberties of this nation, and our Common Law, might be appropriate. The trouble is, who among the broad British population would know what such a badge stands for? June 27th, 2007 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
MP Quentin Davies has defected from the Tory Party and joined Labour. Yawn. Given that there is now such little substantive difference between the total regulation centrists of the ‘Conservative’ Party and and the total regulation centrists of the Labour Party, what possible difference could this defection make? It is now such an easy move politically, psychologically and philosophically (though using that word in an article about some political hack verges on hilarious), that I would not be surprised to see MP’s regularly ‘crossing the aisles’ according to the dismal ebb and flow of political fortunes in Westminster. In fact, why not just merge the two parties and call them the Tory Labour Party? That way people on the dismal left and dismal right who think political power exists for the purposes of control for control’s sake, will have an openly unified ideology free home for their votes rather than the current fiction of a two party system. Of course if you want to have an actual conservative party to vote for in Britain, you have UKIP, whilst genuine philosophically motivated lefties can vote LibDem. June 26th, 2007 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)
June 26th, 2007 | 19 comments - (Comments are closed)
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