Sim-O

Amanda Platell on the ‘real’ victims of Dale Farm…

One of the ruses employed by travellers to remain on the site was to claim that their children had a human right to an education at the local school.

But the truth is that the influx of traveller children put such a strain on Crays Hill Primary that all the other local children were withdrawn by their parents. The headteacher and the board of governors also resigned.

Today, the 110-strong school register is made up almost entirely of travellers, with the exception of three pupils.

oh noes! Not the dreaded ‘Human Rights’!

Platell finishes with this…

The tragedy is that while the gipsy children have been given their precious ‘human right’ to an education, the children of Basildon tax- payers have scandalously been denied their right to one.

How have these brave Basildonians been denied their right to an education? The kids haven’t been told to fuck off to another school to make way for traveller children. The parents may have removed their kids from a school but if they haven’t made sure they get in to another then they are the ones denying their kids an education, not the travellers.

As for the standard of education at Crays Hill Primary, with so many poorly performing pupils, there must be some sort of help it could’ve got. I don’t know how these things work, as with many things, but there must be something.

Amanda Platell. Going for the easy targets of Human Rights and the people who need them most.

Classy.

The Daily Mail reports that the activists from the Gaza Aid Flotilla have been returned to Turkey, welcomed by cheering supporters.

But…

Their arrival was marred by Israel’s decision to drop plans to prosecute dozens of pro-Palestinian activists – reportedly sent to attack Israeli forces on the Mavi Marmara on Monday – involved blockade, opting instead to deport them.

Eh?

I got a new post up at Mailwatch. Some cunt thinks smoking is good and that smokers do the NHS a favour by dropping down dead prematurely, which obviously all smokers do, except the ones that die a protracted painful death over many years of course.

I didn’t even go into the nightmare that was the comments underneath it.

Because of an idea in the comments of this post on Liberal Conspiracy, I fired a few FOI requests to whatdotheyknow.com.

I sent one to each of the following councils:

• Vale Of White Horse District Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• Oxford City Council
• Abingdon Town Council (I made a bit of a pigs ear of that one so may have to submit another request if this one turns out to be shite)

asking for
– What are the top 10 websites visited by the Vale of White Horse
District Council staff during the months of June, July and August
2009.

– How many times the Daily Mail website (any URL beginning
http://dailymail.co.uk) was accessed in the above months if not in
the top ten.

The prize for the quickest proper response goes to *drum roll*… The Vale of White Horse…

Further to your recent FoI request please find attached reports on the
top ten sites visited by Vale employees during the months June – August
2009.

Unfortunately our software does not provide the functionality to report
on the number of minutes spent on each site, or to report on how many
times a particular website has been visited within a given period.

The Vale has 278 employees.

I hope this information is of assistance.

The results were sent in a .pdf format and are here, June, July and August.

June:

July:

August:

More to follow… hopefully.

… why does Asda need to bring in a range of Indian inspired clothing when it “often cannot supply organic milk and free-range chicken for their regular customers!”?

… why does Asda need to bring in a range of Indian inspired clothing “and not actually cater for men”

… why does Asda need to bring in a range of Indian inspired clothing when “there enough stalls on the market for affordable asian clothing?” What about school uniforms?

… why does Asda need to bring in a range of Indian inspired clothing when “I find it offensive these get-ups being sold in a British supermarket, if it’s in their shops fine I can tolerate that! They should be intergrating with our ways and donning our dresscode! but oh what’s the use come 2020 we’ll all be wearing this attire anyway ,eating halal meat, kneeling to the east and obeying sharia law!”

… “I am waiting for the day they change their logo to an islamic one. …and slowly but surely they made their plans”

… “I have no objection to ethnic fashion, except on those streets of some of our major cities that have gone completely to the other extreme, stocking little with any appeal to the indigenous population.”

… why does Asda need to bring in a range of Indian inspired clothing when “our Asian residents should be adopting western clothing as the norm whilst living in the UK.”

… “BYE BYE ASDA TESCO HERE I COME”

… “I rather think this is another placating excercise. Is it to make sure we all get used to seeing so many traditionally dressed immigrants on the streets that we forget who we are?”

… why does Asda need to bring in a range of Indian inspired clothing when “there are enough asian clothes shops in the asian no go ghettos”

… “Slowly slowly catshee monkey the take over in in your shops now ??.” [wtf that’s supposed to mean?]

… Asda are “Pandering to minorities with an eye to the future…….”

I’m not racist, but the Daily Mail is read by them.

Up until 1.23am 17 August 2009 this URL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1206618/Extremist-banned-entering-UK-BNP-festival.html took you to this story [click to enlarge]….

After that time it now looks like this [again, click to enlarge]…

The pictures are the same but the words have been changed. In fact, the words have been changed so much you could say it is a completely different article.

And as such, the comments below the first draft were irrelevant to the second and so could be removed. At least I think that’s the reason. Couldn’t be anything to do with the invasion of racist fucks in the comments, could it?

My first post titled Irony was quite good, and involved Iain Dale. But this one is a cracker. And involves Iain Dale again.
(I was going to call this post something else and now this first bit doesn’t really work. I’m lazy and I like that post linked to so it stays.)

Tom Watson…

Mr Watson complained of an article by Iain Dale, headed “Smears, glowering henchmen-like the Nixon White House” published in the Mail on Sunday on 12 April 2009 in which it was stated not only that Mr Watson was copied into emails sent by Downing Street press adviser Damian McBride to Derek Draper, but that he “encouraged” them. The emails were reported to have made serious and false allegations about the private lives of a number of Conservative Party MPs in the course of discussing proposals for a new website to be known as “Red Rag”.

As the Court heard today, Associated Newspapers Limited now accepts that these allegations are entirely untrue. In fact, Mr Watson was not copied into any of the emails exchanged between Mr McBride and Mr Draper. As Mr Watson has already publicly made clear, he had no involvement in or knowledge of the “Red Rag” website and he did not condone the content of the emails and, indeed, regarded them as completely inappropriate.

Iain Dale on Chicken Yoghurt and Liberal Conspiracy…

Get your facts right

…and then gives a couple of different stories about having already apologised to Tom. Once in this post, which has no apology at all, and this one here that nearly has an apology. Well, Iain says an apology is owed, but never gets around to actually saying ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I apologise’ or anything similar that says sorry.

What a card eh?

Now, in a similar vein, others, most prominently Manic has always had trouble with Iain and his comments with smears and accusations that aren’t true, as well as some more serious stuff recently (so many links to choose from, but this one will give you an idea, if you don’t already know), so, as Sunny says…

Smug? Oh I’m just happy you forced Associated Newspaper to pay out “substantial damages” and its now on the record that you have smeared people without fully knowing the facts.

But Iain doesn’t just smear people and let other people do the same in his own comments, he likes to control other peoples comments, one of the things that he used to accuse Tim of regularly…

The Morningstar: Iain Dale – Nadine Dorries and New Media…

1. Comment amended upon request. So far she has not offered any explanation for claiming the amount of expenses. Comment amended upon request.

   Comment by jailhouselawyer — Sunday, May 17, 2009 @ 11:47 am

2. I hope you will delete that comment from JHL. It is entirely untrue and probably libellous.

   Comment by Iain Dale — Tuesday, May 19, 2009 @ 7:33 pm

3. Iain I have amended the comment. However, when I consider some of the comments I have seen you allow on your blog which attack other people on issues of both sexuality and on mental health, I think you should be paying far more attention to your own comments.

   Comment by The Morningstar — Tuesday, May 19, 2009 @ 8:23 pm

The Morningstar: Iain Dale Lies and Libel…

Only last night self proclaimed leading UK blogger Iain Dale accused me of allowing an untrue and potentially libelous comment to be posted on this blog, here. The comment was aimed at one of his friends, that doyen of political blogging Nadine Dorries, I stupidly just gave in and amended the comment without consulting the author. At the time I didn’t want to start a ridiculous fight over a comment, mental health issues can suck the fight right out of you, but when I realised the the comment was essentially factual I Apologized to the author and posted a link to the relevant news paper story.

So Iain Dale lied to me, on this blog, in order to get a comment removed that was factual.

So, I present to you the King of Irony, Iain Dale.

The Sun is outraged by the MOD banning online access to page 3. But before starting a campaign to get it unblocked, the rude redtop should’ve got itself in order first, as News Internationals servers also block the ‘harmless fun’.

In the same vein, maybe the Daily Mail should sort out it’s top man, Lord Rothermere, to avoid any hint of hypocrasy. Especially since the organisation the Mail has teamed up with is The Taxpayers Alliance.

The Daily Mail has joined up with the Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) to try and get some of these grubby politicians prosecuted, by private prosecutions if neccersary, for the the outragous expenses claims that have been coming to light over the last week or so thanks to the Telegraph.

I’m all for that, but the two organisations, the Mail and TPA, are two unlikely bedfellows.

The TPA…

is Britain’s independent grassroots campaign for lower taxes.

…and basically, if the government spend some money, these guys say they could’ve spent less of it. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that a group so concerned about tax should jointly launch a campaign to recover taxpayers money with a company that at it’s head, has someone trying, and successfully avoiding all the tax he can. After all, if these rich business people payed what was due of them, as apposed to the bare minimum they can get away with after lots of creative accounting, then the burden for all of us could probably come down a little.

Wouldn’t that be nice, eh?

Ooh, here’s an idea, instead of asking the public, taxpayers remember, to help pay for it, how about Lord Rothermere put his hand in his pocket?

/afterthought…
Maybe it’s not such a strange partnership. They’re both working to the same ends: The TPA by nagging the government not to spend any money and Lord Rothermere by stopping the government spending money by not giving them any.

Armageddon is on it’s way. We are all doomed…

How dangerous is it?

Symptoms of swine flu in humans appear to be similar to those produced by standard, seasonal flu.

These include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue.

Most cases so far reported around the world appear to be mild, but in Mexico lives have been lost

You see, lives are being lost and a couple of people here in Britain might have it too!

The Daily Mail, is of course trying to calm it’s readers down and reassure them that life, as we know it, will go on. Or maybe not. lets have a look…

Private health firms have seen a surge in sales of anti-viral drugs folowing (sic) concerns that the Health Service would be unable to meet demand if a swine flu pandemic broke out.

Well, that’s the first box ticked. The NHS may not be able to cope. I wondered who’s concerned? It’s a pity we’re not told.

One company told the Daily Mail it had sold Tamiflu to 25,000 customers in one day, a further sign that swine flu panic is spreading

25,000? That’s a good days business by anyone standards. Surely the panic can’t be fuelled by our drama-queen press, though. Can it?

The firm, Healthcare Connections, said individuals were getting in touch because they did not believe they would be able to get the powerful drugs from the health service if there was a mass outbreak.

And we’re back to knocking the NHS. Why would people think that? Has the NHS suddenly become a haorder, unable to let go of anything?

The NHS has more than 33million doses of antiviral drugs – enough for more than half of the population – but there are fears the NHS would not have the capacity to get them to those who might need them.

The NHS unable to get drugs to the general population? Who fears it? Why do ‘they’ fear it? Have ‘they’ forgotten about the hundreds, if not thousands of pharmacies in the UK? This drug is a pill, it needs no special skills to actually administer the thing, unlike an injection.

Current plans are for those with symptoms to nominate a friend or relative without symptoms to pick up Tamiflu packs (pictured) from local NHS despatching centres, probably hospitals and clinics.

And pharmacies, maybe? They are the usual route for drugs to be dispensed (or is it called despatching now?) to non-hospitalised patients.
I love this next bit…

But there could be queues of thousands.

Isn’t it great? Everyone in your town, queued up at the same time, for the chemist. The line winding its’ way around the town. No cars on the road and everything else closed because everyone’s queued up to get they’re antidote to the biggest threat to mankind since, ooh, bird flu.

Healthcare Connections sidesteps this problem by dispatching the drugs to the customer’s front door when they are needed.

Thank goodness someones on the ball. Healthcare Connections are the only ones quoted in this Mail story. Would it be cynical of me to suggest this may be turning into an ‘infomercial’?

Louise Lloyd, from the company, said: ‘We make sure there are some of these drugs in the warehouse with your name on it. If there is a pandemic, and a medical adviser will confirm you need them, a car will be sent over with your drugs.

‘The Government does not have the infrastructure to do this.’

No. It wouldn’t be cynical.
Ok, Ms Lloyd. I probabably couldn’t argue against that point, But then the government deals in a slightly different magnitude of customers.
The government ‘only’ has enough of this drug for half the population and if it sent all those drugs out by car, which I doubt you do, as for £3.50 it’ll more than likely be a van on his rounds rather than a dedicated car as you make it sound, people like the Daily Mails’ readers, and of course the Taxpayers Alliance, would be apoplectic about a waste of money when all but the most isolated people (as in loneliest) can find someone to pop to the shops for them.
How many people can you supply? Not 30-fucking-million. And you can send them however you want without anyone complaining because your customer is paying for it [from Healthcare Connections main site]…

You can purchase the Antiviral Protection Plan for just £11.99* per person per year.

So, that’s more than a prescription on the NHS already, which is £7.20.
Still doesn’t sound too bad, does it. £11.99 and you’ve got a dose guaranteed allocated to you., rather than the virtually, pretty much guaranteed for you on the NHS. But if you actually get a bout of the swine flu, it gets a bit more expensive going private…

The table below shows how an upgrade to the full plan cost is broken down; to illustrate where the costs are allocated.
Healthcare Connections will only charge you for your private doctor to patient consultation, private prescription and distribution when you need access to medication.

Antiviral drug cost from manufacturer……………… £16.36
DHL medical despatch secure delivery service……. £ 3.50
Doctor to patient web consultation………………… £18.55
Private prescription/dispensary…………………….. £10.59
Total……………………………………………………. £49.00
Plus VAT @15%

£11.99/year just in case and then £49 when then poo hits the propellor. Plus VAT, it ends up just over £70 to your door.
And for £7.20 and a bit of sweet talking the Missus, I have the same result.

I think that’s a win for the NHS, for a change, despite how The Mail spins it.

Do you remember Gordon Browns’ Britishness ‘thing’ he had a while ago? Where we would all walk around being British and proud of it. But no-one could really define what being British was about. Every one had different ideas about being and to be British.

Well, the daily mail have had a fantastic wheeze and have come up with a very simple definition…

According to the new statistics, published yesterday, foreign-born people make up one in nine of the population of the UK as a whole.

However although the figures from the Government’s Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants.

See? Easy isn’t it? If you are fresh into the country, with your new passport in hand, you’re not British. If you were born in Britain, but one or both of your parents were born outside this country, your not British. If you were born here in this green and pleasant (ha!) land but one or both of you grandparents weren’t, you’re not British.

Some nice clean straight forward rules, with no grey areas to confuse things. It helps to identify us from them and keep them them for a few generations to come so we have a nice underclass for all the horrible low paid jobs no one wants to do and someone to blame when the shit hits the fan.

Well, I have a better, simpler idea that would even the knuckledraggers of the BNP could understand, although would not like, but who cares, huh?

Anyone with a British passport is British.

What? You want more rules? Well, that’s it. Maybe for immigration figures the amount of new passports issued could be counted, but when a baby is born to British passport holders, that baby is British. Why would it be anything else? I hasn’t gone anywhere. It may have a Pakistani or Nigerian or Polish background in it’s upbringing, but what’s the problem with that? Seriously I’d like someone to explain in a way that doesn’t either make me want to laugh or punch them in the face.

I don’t know why, but it amazes me that after 70 years and 11 editors after the Mail sympathised with the Fascist that they would still be sitting on the same side of the fence, pushing the same agenda of hate and bile.

————–

An open letter to Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, from Sunder Katwala:

Dear Mr Dacre,

I was disappointed to read reported in today’s Daily Mail that the newspaper regards it as a mistake to consider that the children or grandchildren of immigrants are British, but rather would classify us as “second or third generation immigrants”.

although the figures from the Government’s Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants.

I hope that your proposed reclassification of Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry as not British, as second and third generation immigrants descended from the foreign-born Phillip, will not distress them too much.

But it does seem most ungrateful, when Winston Churchill was voted ‘greatest Briton’, to now strip him of that status because he had an American mother. (However strongly your newspaper disagreed with Churchill’s criticisms of appeasement in the 1930s, isn’t it now time to let bygones be bygones?)

Perhaps you could let us know who the Daily Mail thinks is truly British. I can see you probably think it is too late for my children – as “third generation immigrants”, currently aged under 3 – but perhaps there might be a tip or two they could pass on to their descendants.

So, given our shared interests in integration and citizenship, it would be terribly kind if you might let us know whether there is anything that those of us who were born here as British citizens could ever do so as to become British in your eyes.

Yours sincerely,

Sunder Katwala

So, my wife and childrens’ passports and birth certificates are lying then, eh?

Via Tygerland

*Subtitled: The Daily Mail are cunts