New Labour's Child Catchers

The UK Orwellian NewLabour state is desperately rolling out the quite sinister National Children's Database designed to contain details of and track everyone in the UK under 18.

One wonders how long it will be before they decide to keep the details for life...

The alleged reason for it is to enable "more co-ordinated services for children" and of course to ensure none slips through the net like Victoria Cimbie.

It is questionable if such a database would in fact have prevented her death, or that of baby "P", local co-ordination, lower case loads and effective working practices would almost certainly have far more impact and cost far less.

In the same way they try to uses the fear of terrorism to justfy a national ID database. It is well known thatID cards would never have prevented the London Tube suicide bombers. Or those who attempted to bomb busy London clubs and attacked Glasgow Airport.

This governemt though seems to have only one kneejerk reponse, cataloguing, regimentaion and control of the ordinary citizen - and it seems their children too.

It is terrifying to think of the numbers of people who will have access to what should be private details of our children. Will all council employees be vetted in the same way as youth workers? No. The potential vulnerability that access to this data lays children open to is truly concerning.

Then there is the potential to just loose the details releasing them into the public domain.

The way local councils have misused anti terrorist laws gives an indication they are not to be trusted with our children's details, that are effectively also our details. How long before they routinely check them to establish where you live for instance?

Those who take comfort that these are the twilight days of New Labour and hope the scheme will die a death with their electorial demise are probably fooling themselves. Once rolled out could an new incoming governemnet be trusted to remobve such a big state friendly tool of control?

Maybe the economic facts of life might make a difference. The database is currently slated to cost £224 million, as with all such things this will be underestimated by a whole order of magnitude. Perhaps in the end it will prove to be too expensive.

Food for thought

The UK government and it's indirectly government financed “pressure groups” and “Charities” have been really pushing the anti obesity thing for some time now with talk of taxing certain food products plus having set minimum prices for alcohol and punitive taxes on it too.

If you are overweight you are not just morally reprehensible because the Puritanical socialist-patrician classes don't approve of you.

No from their tone you are not just a resource hogging criminal because you are personally destroying the UK's National Health Service.

Now it seems you threaten the whole planet, every last one of us, every creature and plant you are personally making “Climate Change” worse and you must be stopped.

Arrested for filming changing of the guard?

Well that is interesting. It seems. The UK Government has been busy “protecting” us all from TERRORISM and ORGANISED CRIME again… oh so quietly.

Why quietly? Because as is usual when they are ”protecting” us It is at best a two edge sword, but usually just involves another mechanism that is curiously suited for oppression.

Even Dame Stella Rimmington former head of MI5 thinks the New Labour State is exploiting the fear of terrorism to restrict our civil liberties - and she ought to be able to spot it if anyone can.

So what have New Labour quietly sneaked in under the radar this time? Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act is what. It is supposedly there to stop TERRORISTS gathering intelligence on the police and Armed Services by taking pictures of them.

Now what did they do with Communists who wanted to take pictures of sensitive stuff and situations during the Cold War? Presumably arrested them for spying. They didn’t need such a law then. Presumably the government of the time had a greater regard for civil liberties.

Part of the blizzard of new laws that make it an offence to do things like commit murder on a Tuesday as opposed to say just committing murder. Then there would be committing murder on Wednesdays whilst wearing a hat…

So what does this effectively do? It gives the police the power to arrest anyone filming them or taking a picture of them, say for instance, when they are doing something that might lay them open to criticism.

It seems even the rank and file police officers feel this may be a step too far and their “union” the Police Federation have expressed concerns.

We have already had it repeatedly demonstrated that the New Labour Sate and their pet New Labour senior police officers can be relied upon to misuse any such legislation, practically as soon as it is passed to suppress political dissent and embarrassing revelations/facts. Even to the extent of having senior opposition ministers arrested.

And they have the nerve to criticise Mugabe, when he is only watching them and learning.

Moggs take on Libertarian ideas

Just to avoid confusion I should point out that this is a guest post by Moggs T, though I have published it. I really appreciate the work that has gone into it. Phil A (Ed.)

This Piece is a bit of a departure. I never really wrote anything just political before. I actually contribute to the Nobody Important blog (free advertising ^_^ why not go visit it and check it out).

But I promised to write this for Critical Faculty Dojo and I am not sure we should do raw politics on ours, so here it is. It is quite a serious post, but not what I would call one of my Hard Hat (controversial) posts.... I hope.

Just to explain the back story to this...

I don't know if any of you serious types have heard of Second life. It is an on-line M.U.D. (Multi User Dungeon). A 'game' that lots of people can play at once and interact, though SL is maybe a bit more than just a game as it is used for business conferencing and such also.

Anyway. I am one of those SL avatars, so is the guy who's Blog this is, and also JMB who administers the blog I usually post on.

That's how we know one another, I met them both in SL, I wasn't into blogging till they introduced me to it, both of them being members of the Blogpower group. The Blogpower group met up on SL, I think that's why the joined it, became interested and stayed.

You can do lots of stuff in SL, like shop ^_^ for instance. I like to do that. Or make a simulation of Tudor England. The sky is the limit. One of the things you do most everywhere is chat. On and off I spend a fair bit of time chatting. One of the subjects that came up was politics.

This Post is about Libertarian ideas. The reason I am posting here is I figure I owe a debt of gratitude to the sites creator. Without whom I would probably never have herd of Libertarian thought. And somehow it's like a breath of fresh air.

So anyway, on with the post. For years I could not work out where I fitted in politically. I would agree with bits of various platforms with reservation and really not be able to stand other bits. Trying to mentally pigeon hole myself had me rushing to and fro over the whole political spectrum. Never satisfied that I had figured it out right. A sort of mostly Liberal, Centerist Left/Right wing schizophrenic ^_^.

I wonder if that is one of the reasons for the popularity of single issue campaigns, because maybe other people feel like that.

When I had Libertarian ideas explained and laid out to me I suddenly realised. Hey! This is me! Like a cartoon light bulb over my head.

I realised that mostly the bits of various political parties I had agreed with were the Libertarian bits.

There are only a few basic concepts to it. It is simple really, but if you apply them, then it makes everything simple by comparison. It is almost a philosophy, a way of thinking, used right a tool for thinking.

So what is it?

Well firstly it holds that: You (and everyone else) own your own body and your own time. No one else does, just you. You are responsible for it and only you can be responsible for it.

It holds that you should not initiate force against others.

It also says that legitimate exchange of labour (your time/effort) and property (exchanged for labour or freely given to you) can only be by voluntary mutual consent.

It says you have a right to defend yourself against force or fraud initiated by others.

If you judge stuff by these simple ideas then it is quite simple to see if they are legitimate or not.

If you think about them, then to succeed you need to cooperate and show enlightened self interest.

It is all set out better than I can here in this animation. I think it is great.

I know that some people say Libertarianism is Anarchy, or Right Wing, or sometimes Left wing, or selfish.

I don't think it is any of them. You can act collectively and be Libertarian. Libertarianism is opposed to Authoritarianism. Where someone or group seeks to impose their will/ideas on others using force. The Nanny state “I know better than you, and you will do it my way for your own good” way of thinking.

To my mind Practical Libertarianism is opposed to the State having a hand in everything, telling us what to do and how to do it and in favour of a smaller state doing the essentials and doing them right. It is for Personal responsibility, Consideration for others, laws and the necessary infrastructure that can be understood by all and that protect people against violence theft and intimidation and fraud. Laws that allow for protect and do not interfere with the free exchange of people's property and labour.

New Labour State Reclassifies Cannabis

It seems the New-Labour State has, in the face of it’s own advisors best advice, decided to reclassify cannabis as a class b drug.

Given that this decision is not based on the merits of the case, especially as having it de classified saw a 4% drop in its use, the immediate question that arises is, “What is their agenda?”

Interestingly, they effectively plan to record a persons details on the first “offence” and fine them on the second “offence”.

I don’t know what the percentage of the UK population is that at some time has tried cannabis but I suspect it is very significant. I would imagine thousands of essentially law abiding otherwise non criminal users are detected by the police every year.

To give an idea of the numbers, when surveyed 10% of people asked actually admitted they had used an illegal drug in the past year, that is around 3,100,000 people. Given that many of the repondants may not have admitted using drugs and that the majority of drug use involves cannabis that is a huge pool of potential cannabis users.

One effect of these new rules is likely to be a massive increase in the number and rate of additions to the New Labour State’s disguised National DNA Database.

Another effect is likely to be a considerable increase in revenue for the State in the form of fixed penalty or so-called “on the spot” fines.

Could either of these considerations influenced a cash strapped government anxious to push through a massively unpopular national DNA database?

Then there is the matter of pretending to be ”tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”…

Welcom to A new US president

Today is the inauguration of President Elect Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. Arguably one of the most powerful offices on the planet.

There is an incredible optimism associated with this particular inauguration. It is seen as a sea change in US politics and society. It is doubly poignant as it comes after Martin Luther King Jnr’s day and is in many respects the realisation of his dream.

Everyone speaks of a black president. As someone pointed out to me it is largely in people’s minds. Barak Obama is in fact 50% black and that somehow makes him just “black”. You could use the same logic to say he was “White”.

Whatever, many people have invested a huge amount of hope in him. Maybe they should dial back on that just a little? He is human, not a superman. He does not have a magic wand.

If people build him up unrealistically in their minds they are likely to be correspondingly unrealistically disappointed if he can’t deliver on their every wish.

So here is a hope that people don’t expect too much and too fast and then get annoyed if he can’t do miracles. Especially with all the troubles the world is beset with right now.

Between Memorial Bridge and Arlington Cemetery, there is an inscription on the memorial to the Seabees, the U.S. Navy Construction Battalions. It says:

“The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.”

Quote of the Day

" The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason."

Thomas Paine

" At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols."

Aldous Huxley

" Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

Martin Luther King Jr

" To those searching for truth - not the truth of dogma and darkness but the truth brought by reason, search, examination, and inquiry, discipline is required. For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction - faith in fiction is a damnable false hope."

Thomas Edison

Potential threat UKs food security in New EU Rules

There are the beginnings of worries for security and self sufficiency in a number of areas, especially energy security, as recently highlighted over the European dependency and vulnerability to continued supply of gas from Russia.

Now it seems the UK’s food security is threatened by the EU. Another area where the UK no longer retains sovereignty over it’s own laws. They are now dictated by the EU.

Though it never really saw light in the MSM the reason Gordon Brown could not reduce VAT enough to be any practical use was that he was not allowed to reduce it below 15% by EU law.

So how is our food security damaged by the EU? Because they are changing the rules on how pesticides and the like are assessed. They have decided that scientific assessment is no longer a good enough test. Now they want to base it the ‘rigorous’ test of "perceived hazard" instead. What next, consulting astrologers?

Presumably this plays well with the green lobby and will help drive up prices to aid the Organic producers, but it has the potential to seriously threaten many of the UK’s crops and virtually wipe out carrot growing in the UK.

The National Farmer’s union is opposed. Their deputy president Meurig Raymond stated: "The lack of sound science behind the plans is a major concern,"

"We cannot support measures which reduce the tools available to farmers and growers to produce crops and that could ultimately jeopardise future food supply and security."

One of the main problems is that because of the UK’s generally damper climate than Europe certain pesticides are much more useful to combat diseases particularly associated with wet weather like potato blight.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs are also concerned. A spokesperson stated: "We believe the proposals could hit crop yields without noticeable benefit for human health.”

"We've done our own impact assessment on the matter but the European Commission has not."

It is feared close to a quarter of produce will be lost in the UK if the plans go through, including the total carrot crop and a 20% reduction in cereal production.

Quote of the Day

" The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses."

Malcom X

" During a war, news should be given out for instruction rather than information."

Joseph Goebbels

" The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary."

Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

" If they give you lined paper, write the other way."

William Carlos Williams