They Just Have To Die

The following words come from the lips of one of our senior nurses.

She got very upset, whined to YouTube, and had the video removed. Via one of my pals in the US, it is reinstated.

I struggle to think of this vile person as a human being. She is heartless, crass and insensitive. If this is modern nursing, I'd rather do without their "care".

Watch, listen, and judge for yourself.

Despite many complaints to the Nursing Council and a "thorough" investigation, they ruled that her remarks were acceptable.

Nice.

Blogging Break......

Right, I am off to see how Mr Megrahi is getting on.

Any messages for the Glorious Leader? No, not Gordo, Moumar.

Back in a week or so.

Play nice.

Send In The Clones

So, the political party conference frenzy has ceased. And what do we get?

More of the same. Replicas of the outgoing idiots. The 'B' Team comes on to thunderous silence. Nothing new here. "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss".....

Pledging to remove one insignificant ban-fox hunting-Unkie Dave pretends that he is all things to all men. If only. The War on Alcohol will continue. The many must be punished for the sins of the few. The War on Smokers will continue. Despite zero evidence that bans in pubs and clubs have any health benefits, the big knobbly club remains the weapon of choice. Permission will not be granted for any more static speed cameras. Not a bad idea, but lacking in substance. Remove them all. And the 4.3 million CCTV cameras plastered all over our cities. Study after study shows that they do not work as a deterrent, and amazingly few criminals are nailed by the crappy images they spew out. But drop a piece of paper or grind a fag out on the pavement and the pictures are superb quality. Amazing that.

The economy? Eliminate quangoes, lay off tens of thousands of civil employees, identify and purge wasteful practises. This is hardly a "Damascus Road" style epiphany to anyone with a modicum of logic. The Big Government Community has grown obscenely in the last 12 years and a cull was inevitable. I vote that any job that does not have a sensible title must go. "Diversity Manager", "Change Operative", "Ethnic Support Champion" and the like, simply have to go. These are non-jobs that salve someone's conscience. Fake charities that drain billions from our pockets? Round them up, put 'em in a field, and bomb the bastards. 12 years of sucking on the public tit has to stop. They have to be weaned. They either stand alone as charities, with financial support from like-minded freaks, or they go. Simple.

Dave the Clone could never have expected an easy ride. The Tories will slide into first as easy as pie, but what the country really needed was something new. Something fresh. Something that we could all get behind. Might as well wish for gold at the end of a rainbow. What we need is LPUK or UKIP. Both will sever the one way artery pumping over £2M per hour to those morons at the EU. That £50M per day can be used to real effect in the creation of jobs. Hell, even a slight amendment to the infantile smoking ban will drastically slow down the 52 pub closures per week and keep thousands in work. Why can they not see that? Moreover, how can they simply stand and gawk instead of taking action? The answer, sadly, is that they just don't care. Why should they? Their jobs are safe. Their pensions are guaranteed. Most, if not all, could live comfortably on their pension until they die.

Cleggy and Co, hardly worth mentioning really. This bunch of misfits run around pretending to be liberal yet a blind man could see that there is nothing remotely liberal about them. They serve as a useful target to poke fun at. No more and no less. They are pathetic. The most common cause for a LibDem to be off sick is splinters in the arse. From all the fence-sitting. They are a fifth wheel. Pack up and go home. You will never form a government. In the meantime you are all taking money for doing nothing.

So, for now, we are stuck with the blues or the reds. The reds have fucked up the country monumentally, so hopefully it will be a decade or more before they return to power. The blues are the clean-up team. My hope is that we let them do just that. And while they are busy mopping up, getting us back to some sort of order, the smaller parties will grow and grow and grow.

Then? Then we get in in some fresh faces, some brighter brains, and some badly needed new ideas. Throw out the 60 million statutes/statutory instruments and remind people that we only need four laws: cause no harm, loss or injury, and make no mischief with your contracts. Those four laws worked for thousands of years. They will work for thousands more. Reduce income tax to 10% for everyone. 10% is generous. We the people will spend the remaining 90% in the economy and millions of jobs will be created spontaneously. I am sick and tired of working like a dog and then handing over 52% of my blood sweat and tears. I could be living in a nicer house, with a nicer car, or perhaps I could afford a holiday somewhere for my family, sending my son to university would not be so crippling, or maybe I could give more to deserving charities. The current set-up does not allow me to do any of that. I just donate more than half of my earnings to a government that knows only how to waste my money. Unless I am very much mistaken, the blues are going to continue to help themselves to my money. They may even want a bigger slice of my pie.

Conclusion? Same shit, different clones.

We deserve so much better.

We need to use the next five years wisely. We need to organise. We need to be resolute. We really, really need to get angry first.

We. Need. Change.

Instead we will vote for the blues.

Send in the clones?

Don't bother. They're already here.

A Walk In The Woods...

Sunday afternoon.

Dog-walking/thinking time.

I wanted to write something but was lost for a topic. I figured a wee stroll in my nearby woods would help. The sun was out, as you can see, and there was a light breeze, so no complaints from me. Yesterday I walked my dogs in a force 11. It wasn't nice. Something got blown out of a tree and smacked me on the shoulder, never did find out what it was. In any case, no-one died. A good day.

In amongst the peace and serenity of the woods I got to thinking about risk. An odd connection, I know, but there it was, unbidden, in my little brain, so I pondered it a little. To give this some context I should explain that in the sixties, my parents decided that we should seek our collective fortunes in South Africa, and off we trotted. We flew BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation, for you young 'uns) in a DC-8, I think. We landed at Jan Smuts airport and got on with our new lives. None of us kids being aware that Nelson Mandela was doing time on Robben Island, having been arrested 4 years earlier in 1962. Some terrorist activity happened, lots of demonstrations, illegal detentions and the like, but we were ignorant of it all. We were busy growing up in a strange new land.  Fast forward 5 years and we moved north to Rhodesia, where Robert Mugabe was doing his thing. He became ever more brutal and got tired of raping and torturing white farmers out in the sticks, and set his sights on the bigger cities. My mother decided that it was time to leave. We spent another year in South Africa before returning to England. I did a year or so at school, finished with education, (by now I had been to 13 different schools so exams were a non-starter), I left to see what I could do with myself. After trying various things, I joined the army and served for 7 years. Coming straight from a cocoon, totally and utterly controlled by anyone with more stripes than me, I decided that I would start my own business and become a millionaire. I did both. I lost the million in the recession of '89-'90, and headed north to Scotland, bound for a life of adventure on the oil rigs. After 11 years of scooting around the world, my boss suggested that it was time for a desk. I took him up on the offer because my family were tired of waving me good-bye. I migrated to business development, and, having 40 years experience in Africa, my boss thought it was only right to "award" me the territory. My boss is an American, and it took me quite some time to educate him. He thought Africa was one country. Now that he knows it is actually 54 nations, he realises the scale of the mountain I have to climb. As well as those glorious sunsets, the open savannah, the wildlife, and wonderful friendly people, many places are also festering shit-pits. I can tell you now that I don't get to see too many savannahs. The countries I visit can be brutal. Life is very, very cheap. In one bar in Lagos I was offered a brand new AK-74 with a full clip, for $7. When I explained to the chap that I would have trouble sneaking it past the Border Control guys, he thought for a while, then offered me a girl. "$10", he said. "For the night?", I asked. "No, you can keep her", says he, "She's around 9 years old so she can be trained". I excused myself saying that I needed to pee. I had a word with hotel security and by the time I got back to the bar, the slimeball was gone. I genuinely hope that he is rotting in a jail cell. In Port Harcourt earlier this year I missed being kidnapped by just two minutes. A Scot was snatched instead, but thankfully he was released unharmed four months later. I have since been back to Nigeria a couple of times. As bad as it is, there are worse places, but I have to go there to do my job. Similar "delights" can be found in Angola, DRC, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, and, to a lesser extent, in Ghana. Even with the right paperwork you have to bribe your way in, and bribe your way out. It can sometimes be unsettling but it is rarely frightening. These people have no money. I do. It is their job to separate me from it.

The point of that rather long ramble was, I hope, to demonstrate that I am not risk averse. I never have been. I could have opted for a quiet life in a quiet village with quiet neighbours and a quiet death. I smoke, I drink, I eat the "wrong" things, I don't exercise especially, and I occasionally have sex. Risky behaviour that, as defined by the righteous, but I don't think for one second that any of those activities will claim me. I fly up to 40 times a year to some shitty places, where, strangely, kidnap is the least of my problems. There are bombs, bullets and beheadings awaiting me in some of the other places I visit. I refuse to take malaria pills, sprays, balms, creams and salves, and I have so far avoided any illness from my sojourns into Africa. (I did contract Legionaires Disease once, but I lived to tell the tale, so that's alright).

I think finally, we come to the point. But first, an analogy. As I walked today, I watched my two dogs. One is 12 and the other 4. When the younger one was a pup, he looked up to the older one. She led the way, and he took her advice on where to pee, which puddles to walk through, or which tree to sniff. Today, for the first time, I saw a reversal. Now the older one followed young bugger-lugs everwhere. She peed where he peed, she went where he went, she sniffed what he sniffed. To raise this activity to a human level, aren't we in the same situation? Those snot-nosed kids we reared are gearing up to run the country. It was ever thus, I suppose, but it is different now because it is happening to me. The lads and laddettes of today are our future leaders, MPs, MSPs, AMs, doctors, judges and police chiefs. But here is my worry: they have all been taught to avoid risk. Imagine if our forefathers had been the same? We would have achieved considerably less had they been full of terror, fearing risk as if it were a bad thing. Nearly all of mankinds greatest achievements involved some degree of risk, but nowadays we are breeding children who have been taught that risk is to be avoided at all costs. No playing "tag" in the school playground, no football, no running, no rough stuff.  No tobacco, no alcohol, no sweets, no fats, no salty snacks. To even see these things on TV or at the movies will presumably scar them for life. How will these terrified humans lead us into the future? I dread to think.

It is less of a worry for me, really. Every time I step into an aircraft, statistically at least, I am closer to my death. Every time I step off an aircraft in some hell-hole in Africa, I really am closer to my end. I don't concern myself with the risks I am taking because I have been doing it since I was four years old. Having visited over 70 countries on our planet so far, I genuinely hope to see the remaining 130. I can mitigate the risks and stop traveling but I don't think I could do that. One of the most attractive aspects of my job is that I get to visit some dangerous, but extremely interesting places. I get to meet some fascinating people. I get to explore cultures that would otherwise be unavailable to me. (Unless, of course, I traveled to London,  Leeds or Birmingham instead). I jest, of course. I love diversity and multi-culturalism, but there is a limit, and a gently closing immigration door will help a lot. The one major difference between me, and, say, Muslims, is that when I get to their country I just try to blend in. I do not demand that they change their way of life to accommodate me. I simply live by their rules when I am visiting. After 40 odd years of travel, this has stood me in good stead. If only they would apply the same reasonableness when they visited my country, we would have far fewer problems.

To conclude this meandering tale, I will say that my beliefs fit in with my new Freeman way of life. I think it can be summed up in a single sentence: without some risk, life is meaningless.

Today's (and tomorrow's) leaders don't seem to understand that.

Four months ago I turned my back on a Nigerian copper who was pointing his gun at me. Turning my back on these dullards in power today is far, far easier.

Give it a try, why don't you?

It's risky, but fun!

Pick A Team, Any Team

 

                                              

If you pick Labour, Tory or the Lib Dims, you are stuck with being spied upon forever. Nothing will change. Well, perhaps we will slide further towards Eric Blair's nightmare vision of the present future, but none of them want to put away the ban stick just yet. Beating the shit out of the little people is what they do best. They get off on it. Pick this immoral bunch of thieving muppets and you deserve everything you get. They are not for me. Try as I might, I have trouble fitting a fag paper between them. Back in the day they used to actually have differing policies. That way you had some idea of what you were in for. UKIP took the Labour Party to court last year, and the not-too-surprising judgement was that Manifesto promises are worthless. I for one, will never believe any of them, about anything, ever again. I am done with "mainstream" politics. All they do is lead us deeper and deeper into the shit. Their time is over.

If you value your freedom, and feel able to take responsibility for your own actions, I would advise picking someone new. If you end up in the shit it will be because you picked that particular road. It will be a rude awakening for some, having no-one to blame for the stupid decisions they made. Spilt coffee on yourself in a restaurant? Stay the fuck away from hot coffee. You are not yet mature enough to handle hot drinks. Fall over in Tesco getting the shopping in? Watch where you are going, you dozy bastard.

I want something new, something invigorating and fresh. I want politicians that allow me to make mistakes. I think LPUK fits the bill.

They want to give me things. And I want to take them. LPUK are the polar opposite of the clowns we have spitting and fighting with each other every day regarding who will waste less of our money, and who will fuck us up the least. Sadly, the answer is "none of the above".

I want my freedom back. I need to make my own choices. I demand the right to live with decisions I have made all by myself.

Have a look at what my friend the upwardly biting underdog has to say. This is utterly brilliant and so close to my personal philosophy it is uncanny. It absolutely oozes common sense. This is one sense we badly need to recapture. Most days when I steal a peep at the sheeple I am convinced that they have undergone some sort of mass common-sense-ectomy. It's time for a drastic change.

Over to Mr Leg Iron:

"Disclaimers first.

1) I am not a member of anything. I don't speak for the Libertarian Party and even if I join, I won't be speaking for the party because if they have any sense they won't let me near the reins of power. I like to press buttons just to see what they do. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, I'm not sure I want to join any club that would let people like me in. Joining something is, for me at least, a big decision. I once joined a union and that didn't work out too well, so I have to think long and hard before committing to any group.

2) This post has been sponsored by non-approved and soon to be illegal quantities of Glen Grant.

Right. This is what I think libertarianism means and it's not based on anything other than my own random thought processes. Party members are welcome to correct me.

There is some fear of the Libertarian movement among the big three parties. I base this conclusion on labels like 'xenophobic' and 'far right' and 'BNP-like'. They are scared. With good reason. So there is a lot of talk of 'libertarian=anarchist' and 'they'll just let everyone do whatever they please' and so on.

To an extent, yes. But it's not libertinism. You can do pretty much what you please but you must accept responsibility for your actions. There can be no 'it was my upbringing' or 'it was my culture somewhere else' or 'it's a fair cop, but society is to blame'. You did it, you deal with it.

So if you want to build an extension that looks like something from 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events', go ahead. If it falls over and smashes your neighbour's shed, you'll be liable. Not the planning committee. Not the builder. Not the architect. You. You will have to compensate your neighbour. If someone is hurt, you'll go to jail and pay compensation too. it'll take a few years to sink in, but once people work out that they won't get off with excuses any more, most will start to act with some responsibility.

Libertarianism does not mean the absence of law or the disbanding of the police. It means fewer and simpler laws that are easy to understand and follow. It means a policeman would give you a ticking off for dropping litter rather than fining you, taking your fingerprints and DNA and recording all your details on five miles of paperwork. He won't even need to ask your name. All he'll ask is that you pick up your own crap and deal with it yourself. Like they used to in the old days. He'll still have authority and if you want to kick off, he'll have the power to deal with that. But it won't be his automatic response and if you just pick up the crap, he won't even have to report it back at the station.

No targets. Also, no limits. If several months go by where nobody in an area causes a problem, the police don't need to make arrests. If a ruckus kicks off because some bunch of idiots want to clawhammer someone, the police can arrest them all. You are free to do whatever you want in Libertarianism as long as it hurts nobody else. Cause trouble and the proverbial ton of bricks comes into play.

Should you steal, rape, kill, or otherwise damage someone else, expect a long prison sentence. Prisons will have room for long-term inmates because they won't be occupied by people who grow a bit of weed for their own use, or shout a bit of abuse across the street. Sticks and stones, prison. Words, no real harm. Like the old days when the British were real people rather than the professionally offended infants they have been made to be now. Libertarianism, to me, is forcing the country to grow up. It's time, don't you think?

Pause and think for a moment. Recall the news you've read recently. How many complaints to the police, how many charges, how many court appearances, how many prison sentences can be described as 'SIr, Sir, the naughty boy called me a bad name'? The police are obliged to respond. The courts are bound by the law. They enforce something that real people grew out of when they were nine.

I don't agree with every Libertarian out there but that's not a weakness in the party. It's the point. People are individuals. If every Libertarian toed the party line, they'd be like the drones of Labour, Tory or Libby Dimmies. The party is forged on concensus, not blind obedience. I would never join authoritarian parites like the big three, the Greens, the BNP or even the Monster Raving Loonies because to do so, you must accept the manifesto as it stands . You cannot argue. No discussion is allowed. That's the rule book you signed up to, now follow it. Sod that.

Take drinking and driving. Some Libertarians maintain that there's no harm done as long as you make it home safely. I don't agree with that but I do think that drunk driving, as oppposed to driving over some arbitrary limit, is wrong and should be stopped. When you're in charge of a big metal box on wheels, capable of considerable speed, you increase the risk to others when you impair your own reactions and judgement. By a lot. It's not about how many milligrams of alcohol you have in you, it's about your ability to control your death machine.

Some people I know would be able to drive over the current limit with no problem. Others would not be safe to drive even under the limit. One, at least, isn't safe sober. So I would go for a test based on the individual's ability to control their vehicle rather than a breath test. A breath test treats us all as clones. We are not. First offence, lose your licence for a year. A second offence within that year, prison. No piddling about with points and re-education classes. But it's not based on milligrams in your blood, it's based on whether you have control of the vehicle you're driving. The risk is not to yourself. it's to other people.

With seatbelts, that's your problem. You don't want to wear a seatbelt, fine, it's you that goes through the windscreen in a crash, not me.

Speeding is not so clear. If your car does 90 and you're confident of handling it, and there's nobody about, off you go. If you're tailgating or cutting in or out, the hell with you and it's licence shredding time. On an empty road at 3 am, speed cameras are just silly.

Immigration. The love that dare not speak its name, as Oscar Wilde once said about something else entirely. My thoughts? I don't care at all. I don't care whether you're white, black, brown, green, blue, turquoise or puce. I don't care whether you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Church of the Militant Elvis, Satanist, Atheist, or even if you think the entire universe was sneezed from the nose of a being you call the Great Green Arkelseizure. I don't care. All I care about is '"Why are you here?"

If you're here to improve your life by becoming One Of Us, great. In you come. For a year at least, it might not be much improvement.

If you came here to sponge, then leave, or die of starvation. We are not feeding you.

To add to the quotes, here's a P.T. Barnum (I think). "There is no such thing as a free lunch".

Libertarian is not libertine. There is no racism or xenophobia. Nobody is forced to leave. Stay, follow the simple rules, you'll be fine. Your gender, race, religion or sexual preference is irrelevant, we don't care.

But libertarianism is not anarchy. There are stringent rules.

Just not very many".

Just not very many will suit your unbending author nicely.

Very nicely indeed.