Self government: What is freedom?

The greatest problem that the American founding fathers had was not the British government - it was making people understand freedom.

The climategate song

Hat tip: Minnesotans for Global Warming

Dubai's dirty little secret

Opulent playground for the rich, its workers earn less than $1 per hour - in virtual slavery.

Employers' consent is needed for most things and travel is restricted.

Workers, who work 12 hours a day, live in squalid labour camps, squeezing in as many as a dozen people per room. Many of them live in indentured servitude with no hope of escape.

Climate change scam: Monckton asks police to investigate

Lord Monckton has asked the police to investigate the fraud involved in the Hadley Centre global warming scandal - not just investigate the leaking of the documents.

He's also asked the Information Commissioner to act.

Here, he talks to the Corbett Report:



Meanwhile, Prince Charles tries to stifle debate.

Update: The Climate and Health Council, a collaboration of worldwide health organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine, believes there is a direct link between climate change and better health.

FFS!

Big Green Eff-Off

 A climate change bedtime story:

 Graphic by Barking Spider

The State We're In

Do the following ring any bells with you:

1. The creation of racism offences.
2. Continual change to create confusion
3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
5. Huge immigration to destroy identity.
6. The promotion of excessive drinking
7. Emptying of churches
8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
9. Dependency on the state or state benefits
10. Control and dumbing down of media
11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family

If you've ever thought the mess we're in as a country was due to incompetence on the part of politicians, think again and take another look at the Frankfurt School and its Conspiracy to Corrupt.

The School believed there were two types of revolution: political & cultural. Cultural revolution demolishes from within. They saw it as a long-term project and kept their sights clearly focused on the family, education, media, sex and popular culture.

To further their aims they would:

• attack the authority of the father, deny the specific roles of father and mother, and wrest away from families their rights as primary educators of their children.
• abolish differences in the education of boys and girls
• abolish all forms of male dominance
• declare women to be an ‘oppressed class’ and men as ‘oppressors’

Links: the Schiller Institute
New World Encyclopaedia

In Brown's Britain today: Parents who want to accompany their children to Christmas carol services and other festive activities are being officially vetted for criminal records in case they are paedophiles.

Join the dots.

UPDATE: Are we happy that this is what we've come to? A short but thought-provoking article at ConHome and a lively debate in the comments.

Cross-posted

UKIP: Lord Pearson slams EU's and government's lack of transparency

CLIMATE CHANGE - THE TRUTH WILL OUT!

In light of this weeks revelations, with many more still to come from the hacked CRU e-mails, one would think that perhaps some of our less "blinkered" politicians might just stop and think for a moment before they carried on as if nothing had happened - but noooooo, it's business as usual in the Great Climate Change Money-Grabbing Swindle! I received the following e-mail at 8.30pm last night so clearly the penny hasn't dropped yet, or if it has, it's being ignored.

Dear Barking,

In nine days time, representatives from 192 countries will meet in Copenhagen for the UN Conference on climate change. This summit is of historic importance. It is an opportunity for the world to take bold action to deal with the real danger of climate change.

So this week, ahead of the summit, members of my Shadow Cabinet have given a series of speeches setting out plans to help protect the global environment. Each one of these speeches sets out specific steps which need to be taken if we are going to reduce our carbon emissions.

For instance, in his speech, George Osborne set out plans to create a framework which would reward people for recycling. William Hague set out his plans to push for fundamental reform of the EU budget to redirect resources towards addressing climate change and energy security. And Andrew Mitchell set out how we need to end the scandal of taxpayers' money being used to guarantee environmentally damaging energy projects around the world.

Two incredibly powerful ideas lie behind these policies. The first is about the role of the state. Government does have a role to play in helping people to live sustainably. But it is at its best when it enables people to take action for themselves.

The second idea is about international leadership. I believe passionately that just as we are part of One Nation here in Britain, so Britain is itself part of One World. In this century of global threats and challenges, we can't afford to ignore what is happening in other parts of the world. So when it comes to tackling climate change, just as with fighting international terror, Britain must always be a strong force for progressive change in the world.

This bodes neither well for our withdrawal from the EU nor the removal of the hair shirts of bogus climate change! However, the founder of the Weather Channel and 30,000 scientists not employed by the IPCC now wish to sue Al Gore for fraud. Getting that lying bastard into an open court where he can't possibly explain himself due to his lack of scientific knowledge would be a sight to behold. Here is a video where the proposed lawsuit is discussed - yet again Fox News was the only TV channel that would give it airtime.

Now, just as our American friends had to do recently, we turn to Russia Today for the truth they dare not show us here in Britain!

And there is more!

Here's a live clash between two scientists of opposing beliefs!

And here is Alex Jones with his take on the whole rotten scam!

I know that these videos will take a little time to watch but it really is well worth it. I have always been sceptical about the false religion of Climate Change but after watching these open and impartial reports from Russia Today that our own MSM refuses to even discuss, I am now a confirmed Climate Change unbeliever!

British jobs for Russian workers, paid for by taxpayers

In May 2009, The EU launched a partnership with ex-Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan, elarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and there have been moves afoot to get Russia to join.

We weren't told about that.

In the meantime, Mike Nattrass, UKIP MEP, has warned that the EU has a financial stake in exporting jobs to Eastern Europe. The EU holds equity in a General Motors plant in Russia, to which it loaned € 70m in order to finance yet another plant.

Nattrass said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the Peugeot scandal in 2005, when it moved its Ryton (UK) plant to Slovakia, courtesy of an EU grant.

Therefore, the EU is financing the moving of British jobs to Russia.

We weren't told about that, either.

Evidently Brown meant British jobs for Russian workers - paid for by taxpayers.

Climate Change scam: Lord Monckton on Alex Jones Show

Lord Monckton calls the climate change proponents fraudsters and criminals and calls for them to be arrested.

Monckton on the Alex Jones show yesterday (5-part autoplay):

ID cards: The Panopticon Nation Blair planned

Hat tip: Calling England

Vaccine and GM crops recalled, Depopulation and Barter Tax

Swine Flu Vaccine recalled

GlaxoSmithKline says it has advised medical staff in Canada to not use one batch of swine flu vaccine for fear it may trigger life-threatening allergies.

GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Gwenan White said Tuesday the company issued the advice after reports that one batch of the swine flu vaccine might have caused more allergic reactions than normal.

She says the affected batch contains 172,000 doses of the vaccine. She declined to say how many doses had been administered before the advice to stop using them was given.

White says GlaxoSmithKline wrote to Canadian healthcare professionals advising them to stop using the batch on Nov. 18. She says a total of 7.5 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed in Canada.

Fox News

Bartering tax

As higher taxes and more intrusive regulations take hold (while the dollar continues to sink), more and more Americans are turning to barter and other forms of private commerce between individuals. CraigsList, for example, is reporting an 80% jump in bartering activity by private citizens. And there has been a surge of interest in sites such as Barterquest.com as well.

...

The federal government is poised to intervene in yard sales, flea markets, and against individuals selling any used goods that could be unsafe. Americans who slap even $1.00 price tags on used items are in danger of violating a new yard sale rulebook being issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

CPSC says yard sale violators or vendors at Sunday afternoon flea markets are now subject to fines of up to $100,000 per transaction and up to $15 million for the related series of infractions. Such federal insanity is mirrored on the state level as well: In California, eight-year-old Daniela Earnest of Tulare was ordered to shut down her lemonade stand by the city council.

News Blaze

Monsanto's GM crops recalled - found to be carcinogenous

Monsanto has abandoned its ambitious plans for two types of a so-called "second generation GM crop" rather than accede to a request from European regulators for additional research and safety data.

...

Monsanto has informed the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that it no longer wishes to pursue its application for approval of GM maize LY038 and the stacked variety LY038 x MON810. Both of these varieties were designed to accelerate the growth rate of animals. Two letters were sent to EFSA from the Monsanto subsidiary company Renessen at the end of April this year confirming the withdrawal of its applications originally submitted in 2005 and 2006. The letters cite "decreased commercial value worldwide" and state that the high-lysene varieties "will no longer be a part of the Renessen business strategy in the near future." There has been no announcement of these decisions on the Monsanto web site, and there are no mentions on EFSA or European Commission web sites either.

...

Scientists who have followed these two applications are quite convinced that the "decisions to withdraw" have nothing to do with commercial considerations and everything to do with food safety. In other words, the varieties are too dangerous to be allowed onto the open market. Objections came from scientists at the Canterbury University's Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety (INBI), New Zealand, who warned that the new corn was not safe for humans when cooked. They also expressed concerns about unpredictable health effects, increased levels of toxins in high-lysene corn, and possible allergies and links to cancer.

Green Planet

Population Control

For a taste of what is in store for us should this government undertake a population control programme, we only have to look at China's policy, implemented decades ago.

Do we want that happening here?

Border-crossing consequences

From a mailing list:

Crossing borders

If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labour.

If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the Afghan border illegally you get shot.

If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again.

If you cross the Russian border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.

If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into political prison to rot.

If you cross the UK Border illegally you get:

• Free healthcare
• An unearned income
• A home
• Free education for your kids
• Furnishings for your home
• Free dentistry
• Free use of an infra-structure paid for by the toil and taxes of previous generations
• The free use of all social facilities
• Free translation services
• Agencies that will help you settle in
• Free round the clock police protection
• You will find the law is weighed in your favour

Children and the Predatory State

The State's tentacles probe every nook and cranny of our lives, becoming increasingly intrusive and threatening as time goes by. Most often, it creeps in under the guise of health and safety, all the more so when children are involved.

For example:

• Schools required to produce annual behaviour reports on all school children
• CCTV installed in classrooms;
• inger-scanning in school canteens;
• DNA database;
• CCTV on streets;
• Warrantless searches of pre-teens.

Just recently, parents of school starters in Lincolnshire werre given a four-page questionnaire covering over 100 items of information from the child's health, diet, attitude, behaviour, relationships, parents/guardians and more.

Given that the number of children taken from their parents by the state has been rising over the last ten years, parents are likely to feel intimited by such questioning, fearing that they could be subject to unwanted government attention should the government not like the answers provided. 

The government obsession with collecting data has now extended to five-year-olds, as local Community Health Services get ready to arm-twist parents into revealing the most intimate details of their own and their child’s personal, behavioural and eating habits.

The questionnaire – or "School Entry Wellbeing Review" – is a four-page tick-box opus, at present being piloted in Lincolnshire, requiring parents to supply over 100 different data points about their own and their offspring’s health. Previously, parents received a "Health Record" on the birth of a child, which contained around eight questions which needed to be answered when that child started school.

The Review asks parents to indicate whether their child "often lies or cheats": whether they steal or bully; and how often they eat red meat, takeaway meals or fizzy drinks.

However, the interrogation is not limited to intimate details of a child’s health. Parents responding to the survey are asked to provide details about their health and their partner’s health, whether they or their partner are in paid employment, and even to own up to whether or not their child is upset when they (the parent) returns to a room.

Completing the review is, according to a spokeswoman for Lincolnshire Community Health Services (CHS) "entirely the choice of the parent". However, the letter accompanying the review states: "Please complete the enclosed questionaire …and return it to school in the envelope provided within the next 7 days."

There is no indication on the letter of a parent’s right to opt out, and parents we have spoken with have expressed fears that failure to fill out this questionnaire might mean their child’s access to health services would be diminshed.

One went so far as to say that she found the entire exercise terrifying: given the way in which social services were nowadays so quick to intervene in children’s lives, she felt that merely objecting to this questionnaire might lead to her and her child being placed on some sort of risk register.

Ginny Blackoe, Head of Family and Healthy Lifestyle Services at Lincolnshire Council explained that the questionnaire will be followed up with a reminder and then a third letter and a potential home visit from the School Nursing team.

El Reg put a number of specific questions both to Lincolnshire Community Health Services and to the Department of Health. We asked whether this process was lawful. We also asked whether not mentioning a parental right to opt out was a very convenient omission – and whether the process as a whole might be considered intimidatory.

Lincolnshire CHS were adamant that the process did not breach any laws on Data Protection. A spokeswoman said: "The questionnaire does not contravene the Data Protection Act." They further added that the data would only be provided in anonymised form to third parties.

However, they were not prepared to engage in discussion of how this review fitted with DPA requirements that data be "obtained fairly" and that collection be "adequate for purpose" and "not excessive". Nor have they responded on the specific issue around their right to collect data on third parties - partners of parents filling in the form.

When asked to cite specific statutory justification for collecting data in potential breach of the DPA, Ms Backoe cited Department of Health "guidance". She referred to the Children Act 2004 which she claimed "sets out standards and expectations about how services for children and young people should be developed strategically and organisationally".

Sections 12 and 29 of this Act include provisions whereby the Secretary of State may order the setting up of databases - and have already been used fairly extensively in respect of the Contactpoint project. In theory, they allow for government to demand whatever information it sees fit to demand in respect of children, and to pass it on to any third party. Nonetheless, the regulations do not appear to include any powers to demand information on parents.

She also alluded to DoH "guidance" that local areas should "aim for 100 per cent coverage of children in the locality using whatever information systems are available".

This initiative, if successful, will be rolled out to the rest of England and Wales.

Gordon Brown: How can one man be so wrong, so often, so comprehensively?

Best placed to emerge from the financial crisis, Gordon Brown?

Hat tip:  Spectator

A stupendously good idea - Hooray!

Having grown used to the inexorable drip, drip, drip of depressing, soul-crunching news, a new measure to be introduced by the Tories leapt out at me.

An energy-saving, job-creating, bill-reducing stonkingly good idea - as the Telegraph reports:

It is part of an ambitious move to get 25 million homes “greened” to help save money for consumers while meeting new environmental targets.
Utility companies, high street retailers and charities will supply the re-fit of homes. In return they will be able to claw back the money from new lower customer bills spread over 25 years.

The Conservatives say they have signed up several major retailers including Marks & Spencer and Tesco as part of the new scheme.

Ultimately, the Conservatives believe the moves could save considerably more than the £6,500 they will put forward officially today.

Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, in a speech today will say: “Imagine if you could walk into your favourite store, buy some clothes or do your weekly shop and then at the checkout, as you hand over your Clubcard; the cashier offers you the prospect of permanently lower utility bills. “There’s nothing to pay, now or even later. Your home will be retrofitted and all you’ll notice is that it costs less to heat and power it.”

The improvements will include energy-efficient lighting, modern boilers, and cavity and loft insulation.

The new system is paid for by the retailers working with banks to finance the improvement in exchange for a steady return over a long period of time. The small payback will be visible on customers’ bills over each billing period.

Mr Shapps will add: “All you will see is lower bills with zero upfront cost. Under a Conservative government you will not have to imagine this scheme because the likes of Marks & Spencer and Tesco are already interested.

“This type of scheme, which allows the work to be paid for from energy bill savings, is a no-brainer.”

The Conservatives also claim that healthy competition in retro-fits will create 70,000 new jobs and a £2.5bn marketplace. And as much as 9.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions are avoided, Mr Shapps will say.

In a bid to try and lessen the burden on homeowners the Home Information Packs (Hips) that are now needed before you can sell your house, are to be scrapped within weeks of new Conservative government. The Tories believe their cost is distorting the housing market.

On Tuesday George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, outlined plans for people to get paid for recycling. Those homeowners who recycle correctly will be entitled to up to £130 a year in vouchers for local shops.

The series of measures are being unveiled in advance of the Copenhagen climate change summit next month.

Greg Clark, the shadow climate change minister, will commit a new Tory Government to making clean coal and nuclear power the priorities of their energy policy.

Climate Change: heated debate

A weather program coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund in Russia, Aleksey Kokorin, and an independent weather forecaster from London's Weather Action, London, Piers Corbyn, had a heated debate on what causes climate change



Piers Corbyn delivers his opening remarks at the 'Climate Change, the Solar Weather Technique and the Future of Forecasting' Conference at the Imperial College, London on 28th October 2009:



At the same conference, Sammy Wilson, Democratic Unionist MP for East Antrim gives us the low-down on political thinking in the UK on "climate change":

Environmentalists, your cause has been hijacked

Dear Environmentalists,

Your cause has been hijacked by money men who have twisted it for their own ends.

Take it back.

Listen up:



Hat tip: Trooper Thompson

Population reduction: who will make it and who won't?

This is no conspiracy theory.

Mark Wallace posted a rather chilling article and accompanying spreadsheet on Conservative Home on the population figures the Optimum Population Trust would like to see in each country of the world.

Mark's article:

The Optimum Population Trust, for those of you who haven't yet come across them, are an odd bunch. Bluntly, they believe the best way to save the planet is to get rid of as many human beings as possible.

On the plus side, at least they are being more honest than most greens in their open contempt for human beings. The reality of many in the environmentalist movement is at core a deep anti-humanism, an arrogant dislike for people who are somehow too stupid to see the problem with their pursuit of a happy life and a healthy family.

On the down side, the OPT's aims are actually pretty worrying - verging on sinister, even. Buried in their website is a detailed spreadsheet [Excel link] laying out their ideal "sustainable" populations for each country. And those "ideal" populations are a little worrying, if you try to imagine the reality of them.

For example, the UK should shrink to 29 million people, from the 60 million we currently have. We are of course a small island, but ask yourself which half of your friends you would rather did not exist?

And we get things comparatively easy in the OPT's dystopian vision of the future.

Only one in six of the current Algerian population should really be allowed. Bosnians are unlikely to be overjoyed that 3 million of their 4 million people are, in the OPT's eyes, an inconvenience. Rwanda should apparently go from 7 million people to only 2 million.

What the OPT seem to forget is that these aren't just statistics. They aren't just "emitters", as their website terms them. They are real human beings, who live, love and laugh. It is peculiar that Sir David Attenborough, the Patron of the Trust, can show so much compassion for animals but is apparently happy to back such a dispassionate dismissal of the value of our fellow humans.
Yesterday, the OPT released the results of a Yougov opinion poll [Excel link] which they trumpeted as showing public support for their aims. "Public want smaller UK population", announces their website. However, when you actually read the tables for the polling results, it turns out that the public are bothered about far more real world, centre right issues than greenie pipe dreams.
It turns out, people are actually perfectly happy for us to be allowed to continue breeding - directly contrary to the OPT's aims.

One major question was, "Do you think people should take the impact on the environment into account when deciding how many children to have?"
The answer is pretty clear. A miniscule 15% say people either should not have any children or should only have one, while 24% either think "the number of children people have won't affect the environment" or that people shouldn't worry about it. Unsurprisingly, the biggest support  - 34% - is for people choosing to have two children, which is just about what people actually do have in real life. Far from endorsing the OPT's views, people are voting for no change, and life as usual.

Most interesting is the question which investigates public support for various policies on population. Most left those surveyed pretty unmoved, with only three gaining majority support:

• Reduce immigration: 69%
• Let people work after the retirement age: 63%
• Better family planning support to reduce unwanted pregnancies: 62%

So, it turns out that far from being radical greens who want to interfere in people's family life, the public are just bothered about high levels of immigration and unplanned pregnancies, whilst wanting to allow pensioners to work. More back to basics than ban the babies.

Iraq inquiry: Inconvenient truths

Some awkward questions need to be asked about the Iraq War and events leading up to it, but I suspect they won't be asked ... at least, not in the public arena.



... which raises questions as to why exactly Saddam Hussein was hounded to death. John Perkins believes he can answer that question.

Honour: The missing virtue of the State

Philip Pullman, infamous for his objection to the vetting of school visitors, such as writers, delivered a keynote speech on The Virtues of the State in February this year - around the time when his Times article on the subject was culled.

He speaks of the missing virtue in State affairs - honour.



Hat tip: Look for a Voice

G20: The truth behind the summit in Scotland

The Corbett Report interviewed Daniel Estulin, who revealed the behind-the-scenes details of the G20 Finance Minister's meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland in early November.

Details were derived from actual G20 documents that his sources sneaked out of the meetings, despite heavy, unprecedented security, "even by Bilderberg standards", according to Estulin. (See BilderbergBook.com).

Estulin says that the main topic of the summit was "the next step in globalisation, which is the creation of the African Union."

This is part of a continuous, long-planned agenda whereby national sovereignty is ceded to unnacountable regional governments which can more easily administer and implement the aims of the financial oligarchs.

One such aim is the elite's exhaustively documented penchant for population reduction, including tying development aid to population control problems. "The creation of the borderless African continent will be spearheaded by the IMF."

One of the smuggled documents shows that an attendee had the IMF articles of agreement at the meeting and highlighted the fact that funds were made available "under adequate safeguards" to member nations. This is code for imposing draconian measures designed to plunge countries into virtual servitude, with the result that in Africa, countries spend five times more revenue on servicing their IMF debts than they do on health care for their own citizens.

The meeting's attendees, identified in the smuggled documents, reads like a who's who of the financial oligarchical elite, including leading Bilderbergers such as US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, World Bank President Bob Zoellick, Turkish Finance Minister Ali Babacan and British Finance Minister Alistair Darling and many others. The Trilateral Commission was also represented at the conference by Japanese members Yoshihiko Noda and Masaaki Shirakawa.

In the interview, Estulin discusses the G20's debate on dumping the US dollar which he first revealed would be on the meeting's agenda in a press release in early November. Estulin indicates that while the matter was discussed, it was rejected . "The American and the British delegations tried to persuade the Russian and the Chinese delegates to devalue the dollar and create a basket of currencies or another world currency to take the place of the dollar," he said. "Luckily, both the Russians and the Chinese told the Americans and the British to go pound sand. They were not willing to do this."

The notion that Western financial oligarchs are aiming to dump the US dollar is in keeping with recent reports that Goldman Sachs (whose members are suspiciously well connected to the upper echelons of the US Treasury) actually took up short positions on the housing market - just before the crash. Although a pre-meditated attempt to bring about a financial collapse would appear not to be in the financial oligarch's self-interest, it makes perfect sense when one considers this as a problem-reaction-solution operation - creating a problem in order to get the public to support a pre-determined solution.

Here, the endgame is to use a financial collapse to usher in a New World Order. Now, exactly as predicted, everyone from Kissinger to Soros is using the economic collapse to call for a new financial order of greater international (read: unelected, undemocratic and unaccountable) control over world financial markets.

As the G20 was drawing to a close, talking heads like Damon Vickers began inserting talking points about a new global currency and a "New World Order" onto CNBC. While the dumping of the dollar failed to gain traction at this meeting, this will continue to be pursued by the influential globalist financiers.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty made a show of standing up for the people of the planet by noting that "the recent public policy of privatizing profits and socializing losses is unacceptable to taxpayers," to which someone responded "Do you think they have noticed?" The response provoked laughter from the assembled oligarchs.

Mr. Estulin has a message for the G20 oligarchs: "Gentlemen of the G20, in case you're wondering: Yes, we the great unwashed have definitely noticed."

RFID: How secure are your passcards?

Ethical hacker, Chris Paget, demonstrates a low-cost mobile device that surreptitiously reads and clones RFID tags embedded in passport cards and enhanced drivers' licenses.

He can collect ID's, change IDs and collect complete identities by correlating passcard information with credit card information where both are RFID-chipped.

Anyone with such equipment, costing less than £150, can do this. The kit can be assembled from parts freely available in shops.




... and here, Chris shows how it's done, busting RFID myths in the process. So much for security!



Meanwhile, an RFID presentation was stopped by security technology giant HID Global, which claimed the presentation would violate its intellectual property.

Chris Paget's response:

“There is critical national infrastructure being protected by these things (RFID chips). There is a lot of misunderstanding in the industry regarding the security of these things. Our intent was to disseminate information so that people can make a knowledgeable decision about deploying RFID.”

We're losing our freedoms for less security - because we have totalitarian numpties in government.

7 months to go ...

The Christmas No.1?

It's time to move on.

Usury

The "usury" concept, the practice of charging financial interest in excess of the principle amount of a loan, is loosely interpreted as interest above the legal or socially acceptable rate, these days.

In times past, when coined money was actually worth something, usuary was considered an abuse, most particularly of the poor. Today, an interest rate of 40% on money which is based on nothing but thin air, is nothing short of predatory practice - legalised extortion.

Capital One will be charging some customers almost 40% this Christmas, reports the Mail.

For someone with a balance of £1,000, making the minimum repayment of £5 a month, the total interest bill will triple from £3,032 to £9,547.

Someone paying off £100 a month will see interest rise from £126 to £154.

Capital One attempts to justify this by saying that  the rises reflect the higher risk of certain customers.

Excuse me?

If a customer is likely to default, why would you want to lend him money, if not to extract interest charges out of him for as long as he fails to pay the principle loan amount?

It is those who are already struggling - probably the poor - who will be paying this usurous interest rate.    How can it possibly be justifyiable to charge the poor almost three times the rate of the better off?

If anything, such predatory lending should be banned.

You can be sure that Brown will do nothing about it.

Climate change hoax: hackers obtain embarrassing emails from Hadley Centre

The Examiner reports a hacking job which should prove to be pretty embarrassing to the climate change scammers:

The University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Centre appears to have suffered a security breach earlier today, when an unknown hacker apparently downloaded 1079 e-mails and 72 documents of various types and published them to an anonymous FTP server. These files appear to contain highly sensitive information that, if genuine, could prove extremely embarrassing to the authors of the e-mails involved. Those authors include some of the most celebrated names among proponents of the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

The FTP link first appeared on a blog called The Air Vent. The blog's owner, identified as "Jeff Id", downloaded the file, examined it, and posted a brief summary on his blog. Another commenter, identified as "Steven Mosher," passed the information on to Steven McIntyre's Climate Audit blog and to another blog, The Blackboard, run by a blogger identified as "Lucia." Most recently, blogger Anthony Watts, who runs a blog titled "Watts Up With That?" mentioned the FTP archive in his own blog.

Commentary on all the blogs involved has been brisk, except, oddly enough, at The Air Vent, where only seven comments have been received.

The FTP server is in a Russian domain and uses the anonymous FTP protocol, which does not require a pre-registered user account or password for downloading. The file is named FOI2009.zip, an apparent reference to US Public Law 89-554, 80 Stat. 383, the Freedom of Information Act.

Several commentators have expressed skepticism as to the authenticity of the archive, pointing to its lack of clear provenance and suggesting that someone was attempting to embarrass, either directly or indirectly, the dignitaries attending the upcoming climate-change conference in Copenhagen. Other commentators who have examined the e-mails in the archive conclude that the header and other information that they contain is too detailed to be a hoax. Thus far, no commentator has found anything in the e-mail headers that appears to be mistaken.

Some of the most embarrassing e-mails are attributed to Philip Jones, the Director of the CRU; Keith Briffa, his assistant; Michael E. Mann of the University of Virginia; Malcolm Hughes at the University of Arizona; and others. One such e-mail makes references to the famous "hockey-stick" graph published by Mann in the journal Nature:

I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.

The emphasis in the above quote was added.
Mr. Mosher offered this summary of the rest of the e-mails that he had found:

And, you get to see somebody with the name of phil jones say that he would rather destroy the CRU data than release it to McIntyre. And lots lots more. including how to obstruct or evade FOIA requests. and guess who funded the collection of cores at Yamal.. and transferred money into a personal account in Russia[.] And you get to see what they really say behind the curtain.. you get to see how they “shape” the news, how they struggled between telling the truth and making policy makers happy. [Y]ou get to see what they say about Idso and pat micheals, you get to read how they want to take us out into a dark alley, it’s stunning all very stunning. You get to watch somebody named phil jones say that John daly’s death is good news.. or words to that effect. I don’t know that its real.. But the CRU code looks real

John Daly (not to be confused with the professional golfer of the same name) is identified in one of the e-mails as a global-warming skeptic who died in January of 2004.

As embarrassing as the e-mails are, some of the documents are more embarrassing. They include a five-page PDF document titled The Rules of the Game, that appears to be a primer for propagating the AGW message to the average subject/resident of the United Kingdom. The document suggests that it is a precis of a longer document housed at the Web site of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Developing...

Update: The Russian FTP server administrator appears to have deleted the archive. The text of the link was: [This link doesn't work for me]


Activity on The Air Vent has picked up considerably since this story broke.
Further Update: Two other possessors of the file have uploaded it to two other file-sharing services: MegaUpload and FileDropper.

Further Update: A Pirate Bay torrent link is now available. [This link works!]

Also: The "72 documents" refers to 72 files and folders at the top level of a directory called "documents." In fact, reliable counts indicate at least 3485 documents present, not counting the e-mails.

Update:

The Hadley CRU director admits the emails seem to be genuine:

The director of Britain’s leading Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, has told Investigate magazine’s TGIF Edition tonight ..."It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails."…

TGIF asked Jones about the controversial email discussing “hiding the decline”, and Jones explained what he was trying to say….

More information from the Herald Sun.

Update: At 19:00, RealClimate, the now infamous site mentioned in the leaked emails, has now issued a rebuttal, indicating that the hacked emails might have been "edited"! Nice try, but the cat's out of the bag!

They've asked the police to investigate the leaks, nonetheless.

Update 21/11/2009:

Michael Mann, who was featured in many of the climategate emails, said "I'm simply not going to comment on the content of illegally obtained emails. However, I will say this: both their theft and, I believe, any reproduction of the emails that were obtained on public websites, etc, constitutes serious criminal activity. I'm hoping that the perpetrators and their facilitators will be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows."

Mann is famous for the "hockey stick" graph that represents human made carbon-dioxide emissions versus global average temperature. The leaked emails which instructed his correspondants to delete emails could incriminate Mann for deleting government-owned information.

He might also be guilty of thwarting FOI requests - directly or indirectly.

Cancer: Does chemotherapy cure or kill?

NaturalNews interviewed Suzanne Somers, author of "Knockout", to get her take on chemotherapy as a supposed cancer cure.

Somers talks of the 'conventional' cancer 'cures and their propensity to make cancer more virulent and also of mammograms which can subject the patient to as much radiation as a victim of Hiroshima.

She says:

"In 2010, cancer will be the biggest killer in the world. I fear for everybody walking into the present cancer protocol. It's going to make billions and billions of dollars for the industry, which is already a $200 billion-a-year business. It's going to bankrupt families. It causes expensive deaths. It emaciates people and they die anyway. Why not look into the options that are offered in Knockout? Why not look into Dr. Burzynski out of Houston? Why not look into Dr. Gonzalez in New York or Dr. Forsythe out of Nevada? [They] have a different protocol that doesn't require harsh chemicals or degrading the body."

Given the swine flu scam and other health scares, were I ever to contract cancer, I'd be more inclined to opt for natural remedies than the toxic, expensive treatments offered by conventional medicine.

In any case, what is so 'conventional' about chemotherapy? Natural remedies have been used by people for thousands of years!

Listen to the interview:

Riveting viewing: Continental Congress 2009

Blogging will be light while the Continental Congress 2009 is in progress.

This is riveting viewing.

Yesterday, for instance, the congress passed a resolution to get rid of the IRS, it being unconstitutional and its inception not even ratified by Congress.

Also debated was Agenda 21, the NAU (North American Union), various world treaties and the spurious environmental agencies which are strangling the life out of Americans (and other countries), trampling over civil liberties and threatening to depose sovereignty.

The speeches have been startlingly direct.  No political correctness, no fear.

The congress, with painstaking effort over the last decade, has amassed a mountain of evidence against the government (past and present), which clearly proves that the government and corporatists have been involved in a conspiracy to form a global government - the New World Order.

At last, the information is out in the open.  It is not a theory.

IT IS FACT.

Watch the Continental Congress 2009 Live.

View the archive of videos and the congress's Schedule of Events (ends 22nd November).

I will be posting updates as the congress progresses.

World Government: A scientific society

Bertrand Russell, in his book The Scientific Outlook (1931), describes a clinical world ruled by 'elites', where the individual is sacrificed for 'the good of' the collective, much as individual soldiers are sacrificed for the good of the country in today's society.

He likens the political oligarchs of such a society to the head of the Church - tastes, opinions, behaviour - all controlled from the top.

Russell's world is not dissimilar to Aldus Huxley's Brave New World, where life is prescribed by the State, from breeding (breaking up the family) through to death - the minutae surveilled and controlled by the State.

The parallels with today's world under Labour are startling and perhaps offer a glimpse of what's next on Labour's agenda.

Some choice excerpts, in this five-part (autoplay) video series:

Continental Congress 2009: Reclaiming constitutional rights

The American Continental Congress (Nov 11th to 22nd) is in progress now and thoroughly inspirational this year's conference has been, too.

Thursday's conference hosted some hard-hitting speeches where congressmen openly labelled the government's actions in recent years as treasonous.

They are demanding that they get redress or they will seek to dissolve the goverment. Notice that they are taking action retrospectively.

We should be courageous and follow suit.

Well worth watching.

Iraq Veterans Against the War: A soldier speaks out

On Saturday, May 9, 2009 Iraq Veterans Against the War held hearings about war crimes and the abuse of soldiers.

The Winter Soldier Southwest heard from many American vets of Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam and well as the victims of war and the families of vets. The Gold Star Families, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans for Peace and the Iraq Veterans for Peace were all represented.

This is the testimony of Ryan Endicott about his experiences in Iraq.

Good Reads

How fortunate for government that people don't think - Big Brother Watch

Chemical Imbalance - Psyciatric News

Finders Weepers - Dick Puddlecoat

This is Why We Should Never Get Rid Of Jury Service ... - Ambush Predator

Bureaucracy Run Mad - Roger Helmer

The Mandelson Long Game - Tory Politico

Operation Health Freedom - Libertarian Party

EU: Václav Klaus on EU kickbacks and anti-democratic practices

Are there parallels to be drawn between the EU and the late, unlamented Warsaw Pact? Czech Republic president Václav Klaus puts the case.

Klaus tells Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution that the leader of one country, which he declined to specify, told him that a referendum would not be possible in his country as the people would overwhelmingly vote against it.

He alluded to the kickbacks 'earned' by the traitors who sold their countries to the EU.

The Albion Alliance: Cross-party independence alliance

The Albion Alliance was launched today, to bring together people from all parties who want a referendum on the EU.

Ian Parker-Joseph explains why we need the alliance:

Numerous opinion polls tell us that 70% of the voting public want a referendum on the EU.

Over the past 40 years Britain has been led, against the wishes of its people, into a political union by a discredited political elite without so much as a single vote on the issue from the public. The last time the public were consulted, in 1975, it was for a simple trading partnership called the EEC. No-one has agreed to a political union where the law of this land will be made by unelected officials in a far off land.

We believe that the forthcoming General Election should be the catalyst that forces that referendum. A referendum that simply asks the public:

“Should the United Kingdom remain in a political union with the other member states of the EU. Yes or No?”

In order to force this issue to the top of the agenda, not in another 5 years, but as a priority for any incoming government, we will be asking every PPC to unreservedly commit to putting the country before party by signing up to the principles laid out in this Albion Alliance.

We are not asking any PPC to abandon his or her own party, nor to set up a party in opposition, but to simply put the people whose votes they are asking for, and their country, before all else, irrespective of the Party Whip.

When they become a signatory to the Albion Alliance, they are pledging to force this referendum, they will be asked to carry the Albion Alliance logo on their campaign website and literature, so that you the voter will know that if you vote for this candidate, they have pledged to granting the public that all important voice on the future of these Islands, a United Kingdom, a land once known as Albion.

The public will then know when they are making that all important decision on who to vote for, a vote for a PPC who is pledged to the Albion Alliance means a candidate who is committed to a referendum, where we hope to find a majority of A.A. MP’s across all political parties once the election is over. Such an alliance would also consider policies that are likewise mutually compatable and can be agreed with the members.

I have already made that pledge, and I urge you to write to your current MP, and then to all the PPC’s intending to stand for election in your constituency urging them to make the pledge to the A.A., The Albion Alliance.

Thank you.
Ian Parker-Joseph
Leader, Libertarian Party UK & PPC Torfaen

Join the Albion Alliance.

How to make your own swine flu vaccine

Labour's doublespeak

Politics Home reports:

Gordon Brown and Andy Burnham announced a free health check to all those over 45, the right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks of diagnosis, and the right to treatment of cancer within eighteen weeks.

"It is part of a move away from a target-led approach", said Mr Brown.

How does the setting the setting of three new targets represent a move away from the target-led approach?

Sheer doublespeak.

Definition of doublespeak:

evasive, ambiguous, high-flown language intended to deceive or confuse.  A deliberate, calculated misuse of language.

Doublespeak attributes:

• misleading
• distortion of reality
• pretence at communication
  
• making the bad seem good
• avoiding or shifting responsibility
• making the negative appear positive
• creating a false verbal map of the world
• limiting, concealing, corrupting, and shutting down thought
• making the unpleasant appear attractive or tolerable
• creating incongruity between reality and what is said or not said

EU: Like the Soviet Union, says Pravda

Each passing day sees more of our liberties die, as we descend into totalitarianism - the basis on which the real EU was founded.

The spiel, the "narrative" for we plebs, was that it would be a common market of nation states - a community of nations that would put an end to war.

The way the EU is headed, thanks to the Lisbon Treaty which Cameron won't repeal, war looks increasingly likely. Not war between nations, but war between the governed and our self-appointed ruling 'elites', who have exempted themselves, forever, from prosecution.

Hans Vogal (Pravda), describes the similarities between Gestapo, Stasi and EU 'policing':

The Stasi, inheriting brutal, effective Gestapo methods, was keeping tabs on most of the East German population. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, it listened in on all telephone conversations, opened all envelopes and read all letters. It kept controls on anyone entering or leaving the country. An army of almost 100,000 secret agents, helped by 200,000 civilian collaborators, spied day and night on East Germany's 16 million citizens. Most European governments today are using time-honored Stasi techniques to keep their citizens under surveillance. However, technology has advanced so impressively since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, that today's government spooks glean more information on unwitting civilians than the most fanatical Stasi agent would have hoped for in his wildest fantasies.

Vladimir Bukovsky spent many years in Russian labour camps and psychiatric prisons for defending human rights. He came to Britain in 1976. He lectures and writes on the old Soviet system and the EU

Vladimir Bukovsky's warning:



What's the solution to this creeping communism? Leave the UK< EU. But to do that, you'll need to vote UKIP.

Update:

The Bukovsky video comes from Britain on the Brink (below), produced in 2007, which features Christopher Booker and constitutional experts. (4-part autoplay):

Government snoopers to invade your home to check your smoke alarm

Yesterday, we learned about a mother who was branded an abuser and followed home by police and questioned, after she threatened to smack her child for being naughty.

Now these communists want to send inspectors into our homes to ensure that we've installed smoke alarms properly.

These intrusive measures are coming thick and fast - sometimes several per day.  How much damage will this unspeakably vile 'government' do before it is kicked out of office in March 2010?

The Mail reports: (Update: The Mail removed this story 09/11/2009)

Family homes could be invaded by health and safety inspectors checking that parents are keeping their children safe.

Whitehall is recommending that inspectors make sure parents have fitted smoke alarms, stair gates, locks on medicine cupboards, windows and ovens, and temperature controls to stop bath water getting too hot.

The proposed scheme was condemned by critics yesterday as a nightmarish intrusion into family life.

The Department of Health has already had the National Institute of Clinical Excellence draw up guidelines to reduce ' unintentional injuries among under-15s in the home'.

...

The guidance states: 'A home risk assessment involves systematically identifying potential hazards in the home, evaluating those risks and proving information-or advice on how to reduce them.'

Devices specified by the guidelines including smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, hot water temperature restrictors, safety and stair gates, and oven, window and door guards and locks.

There will be repeated return visits to check that parents have maintained their safety devices.

...

Researcher Patricia Morgan said: 'This is a nightmarish prospect. This is vetting and barring extended to the home. It is a major step towards total state control. When state intervention creeps into your home, where does it end? Will you have to have cameras in your house?'

Shami Chakrabarti, of Liberty, the human rights group, said: 'Why can't we have a public information campaign before we rush into creating databases and intrusion and introducing bureaucracy to the living room?'

Simon Davies, of watchdog group Privacy International, said: 'The problem here is the additional powers that would go to government authorities.

'Anybody who stands in the way of inspections will be considered suspect. This represents a landmark expansion of government intervention in home life. It must be regarded with great concern and suspicion.'

He added: 'If the database identifies you but you are unco-operative or you refuse to comply, the next step will be your door broken down at five in the morning. That will happen as surely as night follows day.'

Update:

As predicted, this is just one of a raft of measures designed to spy on you, dressed up in fluffy "health and safety" and "evironment" clothes, as the Standard reports:

“Neighbourhood Champions”* will be expected to pass on evidence of graffiti, fly-tipping, litter and excessive noise.

They could eventually be trained to report child abuse, domestic violence, racial harassment and other “hate crimes”.

The plan is expected to be approved this week in Harrow. The council says the scheme, which has the backing of the Met commander for the borough, will increase pride in the community.

But critics today raised fears over civil liberties, warning that it is the latest example of a surveillance society.

Susie Squires, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: “Community spirit and looking out for your neighbours is one thing, but snooping is another. Residents are already able to report nuisances as part of normal procedure. Taxpayers are sick and tired of being spied on. This creates distrust."

* Harrow Council has 2000 snoopers for every 100 residents. Harrow is a Conservative council!


Related:

Police report pregnant woman to social services over half-decorated home

THINK AGAIN, DAVE!

Tory Eurosceptics threaten 'all-out war' over Brussels

David Cameron's promise of a referendum in 2015 would come too late to placate his MPs and MEPs

By Jane Merrick

David Cameron has been given an 18-month deadline by a powerful band of Eurosceptic Tory MPs to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels or face an "all-out war" for a referendum, it emerged yesterday. The Conservative leader last week tried to buy more time from the Eurosceptic wing of his party by promising that the Tories' 2015 election manifesto would contain a promise for a referendum should the EU "move in the wrong direction".

Mr Cameron unveiled a list of proposals to assert Britain's sovereignty over Brussels and repatriate certain powers during the next Parliament, if the Tories win the 2010 election. The shopping list was an attempt to placate his MPs and MEPs after he dropped a pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

But a senior Tory MP said yesterday that Mr Cameron would have to move quickly in the first year and a half of his premiership – and had to show "real progress" on his promises. The MP said: "I don't think a promise of a referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU in more than five years will sit very well. He [Cameron] needs to make progress, within the first 18 months of his premiership. If he does, it will be his crowning glory, but if he doesn't, it will be a thorn in his side."

Another Eurosceptic backbencher said: "We have agreed to keep quiet on this before the election, but if things do not start happening in the first year or so, there will be all-out war for a referendum."

The warning from the band of Conservative MPs steps up the pressure on the Tory leader after the resignation of two Tory MEPs, Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer, from the party's frontbench in the European Parliament. The issue threatens to spoil Mr Cameron's honeymoon as Prime Minister if he wins next spring. Some 47 Tory MPs, including a handful of shadow ministers, signed a Commons motion last month that "insists that the Prime Minister rejects the [Lisbon] Reform Treaty ... and holds a referendum before or after ratification". Mr Helmer and Mr Hannan are both members of the Better Off Out group which wants the UK to withdraw from the EU. There are also five Tory MPs and eight Conservative peers who are members of the group.

The early-day motion was signed before the Czech government finally signed the treaty last week, triggering EU-wide ratification. The next day, Mr Cameron announced he could not hold a referendum on a treaty that had become enshrined in law. He won over many MPs who signed the motion by pledging a UK Sovereignty Bill and a "referendum lock" on a future treaty that ceded further powers to Brussels. But many Eurosceptic Tories have made it clear that the issue will not go away early in the next Parliament.

In a fresh development yesterday, Mr Helmer renewed his attack on the Tory leader's EU policy. He wrote that Mr Cameron's EU policy was "confused", adding: "We have said that now that the Lisbon Treaty is EU law, we are not in a position to repudiate it. Yet we have made a series of proposals which repudiate significant parts of it, and run counter to EU law. But as we all know, the supremacy of EU law is explicit in the Lisbon Treaty. If we accept Lisbon, we accept the supremacy of EU law." He added: "A 'referendum lock' will not work, because we have already thrown away the key. Our policy fails to recognise the self-amending nature of Lisbon." Mr Helmer said he would campaign for a Tory victory in 2010, but added: "I can neither justify nor support our new EU policy. You can only defy the will of the people for so long."

STORY FROM THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

If David Cameron was not so out of touch with the population of Britain he would have realised that his speech on the Lisbon Treaty was the last thing that the vast majority of people wanted to hear. 

People are quite rightly going to assume, and some have done for a while, now, that Cameron never wanted to hold a referendum in the first place and no-one could blame them for thinking this way under the present circumstances. His words merely sounded like they were designed to give people some future hope for a solution to get us out of the worst parts of a treaty that is self-amending and no longer requires any consultation before the EU does whatever it wants!

It also transpires that a few weeks ago, Margaret Thatcher wrote a letter to Vaclav Klaus, a great admirer of hers, urging him to hold firm and not to sign the treaty. This letter was to be delivered to President Klaus by William Hague - he never delivered the letter and left it sitting on his desk instead! 

Exactly what the hell is going on here?

The above article from the Independent is the most encouraging that I have read in some time - perhaps we're not dead in the water just yet! Please get your act together, Dave, or the election could leave us facing another five years of Labour and then......... 

we can kiss democracy goodbye forever!