“It seems to me that the judge has shown appropriate mercy for someone risking his life for the rest of us.”

He is not just risking his life, but our lives too.

143 MPH?

What car was he driving?

Oh it does go beyond road traffic, a few years ago a few soldiers came out of a pub, saw a brown skinned person and started swearing racists abuse at him, then they beat him put, and one of them pocked one of his eyes out with a bit of glass.

They were given community service, because a criminal record would mean they might have to leave the army.

Ever seen or heard of a Marxist-Feminist going to prison, now that ZanuLabour are in ‘control’?

arsalan: it was a Ford Focus ST.

NuLab policy – soldiers must be protected at all costs. Until sent by us to fight stupid and illegal wars, then they’re on their own.

“…someone risking his life for the rest of us”

We’re not all heroin addicts Mr Straw.

From the Lancashire Telegraph article:

“The court heard the 20-year-old is about to embark on a tour of Afghanistan in mid June, where he will be carrying out repair work to British vehicles damaged by roadside bombs.”

So (1) the offender is a mechanic, not actually fighting – “…someone risking his life for the rest of us” Mr Straw?

And (2) Since when did we need ordinary mecahnics, and other, special mechanics for repairing damage by bombs? Or was the defence just mentioning bomb damage for its emotive effect?

Still, I suppose it is an unusual instance where “We have to send our soldiers over there to protect us over here” actually has some truth in it…

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Never rang truer.

Fear not! for the up and coming vote will solve all these evils.

/Laughs/

Jack Straw has complete disregard for the public as a whole.

Gordon Brown like the monster Hydra also has many different faces, one such public face expresses kindness and magnanimity, and another private face revealing a cruel, overbearing, intimidating, intolerant and aggressive demeanour.

A strong holistic leader has qualities that recognise our social embeddedness and the need for developing an interest in the welfare of others.

Not, as Brown did, accuse an elderly member of the public and a Labour supporter to boot as ‘bigoted.’

Hypocritical also comes to mind!

Fuckin’ disgrace.

Just when i thought Straw couldnt sicken me any more…

This soldier,at that speed,is risking his own life,thus weakening military capability, and also the lives of many civilians.

Abysmal logic.

If I was being chased by a bunch of unknown people in an unmarked car, I might think about trying to get away from them, too, I’m suprised more wasn’t made of that angle. I suppose it’s difficult when both ‘sides’ of the case are so unquestionable.

Jack Straw isn’t going to be put in jail.

Jack Straw isn’t above the law, Jack Straw is the law.

A judge in the Guildford Crown Court (Critchlow as far as I can remember) has let off military personnel accused of various violent assaults because they were serving. ‘Our brave boys’ stuff again.

I think this case and the others mentioned show that the establishment is afraid of the military.

Aw Jesus Christ, Jimmy! Come oan tae grips!

We no takin boot Marxist-Leninists (are there ony left in this country?), nor are we takin boot feminists. We’re takin boot soajers who are programmed by the brutalisin effect ae war tae hate Afghans, Iraqis, etc. and/ or who feel able tae act oot on pre-exisiting racist impulses followin a period ae sustained brutalisation in the theatre ae war, or who might’ve been jist f..in racist bastards tae begin wi, attackin a broon person (an Ah dinnae mean ta PM) blindin him or else engagin in risk-takin behaviours lik speedin at 142 MPH oan the public highway. It’s the Vietnam Vet Syndrome, ken.

Wur also takin boot senior war-mongerin poalatians who smashed international law in 2003 and who therefore feel they can smash it at thur ain convenience. These dunderheids cultivate and excuse such behaviour oan the (inaccurate) assumption that ‘a psychopath makes a guid soajer’ and because they think it’ll gain them favours wi the worst aspects ae media/ public opinion:

“Kill the pig, cut his throat!”

It’s got f-all tae dae wi Karl Marx, Vladmir Lenin or Andrea Dworkin.

Ye’ve dae weil tae learn tae pick yer targets appropriately, otherwise ye might end up lik thoase soajers, iviry time a tungsten licht goes oan, shootin aff in the wrang direction!

Straw has form on this himself though. If you remember some years ago in his early ministerial career as Home Secretary, his car was stopped by police on the M5 on the way back to the Cotswolds after he had made an appearance at his Blackburn constituency to meet the plebs. He was not driving but his chauffeur was doing over a ton presumably with the blessing of the great man in the back seat. As I remember the driver got let off.

Just listemed to the Jeremy Vine show on radio 2. Such joy to hear Gordon Brown telling the truth for the first time in his life in front of an open microphone albeit in the confines of his bullet proof car. Not quite as much fun as Prescot and the flying egg incident of a few years back but none the less revealing of the man when put under pressure. Is anybody seriously expecting him back at number 10 in two weeks ? I bet Pickfords have already been booked…

In any case Marxist-Feminists are very law-abiding I understand.

“Is anybody seriously expecting him back at number 10 in two weeks ?”

If there’s a hung parliament and Labour have the most seats then that’s exactly what will happen, at least at first.

Well lets see what does happen in the end. The media like to speculate during the spectacle of a general election campaign. It seems the public are being primed for the propsect of such a hanging. Would Clegg or Cameron want to try and work with this obnoxious and arrogant fool?

Richard Robinson,

good point. It’s time the police stopped having car chases, and some technology was applied instead.

“I’m suprised more wasn’t made of that angle”.

It’s because the unmarked car was a police car, which will have activated its siren and flashing light pretty quickly. That he was being pursued suggests he was already speeding before he noticed the police car.

Craig you keep mentioning that the food was Hallal. What proof if any do you have that it was Hallal?

On what basis do you bass your judgement that he would give Hallal food, from a reputable supplier?

This clown just gets worse and worse:

http://www.channel4.com/news/

I suppose it’ll take the concerted hatchet job off Clegg for about five minutes though.

“I’m suprised more wasn’t made of that angle”

“It’s because the unmarked car was a police car, which will have activated its siren and flashing light pretty quickly.”

Ah, I see. I took “unmarked” to mean not having unmistakable indicators that it was a copcar.

Jon, thanks very much indeed! But it’s not me who writes that column in ‘Private Eye’. Indeed, I’d forgotten about it till you reminded me. I don’t know who it is, in truth.

On another, somewhat unrelated, but not completely unrelated, note, I just got home today to find a BNP election leaflet in my hall.

Pic of Churchill adjacent to pic of Nic. Nice. Weetabixy family, smiling… so sweet, so very sweet.

It’s come all the way from Turriff, Aberdeenshire! “Turra, Turra, faur the sorra idder?” Whisky country. Aye.

My goodness, those Fascists, they do travel, don’t they? By golly, they make the trains run on time.

How dare they pollute my country!

I don’t think I’ll recycle it. I think I’ll get one of those long, cooking matches and ignite a corner so that I can watch it burn, very slowly. A spell, if you wish.

I was once let off by a West Midlands traffic cop using the same excuse but I was only doing 80mph on the A41 late at night. Personally, I think the 1960′s limit of 70mph is too low but 143mph is way too excessive if there are other vehicles around.

For a bit of light relief:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3rD8fUmbRA&feature=related

Ah, now I see that Gray Raikes, Leader of the BNP in Scotland, lives in Turriff, Aberdeenshire. I wonder how many printers there are in that small, rural town.

Well, well, well.

The internet is amazing, don’t you think? The world is just a click away.

Printers in Turriff… let’s Google it. Printers in Turriff…

If they can put leaflets through my door, I can seek them out.

Now for that spell.

I want to see a “Judge Straw” graphic, like 2000AD comic Judge Dredd. Anyone? I don’t think I have the artistic skills..

Speaking of army guys, speeding, blinding… Here’s a piece about Mr Raikes:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/11/23/army-sack-cadet-officer-after-he-is-exposed-as-leader-of-bnp-in-scotland-78057-20918122/

You seem a little angry, cool down. Good article

From the http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

“He said did not realise it was an unmarked police car. Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Kameron Edmondson admitted going twice the speed limit on the M40 in his Ford Focus ST, believing he was being persued by a Subaru Impreza.

“He said did not realise it was an unmarked police car. ”

Did anyone think to ask him why he thought he was being “persued”?

What to do with these fucked up young soldiers – Jack Straw knows, send them back to Afghanistan.

“Oh it does go beyond road traffic, a few years ago a few soldiers came out of a pub, saw a brown skinned person and started swearing racists abuse at him, then they beat him put, and one of them pocked one of his eyes out with a bit of glass.

They were given community service, because a criminal record would mean they might have to leave the army.”

Arsalan,

There are a number of scandalous miscarriages of justice in the English system:-

- Bentley’s case ?” Lord Goddard caused the death by hanging of an innocent young man.

- The Gilford Four

- The Princess Diana cover up

- The BAE scandal when the case was coming too close to the ultimate bribery source, the case was stopped in “the national interest” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,,2098418,00.html)

And then…

- Oh it does go beyond road traffic, a few years ago a few soldiers came out of a pub, saw a brown skinned person and started swearing racists abuse at him, then they beat him put, and one of them pocked one of his eyes out with a bit of glass.

They were given community service, because a criminal record would mean they might have to leave the army.

- And

143 miles on the highway, and if you are a soldier on your way to Afghanistan to repaid vehicles, then there is no consequence for your action ?” soldier.

Being in the Armed Forces is about discipline and obeying orders. Driving a car at 143mph on a public road represents neither. The Army will frown on such bad behaviour and this young man will be reminded soon enough, however foolish the civilian judge is patting him on the head and letting him off.

Straw got away (so far) with much more than a brief crazy moment driving much too fast like a youthful idiot. This young squaddy killed no-one with his silly exploit, fortunately, and with any luck he has learnt a lesson. Straw has done so much worse to undermine everything our history and democracy stand for. I think Straw is incapable of learning a lesson, otherwise he could never look at his face in the mirror and feel anything but profound shame.

The judge said that he deserved disqualification, but was doing a vitally important job for the Army. That’s not the same as letting him off.

Abe Rene – what’s wrong with you?

He escaped a ban. He was let off.

And then Straw backed that decision.

He is 20 years old ffs. If it were 40 year old Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari, I’d understand a 6 point penalty but this idiot has hardly any experience of driving let alone at high speed and he was in a crappy Ford to boot.

Sorry, I thought this soldier had already been to Afghanistan, I didn’t read:

“A SOLDIER caught driving at 143mph has been allowed to keep his licence so he can train for a life-saving role in Afghanistan. ”

correction:

*What to do with these fucked up young soldiers – Jack Straw knows, send them to Afghanistan. *

Jack Straw is still a shit bag.

But what does “life-saving role in Afghanistan” mean when this soldier either doesn’t give a shit or is very paranoid? Could someone like that

be reliable enough to ‘save lives’?

“a life-saving role”

Judge Coates told Edmondson: “It is a matter of balancing two different public interests, and the saving of lives must be the more important.

“I must allow you to remain in the role you do, which is essential for our armed forces.”

Judge Coates “the saving of lives must be the more important”

How is Coates qualified to judge on Afghanistan war?

Andy, I agree entirely with what you’ve just written.

This reckless young fool will do what exactly in Afghanistan? Slaughter innocent civilians?

God help us.

“We used to play for silver now we play for life

And one’s for sport, and one’s for blood at the point of a knife

And now the die has shaken, now the die must fall

There ain’t a winner in the game

He don’t go home with all, not with all”

“Jack Straw from Wichita cut his buddy down

And dug for him a shallow grave, and laid his body down”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBUF3UoOvoI

Tony

Abe said:-

“The judge said that he deserved disqualification, but was doing a vitally important job for the Army. That’s not the same as letting him off.”

Then what is it? There are a range of penalties that can apply.

Maybe, it would also be helpful to find out ( to be fair) if this young man had any prevoius offences on his record. I assume not, because of his army status.

Surely, there has to be some objectively fair standard to be applied. Has the Judge been fair?

Is Staw balanced in his comments, when same is applied to the “Rule of Law”.

CB

143 mph?

That’s nowt – My Mate’s Triumph Does 170 mph

Or so he claims

Tony

Truth be told Craig… .Straw’s peccadilloes just pale in comparison to the state’s substantial corrupt transgressions… if you really think about it…

In February 2010, BAE Systems accepted guilt and agreed to pay penalties in the US and the UK totalling several hundred million dollars to settle all the long-running corruption allegations against it. The text below is from is from June 2007.

———————————————————————–

Since the Guardian first disclosed the nature of the corruption allegations against BAE in 2003, the company has been under investigation by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office. Although the SFO has now been forced to drop the Saudi part of its inquiry on grounds of “national security”, this aspect has been taken up by the Swiss federal prosecutor, who is investigating possible money laundering in the transactions that went through Swiss banks. Other investigations are going on in Sweden, Austria, Tanzania, Romania, the Czech Republic and South Africa.

BAE’s most recent exposition of its public position came in its 42-page corporate responsibility report published in March 2007.

In it, Mike Turner, the chief executive, explains that BAE employees have now been sent on “an ethics awareness training course”. The firm said:

“We provide training on our anti-bribery programme to … senior managers. On completing the training, employees are required to sign a statement confirming they will comply with our policies and will report any issues of concern …

“All BAE Systems marketing advisers are subject to rigorous due diligence under our compliance programme, are made aware of our anti-bribery policy and are expected to maintain our ethical standards.”

________________________________________

Craig look at the real big shit…take a deep breath and inhale….yuck…

An Attorney General who suddenly switches his legal advice, a Prime Minister desperate to please a foreign power, Clare Short fuming on the sidelines, and the truth shrouded in mystery…

I suppose the bottom line is that New Labour have already sold us to the US and corporate elite. They don’t have any way of changing that anymore. That’s why they can’t explain their authoritarianism, their errors or do anything different.

They’re just doing what they’re told, by forces who have no interest in the well-being of British people.

I can’t imagine Cameron would be any different. He’s part of the same club.

The only way out of this is PR and the impossibilty of anyone ensuring such total control of our political system again. That’s what the corporate and media elite fear in the rise of the Lib Dems. That’s why they hit them so hard with such laughable allegations.#

But the British people are thoroughly fed up with authoritarian politicians and their sidekicks in media, and want their democracy back to themselves.

The tumbrils are rolling for these bankers, politicians and media whores who have so destroyed and distorted the human way of life.

Well, Mr Barnett.

While you’re at it, Boeing’s patent application for an uninterruptible auto-pilot on what date? Sept 11 2001 !!!

Google: qrs-11 hillary clinton

Have fun

I Know You Don’t Believe What I Write…

You see, I think I may actually be able to do it (Kind of Secretly)

Learn The Guitar Finally at MY AGE

And be good enough to actually get on Stage

And Blow Them Away

There is No Way They Won’t Let Me Up

If I Turn Up With My Guitar….

They May Think It Will Be The Funniest Thing They Have Ever Seen

When I Do Trower

Hardly Any Of Them Know How To Play Trower

And I have only seen One Person Play Trower Live (Except Robin Trower of Course – Numerous Times)

Getting someone to sing like James Dewar is very much Tougher…

But I Know a Young Vocalist Who Has Got The Most Tremendous Determination and Now After 7 Years is a Brilliant Vocalist – He can also help me learn guitar – he has already given my daughter lessons

But it has to be a secret.

It will take me at least a couple of years but I am making good progress and I now play Guitar Every Day.

I have completely amazed myself. I bought a Les Paul guitar less than two weeks ago (he died last year), and I have been trying to play it every single day. Yes my fingers really hurt. But I have tried to learn the guitar on several occasions since the age of 13 and always have given up in disgust thinking I am useless. Now I am really old. The last time I tried to play guitar was years ago when I was 50.

But in less than 10 days I have learnt to play some rock riffs quite well, for the very first time.

I find free lessons on youtube absolutely brilliant for this…

The best I have found so far is this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzUbUbBqruU

I can actually do it when sober, but can’t yet get the timing right when pissed.

I also have a Zoom GFX1. It can make the guitar sound like almost anything.

I am now in competetion with my 19 year old daughter. She is learning at University on my old Fender.

Metallica will perform at Ramat Gan Stadium on May 22 in Israel.

Is it safe to travel there and will they let me in, let me go to the gig – and let me out again without torturing me?

I have met several Israeli’s who travelled to London and Reading to go to Music Gigs, and some of them Even Played. We didn’t torture them at all and made them very welcome.

I do have numerous stamps in my passport from countries all over half the World – including several Muslim Countries in Africa and the Middle East…

All the Muslim Countries treated us with the Greatest Courtesy and Respect, and we only caused a slight problem once when we took my Son’s 15 year old Girlfriend through Dubai Airport. She dressed like any English teenage girl would going on holiday to a hot country like Spain or Greece. The customs didn’t say anything – just waived us through….

But all these Muslim blokes in Dubai airport and their wives wearing black bin liners over their heads – seemed to think Madonna’s daughter had landed – so she had to try and hide on the floor behind her boyfriend. She didn’t like the entire airport staring at her.

The last time I saw Metallica was at the Strand Palace Hotel in London before they were famous in around 1982

And now for the first time in my life I can play Metallica

http://www.leaan.co.il/venue_areas.asp

Tony

@ Tony

Never mind Trower and Metallica…pentatonic/harmonic minor cliches..

Can u play like Joe Pass?…:.)

or Grant Green?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_1mcytWlME

My wife found this camera and some photographs in a bin upstairs in our attic…

The photos were O.K. and so was the camera…

My daughter had a few friends over whilst we were away looking after her Grandma and Grandad…

And her brother was working most of the time

So I don’t know what she was up to

And I don’t know how this camera came into my home

My wife and I have looked at some of the pictures on the camera, and we do not know one of the numerous people on them There are people of all colours from seemingly all over the World. The slightly more dominant culture that we got from the photo’s was Asian..

I don’t know what to do with this camera

It works fine and does 4 megapixel stills…

Which is more than enough for most situations…

The Flash works too – I tested it by taking a picture of myself – which looks like me asking

What the fuck is this in my hand?

I have never seen it before and have yet to interrogate either of my Children…

But I would like to get it back to its owner

She has some Beautiful Friends

Tony

Now that I have given myself a New Objective of Becoming a Rock Star – and Doing It For Real – and You Think I am a hopeless case….

I will point out that, not can I only play several riffs after 10 days practice…

The hair still grows out of my head…

It is Real and It is Long

And no, I am not Bald at all, I have also inherited the most Beautiful Skin From My Mother…

And My Wife Who I Love To Bits Keeps Me Fit….

We Have Sex and We Walk and We Climb Mountains and We Cycle and Sometimes We Run For The Last Train Home From The Gig The Other Side of London

I was also a Child Model at the Age of 4

I was Featured in The Nursing Times Wearing a Sailor’s Uniform

And although I am considerably older, I can and will look much younger than Craig Murray – And He is My James Bond

007 Eat Your Heart Out

I reckon I can look as Georgeous as David Coverdale did 5 years ago. He looked even better than when he past us his Pint Right at the Front of Wembley Arena in Whitesnake over 25 years ago

Tony

Tony,

May I suggest you get a Line6 Toneport.

It comes with software called Gearbox.

Your guitar plugs into the toneport which outputs to your amp but has a USB link to your PC. That’s where it gets interesting: you can use Gearbox online to change settings to emulate Blackmore, Gilmore, Hendrix, Santana, Reinhart, you name it.

I just had a quick blast playing Zepellin with Prince’s sound. All good fun

Her English ain’t so good – but she is completely stunning…She goes round the pub and talks to absolutely everyone

She not only Dances The Flamenco Like an Angel…

But Today She sent My Wife and I an Invitation To Come To Her Home For Dinner

We Replied

Thank You. We would Love To Come.

She Taught Me How To Say “I Love You” In Spanish about 6 months ago when we invited her to our home.

I keep forgetting – but she reminds me when we see her.

Tony

Vaya con Dios, hermano

ScouseBilly,

Thanks for the tip, but I don’t think I am yet ready to record anything…

But I have already looked at the technology

Maplins have being trying to flog it to me

But one thing at a time

I have got to learn how to play the instrument first

Its a bit like shagging

And to be honest two acoustic guitars upstairs are looking rather sexy – one from a mate of mine who can play Spanish Guitar better than any bloke from Spain I have ever seen.

I have also bought spare acoustic Strings – but the tuning handle of the best accoustic guitar is broken off and I have had to use a mole wrench to tune it.

Tony

Good luck, Tony. I’ve been at it a mere 35 years

P.S. If your mate can play better than Paco de Lucia, I’d like to hear him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=976aVPPx2Zc&feature=related

I play the classic myself. Try learning “Angie” by the late, great Davy Graham:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntdGoKj2gE

The above gives exact instructions on how to play the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92qxDCah2ag

Learn to finger-pick. Once you’ve done some of that, mere chord playing is quite easy!

ScouseBilly,

He’s a Brilliant Rock Guitarist Who Lost His Home and His Job and His Money Because He had a Lousy Holiday In Spain which I drove him and his wife and kids to the airport to…

And when he came back he dumped his wife and kids at home and went straight down the pub and met this Pyschopath who Has Taken Yoga to The Limits and Can Get Her Head Up Her Own Arse…

They Fight Like Cat and Dog

And he is the last person in the World who I would think could ever hit a woman

But apparently the Sex is So Awesome that he seems to think it is all worthwhile – and when she throws him out he knows he always has a place to go

Our home

He can also play accoustic guitar like no one I have ever seen

I reckon it must be in the sex

Tony

I think I should mention this for entertainment purposes…though Craig Murray will probably delete it

I also know one of the original members of Spinal Tap – though I know his Sister Much Better.

Their Uncle Taught Me To Fly.

He is Sir Derek Piggott

He is AWESOME

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Piggott

Tony

It doesn’t matter how old you are so long as you stay fit and healthy and work hard and don’t panic

Even I took up Diving at the age of 46 for the first time….

And though I am a crap swimmer – I found it incredibly easy and just totally

MAGNIFICENT

But do this first

So long as you don’t weigh much more than 16 stone there should be no problem.

If you are a fat bastard then get fit and lose some weight first..

Even YOU can do this and – its as easy as learning to drive a car – and you can learn how to screw thermals in the air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmik9RKQpAY

Tony

Well it looks like the campaign to have Jack Straw arrested and imprisoned for “currying favour” (that was a good one whoever came up with it!) or Arsalan’s cunning ruse of fake grievance-mongering will be unnecessary.

Gordon Brown has effectively dragged New Labour out into the street and shot it dead with his “bigot” comment and his daft conditional “apology”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8650546.stm

Main Entry: gaffe

Pronunciation: \’gaf\

Function: noun

Etymology: French, gaff, gaffe

Date: 1909

1 : a social or diplomatic blunder

2 : a noticeable mistake

According to a contributor on medialens -

Apparently it was a Sky News microphone (owned by Rupert Murdoch) and they just left the live feed running to air – but Rupert is supporting ‘call me Dave’ this time. One of the dangers of media-driven oligarchy I suppose. Blair did suck-up to Rupert to get the support of his media empire – it enraged Kinnock who called him a sell-out, which he was. Still, it got Brown plenty of coverage on the media and the Jeremy Vine interview was priceless.

We have to ask: is it a condition of employment at Sky News that everyone wants David Cameron to be the next Prime Minister and will do anything to please the boss Rupert Murdoch?

This “bigoted woman” incident was a set-up from the beginning. That Gordon Brown fell for it and none of his aide team saw it coming is foolish, but the fact that it was a set-up is beyond dispute.

I am a sound-man by profession and I have enough material spoken ‘off mike’ to embarrass many people – but I would not think of doing such a thing because I am a professional and need to be trusted in order to get work. The same is just as true for photographers who come away from shoots with hundreds of discarded photos which would embarrass and annoy.

This is yet another part of the desperation of Rupert Murdoch to decide this election for us.

“Apparently it was a Sky News microphone (owned by Rupert Murdoch)”

Yes, but Murdoch didn’t script Brown to call her a bigot and he didn’t force Brown to do a televised chat with possible voters.

“This “bigoted woman” incident was a set-up from the beginning. That Gordon Brown fell for it and none of his aide team saw it coming is foolish, but the fact that it was a set-up is beyond dispute.”

See above.

Have not much time, please accept this press release.

the lancashire telegraph is now really digging up stories for jack straw, a chap calle Shuaib is writing all sorts of rubbish, the main reporter Tom Mosely can’t get Bushra’s name right, he is confusing voters as her previous name was Aear and there is a Bobby Anwar on the ist of candidates, they are trying anything for Jack.

Bushra Irfan condemns today’s Labour party dishonesty

Today’s incident showing up Labour as insincere and dishonest towards voters provoked a strong reaction from Bushra Irfan of Blackburn, the challenger to Jack Straw.

She said, ” I am appalled at the insincerity and dishonesty the Labour party has shown today, just as they had to smooth over the farce they started in Blackburn over Islamic garments yesterday, today’s remarks showed up their two faced campaign. Why should voters trust Labour when they are so out of touch with the electorate, whether it is Tony Blairs ‘shredded expenses’, or the backtracking by Jack Straw over the attack on Iraq, there are no core values left after 13 years in power.

I am looking forward to represent all of our local community here in Blackburn.”

End of press release

Ingo – anything there (Lan. Telegraph) yet about Craig swearing an affidavit alleging Straw’s treating? I bet not.

Are you trying to tell me that David Cameron has never once let off some steam off-mike? I would be very disappointed in him as a human being if he has not. If the (off-)microphone is anything to do with News International then what Cameron says indiscreetly off-mike will go straight in the trash-basket you can be sure of that.

This is a juvenile unprofessional school-boy nasty trick on the part of a juvenile unprofessional school-boy sound-man who should be ashamed of himself because he has made our profession look very, very grubby.

I reiterate the prediction which I issued at the start of this election campaign (for what its worth!):

The Conservative Party is likely wo win, with an overall majority of around 25 seats. Quite a few Labour voters will switch to the Lib Dems so that the Lib dem vote will rise, as often is the case, yet it will not rise adequately for them to prevent the Conservatoive party from gaining an overall majority.

I think that tonight’s debate will ‘reveal’ that Cameron has ‘won’ and thereafter we will have many fatuous articles penned by well-paid courtiers on the way in which he has ‘grown’ into the role of PM during the course of the debates and other such rubbish. Clegg will not do as well as before. Brown will look like a defeated man, fighting but going down.

Essentially, then, ‘Middle England’ will vote Tory. The SNP will not do well in Scotland, partly because of their lack of national exposure in the mainframe discourse and partly because they are the current Government in Scotland.

On that note, please note that I think all this panic about a ‘Government of National Unity’ is overblown. We in Scotland have had nothing but coalitions and minority governments since devolution was introduced: first, two Lib-Lab Coalitions and then an SNP minority government. We’ve also had proportional representation. The sky has not fallen in.

I understand the concerns about corporate government (a sort of Mandelson-Clarke-Cable axis of Euro), but really, I think that all three of the main parties are esentially parties of big business – the Lib Dems less so, perhaps, largely because they’ve not been anywhere near power for a long time in the UK context – though let’s not forget the Lib-Lab pact of the late 1970s. Remember Jeremy Thorpe? ‘They’ got him, didn’t they? He’s been completely silent for the past 30 years. Strange. Anyway…

I’m not saying it makes no difference who gets in – that’s patently not true. I think that for the majority of ordinary people in this country, Conservative government would be measurably worse. But overall, over the past couple of decades, we have moved towards government by EU Council of Mininsters’/ IMF/ G8 et al and it is likely that this process will continue. It is important to note that when people attack the ‘EU’, the European Parliament – the directly-elected democratic body – can only debate and amend legislation; it cannot introduce legislation; the real powerhouse, then, is the Council of Mininsters. The European Commission is the ‘civil service’ which then implements the decisions made by the Council of Ministers.

We all know and many of us have known for a very long time, that the UK’s rubbishing of its own manufcturing sector over the past three decades represents a major systemic weakness. Unless this is tackled expeditiously, any government will simply be juggling with fewer and fewer balls (and I use the term, ‘balls’ in both of its senses!). Back to mules, then.

“Are you trying to tell me that David Cameron has never once let off some steam off-mike?”

No. I expect he has. But are you telling me that Murdoch made Brown wander around Rochdale, told him who to talk to (perhaps “Sue” works for Murdoch?), made Brown incapable of switching off or removing his mic and then made him call a woman he was talking to a bigot?

Well, don’t worry. John Prescott has also donned the tinfoil, here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/28/bigot-gaffe-murdoch-john-prescott

Tony, it was delicious – paranoia, hubris, contempt, deceipt, blame culture.

We stopped work and tuned in to as many news channels as possible.

It made our day

Sorry. Apparently I have not been sufficiently specific.

I do not think Rupert Murdoch scripted the whole event like an episode of EastEnders. He didn’t need to. All he needed to do was to get a lackey to bug Gordon Brown’s car and wait for an indiscretion sooner or later if the Gordon Brown team was not clever enough to anticipate that they would have been bugged. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/50347,news-comment,news-politics,rupert-murdochs-news-of-the-world-paid-off-victims-of-phone-bugging-stings He just lit the blue touchpaper and waited for the bang.

The person for whom I feel the most sorry is Mrs. Duffy whose life has been invaded for no good reason and spoke very well in 100% good faith.

In my view, the stupid spectacle of the Prime Ministerial debates resembles the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’/ ‘Dragons’ den’ and all the other idiot shows that pass for life in our increasingly dissociated state.

So, as in the football (soccer) World Cup, we have the dark horse, maverick team (Clegg) doing well in the first rounds, beating Germany/ Argentina (Brown), beating Italy/ Brazil (Cameron). But then, as the big teams began to hit their stride, the old warhorses begin once again to dominate. And we end up with a very boring, careful, risk assessed final between Germany and Italy, or Brazil and Argentina.

And – dare I mention – let’s not forget the archetypal Scottish image of the ‘gallant loser’.

Just as ‘machine’ football has become increasing boring over the years, with no room for dissonance or real brilliance, so too with national politics.

In different ways, both have been ruined by ‘big money’.

Suhayl Saadi,

Be careful. You touch on my favourite suject. What exactly is “machine” football? Do you think Liverpool’s 4 – 1 win at Old Trafford last season was “machine” football? Or my side’s 4 – 0 demolition of Real Madrid at Anfield?

Please…..

“All he needed to do was to get a lackey to bug Gordon Brown’s car”

You are saying it wasn’t the mic that Gordon Brown himself was wearing?

According to this, it was a radio mic he was wearing that had been requested by Labour Party officials. Maybe the Torygraph is lying, of course. Being Tory and all that:

“Sky News was the pool broadcaster at yesterday’s event in Rochdale, and they gave Gordon Brown a radio microphone at the request of Labour party officials.

A small microphone will have been clipped to Mr Brown’s lapel, with a wire running to a battery pack on his belt, which in turn transmitted the audio back to the camera crew.

The alternative is to use a large boom microphone, but this requires an additional technician to carry it around and results in patchier sound quality.

Sky News said yesterday that Mr Brown left in his car before the microphone could be removed and switched off.”

http://tinyurl.com/37d49gc

If they bugged his car then it is probably a criminal act. If Brown was wearing a mic that his party members asked for and then he badmouthed a voter he was smarming up to a minute before then Brown has only himself to blame.

I am not being clear enough this morning, I am sorry.

In this case the car was bugged using the microphone on Gordon Brown’s lapel. Lawyers could argue for years whether Gordon Brown was complicit by omitting to turn the mic off, when it should have been a duty of care of the sound man to remove it before he got into the car. These mics are not cheap and would have been an important part of the location kit. It certainly was a duty of care on the part of the sound man to have acted professionally and to have suppressed the output of the microphone. We always switch them out because apart from anything else these mics make horrible loud crunching and clunking noises when the wearer is moving around. The interview was over.

It is useful to have a mic like this rather than pointing multiple booms at events like this. One of my colleagues worked on an event with the US President and he was pre-wired with an audio output to plug directly into news-gatherers’ systems.

The talk about turning it off is idle, because the evil deed was to record the private conversation then to broadcast it. The evil deed was not Gordon Brown leaving the mic switched on, it was just more than a bit silly not to have thought twice about it – especially if it was a News International microphone.

What is done is done, and it is amazing that an experienced politician like this would not have thought twice about having a microphone on his lapel. I am sure he won’t do it again.

This is for Gordon (and Tony check the fingering):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No1MvrGUXUk&feature=related

Well, it’s a good thing he didn’t say:

“My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

Or

“Yo Blair! Let’s get Syria to stop Hezbollah doing this shit!”

Or

called members of his cabinet “bastards”

Or

called a reporter an “asshole”

Or

flipped the bird to a camera that he thought was off

Or

expressed admiration for a rapist

Or

“He’s what’s known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick ******.”

Or any of the other countless gaffes made by politicians or others who thought that they were entitled to two-faced behaviour.

Of course, most of those politicians simply admit they were wrong or stupid and don’t start casting about trying to pin the responsibility on someone else for their stupid remarks.

A gaffe is when a politician in an unguarded moment tells the truth. Example: Edwina Currie nuking her political career by announcing that there was salmonella in eggs.

Suhayl is right to point out that the Scottish sky has not fallen in as a result of PR, coalitions and minority government, but neither have the grey clouds blown away. The choices are between the Lab/Lib/Con gang – welded into a single party with a single-issue agenda, preservation of the Union – and an SNP minority, enfeebled by its fiscal dependency on London and heavily constrained by the reactionary and outnumbering opposition. Still, I suppose we have a choice where others have only the gang.

For guitar, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9jmKREAUKQ&feature=related

I wish people would stop blaming poor Rup for everything. Rupert had his doubts about supporting Cameron and only relented after much persuasion from his son and mad Beckie Wade. Wade worked closely with Coulson, who is Cameron’s spin doctor.

The idea is that the son and mad Beckie are getting very desperate now that their boy Cameron looks to be a dud. So if it’s a case of “It’s The Sun wot lost it”, Rupert might begin to think that the son and mad Beckie are duds themselves. A bit like Coulson really.

One for Straw to learn while he’s waiting for the trial!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUBHq5ErVCg&feature=related

I’m standing in the dock

With my innocent hand on my heart

I’ve changed my plea

I’ve changed my plea to guilty

Because freedom is wasted on me

See how your rules spoil the game

Outside there is a pain

Emotional air raids exhausted my heart

And it’s safer to be inside

So, I’m changing my plea

And no one can dissuade me

Because freedom was wasted on me

See how your rules spoil the game

Something I have learned

If there is one thing in life I’ve observed

It’s that everybody’s got somebody

Ooh no, not me

So I’ve changed my plea to guilty

And reason and freedom is a waste

@ Tony I think you mis-understand about the radio microphone. The receiver for it would be attached to the ENG camera and would pickup anything that came from it and in turn send it back to the satellite truck nearby and then back to Sky HQ. It is very unlikely there would be a sound man as such because of the nature of the event, basically a scrum where the sound man could easily be seperated from the camerman in the heat of the moment. It makes for a more flexible operation. You may be confusing location recording where a shoot would be well organised and controlled.

You seem to speculate on a Murdoch conspiracy, this is foolish. Gordon exposed himself for what he is, a hypocrite and a liar.

No wonder Brown is a patron of the Jewish National Fund. He definitely has chutzpah.

‘Yesterday was yesterday’ he says as bold as brass. ‘I want to move on’.

Most of us would be lying low for a day or two.

The encouragement of millions of foreigners to settle in England illegally springs to mind as an example of New Labour’s respect for law. The law in the UK should be an instrument for protecting the life, liberty and property of free citizens. Instead it has become an instrument of plunder, condescending social-engineering and bitter personal vendettas (by every brand of neo-Marxist conspiracy nut) – the very things it was set up to protect us against. The three-headed Westminster beast must be slain if we are to prevent further destruction to our way of life and also escape the suffocating clutches of Leviathan.

I am a sound-man. We use radio mics which feed to a clip-on receiver on a broadcast camera or camcorder as you mention.

However, in this case my understanding is that the radio mic would most probably have been picked up by a rack-mount receiver in the scanner truck. Thence the audio from the one microphone was redistributed to all the cameramen and to radio people from the various other news companies present at the event. The objective was to avoid a scrum of multiple microphones, boom-poles and cables all over the place. The Sky engineer at the controls was in a perfect position to mute the radio microphone as soon as the interview was over and GB had left the event – but he either chose or was instructed to leave it live, which is not what should have happened.

That you and many others believe GB exposed himself as a hypocrite and a liar is an issue separate from News International’s ambitions to pull any stunt they can to undermine anyone in this election apart from David Cameron.

News International’s team of McCain and Palin did not make it in the States, and Cameron is certainly not looking anywhere near as ahead as one might have expected. Still a week to go, one wonders what banana skin will come next.

“Still a week to go, one wonders what banana skin will come next.”

Osama bin Laden will endorse Nick Clegg as “the right man for the job”!

Newsnight’s coverage last night was interesting in the context of this report on http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk

Killing people is more important than playing football.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8651727.stm

@ Tony the guy in the satellite truck works for SIS and not Sky. SIS is contracted by Sky to deliver technical services not editorial judgement. It would be more than his job’s worth to start editing the feeds in the way you describe. They act merely as a relay to get the sound and video sources from the location and back to Sky HQ where the news editors are based.

If as you said the sound sources were distributed locally by the truck then all the people in the field would be aware of what Brown had said and given the importance of the news events leading up to a general election, these comments could not be ignored, especially as they directly reinforce the view of him as a bully and someone who gets upset easily and does not react well under pressure. If anyone was to blame about the technical cock-up it would be Brown’s aides who should have been well aware of a live microphone on his lapel. Interesting even the BBC have gone with this and Brown was played the tape live on air during Radio 2 Jeremy Vine programme. Normally the BBC are very pro Labour, but in this case they could not let his hypocrisy go unnoticed.

The net tightens round Blair. His day of reckoning will come.

This is what’s getting Murdoch’s mad goons rattled:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g76l5wUgjb4&feature=player_embedded

Mr Murray,

I hope you are OK. I was just wondering whether during your ambassadorial age in Uzbekistan you ever came across cases like this http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7107200.ece

Is not this appalling?

Funny how, one way or another, immigration always ends-up becoming the main course in the long lunch that is the general elction.

Not the wars, not the banks, not the state of manufacturing, not pensions, not jobs, not education, not…

Just how many ALIENS are invading today.

And suddenly, we’re in the Tardis, whirling backwards to 1968.

“And suddenly, we’re in the Tardis, whirling backwards to 1968. ”

I disagree. In ’68, we thought things were improving. And describing the ‘they come over here, they take our jobs’ ranters as bigots was the way of the future …

Tony Rogers: In the name of… are you a pal of Jimmy Giro? Exactly how many Marxists are there in the current government? What exactly have the neo-liberal economic labour/ capital policies of the fundo capitalists who run the world economy got to do with Karl Marx? He’s just a convenient whipping-by, isn’t he? Along with ALIENS. FOREIGNERS. 1968, or 2010. Easy, easy targets. Lazy, lazy thinking.

Time to wake up.

Yeah, I know, Richard. That’s a very good point.

Why is Brown having to bend-over backwards to apologise? Because the souped-up crack-driven media will crucify him if he doesn’t. A soap-opera. What rubbish!

This is what politics has become. Soap opera. Reality TV. Shipla Shetty versus Jade Goody. Rubbish.

yes Suhayl and that’s why Gordy was so cross. He had to deal with real people with real lives and with real pertinent questions. It was never supposed to be like that, supposed to have been all planned and staged. Sadly his handlers let him off the lead for the day and look what happened, a quick run round the park and then off to bite the locals. I bet Mandy was sooooo angry…..

Someone wanted a poster of Jack Straw in his Judge Dredd garb. Here you go …

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt133/webpicks/Dreddful.jpg

Thank you for the technical clarifications, Parky

My business is not news, it is music so the rules of engagement must be different. We normally shut off radio mics as soon as a show is over because of the dreadful noises they make when people rip them from their clothes and/or pull plugs out with loud bangs and thumps. A programme ending and being shut down when the talent has literally ‘left the building’ is hardly editorial judgment when the only audio remaining to be expected is crackles, bangs and thumps from such microphones. So I guess you are saying that the editorial judgment was made back at Sky HQ where the news editors are based – quelle surprise what happened then.

I have to say as an old time professional I do not accept this argument. Sound engineers are heavily depend on the good will of those with whom we work. If we pass on every bit of off-mic conversation we hear, we’ld be run out of town and rightly so.

Last year for example we did several Albert Hall concerts and off-mic on our audio multi-track in the post-production I overheard one of the presenters in his dressing-room bragging about the good luck he had had in the car-park the previous night. A soprano soloist was on her mobile phone in her dressing room talking to a friend about wearing no knickers. Are you telling me it would have been ok to leave this sort of rubbish in just to make them look stupid?

This was a set-up and I remain unconvinced otherwise.

“This is what politics has become. Soap opera. Reality TV. Shipla Shetty versus Jade Goody. Rubbish. ”

Yes, quite. “Britain’s Got Politicians” – halfway between a “talent” show and a soap advert.

99% of all known image consultants say that the pale blues are perceived as likely to wash even whiter than the pale reds’ whiter than white.

Tony, I think I could grow to like soprano soloists.

Yeah, Parky, but what happens is that we get the feeling that ‘everywoman’ has confronted power with pertinent questions, when what really happens – the way it’s used by the same society of the spectacle cultivated by the cocaine media and the PR consultants of the political parties – is that the event itself becomes yet more propaganda pandering to the lowest common denominators in populism.

And so, the PM has to apologise for calling someone a bigot! If he thought she evinced intolerant views, that’s his right as much as it was her’s to express them. Maybe she’s right, maybe he’s right. Fine. Let’s have a debate. But the heaving, emetic requirement for constant apologies is eviscerating of thought and of political discourse. Let’s stem the tears, the sobs, the choking emotion and begin to learn to think again.

The economy is in crisis, the armed forces are engaged in two foreign wars, job cuts are scything through our communities. We have a fundamental seismic shift in the role of the UK in the world and the standard of living at home. Manufacturing has been the lavatory of successive governments. And all we get – grateful tug of the forelock – is this souped-up, essentially manufactured spectacle. The original encounter was not manufactured, but the spectacle to which we all have access has been.

Real debate thus has been replaced by idealised moving portraits of politicians and soap-opera rebelliousness which can draw only on visceral emotion – race-hate, cultivated fear of aliens, etc. That is not democracy. That is the type of information world associated with polyarchy and worse.

“Tony, I think I could grow to like soprano soloists.”

You surely could. I once had a most unexpected collision with a Queen of the Night. Ah, memories…

Anonymous poster: Blair will die at an advanced age of natural causes in his bed at one of his many homes. Evil bastards usually do. It’s only the good who die young. I can see the obituaries now…

Vronsky, stop it, you’re driving me mezzo-soprano mad! Pass the bromide, would you please, there’s a good chap.

Tony, but in the position you describe you have a duty to the client and/or the talent to make them look good, if you don’t then they won’t hire you again. In the case we are discussing, NuLabour/Cons/LibDem are not the client and as far as we know no money is changing hands between political parties and broadcasters. The broadcasters are under no obligation to make the parties look good. They should present what they can which is legally obtained.

The main point here I think is Brown’s hypocrisy. He said those words of his own free will. One moment he was patronising the pensioner and then in the very next moment slagging her off behind her back. It is this kind of dual standard that needs to be exposed and I am glad it has been and Brown shown in his true colours.

That’s a central point, Parky. If he’d disagreed with her, he ought to have said so to her face, gently if he didn’t want to be seen to be ‘bullying a pensioner’. And not felt obliged to apologise. You’re right, it exposes the hypocrisy that is the presentation of politics today. Yet the virus is in the mechanism itself, so that the expose becomes merely another part of the artifice.

I agree that GB managed to make a bit of a fool of himself, so no dispute with your 2nd para..

Re. the 1st para., I have been doing my job too long to run with this one. If real professional audio engineers were not on the ball with muting radio and lavalier microphones when they are no longer required for the content, you would hear so many clunks bangs scrapes and crackles all the time – not just indiscretions. Most of the time you don’t hear these terrible clunks, crapes and bangs, because real audio professionals mute them. The other side of the coin is that these loud extraneous noises from microphones would kick limiters, or even blow up viewers’/listeners’ loudspeakers and would deafen anyone wearing headphones.

The only reason this scurrilous chat from GB was not muted was because Sky News had an editorial agenda to entrap GB to make him look a twit. There are loud crackles included in the GB ‘extra’ content and any self-respecting engineer would reach immediately for the mute button if he had not been told to keep it live for another purpose.

In any case, as angrysoba I think may have been suggesting, the whole thing has been blown out of all proportion, deliberately so. Don’t we all say things in private about (the sometimes obnoxious people one meets) people which we would never dream of saying in public? I certainly do! That’s what privacy means. So long as it’s not public servants being overtly racist, etc., it’s a fundamental right. Or at least it used to be. Now CCTV, etc. undermines it. Our culture of paranoia. No wonder politicians have become afraid of saying anything to anyone that means anything. Of course, to some extent they have themselves to blame. PR is at the root of much of this malaise – the death of discourse.

“In any case, as angrysoba I think may have been suggesting, the whole thing has been blown out of all proportion, deliberately so.”

No, my point is that Brown has only himself to blame and anyone trying to make out it’s a Murdoch conspiracy such as John Prescott is making themself look foolish.

Then Brown made himself look even more foolish in his inept attempt to apologize.

The problem is that if he really believed what he said he shouldn’t have apologized but stuck by what he had said.

If he thought he had made a mistake then, fine, apologize. But don’t start making excuses. Her question was “annoying” or make a mockery of the apology by saying he didn’t know if it was rude but if it was then he apologized. You cannot apologize if you don’t know what you’re apologizing for.

And when you do apologize you don’t emerge from the apology grinning as if you’ve done a great thing.

And clearly it wasn’t only the “Murdoch media” stoking this but other media such as the BBC did too.

I agree with ScouseBilly and Parky.

“No wonder Brown is a patron of the Jewish National Fund. He definitely has chutzpah.”

Mary’s thought processes: The Jooooooooos!

Thanks for the youtube Dead, tony_o

A vermiculate vowel series, angrysoba: “…ooooooooo…”

It reminds me a litlle of… he who would not get on the bus.

Actually, I agree with you about Brown’s havering utterances. In general terms, I think the politicians and media have constructed this edifice of emperor’s clothes. They’re so afraid of someone ponting-out that they’re naked, they pile the clothes even higher. A Tower of Babel, built not of bricks or even words, but of invisible couture.

“Actually, I agree with you about Brown’s havering utterances. In general terms, I think the politicians and media have constructed this edifice of emperor’s clothes. They’re so afraid of someone ponting-out that they’re naked, they pile the clothes even higher. A Tower of Babel, built not of bricks or even words, but of invisible couture. ”

Thanks, and I have always thought of you as one of the most intelligent and interesting commenters here.

I will say that, even if nobody likes the way that Brown’s remarks became publicised I do think that most people seeing this as a set-up would ordinarily favour closer scrutiny of a politician’s real beliefs.

And, just to be perfectly honest here, I would still much rather a Brown victory than a Cameron one. I hate the Tories.

Thanks, Angrysoba – especially for your honesty.

“Exactly how many Marxists are there in the current government?…” – Suhayl Saadi at April 29, 2010 4:50 PM

Harman et al don’t strike as neo-Marxist in the least? Are you for real? And you want an “exact” list. If you’ll make an effort to produce an exact list of all the players in your evil-capitalist conspiracy then I’ll think about it. Hells bells.