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The Taliban say "you have the watches, we have the time" and you know what they do. They will be there long after we have lost the political will to fight. The Russians with all their might and more local knowledge didn't do it. Why are we any different?

I look forward to tonight's film on Burma - it's about time the world saw what was really going on inside that country. I can't believe Abu Qatada has been released!

(Also wanted to add Outstanding interview by Jeremy with Yvette Cooper last night - as she was trying to justify the high inflation rate by comparing it to other countries. Jeremy's reply -"It's considerably lower than in Zimbabwe. Is that significant?" Priceless!)

Looks like another programme safely negotiated without addressing the No1 political issue in Britain - immigration. Still, no matter, as long as you've some French Minister no one's ever heard of, lined up for tonight, even if you have nothing pressing to ask her. Who decided she should be on for pity's sake? And precisely why? Which drinks party was that one fixed at? Must have been one which no Brits who have had their homes repossessed managed to make. Or the hauliers or fishermen who went out of business yesterday. Still, they've got Big Brother.

so oil up by 100%, gas by 140%, food by 60% yet the govt tells me my personal inflation is 4%? how many widescreen tvs, fridges, toasters etc do i need to buy a month to get my personal inflation rate of things i actually consume down to 4%?

its a relief to know the govt are depending on mass migration and unemployment to keep wages low.

so no rolling out of a two way grid that will allow people to sell electricity back to the grid. no increased provision of allotments despite there being massive waiting lists and that each family is entitled to one?

after all the commodity boom is just a blip. no need to think strategically as oil will soon be back at $20 a barrel?

govt is a bunch of muppets.

Aren't Afghanistan and Pakistan inextricably linked. There seems to be huge sensitivity to strategies involving disrupting the Taleban training bases in Pakistan, if reporting is used as a measure.

I think we have made progress and as Ashdown said the other day, denied al Qaeda training bases, but the views of Rieven#1 are pertinent if we don't sort out cross border issues.

I suspect we are losing ground on intelligence given Mark Urbans near miss at a top secret facility (he must appreciate the new light into the sky on top of the Beeb) and the recent jail break. They must have had good planning for that.

There also appears to be a policy vacuum on drugs (one of Blairs many sincere promises I think).

On the French finance minister you might ask about the glass ceiling and how women view it. Presidential candidates in the US and France - has there been a sea change? Is Ms Sarkozy a role model? Probably not a runner really.

By the way I assume Kelvin Mackenzie will make an almost immediate decision about standing against David Davis?

Will somebody ask him why Murdochs Fox in the US is not pushing to increase their 8 days to 42 days? The legal systems are similar. They can't have simpler cases and their police can't be 5 times more efficient - could that be possible?

Is the US soft on terrorism?

I hope we devote some time to the appalling news of the four soldiers sacrifice in Afghanistan. The latest government line in this escalation of casualties is that the taliban have become 'insurgents' instead of just terrorists. In a land so hostile to 'normal' warfare why are we losing more men than what used to be the case. Why are the Germans, Italians, French and other European countries making the same sacrifice? Not one political party in Westminster has a voice of real opposition to our policy in Afghanistan, not one. At least in Iraq we had the Lib Dems against the policy but we seem to go blindly on with more expressions of regret before each PMQ's, this is madness as this escalation has all the hallmarks of an even bigger tragedy unfolding. My condolences are with the families of these brave men.

ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE

I remember watching Prince Harry calling in an air strike when bullet-for-bullet, Her Majesty's (royally-enhanced) boys could not win.
It would appear the Taliban (now re-badged as insurgents) are good learners!
A case of: "If you can't shoot 'em, bomb 'em?

Is not the reality in all this is that warfare is the last refuge of the scoundrel leader? Our Tony certainly qualifies as a scoundrel; any value as a leader he has yet to establish.
Bin Laden knew that all he had to do was goad the Americans into total intemperance, and his war was un-losable.
It remains un-losable. Bush's lack of grown up judgement and constraint, plus Tony's need to be great, set the seal.

Now that Jaded Jane and I have put before this august assembly of bloggers, the truth of global, universal, immaturity, is it not time to address that issue above all others?
The world continues to draw its immature leaders from a pool of immaturity. IT'S THE IMMATURITY STUPID.

What's the point of all the discussion and controversy about whether 42 days should be allowed for holding suspected terrorists, when Abu Qatada gets sent home with the equivalent of an ASBO?
What level of danger to the residents of Britain would be required before the claim of 'potential risk of unfair treatment' becomes greater than the threat to our own people?

Croc Tears
I listened to the tears coming from the brownies this morning one brown with an n(eh ma) and one with an E. They make me Sick.
As a young squaddie in the early 70 'S I had plenty of fights with the ilk of blair brown cambell B.B.C. for short Auntie, The left winged left footed left the brain at homes nulabour crowd who HATED us and I believe still do. 拢200 million + on an enquiry into bloody sunday 拢100,000 + for protecting S Rhushdie per year taxpayers money, great, smashing, super.
Who from nulabour released the names and addresses to the IRA of a few of the 1 Para men involved? Who from the B.B.C. regime (blair brown cambell) refused THEM police protection?
Here's another yull like this auntie beeb, having spent some of the recent past in Iraq I attended at a US air force base a lecture on IED's and the like being used to kill Americans among others in the country, the only question I asked at the end was how much of the Tactics and Technology employed came from the IRA. The answer auntie beeb was over 75%. what comes around goes around eh .
I do hope none of the US dead and injured's famlies have ever gave money to the IRA.
I do hope the general public are not taken in/ buy the nulabour tears Eye/Aye for one am not.

Remind me if you can Auntie Beeb to get myself over to france to stock up on booze, fags/baccy, cheeper juice etc. I for One wont be paying Tax for the likes of qatada. Legal Fees, Food, Housing, Education, or Anything else. that includes MP's judges etc. None of my bbc License Fee goes to any of them does it? I shall bin that one if it does. Jail Me

Why not ask Christine Lagarde about prices? Price of food - she's a former
agriculture minister; price of fuel -
the French have recently cut deals
haven't they with fuel users in rural
areas?; price of housing; price of
not thinking about theses issues
enough in Britain under Labour?

She thinks the French think too much - but perhaps the British don't think enough???!

Juliette Binoche drinks green tea like Grahame Norton and thinks we need
to push organic ... Gordon Ramsay is
not so sure that supply is consistent
enough for four letter chefs like him.

What does France's Finance Minister think? And can she reply without mentioning the G word ('globalisation') unlike Yvette Cooper?

Don't intellectualise - just go for it .........!

Bookhimdano ended his post with:
"the govt is a bunch of muppets"

Well he's not wrong in his assertion but i would call them puppets myself as someone else is always pulling the real strings of power. Anyone who cares to do the research will find that who ever gets the wheel of power is only doing the bidding of unseen forces. We in the west are governed by a cliche commonly known as the corporate industrialist with implicit connivance from the media moguls who all call the shots and from under the umbrella of the banking houses of Europe and the USA. Agendas are introduced to our 'democratically elected' representatives, some in incremental steps; a good example is the European project: a slow but steady rise in its powers hardly noticed by the masses as they are purposely kept stupid by an education system that feeds them little knowledge other than how to use a credit card and "debt is good for you and the economy, stupid." MPs, MEPs Republicans, democrats, presidents and Prime ministers are always intoxicated by the trapping of power( Mugabe knows this) and to ensure their status within the seat of power they have, will always do the bidding of the unseen hand that guides their policies that we see manifest even though we never asked for them; such as mass immigration too the devils of war.

Why is crime never delt with, why is it always an issue?... well crime is good as it keeps the citizens in fear and helps to introduce measures that we would not normally except and keeps the police in employment (1 in 6 is a freemason it has been said ) Why are house prices extortionate? who benefits from your hard labour over many years so that you can purchase a property that is really only worth a small percentage of what you really paid for it. Many people build their own homes at a tenth less of the normal cost of purchasing property; as building materials, skills and labour needed to build said homes don't come anywhere near the cost of a house bought through an estate agent with the help of a mortgage lender. Who benefits from the excepted norm when borrowing money to purchase a house? it ain't you!

Countries don't declare war and invade another country knowing they will be out of pocket financially or without some kind of gain made; wars are very VERY profitable! and make no mistake about that, you don't need to rely on the works of Chomsky to be fully aware of America's machinations and empire building strategies around the world to know that. The looming global recession ain't no unforeseen accident. its engineered to benefit a small bunch of people we never see... but most of us are too busy watching big brother on TV or getting drunk on the many forms of entertainment that keeps us docile and unquestioning... as my buddy said to me the other day whilst reading the Sun newspaper and working out what he will be watching later in the evening on TV via his Sky box..."Who's Rupert Murdoch?"

Final reading of the Lisbon Treaty thing in the Lordson Wednesday and over on the Downing Street website the petition to get the treaty ratification abandoned is one of the fastest growing petitions they've ever had

Barrie (#8) Most people don't want to know these days.

'HATE SPEECH!'

The last words that Fred Trappist, founder of the Trappist Order, ever spoke. He had realised that we are the 'Ape Confused by Language'.

Hello again, Jaded Jean, I am freshly recovered from following the link you provided. Oh bum - I thought the Canadians were supposed to be nice.
Ah well. You know this is just a game until I get really depressed and put my 'Personal Final Solution Plan' into operation.
Till then I shall continue to exercise my carefully honed prejudices in the certainty that prejudice, quite properly, runs the world. The wise live with it; the dumb try to 'stamp it out' with kiddie temper.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that our branch of The Tree was a panic-expedient, to meet some terrible past event. We were forced to take that wrong turn (as Bugs at Albuquerque) and we live on borrowed time, going nowhere.
Yes, they don't want to know; or worse: they don't know HOW to know.

Re # 13. Fantastic post Cookie IMO. ...the Unseen Hand. Just gently peep through the curtains again and see if that van with the blacked out windows is still there. "Any more of this chummie, and we'll be having to review the status of your account."

Re 13 yes fantastic. allthough I believe the guvvomit are both muppets and puppets and believe us to be the same. Not me brother get your unseen hand away from there or I'll break your arm off and beat you with the soggy end. No Cheese and Violence Please we're British. Are We? Could have fooled me, Wont get fooled again, Wont pay tax again. The Jury continues to be out on aunties fee.

i already did my notes on the other page...
i am not goign to repeat the same thoughts.

Cognitive ability differentials are indeed best thought of in terms of genes, age and maturation, but the fact that we (and groups of us) plateau at different ages, doesn't, sadly, mean that one can do much, if anything, about this. That's why New labour's most recent 'aspirational' education initiative is, if at least if taken at face value, best described as tragically ill-informed and misguided:



As to our exporting 'freedom', 'human rights' and 'democracy' everywhere (with the help of 'NGOs' - another oe last night in Burma I see) well, again, taken at face value, that's naive isn't it... but then again, many people reading this her don't take any of that at face value - do they? Most know it's exploitational/subversive don't they? After all, one of the paddld out faces explained in the Burma clip last night didn't they? Cyclones, and bad junta made me think of Katrina and good George Bush. Did anyone see any Burmese, Uzbek, Iranian, N. Korean, Zimbabwian or Chinese coverage of Katrina? Are there any Chinese etc NGOs in the USA and EU, or are they just called spies?

Cognitive ability differentials are indeed best thought of in terms of genes, age and maturation, but the fact that we (and groups of us) plateau at different ages, doesn't, sadly, mean that one can do much, if anything, about this. That's why New Labour's most recent 'aspirational' education initiative is (at least if taken at face value) best described as tragically ill-informed and misguided:



As to our exporting 'freedom', 'human rights' and 'democracy' everywhere with the help of 'NGOs' - another one last night in Burma I see - well, again, taken at face value, that's naive isn't it ... but then again, many people reading this here don't take any of that at face value do they? Most know it's exploitational/subversive. After all, one of the paddled out faces explained this in the Burma clip last night didn't they ('if one dies, they say 100.. they don't like this government' - hence the Western press is banned - sounds remarkably like Russia and the NGOs yes? Cyclones, and bad the junta made me think of Katrina and good George Bush. Did anyone see any Burmese, Uzbek, Iranian, N. Korean, Zimbabwian or Chinese coverage of Katrina? Are there any Chinese etc NGOs in the USA and EU, or are they just called spies?

SO GOOD THEY SAID IT TWICE

Jaded Jean (incidentally, the depth of that choice is still growing on me) do you have a site with expanded thought on it?
I am interested to know the bottom line, as far as you see it. I naturally draw a lot of conclusions and inferences from your posts, but would ask: In your view (1) did humanity ever function sustainably? (2) do you see a (past) critical point - the beginning of the end? (3) If we make you 'World Boris' can you fix it? (4) Should we ban ourselves from going to other palnets, until we show we can 'play nicely'?

FUZZY ABOUT THE WHOLE IQ THING

Are there any other quotients? As 'Smartart'
I claim to be half intellectual and half artisan.
I have a pass in O-level Woodwork (3 hour practical, 1.5 hour theory, 1.5 hour technical drawing - six hours of examination, total. Set that against just 1.5 hour, single paper, for academic subjects!) But I have never heard of an 'Artisan Quotient' - AQ. Wouldn't it be fun if the Japanese and Jews turned out to be hopeless at plumbing and joinery! I could invent a whole list of quotients to consider, but one for farming has just made me nervous of the moderator.
Message ends.

Barrie - on fuzziness - nobody expects the ...... inquisition.

Barrie (#22) See 'the demographic transition' + early C20th female emancipation followed by massive expansion of female higher education/contraception from the 1960s onwards leading to a dramatic increase in differential fertility. In answer to 3, see China's 1995 'family planning' legislation. As to 4, some countries do try to discourage us from politically enlightening them via 'our NGOs' but with so many of our politicians (like Mr Miliband) being such frequent visitors to/from other planets....