It Was My Party

So Kilroy has left Respect this time. Sorry, shouldn't that be Veritas, but who cares? He seems to have had more parties than Tara Palmer-Tomkinson!

 

Ulster

Why do they always blame us, the British?

After all, wasn’t it the Catholics who wanted to leave and the Protestants who wanted to stay. And weren’t we trying to keep two sets of thugs apart.

Get real!

We ought to start by adjusting Ulster income tax up three per cent to pay for all the bigotry and trouble they’ve caused us!

As an afterthought, in WW2, proportionately more people from Eire fought in the British forces, than from Ulster.

 

ASBOs for Waste

We have a farm just south of Newmarket. Increasingly, we are seeing dumped rubbish in this part of Suffolk.

ASBOs may work, but the main reason is that our nearest tip for things like dead computers and printers is forty miles away in Ipswich.

Illegal tipping will get worse, until we get more tips and better regulation, that allow waste disposal at a sensible cost.

 

Baech Volleyball

So beach volleyball players want us to fund them to spend ten months of the year in the sun.

I wouldn’t mind that, but then I’m 58 and too short!

We need to get more Olympic medals, but perhaps it would be better to up prizes here for British athletes, so that they win enough to train where they want! It’s called natural selection.

 

How Do I Rate the Police?

This question was asked on Radio 5.

In one area their attitude is very poor and this is giving them a lot of the problems today.

They have this belief they are always right and thus, do not look at other areas for solutions. Technology and computer analysis has a lot to offer, but they always go through the same friendly and very expensive channels rather than using some of the immense resources available in this country, especially in places like Cambridge.

I work in the field of data analysis. My products and those of other innovative companies like mine, are used extensively in the city for compliance and to fight money laundering, by telecom companies, accountants to look for fraud etc. Few of us have ever sold to the police as they say they are different.

The other industry that has this blinkered attitude is the NHS.

Both should think a lot smarter to solve the problems for ever, rather than apply a standard aggressive approach, which just creates more problems.

 

Why People Run!

A lot of commentators have said that the Brazilian killed at Stockwell brought it on his own, by running.

We breed racehorses and they are the classic flight animal. I was walking around the stud yesterday, with a wild-life expert and two of our dogs. As we walked behind a paddock containing four mares and their foals, the horses became suspicious and came to look at us. Unsure of my companion, as they had never seen him before, after a quick look they fled to the other end of the paddock.

That is classic fight or flight! They fled!

Now what has this got to do with the Brazilian?

A lot!

About fifteen years ago, I was getting off a train at Royal Oak station, when the black kid of about fifteen, in front of me dropped a small plastic wallet. I picked it up and saw it was his weekly train ticket and a student identity card. So I did what any good citizen would do and shouted. 'Oh! Mate! You've dropped something!' He ran! Why, I don't know, but then I couldn't start to understand how the mind of a young black kid would work. Especially, if I was regularly being asked to stop by the Police. So I ran after him and luckily he wasn't that fit, as I managed to catch him up after about half a kilometre. I suspect too, that when he saw me chasing and I was a smallish man in a suit, that he thought I probably wasn't the sort to arrest him or do him any harm.

He was very apologetic and thanked me greatly when I enventually caught up with him.

So the Brazilian was in a strange country and knew that in his own, when people say stop, they may be wanting to rob you. Or even kill you.

He was right!

 

Bomb Images

Is it right to show the images of the bombs found at Luton station in news bulletins?

Apparently, the images were leaked by the FBI to ABC in the States.

This raises a lot of questions about personal data for a start. Supposing, I spend a lot of time playing Internet poker, which is illegal in the US and not in the UK. (I don't, so don't worry about me! It's a totally pointless pursuit!) Now supposing the poker company, I use gets involved with money laundering. Fanciful I know, but all sorts of methods are used to turn dirty money into clean stuff. And then lets suppose that the client list gets in the hands of the FBI, who then leak all the top winners to ABC, saying that these are the money launderers, to teach all poker players a lesson. And my wife found out! Or the Police came to call!

Should we really share things with other intelligence agencies when we can't trust them to keep it quiet, even if we have told them it is confidential.

 

Funding the Olympics

Here in East Anglia, we will probably benefit hugely from the Olympics, as many will choose to stay in rural Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, combining a holiday in the UK with the Games. They’ll just take the train into Stratford. It’s actually quicker than struggling from say west or south London.

So should we pay as well? I actually wouldn’t mind!

I'll certainly be buying a few tickets.

 

Discovery

Some years ago, I saw a shuttle launch in Florida. It is awesome. And I suppose with the problems the shuttles have, very slightly terrifying.

It's one of the few reasons to go to the States.

 

Acetone Peroxide

It has been stated in the press that acetone peroxide was the explosive for the London bombings.

I typed it into Google and found a site on www.totse.com, which describes in detail how to make detonators based on the chemical.

So is www.totse.com based in some place like Iran? No it appears to be based in the US.

Oh Dear! Just like the US is responsible for so much spam which obscures the terrorist e-mails, it also hosts their methods.

Perhaps, someone should have a word with Dubya!

 

Seagulls

Radio 5 was talking about people being attacked by seagulls.

In my case it's not seagulls!

But I was in my fields about half an hour ago and I saw a hare saunter through a whole field of crows. No fear at all and they all left her alone.

Fascinating!

 

How Tough Should We Be With Terrorists?

We should invoke laws that benefit us in other ways as well!

For instance, all Internet users are plagued by spam. If Bush and Blair got together, they could probably stop ninety per cent of it overnight. Blair would, but Bush wouldn’t, as it would upset his free speech at any price lobby.

If they stop it then it would make it much easier to find criminal or terrorist e-mails.

And we’d all be happy with our emptier Inboxes.

 

Execution in London

I am old enough to have grown up in London, when there were real British bobbies. Some of you will know the television and film copper, George Dixon, who was very popular on the BBC in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Then policemen in London rarely if ever, carried guns.

Now, Sir Ian Blair, the Commisioner has stated that in London, 10% of all police now carry guns. It does not make me happy, as guns have this annoying habit of killing people. My wife and I are very much involved in horse-racing and remember the trainer, Alex Scott, who died because there was a gun at hand, whilst an argument was taking place. A wife widowed and two children lost their father, because control was lost.

On Friday, a man was shot dead in Stockwell station on the London Underground.

Perhaps shot dead is the wrong term, as he was held down by plain clothes police and then shot five times in the head. They may have believed he was a Asian bomber, but he was a Brazilian electrician. And guilty of nothing at all. He was even a legal immigrant and fluent in English.

That is execution!

I am against execution, where a judge and jury are involved, but when it happens at the hands of the police it is murder pure and simple.

What sickens me more is that people like the mayor of London, Ken Livingston, who has shared platforms with apologists for such friendly groups, as the IRA and Al’Qaida, say that the killing was justified.

I’ve recently read a book which describes parts of WW2 in Norway in great detail. In one instance, the British shot a lot of Germans, so that they obtained an Enigma code book. Even then they gave the men they had killed the proper rights and emotions.

That was sadly lacking after Stockwell.

Sir Ian Blair should resign. Sorry is not enough!

 

Butterflies

Not wishing to disagree with the expert on BBC1 this morning, but we live on a 100 hectare stud at Newmarket.

Because of their layout, with paddocks, trees and rides between everything, we have noticed that over the last few years, as the stud has developed, that the number of butterflies and moths has increased significantly. But so has other wildlife, such as badgers, deer, hares and birds, including lots of the supposedly rare yellow-hammer.

The Newmarket area is becoming a significant wildlife habitat, but surveys never include it. Could this be because, it disproves the decline the doom-mongers are trying to show?

 

How Not To Get Shot Dead On The Tube

It's summer, so why don't we at least pretend it's hot. It'll certainly be hot in the tube.

1. Wear less!

2. Obviously, everyone should wear tight shirts, t-shirts or a bare midriff, so that even the most stupid policemen can see you're not carrying a bomb. Perhaps trunks and bikinis would make everybody sure.

3. Flip flops. Who ever heard of exploding flip-flops.

4. I never carry a bag these days, as I do everything over the Internet. I certainly wouldn't now!

We also need to have random searches in the Underground. And we must forget political correctness and search those that look like bombers and not add a few elderly people to get correct statistics.

Obviously, those improperly dressed would get through without hindrance!

 

Sense from Boycott

Geoffrey can sometimes act badly and open himself to ridicule.

But his lecture on the future of cricket was spot on.

Four slightly longer days rather than five, penalties for slow over rate etc. would all make the game much more enjoyable.

It probably couldn't have improved the current Test Match at Lords.

 

The Brazilian Terrorist

What a mighty fine mess you got us into now!

Guns kill people and should not be used with the sort of abandon they were at Stockwell.

So the man who was shot dead ran from someone shouting 'Armed Police Stop!' or something similar. But he was Brazilian? Did he understand what they said, or did he just think that they were criminals out to kill him, as the police were not in uniform?

We will never know.

But this is London not the Wild West and police should be much more careful.

 

Hitler's Children

This was one of the most frightening documentaries I've seen for a long time. Not because of what Hitler did. He failed!

But because it showed how easily it is to take children and mould their minds to a particular philosophy. All you need is an enemy, unemployment and disillusion, and then offer kids fun. They'll take the evil philosophy on trust. You can make them do anything!

Doesn't it sound like the Taliban, so-called Muslim fundamentalists, America's backwoodsmen, the BNP and all those other raving bonkers groups?

But we've all known the principles for years. Didn't Dickens create a character called Fagan, who was just as evil?

 

A Good Story From Africa

There is an interesting story in The Times about displaced Zimbabwean farmers, who’ve been asked by the Nigerian government to set up farms in the north west of Nigeria.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1704642,00.html

It all seems to be going well!

Let's hope that it continues.

 

Islamic Bookshops

The Times carries a long article on the books that can be purchased in Islamic bookshops throughout the UK.

Do we really want to allow the sale of this sort of literature at all?

If for instance, I was to set up an anti-Islamic bookshop, how long would it be before I was closed down.

We must have laws in this country that apply equally to everybody.

 

Muslims and Homosexuality

Today we had this report in many papers and I'm taking the wording from the Manchester Evening News.

'A FAILED asylum seeker was given a new chance to stay in Britain today because he is a Muslim homosexual.

Three appeal judges ruled that as a gay, the Palestinian would face persecution if he returned to his home in the Lebanon.'

I very much believe that provided your make-up is not directly injurious to others, who are of an age to make their own decisions, then it is generally acceptable.

This guy may well have had problems in the Lebanon, but what would have happened to him if he had been returned to Iran?

There having a gay relationship is a capital offence. In fact last week, two men, one of whom was a juvenile according to the UN definition, were given 228 lashes and then hanged! They had been convicted of sexually assaulting a thirteen year old, but does that really mean they should suffer such a punishment.

Can the Muslim community expect to not be treated with disgust, when such extreme punishments are carried out?

The attitude in Iran to women is also summed up by the fact that you can be hung at 15 if you are male, but nine if you are female!

I have read extensively about the Muslim religion. When it started women were considered equals.

I don't think that still applies!

 

Sickest of the Sick

I had a spam e-mail last night purporting to be raising money for those hurt and killed in the London bombings.

It was from China.

If we want to stop terrorist atrocities, we must stop spam first, as this would enable us to locate any terrorist e-mails much easier.

 

Do We Want Rangers and Celtic in the Premiership?

After last night! No!

Ipswich lost two nil to Rangers last night at Portman Road. But Rangers fans lost by a greater margin. Several were arrested and a lot were very drunk!

So they can keep their little sectarian rubbish north of the border!

 

Farewell Ted Heath

A man who often got a bad press, but as Michael Howard said this morning, what would have happened if Iain McCloud, his chancellor, hadn't died so soon after he came into office.

Still Ted took us into Europe and for that we should all be thankful.

He was certainly a better Prime Minister than the smug git we've got now.

 

Look Back in Anger?

Not Anger! Sorrow yes! Not even disbelief.

When the bombs went off in London, I suspected it was a home made bomb. Perhaps, because I've made explosives in the past and understand a lot of the chemistry, this was why I came to the conclusion.

It now looks as though I was right.

That worries me for the future. Once it's been seen to be done, then others will try. Some will fail and pointlessly blow themselves up, hopefully taking a few of their stupid followers with them. Others will succeed and may even use the technique used with devastating effect in Iraq yesterday of blowing up a petrol or gas tanker.

Those who do this will come from every part of the raving bonkers spectrum. After all, the previous London bomber, wasn't Muslim, Irish or Asian, but a far-right homophobe. Who's to say where the next bomber will come from?

But the major threat will always come from within the Muslim population.

I feel very sorry for a lot of Muslims. There has been a lot of condemnation from the leaders downwards, but how many secretly admire, the horrific deeds of the London bombers? Probably enough to bring shame on the whole of the community.

The UK Muslim population is about 1.6m. So if only 0.01 percent are potential terrorists and bombers, then that is still 160. But the Government estimates that the percentage could be as high as one or 16,000 individuals. Bear in mind that sixteen percent of all Muslim youth is unemployed and that MI5 has a staff of about 3,000 and you realise that to check everyone is impossible.

So perhaps we were lucky it was so long before a bomb happened.

Remember that bombers feel they will always win. They go to Paradise and get fifty-seven virgins! Always wondered where they get virgins from, as they were rare enough in the sixties, when the Scaffold did a superb sketch about it. They also cause tourists not to visit, businesses to go bust and unemployment to get worse. So all that will get new recruits to their stupid causes.

But they mustn't win!

They will continue to cause trouble, in Turkey, the UK, the US, France, Iraq and all over the world, until out of the mess that is modern Islam, comes a man, woman or even a sane philosophy to lead them into the modern world. It would also help if there were several Muslim countries where anybody no matter what race, creed or religion, they be, could live in harmony.

Both goals are a long way away. And probably getting further from attainment.

 

It's Ragwort Time

Bloody stuff!

If you keep horses like we do, you hate ragwort. It kills horses and some other animals very easily, so you have to pull it out of the fields by hands each summer.

The season seems to have started early this year and there seems to be lots of the horrid plant everywhere.

The only good thing to say about it, is that ragwort pulling is a good exercise.

 

Fighting the Enemy

We must take measures that have general acceptance, that benefit us in other ways than just the fight against terrorism.

1. Given that analysis of e-mail traffic is one of the major techniques used by the police to track terrorists, we should make it a serious offence to send spam e-mails. This must be done on a wordwide basis, would cut out ninety percent of all Internet traffic and make terrorist communications easier to find. It would be a major benefit to everybody.

2. It should also be made more difficult to make phone calls on an automated basis for direct marketing. These are a pain to everyone.

3. Most crime and terrorism involves cars in some way. Although, I am against ID cards, I feel very strongly that cars should be made much more traceable and much more easily checked for tax, insurance and MOT. We’d all benefit, as the number of accidents with the uninsured would drop.

4. Walk through the centre of London late at night and you are plagued by unlicenced taxi touts. Crack down on these and others, who circumvent tax regulations, as how much of the money generated is used to finance other things like drug dealing and terrorism.

5. We must also ensure that education prepares people for jobs. It was said this morning that young Asian men have the highest employment among the various ethnic minorities. Solve this problem and we’ll all benefit.

None of these measures are too serious, but they will have an affect.

 

The Price to Pay

It is best to look at another example.

Level crossings and other places where roads cross railways are a constant source of danger. We have had two major accidents and many minor ones of this type in the past few years.

But the cost of making every crossing safe would be prohibitive. It would cause rail fares to rise to such a level as to make people travel by road. Now as road travel is inherently less safe, then there would actually be more deaths, by making something else safer at a great cost.

There is only one way to ensure safety from bombers. And that is for everyone of us to be vigilant.

 

Bermuda in the Big League

Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland and Holland have qualified for the 2007 World Cricket Cup in the West Indies.

Bermuda with a population of 65,000 beat the USA!

Looks like a good party coming up.

We need a lot of those!

 

Carry On London

Tuesday, I went to the funeral of a friend. Alex died young at 48. Life is cruel. But even the funeral was not a sad affair! Alex wouldn't have wanted it so and stated it probably many times before she died!

Wednesday, I was in Trafalgar Square, when my fair and beloved city, London, was announced as the winner of the 2012 Olympic Games. Life can be so sweet.

But then we have the bombings of today!

Thousands of times, I've travelled through the tunnels under London. Many times, I've done the stretch between Kings Cross and Russell Square, where most of the casualties occurred. Occassionally, I've used the two parts of the Circle Line, where the other two bombs went off.

Am I bitter? Angry? Sad? Vindictive?

Not sure!

Sad yes! As why would anybody want to do such a thing! How would I feel if one of my sons did that? I would know I had failed. How would I feel if one of my sons had got caught in the blasts. I don't know! But thankfully they didn't.

So it has to be sadness at the moment. Vindictiveness only follows the old eye for an eye maxim, which means that we all go blind!

But perhaps, the greatest thing we can do is just carry on, remembering those that died and vowing to be more vigilant so that it won't happen again.

Fay would have done that. She worked for my father and during the Second World War, the shy girl from North London, worked as a conductor on the buses. One day, the bus she should have been on, was hit directly by a German bomb. Everybody died! She just remembered the tragedy, I suspect she cried long and hard, and then she carried on.

A few crackpots, who take the good name of Islam in vain, should never be able to bring London to its knees, when the evil Hitler and the Luftwaffe failed.

A last point for Bush and all those who think that the death penalty is a deterrent in these sort of cases. I'll ignore the fact that the London atrocities may well have been suicide bombers, which are usually pretty difficult to execute. But as I am someone who has no belief in any religious being at all, I do believe that we should do all we can to preserve reasonable life here, as there is nothing more to come. So if we ever execute anybody, then we are losing our own humanity and descending below their level.

Carry on London.

 

Accommodation for the London Olympics

Don’t worry about this?

Remember that Stratford is next door to East Anglia, one of the most entrepreneurial areas in England. And Chelmsford is only 30 minutes from Stratford by train.

So I suspect that many visitors will stay in an arc to the north east of Stratford from Cambridge, Newmarket, Saffron Walden, Stansted, Chelmsford and Southend. Camping, B & B’s, small hotels, we’ve got lots of them here! And a lot within 45 minutes of Stratford.

So why stay in a crap place in Croydon, when you can stay in comfort in East Anglia?

 

Why Hydrogen Cars Won't Work!

Bush goes on about hydrogen being the fuel of the future.

I think that there is every reason why it may be possible to create affordable hydrogen-powered cars.

But there are two major problems.

1. Creating the infra-structure will not be so easy, as this will need large number of power stations to create the hydrogen by the electrolysis of water. There is the point that as hydrogen can be stored fairly easily, it could actually be created by erratic wind farms or using excess night-time energy.

2. But the safety is the major problem. On Tuesday, a van containing an acetylene gas cylinder caught fire and exploded on the M25. The road was closed for about 36 hours. How often would that happen, with thousands of hydrogen-powered cars running about?

The best solution for cars is to reduce weight and improve shape and structure, so that the required consumption for a given performance is reduced significantly. I'm not sure about hybrid cars, as the extra weight penalty may mitigate the fuel savings.

Anyway it would all be much more fun, if we rode around in efficient, light and strong cars. Especially, if they were all like the Lotus Elise, which is perhaps the only car built to the correct scientific specification.

 

Bush Lies Again

The BBC showed that the Bush figure of $20 billion spend by the US is wrong. Yet Bush repeats it this morning.

Throw the lying bastard out!

 

Bush on Climate Change

He's wrong on this one. Even if you don't agree about global warming and some have made some persuasive arguments, we must do something!

You'd probably save a lot of energy, if we didn't have to have things like the Glenagles G8 summit. Can't they do it quietly by video conferencing?

The problem is in the States, where they set the wrong example, by using massive SUVs, lots of air-conditioning, coal to generate electricity etc. People here are starting to follow that example, by buying awful surburban tanks. But at least here, the fuel costs are a bit of a deterrent! But not enough!

Bush can't see any way out of his dilemma without harming US jobs. And he knows that too many US jobs are based on the wrong economic model. For instance, Ford doesn't make and sell many small cars in the US, but it does sell lots of massive pick-up trucks and SUVs. So if you urge people to save energy with smaller cars, you actually hurt the economy, much more than you would in Europe.

So he persists with his opposition to global warming, despite nearly all scientists telling he's wrong.

 

It was Seb, Becks, Matthew, Tani Wot Won it!

And the background staff as well, but everybody said the right thing!

Celia reckoned that Coe's was the best jury speech she'd heard in a long time. Also, remember that Seb Coe, always wins the important races he should have lost. He was an 800 metre runner, who won gold at 1500!

 

Chirac Blows It!

The Olympics are coming to London in 2012! Yippee!

And I was there in Trafalgar Square when it was announced.

But I can't help thinking that without Jacques Chirac wonderful faut pas, Paris would have won. After all, it was only needed two voters to change sides. How many of those who voted for London were Finnish?

 

Florida Holiday Scam

This group of bastards don't give up!

Returned from London and found five messages on the house 1571 Answerphone.

Let's all try a different tack.

Say we're from the nuisance call unit of Daisy Analysis and that we're collecting details on behalf of BT, NTL or whoever your phone company is.

 

Two Funerals

I don't like funerals as it tends to put dents in one's own invincibility.

And I've had two in the last couple of weeks, with a Memorial Service to come on Friday.

Paul was a member of Celia's chambers, or should I perhaps say a large part of the life and soul. He died of a heart attack, perhaps a couple of hours after we had a jokey conversation about his web site. To be told by Bobbie, the receptionist, typist and general happiness, when I came to meet him the next morning, that he had died, was a tremendous shock.

I'd known Alex for perhaps fifteen years, mainly as William's wife and business partner. His company is my ISP amongst other things. She died of breast cancer after a long fight.

Both too were under fifty, which makes it all the worse.

But the two funerals were so similar, in that neither were somebre affairs, but much more celebrations of lives past. Colour abounded, especially at Alex's.

Perhaps that is how we should all be remembered?

 

Olympic Bid

Someone from the lazy North moaned that London was getting more funding for the Olympics.

About 35 per cent of GDP in London and the South East is government funded. However, in the North East, Scotland and Northern Ireland it’s nearly 70 per cent.

Get real!

It’s about time the rest of the UK paid it’s way. So if we want the Olympics, which I do, then we can have it!

 

Florida Holiday Scam

We've been experiencing all sorts of annoying phone calls, most of which start with "Congratulations, You've won a Florida holiday". I wouldn't fall for the scam, as I don't visit the States, as they still have the death penalty and deny global warming. We actually had four calls yesterday, including one at four in the morning.

But a lot of people have lost a lot of money to the scam.

You can read more about it at boakes.org/ameri-scam, where he has done a great job in detailing it all.

I've spoken to BT about it and they say they have to deliver the calls. Why? They know where they are coming from, so why don't they dump them in the ether. There is also an 0800 number associated with this scam, so why don't they get it cancelled?

They say that it's all down to Ofcom. Fat chance.

The only solution that will work, is for everybody who has suffered from these calls and that includes millions of us, not to take a holiday in the US. And tell everybody why! How long do you think it would take before Disney and the other reputable American holiday companies got heavy with the scammers?

 

Roger Federer

He's good! It's a pity no-one seems to be able to give him a good game at Wimbledon!