Random Thoughts

Not current or topical, but I came across this on Twitter.

It relates to when Sally Magnusson did a "Songs of Praise" religious broadcast from the Calais refugee camp.

You'll remember that the Daily Mail nearly burst into flames on the newsagents' shelves at the thought of the BBC wasting money going  to France (they probably spat at the mere mention of the word France) to do a Christian programme from a place where there is a considerable amount of human suffering.

(I mean, what would Jesus have done in the circumstances...called them a swarm, like the UK's unbeloved prime minister, or advocated more drowning, because they are cockroaches, like tabloid Z-list "celebrity" Katie Hopkins.)

But the above paragraph makes a good point. 

In the course of any day, the BBC on any one of its dozens upon dozens of channels, conducts hundreds if not thousands of interviews with politicians and members of the public, with never a warning that it's just possible that something one of their interviewees said may not be 100% true (Alistair Carmichael, to take an example out of thin air), and that the BBC can't verify it.

It's strange that the only time that the BBC feels it necessary to point out that they can't provide documentary evidence of veracity is when it comes from a refugee.
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It will be comforting, or otherwise) to readers of the New International stable of papers that Ms Brookes is to return as their chief executive.

During her last tenure there (before her £16 million pay off) she oversaw, apparently without seeing anything at all, or indeed ever wondering where all the information her papers were printing was coming from, some of the monst intrusive and illegal phone hacking and paying off of police and various other sources.

The English justice system found her to be totally innocent of doing anything wrong. She knew nothing about the criminal behaviours of her key staff including Andy Coulson, who went to prison for his part in it.

I'd have said that that showed an incredible incompetence in someone in her position whose fingers should have been on the button at all times.

She sounds like the kind of person who would need supervising if they were making a cup of tea. Still, it will be open day for anyone on the staff wanting to do a bit of fiddling or cheating. She clearly won't have a the vaguest notion of what's going on.

It's a great life, though, if you are in with the right people.
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I was wondering....

SO WHAT HAVE WE HERE?

Shortly before she was arrested for bribing government officials and police; shortly before she was picked up for hacking into people's phones from pop stars to royalty, from politicians to reality "stars"; shortly before she was done for using a dead girls phone and giving false hope to the parents that their child was alive, David Cameron's friend and neighbour was offered support and assistance from Tony Blair. There are some things you support your friends through. There are somethings that you do not. I wonder what's in it for him?

Well another day, another Tory on the fiddle. What worries me is that bitch got a tut tut for claiming £90,000 she wasn't entitled to, but a student who stole two bottles of water from a looted shop got 6 months in prison. All in it together, Big Society.  We've not been so divided for 70 years.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Who'd have thought it, eh...? All these countries that use the pound sterling, with the queens head on it because they are associated with the crown, although not with England, or Wales or Ulster or Scotland.

Surely must me some mistake.

At the risk of being a tad on the boring side... Oh look!
No, I'm joking. These are not official.
No wonder, no one much lives there.

The man who raided people's pensions won't need to worry much for himself.
Quite apart form the massive ex prime minister pension he gets, plus a fund to run an office, plus security, he clearly gets rather well paid for his speeches. Not sure why, because he's a boring old git that got more or less everything wrong all the time he was in office.

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS...

Told you so!

Couldn't happen to a nicer condom, I mean erm prime minister

And so it goes on

Ooops...probably shouldn't be driving with this condom on my head.

It wasn't exactly what he said.
He clearly said that they wouldn't act against Scotland
 until Scotland had rejected independence,
but the pic was too good to reject

He must have a hell of a  house

Don't get excited. He didn't choke laughing... Still...

So what do you say Mrs Nay, I mean May

And they already renationalised their grid in Hamburg

They must think we are real suckers, while we think that they are....
erm grasping MPs

Tut tut. One rule for the ruled and one rule for the rulers

Not that interested in what celebrities say,
 but Annie's always been political

How many times do we have to tell them?

Probably would have been better to deep fry them

Aye Justin, talking of miracles

But not if you are the head of the Bank of England,
or running the Tory party or the new head of RBS...

LOL

No stitch ups there then

We miss nothing!!

Told you...

Thousands and thousands of people
 will die because of greed

'If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight.'

Although Mr Aitken might have done slightly better with his operation if, on that occasion, the press hadn't been bang on right, and good old Jonathan hadn't been a lying sack of erm...cabinet minister. 

Nothing to worry about there, I guess...
bring on the simple sword and trusty shield then...

Click on image to enlarge.

By the way, just out of interest, does anyone know what British justice is?

Random Thoughts ... Handahófi Hugsanir

As the trial for a wide range of offenses including: "misconduct in public office", "perverting the course of justice", "hacking of dead children's phones" begins, half of Dave's Chipping Norton set is in the dock. 

It will be interesting to see what kind of justice is meted out to the elite of the prime minister's county set. 

When the lower orders rioted in English cities a couple of years ago, and obliged Dave to come back from his Italian holiday, he instructed the courts to be harsh with the miscreants.  

Fair enough, although six months in prison for stealing two bottles of water is, without doubt, harsh. Still, Tuscany in August is delightful, and I wouldn't want to have to deal with his Mrs in a strop; she looks like she could be a right bitch, so I can understand that the chap was in a bit of a blue funk adn someone had to pay! 

I wonder, though, if he will be take the same hardline view now that it is his own class, nay, his own close dear friends that are standing in the dock. 

It's a thought too that Dave and his family will have to find new people to invite round on Christmas day this year for charades. Last year's invitees are a bit on the embarrassing side adn might even be spending Christmas at the pleasure of someone even more elevated than Eton Dave.

Isn't it interesting too that not a single member of the Murdoch family is in court facing charges relating to all these crimes? It seems that one of the most successful newspaper tycoons in the world had no earthly idea how his newspapers were getting all these sensational scoops, and never thought to inquire. Fancy!
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Why on why, I keep asking myself, can't we be more like Iceland? Then I remember that, in fact we are quite like Iceland in many ways, it's just that we are ruled from a place that wants to be more like the United States of America. 

Still, we can change that. Right?

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I was more than a little shocked to see in my junk emails a missive from Moneysupermarket.com informing me that with a Tesco credit card I can spread the cost of Christmas over 18 months. Handy, I though, but erm what about next year's Christmas? 

I was also concerned to read that to get one of these credit cards one must have an income of at least £5,000 a year. As £5969159_591952830859067_962482265_n.jpg,000 will soon be needed to pay the electricity and gas bills, never mind service a credit card, I can't help but think someone needs to look again at this irresponsible nonsense. 

Every little helps, does it Tesco?
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I found this on Craig Murray's latest post (well worth a read). It comes from Donald McDonald: 

"I should add, that Independence for Scotland is one of the few hopes the English Left has of overcoming the corporate, neo-con domination of their own politics.

"Once England faces the world with only its own resources and stops trying to be the main character in a Boys’ Own comic, it will, I am confident, rediscover its own greatness."

I suspect that may be very true.

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THE PRESIDENT ON THE PHONE, YOU SAY JEEVES? TELL HIM I'M BUSY...WHAT JOLLY JAPES

I was amused to read over at Political Scrapbook, that Mr Cameron was “too busy” playing tennis, at Chequers, to take a call from Mr Obama

If I’m not mistaken, routine calls between people at head of government level are usually booked in advance.

I also suspect that if there had been a call from Mr Obama, Dave the Dick would have been sitting at his desk panting, waiting for the phone to ring. The notion that he would have refused to take an unbooked call (indicating that it was vitally important) is ridiculous.

"But there’s a nuclear war starting."

"I’m sorry Mr President; the prime minister sends his compliments and says that he’s too busy chilaxing to bother with you at the moment."

But I see that this information came from none other than Charlie Brooks, husband of Rebekah (LOL) Brookes, the ginger femme fatale of News International fame. It appears that the Brooks enjoyed our hospitality on at least three occasions at Chequers.

Cameron’s office has been forced to deny, of course, that anything of the kind took place, and a check of the telephone logs for the weekends when Charlie was there appears to confirm this.

Imagine being stupid enough to tell a lie that was bound to be denied, just before his trial for perverting the course of justice.

Charlie is a bit of a Charlie methinks, and a very dim one too.

THE SUN'LL COME OUT TOMORROW

Despite now having what must be half of the management team of The Sun on bail, Rupert Murdoch, has promised that the paper will continue to publish and will be on the street on Monday.


But, it's early days.


The newspaper's deputy editor along with four colleagues was arrested Saturday for making illegal payments to police, and other officials, who appear to be an Army officer and an MoD civil servant. 

The other journalists arrested were John Kay, former chief reporter who joined the paper in 1974; Nick Parker, chief foreign correspondent; John Edwards, picture editor; and John Sturgis, deputy news editor.

A woman employed by the Ministry of Defence was arrested at her home as was a member of the Armed forces and a serving police officer with Surrey Police was also arrested at his home in Surrey.

A memo to all staff from the chief executive of News International, Tom Monkridge, said that he had had assurances from Mr Murdoch himself that he was committed to continuing to own and to publish the Sun. (As opposed to ditching it as he did with the News of the World.)

When Rebekah Brooks appeared at a Commons committee in 2003, she was asked by Chris Bryant whether her newspaper had been involved in improper activities.

She replied: “We have paid the police for information in the past.”

Andy Coulson, who was sitting next to her, and clearly a more savvy operator than Brooks, which may be why he, and not Brooks, later worked as David Cameron’s director of communications, nearly fell off his chair in an effort to point out that the hay-head sitting next to him meant to say that any payments were made “within the law”.

It appears that he was lying.

Oh well. These things happen. 

A little word of advice to Mr Cameron: When picking staff who are going to be working very closely with you, best to make sure that they are squeaky clean. That's what the Secret Service vetting system was set up to do, so, it should have winkled out Mr Coulson's involvement in this travesty. 

Well I say it it should have, what I properly mean is it would have if you hadn't just taken Coulson's word. as a personal friend, that he was as innocent as the day is long, and bypassed the Secret Service.

A little word of advice to the Secret Service: Don't take Cameron's word for anything on anybody. He is an appalling judge of character, and his friends seem to be truly dodgy people. 

Furthermore he appears to not know his arse from his arm pit.