ArchivesBy Author: Phil
Rant: An Open Letter to the British Electorate
Dear fellow voters,
I’m sure you enjoyed (as I did) watching the worms at Whitehall squirm as they got their arses roundly kicked in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election yesterday, as they also did in the recent local elections.
I’m certainly no fan of either the government or the Labour party in general, but before we start down the road of handing the next election to the Tories, let’s take a quick stroll down amnesia lane…to the last Tory-held government of 1990 to 1997…
(insert squiggly line scene fade and surreal music here)
+18Hmmm – that sounds familiar
Nice to see bonnie Prince Charlie talking about protecting the rainforest from ever-increasing deforestation.
Most importantly, Charles is talking about the introduction of a rainforest tax, paid by wealthy countries to countries such as Brazil, in exchange for not continuing with the unrestricted chop-slash-and-burn approach.
Just over a year ago, we suggested the same thing
Looks like we are still ahead of our time ;)
+19Rant: Cyclones, Earthquakes and the Olympics
What a noticeable difference between the responses of the Burmese military junta to the recent devastating cyclone that ravaged large parts of the Irrawaddy Delta and the Chinese government response to the 7.8 earthquake that hit Sichuan province earlier this week.
Both countries have been run by totalitarian regimes masquerading as one-party “democracies”. Both governments have a long history of human rights violations and both have not hesitated in the recent past to use lethal force against their own people while the rest of the world mutters “shame” and continues to do not very much at all.
+13Basingstoke in bloom
Spring has sprung in a spectacular fashion in Basingstoke and today we took a walk around The Vyne House in Sherborne St. John.
See the Photos.
We’ve been promising ourselves a spring trip to the Vyne House and surrounding forest grounds for a number of years now to photograph the bluebells in their full glory…and this year we actually managed it.
Britain in spring is truly marvelous.
Result!
+13Election Inspiration
Despite the suggested small increase in voter turnout, today’s local council elections got me to thinking about a different way of doing things…
Firstly – let’s assume that Douglas Adams was right: the mere fact that someone wants to represent you in parliament should immediately exclude them from ever being allowed to do so.
But if no-one who wants to be an MP or councilor is allowed to be and assuming we agree that at least part of the job is necessary, how do we decide who does the job?
+17Rant: Terrorism Power Abuses – Off and Running
News this week that Poole council has used legislation designed to combat terrorism, to spy on a family suspected of trying to cheat the school catchment system is the first publicly reported abuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), but I’m sure it won’t be the last…
Civil rights groups such as Liberty (rightly it now appears) have expressed concerns about these powers since the tabloid-led knee-jerk reaction policy frenzy, which followed 9/11 and 7/7 which created acts such as RIPA. They argued that existing anti-terrorist legislation already in place in the UK since the early 1970′s to combat terrorist attacks by IRA cells were still relevant enough to be used to deal with the new threat of Islamic extremism. There was therefore no need to introduce further legislation.
+22Winter returns
This morning we woke up to the rather picturesque sight of an unexpected snowstorm on Saturday night. 4 to 5 inches of snow and not a tyre track or footprint to be seen.
See the photos.
It’s not unknown to have snow in April, but it’s been a fair few years since we had such a heavy dusting, especially after such a mild winter and with an early spring.
The view certainly beats any TV rubbish and being on a Sunday I didn’t have to drive in it (result!)
Shortly after the photos were taken, the sun peeped out between a break in the clouds and within an hour it was all slush. Never mind… 
+13