Family heirlooms

Some time ago, the then British government decided to sell off the family heirlooms, with the claim that their customers to receive better services and better value. It was politically contentious then as now.

But we as a nation have decided that it is not a good thing for our government to run large swathes of the service industries. We must have done, because we have not subsequently voted in government that would reverse it.

So, in that case, why on earth are we letting the French Government buy them up instead?

Cheques are an endangered species

When Yokel was in his local market town recently he noticed that one of the shops, a nationwide retailer of electrical and electronic goods had a notice in the window stating that "mobile phones can only be purchased by credit card". The hair on the back of Yokel's neck went up. We know that the reason they push credit and debit cards so much these days is that the government has a hook into the bank computers and knows all that is going on. Seach for Matrix and TIA for the story in the US, the UK will be no different, it just hasn't made the interweb.

Of course the retailer doesn't take cheques these days "There's no demand for them!" Have you ever tried paying for petrol with a cheque recently? Yokel would be surprised if you had any success. And now Tesco are making a big splash about refusing to accept cheques from the end of February 2008. So it won't be too long before they really do become extinct. Most retailers refuse them now. In fact Yokel expects it from any trader these days. "There's no call for it, you see". And the banks appear to sit idly by, and let it all happen.

But in reality, it is the banks who are pushing it. The lever they use on the traders is liability. If the trader accepts a fruadulently issued cheque, that is the trader's problem. It says so in the law. Most retail traders would have had insurance in days gone by. But with the clamour to cut costs, that insurance premium has come under scrutiny. Especially as the banks offer traders a risk free option. If the trader takes payment by "Chip and PIN" card, then the bank indemnifies the trader against fraudulent transactions. Is it any surprise that traders by the score are falling for the blarney, falling for the snake oil salesman in a suit?

As banks are not exactly famous for giving anything away free unless is has been extracted from between firmly clenched teeth, why are they doing it? Given their self perceived need to make obscene profits, how can they afford it? Its really quite simple, they don't, the bank customer does! The law is silent on fraudulent payment card liability, so up steps the Banking Code of Practice, and the banks' Terms and Conditions. Read them carefully and you will see that if someon clones or steals your card, and uses it with your PIN to complete a fraudulent transaction, you are liable unless you can convince the bank security department that you are not guilty! The Police are not interested. Anywhere else but the banking industry, and it would be unfair under Trading Standards legislation. This is what our NuLabour guvverment wants.

And if they haven't tilted the balance far enough against the bank customer already, they are now forcing RFID enabled cards on customers, no consent needed. Cards that can be read, easily, without the person carrying the card being any the wiser. Just like the RFID enabled passports bing issued by the UK amongst many others. How on earth can the card holder protect against fraudulent transactions with this technology. Come back tin-foil wallets, all is forgiven!

Why are the banks immune? Conspiracy theorists can have free rein but Yokel would not be surprised if it were related to Revelation 13 vv 16 - 17. No we are not there yet, but we are being prepared to accept it as normal. How much longer has cash? How many more big robberies before "they" start to play the Elfin Safety card, proposing that cash is "just too dangerous" for society to tolerate?

What is the purpose of an Investment Bank?

Bearing in mind the news about the wannabe Nick Leeson across the English Channel, Yokel has been wondering about the purpose of the Investment Banks, previously known as Merchant Banks. Do they do anything but lend each other money and charge for it? And try to second guess whether the share/stock/foreign exchange markets are going up or down?

It really seems to Yokel to be no better than gambling. Gambling with lots and lots of other people's money. Or even gambling with the future of London as a financial centre. Given that the FSA hasn't had a sweeping endosement from Parliament, perhaps investment banks should in future be regulated by the Gambling Commission. Then the activity can be treated like the problem that it is, and the addicts sent for rehab.

And perhaps in the rest of the country we can get on with earning our daily crusts and saving for our retirements without having to fear that some fool has managed to throw it all away trying to be "clever".

George Soros, Nick Leeson, and now Jerome Kerviel. The one thing in common? Greed!

James, thanks for a wider audience

You might recall that Yokel started his blog because he was fed up with the self serving ruling elite (and their sycophants) doing their own thing (eg signing up to the EU), regardless of the wishes of the ordinary people of the country. Since that time, Yokel's representative in the Westminster parliament hasn't yet changed party, but that might just be a co-incidence.

For a short time (until CCHQ make an obvious change or two) it might be possible to email the whole of the Parliamentary Press Lobby at DailyLobby@conservatives.com . Thanks James. Could we invite the lobby journalists to reveal to their readers that the Westminster parliament is in the process of signing its own death warrant? For the ever greater direct involvement of our National government (in Brussels) with the Regions (that were formerly part of the Province previously known as England) will render the body that meets at Westminster completely redundant. Perhaps it will be retained as a tourist attraction, possibly also as a device for hoodwinking the gullible voters. In reality though it will just be a rubber stamp, quite like the Soviet Dumas of Stalin's time.

Its a shame, because the Provinces formerly known by the joint title of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland once took great pride in their parliament. Considered it a model for others to adopt. But then times pass, and as our previous Great Leader (one Anthony Bliar) said we must "modernise, modernise modernise", or something similar. So we must not hang on to the past. Instead let us look to the future and rely on the European Parliament, with its great traditions of democracy doing what its managers tell it to do. Oh no, another Stalinesque Soviet Dumas! Can't get away from them!

Have you got a licence to do that?

It seems that the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) is launching a crackdown on illegal photocopying. Yes, the EU national government has taken away our right to "fair use" copying for private study, if it is undertaken for commercial purposes. All, you understand for the purposes of "harmonisation" of the law throughout the nation. As a result, our provincial government in Westminster adopted a set of Regulations in 2003, and set up the Copyright Licensing Agency to administer them. But why yet another Quango? (QUasi Autonomous National Government Organisation). Yokel is beginning to fear that the reason for the proliferation of Quangos is to make their transfer to National Government control direct from Brussels so much easier than dissecting off parts of the direct Civil Service.

So why pick on this bunch today? In a manner reminiscent of totalitarian regimes everywhere, the CLA is today asking employees to "Shop your boss" if the firm is indulging in illegal photocopying. Yokel is having difficulty putting into words the boss's likely reaction to being shopped by one of his employees. But the CLA have thought about that. They will offer substantial rewards. At what point, wonders Yokel, does a reward become bribery? Not that this NuLabour government would know the difference, and if they honestly thought it to be right, then it must be!

Source about CLA: BBC Radio4 "Today" 16 Jan 08 (0840 approx)

Where next?

Then Yokel's thoughts started to go off in two different directions simultaneously. Oh, it can be difficult when you do the thinking bit of sitting and thinking!

• How many other things do we have to be licensed for, these days? What sort of a trail does that leave all over the place for officialdom to rummage through at their leisure?
• What else are we encouraged to report our fellow citizens for?

Licence everything?

Yokel is convinced that all this licensing stuff is part of building a docile population. As well as giving the Thought Police something to get their proboscis into in years to come. Remember electronic data storage is so cheap these days that no-one throws anything away any more. The best we can hope for is data corruption that cannot be recovered, and that is probably an offence under the Computer Misuse Acts!

What else must we be licensed for? Some of it is long-standing and generally accepted for the public good. That includes matters like driving a car, or even the requirement for CORGI registration of gas plumbers. There is quite a bit of debate about the need to licence a television receiver, especially as the BBC is a commercial business. Now a licence to use a photocopier is getting awful close to the requirement to licence/register typewriters imposed by the National Socialists in Germany or the Communists in the Soviet Union. And of course, since Part P came into force (not by legislation, just by administrative diktat) it has been illegal to modify the electric wiring on your house unless you are a licensed electrician. At the risk of provoking another one, at least they have not yet adopted the New Zealand requirement that you be a registered plumber before you can mend a leaking drain in your house!

In the case of the electrician licensing requirements, the local council is now required to record every electrical modification within your home. It is all notifiable! It will all be on the database. What is the likelihood that when, in 25 years time, you have not applied for permission to have your home rewired (in accordance with the recommendations of the IEE Wiring Regulations (which are only a best practice standard)) then they will send an electrician to do it for you, and send you the bill? All for "Public Safety" you understand! And the people will sit idly by, and watch it happen with thoughts of "They had it coming for them!".

Of course this is the Napoleonic legal system at work and being transposed into English law. For under Napoleon everything that is not permitted is illegal. If Yokel understands his history well enough, the English, and then the UK went to war several times to remain independent of that empire! But steadily, English Common Law, with its presumption that everything not specifically forbidden is permitted, is being replaced by Napoleonic. The presumption of innocence during a criminal trial has long been under attack, and is most likely drinking in the Last Chance Saloon as Yokel types this.

How long will it be before anything without a specific licence is unlawful?

Grassing the others up?

What else are we encouraged to report our fellow citizens for? It is, of course, our legal duty to report the occurrence of a crime, so that the criminal can be brought to Justice. And the easiest way for the State to misuse that duty to its own advantage is to misuse the definition of crime. So nobody stands up when self appointed medievalists call heavy industry "Carbon Criminals". Didn't someone recently allege that there are are now some 3000 extra things classed as "crimes" in this country since NuLabour came to power?

But how else is it done? On the basis of the "What I did over the weekend" stories written by kids at school, and anything else that comes to their knowledge, schools must record and pass on to central government ever more intrusive information. Overt spying by kids on parents cannot be far away. It was of course a technique perfected in Communist East Germany and Communist Romania. You will know that it is about to happen when the Ministry of Propaganda impartial BBC drops such information from its schools/education downloads. In the same way that references (other than bad ones) about the British Empire have been dropped.

Of course there is the "Shop a cheat - no ifs no buts ..." campaign that has been run for a while by Peter Hain's Department of Work and Pensions. That will most likely be dropped now that political bloggers are using it to point out the error of Peter Hain's ways in making honest declarations of political campaign funding! Just like the pigs in Animal Farm, once this lot got their snouts in the government trough they decided that standing on two legs was good after all!

How much longer will it take to install a Stasi like internal intelligence structure in the Regions formerly known as England?

Docility

It really used to puzzle Yokel when he was a youngster just why the populations of dictatorial and police states didn't rebel and throw their oppressors out. As he grew older and sadder he began to realise just how these poor people had been conditioned from birth to do exactly as they were told, and that thinking was bad for the health, bullet shaped bad, causing the thinker to die of lead poisoning.

And latterly he has become very alarmed at the ease with which the UK population is being made similarly docile. As well as the points above, with everything be controlled under licence, and everyone suspicious that anyone else could realistically be a grass, there is the ban on smoking, starting in enclosed workplaces and enclosed public places. It will shortly be extended to include car drivers, and they have the home where children live as next target. (Boy you can get away with tons of stuff "for the sake of children's safety"!).

Stupidly low speed limits is another. The Highway Authorities have been charged with reviewing the speed limits on roads under their control. You know the sort of review where the only acceptable answer is to reduce them, all in the name of road safety. So round Yokel's way most limits have gone down by 10mph unless they were already at 30 mph. Road Safety has become a one trick pony. The only answer to any cause of injury on the road is to reduce the speed limit. Funny how income from fines is going up like there was no tomorrow! You did hear that the pressure group the Parliamentary Advisory Committee on Transport (PACTS) has called for the default speed limit in towns to be 20 mph, didn't you? Road safety has become a one trick pony. If there is a crash, reduce the speed limit further. All enforced automatically of course. Uncle Ken Livingstone (just like Uncle Joe Stalin would have done) is calling for area wide average speed enforcement camera systems to be installed. Yokel dreads uttering "Whatever next!" for fear of the response!

The thought police are already quite active. We have seen the prosecution and threats of prosecution of those who merely point out that there is a lot of doubt concerning the central documents of belief of the self described Religion of Peace, and whether these central documents actually support the self description.

How long will it be before thinkers start to die of lead poisoning?

And now you don't need this any more ... ...

In late 2005 the NuLabour government called for an "informed national debate" about their perceived need for new nuclear power stations. At the same time they made it perfectly clear that they were in favour of them. And guess what? In January 2008 the government (figurehead changed but all else intact) announced that they would be going ahead. The likelihood is that they have a deal to let the French government (through their 70% owned subsidiary Electricite de France, or EDF) to build the next set of nuclear power generation plants in the UK. Yokel is not here to debate nuclear power today. This is just an example of the government view of "consultation".

1. Announce a policy change as a consultation.
2. Let it fester for a while without putting in any debating points or listening to any made by others.
3. Announce your conclusion.

The strategy was given away by one of "Blair's Babes" when she said that the purpose of consultation was to explain the government's policies to the people. Quite clearly she learnt English language from a teacher with a view of usage very different from that of the teacher who taught Yokel. [Alas Yokel cannot find the reference to that comment and would be grateful to any reader who can help]

So now it is with some trepidation that Yokel hears today (13 Jan 08) of the launch of a major government campaign national debate about changing the law on organ donation and transplant to make it similar to the Spanish system. The decision has probably already been made, given the backing of the BMA and "the public". So, here we have the Ministry of Propaganda impartial British Broadcasting Corporation posting a very high number of background articles all supporting change. A number of questions and comments arise in Yokel's mind:

1. Is this actually a UK provincial government initiative (one of the few left that it does indeed have freedom of decision on?) or is it one of those strange "voluntary" things where mysteriously all the EU provinces agree to make changes in line with EU national (Brussels) government wishes in the face of threats of EU legislation? The "harmonisation" of provincial drink driving limits is the first to spring to mind
2. What a wonderful, altuistic, topic to distract the media from the task of letting the public know how widely the government break their own laws on party funding! Their own laws, that appear to an outsider to have been specifically framed to make it difficult for their political opponents to raise funds, and to give NuLabour an advantage. As they might say in France "Quelle surprise!". Or they might not. They seem to be much more tolerant of sleaze across the English Channel.
3. When will the change to the law take place? Just before the election is Yokel's guess. It will probably be a three line whip on Labour, so that they can portray any opponents as uncaring etc during what will probably be an even more vicious campaign than the last.
4. Is organ transplant right?

And it is this latter point, the ethics of the matter, that Yokel wants to dwell on for a moment.

For Yokel has been struggling with this issue ever since Christian Barnard became a TV celebrity for doing the first relatively successful heart transplant on a human. And he did it in Britain. At first, it seemed like a brilliant idea. After all, the donors in those days were usually car crash victims. They were very clearly dead at the scene of the crash. Honestly, nothing more could be done for them, and equally obviously they had no further need for any earthly parts. In those days Yokel would be saddened by the loss of life, mitigated by the fact that some benefit had yet been seen.

Then stories began to surface of pressure on relatives of the dying as well as the very recently bereaved to give consent to organ donation. An industry had begun. An industry that was dependant on a steady stream of donor organs in fresh, implantable condition. There were stories of life support machines being switched off before the relatives had accepted the fact of the death of their loved one. This gave rise to a need for a new definition of death, brain dead. Heart still beating, but brain dead. Just what the transplant industry wanted, "life fresh" organs ready for harvesting.

And with that came the opt-in donor card system. But like all aspects of the NHS in Britain today, demand exceeds supply. So there is a "shortage" that must be addressed. And, rather than have a debate about the ethics of the whole enterprise, our leaders are taking the next necessary Stalinist step. Compulsion. [As an aside, Yokel was a student when many of this lot were. He can remember Jack Straw as President of the National Union of Students. Straw's grouping was the "Broad Left", a bunch that left the Communist Party of Great Britain looking rather like capitalist lackeys and running dogs!]

Compulsion is the "presumed consent" idea. Something that the Patients Association has already condemned. Yokel fears that it will be yet another reason for not touching the state medical provision. Yokel supposes that to continue the student analogy would see references to "parties" and "breweries" all in the same sentence as "organise" and "couldn't". No, this is NOT a swipe at those hard working souls who try to make a bad system work. It is, however, a go at those (politicians and power brokers) who see the bad system, and make it worse to suit their own agendas, be they the "need" to introduce ID cards or whatever else. For more on the state of the NHS go read some of the medical blogs. But we know

• there are too many chiefs and not enough indians
• hospital acquired infections are real, and treating them a drain on NHS resources
• demand for treatment exceeds supply, so rationing is imposed
• is the doctor actually caring for you, or for another patient who would benefit from your death
• who is reading your medical record
• what will the civil servants and the spooks do with that knowledge
• the government is incompetent in data security and we await the placing of this information on CDs for transmission by contract couriers
• etc

The campaign to permit Euthanasia has gone quiet recently. You know, the campaign to permit medics to kill people. Yes, Yokel is aware of the fine print in the current campaign about die with dignity, no hope of a life without pain, etc. But Hitler said that during the early stages of his campaigns. Once we get the presumed consent to organ donation, what is the betting on a "resurgence" of "public opinion" about introducing euthanasia? Gossip from the Netherlands, where they have such a law, seems to indicate that the elderly are these days under some pressure to "not be a burden any more on the young" and to choose to die for the benefit of others. Whatever happened to the idea that you left this life when the Lord Almighty called you, and not a moment before? Who gave these people the right to play God?

You might by now have concluded that Yokel no longer believes organ transplants to be ethical, and you would be right. The knock out blow in his gruelling journey came with this nice shiny new vehicle with red and blue lights on top. Toyota chassis and coachbuilding, interior modified by Jinguan Automobile of China for the Chinese Ministry of Justice. In the Chinese system of summary justice, there appears to be no chance of appeal, not even against a sentence of death. As soon as sentence is passed, the newly convicted prisoner is taken to the van, strapped onto the bed in the back, and given his lethal injection specially formulated in Bejing. Doctors stand by to harvest such organs as they have orders for. You will not be surprised to learn that in a Communist society, where everything is driven by government targets, there are conviction rate targets set for the legal system when they are having a crack down on something. And a Japanese businessman is surprised at how swift and slick the whole business is.

Yes, it has become a worldwide industrial process.

And what have we had to say in the past about those who would industrialise the death of their fellow human beings? 1939-45. Never Again.

There is no room for levity here.

The whole process is thoroughly evil, and must be stopped.

Dead in its tracks.

Update 16 Jan 08: In the 08:10 spot on the BBC Radio4 Today programme normally reserved for "important" politicians and the like, today we have the pro transplant BMA (presumably as the "balance") and a pro transplant Organ Donation Task Force person. One moment particularly horrified Yokel, and that was when the Organ Donor Task Force person thought that "Organ Retrieval Teams should be on 24 hour standby". The only role of the programme presenter was to ensure that they said all their pro transplant bits. That it will become legal does not make it right.

Thank God that there are some Christians in the Church of England!

After reading some of the wishy-washy new age stuff that seems to come from Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is with immense relief that Yokel has seen the Bishop of Rochester pointing out some facts relating to certain inter community tensions, and their causes. As Dr Nazir-Ali has also seen this at first hand in his native Pakistan, it is important to take what he says seriously. You might also want to read a couple of his previous articles here, and here. Please pray that the ears of the Government will be opened to the dangers, and that they will act swiftly to bury multiculturalism along with all the other discarded -isms that were popular in their day. Please also support the others who can see the dangers, including the Bishop of Blackburn.

The Muslim Council of Britain calls the Bishop's comments "irresponsible" and "unethical", pretty much confirming that the Bishop is right.

The Telegraph also reports reaction, but of course the BBC gives twice as much space to his critics as they do to the Bishop! What should Yokel expect from the BBC? Unbiased reporting? That was a long time ago!

Picture: BBC

Quite clearly it is later than we think!

 This wasn't the post that Yokel had intended to make today, but it seems quite important to spread the word about the impending arrest of a British blogger for posting the truth about Islam.

Lionheart is currently out of the country, so has some time to prepare himself for what is to come. On his return he is to be arrested by DC 5398 Ian Holden of Bedfordshire Police's Hate Crimes Unit.

No time for more at the moment, but Yokel will update this post when he has had time to gather some more background on the legal jihadists in the Luton and Dunstable area.

Be of strong in the faith Lionheart.

Update 21:26. Lionheart has covered much material is such detail that Yokel has nothing more to add by way of detail about those who would silence him. It is clear that some are q uite committed to having things their own way. The school uniform saga seems to be but one example.

Is it time for a Campaign?

Yokel has noticed that the Home Office web site has been approved by the Plain English campaign. Though reading it he wonders if the plain English campaign had English teachers from a different school than the one his teachers attended!

But you know, he pondered to himself, there must be room for another campaign. He wondered if there was a business opportunity here, selling a web site logo to those who have been examined and found exemplary. Could be, but if the fee was charged for the award of the logo, business might be a bit thin. Few businesses or agencies (or even Ministries) will gladly pay to be told they have failed. And they definitely wouldn't like being told! For you see, Yokel's idea is to have a Plain Honesty Campaign.

Why were the Serious Fraud Office pulled off BAe? It could have been their only success in years! Why was the outcome of the Loans for Peerages investigation a "No realistic chance of conviction"? Has every person in the country become so accepting of lawbreaking that a typical jury would have found the buying of peerages to be in compliance with the law? Why were all the papers recently full of the current investigation into donors to NuLabour and the preferential treatment they got in return? Couldn't be that they are trying the same trick again, could it? So much out in the public domain already, your honour, no chance of a fair trial now!

No, as a business proposition the Plain Honesty Campaign is dead in the water. Better sit and think of another idea.