Friday - May 29, 2009

Town halls hire citizen snoopers as young as SEVEN to spy on neighbours and report wrongs.

H/T Argentium G. Tiger

BMEWs Tiger WOKE me up this morning with this article. I had something else but will post it later.
I don’t know how I missed this one and the date is a week ago.
I think the current political scandal re, the members of parliament scheming and leeching off the public has obscured much.
This type of thing came to light last year and caused a fuss and then died down.  So I thought everyone else forgot it cuz I sure did.

Look at the date of this story. Eleven days ago and not a peep anywhere that I heard.  I didn’t even see this in our local paper.  I guess that’s how the authorities can get away with it.

There is another side to this of course.  It sure looks bad enough and especially the way the Daily Mail wrote (and I copied) the headline.
There is a problem with what Brits call fly-tipping. Which is tossing trash at the side of roads or in fields.  I have seen it and trust me, it really does look bad.
And reporting genuine crime should be an act of good citizenship, I would think.
But I don’t quite understand how a council can come to the conclusion that someone has “put out too much rubbish” for pick up. That has me stumped. What if a family just has a lot? How much is too much?  And I can see as well, where the image of Big Brother comes into play.  You are always going to get some officious troll with a fraction of authority of some minor kind, sticking their unwanted nose into your legitimate business.  We’ve run into that sort of thing ourselves in the five years we’ve been here. But I guess recruiting kiddies too kinda smacks of the soviet system. Or Nazi Germany.
Catch em young enough to thoroughly train, and they’ll grow up accepting as normal behaviour the idea that ‘snooping’ on family and neighbors is simply the thing to do. 

By LUCY BALLINGER
Last updated at 1:16 AM on 18th May 2009

Children as young as seven are being recruited by councils to act as ‘citizen snoopers’, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The ‘environment volunteers’ will report on litter louts, noisy neighbours - and even families putting their rubbish out on the wrong day.

There are currently almost 9,000 people signed up to the schemes. More are likely to be recruited in the coming months.

Controversially, some councils are running ‘junior’ schemes which are recruiting children.

After basic training, volunteers are expected to be the ‘eyes and the ears’ of the town hall.

They are given information packs about how to collect evidence, including tips about writing down numberplates, which could later be used in criminal prosecutions.

Luton Borough Council’s Street Seen scheme encourages its 650 volunteers to report ‘environmental concerns’. It is also recruiting ‘Junior Street Champions’, aged between seven and 11.

Primary schools could also be involved within two years.

Similarly, Islington Council in north London has recruited 1,200 ‘Islington Eyes’ to report crime hotspots, fly-tipping and excess noise from DIY.

Volunteers are given a list of things to do when confronted with fly-tippers, including taking photos ‘without being seen’.

Last year the council undertook a recruitment drive for youngsters aged nine and above, called Junior Eyes.

Children are given special books to write down reports on littering or graffiti in their schools, which they then send to the council.

A spokesman for Islington town hall said: ‘It’s not possible for the council to see what’s going on in the borough at all times, so our Eyes for Islington are a great help, reporting issues such as dangerous footpaths, fly-tipping and graffiti.’

Welwyn Hatfield Council in Hertfordshire has given its 13 volunteers handheld computers to take photographs of problem areas.

The information is then uploaded to a map of trouble spots.

Overall, a total of 8,442 volunteers have signed up at 17 councils in England. Other councils are set to follow their example and set up their own networks of volunteers.

They say the scheme helps them find out about problems which they might not know about otherwise. But critics are worried the schemes could easily be abused and encourage a ‘Big Brother society’.

The move comes as local authorities dish out £100 fines to householders who leave out too much rubbish or fail to follow recycling rules.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Community spirit is one thing, spying on your neighbours is quite another.

‘It is the job of the police to maintain law and order, and there is no reason taxpayers should have to pay twice for the same service.

‘People are sick and tired of being spied on by their councils and in a recession we simply cannot afford luxuries like handheld computers at a time when the most basic public services are being scaled back.’

The Welwyn and Hatfield scheme is run by waste collection and environmental contractor Serco, which hopes to recruit more volunteers this summer.

A spokesman for the council said: ‘Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and its project partner Serco do not conduct any surveillance of residents in enforcement of environmental crimes, and neither do the community champions that have volunteered.’

Serco said other councils were keen to introduce its handheld computers, although many areas are conducting similar schemes using more low-tech methods.

For example, Hillingdon Borough Council in north London, which has recruited 4,800 volunteers from the age of 16 in the past 18 months, simply gives its ‘Street Champions’ pens and a folder of contact details.

A spokesman said: ‘Street Champions themselves have confirmed that it is not a scheme where people are asked to spy on neighbours. Street Champions are asked to act just as any other resident might to report issues in their local area.’

The spokesman added that two brothels had been closed down this year as a result of reports.

In North Devon, where trial schemes are currently under way, some of the volunteers have helped the police close down a drug den by giving witness statements.

However, the controversial pilot schemes have been dropped in a number of areas including Stoke -on-Trent in Staffordshire and Tower Hamlets in east London.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: ‘Environment volunteers are people who care passionately about their local area and want to protect it from vandals, graffitists and fly-tippers.

‘These community-spirited residents are not snoopers.

‘They help councils cut crime and make places cleaner, greener and safer.’

SNOOP SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/29/2009 at 07:09 AM   
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   Thursday - May 28, 2009

HERE’S ONE I COULDN’T LET GET AWAY.  Rest your eyes on this folks. And it isn’t a prank.

Fighting city hall isn’t easy and especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.

Workers lifted my car, painted yellow lines under it and put it down… then the wardens came and towed it away

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:07 PM on 28th May 2009

MORE PHOTOS AT THE SOURCE HERE

Ruth Ducker always legally parks her Volkswagen Golf around the corner from her house, so it came as a shock when she discovered it had disappeared from its spot - and in its place was double yellow lines.

Her confusion deepened when Lambeth council claimed to have no knowledge of where her car was.

It took three weeks for the council to admit its contractors were behind the disappearance, and then add insult to injury by telling the 44-year-old graphic designer she owed more than £800 in fines.

Parking scandal: Lambeth council lifted Ruth Ducker’s Volkswagen out of the way as they painted double yellow lines - but then replaced it on the new restrictions

In fact the car had been carefully lifted out of the way for the double yellows to be painted in Gordon Grove in Camberwell, then replaced on the new restrictions by the contractors responsible.

The same day a different set of parking enforcers spotted the ‘illegally parked’ car, and had it towed away - after photographing it on the newly painted double yellows.

Mrs Ducker had left the runabout without its battery, meaning she knew that it had not been stolen.

She said: ‘My little VW disappeared a week before Christmas. I had parked for years on an unrestricted stretch about 40 yards from my home. When I returned on 19 December to replace the battery my car had disappeared and yellow lines had suddenly appeared. There’s no way I could have driven onto those lines.

Other parking enforcers spotted Mrs Ducker’s car on the double yellows later the same day and had it towed away

‘Initial inquiries with the council found no trace of the car. It was three weeks before I received my first official notification.’

It took a further two months and the involvement of her local MP Kate Hoey to make the council back down and waive the fines, which by now totalled £2,240.

‘What they did was disgraceful,’ said Mrs Ducker. “I’m very grateful to my MP. When I saw the photos of my car on the yellow lines I was furious.

‘I knew that to pay up would be an admission of guilt, so I decided to fight them. But I didn’t get the car back until the middle of February and they offered a paltry £100 to compensate for lost road tax, insurance and inconvenience. Needless to say I still haven’t received a penny.’

Mrs Ducker had to wait two months and involve her local MP to make the council waive its fines - which came to £2,240

In a letter to Ms Hoey the council said contractors had told them the ‘vehicle may have been lifted in order to facilitate the painting of lines’ and admitted residents had not been advised of the planned work. The letter also confirmed that penalty notices were not due to be issued until the day after Mrs Ducker’s car was removed.

Lambeth council blamed a ‘breakdown in communication’ between its contractors and has now offered Mrs Ducker £150 compensation.

Posted by peiper     on 05/28/2009 at 03:31 PM   
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   Wednesday - May 27, 2009

Retinoscopy Before Breakfast

Oooh, I’m such a little martinet. I woke my wife up this morning with eyeball questions. It’s gotten to the point where I already know what the answers are myself, so I don’t have to look anything up in the books. I peppered her with questions until she headed out the door to go to the office. And she got them all right, everything from knowing the downside to chemical sterilization (very expensive) to how to make the spare batteries for the retinoscope last longer (fridge) to what kind of patient is most affected by dilating drops (those with blue eyes). And a boxful of lensometer questions, along with the colors of various laser beams and which surgeries they’re used for, questions about troubleshooting the various testing machines, and the proper means of taking a patient’s history. How many multicolored caps in the Farnsworth Munsell 100 and the D-15 tests? (85 movable & 1 fixed, 15 movable) Ishihara’s color blindness plates. The Fly. What is a dichromat? And so on. I’d say all her ducks are in a row, shackled tight and marching in lock step. Super. She isn’t just going to pass this exam, she’s going to ace the thing. Yay!! Looks like the episode the other day was just cold feet.

When she gets home this evening, surprise! Here’s a pencil. Draw me a sideview of an eyeball, and identify everything. Now draw me a bird’s eye view of the head, and show and label all the optic pathways right back to ... which part of the brain was it again? And then draw and name all the eyeball muscles, and show me which way they move eye. Then we’ll go over the X steps of CPR until she gets them all in the proper order. That will be on the test, and it’s a big freebie if you have the steps memorized.

Little does she know that I bought her the study guide for the next level of certification exam as a birthday present. But from what I can tell, she’s already ready for it.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/27/2009 at 07:40 AM   
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   Tuesday - May 26, 2009

Political gloom and doom as more ministers face unforgiving public. But no financial worries or

No financial worries and so far, NO prosecutions.

This is the front page of the morning paper, and this stuff is in its 18 day I believe.

Well now here’s what that’s about and this is small compared to some. Man, what a gravy train these folks have been riding. For years. No wonder they’re smiling.

COUPLE WHO GAVE TAXPAYER-FUNDED HOME TO THEIR CHILDREN RESIGN AS MPs

Sir Nicholas and Lady Ann Winterton, the veteran Conservative MPs, are to resign from parliament at the next election.

By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 6:41AM BST 26 May 2009

The couple, who were censured by the parliamentary standards watchdog last year over their use of expenses, said they would not stand for re-election as the MPs for Macclesfield and Congleton.
They said they could not maintain the “hectic pace” of politics and wanted to spend more time with their family.

The pair became the 11th and 12th MPs to leave or announce they would leave their positions since the Telegraph’s investigation into MPs’ expenses began.
In 2002, after paying off the mortgage on their £700,000 London flat with the help of taxpayer-funded expenses, the couple gave the property to a family trust controlled by their children.

They then claimed more than £120,000 in expenses to rent the flat from their children over six years.
The decision to pass ownership to their children was aimed at avoiding paying hundreds of thousands of pounds in inheritance tax. An investigation by Sir John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, found in June last year that they had broken Commons rules by renting a property from family members.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, described their actions as “indefensible”.

In a letter to Mr Cameron yesterday, Sir Nicholas, 71, and Lady Winterton, 68, said they wanted to “pass the baton to a younger person”.
“Maybe the years are taking their toll and perhaps we can no longer represent Macclesfield and Congleton with the some level of energy and enthusiasm as in the past,” they wrote.

Yeah right. Energy and enthusiasm. Has to take a lot of that to fiddle the system and avoid taxes the rest of us HAVE to pay!

Mr Cameron thanked them for their “service, energy and commitment”. Sir Nicholas has been MP for Macclesfield for 37 years, while Lady Winterton has represented Congleton for 26.
Their decision to quit adds weight to suggestions that the scandal is aiding Mr Cameron politically, in allowing him to clear “bed blockers” from safe Tory seats and install candidates more in line with his “liberal Conservative” outlook. Sir Nicholas has a majority of 11,401 and Lady Winterton one of 8,246. Their decision to leave at the next election rather than now means they will each receive between half and all of their £64,766 salary for the year after they resign.
They will also each receive a £40,799 “winding-up allowance” and a pension worth about £30,000 a year.

The couple join a growing list of MPs who have announced they are standing down or are being forced out after the Telegraph’s investigation. Michael Martin is to resign as Commons Speaker and MP for Glasgow North East next month, while Shahid Malik, the justice minister, stood down pending an inquiry into his claims. Andrew MacKay, the MP for Bracknell, resigned as an aide to Mr Cameron and said he would not stand for re-election. The Tories Sir Peter Viggers, the MP for Gosport, Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham), and Anthony Steen (Totnes) will stand down at the next election. Ben Chapman, the Labour MP for Wirral South, is to stand down, while Elliot Morley (Scunthorpe) and David Chaytor (Bury North) were suspended by the Labour Party. All three claimed for “phantom mortgages”.

Ian McCartney, the former Labour Party chairman who made questionable claims, said he would not seek re-election for “health reasons”. Up to half of MPs could leave Parliament by the election due to resignations, retirements and electoral defeats.

SOURCE

So they still make out like bandits, don’t they? £40,000 for winding up?  That’s closing their offices guys. Think almost $80,000. And they get pensions etc.
Nice work if you can get it, and many have.  But wait a minute.  Here’s just one more for today. And believe me, there are 100dreds.

MPs’ brother buys gadgets and they appear on her expenses
Julie Kirkbride, the embattled Conservative MP, claimed £1,000 in taxpayer-funded office expenses to pay for computer equipment bought by her brother.

By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 9:32AM BST 26 May 2009

The equipment, which included a digital camera, was bought by Ian Kirkbride, and delivered to him at the MP’s publicly funded “second home”, where he has lived rent-free for five years.
Miss Kirkbride, 48, then put the receipts through her office expenses account, and successfully claimed the money back. During the same period, she separately claimed £220 for another digital camera for her office.

Mr Kirkbride, 59, bought a digital camera, five memory cards, four internet routers, three external hard drives, a computer printer, map software and a battery. The items, which totalled £1,000.52, were delivered to him at Miss Kirkbride’s Redditch flat between March 2005 and October 2007.
He works as an IT consultant from the property, which is near Miss Kirkbride’s Bromsgrove constituency. She claims he also lives there to help care for her eight-year-old son, Angus. Asked yesterday why she needed the cameras, Miss Kirkbride said: “I record my work as an MP in pictures.
“I often ask my brother to source IT equipment for me … These items were bought by my brother, on my instructions,” she said.

Miss Kirkbride has bought several other electrical items in her own name in the past four  years. She bought another internet router for herself in June last year and had it delivered to her property in West minster. She also pays for a “home office” internet service for her London flat.
In December 2005, she claimed £50 from her office expenses to pay for 200 correspondence cards bought by her brother. Miss Kirkbride said yesterday that the cards had been produced for her.

She claimed £500 for a television in 2005, and then tried to claim £765 for an LCD television in February 2008. But after discussions with officials, they agreed it should be paid for from her second home expenses.

Between March and May 2005, she also claimed £1,000 for two photo shoots and prints. She then claimed £1,020 for another photo shoot in October 2006.
The disclosures come after Mr MacKay announced on Saturday that he would stand down as MP for Bracknell at the next election.

He was pushed to make the announcement by David Cameron, the Tory leader, after constituents expressed their anger over the couple’s use of expenses. Over the past eight years, they have claimed almost £250,000 in second home expenses by designating two different properties as their “second home”.
Miss Kirkbride designated the couple’s Westminster home as her main address and claimed expenses on the property in Redditch, where her brother lived. Meanwhile, Mr MacKay claimed second home expenses for the property in London.

Posted by peiper     on 05/26/2009 at 09:46 AM   
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   Monday - May 25, 2009

Local Crime Wave

I live in a fairly large condo park. Something like 1000 people live in these 328 units. That means folks come and go at all hours of the day and night. Each of our buildings has 16 units in it, 8 upstairs and 8 downstairs, and we all have garages.

Last night the lady on the end had her garage broken into. We all have power door openers, but each door has one of those emergency release key latches in the middle of the door. The burglars tore that release latch right out, probably with a slide hammer or a pry bar or something, and got the door open that way. I don’t know what was stolen, if anything. Talking with the neighbors a few minutes ago I learned that at least 3 other garages were broken into last night. The State Police are here, and they’re doing their best to collect evidence and fingerprints and stuff. Maybe they’ll get some leads and catch the perps [ who are Einstein level geniuses apparently, as they left their Dollar Store quality toolkit outside my neighbor’s garage. Duh? Duh! ]

I’m going to go and disconnect the emergency release wire on our door. And I’m giving serious thought to some sort of alarm system. And more thought to a better garage door opener, a modern one that uses floating codes for the remote. Maybe one that can be wired in to an alarm? I have to do some research there. The opener we have is one of those ancient Sears 1/4 hp openers from the mid-70s when this place was built. It still works, but I’m guessing it might be nearing the end of it’s useful life. I’ll have to gamble that it will continue working, and risk going without the safety release.

These units have no basement, and they have no attic, so all my stuff is stored in the garage. Furniture, extra stereo gear, equipment, tools, my whole reloading system, my entire window cleaning business, etc. Plus a car!

A few weeks ago one of the cars in the parking area was broken into and some DVDs stolen. I don’t know if the owner even filed a police report.

Our condo park is in a sleepy little town in western NJ that has no crime, hardly ever. But this condo village is right by the interstate highway, both on the road in and on the road out. And we’re not actually part of the town that’s on our mailing address, so we don’t get patrolled by that town’s police. We actually live in a township, and that township does not have a police department. Instead we rely on the state police, who have a barracks 2 miles down the highway from here. But they spend most of their time taking care of the highway, and almost never patrol here. When you consider the ongoing vinyl siding project here, the never ending repaving and water pipe repair projects going on here, all the people delivering things, and the steady stream of workers who go up and down the main road to get to the diner over the top of the hill where they all work ... an awful lot of people are going through our little village all day and night, every day. And every one of them only has to think about it for a second to realize they never see a cop here.

Yeah, I’m definitely looking into some kind of alarm. A really REALLY loud one.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/25/2009 at 01:44 PM   
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178-page report cost taxpayers £500,000. The conclusion of which is …. read this.

How can they spend money on this sort of BS?
Easy. They aren’t spending their own money.

This appeared in the Telegraph but I couldn’t find it in their on line version.
So, H/T Digitalspy.co.uk, where I did find it on line.

A two-year-long, 178-page report that cost taxpayers £500,000 has arrived at the unsurprising conclusion that commuters want trains to run on time.

The biggest-ever study of overcrowding and the punctuality of trains, commissioned by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), has been condemned as “an astonishing exercise in rehashing the blindingly obvious”.

The report for the RSSB, which is funded by the Department for Transport to the tune of £12million every year, discovered that passengers are likely to be in a “positive emotional state” if their train is punctual and announcements are audible and comprehensible, and in a “negative” frame of mind if the service is late and no one tells them why.

Commuters are “chilled out and happy” if they get a seat on a train, but their mood turns to “panic” if the train is late and there is no seat, the research found.

The study, undertaken by a team of external consultants and psychologists, analysed travellers all over Britain and used an “undercover passenger” carrying a miniature video camera concealed in a gift-wrapped cardboard tube inside a carrier bag to record travellers’ behaviour. 

digitalspy.co.uk

Quote:
The report comes just a week after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was attacked for spending £300,000 on a three-year study that proved ducks liked rainy weather

Posted by peiper     on 05/25/2009 at 11:10 AM   
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   Sunday - May 24, 2009

Our Masters in Brussels to switch off the watt rating on light bulbs. It’s to be lumens.

No link to the story I found on the subject and so had to wing it, mostly.
But I got it in the Telegraph and the original article was written by,
Louise Gray.

Light bulbs are to be labeled in ‘lumens’ rather than watts under new European rules that critics fear will lead to a “complete mess and consumer confusion.”

Since so called energy saving bulbs no longer accurately reflect the amount of light given out, from Sept. 2010 bulbs will be labeled in lumens, which are units of light.

The heck with the tree huggers and their environment nonsense. The sky will still be there long after they’re gone and frankly, I don’t give a damn! I’m concerned with NOW.

Posted by peiper     on 05/24/2009 at 06:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Environment • EUro-peons • UK •  
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   Saturday - May 23, 2009

WHISTLE BLOWER WHO BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN SPEAKS.

OK, Not a rant on the subject by me. This is interesting but of course it’s the short version. I recommend the full one but wasn’t sure about posting the long one.

Here’s one thing I forgot to mention over the past week of gripes and complaints about the mugging of the public by their own elected representatives.
I was originally so concerned (still am) about the amounts these people were spending, that I forgot to tell BMEWS readers about a small and very chintzy bit of pass it to the taxpayer expense. Now get this.
These representatives of the people were so wrapped up in themselves, so cheap, so petty, in their eagerness to pass off EVERY little item, that some wanted small change back. Like, one person bought a stainless steel dog dish, another person claimed for a kitchen sink plug.  Alright, I understand they might be due some expenses but jeesh. Wouldn’t you think that with what these folks get in perks alone, that they could afford those items without putting in a claim for them?  And these aren’t the only two.

Finally, and this is sort of cake icing.  Many MPs are returning the money in question where it’s been discovered they were not due the amount in question.
So then, is that money going back to the taxpayer? Will it end up in the treasury?  Oh come on. Get effin real.  Of course not.
It’s due to go back to the house (commons?) and be put back into the fund that funds .... EXPENSES.  Ha!

LATEST NEWS
Expenses whistleblower: our rotten Commons

This link will take you to the full 8 minute interview. WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK

Posted by peiper     on 05/23/2009 at 03:30 AM   
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   Friday - May 22, 2009

A man gives DNA swab, is fingerprinted, photographed, then placed in a cell. Brit version of DMV?

MoT is Ministry of Transport.  The equivalent of our DMV.
So, I found this yesterday but again, couldn’t locate the story on line and so called the paper.  And what a story this is, short though it is.
Maybe I have it wrong but gosh, did they have to take him to the pokey?  And all the while the poor schnook wasn’t guilty of anything.
There had to have been a better way to check it out surely.  And they also wanted his DNA?  Jeesh.
But what do I know?  Not much I guess.

21 May 2009 DAILY TELEGRAPH Page 15 (DTN) Edition 1C (282 words)
Motorist held for three hours over ‘too pale’ MoT certificate
By Paul Stokes

A DRIVER attempting to renew his tax disc was arrested, fingerprinted and held in a police cell for three hours because his MOT certificate was the “wrong” shade of green.
Michael Cook, 49, joined the queue at his local Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency [DVLA] centre with his two-week-old MOT certificate and the one issued the previous year in hand.

But shortly after passing them over the counter a policeman arrived and Mr Cook, a self-employed roofer, was taken into a side room..
He was told that staff at the centre in Gosforth, Newcastle, believed his new MOT certificate to be a fake because it was a lighter colour than the old one.

He was taken to a police station where he had to give a DNA swab, was fingerprinted, photographed, then placed in a cell.
Mr Cook, a father of two, from South Shields, said: “I was stunned and could not believe what was happening.
It was so embarrassing.

“I had to be interviewed and they were asking all sorts of questions about where I had the MOT done.
“I was there for quite a few hours until they proved it was a genuine certificate.” He later returned to the centre and was finally issued with a new tax disc. Mr Cook said: “I think I deserve a proper apology for what they put me through.” A spokesman for the DVLA said they sympathised with Mr Cook and would be contacting him to apologise.

“In a situation where there is a potentially fraudulent document presented, it is our procedure to contact the police,” said the spokesman.
Northumbria police confirmed that no crime had been committed and no further action was taken..
Copyright: Telegraph Group Ltd

no link available

Posted by peiper     on 05/22/2009 at 10:42 AM   
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   Thursday - May 21, 2009

Law ‘will force churches to employ gay staff’

“Christians are sick to the back teeth of equality and diversity laws”

Yeah well, Christians aren’t alone in that feeling.  And as one who is neither religious or Christian, I see this as yet another means to push attitudes and diversity BS on churches who clearly are being taken advantage of.

Of course, I can’t imagine why anyone who knows that their company isn’t welcome, still wants to come to the party. Why?
I guess to prove a point of some kind and in many cases simply to do something to advance their own agenda. Whatever. 
People who are not haters but simply see the homosexual lifestyle as outside normal behavior and believe religiously that it’s wrong, should not be forced to accept them inside their environment. That is, the church and employees. But it appears that for now anyway, religion loses.
Again.

all hail multi culture and diversity.  the new religion.

Churches will be banned from turning down gay job applicants on the grounds of their sexuality under new anti-discrimination laws, a Government minister said.

By Matthew Moore
The Telegraph

Religious groups are to be forced to accept homosexual youth workers, secretaries and other staff, even if their faith holds same-sex relationships to be sinful.

Christian organisations fear that the tightened legislation, which is due to come into force next year, will undermine the integrity of churches and dilute their moral message.

It comes amid growing concern that Christians are being unfairly targeted by discrimination laws, following a number of high-profile cases of courts finding against believers who stand up for their faith.

Religious leaders had hoped to lobby for exemptions to the Equality Bill but Maria Eagle, the deputy equalities minister, has now indicated that it will cover almost all church employees.

“The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between,” she told delegates at the Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Human Rights conference in London.

“While the state would not intervene in narrowly ritual or doctrinal matters within faith groups, these communities cannot claim that everything they run is outside the scope of anti-discrimination law.

“Members of faith groups have a role in making the argument in their own communities for greater LGBT acceptance, but in the meantime the state has a duty to protect people from unfair treatment.”

Under existing equalities legislation, any roles deemed to be necessary “for the purposes of an organised religion” are excluded from gay rights protection.

But the Equality Bill, which is currently passing through parliament, for the first time defines this as applying only to those who lead the liturgy or spend the majority of the time teaching doctrine - essentially just ministers, bishops and their equivalents in other faiths.

A spokesman for the Christian Institute, a religious charity, said that many churchgoers had deep concerns about how the bill would be enforced and accused politicians of hypocrisy.

“It would be absurd to pass a law demanding that the Labour Party employ card-carrying Conservative members, but that is effectively what churches are being told to do. We just want the same exceptions as political parties,” he said.

“Christians are sick to the back teeth of equality and diversity laws that put them to the back of the queue. We are quite prepared to accept that people will take a different view to use on moral and ethical questions, but that should not mean we have to withdraw from public life.”

Recent cases including the nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient and the British Airways worker sent home for wearing a visible cross have left many believers afraid to go public with their faith at work.

Neil Addison, a Roman Catholic barrister and expert on religious discrimination law, said that the new legislation would leave churches powerless to defend the fabric of their organisation.

“This is a threat to religious identity. What we are losing is the right for organisations to make free choices,” he said.

A spokesman for the Church of England said that while it supports the broad objectives of the Bill it “retains some concerns about the practical application of some specific aspects”.

The Equality Bill, which was introduced to the Commons by Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women and Equality, will also strengthen laws against gender, age and disability discrimination.

A Government Equalities Office spokesman said: “The Equality Bill will not force a church to accept someone as a priest regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.

“Churches, synagogues, mosques and others will continue to have the freedom to choose who they employ in jobs which promote their religion. But where they provide services to the public they will have to treat everyone fairly.”

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/21/2009 at 11:40 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • UK •  
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   Wednesday - May 20, 2009

FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN 300 YEARS OF BRIT HISTORY … AND ABOUT TIME TOO.  NOW THEN ..

LET’S SEE WHAT GOOD CAN COME FROM THE RECENT SCANDAL !

There are heads on the block following 13 continuous days of revelations concerning the sneaky underhanded and maybe illegal ways in which MPs have been robbing the Brit taxpayer blind.  They have been doing so for years, but not with the kind of proof that lately has come to light.  And the people are angry.

I really do hope some sort of good will come from all this and the folks here will find the leadership to put things right.  Truly tho, I despair. I really don’t have any sort of faith in anyone. But then, it really doesn’t matter what I think as I’m not a voter or even a citizen.  But we do pay taxes here.  OH BOY, DO WE PAY!  And all so a group of folks who feel very special can mooch off of everyone else.  Like welfare cheats of whom there are too many.

Many of these MPs have done things that we ordinary mortals would be fined and jailed for. And that is not a figure of speech but an absolute fact of the current matter.  I doubt much any Brit of any political party would disagree with me on that.

The Telegraph ran this editorial in the morning paper.  Even if some names won’t be familiar to some, it makes for interesting reading.
This is after all, the first time in 300 years that a speaker has seen the boot.  In earlier times some have been given the ax.  But this is not ALL about the speaker alone.  It’s my belief that this might be a very defining moment in English history.  Stay Tuned.

Speaker Michael Martin’s downfall: Only the start of a very British revolution
Telegraph View: Michael Martin’s departure amid the MPs’ expenses scandal is the clearest sign that this Parliament has run its course.

Last Updated: 8:18PM BST 19 May 2009

The resignation of Michael Martin as Speaker marks the latest stage of a very British revolution. While his departure has been precipitated by his fumbling and inadequate response to this newspaper’s disclosures about MPs’ expenses, it reflects a collapse of public faith in the political system that has been evident for some time. Over the past 12 years we have seen a Government with an overwhelming parliamentary majority turn the Commons into a cipher for often perverse decisions. It has burdened the Commons and the country with pointless and even dangerous legislation. People feel their political representatives are aloof and arrogant. Now, in addition, they think they are venal, too. In a characteristically British way, we have all put up with this for far too long – there have been no marches, no riots, no clashes with the police. The public has now decided it is time for change: its fury has forced apologies, repayments, suspensions and resignations; constituency parties are threatening deselections; MPs are voluntarily deciding to stand down; the Speaker has been forced out, for the first time in 300 years.

When he was elected on October 23, 2000, Mr Martin said: “I thank the House for its confidence in me. I pray that I shall prove worthy of that confidence and that all of us will maintain the high tradition of this place.” He was living proof of Thomas Rainsborough’s dictum during the Putney Debates in 1647 that “the poorest he hath a life to live as the greatest he”. Born into poverty in a Glasgow tenement, Mr Martin had risen to become the First Commoner of the Land. It is his tragedy, and that of Parliament, that he could not live up to the expectations placed in him. Indeed, the manner of his election contained the seeds of his downfall: it was, in essence, a political stitch-up whereby an MP for the governing party was installed in the chair through the mechanism of a massive Labour majority, when parliamentary convention suggested that an Opposition MP would have been more appropriate.

Not only was Mr Martin the wrong choice; he turned out to be a catastrophic one as well. His fate is symbolic of the rottenness of a political system that was once the envy of the world. That system now lies broken and demoralised. With its sovereignty already dissipated by the power of the European Union, the role of the House in scrutinising legislation has been further undermined by the placing of time limits on all debates; the hours it sits have shrunk, the chamber is often virtually empty, and MPs routinely fail to articulate the concerns and aspirations of the people who elect them. Westminster has sunk into a slough of despond. The dwindling turnout at successive elections is testament to what the country thinks of the system. Mr Martin, as Speaker, has presided over this sorry shambles.

The expenses crisis is symptomatic of his failure and of the wider malaise that has beset the institution. The argument that he should not be made a scapegoat for the failings of MPs ignores the fact that he is, in addition to chairing debates, effectively the chief executive of the Commons. As its administrative head in overall charge of the fees office, Mr Martin should have taken a grip on the abuse of allowances by MPs; instead, he turned a blind eye to it and then conspired to cover it all up by attempting to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information scrutiny they had imposed on the rest of the public sector.

Even that, however, does not explain why his resignation is necessary. There have been poor Speakers in the past whose demise has been hastened by a visit from the men in suits; there have been unpopular ones; there have been corrupt ones. It has always been said that the institution is greater than the office holder, and its gravitas must therefore be maintained at all costs. It is, then, a measure of the constitutional crisis now consuming Westminster that rebuilding the integrity of the Commons is only possible with a new Speaker at the helm.

MPs must choose the right person on June 22. It must be an individual who has not been tainted by the current second-homes scandal; who commands respect on all sides of the House; who has the intelligence, independence of thought, authority and strength of will to represent the interests of MPs against the executive, both this one and the next. It is a rare animal that is being sought. There is no reason why it should not be another Labour MP. Indeed, it should not matter which party the Speaker belongs to. It is a mark of the damage caused to the office by the perception, whether fair or not, that Mr Martin was “Labour’s man” that political considerations should be at issue. It is the character of the individual that matters, not party allegiance. The next Speaker will be more powerful than many of his predecessors. He or she will be chosen by secret ballot, introduced because of the circumstances of Mr Martin’s election, and so there will be less opportunity for the party gerrymandering that happened then.

Yet for all that the resignation of the Speaker is an exceptional event in British politics, it is still not enough. The Government is bereft of ideas, Whitehall decision-making is frozen and the Prime Minister is drained of all authority. It is clear that this Parliament has run its course. Once the new Speaker is installed, a general election should follow soon after. Gordon Brown should set aside party considerations, and go to the country this autumn. With a new start, the institution can be refreshed. That is the British way and it is still a good one.

Posted by peiper     on 05/20/2009 at 07:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Government • Corruption and Greed • Politics • UK •  
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   Tuesday - May 19, 2009

WELL HERE’S AN ODDBALL WAY TO PRACTICE GUN CONTROL.

I guess I can file this under humor even tho it wasn’t planned that way.  Surely it falls under stupid people. 

I thought this bit of out loose lunatic asylum story fit in rather well with gun stuff here at BMEWS.

This isn’t airport security, it’s triple-shotted stupidity

The mad dictatorship of the ‘security’ industry reached new depths of lunacy when a Japan-bound traveller was stopped at Heathrow for carrying a paperback thriller with a picture of a gun on the cover. 

When Carolyn Burgess placed her Robert B. Parker novel, A Triple Shot Of Spenser, on the security tray she had it snatched away because it ‘might upset passengers’ on the plane. It had the image of a handgun on the front.

Eventually, after three officials had consulted each other on this serious matter, Mrs Burgess, a 58-year-old bank worker, was told she could take the book on the plane – provided she kept it in her bag and didn’t read it.

A spokesman for BAA attempted to explain this loopy behaviour by saying: ‘In certain circumstances, a passenger carrying an item which features an image or slogan that could be perceived as aggressive may be asked to cover it up or remove it. Security officers are advised to use common sense when making these requests.’

At least the book wasn’t blown up in a controlled explosion.

By: PETER HITCHENS in The Daily Mail

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2009 at 10:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Guns and Gun Control • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Monday - May 18, 2009

Mum banned from breastfeeding at poolside for breaching food and drink rules.  Yeah. Really.

Well, what next?

How could I ignore this one?  I wasn’t even looking for it but once I read the headline, well you know. I got hooked and followed the link.

OK I have to say honestly once or 2wice I saw that on the high street (main street through town) and I didn’t find anything appealing about it.
I can’t explain it. Just felt like a peeping tom or something. But alright, not making a big deal outta that.
But ... how does breast feeding come into food and drink rules?  It just strikes me as awfully funny.  I have never heard of that.

Anyway, aren’t most women more modest in this situation? I’d have no way of knowing of course but it just seems like something a lady would do in private. No?  It’s almost like exhibition but I do admit I am probably very wrong about that.

Anyway, I’m still cracked up and laughing at the guys reasoning on the subject. Too funny.

Mum banned from breastfeeding at poolside for breaching food and drink rules

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:59 PM on 18th May 2009

A mother was told to stop breastfeeding her baby boy by a swimming pool as it breached a leisure centre’s ban on food and drink.

Laura Whotton was left fuming when a member of staff said she could not feed 11-week-old Joshua by the pool at John Carroll Leisure Centre in Nottingham.

The 26-year-old was feeding the hungry infant while keeping an eye on her son Thomas, four, splashing about in the water.

‘There was nothing on show and it looked like I was just holding my baby,’ said Laura, who had been wrapped in towels at the time.

‘People in bikinis were showing more skin and breast than I was.’ She added: ‘It was ridiculous because the first thing he said to me was “are you breastfeeding?” He couldn’t actually be sure I was.

‘When I said “yes”, he told me I couldn’t feed by the pool as there were children present.

‘I was feeding a baby; it’s the most natural thing in the world and I was made to feel like I was doing something terrible.’

Laura said she was left ‘extremely angry and upset’ by the ban.

‘It could put people off going swimming and has made me not want to go to the John Carroll Leisure Centre again,’ she said.

Today, Nottingham City Council insisted there had been ‘a misunderstanding’ and has promised to apologise to Ms Whotton. It is also issuing new guidelines to its leisure centre staff.

A spokesperson had initially told local paper the Nottingham Post that food and drink, including breast or bottle-feeding a baby, was against hygiene and health and safety rules.

But today a council spokeswoman said: ‘The rules are that there’s definitely no food and drink poolside, but breastfeeding is exempt from that rule. People can breastfeed anywhere.’

OK, in the interest of Health and Public safety of BMEWS viewers, CAUTION if you’re gonna open this link to the Daily Mail because, well .... ah .... the lady in question isn’t very pretty.  In fact, you may want to hold one hand over your eyes and peek but don’t look.

Posted by peiper     on 05/18/2009 at 02:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Humor • Nature • UK •  
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   Saturday - May 16, 2009

MONEY TO BURN. EASY COME, EASY TO GET MORE. JUST TAX PEOPLE. TAX AND SPEND.

Taxpayers money HAS to be spent somewhere. Right?

This bit of nonsense really deserves more then just a moonbat award. Especially at a time when people are losing jobs, banks are in trouble and being bailed out with public monies, MPs are in serious hot water and some have already resigned in a huge scandal here that could bring down the govt.
Perhaps not since the teapot dome scandal in the USA has anything like what’s happening here been exposed.

I don’t know why Teapot scandal came to mind. Must be I’m in England and it just came naturally.
Anyway, this item with all that’s going on around it is just another example of how carelessly authorities spend taxpayer money.
If this council needed information on the subject, why didn’t they simply go to the police dept?  It all beggars belief I swear it does.

See what you think.
Oh, and I haven’t even gone into foot massages for unruly pupils at school.  That one deserves a thousand bats all by itself.

Council paid drug dealers and addicts hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money ‘to find out about their trade’

By Ryan Kisiel
Last updated at 1:21 AM on 16th May 2009

Drug dealers and addicts were paid hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money to take part in a question and answer session.

The money was used to interview heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis dealers to gain ‘intelligence’ on the ‘complex’ drugs problem.

After the interviews, Labour-run Lambeth Council in South London even extended a ‘special thanks’ to the dealers for their patience.
Enlarge

Yesterday, critics described the initiative as grotesque and a disgraceful waste of public money that would allow addicts to feed their habit.

Council officers located sellers and users through drug addiction services and the prison service.

They then offered several dealers a fee, thought to be around £50, to answer questions for about an hour. All the interviews remained confidential.

Questions included the quality of drugs that they sold, how much they earned and what they thought of their local area.

In the official report published after the interviews, the council thanked the dealers for their participation. It said: ‘We would like to extend a special thanks to all the sellers we interviewed for the candour and patience with which they described their activities to us.’

The report concluded that some dealers earn up to £5,000 a week and carry weapons or have ‘easy access’ to them.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: ‘This does not look as if Lambeth has been spending public money very wisely.

‘It’s clearly important to understand the drug problem, but we should also not make it worse.’

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said: ‘The idea of paying criminals is grotesque.  ‘If the council want intelligence-led work then funding their police force properly or a needle exchange programme to take drugs off the street would be money much better spent.’

Mark Wallace, a spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s absolutely disgraceful that hard-earned taxpayers’ money has been paid out to drug dealers.

‘This money has gone straight into the coffers of organised crime.

‘This would not seem such a “complex problem” if Lambeth would stop pussy-footing around crime and start enforcing the law by helping to bring drug dealers to justice rather than paying them.’
Enlarge

It is not the first time that Lambeth Council has been criticised for wasting taxpayers’ money.

In November last year, the council revealed it was spending £90,000 to send reflexologists into its schools to massage the feet of unruly pupils.

Medical experts say there is little evidence such treatment can improve the behaviour of young tearaways.

Responding to criticism of the drugs initiative, a Lambeth Council spokesman said: ‘This was a complex issue and we needed detailed intelligence to tackle it, which is why we interviewed dealers as part of our research.

‘In line with good research practice, a small payment was offered so that people would take part.

‘As a direct result of this research we’ve been in a better position to tackle the drugs market and 15 per cent fewer residents now perceive drug crime to be a problem.’

STORY AND PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 05/16/2009 at 02:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Economics • UK •  
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