60s failings outlined in YP Letters.

From: Roger Crossley, Fall View, Silkstone, Barnsley.
GOOD for Richard Heller. It is about time that someone spoke up about the failures of the 1960s. His diatribe in his article (Yorkshire Post, November 20) was exhausting, but he is right to call to account the ineptitudes of that era. At that time, but I would argue even more so in the 1970s, the media, unions and education, were dominated by left wing pseudo intellectuals whose philosophies were usually fuelled by an unpleasant undercurrent of intimidation, which suffocated discussion and rationality. Embedded in these areas were people who saw themselves as always right, and for millions of people at that time, it was safer and more comfortable to appear to be with them than against them, as is the demand of all bullies. And where are they now, these radical free thinkers for the people? They're mostly tucked up in their cosy middle class lives, having walked away from the responsibility for, and wreckage caused by them during that time. They will be living lives now that they mocked and derided in their youth, and won't even recognise, even less, understand or admit their culpability.

Mini 'big bangs'?

'MINI BIG BANGS CREATED, according to articles in BBC News, 8 Nov 2010.'

So 'bangs', then?

Lying tories: smug Lib Dems!

Government to make U-turn on election promise to jail knife thugs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333977/U-turn-election-promise-jail-knife-thugs.html#ixzz16egwGt9f

Thanks.

Thanks be to our God who answers the prayers of the faithful!

Democracy in action!

Swiss voters have approved a plan to automatically deport foreigners found guilty of committing serious crimes or benefit fraud.
What a government will not do - the people certainly will where right and wrong are concerned. The Swiss, of course, have built-in referenda.
Should ever UKIP take power - our people will have too!
(I believe it is called 'democracy'.)

Source: Daily Telegraph.

Backs to the wall.

BRILLIANT, England. One of the greatest recoveries in the history of Ashes cricket.

Mohammed Shafiq

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Lancashire-based Ramadhan Foundation, a charity working for peaceful harmony between different communities, has said: ‘I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist. These men ... [Asian gangs specialising in raping impressionable, young white girls] ... are criminals and should be treated as criminals — whatever their race.

WELL DONE! WELL SAID!

’Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333537/Nine-men-Derby-jailed-grooming-100-sex.html#ixzz16YU6p4M8

Terrible, but learn to forgive Julian.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333701/My-father-1-100-Britons-killed-year-mental-patient.html

I know - I feel just the same!

What? - MORE global warming?

Every Sunday.

Excellent Christian broadcast from E. Spain, with George T. Moore Sundays at 7am til 9. (Usually starts with 20 minutes of classical music.)
Yours truly doing a slot tomorrow - as is the case most weeks! Entitled 'Misconceptions'

Listen online! http://www.exiteradio.com/listen-live/

???

Miliband.

Labour leader Ed Miliband admits 'I'm a socialist and I am not embarrassed'.

Well you SHOULD be!

Fab who?

Ken Clarke.

Did you see him on Question Time on Thursday night?
He nearly made me utter rude words!
A supposedly intelligent man, too!
This politician represents why I would never vote tory - even if there were no UKIP.
Even Dimbleby got annoyed with his shilly-shallying.
ABOUT THE EURO - HE WAS WRONG! - Why not simply put up his hands and admit it?
(Do remember that these europhiles are seized with a quasi religious zeal in their love affair with the egregious EU.)

Pukebonds: an understanding of Irish economics.

Mary is the proprietor of a bar in Dublin. She realises that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronise her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).Word gets around about Mary’s "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Mary’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Dublin .By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Mary gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.Consequently, Mary's gross sales volume increases massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognises that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Mary's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Mary’s bar. He so informs Mary.Mary then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.Since, Mary cannot fulfil her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%.The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.The suppliers of Mary’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion euro no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Mary’s bar.

Now, do you understand economics in 2010?


I'll drink to that!

This Blog now officially recommends THE DAILY EXPRESS.

The Campaign for Real Christmas Cards - a reminder.

The Campaign for Real Christmas Cards respectfully asks you not to buy any Christmas cards which do not celebrate the Saviour's birth.

Oh, yes!

The Daily Express : GET BRITAIN OUT OF EUROPE.

Can't we go one better and get Europe out of Britain?

Labour MP validates violent protest.

David Winnick, the MP for Walsall North and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said "As far as yesterday's demonstration is concerned it was marvellous and gives a lead to others to follow." (Mail.)

How can normal people ever vote for these low-life leftwingers?

Irish bail out

It is reported that the UK may now have to find up to twelve BILLION pounds to aid the Irish bail out - and this follows eight BILLION to bail out Greece.
To each and every person who voted for the europhile LibLabCons and Greens, may I say unequivocally - "This is at least, partly your fault!"
Time to look again at the UKIP manifesto - found very easily on their website.

UKIP warned you. Corpus juris beckons!

Yorks Post:
From: Gerald Jarratt, Baghill Road, Tingley, Near Wakefield.

'OUR Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, states that "the coalition will not scrap trials without jury".European law is superior to British law. The Amsterdam Treaty requires us to impose Corpus Juris, an embryo EU wide criminal code drawn up in 1997 on an unsuspecting British public, thereby creating a single "harmonised" judicial system throughout the EU based on Continental (Napoleonic) law.Specifically, article 26.1 of Corpus Juris excludes judgment by "simply jurors and lay magistrates." No jury trial.The Justice Secretary must explain how he proposes to circumvent the Amsterdam Treaty.'
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldeucom/62/62wed06.htm

Oops.

‘I am not a man of faith, but my wife is.’ Nick Clegg.

"EU crumbling!"

Nigel Farage at his best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch

v=Fyq7WRr_GPg&feature=player_embedded

And he is on 'Question Time' Thursday the 25th November!

1st interview with a new PM.

The First Interview...

TV Presenter: "Congratulations Prime Minister. Before we start, as we stand here today on Thursday afternoon, do you accept that tomorrow will be Friday?"
PM: "We have always supported the standard structure of the calendar and acknowledge that the public expect a regular system that provides the rhythm necessary for everyday planning and life structure. We feel very strongly about this."
TV Presenter: "So do you agree that tomorrow is Friday?"
PM: "It is not important whether or not it is Friday or Monday. What is important is that unexpected changes do not interfere with the normal expectations of the public- and this government has a solid record in supporting those expectations."
TV Presenter:"But as today is Thursday, surely you can confirm that tomorow is Friday?"
PM: "Everything is relative and whether the next day is Wednesday of Sunday is dependent on where you stand in time.We have never challenged the current system and have the full support of the unions on this.Most people agree that changes are not required."
TV Presenter:"Well then what day is it tomorrow?"
PM: "Tomorrow is the next day in our plan to further develop our marvellous country in many areas. We plan to continue providing better health care, reduced debt, reduced employment, controlled immigration and a world leader in controlling global warming."
TV Presenter:"Returning to the question, can you not confirm that Friday is tomorrow"
PM: "Friday is always around. It has been around many times before and will be around again many more times. This is why we need - as a responsible government - to plan and organise the future. Not just for tomorrow, but for our children and their children."
TV Presenter:"Prime Minister, the viewers are waiting for your answer on what day you think it is tomorrow."
PM: "We are dealing with bigger issues here.The Friday, Saturday, Sunday thing is not important or relevant to the scheme of things. They need to understand the critical issues and focus on the matters of concern, such as the condition of our nation and how we can develop it so that all can reap the benefits."
TV Presenter:" I'm sorry, we seem to have lost the point here again. Are you saying that it is not Friday tomorrow?"
PM: "The reality is that it is not important what day it is. What is important is how we handle the situation - and my government is handling the situation with solid policies evolved from the mandate that people gave us.
TV Presenter: "But we just want to know if you agree that tomorrow will indeed be Friday."
PM:"Let's remain focused here. It is the nation that is important and we stand fast and rock steady in our dedication to the job in hand. In closing, let me say this one more time - we are fully committed to the task and have commissioned a report that will enable us to develop the plans for the future."
TV Presenter: "But we...."
PM:" Thank you all for your support and goodnight."

Wagner. X Factor.

Is this some joke in bad taste - coz I just don't get it!

The Fall of Margaret Thatcher.

I have just watched TV's The Fall of The Iron Lady and I must admit that I had quite forgotten the extent to which the European Union underpinned and caused Margaret Thatcher's downfall.
The tories were quite happy to accept her leadership, her many successes, her genius, her mistakes, her strategic brilliance, her crassness, her victories, her detachment from some - and even her arrogance - but what they could not take was the simple fact that she had the audacity to stand up to the EU.
This could not be tolerated under any circumstances, by a singularly europhile party.
Those who welcomed her 'fall from grace' - were too busy cheering to look at the whys and the wherefores.
But today, so many have forgotten the rank tory europhilia demonstrated by this 'assassination'.
Yet, right up to the present, astonishingly, the tories pretend to be largely eurosceptic and duplicitously make empty claims such as 'so far and no further' whenever the EU is mentioned.
Cameron and his cronies are just the latest gang of tories being dishonest with the electorate.
The LibLabCons are ALL unequivocally, irreversibly and unapologetically pro-EU and consequently the needs of this nation are relatively low on their agenda.

Restorative Justice.

In Huddersfield, and featured last night on Look North, was a Restorative Justice Programme which is most impressive.
No chance of reduced sentences - but the offenders meet their victims AFTER imprisonment.
The inherent weaknesses of the deeply flawed previous attempts have thus been addressed.
It should attract and challenge the genuinely remorseful.

Excellent! Well thought out!

Christians are the realists.

It is truly strange how so many non Christians - and atheists in particular - have so little grasp of why people are Christians in the first place.
Undoubtedly, there is a belief that we are motivated by the prospect of an afterlife in a beautiful, nicey nicey heaven.
Certainly, they believe that we are wetting ourselves at the prospect of hellfire.
It cannot be denied that they think that they see brainwashing at the drop of every hat.
They seemingly think that we haven't properly considered all possibilities - when in fact it is they who have made decisions on minimal evidence.
They think that we all need 'a crutch on which to lean' - which is only true for some - or on occasion for most.

They see us as illogical, irrational, self-deceiving people who want to be 'bossed about' by some deity because we haven't enough guts to live without.
It is so hard to break it to them that for the most part, we have sought out TRUTH - and found it! And for those of us who lean on the promises of God we have a genuine REALITY & CERTAINTY which their blinkered minds cannot even begin to grasp.
The Living Christ is NOT an opinion.

AV?

'More than half of younger people have never heard of the King James Bible, a survey shows.
Fifty-one per cent of under-35s did not know what the Authorised Version was, compared with 28 per cent of over-55s.'

Congratulations are in order to the liberal left atheists who have so successfully 'gutted' education in our nation.

So much for their claims that they want 'neutral teaching' on religion so that 'young people can make their own minds up'.

JUST HOW DO YOU DO THIS WITHOUT ACCESS TO BASIC INFORMATION IN SCHOOL?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332138/More-half-young-people-heard-King-James-Bible.html#ixzz165VZsgw5

Worthless promises on immigration.

A 13% reduction in non EU immigrants to the UK is Cameron's feeble attempts to live up to his election promises. His promises are broken in all but name.

(Note how the Beeb and the rest of the leftie media are huffing and puffing and predicting disaster!)

PATHETIC!

And what precisely is he going to do about EU immigration?

Could we perhaps have a binding promise from the LibLabCons that should Turkey gain membership of the EU - there will be no immigration permitted? Schengen ignored?

(AND I have several suggestions for 'text' to put alongside the picture but will not include them in order to protect the sensibilities of my more delicate readers.)

MITK research on council housing.

Mole-In-The-Know has been researching Council Housing and has discovered what many already knew that:
Council houses are often occupied by people who are capable of funding their own property and
they are frequently passed on as 'family heirlooms'.
BUT, by delving deeper, our very own 'little gentleman in velvet' has found out what many perhaps did not know, namely:
If rents are paid promptly, virtually no councils even know the identities of their tenants!
Many have been subdivided into tiny units with multiple occupancies and yes:
The bulk of Council housing is being allocated to immigrants as a priority - especially those from E. Europe.

We don't begrudge a single penny, do we?

'Every family in Britain will have to contribute nearly £300 to prop up the ailing Irish economy.
Chancellor George Osborne has agreed to pay £7.5billion towards an international bailout worth up to £85 billion.'
SICKENING! £8 billion for Greece - now, almost as much of our money to the Irish.
The EU makes us fund their profligacy.
TIME TO LEAVE THE EU IS NOW!

Mail.

Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent.

Rude, unkind, ignorant, crass, uncharitable, publicity-seeking, left-leaning and typical of so many in the upper echelons of the C of E.
Just what is the royal wedding to do with him?

Sinister poem by Karl Marx.

So a god has snatched from me my all

In the curse and rack of destiny.

All his worlds are gone beyond recall!

Nothing but revenge is left to me!

I shall build my throne high overhead,

Cold, tremendous shall its summit be.

For its bulwark - superstitious dread.

For its Marshall - blackest agony.

"Build my throne?" - Very diabolical! There are many reasons to believe that Marx was in fact a practising satanist.

And - it doesn't sound at all like disbelief in God, does it? - Rather, we can glean a pure hatred for God.

(Read the Richard Wurmbrand text: "Was Marx a Satanist?" - recommended.)

So-well put!

"Running left-wing movements has always been the prerogative of spoiled rich kids. This pattern goes all the way back to the days when an over-indulged and affluent young man named Karl Marx combined with another over-indulged youth from a wealthy family named Friedrich Engels to create the Communist ideology."

Thomas Sowell in his 1993 book, Is Reality Optional (Hoover Institution, p. 81):

Not news. UKIP have told these truths for YEARS.

'The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today.
A Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered an alarming array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public.
These include:
Europol, the £60 million-a-year European criminal intelligence agency, whose officers have diplomatic immunity.
An 800-strong paramilitary police force called the European Gendarmerie Force.
The European Arrest Warrant, which now allows British citizens to be seized in the UK and sent without appeal to foreign jails for months or years without bail while awaiting trial.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331654/March-Euro-police-The-shocking-powers-prosecution-EU-us.html#ixzz15uIRTxcI

Birth rates.

MITK has discovered that the rapidly increasing birth rate in the UK is considerably higher amongst immigrant communities which have traditions of larger families.
This may be problematic on a number of levels.

Darwinism.

Darwin stated that:
A) Life was old.
B) Life developed in endless directions evolving into newer forms and
C) The driving force was a process called natural selection.

If any one of these three is wrong - the whole evolutionary hypothesis known as Darwinism collapses utterly.
They can all be disproved but his 'driving force' is the easiest.

'Natural selection' exists. It is also seen, to some extent, in the form of 'survival of the fittest' which also exists.
To extrapolate from this position is what all darwinists do but there is not a single jot of evidence - anywhere - that NEW genetic information has EVER appeared from such processes.
Without such 'proof' being in place - evolutionists should stop being so arrogant in their unproven assertions.

Papal double standards.

'He [The pope] will say that it is acceptable to use a prophylactic when the sole intention is to "reduce the risk of infection" from Aids. While he will restate the Catholic Church's staunch objections to contraception because it believes it interferes with the creation of life, he will argue that using a condom to preserve life and avoid death can be a responsible act – even outside marriage.Asked whether "the Catholic Church is not fundamentally against the use of condoms," he replies: "It of course does not see it as a real and moral solution.'
Daily Telegraph.

This is simply ridiculous. Either you support contraception - or you do not. This is a moral cop-out.If those influenced by papal teaching do not use condoms because of that church's stance - then surely they will not have been having illicit sex - which is surely, a much more serious sin - in the first place.The inconsistency is astonishing.
So either loads of popes have been wrong OR the latest of that line is moving away from 'teaching which is always infallible' to employing 'situation ethics'.

Quite a leap!


And of course - it is a surrender to pressure.However you view this, the logic fails.

RESPECT!

NEW YORK, N. Y. (EP) — Political commentator S.E. Cupp is an atheist, yet she defends religion against some of atheism’s more militant proponents. She said that some, like Christopher Hitchens and Bill Maher, “are evangelists. They are proselytizing.”
“I don’t believe in God,” she said, “but I’m not mad at him. I don’t think he’s dangerous. I don’t think religious people are fanatics.”
Cupp, a native of Carlsbad, Calif., spoke to students at The King’s College on Sept. 15, as part of the New York City Christian school’s Distinguished Visitors Series.
Cupp, who has worked for the New York Daily News and the New York Times, said that 95 percent of people in the world believe in some type of a divinity. For militant atheists to pretend “that religion is on the fringe,” she said, “is not only incredibly presumptuous, it’s a lie.”

Source: Christian Examiner.

Psalm 1:6.

'For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.'

Labour's favourite harridan.

'Harriet Harman’s pivotal role in an attempted coup against Gordon Brown has been laid bare in an explosive book on New Labour. Miss Harman, then as now deputy party leader, encouraged and supported the bid by former ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt.
The revelations are in a book by respected political historians Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge.'

So to the multitudinous things which turn our stomachs when we consider this egregious feminist - it appears that we can also add 'treachery' to the list!

(Lovely smile. Did somebody mention 'clotted blood'?)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331438/Harriet-traitor-How-Harman-led-plot-topple-Brown.html#ixzz15oAn4oSM

Mr Joyce.

Two years ago this adorable and cuddlesome sweetheart was revealed to be Britain’s most expensive MP with an expenses claim for 2007/08 of £187,000.
This week Labour's very own Mr Joyce, (then the party’s Northern Ireland spokesman) launched an astonishing rant against middle-class voters, branding them drunkards, liars, racists and even paedophiles.
Last night he resigned from the party’s front bench after being banned for DRINK DRIVING.
Normally, he hates hypocrisy but in his own case he is happily prepared to make an exception!


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331164/Labour-MP-branded-middle-class-hypocrites-drunkards-spends-night-cell-arrested-drink-driving.html#ixzz15o96KuPG

YP.

From: Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

LET'S be honest. If the euro was a horse, we would have shot it by now.

Sociology expose by MITK.

Mole-In-The-Know has discovered that in a university, not a million miles from his molehill, sociology students who produce work which goes against the accepted 'wisdom' of leftwing 'thought' - FAIL!

UKIP General Secretary speaks out on state pensions.

http://www.ukipsheffield.co.uk/

Hotbed of UKIP support.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUP9McWTo_4&feature=player_embedded

Marta tells the horrible tale in the EU Parliament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYxNQsu9yEg&feature=player_embedded.

Eritrea scandals - again!

Nov 09 2010.
'Christians in Eritrea face a Christmas clampdown in a drive to purge so-called illegal believers from the country, human rights organisation Release International has been warned.
Since 2002 the regime in Eritrea has been persecuting and imprisoning Christians who do not belong to traditional church groups. Things may be about to get worse. 'Eritrea has declared there will be a purge of Christians by Christmas,' Selam Kidane told the Release conference in London.'

More 'neanderthal claptrap'

An 'invented' image of a neanderthal child. - Note the countless differences with modern humans.

Sinking ship.

If the euro fails - the whole cursed EU could go down with it.
Fingers crossed!

Cannabis is seriously dangerous.

'For 150 years it has been known that acute intoxication with cannabis can induce hallucinations and delusions. However, this was thought to be a transient effect which usually rapidly resolved itself. Then in the late 1980s and 1990s psychiatrists like me began to see growing numbers of young people with schizophrenia who were taking large amounts of cannabis.
We first thought that they were self-medicating in an attempt to ameliorate their anxiety and paranoia. However, since their families often told us that cannabis seemed to exacerbate the symptoms, we decided to examine this. When we followed up 119 young people who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, we discovered that far from being helped by cannabis, those who continued to take the drug four years later were three times more likely still to be hallucinating and deluded than non-consumers.'

Professor of Psychiatry, Robin Murray, Maudsley Hospital.

Put these two very worrying stories together.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330734/White-Britons-outnumbered-immigration-continues-2066.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330517/Facebook-death-threat-boys-girl-excluded-school.html

Caning? - No thanks, it doesn't work.

When the cane was abolished in schools we were told that this would actually lead to better behaviour.

We now have the statistics to prove it. Only 1,000 pupils are sent home from school for assaults on teachers and pupils every day.

So a mere 5,000 a week.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330657/1k-pupils-sent-home-school-assaults-teachers-pupils-day.html#ixzz15bx1oawN

Ostriches.

Ostriches do not actually bury their heads in sand and pretend that nobody can see them.
Metaphorically speaking, vast numbers of humans today do precisely that.
The point is that they pretend that if they don't look behind them, God won't realise that they are there.
This is the bosom buddy of "If I have the opinion that God does not exist - then He probably doesn't."
It takes real ability to live a life which is quite that devoid of all logic - not to mention common sense.

Not rape?

' .... the research found that nearly a half of all of those surveyed don't consider it to be rape if the person they are having sex with is too drunk or too out of it to know what's happening.'

Just what have we become?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330387/A-quarter-young-men-wont-answer-comes-sex.html#ixzz15XaaMmxb

Beeb weather forecasts.

I am a little tired of the shocking quality of weather forecasting found in BBC Online. It promised a frost-free night on Sunday, Monday and last night - indeed some 4 degrees above for Sheffield.
On each night there has been a deep frost - the one from Monday night was still present on the footpaths into the afternoon! (In all fairness, I must add that the severe frost at the start of Tuesday did abate during the night.)
Just what is the point if they are so far off beam and so regularly?
And when you link this kind of inaccuracy to 'global warming' they say "Ah well, that is climatology not meteorology."
I say, "Big deal!"

(Okay. Perhaps the photo is a slight exaggeration.)

MITK exposes mad euro-interference.

MITK (Mole-In-The-Know) yesterday discovered that the AA Relay has been hogtied by more euro nonsense.
No Relay trailer is allowed to travel more than 60 miles.
Apparently, this means that a journey of 180 miles to return a car to its home means that three trailers must be employed with all the expensive connections to be calculated.
When drivers are allowed to be on the road for ten hours - it defies sanity to have such a stupid, bureaucratically-inspired system imposed.
But that's what being part of the EU really means!

Alcohol Concern.

Don Shenker of Alcohol Concern is an irritating, simplistic member of that class which wholly believes that 'the innocent must be attacked and even punished in order to capture the guilty.'

He complains bitterly that litre bottles of spirits will be on sale in supermarkets in the runup to Christmas at a mere £15!

Does he not realise that for literally millions of people, this rare treat is already beyond them? - No rum and cokes at their house this year!

He complains of alcohol-related crime as if this is committed by most of the population when in fact, it is a tiny minority.

This problem would be both targeted and properly resolved by the simple expedient of severely punishing the guilty - a thought which has apparently not even crossed his mind!

Source: The Metro.

Forgiveness: it doesn't have to be impossible.

When Jesus made it so very clear that our forgiveness is, to some extent at least, conditional on our being forgiving, we should all grasp how vitally important this is.

If this is hindering your spiritual life - then maybe, just maybe, I can help a little.

1) Bitterness is a negative which damages us. Nonetheless, do not worry too much about your feelings where institutions are concerned. It is better not to hate if at all possible but I would not get too 'hung up' on your feelings towards the Inland Revenue, for example, which appears to have robbed you. (It could never accept your forgiveness, in any case.)

2) Ignore people who tell you that you must 'forgive AND forget', thus implying that you have to trust somebody who is clearly untrustworthy. This is nonsense.

If somebody has punched you on the nose - you forgive but DO NOT fail to walk past them very carefully in the future. If there is a Scripture that tells us that we have to trust under such circumstances - then I have no idea where it may be found!

3) Do remember that you cannot forgive on behalf of other people.

4) When you really cannot forgive, perhaps because the wrong is so enormous, try this:

Ask yourself if you would forgive if that person came and asked you for forgiveness. (If you would refuse at this point - you do have real problems.)

The answer should be a resounding "yes" and you are well on the way back to spiritual health - but do ensure that any negative feelings are not allowed to resurface.

Take these steps and I am certain that God will help you to go the rest of the way.

Imperfect though this advice may be - if it helps just a little - I would be delighted.

A 'cracker' from the Yorks Post.

Maureen Hunt, Woolley, near Wakefield.

DISREGARDING the rights or wrongs of Rowan Williams' vehement criticism of the Government's plans for long overdue welfare reforms (Tom Richmond, Yorkshire Post, November 9), it seems to me that the leaders of the Anglican Church devote far too much time to politics to the detriment of their real function, which is to be our spiritual guides.In our secular society there are plenty of journalists to enlighten us, who are well-versed in all aspects of politics, not to mention a strong Opposition party in the House of Commons.Our permissive, amoral society continues to slide down the slippery slope into the abyss. From the Church, there is a deathly silence. Politics appears to be a safer option.We need religious leaders, with the courage and tenacity of Old Testament prophets, who will stand up and speak out in the face of hostility before it is too late.Four days before Christmas last year (Yorkshire Post, December 21, 2009), the Bishop of Wakefield wrote an article in which he discussed the forthcoming election in the spring. There was no mention of Christmas. What a missed opportunity. This year, let's hear the real message about the birth of Jesus. There are people out there who may never have heard it.Jesus said: "The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few." Today there are many labourers but, if they are engaged in other work, how will they be able to gather in the harvest?

The monarchy.

I have often made the point that rampant atheism has been on the increase.
What also needs to be seen in the same context is that these are almost invariably the same people who attack the monarchy.
I am no more than a lukewarm monarchist myself - but it does need to be remembered that we do have a constitutional monarchy which serves the people with no hint of despotism.
So why is it so important to attack the Queen whose principal role is as a mere figurehead,
And as for the financial implications - we spend much less on our Head of State than do almost all the major democracies - and what monies are disbursed are because the Crown had voluntarily yielded considerable wealth to the nation in exchange for the comparatively modest Civil List.

Sir Thomas More.

"Man's folly hath enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas nature, like a kind parent, hath freely given us the best things, such as air, earth, and water, but hath hidden from us those which are vain and useless."

Sir Thomas More.

'The Democratic Peace.'

A vital truth:
'No democracy has ever gone to war with another democracy.'