Academic decline to continue.

I have just been sent an E Mail offering me a chance to improve my qualifications.
Liverpool Hope University is to launch a Masters Degree in Beatles Studies!
That one student might offer a thesis on the Beatles is perhaps justifiable - at a stretch - but for this to be systematic 'study' is an academic absurdity.
If you hadn't believed me when I have talked of 'dumbing down' in past articles - perhaps now you will!

No apologies. Christianity DOES offend. Get used to it!

'The senior chaplain at Sandhurst military academy has dropped the Apostles' Creed from Anglican services saying it might offend religious minorities.
The Daily Mail reported on 31st January that centuries of religious tradition have been sacrificed for the sake of political correctness.
Reverend Jonathan Gough dropped the Christian declaration of faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit when he took office last month.
A fellow Chaplain said it had been removed 'to stop upsetting cadets who do not believe in God'. This is despite the fact that attendance is not compulsory. Non-believing Sandhurst cadets can and do opt out of church.
The Ministry of Defence said the Creed had been withdrawn from services at the Royal Memorial Chapel to make the church 'more inclusive'. Figures showing how the massive increase of attendance at church by cadets from other faiths and none since the service was made more 'inclusive' by hiding what Christians believe have not yet been released.'

Source: Christian Voice.

Skewed thinking.

Migration to the UK is 3 times the world average. No matter that England is a tiny nation and the UK is not just full but bulging. No matter the social problems caused, the major parties and greens still believe that speaking out against this nonsense is the province of racists!
LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1160481/UK-migrant-total-times-world-average.html

Bad language.

Okay. I admit it. I am not without sin in this area. Few of us are when the hammer hits the thumb but I am really fed up [think what I might have said] with all the bad language on TV at the moment.

Last night I turned to watch the "2 Pints of Lager ..." on Comic Relief, a programme which has often sailed close to the wind in the past but could argue at least, that it has been funny and clever.

Well, last night's effort was persistently crude and foul-mouthed without a single redeeming feature. Hardly a sentence escaped without 'effing and blinding'. I am no prude but this was simply appalling and the cast seemed to think it the height of wit.

I then caught a programme called "Extreme fishing" with Robson Green which I had long been intending to watch. I soon realised that the 'extreme' was nothing to do with difficult fishing conditions but was just a bucketload of expletives from this appalling man.

It is little wonder that so many 8 year olds are walking around using, what in my day, would have been called 'industrial language'.

This can and must be stopped!

Jade.

It appears that Jade Goody, in her last few days of life, has finally recognised the need for the Lord Jesus.

If genuine - then let us rejoice!

Censored: Labour opinions of Harperson.

'A prominent Left-wing think-tank was yesterday accused of censoring one of its own surveys which showed that Labour Party members do not like Harriet Harman and support plans to curb welfare scroungers.
A report of a poll commissioned by the Compass group and published in the Labour-supporting Guardian newspaper last week said party members ‘roundly rejected’ plans by Business Secretary Peter Mandelson to part-privatise Royal Mail by three to one.'

What could I possibly add?

Mail.

Diseases in hospitals.

There is an extremely simple measure which could be taken in hospitals to cut the levels of infections and cut costs at the same time.

TURN THE HEATING DOWN!

Why on earth are those places so festeringly and unhealthily hot?

I cannot remember the last time I went into a hospital which was not stuffy. This is a breeding ground for bacteria, germs and viruses.

I would lay good odds that MRSA multiplies more quickly at higher temperatures.

Hobsbawm.

It is not just Ted Kennedy who gets unmerited honours from this wretched government. Hobsbawm - poisoned pen darling of the extreme left - is also rewarded.

This marxist historian despises us and his past is not unchequered.

Read the link for the whole picture.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1160129/STEPHEN-GLOVER-Why-honour-loathe-Britain.html

Orgreave: the battle of.

I live no more than three quarters of a mile from where the old Orgreave pit has now disappeared entirely from the landscape.

I was fascinated to see a letter on Teletext this week from a self-labelled 'soft southerner'.

It spoke of the miners' strike 25 years ago and referred to the negative role of the police.

I walked down to Orgreave during the clashes and did so to see for myself, from a distance, what was happening.

The police were magnificent: ordered, calm, restrained. The striking miners behaved appallingly badly.

How does history get so twisted, I ask? Well - so much of it is written by leftwingers whose grasp on both truth and reality can be rather slender.

'Holy' Blair.

"One of the most important doctrines of Christianity is the idea of ‘witness’ — namely, that believers will carry out actions in line with their faith regardless of whether they are personally damaging or costly.
It was surely in this context that Tony Blair said this week that we should stick up for our Christian values.
But why didn’t he say as much during his years in Downing Street, when his words might really have counted for something?" Peter Oborne.

'Social justice'.

I return for the first time in a long time to the question of 'Social justice'. This is a phrase which resounds with righteousness, compassion, decency, morality and integrity.
Tragically, it is anything but. Do not be misled, dear reader, into thinking that any of those virtues can be associated with this idea.
The phrase is a device, calculatedly used by the left to give the erroneous impression which you receive at first sight.
The actual meaning of the phrase is 'the entire leftwing agenda' - nothing more, nothing less.
If you are a raving leftie - you are free to use it as before. If you are not - then separate out the virtues we have identified and divorce them from this odious phrase.
It is very similar to the situation where " ... any country with the word 'democratic' in its title, is guaranteed to be a communist state."

No effect on unemployment at all.

"A million workers from outside the EU have taken jobs in Britain since Labour came to power, according to official analysis.
Although they have no automatic right to work in this country, they have filled almost half of all the jobs created since 1997."

PHEW! And magically this figure has no bearing on unemployment levels. We know that this is true because so many lefties tell us that it is!

A pause for thought.

King David's Prayer from 1 Chronicles 29:

10] David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying:

"Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
11] Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
12] Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.
13] Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name."

'Rights for women' and feminism are not the same.

Last night I enjoyed an excellent evening out at the Rotherham Civic watching a superb version of Harold Brighouse's play 'Hobson's Choice'.

Written in World War One and set in 1880, it gives a clear and fair demonstration of why women should have equal rights to men.

The character Willie Mossop [a man - or at least, very nearly] is also transformed into something stronger and better in the process.

I do wish that the emasculating, feminist harridans who still infect the higher echelons of liberal-left politics could be forced to watch this play - if only for a sense of balance and proportion.

Our government revolts me!

Many readers will be too young to remember the scandal at Chappaquidik Creek when the egregious and adulterous Edward Kennedy abandoned his lover to drown in an overturned car and then lied through his teeth about what he had done.

Yet another amoral Kennedy.

The picture and caption are hardhitting but I make no apologies for reminding us. This made him unable to be elected president. What a relief!

He also stuck his unwanted, rebel-supporting snout into the affairs of N. Ireland.

For this - Brown & co award this low life a knighthood. He should fit in well with 'hissy-fit' Elton John, pub singer Tom Jones and assorted rock stars with drugs convictions.

Single issues.

The enemies of UKIP have long propounded misinformation claiming that the party is based on 'a single issue'.

Let them keep stating this nonsense as the EU voting approaches in June.

After all - it is a 'single issue election'!

Pre-packaged thought.

I am continuously astonished by the numbers of people who either do not think at all or simply rely on ready-processed soundbites.
It is a rare and wonderful pleasure when you meet a younger person - a product of seriouly 'dumbed down'education - who is capable of true thought.
Too many people I have met - even many with degrees - have excellent brains but just do not use them.
Older and middle aged people with lesser qualifications so often have more depth. This could be explained away as originating from 'life experience' - but I doubt that this would be sufficient to explain the phenomenon.

A recipe for social disaster.

Do leopards ever change their spots? - It would seem not.

'The independent statistics body for Britain has a 'sinister' attitude to immigration, a minister has claimed.
Phil Woolas questioned the motives of the Office for National Statistics in publishing figures showing one in nine UK residents was born abroad. The immigration minister revealed that he had tried to prevent the organisation publishing the data and accused it of playing politics'.

This is simply appalling on so many levels!
Firstly, there is no suggestion that these figures are anything but basically accurate. [Possibly an underestimate, of course, with unknown numbers of illegals everywhere.]
That a minister - a servant of the people[?] - might think that we should not be permitted to know uncomfortable facts is what is truly sinister. [It reminds us of when murder figures were suppressed after the abolition of the death penalty.]
Clearly, Woolas is embarrassed by what his government has done.
The figures themselves reveal an absolute failure of government to control our borders.
He is protecting the EU and its horrendously dangerous Schengen Agreement.
He implies that we the people, are not to be trusted with these facts.
He tries to divert attention by accusing others of 'playing politics'.

All of this is a recipe for social disaster - and he wants us kept in ignorance. Utterly deplorable.
Mind you - would the liberal left politicians in the other two, larger parties have acted any differently?

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1158958/Immigration-minister-attacks-Office-National-Statistics-publishing-sinister-race-numbers-tried-suppress.html

Human wrongs.

The 1998 so called Human Rights Act [of euro origin, of course] has inevitably reduced our freedoms.Used to prevent the deportation of the undesirable and the dangerous, it means that WE are the ones who pay the price in terms of ever more intrusive measures of snooping and surveillance by government.

Prayer required.

There are so many things to pray for in the world.
After the massacre in Pakistan, so many attacks on Christians, dreadful politicians over years. Perhaps Pakistan should be a prayerful target for believers.

Dependency.

A number of unexplained power cuts at home has made me all too aware of how dependent we have become on certain things. Not only are we like a fish out of water without electricity but think too how much we rely on motor vehicles and computers.
We do not produce even 1% of our own food. Think how vulnerable this all makes us.
Oh. And I am writing this on a borrowed computer - my new one has died and my spare is dead!
Well at least the car works and we have food!

Civil liberties.

The old NCCL [National Council for Civil Liberties] became Liberty. Rightly or wrongly, I have always felt that this was a group designed to reinforce the freedoms of leftists and their acolytes to continue their efforts to undermine our social structure.

I would much prefer to look at the work of The Magna Carta Society, UKIP, The Freedom Association, The Democracy Movement, Civitas et al which are concerned with both the rights of the individual and social responsibility.

I respect much of what is done by The Libertarian Alliance but as a Christian I sometimes feel the need to draw lines.

The truth is that politicians have never been more self-serving and untrustworthy. Against this backcloth we have seen countless measures from government to shackle the rights of people to make their own decisions. Europhiles are slow to admit that the bulk of this has its origin in a 'simple trading group' called the European Union with its ever powerful bureaucrats, Eurojust and Europol which form the small tip of a giant iceberg.

It appears that for Suzanne Moore, the penny is starting to drop! An interesting article but one which perhaps fails to grasp where all this Orwellian nightmare junk originates.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1157994/Suzanne-Moore-Joni-Mitchell-right-dont-know-youve-got-till-gone.html