Holidays.

The Blog is is taking a well earned rest. We are off to our place in Torrevieja - and I and my vitreolic, one finger typing will not return for about 10 days.

If you would like a holiday in our house - let me know. I promise you a really good price, help with booking the cheapest of flights and the best in car hire.
It sleeps up to 6. [3 doubles] in two bedrooms and fold down sofa. It is superbly equipped, well-sited and as well as the balcony , has a solarium and Sky TV with sports channels.
There is a wonderful shared swimming pool.
E Mail me: arnottl@aol.com and I'll contact you when I return.
Some slots free at very end of August. All September {best time of the year} has no bookings. ???
Winter hols are VERY cheap as are flights. Seriously mild winter temperatures.
Go on. You know you want to!

Panorama.

"Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough, It isn't fit for humans now." John Betjeman.

Whatever next? - Last night the Beeb did an honest programme on the truly dreadful problems caused to Slough by uncontrolled immigration.
A considerable number of lefties who advocate 'an open door policy' must now be reconsidering their views.
But then. Who am I kidding? When have the left ever let facts get in the way of an infantile piece of ideology?

Scotland.

Last year, public spending in Scotland was £8,623 per head, whilst England received just £7,121.
Now other than commenting on the fact that Scots have only ever won 'mighty victories oer the sassenach' and have never actually lost a battle but have only ever been 'treacherously betrayed' - I am quite a fan of the Scots.
BUT this disparity between funding the two populations - a mere £60 billion since Gordon arrived on the scene and combined with the W. Lothian Question, is nothing less than iniquitous.
Once again we must question the sheep-like apathy of the English voter. Were it not for an occasional letter in the better newspapers - there is no complaint about one more major injustice perpetrated against the people of our nation by politicians.
[Ever wondered how the Scots have managed to fund University education and Old People's Homes?]

Tory misery.

'Dave' Cameron has lost it. He has alienated Tory voters and has cunningly thought that as the most tory of tories can be found in seats where his party already have massive majorities, then this does not matter.
Does he truly think that he can ever seriously compete for left of centre votes?
Are the people not allowed a right of centre choice - after all, the intellectual right win all the arguments?
His little upsurge in the polls was a Blair dissatisfaction factor and the wretched Brown is rightly ahead - and you can have no idea how hard it is for me to say that.
Cameron floats around desperately seeking policies. Oh for the days when tories were conviction politicians - it all seems so long ago.
If we had a PR voting system and UKIP abandoned their 'broad church' stance and moved to right of centre, I believe that they would take 20% of the seats as a minimum.
'Dave's' days are numbered.

The dangers of the liberal church.

Some readers might wonder why I am so inclined to attack the liberal church. Well, it goes back to the basic function of God's Church which is to tell people that they are heading to a lost eternity if they have no relationship with Jesus.Christianity is not some socially-minded club for meeting, singing and being generally nice.It is about saving the lost - which is all of mankind - as a primary function at the same time as giving God the worship and praise to which He is entitled.The liberal church is in denial. It downgrades scripture; it abandons truths; it blows before the wind of leftist trendyism and worst of all, it preaches a 'social Gospel'. What this effectively means is that they are preaching either that 'salvation is inconsequential' or that 'your good deeds count towards your salvation' or even worse, 'God is too nice to condemn people to hell'. Trouble with that logic is that it is flawed. He has said otherwise.
Jesus did not die on a cross to no purpose. He bought back the sins of the world and was able to say : "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
The liberal church offer: love, peace and tolerance - but unlike the evangelical Church, they put this in vacuo. They forget that actions have consequences. They forget about repentance and have no concept of the role of either Grace or Righteousness.
This means that they are diverting people from what could be their salvation . No. I despise the liberal church .

How to be truly naive.

Europhiles think that the French are our allies.
How quaint!

Insanity.

Hundeds of thousands of illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in Britain under an amnesty, an influential pro-Labour think tank has claimed.
Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson appear to be supporting this.

If there is one thing we must learn from all other countries which have the problem of illegal immigrants, it is that any amnesty does not ameliorate the situation but inevitably compounds it.

You send the message that illegal behaviour will be rewarded; you regularise people who would clearly have failed a legitimate assessment at borders - and all that that entails; you fail to take advantage of an opportunity to relieve some of the pressures on our groaning infrastructure and worst of all, you send the message to other would-be illegals that all they have to do is to creep into the country and keep a low profile and at some future point they will be legitimised. This is rather more expensive than buying a welcome mat.

One might pose a question. Why are the liberal left not on the side of the people whose taxes pay their salaries?

Worcester 'church'.

I have several friends who are homosexual and on a personal level this fact does not bother me at all. Furthermore, from a Christian point of view, their sins are no greater than anybody elses and I myself am far from perfect.

BUT the Scriptures insist on repentance for sin and make no allowances.

Christians do not commit adultery and say "This is the way I am, so get used to it." They accept they are wrong in God's eyes and either repent or defy God. There really is no middle ground.

The idea of having a church in Worcester which celebrates sin is heretical.

Christians must continue to love homosexuals and pray for them.

A former Bishop of York who admitted his homosexual tendencies lived a God-fearing life and so remained celibate. The only time Christians have a right to have sex is in a proper, marital relationship. Any other conclusion is an abuse of Scripture.

LINK: http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/search/display.var.
1542590.0.city_gets_its_first_gay_church.php

Beeb unbiased?

Nigel Farage the charismatic leader of the Independence Party recently stated: ... in the words of Anthony Jay the former BBC journalist, "We were anti-industry, anti-capitalism, anti-advertising, anti-selling, anti-profit, anti-patriotism, anti-monarchy, anti-Empire, anti-police, anti-armed forces, anti-bomb, anti-authority. Almost anything that made the world a freer, safer and more prosperous place, you name it, we were anti it.”

To those paying attention, this does not come as much of a surprise!

Quiz question of the day. No prizes, I'm afraid. Which Christian, UKIP politician is on the left of the photo?

Unbelievable. [No Meldrew voice required]

You may recall my posting from the 19/11/06 which looked at the persecution of Christians at Exeter University. A so-called independent adjudicator was appointed.

I give you the most significant part of his conclusions without comment:-

Mark Shaw QC, the independent adjudicator appointed by Exeter University strongly criticised the Constitution of Exeter CU because it restricted the membership to Christians, despite the fact its meetings were open to everyone - of all faiths and none. He held it discriminatory that the CU should be run by Christians and held that the Guild policies in forcing the CU to be led by members open to other faiths was "laudable".

Shambo shambles.

A simple question, dear reader. Do you believe that any judge would have given a stay of execution to any infected bull on human rights grounds if the owners had had a Christian rather than a Hindu cause to plead?
On the very day a different judge supported a school which allowed alien religions to wear testaments to their faith, an English, Christian girl was not permitted to wear a non-ostentatious, Christian, chastity ring.
These double standards are simply unacceptable. The first time I realised that we had two differing sets of criteria was when Sikhs were allowed to ride motorcycles without a crash helmet over 35 years ago. They had the choice to ride or not to ride - yet they were allowed to flout the law.
Double standards incite racism.
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/16/nshambo116.xml

Who serves who?

"Anyone who would be first must be last, and servant of all."


Does this quotation from Mark 9 ring any bells with readers where our politicians are concerned? Have you not heard it often enough that "Politicians are our
servants not our masters"?

I can easily accept the spiritual nature of the first quotation but I struggle to find any evidence for the reality of the second.



I invite you to do a simple but time-consuming test. Trawl through everything which Labour has done in the last ten years; every piece of legislation; every tax rise; every incursion into foreign nations; the lot.



Then very simply ask whether you agree - a simple yes or no. Then calculate the percentage.


My satisfaction rating runs well under 20%.


The trouble is that it would be the same with most Labour voters. Our masters do not give us what we want. They over-tax us but represent no views other than their own.


So who do our masters please other than themselves? - The answer is the liberal elite from whom our masters are drawn - and in none of the main three parties have we any possibility of an escape.

Not a million miles from Goole.

"We need workers to come into the country to do the jobs our people won't do." Thus runs the dishonest mantra of so many left-leaning politicians. Furthermore, "We need the skills foreign workers can bring."

If you add these two together it pretty much covers everything. Of course our government realises what is actually going on when we have almost 4 million not in work for one reason or another but they feel unable to attack the EU on this issue as "Being good europeans" is far more important than the welfare of our voters and taxpayers.

I recall that 13,000 Eastern Europeans would come here acording to Labour and at the last count it was 600,000 that the government was prepared to admit to. So probably double that!

Meanwhile, in Yorkshire, Tesco have built a new distribution depot not so far from Goole.
The locals were looking forward to filling the 400 job vacancies until it became clear that advertisements had been placed in Poland and 350 + of the jobs have been offered at minimum wages to Polish citizens.

If I am an employer and can get away with paying £2 per an hour less - I shall. This is not Tesco's fault.

At some point there will be a total, social breakdown. When Brits finally shed the apathy which Labour has relied on, I dread to think what the outcome will be.

Population dangers.

According to the Optimum Population Trust, Britain's rising birth rate, currently growing at the highest rate for nearly 30 years, should be considered an environmental liability. It goes on to recommend limiting children to two per family - although how this would work in practice is far from clear.
I have a better idea - deport all who are here illegally and close the doors to any new immigration which is not of direct and provable value to the UK; such individuals should have a confirmable job awaiting them. New immigrants who commit serious crime must be deported. Even Blunkett said 'asylum seekers' were 90% bogus. We must filter these properly and nobody be granted refugee status if: A] They have not gone to a neighbouring safe haven as dictated by the UN and B] If they have left a democratic nation.
Nobody must be blamed for trying to better themselves.
Those immigrants who came here on a temporary basis must be made to stick to agreements.
Harsh and uncharitable you say? - England is the 8th most crowded place on the planet. We have a massive housing shortage. Our infrastructure is creaking. We are perceived as a softer touch than all other EU nations where benefits are concerned.
We already have unemployed and cannot afford an influx of unskilled labour. If they come and stay, what happens to those of our own who are avoiding work or gaining the necessary skills? Are they to be unemployed for life?

All new geography.

"Traditional geography teaching is to be sidelined in favour of studying global warming, Third-World trade and the 2012 Olympics."
This is oh so wise. Playing games is now our way of life. Third World Trade has suddenly ceased to be a matter of politics and economics and global warming as caused by man has been proved irrefutably - after all, we must never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
At the same time, national boundaries have of course, disappeared. Tectonic plates, mountains, rivers and seas have gone away.
Weather, map reading, contours, language distribution and social crossovers no longer exist.
What is the betting that this politically correct idiocy will have also removed evolution from the curriculum? - Ah. Thought not!

On 'The Simpsons' of course, there would be a disclaimer: "All new geography contains no geography."

Hope.

"Hope 2008 is a united mission initiative calling churches, denominations and Christian organisations to work together and ‘raise our game’ with a focused year of outreach, service and evangelism in our local communities."

Maybe those alternative words to 'Onward Christian Soldiers' - "Like a mighty tortoise moves the Church of God...." - are no longer appropriate.
I certainly hope that this may be true.

LINK: http://www.sawyerschurch.org/Files/03Articles/HOPE_2008.pdf

Inverted racism.

On the 6th of July in Stoke-on-Trent, Mr Keith Brown was butchered on his own front lawn, in front of his children. Mr Brown was white, his killer was not.
So. Why has this racist murder not made the headlines all over the Press? - Had the colours been reversed.....
It reminds me of an incident a mile from my home in Sheffield several years ago where a white youth was beaten and battered and damaged for life by a gang of Asian thugs.
Not only was this dreadful attack not reported nationally BUT did not even make it into the local press!
Just what kind of censorship is going on here?
I deplore ALL racism - I am not selective about it!

Pope Benedict - Bridge-building.

In 1519 Martin Luther nailed his excellent 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. These consisted of a list of complaints against the Roman Church a great many of which in terms of theology remain unaddressed to the present day.

Protestantism which had been building up over a period of decades was truly begun. The RC church was a Church which operated simony; a Church which dared to sell God's forgiveness; a Church which had had the Borgia Popes who practised incest as easily as they did murder. [Alexander the Sixth must be one of the most evil men ever to walk the planet.]

Against this historical backcloth, current Pope Benedict the Sixteenth has had the temerity to claim that Protestantism is second class and that the Roman Church is the only 'real' one.

When the Roman Church has ceased the tacit encouragement of prayer to dead people - or Saints as they prefer to call them; when they have stopped their heretical prayers to a dead lady whom they erroneously state remained a virgin when giving birth to our Lord's natural brothers and sisters; when they stop their priests 'forgiving sin' which only Jesus may do, and when they start to trust the Bible ahead of Papal Decree, then - and only then - are they even moving towards a position when they can criticise others.

"Take the plank out of your own eye, Benny!"

PS - I just LOVE the hat!

PPS. Hope you won't be offended by any of this. Pass on our love to the Hitler-Jugend

CONSEQUENCES.

William Cornelius. Irish, born in Cork, came as a sailor on the 'Minion' ship to Guatemala. He arrived finally in Tampico, Mexico. In 1574 he was arrested and charged as a 'heretic'. Refusing to deny his faith he was sent back to Mexico to be tried under the Mexican inquisition. He was sentenced on March 6, 1575, in the Chapel of San Jose de Naturales at the convent of San Francisco to be executed for 'believing that we receive salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone' which is the clear and unequivocal teaching of Scripture.

In this age of apologies, any chance of some backtracking?

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=467596&in_page_id=1811

Liberals.

What is the definition of a liberal? -
One who welcomes his destroyer.

FOOTNOTE. In practice I am a traditional and historical Liberal - it is just that I do not and cannot accept the modern, debased interpretation of the name.

Respectable, politically correct fascism.

What have the nazi right, the hard left, many of the liberal left, countless muslims and a great many of the politically correct all got in common?
An excellent 'Dispatches' on Channel 4 last night, fronted by the fearless Richard Littlejohn, made it clear that there is certainly one shared sympathy - anti-semitism.
In the 1920s, Hitler used popular resentment of Jewish financial acumen to fire his rabble-rousing brown shirts.
In our nation the Jews have made no ripples; demanded no special treatment; caused no racial problems; they have minded their own business; they have kept their own culture without demanding that we abandon ours; they have integrated and been model citizens who are noted for being self sufficient and highly law-abiding.

Even the 'non-racist' Mayor of London has recently shown his anti-semitic tendencies on camera.
The Nation of Israel is not relevant when academics are denied platforms by racist universities; when the NUJ shows its racist tendencies; when Jewish cemeteries are trashed and when Jews are systematically attacked in ways which would have the left going apoplectic if these were against muslims or blacks.

As Littlejohn pointed out - "Do we attack and berate muslims in the UK because of the actions of Iran and similar?" This begs the question of why should any reasonable person attack Jews for the defensive actions of Israel?
All of this at a time when the BNP is apparently abandoning its former anti-semitic tendencies. My sources tell me that at least one Jewish person is highly placed and thought of in that party.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=429931&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=322

'No' to a social Gospel.

"Faith without works is dead" but there is no salvation just through 'works'. There are Christian churches, usually of a liberal persuasion, which have not seemed to grasp this point.


'Gospel' means 'Good News' - and this refers to the fact that there is the guarantee of salvation for which Christ has paid the price already.


'Salvation' means 'being saved'. There is a God-rejecting world who are tumbling rapidly towards hell. This is a guarantee for those who do not invite Jesus into their lives.


So, Christians simply working for the unfortunate is socially useful but spiritually worthless against this backcloth.


Those who work for their communities and demonstrate the love of Christ whilst reaching out to the lost, have got the balance right.


Consider the Eden Project in Manchester where Christians drafted into one of the worst areas of the city to live have transformed the place through practical love and the presentation of the Gospel.


LINK: http://www.message.org.uk/edenproject.cfm

Islamisation.

All credit to Henryk Broder, a German author.

The demographics - The number of Muslims in Contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families.- Today Mohammed is already the most popular name for newborn boys in Brussels , Amsterdam , Rotterdam , and other major European cities.Broder is convinced that the Europeans are not willing to oppose Islamization. "The dominant ethos," he told De Volkskrant, "is perfectly voiced by the stupid blonde woman author with whom I recently debated.She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death."

I agree that this could be a problem if left unchecked. Some of the percentages shown on this Blog of violent, islamic attitudes from polls in the UK have been nothing less than terrifying.

If just 10% are prepared to turn to violence to spread islam, then that equates to FIVE MILLION potential terrorists - and the polls indicate that it is in fact, much greater. Muslim birthrates are astronomically high. I fully accept that most Muslims are decent people but the openminded amongst them should see why so many of the native population are concerned.

We are paying the price for successive governments failing to control immigration and we now have an enemy in our midst whom we cannot easily recognise.

Even so, for the first time in the Blog's 14 months of existence, I shall refer to 'The End Times'.
It is a tenet of Christian belief that the Lord WILL return. We are given clues throughout the Scriptures but principally in: Matthew 24; Luke 17; Mark 13, Daniel and Revelation to name but a few locations.
That return will be when world society hits rock bottom spiritually and many if not most of the features mentioned are already in place. None of this could have happened without the restoration of Israel as a nation.
I shall not go through the various interpretations of when and how the Return may occur but I believe that it is almost certain in my lifetime.
Society is already lower than "in the times of Noah" or the 'highpoints' of Sodom and Gomorrah - and look what happened then.

How to buy votes.

If you read my posting for the first of July you will now be aware of some of Labour's more subtle, electoral practices.
Further to that, it is reasonable to surmise that a second piece of underhandedness is being enacted on an industrial scale.
Remember several years ago how a certain Chancellor of the Exchequer loudly publicised his plans for reducing the Civil Service dramatically, yet in practice presided over a further increase?
Have you ever wondered why council and governmental organisations are sinking under the weight of paper sent out by the ever burgeoning numbers of bureaucrats?
Did you know that the Civil Service in 1903 consisted of just 3,000 people to run the entire UK - oh yes - and an entire empire at the same time?
Well, today one job in every four is for a council or the government. We all appreciate them when they are at 'the sharp end' but speak to those who are and learn!
From the NHS, Police, Education and all the rest, you will hear ever more tales of unrelenting bureaucracy; graphs, charts, written 'proofs that the worker is doing his/her job', paper initiatives and aeons of time simply wasted expensively.
There are three major consequences:

1] Our country runs less efficiently.

2] Taxation has to be considerably higher than necessary and

3] The biggie. Bureaucrat votes tend to support their creator.

This Blog has been showing you three areas where Labour is effectively purchasing votes: quangos, benefit giveaways and bureaucracy.

Those with vested interests will seldom bite the hand that feeds, yet as the combined number of these three groups moves inexorably upwards and towards half the electorate - how reminiscent of the soviets - it is ironic that Labour now does well to take one vote in six of those who are eligible to vote.

Neglect.

I recently followed a debate on Teletext Letters. One writer pointed out that the figures for 'child poverty' in the UK are laughably debased. They argued that there is little or no child poverty by any fairminded definition.
This was followed by a letter stating that the writer had been of a similar view until becoming a social worker and actually visiting these terrible homes. The conditions for some children are genuinely horrific.
A third writer then appeared to say that this was not poverty at all but NEGLECT. [Money spent on drugs, alcohol, designer clothes and trainers, Sky and cigarettes must not be used for carving out a decent standard of living for the children, must it?]

If you look at the first figures in my posting of the 16th June you will see a level of net income which the salary of my wife as a headteacher in a charitable enterprise combined with my own two part time jobs cannot match.
One must suspect that the third writer's statement was somewhat sweeping but certainly by far the most accurate of the three.

Fighting a lost cause.

The Christian Institute has initiated legal proceedings in Belfast to argue that Northern Ireland's Sexual Orientation Regulations restrict religious liberty. If this case succeeds, it will have a knock-on effect into the rest of the UK.
I wish the Institute well and pray for their success but I fear that if they win, the might of the liberal, European project will steamroller across them until that victory is obliterated.
You will frequently be told that European Courts and the EU are totally separate bodies.
If you believe that, you will also cherish the naive belief that Regional Assemblies have not been put in place at the behest of the EU to facilitate their takeover and demolition of our nation.

Bring back Neville.

Is it not wonderful how Mr Blair has stood up for this nation against the might of the EU and has won for us a truly noble and glorious victory in the negotiations?
It is just like Chamberlain returning from Munich; the one difference being that Chamberlain, however naive, was actually on our side.


[This is the text of a letter of mine published in the York Evening Press and Worcester Evening News]

Moral MPs?

If you would like to know how your, or anybody else's MP, has voted on a given moral or Christian issue check out this link:
http://www.christian.org.uk/mpvotes.php







I have a feeling that a deep sense of depression will descend on you if you follow this advice.
You have been warned!

Immigration folly.

A Hallam University report has indicated that there are 1.7 million who are "hidden unemployed" in our nation and Professor Steve Fothergill states that one million out of the 2.7 million on incapacity benefits would be in work in a genuine, "fully employed economy".
This begs one question, I feel. Why are we importing labour from across the globe as well as the EU when the people mentioned here are already over and above our official unemployment figures?
Once this question is asked, a second springs immediately to mind. Which of the three major parties has pledged to tackle this nonsense? - [But I suspect that you already know the answer to that one.]

We are building an economic and social timebomb.

Labour needs 'poverty'.

On many occasions, you must have been startled to see newspaper headlines or sombre-faced TV reporters announcing that in this country, X millions of children live in poverty. [It always has to be children of course, as this tugs more at the heart strings.]

It is like that other impossibility, the 'fact' of better exam results every year. It is all down to where the line for cut-off points is drawn and more importantly - who draws it.

That Labour has seen results improve every single year is a rank impossibility - I dread to calculate what the odds would be against that happening in real life where the variables are so few. Objectively of course, results are plummeting. The expression today is 'spin'. I call it lies and deceit.

Where poverty is concerned, Labour needs large amounts of the population dependent on benefits as this group then has a vested interest in returning a Labour government. It is simple, devious, calculated and deeply dishonest. It is an abomination to use such cynical tactics when people in their millions are enduring Third World penury and hardship.

When Blair came to power he promised to 'think the unthinkable' and even put the honest Frank Field in charge of a paper exercise to target benefits only to the needy. Of course, he had forgotten that Frank is a man of integrity - an understandable error in today's Labour movement - and of course, he decided to do the job properly. There was only one possible outcome; he was sacked.

What of genuine poverty, then as this piece has not discussed it? - It is just not relevant to Labour arguments.

More on this topic in a later posting.