A good try but bears no resemblance to Christian teaching!

The Reverend Gillian Cook has just appeared on The Radio Humberside 'God slot' belittling those in the C of E who dare to stand up against the march of heresy - also known as 'Gay Christianity' - in that body.
She sounded oh-so-reasonable and to be perfectly fair, her arguments were spot on - provided that you simply take God's opinion out of the debate.
We are not entitled to redefine sin. If God says something IS, then that is it! End of!
"At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow." There are things that I would perhaps want to be different in Christian teaching but I am not arrogant enough to dare to declare that 'God is wrong'.

The first tactic of the hard left.

I wonder who said this?

"Debase the morals of the people and they will have no courage to resist."

Well, it was one Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The upper class left loved this kind of thing, of course, as it justified the licence they sought for engaging in hedonistic behaviour and depravities of all types.

The rather less mighty leftwingers with a burning commitment to overthrow of the capitalist system sat back and watched the seeds of destruction begin to burst forth, blossom and spread its roots deep downwards into the middle classes - ironically, where its main power base would emerge. In so many ways, the working class element of marxism is the least important bit in its implementation.

Lenin was a great many things but fool he was not! The above quote is the key to understanding the tactics which have been employed against western society starting as early as the 1920s.

It is a major plank of working against faith too. Remember that Marx himself described 'Religion as the opiate of the people.' Communism knew from the outset that it had to set its face irrevocably against the Christian Church and all the good that it represented.

Christians who espouse leftwing causes should really look at the roots of where they are misplacing their political beliefs.

'Christian socialism' is an oxymoron.

Malaysia burns!

Christians in Malaysia are stunned after a spate of unprecedented attacks on churches which followed a court ruling that a Christian newspaper could use the word 'Allah'.
Suspected Islamists attacked eight churches between January 8 and 11, in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Taiping, Melaka, Miri and Seremban. In four cases, firebombs were thrown. Although there were no reported injuries and most churches attacked suffered only minor damage, one floor of the Metro Tabernacle in Kuala Lumpur was completely gutted by fire.
The attacks have shocked Christians in a country where acts of violence on places of worship have no precedent. The raids attracted widespread condemnation, from church leaders, some moderate Muslims and leaders on both sides of the political divide.

Release International.

Crimewatch.

There are really only two possibilities. Either the crime rate amongst migrants and ethnic minorities is through the roof - or the BBC's Crimewatch programme is fundamentally racist in the choices it makes.

This week, again, their Rogue's Gallery featured Britain's 'eight most wanted' and again, six of the eight fitted the above profile.

At the same time, a significant number of their re-enactments and footage from surveillance cameras featured the same groups.

If Crimewatch is being racist by making disproportionate choices - this must stop forthwith!

If it is not being disproportionate, this issue has to be brought into public view and debated properly!

Two gigantic problems here:

Firstly, no liberal-left party will ever permit this - preferring to sit quietly and unobtrusively on a potential powder keg.

Secondly, it is only a matter of time before the BNP begins to produce genuine figures which will be released in the worst possible way and will be even more damaging to race relations in the UK.

Of course, so many of the immigrants concerned have come from the EU - nobody in the LibLabCon is likely to risk honesty.

Mark Collett.

This Blog hates extremes! It hates: marxism, its little brother socialism, political correctness, liberal-left extremism and of course, far right politics too.
In the Brightside and Hillsborough seat in Sheffield, BNP publicity man Mark Collett is to fight against the incumbent David Blunkett.
He is the former head of that party's youth wing and is a declared admirer of Adolph Hitler.
According to the Sheffield Star he has declared 'Hitler will live forever.'
When will BNP voters learn just what they are supporting?

LINK: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Hitler-admirer39s-bid-to-be.6021680.jp

2 cows.

European Democracy: a definition.

You have two cows. The EU regulates when you can milk them - then pays you not to. It takes both; shoots one; milks the other and pours the milk away.
You are then required to fill in a form accounting for the missing cow.

Thanks to Michael Parker in this week's Yorkshire Post for taking the '2 cows argument a step further than I have ever seen before.

Oh!

'The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.
The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.'
One may wonder why!

The Times!

Purportedly by Abraham Lincoln.

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift."

"You cannot strengthen the weak by discouraging the strong."

"You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer."

"You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred."

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich."

"You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money."

"You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you can earn."

"You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence."

"You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

Some people are wise: some embrace socialism which does not believe any of the above to be true. The liberal-left who claim that they aren't actually socialist would also thoroughly disagree with Honest Abe.

Loonies in Thetford?

'When it comes to hiring staff, there are plenty of legal pitfalls employers need to watch out for these days. So recruitment agency boss Nicole Mamo was especially careful to ensure her advert for hospital workers did not offend on grounds of race, age or sexual orientation. However, she hadn't reckoned on discriminating against a wholly different section of the community - the completely useless. Nicole Mamo, director of Devonwood Recruitment was stunned when a job centre in Thetford, Norfolk, said she could not include the phrase 'reliable and hard working' in her advert When she ran the ad past a jobcentre, she was told she couldn't ask for 'reliable' and 'hard-working' applicants because it could be offensive to unreliable people.'

THETFORD JOB CENTRE YOU ARE HEREBY AWARDED A LOONYTUNESWATCH COCONUT!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246201/Employer-told-advertise-reliable-workers--discriminates-unreliable-applicants.html#ixzz0dmDjASHD

For those who think Chemical Ali should not have hanged!

Not another price rise, please!

We are being taken for a ride - as it were - with the price of petrol. The oil companies are being naughty but the government is being a disgrace. Let us not forget that this causes significant rises to the cost of living.

On a slightly different tack I am trying to collect my thoughts on tax and price rises in general. The average person has only limited funds. There seems to be a sustained attempt to see price rises in all areas: some just for the sake of it and others for reasons of social control.
This is of course before we even take into account the obscene costs of the EU which are increasing annually and the taxpayers having to pay for Labour's financial wreckage as a direct result of Gordon Brown's policies as Chancellor which removed controls from the banks.

AND do we really believe Labour's inflation figures?

Sickening hypocrisy. Yuk!

Involved as I am in a Christian school, I have little knowledge of the workings of actual Church Schools but I find this piece from Julia Llewellyn most interesting:

'The church was packed, the guests all in their finery. The baby, adorable in an antique christening robe, lay asleep in his mother's arms. The vicar sprinkled water over his forehead. The godparents renounced the Devil. The congregation said the Lord's Prayer. A Christening should be an occasion filled emotion. So why was my reaction to attending this - and many others like it, in recent years - not one of joy but of profound distaste? Controversial choice: David and Louise Milliband send their son, 5, to a sought after Church of England school The answer lies in what the baby's mother, in designer outfit, told me over her third glass of champagne. 'Of course, this is the most ludicrous pantomime. I'm the most vocal atheist imaginable. But who cares? Our son's place at the church school is guaranteed. This Christening will save us hundreds of thousands of pounds.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1246080/JULIA-LLEWELLYN-Why-I-despise-hypocritical-non-believers-colonise-faith-schools.html#ixzz0dhKVbIw2

This is why euthanasia can be so frightening.

Whenever a thinking person - and in particular, a Christian - begins to consider that euthanasia is possibly a reasonable thought, along comes something to make them reconsider.

The inherent dangers in permitting euthanasia are numerous as Martin Amis demonstrates:

'Euthanasia 'booths' should be established on street corners for pensioners to end their lives with 'a martini and a medal', novelist Martin Amis said yesterday.
Britain is facing a demographic timebomb as its ageing population places an impossible burden on society, the controversial writer claimed.
Anti-euthanasia campaigners reacted with horror to the suggestion of euthanasia booths for pensioners and called Amis's idea 'repugnant and offensive'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245714/Author-Martin-Amis-calls-euthanasia-booths-street-corners-prevent-silver-tsunami.html#ixzz0dbfPrsWo

Let's keep it real!

Any religion which relies on outward show is one to be treated with considerable scepticism. Why would any divine being be interested in such utter trivialities?
Christianity is based almost entirely on what the 'inner person' is and how they relate to God.
Whenever the outward show becomes even moderately important, perhaps the time has come to find a church which is genuinely Christian and not merely purporting to be so.

Substance always triumphs over style!

A question.

I pose a simple question for Christians.
Is all human life sacred?
In Religious Studies examination courses, this is taken as read; the argument being that it is 'God-created' - and that proves the point.
That is just a little too pat for me - it is seldom debated and extremely difficult to prove as a Christian concept.
I am unsure of the answer - just wanted to make you think! (Knee jerk responses are not helpful here.)

Tories on law and order? Better than Labour? - Never have been and now ...

Our oleaginous little friend, Alan Duncan, appears to have let the cat out of the tory bag. (How is this egregious individual still in the higher tory ranks in any case? Are there no whelk stalls anywhere for him to ruin?)

Prison works? That's just ‘repulsively simplistic’ says Tory jails spokesman, just as David Cameron pledges to make law and order a priority...

'Simplistic'? - Of course, but when the liberal left - and this certainly now includes the tory party - has wrecked law and order, you have to work backwards to put things right. Punishments in place FIRST then work back gradually to causes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245608/Prison-works-Thats-just-repulsively-simplistic-says-Tory-jails-spokesman-just-David-Cameron-pledges-make-law-order-priority-.html#ixzz0dVA4hBlQ

Hypocrisy thy name is ....

'Foreign Secretary spurns a successful primary just 80 yards from his house for an even better church school two miles away
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has secured a highly coveted place for his eldest child at a Church of England school – even though he is an avowed atheist.
Mr Miliband’s wife, Louise, started attending a church attached to the school two years before their five-year-old son gained his place.
The school is nearly two miles from the couple’s home, but its grades and Ofsted reports are only marginally better than a primary school just 80 yards from their front door.'

No comment!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245584/Avowed-atheist-David-Miliband-sends-son-C-E-school.html#ixzz0dV4uoWTj

Shifting sands.

We are constantly told that euthanasia interferes with the natural ending of a life - and this is clear.
However, what is the situation when surgeons and physicians have artificially extended a life and caused pain and misery - which is precisely what they did to my aunt?
My opinions on issues have resulted from observation, thought, Scripture, research and life experience. Most are set in stone but I always try to listen to other views in order to hone my own.
With euthanasia, my opinion changes daily and the Bible does not give either side of this debate a clear victory.

Where it all happens!

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

Grace.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

Jonah 2:8. NIV.

Corporal punishment.

Today we are starting to hear the true horrors perpetrated by two feral brothers from Edlington.
We have learned how the authorities had no means whatsoever available to control them - but are still being blamed for not doing so.

On the same day, we hear on Radio Humberside that teachers are flooding out of the profession because they are unable to control pupils. A Head Teacher was presented to list the assaults he has had to face.

I left mainstream teaching for many reasons but one of these was that controlling classes was possible in the comprehensive where I taught but it became harder year on year - and noticeably so once the pupils realised that the cane had been abolished. (We forgot to tell them at the outset!)

To keep average classes under control in these circumstances leaves you mentally and physically wrecked at the end of each day.

I quit my part time post seven years ago - damaging my pension very badly indeed - because I value my health and sanity.

We have listened to the counsel of fools for far too long. The liberal-left are 100% to blame for this situation.

They told us that corporal punishment did not work and that it was 'barbaric in a modern society'.

THEY WON: SOCIETY LOST!

Who, hand on heart, truly believes that a couple of thrashings along the way would not have held these yobs - and a great many of the others we are spawning - within reasonable bounds?

I do not care if they would be resentful. I just want them to have something to fear.

Report from a junior to a senior alien.

Okay. So I come from another planet - (What do you mean that you had already suspected this?) - and I want to find out what Christianity is all about as I have a report to send in to The Chief Alien. (Pictured left.)
So naturally, I turn to the media to help me.

Well sir, clearly it is a singalong kind of religion as revealed by Songs of Praise on BBC 1.
But it is drama, soaps and comedies which I had to turn to, to gain the bulk of my information.
Then all becomes much more clear. Christians are a collective of: total hypocrites, wild extremism, pettymindedness, the barely sane, the manipulative, the terminally simple and those who waggle fingers severely at other members of the public.
Naturally, as a corollary, there is a deeply sinister side to all of this tomfoolery which is proved conclusively by the fact that Islam has some members who fly aircraft into buildings and some who decapitate kidnap victims. (You cannot escape 'guilt by association' in 'the religion business'.)
If I turn to the universities and theological colleges, I struggle to get down to the original thinking but find that a great deal is done investigating tangents which have little relevance to the basics. This has just tended to confuse me, I'm afraid, Your Alienness.
Returning to TV - I can be educated much better by apparently wild theories which clearly must have substance because they appear on the various education channels found on SKY TV!
Strangely, if I watch discussion programmes about religion, more than half of the 'believers' served up appear not to believe at all.

What a good job I had no Christian education in alien school. All of these things I have reported give a far more accurate picture. I think.
Report ends.

Another travesty.

At the point you begin to think that justice may be making a small comeback, along comes another travesty.

Frances Inglis, 57, was yesterday jailed for life for the 'murder' of her beloved son who was barely alive, unable to speak, could hardly move, brain-damaged and a classic case of surgeons interfering in natural processes to provide a truly wicked outcome in the life of her tragic son, Thomas.

Her sentence carries a minimum recommendation of nine years imprisonment which seems grossly disproportionate for 'an act of love' which, even the most extreme anti-euthanasia supporters must agree is utterly excessive.

Even then, this is not really my point. In the last week or two, we have had a variety of crimes reported where court sentences of such 'softness' have been applied that I was fizzing with anger.

Trivial sentences have been imposed on drugs barons, a young man of such evil that he he was crossed and waited before pouring bleach all over a lady who had dared to criticise him and many more besides.

Against this kind of backcloth where brutal murderers have been given tariffs of only six years more, the disproportionate nature of this sentence simply horrifies me.

I resigned from the Sheffield Bench nearly five years ago as a Chairman of Magistrates for precisely this cause. It wasn't the only reason, certainly, but I had a great many problems with those kind of imbalances which destroy the justice which the great British public are entitled to expect from their courts.

Irena Sendler.

In Memoriam: Irena Sendler.
There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She knew what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, (for a misleading slide show on Global Warming).

Munir Hussain.

Excellent news from the Court of Appeal. Munir Hussain who was jailed for two and a half years after seriously assaulting the man who had held his family hostage has had his imprisonment overturned and replaced with a suspended sentence.
Let us be truly grateful for those increasingly occasional snippets of common sense that we see in this country.

See posting December the 15th.

At last.

At last there has been some common sense spoken in the 'let's up the taxes on alcohol and pretend we are trying to make the late night streets a safer place' debate.

I caught the back end of a news item last night where somebody was suggesting a ban which I could actually support for once.

'All you can drink for £X'. Gotta agree with that one! It is simple common sense that such offers are designed to provoke drunkenness.

(Thought I'd better mention it to show that I always try to think a matter through in every direction!)

Hubris rules!

I am a firm believer in logic. If you want to argue with me - then do so logically or I have little interest in what you have to say.

Let us follow one line of flawed logic in a vein which is increasingly popular today.

'I do not like what God teaches about X, Y or Z ergo, God does not exist.'

The key word, in what may dubiously be called an argument, is "I".

The declaimer of this thesis has arbitrarily 'abolished The Almighty' and has done so purely on his/her own authority - which some may regard as a teenyweeny bit arrogant.

Attempts to deny the existence of God because of the nature of God are just plain silly.

How can a simple, human view of any issue stand up against the stance of an omnipotent, omniscient Being? Is it not just possible that God might have a more complete overview?

Now this is no proof whatsoever as to the existence of God - that only comes by 'seeking to find' - but it does show up the poverty of what is rapidly becoming the most popular argument of them all amongst modern day atheists.

Apologies for the American spellling on the Tee Shirt - but the point is still a good 'un, even so.

The standard of 'science' which fuels the warmist conspiracy!

'Claims by the world's leading climate scientists that most of the Himalayan glaciers will vanish within 25 years were last night exposed as nonsense.
The alarmist warning appeared two years ago in a highly influential report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
At the time the IPCC insisted that its report contained the latest and most detailed evidence yet of the risks of man-made climate change to the planet.
Misleading: UN climate change report's claim that Himalayan glaciers would vanish within 25 years was based on 'pure speculation'
But the experts behind the warning have now admitted their claim was not based on hard science - but a news story that appeared in the magazine New Scientist in the late 1990s.
That story was itself based on a telephone conversation with an Indian scientist who has since admitted it was little more than speculation.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1243963/UN-science-report-stated-Himalayan-glaciers-melt-25-years-guess.html#ixzz0d2gkONJm

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali - TOP MAN!

'Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is calling on the British government to put pressure on Eritrea to release thousands of Christians who have been jailed for their faith.
Bishop Michael and Release International presented a 43,000-signature petition to the Eritrean ambassador and to Gordon Brown [Jan 15] calling for an end to imprisonment without trial and torture in Eritrea.

‘This petition expresses concern for the Christians who are being kept in prison, in underground cells and shipping containers in the heat of the day and the cold of the night. It seems inhuman and barbaric,’ said Bishop Michael, who resigned his post as Bishop of Rochester to campaign for persecuted Christians.'

LINK: http://www.releaseinternational.org/pages/posts/release-and-bishop-michael-nazir-ali-call-on-no-10-to-help-stop-imprisonment-and-torture-of-christians-in-eritrea-650.php

Now it's the Tories' turn!

'Big tax increases on strong alcohol, a 'levy' on late-opening pubs and a ban on supermarket discount deals are unveiled by the Tories today to take back town centres from violent drunks.'
Great headline-grabbing - but will it help? - Of course not!
What will happen is that the crazies will carry on and will pay the 'levies' - ordinary people who enjoy a drink responsibly will be punished.
Labour has declared a desire 'to punish the innocent to get at the guilty yet again'. Typically, the Conservatives are now offering more of the same. They are both immoral.

Punish the guilty not the innocent!

(See posting January the 14th.)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244303/Labour-Tories-head-head-24-hour-pubs.html#ixzz0d2XZ1OtT

Photo: Los Borrachos. (The Drunkards.) by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez.

Nanny state: here we go again!

'Butter should be banned to protect the nation's health, according to a leading heart surgeon.
Shyam Kolvekar says only radical action can save growing numbers of young adults from heart attacks and clogged arteries.'

ALL of this because apparently, in the UK, we eat an average of 200 grams of butter each, every week - 20% above recommended levels.

Well. I love butter and yet probably eat half the above amount or less. Therefore, I should not be allowed to eat this product at all???

I think that Shyam Kolvekar has earned his LoonyTunesWatch coconut!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1244048/Ban-butter-save-thousands-lives-says-heart-surgeon.html#ixzz0cw9BsYel

Why leftwing?

Why is it de rigueur to be leftwing if you are: a poet, an artist, a dramatist, a folksinger, a popstar, a sculptor, a broadcaster, a novelist, an actor or indeed, somebody who is famous for being famous? Why speak with a single voice across such a wide array of contentious issues? - And one with a skewed world view at that?
Why so little originality of thought?

It is like an infectious disease.
Is it just a detachment from reality when you move in such exalted circles?

Most people who go through that leftie nest of vipers - often referred to as 'our higher education system' - manage to see through the nonsense when real life hits. (Naturally, this does not apply to those who are undertaking important bureaucratic and quangocratic posts for the government.)

Be right.

In all of life there is really only one thing of supreme importance. We must be 'right with God' when we finally meet him. And how do we do that? Is it 'piling up the good deeds'? Is it ensuring that the bad deeds are outweighed by the good? NO!

John 14:6 (New International Version.)

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Unrepentant.

No government in the last 20 years has supported the family - or even seen reason to do so.

The very word has been expunged from public usage in its traditional meaning which of course, has the word 'marriage' understood within it.

The social damage which this has caused is well documented where children from married parents are streets ahead of those who have parents who are merely 'an item'.

Both these groups are naturally ahead of those where there is little or no formal structure or single parents. (Where the latter are an issue - it is always necessary to distinguish between those who are victims and those who are calculating or feckless.)

The Conservatives allowed the lefties to prevail in these areas when last in power and I simply disbelieve 'Slippery Dave's' assertions that he will 'make it all right again'.

Ed Balls has just declared that Labour oppose even the principle of tax breaks to encourage marriage - which had a long and successful history until the recent iconoclastic decades.

I just wonder what the old time socialists such as my grandfather would have made of these amoral so and sos.

What we tried has failed abysmally - so more of the same!

Should we build some massive prisons to give the longsuffering public a rest from a great many more of the criminal classes?
'Not so' says a group of MPs in their report 'Cutting Crime'.
They have a novel suggestion. They think that the lamentable and totally ineffective, community punishment system should be extended and one third of current prisoners should be unleashed back onto an underwhelmed public.
For at least half a century, these criminal-supporting types have seen their theories proved wrong and wrong and wrong again. They are unrelenting.
If you vote for The LibLabCon you are part of the problem. The majority of politicians across these parties talk tough then act like jellies.
We the public pay the price!

Does the PC insanity NEVER end?

'Moves to scrap museum and art gallery family tickets because they discriminate against single mothers were backed by Schools Secretary Ed Balls yesterday.'

How can these appalling people ever get a vote again from a normal human being?
Just what is their mindset? What normal person could have thought patterns and processes which follow these kinds of lines?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243362/Schools-Secretary-Ed-Balls-moves-scrap-museum-family-tickets-discriminate-single-mothers.html#ixzz0cfIfBVKi

A spit in the face!

'As a Spitfire pilot in the Second World War, John Mejor risked his life for this country. He went on to devote his working life to conservation, helping to preserve the nation’s heritage and landscape.
But in his hour of need, when he might have expected something in return, the state he gave so much to has betrayed him.
The 88-year-old grandfather, who requires round-the-clock nursing at a home because of dementia and diabetes, has had the funding for his care withdrawn despite the advice of his GP.
His family now fear they will have to sell the house where his 94-year-old wife Cecile lives to cover the care home costs.'

What could I possibly say?


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243107/Sick-Spitfire-hero-forced-sell-home-pay-care--leaving-wife-94-homeless.html#ixzz0cfFjX48A

Labour is just SO wrong - again!

'The controversial alcohol “price-fixing” scheme is an attempt to stop the sale of beer, wine and spirits at discounted prices, which is blamed for encouraging excessive drinking. The cost of the cheapest alcoholic drinks sold by supermarkets could more than double. It will also apply to pubs, clubs and other licensed premises. The scheme could see the starting cost of drinks fixed at between 40p and 50p per alcoholic unit – leading to a six-pack of lager costing about £6 and a bottle of wine costing £4.50. Cheap bottles of cider could quadruple in price. The crackdown will mark the culmination of a scheme, overseen by Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, to cut alcohol abuse. Tackling the problem will be a major plank of the party’s manifesto.'

The massive rise in anti-social drinking during Labour's 'watch' has hammered the NHS; doubled the number of drunks at A & E; fuelled alcohol-related crime and made many town centres into 'no-go areas' at weekends. This Blog has long shown the way of dealing with this equitably but this report in The Telegraph shows Labour's appalling response.
It is an absolute disgrace and here is why:

1] Their solution is all about raising taxation even further.
2] It ignores the root cause of the problem which was their own, absurd liberalisation of licensing laws. There was abundant cheap alcohol around before they took power without the present consequences!
3] It will not stop the hardcore drinkers who will simply turn to crime and those with families will see these price rises move them and their children ever closer to destitution.
4] The biggest issue for me is that, yet again, THE INNOCENT WILL BE PUNISHED TO TRY TO GET AT THE GUILTY which is profoundly immoral.
5] Pubs and clubs - many of which are central to communities - have already plummeted in numbers because of this government's other follies. In my opinion, this nonsense would probably close at least half of the remaining pubs and clubs in the UK at the same time as upping unemployment by a six figure sum.
6] This plays into the hands of the BNP. The 'working man' when he gets really angry has just one way of responding.
7] Many of the poorer, responsible people in society including many OAPs will no longer be able to afford the odd bottle of wine or pack of ale from the supermarket.

Why not deal with the problem? - That means sorting out the people who are abusing alcohol, not those who do not!
The solution is simple. Revert to the former licensing laws and genuine, severe punishments for all alcohol-related crime. £80 fines for booze-inspired social mayhem is laughable. 7 nights in a cell might be a far better starting point as a deterrent!

The only good thing about Labour's plans is that it would be a big boost for the home brewing industry!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6983707/Cost-of-cheap-alcohol-will-double-to-curb-binge-drinking.html

Proof? - Oh, yes!

I recently read some supercilious clever clogs making the 'point' that you can no more prove the existence of God by reading The Bible than by reading 'The Lord of The Rings' can you prove the existence of orcs, elves or hobbits.
Sounds logical? Sounds impressive? Sounds convincing?
Well, as an argument it is extremely poor. You are not comparing like with like!
I am living proof. I discovered that if you study the Scriptures, it is as good as anywhere to find God - and probably considerably better than virtually anywhere else. The 'hand of God' is felt throughout.
Anybody who has read the literature of other religions will find the claims are hollow, artificial and filled with a kind of faux sagesse. They are utterly unconvincing. The reality of The New Testament; the clarity; the Truth just leap out at you. At no point do you find the artificial.
It is told straight down the line - good, bad and sometimes faithless. It is never afraid to point out the weaknesses of 'Bible heroes'. The honesty simply grabs you.
The Bible invites you 'to seek in order to find'. It is a fair promise - and it works.
All openhearted people who do this will find the Living Jesus.

I really can't be bothered.

If there is one thing about the French which I admire it is that they are much better than the British at keeping their governments from ignoring the wishes of the people.

In this country, all we ever do is to gripe, complain and whinge but when the time comes for action - these people are nowhere to be seen. They can't even be bothered to find out who is best to vote for.

It is said that 'You get the governments you deserve" and tragically - almost unbelievably, that is probably true.

Why do people vote for political parties out of basic loyalty? For example, when did Labour last represent 'the working man'?

UKIP is more in tune with what the public actually wants when it comes to policies yet we all assume that Labour must eventually be replaced with the wretched Conservatives!

Talk about allowing yourselves to be trapped in a vicious circle.

Well, this pattern MUST be broken!

Oh dear. Yet more anti-'warmist' evidence.

'Sea water under an East Antarctic ice shelf showed no sign of higher temperatures, first tests showed today.
Despite fears of a thaw linked to global warming that could bring higher world ocean levels, tests conducted on the Fimbul Ice Shelf showed the sea water is still around freezing point.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1242398/Now-tests-ice-ISNT-melting-Sea-water-shelf-East-Antarctic-freezing.html#ixzz0cNamU8To

L & O.

Law & Order UK on ITV is taking rather too many liberties with dramatic effect.
Since when have the overworked CPS actually joined in actual investigations?

Piffle!

It gets worse as yet again, we see TV portraying Christians in a negative light.

The storyline was that a Bible-believing Christian officer allowed his colleague to bleed to death because the man was homosexual.

This is anti-Christian propaganda of the very worst (and what's more, the naughty PC got away with it!)

Where are the Church leaders kicking up a fuss in the face of such monstrosities?

Such storylines today are perhaps the only place where countless millions gain any knowledge at all of what Christianity is about after the terrible failures in our school system.

Little wonder so few have a positive view of Jesus.

Gordon: master of stealth. Yorks Post last Friday.

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorkshire.

TOWARDS the end of 2008, the Chancellor reduced VAT by 2.5 per cent. However, in order to maintain the retail price of motor fuel and alcohol, he increased the excise duty by the same amount. Since then, we have endured further increases in duty at the delayed Budget.Now that the temporary VAT reduction has concluded, VAT is imposed again at the higher figure of 17.5 per cent. Significantly, the Chancellor has not made a compensating reduction in excise duty to lower those retail prices to the previous status quo, resulting in a double whammy....

Cheers, Gordon! Let the motorist pay the entire bill for bailing out your mess, eh? I would not be at all surprised if that weren't in your 'muddled green thinking'.

A sound suggestion.

To God your every Want In instant Prayer display; Pray always; Pray, and never faint; Pray, without ceasing, Pray.

Charles Wesley.

The mini ice age starts here.

'The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.
Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.
The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise.
They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a ‘warm mode’ as opposed to the present ‘cold mode’.
This challenge to the widespread view that the planet is on the brink of an irreversible catastrophe is all the greater because the scientists could never be described as global warming ‘deniers’ or sceptics.However, both main British political parties continue to insist that the world is facing imminent disaster without drastic cuts in CO2.'

By David Rose

Soon, the warmists and political hangers on are going to look extremely silly!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html#ixzz0cDDvrmfK

Faith! It was well with his soul.

'This hymn was written after several [?] traumatic events in Horatio Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the S.S. Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died.'

It Is Well With My Soul.

When peace like a river,

attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot,

Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.'

Wikipedia also:

Story & hymn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYP--c2LTfg

How about a positive?

Over recent weeks I have had a surprising number of conversations about sit coms and it always brings a smile to my face when I think of the handful of really good ones.

The British have supplied a number of wonderful comedies but there have been so many wretched efforts to wade through in order to find them. 'Fawlty Towers' is universal and will still be making people laugh decades into the future. So many date quickly and become unwatchable so why is it that simple comedies such as 'The Good Life' maintain their appeal whilst 'Monty Python', nostalgia apart, has lost whatever it may once have had?

In this field America manages its usual trick of being the best and the worst. When theirs are bad - they really stink!

'Cheers', 'Mash', 'Taxi', Soap' all have had that 'touch of the universal' and will survive into perpetuity.

The very best, either side of 'The Pond'? - Well, it has to be 'Frasier' which has brought untold pleasure over a long period. I caught several episodes last night and was reminded of the genius of a programme with an average of 16 scriptwriters per episode - and doesn't it show?

Admittedly, the episodes with the cockney-speaking mancunians were dragged down somewhat, but this apart, the standards were always astronomoically high and never tailed away in the customary fashion as vast numbers of episodes accumulated.

It had everything: a superb cast, poignancy, reality ("You must 'ave reality, Spike") wit, brilliant writers, craft and even genius.

Comedy for the intelligent, it produced genuine chuckles and belly laughs. In one 22 minute episode I counted 45 such instances when in so many 'comedies' there are literally zero.

There were several episodes where it even tried farce - something which is done so badly 95% of the time. No surprises when it was pure perfection. The Ski Lodge episode must rank as the best ever in that entire genre.

It involved you; you cared what happened to the characters. It brought the great themes of unrequited love, the sadness of the human condition, genuine human failings wherein we were able to recognise ourselves.

The nearest thing I have ever seen to comic perfection!

Many thanks for something so wonderful. I spend so much time on this Blog criticising, how nice to be able to be positive.

I would like to be a pacifist but .....

"How many times must the cannonballs fly before they are forever banned?"
These are words known by all in a popular Dylan song. But let us stop to engage our brains about this for a moment.

How do you 'ban' weapons?
The bad guys won't agree and so what do we use to make them toe the line and not give us a mighty kicking into the bargain?
You can accuse me of being a tad literal but the point is valid. Pacifist thinking is utterly illogical!
Nobody can be 'anti-war' as you simply play into the hands of evil.

All the anti-war slogans are equally puerile.
Sad - but sometimes we just have to take a reality check and try to ensure that governments do not drag us into wars without sufficient reason!

Inattention.

A nice photo here of Harridan Harperson after she gets away with Driving without due care and attention with just three points on her licence and a trivial £350 fine! The fact that her use of a mobile phone exacerbated the offence was apparently taken into account rather than warranting a further charge.

The Daily Mail wanted her banned, ostracised as well as hung drawn and quartered. The Mail's attitude is of course perfectly reasonable although not particularly in line with the sentencing policies of Magistrates Courts.

It is an added embarrassment for Miss Harman, a QC, that she was Solicitor General when Labour banned using a handheld mobile at the wheel. She was also ordered to pay a £15 'victim surcharge', a Labour policy which has been condemned as a stealth 'justice tax'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241604/Harriet-Harman-fined-350-driving-care.html#ixzz0c6EyzGMf

Where do they find them?

In a dramatic announcement this week, former Archbishop George Carey and other notable worthies have pointed out that mass uncontrolled immigration is turning into a problem.

You see the headlines and feel gladdened, that at last, some common sense is beginning to emerge amongst the 'great and the good'.

Unfortunately, such thoughts are rather premature. Mr Carey went on to say that our population must not be allowed to grow above 70 million.

In other words - he thinks that we have room for around another EIGHT MILLION!

Wanna know what's wrong with our society?

Read the piece and then decide whether this would have happened if this odious little scrote had received 'six of the best' after his first 'kicking over the traces' incident.

'A boy of ten who stabbed one teacher in the chest with a pencil and attacked two others has been let off with a warning. The teacher needed hospital treatment for a puncture wound after the boy, who cannot be named, attacked him at a primary school last term. After lashing out and 'donkey kicking' a female member of staff on the leg, the male teacher stepped in and tried to calm the youngster down but was stabbed.The boy, who escaped prosecution and was given a formal warning by police, had previously been reprimanded for another kicking attack on a second female teacher.'

Thanks are due entirely to the liberal left who worked so tirelessly and irresponsibly to get corporal punishment in schools abolished and prepare the ground for such social breakdown.
This daily kind of event in so many of our schools today was simply unknown during my childhood. Consider too the effect that one caning would have had on all the other children on the borderline!

Fear has been removed from the equation. It must return!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241414/10-year-old-boy-stabs-teacher-pencil-gets-warning.html#ixzz0c03KpCPJ

Time and Space.

'God lives outside of space and time. He created space. He created time. He is confined to neither of these things. It's somewhat of a stretch for most of us to imagine that, but a physicist or mathematician should attest that it's entirely reasonable. There is nothing absurd or illogical to speak of dimensions outside of space and time; in fact additional dimensions are necessary to rationally explain the universe. String theory in modern physics defines 11 dimensions, four of which we experience.
Human experience, without exception, is that all effects have causes. There are no uncaused causes. The inevitable conclusion is that the laws of physics explain how the universe operates but they don't explain how it got here. All explanations require an "eternal" ingredient. The existence of anything at all demands an uncaused cause. So we never escape the question 'where did it all come from.'

Source: Cosmic Fingerprints.