Link: Choice Cuts: Can I see a slippery slope to a socialist dictatorship?.

STASI. Tee-hee.

Thanks to James and Guthrum who let me know about their problem viewing this site with Internet Explorer, the issue has now been resolved.

I removed a couple of rogue widgets and all is well. Thank you, gentlemen.

My apologies to users of Internet Explorer who are receiving a strange error message when accessing my site. It seems to be OK with Safari and Firefox. I don't know about other browsers. I have filed a support request with Typepad. Sorry.

Link: Betrayal of a generation | the Daily Mail.

The basic unit of a healthy society is not the State. It is not "the community." It is the family. For the whole of my life, the Labour Party has been the enemy of the family. Any arrangement for the raising of children is as good - in the eyes of our Left - as a mother and father living together and raising their children. Labour hates the family, because it is a place where children learn values. Labour wants children to learn their values only from State agencies.

If you are young and poor, Labour will pay you to reproduce fecklessly; so condemning yourself to lifelong poverty and dependence. If you are educated in the State sector, Labour's policies ensure that your life is dominated by the worst elements of society and that nothing is done to help you if you want to learn. If your mother or father intervene to protect you from bullies or criminals, Labour's police will charge your parents, not them, with assault. Labour teaches you, not by its words but by its actions, that no-one can protect you but the State. Your parents are nothing. The State is everything.

But Labour's "Childrens Tsar" considers that it's all our fault.

The Government-appointed Children's Commissioner for England, Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, said: 'We must acknowledge that these problems cannot be solved by policy and funding alone.

'There is a crisis at the heart of our society and we must not continue to ignore the impact of our attitudes towards children and young people and the effect this has on their well-being.'

How infuriating that a Government which constantly acts as if it is the sole authority on every issue, accepts no responsibility when its policies cause such damage.

This UN report proves conclusively what I have known in my heart since Anthony Crosland closed my local Grammar School; that Labour is unfit to govern - now or ever. It is a morally-bankrupt movement, obsessed with centralising power and money in its own hands. It has undermined every social norm in a deliberate attempt to substitute State power for family life. In doing so, it has systematically wrecked the life chances of the nation's young; creating a culture of dependence which leaves no room for moral guidance from any authority but the State.

Labour is fit neither to govern nor oppose. If our nation is ever to be healthy again, it must cut out this cancer.

Link: The tiny airline spy that spots bombers in the blink of an eye | News | This is London.

This is, to say the least, an unwise application of technology. Fanatics going, as they believe, directly to Paradise may well be no more stressed than an innocent nervous flyer. Consider this chilling quote;

A separate microphone will hear and record even whispered remarks. Islamic suicide bombers are known to whisper texts from the Koran in the moments before they explode bombs.

There is no point in detecting such whispers unless the intention is - during those "moments" - to take out the whisperer à la Jean Charles de Menezes. There will be no time to explain that, actually, the software has done what software often does. Or even that you were reciting verses from the Koran because you were scared by turbulence.

Would you want your life to depend on voice analysis software? Consider also the impact on innocent flyers of the knowledge that their every twitch is being analysed electronically to determine if they are to be killed by a "sky marshal" without warning. Are they likely to be more or less twitchy than a suicide bomber?

I fly regularly. I am posting this from a departure lounge at Frankfurt Airport. I know I take risks when I travel, but I am less afraid of a terrorist on my flight than I am of "security" ideas like this one.

Link: Give City's bonuses to the poor, urges Hain | Uk News | News | Telegraph.

Who is this moron? I see he doesn't suggest that the peoples' heroes should give up their earnings. But he thinks the City's top flight, who generate much of the tax which feeds New Labour's wasteocracy, should hand over their bonuses.

The City of London is Britain's last centre of economic excellence. One square mile of the UK produces 2% of its GDP. Hain's proposal would (unless he intends to manacle these stars to their desks) move Europe's financial capital elsewhere. People with these talents can work in New York, Frankfurt or Tokyo as easily as in London.

If Hain is jealous, why doesn't he apply for a job? It's time he did something productive for his country. Prior to becoming a lifelong charge on the public purse, his only employment seems to have been "political research." So we can safely say that his personal contribution to the country's GDP is a large negative number. Perhaps he should donate his entirely unearned income to charity?

This, apparently, is number 6 in the HMV download charts. Give it a listen, playing close attention to the lyrics. That this should be popular gives me hope that England may yet awaken. It is for sale at iTunes and HMV.

H/T Andrew Ian Dodge

Ellee Seymour very kindly sent me the following story from her local paper, the Eastern Daily Press, which appeared on 26th January.

Plans are moving forward to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of one of Norfolk's most famous sons. Town leaders in Thetford have put together a committee to organise a series of events for 2009 to pay tribute to Thomas Paine.

The freethinker and best selling 18th century author of The Rights of Man is set to be remembered across the globe in two years' time on the 200th anniversary of his death. Officials in his home town are making plans to ensure the special anniversary on June 2, 2009 and associated commemorative events go off with a bang.

Members of Thetford Town Council, the Thomas Paine Society, Thetford Library, Thetford Grammar School, where Paine was educated, and historians in Diss, where he was an apprentice corset maker, are set to hold a brainstorming session next month for the bicentenary.

Oliver Bone, curator of the Ancient House museum who is chairing the working party, said an 18th century reenactment day, a pageant involving local schools and celebrity guest speakers had already been suggested. Officials are also hoping Sir Richard Atteborough will make a much-anticipated film on the life of Paine by the 200th anniversary.

"We are just getting going, but we have already had some good ideas and we have had a lot of interest and support. It is good practice to plan ahead like this because we want to fit it around the national celebrations," he said.

Paine was born in Thetford in 1737. He lived in White Hart Street and went to the grammar school before leaving the town at the age of 19. He went on to influence the American and French revolutions through his writings in Common Sense and The Rights of Man.

Stuart Wright, treasurer of the Thomas Paine Society, said: "He is Thetfords's most famous person and not everyone agreed with his views, but objectively speaking he had a great influence on the way the world is today. He was ahead of his time in The Rights of Man, which shaped the welfare state, his writings were understood by the masses then and they are still relevant today," he said.

I shall follow the preparations for these celebrations with interest and will make an effort to be in Thetford on the anniversary. I shall also be applying (in my secret identity) for membership of the Thomas Paine Society and making a donation towards its work.

Tom Paine was an humble man who made a difference by clear, simple writing addressed without condescension to his fellow men. With nothing more than his words, he helped shape two great democracies and he continues to influence people all over the world.

I have been accused again recently of hubris in using his name to blog. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am an humble admirer who well knows he cannot hope to emulate Paine's greatness, but tries to model himself on Paine's method.

Tom is a beacon of hope shining from the pages of history. If a Norfolk corset-maker could change the world with a pamphlet, we have no excuse for the despair into which many of us occasionally fall. Political blogging is pamphleteering; no more and no less. The pen really is mightier than the sword and if bloggers can revive the spirit of Tom Paine, the keyboard may yet prove even mightier.

Link: Councillor Terry Kelly: BLOGGING FOR SOME STRANGE KIND OF PEOPLE - IT'S LIFE BUT NOT AS WE'VE KNOWN IT.

If you haven't found Cllr Terry's Blog, you really should visit. Nowhere will you find better evidence of the intellectual degeneracy that is the modern Labour Party. Terry, whose witty and creative strapline is "I'm a Socialist," may be the most stupid person in the blogosphere (quite a claim, I know). His ignorant, semi-literate ramblings would (if anyone actually read them) do much more damage to Labour than the current feeble opposition. All his blog lacks are virtual bars through which to offer the great Scots ape a banana.

Hilariously, he suggested that his readers should "try googling Cllr. Terry Kelly" to find the "blogs which are attacking me", warning them ponderously that it "could damage your opinion of your fellow human beings". Readers who did so, found a decision of the Standards Board for Scotland suspendng him from his Council for six weeks because he had approached a member of the public at a Council meeting in a "threatening and intimidating manner." Terry the idiot accidentally revealing Terry the thug. Delicious.

Terry provides much such unintentional comedy. The most intriguing question however, is as to what the hell his other photographs look like, if this is the best he could find for his blog.

Various readers have gently complained about the comments moderation system. As an experiment, I have turned it off. Please enjoy responsibly!