Charles Clarke is the new home secretary

Guardian – Clarke goes to home office: Tony Blair moved quickly this evening to fill the political vacuum created by David Blunkett’s resignation, appointing Charles Clarke home secretary and Ruth Kelly education secretary.

*sigh*

Oh well. I may as well get started…

Charles Clarke

(Posted to B3ta.)








Posted in Photoshopping | Comments Off on Charles Clarke is the new home secretary

Shark attack!

Rarrrrrgh!

Also released today: Kitty Racers








Posted in Photoshopping | Comments Off on Shark attack!

David Blunkett: it’s all going tits-up

It seems such a shame after such a well-managed outing, but things don’t look good for our loved-up (and beloved) home secretary.

Guardian – Blunkett tells how love affair ‘went very badly wrong’: David Blunkett yesterday broke his public silence on the affair that threatens his political career as concern grew among Labour colleagues that his short-term survival in office may be overshadowed by long-term damage to his reputation for sound judgment.

Independent – Blunkett is unbalanced and should quit, says Labour MP: David Blunkett appears “quite seriously unbalanced” and should resign as Home Secretary, a Labour MP said today. The call followed reports that under-pressure Mr Blunkett stunned Labour MPs by singing Fred Astaire’s Pick Yourself Up at a Christmas party. Bob Marshall-Andrews joined fellow backbenchers in urging the Home Secretary to go after claims a second visa for his ex-lover’s nanny was “fast-tracked”.

(Cheers to Joe for the latter link.)

BBC – Blunkett sings of starting over: And veteran backbencher Gwyneth Dunwoody suggested the home secretary might ask if he was doing the job he was paid for properly… The pressure is certainly building on Mr Blunkett on a number of fronts… There is now widespread speculation in Westminster that next week might, one way or another, be crunch time for the home secretary.

1. I’ll field that last one. I quote: “When a man loves a woman (he) can’t keep his mind on nothing else.”
(This is, of course, a double negative… so technically – in the view of Percy Sledge at least – Mr Blunkett isn’t unable to keep his mind on the job.)

2. I’ll save Private Eye the trouble: “To fast-track one visa may be regarded as a misfortune… but to fast-track two seems like carelessness.”

3. This is all very strange. People who are on Blair’s team aren’t normally fitted up for a jacket with buttons in back. That treatment is reserved for people who leave his team. Like the ‘somewhat peculiar’ Robin Cook and that ‘rather unstable’ woman, Clare Short.

Are we watching Mr Blunkett implode before our very eyes… or have the liberal journalist scum learned a trick or two from our Great Leader?

UPDATE – Stick a pitchfork in him. He’s done…

BBC – Blunkett quits as home secretary








Posted in Tony 'King Blair | 6 Comments

The Sun: ‘Tis the season to be sarky

Today Page 3 girl Ruthie (19, from Kent) is outraged to hear a Christmas fan had been sent hate mail for putting up decorations. She says: “It should be every person’s right to celebrate whatever religious festival they want, however they want – as long as it doesn’t infringe on others.”

A good thing she added that last bit, as this report eggs on those who may wish to celebrate Christmas by shooting PC leftists: The Sun warmed the hearts of locals yesterday with a Nativity scene – in Cold Christmas. The tiny Hertfordshire hamlet saw The Sun’s Save Our Christmas campaign with a poignant play celebrating the birth of Christ. It was another blow to jobsworths who want to kill off our traditions. Resident Bill Parkes, 53, said: “The Sun’s doing great. If politically correct officials try to impose anti-Christmas policies here they’d be sent away with a shotgun!”

What was that I was saying yesterday about Sun readers being unlikely to do anything stupid?

No matter. Let’s get back to what is so obviously an incitement to religious hatred.

The online report is kind of light, so I’ll also be quoting from the print version: A poison pen nut has bombarded a string of families with hate mail – blasting their taste in Christmas decorations. The anonymous critic, who signed himself The House Doctor, posted letters to five households, taking issue with their festive lights. He wrote: “Your neighbours have to look at this crap – have some dignity. We don’t want to look like a council estate.” The families, all on the Mickledales estate in Redcar, Teeside, received the identical notes last weekend. In them, their lights are branded “cheap, tacky Poundstretcher crap.”

They finish by appealing for the House Doctor to come forward. I refer you again to yesterday’s post for an idea of how that’s likely to turn out.

You have to read between the lines to see the anti-religious sentiment, but what stares you in the face here is the evil of elitism (which lives right next door to leftism, don’t you know).

Here, Ben is left wondering what this latest Sun campaign is supposed to distract us from but, myself, I see this as more of a seasonal opportunity. A made-up story designed primarily to boost flagging sales. And demonise (cue dramatic sting) The Left.








Posted in Page 3 - News in Briefs, Rupert 'The Evil One' Murdoch | 4 Comments

Merry Christmas Virus – WORM_ZAFI.D

I just got a copy of this new worm in my Inbox, and even the latest update hasn’t detected it as a virus. Do watch out for it.

UPDATE – BBC – Virus poses as Christmas e-mail








Posted in Virus Alerts | 1 Comment

There’s one trial missing…

… but it’s yet to take place, so that’s OK.

Famous Trials (link via The Ultimate Insult).








Posted in Inneresting | Comments Off on There’s one trial missing…

For the dedicated followers of facism

I want to share the following from an exchange in this Fark thread about a New York art exhibition that was closed because one of the works featured a George W. Bush portrait composed of monkeys. GoodDamon’s comments need to be more widely read, IMHO.

cthu1hu kicked it off by providing:

The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.

GoodDamon responded with this:

Continue reading








Posted in George W. Bush | 1 Comment

Torture: It starts with a bag on the head

Independent – Who killed Baha Mousa?: Baha Mousa, 26, was working as a hotel receptionist in Basra 14 months ago when British troops surrounded the building and arrested seven men. They were taken to a British base and were reportedly hooded and beaten. Two days later, Mousa was dead. His family was given $3,000 in compensation and rejected a further $5,000. What they wanted was justice. Yesterday, after more than a year of official stonewalling, his relatives won a ‘historic’ ruling to force the MoD to hold an independent inquiry. Will the truth now be known?

This article requires subscription, but if you keep an eye on robert-fisk.com, you’ll see it appear in full there later today or eraly tomorrow.

UPDATE – You can now read the full article here.








Posted in It's War! It's Legal! It's Lovely! | Comments Off on Torture: It starts with a bag on the head

The Sun: staying on-message

Yesterday it was revealed in The Guardian that The Sun – currently championing the clause (ho-ho) of Christmas – has itself watered down and de-Christ-ified their own Christmas cards with a politically-correct “Season’s Greetings!”

Hypocrisy? From The Sun? Never!

Surely there’s been some mistake. Or perhaps a simple misunderstanding… the kind of misunderstanding that led to their grouping of the outrage over the commercial stunt by Madame Tussauds with attacks on the religious aspects of Christmas.

Continue reading








Posted in Rupert 'The Evil One' Murdoch | Comments Off on The Sun: staying on-message

Knives out for the lads!

Today Neval (21, from London) gets her jubblies out and backs calls to give anyone caught carrying a kife a five-year jail term. She says: “The Knives Destroy Lives campaign speaks for itself. It’s time the law was changed because violent crime is out of control. The government needs to let the public know it’s doing something about it.”








Posted in Page 3 - News in Briefs | Comments Off on Knives out for the lads!