Snow's no joke

The cold weather here has been a catastrophe.

 

A young farmer who started on his own only last year, and so is up to his ocksters in debt, has found his entire herd of 40 cows lying dead on the hillside. He is now on suicide watch.

 

Another farmer can’t account for any of his sheep. They are almost certainly dead and buried in the huge snow drifts.

 

A lady smallholder can’t find her 28 sheep. They too are bound to be goners.

 

And it will be some time before we know the full extent of the stock losses. On a more uplifting note the response of the community has been amazing. Hundreds of people have turned out to help dig out sheep from deep snowdrifts and to carry feed to places inaccessible by vehicles. This is pretty dangerous work, up there in the hills, because of the risk of getting lost or of falling down hidden gullies and ditches.

 

The Manx just shrug and say ‘ It ‘appens!’ Tough old birds.

 

This gives you a flavour of the IOM at this time.

This is the glen just above our house. It looks more like Norway. And this is part of the TT course.

We have been fortunate. We only had about 2 inches, and we have been able to move around normally. A mile down the road the snow is up to 4 feet deep. Many houses in the neighbouring village have been without heat and light since last week. Fortunately there has been no more snow, but we are still getting below-zero temperature forecasts for the next 10 days.

This is the scene across to our little town of Ramsey, a mile away.

 

Bloggers, watch out! Leveson's about...

I have been trying to devil out what the devil is going on post-Leveson, no mean feat because the details have been under-reported.

 

One thing of immediate import is the danger that the rules will be used to suppress bloggers. It looks as if they will be used against ‘professional’ bloggers and those who sell advertising – users of Wordpress, for example. But we can be pretty certain that powers-that-be are itching to get their hands on social media generally. And we can be equally certain that any deal that has the agreement of all three parties is bound to stink. A disturbing aspect is that hacks will have to justify their sources of information, which opens the door to outing whistle-blowers and journalists’ otherwise protected sources.

 

The present mess stems for Lord Justice Leveson’s probe into the murkier corners of Fleet St, the phone hacking scandal, the intimidation of celebrities and crime victims, the cuddly relationship between the media and the police and politicians, and giving bribes in return for information. The irony here is that all the misdeeds committed by the Red Tops were capable of being dealt with under existing law. The lack of law enforcement might have had something to do with the recipients of brown envelopes.

 

What is proposed is a new Press Regulator created by Royal Charter. The ostensible reason for choosing this archaic and bizarre device is supposedly to remove press regulation from political control.

 

There will be a ’recognition panel’ to supervise the regulator. I have yet to discover the exact powers of the regulator.

 

The press will be expected to sign-up to the new system. A newspaper that refuses to join may face punitive damages in the event of a successful complaint.

 

There is an almost total lack of clarity about who will be appointed to the new bodies and by whom.

 

And the sanctions to be imposed on offenders are fuzzy, apart from giving apologies the same prominence as the original story.

 

So will it work? I doubt it. The big players – NI, Telegraph, Mail, and Mirror – seem to have already decided to play hard-ball.  The Speccie and Private Eye have already announced non-cooperation. All this comes at a time when the print media is fighting for survival, with circulations halved in recent years and increasing competition from electronic media; both the Gruaniad and the Indy seem doomed in inky format.

 

The real choice is between a press that can often be vile, but which has been relentless in the pursuit of lying politicians, expenses fiddling, and all manner of public scandals that would otherwise have remained hidden, and a regulated press minding its Ps and Qs.

 

But the general public doesn’t seem particularly bothered either way, and that really is worrying.

 

Letter from America........

 

Too much bad news in the world press. Your record-breaking winter is an apt beginning. It is incredible that the snow and ice and freezing temps have been so severe and have lasted so long. I see pictures every day of snow-bound vehicles, people dressed in parkas and boots and rescue operations in the Scots Highlands of hikers and climbers who dared to venture beyond their capabilities. Being from Minnesota, I know what severe weather is like and how to deal with it and when not to challenge it. My hope is that the weather will warm up before the UK runs out of fuel oil and gas.

 

Wherever I turn in the Middle East, gloom and doom prevails. The Syria thing has gone too far and should really be brought to a conclusion. The US strategy has been to 'hope for the best' and provide reportedly non-weapon aid to the rebels. Bashir al Assad, like Saddam in Iraq, rules through an elite minority that is seemingly crush-proof. Perhaps the recent reports of Bashir being shot by his bodyguard will dampen if not entirely stop his rampage. However, every single one of Syria's neighbors have been brought into the fray in one way or another and the rustled feathers of these neighbors will remain part of Bashir's legacy.

 

For the most part, US news agencies have been silent about the alleged shooting. It is astounding how we can hope for the best without having a clue to what that might mean. We should have learned by now that once the despot is overturned, a new one emerges that is considerably less appealing then the previous one.

 

 

We all thought that the demise of Saddam would put an end to the conflicts there. Now, the new Prime Minister, Nouyri al Maliki, is attempting to calm Shiite groups by allying with Iran and virtually opening the doors of friendship between the two predominantly Shiite countries. Maliki is sufficiently confident to even refuse our new Secy, of State's request to deny Iran access to Iraq airspace. The relief route for arms and supplies to Syria has long been known to flow through Tehran and then into Damascus by land and air. Even some of our Iraq war veterans are asking what their comrades fought and died for in that conflict.

 

 

Would you believe that I recently heard a political commentator suggest there would soon be an entente between Shia and Sunni Muslims? This is about as likely as the lion and the lamb sharing the same water hole. One thing we can count on, but seldom do, is that the Arab world will always be in some sort of disagreement with one another. There is no basis for unity there given the different aspects of Islam, different tribal associations, different racial orientations and different cultural and linguistic foundations.

 

 

I note with interest that your David Miliband is forsaking politics in favor of a role in the International Rescue Committee.

 

He will certainly be in good company what with the litany of current and past members reading like a who's who in world affairs. I cannot quite understand his motive and why he opted to come to the US when he still has a future and a following in the UK.

 

 

The big financial news here remains the ECB's raid on the larger Cyprus banks and its threats to do the same thing in Spain and Italy and possibly other member states. There is a modicum of support here to target foreign holdings in Cyprus banks, particularly Russian holdings, as the conviction prevails that the money was dirty in the first place. It does seem as if the Bank of Cyprus was somewhat lacking in discretion with respect to the origins of funds deposited. More importantly at the moment, is the issue of ECB's having the legal right to dip into the personal savings of investors in its member banks for purposes of bailing out failing economies and, ultimately, of saving the Euro.

Yewtree felled......

As I predicted here only 4 days ago, Yewtree is becoming less farce, more low comedy. Here is the latest press report

‘Officers working on Operation Yewtree, the police investigation launched in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile scandal to look into suspected sexual offences, released former BBC producer Wilfred De'Ath, 75, without charge on Monday evening after he was arrested over an alleged sex assault in 1965.

Speculation is also mounting that comedian Freddie Starr would soon be told that he will also not be charged over claims he attempted to grope a 14-year-old in Savile's BBC changing room in 1974, the Daily Mail reported.

The police operation, believed to have cost £1 million and has 30 dedicated detectives, has been criticised by some as a 'celebrity witch-hunt'.

De'Ath described the inquiry this week as "over-zealous", telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "My general comment would be that Operation Yewtree has gone too far. It is getting silly now."

Earlier this month, one of Britain's top prosecution lawyers was accused of hyping up the investigation as if it were a "box office event" when he told the public to expect a dramatic new wave of celebrity arrests’.

De’Ath was accused of groping the thighs of a 14-year-old girl at a cinema nearly 50 years ago.

DLT was accused of sex with a 25-year-old.

Freddie Starr was a serial groper, it is alleged.

Now we hear that only 3 of the 14 men arrested will be charged.

There is no evidence warranting a prosecution in the other 11 cases.

So why were they arrested in the first place if there was no evidence of substance?

This is all so far removed from the Savile scandal, which was about unlawful sexual intercourse with under-age girls that it is difficult to understand why the police pursued this line of enquiry

Unless Yewtree is all a smokescreen to cover up the shortcomings of the police themselves.

Meanwhile, these old guys will have to live under the ’Savile’ stigma for the rest of their lives.

 

 

The BBC & Boris: a rotten ambush.

Will they never learn?

 

Just when the reputation of the BBC has sunk as low as it is possible to get, it has once more resorted to the dirty trick of the ambush interview.

 

This time it was the turn of Boris Johnson.

 

Bojo was enticed into the interview on the pretext that it was about the state of London and the effects of the Budget. Instead he was subjected to an offensive cross-examination about his personal life, in particular his affair with Petronella Wyatt, and his association with one Darius Guppy.

 

The Wyatt story has been around for more than 10 years. It was common knowledge even before the Red Tops got hold of it. Michael Howard booted him out of the Shadow Cabinet for denying it.

 

This in itself poses two questions. What earthly business was it of Howard’s to enquire into Boris’s sex life? The idea is especially rich, coming from a successor to a Tory Prime Minister who was regularly bonking a member of the Cabinet. Sex is a topic that politicians should steer clear of; it was that wise old man Lord Denning who said that nobody’s sex life can withstand close scrutiny.

 

And would not any gentleman deny a liaison with a woman to avoid distressing her?

 

If it had been a ‘gay’ story nobody would have batted an eyelid.

 

The Guppy story has even more whiskers. It has been in the public domain for nearly 20 years. It was a story that had no legs. Boris is alleged to have given, in a phone call from Guppy, the address of a man whom he wished to beat-up. As far as we know, neither happened. Maybe the real story was whether Boris’s phone was bugged.

 

The interviewer then called Boris ‘a nasty piece of work’. This was abuse, plain and simple.

 

A bit of pot and kettle’ there, then.

 

What was the BBC’s motivation? There is a documentary about Boris on TV this week. Perhaps it was a softening-up for a forthcoming hatchet job. Perhaps it was the BBC in its role of Guardian with pictures trying to discredit Boris in case one day he should lead the Tories to an annihilation of Labour in a future election.

 

But one thing puzzles me greatly. Why do media-savvy politicians as fall for it, especially as Boris is a highly-experienced media professional?.

 

I remember years ago that the TV news tried it on Sir John Nott, Maggie’s Defence Minister.

 

He rose to his feet, declared that he would tolerate no more of this nonsense, took off his mike, and swept out, leaving his interviewer open-mouthed and the producer with a nasty hole in his live programme.

 

That’s the way to do it!

After Savile....DLT, Freddie Starr etc.etc.

When will it all end?

 

So far the Old Bill has felt the collars of at least 14 old men. These arrests have taken place over a period of months. Nobody has yet come to trial.

 

The latest is Jim Davidson. He is accused of offences against women who were adults at the time, that go back 35 years. We are not told the nature of the offence.

 

Then there’s Max Clifford, Freddie Starr, Dave Lee Travis, and to add a bit of verisimilitude we have – yes - .Gary Glitter.

 

One of the accused , Wilfred De’Ath, a former TV producer, has been writing in The Oldie magazine about his experiences at the hands of the cops (and full marks to Richard Ingrams, his Editor, for standing by him).

 

He was arrested at 7.15 on Remembrance Sunday morning by no less than 6 police officers. His passport was taken away (such are the powers of ordinary coppers these days) and his flat searched without a warrant. The cause of the arrest was ‘historic allegations of having sexually abused a 14-year-old actress in 1965’.

 

He was locked in a cell, interviewed and finally released on bail some hours later.

 

The Red Top reptiles were waiting for him, so obviously they had been tipped-off.

 

He says that he was in a state of severe shock for the first two weeks.

 

His bail conditions involve staying in his small apartment, surrendering his passport, and making no contact with the alleged victim.

 

He has been barred from the Cambridge University Club, which seems ready to believe the allegations that he was ‘a friend of Jimmy Savile’ despite having met him only once. Guilt by association?

 

There is a number of worrying aspects to these goings-on.

 

Why is so much police time being devoted to events 30, 40 or more years ago when the prospects of a successful prosecution would appear to be light? Could it possibly be that in the witch-hunt following the Savile scandal that they felt that ‘Something Must Be Done'?

 

There is little doubt that cases this ancient will be difficult to stand up. The evidence will be stale. Witnesses may be dead or unwilling to become involved. Memories will have faded.

 

And what will be the nature of the evidence, apart from her word against his? Of course, corroborating evidence may come from eye-witness accounts, if reports of disgusting dressing room orgies are shown to be true.

 

Were complaints made at the time or within a reasonable period afterwards? If so, why was no action taken?

 

So far we have not heard any particulars of the offences.

 

Most of the arrests took place months ago. If there is strong prosecution evidence, why have the cases not been brought to trial?

 

If not, why the arrests?

 

Meanwhile we have possibly innocent old men with their reputations in ruins, suffering the mental agony of not knowing if or when their cases will be heard.

Tally-ho!

And now for something completely different.

 

The latest bit of angst emanating from the Masters of the Universe is to do with deer and foxes.

 

Foxes first.

 

Apparently old Brer is getting to be a real nuisance in his adopted urban environment, biting babies, rifling garbage bins, fouling lawns, climbing through bed-room windows and other kinds of anti-social behaviour.

 

They are also disease-ridden, lousy and mangy, and their bite could have serious consequences since they feed off refuse tips.

 

Now deer.

 

The man from the Ministry tells us that they are at record levels, although quite how he knows the number of deer at the time when William the Conqueror banned the hoi-polloi from hunting them is not explained. Be that as it may, they are now believed to total 1.5 million.

 

They have become a major traffic hazard and a pest to both farmers and gardeners.

 

So what to do?

 

Some would have it that foxes should be caught and returned to the countryside. They would almost certainly starve to death for lack of hunting skills or immediately return to the nearest town.

 

Common-sense suggests that they should be culled in large numbers, but if a householder blows one away, the RSPCA, which is more concerned with urban foxes than babies, will prosecute him.

 

The Ministry has appealed for licensed hunters to shoot a large number to restore some kind of control. How many deer? 100,000? 1 million? That should bring down the price of venison in the shops.

 

(Some years ago these metropolitans were proposing to cull ruddy ducks. Now, they are charming little birds, Canadian immigrants,  but very randy, and they were breeding with the native mallard. For some reason this did not sit well with the tree-huggers. I worked it out that the cost per bird would have been about the same as a business-class fare to Toronto, so perhaps a better solution was to send them back courtesy of Air Canada).

 

What will not be contemplated is the return of hunting with hounds.

 

But the unpalatable fact is that this is the most humane way of dispatching both.

 

Neither the deer nor the fox have natural predators, so left uncontrolled they will outbreed their rural habitats and infiltrate areas where they are less than welcome.

 

Hunting is the best form of conservation.

 

Hounds will usually take out the sick, aged, or starving. Banning hunting deer has resulted in sick deer straying into stock-farms and spreading disease amongst farm animals. Without hunting, both foxes and deer are left to suffering from disease and starvation and to miserable deaths.

 

But of course nothing will be done. Hunting is indelibly and wrongly linked to landed toffs and others of the  privileged classes, and the British love a bit of class prejudice. The RSPCA has morphed into  animal-rights activism, and is spending vast amounts of donors’ money on persecuting and prosecuting hunters and farmers.

 

So get used to it. And don’t leave baby in the garden.

China's spies & Korea's loonies.......

One item of interest is the relatively recent penchant for hacking that is going on. China is credited with being the biggest and possibly the best at getting into American political, military and commercial/industrial information technology vaults. Now, North Korea is credited with doing much the same; at least to institutions in South Korea.

 

Earlier this month, a Chinese citizen working on sensitive rocket data for a NASA sub-contractor, was prevented from leaving the USA because of suspected intelligence he was transporting back to his masters in China. He was reportedly taken right off an airplane destined for Beijing and was found to have various data storage devices with him. Working out of Langley, Virginia, the fellow was alleged to have made previous trips to China carrying classified data.

 

I cannot understand why America needs to hire Chinese citizens to do sensitive rocket science work for us. What happened to all those super-scientists from Germany? Surely they have offspring that followed in their parents professional foot steps. This is not the first time a Chinese citizen has been charged with espionage.

 

I am told that there is a severe shortage of American scientists capable of performing the tasks needed by high technology manufactures and researchers. There must be a number of bright graduates from UK universities who would qualify. All in all, the USA seems to be doing a rather poor job of maintaining high technology security and preventing military and industrial espionage.

 

North Korea is behaving so enigmatically that they are under the US microscope. Their rash proclamations about attacking the USA and South Korea, firing missiles all over the Pacific and Sea of Japan, hacking everything in site, and their renewed nuclear program gives rise to new suspicions about their intentions. In the past, we have taken their unsteady behavior as juvenile and have dismissed it accordingly in favor of more pressing and real problems.

 

Now, the concern is that the Kim  and his boys may decide to put their money where their mouth is. Even their Chinese mentors express frustration at their spoiled brat comportment.

 

It is like a mini cold war all over again.

 

What does UKIP stand for?

There has been much ponificating about UKIP, but what does it actually stand for?

 

Here's a C&P from its manifesto.

 

1 Restore Self Government & Democracy

• Commissioners in Brussels dictate 75% of our laws. None can be repealed by Parliament. We cannot vote for those who make these laws – we cannot remove them.

• EU controls Immigration, Business and Employment, Financial Services, Fishing, Farming, Law and Order, Energy and Trade. It seeks now to control Foreign Affairs and Tax.

• The British people must decide through an immediate referendum if we stay in the EU or to come out and claw back independent power over our national life. We do not have to be ruled by this regime to work with our European neighbours who depend on us for their markets.

• Abolish the EU’s bureaucratic VAT and replace it with a local sales tax to support Local Government finance and to make it
accountable at the ballot box.

• Give the public power to require binding local and national referenda on major issues.

 

 

2 Rebuild Prosperity

• By leaving the EU we save over £45m a day plus £60bn a year due to EU trade barriers, business regulation, waste, fraud,
administration costs and the destruction of our fishing industry.

• According to Open Europe EU business regulations cost over £20bn a year. Abolish those determined not essential by a
commission appointed by Parliament.

• Take 4.5 million of low incomes out of tax altogether with a simple, flat rate income tax. With a threshold set at minimum wage.

• Financial services yield £61bn in tax revenues or 12% of the UK total. Exclude the City from EU controls.

• UK national debt is to reach over £1.4 trillion by the end of the parliament. This is unacceptable.

• UK national debt will exceed £1.4 trillion by the end of this Parliament by which time Osborne’s cuts will not even equal our EU contributions. Public spending is increasing and the Coalition’s cuts do not scratch the surface of Labour’s deficit. We must cut down Government if we are to return to a sound economy.

• EU ‘renewable’ energy rules will double electricity bills by 2020. Global warming is not proven - wind power is futile. Scrap all green taxes, wind turbine subsidies and adopt nuclear power to free us from dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil and gas.

• Quangos cost us £60bn each year – at least half the cost of the NHS. Bring them under Parliament’s control and cut the cost substantially.

• Cut taxes on small businesses and abolish the tax on work – Employers’ National Insurance.

• Make real and rigorous cuts in foreign aid and replace with free trade.

 

 

3 Protect Our Borders & Defend Our Country

• The tide of mass EU immigration has pushed down wages and restricted job opportunities. Only by leaving the EU can we regain control of our borders.

• Freeze permanent immigration for 5 years. Immigrants must be fluent in English, have minimum education levels and show they can financially support themselves.

• Bring in a points based visa system and time limited work permits.

• The State must defend its peoples. Keep our nuclear deterrent and make increased defence spending a clear priority, even in these difficult times, to underpin Britain’s global role.

 

 

4 Safeguards Against Crime

• No cuts to front line policing

• Make sentences mean what they say – life must mean life.

• Double prison places to enforce zero tolerance on crime.

• Establish locally elected County Police Boards to set policing aims approved by
voters.

• Scrap the European Arrest Warrant.

• Repeal the Human Rights Act to end abuses by convicted criminals and illegal immigrants.

• Free the police force from the straitjacket of political correctness and ‘targets’.

 

 

5 Care And Support For All

• Assure for all people prompt and caring treatment in ill health.

• Radically simplify NHS management and set up locally elected County Health Boards.

• Launch partnerships with the private and charity sectors to increase efficiency and choice and bring in health care vouchers for those who wish to opt out of the NHS.

• Give parents school vouchers to allow them to choose their children’s schools.

• Support grammar schools and vocational education.

• End the 50% university target for school leavers , scrap tuition fees and reintroduce student grants.

• Roll all State pensions and benefits into a simple, substantial Citizen’s Pension.

• Ensure that benefits are only for those who have lived here for over 5 years. Make welfare a safety net for the needy, not a bed for the lazy.

 

 

6 Our Way Of Life

• Our traditional values have been undermined. Children are taught to be ashamed of our past. Multiculturalism has split our society. Political correctness is stifling free speech.

• The law of the land must be single and apply to us all. We oppose any other system of law.

• End the ban on smoking in allocated rooms in public houses, clubs and hotels.

• Hold County wide referenda on the hunting ban.

Who follows Cameron?

One would have thought that a party that calls itself ‘Conservative’ would have cleaved to conservative values – loyalty, integrity, country before party and party before one’s self.

 

If the political chatterrati are to be believed one would be wrong.

 

Instead, we are led to believe, the Tory Party is a steaming midden of treachery, plotting, back-stabbing and briefing against colleagues. MPs, from Cabinet Ministers to scarcely-known back-benchers, are positioning themselves to topple Dave.

 

The Home Secretary, the egregious Mrs May, has been trailing her coat for a while; there are many others, including a black guy of whom nobody knows anything (hardly surprising since he has never held a Government post).

 

Well, it’s not going to happen in this Parliament, but I predict that if the Tories lose in 2015 Dave’s feet won’t touch the ground. The Tories are notably ruthless with losers.

 

So who are the runners and riders in a future leadership race?

 

Not Kitten-heels May. She is a walking disaster. She has failed in her efforts to deport terrorist suspects. When she browbeat the unfortunate head of the Borders Agency to speed up immigration clearance at Heathrow whilst reducing the staffing numbers, she created the fiasco of lax passport checks and then forced the man out of office.

 

Immigration policy is a shambles, limiting admissions of bona fide foreign students who are an important source of income for our universities,  key workers, free spending Chinese tourists, and  other categories which benefit the UK, but she will not be able to exclude Eastern European gypsies.

 

Michael Gove has been widely touted, although he vehemently denies having any such ambition.

 

Andrew Mitchell has the ability and character to make a good leader, but the Police Federation stitched him up.

 

George Osborne will be lucky to keep his present job if he implodes on Wednesday.

 

This leaves the joint favourites, ‘Boffo’ Johnson and David Davis.

 

BJ carries the image of something of a buffoon. He isn’t. He is a consummate politician, and a crafty political operator. He would probably gain a lot of votes in a General Election because he is very likeable and a celebrity who has been seen on the telly. He also earns his own living.

 

But he carries some ‘class’ baggage – public school (but a scholarship boy, if that makes any difference), Oxford, the Bullingdon Club, and quasi-upper class.

 

It may be that people have simply had enough of toffs.

 

By contrast, David Davis is of working-class background, a self-made man of integrity, with a successful career in business before entering politics, a down to earth ex-member of the SAS, and a political big-beast.

 

If people are looking for a safe pair of hands, they will vote for him.

 

My money is on Davis.