What A Good Idea !

I just wanted to wish this rather attractive young lady the very best of luck.

When the State starts pushing us around, we need innovative, imaginative people with a bit of mettle to take them on and test the true boundaries.

The concept of the local pub as a "Research Centre", together with its consequential circumnavigation of the scandalous smoking ban, is a simply wonderful thought. Many of us long for an excuse to pop down to our local. The idea that by having a drink and - for those who want one, a smoke - we might be contributing to the world's medical knowledge is simply delicious.

Sadly it looks as if Brown's henchmen are going to kick their jackboots into action and put a stop to it. The local council appear to be having a distinct sense-of-humour failure as do, doubtless for reasons of political expedience, the pub owners.

I cling on to the hope that Miss Fenton might actually have a case, but it looks unlikely. Almost inevitably, the Righteous will drop on her like a ton of Fascists, fine her to Kingdom Come and threaten her with closure, imprisonment and God knows what.

But it was a nice thought while it lasted, wasn't it ?

Banned By The State X - Naked Gnomes

This post is based on a story in The Sun, so the normal health warnings apply. I guess it might have been exaggerated, or conceivably might not be true. But it’s daft enough to be true, and in any case it gives me a chance to rant, and that’s good enough for me.

When I’m Prime Minister, I’m going to abolish Bromsgrove Council. Why ? I’ve got nothing against Bromsgrove – never been there. Are they hugely inefficient ? No idea. Do they charge exorbitant rates of Council Tax ? Not sure. Do they let their residents kills their kids, a la Haringey ? Probably not. I want to abolish Bromsgrove Council because they’ve just abolished naked garden gnomes, and in so doing they epitomise the nannying, snooping, micro-managing, voyeuristic, offence-obsessed, harmless-fun-hating Nazis who run our country these days. I’d dearly like to see the back of every one of them and Bromsgrove seems as good a place to start as any other.

If this blog had the readership to justify it, I think I’d run one of those Iain Dale-type competitions, where you’re invited to finish a sentence with some amusing – but apposite – ending.

The sentence I’d have in my competition would be “You know the State’s getting too big when….”, and my own entry would be, ”…Councils have got time to worry about naked gnomes in people’s gardens”.

Have you ever heard something as ridiculous as the State telling someone to dress a garden gnome ? Well, OK yes, you probably have heard of one or two things which are every bit as ridiculous…perhaps you even heard about some of them on this blog, including but not limited to: bans on feeding the ducks; preventing kids wearing football boots; outlawing bouncy castles; a ban on swimming in the rain and God knows what else (click on the "Banned By The State" label at the bottom to see the full series). But what better illustrates the lengths these people will go to interfere with our lives and to tell us what to do ? And what more powerfully demonstrates that the people who can now exercise such power over us use absolutely no common sense and fail completely to grasp the idea of free expression – the principle we used to call “live and let live” ?

“Live and let live”. Whatever happened to that ? Whatever happened to the idea that if someone wanted to do something which caused absolutely no harm whatsoever to anyone or anything, then they should be allowed to do it ? It died some time ago – probably during the lifetime of this government – and Bromsgrove Council have just cremated the corpse.

So, along with numerous other organisations and people, Bromsgrove Council is on the Womble Hit List. They’d better watch out.

When I see this kind of tyranny from a council I reveal the political make-up of its councillors, so that we can see who's doing this kind of thing to us. Bromsgrove: Conservative. Shame on them.

Jason McCartney Responds

Last week I penned (keyboarded ?) an open letter to my local prospective Conservative Party candidate about the destruction of our liberties by ZaNu Labour.

I look to the Conservatives for a coherent, planned and co-ordinated set of measures to restore habeas corpus and the right to trial by jury, protect free speech, prevent us being watched at every turn and basically ensure we are treated as if we lived in something other than a Communist dictatorship. I find it deeply depressing that no such vision appears to exist within Camp Dave, but I thought I'd write to the bloke who could be my next MP to see what he thinks.

Earlier this week I had a reply. What follows is a slightly abridged version of what he wrote. Initially I was going to leave the first paragraph out but then decided to include it because it was a nice touch and showed that he'd taken the trouble to visit the blog.

Gosh, where do I start. Firstly thanks for getting in touch but I do have to ask, politely of course, where have you been the past few years? Maybe following AFC Wimbledon's glorious charge up the non league pyramid - the Blue Square Premier beckons. Your boys have been getting some great crowds. I remember the old Dons winning 4-0 in an FA Cup tie at Huddersfield in the late 1990s, I think Efan Ekoku scored a couple. I guess we may well be united in hoping Huddersfield Town take all 3 points at the MK Dons tomorrow night?

Back to the last couple of years. I'll make an early party political point but one which I'm very proud of. It's been the Conservatives under successive Shadow Home Secretaries (Davis, Grieve and now Grayling) who have stood up for liberty and freedom for law abiding citizens.

We fought tooth and nail against Gordon Brown's draconian extension of 42 days detention which was more about trying to make the opposition appear to be soft on terrorism rather than tackling it effectively.

We've been opposing the most intrusive and potentially costly ID card system in the world. You and I will end up being fined for losing our cards or leaving them at home whilst the organised criminals and terrorists forge and steal false identities. Would you trust this government with your AFC Wimbledon membership number let alone your DNA or biometric data?

We welcome CCTV in strategically placed crime hot spots but not to the extent that there's now a CCTV camera for every 14 citizens in the UK. I studied Orwell's 1984 for O level back in 1984 and Big Brother is well and truly watching now and not the Channel 4 variety.

We have been opposing proposals for council paid snoopers to spy on our lifestyles, the rubbish in our wheelie bins and which school catchment area we're in. We have been gobsmacked by a governing party that lays out the red carpet for the premier of China allowing foreign security thugs to stifle lawful protest on our streets.

We have spoken up for freedom of speech whilst Labour strongmen throw out pensioners who dare to voice concerns at their party conference whilst the likes of Abu Hamza are left to incite violence and hatred.

Much of this occupies precious police time at a time when some crime, not all before Jacqui gets on the phone from her main home wherever that may be, is going up. Year on year in January, robberies involving knives or sharp instruments increased by 18%, domestic burglaries rose 4% and police-recorded drug offences increased by 9%. That's before we even talk about the 70 young people murdered violently on our streets last year.

Many surveys recently show that the number one issue for law abiding folk is the recession and it's consequences but our ability to prosper and enjoy what I hope will be a Conservative led recovery will only be viable if we have our individual freedoms.

I hope that answers some of your questions,

King regards,
Jason

So, what did I think ? Well firstly and most crucially we've since agreed that the 4-0 Wimbledon win simply didn't happen - he must be confusing us with somebody else.

I'm not sure it would be fair to describe it entirely as a typical politician's response; I think it's a little too human for that. But, and it's a big "but", there is a great deal of what I believe really hacks off the public about politicians in here; namely an attempt to rip the opposition apart and very little about what his own party would do. This is in part symptomatic of the politicians' tendency to think that the quickest route to a vote is a negative one but also, it seems to me, a sign of a wider malaise in the Conservative Party when it comes to fighting for our freedom.

It's easy to fight when you're in Opposition; you just stand up and say "We don't agree". It's when you're in government, when you've got to put what you believe in to practice, when BBC News interviews every State-employed, Nanny-loving do-gooder it can lay its hands on, and when you've actually got something to lose, that the real passion and drive is needed. That's when you're tested to the limit. Many fail at that point, and I worry that Dave will fail there too.

I challenged Jason McCartney to say what the Conservatives would do - how they would find and stay on the long and demanding road back to freedom ? But his reply lacks that vision. Reasonable, you might say, for someone who has never even been an MP ? Perhaps, but if the Conservatives cared anything like as much as we need them to care about restoring our liberties, I'd have expected them to furnish their candidates with some sort of plan, a roadmap, which they could use to reassure us. Something, anything, that says how they're planning to reverse these years of socialism.

He seems like a nice guy. I'm sure he'd try and help me out with a constituency problem. He may make a very good MP. But is he, and is his party, capable of delivering on what we need most; the greatest sustained period of personal liberation this country has ever seen ?

Sadly, I doubt it.

An Open Letter To A Conservative Candidate

The following is the text of a letter I have sent to Jason McCartney, propsective Conservative candidate for the Colne Valley, where the Womble currently resides. I strongly suspect it's a waste of time because I think the Conservative Party is finished as a fighting-for-freedom force, but I enjoyed writing it and you never know.

I fully confess to having nicked the idea following correspondence with the excellent Dick Puddlecote.

Dear Jason

I wonder if you can help me. I am trying to work out where (if anywhere) to place my support at the next General Election. As a resident of Netherton, I am a Colne Valley constituent.

Let me set out my stall. One matter, and one only, transcends all others in my opinion. It is not the economy. It is not the National Health Service, education or, for that matter, this government’s ludicrous obsession with poking its nose into the affairs of other countries like Iraq or Afghanistan. It is the issue that describes our very existence; that of individual freedom.

The past eleven years have seen the most systematic and extensive advance of the power of the State this country has ever seen. We have witnessed the extension of imprisonment without trial - the government would love to have extended the allowable period to 42 days, and was only thwarted by the House of Lords; the fundamental right of trial by jury has been taken away in some cases, and such right will doubtless be further corroded should this government remain in office; we are faced with a government seemingly hell bent on implementing identity cards for every citizen and desperately fighting to retain the DNA details of entirely innocent people; restrictions on freedom of expression (witness the nurse suspended from her job for offering to pray for a patient and people being denied entry to the UK on the grounds of their beliefs) are being imposed at every opportunity; an Opposition spokesman arrested for speaking the truth; a stated desire to be able to track every mobile phone call, every email, every internet enquiry; dark threats to curb the increasingly troublesome blogosphere; growing restrictions on the right of individuals to take photographs in public places.

Since 1997 the balance between State and individual has changed fundamentally. We are being watched as never before: there are four million CCTV cameras in this country - one couple even suffered the indignity of having one installed in their own bedroom; ten people who walked up Whitehall in face masks were stopped by the Police; innocent children in rough areas are rounded up by the Police and sent home, or into the possession of Social Services. Meanwhile we are also being micro-managed as never before: quite apart from the seemingly relentless march of Health and Safety nonsense which threatens to denude us all of almost any personal responsibility whatsoever, State interference extends its tentacles almost daily, from Food Police in Herefordshire to councils who ban couples fostering children because the husband smacked a child once, the State is consistently imposing its nit-picking, draconian, authoritarian values on a nation that was once, but is no longer free.

At the local level the power of the Police is affecting innocent people in frightening ways. Only this week we read a story of a Huddersfield man whose garage was broken into – and inadequately repaired – by the Police, who, entirely in error, suspected him of growing cannabis, a conclusion they had reached because they had been monitoring the distribution of heat within his property from a Police helicopter. No apology was forthcoming, and he was forced to journey to the Police Station himself in order to do so much as to enforce a process of compensation to pay for the repair.

I consider myself, by nature, to be sympathetic to the Conservative cause. I am a staunch free-marketeer. I am a patriot (all be it one who believes that England should assert her sovereignty and free herself from the manacles of both the United Kingdom and the EU), I despise socialism and all it stands for. But now, of all times, I look to the Conservatives and I search for an appetite to dismantle the Statist structures that Blair and Brown have installed since 1997; and I do not see it.

To even begin reversing the juggernaut of the expansion of State power will take a super-human effort. Vested interests are everywhere. All manner of government departments benefit from the increasing power and influence of the State. The Police, local councils and Social Services groups can all boast increased staffing and budgets as a result of New Labour’s assault on freedom. The Health and Safety Executive, most solicitors and education services have recession-beating reasons to take on more staff. Anyone who tries to roll back the frontiers of the State has a colossal battle on their hands. It cannot be done in a day, a year or even a decade. But it can be started, by any government which has the will to do it and the belief that it must be done.

When, in the mid-seventies, Margaret Thatcher took control of the Conservative Party, she saw an economy in ruins through decades of increasing State intervention. For years before gaining office, she surrounded herself with those whom she trusted, plotting and planning what had to be done. Together they researched, debated and prepared Britain’s march from economic tyranny; perhaps the greatest Escape Committee in peacetime history. Now we look once more to the Conservatives to fight for our freedom. The question I find myself asking is: have they got what it takes ?

David Davies raised the standard in the wake of the government’s attempts to impose 42 days interment without trial upon the British people; few Conservatives rallied to his cause. I remain highly sceptical that the libertarian elements within his party have sufficient numbers, influence or stomach to win the gargantuan battle that lies ahead; but I would vote for someone who was, at least willing to try, not least of all because there is so little on offer by way of alternative.

So, on which side of the debate do you fall ? Do you share my concern that our basic freedoms are threatened as never before ? And, if you do, do you have the passion to fight for them with every ounce of energy ? Or, do you believe that there is, in fact little or nothing to worry about, or that the State is right in its endless advance ?

Yours sincerely,


xxxxx xxxxx

I'll post the reply on here (assuming I get one and he gives me permission to do so),

Three Promises Dave Should Make

Before I went away to see the family and the Boys in Blue (they won 3-0), the Wilted Rose asked what New Year's resolutions the Shadow Cabinet should make. I have three ideas.

1) To get onto the front foot on the economic crisis. Cameron and Osborne have been found wanting since September and it's allowed Brown to look (to some people, at least) as if he knows what he's doing. He's come up with some "initiatives" such as the ruinous fiscal stimulus and the equally crazy mortgage bail-out and, with the help of the Mandelsson / Campbell spinning machine, he's couched these as crafted measures which suggested he knows how to beat the recession. Which he doesn't, because he can't.
The Conservatives, for their part, have been seen (fairly in some ways) as carping from the sidelines and failing to come up with an alternative strategy. Cameron's analysis of why we're in this mess and how Brown is only making it worse will, I'm sure, prove correct in the medium term. But he has to offer a narrative for how we move forward. There are signs, today, that he's grasped this at last, with the tremendous pledge to abolish tax on savings for basic rate tax-payers; if he'd have done it for everyone it would have been even better. Taxing the interest on people's savings is one of the most immoral, insidious, indefensible taxes on earth and it would be wonderful to see the back of it. We need more announcements like this over the coming weeks, backing up with a well-constructed strategy, which we haven't yet seen.

2) To launch a wholesale attack on the erosion of our freedoms that has taken place over the last ten years, including the abolition of habeous corpus, the right to trial by jury and the freedom to demonstrate peacefully. The Conservatives say, David Davies style, that they abhor the whole ethos which has created 3,000-plus new criminal offences since 1997, but they are short on policy which actually supports that view. They need to thump the table and say "This must stop". And they need to keep saying it, even after they've all been arrested.

3) To promise a wholesale reversal of the utterly insane Health & Safety and litigation cultures which have been sweeping across our beleaguered nation - in fairness since well before 1997. We cannot go on insisting on CRB checks for all and sundry, having to fill in risk assessments before throwing a snowball (no, really), or having coaches risk being sued because little Johnny hurt his leg playing football. The amount of work ahead for any freedom-loving government here is phenomenal, and would take years, but the Conservatives need something that sets the tone. the abolition of the Health and Safety Executive would be a great start.

Anyone else got any more suggestions ?

This is a fantastic set of photos from Old Holborn's Walk. (Hat-tip: Stray Toaster and the man himself).

If you're like me, you might wonder how many police officers / PCSOs got involved in this, and how much time they spent - utterly pointlessly - stopping, searching and generally trying to get up the noses of ten completely innocent people. You really would think they had better things to do, like preventing serious crime.

Remember, Remember

Two things have happened over the past 24 hours which I wish I'd taken part in. The first was a live webchat on Iain Dale's blog on the US election. He wanted volunteers to cover the major TV and radio channels. The second was far more significant in its own way; Old Holburn's "walk" in London.

Prevented by work commitments (and, in the second case, truth to tell, a fear of ending up in a police cell) I was forced instead to ponder from afar. I'm sure Iain Dale's webchat was a lot of fun. Old Holburn on the other hand, now according to Old Leg Iron, in the hands of the authorities, will have had an altogether different experience.

Old Holburn wanted to explore what would happen to anyone who walked into Parliament Square in eccentric dress and wearing a mask - and he appears to have found out the hard way. The harder facts will come out over the next few days (assuming he comes out first, of course) but on the face of it this is a damming indictment of life under ZaNu Labour. Ten blokes wearing masks sauntering up Whitehall were apparently enough to throw Brown's Bullies into a frenzy.

It is truly terrifying how powerful and omnipresent the government now is in this country. The level of behavioural compliance expected of individuals is frightening. It's only getting worse.

And it has to stop.

(Picture half-inched from Leg Iron / Old Holburn, who in turn half-inched it from Guido)

What Does This Say About Britain Today ?

You might think that a night-time curfew is a sign that a country is either suffering from some kind of emergency, or that it's an authoritarian dictatorship. And you'd be right. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion about which of those Britain is, but for the first time that I can remember we're getting a curfew here.

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary are introducing a scheme in Redruth whereby any child aged under ten has to be indoors by 8pm. Anyone under 15 has to be home by 9pm.

I'm assuming - though no story I've seen actually confirms it - that children who are out with their parents will be exempt; otherwise you couldn't even take your kids for a meal out. The Constabulary's Policy & Procedure Guideline states darkly that "Under a Local Child Curfew Notice, all children under 16 years of age must be in their homes by a certain time in the evening" and "Children who are aged 10 years and under and found outside their homes after the curfew can be the subject of a Child Safety Order....which places an individual child under the supervision of a responsible officer (a social worker or a member of the Youth Offending Team)". God Almighty.

Quite apart from the practicalities of this (children who look younger than they are, children who won't say how old they are, children whose parents won't give a monkey's anyway) there are some truly horrible implications of this.

As a child, I was regularly out after 9pm, perhaps coming home from a football match. My kids - currently 11 - are too young in my view to be out at that time, but in four years' time they won't be. Moreover I'll want them to exercise their independence and freedom in this way because it's important training for adult life. And if I want to send them up to the local shop at ten past nine for a bottle of milk, who the hell are the Police to stop them ?

The sad fact is that this measure (which will spread to towns and cities well beyond Redruth, mark my words) is a damning indictment of the Criminal Justice System's complete failure to deal with persistent offenders. Because of that, we all have to suffer. It absolutely reeks of failure and authoritarianism.

And how long do you give it before it's extended to adults ?

Makes Perfect Sense To Me...

At a time when there's a lot of bad news around and lots to worry about, such as the state of the economy, fuel prices, murder and mayhem in Zimbabwe etc., isn't it great to see a common-sense, consumer protection, everyone's-a-winner-except-the-capitalist-bastard news story like this one ?

Isn't a relief that there are wonderful bodies around like the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) who have the time and money available to check everyone's kiwi fuits ? Clearly Bristol is crawling with vulnerable members of society who cannot be trusted to make their own decisions about what groceries to buy, and that's why we have organisations like the RPA, backed up by the legislative might of the EU.

As I was saying to Mrs Womble On Tour only this morning, it's absolutely right and perfectly obvious that kiwi fruits have to weigh at least 62 grammes. I lie awake at night, in common I'm sure with every other do-gooder in the country, at the prospect that someone, somewhere might have been duped into buying a kiwi fruit weighing only 58 grammes. Where would we be if that ever happened ?

And where would we be without the RPA ?

There's No Smoke With Fascists

It's so obvious that this kind of thing is going to happen that when I saw the story in our local paper last night I nearly decided not to write about it . But then I thought it was so indicative of the way in which personal freedom in this country is beoming ever rarer that actually it deserves as much attention as possible.

Just imagine. You're 89. You're in a care home. You haven't many comforts left in life. One of the few is lighting up an occasional cigarette. Anyone who's spent any length of time in those terrible places knows how important it is to have the odd remaining pleasure - a short and sweet escape, something to look forward to.

There is debate within this story about who's exactly to blame. The management of the care home claim to be complying with legislation that comes into effect on 1st July, and appear to say that they are following advice from Kirklees Council (God, I hate those people). On the other hand, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (whoever they are) appear adamant that smoking is NOT banned in the bedrooms within care homes. But for me, just who the villains are in this particular instance isn't really relevant.

The bottom line is this. A few years ago no one would have dreamt of denying an elderly person living the right to smoke a few cigarettes in what is, to all intents and purposes, her own home. Now it hardly merits a mention. It bears testament to the systematic dismantling of personal freedom that has been taking place for many years, and is symptomatic of a country where the ruling few care not a jot for the rights and feelings of the many. It it mean, callous and fundamentally wrong.

There's Always A Copper Around When You Don't Want One...

Even when you try to top yourself, the State gets in your way.

The BBC reports that in response to a call about a man who was threatning to commit suicide, a PC dived into the Thames yesterday to save a man who'd jumped in; with the help of a buoyancy aid dropped from a police helicopter, if you please.

Why ?

Why does a galant police office have to risk his own life ? Why can't a guy who wants to end his life just be left to it ? Any why do we have to fork out taxpayers' money for an outcome that he doesn't want ?