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My letter in today's Times says it all. However Gordon will only go if he is forced out so nothing will happen until after the Euro/Council elections if anyone has the guts to stand against him. Hoping like MicCawber for "something to turn up".
Unfortunately after the 2010 General Election something will and you will have to live with another 18 years of Tories who to date have no answer for anything- but that is Democracy for you.

JUST A THOUGHT CRIME

"The Government has named and shamed 22 individuals who have been banned from entering the UK for "fostering extremism or hatred". Where does this leave freedom of speech? We hope to talk to one of those on the banned list."

Does this mean that pointing out differneces between groups, some of which are demonstably up to no good at the expense of others might itself be deemed "fostering extremism or hatred"?

Can any of us now be banged up and deported for singling out venal, predatory, 'financial service' providers once they've said 'sorry', or groups of anarchistic politicians whose collective work runs down the population, inflating grades/reducing standards, in order to hide dysgenic fertility, i.e. the breeding of cash-cows to fund the aforementioned apologetic 'service providers'? ;-)

I must admit that I prefer reading stuff off the internet on my wide screen, but the traditional paper printed book could be on edge of a new dawn, with the introduction of the instant printed book machine. This new machine opens up the potential number of authors, I recently got my book " Corporate Nazi ? " published in a format suitable for said new machines. Its even available on Amazon now, the only snag being that it is perhaps pricey, considering that its only in paperback. That is not to say that the development costs ( just over half what I expected )were excessive, but its surprising just how big a cut Amazon take on each copy, although admittedly much of the cost is free post and packaging.

Many older people ( at least the type who buy books ) don't have direct access to a computer and have no intention of becoming computer literate. People join local Book Clubs, people like actual books, even when you have read them you can use them to prop something up, and people donate them to charities, especially community fund raising events like Jumble Sales.

Billbradbury (#1) Can we apply to be an overseas province of the PRC?

E books are a waste of time & money in my opinion. You don't need electricity to read a book as well I remember the last time we had a power cut I just lit a candle & went to bed with my book, can you imagine the frustration if your battery dies half way through an e book, or the memory failed. Ok I'm biased - I have over 1000 books in my living room

E books are a waste of time & money in my opinion. You don't need electricity to read a book as well I remember the last time we had a power cut I just lit a candle & went to bed with my book, can you imagine the frustration if your battery dies half way through an e book, or the memory failed. Ok I'm biased - I have over 1000 books in my living room. Another point is that some people can't read a lot of text on screens as it can trigger some forms of epileptic seizures - are they now to be discriminated against just so that "technology can advance?"

"Coming to this country is a privilege. We won't allow people into this country who are going to propagate the sort of views... that fundamentally go against our values." - Home Secretary.

You could have fooled me.

10 years of 'we welcomes diversity' (aka multi-cultural policy) set out to import cultures and values that have proven to be fundamentally against our society's long-held values. We seem to have been over-liberal with the award of privilege to millions.

Electronic books:
A more desirable advance (and more comparable with what the MP3 did for music)would be a digital method of converting print to speech, so that any printed work could become audio. My elderly eyesight finds it hard to read book print or electronic print, so I have turned to audio books from the local library. The technique should be developed to enable any text to be scanned into speech.

indignantindegene (#17) I think what they mean by our values is their values, i.e. the values of the people who pull their anarchistic strings, e.g. where gullible people are duped into readily taking out maasive loans which they can't really afford, and where they're easily induced to buy a load of commercial twaddle and spin.

Anyone else is a terrorist and so persona non grata! ;-)

PS. Did you note some sensible looking middle-aged people getting a bit outraged near where Gordon Brown was giving his 'we will turn sows' ears into silk purses' speech today?

Is Brown taking over education policy in England because Balls has lost the respect of the professionals over the SATS fiasco? Curious too that
a Scottish MP is telling England what to do on educational "devolution"
when of course whatever he says will not apply in his own constituency
because education in Kirkcaldy is devolved to The Scottish Parliament?!

neilrobertson (#10) 'fiasco' is the word. SATs and the National Curriculum are what hold our national, i.e public, education system together. Like everything else which is national/statist, it's being sabotaged by these anarchists in the name of 'devolution' to parents or 'workers democracy', when in fact it just serves to put more public pennies into the private sector's pockets.

JJ #9

Have you ever stroked a sows ear ?

Oh dear. I have been away for a fortnight and you have changed everything in my absence. Sic transit something or other.

Love the new layout!
Excellent Newsnight tonight - particularly Jeremy's interview on the failings of the out of hours service currently in operation and Richard Watson's report.
Very interesting report by David, and loved Katty Kay's report on the death of the book/newspaper. I only read newspapers online - not only is it environmentally friendly, it is also up to date. Books - only if I have to or if it's a really special book. Otherwise I prefer to have everything online. :p

Neil/Jaded Dean 9/10
as I have retired after 40 years teaching and a union officer, as well as a Governor of two schools and currently back working in a primary school, you might think I know just a little of what is going on in schools.
What Brown has proposed today is a nonsense. Local Authorities (they dropped the word "education" years ago!) monitor schools with problems well before Ofsted put their great muddy boots all over them and fling them into the "Notice of Improvement" catagory or even "special Measures". The school I am working in has to improve its writing to try to gain more level 4's and it is in an extremely deprived area where children do not come to school "fully loaded" with language which the pupils of a local Primary school where I am a Governor do. So we are having to work extremely hard to give them that language before they can even attempt even level 3 or 4 and hoepfully a level 5.

So which is the "failing school" certainly not where I am working where teachers are trying their best for their pupils. So Brown's answer?-- to put the parents on our backs as well as every other "expert" as "everyyone has been to school" and knows what it is all about. Ed Balls last week stated the bleeding obvious that teachers need to teach language and speech. What does he think we have been doing?

This Governmnet does not trust teachers to get on with the job.
As for Sats schools spend and inordinate ammount of time coaching and running through test papers in order to be seen as a "good" school often at the expense of other subjects.

It is about time MP's and Balls/Brown spent a few weeks at a time in a school to see what is really going on rather than the prepared PR visits they undertake. I noticed Brown in a school yesterday as well as Cameron.

I am off now to continue the "coaching" as Sats are coming up in a few week's time which is exactly what we need to show pupils where they are failing and by implication teachers. Just what disadvantaged children need to boost their esteem??!!

brossen99 (#12) "Have you ever stroked a sows ear ?"

One probably risks getting put on some Home Office list for even thinking about that!

Therefore, I dare not ask you what happens.

SCHOOLING IS NOT EDUCATION

Anymore than money is value!

The blind no longer bother leading the blind - everything leads anywhere.
ALL aspects of 'life' (you call that living?) are now mangled beyond repair by the irrepressible, male, urge to tinker; while the Feminine Principle has been dismantled, such that the brakes are irreversibly off.

The comedy act of 'Three Words Balls' declaiming on importance of language-skills, is the only cause to smile in all this.

The Ape Confused by Language has clevered himself into a chaotic state of 'Wonderland' aspect. Escape will only lead to further entrapment. Not looking good.

TODAYS BELLYLAAV PRIZE (#16)

Pure poetry JJ! Left me helpless. And SOOOOOO true! (I lay awake all night wondering . . .)

PS Has anyone seen the Blogdog?

RicardianLesley #13

Back turned for only a week and as you say, " Sic transit something or other". Or tits-up as some might have it. Need to have a word with Cookie Dog to see why I am having to sign in manually now. Maybe I could set Cookie Dog on Blog Dog.

JJ #16

On the stroking of sows' ears I can affirm that they (usually) enjoy it and will want more. Just don't stroke in the wrong direction, those bristles are sharp!

How come I get classified as a "new user" when I post? According to records I started posting here on 23 07 08 (the last 'update' when I had to have a new name). A bit like living in this village, 20 years before I was counted as 'local'.

I do hope the report on the Haw Haws of the BNP exposes the full truth of the far right and their cult belief in Hitler.

How many of these Holocaust agnostics are on their way to defend Djemjanjuk? How many trials have ever been defended by people saying there was no Holocaust?

As for SATS do the far right (and those pretending not to be the far right) have any idea?

Children exposed to far right ideologues don't tend to do well. Baby P or the other raped child by the Hitler loving batterer. That wannabe nail bomber who was convicted as a paedophile last year was not an inspiration. The Twickenham Green murderer may have killed that teenager Millie (not sure if that was ever proven).

They have a bouncey castle at the BNP conference-in-a-field .....

Its clear from the publics reaction to the Ghurkas that they are not frightened of the far right racists and are comfortable with taking the right decisions for a multi-cultural society.

People are concerned over border controls and immigration controls. That does not equate to them wanting to give up on democracy and accept the policies of Hitler.

The vote for the BNP has always been very soft and its members tend to go off on ideological tangents - perhaps thats how the membership lists hit the public - and feuds (didn't the BNP seize computers off a suspected MI5 mole).

Speaking of which if Griffin does not deliver in June I wonder how they will get rid of him. The democratic way by a vote? Surely not.

Perhaps somebody will leave an IED in a brief case by the bouncey castle when its Griffins turn at the conference - it nearly worked on Hitler.

#4 Jaded_Jean

"Billbradbury (#1) Can we apply to be an overseas province of the PRC?"

I think the UK would reject the idea.

But I would not be surprised that the PRC would want "bright" people - just leave before others take up on the idea. Soon.

thegangofone (#23) "Perhaps somebody will leave an IED in a brief case by the bouncey castle when its Griffins turn at the conference - it nearly worked on Hitler."

That seems a bit rash (and may even get you put on some list). Anyway, isn't it the case that the conspirators were really more than a little hacked off that Hitler wasn't winning the war for them the way they wanted? Were they not a bit keen to put someone else in place who might have completed the plan (as they saw it) more efffectively? What is true and what is spin? One of the conspirators, was instrumental in the original 1939 pact with the USSR, when both parties joked about the USSR joining the anti-Comintern pact... Food for thought?

Just remember, every time you and others knock strong government, you help chip away at our state education, health, welfare, etc system, and increase the likelihood of putting public money into the pockets of Private Equity Funds which are just interested in asset-stripping before moving on to take apart another nation-state elsewhere in their international market.

Well looking at the site of the radio talk show host who was banned, Michael Savage he has 4 items up there about global warming scepticism, which is the most on any subject apart from the fact that he is being banned from Britain.

Can't say I agree that advocating mass murder & saying that the sea doesn't appear to have risen 20 feet are exactly the same. Note also that James Hansen was allowed to come here to testify in court that the criminals who attacked Kingsnorth power station should be allowed to do attack anything they like.

The government named the people they were banning (well some of them since Geert Wilders wasn't mentioned) & it is the government who should be ashamed.