PUT THEM AWAY...

Interested to read that four MPs and peers involved in the expenses scandal could face jail sentences of up to ten years after the police asked prosecutors to consider charges for fraud or false accounting.

The Crown Prosecution Service must now decide whether to go ahead with the prosecutions after a five-month investigation by Scotland Yard’s Economic and Specialist Crime Unit. The four have not been named by Scotland Yard. Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, is expected to decide whether to prosecute the politicians within a month.

I hope they do proceed and gain convictions and that the guilty are then treated for what they are, common criminals. The concern is that we are only talking a small number of what has been a vastly larger group of politicians who systematically raided the public purse to advance their own financial advantage. Setting higher standards is the essential requirement going forward - we need Parliament to be disinfected and ensuring the removal of troughers and thieves is a step forward.

A SWAP TOO FAR..

I sincerely hope that reports that Israel and the Palestinians are close to reaching agreement on a prisoner swap that could mean freedom for an Israeli soldier held for more than three years in exchange for the release of nearly a thousand Palestinian terrorists, are wrong.

Gilad Schalit, the young Israeli corporal captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid in June 2006, could be freed as early as Friday, when Palestinians observe Eid al-Adha — a traditional period for amnesties. Among those expected to be released by Israel is Marwan Barghouti, a leading candidate to succeed the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who has threatened to step down over a lack of progress in the peace process. Barghouti, the leader of the Fatah young guard, is serving multiple life sentences for murder and attacks on Israelis during the last intifada.

I fully understand why Israel would like this young man freed but it is wrong to appease the Palestinian terrorism. In particular, to release the mass murderer Barghouti - a LEADING candidate to replace Abbas please note  - is morally reprehensible. If Israel does this, it will ensure future kidnaps.

THE BEST EDUCATED GENERATION EVER?

Each year we hear from government and educationalists how brighter and brighter school-leavers are getting, scoring higher grades than ever, setting new records of academic achievement. On the back of this the political class pat themselves on the back, teachers get paid more, and there is a general feel good factor. Just one problem with this - it is at odds with reality!

Millions of school and college leavers are 'not fit for work', the boss of Marks & Spencer warned yesterday. Chairman Sir Stuart Rose said too many didn't even have a basic grasp of the three Rs.

His company is one of the country's biggest employers, with a 65,000-strong regular workforce as well as 20,000 Christmas temps. It comes weeks after Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy called the education system 'woeful' and said employers were too often 'left to pick up the pieces.' In an outspoken attack in London yesterday, Sir Stuart, 60, said: 'They cannot do reading. They cannot do arithmetic. They cannot do writing.'

I think this is a common view held amongst many employers, large and small. It is shocking to see so many allegedly educated students who are, in fact, unable to master basic mathematics, and who struggle to comprehend the written word.

Sir Stuart is pointing out a major problem in our society but he will be ignored by the radical egalitarians who have caused so much damage to Education. A return to rigorously applied high standards on the basics is what is needed. We also need to see academic based selection and a focus on the essential elements of the core curriculum. Less sex education classes and more basic maths should assist in this regard.

ON THE RUN, JUSTICE ON TRIAL...

I see that Jane Andrews, the former aide to Sarah, Duchess of York who was jailed for life for murdering her boyfriend, is on the run after absconding from East Sutton Park open prison in Maidstone, Kent.

Get this.  

She was jailed for life in 2001 for murdering Tom Cressman, 39, in Fulham, west London, by stabbing him and battering him with a cricket bat after he refused to marry her.

Last year, just seven years after her conviction for these vicious murder of Mr Gressman, she was sent to an Open Prison from which she has now escaped.  What sort of JUSTICE have we when convicted killers are treated so gently? This woman took a life and now she is on the run having spent eight years in jail as her "life sentence." Our system of justice  is profoundly flawed and yet I wonder what, if any, lessons will be taken from this total failure? How many more killers are in Open Prisons? What indeed is the point of an Open Prison?

RECYCLING FOR CASH...

So, who thinks that Conservative plans to pay people to recycle their household rubbish is a good idea?

"People will accumulate points for the household waste they recycle and be able to use the points to claim up to £130 a year in vouchers from major retailers like Marks & Spencer and Tesco. It is estimated that the financial incentives could help raise household recycling rates nationally by at least 30 per cent a year. A rise in recycling would in turn mean less rubbish simply being dumped in landfill sites. Councils are currently taxed by the Government for every tonne of waste they send to landfill."

I don't like this idea for three reasons.

1. I think that there is nothing wrong with properly managed landfill. It takes up a tiny percentage of our landmass and can be seen as the most efficient if done right. 

2. It ignores the fact that the REASON Councils are taxed for every tonne of waste sent to landfill is because of the EU. Were we not in the EU we would not be taxed at all. 

3. I don't like Nanny State interfering with the private citizen, be it through reward as in this case, or punishment in the Labour model.

Can I ask who reading this willingly recycles and feels that in doing so they are making a positive impact on the environment? When we read about how our recycled waste ends up in landfill in poorer nations it makes we wonder why we bother. Is it OK to pollute other nations but not our own?  

A NEW ALLIANCE?

THE chairman of the UK Independence Party has said the party will consider an alliance with Jim Allister's TUV in future elections.

Paul Nuttall, UKIP MEP for the North West of England, was speaking to the News Letter yesterday after a low-key exploratory visit to the Province. UKIP has only one politician in Northern Ireland at present — Kilkeel councillor Henry Reilly, who defected from the UUP. Mr Nuttall described TUV leader Jim Allister as “a good guy” who worked closely with UKIP in Europe when an MEP. “The reason we didn’t stand here in the last European election was to give Jim a free run,” he said, adding that UKIP “will explore” the possibility of an alliance with him in the future.

I have a lot of time for the UKIP and the fact that they see the TUV as natural allies here in NI is interesting. The good guys should end up in the right alliance.

GORDON'S GOLDEN HERITAGE...

I note that Gold has a high of 1173 dollars an ounce today.

Readers may remember that back in May 1999, Gordon Brown took the decision to sell off half of the UK's gold assets at an average price of 276 dollars an ounce.

King Midas in reverse.

WHIPPED PONTIFF?

I read that Pope John Paul 11, who died five years ago, who is being considered for sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church, whipped himself. 

As part of the Vatican's investigation thousands of documents have been collected and examined by officials from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. 

Among them is the testimony of Tobiana Sobodka, a Polish nun of the Sacred Heart of Jesus order, who worked for Pope John Paul in his private Vatican apartments and at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

Sister Sobodka said: "Several times he (Pope John Paul) would put himself through bodily penance. "We would hear it – we were in the next room at Castel Gandolfo. You could hear the sound of the blows when he flagellate himself. He did it when he was still capable of moving on his own." The flagellation is also confirmed by another bishop who has given testimony. Emery Kabongo was a secretary for Pope John Paul. "He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests," he said.

Given the behaviour of some of those bishops and priests he might have done better to whip them!!! 

AGED BUT UNBOWED

A smiling Baroness Thatcher today looked at her portrait that is to be put on display in Downing Street and declared: "I like it."

The former prime minister returned to Number 10 for a reception to mark the unveiling hosted by Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah and attended by a throng of old friends and working colleagues from her 11 years in charge. David Cameron was also there but - anxious to avoid premature photographs of himself entering the building he hopes to occupy some time next year - went in through the Cabinet Office entrance in Whitehall. The portrait was intended to capture Lady Thatcher at the height of her powers in the mid-80s, a few years after the Falklands and between her two landslide election victories.

Lady Thatcher is a political giant - age has taken a toll (She's coming 85 years young) but she towers above the dwarfs that have followed her and shame on those traitors that stabbed her in the back all those years ago. It was an awful moment in the history of the Conservative Party and they utterly deserved all those years in the wilderness that followed. She was imperfect, we all are, but she put the Great back into Britain and we owe her a huge debt! 

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: US DEBT TO CHINA

OBAMSES will be displeased at what is a quite wonderfully insulting skit against both him and government. Clearly, someone at SNL has been tuning in to Peter Schiff.

Obama, Celebrity in Chief

 Is President Obama shallow?  

Business Opportunities Are Like Buses

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”  Richard Branson, entrepreneur

I don’t know about you, but for me, this phrase brings to mind pink satin pointe shoes.  :)

Did you know that ballet pointe shoes are an approximate $30 million dollar business?   One pair costs around 70 dollars and wears out after only one performance.

The classic design of the pink satin slipper dates back 100 years and, in addition to satin, they are traditionally made from flour, water, starch and glue. Traditional pointe shoes offer some support but little comfort, and in the world of classical ballet, pain and pointe shoes go together like milk and tea.

Dancer, Elisa Minden broke with tradition a few years ago and designed a pointe shoe made of high-tech foam instead of cardboard, a pointe shoe both long- lasting and comfortable. 

Minden’s company Gaynor Minden also innovated the marketing of the pointe shoe by facilitating on-line fittings. A dancer can order over the internet a custom fit pointe shoe that will last “forever.”

Elisa Minden proves Branson’s point, carving out not only a slice of the existing pointe shoe market for herself, but expanding the existing market with comfortable, custom-fit, long-lasting pointe shoes, easily available and affordable  for the serious amateur, as well as the professional. 

FIVE GEARS IN REVERSE

What to make of the news that the Ministry of Defence has spent £149 million on an "urgent" upgrade to 900 tanks that can now only be used in training exercises. 

The tanks were upgraded for use in Iraq but are unsuitable for deployment in Afghanistan where Mastiff and Ridgback vehicles are better suited to cope with the terrain and threat.

Did NOBODY in the MOD think ahead? Am I right in thinking that MOD staff recently received bonus payments? I hope no one involved in this fiasco got so much as a penny.  

IN THE 40'S...

Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius.

But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening.

And President Obama's are sliding.

Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40s.

TO BE (THE AUTHOR) OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Well  what do you know?

A German academic claims to have uncovered the most conclusive evidence to date that the works of William Shakespeare were in fact written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

ATW readers will know that I have long advocated the case for De Vere and am certain he was the man who composed all those works we have come to love so well.

Kurt Kreiler’s 595-page book, The Man Who Invented Shakespeare, has been published in Germany to some critical acclaim and an English translation is planned for next year. Over 22 chapters, Mr Kreiler, an established Shakespeare scholar, builds a mountain of circumstantial evidence in support of the idea that the world has been honouring the wrong man for centuries. He claims de Vere's known works and letters show a strong Shakespearean style and also points to the earl's nickname at court, 'Spear-shaker'. Mr Kreiler says the earl graduated from Cambridge aged just 14; mastered law and Italian; and would have had a wide-ranging knowledge of the upper classes – in contrast to the lowly-born William Shakespeare. All this, he concludes, means de Vere was well placed to write works such as The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. Mr Kreiler also believes Hamlet was almost an autobiographical play about the Earl’s life. De Vere’s father-in-law, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, is said to be have been parodied as the character Polonius. “It is interesting to note that his nickname at court was Spear-shaker, due to his ability both at tournaments and because his coat of arms featured a lion brandishing spear,” he said.

I have just finished reading another excellent work on the Authorship issue, Diane Price's "Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography". Ms Price erudite work points out the legion of contradictions that lie behind the known details of the writer's life  and his works and whilst she does not claim De Vere as the author she simply exposes the massive inconsistencies that the Stratfordians brush aside in their determination to maintain the myth of the Stratford man as the writer of the most important works ever published in the English language.

THE RAREST OF THE SPECIES...

I just love books and I am always fascinated by stories like this!

A first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, which was kept on a toilet bookshelf, is to be sold. It is hoped the book, which was bought about 40 years ago in a West Country shop for a few shillings, will reach £60,000 in Tuesday's auction. The book was kept on a bookcase in a guest lavatory at the owner's family home in Oxfordshire. Just 1,250 copies of the work were produced in 1859. In April one sold at auction in Norfolk for £35,000.

Isn't that just amazing? When I was over in the US last month, I visited a rather upmarket store which specialised in first editions/and or books of a very rare and precious value. The prices sought were astronomical so I did not purchase any of the offerings even though they included a signed first edition of Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and a letter signed by Abe Lincoln! I got a kick out of seeing so many special and unique books on offer and the fact that this Darwinian offering could be sitting around in a lavatory for all those years tickles me pink!

OBAMA'S MAGIC WORKING OUT WELL...

Following on from Obama's wildly successful visit to China and his regime's much more nuanced approach to dealing with North Korea, it looks like things are working out really well!

Chinese and North Korean defence chiefs have pledged to strengthen their long-standing military alliance. The Chinese Defence Minister, Liang Guanglie, is visiting North Korea two weeks before the US North Korea envoy, Stephen Bosworth, is due to visit.

So, the tyrants from Beijing seek to support the lunatic in Pyongyang. Good result for Obama?

Send in Team America - oh yeah!

US MILITARY ARE FROM MARS, UK MILITARY ARE FROM VENUS

I thought it was interesting to read that the British chief of staff in Iraq, Colonel J.K.Tanner, described his US military counterparts as “a group of Martians” for whom “dialogue is alien,” saying: “Despite our so-called ‘special relationship,’ I reckon we were treated no differently to the Portuguese."

Leaked documents go to paint a vivid picture of the clash between what UK General Stewart described as “war-war” American commanders and their British counterparts, who he said preferred a “jaw-jaw” approach.

And THAT my friends is precisely what is wrong with the British strategy. It seems to believe that it can talk itself to victory when in fact the US fighting approach is the superior one. You win wars by killing your enemies and denying them ALL prospect of hope. In that regard the US attitude is to be commended. The UK approach, conditioned by years fighting here in Northern Ireland, is that winning hearts and minds is the sophisticated and modern way forward. I don't think it is but I do feel that the hostility evident in the UK attitude towards US commanders is disturbing and certainly not one that I sympathise with!

WE'RE JAMMING...

Now here is a very good idea in my opinion..

Technology should be used to jam mobile phone signals in prisons, an inspector at Britain's largest jail has said.

David Jamieson, chairman of Wandsworth prison's Independent Monitoring Board, says illegal phones fuel prison drug trading, bullying and gang problems. Behind bars, phones can cost £400 each. He said the trade had been worth £9m in 2008, when 7,000 phones were seized.

The Prison Service says signal blocking is technically challenging and not quick, simple or cheap to implement.

Listen, it may very well be all those things but we should still do it! Mobile communications between those convicted inside prison and those on the outside is a menace and ensuring that mobiles are jammed is an eminently sensible idea. If we can do it we should do it.

HISTORY REPEATS AND REPEATS

Back in 1969, the Provisional IRA came into being, seeking to forge a more vicious bombing and shooting strategy than the Official IRA. Feigning as "defenders" of the Roman Catholic community, it went on to murder thousands and maim tens of thousands. In 2009, forty years on, it is now being openly stated that...

There is growing evidence that republican terrorists who broke away from the Provisional IRA over the peace process are rapidly gaining the skills and support to mount a sustained campaign of violence similar to that which sustained Sinn Féin’s military wing for decades.

This follows in the wake of the attempted massive car bombing by these "dissidents" of the Policing Board in Belfast. I was amused to read convicted Old Bailey bomber Gerry Kelly whinge that such attempted bombings did not advance the republican agenda. Oh really? And what, pray, got the craven British Government to engage with the IRA of which  Kelly was such a proud member? That's right - bombings and shootings! The message of the lousy peace process is that VIOLENCE pays so why act surprised when you get more violence?

At a time when the terror threat is sky high - the perverse line being peddled is that we MUST devolve Policing and Justice powers to Stormont (NB. A key IRA demand) and that we must ensure policing resources are reduced.(A key IRA demand) In this land of the blind the one eyed man is king....