Many times in the past I have excoriated and belittled our Judiciary, both singularly and as a group. Most of those times I have either totally disagreed with the sentence handed down to the guilty, or with the comments uttered during those sentences.

However, the verdict of the High Court Judge in upholding the right of the British Olympic Association to ban all 'druggies' who have been found out warms the very sinews of my withered, tired old heart. One Dwayne Chambers, who previously served a two-year ban for the use of THG, a banned chemical steroid, had challenged the B.H.A. bye-law which removes anyone who had been caught using drugs from ever competing in the British Olympic squad. Fortunately, the Judge was made of sterner stuff than some of his more-liberal colleagues, and Chambers' attempt to gain an injunction was denied! All well and good, one might think, 'good' has prevailed, and the cheat is turned away fronm his dreams of further glory. But when I was reading up on some of the antics and substances used by these so-called athletes to help boost their performances, I feel a thorough overhaul is needed of the present drug-testing regimes in force at present in Britain.

The same person who attempted to gain access to his country's colours was further identified by the coach who supplied him with some if not all of the following substances:

THG - A previously undetectable designer steroid nicknamed 'the clear’. Used in off-season to accelerate healing and tissue repair.

Testosterone/epitestosterone - Again used during off-season. Rubbed into the skin, the substance was used to offset suppression of the naturally produced testosterone caused by the use of THG.

EPO (Erythropoietin) - A drug used predominantly by endurance athletes, it was injected once a week in the off-season to increase red blood cell count and oxygen carrying ability.

HGH (Human Growth Hormone) - Injected three times a week by Chambers to aid muscle growth in off season.

Insulin - Although primarily associated with the treatement of diabetes, Chambers used the substance after heavy weight session to speed up the transportation of sugar.

Modafinil - Chambers would take a 200mg tablet to boost alertness and overcome fatigue.

Liothryonine - produced naturally by the body’s thyroid gland, it was used to increase Chambers’ basic metabolic rate before races. 

The solicitor representing Chambers, when he was charged with THG misuse, stated that "Dwain has been given the minimal ban available in the circumstances and he continues to assert his innocence,", so one can see how brazen this clown actually was. But the coach goes on to reveal the science behind the drug-use and mis-use, with clear advice to the authorities that they should alter their testing strategy to extend it into the 'off-season' when most drug taking takes place.

When the farce which will be the Beijing Olympics opens, and all the world's sports-mad fools tune in on their televisions, some commentators are openly stating that the Games will resemble those held during the sway of one Walter Ulbricht and his leadership of East Germany, whose mad charge towards the glory of 'winning' blighted the lives of so many East German athletes as they were force-fed everything from steroids to amphetamines!

One World, One Dream? More like a bloody Nightmare!

A Moral Question

Click to read more ...

As some may have noticed, posts from yours truly have been extremely thin on the ground as of late. Multiple reasons, partly personal and family, partly work; but I break my silence to announce that I am fast losing my faith in human nature.

 My reasons are quite simple, in that the shower who live on the neighbouring 'sink' estate are not acting in their usual predatory manner, and this I just cannot understand. I bought a new lawnmower last week, and decided that, as I really couldn't spend the time to take the old one to the dump, I would leave it outside my house from where anything with any value would, and usually does, dissapear faster that Barack Obama's policy statements are produced.

 But as of tonight, this is the fourth day that my grass-cutter still stands forlorn and unloved!

 Just have to take it to the dump myself! Terrible times, when the scum don't react as you expect!

One of the more visible productions of the Nazi era was the creation of the cosmetic concentration camp known as Theresienstadt. Whilst in headlong pursuit of the infamous 'Final Solution', the Nazi death machine became aware that their activities in the deportation of Danish Jews to Theresienstadt had given wide publicity to this camp which was virtually unknown before the deportations. The Swedish Red Cross was planning an inspection trip to this camp, which was billed and indeed advertised aa a 'Spa Town' where elderly German Jews could 'retire' and live out their declining years. So, in a massive cosmetic exercise, the Germans arranged that gardens were planted, houses painted, and barracks renovated. The Nazis staged social and cultural events for the visiting dignitaries. An orchestra was assembled from the 'inmates' and ordered to rehearse intensively so that they might serenade their distinguished visitors, while children were marshalled and ordered to 'enjoy' themselves on the freshly-built playgrounds which were carefully inserted into the path which was planned for the visitors.

Needless to say, immediately the Red Cross left, the good times also dissappeared, the camp leaders were issued with fresh demands for them to choose who would be sent to other 'holiday camps' such as Sobibor, Treblinka and the infamous Auschwitz labour/ death camp conurbation.

 I write of these things because I heard the report on the BBC of the reporter's visit, along with  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to a Burmese Refugee Camp, where all the tents were both blue and new, where the children sang and everyone was very happy, under the eagle eyes of the accompanying Burmese Army.

Listened on Friday morning to an interview on the Today programme on a subject close to my ideals, which concern freedom of expression! The people interviewed were the editor of the Ham & High (standing of course for Hampstead & Highgate, two swish suburbs of London); and opposing him was a member of a Jewish pressure group. The subject of the discussion was whether the Ham & High was right to accept and publish adverts for the BNP candidate for the Mayoralty of London.

The pressure group female trotted out all the usual suspects in the form of accusations that the BNP was fascist in belief and actions, that it was an abhorrent organisation, and the very name sullied the pages of this publication, normally very liberal in it's editorial policy.

The editor started off and responded to this avalanche of accusations by stating that his newspaper was first and foremost a business, and part of it's income came from selling advertising space in it's columns. The proposed adverts were scrutinised for offensive content, as well as for factual inaccuracy, and when nothing came to light they decided to publish!

The interviewer asked the Jewish lady for her reply, and we heard more of the same, with the BNP accused of lying, of giving one face to the public while the darker side flourished in it's own prejudices, but once again no accusations worthy of comment.

The Editor of the newspaper then gave one of the best, most honest and open comments it has ever been my privilege to hear broadcast. He said that while the BNP was certainly not his ideal of a political party, they were a legal organisation, and while the newspaper might disagree with their views, they have to publish voices from all sides!

 There was silence from the opposing microphone!

As I have visited Zimbabwe twice, both times mainly on business from my home in South Africa, I am as qualified to comment upon the disaster which Black rule has become as any other. Disaster as a description is only an air-brush of the reality which is everyday life in the country which once, quite rightly, was termed the 'Breadbasket' of Southern Africa. Most observers have touched upon the means by which Mugabe and his gangster friends in the ruling Zanu-PF Party have clung to power, destroyed a once booming economy, and managed to drive the only people who knew anything about farming out of the country. The end results of their scheming is now apparent in the headlines which warn that the President is days away from ending the last fictions of democratic government, and through a rigged 'second vote' declare himself the winner once again.

What I am attempting to do is to discuss how it is always Africa, and the poor, benighted nations of that sorry Continent, where these sorts of plots and headlines emerge. If we look away to, say, India, we see an entirely different result. From a Sub-continent which once was described as the 'Jewel of the Empire' to a nation which, it is true, has a population of many millions who still live in direst poverty; but also whose very Governance changes hands from one political Party to another in a peaceful tradition. Both Parties have diametrically opposed viewpoints on virtually everything, and as we are only too well aware, politicians like to remain in the positions of power which they are given via the ballot box but; and it is a huge 'But', when the Indian voters speak, their wishes are respected above all, and the reins of power are handed obver to the successors of a democratic election. There are many things in India which need change, and the politicians are as loathe to fund the needs of their oppositions' supporters as any other Party organisation worldwide, but the basic rule of democracy is scrupulously observed.

So why is it always Africa, and the Black man within? Why is it that the Congo, a country rich beyond belief in all sorts of minerals, is dysfunctional almost to the point of collapse? Why is it that Nigeria, whose oil wealth exceeds the Congo's, has been run by a collection of crooks, thugs and criminals almost from day One? Why do the Interahamwe still pillage on the borders of Rwanda? Why do the headlines of ballot-rigging and corruption blaze from the newspapers and screens of Kenya?

 Are they incompetent? Are they always corrupt? Should the ex-colonial powers such as France, Belgium and Great Britain accept blame for what is happening some forty-odd years after the flags were unrolled at the multifarious 'Independence' ceremnies? Should we stand by and condemn Africa and the Black rulers of that Continent to 'wither on the vine', while releasing such stinging phrases as "But the international community's patience with the regime is wearing thin".   

I would invite those commenters who always seem to rush to imply that I long for the 'old days' to state that I am wrong in my conclusions and thinking, that Africa isn't on the edge of an abyss, and that the headlines are all wrong, and the Zimbabwe voters are only too keen to see Mugabe returned to power? As ever, all workings and calculations shall be shown, and arguments shall be impersonal but robust!

As I enter into the fullness and pleasure of being a Grandpa twice over, with the news of my first grandchild's imminent release from hospital as he is doing so well; and with the second giving his own superb imitation of a tiny Superman in my arms as he slept the sleep of the innocent just yesterday, I pondered on the truth that all life is but a lottery!

So I did not so much wonder, as shake my head in incomprehension at the strange news that Karen Mathews, the mother of  Shannon, who had disappeared for twenty odd days before being found, allegedly abducted by her father's uncle, has herself been arrested on suspicion of Perverting the course of Justice. This of course after the father of young Shannon had been arrested and charged with downloading Child Porn on the family computer. Karen, the mother of another five (or six) children by four other fathers (I think, as I tend to lose count in these tangled times), the author of the tragic call to the police some hours after her daughter's dissapearance, is no polished media-savvy mother, but instead a product of our fractured society.

Two other women, 49-year-old Alice Meehan, the mother of Shannon's stepfather, and his sister, 25-year-old Amanda Hyett, were held on Friday. Ms Hyett, of Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender while Ms Meehan was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Both were released on police bail.

From the outlook on life which seemed to state that nothing would startle me, as while I have not exactly seen it all, I had seen or read most of this world's wrinkles, both sordid and gleaming, it does give one pause for thought! As I write, the first editions of the tabloids are being screened for all that they can legally, and some times not so legally, print on these subjects, and the pictures of a hand-cuffed Karen seem to speak volumes.

As my long-time heroine Margaret Thatcher remarked as she was being metaphorically stabbed in the back by her so-called friends,

 "It's a funny old world!"

Mince! Beef Mince! Steak Mince! Ever given it much thought? Of course not! It’s one of the great traditions of British cooking and culinary delights. From ‘Mince and ‘tatties’, through ‘Spag Bol’, Shepherds pie and everything in between, it’s been one of the great backstops of everyone from students to scholars. Provided it’s properly cooked, and seasoned beforehand, mince is a tasty, nourishing and above all safe basic protein for all who eat it.

So why am I writing a diatribe about a staple of the British diet?

Click to read more ...

Many times, over recent years, I and others have argued against any increased official or business contact with Communist China. We are a small band of protesters, unorganised and unfunded; and I for one would never have credited my joining any protest organisation, partly because there was very little chance of a murmured protest working out against the combined weight of a bunch of blood-stained dictators, big business and the apathetic disinterest of the wider public.

But there is a glimmer of hope, there is a slim chance that the hopes of an entire nation might receive just that very thing which the Chinese detest most. After the brief rise of, and consequent bloody repression of, the monks and protesters in Lhasa and Western Tibet, the Chinese thought and hoped that it might all go away, but thankfully there are a few people who just might stand up and be counted during the travels of the blood-soaked Olympic Torch as it meanders around London tomorrow, and the world later on.

As I have often argued, violent protest, murder and mayhem are no substitute for the ballot box, but just think what this torch represents for the Communist Chinese Regime. It stands for legitimacy, despite never having sought or listened to the voice of it’s own people. It stands for publicity, both for the Beijing Olympics and for the wider actions of a repressive regime! It stands for the knowledge that thousands of athletes, swimmers, riders and archers will travel to Beijing to contest their skills against each other in the Capital City of Communist China!

As an individual, I have taken a few steps of my own, such things as buying a more expensive pair of ‘rigger’ work boots rather than buying one of the ubiquitous and cheaper Chinese-made alternatives; of buying a Hungarian-manufactured DVD recorder rather than a China-built one even though the Chinese one was far cheaper. Perhaps just a pin-prick, and the loss of such minute quantities wouldn’t even disturb any  sales team in Britain, never mind Beijing, but I would remind the reader that great movements have small beginnings,  especially if the end-game is worth the effort!

So let’s watch the Torch as the gullible fellow-travellers such as Jane Tomlinson,  Tim Henman and Sir Roger Bannister, Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave prance along carting the Flame of Freedom, and hope against hope that some brave soul is able to extinguish the flames which commemorate the death of Olympic Ideals.

 P.S. Still like the LOGO?

I read with some sense of Schadenfreude that our Hilary is not the only one suffering from a certain over-eager imagination, to place her memories of being shot at when she was actually being given a civic reception in Bosnia, or Hollywood. We now learn that the saintly Barack Hussein Obama has been caught out over-egging the few facts he can string together to demonstrate that he and his daddy knew everyone whenever!

Apparently, our Barack Hussein ( I always like to give people their full names, because then you know who and what you are writing about)

Click to read more ...

As most will have divined from some of my posts over the months, I am from an engineering background. I started as an apprentice, got my hands dirty as well as, at times, extremely calloused and tired. As my CV would show, I progressed through the world of heavy engineering to run projects large and small; from cooling a diamond-cutting workshop to cabling a power-station switchyard. I have watched as buildings rose around me, and I have watched with a certain pride as my work made the buildings work. From a South African Casino to a Thames-side Sewage Pumping Station I have literally pushed things and people to get the job done, commissioned and completed, because I know how things, machines and motors, as well as people, can be made to mesh and work together like a finely-made watch.

So it was with resignation that I heard and saw the debacle unfolding around Terminal Five,

Click to read more ...

The Book Title Contest has closed, and the winners declared!

Not the widest pool in which to fish, but as ever the quality overcomes the quantity!

Honorable Mentions as follows:-

1    For the most impossible vision:-
    "My bumper book of Danish cartoons - in 3D" Madmoud Ahmadinejad's pop-up tribute to Jyllands Posten.
    From             David Vance

2    For the most possible prophecy:-
    It takes a Convention (to overturn an election) by Hillary Clinton
    From             Henry 94

3    Something that surely will find it's way into print before too long
    "The Little Engine that Couldn't" by Ruth Kelly
    From             Frank O'Dwyer

But the winner, for a mixture of pun, commentary and being really funny,,,,

    Is.....

    Tora! Tora! Tora!-- Jewish news flash!

        From Bernard

After the winning author readies his file,  he should contact David by e-mail, and the uploaded file will be transferred and uploaded by yours truly!

THEY 'SIKH' HIM HERE, THEY 'SIKH' HIM THERE!

Courtesy of A Magistrate's Blog 

At the end of a nice Easter break, I thought of churning up all those resting brains within the wider ATW circle, and decided on another contest!

So, the aim is to submit a possible book title from any author or politician in the public sphere, and the winner shall be chosen from the funniest title submitted.

Rules    1    Bribes freely accepted, as long as they are consumable on the spot, or plate!

             2    Closing date and time before judging commences :-      Wednesday 26th March 19.00 GMT

            3     I will check all submissions, and only obscenity or really bad double-entendres will result in   removal from consideration!

            4    The prize shall be the opportunity to post a guest item on ATW, the very Monarch of all Blogs.

A few days ago a commenter asked, and it was a good question, why there was never much posted on ATW on the British Economy?

As my own interests run towards political items, and personal items such as my new status as a Grandpa, I thought I’d have a scrounge around and come up with some pools of acid to smear all over our political masters; because make no mistake, the politicians are still in charge of UK Plc, because they hold the purse strings for all local and national government spending, health, defence and transport spending, along with a whole host of minor but still substantial, spending departments. Just count the QUANGO's as they drift by, and you'll see how much of our cash they control!

So stand, metaphorically speaking, a few miles above our green and pleasant land

Click to read more ...

After say, two weeks from today, if you fly anywhere in the British Isles through British Airways shiny new Terminal 5, built and opened by Her Majesty, you will be treated like a common criminal. Your basic rights, carefully preserved and protected against all manner of onslaught, from the Spanish Armada who wanted to make us all Catholic, through the French, who just wanted to conquer us, and on past the Germans, who twice tried, and the second time nearly succeeded, to starve us into submission, are about to be revoked and trashed. Not by another foreign army, but by a foreign-owned corporation and an allegedly British airline, with the silent connivance of the Labour Government, the security services and every little puffed-up jobsworth who thinks he can boss us around!

If you enter Terminal Five with a ticket, you will be shepherded into a long line, and told that, before you even go through the laughingly-named ‘Security’ checks, that you must allow your fingerprints to be taken for ‘Biomechnically-enhanced security Checks’. The last time I checked, the only people allowed to take ‘AND STORE’ our fingerprints are the police, so what is going on?

The reason, so gullibly and slimily trotted out by both B.A and B.A.A. is that after ‘Security’ all passengers, both domestic and international, mix in the same lounges and in the same multitude of shops. So a check with fingerprints is essential to separate the sheep from, well, the other sheep. But most, if not all people who have studied T-5 have already divined that it was built that way, so that everyone mixes together, so the fingerprinting ploy is a subterfuge on a grand scale. THEY PROMISE TO DESTROY THE INFORMATION AFTER TWENTY FOUR HOURS! Oh Yeah, and we were promised a Referendum on the Constitution!

What is just over the horizon, in a discreet written answer to an equally discreet Parliamentary question, is the authority for all the millions of fingerprints to be retained, and access given to the police, the local councils, and any other bunch of bastards who has been given a statutory right to snoop into our private lives!

So there you have it! Without hassle or noise, our basic liberty, our right to anonymity and privacy is being carted off through the back door under the illusory defence of Passenger Identification. Brave New world indeed!

Listened this morning on the Today programme to an interview with one Duncan Goodhew, the athlete and swimmer. THe question put to him was if he supported a call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics as a matter of principle, after the ferocious repression of all independent thought in Lhasa, Tibet in general and the surrounding Chinese areas?

I listened as he trotted out all the old bullshit about how the Olympics were special, and how it brought nations together, and how it was all about competing; and on, and on, until I nearly lost the will to live! In common with just about all naive, self-centred, useful idiots, as the great liberal leader Stalin once called them, he just couldn't divorce the all-encompassing Sporting myth from the cold hard reality that there rules, in China, a singlularly vicious bunch of Stalinist thugs.

The Mecca for all things 'Sporting' is Beijing, and in August this year the dictators of 1.4 billion people will reap their rewards of adulation from the morons who will flock to the various palaces of sporting endeavour, or who will sit glued to their plasma television screens, The many millions will watch the flower of many nations vie for honour in a place where there is no honour; where the very tarmac of the tracks is spattered with the blood of the protesters, who only wanted to be heard!

Sporting prowess divorced from protest and politics?  Yes, and just across there you will no doubt view a full section of flying pigs!

"One World One Dream" expresses the common wishes of people all over the world, inspired by the Olympic ideals, to strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace."

 The preceding statement is copied directly from the 'Theme Slogan' given out on the Beijing Olympics website. Try speaking that bit about 'charm and joy' over the bodies which litter the streets of Lhasa; the bodies being those of the protesters, mainly unarmed Tibetan monks, who protested against the Chinese occupation and domination of their country.

It's a pity that we didn't see a larger response to this petition, but there again Wee Gordon couldn't really be expected to upset a Trading Visitor.

As (apparently) the whole of Dewsbury erupts with spontaneous joy and booze at the news of the release of the abducted nine-year-old Shannon, and of course with a hijab-wearing 'Community' spokeswoman stating that it was this same amorphous 'Community' "wot done it" (presumably the release of this little girl), I am obliged to take a wider view of the morals of this 'Extended' family, who seem to breed like rabbits but without the territorial integrity of the afore-mentioned rabbits.

Along with the 'partners' of this particular woman, who together have provided her with seven children from (at the last count) six different fathers, we view another story with a more tragic end; that of Fiona MacKeown, the mother of murdered teenager Scarlett Keeling, who died after being drugged with cocaine and ecstasy, raped and brutally beaten. This 'mother', who casually left her daughter in the care of a bar acquaintance to travel many miles to view some other part of India, along with her other seven children (from six different fathers) seemed to think that being called in for questioning about alleged neglect was outrageous! The extended family's trip to Goa, known worldwide for being 'Druggy Paradise', was of course funded by British taxpayers, as all the fares were paid from Fiona's savings from Child Support and other Welfare Benefits. I wish I could afford a flight to India, but there again, if I could, I'd probably go to County Down.

The only difference between these two stories of adults who breed like alley cats, and treat their kids with the same standards, and the  equally horrific news of the dissappearance of tiny Madeleine McCann is that the McCanns' were married professional medical people, both extremely well-educated and media-savvy! Let us not forget that the McCanns chose to leave all three of their tiny children unguarded in a bedroom while they 'dined with friends' some hundred yards away!

Writing as a Grandfather in actuality as well as in waiting, I would demur from crticising the payments to the parents of any tiny defenceless child, but I really do feel that a close look at our 'anything goes' society is definitely overdue. We often read reports of the bounding breeding statistics of the Muslim population, but they are presumably nurturing a hidden army which will sweep us all away in some future Islamic cataclysm; at least they are sticking to the teachings of their own particular 'faith'

On balance, I prefer the Alley Cats, as we know exactly what to see in their somewhat short, vicious, feral but extremely natural lives!