OUR HOST below brings our attention to the 18 "higher-quality ingredients", beginning with amuse-bouche of corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin pain-surprise-style, hot onion tart and winter lily bulbs, enjoyed by the world's esteemed leaders in Japan about now. Sounds like a load of fancy foreign muck to me.

Our dear, it's off to the re-education camp for me, I must be a racist.

A political system resting on professional party politicians is clearly fatal to all liberty and national well-being.

 - Richard Crossman (1907-74) Introduction to Bagehot's "The English Constitution", 1867.

Jack Straw, Sectretary of State for Justice (yuck) has published a government White Paper*on the funding of political parties which, a quick skim suggests, is in favour of the taxpayers being fleeced by the state to keep political parties in business. Who'd have thought that, eh?! With the Labour Party on the verge of bankruptcy and the three main parties all seeing their memberships in flight, I'm sure the option of shaking down the British people for the eternal right to dominate power is all just a coincidence. Raedwald is putting it under the microscope.

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ATW's COMMENTARIAT may - incredibly - include those who regard me as a bit of a nutter where the Queen, the British Constitution and the destruction of the Sovereignty of the British people is concerned. Yep, I have something of a bee in my bonnet on this and with good reason; our great nation has been subject to a coup d'etat. A slow motion coup d'etat it has been, but it is no less of a takeover by a foreign, hostile power for that.

How gratifying it is then to see that I am not alone. Archbishop Cranmer has a few words to say about the Treason committed by those in high office and the negligence of the so-called Monarch who is obliged by oath and law to defend our sovereignty (my emphasis):

One of the most significant aspects of the treaties of Rome, Maastricht, and Lisbon concerns the constitutional position of the Monarch. During her reign, Queen Elizabeth I stated: ‘To no power whatsoever is my crown subject save to that of Christ the King of Kings.’  Section Three of the Treason Felony Act of 1848 asserts that condemnation is incurred ‘If any person whatsoever shall, within the United Kingdom or without, compass, imagine, invent, devise or intend to deprive or depose our most gracious Lady the Queen...from the style, honour, or royal name of the imperial crown of the United Kingdom.’

The Treaty of Maastricht made the Queen subject to the European Union and a citizen of that Union.

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AL MURRAY, The Pub Landlord, tells us why.

Martha Stewart refused entry to the UK

Blessings to those who keep us safe from really dangerous people.

NAPOLEON waged war from the Atlantic coast to Moscow, causing unimaginable death and misery to bring about his united Europe. 'The Common fatherland' was how he described it and Paris was to be its capital. Just as well then that an Anglo-Irishman by the name of Arthur Wellesley confounded his plans and did for Old Boney on 18 June 1815 in Belgium, close to a place called Waterloo. Let's hope we see his like again.

Happy Waterloo Day.

Serial child murderer, Tsutomu Miyazaki, was executed in Japan today, two decades after he began a reign of terror in Tokyo's suburbs by abducting, killing and eating parts of four young girls.

Good.

UNBELIEVABLE! And I thought WE were governed by nutcases. Well we are, but there's an even greater nutcase out there in the English Channel:

THE Home Affairs Minister has sent shock waves through the legal profession by authorising the indefinite detention of suspects without charge. On 5 June, Senator Wendy Kinnard amended the criminal code that had limited pre-charge detention to 36 hours. She did so under delegated powers enjoyed by the minister under the terms of the Police Procedures and Criminal Evidence (Jersey) Law.

However, that same law states that before such changes to codes are made, the minister is required to publish a draft of the changes and consult interested parties. She did neither of these things – a failure that has left the Island’s criminal lawyers stunned. The new code came into force on Thursday, but no statement was released to either the media or the legal profession.

It cannot be repeated too often: the state is not your friend. Too many of those who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of power over the lives of others are genuine sociopaths. This is why those peoples who fail to limit the power and reach of their governments are doomed.

h/t to the Devil

Shadow Minister of the Interior, David Davis, has resigned as an MP to force a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency. He will fight it not only on the issue of the 42-day terror detention limit (which he describes as 'a monstrosity of a law'), but on the fact of the State's war on the liberties of Britons. Davis' resignation statement, delievered in front of Parliament, was succinct and to the point. I couldn't deny myself a smirk at one point: 

"Up until yesterday, I took the view that what we did in the House of Commons representing our constituents was a noble endeavour because with centuries or forebears we defended the freedoms of the British people. Well we did up until yesterday. This Sunday is the anniversary of Magna Carta - the document that guarantees that most fundamental of British freedoms - Habeus Corpus. The right not to be imprisoned by the state without charge or reason. Yesterday this house decided to allow the state to lock up potentially innocent British citizens for up to six weeks without charge."

Bless. Imagine referring to a crusty old thing such as Magna Carta. Who would ever do that?! Well, it's always nice to say 'I told you so'. On countless occasions I've been chided and teased for citing such 'archaic' statements as Magna Carta as if they don't matter anymore, when it's always been clear that we either enforce our dusty old Constitution or British liberty is finished. It is our only refuge, there is no other way. Now, such is the battered condition of British liberty in 2008 that a breach has appeared in the ranks and a senior MP has made a principled stand.

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Yet again, the Wonder of the World shows its true nature:

Another patient is Jack Hose, 71, from Bournemouth, whose entitlement to health service care was withdrawn by the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust because he chose to pay for a drug that is not normally funded by the state. Hose has been billed by the trust for £11,500.

Hose said: “It seems outrageous that, having paid national insurance contributions for 50 years, they are now asking me to pay for my care.”

That true nature, of course, being health care rationing at the convenience of the state. If you're inconvenient, you can get stuffed. Jack Hose managed to get what he paid for eventually when his NHS Trust was shamed into treating him, just when the 71 year old Mr Hose was about to write the NHS a cheque for £11,500 too, I'm sure. If only Linda O'Boyle could say the same:

When Mrs O'Boyle, who had three children and four grandchildren, developed bowel cancer and began having chemotherapy, doctors said she could boost her chances of fighting the disease by adding the drug cetuximab.

It is not routinely funded by the NHS but she decided to use her savings to pay for it.Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust then withdrew her free treatment, including the chemotherapy drug she was receiving.

Mrs O'Boyle isn't available for comment right now. She's dead. As always, I sincerely hope the O'Boyle family makes it personal against those ministers and officials who sentenced their wife and mother to death. I can't say what I think about these heartless, snivelling bastards and keep it civil, so I'll just link to the Devil, who speaks for me.

Police have seized a potential £1 billion “treasure trove” of cash, drugs and guns in an unprecedented raid on concrete vaults holding 7,000 safety deposit boxes.

Huh? The police can just crack open 7000 safety deposit boxes on suspicion? If you want to reclaim your possessions, you have to call a number?! Welcome to Britain, where privacy has been declared verboten.  

OH THE IRONY. The Labour Party is little more than a month from bankruptcy and Gordon Brown, the man who has done so month to tax the British people into poverty, may be held jointly liable for its debts.

The party has five weeks to find £7.45m to pay off loans to banks and wealthy donors recruited by Lord Levy, Tony Blair's former chief fundraiser, or become insolvent. A further £6.2m will have to be repaid by Christmas - making £13.65m in all. The sum amounts to two-thirds of the party's annual income from donations. The figures are a conservative estimate as they do not include interest that will also have to be paid. A Labour source said that although the total debt was listed as £17.8m on the Electoral Commission website, the true level, with interest, was nearer to £24m.

Send in the bailiffs! But wait, it gets better ...

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Why has Burma become known again as ‘Burma’ instead of ‘Myanmar’?

The BBC especially (although it wasn’t alone) seemed to have enthusiastically adopted the practice of referring to the country as Myanmar until the cyclone blew through the country a couple of weeks ago. Since then all news reports - or so it seems - have adopted the rightful name of ‘Burma’.

I suspect Myanmar was used by those politically-correct nitwits who looked on the regime more fondly than they ought to have, because its government is Left Wing. The same reasoning goes for those who use ‘Beijing’ instead of ‘Peking’ (which much of the world still uses). Burma was for a long time a part of the British Empire and that reference was quickly dropped some years ago when the ruling regime changed the name.

But the cyclone has focussed attention on the depravity of the Burmese government in Yangon Rangoon. The BBC refers to it, with a sense of contrived deliberateness, as a ‘military regime/junta’, a term which carries undoubted ‘right wing’ hints which are reinforced with the re-adoption of ‘Burma’. That’s why it’s again called ‘Burma’ instead of ‘Myanmar’.

Every time I see the TV Licensing adverts or the Car Tax adverts, I am struck by their educational value. States are self-perpetuating institutions through which the means of collective coercion are applied, nothing more or less, and having the state be completely upfront about its true nature is very useful indeed.

 - Perry de Havilland at samizdata, referring to this television advert on behalf of the British state.

My own favourite is this recently broadcast effort, which I can't help thinking is aimed at me. Each time I view it, with its threatening tag, the sound of children in the background, accompanying helicopter track and overall air of omnipresent state surveillance, I can't help thinking of the line that Orwell's 1984 was meant as a warning and not a manual.

Note to Americans and others elsewhere - that isn't a spoof advert, our government now actually does communicate with Britons this way.

The National Health Service has refused to pay for an operation to prevent a pensioner’s agonising migraines because the woman paid privately for earlier treatment.

 ... demonstrating that the National Health Service is, de facto, a National Healthcare Rationing Service which exists only by our labour yet reserves the right to act as if we don't exist. 

Maureen Alden - the penshioner in question - has one option: if she can raise sufficient funds she must bring a legal action against the Treasury for the return of those taxes that she paid and were hypothecated for the NHS. A deal is a deal. The state has reneged on the contract and Maureen Alden is entitled to seek redress.

OR, The Philosophy of Liberty. Knowing how some people have difficulty with the concept of liberty, I thought a refresher course would be instructive. This is very safe for work so, since your colleagues probably feel safe in Nanny's warm, infantilising embrace, you could try watching together.

'Britain enjoying the hottest May since 1772'

Hey liberals, just to show there are no hard feelings, this one's for you ....

GORDON RAMSEY, the cook turned TV 'personality', wants the state to outlaw the use of out of season ingredients. Yes, really.

He said: "Chefs should be fined if they haven't got ingredients in season on their menu ..... "There should be stringent laws, fines and licensing laws to make sure produce is only used in season. If we get this legislation pushed through the Houses of Parliament then the more unique this country will become."

I'll stop here only to ask - what the hell is 'more' unique? As for the proposal and what it reveals about this odious creep, Perry de Havilland at Samizdata says puts it well enough:

The 'I am' does not want to see something and so wants his views be the force backed law of the land, the psychopathology of the expert that we so often see coming from doctors at work again. The great unwashed must be forced to follow expert opinion, which means their opinion, naturally.

I like the idea of third world farmers pulling themselves out of poverty and selling me their products whenever I want to buy them and why should a loud mouthed self important chief and a bunch of fascistic green activists get to have a say in that? Their craving to impose their will on others should stop being socially acceptable and they need to be called authoritarian thugs to their faces.

A TWENTY YEAR OLD MAN pleads guilty to meeting a child (she was 11 years of age) following sexual grooming, sexual assault of a child and attempted rape; the probation report read out in court assessed the accused as being "manipulative and predatory" and poses a "high risk of serious harm" to children by the probation service. Cue Judge Robert Atherton, who allowed the accused to walk free because the girl 'welcomed sex':

But Judge Robert Atherton rejected the probation report findings - saying the girl "welcomed" sexual activity which was not forced, was "inappropriately aware" of sex, and Dixon had not specifically sought out a child on the internet.

Lock up your daughters. If paedophiles can now cite the sexual awareness level of their targets, they'll all be walking. All of which anyway sweeps aside a perfectly simple legal concept. As the dumb one says:

 Not to hammer the point home, but the whole point of the age of consent is that below that age, the victim can't consent (the law isn't as complex as libs would have you believe). Judge Atherton hasn't conjured up a wacky interpretation of the law, he's completely ignored it.