The Association of Chief Police Officers has established a crack defence team to prosecute drivers who dare to challenge their prosecutions for speeding. The new company, called Road Safety Support, will fight cases in court where police forces are struggling to prosecute drivers who contest their prosecutions over what ACPO believe are legal technicalities. Meredydd Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, comes out fighting:

We are going to demonstrate that spurious cases get a slap. This team will defend the integrity of enforcement equipment and help us win high-profile cases.

Ouch! But if you think that’s tough talk from the Chief Constable, he has more:

We are saying to drivers who think they can try it on, ‘Come and get us if you think you are hard enough’.

So there you have it, motorists. The Association of Chief Police Officers believes that laws can be poorly drafted, equipment can be faulty and prosecutions flawed but you are still guilty. They have no obligation to get it right, shouldn’t be called to account for mistakes and you, the motorist, ought to accept your guilt on their word and pay up. If you disagree, the Chief Constable will start slapping.

Meanwhile, over in Texas ….

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I like statistics and tables that actually tell me something.  For example, if I read the United Kingdom has the highest proportion of teenage pregnancies in Europe, I can form an opinion along the lines of: 'We have the highest number of ill-bred, pig-ignorant slags who are more concerned about opening their legs to all and sundry than they are making a success of their lives.'  Statistics need to be reader-friendly.  When charts and tables come along that are anything but, you begin to wonder what purpose they serve.

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I cannot remember Jews causing any trouble in this country.  They have never rioted; they have never formed their own ghettos; they have never sought to change the laws and institutional framework of this country to suit their cultural identity; they have never dressed in a manner which repulses the indigenous population.  In the Jewish homeland itself we have a liberal democracy (the only one in the region); full respect for minority groups; Arab participation in the police, the judiciary and the defence forces; full emancipation of, and equality for, women; and a firm friend of the West.  Sounds to me like a great wee country.  The Jews I have met have been great and funny people.  Jews are responsible for inventions such as the shopping trolley, vinyl records, the flexible endoscope, polaroid cameras, the electron microscope, and electric meters.  American Jews have given us some of the funniest films in existence.  Blazing Saddles, The Producers, Airplane, and Naked Gun are all products of Jewish minds.  And need I mention Albert Einstein...?

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1793 - Beginning of the Reign of Terror in France, in which thousands go to the guillotine during the French Revolution.

1872 - Birth of English illustrator and cartoonist William Heath Robinson.

1910 - The colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony are united to form the Union of South Africa.

1962 - Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Nazi holocaust, is hanged in Israel for his crimes against humanity. During World War II, Adolf Hitler enlisted Eichmann to carry out his final solution to the Jewish question - the extermination of millions of Jews in Nazi death camps.

1996 - Harvard Professor Timothy Leary, who urged the American youth of the 1960s to take the drug LSD and 'turn on, tune in and drop out', dies of cancer aged 75.

1998 - Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) confirms she's leaving The Spice Girls.

As readers may know, I have high regard for the sustained economic success of the Republic of Ireland in recent years. It's been a great testament to the merit of substantially cutting taxes and both encouraging and rewarding business to invest, something the tax grabbing UK Government cannot even begin to comprehend. But is the all-important Irish housing market wobbling and if it is, what might the consequences be for the country? What might it mean for the hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans immigrants, many of whom are working in construction; how about the consequences for pre-election tax pledges? Here's a fascinating article on the topic and it contains some very sobering statistics. I wish the Irish economy well, but the rampant increase in house prices combined with an over-supply of housing stock cannot continue without serious consequences. Are we beginning to see some of them emerge? 

"It had previously estimated that a quarter of the additional houses built in the last four years must be empty. But latest vacancy figures show the actual figure is 40%, increasing the risk of a rapid fall in construction and a sharp fall in house prices." 

"There are now said to be 250,000 empty properties on the market – about 15% of the entire housing stock. Builders have slashed new projects. The 12-month running total for housing starts has fallen from a peak of 96,000 last September to 83,000 now."

" Wolseley, the construction group that owns Ireland’s largest timber distributor, reckons starts will fall by 30% this year to between 65,000 and 70,000. This could deliver a big unemployment shock to an economy that has long been held up as a model for the smaller EU countries."

What a comment on the state of modern Britain.

Security guards will be able to search pupils for knives at the school gates without their consent under government guidance to be published today. Schools will also be able to use security arches and metal detector wands when they search pupils for violent weapons. Legislation passed last year giving teachers power to search pupils for knives and other offensive weapons without consent comes into effect today. But guidance to headteachers from the Department for Education and Skills, published for the first time today, shows how schools can use the new powers. It makes plain that screening and searching can be carried out by professionally trained security staff, as well as teachers. However, it adds that where there is any risk to safety, police should be called. Security guards would be asked by headteachers to do the work if they felt it necessary.

I heard some Labour MP being interviewed about this, and he thought it very natural, very modern even, to have Airport-style security in our schools. What is more, he couldn't really explain WHY our schools have gotten to the stage where they now require security arches and security guards. He did, however, express his HORROR over the fact that once upon a time, teachers were allowed to cane students who misbehaved.  He had been caned himself but expressed his relief that we have now moved into more "enlightened" times. Hence the Security Guards. They just don't get it, do they? Good school discipline and a zero tolerance of bad behaviour is no longer compatible with our "Human Rights" culture, and so we simultaneously strip schools of the right to discipline whilst offering them the chance to put up security arches.

Confused? You bet. 

The DUP sold their entry into Government with IRA/Sinn Fein on the basis that they had secured a change to the legislation that had previously allowed Ministers in the Executive to do whatever they wanted, regardless of whether the Assembly as a whole supported it. In effect, each Minister had been only answerable to himself, a private fiefdom.  But the DUP negotiators changed that, or so they would have us believe. So, along comes IRA/Sinn Fein Minister Conor Murphy (He who cannot say the words "Northern Ireland" or "Londnderrry") and he insists  "The minister now will still have the same autonomy as under the Good Friday Agreement.”  His Party fully agrees with him. So, who has got it wrong? IRA/Sinn Fein or the DUP? More to the point, who is lying through their teeth regarding the precise nature of the mutant Executive we now have in power over us, and why?

Yesterday we covered the proposed boycott of Israeli universities put forward by British academics. Israeli Professor Steven Plaut replies in kind. It's tongue-in-cheek, but you'll get the message....

For some reason, no one told you that just 5 days before Monday’s talks, an entire floating army, with nearly 20,000 men, comprising the world’s largest naval strike force, led by the USS Nimitz and the USS Stennis, and also comprising the largest U.S. Naval armada in the Persian Gulf since 2003, came floating up unnanounced through the Straight of Hormuz, and rested right on Iran’s back doorstep, guns pointed at them. The demonstration of leverage was clear. And it also came on the exact date of the expiration of the 60 day grace period the U.N. had granted Iran.

And it came just a few weeks after Vice President Dick Cheney had swept through the region and delivered a very clear and pointed message to the Saudi King Abdullah and others: George Bush has unequivocally decided to attack Iran’s nuclear, military and economic infrastructure if they do not abandon their drive for military nuclear capability. Plain and simple.

In 1988 the Thatcher government passed into law the famous Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality in schools. This legislation was repealed by the Blair government in 2003, as a result of which homosexuality can be, and is, promoted in schools.

Now, in a bizarre twist, the University and Colleges Union, whose anti-semitism was discussed by David yesterday, is calling for the promotion of heterosexuality in schools to be criminalised. By a unanimous vote, delegates at their annual conference have given their backing to a motion which reads:

All negative characterisations by teachers of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender people, identity and lifestyle should be outlawed and classified as an act of discrimination and an incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation.

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I have not had much direct contact with the various police forces operating in the United Kingdom, as I haven’t committed any major, or indeed minor crimes, and apart from a very private and personal time when I had recourse to the help, support and efficient expertise of my own local force, and their colleagues in many parts of the country, very few times have arisen when need arose to gain any acquaintance with the men and women who wear the uniform of Her Majesty’s Constabulary.

So as I scanned the reports of the trial of the three who were accused

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Unionists are called 'Unionists' for one simple reason - they want the Union.  They don't want extra influence in an all-Ireland Dail, the 'dividends' of joining the Southern economy, or the promised panacea of all their ills being provided by government in Dublin.  For Unionists the inclusion of NI within the United Kingdom is what defines, more than anything else, the fundamentals of their identity from which all other cultural particularities stem.  They are not delusional Irishmen who will one day wake up and think 'hey, weren't we stupid for not rushing to the bosom of Dublin rule earlier!'  They are British people who reside within the UK - period!

Therefore the new Provo department of 'Unionist engagement' will be, as Gregory Campbell points out, a failure - not least because it is fronted by a former IRA terrorist (the fact that she has long blonde hair and nail varnish is irrelevant.  She's still an ex-terrorist!!).  Provos might be keen on 'finding out what makes Unionists tick'.  However, they are not prepared to offer the one and only thing that is likely to make the vast bulk of the Unionist population engage with them - the guarantee of working in a Northern Ireland firmly within the UK.  Not only do the Provos actively pursue the constitutional destruction of the Province, they also frequently vomit up hagiographic orations of terrorists who killed innocent people in pursuit of that objective. So take your 'engagement', Martina 'I used to like bombing furniture stores, but I'm better now' Anderson, and shove it where the sun don't shine!!

1431 - At Rouen, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy.

1536 - King Henry VIII of England marries his third wife, Jane Seymour - 11 days after the execution of wife number two, Anne Boleyn.

1842 - An assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with her husband Prince Albert. The would-be assassin is John Francis.

1848 - Mexico ratifies a treaty with America, which gives Mexico 15 million dollars while the United States gain possession of New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado.

1989 - Cliff Richard releases his 100th single record.

1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, reprimands a senior aide for telling a newspaper she was furious with former royal nanny Tiggy Legge Bourke for joining Prince William at a picnic at Eton.

Here is what the charm void Ian Paisley Jnr had to say about gay people in a recent interview.....

"I am, unsurprisingly, a straight person,” the North Antrim MLA is quoted as saying. “I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism. I think it is wrong. I think that those people harm themselves and – without caring about it - harm society. That doesn’t mean to say that I hate them. I mean, I hate what they do.”

IRA/Sinn Fein - the organisation that has murdered thousands and maimed tens of thousands -has used its "Unionist Outreach" spokesperson, convicted BOMBER Martina Anderson to condemn Paisley for using words that she alleges "feed into the attitudes that fester and lead to homophobic violence.”

The Gay lobby have naturally gone into overdrive. kindred souls with the IRA on this one, seemingly. 

So, is it a crime to say that one views homosexuality as wrong? If it is, should Paisley be arrested, or at least cautioned? Should the Bible be banned for advocating an anti-gay position? What say you?

A little mid-week reflection; a dying man's finest musical moment - grown up music to watch the world go bye.

Well then folks, I see the snivelling anti-semites that infest British academia have urged, at their putrid annual conference, to consider the "moral implications" of links with Israeli universities. The motion condemned Israel for its "denial of educational rights" for the Palestinian people. The union heard that "universities were to Israel what the Springboks were to South Africa". Philosophy lecturer at Brighton University Tom Hickey, who proposed the motion, described the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as "barbaric". "What are we to do with this? Are we to look away? If we do we make ourselves complicit in it."

Oh yes, you're complicit all right. Complicit in refusing to condemn the Palestinian death cult. Complicit in denying the Jihad. Complicit in seeking to punish the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.

These Israeli-hating clowns demonstrate that education can not always cure ignorance.