This article taken from a recent edition of Third Sector

Board member Orlando Fraser urged Charity Commission to open statutory inquiry into Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

05 November 2015 by Stephen Cook, 1 comment

Emails disclosed in a court case reveal Fraser did so even though he thought the move might be challenged by the charity in the courts.

Orlando Fraser QC

The Charity Commission was urged by one of its board members to open a statutory inquiry into the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust earlier this year even though he thought the move might be challenged in the courts.

Orlando Fraser QC, a former Conservative parliamentary candidate, emailed other board members and commission executives with his proposal when the media publicised the fact that the charity had in the past funded the controversial advocacy group Cage.

His email, part of a sequence disclosed in a recent court case, illustrates the active involvement of board members in an operational case, pushing for more robust regulation at a time when some charity leaders, lawyers and representative bodies are concerned about the commission’s growing focus on enforcement.

Other emails in the sequence say an inquiry was needed to send out "a strong message"; circulate critical articles about the JRCT in the Daily Mail, The Times and The Daily Telegraph; and make disparaging remarks about the charity’s commitment to non-violence. "How big of them," says one email by Fraser.

The sequence of emails began when Cage, which speaks up for what it calls victims of the war on terror, held a press conference at which it said it had in 2011 given advice to Mohammed Emwazi, also known as "Jihadi John", the British fighter for Islamic State who is believed to have beheaded several western hostages.

In an email sent on 27 February to Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement, and copied to Paula Sussex, the commission’s chief executive, Fraser called for an urgent statutory inquiry into whether any of JRCT’s funding of Cage had ended up supporting Jihadi John – and, if so, what the charity had known about it.

"If they fight it, so be it," he wrote. "It won’t be the worst thing to have to defend – and I suspect that they will in fact wish to be seen to cooperate. This is the form of robust regulation we have been talking about – legally (maybe) open to challenge, but fundamentally necessary, in the sector’s interests, heart in the right place, and would be 100 per cent supported and expected by the public.

"In these circumstances you would have this board member’s support (and the others)."

The same email to Russell and Sussex says: "I have understood and accepted your wish to follow the technical route until more turned up. However, the new information this week… requires a step change in approach to the robust (which the public will understand) and away from the technical (which they will not). It also shows that our original instincts were right, but that is easy with hindsight."

The email exchange included William Shawcross, chair of the commission, and three other board members: Peter Clarke, the former head of the anti-terrorist branch at the Metropolitan Police, the academic Gwythian Prins and the retired solicitor Tony Leifer.

Shawcross endorsed the course of action proposed by Fraser. "It is appalling, and Orlando is quite right," he wrote from Washington, where he said he was meeting senior US government counter-terrorism officials and analysts.

"One senior analyst also though it was astonishing that Cage was not long ago exposed for what it is – a jihadist front. We must be robust and, where possible, be seen to be robust, to protect the reputation of the sector as well as ourselves."

Cage denies that it supports terrorism.

In the event, the commission did not open a statutory inquiry, which gives it extensive powers over a charity and its assets. In 2013 it had already opened an operational compliance case, the result of which has not yet been published.

Instead, the commission successfully put pressure on the JRCT to make a commitment never to fund Cage again, which prompted Cage to seek a judicial review on the grounds that the commission had exceeded its powers. The commission has since contended that it had only offered advice and guidance to the JRCT.

The judicial review was withdrawn by Cage two weeks ago after a High Court hearing in front of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, when the commission made a statement recognising that "it has no power to require trustees to fetter the future exercise of their fiduciary duties under its general power to give advice and guidance. In consequence, there is no obligation on the trustees of JRCT to fetter the proper and lawful exercise of their discretion in the future."

The internal emails by Fraser and others, disclosed as part of the proceedings, were mentioned in court by Helen Mountfield QC, representing the JRCT as an interested party, who called them "tendentious".

They were not read out or discussed in detail. A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: "We have not accepted – and nor has the court ruled – that they are relevant to the proceedings."

However, the Civil Procedure Rules say such documents lose confidentiality when they have been "read to or by the court, or referred to, at a hearing which has been held in public". The commission spokeswoman declined to comment on the content of the emails.

andy benson • 

pretty well says it all..... the commission has been turned into a political mouthpiece for a tory government.

Jan Cosgrove • 4 minutes ago

If it was me, and i were another trustee, I would raise his continued membership of the Board, given his quite clear hostility to the very purposes of the trust including its known and principled support of non-violence stemming from the roots of the original Rowntree enterprises.

Also, the Commission - is it fir for purpose. I have seen it first hand bear down on a charity re involvement of a professional fundraising operation, heard its officer make disparaging remarks about a businessman's persona based on rank prejudice, I saw it make demands which were not within its remit, and yet a more blatant example of what it alleged was evident in the huge Pampers-Unicef campaigns where the proportion of funds committed to charity compared to turnover (its yardstick for the very very much smaller charity) was far lower than that received by the smaller body from its participating partner. Did the Commission approach Pampers and UK Unicef? You bet your life they didn't, or if they did, there was no change in how Pampers engaged with Unicef UK. [To make it clear, I never had any problem, but they did not comply with the legislation, whereas the charity I was involved in did and yet we got the hassle.]

Bullying was my summation, unprofessional and unduly interfering. Picking and choosing what it enforced and who it investigated.

My advice to charities, make sure you have a non-charity campaign body when you want to speak out. Have a common membership and board membership. Make sure the membership controls both if that is the set-up. In the set-up I am involved in, the association had the membership, the charity shared the same people by definition, the Association management was also defined to provide the trustees. In due course the Association decided to close the charity - but nothing to do with the damn Commission, it analysed there are other charities doing the same job but that the campaign was unique and still needed. So it continues to exist and campaign, no kow-towing to the bloody Charity Commission.

Jeremy - Why you must reconsider singing the Royal Anthem, from a Politically Correct Perspective

Dear Jeremy Corbyn

Well done.

Now you have put some panties into a right pandemonium by not singing the Royal Anthem.

May I explain that term, instead of the usual "national anthem".   What we sing is a prayer for the sovereign, not about the nation, so let's deal with it from that angle?

The anthem's origins are not that clear : see here : but it is in use by 1744, and may have some of its roots in promoting George I in the context of the Stuart claim.

That has to be a very interesting point, a German immigrant family coming here to seek a new life, looking for work, speaking no English so to speak, and probably a lot of suspicion and antipathy, coming over here and stealing all our monarch jobs and, what's more, getting lavish state benefits, more than one home.

You see, by the time that George III (grandson, still in homes and on benefits) gets to learn English, he loses (or probably makes sure we lose) a load of troublesome colonists we all wanted to leave anyway - you know, the Ukippers of their age etc.   So the the rascally rebels create a NATIONAL Anthem using the very same tune, 'My Country 'tis to Thee I Vow" etc which they keep for a long time until the Star-Spangled wotsit.

And BTW, you may not be aware that it was redesigned and exported as anthem 2.1 by Joseph Haydn (who greatly admired the tune) and who wrote 'God Save The Kaiser' which then became the basis of one of his String Quartets, and then the tune was used in various versions of the German national anthem including Uber Alles and now sans words.

I'd also like to point out that we have shown further tolerance by adopting a Middle Eastern religion whose deity is the one we see implored in the words of the Royal Prayer.  Remember we have given up a whole raft of British gods who did a lot things around the place.  Well might the inhabitants have said "coming over here, taking over our prayers" etc.

Now I do understand it needs changing.  We can't have her ruling over us, can we?   That isn't on and it's also a direct challenge to the Supremacy of Parliament, for sure.  No one minds "reigns" it hasn't any meaning, but the class-bias of 'over' has to be addressed.  Hmmm, what about "for" or even 'long to have a happy life'  or something nice, eh.

And those Choicest Gifts in store.  I do hope Comrade McConnell will remind the Chancellor that this is a time of austerity no tax-free handouts thank you, and remember this family is on benefits, so what about that cap?   I know you are unhappy about it, but you can see one's point.    Also, under current regs, surely they have enough in the bank so they don't qualify and even if they do, I think you might well look at their efforts to get into employment.   I work with young people, and we are enjoined all the time to seek out the NEETs and get them weaving.  (Or some sort of apprenticeship at least, though traditional weaving could well be an option in rural Scotland, so do have a word with the lady in charge up there.)

I do hope this gives perspective.

Kincora Scandal - Why it must head the nations's agenda - and an Arun Man Knows Why

 The scandal about abuse of young boys at the Kincora Boys Home has been sitting at the heart of our national life, and gnawing an awful hole of untold stories, of decisions to cover up, of involvement of senior figures in national life, and by the security apparatus designed to keep us safe.

Instead, the allegations are to be believed, we have seen not only the gross exploitation of young people on both sides of the Irish Sea but also their being sacrificed to unaccountable agendas and plots by people sworn to serve the nation.

One man living in Arun, Colin Wallace, knows a good deal of the truth and it seems he was set up to be accused of murder to silence him.  The national inquiry into this awful chapter of institutional abuse has been told it may not call witnesses to the Kincora abuse in which UK security was involved - the reason given is that there is an inquiry related to Northern Ireland which must deal with it.  But that inquiry, unlike the mainland one, cannot summon witnesses.   

Wallace has said he will speak, and is saying that there is connection between the allegations re Kincora and mainland allegations regarding Elm House and Dolphin Square in London.

 Wallace had worked after leaving UK intel for Tory eminence gris Airey Neave MP. the man credited with master-minding Thatcher's rise to oust Heath as Tory Party leader, who died in a mysterious assassination explosion attributed to the Republican INLA group, renegades from the Provo IRA.  Eventually he ended up living in Arundel and working as an Information Officer for - Arun District Council and was much engaged in the organisation of the BBC  It's a Knock-Out competition in which Arun fielded a team.   It was in the wake of this that the hapless man, a Brighton antiques dealer, was found floating in the River Arun, and he was accused of having hit the man on the skull because of alleged infidelity with Wallace's wife.   An aptly-named programme, it would have seemed ....   It's odd at this stage to consider the adulation then accorded to now-convicted sex offender Stuart Hall whose fall from grace saddened so many who had not been much surprised by revelations about Savile.

Wallace's case raises many issues - why was he prosecuted for murder, of a man found in the Arun?   Why was this reduced to manslaughter?   What evidence did Sussex :Police have, where did it come from?    Why was Wallace represented as some obsessive military fantasist who liked to don military uniform and had no involvement with the UK military, yet the opposite was the truth - he was part of UK military intelligence in Northern Ireland, and, as today's revelations show, he tried to warn of the use of boys at Kincora in a sordid high-level abuse ring which was used by UK intel to pressure and blackmail senior NI and indeed UK officials and politicians.

 For this, he was set up, no more no less, and the UK government was complicit.   I recall speaking with local 'stringer' Jimmy Cleavit (a man who worked free-lance in the media) who lived in Littlehampton at the time.  He received a photo from an agency in London, purporting to show Wallace "dressed up", fantasist-style, it was used extensively in national and local papers.   Jimmy had not heard of the agency, he tried to trace it, without success.   THE PHOTO OF WALLACE WAS OFFICIAL ARMY STOCK.  He served several years in jail.  He has been awarded substantial compensation, by the UK Government.

So, if Wallace is innocent of the death of the man found in the Arun, how DID that man come to die?   HOW was the body obtained?   Was he who it was claimed he was?     We ask that question via our MP, he must seek an answer.   The truth of this cover-up involves our Sussex Police, UK intel.   Was he murdered to frame Wallace?  Or is the a Man Who Never Was?  Plucked from a mortuary perhaps?  

This is no James Bond Thriller, it goes to the heart of how we are being governed, there is no more important issue about our nation and who actually runs it - it dwarfs Europe, or Westminster.

  Not only is the record of our security system under the closest scrutiny, not only are high-ranking persons, alive and dead, in a sharp spotlight, but also there are the associated allegations of Wallace, alongside the gross exploitation of troubled children, that he was involved in Operation Clockwork Orange which targeted senior members of the UK establishment, which sought to undermine the UK political and constitutional system with a view to their removal or disgrace.   Mention three UK party political leaders of the 1970's, Edward Heath, Jeremy Thorpe and Harold Wilson - all of them CO targets, and Wallace knows this.

Is this merely some daft faction of MI5, allowed to rampage around, or is there something much more serious we need to learn?

  Incidentally, I have always found it odd, to say a little, that Wallace's defence was paid for from within the family of the Duke of Norfolk.   Not odd, that the family of the Premier Earl, the highest ranking family in UK nobility, chose to be involved for Wallace, presumably knowing and believing him to be what he claimed in his trial, denied by the prosecution (that is. by the State)?    This is no idle matter, it goes to the heart of our erstwhile rulers and masters.   So the Premier Earl's actions are not known and scrutinised by the Head of State, the Queen?  It would have had to have been known to her.

It is that local, the eye of the storm is here, in Arun.   And in case we lose sight of essentials, the issue is not simply and only about the sickening abuse of the vulnerable young, horrible though that is.   If we look back to 1970s Britain, we can see the context - in 1964, Labour won a General Election, Wilson was Prime Minister, and there was the illegal rebellion of the white supremacist Rhodesian regime - it's common enough knowledge that Wilson was told by UK generals they would not obey orders to end the rebellion using UK troops, a blatant disobeying of orders.    We also know the horror of that hidden establishment that an upstart grammar school oik (not Public School) was now Prime Minister with a Labour Government.    They had hoped Heath might sort that out but the latter's caving in to the miners in 1973 led to an ill-advised election where they hoped Heath would form a coalition with Thorpe's Liberals, but Wilson led a minority Labour Government for 6 months, and then later in 1974, won a majority.

It seems that the concern to see Wilson ditched reached fever pitch, and much Clockwork Orange activity originated here, especially after the abolition of Stormont and the imposition of direct rule over Northern Ireland by London.  It's a fascinating sideline but in an interview, the leader of the white Rhodesian rebellion, Ian Smith, said that if he had had the constitution we had allowed Storemont to operate under, he would not have needed to rebel - that is, the Protestant mini-state had sufficient powers under its constitution to be able to impose a police state denying rights to the Catholics in perpetuity.

  Did a plot exist to remove Wilson and his elected government to replace it with a military-led 'regime' headed by prominent persons?   Does that sound crazy?    Well, Wallace points that way, and names recurrently occur as being willing to lead that regime, one being Earl Mountbatten, assassinated on a yacht in Northern Ireland.   Also frequently named re the Kincora scandal.

Wilson was adamant a plot existed, as two senior UK journalists have attested - he spoke to them, in detail.

Were plans drawn up to detain British citizens seen to be likely to oppose a military coup?

All too fantastic.  Banana republic, cloak'n'dagger fantasy.    Yet ....  this writer was told by a lady with whom he was then involved that, at that time, her father, a senior and respected UK diplomat, was contacted by persons who asked if he would take part in a National Administration in the wake of the forced removal of Wilson and his Labour government - an elected government chosen by the popular mandate, invited by the Head of State to form Her Government.   He declined.   How many more were approached to be suborned, how many agreed to be involved?

Too far in the past to find out?   There are those alive who know things which need to come to light.  This is no mere escapade, it is Treason, the highest crime against State and People.

  If our most vulnerable young people suffered trauma, assault, rape, violence, possibly murder, if this is to be believed, and it was part-and-parcel of an obscene, deranged and unlawful enterprise conducted within the bowels of the UK state, in its underbelly even, then to do justice to them, the truth is more than a recital of sordid behaviour, it has to be a reckoning with those who wanted to destroy our democracy and who used and abused anyone and everyone to achieve their aims.

It has been observed already that this will define the lifetime of this government not its austerity-deception.   No one who cares about the parlous state of our democracy, such as it is, can afford to look away and ignore these questions.  If our state has been suborned and undermined, that has to be known and what damage may have been done remedied.   We cannot afford to ignore it, nor be distracted.

The media will do what it can to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, for example, but what if he does command the support of the electorate in 2020 and starts to create a range of changes seen by deeply invested interests to threaten them.   Can we be so sure that Clockwork Orange won't begin to tick again?

You've Got to be Joking - Proposing to climb a mountain, Madam? Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - A Budget Surplus - REALLY? - Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - Banking your goodbyes? Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - Sophistry? - Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - Childcare means business? Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - Emigration v.Immigration? Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - Seismic shocks rock Tonbridge Wells? Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joking - Those forgetful moments ... Today's Cartoon by Matt

You've Got to be Joing - Fairy delight? Today's Cartoon by Matt

tHE bACK pAGE [yes it is] - The News that isn't .....

  Run don't walk to the nearest desert island

24 June 2015

“Posh hotels have a turn-down service. I had never heard of this and there was a knock at the door and a woman said, ‘I’ve come to turn down your bed.’ To which I said, ‘Well many women have in the past. Why should you be any different?’”   Michael McIntyre (December 21 1976-)

Picture: Andrew Crowley

The Original 7-Up Was A Mind-Altering Substance

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/7up-history_n_5836322.html

21 June 2015

Parsley: Satan Using Public Schools To Attack Children - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/parsley-satan-using-public-schools-attack-children#sthash.5u2idpeg.dpuf

Police Arrest 9-Month Old Infant on Murder Charges 

 http://latest.com/2014/04/police-arrest-9-month-old-infant-on-murder-charges/

'One-armed butlers – they can take it but they can’t dish it out.'

Tim Vine (March 4 1967-)    Picture: Matthew Simmons/Getty Images

__________________________________________________________________________

19 June 2015

Statue in a Children's Play Park in Korea  ......     er .....

'I like to play chess with bald men in the park, although it's hard to find 32 of them.'

Emo Phillips (February 7 1956-)  Picture: Matthew Simmons/Getty Images

Revealed: The top ten bizarre questions posed to councils - HERE

And Spelthorne Borough Council posted this in local playgrounds re dog poo ....

TILTING @WINDMILLS?

Arab man “deported for being too handsome” to visit Vietnam

www.vietmaz.com

May 2015

ERIC PICKLES RECEIVES KNIGHTHOOD

Exclusive Photo as Tory Minister Celebrates

In his first public statement, Sir Eric, or Sir Cumference as he will be known, said "You will respect my authorit-y!  Goddammit I hate you guys.   Screw you!   I'm going home."   David Cameron was not available for comment on the record.

God announces cabinet reshuffle

Despite omnipotence, God may still need to rely on coalition with Nick Clegg.

Omnipotent Christian deity God has spent the day changing some faces in his cabinet in the first reshuffle for over 2000 years. Many involved are household names and the shake up is seen as significant on earth as it is in heaven.

The big loser is God’s long time wing man Jesus of Nazareth, whose coveted position of ‘sitting at the right hand of God’ has gone to Princess Diana. The heavenly father has recently faced fresh accusations of nepotism as well as a failure to represent females in positions of power, and has seemingly smote two birds with one stone.

The third member of the holy trinity ‘The Holy Spirit’ retains his/her/its position as minister without portfolio.

Long time keeper of the pearly gates St Peter handed in his resignation earlier in the week amid speculation of the imminent re-shuffle. St Peter’s position has been under increasing pressure over the longrunning ‘plebgate’ affair in which he’s accused of denying Nelson Mandela access to heaven and accusing Mandela of calling him a pleb, a charge Mandela has always denied. With Sir David Frost announced as St Peter’s successor, its expected Mandela will soon make another bid for access.

Perhaps the most shocking appointment is a new role for Pontius Pilate. Pilate has a somewhat chequered history within the party, however many say his martyrdom to washing his hands of things makes him the ideal candidate for Health Minister.


Cameron liberates children from forced education

David Cameron has joined in the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, who is often credited with planting the seeds of social reform, by announcing the return of child labour to the UK. The ‘Little Society’ initiative will see academies turning part of the curriculum over to ‘work-style’ activities.

‘Since the Elementary Education Act of 1880 , a child’s right to work has been consistently eroded,’ Cameron said. ‘Young people are being forced to exist on the meagere pocket money handed out by their stingy parents, unable to break out of the cycle of parent-inflicted poverty. Besides, poor people’s children don’t really like school anyway.’

Young people will be able to gain practical skills like rubbish sorting, sweeping and, of course, chimney cleaning, while being paid in mobile phone credits, Quavers and Red Bull.

‘In one fell swoop, the thugs, mentals and ADHD twitch-arses have been removed. Fuckin’ A!’  a teachers’ spokesman said. ‘Now all we have to do is farm off the few sensitive twattish middle-class moppets remaining and we’re all on easy street.’

Child Sees No Reason Why Iron Man Costume Can't Be Worn To Grandfather’s Funeral

Arguing that he had been allowed to wear it in the past, local youth Andrew Robillard protested a parental edict barring his Iron Man costume from the upcoming funeral of his late grandfather.

From our Sponsor in a tax haven somewhere in La Manche

"The Neck Brush", designed to clean children's neck while they play (1950)

National News Latest

Ukip deputy leader denies being Bungle on Rainbow

Ukip deputy leader Paul Nuttall has denied being the actor who played Bungle the bear on kids TV show Rainbow.

The MEP for the North West’s Wikipedia page was edited to say he was the “original Bungle” - something Mr Nuttall told the Daily Mirror was “probably the funniest thing” he’d ever read about himself online.

Unfortunately, the MEP wasn’t even born when Rainbow started, in 1972.

Laurel and Hardy - 100 funny jokes by 100 comedians (Daily Telegraph)

Oliver Hardy: 'Didn't you once tell me that you had an uncle?'

Stan Laurel: 'Sure, I've got an uncle. Why?'

Oliver: 'Now we're getting somewhere. Is he living?'

Stanley: 'No. He fell through a trap door and broke his neck.'

Oliver: 'Was he building a house?'

Stanley: 'No, they were hanging him.'

From The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930). Stan Laurel (1890-1965), Oliver Hardy (1892-1957).

Picture: Rex Features

Human Rights Act to be replaced with Warhammer rulebook

15-05-15  Daily Mash

THE Government has today confirmed that it will be replacing the Human Rights Act with Warhammer 40,000: The Rules. 

The 208-page science fiction wargame rulebook is seen as the ideal replacement because it allows every possible type of conflict to be resolved with only a handful of dice.

Justice secretary Michael Gove said: “The legal system is convoluted and impossible for the layman to understand. UsingWarhammer 40,000 we can reproduce that perfectly, but on a much smaller scale using beautifully painted miniatures.

“If you are claiming a right to privacy, for example, we roll two twenty-sided dice to determine your score, take away any debuffs – low income, being foreign – and measure it against the government’s own total.

“We make our rolls behind the books so you can’t see, but it’s all perfectly fair.”

The first case, a challenge of the government’s right to detain terror suspects without trial, has already been heard on Kulth the War World and ended in the defeat of the Imperium of Man by Tyranid Biomorphs without the right to appeal.

Gove added: “My office has been asked why we chose to use the science-fictional Warhammer 40,000 rules rather than the originalWarhammer Fantasy setting.

“Simply, we are not barbarians.”

Local Labour calls Election Inquiry - "Total disbelief"

Bognor Regis Labour Party is looking into how one if its candidates in Orchard Ward managed to defy national and local trends and get elected.   

A spokesperson said that after all the careful planning everywhere else, it had come as a huge shock: "Imagine, the last bloody place we expected it".  Meanwhile, party sources (HP) are playing down/up/on/off the significance of the vote gained by its candidate:  "Er, this is the 21st Century, you can't read anything into the number 666".   Meanwhile other councillors, local groups etc have been calling for a meeting of the Local Disasters Emergency Committee in case the Labour Councillor turns out to be a tsunami as predicted by soothsayer Nauline Pash.

Orchard Ward Succession Bid

Local distrust of all outside influences has led to the creation of Orcip, The Orchard Independence Party.   A local activist (who would not allow him/her/itself to be named at this time) said "We're fed up with daft rules made by politicians somewhere else, like Bognor or Arun or West Sussex or Britain or the EU or the World, Solar System, Galaxy etc etc,   We can make our own thanks."

S/he/it/they denied the new party was about immigration.  "It's simply a question of numbers, so we want to limit the number of people coming here from Littlehampton and other foreign places."

Orcip's economic policy has been unveiled ahead of its leadership election.   "Well, we all know that if we were to legalise cannabis  in our new independent nanostate  we would have a huge surplus income, full local employment, many home and small, even attic businesses, the vast resources of the Durban Road Industrial Heartland (and we will nanonationalise any who refuse to pay protection insurance).

"Defence?  We plan to introduce conscription for skateboarders to enhance their skills so we can deliver devastating and rapid responses to any incursions from outside our borders. "  

"Welfare?   Ah yes, well this is the nanostate after all?  Er, no more questions, thank you."   Orcip says it also will nano-lise public transport, including the Star 1 service, Southern Rail to its borders, and the current Bognor Regis Railway station which will be transformed to become Orchard International Travel Centre.  Also, it is a candidate for the siting of the new government, but also the old BL Building in Clifton Road is being looked at."

Popular Children's character falling out of favour?

Stunning discovery floors the religiously blinkered

Jesus curses the fig tree - Mark 11, 12-25

You've Got to be Joking - Eating Your Words - Today's Cartoon by Matt

the bACK pAGE - Miracle Resurrection?

Oh look, it's a man who came back from the dead after three 

days. And Jesus.

the bACK pAGE - Are you Game Dear....?

A true story. A couple on an African Safari witnessed a small antelope being chased by a cheetah. The wife told the...
Posted by Kevin Piper on Sunday, April 26, 2015

You've Got to be Joking - Caught by surprise? - Today's cartoon by Matt

Why the Tories have done so well in England

One answer. Immigration.  If anyone pretends that this Election, at root, for a majority of people was about anything else, either a) they are lying  b) they are dumb.  Or not so much about immigration as anti-immigrant sentiment.   Listen on a high street near you about 'all them [Poles] [please complete as appropriate] and you can't go anywhere and hear English spoken'.

This is about Change, and the reluctance of people to adapt when they are already pressured by changes wrought in their lives beyond their control, as they see it.   When low-paid immigrants arrive to live 12 to a caravan in fields up the road, work all hours, no one asks who's paying the low wages to them?   When police raid sites for illegals, which English companies are required to account for them being there?   Cockle pickers?  When was that?  Ah gangmasters, no it was them, we didn't need to ensure that every UK firm using such labour sources had to show they had checked the eligibility of people in their workplaces, on their sites to be there.  Think of the cost, man.

UKIP - ostensibly about EU, but truth to tell, its dishonesty is that they won't admit they pander to an anti-immigrant subtext, which Cameron also knows infests his party as grass roots, and Labour hasn't been innocent over the decades.   Read any vox-pop response (eg facebook) where UKIP was mentioned, and it was clear the anti-immigrant issue was what they identified in UKIP, and where Cameron had to offer (mais oui)  EU in-out referendum, which is what gave him the tools to deflate UKIP and defeat Labour.

So, 24 months max to said referendum.   Cameron looks secure as he storms into Number Ten, them pesky UKIP seen off and the red tide stemmed (again).   Let's get on with our austerity agenda (and we broke the Lib Dem fag (as in Public School, Clegg Minor) which Cameron knew the minute he got the little tyke into his study in Downing House in Westminster College).

BUT .... as he contemplates the referendum he will need to find a way to offer it in such a way that those voting chappies and chapesses won't rumble him as he says "stay in EU".   No wonder Farrago is saying "I quit, well at least for a while" - he knows that Cameron is most unlikley to be able to square that circle.   Fall on sword noble Miliband, hapless Clegg Minor, but Nigel has brought out his trick panto sword.  Oooch ouch the pain, the pain.

For Cameron to convince, he has to believe that the EU empathy gene is really still there, that he can 'get a deal' from Europe's other elected leaders.  Failure comes at the price of the public's faith in the blue agenda.

Square the circle?  More like tetrahedroning the oval ellipsoid.

What none of these shysters want to admit is that they must know the amount of racist undertow that will flow and become a strong current.   It may sweep a lot before it.