Cllr. Gavin Ayling

I’ve written on this at The Cameron Leadership blog.

A must read viewpoint on the Australian riots - very sensible… click here. I just wish he’d been writing when the Paris troubles started.

Thanks to Dodgeblogium for this find.

Channel 4 will be showing a magic show featuring the miracles performed by Jesus - it’s a nice angle - it’ll probably be entertaining…

(Channel 4, Friday 9pm)

I don’t intend to update this website tomorrow so I’ve removed the Christmas decorations and replaced them with a new banner design. Let me know what you think!

Tax less

That’s the question James asks himself and I say, no.

I think we have to be very aware that they’re going to be saying things that may sound alien to Conservatives but which actually mean what we believe!

I happily redistribute my ‘wealth’ by paying taxes that I know will pay for an elderly person’s pension. In fact, I would be happy for a larger proportion of the tax I pay to go to that and less to go to, say, the EU.

I guess what Oliver Letwin is saying is that the poor (by misfortune rather than laziness) in society should be supported, to some extent, while those of us who survive by meritocratic freedom can carry on earning a fair and relative wage. I am comforted, particularly, by Cameron’s espousal of the virtues of charity.

Update (11:43pm 23 December 2005)

And, therefore, I disagree with Devil’s Kitchen for once. (Thanks Allan)

Our generosity is famous. The United Kingdom has a long and proud history of providing asylum to those in need. A lot of the time that has brought us great benefits as just and good people flee from unjust and immoral despots.

And recently, despite the attempts of the right-wing press that has continued… But, and there is a but:
There are, unfortunately, two problems with our current policy:
1. There are, in this modern, mobile world, enough people to replace every person in the country several times who would be deserving of asylum.
2. Our definition of asylum completely fails to take into account the crimes of the seeker.

The news today, then, solves the second of these problems as the following excerpt shows clearly:

Kasonga - described by the Judge as “thoroughly dishonest” - ripped out individual cheques and farmed them out to gang members to cash for up to £1,200 a time while living in a council house and claiming £160 week in benefits.

Widower and father-of-three Kasonga - who also came to Britain as an asylum seeker ‘determined to commit crime’ - was today jailed for three-and-a-half years. The Judge also ordered that both men be deported at the end of their jail terms.

Source: Lifestyle News

And the first is something that is like the inconvenience of much in this life: unavoidable.

There are, again, two ways of solving the first point. Condemn good people by refusing them access to our shores or invade every despotic regime around the world to rid the world of the need for asylum. You may notice, when reading these options, that neither is realistic.

If neither of the only two options in any given circumstance is acceptable then the status quo should prevail.

We should, of course, be providing for our own disabled and elderly first - which we’re not - but that’s another issue entirely. I would also, as a libertarian, consider asking charity to get involved in paying for asylum seekers, and subsequently, refugee’s care. There is little more democratic and free than charity.

No EU Superstate

I’m a Conservative. Let there be no confusion.

I’m looking forward to the Conservative Party’s long overdue withdrawal from the European People’s Party (EPP) which has stymied genuine opposition to federalism for so long.

I had to sit through the news yesterday admiring the stance that the UK Independence Party took in confronting Blair. Why, I have to ask myself, was Blair being harrangued, not by the party of opposition, but by the fringe and populist, UKIP? Blair was down and, in politics, it’s not wrong to kick when he’s in that position - it’s even congratulated. So why was the kicking being done by a single-issue party?

The Conservatives did well immediately after the leadership election but, already, the media has lost interest. There’s less excitement about the Conservatives. The majority of people still believe they’ll win the next election, true, but the exciting news stories, the political swords that Tories should be grabbing with both hands and thrusting through Labour’s weakness, the spin, if you like, is not being utilised.

I received an e-mail this afternoon from UKIP, genuinely excited (as they might be) about the coup they achieved. Let’s get the Tories who are now openly eurosceptic, to step up to the mantle and shout from the rooftops in a single voice “The EU is not working; and neither is Blair!”

Israel - a solveable problem

Justify This is right when he says that you must watch this video: Debunking the shooting of the boy.

Now like all wars there’s a propaganda war, but there seem to be good arguments in this.

Fascinating news about the Berlin-Moscow Gas Pact.

Want to meet a target? The good doctor explains how to in Blair’s England.

Of course we’d be much better off without targets and with some genuine looks at where the money is going (a read of the doc’s blog would be a good starting point).

I’m uncomfortable with the death penalty. It causes two major problems:

1) We absolutely cannot, ever again, execute an innocent person.
2) If we doubt the guilt of a convicted person, are we suggesting there is something wrong with our judicial system?

A three-strikes and you’re dead policy is sometimes advocated (though not in such colourful language) and I have some sympathy with it except….
Except that it doesn’t account for cases of gross, burning-in-hell’s-too-good-for-them acts of inhumanity like this. If we had an elected head of state we could defer judgements like this to him or her, but as we do not I think the safest option is to keep the option open until there is (or elected judges…).

Lethal injection

England - be proud

I cannot tolerate racism. To me, the colour of someone’s skin makes no difference. Yes, there are cultural differences, and we must recognise that, but the colour of someone’s skin says nothing about their attitudes, ability, intelligence or worth.

But it becomes very easy to stop taking racism seriously when a spokesman for the anti-racist Kick it Out campaign says:

“Sometimes things that on the surface don’t seem to be racists have undertones. You have to ask yourself what point is this person making by declaring he lives and dies in England. Is he implying that someone else is not English and has no right to live here? That’s how it can be taken.

“The reality is that Asian kids were born in Oldham, are taught and work in Oldham and live just similar lives in Oldham as white kids.”

about the flying of our national flag with an added non-racist slogan.

It waters down the unambiguous message that should be being given out by the organisation, and others like it, and makes people think that they are making a fuss for the sake of it.

The national flag of England is not racist, it is not for whites only and the added slogan “Born in England, Live in England, Die in England” suggests nothing about the colour of ones skin or the worth or rights of someone not born in England.

UKIP and an independent Tory gave Blair the sort of verbal whipping that he deserved. Well done to Nigel Farage and Richard Helm for saying, in no uncertain terms, what the rest of us are thinking. Stop giving away our money as a “fig leaf for your failures”.

How, for goodness sake, can complaining about Blair losing in a negotiation to our financial cost, be a sign of someone being stuck in the past? Blair said “It’s not 1945 … we’re not fighting them any more” as if that somehow explains why we should give the EU a single extra penny when CAP will not be reformed for at least three years…

Thanks to Chris Patten for allowing the BBC to make euroscepticism seem like an out-of-date point of view. Why can these Ken-a-likes not see the incompatibility of EU-philia and Conservativism?

That’s the lie that the public swallowed in 2005’s general election.

I really cannot recommend enough the NHS Blog Doctor’s post on NHS spending today.

Thanks to Bishop Hill for pointing this out to me.

… not two things you’d expect to find in one post.

Today there were two news stories that caught my attention one of which was not well publicised by the conventional news media:

GM

Scientific American reports on a GM rice that is rigid. This means that the plants can be grown in closer proximity raising yields.

In my humble opinion there is a slight risk in genetic modification in as much as making plants able to resist strong herbicides and those plants becoming invasive. I have seen no evidence to suggest that GM crops will be harmful to people eating them.

But what’s different about this story is that nothing has been introduced into the rice, a gene has been switched off. Nothing has been done to the rice which can change its pervasiveness either. To all intents and purposes this genetic modification is no different to selective breeding.

Evolution

Half-way through writing this, J0nz made an excellent comment about the news that Pennsylvania has lost in it’s fight to teach creationism as science (BBC, CNN):

No teaching of ID in schools! I fully respect the Christian world-based view as a paradigm for ethical interactions - but not for an intelligent explanation for the world around us!

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Update - 21 December 2005

And now Scientific American have a comment.

Today is a day to celebrate the continuing advancement of science.

David Cameron has the perfect opportunity to drop English Votes on English Matters (EVoEM) and embrace the call for an English Parliament today on his visit to Scotland.

Let us hope he takes the opportunity and does not perpetuate the inequitable treatment of English voters.