Cllr. Gavin Ayling

According to the right-wing press and (oddly) the BBC News Website, Cameron’s returning to logic-land and has now, in the space of two days, championed the proper Conservative ideals of lower immigration and tough action on crime.

The two years of near-silence on the subject has made one slightly cynical, but that he sees that he needs to talk about these issues is gratifying. Let’s hope, when or if he gets power on our behalf, he acts as he’s talking.

As I say to people when talking about these and other issues: It seems so obvious if you don’t allow the status quo to muddy your thinking. It is entirely moot how things are today, it is what we want them to be that matters and if the barriers to achieving that are significant, all the more worthy is the effort.

I have been gradually moving into my new home. The latest thing to move across is my PC so for the next week or so I will be electronically incommunicado.

Tell anyone who complains about my lack of response to emails won’t you!?

So Mr Cameron, our resurgent leader, believes it is up to society to solve the crime-crisis does he?

Well let me tell him that that’s not right. Society is told by the police not to intervene; society watches as the police chase car drivers for speeding offences (which by themselves hurt no-one) while not appearing to do anything about muggings, common assault, petty vandalism or theft. Does society have anything to gain getting their collected selves killed trying to intervene in the stead of an absent police force (sorry it’s ‘police service’ these days)?

Mr Cameron needs to propose a disincentive element to the justice system rather than, the current, corrective emphasis. The people would respond well to a punishing justice system that not only tries to release effective members of society (as is apparently the aim of the current system) but also tries to make those people scared and respectful of the state’s rules (that are there to protect, afterall, the rest of society).

When I first heard that there were televisions in prison cells (I was very young) I was amazed and asked my parents whether prison wasn’t about punishment. But now television is the least of the benefits. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t think prison would suit me at all, but if you were the bully at school, another school-like setting where you can rule those around you is hardly off-putting.

If people were not punished for intervening, if people could be sure the law would protect those who were acting in society’s greater interest, if people could defend others and themselves with force that the law currently considers ‘unreasonable’ from the safe confines of the courtroom, then (and only then) would people and society start to turn on those among them who were antisocial, violent and intimidating.

Like many things, it doesn’t seem that hard so long as you purge the pink fluff which takes the place of a spine in many politicians.

If you like chocolate take a look at these two sites. The first, especially, is amazing (click Projects when you’re suitably amazed to see more) and we open on an enormous ‘purple one’ from Quality Street / Cadbury Roses.

The second link, you lucky people, is Chocolate Review which is as geeky as it sounds.

This is genuinely a question to my readers, not some deeper philosophical rhetorical question:

Why does Germany buy fewer games per head than the UK or France:

[Germany] is the third-biggest market for video games in Europe, behind the UK and France, with PC titles dominating the market.

This from a story about the PS3’s new PVR capabilities: BBC News

It would seem to me that Germany’s cultural similarities concerning alcohol and free time would make the number of games bought there similar to in Britain… But obviously not.

I haven’t had much painting to do recently but found some to do while sitting watching the England game last night.

And how therapeutic it is… I shall miss it when there really is none left to do.

What did I say about socialists not caring (yesterday)?

Well today, Ken exploits and supports poor socialists. Buying fuel from a democracy ought to be a good thing, but all economists agree that a stable developing economy needs a strong principled stance on the absolute that is, and should be, property ownership.

The BBC’s staff think some terrorists are justified apparently.

Merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit, merit.

BBC News

When will the Tories start being the party of merit?

Gah! Anyone watching BBC Breakfast this morning cannot help to have been annoyed by the bend-over-backwards-until-your-country-is-overrun-with-murderers lefty do-gooders on the sofa… I only saw five minutes to be fair, before I left for work, but why on Earth are we subjected to so much “the status quo is perfectly acceptable” or “we should be more left-wing” nonsense, and no “we should be more right-wing”? When I say right-wing, of course, I mean the right-wing I espouse on this site: more freedom from taxes, more freedom from oppressive laws, more freedom from the State and more freedom.

And now a new Socialism is rearing its head. So far there have been three: Socialism, Communism and Environmentalist-Socialism. Now there is a fourth: International-Anti-trade-Environmentalist-Socialism! I’ve never really believed that post-Victorian socialists had the interests of the poor or the ‘worker’ at heart but this must be the final, unequivocal evidence?

The local campaigns to save major hospitals have been going for quite a while now. KWASH, for example, which aims to save Worthing and Southlands Hospitals — and particularly Worthing’s A&E, Intensive Care and Maternity functions — has been running for over a year.

So some may ask why it has taken until now for David Cameron to call for the protection of these massive NHS assets: BBC News.

But I think he’s right.

If he’d mentioned it when the campaigns started the media and the public would be bored and cynical. By mentioning it now, when the decisions are nigh, he’s able to gain nationwide support, raise the profile of the pillaging Mr Brown’s government is undertaking, and actually run a risk of getting the great apathetic public to be motivated for once!

…

And how can I let this go without pointing out that this isn’t happening in Scotland or Wales. Oh no! This is happening in England where a significantly smaller amount of tax is spent per person. Upset by that? Join the CEP.

Would David Cameron dare to give us this policy? He’s so scared, it seems, of seeming like a Tory that this is unlikely to be agreed I fear.

Inheritance Tax is an unreasonable tax that doesn’t raise significant funds, doesn’t apply to the very rich and causes smaller estates to be split up. The National Trust only exists because people cannot afford to keep the home that has been in their possession for generations. I love the National Trust, but it cannot be right that people’s homes are effectively taken from them.

Furthermore, just because the person who built a fortune has passed away, why does that mean that his or her family should not benefit? It feels far less like genuine fund-raising and far more like a socialist ideal to stop people benefiting from their parent’s successes.