The leading local story over the past few days: the 2006 motor show won't be at the NEC. Britain's leading exhibition centre has held the annual car exhibition in even-numbered years since 1980; the odd-numbered years have been at various locations in London. Next year's show, though, will shift to Excel in London.

The NEC has reacted like the spoiled losers, a spokey saying "we wouldn't be surprised if there are defections from the show," but stopping short of announcing plans for a rival attraction.

The event's promoters, the Society of Motherearth Murderers and Traders (SMMT) blamed the high costs of moving people up from the capital, the high parking charges, and the pisspoor train service. We noted at the time that the SMMT had moved its event to a week when the direct train line to London would be shut, and this closure had been known for over two years.

We've mixed emotions. It's not particularly good that a prestigious show is leaving the West Midlands, but it does reflect the local move away from heavy industry towards more services. The car as a mode of transport is, of course, many years past its drive-by date, and leaving the show in the parochial and insular confines of Docklands may be another blessing in disguise. Finally, there's the fact that the NEC has been unable to cope with the additional traffic and visitors for many years, and it's past time that the event left the rest of us in peace.

National news: Anti-terror plans fail to win opposition support. Michael Howaerd said, "Labour’s proposals are fundamentally flawed. Under the Government’s proposals dangerous terrorists will be detained in their living rooms - not in a prison cell. This is wholly unacceptable. There is an alternative to Mr Blair’s ill-thought through scheme. People accused of terrorist offences should be brought to trial. Their innocence or guilt must be determined by a court of law - not by the Home Secretary." We look forward to his opposition to Charles In Charge's flawed proposals.

International news: An indignant Israeli is suing a pet shop that he says sold him a dying parrot, reports the Ma'ariv newspaper. Itzik Simowitz of the southern city of Beersheba contends the shop cheated him because the Galerita-type cockatoo not only failed to utter a word when he got it home, but was also extremely ill. Mr Simowitz adds that the shop owner assured him the parrot was not ill but merely needed time to adjust to its new environment. The report does not indicate that the shop-keeper suggested Mr Simowitz visit his brother's pet shop in Haifa.

permanent link
posted 22 Feb 2005, 16.23 +0000

When is an apology not an apology? When it comes from the mayor, Mayor. Even though Ken Livingstone has apologised for any offence caused, this isn't enough for the Daily Hell, its toadies and lapdogs. We make no apology for reproducing his speech at length.

"There will be no apology or expression of regret to the Daily Mail Group.

You are responsible for your own actions. That you are paid by Daily Mail group to do the job you do is not a defence for your behaviour. Pursuing me along the pavement thrusting your tape recorder at me whilst repeatedly barking the same question when I had clearly indicated I did not wish to be interviewed by you is not acceptable behaviour by you or any other journalist. Indeed a member of the public behaving in this way could find themselves arrested for a breach of peace.

To the Daily Mail group I say that no-one in Britain is less qualified than they to complain about anti-semitism. Their papers were not, as some have reported, guilty of "a brief flirtation" with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. In truth these papers were the leading advocates of anti-semitism in Britain for half a century.

Beginning a hundred years ago with their campaign to stop Jewish refugees fleeing to Britain from Russia they carried on right the way through the rise of Hitler and even after the start of World War II still felt free to peddle the lie that Germany’s Jews had brought the holocaust upon themselves.

Whilst it is true the Mail group no longer smears Jews as bringing crime and disease to the UK it is only because they have moved on. After a decade of pandering to racism against our citizens of Black and Irish origin they have moved on and now describe asylum seekers and Muslims in similar terms. For the Mail group the victims may change but the intolerance, hatred and fear pervade every issue of the papers.

What was the motive of the Mail group in whipping up this media fire storm? If insulted why did the Daily Mail group journalist or the editor of the Evening Standard not get in touch and say they thought I had gone too far? If the Daily Mail group journalist had expressed regret for his behaviour on the street I would have been happy to withdraw my comments and assure him I bore him no hard feelings.

If the editor of the Evening Standard could have explained why in five years of mayoral receptions this was the first one at which they had chosen to photograph every guest as they left, I might have been persuaded by her answer.

In all the tens of thousands of words devoted to this story in the last two weeks no paper has been able to show that my words contravened any clause in any of the Acts of Parliament that deal with racism, or anti-semitism or that they were anti-semitic or racist.

Is it the case that whilst not racist or anti-semitic my words were so offensive they should never have been uttered?

Clearly the the leading Jewish newspaper the Jewish Chronicle does not think so. On February 7th 2003 they published a letter accusing Professors Hilary and Stephen Rose of being kapos (concentration camp inmates serving as guards). The Roses complained to the Jewish Chronicle and the Press Complaints Commission. The Press Complaints Commission rejected the Roses complaint on the grounds that the Jewish Chronicle had printed a letter of rebuttal on the Roses.

Clearly, the Jewish Chronicle and the Press Complaints Commission did not feel that this term diminished the holocaust.

Over the last two weeks my main concern has been that many Jewish Londoners have been disturbed by this whipped up row. I do not equate the actions of one reporter with the total abdication of responsibility shown by those who were complicit to whatever degree in the horrors of the holocaust. But I do believe that abdicating responsibility for one’s actions by the excuse that "I am only doing my job" is the thin end of the immoral wedge that at its other extreme leads to the crimes and horrors of Auschwitz, Rwanda and Bosnia.

I have been deeply affected by the concern of Jewish people in particular that my comments downplayed the horror and magnitude of the holocaust. I wish to say to those Londoners that my words were not intended to cause such offence and that my view remains that the holocaust against the Jews is the greatest racial crime of the 20th century.

Something that has been disgraceful over these past two weeks has been the way in which the Daily Mail group have worked hand in glove with the chair of the London Assembly and his Conservative colleagues. Betraying his wider political agenda Brian Coleman has in his many appearances tried to widen this issue to include my views about the policies of the Israeli government.

In response, the Daily Hell's London organ wittered on about being "a different paper," not pointing out that it is bankrolled by the morally bankrupt national publication. It droned on, but this blog has a policy of not giving space to fascists.

permanent link
posted 23 Feb 2005, 19.19 +0000

...and taps Number One in her Top Ten Commandments: Thou shalt have no other god before me. "That means you don't try to predict what I shall do, you don't claim to speak on My behalf, and for My sake you don't even think about telling other people what I think. Even when I've made up my mind, I'm quite capable of making my views clear. Especially when I'm talking to that Moses bloke. Inattentive little bugger, I had to set a frickin' Bush on fire to attract his attention. Good idea, that, I'll have to think about setting more Bushes ablaze."

God was speaking after reading the latest action of the British-based "Christian Voice" pressure group, who have blackmailed a charity into rejecting a donation because it came from the cast of Jerry Springer The Opera Musical. Said God, "As soon as I read next week's edition of The Tablet, I was shocked. Blackmail isn't something I'm particularly happy about. Protesting outside charity offices, that distresses Me. OK, I'm not particularly happy with My portrayal in this comedy, but I can see the artistic merit in their work. And it's very funny stuff. Now, let Me go away and work on a suitably divine retribution."

God's spokesgopher, St Gordon of Sonora, made a very coherent and funny set of comments. It's a shame that most people don't understand his speech, and only hear the squeaks.

Nick Barlow looks at "Christian Voice" in somewhat greater detail. It would be an over-simplification to say that they were the religious wing of the Robert Kilroy-Shaft tendency. And, oh look, the orange loon's party's nominal leader is a member of ver Voice!

In the meantime, we're thinking of counter-protesting outside a Birmingham theatre if this group of self-righteous nerds stages a protest outside a Jerry Springboard The Musical production. Any other takers? Any heckles?

permanent link
posted 24 Feb 2005, 19.25 +0000

(When Google defies Europe): Jean-Noël Jeanneney, current president of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), worries about Google indexing 15 million books (4.5 milliard pages) from Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the New Amsterdam Public Library, and Oxford. By comparison, the BNF offers 80000 books on its on-line service Gallica. The fight, says M Jeanneney, is unequal.

The main problem is that the Anglo-saxon point of view will be over-represented, just like the "Scarlet Pimprenel" described the French Revolution differently from "Quatre-Vingt Treize". "Here we find the risk of a crushing domination, by America, of the idea that future generations will have of the world."

Part of his worry is also due that Google's interest in such a project is purely economic, with potential perverse effects. He proposes that European countries join efforts to build public, non-corporate, European-based digital libraries and search engines.

(Via Viewropa)

Of course google is collecting vast amounts of data from all of us. They can link our websearches to our email account and make the normally rather anonymous web search function suddenly a very personal experience. Now they can also track what ISBN, UPS and map information you access, stuff you buy, index our hard drives and the list goes on. Will there be a day when people say enough is enough and steer clear of google? What is for some folks just a very convenient way is for others a privacy threat. I am sure they have the diskspace to store about everything you do, if they want to. And now that they have to maximize the return for their shareholders, the "do no evil" philosophy will be an obstacle, and will fall by the wayside.

permanent link
posted 25 Feb 2005, 19.38 +0000

Three Birmingham Labour councillors have been elected through the "serious and massive fraud" of thousands of postal ballot votes, a High Court judge heard this week.

Deputy Judge Richard Mawrey QC was told the scale of voting fraud was so widespread, it had effectively decided the result of the poll. There were 7,137 postal votes in the Bordesley Green ward - nearly six times as many as were cast in the ward's polling stations.

Graham Brodie, QC for the petitioners, claimed at least half of the postal ballots were forgeries or stolen votes. Around 1,500 votes turned up in mysterious circumstances at midnight underneath a table at the city's election count last June. All the votes in the three boxes were distinguished by an identical clerical error. And all 1,500 were for the Labour Party in a poll their candidates won by 441 votes.

Mr Brodie said other postal ballots had been forged, doctored, or intercepted and altered with non-Labour crosses being deleted with correction fluid. He promised evidence to show the three Labour councillors were directly involved in the fraud, and accused the city's returning officer, council chief executive Lin Homer, of failing in her responsibility to adhere to election rules by questioning the votes.

Methods used to fix the ballot included false addresses and the multiple witnessing of ballot papers; differing witness signatures purporting to be the same person; signatures on declarations of identity identical to signatures of other voters; forged witness signatures; votes altered after completion; and postal vote documents stolen from letter boxes.

Mr Brodie said: "We say that they adopted grossly improper means for fraudulently inflating votes cast in their favour. They procured large numbers of un-used postal ballot documents which they then completed in the names of persons who were entitled to a postal vote but had no idea postal votes were being cast in their names. There is strong evidence of illegal and corrupt conduct committed personally by Labour candidates and persons related in some way to the candidates."

In addition, there were insufficient checks on suspicious ballot papers and inadequate custody of ballot boxes.

After being taken through allegedly fraudulent votes by Mr Brodie, the judge said the signatures of the applicant and elector on one set of forms were "patently different". "One of them must be bogus," Mr Mawrey said. He said he would "not have to be a devotee of The Times crossword" to recognise that different signatures had clearly been completed by the same person.

Asked to examine a declaration of identity signature that was allegedly the same as the signature of another voter by a different name, Mr Mawrey said: " Even to my untrained eye, the signatures are identical. One, or possibly both, of these signatures are false particularly as they were witnessed by two entirely different people."

Legal backing for the Bordesley Green three was withdrawn last week by the Labour Party. After the refusal of their appeal to have the hearing deferred until after a May general election, the trio flounced out of the hearing.

On the second day, the tribunal heard from Mohammed Sadiq, a polling officer for the PJP, who told of the sudden appearance of three ballot boxes. All the votes they contained were for Labour. Mr Sadiq said there were separate tables for the polling station votes and the postal votes in the counting hall at the National Indoor Arena.

"At 11am, I noticed three black boxes without lids had suddenly appeared on the postal votes table. I asked where they came from and were told they had been delivered to the election office. They contained between 1,500 and 1,700 votes and I wondered how so many came to the office. I checked about 300 and they were all for Labour."

Mr Sadiq said he raised concerns the votes were not checked properly to marry up the numbers on the envelopes with those on the ballot papers. The returning officer, Lin Homer, chief executive of Birmingham City Council, and her election officer John Owen decided to include the boxes.

Philip Coppel, counsel for Ms Homer, claimed the "innuendo" that they had been "secreted into the count by Labour Party supporters is simply untenable". Richard Mawrey, the deputy High Court judge presiding over the hearing, said: "There is no doubt that the circumstances in which these boxes appeared was such as to cause a major row at the time."

What was inside the boxes? Lots of correction fluid, over marks that weren't for Labour, and crosses by candidates who were for Labour. Postmen handing over bundles of ballot papers, not to the residents, but to one of the candidates. One of the Labour candidates, natch. Children and Labour workers stealing ballot papers from boxes, and demanding that voters hand over their slips, falsely threatening them with £5000 fines. People voting from home when they were provably in Pakistan. Over ninety people saying that they had never applied for a postal vote, yet had one issued, and the vote returned for Labour.

The saga continued: one councillor said that he was tucked up in bed during a ballot-stuffing exercise on an industrial estate. Not so, say the petitioners, who want to release mobile phone records. At the time, this councillor was part of the ruling group, so had a council-issue Handy, and the bills would be somewhere in city hall. Quite where, no-one knows. Curious.

Birmingham's elections officer, John Hall, didn't mince his words, but nor did he take any of the blame himself. He told the court that the general election is wide open to fraud, thanks to the headlong rush into postal voting. He had personally urged ministers to introduce safeguards against cheating, but they have refused to change the law. After last year's experiments, the independent Electoral Commission sought a law requiring returning officers to check postal vote papers after elections. The government has declined to make these changes

"The current system is open to abuse and therefore it’s easy to cheat and not to be caught out," said Mr Owen. The commissioner responded, "That is something that would be appreciated by anybody who is minded to go cheating."

John Owen told the court he was met by several 'agitated' people at the National Indoor Arena at the start of the count. They wanted to know where several ballot boxes had come from. Mr Owen said he explained that they had come direct from the Elections Office and were to be counted at the NIA. Apparently postal ballots from the majority of other wards had been processed earlier - rather than being simply delivered direct to the count. The elections officer said his explanation wasn't accepted but that he had insisted that the votes had been legitimately received and should go into the count.

"I had come into the counting room hoping to have a sensible discussion. The people complaining were behaving in a very ’mob-handed’ way. This did not make me back off. I saw it as my duty to make the decision on what I firmly believed to be correct electoral law procedures. However intimidating they might choose to be, I did not want to be ’railroaded’ into departing from the conclusion I had reached.

"I would not disagree that I said that if they did not be quiet, I would call the police and have them removed from the NIA. I was keen to make the count as organised as possible. On any normal view, this incident was starting to get out hand. Such behaviour disrupts the count and generally causes difficulties which prevent staff from undertaking their jobs - be they counting assistants or more senior staff - properly and efficiently."

Mr Owen told the election court that there was no legal provision empowering election officials such as himself to deal differently with envelopes that looked as though they had been opened and resealed or where correction fluid had been used. Of the 142 apparently altered ballots identified, only one was marked to indicate the use of correction fluid. A review, by his staff, concluded that 71 declarations should have been rejected but were not.

The trial continues next week. A similar trial involving postal vote fraud in the Aston election is to follow in early March.

permanent link
posted 26 Feb 2005, 16.54 +0000

Three elections of interest this week: a strong swing to Labour in Hartlepool, a strong swing to the Lib Dems in Norfolk, and a minor swing in Berkshire. Here's the scores:

Transfers
=========

Con - Lab + 8.28% (+ 8.10%)
Con - LD  - 2.38% (- 2.40%)
Lab - LD  -10.66% (-10.50%)

Seats
=====

Lab 277 (+  0 -124 279)
Con 277 (+112 -  0 275)
LD   62 (+ 11 -  0  62)

Lab minority: 47 (45)
Con minority: 47 (49)

On this model, we have what's technically known as a Tie. In this event, the casting vote of the Dimbleby Brothers comes into effect, or we go to a game of rock-paper-scissors. Or something like that.

permanent link
posted 26 Feb 2005, 17.02 +0000

This week, the Government abolished the monarchy, and almost no-one noticed.

The war against truth

Het Grauniad went long on why Iraq and why so soon and who leaned on Goldsmith? The big revelation is that the UK government's then-chief lawyer didn't write the opinion credited to him during the March 2003 debate that led the UK into an illegal war - Tony Blair specifically set up a panel of lawyers to represent him against charges that it was illegal.

"We must put the security of our country before any consideration," said Mr Mister Tony Blair. No, sir, you have sworn to put human rights - which are not incompatible with national security - ahead of anything.

Charles In Charge claimed that there would be terrorist attacks during the run-up to the UK's election in May whenever that might be. How would he know, given the 100% record of the UK's intelligence services. Also, when will Gerry Adams be locked up in this way; after all, he's widely suspected of associating with terrorists?

Going to a royal wedding

The Mirror reports that Charles Windsor and Camilla Parker-Horse have been disinvited from the self-proclaimed FARCE leader's residence. He doesn't call himself a "republicationary" for nothing, you know. Now, what if Mr Blair loses to Mr Howaerd (similarly disinvited last year) in May, and Mrs Windsor steps down in favour of her son? Will Mr X be disinvited from all UK engagements? Will the UK stop overlooking the FARCE's breaches of the Treaty of Paris and hunt him down like the war criminal he is? The phrase "If that's policy, he's got my vote" springs to mind.

But just hang on one cotton-pickin' minute. According to the government, Charles Windsor has rights covered by the Human Rights Act. This can only happen if he (and, by extension, the rest of his relatives) are citizens like everyone else, able to draw on all legislative benefits. And if they can gain the rights, then they have the same responsibilities as any other citizen. Well, that just about wraps it up for Crown immunity, and the right not to pay tax.

Oh, and the whole notion of prosecutions in the name of the Crown collapses. To which court could Mr Windsor take his complaint, as he would (in effect) be suing his own Mumsey? Presumably the Human Rights Act overrides those discriminatory elements of the Royal Marriage Act as much as it overrides the 1836 and 1949 Registration and Civil Marriage Acts, so Willy and Harold will be able to marry professing Catholics, if they so wish.

Media notwork

Which is worse; the Sunday Express, or Robert Kilroy-Silk? We will have to choose, because the Worst Thing In The Western World, the orange's weekly column in the Sunday Jizzrag, has been axed. "We can't have politics in our paper, it might put our readers off their, er, reading," said a Sexpress group spokesmodel.

OFCOM has agreed to let ITV cut its childrens output to a derisory eight hours per week, from twelve. Given that three of those hours will be on Saturday mornings, that leaves just one hour per weekday of entertainment for youngsters. Why do we bother with such a limp regulator?

In memoriam

And finally, a fond farewell to Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International.

permanent link
posted 27 Feb 2005, 17.56 +0000

Number one number 998 belongs to debutant Tim McGraw, with the help of some woman called Nelly. Over and over is the title, and it does accurately describe a song that drags on and on and on again. Jennifer Lopez slips to 2.

Another week, another Elvis release, but this time it's only number three. His ninth number one was Wild in the country, a topper for one week in September 1961. For some inexplicable reason, this has not been included on the release schedule, and BMG has skipped straight through to the tenth, (Marie's the name) his latest flame. The 125th chart-topper was backed with Little sister, and was originally recorded by Del Shannon. Strewth, this is getting a bit boring; still, it's ten down, five to go. Or is it...

The Council Estate Slappers debut at 4 with Wake me up; Akon hits 5 with Locked up, and we do like the Kaiser Chiefs. Oh my god is a jolly good tune, all about losing one's virginity (or something like that.) We also like the Futureheads' cover of Kate Bosh's Hounds of love - the original made the top 20 around this time in 1986. Usher also has another top ten hit.

The entry list continues - Verbalicious, Snoop Dogg, and Reflekt all enter in the low teens, and Idlewild return at 16 with Love steals us from loneliness. It's Idlewild-by-numbers, which probably isn't a bad thing. Maximo Park, a new group from Newcastle, come from nowhere with Apply some pressure.

Also new: Black horse and the cherry tree is the debut for aspiring Scottish act KT Tunstall. Charlotte Hatherley is depressingly low with Bastardo, the Groove Cutters have a rotten cover of Go West's We close our eyes - a top tenner from twenty years ago almost to the week, and the Dogs bound in with She's got a reason. Finally, Closest thing to heaven is the return of Tears For Fears, and Roland and Curt's first single for fifteen years sounds exactly like Sowing the seeds of love, their last top tenner.

 6 NE Kaiser Chiefs - Oh my god
 8 NE Futureheads - Hounds of love
16 NE Idlewild - Love steals us from loneliness
18  7 U2 - Sometimes you can't make it on your own
20 NE Maximo Park - Apply some pressure
22 16 Uniting Nations - Out of touch
27 13 Chemical Brothers - Galvanise
28 NE KT Tunstall - Black horse and a cherry tree
31 NE Charlotte Hatherley - Bastardo
36 NE Dogs - She's got a reason
37 19 Doves - Black and white town
39 11 Embrace - Looking as you are
40 NE Tears For Fears - Closest thing to heaven
46 18 Noise Next Door - Calendar girl
55 28 Freefaller - Do this do that
60 35 Rooster - Staring at the sun
61 39 Bloc Party - So here we are
63 33 Death From Above 1979 - Blood on our hands
65 37 Hanson - Penny and me
75 41 Dana Rayne - Object of my desire

Albums

A new leader on the albums chart, too: Some Cities is the third studio album from the Doves, and becomes their first number one. Keane slips to 2, the Killers climb to 3, with Green Day and Franz Ferdinand rounding out the top five. Other new entries include Mars Volta and Tori Amos - Frances The Mute and The Beekeeper land at 12 and 13 respectively. There are good climbs for KT Tunstall's Eye To The Telescope (26-18) on the release of her single, and Willy Mason's Where The Humans Eat (27-19) on further positive press.

Lower down, the B'dingfield children occupy adjacent positions for the third week running. The Kills enter shamefully low, No Wow bows at 28, just ahead of Bright Eyes' resurgent I'm Wide Awake... Thunder come back at 37, the Thievery Corporation at 40, and after blanket advertising on the Tube, Jem makes it in at 41.

*20 NE Kent - Max 500
 19 15 Chimene Badi - Je viens du sud
*18 NE Amel Bent - Ma philosophie
 17 11 Killers - Somebody told me
 16 12 Ludovico Einaudi - Luce dei mei occhi
*15 NE Mousse T - Right about now
*14 NE Collectif Asie - Et puis la terre
 13  9 Chemical Brothers - Galvanise
 12  8 Rooster - Staring at the sun
*11 NE Destiny's Child - Soldier
*10 NE Nelly - Over and over
  9  4 Uniting Nations - Out of touch
  8  2 Hanson - Penny and me
  7  3 Gwen Stefani - What you waiting for?
* 6 NE Jennifer Lopez - Get right
* 5 10 Schnappi - Schnappi
* 4  7 Jay-Z & Linkin Park - Numb/encore
* 3  5 Green Day - Boulevard of broken dreams
* 2  6 Eminem - Like "Toy soldiers"
* 1  1 U2 - Sometimes you can't make it on your own

permanent link
posted 27 Feb 2005, 20.07 +0000

A high between Iceland and Greenland has been very slow-moving, and a depression moping over central Europe brought strong easterly winds. Though there were predictions of up to 10cm of snow during Thursday, the temperatures were just a degree or so warmer, and there was just a covering most days. Central Europe had far worse conditions, as did east-facing coasts of the UK. The details for Birmingham:

21 Mo Sun and snow showers -1/3
22 Tu Sun and snow showers -1/3
23 We Snow showers -2/2
24 Th Light snow -1/1
25 Fr Snow showers -1/3
26 Sa Cloud, showers 1/4
27 Su Sun -1/3

By far the coldest week of the winter, 64.5 degree heating days, for a season's total of 508. Yep, over an eighth of the heating so far this winter has been required in the last seven days. Lying snow each morning between Tuesday and Friday, it had generally melted by nightfall.

Next week will still feature the high off Iceland, though it will tend to fill over the week. There isn't such a vigorous depression looking to form, so the easterly wind will tend to drop a little, allowing temperatures to warm a little. However, this general picture obscures some fine details, which may give some rain, sleet, or snow during the week. Tuesday looks particularly dodgy.

permanent link
posted 27 Feb 2005, 20.07 +0000

older writing... write to