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Open the picture & study the facts - then start being angry that the liars & scoundrels are deliberatly misleading… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 52 minutes ago
Archive for the 'John PETLEY' Category
#0317* – UKIP IS TO BE "PROFESSIONALISED" WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE!
#0317* – UKIP IS TO BE "PROFESSIONALISED" WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE!
Nigel FARAGE MEP EFD LEADER & UKIP Elected States:
"UKIP IS TO BE ROFESSIONALISED"
WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE!!!
I need add no details to this essay about UKIP written by a member in despair or a member of staff in disgust – well in fact BOTH.
It reads so similarly to so many other such essays of personal first hand experience & knowledge – it is unsurprising to the informed that essays as with this one, that of John Petley, Richard Suchorzewski, Niall Warry, Marcus Stead and many more I have read that never reached the public domain, such as that of Robin Page, Dr. Eric Edmond, Dr. David Abbott, Geoffrey Kingscott, Roger Knapman and more.
They all neatly dovetail together. Each has a similar tale, each substantiating and corroborating the other.
Sadly I am in a position to confirm virtually every material detail AND MORE! Even sadder is the fact that this was written a couple of years ago and is at least as bad now if not worse. UKIP WAS at one time OUR Lifeboat but with its rotten planking, self serving and self enriching crew, literally £Millions seemingly gone missing unaccounted it is as the essayist states quite clearly at the end 'UKIP has had its chance and blown it'.
I believe there are areas that UKIP has totally misunderstood and lacked the basic common sense or leadership to present in any plausible way and with the dividive and utterly incompetent lack of leadership the wreck has been largely self induced!
UKIP IS TO BE "PROFESSIONALISED"?
I AM REMINDED OF THE WORDS OF ONE OF THE LAST PEOPLE BROUGHT IN TO PROFESSIONALISE THE PARTY. JOHN PETLEY John was a good man, and a dedicated UKIP activist (and candidate), who learned at first hand what it means to be close to the dishonourable piece of self-serving slime that is known as Nigel Farage.
What has gone wrong? A number of things, and binding many of them together is a common thread – the failings of the current party leader, Nigel Farage.
The Farage problem – a personal perspective on a flawed personality
Many past and present UKIPpers started off initially impressed with Nigel Farage. My personal route from awe to disgust of the man is in a sense unique, but in other ways typical of what so many past and present UKIPpers have gone through. The first UKIP speaker I heard was Jeffrey Titford, at a Democracy Movement meeting in St. Leonards, East Sussex. He seemed to be talking sense, and I was reasonably impressed.
On mentioning this to members of the local branch, the response from I received was, "Wait until you've heard Nigel Farage."
I was able to hear him a few months later in nearby Bexhill, and found his direct, hard-hitting style quite exciting and refreshing – a contrast from most politicians in the three established parties. When criticism of Roger Knapman began to surface following the triumphs in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections, I picked up the feeling that many members at the time wanted to replace him not with Kilroy but with Nigel, feeling that a dynamic young leader would restore the momentum that we seemed to be losing.
I would never have supported the removal of Roger. I felt that he was underestimated by the membership. (and having subsequently got to know him through working in Brussels, I believe this assessment was correct.) However, looking to when his term of office was to end, I would then have supported Nigel for leader. He seemed the rising star – the obvious heir apparent.
Amidst all the adulation, the first criticism I first heard of Nigel was at a UKIP SE activists' meeting from a member of a branch from Kent, who said he had a big ego. Until this point, the only negative thing I had heard about him was that he had not denied visiting a brothel in (I think) Athens. My contact with him had been quite limited before starting in Brussels. He had struck me as "rather a lad" who liked his booze and fags, but I knew that I should not expect a politician necessarily to adhere to my Christian standards. I was looking forward to getting to know him better when I started my new job in Brussels, and felt rather in awe of him.
Within a couple of months, my view of him had begun to change. There were several reason for this.
Firstly, when he came to be the guest speaker at the annual dinner of my local UKIP Branch, Bexhill and Battle, his speech was disappointing. It was all about himself, and was a regurgitation of anecdotes I had heard before.
Secondly, there were further rumours of his sexual impropriety, including that he was having an affair with Annabelle Fuller, one of my colleagues in Brussels at the time, who subsequently achieved such notoriety in the UKIP press office. More serious was the fact that cronyism rather than competence seemed to be what counted. Brussels was very much Nigel's empire, as he had been there as an MEP since 1999, was head of the UKIP delegation and co-president of the Ind Dem group.
He had considerable say in who joined the staff, and what their roles were to be. The then head of research, Adrian Muldrew, was complaining repeatedly about the low quality of work produced by two of the staff – one being Annabelle Fuller and the other Steve Reed, his current office assistant of whom more anon.
David Lott, Chief of Staff and very much Nigel's man, refused to take any action, and actually turned against Adrian. This seemed very odd. as I had been taken on ostensibly as part of a move to "professionalise" the party.
At this time, I first heard about the questions being asked about the South East region accounts. Another colleague of mine told me that he would never give any money to a general UKIP appeal because he had no confidence where the money would end up.
Although shocked by all this, I took the Biblical attitude of not wanting to believe an accusation unless there were two or three witnesses, I didn't have to wait long for further evidence. A chance conversation with UKIP's previous Head of Staff (i.e. before David Lott), confirmed the essence of what I had been hearing, and added that Nigel had been a factor in every major UKIP bust-up since the departure of Alan Sked.
The failure of UKIP Part 2
By the summer recess of 2006, a mere seven months since coming out to Brussels, I was now firmly of the opinion that Nigel Farage was a liability to the party. I had met some of the other notorious Farage cronies like John Moran, and was not impressed. I also heard from a colleague about a conversation between Farage and Gerard Batten shortly before the Bromley by-election.
It transpired that Farage had discussed a deal whereby if the Tories selected the Eurosceptic but not withdrawalist MEP Syed Kamall as their candidate, UKIP would not put up a candidate. On hearing of this, Gerard was incensed and said, "If you don't stand, I will." As it happened, the Tories chose Bob Neill, and with Gerard being the ultra-loyalist that he is, he chose not to leak this out. Nigel then announced at a big UKIP meeting the following weekend about how excited he was at being able to contest another by-election. Most people cheered. I was livid.
I did not vote for him as party leader, but for a while it seemed that I would have to swallow my misgivings, as in the first few months of the Farage leadership, the party acquired two Lords, then the economist Tim Congdon and several other significant Eurosceptics. A year later, I was to discover that this new sense of hope in the party was not matched by the opinion polls. UKIP slumped to below 1%, and the start of the slump coincided with Farage's election as leader.
I had heard of Farage's habitual lying, but had first hand evidence of it when NEC member David Abbott's two inadvertant $100 donations to a BNP support group in America was blown up in the national media in March 2007 simply because of David's criticism of Nigel's leadership. Before standing for the NEC, David came quite clean about this donation, which he had made before realising who the organisation represented.
He did not want to stand for office if it would compromise him. Being so insignificant a sum, a one-off and inadvertent, Nigel and others said it was not a problem. However, when David began to start opposing Nigel on the NEC, Nigel deliberately leaked this out to he press and made it out that David had been seriously involved with the BNP. When I challenged Nigel, saying that either he or Mark Croucher were ill-advised to have done this, his reply was "Neither I nor Croucher contacted the Press."
The Press had also spoken to a person I know (whose identity I should keep confidential) who has held senior office in the party about the David Abbott business, and this person told me that when the reporter concerned rang up, he said, "I've just been speaking to Mark Croucher."
Perhaps I should add that this exchange occurred when Nigel summoned me into his office and questioned me about my friendship with Adrian Muldrew. Adrian was by now absolutely persona non grata with Nigel, but a few months earlier, Adrian had kindly offered me a home for a couple of weeks when there had been a temporary delay in moving into new accommodation in Brussels. I had left Adrian's house quite a while before my interview with Nigel, but what business was it of his anyway?
Being summoned into Nigel's office was by now an ordeal which I dreaded. I had to summon up my best acting skills and always stared him straight in the eye. He often shuffled his legs up and down under the table – a sure sign that he wasn't comfortable either. Some times, it was nothing to worry about, and he was usually pleased with he research I did for him.
However, once he came into my office and ranted at me because I had contacted Mike Nattrass (whose assistant I was for a while) about a dubious amendment to a piece of Parliamentary legislation put forward at Committee stage by Jens-Peter Bonde, Ind Dem Co-president, in the name of the group.
Adrian had spotted this and said that UKIP MEP's couldn't support it, as it was giving more power to the EU (I can't remember the exact details beyond this) I thought I had better tell Mike, and Mike must have contacted Nigel, who then stormed in and said, "But we always vote against this in Plenary." I guess Nigel knew I wasn't happy with UKIP MEP's being in Ind Dem.
It was not just over Ind Dem that I disagreed with Nigel's policy. He spoke at Hastings in November 2005 and said something on the lines of, "Well, UKIP isn't getting much exposure because the EU isn't in the news much now, but just wait – it'll be back on the agenda."
He was proved right with a vengeance when the failed Constitution metamorphosised into the Lisbon Treaty, but he singularly missed the opportunity to put UKIP at the head of the campaign to oppose it. It was always going to be a tough battle to stop the treaty, but it would have put the party back in the consciousness of the electorate. Instead, it was left to an ordinary Party member to launch the "Parish Polls" initiative.
On the day of the mass lobby of the House of Commons, Farage was in Brussels. This missed opportunity, for which he must take the blame, must represent UKIP's biggest political mistake in its entire history.
I had the task for the last year of answering difficult e-mails sent to Head Office in Newton Abbot. I always took the party line, even if I was personally uncomfortable with it, such as over Nigel's defiance of the Parliament's smoking ban and support for pro-smoking groups.
Only once, when I was forwarded a query about Derek Clark signing Ind Dem's "Bucharest declaration" on UKIP's behalf with its support for subsidiarity and CAP reform did I deviate from this rule, and simply passed it to Ind Dem enthusiast Gawain Towler to answer. I felt this e-mail was a poisoned chalice. If I took the party line, not only would it sit uneasily with my conscience, but it could be held against me if at a later date (as I hoped) UKIP would renounce Ind Dem.
However, if I had said what I felt – that I agreed with the e-mail, that the signing was a mistake and that UKIP's MEP's should not be in Ind Dem – Nigel would have gone ballistic if he had found out. Fortunately, Gawain never followed up my reasons for passing this e-mail on, so I lived to fight another day.
Nonetheless, By the summer of 2007, I felt that I was living on borrowed time. In many ways, I am amazed I lasted so long. I ensured that no-one was around when I rang any known opponents of Farage in the UK, and he never knew just who I knew. I always kept my office door closed, and fortunately, the enthusiasm of Farage and his cronies to go off most evenings drinking in O'Farrell's (the Irish pub very near to the Parliament building) meant I had some privacy.
By this time, staff and MEP's were split down the middle. Farage supporters, notably Gawain and the odious Aurelie Laloux (Jeffrey Titford's assistant) held the senior positions among the staff. When Aurelie went off for maternity leave, things improved somewhat, but her return signalled the start of three awful months.
The atmosphere in the office from February 2008 to my departure in April gave me an inkling of what it must have been like to live in the Soviet Union – You were always watching your back and every pair of footsteps outside the office door made you feel uneasy. So bizarre that fellow-withdrawalists should be the cause of such a poisonous atmosphere. I have to say that in over two years working in Brussels, I had no animosity from the "nasty" EU. UKIP staff were treated fairly.
My dismissal shows the utterly devious nature of Farage. He was not directly involved, but his fingerprints are all over it. It all began on Monday 7th April after the "Stop the Treaty" conference in Bristol which I went to. When I got back to Brussels, I tried to access my parliamentary e-mail account, but was unable to do so.
I entered the password about 10 times, but was repeatedly blocked. I know that I did not type in my password incorrectly. Having worked in IT before going into research, I knew hacking when I saw it. The hacker had, fortunately, failed to guess my password, but had locked me out. I spoke to Oumar Dombouya, the man delegated to manage IT affairs for Ind Dem. He re-set my password and set a monitoring facility on my account, as Adrian had had a similar problem, and suspected hacking.
On Thursday afternoon (10th April), Graham Booth came into my office with a print-out of the names, subjects and dates of the e-mails I had sent in recent weeks. He asked me to print out the contents of four of these. After he had left the office, I looked at a couple of these e-mails, and as I was doing so, the access to my e-mail account suddenly went down. When I eventually was able to bring up the initial screen and try to sign on, once again, I was locked out, just as I had been the previous Monday.
I subsequently discovered that it is within the rules to print out the list (although not the content) of the e-mails sent by EP staff without asking them. However, I did not know this at the time, and refused to take Booth 's word that this was the case or provide him with the content of these e-mails until I could establish the facts. In view of my suspicions about someone trying to tamper with my e-mails, I think this was quite reasonable.
However, his response to my refusal my saying that in his eyes, this amounted to a "lack of trust" in me, This was the catch-all phrase that can be used to dismiss staff if you don't like them but can't find any good reason for so doing. I had always got on fairly well with Graham until then, and I know Nigel set him up, because he expressed a very negative opinion of one person to whom these e-mails were sent (a branch chairman in the South East) and when I contacted this individual, he said that he had never had any dealings with Graham. Only Nigel could have singled out this e-mail.
Oumar was very helpful initially to my attempts to find out who had been hacking into my account. He traced it to a UK-registered machine (no surprise!) but could not go any further because of intimidation by members of the Ind Dem secretariat. He subsequently kept his distance from me, simply out of fear.
My dismissal was e-mailed to me on Thursday 24th April. This was a Strasbourg plenary, and I was teleworking at the time. Quite honestly, it was a relief not to have to go back to Brussels. It amazed me to hear that Graham Booth had been going round the South West telling people that I (along with Adrian Muldrew and Gary Cartwright) were MI5 spies! Meanwhile, Steve Harris, (UKIP's SE regional organiser) again no doubt mouthing Nigel's words, has been telling people in the South East that my dismissal was because I was hacking into other people's e-mails!
My desire to see Nigel removed as leader is not a case of sour grapes because he sacked me. He sacked me because I already held this opinion, and I am not very good at hiding my feelings. I remember having a conversation with Roger Knapman outside his office, and said something about, "the days when we had a decent leader." At that moment, Nigel came up the corridor. He can't fail to have heard what I said.
Only in one way has my opinion changed since my dismissal. I believed right up to early November that if Nigel could be removed as leader, UKIP would have a future. The November NEC meeting was a watershed.
It is clear firstly that removing Nigel Farage as leader is going to be very difficult.
Secondly, that even if it could be done, it would not be enough – his cabal have to go too, and as names like Zuckerman are unknown to many members, it would be hard to press the case against them. Farage's dealings with me bear the marks of a tyrant.
He brings out the worst of those that get close to him – Graham Booth's behaviour over my dismissal illustrates this perfectly. At the same time, he tries to destroy anyone who opposes him. The party is now in the grip of man who I can only describe as evil.
The poison emanating from him has so ruined the party that it is not a case of merely removing him as leader – his political career must be ended in June 2009. If the only way of doing this is to take UKIP down with him, so be it. The withdrawalist cause needs a more honourable spokesman and a better party to fight its cause.
Farage more than anyone else is responsible for giving UKIP such a poor image that it has become a bit of a joke. I now no longer have any pride at being a member, but rather embarrassment. My UKIP car sticker has been removed a long time ago now. As we move on to look at the other aspects of why UKIP has failed, his name will come up again and again. His personal failings, which I have described above, are coupled with exceedingly poor political judgement and a disastrous policy in Brussels.
Playing on innocence
Many of those who joined UKIP, myself included, were new to politics. We could see that being in the EU was not in Britain's best interests, but did not necessarily combine this piece of wisdom with political discernment. I would guess I am not alone in admitting that at one point, I believed two things I now regard as erroneous – firstly that anything in print that says something bad about the EU must be correct, and secondly that anyone opposed to Britain's membership of the EU must be a good chap. I will address the first of these mistakes later on. It is the second I want to concentrate on at this point.
Nigel's shrewdness has enabled him to carve out his power base in the party. His youth and eloquence have made him a hero with many party members. Steve Harris once told a meeting at which I was present of a phone call were someone asked him, "When is that young man going to become Prime Minister?" I have no reason to doubt that Steve was telling the truth. It epitomises how Nigel has played on the innocence of many party members.
They have not had sufficient experience to spot when his leadership has been poor. He would not have dared depict the dressing up in chicken costumes of three members of staff in Strasbourg on the front of Independence unless he was sure that his adoring fans would think it was a wonderful gesture rather than the appalling schoolboy buffoonery that the rest of the world viewed it as.
He has been able to gain total control over UKIP's media. "You don't work for the party, you work for me," he told one employee in the Press Office. That admirable quality of trust which is a feature of so many UKIP members has enabled him to turn the Independence into a very one-sided view of things. Our dear. loyal members are not aware of the control he has carved out for himself. He has marshalled party opinion behind him by equating opposition to himself with "attempts to destroy the party."
From now on, sadly, this will be the case, and those of us who have come out publicly against him are likely to face all manner of vitriol not just from the Faragistas, but from well-meaning members who have been denied the chance to hear both sides of the argument. The suppression of dissent is not healthy in a political party. It leads to "yes men" ending up in senior positions – a sure recipe for disaster.
The Brussels disaster.
One blogger recently mocked UKIP by saying how ridiculously inflated the role of an MEP had become in the party. Other parties don't send out their first XI to Brussels, but being an MEP gives you almost god-like status among some sections of the membership of UKIP.
The big point of disagreement I would have with this statement is that UKIP has most definitely NOT sent out its First XI to Brussels. Nigel was unable to stop London choosing the hard-working and honest Gerard Batten for the No. 1 spot, nor to stop Roger Knapman being elected in the South West. However, his objective of ensuring that he ended up with a team of which he would be the star was, to a degree, successful. The result has been an unmitigated disaster.
I have referred to the innocence of many party members. The idea that the MEP lists were manipulated would never have crossed most of our minds back in 2004. Nigel had to be careful because he had already built up a structure in which the party's MEP's would operate, and better to have someone unsuitable but who would not ask questions rather than a competent individual who, besides challenging Nigel's pre-eminence, might ask too many questions, especially on financial matters.
In the five years from 1999 to 2004, he had made the acquaintance of people like Jens-Peter Bonde – a past master at making money out of Euroscepticism. The Ind Dem Group, like its precursor EDD, is a fairly loose coalition of assorted Eurosceptics from both the left and right of the political spectrum who have joined together purely for the financial benefit of being in a group.
UKIP are the only withdrawalists in this group – a fact that has raised eyebrows on several occasions when I have mentioned this to party members. Ind Dem has encouraged a culture of financial secrecy, and Farage has bought into this. His reluctance to be open about his financial matters has brought the party into disrepute, and already the Lib Dems are attacking UKIP on the doorsteps saying they have "gone native." Financial issues are likely to be an increasing embarrassment to UKIP in the run-up to June 2009.
It is not just the financial issues that have contributed to the disaster of UKIP's MEPs in Brussels – there have been all too many instances of poor, ill-prepared speeches. Graham Booth's setting himself up as an authority on climate change on the strength of an "O" level in astronomy has been an embarrassment. I have written speeches for some MEP's and have seen them mutilated and spoilt by the MEP in question. Sometimes, it has been an embarrassment to listen to them in the Plenaries.
There have been exceptions, notably Roger Knapman, who ensures his speeches are well-written, and Gerard Batten, who always writes his own speeches after careful research. Sadly, however, Godfrey Bloom's infamous speech in 2004 about women cleaning behind fridges has set an all-too-common precedent.
The press have been all too ready to pounce on bad behaviour by UKIP's MEP's. Tom Wise was unfortunate to be duped by an undercover reporter on the subject of MEP's allowamnces. Nigel was lucky that the occasion when he was so drunk in a bar Strasbourg that he had to be carried out did not receive more coverage than it did.
Besides the MEP's, the staff have not always delivered the goods. All too many of Gawain Towler's press releases have been bad to the point of embarrassment. I was asked once to write a press release. Gawain's editing of it included replacing one word with another meaning the exact opposite! While I cannot prove this, I would suspect that some 90% of press releases would have gone straight into the editors' wastepaper bins.
On another occasion, at a meeting of a think tank in Brussels where the guest speaker was Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow of the Heritage Foundation, an American think tank Gawain turned up seriously drunk. He introduced me to this man (I had yet to fall out of favour at this time) but I was acutely embarrassed. Gawain has also admitted to me that he has smoked over 100 joints!
Aurelie Laloux is another disaster. She was taken on by UKIP in the 1999-2004 Parliament because of her excellent linguistic skills, as only in 2004 was English placed alongside French in official Parliamentary communications. Her political judgement is less acute, and had led to some very bizarre voting lists being produced which UKIP's enemies like Labour MEP Richard Corbett have been delighted to publish.
When there was a debate on the Lisbon Treaty at Strasbourg in early 2008, the Green group (or was it the Communists?) proposed a "rejection amendment" – i.e. that the treaty should be rejected. Aurelie's voting list, prepared for UKIP's MEP's, did not have us supporting this amendment. She has also been responsible for choosing which debates UKIP's MEP's will speak in. Her choice has been quite bizarre at times, giving the speechwriters (such as myself) the challenge of preparing speeches offering very little opportunity for the MEP to make any telling point, as the debate may have been on something quite obscure – such as updating EU air traffic agreements with countries in North Africa to include the new member states.
As for Nigel's assistant Steve Reed, he deserves a chapter to himself. We will look at him under the heading, "Professionalising the Party?" His voting lists can be a bit bizarre, and unlike Aurelie, he cannot plead the excuse that he is not working in his mother tongue.
The philosophy is that UKIP must vote against and speak against everything. What happens when the EU proposes something that will actually command widespread popular support, such as the forced reduction in mobile phone roaming charges? Credit where credit is due from the strongly Eurosceptic former DUP MEP Jim Allister, who said, "It makes a pleasant change to welcome a piece of EU legislation.
The enforced reduction in mobile roaming charges is good for consumers across Europe." However UKIP had to find something negative, such as the fact that the main beneficiaries would be people like MEP's themsleves who make many international calls on mobile phones. While it is true that the mandate for UKIP's MEP's mandate is never to vote in favour of any EU regulation, if there is likely to be strong popular support for individual moves, it is surely better to abstain, or at least keep quiet, and keep the powder dry for the really serious issues.
I have not mentioned the corruption aspects and the ongoing investigations by OLAF – the EU Anti-fraud watchdog – into Ind Dem (including some UKIP MEP's and staff), but this has done nothing to help the party, and what may come out, paricularly regarding Nigel and David Lott, could be quite embarrassing. However, one must not pre-judge.
Few UKIP MEP's have availed themselves of the opportunity to used the Brussels staff for serious research. Gerard Batten is an honourable exception, with the excellent How much does the EU cost Britain? Booklets, which are updated each year. Apart from this, only Tom Wise, whose assistant Gary Cartwright produced the fisheries booklet, and Roger Knapman, have this far shown any interest in this important area. For seven MEP's therefore, an excellent opportunity has gone begging.
Hard though it is to say it. the UKIP team, both MEP's and staff, convey the image of a bungling bunch of amateurs. There are some honourable exceptions, and I have tried to highlight these. I would strongly refute any suggestion that UKIP's disaster in Brussels has been because "they knw we don't like the EU." Yes, it is true that the Parliament's president shows more leniency to pro-EU MEP's than to UKIP when their speeches overrun.
This apart, I would say that the disaster has been self-inflicted and would have been avoidable with a better calibre of both MEP's and staff. Perhaps the best illustration of the disaster UKIP has turned into is the infamous "Chicken Costume" incident in Strasbourg earlier this year. I can vouch for this being Nigel's idea.
When the three staff members (Gawain Towler, Paul Nuttall and Ralph Atkinson) were escorted from the area near the Hemicycle by the security staff, it led to a very heated but almost surreal press conference, firstly with Gawain (still in his costume minus the chicken head!) and then Nigel, complaining bitterly to the media that the reason we were being treated unfairly in not being allowed to parade around in these outfits was because we opposed the Lisbon Treaty.
What noinsense! No wonder the rest of the European Parliament saw UKIP as a bit of a joke.At least no MEP had dressed up, although only because Gary Cartwright and I had been able to work on the wife of one MEP to persuade her husband not to be a chicken – he had originally volunteered for this ridiculous stunt!
An unconvincing domestic agenda.
UKIP has always professed to be a fully-fledged political party. It has produced manifestos which range over a number of domestic issues besides withdrawal from the EU and areas with strong EU links, such as immigration. However, right up to and beyond the 2005 General Election, in spite of the manifesto produced for that occasion, UKIP was perceived not only by the public but by many members as essentially a single-issue party.
My experience standing for the party in Lewes at that time was fairly typical – I could articulate the issues relating to the EU pretty well, but put me into a debate where the focus was a domestic issue like education and I was out of my depth. I had read the manifesto, but it really wasn't much help.
In early 2006, when David Bannerman became chairman, things began to change on this front. He launched the "Five Right Things to do" initiative that took UKIP into new territory such as education, law and order and tax. Yes, as mentioned, we had touched on these and other areas in earlier manifestos, but not in the sort of depth now being proposed.
It is perhaps hard for me to be objective here, as I did much of the donkey work for the education policy. David Lott said that it was "the best policy document that UKIP had ever produced." It put UKIP in touch with education pressure groups such as the excellent "Campaign for Real Education" and in fact led to the retired probation officer and author David Fraser if not joining the party certainly becoming more sympathetic to it – a real first for us. Until now, people had only ever joined UKIP over EU-related issues.
A few months later, John Whittaker's Flat Tax policy was launched at a fringe meeting during the 2006 Tory Party conference in Bournemouth. This again gave us links and credence with groups like the Taxpayers' Alliance, who were represented at the launch.
However, these initiatives do not seem to have turned UKIP in the public eye from a single-issue party. It is impossible to verify the rumour that the domestic agenda, based on traditional right-of-centre Conservatism, is really an attempt to push the Tories in that direction rather than to claim the ground for UKIP in its own right. The party, in other words, is simply a Tory pressure group.
This rumour has done the rounds for a couple of years. It is hard to prove, especially as the centre-right agenda is, in fact a good one. The problem is that UKIP hasn't been able to take ownership of this ground. Its dabbling in domestic politics has not been convincing. Part of the problem is having a leader with no ability to speak convincingly and informedly on domestic issues.
He has little interest in the minutiae of domestic policy. Unfortunately, delegating this job to Bannerman has led to a complete muddle, with no subsequent policy launch having the profile of the Flat Tax announcement.
Bannerman's competence is questionable.
His chairmanship of the Bow Group is one of few features about his life not in dispute. How someone with this supposed breadth of policy experience, particularly in the field of transport can propose electrifying a line which was closed 39 years ago beats me! I can vouch for the fact that this proposal was included in the first draft of the UKIP transport policy document.
These policy initiatives have failed to change either the public perception of UKIP nor the thinking of some party members. Two years on from my struggles in Lewes, I was seconded to help out with the Sedgefield by-election, and for all my enthusiasm to ensure our candidate was well briefed on domestic policies, he just kept going back to the EU all the time.
If UKIP still exists in 2010 and puts up candidates for the General Election, it will be just the same. If the candidates are not comfortable with a broader agenda, how can the electorate be convinced that UKIP is more than just a single-issue party? My sad conclusion is that it is too late for the party ever to make the breakthrough into domestic politics.
Professionalisng the Party?
The second catchphrase in early 2006 alongside "Five Right Things to do" was "Professionalisng the Party." I came out to Brussels quite humbled at the thought of being part of this process, seeing as I was a newcomer to political research. Three years on, I cannot seriously believe that Nigel ever had any intention of making UKIP a professional party.
We need to go back to Brussels to see how shallow of the talk of "professionalism" is. Nigel's office assistant out there is Steve (or Andrew) Reed – an individual whom I bear no personal grudge towards, but whose competence is highly dubious, to say the least.
Steve is a conspiracy theorist of the most eccentric type. He also writes the most grotesque English and has a serious drink problem. The net result is this letter, sent out from Nigel's office in response to correspondence from a member of the public about the situation in Zimbabwe two years ago:-
Zimbabwe is certainly a country under siege from the "international community", whose neo-colonial policies in Africa are thinly disguised as "humanitarian intervention" in conflicts, which it may well have instigated, just as they were in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
So embarrassing was this letter, which also stated that the EU was worse than Zimbabwe, that extracts from it appeared in the Independent newspaper, and was the reason why a hastily-cobbled together "UKIP Statement on Zimbabwe" suddenly appeared on the party's website. Yet Steve lived to fight another day and to produce this response to a letter which simply asked the MEP's to support a written declaration on the setting-up of a Europe-wide register of missing children, following the McCanns' visit to the European Parliament:-.
European coöperation, furthermore, is rather hindered, than helped, by the centralised bureaucracies of the EU, which, by abolishing national frontiers, have made EU-territory a playground for all types of crime, and which, in general, are rather intent on extending their powers than on governing wisely and well. This is only to be expected of an organisation, which lacks all democratic accountability…Indeed, the only way the huge, multilingual territories of the EU can be governed is by means of a repressive police-state, where every identity, asset and movement is monitored.
Steve's briefing documents for the MEP's display a similar lack of professionalsim. Instead of stickingto a simple summary of proposed legislation, he likes to have a rant about the EU. That's not the job of an assistant. Gerard Batten has expressed extreme frustarion over this, but Steve remains in the Farage assistant office!
Gawain Towler's incompetence has laready been mentioned. He has a background in the press, and appears to be widely connected but the quality of his work leaves much to be deisred.
Turning to the UK, the bigggest failing has been the total lack of any program to train party activists. UKIP contains many enthusiastic and committed members who have never been involved in politics before. They have joined because they have read or heard something that has convinced them that Britain should leave the EU.
Now while there are good sound reasons for supporting Britain's withdrawal, there are also all manner of crackpot conspiracy theories doing the rounds, and some party members have regurgitated these in all innocence, believing that anyone saying bad things about the EU must be telling the truth. A professional party should have been providing education at all levels to ensure that party members are gven the tools to separate fact from fiction. The total failure to do this has contributed to the image problem the party faces – Cameron's comments about "fruitcakes and loonies" has sometimes been closer to the mark than we would like.
The result of this lack of professionalsim is that the party has failed to advance among a key sector of the population. A good few people, possibly some 1/3 of the voting population, have a visceral dislike of the EU and have been easily won over to a withdrawalist position. They may not necessarily be UKIP voters, but they would agree with the overall stance of the party. There are also another significant group, my estimate being a further 1/3 of all voters, who have misgivings about the EU, but are not yet in the withdrawalist camp.
Maybe they have been conned by the propaganda of the three established parties, or perhaps they are still weighing up the arguments. As a generality, these will be serious thinkers. Such people are not going to be convinced by conspiracy theory claptrap or gimmicky, silly cartoons. Focus groups have painted a picture of UKIP as a negative party, and I would venture that some who voiced this opinion include representatives of this "middle third" that UKIP should be addressing. It will require a positive approach to win these people over, which UKIP has this far failed to make. Sadly, UKIP's failure to advance among this important section of the electorate has set back the cause of independence by several years.
NEC problems and other structural failings.
The NEC is meant to represent the membership. It has been reduced to rubber-stamping Nigel's decisions. Whether those on the NEC have been fairly voted into office is another matter – Lisa Duffy, a fairly unknown figure until her elevation to the NEC, apparently received more votes in the 2008 NEC election than Nigel received in the party leadership election two years ago! Naturally, she has taken the Farage line.
Since 2004, the story of the NEC is a procession of well-intentioned members either resigning or being forced out. It is claimed that some NEC members disagree in private with some of the things that Nigel does. All well and good, but they seem to vote with him, and have failed to support Delroy Young, Dr David Abbott and Dr Eric Edmond who have had the bravery to express their misgivings openly.
Another serious structural failing is the inability of the party to remove the leader. In the days of Kilroy's membership, the rules were tightened up in this area. The net result is that any initiative to remove Nigel has fallen foul of the sheer logistics required to call an egm.
At the core of the party is a culture of cronyism and secrecy. The biggest challenge to date has come over the selection of candidates for the 2009 European Parliamentary elections. The South West wanted the Electoral Commission to handle the selection from start to finish, but this was rejected. The result has been a series of unanswered questions and threatened court action – especially in the Eastern Region whereby Robin Page and John West never appeared on the list and the Farage favourite Bannerman ended up in pole position.
The removal of Gregg Beaman from the No. 1 spot in the North West was also shrouded in controversy. Marta Andreasen's candidacy is highly controversial, as only under EU laws is a citizen of another country eligible to stand. One candidate in the South East region sent a delegate to the count, who saw a good number of ballot papers with votes for Farage and Andreasen only.
In a straw poll of my local branch committee, not one person said they had voted in this way. It all looks very suspicious, and the official response to these gripes of, "Well, be thankful you're not a Tory. Their existing MEP's automatically get the top slots" is just not acceptable. It epitomises the fact that the membership have very little power in the party. The Political Committee is appointed, not chosen. Our current chairman was appointed without the NEC being previously consulted. The control of all the official media outlets, including the Independence newsletter, means that real debate is not possible.
When the Lechlade Group think-tank was set up, Nigel told the then party General Secretary Geoffrey Kingscott that his first task was to get it closed down. He was initially no more supportive of the widely reported "Parish Poll" campaign, that was set up by an ordinary UKIP member in Dorset.
Thanks to the innocence of many party members noted above, UKIP – the party that professes to believe in "bottoms-up" democracy and whose members sing the praises of Switzerland's political system – has become the most top-down party in British politics. Not satified with the level of control he has achieved, Farage wants to bring in a rule change that will facilitate still further the purging of dissidents, yet it will be sold to the membership as a good thing, or else couched in such obscure language that most of them won't understand the nuances of the wording. Sadly, the art of spin is practised to as a great a degree by the leadership on the membership as by New Labour on the British Public. The sad thing is that a good few of the membership are not aware of it even now.
The last subject to be considered is the timebomb of financial scandal ticking away. Some pretty damning data about the Ashford Call Centre has been in the Public domain for a number of years. Activists have pressed for answers and have been fobbed off time after time.
The Alan Bown Donation problem is another potential pitfall. If the appeal by the Electoral Commission against the initial judgement in UKIP's favour is successful, Mr Bown could shell out an equivalent sum to the amount confiscated to keep the party afloat, but it is not going to help the party's standing.
Even small issues suggest that there is something fishy in how money is handled. Why can members not renew their membership by Direct Debit? So simple, so what is the problem?
Another odd issue is how UKIP seems to find so much money for big by-elections, especially if Nigel or one of his close associates is the candidate. Money seemed no object in Bromley, 2006 or Sedgefield 2007. What is notable here is how expensive each UKIP vote seems to be. With the different parties' expenses and votes available on various websites, analysis of UKIP's performance against other small parties, notably comparing UKIP with the BNP in the Henley by-election, shows that they gain fair more votes per £100 spent than UKIP. UKIP spent £17.056 and received 843 votes. The BNP spent £4,744.06, less that 1/3 of UKIP's budget, but polled 1,243 votes – over 40% more than UKIP.
Lack of confidence in the integrity of the party's finances will have the obvious knock-on effect in reduced donations, both from rich party members and from sympathetic organisations. Nigel is a past-master at drumming up enthusiasm among ordinary party members. No doubt, many of the genuine older members unaware of the issues discussed here will send in their £10's and £20's to help the party fight the elections next June, but it would be a matter of great surprise if the amount raised, especially in the South East, comes anywhere near the figure for 2004.
Sleaze, incompetence, poor political judgement, purges of dissidents, a "loony" image, allegations of vote rigging and financial problems – not a healthy situation for a small political party stuck in the doldrums. The few months between now and June 2009 are highly likely to see the publication of a few scandals involving Farage. His venomous attitude has created many enemies, and those enemies are unlikely to stay silent. Even if the rants of Greg Lance-Watkins cannot all be taken seriously, if only 10% of his allegations are true, that could pose the party serious problems in the run-up to what should have been an even greater triumph than June 2004.
It really is now too much to expect the party to be turned round. Even removing Farage as leader will not solve it. His cronies hold all the positions of power, and there isn't the time to winkle them all out. Sadly, for all the undoubted good UKIP has achieved, it is time for it to be dismembered. The wound is too deep. The poison has spread too widely. In 2004, UKIP had a great chance to advance the argument for British withdrawal from the EU. With the right approach, the argument could have been won irrevocably by now. Independence is so noble an objective, and there is so much to support this assertion.
So UKIP has had its chance and blown it. We are left with only one option – to start again, learning from UKIP's successes but. more importantly, its failures.
This article is markedly similar to that which John Petley wrote in late 2008, a copy of which I read at the time but have never published as it was supplied in confidence and was not then widely known in the public domain.
Charlie Endell having made some alterations it seems, or having received an altered copy of the original text, has put the article in the public domain and I am thus liberated from the constraints of my original undertaking and publish the public domain version posted by Charlie Endell.
Charlie Endell IS known to me as a genuine person whose personal experience over many years at the center of UKIP would be adequate to corroborate almost every fact herein..
tel: 01291 – 62 65 62
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com
Posted in Annabelle FULLER, David ABBOTT, David BANNERMAN MEP, David LOTT, Gary CARTWRIGHT, John MORAN, John PETLEY, Mark CROUCHER, Niall WARRY, Nigel FARAGE MEP, Robin Page | Leave a Comment »
#0154* – QUOTES MADE ON THE FUHRER! FARAGE – UKIP's PAST LEADER now EFD HOPEFULL!!
#0154* – QUOTES MADE ON THE FUHRER! FARAGE – UKIP's PAST LEADER now EFD HOPEFULL!
QUOTES MADE ON THE FUHRER!
FARAGE – UKIP's PAST & FUTURE LEADER
now EFD HOPEFULL!
LIKELY TO SIGN UP AS EFD & DUMP UKIP BY 15-Nov.!! <!–var googleUrl="/telegraph/template/ver1-0/templates/fragments/search/components/google/GAFSTransform.jsp?";function doneGAFShtml (htmlstr) { //alert(htmlstr); htmlstr = htmlstr.split("<").join("").join(">").split("&").join("&"); var parts = htmlstr.split("[BREAK]"); var slot1 = document.getElementById("gafsslot1"); var slot2 = document.getElementById("gafsslot2"); if (parts[0] != null) { slot1.innerHTML=parts[0]; if (parts[1] != null) { slot2.innerHTML=parts[1]; } }}function initGoogleWS () { var ajaxgws = new AJAXInteraction(googleUrl+'q=%22tim+Congdon%22&ua=Mozilla%2F5.0+%28Windows%3B+U%3B+Windows+NT+5.1%3B+en-US%3B+rv%3A1.9.1.10%29+Gecko%2F20100504+Firefox%2F3.5.10+%28+.NET+CLR+3.5.30729%29&ip=81.129.95.33&p=', null, doneGAFShtml); ajaxgws.doGet();}initGoogleWS();//–>
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quotations for those that back Nigel !
Craig Mackinlay, ex Vice Chairman and Leader of UKIP, on internal UKIP elections: "I will not be associated professionally or personally with what has become a perverted and shambolic process. Threats from the Party Chairman . . . merely add to the stink that now surrounds this election.
Frank Maloney Boxing Promoter – UKIP Mayoral Candidate 2004 , PPC 2010- I stick by my opinions that "Nigel is a schoolyard bully and I beleive that the other members have a right to know this" 2010
"Roger Knapman, ex Party Leader and MEP: "UKIP MEP's met and agreed a statement of practice – first that we would not go on 'junkets' to other countries and secondly that we would not employ our wives. This was to prevent us getting dragged into the comfortable EU world that leads to 'going native'. I am now very worried that this agreement is being ignored and that the attractions of the European Parliament as a career may beckon to some; where the delights of plush new office suites, Brussels titles and internal parliament or IndDem Group politics are more attractive than our original purpose
Richard North, ex UKIP Chief Researcher, writing of Farage: "He cannot tolerate anyone in the party who he feels is or might be in a position to challenge him. He prefers to surround himself with incompetents and deadbeats. Anyone who emerges who might show an independent streak, he ruthlessly eliminates, to ensure that they cannot be seen as competition."
And again: "(Farage) . . . spends the bulk of his time manoeuvring and scheming to keep himself in the dominant position, while presenting to the world his "boyish charm.
"Gregg Beaman, ex North West Regional Organiser and former MEP candidate: "As far as Farage is concerned I knew when I met him, during the Preston by-election in 2000, that he was the personification of vanity and ego with little behind that wafer thin facade. I have seen his childish temper tantrums when he doesn't get his own way, when I was on the NEC and later when I was on the Elections Committee. I have seen him bully people and have stood up to him when he has tried to bully me. He must be one of the coarsest most vulgar individuals I have ever come across. The proposed changes to the party constitution are a result of the complete lack of principle of the current leader and chairman and, it must be said, the lack of courage shown by certain members on the Party's NEC.
"Bryan Smalley, Party Secretary for two years, wrote of Farage: "He is dishonest and frequently makes untrue statements"
"John Petley, ex UKIP researcher: "It really is now too much to expect the party to be turned round. Even removing Farage as leader will not solve it. His cronies hold all the positions of power, and there isn't the time to winkle them all out. Sadly, for all the undoubted good UKIP has achieved, it is time for it to be dismembered. The wound is too deep. The poison has spread too widely. In 2004, UKIP had a great chance to advance the argument for British withdrawal from the EU. With the right approach, the argument could have been won irrevocably by now. Independence is so noble an objective, and there is so much to support this assertion.So UKIP has had its chance and blown it. We are left with only one option – to start again, learning from UKIP's successes but more importantly, its failures.
"Dr Eric Edmond, ex NEC member and former MEP candidate: "He (Farage) has packed the NEC with his unelected nominees Andreasen, Nuttall and Arnott etc clearly to push through yet more undemocratic practices and consolidate his personal hold on the party.
Anthony Scholefield, Party Secretary for three years stated: "A disturbing feature is that Mark Croucher, UKIP Press Officer, shows UKIP members' details to Communists and Socialist Workers via Searchlight and Unite Against Fascism. Croucher reports to Farage.
David Abbott, ex NEC member : "Our leader issues an edict that MEP's wives must not be on the MEP's payroll. Then he is caught paying his own wife."And again: "These new revelations were on top of all his (ie Farage) more obvious defects including total amorality, bullying, adultery, and drunkenness, vengefulness and lying.
UKIP Rival Scuppers Farage Question Time Appearance (iaindale.blogspot.com)
Posted in Anthony SCHOFIELD, Bryan SMALLEY, Craig Mackinlay, David ABBOTT, Eric EDMOND, John PETLEY, Mark CROUCHER, Nigel FARAGE, Richard NORTH | 1 Comment »


text:
Rejuvenation: Researchers want to have defeated aging
Graying men grow dark hair again, their biological clocks turn backwards. Researchers say they have rejuvenated nine people. Can that be true?
Friday, July 12, 2019, Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at New York's Cooper Square. Just before 11 o'clock local time, a man with glasses and mustache comes to the lectern. What he reports to the professional audience, contains a monstrous message: Should confirm what his lecture contains, could start a revolution that would radically change our societies forever. At the end of which man could possibly override the eternal law of life: aging and its own transience.
The speaker is Gregory "Greg" Fahy and medical director at Intervene Immune, a biopharmaceutical company near Los Angeles. Fahy is one of the keynote speakers at the Life Extension Advocacy Foundation (Leaf) Aging Conference this year. Title of his presentation: "Reversing Human Aging Right Now!" In German: reverse human aging, now! That sounds like a full-bodied mission statement from a capital-hungry startup. But Fahy, so the audience must quickly recognize, it means literally and very seriously. For the first time in the history of our species, the lifecycle of humans has been turned back, the scientist explains. A combination of known active ingredients in nine volunteer volunteers allowed the biological age to jump back by two and a half years. Aubrey de Gray, a scrawny man with a beard and perhaps the best known rejuvenation researcher right now, finds strong words right after the presentation: "Impressive" are the results and highly motivating.
It sounds incredible. And always, when something sounds incredible in science, caution is needed. In this case, even extreme caution. In fact, the results that Fahy has come up with are not yet published in a scientific journal. So you have not stood up to the critical scrutiny of peers who need to review the methods and evaluation of the data. This should happen later this year (see info box). In addition, the experimental group is very small: Just nine men - and no woman - have the drugs, a control group does not exist so far.
What would that mean for our society?
At the same time, the consequences of such a therapy would be incalculable - and for that reason alone worthwhile reporting: If the findings of the scientists - in addition to the experts of the company were researchers of the University of California in Los Angeles and Stanford University involved - confirm in further studies, could be an era imminent. If physicians had really succeeded in rejuvenating people, what would that mean for our society? Would an era begin when youth becomes a commodity, and the vulnerability of old age loses its terror? And how radically would life planning change, family structures and insurance systems? Does God still need gods when death has died?
The Agony of Aging began in the spring of 2017. In his lab at the University of California, Steve Horvath examined the last blood samples from the nine volunteers. As he had done in the last twelve months. Again with the same result. There was no doubt, the results were clear. Horvath sent her to Intervene Immune, to his colleague Greg Fahy. He also published what he read. This was followed by two years of further analysis and long discussions in the team. At the end there was a decision: they would publish the findings.
ref: zeit
"Berlin" and "Palermo" from "La Casa de Papel" have more than one talent
An Eye on the Media - Johhny Clegg: The Legendary "White Zulu"
News - Politics 1 min
CDU boss becomes Minister: Full risk: Kramp-Karrenbauer takes over German army
Why is Griffith now moving to revive the peace process in Yemen and will he succeed?
Shipping: Iran: Oil tanker towed after a technical breakdown on the Gulf
Watch LIVE the partial lunar eclipse
Life - Entertain 10 mins
San Fermín, a party without equal
The source reported a fire in a hotel in Moscow
The Iranian ambassador in Baghdad: We will not bow to America and its supporters for our war will regret

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Namnet Jesus vill jag sjunga (norsk originaltitel Navnet Jesus blekner aldrig), är en sång, översatt till svenska 1923 av David Welander och bearbetad 1924 av Johan Gustafsson. Andra svenska varianter av psalmen har inledningsstroferna "Namnet Jesus bleknar aldrig", "Jesusnamnet bleknar aldrig" och "Namnet Jesus aldrig mister (genom tiderna sin glans)". Den förstnämnda är en översättning av Stig M. Dominique från 1941. Den sistnämnda är en textbearbetning från 1966 gjord av Per Juliusson utifrån Johan Gustavssons version, och finns bland annat inspelad på Carolas album Credo (där som enbart Namnet Jesus).

Sången sjungs till en Zulu-melodi.

Psalmen finns publicerad i
Andliga sånger 1935 som nr 103.
Kristen lovsång 1952 som nr 96, i Stig Dominiques översättning.
Förbundstoner 1957 som nr 62, under rubriken "Guds uppenbarelse i Kristus: Jesu namn".
Psalm och Sång som nr 72, i Gustafssons version men utan refräng.
Frälsningsarméns sångbok 1968 som nr 313, med inledningsfras Jesusnamnet bleknar aldrig under rubriken "Jubel och tacksägelse".
Finlandssvenska psalmboken 1986 som nr 310, i en bearbetning av Stig Dominiques översättning.
Psalmer och Sånger 1987 som nr 386, under rubriken "Fader, Son och Ande - Jesus, vår Herre och broder".
Lova Herren 1988 som nr 42, under rubriken "Jesu Kristi namn".
Segertoner 1988 som nr 365, under rubriken "Fader, son och ande - Jesus, vår Herre och broder".
Frälsningsarméns sångbok 1990 som nr 580, under rubriken "Erfarenhet och vittnesbörd".
EFS-tillägget 1986 som nr 706, med inledningsfras Namnet Jesus aldrig mister under rubriken "Jesus, vår Herre och broder".
Verbums psalmbokstillägg 2003 som nr 716, med inledningsfras Namnet Jesus aldrig mister under rubriken "Jesus, vår Herre och broder".
Lova Herren 2020 som nr 36, under rubriken "Guds Son, Jesus vår Frälsare".

Referenser

Noter

Externa länkar
Melodi och text (utifrån Stig Dominiques översättning), i webbversionen av Finlandssvenska psalmboken (1986).

Norska psalmer

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Best Of 2020: Mario And Zelda Were Great, But GoldenEye Really Switched Me On To Nintendo
© Nintendo Life
Over the holiday season we'll be republishing a series of Nintendo Life articles, interviews and other features from the previous twelve months that we consider to be our Best of 2020. Hopefully, this will give you a chance to catch up on pieces you missed, or simply enjoy looking back on a year which did have some highlights — honest!
This Soapbox feature was originally published in August 2020.
These days, I'm very much living the Nintendo life, but rewind thirty years and I was a SEGA Mega Drive kid. I enjoyed Super Mario Bros. 3, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Duck Hunt and of course the seminal Rareware classic, Battletoads & Double Dragon on my brother's NES, but given the choice between Mario or Sonic back then, it wasn't much of a contest. One too many mistimed jumps and foolish deaths at the feet of Goombas left me with a preference for an automatic spin jump that took out enemies without Mario's need for pixel precision.
In those original Sonic games I could hit a heightened flow state running through his twisting loop-filled Zones; when I tried the same in a Mario game, I inevitably clipped a Koopa Troopa or the penultimate step of a staircase and came grinding to a halt. They're different styles of platformer, of course, but I preferred the SEGA flavour.
It would be a long time before I graduated beyond 16-bit, and the fifth generation was in full swing by the time I upgraded. PlayStation had been on the scene for a while and trying games like Twisted Metal, Die Hard Trilogy and Tekken 3 at a friend's house certainly made it tempting. I wasn't a big fan of the load times, even then, but it was an undeniably slick bit of kit next to my ageing Mega Drive.
The Nintendo 64 didn't arrive in the UK until 1997, and despite the noise people were making about Super Mario 64, I wasn't immediately onboard. No, it was another game that set me squarely on the Nintendo path. Wandering around Comet (the now-defunct UK retailer) on a family trip to buy a toaster or some such long-forgotten appliance, I caught glimpse of an N64 demo station through the rows of tall fridge freezers. It was running a game with lots of drab-looking grey on the screen. Darting away from my parents with an "I'm just going to look at something…", I made a beeline for the terminal and found a small child looking up at the screen while poking at the console's odd three-pronged controller.
Who knew lifelong pursuits could be born in such places, eh? My local Comet at the time still had signage from the '70s (or what looked like it), not this hip, poppin' logo from the 2000s. (Image: Betty Longbottom)
The game was GoldenEye 007, and the kid was exploring the opening 'Dam' level, not that I knew it at the time – I wouldn't even see the dam itself that day. An attentive guardian watched as lil' Timmy pushed at the grey analogue stick and bumbled around the 3D space. He faced the wall, rotated left a bit, shuffled up against the concrete as his pistol bobbed, rotated right a bit, shuffled some more… and so on.
This went on for several minutes, with the black PP7 disappearing and reappearing as the kid pushed random buttons trying to find the trigger; Bond spent a good deal of time examining the floor and the sky that day. I waited patiently, throwing polite glances at the adult and trying to embarrass them into 'letting this other boy have a go'. Eventually, my rival was ushered away and I got my hands on that strange controller for the first time ever.
I'd like to say I took to the game instantly, but the reality was that I wasn't much better than ol' Timmy No-Trigger. I managed to find the 'Z' button at least, but in the 90 seconds before I too was pulled away I don't recall seeing a single guard. I never made it past the very opening area, but I knew one thing: I had to have this game.
it promised a Bond experience that captured not just the action and explosions but another important facet of the character: sophistication
GoldenEye (the movie) had been out for well over a year at that point, and I remember being quite taken with it. Nothing I'd seen or played on that demo station felt much like the film–Pierce Brosnan doesn't spend half the movie craning his neck at the sky while strafing against a concrete wall–but from those very opening moments it promised a Bond experience that captured not just the action and explosions but another important facet of the character: sophistication.
Movement in GoldenEye felt elegant and precise. Holding 'R' to pull up the crosshair, carefully target guards and see them recoil realistically from shots felt incredibly considered and sophisticated, especially compared to the FPS I'd spent most time with to that point: DOOM. Movement there was also fluid, but aiming consisted of facing an enemy and smashing 'Ctrl'. DOOM was undeniably fun but it was a blunt instrument; GoldenEye immediately felt like an elegant weapon, for a more civilised age. Even blundering around beneath that initial guard tower for the first time, I could sense this game's potential.
Eventually, I did get an N64 with Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64) and a chunky Rumble Pak. I soon caught up with Super Mario 64, and I spent Christmas morning '98 exploring the magical Kokiri Forest. Other unexpected delights followed alongside the big obvious games which confirmed I'd definitely made the right choice: games like Banjo-Kazooie, ISS 64, Snowboard Kids, Rogue Squadron, F-Zero X, 1080º Snowboarding, all classics I stumbled on in the late '90s, and games I'd have likely missed completely were it not for a chance encounter in a Comet.
So many memories. (Image: Nintendo Life)
A tangle of rights and licensing issues prevent the game getting an official re-release, although it's come close at least once. Unfortunately, the impressive (and unofficial) GoldenEye 25 project to remaster the game on modern hardware was closed down by Bond rights owners MGM/Danjaq earlier today, and while the team plans to channel its work into another project, Rare's game looks set to remain in licencing purgatory for the foreseeable future. That a game as monumentally successful and influential as GoldenEye hasn't been re-released in nearly 23 years is practically unheard of.
Arguably (and perhaps appropriately), it feels like many an old Bond movie: a dinosaur, a relic from the console wars
Perhaps that's as it should be, though. GoldenEye makes most sense on original hardware, with that controller, with that spindly analogue stick. Arguably (and perhaps appropriately), it feels like many an old Bond movie: a dinosaur, a relic from the console wars; debonair in its day with an attitude and finesse that works in that context, but it's not a good fit for the modern world. Its outmoded conduct would likely raise eyebrows or cause outright embarrassment these days. The problem is that, despite several efforts from veteran GoldenEye devs, there's never been anything else that hits the spot quite like Rare's original cocktail.
Timesplitters was great, but it wasn't Bond. Perfect Dark, Rare's spiritual follow-up, was certainly impressive but it never worked for me on the same gut level. Intellectually, I appreciated everything it added, but much like Banjo-Tooie versus its predecessor, the game pushed the hardware to breaking point and felt a bit too ambitious for its own good. The multiplayer had so many more options–and bots!–but despite technical wizardry, GoldenEye felt trim and purposeful where Perfect Dark was bloated and broad. Years of navigating menus (ah, those filing sounds!) at lightning speeds meant I could set up a round of You Only Live Twice>Bunker>Power Weapons or Licence to Kill>Facility>Pistols faster than you could say Sight ON Auto-Aim OFF (always). I honestly can't remember playing PD's multiplayer more than a handful of times.
An image of the Surface level from the incredible-looking (and now sadly iced) GoldenEye 25 project. Just look at it! (Image: GoldenEye 25)
No doubt GoldenEye's timing was key. The tie-in game might have missed the launch of the film, but it arrived at the perfect point for me, as did the N64 itself. After years of Mega Drive gaming, I was ready for a big jump forward and GoldenEye provided just that. The seismic shift to 3D is a generational leap that subsequent new consoles can never hope to rival. These days we tend to temper expectations and often rely on the excellent work of tech experts like Digital Foundry to highlight the granular, subtle enhancements offered by gaming's latest and greatest. Even impressive advancements can be hard to spot in fast trailers over low-quality streams viewed on sub-4K displays and phones.
The N64 sometimes gets a bad rap as the console that first marked Nintendo's decline following the halcyon 16-bit era, but as my first (home) Nintendo console it occupies a special spot in my gaming memories. In fact, I'd take it over the SNES any day, and it's all down to one game. Mario and Zelda might have defined genres on N64, but so did GoldenEye, and it was Bond that brought me in from the cold.
Reminder: Nintendo's Huge Festive Sale Ends Today, Over 900 Switch Games Discounted (Europe)
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Next Patch For Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remaster Scheduled For Later This Month
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January 1, 2021 TWGbot
Watch: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Sakurai Presents Sephiroth, Live!


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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Linked To One Of The Biggest Frauds In History
March 27, 2016 admin Big Brother News, Crime & Coverups, Latest News, news, News On The Edge, News Updates, Opinion, Politics, World News 0
Netanyahu's links to French fraud brain exposed
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) is sitting next to Arnaud Mimran on a beach in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, August 2003.
A report has exposed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's shady relations with a French individual considered by French prosecutors as the "brain" behind one of the biggest frauds in history.
According to a recent report by French news website Mediapart, which was obtained by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Netanyahu has had affiliations with French national Arnaud Mimran.
Mimran, along with his partners, is accused of stealing between 300 million to 1.6 billion euros in a fraud case commonly referred to in Europe as "the scam of the century."
The report said that since the early 2000s, the Mimran family has loaned Netanyahu, then Israel's finance minister, a spacious apartment on Avenue Victor Hugo, in the heart of Paris' 16th Arrondissement.
Mimran is free on a bail of 100,000 euros after spending 10 months in jail awaiting indictment on charges including extortion in a different case.
The trial of Mimran, who denies all of the allegations against him, will begin in Paris on May 2.
Police are also probing his possible involvement in other cases, including the mysterious murder of his ex-wife's billionaire father Claude Dray.
This week, Mediapart journalist Fabrice Arfi published the photograph of Mimran relaxing with Netanyahu on the French Riviera.
In a series of articles slated to be published over the coming weeks, whose details were shared with Haaretz, Mediapart will say that Mimran has benefited from wide-ranging connections that have delayed his trial until now.
The name of Netanyahu appears first among such connections as revealed by Mediapart.
"From the evidence I have collected it is clear the Mimran family regularly donated money to the Likud movement in France, and Arnaud Mimran took care to tirelessly cultivate this connection," Arfi wrote in reference to the ruling and Netanyahu's party in Israel.
Throughout 2000s, Mimran was suspected of many crimes. He was convicted of tax offenses in France in the late 1990s.
In 2000, three years before a vacation with Netanyahu in Monaco, he was investigated on suspicion of insider trading in the United States and agreed, together with his partners, to pay a fine of 1.2 million dollars.
According to the current indictment, Mimran and his partners stole at least 282 million euros from the European Union over the course of 10 months, from the summer of 2008 to the spring of 2009. He also accused of stealing 1.6 billion euros from the French republic's coffers.
One of Mimran's partners, who was arrested and will stand trial alongside Mimran, is Marco Mouly, a Tunisian Jew with a long history of misconduct.[corner-ad id=1]
Biggest Frauds In History
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The Packers kept their season alive for another week with an overtime victory over Tampa Bay. The 6-6 Packers are one week closer to the potential return of Aaron Rodgers. A matchup with the winless Browns may be the only thing standing in the way of 12's return. A loss this weekend all but puts the nail in the Packers coffin and most likely ends any chance at a Rodgers return.
Cornerback is the biggest issue on this week's injury report. Rookie Kevin King's season came to an end as the Packers placed him on IR. With King being placed on IR, the Packers activated Demetri Goodson to take his place. Now the issue with that is that Goodson (hamstring) wasn't able to participate in practice. Davon House is dealing with a shoulder injury, and was also unable to practice. The Packers are extremely thin at corner and will have a huge challenge ahead of them this Sunday in Josh Gordon.
There are several linebackers who find themselves on this week's injury report and not one of them is Clay Matthews. Ahmad Brooks is still dealing with that nagging back issue, but was a full participant in Thursday's practice. Nick Perry and Jake Ryan were listed with multiple injuries. Perry is dealing with foot and shoulder issues and DNP in Thursday's practice, and it's an illness and a neck injury for Jake Ryan but he was able to practice in full. The Packers pass rush has been producing as of late and will need Perry out there to hopefully force Browns rookie QB Deshone Kizer into a few mistakes.
More defensive injures, just what the Packers need. Kenny Clark has had a very nice second season. He was a full participant in practice and should be good to go. The Browns will lean on Isaiah Crowell to take some pressure off of Kizer, and Kenny Clark is more effective against the run. Fellow DT Quinton Dial is dealing with a chest and knee injury. He was unable to practice.
Before the season started, we all saw a game against Cleveland and chalked it up as win. Well unfortunately we say do that anymore. While I expect the Packers to leave Cleveland 7-6, it would not surprise me if they gave the Browns their first win of the season. A win this Sunday sets up a huge game that could go a long way in deciding the NFC Wildcard. First things first, the Pack need to care of business in Cleveland.
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Last weekend, I went to Boracay for the second time this year with two of my blogger friends. Thanks to SEAIR for giving us a memorable roundtrip plane ride from Manila to Caticlan!
Just like as what I mentioned on my previous blog entry, I went to Boracay last June with mygrand parents and bestfriend. It was our first time to travel with SEAIR and we did really have a fast and secured trip. On my latest trip, I discovered a lot of wonderful facts about SEAIR.


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Your Biggest Travel Regrets Revealed
Revealed! 10 of the biggest travel regrets
Whether it was missing out on a spectacular Spanish sunrise in favour of a lie-in or passing on a last-minute adventure for more time by the pool, we all have regrets when it comes to our travels.
So we asked our Facebook followers to share their biggest travel-related regrets to help their fellow travellers from making the same mistakes. From not facing up to fears to prioritising work over globetrotting, check out ten of the most common travel regrets below.
1. Lost travelling years
Discovering the joys of travel is exciting at any age, but by and large, many late bloomers regret not catching the travel bug sooner.
"I didn't go to another country until I was 40! As it was, it took me until 29 to even get on a plane. I have made up for it now but my biggest regret is all those lost travelling years." – Julie B.
In a similar vein, Amber G regrets not taking the opportunity to travel solo when she was younger.
"My biggest regret is not travelling solo to my bucket list Eastern European destinations! I would have loved to explore on a shoestring budget and be immersed in amazing cultures."
2. Not enough planning…
Going with the wind, embracing your spontaneous side, being a little impulsive… we all wish holidaying meant the freedom to do whatever, whenever. Unfortunately, it can leave you feeling a little flat if things don't just fall into place, as some of our readers found out.
"I wanted to go to an ethical elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai but left it too late to book and we missed out! Still devastated." – Bernadette W.
"I missed out on Pompeii because I didn't book the shore tour from our cruise far enough in advance – I was gutted." – Jo Anne M.
3. Or research
It's not just missed attractions that can leave us with regrets. Not researching a destination before you go can leave you wanting…
"We didn't know June was rainy season in Florida, so our very expensive holiday to Disney World and Universal Studios was spoilt thanks to two weeks of relentless rain. I'll do more of my own research next time!" – Katie U.
4. Forgetting to renew passports
Ensuring you have a valid passport is travel 101, but forgetting to renew in time does happen, and as it seems, it's always at the worst of times…
"My (now) husband kept telling me to renew my passport but I was certain it had a few months left. Then I realised he wanted to whisk me to New York to propose but couldn't as I didn't have six months left on my passport!" – Michelle C-H.
Lolly M knows the feeling, although it wasn't her love that she was trying to celebrate abroad: "I missed out on my dad's wedding in Kenya because I didn't realise that my passport was about to expire. I would have been my first time visiting Africa, too. Luckily, all was forgiven."
5. Prioritising work over travelling
Taking a gap year (or years) is becoming increasingly common. Too bad then, for all those who didn't get the memo.
"I turned down an offer to drive from East Coast USA to West Coast USA with my best mate after graduating university. I should have gone rather than jumping straight into my career." – Iain F.
Now, we don't (officially) condone skipping work for your travels but then again, we didn't miss out on all-expenses-paid trips to the World Cup final in Mexico like Tracey G or the final in South Africa like Colin P because of a lack of annual leave. A little white lie or two, could work in your favour, though.
"Friends had spare tickets to five World Cup games in '98 and space in the car for me. I already had most of the week booked off but phoned work to see if I could have an extra two days off at short notice, only to be refused. Have always regretted not going sick!" – Jillanne D.
6. Not facing up to fears
Travelling often dishes up opportunities that are harder to come across in day-to-day life. But letting fears and phobias (or even plain old chickening out) rule your decision-making can lead to regrets, our readers have found.
"I went to Mexico on holiday a couple of years ago and my mum, sister and husband all went on a hang-glider experience but I chickened out! I'd love to give it another go!" – Becki J.
And as Davina M discovered, Norfolk isn't quite New Zealand when it comes to extreme sports: "We were in New Zealand and had the chance to do an amazing bungee jump but I chickened out last minute. I've regretted it ever since - there aren't many bungee jumps in Norfolk!"
Meanwhile, a fear of heights and a fear of water kept Nadine B and Pam C from a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon and scuba diving in Australia respectively.
7. Mismanaging the holiday budget
Holidays can be costly. These readers admit they regret running out of funds before ticking off some pretty big-ticket attractions.
"I was at the Ningaloo reef in Western Australia about 20 years ago, and the whale sharks were visiting. I didn't have enough money left to go diving, so I turned down the opportunity. When the other travellers came home after their magical dive with the sharks, they told me that manta rays also came and swam all around them and over their heads. Oh well, one day…" – Alex M.
"I decided not to walk on the glaciers in New Zealand as it would cost a bit more than I should have probably spent. A bunch of friends went on the tour and came back with the most amazing stories and pictures. I was kicking myself! – Maree L.
"My biggest regret was not booking the smaller, more expensive whale-watching tour in Iceland. Our big boat couldn't get close enough so we saw nothing, while the smaller boats had great views." – Róisín Nic E.
8. Being close enough to taste it, but choosing not to bite
It's an unfortunate fact that seeing everything in just one trip is impossible. However, there are some unmissable attractions that deserve a spot on all travellers' itineraries, as Sharon W found out: "I visited Canada and was so close to Niagara Falls but I didn't actually go to it. A huge regret!"
Dale A and Vicky N share similar stories, both revealing they visited Las Vegas and didn't bother with Grand Canyon. Nadine C, meanwhile, says her day trip from Spain to Gibraltar would've been that much better if she did just one thing…
"I didn't sign up to the Apes' Den and see all the wild monkeys roam around. What a mistake!"
9. Taking quality family time for granted
Travelling isn't just a box-ticking exercise for the world's best attractions. It also gives us the chance to get away from the banalities of life at home, and reconnect with our loved ones while making new memories.
So, it's no surprise that not making the most of it – especially when kids are young – is a big regret for many.
"I wish we travelled more when my children were young. My eldest is 18 this year and we are having our last summer together for what will probably be a few years. There were so many places I wanted to go to with the children to create memories and we seem to have run out of time." – Gemma O.
Eleanor M also laments that her travel buddies have flown the coop: "I wish we went to Jersey for the day when the kids were young. They are grown up now and our holiday crew is just us two."
10. And the regrets that can't be fixed…
Beaches will stick around, and those resort pools in Spain are much the same as those in Thailand. The same can't be said for the below missed opportunities. We'll let these regrets speak for themselves…
"While Interailing around Europe, I found myself at Salzburg late in the evening looking to get a train to Berlin to witness first-hand the Cold War tension in the city and visit Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall. However, the next train was for Venice and so thought I'd swap the cold platform for the city of canals. Distinctly unimpressed by Venice and losing my camera to boot, I ran out of time and money and next year East and West Germany were unified and the Wall came tumbling down. Scheisse!" – Paul B.
"I really wish I had visited FAO Schwartz and played on the walking piano from the film Big when I visited New York in 2013. It's shut now and it was one of my childhood dreams!" – Bella M.
"Going to the World Trade Center in New York but deciding not to go to top; 9/11 happened the following year." – Gina G.
How to avoid a visa rip off!
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Luca Furbatto (Turín; 11 de mayo de 1972) es un ingeniero italiano de Fórmula 1. Actualmente es el director de ingeniería del equipo Aston Martin.

Biografía
Después de graduarse en ingeniería mecánica en el Politécnico de Turín en Italia y la Universidad de Leeds en el Reino Unido. Furbatto comenzó a trabajar para el equipo Tyrrell renombrado BAR F1 como ingeniero de rendimiento. Comenzó a trabajar con el equipo de pruebas y luego pasó al equipo de carrera, antes de partir en el año 2000 para Toyota Motorsport.

En , se trasladó a McLaren, donde trabajó como Jefe de Materiales, haciendo crecer el departamento de manera exponencial y trabajando en maquinaria ganadora de carreras. Fue ascendido a gerente de proyecto donde desempeñó un papel crucial en el diseño de los monoplazas de  y  bajo la supervisión de Paddy Lowe, antes de dejar el equipo a finales de 2011 para ir a Toro Rosso.

En Toro Rosso, Furbatto asumió el cargo de Jefe de Diseño, donde permaneció durante tres años. Después de un breve período de regreso con McLaren trabajando en sus entradas de la serie GT, regresó como diseñador jefe del Manor Racing. Se unió durante la reorganización de 2015 y asumió la responsabilidad de los diseños de 2016. Fue un mejor año para el equipo, pero desafortunadamente los problemas de dinero continuaron plagando a Manor y se retiraron antes de la temporada 2017. En junio de 2017 se incorporó a Sauber Motorsport como Jefe de Diseño. Luego se convirtió en el diseñador jefe del equipo Alfa Romeo. Furbatto pasó Aston Martin F1 Team como su nuevo Director de Ingeniería a principios de 2022.

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Personas de Alfa Romeo
Ingenieros de Italia del siglo XXI
Ingenieros de Fórmula 1
Nacidos en Turín


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Alan L. Rector is a Professor of  Medical Informatics in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester in the UK.

Education
Rector received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College, a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D from the University of Manchester in 1987.

Research
Rector's research specialty is clinical terminology, SNOMED, GRAIL, OpenGALEN, biomedical ontologies, Artificial Intelligence in medicine, the Web Ontology Language and the development of the semantic web. He presently leads the CO-ODE and HyOntUse projects developing user-oriented ontology development environments under the JISC and EPSRC Semantic Web and Autonomic Computing initiatives as well as the CLEF project, developing secure and ethical methods to collect live patient record data, under the MRC eScience initiative.

Rector has been a visiting senior scientist at Stanford University. He has been a consultant to the NHS Information Authority, the Mayo Clinic &  Hewlett Packard and Siemens Healthcare. He is a member of the Jisc Committee for the Support of Research, the National Cancer Research Institute Board for Bioinformatics, the Joint NHS/Higher Education Forum on Informatics, and the Board of the Academic Forum of the UK Institute for Health Informatics. Rector also serves on the board of HL7-UK, the main standards body for Healthcare Informatics and has been involved with the International World Wide Web Conference and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

His research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Joint Information Systems Committee.

Awards
In 2003, he received the 1st British Computer Society Health Informatics Committee award for lifetime service to Health Informatics.

References

Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester
People associated with the Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester
Health informaticians
University of Minnesota Medical School alumni
Academics of the University of Manchester
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Semantic Web people
Pomona College alumni


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