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not taking it kneeling down

From the branch secretary:

This is not a threat but a promise.

No, it fucking doesn't. 
No need to apply....

Posted by Trixy at 4:01 pm Confused Britain

According to experts, 1.7 million people will have dementia by 2051.

Good news for our politicians: 1.7 million people might think that what they're doing is good.

Posted by Trixy at 3:56 pm Labels: cookies with dentures in 
Harry Pottering and the Ten Commandments

He hath spoken, and we must obey.

push for a new European constitution in 2009

improve the EU institutions' credibility through better lawmaking.

strike up a democratic and effective partnership with Russia

remember that Europe and the USA are friends

don't let anyone deny the holocaust

Free Speech, anyone?

help those who fight for freedom and democracy, like in Belarus

make a stand against the death penalty

develop a common EU immigration policy Life is (amazingly) good

So, am fairly exhausted and looking generally rubbish through tiredness, but that doesn't mean that life can't be good.

It's still light outside, and I can see all the beautiful flowers in St James's Park. I have just found a strawberry chocolate in amongst the box which I was given to me by a friend, which did run the risk of being a coffee cream so you can imagine how pleased I am.

Also, I have just been sent a press release which made me howl with laughter, with the title:

Dementia must be made a national priority

A policy which is evidently widely successful, if you consider that our government and the shower over in Westminster are elected by the people.

Posted by Trixy at 4:46 pm Labels: flowers, mental people, more flowers, pretty flowers, yummy chocolates 
That press release

Well, ladies and gentlemen. Trixy thought that despite one of her contacts informing her that the Electoral Commission were 'a bunch of pedants' (or pendants, if Polly Tonybee was my contact, which she isn't) she had better get and read the press release from the Electoral Commission about them taking UKIP to court.

So, she did, and it's here for your perusal: H/T The Spine

Posted by Devil's Kitchen at 9:08 pm Labels: Carrot-brained, Electoral Commission, twats 
Carry on regardless

Uncomfortable, yet fabulous outfit? Check

glazed expression and perfect makeup? Check

Rocks? check


Gorgeous shoes which cost one months rent?

Check, check...

*someone will, though. Am not eating and running off

Posted by Trixy at 8:38 pm kicking the smallest boy in the playground

Peaks and troughs

2002 The former Conservative minister Roger Knapman is elected leader

2005 Mr Kilroy-Silk resigns after failing to become leader

2006 Nigel Farage MEP is elected as leader

2007 UKIP gets its first foothold in Parliament when two peers defect

2007 The Electoral Commission demands the return of £367,697 donations

Stop the world, I want to get off. 
EU Referendum 
How the cookie crumbles

Written on the side of my yummy biscuits:

Our all butter cookies are made by biscuit experts with over 100 years of experience.

Blimey. They're some old, old cookie experts. Maybe their pensions were done over by Robber Brown and they can't afford to retire?

Hope they don't drop their dentures in the cookie dough. That would be horrid.

Posted by Trixy at 2:30 pm Labels: cookies, cookies with dentures in, dentures Lord Harris of Small Government

'What nobody really owns, nobody really cares'
 
Mandy says BOO!

Could this be? Has the great man seen the light? Could the UK Independence Party have it's biggest defector yet as the man responsible for keeping millions in the third world in poverty crosses the floor? Posted by Trixy at 10:49 pm Labels: Carrot-brained, EU, Mandelson 
Comic relief: I'm not laughing

I wrote some time ago about the pointlessness of Fair Trade juice: how, essentially, it is just a convenient way for the bleeding heart brigade to feel good about developing world poverty without actually having to do anything.

We are used to hearing about the hypocrisy of the EU: Glenys Kinnock and the Development committee cantering in on their white horses, promising to eradicate global poverty by next Thursday if we all attend their cheese-dip reception for 'lesbian equality officers in Africa'...

The parliament itself has now found one way of combating this imbalance by selling Oxfam 'fair trade' juice in its subsidised cafeteria. If I was a dairy farmer in the developing world, trying to survive when EU and US dairy subsidies keep world prices 34% lower than they should be, I would be grateful that three people a week were buying my products rather than getting to the crux of the issue.

More recently, my delight in finding some lovely sun blushed tomatoes which don't actually taste like bits of carpet someone has spilt tomato puree on has been hampered by a patronising little addition to the label informing me that 10p from every 'special pack' is being donated to Comic Relief.*

I've never been much of a fan of Comic Relief. When I was growing up, my father used to rage at the TV saying something along the lines of 'why don't they just put a load of guns in a boat and ship them over to Africa? ' in an effort to highlight that a countries torn apart by war are never going to develop either economically or socially.

That apart, if we really want to help the developing world, 10p from my overpriced culinary knick knacks isn't going to do much good.

I don't know how many times people actually have to say this, but if you want to help alleviate poverty, there's a rather handy trick you can employ.


It increases global parity. It allows countries to specialise in what they have either an absolute or a comparative advantage in, thus making global production both more productively and allocatively more efficient and shifting the global productivity curve out to the right. Everyone gets richer, albeit some at different rates to others.

And yet, we in the UK are still part of this hideous monster known as the European Union. A statist organisation which allows countries not to develop and adapt to globalisation, but instead gives them money when they are inefficient.

As I have written before,

Trading blocs are bad. They encourage protectionism and, particularly when they become political, non tariff barriers which people can't immediately see unless they are embroiled in the technical details of trade negotiations. We don't want retarded trade blocs, we want free international trade which exploits comparative and absolute advantage, shifts that global production possibility curve a large wedge to the right and which increases global parity. This does not happen with tariff barriers on shoes and health and safety rules imposed on barely above subsistence level farmers in Africa.

So all you people who are going to fanny around with your red noses, slapping yourselves on the back for being so caring and so thoughtful and really thinking that you are doing your bit to help out those less fortunate than yourselves, think again.

If you really want to do some good, help get the world's fifth largest trading nation out of the EU, back with their own seat at the WTO and leading the way in free trade. It made us rich when we did it unilaterally in the nineteenth century, and it can make us and everyone else who gets involved rich in the twenty first.

And there's a very simple way of doing that....

*Ironically, underneath this is the special offer price of '2 for £4' which does rather highlight the futility of the exercise.

Posted by Trixy at 7:27 pm Labels: Comic Relief, development, hypocritical bitch, Kinnock, lesbians, Trade 
Posted by Trixy at 11:26 am 
And another thing

Further to my rant the other day about the EU and it carrying on, guns blazing (well, the guns it generally makes the British wield) here is a wonderful post by Eliab which clarifies the situation much better than my frustrated ramblings ever did...

Those little listening devices always reminded me somewhat of the TV screen whatsits in 1984 - some twat trying to drill into your head their agenda for the next squillion years whilst their minions sit around applauding, like the spasticated monkeys that they are.

I await with interest the 8th March, not least because I will be in Brussels.

Posted by Trixy at 7:15 pm Labels: EU, EU Constitution, European Parliament Latest YouGov poll Odd places people come from

Just had a quick look at where people come from to get to discover whether or not there is more to life than shoes, and one did rather puzzle me.

How did someone get from here to here?

Answers on a shoe box, please.

Posted by Trixy at 4:11 pm Shortest smoking ban ever

I see that the Sun has picked up on the shortest ever smoking ban. The bureau of busybodies in the European Parliament have decided that the total smoking ban in the Parliament should be dropped in favour of smoking areas where us smokers can kill ourselves in peace. Lovely.

Apparently it's because no one was paying attention to it. Well done those chaps! I'm doing my bit here in London as a gesture of comradeship.

Posted by Trixy at 12:09 pm Labels: European Parliament, smoking, the Sun 
Cameron's Caring Conservatives

From the Mirror:

Sick Tory Sack Row

A former Tory party agent claimed she was forced out of her job after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Rosemary Holman, 48, is Suing Tories for unfair dismissal, sex and disability discrimination.

Mike Broomby, her boss in Sevenoaks, Kent, allegedly made life a "living nightmare" with sexist bullying. Mr Broomby denies the claims. He told the tribunal in Ashford: "I was concerned about Ms Holman's health. "I sacked her when she failed to go to a medical examination three times."


Sources close to Trixy tell me that the medical examination he demanded was with his personal friend who was a doctor. She offered to go to a doctor independent of both of them, but Mr Broomby was not having any of that.

 And you thought Bob Silk was mad....

Are they not allowed to at the moment, then?
 
My effort for valentine's day

What with it being the most romanitc day of the year, and me sitting on a sofa, partially pissed updating my blog rather than prancing around with a rose between my teeth, I thought I would do something towards the general amour atmosphere here in blogland.

However, I couldn't find anything decent, so I'll just shove this on...

Bon appetite!

Posted by Trixy at 10:04 pm You've been a long way away...

Took a break from watching the rather dull news and managed to catch the end of Brief Encounter.

I think that this is the most romantic film ever made. He may have been a poof, but Nöel Coward managed to understand women in the way that no straight man I've ever met can. And to have Rachmaninoff's Second piano concerto running throughout was genius.

So there we were, eyes glued to the screen as we were waiting for Trevor Howard's train to arrive on the platform for the last time when my (male) colleague shouts out:

"Why don't they just get a hotel room and shag"

Because then it would just be the same old, same old tat which is churned out and forgotten. You know the kind; He's some power hungry, successful and yet emotionally retarded business man and she's the plain secretary (by 'plain' I mean that she wears glasses but it tall and willowy with breasts like sleeping kittens)and they end up happily, and predictably ever after once the girls in the wardrobe department have done a make over...

And it wouldn't have lines like:

This can't last. This misery can't last. I must remember that and try to control myself. Nothing lasts really. Neither happiness nor despair. Not even life lasts very long. They'll come a time in the future when I shan't mind about this anymore. But I can look back and say quite peacefully and cheerfully how silly I was. No, no I don't want that time to come hither. I want to remember every minute, always, always to the end of my days.

Or make women all over the world sob and weep and collapse in a heap when Fred says:

You've been a long way away...Thank you for coming back to me.

I think I may cry into my valentine's apple which the fruit man on the corner gave me...*sob*

Posted by Trixy at 1:58 pm 
Why is no-one listening? 
At least they are honest

Excuse me whilst I have a short rant..

As a colleague wrote to me:


Brussels Journal

 Just the tonic

Am feeling a bit crap today. Too much work, not enough sleep, that kind of thing.

However, a quick read of the glorious prose of The Welsh Stripper and I'm definitely feeling more chipper (geddit?) and howling with laughter.

So thank you, Mr C Dale, for making my day better.

Posted by Trixy at 3:47 pm Labels: Chip Dale Price on another war?

From the BBC I see that America are bored with the Iraq war and are looking for a new place to play.

US officials in Iraq had said they had evidence that Iran was providing weapons to Shia militias who attacked the US military.

Doesn't this sound a wee bit like America trying to find an excuse to attack Iran as they are doing so badly in Iraq?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge fan of Iran and I find statements like:

Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran "shied away from all conflict"´

Apart from wiping Israel of the map

and that no peace would come with foreign troops in Iraq.

Which is not exactly "shying away" from all conflict.

Rather stupid, irritating and unnecessary.

However, when it comes to America's record with the whole telling the truth aspect of why they have to go to war: the WMD, harbouring terrorists, going to the UN and then ignoring them when they didn't get the answer they wanted, I just can't help but think it will all end in disaster.

Trixy's daddy says that we should just let them fight each other as that's the only way they will be happy. But I think he just wants to retire early.

It's never going to end, is it? I mean, how do you fight God?

Posted by Trixy at 3:18 pm 
Camer-bis 'not a happy bunny' UKIP finances: setting the record straight

Poor Trixy was woken up this morning by someone informing her that the Sunday Telegraph had written that UKIP was being investigated for dodgy finances. I knew they were writing a piece; my contacts in the party had told me how shocked they were at how little the journalist actually knew about the funding of political parties. For example, he didn't actually realise that parties with MPs in Westminster are already on the public slush fund and have been for many years.

So, to set the record straight:

1) UKIP filed the accounts 6 months late, with the permission of the Electoral Commission, as the position of party treasurer changed hands a few months ago, during which time it became the end of the financial year. Both men were part time working for the party and full time chartered accountants. The new party treasurer had to not only file the accounts, but catch up with the party records from the previous administration in a very short space of time and run his business during the busiest time.

2) Most of the financing for UKIP, particularly during elections, comes from individials. As the paper admits, a party does not have to register donations from individuals to the party if they are under £5000 or to regional offices if they are under £1000. UKIP is a grass roots party. People give us whatever they can afford, whether it be £5 or £100 or £10000. They do this because they genuinely believe in what the party stands for. The only personal gain they stand to make that there will be a political party in this country who believes in Independence.

There is the incentive in larger parties for people to give huge amounts of money because, as we have seen with the 'loans for peerages', they could stand to benefit on a personal level. That is not a view people take with UKIP. They give what they can to free Britain from the constraints of the EU and our statist government. The journalists should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for attacking those well meaning people for doing something they believe in.

For instance, Ukip's south-east office received donations of £291,000 in 2004, more than twice as much as the party's head office. Yet some £280,000 did not need to be declared because it consisted of individual donations of less than £1,000 each.

Notice that? They didn't need to. That's not UKIP making up the rules, or breaking the rules. That's the party following the rules and being different from others because it has the support of normal, everyday people.

2004: European Election time. If you want out of the EU, who would you donate some money to? Labour, Lib Dems? The Tories?

No, you'd donate it to UKIP because they are the only party who wants to restore Independence to Britain. And they did, in their thousands because they wanted to, and they felt they needed to and consequently, we beat the Lib Dems into third place.

The Sunday Cameron may not like that (they did, after all, censure Booker who is the paper's best journalist) but it's true. UKIP doesn't have lobotomised, tribal followers. It is supported by people who care deeply and passionately about this country and if the Sunday Cameron thinks this is some kind of financial irregularity, then that says far more about them than it does about UKIP.

3) Investigations by the Electoral Commission.

Yes, these were things like 'can you clarify the post code of x as we don't have them registered at that address.



Posted by Trixy at 8:58 am Labels: Carrot-brained, Sunday Cameron, Tories, UKIP 
Put the kettle on Enlargement: when will it stop?

Having a quick look through Hansard today I found a question asking if the EU actually has any boundaries for enlargement. It's a relevant point, especially since the more countries who join the EU, the less power indiviual nations have to decide EU legislation, which supercedes national law, and also the more money they have to contribute to fund these much poorer countries. Let's have a look at the debate, shall we?

EU: Enlargement

Lord Monson asked Her Majesty's Government:In the light of the call by the Minister for Europe, Geoff Hoon, speaking at the Fabian Society on 24 January, for Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan to be considered for European Union membership, whether they have made an assessment of how far east and south the boundaries of the European Union should extend.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union states that any European country may apply for membership if it respects the principles of liberty,
democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law. The Government believe that enlargement has proved our strongest tool for spreading stability and prosperity in Europe and that it is right to keep open the possibility of eventual membership for the European countries to the east and south of the EU, provided that they meet the membership conditions. My right honourable friend the Minister for Europe, Geoff Hoon, did not say that those countries should be “considered for EU membership”.

Well, that's nice to know.

Posted by Trixy at 12:31 pm 
Freedom to Choose

Eliab has pointed me in the direction of a pressure group I am rather keen to support:


And one political party has already signed up to support the right of publicans to have their own smoking policy, and of customers to decide if they want to go to a public house where they can smoke, or one where they can't.

Market choice, you see. Very clever.
 
Getting the link yet? 
Ignorance of the highest order

DK has pointed me in the direction of a post by the erm,

So as I'm sure you've seen Liam Fox made some comments on GMTV this morning saying (essentially) a vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour. Now this is a subject I care about deeply. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone, anyone would vote UKIP at the next General Election. We have had a Labour government for ten years now. I must be right in thinking that there is not one member of UKIP who would like a Labour government for any longer. Labour are not interested in their views on Europe, Labour are not interested in their views on immigration, Labour do not support any of the ream of reactionary policies Farage has drawn up to try and increase the sham of suggesting that UKIP are anything other than a single issue party with a one issue agenda - to withdraw from the EU.

Now it is not Conservative party policy to withdraw from the EU. However it is not Labour party policy or Lib Dem party policy either. There are however Conservative MP's who support withdrawal from the EU. I'm not aware of any in the other two parties. All Conservative MP's are deeply concerned about the undemocratic, bureaucratic waste of money that is the current form of the EU. Deeply anti-EU MEP's like Roger Helmer and Dan Hannan stand under the Conservative banner.

So if you were UKIP's target audience why on earth would you vote for a party that has not and will not win a single seat at Westminster and will absolutely positively never form a government? Especially since by voting for them 8 times out of 10 you are reducing the number of votes for the only party other than the Labour party that can form a government at the next general election? Frankly they deserve what they get if they let in another Labour government that won't have the balls to stand up to the EU. However if they have any sense they'll vote for the only party that comes close to representing their views - the Conservative Party.

Anyway, I commented. Twice.

No, Caroline, I don't want another Labour government. I want a UKIP government. And if I can't have that, I at least want UKIP MPs. I'm not going to get that by not voting for them, am I?

If you can't understand why people would vote UKIP then it may be time to compare their manifesto with that of the Tory party.

I, for example, vote UKIP because firstly I want the UK to withdraw from the EU and replace membership with a free trade agreement. Once we have control of our own trade policy we can, either multilaterally, bilaterally or unilaterally embrace free trade. This has the benefits of increasing global parity.

I also understand that the way to stimulate economic growth is to cut taxes, as an increased marginal propensity to consume and invest increases the money multiplier. This is NOT the policy of the Conservatives, who seem to have abandoned any logical economic policy, and who also want to keep state spending at this unsustainable and damaging level.

I also believe in selection for schools and think that the reintroduction of grammar schools and support for existing grammar schools is vital for improving education in this country. I think that Head teachers should be freed up from being controlled by the government and should have control of their own school. This is not the policy of the Conservatives.

I don't think that environmental taxes are necessary. Indeed, I think they are a convenient way for our westminster politicians to raise taxes without any political opposition from within Parliament. I certainly don't think that we should be so preoccupied with an unproven theroy, which this fandango with climate change is.

I think we should have nuclear power. I think we should build more prisons.

As for Helmer and Hannan. Well, the fact that Helmer was thrown out of the EPP for doing what he was elected to do is illustrative of the true feelings in the Tory party towards anyone with EUsceptic leanings.

Helmer was given the whip back after he wrote a letter to Cameron saying he would join UKIP unless the whip was restored, so clearly he thinks that there is a reason to vote UKIP.

People vote UKIP because they represent the views of many, many people. And as it is their democratic right to vote for who they wish to, why should they not vote for a party which represents their views? It's not a case of only being able to vote for Tories or Labour. I actually think that Gordon Brown is more EUsceptic than David Cameron, and having heard him address the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs committee, I certainly heard more statements from him to convince me of that than I ever heard or saw in 2 years of following that committee and seeing the true beliefs of the Tory MEPs on that committee.

As a last point Caroline, what do you think about the Tory MEPs helping to fund the 'yes' propaganda for the EU Constitution? Because they did....

Your comment that UKIP cannot and will not win seats in Westminster is rather confusing. Do you know something you're not letting on? Are all UKIP votes going to be destroyed? Is there a ban on UKIP entering Parliament? Or are you just copying rhetoric from your leadership who don't exactly have a perfect record when it comes to speaking honestly about any matters linked with the EU.



It's also a bit rich for you to say that: 'Labour do not support any of the ream of reactionary policies Farage has drawn up to try and increase the sham of suggesting that UKIP are anything other than a single issue party with a one issue agenda - to withdraw from the EU.'

That's a contradictory comment in itself. If there are other policies, how can it be a single issue party? And why attack Labour for not supporting them when Nu Tories don't either?

It's as hypocritical as listening to David Davies talking about the need to control immigration when it was the Tory government in 1994 who first gave up control over 'internal' borders to the EU, and seeing as the Conservatives want to remain in the EU where there is free movement of people within the bloc, they clearly do not want control of our borders.

May I point out on this issue that it was a Tory MEP, Geoffrey Van Orden, who drafted the legislation which allowed Bulgaria to join the EU. Tory MEPs voted time and time again to enlarge the EU in 2004 and again this year, and are in support of Turkey joining. They are also in support of the 'common market' which by definition is the free movement of goods, services and people.

So, basically, the Tories have the same immigration policy as NuLabour and the Lib Dems. They want the EU to have control. Tell me, if I want control of the UK borders by UK officials and I want to remove this colour bar from 'our' immigration policy, who else should I vote for but UKIP?

Tests for voting, it's the only way!

Posted by Trixy at 11:36 pm 
At least someone likes Blair

Sent to me by a friend...

A big round of applause to 'Mad' Frankie Fraser!

Posted by Trixy at 5:42 pm A wee joke

The patient responds:
"Some hae meat an canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat an we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit."

Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the PM moves onto the next patient, who immediately begins to chant:

Now seriously troubled, Blair turns to the accompanying doctor and asks

"Is this a psychiatric ward?"

"No," replies the doctor, "this is the serious Burns unit."
 
Lib Dems: Are they all mentally retarded?

I've just listened again to the Today Programme from Saturday with Nick 'I know nothing about International Trade' Clegg and Nigel Farage.

Is there a Lib Dem out there who actually knows what they are talking about?

Clegg, for example, thinks that being one voice in 27 is good for British business because otherwise America and China 'won't listen to us'. Listen to us on what? If China want to subsidise cheaper goods for British consumer then bring it on. If countries in the developing world use their abundance of labour resources to get competitive priced primary products then who are we to tell them not to?

Nick Clegg has not quite grasped that this 'speaking with one voice' crap is not actually the combined voice of 27 countries. It is the voice of a few economically retarded countries who have failed to get to grips with globalisation, and who hold back countries such as Britain as a result. This is why the EU now have a Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which is basically you and I paying for other countries not to have productive or allocative efficiency.

Moreover, soon our trade with America will be screwed over because the EU want to ban the use of non metric measurements in EU exports. Now, whilst people in the EU seem to have forgotten that we Brits beat Napoleon, the Yanks haven't, and are still using a proper system of measurement. We have a $73,682,000,000 trade surplus with America: up to November 2006 they had bought $49,212,000,000 worth of UK imports. I think that's slightly more important to maintain than ensuring that some Greek shoe workers get their siesta at lunch time and people still buy their (consequently) over prices goods.

So what of that 'British Bulldog Confidence' that Nick Clegg talks of? Well, I think that the BBC (oh, the irony)would be shown in the best light by the British people realising how damaging the EU is to our everyday lives, to our jobs, our businesses, what our children are taught in schools, how much tax we pay, who can come into our country, how we produce electricity and dispose of our rubbish, and repealing the European Communities Act than by sticking their head in the sand and thinking that we need to be in the EU to combat climate change, or some other pink, suede elephant.

Alas, people like Clegg haven't realised that statements such as 'the EU is the single largest trading bloc' does not make it a good thing for people who have actually taken the chance to study international trade. Trading blocs are bad. They encourage protectionism and, particularly when they become political, non tariff barriers which people can't immediately see unless they are embroiled in the technical details of trade negotiations. We don't want retarded trade blocs, we want free international trade which exploits comparative and absolute advantage, shifts that global production possibility curve a large wedge to the right and which increases global parity. This does not happen with tariff barriers on shoes and health and safety rules imposed on barely above subsisitence level farmers in Africa.

Go listen for yourself, and if you can last more than 10 seconds without howling at the yellow peril, then you are a better woman than I.

Posted by Trixy at 8:17 pm 
Last one, I promise


What Personality Disorder Are You?


I have been musing over this for a day and have decided that I will have to ask my friends whether they thing this is correct or not...

Posted by Trixy at 3:16 pm What drink are you

I like these quizzes

What Mixed Drink Are You?
 oooh, a pointless quiz

What's Your Personality Cluster?

Posted by Trixy at 3:10 pm