The ThunderDragon

Plans for Brown Force One have been scrapped. The go-ahead for these was one of the last things that Tony Blair did as Prime Minister, yet it has taken Gordon Brown not far off a year to decide to cancel the order.

It was nothing more than an expensive status symbol, with no real point or benefits. It is a very good thing that this waste of our money has been stopped, but questions have to be asked about why it took so long for the decision to be made.

They’re just not content with charging every students thousands upon thousands of pounds every year that we are at university. They want to cost us graduates an extra £500m per year interest.

It will take me more than five years before I start paying off the capital on my £9,000 student loan [plus, of course, my student account overdraft]. I will start paying off the hundreds of pounds that has been added as interest on my loan next month, so I will be about 28 before I even start paying off the capital on my loan.

Why is this? Because in 2003 the government decided to change the official measure of inflation from the Retail Price Index (RPI), to the lower Consumer Price Index (CPI) - but without changing the Student Loan interest rates. Luckily for me, I am earning more than the minimum amount for graduates to start paying off their loan - £15,000 - already, so I’m less screwed than many.

Graduates are to be used to plug the holes in the government’s finances. Because we’re easy to target and have no choice. What a bunch of bastards.

I also haven’t received any information from the Student Loan Company in at least two years. So the bastards can’t even be arsed to let me know how much I owe them, yet they’re going to start taking it out of my paycheck anyway. I hate the lot of them.

It appears that being a teacher really is no guarantee that you’re not a fucking moron, as demonstrated by the National Union Teachers. They want to ban the Ministry of Defence from giving talks to students on a potential career in the military, because they use “misleading propaganda”.

Apparently they don’t give a true enough picture of life in the armed forces. Bollocks. Besides, any half-intelligent person would, y’know, check up on the details before they took a job.

And they really did come out with some complete bollocks:

Any one who can say this with a straight face really is too stupid to be a teacher. Even a PE teacher.

It isn’t up to teachers to decide what careers their students should consider. It is their duty as educators to provide all the information to their students to enable them to make their own informed and intelligent choices - not just the ones their teachers would prefer them to make.

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can’t teach go to NUT conferences and pass idiotic Leftist motions like this.

UPDATE: Two teachers object to the NUT’s statements.

The lighting of the Olympic torch as it begins it journey from Olympia to Beijing in time for the 2008 Olympics was disrupted by a group of demonstrators. The group, Reporters Without Borders, said that:

Whilst I agree with the sentiment, no matter what the human rights situation is in China what is the point of disrupting a sporting event? This is not a political event, but a sporting one. And it’s not like the Olympics could be held anywhere else at this late stage.

Rather than disrupting the Olympics, use the “symbol of peace” that the Olympic flame stands for as an opportunity to show where the Chinese government fail to meet what we consider to be the correct standards - but in a more effective way than the IOCs “silent diplomacy” [which means what, exactly? Saying and doing nothing].

By disrupting the Olympics, demonstrators are not helping their cause, but just ensuring that the Chinese become more intransigent to making any positive change.

They just can’t leave us alone, can they?

Firstly, the Scottish “Government” wants to raise the age at which alcohol can be legally drunk to 21. Why? Because “we all know that Scotland as a nation has a drink problem and the implications of this are very serious - not least for our health.” So because of the potential of some health problems caused by a few youngsters habitually over-drinking, they are considering banning all under-21s from drinking alcohol completely. And what exactly will stop them crossing the border to England - assuming the Union still exists - and getting drunk there and then coming back? Nothing.

And on the English side of the border the British Government - as we’re not allowed an English one - wants to ban all cigarette vending machines and force cigarettes to be sold from under the counter. Like I said when this idea was originally suggested, banning the sale of cigarettes from vending machines or making them being sold from under the counter won’t prevent under-aged - or just “young” - people from smoking. They have already banned smoking in public places and raised the smoking age from 16 to 18, but now that just isn’t enough for them. It really is just a case of Nanny State bansturbation.

We can’t they just leave us alone? It is our health and our money to do with as we please. Bansturbation won’t help, and will just make the problem worse by increasing the mystique of smoking and cigarettes. The only way to reduce the bad effects of smoking and excessive alcohol consumption is through education about the effects it has on our body. Then leave us to make our own choices, whether they be good or bad.

The two main Christian Churches appear to be fighting some sort of media war: Who can say the most controversial thing and get the most column inches?

This round was kicked off by the Catholic Church, with Cardinal Keith O’Brien denouncing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill as being “monstrous,” “grotesque,” “deathly” and of “Frankenstein proportion”. Oh, and of course just plain immoral. As if non-Catholics can’t possibly have morals.

Fighting back in the media is the previous front-runner after his Sharia law speech, Archbishop Rowan Williams has attacked the “greed” of Western nations. According to him, we are all dead inside because we want to live our lives in a way of our choosing. Has it slipped his mind that he’s head of the Church of England - a powerful Western nation? It seems so.

So what is the Catholic Church going to say in return? Let’s wait and see for the next episode of the Battle of the Churches…

Monday

• Matt Wardman thinks that the Yanks have discovered irony. Well, it’s about time!
• Jon Craig at Sky’s Boulton & Co points out that it’s the polls that are doing boom and bust [except for the Lib Dems, who just aren't moving]. Unlike the economy, which is just bust.
• Matt Sinclair writes about “quasi-revenue-neutral tax reform”. Yes, that means about as much to me as to you. But the rest of the post is pretty much jargon-free, and definitely worth reading.

Tuesday

• Madsen Pirie at the ASI destroys the myth that the “poor and weak” need the State more than the “strong”. And too right. The State system benefits few but itself.
• Richard North at EU Referendum is still waiting for the robust leadership from the Conservatives that he wants to see. It takes time to generate such leadership, but I’ll come in time.
• John Redwood thinks that Parliament has finally detached from reality. Many of us in the real world think that it lost touch a long time ago.

Wednesday

• Christopher Hope blogging at the Telegraph wonders if Gordo has gone “buy one, get one free” with his Cabinet. We all wish they’d just bog off.
• Norfolk Blogger ask who cares more about a match result: the footballers or the fans? Fans care avidly about how their team does [probably too much]. Some footballers don’t seem to care at all, despite - or maybe because of? - their massive pay cheques.
• Daniel Finkelstein at the Times‘ Comment Central wonders whether trauma therapy works. It certainly does seem a strange way to get over such trauma by reliving it all over again.

Thursday

• Nadine Dorries is going back to her constituency and preparing for government. Calm down, dear. No matter how good the polls are at the moment, there’s a long way - and time - to go yet.
• Asp thinks that those who are complaining about the BBC purchasing the rights to Formula 1 coverage are whingers. And he’s right. I don’t watch other sports, but I do watch F1. I’d rather pay my licence fee for that rather than the just as obscenely overpaid premiership footballers.
• Mr Eugenides has two opposing quoted from the same politician, Jack Straw, on prison sentences. They really are just making it up as they go along!

Friday

• Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money thinks that we’re not in the money any longer. Money, money, money… there’s just not enough to borrow.
• Guthrum at Looking For A Voice is upset that Belgium finally has a government after surviving quite adequately for nine months without one. Unfortunately, government is necessary, though much less than the Nanny State we currently have.
• Iain Dale ponders the question of whether size matters - and concludes that it doesn’t. Which is nice.

Saturday

• Devil’s Kitchen just wants Jackie Baillie MSP to answer the fucking question! A sentiment we all feel towards most politicians.
• Archbishop Cranmer looks into yet another political intervention by Cardinal Keith O’Brien - this time over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. The Church should stay the hell out of politics.
• Mike Smithson at Political Betting looks back at the week that saw punters put their money on Boris. Go Boris!
• Philip Salter at the ASI, also on the London Mayoral race, has a look at the policies of fourth-placed candidate Sian Berry of the Green Party. Scary stuff.

Sunday

• Little Man In A Toque is pleased to see that the flag-flying rules are to change, opening up the possibility of the Cross of St George being flown over Parliament on 23rd April. Which is good. We should celebrate the identities of all constituent parts of the United Kingdom. And I myself will be marching in a St Gorge’s Day parade on Sunday 20th April.
• Tom Paine at The Last Ditch defends so-called internet “addicts”, pointing out that all successful people are likely to be considered “obsessive” under this definition. Free choices aren’t illnesses.

Video of the Week

Matt Wardman shows what the Easter Bunny does the other 364 days of the year…

And the Britblog Roundup #162 is here.