CALEDONIAN COMMENT

US President-elect Barack Obama (pictured above) was bracing himself for the first international crisis of his presidency last night after it was revealed that Iran has reportedly now produced enough nuclear material to make an atomic bomb. A new United Nations report shows Iran is rapidly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium and is on pace to build a nuclear weapon by next year. Alarm over Iran’s nuclear ambitions grew with Britain accusing Tehran of evading questions over its suspected work on atomic warheads. Now call me cynical, but I really don’t see though why this should be a problem for Obama - all he has to do is ask George Bush for one final favour (after the favour he did Obama by being such a useless President that the Republicans were down and out by election day). That’s to bomb the hell out of Iran’s nuclear facilities before he leaves office - I’m sure he will be all too ready to oblige because he’s been looking for an excuse for ages !

UK actress Joanna Lumley (above) stood alongside hundreds of Gurkhas yesterday and addressed a rally in Parliament Square. These Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers who served in the British forces, assembled along with politicians from all the parties and campaign supporters. The campaigners want the Government to give Gurkha soldiers who retired from service before 1997 and don’t currently have the right to settle here the automatic right to live in the UK. Lumley, whose father served with the Sixth Gurkha Rifles, said: “This is a hugely important day. This is the day when we can show the Government a small section of the feelings of this country. There is a feeling that such an injustice has been done by successive Governments to the fine soldiers that it has to end. This has spread a stain on our country that once the public got to know about it, they feel it to be intolerable.” Well of course she’s right - but under the crazy perverted laws our New Labour government has promulgated, people like the Gurkhas who have served our country have little or no rights, but if you’re a ranting racist Islamic fundamentalist “cleric”, or an illegal immigrant, or an Albanian dope-dealer or an unemployable economic migrant you’ll get your permanent residence and social welfare benefits approved quicker than you can say “political correctness”.

Health workers in London were left stunned last week when an ambulance outside a hospital clinic was clamped while the driver helped a seriously ill patient inside. Driver Joan George had left the ambulance outside London’s Royal Free Hospital for just one minute to help a patient into the kidney dialysis clinic. When she returned, the yellow clamp was already being locked to the wheel. A warden refused to listen to her pleas last Thursday and said he would only remove the clamp if she handed over more than £200 as a fine. The private clamping firm the warden works for yesterday defended the decision. Ms George said: ‘I was wearing my uniform and the vehicle is clearly an ambulance  -  it has the words written down the side, as well as Royal Free NHS (National Health Service) Trust. It could not be clearer.’ Ambulance manager Clem Fraser, who contacted the clamping company and asked for a refund (which has since been refused), said: “Our driver simply pulled in and helped the patient out of the vehicle. It took no time at all  -  we have vehicle tracking equipment and can prove she pulled in at 12.38 pm. The ticket and clamp was put on at 12.39 pm  -  they gave us one minute to help a seriously ill person into a hospital unit for treatment. They refused outright to stop putting the clamp on. This is just crazy.”  A spokesman for private clamping company London Parking Control Limited said yesterday there would be no refund, insisting that there were clear signs warning drivers not to park at that spot. He said the ambulance counted as a ‘private vehicle’. The spokesman said. “Private ambulances are not exempt from parking fines and the drivers often abuse the fact that the vehicle says ambulance.” What a load of bollocks. The authorities should go in and shut down these rip-off clampers - and prosecute them. And can you imagine the squeals of protest from these same officious bastards if one of THEIR relatives had been in the ambulance? It’s high time the UK was rid of these petty thieving dictators prowling our cities once and for all. 

Oil prices (above) tumbled below $50 a barrel yesterday for the first time in three and a half years as the slowdown in the global economy dragged down demand for fuel. US crude fell $3.63 to $49.99 a barrel while the price of London Brent declined to $48.45 — its lowest level since May 2005 and 67 % below the all-time record of $147.27 a barrel reached in July. And it was in July that the utility company which supplies my household gas and electricity rushed out a letter to me and millions of others justifying price increases of around 35 % because of the high price of oil. But have I received a second letter telling me the prices are now coming down because oil has crashed ? I’ve just seen a pig flying over the utility company offices and I hope it has a dose of the runs.

A new political party in one Britain’s former colonies. The Australian Sex Party (above, with Party Convener Fiona Patten) is “serious about sex”, according to its slogan. The country’s newest political party is also serious about a number of other issues: quashing a government proposal for a national Internet filter that would block 10,000 websites; instituting a national sex education curriculum; and pushing for the legalization of gay marriage. The party - launched yesterday at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne - has already gathered the required 500 members and now plans to register with the electoral commission next week. While most of its members are drawn from Eros - Australia’s national adult industry association - the Sex Party believes it can attract a broader base. And if it fails, I suppose it will herald a new definition of losing your deposit down under.

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The British National Party (BNP) is a small right-wing political party in the UK which has its history based firmly on racism. It has tried to improve its image in recent years, winning a few minor elections at local level, but in the context of national politics it’s a meaningless fringe movement comprised mostly of middle-aged blokes that used to be skinheads and a few nutcases (examples above) that probably get off looking at photos of Eva Braun. In other words, a pathetic motley crew not worth bothering about. Although if you listened to the hysterical trendy lefties that make up today’s UK political and media establishment, you’d think it was the SS and Gestapo having a second coming. Instead of deserved laughter and scorn, the BNP is thereby given attention, importance and exposure that it doesn’t merit and wouldn’t otherwise get.

But recently a list of BNP members appeared on the internet, leaked by an as yet unidentified source. As a result, for starters, a radio DJ and a police officer are the first alleged members of the BNP to face action from their employers which may well result in their dismissal, purely for being members of that party. It’s rumoured that about 10,000 individuals, including soldiers, teachers and doctors are on the list and are now fearing their jobs could be in similar jeopardy after the leak which breached a High Court injunction. The BNP accused disgruntled former officials who were chucked out of the party last year of being responsible. And incidentally, a total of 10,000 members is hardly likely to throw the security of the UK into turmoil !

Now I don’t like the BNP. But I dislike even more the notion that in a democracy people can be deprived of their livelihood because of their political beliefs. The way to defeat the BNP is by not voting for them. The current establishment-encouraged witch hunt taking place, victimising people for membership of a political party, threatens the basic principles the UK has stood for and for which people have died for : freedom of speech ; freedom to be a member of a political party (and the BNP is a legal political party) ; freedom to vote as you choose. Nobody should have the right to tell anyone else what political parties they can or can’t belong to. The establishment should be observing its DUTY to uphold the fundamental birthright of ALL British citizens, even BNP loonies, to enjoy their democratic rights, not indulging in dictatorship-style victimisation because of people’s opinions. Otherwise it’s the thin end of a very nasty wedge, because if this process of identifying and sacking these people isn’t stopped NOW, if such policies are pursued, the only questions will be : who’s next ? Muslims ? Jews ? Liberals ? Homosexuals ? Gypsies ? Now where have we heard all that before ?

Voltaire wrote : “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Unless and until we embrace that sentiment again our democracy will utimately be doomed.

Some cheering news for the new incoming US administration. Al Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden’s deputy has issued a threat to Barack Obama, saying the US President-elect is facing a “renewed holy war”. Ayman al-Zawahri (pictured above, with the regulation pointing index-finger without which no militant Islamic website is complete) also accused Obama of being a “house negro” - along with US Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. The phrase is a derogatory racial term used to imply that Obama is a black American doing the bidding of white masters. Malcolm X used the term to criticise black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites. The Al Qaeda number two made the comments on militant websites yesterday in what is seen as being aimed at convincing Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in American policies. Can’t wait to see what apoplectic invective our deranged friend Ayman will come up with if Hillary Clinton becomes Secretary of State !

UK Banks are cashing in on the credit crunch by pushing up interest rates on overdrafts and issuing credit card bills carrying extortionate interest rates. Two new studies have revealed how the rip-off Banks are using the current crisis as an excuse to cash in. The Bank of England (above) has cut the base rate by 2.75 % in the past year bringing it down to 3 %  - however banks have actually put up the cost of overdrafts. A new study by personal finance experts Moneyfacts reveals that many banks have added between two and three points to their overdraft interest rate. Some have added more than 7 % to their overdraft interest rate with the result many struggling customers are being charged close to 17 % . A squeeze on pay coupled with higher bills for food, energy and fuel over the past year has forced more Britons to resort to their overdraft and other forms of credit to make ends meet. A sharp increase in the cost of new mortgages, a direct result of the credit crunch caused by bad investments by the banks, have also put the squeeze on customers. Now these struggling families are being used to generate extra income by the banks as they try to build up their cash reserves. And this victimisation is against the very people who are bailing these banks out. Someone in Government needs to tell these greedy rip-off merchants that recent taxpayer money they so readily grabbed was not designed to enable the banks to rob these same taxpayers and continue to pay fat bonuses while they battened down their hatches but was supposed to be money to re-invigorate the economy, with lending at reasonable rates. If the banks are unwilling or unable to do this then give us our bloody money back. 

That epitome of undergraduate inexperience, incompetence and banal posturing, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband (pictured above) yesterday called for the immediate release of the hijacked crew of a giant oil tanker - including two Britons - after the vessel anchored off the coast of Somalia. Miliband said the problem of piracy was “a grave danger to the stability in the region”. His statement of the obvious came as it emerged pirates had captured two other vessels in separate incidents - bringing the number of ships seized in the area to eight in the past two weeks. Well upon hearing Miliband I’m sure the pirates will comply. Well no I don’t really believe that - they’ll be more inclined to give him a metaphorical jolly rogering .

Diego Maradona, who took his bow as the coach of Argentina’s soccer team against Scotland at Hampden Park, Glasgow last night, defended himself against accusations from English journalists that he used his hand to score a goal against England in the 1986 World Cup (above). And he then asked how the English could keep lecturing him about his alleged World Cup handball when THEY celebrated a goal in the 1966 World Cup final that was clearly “not over the line”. Being a Scotsman myself - and neutral as far as these controversies are concerned - and a football man, all I can say is that I’m not sure if Maradona handled in 1986 - the goal was probably good, but I’m CERTAIN that the English “goal” in 1966 should have been disallowed - the ball was never over the line.

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UK inflation tumbled at a record pace in October to 4.5 %, down from the 16-year peak of 5.2 % in September, official figures showed yesterday. A sharp fall in transport costs, coupled with lower fuel and food prices, helped to push down the Consumer Price Index to the lowest rate since July. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, also fell from 2.2 % to 1.9 %, indicating that retailers are cutting prices in a bid to attract consumers into the shops as the British economy head towards recession. The bigger-than-expected fall in inflation helps to explain the Bank of England’s dramatic 1.5 % rate cut earlier this month as, until now, the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee hag been concerned about entrenching inflation in the economy if it cut rates too swiftly. But now the new buzz-word the media bogey men are trying to scare us with and thereby prick our balloons (above) is DEFLATION. Not content with wilfully and disgracefully talking down our economy over the last 12 months with their constant blabbering reports about the credit crunch, falling house prices, recession and unemployment, the media, led by the hysterical BBC, are now attempting to convince us that falling prices are a bad thing. Well maybe on their fat unjustified salaries it doesn’t matter. But for the rest of us a spell of deflation , i.e. a real reduction in the cost of living, will be no bad thing. And after the last year why should we listen to any of these so-called economic “experts”, who couldn’t predict the outcome of a one-horse race, anyway ?

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday he was still prepared to push ahead with new rules presuming people are happy to donate organs after death, despite the plans being rejected  by an expert task force he appointed. The PM is backing a change in the law to assume patients have given automatic “presumed consent” for their body parts to be used after their death, unless they decide to opt out. At present, the legal situation is the opposite, giving surgeons the authority to remove organs only if the patient carries a donor card (above). The plans have been designed to tackle the shortage of organ donors, which leads to 1,000 patients dying every year while they wait for a transplant. For once, Gord is right - we should assume willingness to donate after death and if anyone doesn’t like it they can carry a “non-donor” card. 1000 deaths a year through lack of available transplant organs through either laziness, ignorance or religious bigotry is nonsense.

An Arab sheikh who spent a fortune on a project he thought would revive Michael Jackson’s career felt “a strong sense of personal betrayal” when the pop superstar walked out on the deal, the High Court in London heard yesterday. Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa (pictured above, alongside someone who looks like Jackson, although it may be Cherie Blair with a hangover), second son of the King of Bahrain, is now suing Jackson for £4.7 million to retreive what he says he spent on the star. Bankim Thanki QC, representing the Sheikh, told Mr Justice Sweeney that his client had formed a “close personal relationship” with Jackson after he invited him, his children and personal staff to stay in Bahrain in June 2005. ”My client felt a strong sense of personal betrayal because this was someone he considered a close personal friend. The work they had done together and the plans for the future all seemed to be totally frustrated,” he said. Well to be honest if the Sheikh was daft enough to want to get close to a creep like Jackson and had more money than sense then he deserves all he gets. 

Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant (or is it infantile pre-geriatric ?) Italian Prime Minister, played a practical joke on the German Chancellor yesterday by jumping out at her from behind a lamppost when they met for an Italian-German summit in Trieste. Slipping away from the welcoming committee, the Italian leader hid behind the lamppost and emerged with a cry of “Cucu!” (pictured above) when Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped out of her official car to enter the regional council headquarters where they were to meet. Reports said the German leader, who appeared amused, opened her arms and replied “Silvio!”. Nice to see such jolly japes between the leaders of the former Axis powers. And it shows you how things have changed. Because although I’m no expert on German-Italian relations over the last hundred years, I doubt very much that Benito Mussolini would have tried that lamppost trick when Adolf Hitler arrived for a summit meeting ! 

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