UK Column always had successful meetings before the likes of Britain First and The British Resistance web site jumped on their bandwagon. They are an apolitical group of well intentioned people. Unfortunately wherever the far right go the far left are not far behind and if UK Column continues to let the far right hijack it’s cause, they too will be tarnished with the same brush.
The Freedom Democrats supports individual campaigns by UK Column where appropriate but not universally, neither will we formally link ourselves to them, in doing so respecting their apolitical status.
The best thing UK Column can do is to tell Britain First and The British Resistance to “Get off our bandwagon”.
Confessions of a taxi driver.
Corsham town councillor and former parliamentary candidate for the Chippenham constituency. The voice of moderate nationalism in the south west. Putting the nice back into Nationalism.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Friday, 27 January 2012
Freedom Democrats in Berlin
The Freedom Democrat delegation are introduced at 6 minutes in to the video.
Friday, 20 January 2012
Will Boris’s airport island ever take off?
Boris Island, well not really an island, more of a peninsula off the north Kent coast near the Isle of Sheppey. This is Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s latest attention seeking idea to increase capacity in London’s airports. A piece of land reclaimed from the Kent mud flats to build London’s fourth airport with major road and rail links into the capital. A 20 year project with an estimated cost of £50 billion.
An idea not as far stretched as first seems as it is not the first time such a proposal has been put forward. Growing up in Southend on Sea I recall another such plan at Foulness Island off the Essex coast to build what would then be London’s third airport. They even went as far as reclaiming land on the Maplin sand banks to test for erosion which was clearly visible from Southend beach on a clear day as I was playing in the famous Southend mud. It never went ahead and the government opted to expand Stansted as London’s third airport. Many people at the time believe that was always the preferred option and Foulness was a decoy to show they had exhausted every other possibility.
A report from a 1967 issue of Flight International can be found here:
In 2008 the newly elected Mayor of London, Boris Johnson tried to resurrect the Foulness option but the idea never got off the ground. (pun intended).
Timing is always important in politics and with the Mayoral elections due in May 2012 and the Tories not being every Londoners’ cup of tea at present our Boris needs a vote winning gimmick. You see the people of north Kent can’t vote for Boris or any other mayoral candidate, so he can suggest whatever he wants for outside of the capital. The people of west London however will vote for him if he comes up with a cunning plan to limit any further expansion at Heathrow.
Boris Island contains several flaws but I suspect our Boris already knows that, being an ex Eton boy. Apart from a being one of Britain’s few remaining natural wetlands there is the small issue of the SS Richard Montgomery.
A US munitions ship, it sunk in the Thames in 1944 containing 15,000 tons of high explosives. It is still there, less than a mile from the site of Boris’s proposed airport. The reason it is still there is because the safest option is to leave it well alone. It has been said that if it ever went off it would take out every window in Southend, 4 miles away.
Details of all previous Estuary airport proposals can be found here from the House of Commons library.
Of course Southend has its own airport. Not a large one until recently bought by Stobarts of Eddie Stobart fame. Southend airport has just had its runway extended at considerable cost which involved the re-routing of a major road to enable the larger passenger jets to land. Stobarts have also built a new passenger rail terminal at the airport on the London Liverpool Street line which runs through to the Olympic village at Stratford. A new air passenger terminal and hotel are under construction due for completion in time for the Olympics. What a splendid way of showing that you can fly in thousands of passengers in a short space of time and have them in central London an hour after landing.
Meanwhile as Boris Johnson is grabbing election winning headlines, Southend is slowly being developed as London’s fourth airport. Remember when it happens, you read it here first.
An idea not as far stretched as first seems as it is not the first time such a proposal has been put forward. Growing up in Southend on Sea I recall another such plan at Foulness Island off the Essex coast to build what would then be London’s third airport. They even went as far as reclaiming land on the Maplin sand banks to test for erosion which was clearly visible from Southend beach on a clear day as I was playing in the famous Southend mud. It never went ahead and the government opted to expand Stansted as London’s third airport. Many people at the time believe that was always the preferred option and Foulness was a decoy to show they had exhausted every other possibility.
A report from a 1967 issue of Flight International can be found here:
In 2008 the newly elected Mayor of London, Boris Johnson tried to resurrect the Foulness option but the idea never got off the ground. (pun intended).
Timing is always important in politics and with the Mayoral elections due in May 2012 and the Tories not being every Londoners’ cup of tea at present our Boris needs a vote winning gimmick. You see the people of north Kent can’t vote for Boris or any other mayoral candidate, so he can suggest whatever he wants for outside of the capital. The people of west London however will vote for him if he comes up with a cunning plan to limit any further expansion at Heathrow.
Boris Island contains several flaws but I suspect our Boris already knows that, being an ex Eton boy. Apart from a being one of Britain’s few remaining natural wetlands there is the small issue of the SS Richard Montgomery.
Details of all previous Estuary airport proposals can be found here from the House of Commons library.
Of course Southend has its own airport. Not a large one until recently bought by Stobarts of Eddie Stobart fame. Southend airport has just had its runway extended at considerable cost which involved the re-routing of a major road to enable the larger passenger jets to land. Stobarts have also built a new passenger rail terminal at the airport on the London Liverpool Street line which runs through to the Olympic village at Stratford. A new air passenger terminal and hotel are under construction due for completion in time for the Olympics. What a splendid way of showing that you can fly in thousands of passengers in a short space of time and have them in central London an hour after landing.
Meanwhile as Boris Johnson is grabbing election winning headlines, Southend is slowly being developed as London’s fourth airport. Remember when it happens, you read it here first.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
An interesting video produced by Wiltshire Council on being a councillor. Listen to some of the comments from people who do not vote. What I can say is that vacancies arise frequently on Town and Parish councils so you don't always have to wait until the next round of elections. You need to keep checking local council web sites or local press to find out when these vacancies occur.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
RIP Tammy
Sometimes in life we have to make real difficult decisions. One of the hardest is ordering the end of a life for a long time family pet. But sometimes we keep animals alive purely for selfish reasons when if we think only of the pet the decision is easy. And so this last Tuesday we made that decision for Tammy.
A soft haired wheaten terrier, she was put into a dogs home twice in her first two years. We rescued her from the RSPCA dogs home in Bath in 2003 when she was two and found it hard to understand why she was ever in a dogs home in the first place as no one could want for a nicer pet.
Not used to living in a house nearly proved fatal as in the first few weeks she ran head first into a closed patio door, collapsing her neck vertebrae, causing polarises from the neck down. The vet didn't expect her to last the night but we took her home and cared for her, took her to hydrotherapy and over time regained the use of her legs. When you take on a dog you take it on for it's whole life and don't give up on it just because it's going to cost a lot of money.
She lasted another 8 years although the strain of that first accident gradually took it's toll on her mobility. However in later life she also developed thyroid problems and Cushings disease (liver) and when at the week end she stopped eating, unusual for Tammy, I suspected this was the end. Had we not taken that decision she would have suffered multiple organ failure, probably at night when we could do little for her and died a painful death. We spared her that fate and she went to sleep with dignity.
A soft haired wheaten terrier, she was put into a dogs home twice in her first two years. We rescued her from the RSPCA dogs home in Bath in 2003 when she was two and found it hard to understand why she was ever in a dogs home in the first place as no one could want for a nicer pet.
Not used to living in a house nearly proved fatal as in the first few weeks she ran head first into a closed patio door, collapsing her neck vertebrae, causing polarises from the neck down. The vet didn't expect her to last the night but we took her home and cared for her, took her to hydrotherapy and over time regained the use of her legs. When you take on a dog you take it on for it's whole life and don't give up on it just because it's going to cost a lot of money.
She lasted another 8 years although the strain of that first accident gradually took it's toll on her mobility. However in later life she also developed thyroid problems and Cushings disease (liver) and when at the week end she stopped eating, unusual for Tammy, I suspected this was the end. Had we not taken that decision she would have suffered multiple organ failure, probably at night when we could do little for her and died a painful death. We spared her that fate and she went to sleep with dignity.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Saturday, 3 December 2011
When the right not to hear overrides the right to free speech.
If there was a definition of political correctness it would be that opposite points of view are not allowed. In which, case I am definitely politically incorrect.
But is there ever a time when expressing your opposite point of view is wrong?
In the case of the written word we all have the option of not to read it and in the broadcast word we have the option to use the on/off switch.
What if your audience doesn’t want to hear what you have to say and has no way of not hearing it? What if in their opinion they find what you are saying deeply offensive and insulting and have no way of escaping your abuse?
Does their right not to hear you override your right to say it anyway?
The recent case of Ms Emma West on a south London tram spouting of a tirade of abuse to anyone who was not British and white was a perfect example of the phrase – You have the right to your own opinion just keep it to yourself.
As you can see in the video below she takes exception to the amount of black and foreign people sharing her tram ride. To her they had no right to even be on the same tram as her let alone share her country with her. What she didn’t consider was how many of those she was abusing were tourists here on holiday and how many were actually born in this country and would have no other country to call home if she got her wish to send them “home”.
It is of no surprise to hear that Ms West is currently on remand in jail awaiting sentence for this public order offence and her children, one of who was sitting on her lap during her outburst are in care while her future freedom is decided on by the courts.
I believe in free speech but I also believe in a person’s right not to hear what you have to say.
But is there ever a time when expressing your opposite point of view is wrong?
In the case of the written word we all have the option of not to read it and in the broadcast word we have the option to use the on/off switch.
What if your audience doesn’t want to hear what you have to say and has no way of not hearing it? What if in their opinion they find what you are saying deeply offensive and insulting and have no way of escaping your abuse?
Does their right not to hear you override your right to say it anyway?
The recent case of Ms Emma West on a south London tram spouting of a tirade of abuse to anyone who was not British and white was a perfect example of the phrase – You have the right to your own opinion just keep it to yourself.
As you can see in the video below she takes exception to the amount of black and foreign people sharing her tram ride. To her they had no right to even be on the same tram as her let alone share her country with her. What she didn’t consider was how many of those she was abusing were tourists here on holiday and how many were actually born in this country and would have no other country to call home if she got her wish to send them “home”.
It is of no surprise to hear that Ms West is currently on remand in jail awaiting sentence for this public order offence and her children, one of who was sitting on her lap during her outburst are in care while her future freedom is decided on by the courts.
I believe in free speech but I also believe in a person’s right not to hear what you have to say.
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