Hang Them High

A lorry driver strangled his nine-year-old stepdaughter and left her body in the cab of his truck before hanging himself, police said yesterday.

I am going to state straight of this will have a sexual angle to it, from past atrocity's  the ingredients are there,  firstly its his stepdaughter and he has only been in her life a short time, in this case a year, that means when he met her he was a single man of 39 and she was a 8 year old girl,the father daughter bond that is there from birth does not come into play.

This does not suggest that every single man of that age is a child molester, just that extra care needs to be taken when exposing your children to these situations, sadly this is an all to familiar crime now, after the initial shock passes from hearing the news the brain just say oh no not another one then push’s it to one side and carry’s on.

Everyday we are subjected to a new horror, kids being kidnapped for sex seems to be the new “in crime” since the horror of Austria and the Frietzel  case more and more of these types of story are coming to light.

How many more are there out there, will we one day become immune to these the way that we are being desensitised to other crimes, A run of the mill murder nowadays barely makes page 8 of your newspaper, and only even then if it has a twist to it for example a body shoved into a suitcase, or kept in a freezer etc.

There is only one way to start to make inroads into the amount of monsters out there that commit these crimes, and give ideas to others to follow in their sick footsteps, that is Capital Punishment, this blog has called for the death penalty before and does so again with no hesitation, kids our most precious commodity need to be protected against this vermin, and I say with any tool at our disposal.

DurdensView Tags: Kidnapped, Murder Fritzeil, Capital Punishment, Sex crime

It’s A Fix

How come the winner of Miss Universe always comes from Earth.

Good For The Sole

BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi journalist jailed after hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behaviour.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world amid anger over the 2003 invasion.

He has been in custody since the Dec. 14  2008 outburst, which occurred as Bush was holding a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki

He was at first sentenced to three years after pleading not guilty to assaulting a foreign leader, then the court reduced it to one year because the journalist had no prior criminal history. Three years did seem a little harsh after all it was a shoe not a missile.

The bizarre act of defiance transformed the obscure reporter from a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the nearly six-year U.S. presence here.

Thousands demonstrated for al-Zeidi's release and hailed his gesture, which came in the waning days of the Bush administration. The incident also embarrassed al-Maliki, who was standing next to Bush at the time.

Neither leader was injured, but Bush was forced to duck for cover as the journalist shouted in Arabic: "This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.

Perhaps he should not even have been punished , after all he only bared his sole to Bush.

 

DurdensView Tags: Bush, Shoe, Maliki, al-Zeidi

Caster Semenya

Any doubts that this young lady is a man are dispelled at least as far as I’m concerned, as I’ve just realised her name is an anagram of ‘Yes a Secret Man’.  

This is too much of a coincidence to ignore – no wonder the South Africans are so reluctant for her to be tested.  If this story had broken on April 1st we would have all seen it straight away.

Hats off to the Africans, they’ve fooled the world.

DurdensView Tags: Caster Semenya, South African

Edward Kennedy

The Death of Edward Kennedy has produced in some quarters commentary that is describing him in almost Saintly fashion, agreed that Kennedy as a senator did do a lot to change America, he instigated or was involved in up to 300 laws being passed.

Including immigration, cancer research, health insurance, apartheid, disability discrimination, AIDS care,civil rights, mental health benefits, children's health insurance, education.

But there was another side to the youngest brother of the assassinated President, and this was a lying, womanising, pathetic excuse for a man, to hide from his family the fact that he was driving while drunk whilst bringing home a girl for the night, and worried about his political image he left a innocent young girl to die.

On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy was on Martha's Vineyard at a party for the “ Boiler Room Girls” a group of young women who had worked on his brother Robert's presidential campaign the year before. Kennedy left the party, driving a 1967  Oldsmobile Delmont 88 with one of the women, 28-year-old Mary jo  Kopechne and later accidently drove off Dike Bridge into the Poucha Pond inlet, a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy escaped the overturned vehicle, swam to safety and left the scene. He did not call authorities until after Kopechne's body was discovered the following day.

On July 25, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a sentence of two months in jail,suspended. That night, he gave a national broadcast in which he said, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately", but denied driving under the influence of alcohol and denied any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne. Kennedy asked the Massachusetts electorate whether he should stay in office and, after getting a favourable response, he did so.

In January 1970, an inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown, Massachusetts. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court  ordered the inquest be conducted in secret. The presiding judge, James A. Boyle, concluded that some aspects of Kennedy's story of that night were not true, and that "negligent driving appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.  A grand jury on Martha's Vineyard staged a two-day investigation in April 1970 but issued no indictment, after which Boyle made his inquest report public Kennedy deemed its conclusions "not justified. Doubts about the Chappaquiddick incident generated a large number of articles and books over the next several years.

Kennedy easily won re-election to another term  in the Senate in 1970 with 62 percent of the vote against underfunded Republican candidate Josiah Spaulding, although he received about 500,000 fewer votes than in 1964.

There has not been any mention of this incident in the many tales about Kennedy this week, just what a “Great Guy” he was , tell that to the family of Mary Jo.

 

DurdensView Tags: America, Kennedy, Martha's Vineyard, Kopechne

Jaycee Lee Dugard’s Stepfather

Jaycee Lee Dugard the little girl Kidnapped in 1991 has miraculously turned up alive and well, I say well but I am sure there will be problems, psychologically that will take years to correct if they are even treatable. There will be millions of words written about this poor child in the worlds media over the coming days and weeks, so I am going to look at this story from a different angle.

Jaycee had last been seen on June 10, 1991 when she was dragged into a car as she walked to a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe.

Stepdad Carl heard her screams and saw a man and woman drive his daughter away. He gave chase on a bicycle but could not catch up.

Carl, 60 - who has split from Terry - was at one stage regarded as the main suspect and took four lie detector tests while protesting his innocence.

Imagine how awful this mans life has been for the last 18 years only one person knew he was innocent. Himself.

Even the most loyal family member must have wondered about him, suspected that he was a murderer at best, or a child rapist and murderer at worst, everywhere he went people would whisper and point, and yet all the time he was innocent.

The way the situation arose it did look suspicious for him, firstly he was not the real father, secondly he was the last person to see her, the story he told police of  a car pulling up with a man and woman inside just pulling over grabbing Jaycee and driving away sounded implausible, it was just to simple, giving chase on a pushbike but having to stop after a matter of yards because he was so unfit just did not have a ring of truth about it. and as unbelievable as it was it was the truth.

Which puts me in mind of a story closer to home, Madeline McCann. I am in the camp that think the parents have some involvement, I have said so in this column previously, their story sounded implausible to, difficult to believe, hard to accept, but maybe in a few years she may walk into a police station somewhere and have a story to tell, that would be better than the alternative that she is dead. Today I have stepped slightly outside the camp that believe her parents are definitely involved and concede that stranger things can and do happen.

DurdensView Tags: Jaycee Lee Dugard, McCann, Kidnap, Murder, Rapist

Boring Old Middle East

President Obama plans to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for a face-to-face meeting at the United Nations General Assembly next month in a bid to revive long-stalled peace talks.

It all sounds depressingly familiar doesn’t  it other Presidents have tried the same thing and got nowhere, probably because there  are to many factions over there with their own agendas, so negotiating with one does not mean that others will fall into line.

What’s needed here is some blood letting, as harsh and as  it sounds its time the Palestinians took the lead in solving their own problems, lets start with Hamas and Fatah, who speaks for the Palestinians, these two groups have been having their own little war for a while now, and they cant both be in charge so let them go at each other and last man standing wins, we could try the ballot box first but that does not appear to carry much weight in that part of the world.

So a massive punch up  with no rules and the winner gets to decide, is it peace with Israel or do we continue this hopeless war with its continuous loss of life (on both sides) indefinitely.

I know its not the correct thing to say but that problem has become for a want of a better word boring, it has dominated so much news space for god knows how long that we are becoming numb to it,and its always the same pattern, new proposal, new roadmap, new initiative, new leaders, but ultimately same old results.

Do we really need to have this pattern repeated for the next 50 years with thousands more killed on both sides, no, so lets settle it now same amount of casualty’s probably but a quicker result, Hamas or Fatah clear the bad blood then the winning side can say enough, lets try now to live in peace with our neighbours.

Naive of me I know but I wish they would  give it a go.

DurdensView Tags: Obama, Israel, Palestinian, hamas, Fatah, Roadmap

Football Hooligans

Disgraceful scenes at Upton Park last night for the league cup tie between West Ham and Millwall, it looked like these kind of nights had been banished from our game but sadly this was hooliganism at its worst.

All the hard work of the last 15 to 20 years by the F.A had paid dividends and it had pretty much cleaned up the game , but there are clubs out there that consistently drag us back, well its time to get tough with these serial culprits.

First of all both teams to be excluded from any further part in this competition for 5 years, Millwall I know are already out this year  because they lost so make their ban  run for 6 years, also any more trouble from either of these two teams supporters must result in their League home games at their respective clubs to be played behind closed doors.

Behind closed door matches will severely hit gate money but the games can still be filmed and shown on TV whether that be live or recorded, so its not all doom and gloom on the financial front.

If this to fails to stop the trouble then they must be thrown out of the football league, its only harsh punishments like these that will have the desired effect, morons and violent thugs these so called fans are, but they do love their football.

There are certain fixtures around the Country that do have the potential for this kind of aggro, Birmingham host Villa next Month and that is another game with the potential for violence, so to Swansea  versus Cardiff, there are many more like these, so why do the FA not anticipate this and make them early morning games if its a Saturday or Sunday game or  behind closed doors if its a midweek evening.

Any matches with a history of trouble should be put on notice, clean up your acts or these will be the punishments, I fear if we don’t get tough the nightmare of the 1970’s could return.

DurdensView Tags: West Ham, Millwall, Hooliganism, League

Has He Got The X Factor

Danyl Johnson is already the shorted priced X Factor favourite ever, even though we are only one audition show into the series, he is priced at 2/1 with a single bet of £10,000 having already been placed.

Now I don’t pretend to be an authority on music in any shape or form but even I could see this lad looks like an exceptional talent, however I do have reservations about his credentials, his audition was spectacular he looked as polished a performer as I have seen in  ages and certainly the best to come out of the X Factor.

This is where my problem with him is, how come this guy has not already made it,

how come he has not already been “spotted” he is 28 years old, which hardly makes him a kid, so where has he been hiding, why has his talent been kept under wraps, why does he not have an agent , even if he is not good enough to be a full blown pop star, he has enough about him to make it on the next rung down, on the circuit playing halls and clubs,  but he works as a teacher in a school in Reading, so what is Danyl’s problem, and you can be sure  one will emerge.

So as brilliant as I think he is I am going to stick my neck out now one week into the show and say the shortest priced favourite in X factor history is not going to win, the person who put on the ten grand has wasted his money, Simon Cowell is to canny an operator to have bought this lad out in the first show if  he is going on to eventually win, I’m not sure what Danyl’s “problem” is but it will come out before we get to the end.

And if I’m wrong, just sit back and enjoy the show.

DurdensView Tags: Danyl, X Factor, Cowell

Not Kate Moss

Islamic officials today abruptly released a Muslim model scheduled to be caned this week for drinking beer after briefly detaining her, in an unexpected twist for the first woman to face the corporal punishment in Malaysia.

It’s right that she should not be caned for drinking beer, however she should be caned for claiming to be a model. That’s her on the left.

Blair Still Haunts us

Details emerging about the Lockerbie bombers release look to embarrass our Government further, it looks like this deal has been in place since 2004 when former Prime Minister Tony Blair made a deal with Colonel Gaddaffi of Libya, to sign a prisoner transfer scheme, paving the way to releasing the only man convicted of involvement in the bombing.

And as expected money is the key, with the promise of opening up Libya to our oil and gas company’s, also the fear that Gaddaffi may turn on Britain as he did to Switzerland,  you may recall that Gaddaffi’s youngest son was arrested in a hotel lobby for allegedly beating his servants, in response Libya cut of all oil supplies to that Country and with drew Billions in cash from their banks.

The Swiss were forced into a grovelling apology, saying that he had been arrested in error and no charges would be brought, Gaddaffi is yet to decide whether to resume supplies to them.

So with this in mind and murmurs of discontent that the British were dragging their heels in arranging the prisoner transfer, the Libyans started to apply pressure. and the end result as the world has seen is the shameful release of a mass murderer.

Blair continues to haunt us, his legacy is a once great Country almost on it’s knee’s having to bow and scrape to third world dictators, I have said it before and will continue to say it, it’s time this Government went.

DurdensView Tags: Blair, Gaddaffi, oil, Shame, Swiss, Money

Going For a Swim

Swimmer Martin Strel is an inspiration to all the middle aged pot bellied men out there, the 55 year old Slovenian who also happens to drink two bottles of wine a day has just been proclaimed the worlds greatest endurance swimmer ever, he swam an incredible 3274 miles in a non stop 66 days.

He swam the worlds most dangerous river the Amazon, Martin had to brave Piranha’s, crocodiles, and the terrifying Candiru fish, this is the particularly nasty parasite that swims into your body through your urethra, I’m sure all men reading this just cringed and shut their legs a little tighter.

He also had to contend with tropical storms, heat,  and bandits with machete’s. Add unrelenting diarrhoea to that catalogue of horrors and you get an idea of the type of man Martin is, tackling each obstacle with sheer bloody-mindedness,and a healthy dose of alcohol.

Martin only started endurance swimming 1n 1992 since then he has swum the English Channel, and became the first man to swim across the Mediterranean, 7 men had previously died attempting it.

He has also conquered the Danube the Mississippi and the Yangtze  amongst many others. A film is being released next month called Big River man about Martins exploits, its not the sort of true life stuff I usually watch, but this I think will be worth watching, he really is unbelievable.

DurdensView Tags: Mediiterranean, Yangtse, Danube, Mississippi. parasite, English

Premier League

Spurs top of the premier league, who could have thought it, I think this season will be one of the closest title fights in the short history of the premier  League, and don’t be surprised to see a new top four.

I know  common sense dictates that it is to early to write any teams of, but I don’t think Liverpool will hold on to top four status this year, I did not see the second game against Stoke which they won 4-0 but I understand from reports that Stoke were exceptionally poor, however I did watch the Spurs game and I will say I was underwhelmed by the Scousers.

Man City look like they may gatecrash the party at the top after spending 200 million pounds they really cant do anything else, Chelsea look very strong and they seem to have a extra toughness about them this year, they have won all three games played so far this season coming from behind each time, this new diamond formation Ancelloti has them playing looks very effective and they can only get better as the season goes on.

As for the current holders of the title and my team Manchester Utd, I don’t think they will have things their own way, and I will reserve judgement on their chances of a record breaking four consecutive titles until a few more games have been played.

Though it will be difficult to adjust to a post Ronaldo formation, the team was built around him for the past few years, I have been reasonably impressed with Utd’s start this year though the blip against Burnley was unexpected, we are playing without arguably the Leagues best central defensive partnership Ferdinand and Vidic due to injury’s.

Up front I am confident Owen will prove to be a good buy, Rooney is proven quality, and Berbatov looked brilliant, Giggs looks to have a new lease of life and was inspirational in the first game, against Burnley Utd created lots of chances and were unable to convert the Burnley keeper also had an exceptional night, as The manager Ferguson pointed out I would be more concerned if we were not creating the chances rather than the fact we could not convert chances on the night.

So sit back and enjoy the next 8 months and lets see how close my prediction will be. This is my top six in order and it is in print now so I cant change it, come April next year I will be proclaimed the best pundit of all time or the most deluded only time will tell.

Man Utd (Champions)

Chelsea

Man City

Arsenal 

Spurs

Liverpool

DurdensView Tags: Premier League, Rooney, Giggs, Ferguson, Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs

Israeli Pressure Pays Of

After months of veiled threats and training exercises aimed at attacking Iranian Nuclear sites the Israeli’s look to have got the message across to  the the hard line regime in Tehran, the message being we will take action by the end of the year unless you can prove we have nothing to fear.

Surprisingly United Nations inspectors have been granted access to Iran's heavy water facility at Arak, as well as the enrichment facility at Natanz — the site of Iran's primary centrifuge installation.

Since its clandestine enrichment efforts were revealed more than six years ago, Iran has steadily increased activities at its cavernous underground facility at Natanz, about 300 miles south of Tehran, shrugging off three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions and rejecting talks meant to entice it to mothball the activity.

But after all their posturing The Iranians are trying  to defuse the situation by granting access and doing it at a time when the rest of the world is busy looking the other way with the election in Afghanistan dominating middle east news at the moment, and the deadly bombs in Iraq yesterday that claimed over a hundred lives and some 500 casualty’s.

Ahmadinejad has a number of problems at the moment since the disputed elections 10 weeks ago, the fraud allegations wont go away, he has sacked six members of his cabinet and is trying to replace them with family and cronies, inexperienced yes men, however parliament look like they will reject these nominees. He appears to be losing his hard man tag Like all bully’s when confronted he is beginning to crumble.

DurdensView Tags: Iran, Nuclear, Afghanistan, Ahmadinajad

Oil Worth More Than Lives

I said on the 13th August that the Lockerbie bomber would be freed, make no mistake this decision will come back to bite Kenny MacAskill the Scottish Justice Minister on the behind, what kind of message does this send to terrorists, monsters bent on the destruction of us in the West, Kill 270 people and serve just 8 years.

The politicians can dress this up any way they like talking about compassion and so on, but this is about oil pure and simple, The Obama administration will be fuming at this decision, unfortunately the Scots have chosen to go alone not bowing to pressure from London or the US to let this mass murderer die behind bars. This proves that oil is worth more than lives.

DurdensView Tags: Oil, Obama, Libya, Terrorists

What Sex

Caster Semenya, an 18-year-old South African, last night won gold in the 800 metres but she may be forced to return the medal if she fails a gender-verification test. this kind of situation has come up before with men running as women but these have been deliberate attempts to cheat the system.

This particular situation could be harder to sort out, it could be that Caster has been born with the rare condition that gives her female Genitalia but male chromosomes. there is a process in place to decide under which gender she/he will be classified under, it involves an endocrinologist, a gynaecologist, an internal medicine expert, an expert on gender and a psychologist.

The last athlete to fail a gender test was Santhi Soundarajan, the Indian 800 metres runner, who was stripped of the silver medal she won at the 2006 Asian games.

So until this is decided I won’t know whether to shout “Go on mate” or “ Come on darling”. On a serious note I hope she is classed as a woman because that will mean she is an  exceptional talent, and who knows where she may take women’s middle distance running.

DurdensView Tags: Gender, Asaian, South African, Semenya

Afghan Vote

Expect a news blackout over the next 24 hours or so as media outlets will be banned from reporting violence from Afghanistan, attacks have started already with the Taliban threatening to cut of the fingers of anyone caught voting.

Afghan Politicians are trying desperately to find ways to get civilians to the polling booths, Nato forces have stopped all offensives against militants for the next 48 hours to allow voting to go ahead and are staying away from polling booths as not to act as magnets for attacks.

The incumbent Hamid Karzai looks like the likely favourite to win, but may have to rely on a second round of votes to secure a second term, Abdullah Abdullah the former Foreign Minister looks like he may push him all the way, I hope that Abdullah does win Karzai’s 5 years have not really produced as much as it could of, and he is finding it tough to dodge  the corruption rumours that have been dogging him.

Once these elections are out of the way I think the British and US should take a hard look at  the way the operation is going over there, the sacrifices of  both those nations troops cannot be underestimated, it benefits all of Europe indeed the World  to have a peaceful and stable Afghanistan so why are the bulk of troops only from these two Countries.

It’s time the rest of the world done their share, US pressure can be very effective, It’s Time Obama stepped up to the plate, and twisted the arms of our so called allies and got them to contribute troops,  a massive surge of say a hundred thousand troops could make a huge difference. The quicker we can bring our boys home safely the better.

DurdensView Tags: Karzai, Afghanistan, Obama, Abdullah, US, Taliban

Murderer Aged 16

Police took the unusual step today of putting up posters and naming a 16 year old murder suspect, Moses Mathiasis is  wanted in connection with the murder of Guisseppe Gregory also aged 16. Gregory was sitting in the back of a car in Manchester back in May when he was killed in a hail of bullets, five suspects have already been charged with this murder and one has named Mathias as part of the gang that did it.

It’s about time that common sense prevailed  just because someone is of a certain age why should they be anonymous when they commit a crime, certainly one as serious as murder.

I have lost count of the times I have seen the expression “can’t be named for legal reasons” the way I understand the law is that the legal age of responsibility is 10, that means you are deemed to know the difference between right and wrong at that age and can be held accountable for your actions.

So congratulations to The Manchester Chief Constable for this decision lets hope other forces copy this, no hiding place for these gang members that kill with impunity. In fact this should be taken one step further and the justice minister introduce legislation to force Police Authority’s to name all suspects suspected of serious crimes over the age of 10.

Maybe once the  full force of the law is applied on a consistent basis we may see these awful crimes reducing, as a parent and grandparent I have a duty to chase our politicians and keep the pressure on until  we have cleaned up our streets.

DurdensView Tags: Murder, Police. Justice, Crime, Gang

Drowning In PC

What the hell is this once great Country coming to, every day a new story breaks testing the patience of its citizens, the latest nonsense is about our swimming pools, to protect the sensibilities of Muslims that may want to go swimming some councils are to afford them specially allotted time slots.

Thornton Heath Leisure centre run by Croydon Council in South London, is one such Council, it has restricted access Saturdays and Sundays where male costumes must cover the body from the navel down to the knee and females must be covered from the neck to the ankles and wrists. Saturday and Sunday incidentally the two busiest days of the week  as there is no school for children, and no work for the majority of adults.

David Toube a Hackney resident tells how he was barred from a Sunday morning session with his 5 year  old son at Clissold Leisure centre  in Hackney, because the Sunday morning slot had been set aside for Muslims.

If these “initiatives” are supposed to make things between different cultures better it is having the opposite effect, it is creating divisions where previously there were none. If a Muslim wants to go swimming then he/she wears a suitable costume and goes swimming, if they find it distasteful to be amongst people in swimming costumes then they don’t go, it really is as simple and as black and white as that.

Public pools have existed in this country for over a hundred years,  for anybody that arrives in this Country they have to learn to adapt  to our customs, not the other way around, and anyone who feels that they cant adapt then pack your bags and go back home, but if you want to make this Country your new home than live by our rules.

DurdensView Tags: Muslim, Council, Swimming

Crime in Toxteth

January 12 . Police reveal number of guns seized in the two years since Rhys Jones death has doubled.

Feb 7. Two teenagers aged 15  and 18 shot in face.

April 4. 19 year old shot in pub in front of 40 witness’s nobody see’s a thing.

April 17. Underground armourer is jailed for 15 years.

May 16. A 15 year old girl is raped by 4 youths while three other gang members look on.

June 5.  A 33 year old man is shot at point blank range for helping evict a gang of youths fighting in a pub.

June 6. two 15 year olds charged with gun and kidnapping offences.

June 17 A pub in Norris Green is targeted in a suspected arson attack.

July 1. A 21 Year old man is shot and injured in a drive by shooting.

And so on and so and so on. and unbelievably there is no Police station in this part of Liverpool, can this Government sink any lower.

DurdensView Tags: Toxteth, Rape, Killing

University Places

The recession is Having an unexpected effect on sixth formers  even before they have left school, because there are not enough jobs to go around and more being lost daily, applications by mature students have gone through the roof .

Unemployed adults desperate to retrain or improve their qualifications are snapping up places, an estimated 50,000 will be rejected when the clearing process begins after results are announced next month, because the Government cant create enough places.

Even though an extra 10,000 places were created last month this will not be enough to stem the tide of applications, Students who narrowly fail to meet their grade targets will face a scramble for places.

I’m not sure if there is an easy answer to this but here’s a suggestion, again we are hearing  of massive profits from our banks many of whom were out with their begging bowls not so long ago begging for taxpayers money, what about a extra one of  tax  hit on them, one bank announced profits of 3 billion pounds, not turnover profit!!  a 5% taxation would raise 150 million pounds and that is just one bank imagine the amount from them all combined. then  pump the money back into education and job creation, this would help the economy greatly and go some way towards the banks getting back some public goodwill.

Just a suggestion, maybe I will forward this to Gordon Brown, after all it cant be any worse than the advice he has been fed so far.

DurdensView Tags: University, Taxation

Lockerbie

I am absolutely disgusted that Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is to be released on so called humanitarian grounds. this is the man convicted of the killing in 1988 of 259 people on the plane and another 11 on the ground.

Al-Megrahi an intelligence officer for Libya was only imprisoned in 2000 with a recommendation that he serve minimum of 27 years, the so called humanitarian grounds are that he has terminal pancreatic cancer and has only three months to live.I say so what, other prisoners have died in jail, this mans crime is so terrible that not only should the authorities  let him die in jail they should leave his corpse in a cell for the full 27 years.

The real reason for this is to curry favour with the Libyan Leader Gaddafi, once again it is all about oil. The final decision is yet to be made officially, I hope that Kenny MacAskill the Scottish Justice Minister thinks long and hard about the effect on relatives of the survivors, what a way to serve the memory of those killed.

DurdensView Tags: Gaddafi, Lockerbie. Libya

Told You So

Well well what a surprise Ronnie Biggs has made and I quote "a miraculous recovery” in fact he is so well now that he is being allowed home from hospital. What a mug our Justice Minister is everyone could see this coming. if he is being conned by eighty year old petty crooks, what chance has he with more sophisticated villains, Jack Straw should be looking for a new job today.

DurdensView Tags: Biggs, Straw

A Level Fighting Field

It has always seemed unfair that even in times of war we in the west fight within certain rules but our enemy’s are under no such constraints, so its pleasing to see that the Americans are starting to fight dirty, in future gathering evidence admissible in court and such nonsense in the battlefield has been dropped.

Opium dealers in Afghanistan who make millions from poppy sales and then divert large quantity’s  of that money to insurgents and terrorist groups for weapons to fight us with are no longer protected by said laws, 50 of their top opium barons have been put on a kill or capture list, this has been approved by the Senate, because of the huge sums involved, we are talking tens of millions of dollars the Taleban is able to keep the insurgency going.

Killing of their leaders in targeted assassination’s will hopefully make the poppy growers think twice. trying to gather evidence and then prove it in a Afghani court is time and manpower consuming, and ultimately pointless because of the corruption over there. Well done the Senate a few more initiatives like this and we could be out of there sooner than we think.

DurdensView Tags: Taliban, Opium, Poppy, Senate, Afghanistan

Jackson Murder Theory

Now that results of the toxicology tests are being leaked  it looks as though Propofol  was the reason Michael Jackson suffered his heart attack, the conspiracy theorists will be out in their thousands, expect all manner of outlandish stories in the next few days.

But if we assume just for a second that his death was not accidental and was indeed murder, then let me forward a theory of my own. Ever since these concerts were announced I have had my own doubts as to whether or not they would take place, to perform 50 nights considering  the high tempo dance routines that Jackson performs a man half his age in peak physical fitness would struggle.

It was obvious looking at Jackson who appeared massively underweight at  his last press conference and to many observers under the influence of drugs, that he could not fulfil those dates. So organisers who had already raked on many millions from ticket sales, and hundreds of millions more from selling recording rights, were starting to get worried, but if Jackson died life insurance policies would kick in and take the burden away.

Enter Doctor Conrad Murray who was Jacko’s personal physician and hugely in debt, stories emerging after the singers death show that Dr Murray was living way beyond his means and was not far from bankruptcy. It is said Jackson could not sleep and would be put out with a IV line attached and Propofol drip fed to him throughout the night, with Murray sitting alongside to make sure his vital signs stayed strong. On the night in Question I understand that Jacko awoke and asked an aide for a shot of Demerol, Murray having fallen asleep in a bed alongside Jackson, when this was administered the two medications reacted causing a massive heart seizure.

I wonder if Murray was Paid perhaps by the promoters to let this happen, it would be easy to explain as an accident, after all the man just fell asleep, yes he could be proven negligent but that is a world away from the punishment he would receive for murder. So if I was being mischievous I could claim that Murray murdered Jackson at the request of the promoters, and all of this for money, But I’m not feeling mischievous, so I wont.

Torture

The news channels have been dominated today by the story of  whether or not British intelligence were complicit in the  torturing  of suspects, all sorts of enquiries are being called for, predictably Shami Chakrabarti the director of Liberty is outraged and is insisting that we should be to.

If only Shami and people like her would show as much concern for the victims as they do for the perpetrators of crime, a few days ago Nick Ferrari the LBC presenter offered a hypothetic scenario where he asked “if we had in custody a terrorist who had knowledge of a bomb that was due to explode in a kids nursery somewhere in this country,  and time was running out, would you be happy for that information to be got from him using torture” Not one caller to his show objected to the use of torture under those terms.

However when I posed that question to people in my own circle of friends and family I was horrified that one said that we should not use torture,  protecting the human rights of that terrorist took precedent over the lives of those children. Brainwashing by the liberal media has worked to such an extent that people are quoting human rights in the most ridiculous of situations.

My own opinion is do what it takes, there are no rules, if such a scenario as the one outlined above ever happened I could quite happily rip out the terrorists heart with my bare hands to get the information, as far as I am concerned he forfeited his rights when the bomb was planted, human rights should apply to humans, not animals that snuff out innocent life without a second thought.

In the desperate attempt to be PC or to be seen to be seen PC, we have lost sight of what is right and what is wrong, so let me remind our Politicians, its wrong to Plant bombs, its right to torture to find out where the bombs are.

DurdensView Tags: Torture, terrorist .Sham iChakrabarti. PC, human rights

Send Her Back

Samantha Orobator is the young British woman convicted in Laos of trying to smuggle 1.5 pounds of heroin out of the country, usually the death penalty is applied in these cases, however in this case because she is pregnant her death sentence has been changed to life imprisonment, Laotian law does not allow pregnant women to be executed.

Yesterday Samantha arrived back in Britain to serve out the remainder of her sentence under the prisoner transfer scheme, this was an agreement recently signed between the two Countries, there was no scheme in place with Laos, it was rushed through especially for this case.

Mark my words It will not be long before this woman is released from jail, some legal loophole will be found to set her free, and it is wrong. The  lady in question  entered into this with her eyes open  she tried to smuggle heroin and got caught,  then amazingly got herself pregnant though she was incarcerated in an all woman jail, this said to avoid the death penalty.

We have enough drug dealers over here already, our jails are full of them, why should we take on the expense of another one when Laos is perfectly capable of looking after her in their jails, if the conditions there are to harsh, well she should have thought of that before she embarked on this venture.

I will be keeping an eye on this story, I  have a feeling wheels are already in motion to secure her release, titbits leaked to the press are casting doubts on her conviction, if she is released this will put into jeopardy our agreements with other Countries for exchanging prisoners. After all why should they trust us not  to release them once they are home,  the prisoner transfer scheme is in place so that convicted felons can serve sentences in their Countries of origin thus making it easier in terms of language spoken, conditions and for family to visit. We are risking this for a Drug dealer.

DurdensView Tags: Laos, death penalty, drugs, law

Taliban Leader Killed

Baitullah Mehsud is yet to be 100% confirmed dead but it is looking increasingly likely that he is, and good riddance, this is a huge blow in the fight against the Taliban in Pakistan, Mehsud commanded around 20,000 fighters, and  had been responsible for a sustained suicide bombing campaign, including the 2007 killing of Benazir Bhutto.

The success of the campaign in Swat has given the authorities a difficult problem to ponder do they push on with the campaign into South Waziristan where the base of Mehsud’s operations are or not, this brings then perilously close to taking on the Afghan Taliban, there the terrain lends itself more to guerrilla fighting and they would be taking on more battle hardened fighters like the Uzbeks and the Chechens.

Pakistan has been accused in the past of turning a blind eye and of not doing enough to stop the spread of the Taliban, after the operation in the Swat valley these accusations are no longer justified. So to publicly Pakistani officials have been complaining about the  unmanned US drone  strikes saying they violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, but privately they are delighted with recent results, as well as Mehsud a host of top Taliban commanders have been taken out  this year, some reports put the number at over 20.

I did think earlier this year when this offensive campaign was launched that this could be a turning point for Pakistan, and it looks as though it will be  if momentum is maintained, high profile success's like Mehsud’s death will spur the authorities on.

DurdensView Tags: Taliban, Pakistan, Uzbek, Chechen, Guerrilla

Newcastle Utd

How much lower can Newcastle sink, it’s reported today that the owner Mike Ashley is prepared to sell the club for 70 million pounds that is down from the original asking price of 400 million,  furthermore you only need to  have 20 million to put down, Ashley himself will lend you the other 50 million to complete the purchase. Its a shame a club with the support they have have come to this, I don’t believe its all Ashley’s fault either, yes he is ultimately responsible for the decision’s made but I believe those bad decisions were in the appointment of managers.

And for that the supporters have to take the blame they practically bullied him into appointing Keegan and Shearer, Keegan a known bottler who runs away at the slightest sign of any pressure, I’m not sure about the Kinnear appointment that was puzzling but then he was not doing that terribly I think he would have kept them up but for his heart attack.

Where they really dropped the ball was when they took on Shearer, in the position Newcastle were they needed an experienced manager a fighter someone used to that situation maybe a  Alan Curbishley type manager.

Instead they got Shearer who got it hopelessly wrong and consigned them to the Championship, Barry Moat reputed to be heading the running for buying the club is Shearers best friend so you can guess what is going to happen there, the supporters for their loyalty alone deserve  better.

Biggs

So he is finally released, again Biggs has conned everybody he has been doing it for 30 plus years, I don’t doubt that he is going to die after all we are all going to die, in the last two years I can count at least 4 attempts to have him released on compassionate grounds and in each one his son Michael had been filmed outside the prison telling the camera’s that his dad only had days to live.

Finally Jack Straw has swallowed the lie, of course it’s possible that he could be on his last legs, but I am betting that he will have a “miraculous” recovery bought about by the joy of being freed and being with loved ones that enables him to go on and on.

It’s not that I wish a fellow human being dead, it’s just in Bigg's case the way he mocked us and our laws while in Brazil grates on me, who can forget the pictures of him wearing a policeman's helmet and putting two fingers up while holding a pint and sucking on a Cuban cigar. Let’s not forget a man lost his life in that robbery, it’s true he did not die that night but he died from causes linked to being coshed that night. It would not have been to harsh to let Bigg’s die in prison.

Madeline McCann

Another report in the papers today supposedly another clue has emerged in the hunt for Madeline McCann, this happens periodically, a little bit of excitement in the papers and then it goes away again, until next time.

Madeline vanished in May 2007 whilst on holiday with her family on the Algarve in Portugal, she was then the subject of the biggest manhunt, or in her case girl hunt  in Portuguese history, no evidence was ever found to back up the theory that  she was kidnapped.

Portuguese police suspect that Madeline was killed in the family’s apartment by one or both of the parents, probably by accident and then her body hidden, there are a few clues that do lend credibility to this theory but not enough to make a case, one being the unexplained mileage on the family hire car, police think this was when they drove out to hide the body. The parents were at one stage named as suspects , indeed a couple of documentary’s have been aired that cast a less than favourable light on the couple.

This case has been a strange one Madeline’s parents have muddied the waters so much that even if her body was found and they were convicted they would be able to spend the rest of their lives doing the chat show circuit pleading their innocence, saying how they had been framed by the Portuguese.

We all have our own personal theory’s based on the little we have gleaned from the media reports, and what we have seen on TV. Myself I believe the parents are guilty and hope that one day they do get caught, my own suspicions were aroused on the second evening when Madeline’s father Gerry made an appeal for his daughters return, he made his appeal in the middle of the night in darkness and read from a prepared statement, in his supposed anguish for his daughter he had the foresight to bring out a tiny pencil torch which he balanced between his fingers to cast light on the paper in his hand, pretty lucid thinking from somebody who’s baby girl could have been lying dead in a ditch or in the hands of a pervert.

Another clue  was when both parents appeared on a Spanish chat show pleading for information,  they had been given a pretty torrid time by the interviewer as to why they were considered suspects, as the show wound down and the credits began to roll Gerry turned to his wife and was clearly heard to say, “don’t say anything not a bloody word the mike’s may still be on”,  a strange thing for him to say, something he hasn’t been able to explain away satisfactorily.

Throughout the whole episode as it was played out on our TV's the mother Kate has not  shown any real emotion, not once have I seen her cry and felt sorry for her, everything she does look’s rehearsed and cold, her friends have tried to explain this away by saying its because she is a Doctor that she can keep her emotions under control, rubbish, Doctors I’m sure love their children the same way we all do and would feel the same pain we all would if something that awful happened.

I sincerely hope that no harm has come Madeline and she has been taken maybe by someone who  perhaps wanted a child and couldn’t have one themselves, and that Maddie is at least in a safe and loving environment, but sadly I don’t think this story will  have a happy ending and we are going to be regularly reminded of this tragedy as her parents play out this act of searching for her.

Weekly Prediction

I did say I would keep predicting who I think will be evicted from the Big Brother house each week until I get one wrong, well I am still getting them right, so here go’s, I think this week it will be that two faced boring back stabbing dyke Lisa. incidentally is it just me who thinks she is morphing into Michael Stipe from REM .

Let’s Fight Back

Australian Police thwarted a terrorist attack on a army barracks in Sydney this week with a series of raids which resulted in four arrests, the suspects are Australian citizens of Somalian and Lebanese descent.

These arrests I understand were the result of seven months undercover work the suspects were watched  around the clock and had their phones bugged, the Police do not say yet how close they were to carrying out  their mission.

We in England have had several cases like this in recent years, the gathering of evidence is a slow and methodical process, once the alleged terrorists are arrested and charged you must then be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt your case against them. this does not always go to plan and would be attackers have been freed on technicalities.

This puts me in my mind of a planned attack in Gibraltar by the IRA in 1988, three members of that group travelled to the Rock to target British soldiers, having already planted a fifty pound bomb the trio were on their way armed with guns to shoot British squaddies, who at that time were identifiable  by the registration number on their vehicles.  Unknown to them they were being tracked by a team of SAS soldiers who following a tip of had been watching  their every move.

As they set of on their attack one of the SAS  soldiers deliberately made himself  known  to the three provisional’s who went for their guns, but they were no match for the SAS and were mown down in a hail of bullets by the other two members of the elite team who were hidden from view.

Predictably there was outrage in certain sections of the press and media at the actions of the soldiers with accusations that it had been cold blooded murder, the fact that the terrorists had planted a bomb, were carrying guns and targeting  British soldiers conveniently forgotten. Once the furore had died down, there were three less terrorists in the world and another atrocity had been avoided.

This method should be the blueprint for all our anti terrorist operation’s, I don’t mean open fire for the slightest reason, but when we are shadowing people who we know  mean us harm we should let them take their plots as far as they can without actually carrying them out then at  the last minute kill them. I for one would applaud this action and I am sure there are millions out there that agree with this idea. This would serve two purposes 1) it would eliminate those particular terrorists,  2) it would send a message to anyone else plotting against us.

I know that in a million years this kind of action would never be sanctioned, but us taking the fight to the terrorists, what a  comforting  thought.

Bill Clinton

The Americans have sent former President Bill Clinton to North Korea to negotiate the release of two US citizens sentenced to twelve years hard labour for straying into North Korean Territory. They happen to be two young attractive girl reporters, given Bills reputation I think the girls are safer in prison.

A Bad Apple

The makers of the iPod Apple have tried to gag a British father and his 11 year old daughter from talking about their experience with their product, Ken Stanborough  was sent a form to sign which banned him from telling his story, Ken was told if he wanted a refund he should sign, he refused, the £162 gadget was a birthday present for his daughter Elle.

This is not the first time Apple have tried this in order to hush up bad reports on their product , there have been many cases where the iPod has over heated and exploded, in this case Ken reported it getting hotter in his hand then a hissing sound was followed by vapours escaping from the casing he threw it out into the back garden where thirty seconds later it exploded throwing it 10 feet in the air.

This is not a isolated case An American reporter obtained 800 pages of documentation on the cases from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) following a Freedom of Information Act request in that country. However, she was unable to get hold of the documents for months after “Apple’s lawyers filed exemption after exemption”.

In those cases, CPSC investigators suggested that the iPods’ lithium ion batteries could be the source of the problem, if apple were not so big and powerful they would not be able to get away with this, how long before someone is blinded or worse killed. to date a 170 million have been sold world wide. Consumers should boycott Apple products until this issue is resolved.

Jackson Kids

The Michael Jackson circus is back in Town, though it never fully went away, Jackson has appeared in the media almost every day though he has been dead since June.

This time its the Jackson Kids making the news, A court has granted his Mother Katherine custody of the 3 children after over ruling an objection from a  gay dermatologist who some believe is the children’s real father. It does seem odd that the court has granted a 79 year old responsibility for their welfare. The youngest of the kids is 7 if Nanny Jackson lives for another 10 years that would make her 90 and the youngster still only 17, still a tender age to lose another “parent”.

Already it’s clear that these Kids cannot live a normal life, like their dad, the troubled kid who grew up to be the troubled man,   the seeds have already been  planted for the next generation of dysfunctional Jacksons. These kids will not be able to make a move without being photographed and reported on, and given that Michael Jackson blamed his childhood for his later problems, is any member of his family a suitable candidate for raising them.

I don’t believe these kids have a chance, because of the vast sums of money involved here they will always be at the mercy of others looking for a share of that wealth and I include the Jackson family in that. The American version of social services should step in and take the children as far away from those freaks as possible and only then would they have a chance of a normal life.

R.I.P Bobby Robson

It was sad that  Sir Bobby Robson passed away last week, though he had been ill for some time and his death was expected it was still a shock to hear he had gone.

I am not going to harp on about what a great manager he was that is a given. But I will pay testament to what a great human being he was, and how much he was loved and respected by everyone,  by simply saying this, when a celebrity dies there are usually loads of text jokes doing the rounds, In Sir Bobby’s case I have not received any, nor do I know of anyone who has received one.

Iran And The Bomb

Western intelligence sources have reported that Iran has perfected the technology to create and detonate a nuclear warhead, and is merely awaiting the word from its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to produce its first bomb.

Iranian scientists have been trying to master a method of detonating a bomb known as the “multipoint initiation system” — wrapping highly enriched uranium in high explosives and then detonating it. Sources say that should Ayatollah Khamenei approve the building of a nuclear device, it would take six months to enrich enough uranium and another six months to assemble the warhead.

I had been expecting this news to be made public, having been saying for sometime that I expect a move to be made on Iran by the end of this year. A nuclear armed Iran would be to dangerous to contemplate, things have been quiet in the Western media because they were hoping that protests over the rigged Elections  may have achieved something, possibly regime change, now that is looking increasingly unlikely, it is forcing concerned nations to act.

As I write this I expect that the Israeli’s are finalising their plans to deal with this,whether it be alongside the American’s, or just with covert US backing I cant see how military action can be avoided, Israel has long since learned not to rely on anyone for their security, history has taught them some harsh lesson’s.

I suspect it is to late now for dialogue and even if Iran decided to come to the table and talk  Israel could not, one way or another this nuclear issue has to be dealt with, you cannot live with a neighbour bent on your destruction, now that they are achieving the means to bring that about.

Forces Shame

It’s a National disgrace that the families of our troops left home alone because their spouses serve overseas, are in some cases being fed by charity’s, hampers full of mixed grocery’s capable of feeding a family of four for 3 days at a time are needed by force’s family’s to survive.

Foodbank a charity based in Salisbury claims to have stepped in with food parcels for almost 250 service family’s in the last  3 years,In most of these case’s the breadwinner is or has been in Iran or Afghanistan, I was disgusted to find that some of our Troops on the front line earn less than Traffic Wardens.

You need to be a Lance Corporal before you earn the Princely sum of £20,000, Privates earn as little as £16,000, Knowing this my admiration and respect for the Military increases, this shows what Heroes these guys really are laying their lives on the line for their Country time after time because of a sense of duty, its certainly not  for the money.

Now that this embarrassing  state of affairs has been has been highlighted, what is the Government going to do about it, this cant be allowed to sit on the back burner and then gradually be forgotten, our front line boy’s have enough on their plates in action without worrying what’s on the plates of their loved ones back home.

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox called it outrageous that billions could be spent bailing out dodgy Banks, and their even dodgier managers, meanwhile our forces are treated  disgracefully, well Liam you have made all the right noises now we will be keeping an eye on you to see what you do about it.

Jude Law

I know that we are not supposed to laugh at others misfortunes but that posing Pratt Jude Law has been in the news quite a lot lately and all of it has been bad news, from his point of view that is not mine. Firstly the incident when he smacked a girl reporter in the face for taking his picture (how dare she). And again yesterday when it was reported he had made a girl pregnant after a  brief fling in New York  while filming his new Sherlock Holmes movie, another Sherlock Holmes film how topical I cant wait.

Anyway I had the misfortune to come across Mr Law a couple of months ago in a traffic jam on the Finchley Road, we were stuck alongside each other and were not moving nor did it look like we would be moving for a while, I recognised the Actor and pointed him out to my wife.

My son’s Girlfriend is a bit of a celebrity groupie so I called across to him against my Wife’s advice who did warn me he looked like an asshole and may not be co-operative, I readied my camera phone and  politely asked if he would pose for a picture we were exactly across from each other and both had our windows down, he was driving a old style Jaguar and wearing the obligatory shades.

He gave me a dirty looked and moaned “I’m driving man” though he clearly wasn’t, he then put his hand up across his face and sat like that for the next 10 minutes in case I tried to sneak one.

I was going to give him a mouthful but thought better of it after all he had done nothing wrong really. The most disappointing part of this was the realisation that my wife is a better judge than me. As for Law I read today that this pregnant “model” Aren’t they always models, is looking for ten million pounds, good luck to her I hope she gets it.