But I Would Have Known.

My dad normally swerves political discussions, but a couple of weeks ago we managed to get onto the subject of Prescott's travails. Echoing the average punter, we agreed that it was incredible that he remained in Cabinet when more capable colleagues got kicked (ex Foreign Minister Straw was mentioned). Although I try not to be one for gossip, I had to put the hypothesis forward that Prezza has something on Blair. I was surprised that my dad hadn't heard the rumours. I'm afraid he did doubt my words when I said that allegations have been made by a former Labour press officer (Tricia McDaid) that Prescott offered her a dossier that included details of a gay fling between Blair and Brown and that the American secret services also have this material.

As a regular reader of newspapers I could understand his disquiet at not being in the loop on this massive story. I had to prove it to him by going to the web and googling Tricia McDaid Blair Brown gay and getting 154 hits. Today my dad told me that he got laughed out of the pub for repeating this story. Clearly, the British public have confidence that such a story would hit the front pages. Their confidence is misplaced. Check that google search again. From the mainstream press only the Sunday Times reported the allegation carefully emphasising that "the dossier contained the laughable (?!) allegation that Blair and Brown had a gay fling" and rubbishing the accuser as "a journalist trying to make a name for herself". Although the Sun and the Guardian alluded to her writ neither repeats the Blair/Brown allegation only reporting other allegations related to Prescott.

You may ask why a High Court writ (official document) issued by a former Labour press officer (professional person) reporting blackmail material (serious allegations) relating to the two most senior politicians in the UK would not be reported.

To repeat - An official document arising from a serious allegation made by a professional person relating to the most senior politicians in the UK does not make news. Something stinks.

Driving to Prague

Today the girlfriend is picking up the keys to our flat in Prague.

Tomorrow morning I set out alone from Birmingham to London to get some stuff out of storage. Next stop is Folkestone where at about 3.30 I will have my first Channel Tunnel experience. From Calais I will head to Prague through Lille, Cologne, Frankfurt and Nuremberg which is apparently about 1100km of driving on the right. I will sleep in Germany, but I don't know when I will get really tired so I haven't booked anything.

If anyone sees a flaw in my plan or has any ideas for how to stay awake please let me know. Otherwise you can use this comments section for general comments, ideas etc.

I'll be out of action until just Sunday provided the wireless internet connection at the new flat works.

As promised, I've deleted some of the less popular posts.

Deborah Orr - Making Me Rant

In the last week I have been taking a regular look at the Independent - not buying it I hasten to add. The two most irritating columns were both written by Deborah Orr (pictured). The first was about Lily Allen and was in essence an exhortation for teenage girls (especially bohemian middle class ones who need to enhance their street cred) to take class A drugs. This included a few personal admissions that should lead to police visits, but won't.

And today's piece is titled "Open borders are the only alternative to the erection of a repressive fortress state". The title gives you a fair picture of the ensuing dribble. It covers five columns but her axe grind could be summed up more succinctly

"I know that the great majority would like UK borders to be controlled (yes - that's called democracy), but why should we try to stop people having what we have got? Let's allow people to keep coming until the UK is as miserable place as where they come from."

I was motivated to do some more digging and found more repugnant views. Whereas most people couldn't give a monkeys these days, she's still scratching the class system scab. In another piece by her in the Independent (titled “I’m fed up being called an anti-Semite,”) she described Israel as “shitty” and “little” no fewer than four times. Presumably another place that should open its borders!!! I hope she's on their blacklist.

Her anti-civilisation views are so bizarre, I am convinced she has had some massive trauma in her life. The saddest aspect is that her views pass for received wisdom in some Leftie media circles. She reminds me of Sue Arnold who I remember describing turning her house into an opium den for her son and his pubescent friends so that they wouldn't be out on the streets "getting into trouble".


Why try to stop people taking drugs, because they will anyway? Why stop people crossing borders illegally, because they will anyway? Why try to stop terrorists because that will only make them angrier and they will blow us up anyway?

END OF RANT. Over to you.

Anschutz On Top

The "Rocky Mountains News" in Colarado reports today that Phil Anschutz is in the box seat for the supercasino. His Greenwich site scored 67 out of 80 ahead of all the other contenders. This is also making front page news in my home town of Birmingham where the NEC bid failed to make the last eight. Local Tory MP Caroline Spelman is calling for the selection process to start again. This can't be good news for Prezza. Under fire doesn't begin to describe his situation. But isn't the whole process flawed? Exactly which part of the electorate thought that a gambling bill was needed? Good example of the arrogance of Labour since 2001.

The Fall And Fall Of The CSA

Let's not review the spectacular waste of the CSA. The unaminous condemnation of it from all politicians today confirmed that that it is dead so there's no need to administer another kick. But I, along with the opposition spokesmen (Lib dem Laws was pretty good) am no clearer what the "massive" changes mean. John Hutton managed to give a good impression of a schoolmaster whose charges couldn't master a simple task. Call me stupid, but if anyone can explain what was in his box of tricks I'd be deeply appreciative.

One theme that appeared to recur in his statement was lifting children out of poverty. It sounds heartless but I'm afraid that this worries me deeply. A major problem with the old system was that it took an adversarial role and seemed to hammer missing fathers. There are many reasons for breakup but most absent fathers do not feel like they ought to be punished for it and have not accepted a witch-hunt style system.

I say f*** means-testing. My suggestion is a fixed charge of £50 a week per child. Transparent, simple and not punitive. Wealthier fathers can top that up privately by agreement, but keep the government out. Under the old system the liability was from the man to the woman. The new agency should pay the charge directly to the woman when she needs it as is done in other countries and the state will collect directly from the father.

My instinct is that nothing that Hutton will introduce will stem the flow of divorced and separated men out to Prague avoiding the clutches of CSA Mk 2. Expect more stress, waste and failure.

UPDATE - THE AREAS IN BOLD WERE QUOTED BY BEN ROONEY IN HIS ISSUE OF THE DAY BLOG ROUND-UP ON PAGE 2 OF THE GUARDIAN ON WEDNESDAY 26 JULY

The British Million Man March

Not quite, but I needed a catchy title. When the results of the 2001 census were announced, it emerged that a million young British men had 'disappeared'. In the words of the Grauniad these were "miscellaneous men, aged between 25 and 39, of no particular height, breadth or origin, but they have one thing in common: at the time of the 2001 census, they were mysteriously unaccounted for."

I was one of those missing men. I like to think that I have been in Prague for work reasons, but hell I was still missing. Prague is definitely one place where you could have found a few of the million!!!

Even a cursory visit to the discussion boards at www.expats.cz reveals a spectrum of Western manhood extolling the various virtues of Prague and pitying the countrymen they have left behind. Most Brits (or at least readers of FHM) know the stereotyped attractions of the East. "We promise you beer, women and crystal" form the introduction to one of the most popular Czech albums from the turn of the millennium. But, it's gotta be more than that, hasn't it? It is. Imho, another major factor is the chance to be entrepeneurial. Many Western guys (and it was mainly guys) came out here in the 90s to train the locals up in the embryonic professional services or simply teach English. Lots of these chaps liked the place and once they spotted the niche became their own bosses. With improved communications it really is possible to target the Western market at Eastern prices. I know guys in their 20s who have set up IT companies, property magazines, translation teams and marketing companies. And I know that the same opportunities are open to those that have the guts in other Eastern cities. A feature of Prague is that the low cost-of-living allows bootstrappers to survive long enough to thrive.

I'm sure political points can be made about the UK missing a million men at the most productive age, but I'll leave that to you. Were you one of the million? Do you wish you were? What's your story?

Off-shoring Prisons

There are now approximately 80,000 inmates in UK prisons and about the same number of prison places. Certain prisons house more inmates than there are "certified places". Police cells and (scandalously) open prisons have been used to manage overflow. Despite the fact that the Home Office has seen this crisis point coming, no provision has been made in terms of extra prison places. The recent Keith Report was a damning indictment into failures in the prison service. 88 recommendations were made. A key root cause for these failures was identified as prison overcrowding.

Before moving on, let's remind ourselves of a few of the basic purposes of prison - punishment, deterrent and rehabilitation. Despite the right-wing rhetoric Labour ideologues at there core do not really believe in punishing or even deterring criminals because they believe their crimes are society's fault not the individual. Their heart is not in prison punishment so they can't bring themselves to take the necessary steps to make it work - the most fundamental omission being a failure to create more prison beds. Keen to ensure that the punishment is only a depriviation of liberty and no more, prisoners find themselves increasingly pampered with facilities from TVs to drugs to drugs treatment. I could be forgiven for thinking that a proxy for the success of a UK prison is how closely it resembles a hotel with prisoners as guests and warders as obsequious concierges. No wonder a prison place costs the taxpayer approximately £30k a year (that's about £80 a night to you and me).

Labour does believe in rehabilitation in even the most hopeless of cases, but due to the overcrowding they do not and can not succeed. Reoffending rates are at an all-time high. And then to rub salt in the wound Leftie bloggers such as Bob Piper ask whether prison works. Not under Labour it doesn't, is my reply. Given the latest raft or crime figures and sentencing rules it's not unreasonable to estimate that there will be close to 100,000 prisoners by the end of the decade.

I would like to propose to off-shore prisons for the following reasons.

1. Alleviation of short-term overcrowding
2. Significantly lower cost per head alllowing resources to be used elsewhere
3. Stronger deterrent effect
4. Less visits likely and less facilities provided so these institutions would be a stronger punishment than UK jails
5. By dispersing prisoners to places where they can not speak the language or understand the culture these institutions will not serve their desire to become better criminals.
6. Ability to imprison persistent offenders (Labour currently only imprisons very serious offenders or seriously persistent offenders) thus increasing deterrent in another way
7. Due to the overseas prisons being seen as a stronger punishment we can reduce sentencing time thus reducing the chances of prisoners becoming institutionalised
8. It is less likely that foreign criminals will be mistakenly released into the UK.
9. Victims of crime could have a say in where the criminals serve their sentence. Beautiful , if I do say so myself.
10. THE VOTING PUBLIC WILL LOVE IT

NB Remember that it remains Lib Dem policy to give prisoners the vote. At the same time they are also on the record as saying expats like me shouldn't be able to vote.