Old Doc, New Ticks

It’s finally happened. I’ve fallen ill. I always knew it would all start falling apart one day, but nobody warned me it would begin at the still-tender age of thirty, although to be fair I did really abuse my body during my late teens and early twenties (no, really!) so I suppose it’s fair play. What isn’t fair play is that I’ve been paying into the states ‘insurance’ fund for just as long. The fact I’ve been forced to pay at gunpoint doesn’t enter into it, I want the service that I’ve paid for.

Perhaps a little back-story. Unused as I am to visiting the doctor, I do at least go regularly enough to know that my last GP was a gem. An Indian lady of the old-school variety, she’d been my GP since birth and was my mother (and grandparent’s) GP before that. She didn’t ‘do’ computers and maintained a Big Brown Envelope filing system, the PC on her desk displaying the floating XP screensaver beloved of un-logged-in expensive paperweights everywhere. Something she also didn’t ‘do’ was ask you the state-mandated smoking/drinking survey.

She retired earlier this year.

The ‘new’ doctor is an elderly Indian gentleman, but nontheless while I sat spaced-out-proper in his surgery, he insisted on going through the rigmarole…
“How many do you smoke, how much do you drink, sorry it’s the government making me do this (all the while making ticks and notes on some sort of form), can you step on the scales please (despite the fact that I could barely stand- although, come to think of it he had no way of knowing this as he hadn’t actually fucking asked me what the FUCK was wrong with me yet), now I’ll just measure your height (in my cowboy boots that add a good 2″ to my height) sorry it’s the government, can I do your blood pressure ooh it’s a bit high that’s because your arteries are hardening from smoking but I can’t get you to stop but it’s your early grave (thank fuck for that, to think I might have otherwise have had to put up with this shit for another 10 years with increasing regularity) sorry the government make me say all this, now what can I do for you?”

Then a cursory 30 second (interrupted) description of my symptoms followed by a diagnosis of “hypoglyclemia but I can’t do a blood test because the nurse is off sick, -(to intercom) can you send some sick certificates up please, come back in a week if it doesn’t improve and we’ll send you for tests.”

Then he wrote “viral infection” on a sicknote and I was out the door. Approximately 15 minutes spent on the sorry-the-government-make-me-do-this bit, and approximately 90 seconds spent on the reason I’d gone there in the first place.

I was, of course, already of the opinion that the NHS should be abolished entirely but I am now also of the opinion that I’m lucky I happened to experience this for the first time under a befuddled haze, or the new doc may have got a punch on the nose for his trouble.

What Is Wrong With These People?

This woman, caught on camera dumping a kitten in a wheelie bin, is obviously a very cruel and perverse person, possibly psychopathic- who demonstrates all that is wrong with society today and all the rest of it. Certainly she should, if found, be prosecuted and punished.

See if you can see what caught my eye from the story though? I’ll give you a hint, by emboldening it:

Coventry Police said they had been alerted to what had happened and had passed the matter to the RSPCA. A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “We are appalled by allegations that a cat was placed inside a wheelie bin in Coventry in what would appear to be a mindless act of animal cruelty “Investigations are on-going in liaison with the police.”

Seriously, what the f..?
So now the RSPCA are the official animal-related investigation branch of the Police? Are the Police incapable or prevented or just plain uninterested in following up this complaint (which is not merely animal cruelty, distilled it amounts to criminal damage of the owner’s property) themselves? And there was me thinking that they were merely a charitable organisation devoted to giving soup to tramps finding loving homes for abused dogs giving sanctuary to abandoned donkeys Alright alright, I knew that they were another kind of cop, but I wasn’t aware that it was official. The arrogance just drips from that last quote: “Investigations are on-going in liason with the pollice.” To me that reads “This is OUR jurisdiction. WE are the FBI RSPCA and when we find whoever is responsible we’ll have the Police arrest them.” Nice.

Still, if you live in the Coventry area and you recognise the psychopath in the photograph, you might as well phone Obersturmfuhrer-RSPCA Nicky Foster on 0300 1234 999 and give them something useful to do, otherwise they will might get bored and start kidnapping elderly, much loved pets themselves…

Medway Muggings: A Local Perspective

We are, by now familiar with the erratic implementation of the thousands of new laws in this once-great nation of ours, so I submit this for your attention.

You may remember Leg-Iron’s picture of the exposed, windy bus stop with the no smoking sign? Well, the picture below is the area within Chatham Bus Station where smoking is permitted.

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Looks quite enclosed doesn’t it?  Selective enforcement being, of course, the trademark of repressive authoritarian regimes since time immemorial.

It’s not all rosy in Medway though. Although I’ve been reading stories about the street harassment of the smoker community up and down the country I hadn’t experienced any myself, or heard of any locally. Too many smokers, too many of them chavs, thugs, winos or moody-looking foreigners for such things to happen around these parts. Nevermore.

For now, via Dick Puddlecote I see that mugging has been legalised in the Medway Towns- so long as your victim is a smoker, that is.

Now, I’m not saying that Medway was a nice place to live even before this outrage, we’ve got all the aforementioned chavs, winos, thugs and moody-looking foreigners (plus some who, Power Ranger style combine the attributes of all four) plus plenty of Plastic Plod of many varieties, CCTV (fixed and mobile), crime, junkies, beggars- all the components in fact, of modern life. Plus everything, even new stuff, looks grimy and run-down. Until now though, the war on the smoking and drinking communities have been relatively minor, so long as you don’t drop your butt or guzzle your Stella in the High Streets you’re pretty much ok to do what you like.

I never thought I’d see the day when we were host to a pilot scheme of state-sanctioned violence against undesirables. Naive I suppose. There’s plenty here: Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Tables Turned

Here is a member of the public filming one of Medway Council’s spy car operators.
He doesn’t like being filmed, claims it isn’t allowed(!) and begins to call the police…

I can sort of understand his concerns, after all, here he is, just doing his job driving around the Medway Towns on a huge full-time fishing expedition, filming members of the public at will when a mere prole has the audacity to capture his untouchable boat-race! Must have been quite a shock for him…
(Full story here)

It’s quite well documented that the State just loves to film and photograph us, while agents of the State hate nothing more, but it’s wonderful to see the people actually operating the police state spy equipment getting so hot under the collar up close and personal. Hats off to Mr. Khan.

In case either of my readers don’t have a spy car in their local area, here’s an image:

(Links to a Labour blogger with a bee in his bonnet about the CCTV car.)

The Kent Police Helicopter

Here it is, hovering around.

No sirens, no SWAT, no car chases, no paddywagons, no raids, no plainclothes, no nothing- just the helicopter hovering above central Chatham on a Sunday night when all was quiet. I have it on (fairly) good authority that when it’s doing this it is using the heat-sensitive camera to look for cannabis farms in the local buildings. Whoo-hoo. Now THERE’S a positive and efficient use of taxpayer’s pounds. Perhaps, if they hadn’t been wasting said pounds on helicopters that fly around all day looking for trouble, then the need to send out mailshots like this would never have arisen:

Really?!

(Enclicken to Enbiggen, if you want to read the fine print) Now, I admit that I already have a bee in my bonnet about the police helicopter -there’s a draft right near the bottom of my drafts folder about it that I may have to finish soon- but seriously: “If you call us, we will come”?! Jesus! It’s the Police, if you call them of course they should come, right?!
Aa anyone round here will tell you, if you’ve been burgled, mugged or raped then god help you, because you could be waiting anything up to or excluding 48 hours for the police to deign to arrive and take a few fingerprints while you dutifully don’t repair your door (for fear of contaminating the crime scene- LOL!!! Like they give a damn about you and your crime scene) or whatever and leave your property open to the elements (and further burglaries) in the meantime, and yet they can afford to keep a hideously expensive helicopter in the air 24/7. Perhaps, if they didn’t spend all their budget on show-piece helicopters then they could afford just a few extra bobbies to attend when there had actually been a crime commited, and even perhaps they could have saved the cash it cost to deliver a promise to do just that to every door in the town. Just maybe. Just maybe they could actually catch a criminal too. Or am I just being hopelessly optimistic?

After all, that’s part of the so-called Social Contract, isn’t it? We allow the existence of a paramilitary force of citizens, with more lawful powers than regular citizens, so that when we’ve been attacked or defrauded we can rely on our ‘boys in blue’ to protect us, or at least see that justice is done after the fact. It’s a bargain between us, the people, and them, the state. Once the police stopped bothering holding up their end of the bargain, swapped their friendly-but-professional-blue for intimidating black and decided that instead of solving (proper) crimes (with victims!) they would instead concentrate their powers on rooking cash out of the law-abiding and spending it on Big Boy’s Toys they lost all legitimacy to exist. Full stop.

By the bye, a large part of the reason the Police helicopter winds me up is that we are forced to pay -at gunpoint- for its upkeep and yet the Kent Air Ambulance, a service which actually saves lives is reliant almost entirely on the donations and goodwill of the people of Kent who dutifully put their coppers (no pun intended) into jars on bars county-wide. It makes me SICK.

Another Kind Of Cop

I’ve mentioned the ‘charity’ that is the NSPCC before, but this post from Al Jahom brings another well-loved charity sharply into focus:

Someone (John Northam) posted a comment on one of my RSPCA threads earlier: Came home from work to see a chitte to say they had taken my cat while i was at work- no explanation. A phone number that after 30 minutes of annoying waiting music and patronising advice on the treatment of snakes(!) turned out to be a fucking call centre and no attempt made to contact me My cat is 18 years old half blind and on his ast legs but still comes to me for cuddles and food (he loves bacon). He is not in pain and I know he will tell me when it is his time to go If the fucking bastards have not put him down already they will have scared the poor fucking creature to death by sticking him in a cage around loads of other distressed animals

And the follow-up comment:

July 22, 2010 at 6:46 am Need to followup on the story above. I have not been charged with anything yet so it is not yet sub judice. The RSPCA did contact me after 7 increasingly angry messages at the call centre phone calls to various vets etc trying to locate my cat. 18 hours after taking my cat they told me that they want to question me ‘under caution’ under this draconian piece of legislation called the Animal Welfare Act (2006) . I told them that I did not recognise their authority to do this so next week at some time I will be cuffed (that’s the loca Police policy), taken to a Police cell and interrogated because I did not have my cat put to sleep 2 weeks ago. Apparently the RSPCA know my cat better than I do. I intend to make a big commotion about this and have already spoken to my local MP. This is an excellent blog and I have spammed FB with the link. Everyone should know what complete bastards the RSPCA are and how much power the Animal Welfare Act givens them

It is worth remembering, although the RSPCA may not receive taxpayer cash (presumably putting out adverts with sad-eyed puppies in a ‘nation of animal lovers’ gets them enough) they nevertheless not only lobby for legislation but they have powers delegated to them from the State. This makes them a State organisation in my view, albeit one that is funded voluntarily.
Goons in uniform that are legally entitled to enter your home without your consent are police, pure and simple: I should (and now have) added them to the list of polices on my previous post.

Don’t give money to these guys: you might live to regret it.

Disappointed

Disclaimer: I started this post at the end of last week, and it’s been lurking around in my drafts folder unfinished ever since. I’ve been spurred to finish it by John Demitriou’s post (which I’ve only just got around to reading) on the same subject.

According to the Daily Star, the Raul Moat group has been closed, not by Facebook, but by the group’s founder Shivoun O’Dowd.
So why am I disappointed?
Not because of free speech: if we follow the ‘their blog, their rules’ thing (and I do) then Facebook pages certainly count.
Not because I hold some sort of candle for Raul Moat: I ‘m of the opinion that he was a dangerous psycopath and was indeed screaming into Twitter that the SWAT team should have shot him hours earlier.
Not even because I believe the Moat-mensch to be seriously unhinged individuals and its good to have a list of them so they can be rounded up (a Red List?!) and removed – that’s the pre-libertarian Stalinist Wh00ps talking- but just the simple disappointment I feel whenever anything on the internet gets shut down, for whatever the reason.

Having perused a few of the ‘tributes’ on both Facebook and the other site, courtesy of Al Jahom, it seems that a large part of the sentiment is not so much pro-Moat as anti-police. While Moat himself may not have had much justification for his feelings as he got quite rightly banged up for a crime, there is perhaps more justification in the public at large, although probably not to the extent of acting cheerleader to a gun-wielding maniac.

The criminal classes naturally feel little affinity for the police but as the police have become increasingly heavy-handed towards regular decent folk while simultaneously ignoring them when they have need to call on police services the feelings of resentment and downright antipathy are getting stronger. The police are no longer ‘our’ Boys in Blue, they’ve become ‘their’ Bastards in Black (black is more intimidating) in an ever-growing profusion of forms: Police, Community Safety Wardens, Rail Enforcement Officers, PCSOs, Traffic Enforcement officers, RSPCA and so on, all hell-bent on relieving you of cash at every opportunity and all wearing variations of the same uniform. It’s small wonder that the zeitgeist is firmly anti-police and that episodes like Moat should become a point around which those feelings condense should be hardly surprising at all.

Addicted To Government

Reading in The Sun today about the Government’s secret, three-year programme to deliberately re-addict prisoners who have successfully kicked their drug habits while inside gives us a cold look into the mentality of the people that run the country in our name.

First of all, the idea that prisons are run for rehabilitation is completely blown out of the water. No member of the relevant ministries and civil services can ever make this claim again. I’m digressing here though.

I’m tempted to see this as another little leash keeping a part of the state’s client classes under control. Do they really want offenders getting themselves off of drugs and making something of themselves when they get out of prison?

This is where it gets a little sticky. If this policy originates from the lower levels of government it could be argued that it is simply the armies of social workers and drug counsellors employed by labour acting out of self-interest by keeping themselves in ‘customers.’ This wouldn’t be unheard of, and is in fact well within the bounds of normal human nature. It is evident in everything from the poor advice given to those seeking work at the Jobcentre (been there, been given it. Do you know anyone who ever got a job from the Jobcentre?) to the ineffective counselling and drug treatments (and jail) given to those with mental health problems. They have a monopoly and a limitless supply of cash, so the only thing they need to do to keep themselves in work is keep em rolling through the doors.

If, however, this is an initiative directed by central government then it starts to look more sinister.
Consider this: these are ex-addicts who have managed to get themselves off of drugs by their own efforts despite very difficult circumstances. Jail isn’t the nicest of places to be, and the drug supply inside is in many cases more plentiful than outside. To get off heroin while in prison is quite an achievement and says a little about a person. Also consider that these lags are being deliberately addicted to a drug the main dealer of which is the state. The ex-prisoners who have managed (to borrow a Jeremy Kyle parlance) ‘to turn their lives around’ are far more likely to stay in a methadone program than return to using street heroin, so they are effectively now hooked on the state, like being on tag only chemically.
Combining this with other ways of getting people hooked on the state, such as the rules that keep so many in the welfare trap, sink estate dwellers as well as those receiving ‘tax credits’ included and the all-encompassing so-expensive-you-can’t-afford-to-go-private NHS and you suddenly have a very different picture indeed.

Consider also: At the moment this is just prisoners who were already hooked when they came in, and only those who managed to get off heroin and didn’t just keep using while inside. How long before it’s extended? To all prisoners? To the general population? To a (new) drug that is only available from the state?

It might sound far-fetched now, but 10 years ago it would have sounded far-fetched that the state would be allowed to open your mail without a warrant.

Would you really put it past them?

Not Dangerous…

A colleague of mine returned from annual leave today, visibly upset when I asked her if she’d had a nice holiday. It transpired that her 11-year old daughter and niece had been walking their puppy when a larger dog attacked and killed it in front of them. Awful.

They’ve reported the incident to the police, but they’ve been told that nothing can be done because the dog does not count as a dangerous dog under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Apparently it just “doesn’t like small dogs.” So that’s alright then(!)

As I’ve opined before the Dangerous Dogs Act is actually counterproductive legislation, as this tragic case shows. People who are poor dog owners, who wind their dogs up or fail to train them and keep their animals under control in public are fine, so long as their animals are not classed as ‘dangerous’ while even the Dog Whisperer himself isn’t allowed to own ‘dangerous’ breeds no matter how well trained.

Still, I expect some more legislation will solve all this, right?

Defeat, I Think

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged that it would be a shame if Islam4UK’s planned march through Wootton Bassett led to a big-government response banning their march, and in fact making it one notch easier to ban any marches or protests. Today, the government went one step further and banned the entire group.

This isn’t the first time that membership of an organisation has been made illegal, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but I always greet news like this with a certain amount of disquiet- especially when the grounds for such an action are so spurious, as in this case the group fell foul of the free-speech-busting Terrorism Act 2006 offence glorification of terrorism.

This is not an apology for islamism. If people have been found to be plotting to attack, committing an attack or aiding attacks on people in some material way, then they should be prosecuted with the full force of the law. But being a member of a political group? Saying something? Threatening to outrage the sensibilities of the general public? These are not serious crimes warranting a ten-year stretch.

The major problem with governments having laws like these is mission creep. For sure at the moment these powers are only being used against Mad-Eyed Beardy Brown People with Outrageous Placards. If you’re mad-eyed, or beardy, or brown or you like to carry outrageous placards but you are not more than two of those things, you’re probably not worried. Everyone’s against the MEBBPC’s, right? Even the moderate muslims. But are you sure it will stop there? How close do you think the BNP would have to be to getting a sizable parliamentary party before they find themselves banned? Or the EDP? Or LPUK? Taxpayer’s Alliance? Countryside Alliance? Fathers4Justice? UKIP? They already have their guns out for them, don’t forget.

These things NEVER stop with the pantomime villains they are allegedly aimed at. This is a defeat, for sure. A defeat for militant islam.

And a defeat for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association. A defeat for everybody, whether they realise it or not.