The Compulsory Work Experience Scheme.

As part of the Welfare Reform Bill 2011 the British government has introduced compulsory work experience for the unemployed. Basically this involves sending jobseekers to a large multinational corporation like a supermarket for two months so they can do unskilled work for no pay.

About a month ago lawyers connected to the Socialist Workers Party's (SWP) Workfare campaign asked the courts to consider if compulsory work experience is the same as forced labour or slavery which is obviously against about a dozen domestic and international laws and conventions. Although the case has yet to be heard it prompted many of the large companies involved the scheme like Tescos and McDonalds to seek their own legal opinions and they concluded that it does probably constitute forced labour. So at summit between the companies and the government today (29/2/12) the government agreed to change one small aspect of the scheme so the liability for the compulsion falls on the government rather then the companies.

Good Riddance.

Today (29/2/12) James Murdoch has finally resigned as Chief Executive of New International - the UK arm of New Corporation. I can only say that's a good thing because while the Yanks didn't do him any favours with the Foreign Corrupt Practices investigation I can't actually think of a decision he's got right. Of course to expand on that further I'll have to go over every decision Jame Murdoch has ever made and I'm far to hungover for that at the moment.

Seriously Every Tuesday?

In US the Republican Party intend to hold a caucus/primary every Tuesday until August. I'm not objecting to the principle but could they not hold them on a Monday or a Wednesday. It's just that waking up around 15:00 on 29/2/12 I'm pretty sure this is going to kill me.

Thank You And Goodnight.

At around 04:20 the "Sick Bed of Cuchalainn" tells me that I should go to bed. Personally I think this is a good idea as long as the "Bed" means a hard floor, a soft sofa in front of CNN followed by another hard floor and then a soft bed.

Seriously I'm more worried about what waits me in the morning. I've promise Ferne Cotton it won't be anything electronic but it may be something Opera.

God at 04:30 I didn't even get the chance to mention the United Nations (UN) v the NRA and the Transvaal. But now "I Want to Conquer the World" so am going to bed. 04:30.

Calm Like a Bomb.

At around 03:50 on 29/2/12.

Seriously that was the RATM song that my iPod threw at me when Mitt Romney was escorted on to the stage in Michigan by his big, blonde wife. I drank bourbon "Wild Turkey" before deciding that I really needed to be sent a copy of that Mormon Book along with a copy of the Chinese bloke's "Art of War."

Anyway "Carmen" decided that "Maker's Mark" is kinda expensive so at 04:00 Wagner can not force me to tell the story of my "Sainsbury" sponsored little sister and that nasty burn I got off a Sainsbury pan. While I don't want to offend people who work in Supermarkets I think it's slightly offensive to the four years my sister spent in medical school.

The Baiderr Heinhoff Gang AKA The Red Army Faction (RAF)

Militant German anarchists in the 1960's in the 1870's their police links linked them to Qaddafi and the PLO. However at 03:05 on 29/2/12 it was the best film I watched on BBC on Oscar night (26/2/12). The RAF may be linked to the FAI who have been known to set fire to a car port or two.

Now at 03:07 I'm not going to bed until Romney speaks.

Yeah Romney's Won Arizona

and Michingan at around 02:45 on 29/2/12. More importantly I'm listening to "Tommy Gun" and feeling a need to strip down before I talk about the "Baader-Meinhoff Complex. Which is my new favourite film.

F*cking Hell:

I've just done my first line of Citalopram because at around 02:36 I'd run out of the other stuff (Ritalin) but then London called.

Oh God Yeah Still Awake.

Bt at at around 02:16 I've run out of coke and after moving into the front room I've mainly been listening to "the Clash" on the old Ipod.

Yep 1 minute to go.

At around 01:59 I've finally found the courage to move into the front room and watch the results on CNN.

While I Don't Want to Comment on Brian Austin Green's Family

'round here we've definitely got a pregnant Fox. Sadly she's got at least three generations on Megan. In fact when she first moved in I was convinced she was a boy fox. But after a few nights of frantic screaming we've got a girl fox so we've all got to find a non-aggressive (shotgun) way to deal with the pregnant female rats in the family plot.

Anyway the reason I keep giving why my elderly grandmother - who's suffered a degree of bruises in her nursing home - is still alive is "Because God's a little bit scared of her." I'm sure that now she's paying about USD8,000 per month for her "care" she'll live for years in England. Seriously have you seen how much it costs to transport a corpse to Wales. Bloody Hell at this rate I'm going to be forced to make Welsh cakes.

So God's going to cut me down at around 01:35. That's a really long way of explain why I've still not found the courage to make my way into the front room to watch US News.

As Johnny Cash's "Big Iron" Comes to and End.

At around 00:50 I have to report two things;

Firstly my father has recently gone to bed leaving me free to watch US news of one of the Republican caucus/primary thing.

Secondly I failed to stop at the "Speed" sign. So I may be up for a while yet no matter what Deila says.

Now I've Just been shown a "Speed" sign.

However at around 00:09 on Wednesday February 29th (29/2/12) - it's a leap year. I think the big TV question so after editing I need to ask is why the US "ABC-Studios" show "Body of Proof" was sold to Britain's "Channel 5" as part of the "The Mentalist" bundle with strict instructions that is must be shown in January 2012 when really I thought I owned at least 50% of the Intellectual Property Rights of "The Mentalist."

God I really need to get around to reading both "SOPA" and "PIPA" along with "ACTA" which apparently is like SOPA and PIPA's big scary brother but it's ok - it's European Union (EU) legislation so it only up for discussion.

Like I said at around 00:15 I really need access to the Internet.

Very Few Bullets.

That's Britain. Lots guns but very few bullets. At around 23:40 it's an interesting policing strategy.

Unfortunately while trying to write the above I accidentally collided with "edit" interface on my blog and was given a picture of some nice, green dollars.

However I can't go without telling you the story of the "Kyle Reece" killing. This young lad suddenly found himself dead today (27/2/12) up against the wall in the playground of a big school (11-18) yo in Bournemouth UK. The first important thing to remember is that Britain's liberals are currently trying to find out what the Tories find so scary about "The bigger boys" and how it relates to their time at Eton and all other all boys boarding schools. But I'm sure you all learned about that through the story of the horse the police lent to Rebekah Wade. The second important thing to remember is;

In the Terminator franchise "Kyle Reece" was the guy that future "John Conner" sent back in time to successfully impregnate "Sarah Conner" to produce "John Conner." Linda Hamilton's "Sarah Conner" in "Terminator2" was this week's "Jon Stewart's Daily Show's" weekly Moment of Zen." His Valentine's day "Moment of Zen" came for CNBC and really wasn't an argument that needed to be started with "Bloomberg's Trish V Three."

But here again I am listening to Johnny Cash. Really I thought it would just be easier to send the show an email rather then killing a guy in Bournemouth. BU tat around 23:55 I guess they're only Chavs?

God at around 23:59 that's a lot of Sci-Fi to remember. Personally I'm still just proud of the police-horse comment.

Well The Good News is:

I've got my drug habit under control.

At around 23:15 on 28/2/12 I'm stoned. I would like to report that I arrived at this moment free from stress, distress paranoia and drama. However at around 22:00 I made the mistake of watching "Survivors" on the BBCHD channel. Originally shown in January 2010 this along with "Outcasts", multiple series of "Doctor Who" and at least the first four series of "Hustle" this was Britain's long answer to "Firefly." The first episode of the second series (shown tonight: 23:01 28/2/12) was mostly exposition explaining why the series had changed after I gave my long lecture in Christmas '09 in which I demanded why Max Beesley's character hadn't realised how many guns there are just lying around Britain and why the "Anja" character had suddenly turned into "Anna" off of the Bristol Abuse Case (BAC). It may also have been the episode that caused the Haitian earthquake.

However I've moved on from that and more words will appear here shortly (23:22)

Edited at around 23:30 on 28/2/12 to add:

I'm not sure if my father has ever seen "Survivors" but it turns out I've got comments - that's what was causing the paranoia.

Britain Loves the NHS

And the NHS loves an acronym.

Britain's political classes are still tying themselves up in knots over the reforms to the National Health Service (NHS) brought about by the Health and Social Care Bill 2011. Politically what's going on here is really simple. However to get that far you need to know about health care provision in the UK which really isn't. So the short version;

The formation of the NHS in the late 1940's placed a legal obligation on the British government to provide health care. For the next 40 years this obligation was met at the local level through Local Health Authority's (LHA's) which are just another form of local government. In an effort to privatise the NHS in the 1980's Margret Thatcher's Conservative government introduced the Primary Care Trust (PCT). Legally PCT's are quite unique and therefore quite hard to explain. However they're basically a not for profit corporation with their own leadership that is separate from the LHA but is funded through an annual grant from the LHA. In return for that grant the PCT provides the LHA with Primary Care Services (PCS') such as emergency medicine, maternity services, phlebotomy services, nursing services, surgical services etc along with all the bureaucracy such as admin, building management and cleaning services needed to support those services. The government's obligation to provide Secondary Care Services (SCS') such as dentistry, elderly care, ophthalmology etc was all but removed and these services were placed entirely in the private sector. However under something known as the Internal Market a PCT couldn't simply provide PCS'. Instead they had to break them down into as many constituent parts as possible. So a simple hip replacement surgery became a joint operation between the anesthesia department, the orthopedic surgery department, the nursing department, the beds department, the laundry department, the catering department and so on. In order to get the operation done all these different departments had to buy their services off each other using pretend money. Needless to say when Tony Blair's Labour government took power in 1997 the NHS was close to collapse with record numbers of people taking refuge in private health care.

The 2011 Health and Social Care Bill will completely remove the legal obligation on the government to provide health care and will replace the PCT system with a much more complex system based on consortia of General Practitioner (GP) practices. GP practices are and have always been private small business partnerships. However the ones that choose to treat NHS patients are regulated by the LHA, paid per patient and simply transfer any patient that needs PCS' that the GP can't provide over to the PCT. Under the new system GP practices will group together and buy the treatment their patients need from other private providers using individual NHS patient budgets. NHS hospitals will more or less still exist for now but they will have to compete for business from the GP's like any other provider.

Initially the GP's took this to mean that if their patient needed pharmacy services they could send them to their brother's pharmacy business and if their patient needed physiotherapy services they could send them to that private physiotherapy clinic they half own and the taxpayer would pick up the bill. Eventually though the doctors realised that European Union (EU) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) competition rules mean that the big boys such as Circle Healthcare and all the big US providers could also come and play and their small operations don't stand a chance. So now all the doctors are getting their alumni in the House of Lords to add endless, pointless amendments in the hope that the passage of the bill through Parliament will take so long it will be dropped. A few liberals also found my grandmother's test run through this new system so terrifying that they're also trying to add a couple of amendments themselves.

None of this will come to anything though because as my grandmother's case demonstrates the new system is already in operation in much of England and Wales. Also a High Court test case in autumn 2011 ruled that the new system is how health care has to be provided regardless of whether or not the bill is passed. All this Parliamentary posturing is simply there to try and convince people that Britain is a democracy and draw confused attention to the nation ahead of the 2012 Olympics.



Edited at around 20:05 on 28/2/12 to add;

It's Tuesday February 28th and I'm back from the pub. It was quite pleasant. I had the beefburger but spent most the time worrying about whether or not my use of the word "alumni" in the above post is the correct word to describe the complex relationship I was trying to explain. Along with banking, law and the sciences in Britain medicine is considered one of the old professions. So in order to get ahead as a doctor you really need to be a member of a Royal College such as the Royal College of Surgeons and from there Knighthoods and Peerages will surely follow. It is these assorted colleges that are exerting pressure on the House of Lords to block the Health and Social Care Bill 2011. So I suppose one of the other main themes of the play is the friction between Britain's old guard and the modern world.

Occupylsx Has Been Evicted.

Following the granting of an eviction order to the City of London Corporation on January 18th (18/1/12) the Occupylsx protest camp has been evicted from the Saint Paul's Cathedral Churchyard today (28/2/12).

In the end it was all very civilised. Bailiffs backed by police arrived on site on mass at around 00:05. The majority of protesters then went and sat on the steps of the Cathedral which aren't covered by the eviction order while the bailiffs cleared their tents. It all seemed to be over by the time I went to bed at around 01:45. Later on there was a small incident with a group of protesters who'd blockaded themselves on the site. They were quickly removed resulting in twenty arrests and one protester being taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg.

In other news it has been confirmed that the British journalist Paul Conroy is today in Lebanon after being evacuated from Syria by the insurgents. These are the same insurgents who prevented him from being evacuated by ambulance on Friday (24/2/12).

That's Convienent.

Back in early 2011 permission was granted to convert the coal fired Tilbury power station in Essex, UK to run on carbon neutral biomass. The work was completed in January 2012 and a month later the power station opened. Today (27/2/12) Tilbury power station caught fire. As the fire is still burning and expected to keep burning for the next seven days or so it is fair to say that the power station will be off-line for a significant amount of time.

In this time the energy needs for the area will probably be met by the Barking Reach power station and the Damhead Creek power station. These are both gas fired power stations so increasing their output will increase their consumption on natural gas. The majority of natural gas used in the UK is imported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), mainly Qatar. Today the Qatari Prime Minister signalled Qatar's intention to arm the Syrian insurgents which will no doubt cost a few quid.

There's A Surprise.

As of around 16:30 on Monday February 27th (27/2/12) my home Internet connection is working. However I doubt I'll be writing much because the thing of being locked out of work for days on end it turns out that when you return there's lots and lots to catch up on. Plus after the crass stupidity of the past week I'm really not sure I can be bothered.

My Home Internet Connection is Working.

As of around 11:30 on Sunday February 26th (26/2/12) my home Internet connection is working I however will not be. That's a shame because I think it's obvious to everyone that my Internet connection will be blocked again from tomorrow just as soon as the opportunity for me to crash the Oscars has passed.

I can't though go without commenting on Paul Conroy. He is a British journalist based in the restive Baba Ama district of Homs in Syria who wounded along with Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. He is now claiming to be prevented from leaving and his plight is being used to justify opening logistical supply corridors to the insurgents. His wife is going even further calling on the British government to send a special forces team to rescue him. So I have to ask the obvious question - has he tried handing himself into the Syrian authorities because I'm sure they'd be more then happy to provide him with medical aid and then deport him? Or perhaps does he thinks that the normal rules don't apply to him and he can do what he likes in someone else's country at a time of war?

Yeah I'm Still Quite Drunk.

But at around 13:50 on 25/2/12 my home Internet connection is working so I guess I'd better explain that Afghan Koran burning thing. Last weekend (18-19/2/12) US forces in Afghanistan chose to burn copies of the Qu'ran in order to provoke violent protests. The idea was that Afghan would then successfully contain those protests showing how well prepared the country is for a US withdrawal. The forces that would be freed up by an Afghan withdrawal would then be used to intimidate Saudi Arabia over the Syria issue.

Unfortunately it went wrong and the Afghan security forces weren't able to contain the protests leaving the US looking a bit stupid. So today (25/2/12) the US killed two of their own troops in the Kabul Interior Ministry building to call attention to the issue. Also today the Saudi's set off a bomb in Yemen to question if the US intend to use the unrest in Yemen to destabilise Saudi Arabia.

This has all got a bit aggressive a bit quickly.

Thak You and Goodnight.

After switching from Johnny Cash to Imelda May's first album my eyesight and finger prints have failed me more then twice. So at around 02:45 on 25/2/12 I'm going to bed.

When the Man Came Around

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

See Drink and Drugs Are Good For You.

Even if Faust's Gournads won't let me show you this picture;



http://s414.photobucket.com/albums/pp226/Sovereign16/?action=view&current=Cunt.jpg the soldiers song can always explain to that I've realised that Adele's moment at the BRIT awards was very similar to the moment that I had with German X-Factor winner Lena on Holly Willy-boobies ITV1 show "This morning."

Anyway I think a science lab in Italy needs to apologise to a science lab in Switzerland over a loose cable because after now the bell chorus is starting to play I've gained this urge to listen to Johnny Cash.

Was.

It's now around 01:05 and I'm back on my blog after checking with my Twitter (@Sovereignaka). It's all fine but it turns out I have to leave 17 characters spare in my message to give the exact time and date. Beyond that did I mention the 3rd bottle of wine. After all apparently I've got to finish it before I'm allowed to open more beer.

We're now listening to Verid's Rigaletto.

The Syria Contact Group.

Today (24/2/12) saw the first meeting of the international Contact Group on Syria. However in order to avoid having people point out that what's being planned for Syria is exactly what was being planned for Libya, Nigeria and Somalia the organisers have forgone the formal title of "Contact Group" in favour of the politicised "Friends of Syria Group." Russia has already dubbed the group the "Enemies of Syria" which is probably more accurate. After all friends rarely wage war on each other.

The first priority of the group is to set up logistical corridors in order to re-supply the rebel fighters under the guise of alleviating a humanitarian crisis. The only problem is that there isn't a humanitarian crisis in Syria according to the accepted definition. What there is are several small areas which have experienced an armed uprising or intifada. The Syrian government has placed these areas under a military blockade in order to contain and suppress the uprising. This is an acceptable military practice that has been used in pretty much every war-zone throughout history. Therefore if a foreign power were to violate Syria's territorial integrity by breaching this blockade it will constitute an act of war against Syria. This would allow Syria to go the the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) seeking sanctions up to and including invasion and regime change against any nation violating it's territorial integrity. As Britain has already freely admitted that it is breaching the blockade they would have to be suspended from any UNSC discussion on the matter leaving it up to the United States to sign cheques and call in favours to prevent Syria gaining those sanctions. This is what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meant when she said that the opposition would soon arm itself.

In order to encourage the US to go to this effort the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) are promising that they will work with the UN to replace Assad with a stable Sunni government to counter-balance the Shia dominated government that has risen to power in Iraq following the US invasion. However this too will require a UNSC resolution that the GCC are in no position to get. Even if they were somehow able to the UN is already overstretched by the situations in Libya and Somalia so the most likely outcome is a chaotic semi-failed state which achieves nothing other then giving the Gulf Monarchy's a good argument for why their people should continue to put up with them. If the attempts at bribery fail then the next step from the GCC will be to threaten to cripple the US economy by forcing up the oil price. Under those circumstances it would be handy to have a guy like Qaddafi or a country like Iran around.

Oh and I'm sorry for making the Syria Contact Group look like a pre-ordained publicity stunt rather then a working meeting by publishing it's conclusion before it's finished but these days I've got to write these things when I'm being permitted access to the Internet.



Edited at around 23:40 on 24/2/12 mainly to prove that my home Internet connection is working:

To the surprise of absolutely no-one the Saudi delegation withdraw from the Syria Contact Group at around the time (16:00) that I was writing this post. The sad fact is the Yanks are yet to realise that they only attempted to bribe them because they think they're too stupid to bother threaten.

Elsewhere in the region at around 17:00 the International Red Cross/Crescent (IIRC) declared themselves to be a terrorist organisation by being granted permission by the Syrian government to evacuate people from the one district of Homs that is still occupied by insurgents. You will note that the IIRC are not equally putting pressure on the Turkish government to stop the flow of weapons and personnel into Syria. They are also possibly using the intervention as a cover to evacuate foreign agents from the area without allowing the Syrian government to establish those foreigners biometric ID's. Well the US thought it would be a good idea to play in Afghanistan.

Now have I talked to you about "The Shadow Line"? It's a great BBC2 drama from the early part of 2011. Unfortunately it starts with the killing of a drug dealer and then in the style of "The Wire"expands out to cover all the events that brought us to that point so I can't really tell you any more without spoiling it. It's currently being re-shown on the BBCHD channel but in light of all these cuts they were really hoping you'd buy it on DVD. So much so that the main guy they sent to cover the Libya conflict shares his name with one of the main characters.

Now bring on the porn.


Edited again at around 00:10 on 25/2/12 to add:

It turns out my home Internet connection is still working. I've used this time to open the third bottle of wine and leave a comment on Indymedia.org.uk. It was a response to a story about an Indymedia journalist in Kenya being shot and killed that said simply "At least the Kenyans are aware of Bush era foreign policy." It's a long story involving a British fake al-Shabaab recruitment video and a US drone strike. Personally I'm thinking if we only have one major global summit in 2012 the cab rank principle at least suggests we should go with Somalia.

Now it's Oscar's weekend so I really should be looking at pictures of naked ladies. One day soon I hope to touch a real life one but let us not scare the world just yet.

This Won't Last Long.

At around 10:45 on 24/2/12 my home Internet connection is working so I don't have to go out and make a Somali Internet Cafe owner really paranoid. My home Internet connection was of course blocked all day yesterday (23/2/12). This is because due to Russia and China's veto of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution Britain is experiencing something of a traffic jam in it's colonial aspirations.

Yesterday Britain was hosting a 52 nation summit on Somalia. The objective here is to form a contact group on Somalia that will undermine the UNSC mandated mission that is already operating in the country. Admittedly progress from that mission has been slow but it always will be providing it's objective is to re-impose on the country the government that the Somalis kicked out in 1991. Since then the vast majority of that deposed government have been working in the public sector in Britain. So if you heard yesterday's news that British public sector workers are having their pay frozen for the next three years you might have got the entirely false impression that Britain intends to withdraw it's support for Somalia's government in exile.

Today sees the first meeting of the contact group on Syria. In preparation for the Syria summit the United States yesterday crashed two of it's helicopters into each other in an effort to get Britain to drop the Somalia issue in order to make diplomatic space for the Syria issue. The US also announced it's intention to use the Syria contact group to re-supply the Syrian rebels in order to prolong a conflict that has already seen close to 10,000 Syrians fed into the meat grinder. The long term objective is that the conflict will go on until the Syrian government runs out of money and collapses.

If only there was an example from the Horn of Africa, possibly beginning with the letter "S", that demonstrates what normally happens in those circumstances.

Like I Said Danny Dayem is Safe and Well.

If you're not familiar with the name will you will probably recognise the face. Throughout the Syria conflict Danny Dayem earned himself a reputation as "The Voice of Homs" after posting video blog-posts and appearing on western news channels making highly emotional pleas for western intervention to save the people of Syria. The only problem is that Dayem isn't Syrian at all. He's British and was flown into the country specifically for that purpose.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 western intelligence agencies rushed to start recruiting a large number of native Arabic speakers from Arab countries. For Britain the best place to look for these people was friendly Arab nations such as Ben Ali's Tunisia and Mubarak's Egypt along with the children of refugees from non-friendly Arab nations such as Libya, Syria and Iraq. Danny Dayem is a product of that system as were many of Libyan youth who performed a similar role building support for the NATO intervention in that nation. In recent weeks Dayem had also been trying to promote discussion about me by doing a poor impression. Things eventually got so hot for Dayem his handlers extracted him from Syria yesterday (21/2/12).

Unfortunately the presence of Dayem and his kin in Syria helped to create a dynamic where the Syrian government view journalists as enemy combatants. So today we've seen the death of Marie Colvin a British journalist and Remi Ochlik a French photo-journalist.

So About my Wounding.

It's now around 00:45 on 22/2/12.

However on Sunday night I found myself to be cooking dinner. This involved putting a stainless steel pan in the oven for about an hour. Obliviously when you take it out you want to take it out with a heat proof glove. After I taking the thing out of the oven I basically forgot the heat proof glove and burnt my hand. At around 00:45 thank you and goodnight. I'm going to bed.

Good News. The Voice of Homs is Home Alive and Well.

Danny Daayan arrived back in a UK airport on Tuesday February 21st (21/2/12). Really I'm offended I have to explain this at around 00:25 on 22/2/12. After all I sure I covered it with the words "MI6 YTS" where YTS stands for Youth Training Scheme.

I don't think I'm giving away any major secrets when I say that since 2001 western intelligence agencies have been having issues with Muslim Arab speakers. The best translators can be found in non-aggressive Arab nations such as Egpyt and the GCC or the immigrant children of aggressive Arab nations such as Libya, Syria and Iran.

B*llocks I've Just Done a Woody Allen.

I tried to sniff the second line through my left nostril but then at around 00:10 I sneezed comically and made the carpet rich.

No It's Fine.

Turns out all you need to do is smash it up with a knife and then chop up with a credit card and then you'll be fine to snort it up with a nose. (00:00).

Rock n' Roll.

Whilst watching the 1 minutes silence form Chirstchurch NZ on the BBC I've been trying to crush up a pill and listening to Adaigo for Strings on the iPod.

Oh no 23;55 the foreigners have woken up. Any ideas about how to crush up a pill?

3-1 Down To Naploi.

That's racist. At around 23:44 on 21/2/12 it's good job I've got chewing gum.

Best International Female.

Was won by Lana Del Ray's lips dressed in her best Christina Hendricks from "Firefly" dress.

At 23:36 on 21/2/12 I'm missing the BRITS but my Internet is working so I hope I can get around to telling you the story of my recent wounding and my trip to the Off License by the park to buy alcohol;

Really it was a rubbish story I could have brought 2x bottles of Budweiser for £1 each but instead I got the chance to listen to militant Islam V The cold hard sound of capitalism within a previously Tamil establishment.

At 23:40 does anyone know the Chelsea score? Because the man came around about 23:05

Nope Turns Out I Was Lying.

David Harewood was never in series one of the BBC's "Survivors." Apparently it was some other nigger (Najid) who led all the black helicopters to those Manchester rooftops.

Elsewhere in lying I didn't get stoned before watching that episode of "Body of Proof" but at 23:05 I'm sure I can find the time to work through the next 5 pints before listening to a little bit of "The Clash"

Now There's a Shocker.

After telling the World that I got stoned at around 13:45 on 21/2/12 I return from the pub (drunk) at around 20:12 to discover that my home Internet connection is working. Quite frankly I'm in no mood to play the game of "Have MI5 bugged my house and frankly who cares?" So instead I will tell you what I did with my afternoon;

After getting more stoned I decided to watch "The Battle of Algiers." Unfortunately I got distracted by trying to build a heat syncing stand to keep the weight off my FreeSat HD box off my DVD player. I say "build" it was more a case of preciously assembling pre-fabricated material. When I started sawing I decided that this was just about enough effort to go to a shop a buy the parts needed to do the job properly.

When my father returned from visiting my grandmother in the nursing home we went to the JD Wetherspoons pub which was frankly a chore because the Hordes of the BRIT school had descended on mass. More words will appear here later. (20:23)

(20:23) F*cking Hell did I mention how much of a chore the pub was. My father and I arrived to discover a single manned bar being crowded by two blond eastern European looking Italian female midgets. I say midgets, at 4 foot nine the one on the right was just about the right height for the freakishly tall eastern European barman. I think this was what forced the Rhianna lookalike barmaid "Nina" to encourage the rest of the bar staff into the back for whatever bar staff do in the back (cocaine).

After eventually finding our usual seat (#40 just in front of the CCTV camera) my father and I started discussing the Greek financial crisis. This quickly progressed into a discussion about why he'd been looking Damien Lewis up on the Internet? After concluding it was because he'd been in the CBS Showtime series "Homeland" we moved on to who else had been in the series about the paranoid CIA agent (Claire Danes) and concluded that David Harewood was in the BBC show "Survivors" and I'd taken the bird from "Firefly" in a raunchy sex scene in the start as warning. We then discussed Claire Foy in the BBC's "Upstairs Downstairs" as it relates to Jews in the Bosnia conflict. When that progressed into a discussion about the Maudlesy Hosptial (SLAM) latest research on the effect of stress on the brain the food arrived. I found my steak to be very rare and cooked in a rush. Then I drank some more beer and arrived home.

Anyway (20:41) as for the BRITS I think Ed Sheeran stands a good chance. After all he came dressed as Prince Harry, pretentiously titled his album "+" and recorded a song about Lego House and one that fraudulently claimed he'd never been to the BRIT School.

Now (20:46) I'm about to get stoned and declare war on 10 cans of Kronenburg while watching "Body of Proof" followed by the finale of series 1 of "Survivors" on BBC HD. So if my Internet is working later and I'm allowed to post I doubt it will be worth reading.

Fat Tuesday.

It's currently around 13:45 on Tuesday February 21st (21/2/12). I'm a little bit stoned and writing this from an Internet cafe. The first part of that sentence is probably my fault. The second part is because I'm now being heavily censored. Over the past few days the DNS registry is blocking my home Internet connection more often then it's not. My father is still trying to work out why calling the home phone from his cell phone with it's unique 10 digit ID# solves the problem and allows him to use the Internet.

The key detail to remember here is that on Saturday (18/2/12) and Sunday a senior US diplomat visited Israel for high level talks about the Iran situation. The hope from Britain and other parts of the European Union (EU) and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) was that my post on the subject would appear on Saturday morning blowing those talks wide open. In the end that didn't happen so on Saturday night two British boxers got into a brawl in Munich, Germany and a British teacher was killed in a coach crash in northern France. Germany wants to hear from both the boxers involved before deciding whether or not to press criminal charges. Having arrested, tested and interviewed the coach driver and ruled out drink or drugs as possible contributing factors the French as going to charge him under the assumption he fell asleep at the wheel. Today (21/2/12) the British government is holding an internal mini-summit to discuss the issues surrounding the use of computers in weather forecasting.

So basically I'm currently being put on trial but being denied the rights to know what the charges are exactly or to speak in my own defence. Al Jazeera is trying to dress this up as putting pressure on Israel over Palestinian prisoner rights. And these are the people who are claiming that they're going to spread democracy and justice to the middle east and Africa.

Anyway. It seems that I'm going to be prevented from delivering my annual drunken tirade explaining why Croydon's BRIT school for performing arts represents everything that is wrong with the world. So I'll have to do my preview of tonight's BRIT (music) Awards ceremony now. This years statuette comes in the red, white and blue of the French tricolor in order to promote discussion about British/French relations.

Now for Lunch.

This is a Little Difficult.

Although I think the main purpose was to surpress my Libya post my Internet connection was blocked before I tried posting the following at around 10:50 on 19/2/12. I should point out that in deciding to post it I did so because I believe it to already be well known.

Within the business very few people believe that Israel wants to attack Iran over its nuclear program. Instead Israel wants to use the issue as a pre-text to provoke a wider regional conflict in order to seize more territory from it’s neighbours and alter the terms of negotiations with the Palestinians. So what Israel wanted from Syria was low level but continuous peaceful protests that would trick the Syrian government into trying to rally a restive population behind a war against the old enemy. However that situation has long since gone out of control due to the involvement of the Gulf and other Monarchies.

Through the Strait of Hormouz drama and associated naval rescues the United States got Iran to look as though it wouldn’t retaliate by issuing an empty threat to block a US aircraft carrier entering the Strait. This was done to reduce Israel’s incentive to attack. Leon Panetta’s comments about Israel attacking Iran between May and June 2012 were designed to gauge Israel’s reaction to the development but Panetta gave away far too much information for my liking.

The attacks against Israeli diplomatic vehicles in India and Georgia were Israel’s response. They were designed to strengthen internal support for an attack on Iran and put pressure on the US to confirm its position. The attacks in Thailand that followed were designed to convince that the Indian and Georgian attacks were Iran’s work. They were most probably achieved by Israeli intelligence infiltrating an Iranian intelligence cell and then just killing them with the assistance of the Thai authorities.

So in summary – while trying not to lay down a challenge – I actually think the chances of an Israeli attack on Iran are at their lowest in several years. However Iran will still have to deal with Israel’s policy of assassination and crippling economic sanctions such as expulsion from the SWIFT banking system that in the long run will do them more damage then a war.

Operation Oil Theft: Month 12, Week 1, Day 1.

It appears that at around 19:50 on 19/2/12 my Internet connection has been restored.

Friday February 17th (17/2/12) marked the first anniversary of the February 17th uprising that eventually led to the overthrow of the Qaddafi government and most of the past week in Libya has been spent celebrating. This anniversary was proceeded with some good news. On Monday the Libyan Higher National Electoral Commission was formally sworn in for the first time. This is the body that will organise and oversee Libya's coming election and the appointment of the body that will write Libya's new constitution. As Mahmoud Jabril pointed out the next day (14/2/12) the Electoral Commission also has a lot of work to do making the Libyan people aware of the election and educating them about how the process works. This is something that people who have grown up in democratic countries take for granted but having never really had the opportunity to vote before the Libyan people will have to learn the equivalent of an entire new political and cultural language. In other good news the National Transitional Council (NTC) appears to be making good on it's pledge to bring all of the militia prisons under the control of the Justice Ministry. Of course the true test will be how the Justice Ministry runs those prisons once they've taken control of them.

Celebrations were tempered somewhat by the Amnesty International report; "Militias Threaten Hopes For New Libya" which was published on Thursday (16/2/12). It paints a picture of hundreds of rival militias that are answerable to no-one engaging in arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extra-judicial killings, attacks on protesters, revenge attacks on each other and racist attacks of ethnic groups forcing them to become internally and externally displaced (refugees). It went on to argue that unless the culture of impunity in which these armed gangs operate is brought to an end and the militias are integrated into a formal security force Libya faces little chance of enjoying a peaceful and prosperous future. The militias themselves have been quiet this week choosing to celebrate rather the fight each other. There was some inter-tribal violence on Sunday (12/2/12) and Monday (13/2/12) when members of the Zwai tribe clashed with members of the Tobu tribe near the town of Kufra in south east Libya. Fighting started with small arms but quickly progressed to heavy weapons such as anti-aircraft guns leaving six dead and twenty injured. The Tobu tribe claim that the Zwai tribe is being backed by the NTC but this cannot be confirmed and the NTC have not commented on the accusation.

Aisha Qaddafi has been writing letters again. On Thursday February 9th (9/2/12) she wrote to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Libya asking it to investigate the death of her father - Muammer Qaddafi. She went onto accuse the commission of having a bias against the Qaddafi government which seems like fair comment. The UN commission has yet to respond. On Sunday (12/2/12) NTC chair Mustafa Abdul Jalil announced that Saif al-Islam Qaddafi will be transferred to an NTC prison in Tripoli and put on trial in no more then two months. He may want to re-consider his statement in light of how badly the first trial of Qaddafi supporters went when it was re-convened on February 15th (15/2/12). Having been adjourned on February 7th (7/2/12) to allow lawyers to be instructed it reconvened on the 15th to discover that lawyers had been instructed but the number of defendants had suddenly risen from 41 to 50. The trial was then immediately adjourned for a second time after the Benghazi based February 17th Martyrs Brigade simply refused to bring the prisoners to the court.

Mayday's Fast Approaching.

May 1st traditionally marks the start of spring/autumn and is also International Workers Days. Since the days of Jubilee 2000 campaign it has also become associated with, er, vibrant protests. In Britain Mayday 2012 is the first to fall on a working day in several years and the first since August 2011's spectacular riots. It also comes against a backdrop of economic austerity, rising unemployment and a full scale assault on almost 70 years of social policy including the much cherished National Health Service (NHS).

So if protest organisers can gather 8000+ people in a central London location such as Oxford Circus, Parliament Square or the City of London it could lead to scenes like those seen during the student protests of November/December 2010. If fewer the 8000 people turn up it could lead to scenes like the anti-G20 protests of April 2009 or just a couple of hundred people getting arrested.

Either way I'm sure the state will find a way to co-opt the protests into the preparations for the 2012 Olympics.

I Can't Quite Believe I'm Saying This But..

Now she's been taken off Buprenorphine and placed in a nursing home which she is paying for the issue of my grandmother's health has been de-coupled from the issue of a potential Israeli attack on Iran. Of course how much China knows about the potential for an Israeli attack on Iran is just one of the major themes of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping visit to the USA. That visit is a five day visit that will end on Friday (17/2/12) evening US time. Therefore I won't be making an update on Libya until the Sunday (19/2/12).

In the meantime my sister is up for a visit. I'm seriously considering whether it would be possible to go to bed now and not wake up again until Saturday.

I Didn't Puke.

Sadly I have to report that around 00:00 today (15/2/12) I was forced from my bed to spend ten violently retching over the toilet. However I did not actually vomit. That's probably something to do with the fact that I actually seriously reduced my alcohol intake last night.

Now I Think We Can All Agree..

...15,000 Japanese died in vain. Now at around 23:25 on 14/2/12 I definitely going to bed. Bed, floor unconsciousness. Either way I'm turning the PC off.

After Watching the Surviors on BBCHD

I decided I'd been de-listed. After all "the Suns"'s TV guide promised me that the one hour fifth episode of six (5/6) of series one: You know the one with the scary knife man in the church: would be shown between 22:30 and 23:30 but still at around 23:05 on 14/2/12 here I stand.

Yes anyway after establishing that I have a lager beer I will go to bed soon I promise. And that's a good promise no matter how many times you've been kicked in the face in a Chinese POW camp.

Wow That Was Brave.

Promising to keep quiet for the rest of St Valentines Day (14/2/12) knowing full well that I was going to take the opportunity to finally. properly watch an episode (8/12:1) of "Body of Proof."

My father returned home about 21:35 and looked up the scores on Freesat." We then had a quick discussion over whether my brother had left for the night, whether the codes on my grandmother's door had changed and god how much does the British abortion look like a Norwegian prison. My father is currently trying to catch up on 44+1.

I may or may not return later.

I am so Very Alone.

Although I returned from the pub at around 20:15 to discover no problems my father and brother went on to the nursing home to see whether my grandmother is mentally present enough to accept visitors at this late hour.

As for dinner it was pleasant to the point of being a bit dull. My brother started by explaining that the purpose of his recent visit to Norway on behalf of the British Council was to chair a discussion about multiculturalism at the Tromso film festival. After that we just stuck to small talk. In particular my review of the DVD he gave me for Christmas and I finished watching today (14/2/12) "Brotherhood" as it relates to the current FOX&ABC V the FCC case at the US Supreme Court. I think this is an interesting story that I need to get round to telling one of these days even if the look on his face told me that it's probably only of interest to me and about 14 other people. The abridged version is that HBO once made this famous and very gritty crime drama called "The Wire." CBS tried to emulate the success of that show by making it's own version called "Brotherhood." The problem is that HBO is a cable network and therefore exempt from the FCC's rules so can do what it likes in terms of sex, drugs, swearing and violence. CBS is a broadcast network which is bound by the FCC's very strict rules on sex, drugs, swearing and violence. So while "Brotherhood" is very well done every episode is mainly apologising for not be allowed to be as gritty as "The Wire." In the middle of awards season FOX and ABC are currently at the Supreme Court asking to be also exempted from the FCC rules. Therefore M.I.A's outburst at the Superbowl was just a foreigner desperately trying to hang on to her work visa as time runs out on her career. Like I said, small talk.

We then discussed how my new HDTV box has brought me lots of (well two) new channels. So while I probably won't be going to bed just yet I think I'm calling time on the Internet while I go off and watch TV.

I've Totally Just Worked Out the Rangers Thing

Scottish football is dominated between two great rivals that both have strong links to the Northern Irish Troubles. There's Glasgow Rangers who are mainly supported by Protestants and Glasgow Celtic who are mainly supported by Catholics. Yesterday (13/2/12) Rangers applied to go into administration over unpaid debts particularly a disputed tax bill. Ultimately they could go bankrupt and the club would disappear. However what's far more likely is that they will go into administration restructure their debts and cut their costs before carrying on as usual.

Also yesterday the credit ratings agency Moody's put Britain's credit rating on negative outlook. This means that due to the Europe wide recession they think that if the situation doesn't improve they may have to put Britain on negative credit watch. If the situation still doesn't improve they then may have to cut Britain's credit rating from AAA to AA.

Normally governments are given 24 hours notice of this sort of move before it is made public. So the Rangers story was Britain's way of discreetly leaking the news.

Today (14/2/12) a junior British government minister is visiting Jordan to discuss the Abu Qatada extradition that has been blocked by the European court over torture concerns. Normally what Britain would do in these circumstances is deport Qatada to a third party country and then if the Jordanians managed to arrest him in that third party country that would be Qatada's problem. However the case does give Britain a pretext to make lots of diplomatic visits to Jordan who are a key player in the Arab League over Syria.

The Chinese VP is in the USA.

The Chinese Vice President and most likely next President Xi Jinping is visiting the United States. In completely unrelated news my brother has suddenly decided that he will joining my father and I in the pub for dinner this Tuesday (14/2/12) for the first time since that court case. Somehow I thing it will far less dramatic then some people hope.

Greece's Latest Austerity Vote.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one the Greek Parliament yesterday (12/2/12) voted to implement a further E335million in spending cuts in order to release the latest tranche of EU bailout money needed to prevent the nations economy imploding at the end of March 2012. Unfortunately in Europe's second most corrupt country a large number of politicians decided to complicate the matter further by choosing to put their own electoral interests ahead of the national interest by voting against the cuts.

Outside the Parliament the public reaction was even more disorderly with a night of vicious rioting that saw almost 50 buildings burnt to the ground and 150 shops looted. Although it's hard to see how further destroying the country will help solve the problem it's easy to see why the Greek people are so angry. Up until now the years of severe cuts they've been forced to endure have nothing to do with them and little to do with economic reform. Instead they've been about sucking as much money as possible out of the country and giving it to the multinational banks that hold Greek debt. As a result the economic situation in Greece has only got worse trapping it in a never ending cycle of more debt and more austerity. Amid this economic death spiral homelessness is up, suicides are up, hard drug abuse is up and the sort of deaths you get in winter that are caused by a combination of a shortage of food and a lack of shelter have sky rocketed. Therefore it is essential that the October 27th agreement to write off Greek debt is implemented before we need to get Bob Geldof to organise a concert for them.

In fact it would be a good time for the insurers of Greek debt to announce that if the write off is not implemented they will treat any future Greek debt default as voluntary and not pay out. After all they've spent the last couple of weeks very publicly explaining to everyone they've already set aside all the extra money they'll have if they don't pay out.

The Arab League on Syria.

Yesterday (12/2/12) the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and satellites met under the banner of the Arab League at the Arab League's HQ in Egypt. They produced an action plan that may be taken to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) but sounded much more dramatic then it really was.

Firstly the League announced that it will break off all diplomatic ties with Syria. Due to the deterioration in the diplomatic relationship with Syria over the past year in practical terms all this means is that the League will end it's observer mission. They went on to call for the observer mission to be replaced by a joint League/UN peacekeeping mission to Syria. However this will require a UNSC resolution. As the UNSC won't pass a resolution endorsing an observer mission it is highly unlikely they will endorse a GCC land invasion. Finally the League announced it's intention to set up a Libya style Friends of Syria Contact Group. This could mean anything ranging from no-one turning up to the GCC flooding Syria with weapons and fighters via Turkey and Lebanon. NATO will obviously be very opposed to Iraq being used as a shipping route in case the weapons end up travelling in the opposite direction to Afghanistan via Iran.

The GCC's main hope is that the League meeting along with today's (13/2/12) UN General Assembly (UNGA) meeting will heap pressure on the Syrian government causing them to panic and make the situation worse. In taking this approach the GCC have actually exposed the great lie that is being told about Bashar al-Assad. Far from being a blood thirsty tyrant he's actually quite timid, indecisive and frankly a bit wet. This is evidenced by his reticentence to use air power against the insurgents in case it leads to the imposition of a no-fly zone. Although using fighter jets and helicopter gunships against what looks like civilian areas will give the media an excuse to be outraged they'll be outraged anyway. The people who will make a decision about a no-fly zone however all have their own militarys and battle plans. Therefore they know full well that surgical air strikes are the less lethal option then indiscriminate shelling.

In news from the same neighbourhood Israel is reporting that it's diplomats have survived car bomb attacks in India and Georgia. The most obvious assumption and probably the most likely one is that the attacks were carried out by Iran in retaliation for all the Iranian diplomats and scientists that Israel has killed with car bombs. However it is also possible that Israel faked attacks on their own diplomats in order to make it look like Iran did it as part of very complicated negotiations about Iran's nuclear program which it's probably best I don't comment on further at this point.

I've Been Censored Again.

Although it's working again now (11:00 on 13/2/12) my Internet connection has been blocked from certainly 15:00 yesterday (12/2/12) and possibly as far back as around 03:00 on 11/2/12. It would be nice to pretend that this was down to something important like Greece's crunch Parliamentary vote on austerity measures or the Arab League's meeting on Syria but it wasn't. It was due to celebrities.

Here in the west we are in the grips of awards seasons. Between early January and the Oscars in late February there is hardly a weekend that goes by without some sort of award ceremony for everything from films to condoms. This weekend it was the turn of the Grammy music awards in the United States and the BAFTA awards in Britain. In recent years these film awards have seen the cream of the US industry travel to London for a weekend of award ceremonies and parties. It is this group of people who have the most to gain from the passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). So by keeping me off-line by interfering with the DNS registry Britain was hoping to find out what these key industry insiders think about SOPA. This follows on from the US approach of introducing SOPA at the start of awards season.

Of course the flaw in the plan is that as I was unable to tell anyone that I was being taken off-line how were people meant to know about it let alone discuss it? I think the idea was that I would panic and use Twitter on my cellphone. I was actually about to do that but then I got distracted trying to eat my own body weight in chocolate.

Operation Oil Theft: Month 11, Week 4, Day.

Today's post is actually an update on the past two weeks in Libya. Apparently the people who are pushing for intervention in Syria find discussion of post-intervention Libya embarrassing.

Following January 26th's (26/1/12) criticism by the United Nations (UN), Amnesty International (AI) and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) over the mis-treatment and torture of prisoners the National Transitional Council (NTC) has begun to make the right noises about trying to improve the situation. On January 29th (29/1/12) they announced that they are beginning the process of bringing all of the militia's prisons under the control of the Ministry of Justice. At a UN organised workshop on human rights on January 31st (31/1/12) the Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur pledged to investigate allegations of torture. In an effort to hold the NTC to their word on February 2nd (2/2/12) the respected NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted the case of Doctor Omar Brebesh - Qaddafi's former Ambassador to France. After being arrested by the Zintan Brigade militia on January 19th (19/2/12) Dr Brebesh was found dead the following day. After performing an autopsy HRW concluded that Dr Brebesh had died following torture and a severe beating. It will be interesting to see if the results of the NTC investigation into the case are the same as the results of the HRW investigation.

As for Libya's most famous prisoner - Saif al-Islam Qaddafi - on January 31st his sister Aisha Qaddafi attempted to file a representation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in which she claimed that her brother was being denied access to a lawyer or the outside world. On February 2nd (2/2/12) the ICC rejected the application on the grounds that proceedings had not yet reached the point where the accused can make representations to the court. The move though does put pressure on the ICC to speed up proceedings so they do get to that point. It's worth noting that Aisha Qaddafi is herself a lawyer. On February 5th (5/2/12) interior minister Fawzy Abdilal told CNN that Saif al-Islam's trial could begin in Libya with in weeks or months. This is only a slightly stronger statement then saying that Saif al-Islam's trial could begin in Libya at some point in the future. Mr Abdilal's comments co-incided with the start of what seems to be a test run for a possible Libyan trial of Saif al-Islam. The NTC have put 41 civilians in front of a military tribunal in Benghazi accused of fighting for Qaddafi, aiding escaped prisoners and forming criminal gangs although the exact details of the offences remain vague at best. On February 7th (7/2/12) the case was adjourned until February 15th (15/2/12) to allow some of the defendants to instruct lawyers, the lawyers that have already been appointed to study the evidence and for the tribunal to consider whether the case should be heard in front of a civilian court instead.

As of today (10/2/12) the question of who controls Bani Walid remains. The townspeople appear to be in control. While they are no longer flying the Qaddafi Green flag and accept the NTC's rule they claim to still be loyal to Qaddafi's memory. Outside of the town the May 28th Brigade militia who the townspeople forced out on January 23rd (23/2/12) are camped out and promising to re-take the town. Bizarrely the stand off is having a wider positive effect with members of Libya's myriad of militias joining together in order to re-take Bani Walid and forming one big militia they are calling the National Guard. This single militia should be easier for the NTC to work with and integrate into Libya's formal security forces. Elsewhere the militias continue to cause problems. On February 1st (1/2/12) the Zintan Brigade and the Misrata Brigade got into a seemingly pointless gun battle in Tripoli over who controls the cities Police Academy building. The several hours of fighting apparently caused no fatalities and control of the Police Academy did not change remaining under the control of the Misrata Brigade. More worryingly on February 7th (7/2/12) members of the Misrata Brigade stormed a refugee camp in the Janzour district of Tripoli that was housing Black Libyans who had fled from the town of Tawergha. The Misrata Brigade killed five in what seems to be the latest round in their never ending mission to purge Black Libyans out of the new Libya.

In response to the militia's violence the NTC Chair Mustafa Abdul Jalil has proposed a regional security conference to tackle the problem of Libya's mass of weapons. These weapons are increasingly starting to turn up in the hands of militants such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and Tuaregs in Niger and Chad. Therefore I hope that this summit goes ahead and is successful in solving this serious problem. However I know it will be an uphill struggle because the people who supplied the weapons in the first place actually want them to go on and destabilise the rest of Africa. Also I wouldn't be too surprised if some of these weapons and the fighters that use them start turning up in Syria via Turkey.

On January 28th (28/2/12) the NTC formally adopted the law governing the election for the nation's Parliament. The law decrees that 70% of the seats must go to members of a listed party and 30% must go to independent candidate but does away with the provision that reserves 10% of seats for women. However in an effort to ensure that Libya's women get at least some say in how the new Libya is run on February 8th (8/2/12) the NTC adopted a law governing the selection of candidates for the committee that will write the nation's new constitution. 20% of those seats will be reserved for women.

Protests against the NTC have continued but without the explosions of violence like the one seen in Benghazi on January 21st (21/2/12). The protests seem to be driven by two main factors. One of which is allegations of a lack of transparency in the NTC which is being used to cover up corruption. This is demonstrated by the scandal that has engulfed an NTC run scheme that sends fighters who were injured in the war to foreign countries for medical treatment. Responding to pressure the NTC suspended the scheme on February 8th (8/2/12) after it emerged that the majority of the people who were benefiting from the scheme doing so because they had friends in the right places rather then because they'd been injured in the war. The main factor though is Libya's current dire financial situation. Despite an estimated income of US$44bn from oil alone the NTC expects to run a budget deficit of US$10bn in 2012. The more pressing problem though is a chronic lack of cash that means government employees are not being paid regularly and banks have been forced to limit cash with-drawls to 2000 Libyan Dinar (LD) per month. In response on February 8th (8/2/12) the UN's World Food Program (WFP) launched a food voucher scheme which hopes to feed 10,000 families in Benghazi. This is the type of scheme that the WFP and other aid agencies have been using in east Africa to tackle the food crisis/famine and involves giving people vouchers that they can exchange at local merchants for food. However in this case the problem seems to be with asset pricing rather then a shortage of food.

Over the past week though Libyan protesters seem to have been more interested in the situation in Syria rather then the situation in Libya. In solidarity with Syrian activists on February 5th (5/2/12) protesters stormed the Syrian Embassy in Tripoli and claim to have been granted ownership of the building by the NTC. Also on February 5th (5/2/12) protesters attacked the Russian Embassy in Tripoli burning flags, throwing rocks and breaking windows. The following day they went and did the same thing to the Chinese Embassy also in Tripoli. This is not the sort of thing that is going to go unnoticed by Russian and Chinese governments keen to do a lot of business in the new Libya. So the Assad government would be well served to remember that Russia and China's patience is not without it's limits.

Oh Cheer Up You Protestant.

You're being done a massive favour.

Today (10/2/12) in the UK The Secular Society has won a High Court case banning prayer before local council meetings. In response to the verdict Church of England (CoE) Protestant middle-England is tutting loudly - their strongest form of outrage. The Freemasons and the Conspiracy Theorists are reserving a suspicious glare for each other. Brighton is worrying about drugs. Meanwhile the news that one of Damiloa Taylor's killers has been recalled to prison for a second time is being used to warn the fascists about the dangers of cannabis. At this rate it'll be Tuesday before they work out they mean they've banned Muslim prayers before local council meetings.

Fabio Capello Has Had Enough.

Yesterday (8/2/12) England football manager Fabio Capello quit. The national Football Association (FA) have been trying to oust him since the end of the 2010 World Cup when they discovered they couldn't afford to sack him. The straw that broke the camel's back though was the FA publicly announcing that Capello couldn't pick John Terry as the team captain without consulting Capello.

The question now is who will replace Capello. In honestly think the hope is that no-one will. That way the England football team will wither and die and England can quietly withdraw from the international football scene.

The Falkland Islands/ Las Malvinas Dispute.

Around 250 nautical miles off the Argentinian coast there are a group of islands that were occupied and colonised by Britain in the 19th century. Britain calls them the Falkland Islands and want to hold on to them. The Argentinians call them Las Malvinas and want them back. As part of an escalating dispute Argentina are now threatening to take the issue to the United Nations. In itself this is not news because Argentina bring the issue up at the UN's General Assembly every year. However the possibility of bringing it up as a separate issue is a response to British provocation over the issue. This includes celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war which breaks with the tradition of only marking the 10th, 25th and 50th anniversaries and sending the heir to the British throne Prince William to the islands on military duty and deploying Britain's most advanced warship to the islands.

The reason for this provocation is because Britain knows that if Argentina were to invade the islands Britain lacks the military strength to re-take them and would require international assistance. There are also complex legal questions over whether the current British regime is able to exert sovereignty over the British Isles let alone the Falkland Islands. So Britain wants to find out where it stands internationally. Personally I think it would be better for the Argentinians to carry out bilaterals with key figures and then just invade in 2015/17.

The Harry Rednapp Trial.

Over the last couple of weeks the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur football club Harry Rednapp has been on trial in the UK for tax evasion relating to his time as manager of Portsmouth football club. Throughout the trial there has been no single common theme but there have been lots of smaller themes which contradict each other. Therefore the purpose of staging the trail was just to draw attention and cause confusion.

Of course there was the hope that a high profile conviction for tax evasion would discourage others from evading taxes in these difficult economic times. That has obviously failed though with the jury finding Rednapp not guilty against all the odds it must be said.

How Depressing is This?

At around 23:25 on 7/2/12 I was presented with a choice between more beer and going to sleep. Sadly I'm that tired that I've decided to go to bed.

The Diamond Jubliee

To the day yesterday (6/2/12) the German wife of a Greek husband Elizabeth Saxe-Gothanberg somehow managed to become the Queen of England. So between then and June 2012 Britain will be banging on about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee at great length. While I can't remember the exact epistemology in the Jewish tradition a Jubilee marked the forgiving of certain debts and of course the Jews are quite big in the diamond trade. Also the greater Israel Zionists keep going on about actually stretches from what is now Afghanistan all the way down to Egypt's Sinai peninsula including the Arabian peninsula currently known as Saudi Arabia. So at around 22:45 on 7/2/12 consider yourself both confused, informed and warned.

It's Cold. It's Cold. So Very, Very Cold!

Well the windchill factor brings it down to around -3C which is cold for Thornton Heath. To make matters worse there were Chinese in the pub so someone broke the heating in order to make them really stand out from the lack of crowd. Anyway I returned from the pub and into the warm at around 20:10 to discover that apart from the fact my cell phone is refusing to charge there are no major problems. In fact I have good news;

Today (7/2/12) I received a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) informing me that my benefits claim has been moved from Income Support to Employment and Support Allowance without a questionnaire being received or completed. Beyond the five pages of blah, blah, blah this will see my income continue indefinitely but reduced by around US$2 per week which translates as around as loss of one week's income per year. However there is no need to worry because I'm sure the shortfall will be made up through Housing Benefit paid at a rate of 2x my grandmother's nursing home costs. I understand that the proposed benefits cap might make that legally difficult but hey we've ignored so many laws to get to this point what's one more between friends.

It's Time to Clean Up Syria.

Now that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has refused to endorse the Zionist* war against Syria the time has come for the Syrian government to put an end to the armed insurgency that has plagued the country for the past ten months. Tomorrow (7/2/12) the senior Russian foreign minister and intelligence chief will visit the country to offer their advice. While I don't want to pre-empt their visit or put words into their mouths there are things that I think Syria needs to do to put an end to the current terrible situation.

Firstly they need to ignore everything and anything the Arab League has to say. This is because since the Egyptian revolution there is no such thing as the Arab League.** What there is is the Saudi and Qatari lead Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and nations like Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco who are too terrified to disobey the GCC in case the GCC do to them what they did to Libya. I for one have no intention of taking lectures on democracy and human rights from an absolute Monarchy that doesn't let women leave their homes unaccompanied and sent in troops to very brutally crush the uprising in Bahrain.

The second thing is to isolate Bashar al-Assad's brother and commander of the fourth armoured division Maher al-Assad from the decision making process. This is because I think it's fair to say that he can tend to be overly aggressive and has been caught on film personally shooting protesters. He is also the deputy the proposed UNSC resolution called on Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to.

Beyond that the next priority is to starve off the the insurgents supply of weapons by closing off Syria's borders with Turkey and Lebanon. This shouldn't be too difficult or labour intensive because the Turkish army is already heavily patrolling their side of the border and keeps expressing concern over the situation in Syria so should be more then happy to help improve it. Likewise the UN peacekeeping force that is currently deployed in Lebanon should be well suited to this task although it may take a UNSC resolution to change their mandate.

When or while this is going on the Syrian army needs to identify the insurgents strongholds. They then need to surround them and quarantine them in order to prevent the insurgents moving between them. Once the insurgent strongholds have been successfully strong-pointed the Syria army need to divide them into districts and seal those districts off one by one before going through them street by street and house by house. However the purpose of the exercise is not to kill people but to arrest troublemakers and seize equipment such as weapons, communications equipment and propaganda tools. As for the people who are arrested the soldiers who defected from the Syrian army and then chose to take up arms against that army will have to be tried by military tribunal and humanely executed if convicted. As for the civilians the foreigners should be deported while the Syrians should be tried by specially convened civilian courts. The trial procedure used and the penalties handed down upon conviction can then be used as a basis for a public debate over what sort of political reforms the Syrian people want.

Unfortunately as the insurgents are now at least as heavily armed as the Taliban in Afghanistan the Syrian army will have to used armoured vehicles to move against them and heavy weapons to take out mortar positions and anti-tank rockets. However rather then using un-aimed "dumb" weapons such as artillery and Grad rockets the Syrian air force should use aimed "smart" weapons such as missiles fired from fast jets and helicopter gunships being used in a close air support role. In short they need to do what NATO did in Libya. The Syrian authorities should also take the opportunity to be more honest with their people by holding regular press conferences explaining when heavy weapons have been used, why they've been used and how successful or not their use was. This has the added advantage that if the Syrian army are forced to publicly justify each and every use of force they will limit their use of force only to when it is strictly necessary.







*I'm not sure if Zionist is really the right word to use. While what's happening in Syria is happening because Israel wants it to happen Israel isn't really playing an active role. Instead they're forcing the United States to do all the work and take all the blame on their behalf. Since the Egyptian revolution Saudi Arabia have also played a leading role because if all these Arab countries do become functioning, modern democracies it is going to become impossible for the Saudi Royal Family to explain to the Saudi people why they're being forced to continue living in the Dark Ages. That is also the reason why Britain is playing a leading role.

**I'm also starting to doubt the existence of Al Jazeera. Following the Egyptian revolution their head Waddah Khanfar who has links to the Muslim Brotherhood was quickly replaced by the Emir (king) of Qatar's brother and since then the channel has become little more then a mouthpiece of the Qatari Royal Family. That's why it keeps calling for Arabs living in majority Sunni nations to "Awaken" and rise up to be slaughtered while keeping quiet about what's happening in Shia majority nations with minority Sunni rulers.

That's the End of That Then.

The United Nations Security Council have just (around 17:00 on 4/2/12) voted on the resolution on Syria and it was vetoed by both Russia and China. In the end 13 of the 15 member council supported the resolution but I think it's fair say many of them only did so safe in the knowledge that their votes would be merely symbolic. It will be interesting to see if the United States will now try again or finally do the decent thing and drop the issue.

Also I've finally got my HDTV box working but I don't think that's the most important news of the day.


Edited at around 12:15 on 5/2/12 to add:

After the UNSC meeting broke up the death toll from Homs on Friday (3/2/12) fell from over 250 to 55. As a result it is difficult to decide if more people died in Syria, Libya or Egypt this week.

That's Mighty Convenient.

Today (4/2/12) the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is expected to vote on a resolution on Syria. Yesterday (3/2/12) someone massacred over 200 people in the Syrian city of Homs. Britain almost immediately claimed responsibility by getting protesters to storm the Syrian Embassy in London. Also today there are mass anti-government protests in Russia which obviously put pressure on the Russian government.

Egypt's Football Violence: Part 2.

I’m sorry to keep going on about it but football hooliganism is actually my area of professional expertise. Therefore it’s a topic about which I can talk your ears off so I think there may well be a part three even if my British based computer really doesn’t like me talking about it.

The reason why I’m so knowledgeable about the subject is because I basically did it for a living for about six years. I have to say that if we’d faced a situation like the one that occurred at Port Said on Wednesday (1/2/12) where I worked the plan we were all trained to follow was to open the exit gates and then abandon our posts. We would then re-group at a pre-arranged point and then think up a plan of how best to re-take the stadium. A large part of that plan would have been to allow the riot to burn itself out. That is because if you lack the strength in numbers to completely dominate the situation but then attempt to use force and fail you only end up making the situation worse and increase the number of casualties. So apart from the unforgivable mistake of the locked gates which is sadly still an all to common practice in Egypt and much of Africa the only fault I can find in the way the Egyptian police handled yesterday’s riot was that they tried doing too much to control it without a coherent plan of action.

Of course there is still the issue of why the police didn’t do more in the run up to the match to avoid a riot breaking out in the first place. In a rich country such as Britain which has a highly trained and professional police force that is very experienced in dealing with football violence you would expect the policing operation for this type of match to be planned weeks if not months in advance. They would have begun with a way to transport both home and away fans to and from the match without coming in contact with each other. They would then have arrested known troublemakers weeks in advance in order to prevent them travelling to the match and had plainclothes police officers mixing with the crowd to act as spotters to identify potential trouble spots before those situations got out of control. However the policing environment in Egypt is very different. For a start it is a much poorer country so their police don’t have the same level of resources available to them. Then there are the Ultras who make Britain’s infamous football hooligans look like disorganised pacifists by comparison and can quite easily arrange for gates to be opened to let guys with weapons in. The way the Ultra’s are organised also makes it much more difficult for the police to identify and arrest their ringleaders without starting a war. Thirdly Egypt doesn’t really have a functioning police force as they go through the process of transforming Mubarak’s CSF into a civilian police force that is capable of serving the new Egypt. On top of all that the Egyptian authorites are currently pre-occupied holding the elections for the upper house of Parliament so their focus was understandably elsewhere.

So I have no doubt that the Egyptian military were in no way involved in orchestrating yesterday’s riots. The only reason why the Muslim Brotherhood are saying they were is because they’ve calculated that fighting between the secular Ultras and the secular military will translate as more support for them. If you want a conspiracy theory though the way the violence seems to have spread to Tahrir Square threatening those elections means that I’d take a long hard look at the Ultras. After all they played a key role in November 2011’s riots that threatened the elections for the lower house and they certainly move in the same online circles as Britain’s English Defence League.

Interestingly tomorrow (4/2/12) will see London hosting the infamous match between West Ham Utd and Millwall. Undoubtedly this match will be trouble free and will showcase London's police at their best. It's almost as if Britain is trying to get Egypt's interim military leadership to ask them for advice.