The beautiful game

Er... not quite! More like this, this, or even this. Preferred score

Passion 1: 0 Aggro

Modern Britain

'Great' Britain? - Alas, no longer according to the Lonely Planet company.  Overpriced and lacking in quality. No surprise there for the seasoned traveller!


Arriving back in Britain from the delights of foreign venues, many travellers have a reality check when returning to their congested, litter-strewn country where inhospitable people frequently lack any consideration but for themselves. While high prices for inadequate services have been highlighted by Lonely Planet, the shock of driving again on Britain's roads has been highlighted by government proposals to give motorists who, eg, tailgate, undertake or cut up other drivers, on-the-spot fines but it is difficult to see how that is going to be effective when the police are more noticeable for their absence. 


Arriving at Heathrow without ongoing transport can be a thoroughly depressing experience especially waiting for a coach on a cold winter's night in the wind-tunnel designated as the waiting room while arriving by ferry in Dover is akin to being classified as cargo. Although motorway services have shown improvements above other facilities, generally using public toilets is often a thoroughly unpleasant experience especially on older railway stations and better avoided if at all possible. 


After travelling abroad, often in pristine conditions, it is back to the filth. Many regard Britain's roads as their dustbin while town centres taken over at night by drunken revellers are an experience to be avoided. 


If we carry on like this, who will want to come to modern Britain apart from economic migrants?

The listening party?

Watching yesterday's debate on the future of the NHS it was hard to detect any hint that the Government had heeded the misgivings of professionals bar those they choose to listen to for the advice they wish to hear. 


Watching David Willett's performance on TV this morning he seemed unable to to give a straight answer to any of the questions put to him but it looks clear that education may be going the same way as health care. If you can afford it, you can have it. Otherwise it is a lottery. 


Like naughty children, they listen when they have to then carry on as before until brought up with a severe jolt. They didn't get one after last Thursday's votes but their cockiness may yet be their undoing when it really counts. The privileged remain so, the desperately poor get help while the people in the middle continue to bear the brunt. For how long will that be tolerated? 

Is to question this, Islamophobia?

Twelve dead, over 180 injured and God knows how many Bibles burnt. The hypocrisy is mind blowing. Have you checked what barnabasfund is doing to save Christianity?

"We are all in this together." (14)

The Prime Minister's conduct has not been without criticism.

For Christ's sake

Unlike Islam, when Christianity receives a bad press most people shrug their shoulders but the barnabasfund is doing what all Christians should be doing, standing up for Christ. Some pay the ultimate price but for the majority of us it should be sufficient to admit to being Christian and defend the faith.

Operation Nehemiah is at the forefront of barnabasfund operations defending Christians and Christianity with various campaigns. One of these is their petition against the Islamisation of our food. Halal products are now routinely sold without the knowledge of consumers. Supermarkets have become complicit in this outrageous practice. Recently I asked for Welsh lamb in the knowledge that most imported lamb is now halal. The butcher falsely claimed that halal 'only meant a blessing' when what it really means is that the animal is bled to death while conscious listening to a cry that 'Allah is great' because of a belief that the animal was 'unclean'. A second butcher told me that even the Welsh lamb was now halal!


I do not wish to minimise unnecessary suffering caused to animals but for Christians there is also an important religious point. There is only one God, the God of the Bible who tells us that it is not what goes into the body that is unclean but what comes out. The problem for non-Muslims is that halal has to be properly certified for which there is a fee. The cost of this procedure is included in the price and part of what we pay is used for the benefit of Islam to the detriment of Christianity.


More visible than unlabelled food are the increasing numbers of Islamic centres and mosques built bigger and better than other places of worship with calls to prayer that imprint a Muslim identity on neighbourhoods. These often draw in worshippers from afar until Islamification is complete. In church schools facilities are being provided for Muslims to cleanse themselves before prayer at the expense of providing facilities for all with the implicit validation of a culture that believes non-Muslims to be inferior and unclean. There are many other issues such as the rising Muslim population due to immigration and higher birth rates.


If you are one of the Christians who simple shrugs his/her shoulders or yawns having been conned into believing the myth of Islamophobia, then go to the barnabasfund website shop and order Dr Patrick Sookhdeo's "Slippery Slope - The Islamificaion of the UK". It costs only 50p incl p&p. You will be amazed. Better still, order a few for others to read, add a donation and get involved, not just for you own but for Christ's sake.

Do you smell a rat?

Voters are lurching one way or the other over which system, AV or FPTP, is better for the country rather than simply considering which system is 'fairer'. Politicians I respect have come down on both sides, as do the arguments. To take the easy way out is not to abstain but simply let things be and vote 'No' but that is beginning to have a bit of a whiff about it.

There are increasing accusations of untruths and unfair funding. Despite being a free vote, it has been revealed that the 'No' campaign has been funded mainly by Tory party donors and that the 'No' campaign has received 100% support from the Conservative party, the party that is already set to gain from boundary changes. So a 'No' vote could result in the unfair possibility of one party dominance, possibly with a minority vote which would serve no-one's best interests. 

Some voters have already lost sight of what the referendum is all about using the campaign simply to attack the Deputy Prime Minister over what they regard as broken promises yet there are reports that the Prime Minister has broken his promise to Nick Clegg that he would not campaign vigorously for a 'No' vote as part of the coalition deal.

The Jenkins Report suggested a change from the first past the post system back in 1998 but the Conservative response was to pledge a fight against any moves to reform. While the Labour party is split on the issue the party most likely to benefit must be the Liberal Democrats who for years have suffered badly form disproportionate representation based on the number of votes received.

To vote 'No' on the basis of perceived experience of the coalition goes against expert opinion so in fairness the vote should be 'Yes'.