Here’s one for you. Do you think that prisoners should be allowed to vote?

Tens of thousands of prisoners must be given the right to vote, European human rights judges have ruled. In a judgment which will provoke fury in Parliament, the Strasbourg court said that the current ban on inmates voting in England and Wales breached human rights laws. The ruling by the court’s highest body, the Grand Chamber, came despite an overwhelming vote last year by MPs who insisted the ban was right and should remain in place.

My view is that they should NOT be given the precious right to vote, they forfeited that the day they decided to commit crime and were then caught and sentenced. It’s a con if the cons get a vote.

Space X, the first commercially developed rocket and cargo ship, has blasted off. The launch went without a hitch and the Dragon capsule is in orbit. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Stand aside, communist space travel, a new age has begun.

This sums it up!

Jamie McGeever‏@ReutersJamie

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Sum of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain’s external assets €6.2 trln, liabilities €8.1 trln – deutsche bank.

Clear enough?

Long ago, when still a young man, I learnt that a school friend had died. His death was an accident, but the funeral revealed the truth that he had been adopted as a baby into his present family. The only comment upon the fact of his birth was his father saying, “Our son is dead!” He had been, and was from the moment of his adoption, an ordinary son of an ordinary family.

I wonder, in all sincerity, what will be said when this small body is laid to rest? Note, if you will, that this ‘family’ (my annotation) is not just another mewling caucus from the underclass; not when the ‘family home’ is costed at £4 million!

Google Earth tells me that Rangoon is about 8700 miles from the District of Criminals. Nevertheless, you can never be too careful, eh? Accordingly, on 20th May 1997, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13047:

“I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, hereby determine and certify that, for purposes of section 570(b) of the Act, the Government of Burma has committed large-scale repression of the democratic opposition in Burma after September 30, 1996, and further determine that the actions and policies of the Government of Burma constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”

Like his predecessor, President Obama has just renewed this order.

PHEW!

It must be clear by now that everyone and everything is a mortal threat to the “national security of the United States”.

Here’s a good rule of thumb. If the IMF think it’s a good idea – it’s usually not! Get this latest nonsense from Ms LaGarde;

 The International Monetary Fund has said the UK’s continuing economic weakness means authorities should consider more quantitative easing (QE) and even cutting interest rates.

That means Interest Rates go to effectively ZERO and then we print even more money. This is a recipe for disaster. Zero Interest rates punish savers and those on fixed incomes such as Pensioners. To my mind this is morally as well as economically wrong! As for the Keynsian folly of printing money, no sensible economist would suggest that is a good idea. That’s why politicians like it!

‘There were about 20 young black guys all with their hoods up armed with sticks and bats and knives. They just ran in the pub and started trying to attack people.

‘It was really frightening. But it should not have happened to Luke, it shouldn’t have happened to anyone, but he was a complete innocent.’

The adjoining picture is that of a British Police Officer, stationed at the scene of the crime.

That information is placed so that those who have never seen a Policeman now know what they look like.

Do have a read of these two reports of the brutal murder of a 25 year old football fan in London at the weekend.

There is this one, the there is this one.

Can you spot the difference? Something seems MISSING from the BBC report, can you guess what it was?

Sshhhh…I think the BBC think they got away with it.

Making life “more fair” is the perennial quest of the Left. Of course that is simply a euphemism for their endless and counter productive social engineering. They want to ensure not just equality of opportunity but also equality of outcome – a result all sane people know to be impossible.

Leading universities should reduce entry grades for state school pupils to create “a fair race” for degree places, Nick Clegg will say today.

Huh? So, State school pupils are so stupid they can’t quite get the requisite grades? Really? It gets worse…much worse.

“In his most strident remarks on college access to date, he will tell universities to recruit students “on the basis of an ability to excel, not purely on previous attainment”. Ministers will aim to ensure that children born into working-class homes can find better jobs than their fathers held, amid evidence that “a large number of professions remain dominated by a small section of society”. Mr Clegg will announce that the Coalition’s social policies will be rated against 17 new indicators, ranging from babies’ birth weight to adults’ job opportunities.”

Babies birth weights.  A metric of Government performance.

This is utter lunacy, folks. It shows just how detached from reality the Lib-Dems are yet how  determined they are to further  lower academic standards in pursuit of their foaming at the mouth utopianism. It can’t end well, it virtually ensures that social mobility will drop – and yet this is part of what the Coalition stands for. That’s why I would like to see it fall.

The purpose of the Stormont Assembly is not just to institutionalise terrorism but also to institutionalise ENTITLEMENT culture. So, when the UK government seeks to ASSESS people to determine if they should be recipients of welfare largesse, expect howls of faux anger from the fools on the hill;

Angry Assembly members have warned that people who are seriously ill in receipt of incapacity benefit are being told they are fit for work. MLAs demanded changes to the central tests currently being conducted on thousands who have been on benefits for years.

Sinn Fein’s Mickey Brady said: “Mental health was assessed by asking general knowledge questions, such as who is the British Prime Minister. Someone not actively rocking in their chair is taken as an indication that they do not have a mental illness.”

Ulster Unionist Michael Copeland said: “The truth is many people are being put through a process that tells them that they and their doctors are wrong.”

The DUP’s Paula Bradshaw added: “In many of the appeals that have been overturned, that decision has been due to the extra medical evidence.”

And the SDLP’s Mark Durkan said: “People with serious debilitating conditions are being told that they are capable of work.”

Waaaaaaughhhhhh!

This is truly risible but also entirely predictable. Those who are truly needy should get their benefit, the scroungers and the parasites should get a clip r0und the ear and be told to take a hike.