I know what I like and it may or may not be a valuable piece of artwork

I don't know if you saw this item on the BBC news website today?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-29446232

The public artist Banksy painted a mural at the town of Clacton on Sea in Essex that was destroyed by the council as it was "Racist and Offensive"

Here is the picture - judge for yourself



It is interesting that the MP for Clacton has defected from the Conservatives (nasty party) to UKIP (very nasty party) (sorry if I'm trivialising politics - but really political parties are a real block to effective democracy)

The other week we had a guest preacher at church (I thought I'd indulge in both religion and politics - how controversial!) the vicar of an inner city church in Bradford in a very poor area.
Among all the grimy buildings and streets there was a flash of colour amid a flock of pigeons - a parrot had escaped and was living wild in Bradford.

No - I don't find the mural offensive, nor do I think that immigration into this country is a bad thing - for me I think immigration brings a huge variety of colours to an otherwise monochrome existence.
If anything I feel sorry for the likes of UKIP and the BNP - had they had thier way think what history would have been lost - Handel would never have written the Messiah, the royal family would have died out generations ago, the great engineering feats of this land would never have been built - the canals and railways were mostly built by immigrant labour.

Are you worried about immigration?
For me treating immigrants badly reflects on our culture very unflatteringly
One of the things I love about my country is the right to freedom of speech and expression, unfortunately that also extends to people that we don't agree with.

What happens when we start to curtail freedom of expression and speech? Why a mural is painted over by a council workman who does not know what he is doing on the grounds that the painting is "racist and offensive"

What has happened to "I don't agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the hilt your right to say it"?

If you notice the right of freedom of speech is not matched by ANY requirement to listen - so if you disagree with me feel free to stick your fingers in your ears, turn around and say "LA LA LA I'm not listening"

Wouldn't it be a great day when enough people did this to the hate preachers that they get the point that their message is abhorrent?

I have a message - Banksy, thanks for making a statement and
Clacton council, you stifle art for fear of offence. It is rare to hear or see a viewpoint that is not in line with the right wing media - there is more than one way to look at any situation and that includes immigration?

Should we be like Gollom "My precioussss country, it's our my precious keep the nasty little immigrantses out"
Or like the statue of liberty "Give me your homeless, your oppressed your huddled masses, yearning to be free"?

Phishing - You would think that Google would be aware of this

Using my rights of freedom of speech on a Google controlled forum to complain about Google seems rather churlish - after all most of the time Google provide a good service that is very convenient since I use Android and a chrome book as well as Google mail, Google chrome, maps, translate, wallet and a whole bunch of other services including blogger.

Let me tell you the tale - last week I had an e-mail purporting to be from Google wallet saying that changes to European laws on banking I need to click on this link.

Now - elementary internet security advice from anti virus people, security advisors, banks etc is that if you get an e-mail NEVER, EVER CLICK ON THE LINK - And this still stands as sound advice.

Should you get an e-mail from any institution saying your account is about to be suspended the advice is go to the website and log on as you usually would, this should have the information and if you can find nothing it is a fake e-mail.
Clicking on the link - remember the e-mail address can be faked quite easily, will take you to a website that will in all probability look like the website of the institution you are familiar with. You enter your details onto the site and all of a sudden bad people have your details and will empty your bank account and steal your identity.

I followed the sage advice above, checked my Google account and wallet and all the settings I could find and nothing appeared to be amiss.
Next thing I cannot buy anything on Google play my payments are declined - no reason is given and no clue on the website that the account has been suspended. I found out what had happened when I PHONED Google and spoke to somebody.

For some reason Google needed me to prove my identity to buy a £0.69 app. Presumably I might have been laundering money?
I have asked Google privately what is the European Banking legislation and how does it apply to me? - Guess what - no response
I asked Google privately what they would use my proofs of Identity I was forced to send them, for and where they would be stored?
Guess what - no response

NOW LISTEN GOOGLE - PLEASE ANSWER MY QUESTIONS.

Also - FOR GOODNESS SAKE GOOGLE WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT GOOGLE ARE IMMUNE FROM PHISHING? Clicking a link in an e-mail that is unsolicited and unexpected, threatening to suspend my account is usually an invitation to identity threat.
Just for once the e-mail was correct, and the ONLY way was to follow the link, but for heavens sake - why not use the web account page to give this message  - after all my bank does that, 

Nigel Farage - rhymes with arrogant twit

Sorry should that read synonym?

The BBC website and news is full of photos and sound bites from one of (in my opinion) the most odious, hypocritical  monomaniacal men. He looks like a cross between a troll, ken (Boyfriend of Barbie) after being partially melted. and rather unnaturally orange.

I don't know what it is about Nigel Farage - the self proclaimed threat to Britian - that winds me up.
(He did declare that UKIP was the greatest threat to the British political system, which is close enough)
He is one of the few people that if they are on TV or radio I will switch it off

For some reason my fellow countrymen and women seem to have taken collective leave of their senses and voted UKIP.

I have to admit to being very tempted indeed to look for a job in Europe, perhaps in a country that appreciates the skills of Engineering and where the EU is appreciated.
Did you know that if I were in Germany, Austria or Italy engineers are respected enough to put the title Engineer on their business cards like Dr or Rev?
I suspect that if UKIP get their way free movement will be restricted and the opportunity to live and work in the EU will regrettably be lost.

Lucky for Britian it seems that UKIP MEP's are notoriously rubbish at actually turning up and doing the job that they have been paid and elected to do, preferring rather to make absurd comments about wasting the aid budget on designer sunglasses and blaming flooding on gay marriage.

The other irony and hypocrisy is that UKIP are against Scottish Independance while being in favour of not being in Europe. Though their success will tend to improve the chances of a yes vote.

I'm very sorry for my closest political party who have been punished by the electorate for being screwed by their coalition partners - the poor old Lib Dems they get their first chance at power in a shared coalition and they get totally screwed over by their partners. In exchange for a referendum in do you want to change our voting system that is flawed to a system that makes no sense and is horrifically complicated (Rather than the referendum that the Lib Dems wanted which was PR) they had to renege on a promise about university tuition fees (which was conservative policy)

I will be keeping tracks on my local UKIP MEP's and following how they act in the EU parliament - having elected these people I think we have a duty to make sure they do the job that we elected them to do and do it diligently and with integrity, something that my previous UKIP MEP did not do.

Any messages will be posted here along with replies (though I don't expect that they will reply given past experience. 

The European Union

One thing that really annoys me in this country is the continual negative sideing  of the EU in the media adn political parties, virtually none of the political parties or media outlets are actually positive about Europe.

This weekend the UK again lost the Eurovision song contest - this time losing to Austria. (Of major indifference to me)

My views on Europe and the EU have changed dramatically over the last 2 decades or so, I used to be a confirmed Eurosceptic, but I guess actually visiting Europe and meeting Europeans, along with working for a company that exports the majority of what we manufacture (sorry should I mention that I am employed in the manufacturing sector!)

Putting these together I was wondering about the old favourite English song - Jerusalem - would go down with our current political overlords or even Nigel Farage (so called leader of the UKIP - United Kingdom Idiot Party)  -

And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green:
Er as a matter of fact they did not as those feet were immigrant feet and if they did walk on England's mountains it is surely a shocking indictment of the lax immigration policies of the established parties.
And was the holy Lamb of God, on England's pleasant pastures seen!
Yet another example of the EU farming policies that force our hard working native Britons to choke down foreign imported meats.

And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
Now that is just typical lefty pessimism to claim that our hills are particularly cloud covered - the sun will shine brightly once we rid ourselves of this European prejudice
And was Jerusalem builded here, among these dark Satanic Mills?
Jerusalem is not English and the use of the word "builded" smacks of the dummying down of our language, and our mills are a marked part of our industrial heritage which employed children as young as 9 to work for 14 hours a day, which made Britain great, none of this interfering working time directives that Brussels has foisted upon us

Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Thanks to EU health and safety nanny stating, burning gold bows and arrows of desire are no longer readily available 
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Again spears that affect the weather are banned and this kind of thing gives rise to rumours that are unjustified lik global warming.
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
Again banned by the EU as being too dangerous a mode of transport - in the good old days we had plenty of chariots that could be driven while ablaze and have blades fitted to the wheels, so much for the EU nanny state that the government has let rule our great land.

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
This is surely unfair to the people literally driven mad by EU legislation
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Knife crime is s symptom of a dis-enfranchised youth with no prospects thanks to Brussels interference
Till we have built Jerusalem,In England's green & pleasant Land
The current political masters have made it impossible to get planning permission to do this having bowed to Brussels, leftist policy of appeasing minorities.

The EU has delivered tremendous benefits to our country and the whole region of Europe - for starters we have not had a war in Western Europe now for nearly 70 years - this must be one of the longest periods that Britian has NOT been at war with one or other of the European countries since 1066!
We also have some of the highest safety standards in the world, so that anything sold in the EU should be safe and meet certain criteria.
The freedom to travel is really amazing and should we choose to, we can live in any EU country.
We have worker safeguards, and also rights. The EU also defends our liberties, forcing Microsoft to offer alternatives to Internet explorer and censuring Google for images on street view and picking up data.

To paraphrase Monty Python's life of Brian - 
"What has the EU ever done for us?" 

I've decided to let out some steam

Unlike my other blog which is a ramble through the bible, this one is likely to be my chance to share some things that wind me up, things I come across that I think are brilliant and generally weird stuff that is either too funny, absurd, distressing, or just irritates me so much that I don't want it to pass without comment.


I'm going to start with one of my perennial favourites, something that is close to my wallet - tax.
A three letter word that allows a bunch of 650 members of parliament, assisted by countless thousands of minions every month to steal nearly a quarter of my wage - yes 1 day a week I actually work for these people.
What really annoys me though is, well there are 2 things - one is they tell me how much they have stolen (sorry taxed - but what's the difference in practical terms? they are taking something that is not theirs - calling it tax just means that they are allowed to and I cannot stop them)
the other thing that winds me up is that according to the government own website income tax is temporary  http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis1.htm
(I cannot believe we pay for some joker at the tax office to write this stuff and for the national archive to look after it)

Yep - income tax was introduced to pay for us to defeat the French under Napoleon - I think , since we have finished paying for world war 2 a few years ago, surely this one was paid for a long time ago!
It is remarkable that for over 170 years our elected representatives have been kidding themselves that, like a chronic smoker and alcoholic "We can stop any time"  while ordering another scotch on the rocks and lighting up another cigarette in the members bar (ironically exempt from the smoking ban)

I make a challenge here and now - I made this challenge to my MP in person.  He came up with some guff about being in coalition and having to sort out the economy - by the way both the parties in the coalition made manifesto promises to abolish income tax in the 19th century, and in what way does tax not help the government balance the books?
I don't think after 175 years that anybody in the country is fooled that income tax is temporary so I challenge you to officially make income tax permanent rather than re-applied every year in the budget
Either that of fulfil your long overdue manifesto promise and abolish income tax - don't keep us in suspense any longer.