This is part of an ongoing series of posts outlining my understanding of Libertarianism and its benefits and consequences.And then there is the Tenth Commandment. 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.' The Ten Commandments a...

The Sheffield Star is reporting that South Yorkshire police have taken delivery of a number of airport-style metal detectors. Supposedly, these will be deployed in areas where there is specific intelligence of a problem, for example if police receive a tip-off about violence at a certain nightclub.Let's see how long it takes for these to become a commonplace sight on every high street, and in ever...

Synchronicity can be a funny thing. Yesterday I wrote about the use of UAVs in the UK, and wondered aloud if the EU might be involved; and the QOTD post included mention of the US seeking greater global coherence in intelligence matters. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a secret report from the EU Future Group had just been leaked, detailing how MI5 and MI6 are to start sharing intelligence across a...

From the Daily Mail's website:The march of the Big Brother state under Labour was highlighted last night as it was revealed that there are now 1,043 laws that give the authorities the power to enter a home or business.Nearly half have been introduced since Labour came to power 11 years ago. They include the right to " Invade your home to see if your pot plants have pests or do not have a 'plant pa...

Kerry McCarthy Have been catching up with other people's blogs from while I was away. Tom Harris has been sent a copy of 1984 in the post. So have I, but with a slightly different covering note. (No contact name, no signature, very brave of them). Whereas Tom got a slip saying "Young man, This is a reminder that this book, contrary to what your leader might think, is NOT an instruction manual, but...

Three wolves and six goats are discussing what to have for dinner. One courageous goat makes an impassioned case: “We should put it to a vote!” The other goats fear for his life but, surprisingly, the wolves acquiesce. But when everyone is preparing to vote, the wolves take three of the goats aside. “Vote with us to make the other three goats dinner,” they threaten. “Otherwise, vote or n...

It cannot happen here, can it - That only happened in Soviet Russia surely.Sometime ago I commented on the case of Jean Gambell who was locked away before World war two as a 'mental defective' because her parents had 'too many children' and she was falsely accused of stealing 2/6 by her employer.For years she argued she had family in the outside world, the State lost her file, and it was only when...

Powerchex, a company that specialises in pre-employment screening for the financial industry, has today released its annual report on CV "discrepancies".These range from excessively playing up job responsibilities, to more serious falsehoods involving employment histories, university degrees and even the razing of criminal records. Powerchex's research allows for the customary low-level spin in re...

Via Bearwatch, some unsettling data about UK holding of US Treasury Securities. With the US economy and dollar tanking, you might think that our government would consider it in our interests to downscale our national holding of US paper. But no, like the good poodles that they are, our leaders have actually been picking up the slack. In the last year (June '07 thru '08), the UK has moved...

Both EUobserver and the Georgian Daily have reported upon an opinion piece in Monday's Le Figaro by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Writing about his part in brokering a cease-fire between Georgian and Russian forces, Sarkozy took the opportunity to tell us that had the EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty been in place, the EU would have better able to deal with that conflict: "...if the Lisbon t...