Don't Do What I Do, Do What I Say

Ethnic minority staff paid 10% less than white workers at Trevor Phillips' equality watchdog.

The Government’s controversial equality watchdog was last night accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ for flouting its own policies on fair pay.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has angered business leaders by ordering a crackdown on hard-pressed companies that fail to pay the same rates to employees doing similar work.

But official figures show that more than two years after it was set up to stamp out discrimination, the commission is paying its own ethnic minority workers almost ten per cent less than white staff – an embarrassment for its black chairman Trevor Phillips.

And disabled workers at the quango, which employs more than 500 staff, have slipped behind their able-bodied colleagues by nearly nine per cent.

Moreover, the figures show the pay gap for both minority groups has worsened over the past year, and female staff also face pay discrimination compared to male counterparts.

Tory MP Philip Davies, who elicited the pay-gap figures in questions to Women and Equalities Minister Angela Eagle, said: ‘This is rank hypocrisy. They should be ashamed of themselves.

‘We have the ludicrous situation where the taxpayer-funded body that goes around lecturing everyone else about fair pay is one of the worst offenders themselves.’

The details have emerged after a period of turbulence at the commission, which last summer saw the resignation of six commissioners, criticism of the management style of Mr Phillips and calls for his resignation.

In 2008, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the £112,000-a-year equality chief was paid by Channel 4 to give it advice on the fallout of the Big Brother racism row involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, provoking accusations of a conflict of interest.

The EHRC – which received more than £61million from the Government last year – encourages companies to carry out equal-pay audits to compare the earnings of staff doing the same job or similar work that requires equivalent skills, effort and decision-making.

Article

Who is watching the watchers?

Ernst von Wildenbruch Rebukes the Author of "The Rowers."

Foreign Correspondence NEW YORK TIMES.

January 18, 1903, Sunday

Man of Justice or Just of Histrionics?

Frank Kimbal Johnson

We are all supposed these days to have outgrown the ‘kings-and-queens’ type of history lesson. One doesn't have to be a self-styled historian to recognise that the forces which actually shape our world have little to do with the personal foibles, ambitions and family squabbles of ephemeral monarchs. History is a chronicle of competing power groups, sometimes defined by ideology, sometimes not, each seeking to enlarge its sphere of influence and territory by any means available. And there will always be certain individuals more than willing to serve an ideological cause not really as a matter of principle but in furtherance of their own ambition. The growing cynicism of the electorate is fuelled by revelations of the crude egotism and greed of politicians fond of cloaking themselves in high-sounding altruistic rhetoric.

Modern history affords no better example of ruthless self-aggrandisement posing as national leadership than the career of the late Winston Churchill. For over fifty years the public has been fed highly misleading and absurdly over-simplified versions of the ‘Churchill Story’; and the most recent example was The Gathering Storm television docudrama about Churchill's life and activities in the years leading up to the 1939-45 conflict with Germany. This got the usual ‘great-man-finally-recognised-as-such’ treatment, portraying Churchill as a great national leader kept in the political wilderness by lesser beings until the outbreak of hostilities.

Whatever the Second World War meant to anybody else (and this writer recalls finding his mother in tears in the kitchen after the news broke), it was splendid news for a man desperately anxious to prove himself a worthy descendant of the illustrious Duke of Marlborough. This ambition was reinforced by his need to redeem himself after his personal endorsement of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in World War I, which gave political rivals every reason to distance themselves from his military adventuring.

Intriguing for office

In the years languishing at his grandiose country home he had whiled away the time in journalism, writing about his ancestors, painting in water-colours and intriguing with influential people to support his return to office.

No one seriously denies the need at that time for British preparedness in the face of German rearmament and expansionist policies; but Churchill was far from being alone in recognising this. From 1940, however, he was happily flexing his histrionic muscles as Prime Minister and ‘war leader’ for all the world to see, regardless of the disaster of Dunkirk and the dire state of the country. This was surely a time for sober appraisal of the European situation and how best to safeguard this country's longer-term interests without being bogged down in a mutually catastrophic war with Germany. In short, this was a time for real statesmanship.

And then, in May 1941, came the dramatic arrival of Rudolf Hess by parachute, bearing German proposals for an honourable and peaceful resolution of the conflict. These gave Britain an opportunity to end the war without diminishing her independence, power and influence in the world and allowing Germany to concentrate on the looming Soviet menace. But this presented Churchill himself with the horrifying prospect of peacetime mediocrity.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the luckless Hess was hastily bundled into permanent solitary confinement as a ‘war criminal’, leaving Churchill free to crank up the war machine for another four disastrous years. He needed to win a war, to be seen as a ‘warlord’, and that governed everything he said and did then and afterwards. All the sonorous and well rehearsed speech-making, the V-sign and the cigar-brandishing appearances were designed to keep the public in thrall to this consummate performer while the country's longer-term interests were being pawned for short-term American favours. The so-called ‘Hess incident’ justifiably looms over any assessment of Churchill's true place in Britain's history; and, such as it was, Churchill's stature as a national leader could only grow in Hitler's shadow. Still, while Hess was left to rot in Spandau prison for over 45 years, Churchill puffed big cigars and wrote his version of how, with a certain amount of help from the Americans and Russians, he had saved the world.

But the long-suffering British public had rumbled him by 1945, as the first post-war election demonstrated. The incalculable damage inflicted on this country by such self-aggrandisement is a fact not to be obscured by his ‘British Bulldog’ characterisation in the mass media. ‘American lapdog’ is how less sycophantic historians see him now.

Sulking in the wilderness

And his personal rancour towards Adolf Hitler was understandable enough: here was an ex-corporal from nowhere (albeit with two Iron Crosses) who had by sheer force of will raised Germany from ignominious defeat to European dominance while he - Marlborough's heir, no less - was just a part-time journalist still sulking in the political wilderness. Couple this personal rancour with indebtedness to Jewish financiers for support and with his overweening ambition, and what emerges is a monument to human vanity rather than a national hero. The tragedy is that so much was endured by so many so that publishers and TV programmers could perpetuate this insufferable mythology.

So we may have left the ‘kings-and-queens’ version of history behind, but it is high time we left the Churchill version behind as well. Churchill's egotism and theatrical brand of ‘patriotism’ were in no real sense decisive factors in our nation's history, except negatively. He never could distinguish a battle from a war, and he surrendered this nation's future for his vainglorious present. Astute and ruthless politician he was, yes; talented writer and speech-maker he was too; but national leader he never was, and his vision of Britain's future never extended much further than the smoke of his ever-present cigar. All things considered, therefore, the most appropriate salute to the Churchill myth is the one he was constantly seen giving, but the other way round.

Silenced By Law

A controversial Islamic group last night abandoned plans for an anti-war march through a town where processions for dead British soldiers are held as it was revealed that it would be banned within days.

Islam4UK provoked anger with a scheme to march through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, prompting MPs to urge local authorities and the Home Secretary to step in.

A statement from leader of the group Anjem Choudary said the group had 'successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan'.

He went on: 'We at Islam4UK have decided, after consultation with others including our Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, that no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett and in light of this we would like to announce today that there will no longer be a procession through this market town.'

It emerged that Home Secretary Alan Johnson is to use anti-terror laws to ban two organisations run by Mr Choudary.

His group al-Muhajiroun and its offshoot Islam4UK are to be added to a list of 59 banned organisations which includes Al Qaeda and the IRA.

The move will make it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 10 years in jail, to be a member or attend meetings of either organisation or to raise funds for them.

Mr Choudary said: 'No sooner had I mentioned the desire (to march) Mr Brown condemned it and his Home Secretary Mr Johnson decided he would ban it and it seems now Islam4UK as well.'

And he later added: ‘I think Britain is living in a form of dictatorship - as long as you agree with what the ruling parties dictate, fine, but the rest of the people have to live with it. It's democracy, but only as long you agree with it.

‘I believe there are two types of people in the world - Muslims, and non-Muslims. And I believe Islam is superior.’

The organisation remained defiant and said it would continue to oppose the war in Afghanistan.

Mr Choudary said: 'We once again appeal to the British public and in particular the families and friends of soldiers who have died or are currently involved in Afghanistan to engage with us in an honest dialogue.

'There is common ground between us. Just as you grieve the deaths of your sons and daughters, we too grieve the deaths of thousands of ordinary Muslim men, women and children.'

Islam4UK denied that members had planned to carry 500 empty coffins through the town.

Rest Here

Unfortunately, sometimes democracy sucks. But in a true democracy you may have to listen to unpalatable opinions with gritted teeth, but you should never bring out laws to silence them if they do not incite violence or break any laws. You crush them with argument and debate.

I agree that this march should have been cancelled or banned for several reasons, but I do not agree with a total ban. In my opinion it is just the surrender of more liberties by the people, and who knows who will be banned next using the same formula.

We have already lost many of our liberties in the name of fighting terror and now stand at the bottom of a ladder that may take us to an entirely different level, I suggest we refrain from stepping on the first rung, as what is up there might be ten times worse than what we have now.

Fall of Rome

Wow! This Is Getting Scary

A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’

Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.

The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.

But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.

The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000.

He said two uniformed officers came to his house on a Sunday afternoon and said he would be handcuffed if he did not accompany them to the police station.

His computer and other internet equipment were also seized.

The email, from a computer at his company, was sent last August to a website at Rother District Council, in East Sussex, on which the public can comment on planning applications.

It referred to an appeal by gipsy Linda Smith, who wants to keep a mobile home in an area of outstanding beauty overlooking the Battle of Hastings site.

The email also read: ‘Get a job, get planning permission but more to the point get out of the neighbourhood.’

The businessman, a father of two, said last night: ‘I had a sense of total disbelief. My wife and I decided to tell my 11-year-old son I had to go with the police because I had witnessed a road accident.

‘Even though the officers were fairly pleasant to me, I was informed I would be handcuffed if I didn’t go voluntarily. They then confiscated my computer and my wife’s computer and took them to the police station.

‘I was extremely angry. I was relaxing in the comfort of my home on a Sunday afternoon and then I was in a police car under arrest – all for an innocent comment by a colleague.’

He was driven five miles to Hastings police station.

He said: ‘I have never had any criminal record and try my best to teach my children right from wrong. This was a ridiculously heavy-handed police reaction to what they perceived as a racist comment. I am not the least bit racist and neither is Paul Osmond. The gipsy family concerned did not complain.

‘I did nothing wrong yet ended up in a police cell for four hours with my DNA stored on a criminal database.’

The businessman said he also objected to the council over the location of the mobile home, which is near his property.

He said: ‘It seems I have to get planning permission for everything I do right down to dead-heading the daffodils.

‘It seems they can erect this home with impunity. But I made my objections entirely through the proper channels and I have absolutely nothing against anyone in the gipsy community.’

The case finally ended last week when Mr Osmond, who had been arrested and bailed, was told there would be no further police action. The planning case is continuing.

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If this doesn't wake you up to what is happening, to what road we are travelling on, I don't know what will.

Isn't it amazing the speed with which Rother Council acted in getting this man arrested in comparison to the three years and still on going action against this plainly illegal camp site.

By the way, those luxury mobile homes are very very expensive, and the vehicles outside don't look cheap. I wonder where the funds for those came from, and how many taxes were paid on them?

U.S Soldiers Are Waking Up!

Epica

Here is a Dutch band that I like a lot. Especially the lead singer. Here they are in Brazil performing Linger live in 2005 and a studio acoustic from We Will Take You With Us 2004 .

Enjoy:

The two-faced truth about immigration

New Labour has two separate immigration policies. The first is the one it endlessly proclaims to the public – of supposedly tough restrictions, raids on employers of illegal workers, expulsions of those with no right to stay here.

The second is the real one, unwisely disclosed a few weeks ago by the former Blairite functionary Andrew Neather. This is that mass immigration is an important part of the cultural revolution in which Britain is being dissolved into a new and different country.

This is accompanied by a widespread belief among the new elite that immigration – which provides them with cheap childcare and a great variety of restaurants – is an unmixed blessing.

Others see a different aspect – familiar neighbourhoods changed out of all recognition, together with heavy pressure on schools, housing and medical services.

The tension between the Government’s false public face and its real aims is a source of endless trouble for Ministers.

And while it is right that revelations such as those in The Mail on Sunday today – that Government and official bodies have hired 349 unlawful foreign workers – should lead to uncomfortable questions for individual Ministers, this is not enough.

The blatant nature of these cases – which include illegal immigrants actually working in the office that is meant to control illegal immigration – shows that the existing State has no genuine will to act on this issue.

Thanks to our membership of the European Union, it can in any case only control migration from outside the EU.

But even on the issue of arrivals from non-European nations, where it could act forcefully, it is lax and complacent.

It is no good announcing more crackdowns, initiatives or even the review demanded by the Tories.

What is needed is for the elite to acknowledge openly that the existing policy is wrong and damaging to our society and that opposition to mass immigration is reasonable and civilised.

Then it can devise rules that have real force behind them, and ensure that in future those rules will be efficiently and energetically enforced.

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I Truly Despair

TENS of thousands of immigrants are claiming the DOLE - just months after arriving in Britain supposedly to WORK.

In the last six years a staggering 169,000 immigrant workers claimed unemployment benefit within six months of getting a National Insurance number.

Last year alone, 21,160 lodged claims within six months - costing taxpayers £1.4MILLION a week.

The shock new figures from the Department of Work & Pensions will fuel fears that thousands of immigrants come here to take advantage of our generous welfare state.

And they shatter claims that immigrants only move to the UK to do the jobs nobody else wants to carry out.

Sir Andrew Green, of campaign group Migration Watch, blasted: "This is appalling.

"The government should explain who these people are and why they're able to claim benefits without having paid a penny into the system."

Drain

The ministry's figures reveal that last year 15,280 foreign nationals claimed jobseekers' allowance within six months, a weekly drain of £982,504 on taxpayers.

A further 2,570 claimed incapacity or disablement allowances - despite applying less than six months earlier for an NI number to work. These payments would cost £205,986 a week.

And 3,310 claimed income support, giving a weekly bill of £212,833.

Last year 590,000 new arrivals came to the UK.

And ministers admit they've no idea how many illegal immigrants are already here but estimates place the number at a million.

Britain's total benefits bill is £187billion a year but, incredibly, the government does NOT record the number of immigrants currently being paid.

A Department of Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "Less than three per cent get benefits within six months. And the vast majority are claiming jobseekers' allowance while they look to get back to work."

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Madness! Absolute and total madness!

How can any politician or civil servant make excuses for this?

Treaties must be ripped apart, conventions must be reappraised and rewritten or withdrawn from, new N I Numbers to school-leavers only, borders must be nailed shut until we get a grip of this spiralling and destructive problem...this cannot be allowed to continue.

Britain is broke, we make nothing of importance any more in substantial numbers to be exported, we are in debt up to our eyeballs, I just can't see how we can afford the luxury of supporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants, and no doubt their soon to arrive extended families.

We have millions of our own on benefits, why do we feel the need to import more?

It is not soft-touch Britain, it is soft-touch politicians; the ordinary people have had enough.

I just can't get my head around it; am I stupid or am I just going mad?

Quoits

One of the features I thought I would place on this blog is the regularly bringing to your attention old and tradition British games, if for nothing other than a bit of interest wrapped up in a little history.

So to start off I'm going to introduce you to the game of Quoits.

Here is a link to an interesting site giving a history of Quoits: Quoits - History and Useful Information.

Newcastle pit men playing Quoits

And below is a short demo of Quoits in action:

A Victory For Common Sense

Oh well, it is New Year's Day morning, and I thought I'd have a quick glance at the newspapers on line. I was hoping things might be a little different, a good start hopefully to this brand new year. And then I came across this article, here are some snippets:

A park ranger sacked for asking a black colleague if he 'put polish' on his legs has won £40,000 compensation after a judge ruled that skin colour is a 'fact of life'.

Michael Farmer said he was branded racist and even falsely accused of being a member of the British National Party after making the comment.

Lambeth Council sacked him under its 'zero tolerance' policy on racism after two disciplinary hearings.

But employment judge Lindsay Hall-Smith has ruled that he was unfairly dismissed, saying: 'An individual's race or colour is a fact of life. It does not follow that alluding to such matters to or in the presence of the individual concerned necessarily involves racism or less favourable treatment of the individual.'

The judge, sitting at the Croydon Employment Tribunal, described how an incident on May 7, 2008, had led to the dismissal of 52-year-old Mr Farmer.

He said there was 'a significant amount of banter exchanged between the staff about a black member of staff, Dwight Parker, who had arrived at work wearing shorts for the first time in the year'.

The judge said the switch to shorts 'usually provoked humorous comments', and one woman, Diane Nash, even wolf-whistled at Mr Parker when he arrived.

Mr Parker claimed he heard Mr Farmer say: 'Dwight, what are you doing putting polish on your legs?'

When he realised that Mr Parker was 'not the least amused by his comment', Mr Farmer followed it up by saying: 'Well, I have to use sun tan lotion if I want a tan.'

About time we had some common sense from these tribunals. It might put an end to all that tip-toeing of white people around ethnic minorities, the dreading of saying the wrong thing, or to be more precise, the dreading of those words being misinterpreted either through the wish for financial gain, or just plain ignorance of the dominant culture. As it will cost you your job and your reputation, and quite possibly a criminal record.

If ethnic minorities want to know why white people often seem a little distant, a little stand offish and hard to get to know, just think about what I've just said, maybe it isn't racism after all. Maybe you just better stop running to your boss or tribunals at the drop of a hat, and grow some thicker skin, no matter what colour it is?

Mr Farmer, a married father of two from Catford, South-East London, carried on working for four months but was finally fired after a second disciplinary hearing chaired by council official Kyron Peters-Bean, whose title is Head of Resilience, in September 2008.

Its report concluded that 'the most concerning aspect of the investigation' was claims by two other rangers that 'this was not the first time Michael Farmer had made statements of this nature'.

But the employment tribunal found no evidence that Mr Farmer had made racist comments before.

The judge said: 'The tribunal found it disturbing that the prejudicial conclusions of the investigatory process appeared to be founded upon allegations which had never surfaced during the interviews.'

The tribunal found that Mr Peters-Bean was not a 'convincing' witness and was 'evasive' when cross-examined about how much he had taken into account Mr Farmer's alleged membership of the BNP.

The judge said: 'We were driven to the conclusion that the disciplinary hearing failed to maintain an objective approach to the serious allegation against the claimant.

'The disciplinary panel had made up its mind that the claimant was going to be dismissed. . . and failed to give any consideration to any other sanction.'

Mr Farmer, who has previously set up a black youth community football team, said the idea he was racist 'was the antithesis of what I stand for'.

''What chance do I have as a middle-aged man getting another job in a recession?'

Article Here

I think it is quite clear that an example was to be made of Mr. Farmer, he was to be sacrificed on the alter of multiculturalism regardless of the consequences for him, or his family.

This was nothing short of a witch hunt, a few centuries ago he would have undoubtedly been burned at the stake for heresy on the same kind of trumped up charges. In fact the way things are going it may go that way once again.

We may not have a Witch Finder General any more, but I can assure you that there are many many Head's of Resilience like Mr. Kyron Peters-Bean and other weirdly titled persons; it is exactly the same practice, but under a different title and for a different cause.

This totally inept jobsworth, and some would say vindictive Head of Resilience has just cost the tax payer £40,000 and a good man and his family months of anguish, I hope that Lambeth Council will now do the right thing and dismiss him, as if they don't it might be construed that they were complicit in this deceit and persecution, which does not bode well for public confidence, or for those much vaunted Community Relations.