Ah, the old using a mobile phone while crashing the car trick…

There is little doubt that Britain’s Labour government is very much on the nose and anyone who rates them to win the next election must be doing some very serious hallucinogenic drugs. Every story that I read about that government shows just how much Gordon Brown and his fellows are just disassembling into a despicable rabble full of arrogance and hubris. This little indecent is just one of many where Labour members just don’t care any more.

Harriet Harman with her Ford Fiesta, believed to be the car she crashed

According to police sources, Ms Harman is being investigated for driving without due care and attention, driving while illegally using a mobile phone and failing to stop after an accident, the most serious of the three offences.

[...]

A police source told The Mail on Sunday that Ms Harman’s car collided with a vehicle parked at the side of the road, causing a loud crash, which was heard by several bystanders.

She stopped her own car in the road and it was at this point that witnesses say she ended her phone conversation.

Sources said the witness who was pointedly rebuffed after trying to speak to Ms Harman is a neighbour of the damaged car’s owner.

Normally, Ms Harman has a silver, chauffeur-driven Toyota Prius but she has recently been seen driving a red Ford Fiesta.

Under the 1988 Road Traffic Act, any driver involved in a collision with another vehicle is required by law to stop and give their name and address, as well as details of the vehicle’s owner and the vehicle’s registration.

Any driver who does not give their details at the time must then report the accident to the police.

A senior police source said: ‘Ms Harman was due to be questioned by officers last week but because of the Labour Party conference, it is believed they have delayed speaking with her until later this week.

If the witnesses are correct then it shows a minister of the crown breaking the law on two rather serious counts, driving a motor vehicle whilst using a mobile phone, but more seriously leaving the scene of an accident without leaving her details.  Now in less dire times (for the Labour Government) this would be a career ending scandal but when their ship is sinking so fast  I tend to think that this scandal will not surprise anyone in the UK. But It does make clear the very valid reasons why using a mobile phone or portable device while driving is actually an offence both here and in the UK, I suppose that Harmon was lucky that she was negligent in a suburban street rather than on the motorway because who knows how serious the accident could have been had she been say, hmm, tweeting traffic reports?
There is something horribly sad about the facile uses that device addicts make of their electronic masters, and obviously they can get away with having  a fix in the car most of the time, but just occasionally they will be distracted from the driving task at just the wrong time and then it could be fatal. These poor sad people need treatment just as much as heroin addicts do…. But there is no such thing as electronic methadone.
Cheers Comrades
8)

Front line report on the situation in Samoa

Len posted this as a comment in my previous post but I thought that it deserved a post of its own and I reproduce it here:

Hello boys and girls.
Am back, and glad to be so. Gave the “hugs and kisses”, big hugs and kisses, as well as the kids, and looked outside, thanking god we live here, and not there.

The main strip at Apia, had only superficial damage, so it was opened very quickly. Elsewhere is a different story. The southern and eastern regions of the place are an absolute disaster. Ironically enough, the capital, Apia, on the north coast of Upolu is relatively unscathed. They got the earthquake, but not the full brunt of the tsunami thank goodness. We managed to get in there, and get fuel thankfully, and it was wonderful to watch, as aircraft from all over the place, were coming in with aid, supplies, fuel and personnel, with eventually, quite literally with no place to put them. Gave us at least, a warm feeling, that perhaps this isn’t such a bad planet to live on after all ?

The majority of the damage, is on the southern, and eastern coasts of the island. The villages, that dot that portion of the island, are quite literally gone, and I mean GONE. So any figure you hear about deaths, is purely conjecture at this stage. Hell, they may never know the exact figure. They are apparently just rounding up survivors, and getting figures that way, trying relentlessly to cross names of a bloody ginormous list. The last census that anyone knows about, was about 2001, and the population figure was about 130k, so now, who knows. It may take weeks or even months before a figure is ascertained.
I honestly believe, that a correct figure will ever be known.
From what I saw, there were quite literally bodies tangled thirty some feet in palm trees. These were people, madly running to the hills to escape the waves, and didn’t make it. Never seen anything like it.

Anyway, the planes are back, cleaned, and refueled ready to go again. Probably won’t have to go, as we didn’t do all that much.

Many questions are about to be asked, now is not the time, but come the following weeks, they will be. The you beaut early warning system, was a god dammed disaster. So that will be the first one to be asked, I suppose.

Cheers all, going to give everyone another hug and a kiss, and praise the bloke upstairs for my good luck.
Perhaps not a bad idea for us all, not to do the same ?

A most sincere Hat tip To Len and the boys for this one and I want to repeat that if you can help then please do so.

Respect Comrades

Iain

Postscript

Although I am not the author of the report above I would remind all readers that the content is still copyright and that It may not be reproduced without permission of its author and proper attribution. As per my copyright disclaimer on the front page of my blog

Geography and Empire

Leftist orthodoxy claims that colonialism and the age of European empires was a universally bad thing. This is an argument that has never rung true to me. I have always thought that, overall the British empire was actaully good for many of the parts of the world that were once coloured pink on the global map.

Michael Palin washing a bull elephant in Kaziranga Wildlife Park, Assam, India. The former Monty Python star said we should remember the good that arose from Britain's days at the helm of a global empire

Britain should stop apologising for its colonial past, Michael Palin has declared.

The travel show presenter and former Monty Python star said we should instead remember the good that arose from Britain’s days at the helm of a global empire.

Palin’s feelings are in contrast to the tendency of modern politicians to bend over backwards to apologise for Britain’s imperial past.

[...]

The TV star said: ‘If we say that all of our past involvement with the world was bad and wicked and wrong, I think we’re doing ourselves a great disservice.

‘It has set up lines of communication between people that are still very strong.

‘We still have links with other countries – culturally, politically and socially – that, perhaps, we shouldn’t forget.’

Mr Palin, who carved out a new career for himself after Python when he began travelling the world in  series of BBC travel shows, also said that he wanted geography  to be treated more seriously as an academic subject.

As Palin says there were a lot of good things that remain as a result of the Empire not the least of which is a way of structuring law and government that seems to work pretty well  in many parts of the world. The way that English  is for all intents and purposes the global language is another .

There you go something to consider over your Kippers this morning.

Tally ho, Pip Pip Comrades

Flood, Earthquake, Tsunami, Oh my!

A father and mother hug the body of their two-year-old son in Samoa. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Twin quakes rock Indonesian island of Sumatra

The recent natural disasters have not gone unnoticed by this blogger and it is not any lack of compassion on my part that has discouraged me mentioning them on this page.

I hope for the best for all of those caught up in such disasters, so dear readers if you can spare some cash send it and if you are in a position to actually help well I dips me lid to ya.

Cheers Comrades

Jessica Watson slips out of port

Jessica Watson. Photo: Ben Upton.

I have been rather surprised by the number of comments to my earlier post about Jessica Watson, that suggest that she is virtually committing suicide by setting out on her great adventure.

Yesterday, Virgin boss and veteran adventurer Sir Richard Branson wished her well for the trip, saying it was more dangerous to cross the road than sail around the world.

“She’s 16; she’s not a baby any more,” he said in Brisbane.

“I left school at 15 and started my own business. At 16 you are pretty grown up; she should go for it.

“It’s risky, but it could be risky walking over the road, it’s risky in cars, it’s risky on bicycles.

“She’ll have the adventure of a lifetime  you only live once and live life to the full.”

At sixteen some young people are silly as a cut snake, others mindlessly follow which ever way the mob they hang with are moving, others show a maturity and sense of purpose that far out weighs the sum of their years. I tend to think that Jessica falls into the later category and I suggest that commentators should get past their own ageism, and ignore Jessica’s unease in the face of the media scrum.

As I have suggested before in our society we have been extending what we consider to be a childhood further and further to the point where some thirty year olds still think that they are “young people” and continue to behave with boring immaturity. This suits the purveyors of game platforms, “fashionable’ clothing and popular music. but it is essentially a marketing scam that plays upon the desire to ride the wave of life’s potential long after that potential  has  been dissipated upon the sands of reality. Thus we see mutton dressed as lamb and sad fools who think they are still young and hip because they are wearing the latest rapper tee shirt.

There are a lot of things that I disagree with Richard Branson about, not the least being his belief in AGW, but if ever there was an engine who thought he could and who did get over the hill it is Branson. On this occasion I think that what he is saying is right on the money.

To those who think that having had that rather nasty accident means that Jessica is liable to come a cropper again I say just remember that for the most part the open sea is actually very empty of other vessels and I want to remind them that although it was nasty and her boat was damaged that Jessica none the less was able to return to port under her own steam, and you can bet that she will be much more vigilant and careful for the actual voyage because she has to be ever so much more aware of the dangers .

Anyway she is now on her way to Sydney  so lets all drop the patronising crap and have the courage to support her ambition and drive to do something that is hard because  doing things that are hard is what makes for greatness . Not just for this young woman but for all of the girls like my own daughter who is inspired by what Jessica Watson is trying to do.

Cheers Comrades

8)

Ahoy me hearties

Imagine, if you will, that you are a member of the Greens who has absolutely no interest in the environment. You have written many times complaining about the attempts to stop file sharing, you rile at any attempt to censor the internet. Your fondest desire is to see a kind of socialist utopia where no one can make a quid from their intellectual property, Oh yeah and you realise that your Green party membership has lapsed because you just had to buy a new gaming platform instead of paying your dues . Well in that case perhaps this is the party for you:

A Pirate Party demonstration in Sweden. Photo: Jon Aslund

It plans to hold internal elections for leadership positions – president, general secretary, treasurer and their deputies – on October 7.

But party spokesman Brendan Molloy was quick to point out that free file sharing was only one aspect of the overall mission, which was to “bolster our nation’s Democratic conventions”.

“We’ve here to actively change the landscape of Australian politics forever, by advocating freer copyright and protection of our civil liberties, especially against [Communications Minister Stephen] Conroy’s censorship regime, which is not welcome in Australia,” he said.

“We also have a strong stance for the reform of the patent system to be much fairer, especially in regards to pharmaceuticals and software.”

Ahoy Comrades