More Social Services Failings end in death of child

I'm too livid with anger to say much about this tragic case. It really beggars belief that social services are still getting things so horrifically wrong.

Criminal or at the very least Private prosecutions should be brought against the Social Service responsible. If nothing else, as with the baby p case, people should be losing jobs.

Government Still Ignoring Military Covenant.

It seems the MOD are still failing to supply our front line troops on time and with reliable equipment. More detail here, which really is shocking.

Just over half of consignments reach troops on time and the replacement for the snatch Landrovers are proving unreliable: on the replacement (called the Mastiff), there is insufficient armour(!) and axles and hubs are failing "due to the harsh off-road" conditions. Bugger me... the army having to drive off-road, who'd have thought?

This government have proved time and time again that it blatantly disregards the military covenant, the agreement between civillian and military that establishes that forces put in harm's way will be supplied with all they require to complete their task. Sure, troops are trained to overcome short-term logistical problems, but to only have half of supplies arrive when required and when equipment provisioned by the MOD isn't up to the task, something is going seriously wrong.

The report also note Helicopters are still not reaching decent levels of servicability. Most likely down to the fact that Chinooks (which are notoriously complex) need more servicing in the punishing hot and high environment of Afghanistan.

If the helicopters aren't available and the proper armoured vehicles aren't available, that means soldiers are being moved in theatre by inappropriate soft-skinned vehicles. No wonder the number of deaths seems to be on the rise again.

Its time the MOD lost its love affair with the Chinook. Sure, it can carry large numbers of soldiers, but if its not available, it may as well not be there. Far better to have a larger number of smaller, less complex helicopters that can be maintained sufficiently in theatre.

That way, soldiers can be ferried to the front line by air, avoiding IEDs and landmines altogether.

But these ongoing problems show the juxtaposition of New Labour: a government that has sent soldiers into more conflicts than before, whilst continuing to have a Left-Wing, anti-forces bias.

How else do you explain the PC nonsense that puts emphasis on new ethnic rations, but falls to supply safe, reliable troop transport and personal protection?
How do you explain continuing with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Project, but in effect cancelling the Carriers they will fly from?

As an example of how easy it is to provision the right equipment, South Africa has been making blast-resistant vehicles for a generation. Why aren't we using their proven vehicles?
China and Russia produce helicopters that can be serviced with a sledge hammer (I kid you not!), so why aren't we buying kit from them, as opposed to expensive Chinooks we can't use?

I just wonder how many lives have been lost because of the piss-poor management of the MOD? I just hope that a new government will sort this problem out once and for all.

Charity to Sue Police over Domestic Violence Failures

Refuge are sueing the Greater Manchester Police (as reported here by the BBC), over failures to protect Sabina Ahktar, who was murdered by her husband.

We've all heard many cases where women have been more or less left to their own devices in these cases. There was another one in Manchester, where a woman was killed by an abusive ex-boyfriend, despite the boyfriend being arrested and bailed, despite her having a home alarm and the Fire Service going to the trouble of fitting a device to her letterbox in order to stop an arson attack.

In the second case, the GMP seemed to do quite a lot for the victim and it still didn't work. It doesn't take long to kill someone unfortunately and the Police can't be everywhere all the time.
However, the common denominator is the murderer: they had both been arrested and both been bailed. To let them out to re-offend. In fact this report, this one by the IPCC and this one showing he broke into a previous partner's flat and held her at knifepoint for 8 hours shows that Clare Wood's murderer had had several run-ins with Police regarding her and other women before he eventually killed her, yet they failed to take the threat of violence against her seriously enough to keep him detained.

I think in circumstances like these, where abusive partners have shown a pattern of abuse, the emphasis should be on remanding the abuser in custody, not bailing them so they can continue to abuse.

But the thing that galls me about the first report is that ACPO (the unaccountable private limited company that runs the Police) say that the court case will actually harm vicitms of abuse. How can that possibly be? All that is needed is to change the procedure so it favours the victim.

But therein lies the problem: the Police being run as a business. I just wonder whether its cheaper for the system to provide alarms that don't save people rather than remand the offender in custody, with all the expense that incurs. If that's whats driving Police policy, then they need to re-think it.

Above cost, above the rights of the offender, there should be the right to life of the victim.

Polly Toynbee Ditches Gordo Two months too Late.

Polly Toynbee has finally come out and said that Gordo should go.

The problem is, notwithstanding PT's delusion that Labour has a cat in hells chance of winning the next election, its not only Gordon now that needs to go: the whole of Parliament needs to.

Us the great electorate, are starting to clamour for fresh air. The stale odour of allowance sleaze reeking from Westminster must be cleansed, which can only be done by calling an election.

The public at large needs the opportunity to do some hiring and firing: to re-hire MPs those that make the grade, but to fire the has-beens and the greedy pigs.

Without it, this is a dead duck Parliament. It has no authority over the people any more. As a nation, we collectively hold all 646 in contempt. Without authority they cannot govern. All that can happen if they stay in power is the public will devise alternative means to vent its anger. The most probable manifestation of this will be the ascendence of the BNP.

The trouble is, Gordon Brown is so driven to be Prime Minister and stay in the post, that he will cling to power like a leech and fail to see that now is the time to do the honourable thing: to dissolve Parliament and call elections in order to deflate the rise of the extremists in the best interests of the nation.

He will fail, because he is a dishonourable man.

Sack Michael Martin

I just watched the statement in the house of commons on MPs allowances by the Speaker, Michael Martin. I was appalled at the way he conducted himself. He just isn't up to the job.

He was very cagy during his statement, and put more emphasis on the wrongdoing of the whistleblower, rather than MPs themselves.

Then later on you could see him getting angry and made snide remarks about Kate Hoey and another guy and their comments on the matter in the media as they debated the statement.

This whole affair really has the majority of MPs rattled and speaker Martin most rattled of all. His office is the one that approves MPs allowances and it's him that has the most to lose. By no means is he squeaky clean either, after having several foreign trips along with his wife, at taxpayer's expense.

We need an election NOW! Lets clear the decks and those MPs that deserve to stay, should stay. Those that have proved not worthy should be deselected by their local party and someone else put in their place. Otherwise we will not vote for them. Simple as that.

Its about time we all put more pressure on the thieving scum in Parliament. In my previous blog, theres a petition at number 10 requesting an immediate election. The blogosphere needs to act, as it did with the Dan Hannan video in promoting this petition and get it signed. Lets get hundreds of thousands of signatures on there. Lets turn the screw of the rack of these self-serving parasites. Even if they refuse to give us an election, we can have fun watching them squirm...

Call an Election

I just created a petition on the number 10 website:


We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Call an Immediate Election.

Submitted by Yours Truly – Deadline to sign up by: 11 July 2009

Category: Government, politics and public administration

More details:

It has come to light that MPs allowances are being abused wholesale. I request that Parliament be dissolved immediately and that the population at large should be given the chance to re-elect their representative. Public confidence in Parliament and voter turnout have dropped to an unacceptable low point. Under the circumstances,this is the only option that will restore confidence in Parliament.

Lets see if its accepted.

UPDATE:

Its been rejected. Aparrently mine is a duplicate of this petition. Not quite the same reasons as mine, but the sentiment is the same. Lets all sign it and kick the buggers out.

Troughing Piggy MPs: They Really are all at it.

So the Telegraph today starts to publish details of allowance excesses by Conservative MPs.

I'm sure there will be revelations on the Lib-Dem benches too and given that Sinn Fein MPs have already been shown to be troughing, you can bet that they are all at it, with very few exceptions.

As a bare minimum, whats needed now isn't an inquiry, or an investigation, nor tinkering at the edges. Whats needed now is scrapping of the allowance system and a complete new expenses-based system introduced.

I'd say that the calls for the dissolution of Parliament are getting stronger and are bang on the money. Whats needed now is a quick election so that the worst offenders can be deselected and removed from Parliament, those running for Parliament must do so on a mandate to change the system to allowable expenses only.

Reform of the upper house also needs to be planned, after the Lords were found to be asking questions for cash. There needs to be transparency everywhere in Parliament, so the people can learn to trust it again.

If neither of those happen, then the public will further lose confidence in the Parliamentary system and just refuse to vote for the main parties. I can well imagine that there will be a huge anti-establishment vote in the EU elections next month, with the BNP getting a huge boost in votes and possibly UKIP as well (if UKIP get get on TV and reiterate their anti-corruption stance).

I did say back in January that I didn't think Gordon Brown will be PM past the summer. I think that its highly likely now.