Spies, Spies and More Spies.

The blogosphere and the usual alternative media outlets have for days been reporting that the "underpant bomber" was shepherded onto the flight by a suited man. Not many (if any) of the mass media outlets, to my knowledge have published this information.

The world of espionage is a very murky and grey area. There are no heroes, the lines between good and bad, right and wrong are very blurred indeed. Actions that may be necessary in order to further a goal may not be morally conscionable. Deals are done with the devil, for instance payments made to Taliban insurgents either to allow military supplies to pass through Afghanistan, or just to stop planting IEDs. You wouldn't credit that we are making payments to our "enemy", but thats what happens in the murky world: governments want actions undertaken no matter what the price.

So for instance if the media squawk about paper-thin landrovers being blown up with our soldiers in them, our government will obviously want armoured replacements sent into theatre. However, if the route from the port of landing to the military base of operations is commanded by the Taliban, if you can't muster the resources to air-lift those vehicles over the heads of the enemy, if you are running a limited war on recessionary peacetime finances, what do you do? You make a deal with the devil, thats what you do. It may ultimately extend the war and cost more soldier's lives because now the enemy have money to buy more IEDs and guns, but ultimately the goal of the objective: to satisfy the UK media and to deflect criticism of the government is fulfilled. Thats how these things work, if you let them work this way. Without clear military objectives, with political spin and PR running the campaign, thats what you get. I'm very much reminded of the Vietnam War, which was run far past the point of good sense, for no other reason than to avoid political loss of face.

I'm reminded of this murky world by this report, which details the case of an Al-Queda agent killing CIA operatives in a suicide bomb attack. Why, I don't know, but to me it just has a resonance with the underpants bomber case.

Wootton Bassett

I'm loving the fact that Labour are having kittens over the idea that Islamic fundamentalists might want to march through Wooton Bassett.

They'd rather gnaw off their left leg than cause affront to Muslims, but then again they'd gnaw off their right allowing anything to happen that might mean they lose votes. So Labour are left without a leg to stand on, thanks to their half-baked "multiculturalism". You reap what you sow you moronic arseholes, enjoy!


Banning the march sets a precedent against free assembly, speech and expression that I can't personally condone. Let them have their march, let the newspapers, Sky, BBC and ITV news stay away, let the villagers of Wootton Bassett ignore them with dignity.

Of course instead we know the opposite will happen:

Alan Johnson will make noises about banning the march to big up his profile for the post-election leadership race, but never go through with it because (a) he's incompetant and (b) Labour hate to repress minorities.

The English Defence League will threaten to turn up, which means consequently that the Unite Against Fascism rent-a-mob thugs will turn up, yadda-yadda. Big Police presence, march probably banned but not until the day its supposed to happen, lots of protesters still turn up, fights break out...... it won't be pretty.

Which eventually I suppose will give the government the opportunity to officially close down the public displays of solidarity and respect to those fallen soldiers that pass through Wootton Bassett. After all, every funeral cortege that gets publicity is another nail in Labour's coffin. The Scottish Stalin doesn't like that one bit, it must be eradicated, erased and removed from history. By any means and at any cost.

Prophecies

Wel, its that time of year when everyone reflects on the past year and makes predictions for the new one.

In that vein, lets have a look at what I think the future has in store.

First off, financial collapse. Even after the Conservatives get in, it seems pretty inevitable that there will be a further financial crisis in the UK: the double dip will happen. The room for maneuvre for any new government is limited, unless they are ruthless and get things implemented immediately so as to exploit the 5 years they have to get back to prosperity and have the population vote for them again. The bad news is that I think it'll take longer than a single term of parliament to recover, which means any new government is hamstrung in that anything they do will have to last the term of government and beyond, so it must be popular with voters in order to make re-election a possibility. I fully expect some third party to be involved in the collapse, so they can be blamed for the crisis rather than the government.

Sadly, another prediction is the loss of further freedoms in the name of security. Just weeks after body scanners were deemed against human rights, we have a convenient attack on an airplane. Not only that, but the way the explosives were concealed on the bomber is exactly the sort of concealment that can only be detected by millimetric radar body scanners. Doubly convenient.
So, as the silent majority doesn't seem to be vocal on the issue, rights will be eroded even more this year. I fully expect travel to be limited even more, or at least made more difficult through extra checks, violations of privacy such as body scanners, etc. It may be cynical of me, but I don't expect a Conservative government to roll back the legislation enacted by Labour eroding our rights and freedoms.

This year I expect a full-frontal attack on drinking. Not just the binge drinking which causes 90 percent of problems, but ALL alcohol consumption. The first shot was fired on New Years day, when it was all over the news about how much alcohol costs the NHS every year. The first shot of the year from the righteous prohibitionists.

I could go on, but one final prediction I'l make is this: riots.
There will be riots in the streets this year, for several different reasons: it may be Christian/Muslim conflict, it could be taxpayers demanding MPs expenses back, it could be frustration over the double-dip-depression, it could be over the cutbacks made after the election, it could be over more erosions for freedom. In fact there are lots of reasons why people should be taking to the streets by the thousand. What amazes me is the fact that as yet, they've failed to do so.