On The Road

We’re off to Italy this afternoon, where now we should have broadband. So service will continue as usual. Or not, as the case may be.

Making The UN Accountable

The Islamic proliferater ElBaradi says he lacks certain knowledge of the Mullahs’ nuke program. However that Fear State will only provide that certainty by detonating a weapon – possibly over Israel. Mossad should let this guy know that if that happens, they’ll whack him.

Speaking on CNN on Sunday, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, pointedly asked the Bush administration to share any evidence of intended weaponization…

“What we have seen in the past is certain procurement that has not been reported to us. There are experiments. And that is where we are working now with Iran to clarify the past and the present,” Mr. ElBaradei, the 2005 Nobel peace laureate, said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “But I have not received any information that there is a complete active nuclear weapons program going on right now.”

But then he wouldn’t get information because:

In 2006, the chief weapons inspector for Iran resigned in protest after Mr. ElBaradei removed him from his post, responding to complaints from the Iranians.

Head shot.

The Post-Revolution British Constitution

To reverse the Brit slide into fascism, the people of the United Kingdom must retake their ancient liberties from the EU and Brit elites.

Why

For several decades , Brit politicians have – without the consent of the people – progressively given others the right to govern the UK. About 90% of new Brit laws are now made by foreigners

To make matters worse, they’ve tied Brits to a corpse – the undemocratic, weak, and divided EU. This has chosen to depend on the Russian dictatorship and can’t defend itself now the American legions have left.

So Brits have to reestablish self-government and look to their security.

How

The Brit state is vulnerable to armed overthrow. Its army has good reason to hate its political masters and is anyway struggling to control an Iraqi city the size of Manchester. Its police forces are heavily bureaucratized and rarely venture on the streets.

So it’s tempting to push it over. However that would be wrong, since violent revolutions just propel the most violent to leadership positions – Lenin, Hitler, Mao, Castro et al.

Instead Brits should follow the example of the Velvet Revolution set by the Eastern Europeans who now throng their cities. In practical terms that involves massive civil disobedience and the use of numbers to non-violently depose the elite.

When

Revolutions happen when living standards drop fast, and that’s likely soon because the UK is the world’s sub-prime borrower. Its external debt is second only to the US, and adjusted to population they’re about the same.

But unlike the broad-based US economy, the UK depends on its financial sector, which is bound to be whacked by the next recession.

Problems The New Constitution Must Solve

Brits are now thinking about the same problems the US Founders grappled with, notably:

• All political systems tend to despotism.
• Politicians tend to be incompetent, dishonest, or both.
• Centralized power leads inevitably to dictatorship.
• Mob rule is not democracy.

The Solution

In spite of the many problems we see in the US, its people remain freer than most, because the founders were smart enough to diffuse power across competing institutions. Other nations get the same result in different ways – Switzerland’s federal constitution enables its citizens, uniquely within Islam-penetrated Europe – to elect pols committed to fix that problem.

An advantage of Federal polities is in providing stepping stones of experience for aspirant pols. Many of the UK’s current problems stem from none of its pols have ever having done a proper job, or had to meet payroll, or had to battle in the commercial world.

So the UK needs to move from a situation in which one incompetent can dispose of their sovereignty, to one on which there are many competing centers of power run by competent people.

The Shape Of The Constitution

Devolving power isn’t easy – if you devolve too much, the state becomes inefficient and prey to internal and external enemies.

So the Brits should learn from the reasonably succesful US constitution. But not copy it – the two nations have different scales, somewhat different national personalities, and different recent histories.

Plus the Brits have institutions to build on that the US Founders lacked (or rejected) – the Monarchy, the House of Lords, and the newly devolved regions of Scotland and Wales.

Here’s what the new Constitution should look like.

1. Clarity

It will be as succinct as the US Constitution, which started out as just 4 pages and even after 27 Amendments fits into a slim pocket-sized book. That makes it accessible to We The People.

An example of how not to do it are the original EU Constitution with its hundreds of pages, and its current manifestation as an edit to existing treaties – both designed to baffle We The People.

2. Four State Federation

English and Northern Irish parliaments are added to the existing ones for Scotland and Wales. These operate as US States and possess of all the powers they don’t explicitly grant to the Federal government.

The English state would be much bigger than the other three. But federal states can operate quite well with big disparities between their components – in the US tiny Vermont is (sadly) not swamped by Texas.

Taxation operates as in the US, with Federal, State and Local taxes.

All Chief Constables, magistrates, and local judges are elected on the US model and employed by the States.

Each state raises and equips its own Territorial Army.

3. Separation of Powers

That’s between:

Monarch

The monarchy’s discipline of service produces more robust individuals than the political process. So the monarch becomes the formal as well as ceremonial head of the armed forces, with power to veto changes made to their establishment, equipment, and deployment.

That should prevent a repetition of the abuse inflicted on our forces by Blair/Brown.

Executive

Elected by simple majority of a nationwide popular vote and subject to a limit of two 5 year terms – all pols get stale after that, even Mrs T.

Judiciary

Headed by a Supreme Court, appointed by the Legislature, but – unlike the US – with term limits.

Legislature

With a federal solution, this shrinks to about 100 members, comprising a House of Commons in which the electorate for each seat is about the same, and a House of Lords in which equal numbers of voting members (say 5) are elected by each region: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The balance of power between the Commons and Lords is the same as that between the US House and Senate.

The Commons and Lords have different election cycles.

All have term limits – a maximum of 12 years, to avoid the despotism of the US Senate.

To avoid gerrymandering, the boundaries of House of Commons constituencies are set by an independent Electoral Commission that reports to the monarch.

4. Essential Freedoms

Right To Bear Arms

This re-balances power between the citizenry and the criminal, and will require reasonable background checks, a waiting period, and be limited to personal side arms.

Primacy of Common Law

English and Scottish common law apply within their own States – Wales and Northern Ireland may choose to define their own.

That’s it.

In future posts we’ll look at how the newly free UK is likely to behave.

The Unbearable Ignorance Of Brit Politicians

The post-revolution Brit constitution must allow for the the incompetence of its politicians – here’s a current example.

The quality of pols in the UK is strikingly low – there’s no Brit equivalent of a McCain or Guiliani, or even a Clinton. Instead we have the likes of Brown and Primarolo And this guy, pitching to run the closest Brits have to a Green party:

It is said that Nick Clegg is clever, charming and ambitious.

He speaks five languages – “six if you count human”, his friends like to boast.

He has a high-flying wife, two young children and a glamorous circle of friends – this week, he met Halle Berry at a premiere for Sam Mendes’ latest film, at school he acted opposite Helena Bonham Carter and in his youth he toured America with the Theroux brothers.

This paragon offers a radical policy initiative:

Drugs…he says must be much better controlled…

…he thinks legal drugs, including alcohol, should be included in any new classification system. If you’re interested in reducing harm, you need to revisit the spectrum of drugs, both legal and illegal and categorise them according to the evidence…

But here’s the evidence (my emphasis):

…in 1993, a study of 12,000 middle-aged, male doctors led by Sir Richard Doll and a team at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, found that the lowest mortality rates – lower even than teetotallers – were among those drinking between 20 and 30 units of alcohol each week.

The level of drinking that produced the same risk of death as that faced by a teetotaller was 63 units a week, or roughly a bottle of wine a day.

By 1994, five studies had been published which showed that moderate amounts of alcohol gave some degree of protection against heart disease.

A year later, scientists at the Institute for Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen, who studied 13,000 men and women over 12 years, found that drinking more than half a bottle of wine a day – 50 units a week – cut the risk of premature death by half.

So the paragon is just another control-freak buffoon looking for a minority to persecute.

As November 5th approaches, it’s tempting to consider blowing up the Houses of Parliament to reestablish Brit freedom.

But revolutions based on violence have a poor track record.

Still, it would at least clean up the gene pool.

Words From The Wise

One would like to believe the Secretary of State is seeking advice on what not to do, but don’t bet on it.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sought the advice of former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ahead of a planned Middle East peace parley scheduled to take place in Annapolis, Maryland, in November or December.

No doubt she’ll also confer with Pol Pot, Yasser Arafat, Kofi Annan, and Fidel Castro.

Agence France-Presse

This Gallic outfit makes Reuters and AP seem pillars of rectitude – here’s an example.

AFP on the Kyoto Protocol:

The United States, the world’s number one greenhouse gas emitter, signed Kyoto but abandoned it in 2001, one of the first decisions in office by President George W. Bush.

It seems that, unlike the French, the Americans just can’t be trusted to keep their word! Well, sort of:

The United States…, although a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, has neither ratified nor withdrawn from the Protocol. The signature alone is symbolic, as the Kyoto Protocol is non-binding on the United States unless ratified.

Possibly AFP’s confusion is caused by the fact that democracies like the US require treaties to be ratified by elected lawmakers before they come into force.

A Turning Tide Sinks Many Weasels

The US (and Iraqi) victories in Iraq expose anti-Americans worldwide, including bin Laden, the Dems, and the Mullahs.

Bin Laden (my emphasis):

A clearer picture of Osama bin Laden’s view on the state of jihad in Iraq emerges after the release of the full transcript of Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape. Not only does bin Laden admit errors in the Iraqi leader’s ability to unite the tribes and Sunni insurgent groups, he views the situation in Iraq as dire for al Qaeda.

Bin Laden accuses his foot soldier of “negligence” for failing to properly employ IEDs, laments the unwillingness of Iraqis who do not wish to attack their brothers in the police and army, and closes his statement by saying “the darkness [in Iraq] has become pitch black.”

…He is also concerned about the infiltration of Iraqi and American spies.

In Ramadi, “the city that al Qaeda leaders once declared the seat of a new Islamic caliphate and capital of the Iraqi insurgency,” the Anbar Awakening held a march honoring Sheik Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of the movement who was slain by al Qaeda 40 days ago…There were no attacks on the procession.

“Al-Qaeda never wanted to see the sons of Anbar to unite and form security forces. Now I think we have broken their back by building the police and security force,” said Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the brother of Sattar who succeeded him as the leader of the Anbar Awakening. “Let them come forward and show their faces…. Let them come out, we will fight them.”

Clinton now has to face the consequences of calling the architect of this victory a liar. And the Mullahs can reasonably expect to be on the wrong end of this next year (my emphasis):

PALMDALE, Calif., July 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) — The U.S. Air Force’s B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has begun integrating on the aircraft.

The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force’s Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.

The B-2 carries two of these weapons. They’re GPS guided, and can penetrate 200 feet of reinforced concrete or 130 feet of moderately hard rock, making a nasty mess of centrifuges, hex plants etc.

Seven months from July is January 2008.

Carnival Of The Oxymorons

The term “International Community” is an oxymoron, and is used to mean the United Nations – of course that’s an oxymoron too.

The two oxymorons are upset about the Israelis snooping on Hezbollah:

Lebanese troops opened fire Thursday on IAF warplanes flying low over southern Lebanon, but no hits were reported, Lebanese officials said…

It was the first time Lebanese troops had opened fire on Israeli aircraft since the August 14, 2006 cease-fire that ended the Second Lebanon War…

Since the cease-fire, the IAF has conducted regular low-altitude flyovers over southern Lebanon, a tactic that has sparked protests from Arab nations and the international community.

The UN has condemned Israel’s flyovers. In November 2006, the UNIFIL peacekeeping force’s chief liaison officer, Col. Alexan Lalan, told The Jerusalem Post that the daily IAF flyovers were strengthening Hizbullah and creating new militants for the Shi’ite group.

“The flyovers harm the credibility of UNIFIL, the credibility of the LAF and the credibility of the state of Lebanon,” Lalan said in a phone interview from his office in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.

Colonel Lalan is no doubt French, since that the nation leads the UNIFIL team vigilantly scanning the skies to make sure Hezbollah isn’t strengthened. But they know it is:

4/18/2007. Washington agreed with a recent report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asserting “serious breaches” of the arms embargo imposed under a UN Security Council resolution which ended last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“It is clear in (Ban’s) judgment, and it is clear in our own independent (judgment) that Hezbollah continues to rearm and we can see no other source for such assistance than Syria or Iran,” said Welch, the top State Department official for the Middle East.

Which reminds us of another oxymoron: “Truthful Frenchman”.

Brown’s Pogrom Against The Fat

Dictatorial regimes always target minorities – Hitler persecuted gypsies and homosexuals as well as Jews. The latest target of the soft fascists of the Brit regime is fat people.

Targeting minorities helps a repressive regime stabilize the citizenry, in the same way that wars do.

The Blair/Brown socialist government has targeted proponents of “hate” (AKA free) speech, smokers, and now turns its bovine glare onto people of weight – here’s Junkfoodscience:

The obesity news coming from the UK has been a source of international incredulity.

This week, the report commissioned by the UK government’s Foresight Programme of the Office of Science and Technology was released, in support of some of the most massive governmental anti-obesity policies in the history of the world.

The report proposes a range of Orwellian schemes:

[I]t is possible the state could provide tax rebates for healthy lifestyles, and provide free services on demand only for the poorest…

…supermarkets, responding to government regulations similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol, arbitrate on which customers can buy high fat foods…

…‘healthy living agreements’ between people and health providers…

….electronic ‘fat quota’ ration cards may keep a closer eye on obese people’s food purchases and ration specific items; it could even be used to identify overweight teenagers that should attend government-run summer fitness camps…

The scheme’s proponent:

…Dawn Primarolo, Minister of State for Public Health…wrote in the Foresight report’s Preface: “We will therefore jointly be acting on the findings of this project, taking a system-wide approach with Ministers across Government and with professionals and policy makers…”

Primarolo is a typical Blair/Brown creature – her entire adult life experience before full-time politics was as a secretary and “mature student“.

Here’s the truth from Professor Patrick Basham (unusually in the normally lefty London Independent):

…the claim that half of the British population will be clinically obese in 25 years assumes, without any empirical foundation, that every overweight child will become an overweight adult and that every overweight adult will progress to obesity.

Body Mass Index (a figure consisting of height squared divided by weight squared) statistics show a significant increase in overweight adults over the past decade.

But this is an extraordinary case of moving the methodological goalposts: in 1997, the BMI classification of being overweight was changed from 27 to 25. At a stroke, millions of people previously classed as normal suddenly became overweight, with no good reason to explain the change.

This obscures the fact that the average adult weighs only a pound or two more than those of a generation ago. The increase in obesity applies only to the morbidly obese (with a BMI greater than 40), who make up less than 5 per cent of the obese.

Further, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that childhood obesity is on the increase, let alone accelerating. The Department of Health’s own survey, published in December 2004, shows that for all children aged two to 15 there was actually a slight decline in obesity prevalence from 2004-2005. And in children aged 11-15, there was a 17.5 per cent decline.

…the claim that being overweight or modestly obese is associated with an increased risk of premature death has been discredited by a series of studies. For example, the 2004 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study claimed that there were nearly 400,000 annual deaths attributable to diet and physical inactivity. Yet this was discredited the following year by a study from researchers at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, which put the figure of annual deaths from overweight and obesity at just 25,814.

A 2002 cross-cultural review of obesity in the US, France, Australia, Britain and Spain found little evidence that overweight or obese children and adolescents consumed more calories than others. At least one study has found that overweight children consume fewer calories than their thinner peers do.

…several recent studies have shown that adult attempts to control children’s eating patterns lead to children eating more – as well as raising the risk of body-image problems and eating disorders. It’s this unintended, and uninvestigated, outcome of a weight-obsessed society that should be the cause for concern.

This confirms the Brit government and its scientific advisory team as oppressive, incompetent, and ignorant. And the loss of Brit sovereignty means democratic change is unlikely.

Fair disclosure: I have a BMI of 20 and have been the same weight for 35 years, give or take a pound or so. But some of my best friends are fat and happy.

Avoid Flawed US Justice

We’ve suggested Brits model their post-revolutionary Constitution on the US version while avoiding its flaws. One such flaw is the abuse of state power in the US plea-bargaining system.

This concerns the NatWest Three, Brits the Blair government allowed the US extradite to Houston 15 months ago in spite of:

a) the US refusing to extradite convicted IRA murders now living in the US.

b) The alleged crimes being committed entirely in the UK.

c) The UK authorities having investigated the alleged crime and declined to file charges.

These men have been stuck in Houston, where a US judge granted them the right to work – but they’re skilled investment bankers and have no chance of finding jobs equivalent to those they had in London, the world’s financial capital. And of course they’ve been cut off from their families.

The Feds’ objective of the has thus been to torture these men in agreeing a plea bargain, and they’ve succeeded:

The NatWest Three, the trio of bankers accused in America of fraud linked to the Enron scandal, have started negotiations over a possible plea bargain under which they would admit some charges in return for others being dropped, according to legal sources…

But now, they are understood to be weighing up the idea of a plea bargain � even though they are almost certain to face imprisonment.

The trio are thought to be close to conceding that if they try to fight their case to the bitter end, they are unlikely to win.

Their trial has been repeatedly postponed. It is now due to open in January.

If they are convicted on all charges, the men could in theory face as long as 35 years behind bars…

The failure of the NatWest Three to persuade ex-colleagues to travel to America to testify has hampered their defence.

This and other legal abuses by the its tort bar* have harmed the US – causing foreign companies to stop listing there, triggering the defeat of NASDAQ’s bid to buy the London Stock Exchange, causing European companies to de-list in the US (most recently Ahold after a drive-by shooting by US tort lawyers), and to cause foreign financial institutions and specialists to avoid the US.

This has been London’s gain and America’s loss, adding to the weakness of the dollar (which can only stay strong if people want to buy it).

So the new Brit constition should stick firmly to English and Scottish Common Law, protecting the liberty of the subject and forbidding torture.

* Disclosure. I’m involved in a US civil lawsuit in which the plaintiffs’ lawyers are confessed crooks who the judges have allowed to keep secret the identities of their witnesses – a practice prohibited (except in extreme cases ) by the Magna Carta.