Bomb suspect "pressured into it"

A July 21st bomb suspect told how went through with preparations for a bomb attack because he feared for his life if he refused.

Surely he felt that being a suicide bomber would also endanger his life?

Throw away the book...

Info from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6588995.stm

Blair says: Tories won't win the election

Apparently, while Mr Blair believes that the Conservative Party have become a more "effective opposition", he does not believe they have closed the gap sufficiently to win the next election.

Well, I for one hope he is wrong. The of having yet another Labour government is simply too much to bear.

But Blair, being the buffoon he is, has almost certainly got it wrong.

In a contest of Brown -vs- Cameron, it's hard to imagine many undecideds voting for Brown.
And while Cameron will ensure that his party get maximum votes, I think there will be a lot of Labour voters who simply stay at home come a general election with Gordon Brown at the top of the ballot.

Scotland Yard turns file over to Crown Prosecution Service

So, at long last the Police have turned over their "Honours for Cash" file over to the CPS.

In a year long probe, over the course of which they interviewed over 100 people, the police have produced a 216 page report.

And for what...

The only real thing this will achieve is to further waste tax payers money.

There is, after all, no chance that the report will indicate any wrong doing by the PM, or his senior colleagues. And if there was, no judge in the land would be brave enough to reside over that case.

Two things will happen:

1) The CPS will decide not to prosecute due to lack of evidence / no wrong-doing.
2) The CPS will prosecute, and some middling politician / staff member will be convicted, despite the fact that they were only obeying orders. This is defined at a fall-guy. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_guy for more details.

This whole thing is a pure farce.

British Police raid Rastafarian temple

An interesting one this - British police raid a former religious temple, now believed to be a drugs den.

Should police be allowed in centres of religion? Should religious buildings be governed by their own laws? Should police have the right to raid a religious building?

I, for one, think so. If the police have reasonable grounds to suspect a location of criminal activity, then they should have the right to enter, search and detain...

...as long as they do it with respect. The police, it should be remembered, are no more above the law than religion.

Blair says: Criminal gangs are bad

Well done Tony, what a clever man you are.

Tony has said today that he believes action is needed to stop gangs who carry knives and guns. His comments come in the wake of numerous stabbings and shootings in North London.

Tony, a gang is defined as "A gang is a group of individuals who share a common identity and, in current usage, engage in illegal activities" (WIKIPEDIA).

So, yes, we should stop gangs. Another bleedin' obvious bandwagon that you've jumped on. Well done.
Perhaps tomorrow you could make a statement about how muggers are bad, and we should try to stop them.

Arnie to speak at Tory Conference

Arnold Schwarzenegger is to give a keynote speech at the Conservative Party's annual conference this year.

The sometimes controversial Republican will apparently talk on Climate Change, an issue which has recently become central to David Cameron's campaign.

While some may question the choice of Republican, I for one believe it's great to see prominent American politicians take an interest in UK politics.


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6537261.stm

Is Easter even religious any more?

Well, I've seen lots of chocolate recently, and lots of bunny rabbits.

But nothing actually about what Easter is...

Regardless of my personal religious beliefs, I think it'd sad when a religious occasion is completely taken over by commercialism and the desire for profits.

MOD allows captured Marines and Sailors to sell their story

This is completely disgraceful in my opinion. They are serving members of HM Forces and while I believe they are brave and courageous, it is completely unacceptable that they should sell their story.

Whatever happened to the official secrets act?

This decision by the MOD is even more disgraceful in the light of how un-relentlessly they have pursued former soldiers who have tried to publish their stories.

British Marines and Sailors finally released

The release of the British Forces personnel from Iranian custody has raised some intriguing questions:

- Why were the soldiers so amenable on television?
- What happened to soldiers just giving their name, rank, D.O.B and number?
- How were they treated?

But, to be honest, its difficult for anyone outside of the group to fully understand what they went through. It's not fair that we question these brave personnel on their actions. We should simply be thankful that they have been returned safe and sound.

The question that I'm really interested in is thus:

Were they in Iraqi or Iranian waters?

- Given this Government's track record on lying the public over military matters (WMD anyone?), it wouldn't surprise me they were indeed in Iranian waters when captured by the Iranians.

Falklands hero forced to sell his medals

On the 25th anniversary of the Falklands campaign a former paratrooper has been forced to sell his medals to pay his bills.

How sad that someone who has given so much to his country is forced to live so close to the bread line.
That soldiers who left the Forces after the Falklands campaign were given so little help and advice on entering civilian life is appalling.
One can only hope that the levels of training and help that our recently discharged soldiers have increased - otherwise we will encounter wave upon wave of former soldiers struggling to make ends meet.

Best of luck to them all.

JB

Source: http://www.therossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/s/225/225620_from_hero_to_zero.html