Don't sing in the shower says Chavez

He's calling on Venezuelans to wash quickly and not sing because it wastes water and electricity, according to the Daily Telegraph.

He called jacuzzi's "anti-communist" (so he is a communist then), and his solution to electricity shortages? Create a Ministry. He also demanded all government departments cut energy consumption by 20%.

Why is there a problem? Chronic underinvestment in new electricity generation.

Of course it should hardly be a surprise that with socialism, shortages appear, and the solution to the shortages is not to allow entrepreneurship, market prices and let private individuals find solutions, but to tell people to use less.

Who does that remind you of?

Britain's race problem

The imminent appearance of BNP Leader Nick Griffin on BBC Question Time tonight indicates a growth in interest in the racist nationalist socialist party. Why? Well besides obvious disillusionment from many who would associate themselves with a more leftwing Labour Party, there is a race problem in Britain. It's a problem that incidents like this one provide fertile ground for the BNP to attract membership.

The Daily Mail reports how a 15yo schoolboy was involved in scuffles with a group of young south Asian boys, how he was attacked with a hammer that fractured his skull, and a knife, yet he feared being suspended - because of racism. Now the injured one wasn't completely innocent, but a culture appearing of young Asian youths feeling "untouchable" and able to use claims of racism as part of their armoury against white youths is utterly outrageous. It demonstrates how out of touch multiculturalist teachers are, and how easy it is for the BNP to call this racism against white Britons.

The Labour Party wont confront it because it is part of the problem. It encourages the "racism only runs one way" victim based context to consider race in the UK. It has demonstrably shown it will promote based on race to attract votes and sympathy with certain communities, the likes of Baroness Uddin demonstrating how low Labour's standards can go.

The Conservative Party wont confront it because it is scared of being branded "racist" given its recent makeover to look more inclusive. The Conservatives have long had a history of perhaps being more sceptical of ethnic minority candidates, and are now trying to outdo Labour on this front to attract voters who would otherwise never have thought of the Conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats are invisible.

So who is left? The party that actively tells young white Britons to be proud and says it "understands".

Until others start to recognise racism can go in all directions, and treat it all as inexcusable, then the BNP will have a policy that is difficult for many white Britons to disagree with. You can't start to accuse the BNP of racism without being called a hypocrite if you also close your eyes to racism instigated by those of non-British descent.

Racism is irrational and wrong - always. Whoever claims racial or national superiority based on birth place or ethnicity is being mindlessly stupid. Yet if the two mainstream parties pander to playing race cards, is it any surprise a minor one will get traction?

BNP on BBC

There is so much hype and talk about the BNP Leader Nick Griffin being invited onto the BBC TV show Question Time tonight, you'd think it was a commercial channel.

Which does beg the question.

The BBC is state owned, compulsorily funded by those who own TV sets. It feels obliged to give "everyone a fair say" and since the BNP gained around 900,000 votes at the last MEP and local government elections, it is seen as a political party of sufficient standing to deserve a say.

Tonight's Question Time will have a record audience of course, but the BBC is commercial free, so wont financially benefit. Yet if there were commercials, would it risk it?

Would a privately owned commercial TV channel, dependent on advertisers, like ITV or Channel 5, risk putting Griffin on when advertisers may regard buying time during the programme as taking advantage of the BNP's presence?

I simply don't know. If I was buying TV advertising, I might think there could be a big audience, but buying advertising endorses the broadcasting of the programme, and some may say Griffin's presence. I may be risking a significant amount of criticism, and maybe even boycotts by people.

Gordon Brown claims it will expose the BNP for what it is. I'm not so sure. Nick Griffin is a vile little man, but he does know how to manipulate coverage. He will deny all that is thrown at him, will throw dirt at the main parties for their own feeding at the trough of taxpayers, he will point out the hypocrisy of banning Gert Wilders, but not Islamists promoting tyranny, and will be seen as mainstream - unless someone can land a serious punch his way.

James Dray at the Guardian suggests ways to break Griffin down.

The Guardian also notes a similar TV appearance made a big positive difference for Jean -Marie Le Pen of France's fascist Front National.

So is the BBC going to destroy Griffin, or give him the best free publicity he could dream of?

The middle ground is hard to imagine, for if he just appears as a politician - like everyone else - it will be a huge win for the BNP.

What's galling is TV licence fee payers are forced to pay for this gamble.

UPDATE: Violent trespassing protests have started at the BBC television centre against the BNP. What fools like this fail to realise is that being violent plays into the BNP's hands. Oh I don't see the same protestors confronting Islamists who say "death to freedom" or call for violence against non-Muslims. Again, playing into the BNP's hands.

Freedom of speech may have caused the Holocaust

Who said that?

A member of the House of Lords. A member of the British Labour Party.

Baroness Uddin said this on BBC Radio 4, when interviewed on the 5pm news on 16 October 2009. You can hear her say this at 38 minutes into the one hour programme, (perhaps only if you are located in the UK), until Friday 23 October (when week old programmes get removed).

What did she say?

"I think when we say that freedom of speech is important and I will support to the death the freedom to speak but we have to remember that maybe what gave rise to the mass genocide of the Jews in Germany was freedom to speak”

Baroness Uddin was lauded for being the first Muslim woman member of the House of Lords. She has already faced scandals of claiming for a second home in Kent, that she doesn't live in, while she lives in London, in a "housing association" home - in other words, public housing which exists for the poor, with rents a fraction of the private sector market rates. Prima facie there is evidence of her pilfering the public purse for her own benefit.

She is a new Labour pinup, her list of achievements are:
- Diploma of Social Work;
- Labour councillor in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets;
- failed to gain candidate selection to stand for Parliament for the 1997 election.

So New Labour put her in Parliament anyway, in the House of Lords.

A woman who thinks freedom of speech is equated with Nazism.

Why is she not being pilloried by the British media, unless this wasn't picked up? (Notice the BBC didn't challenge her on this outrageous claim).

I'm gobsmacked.

(Hat Tip: Old Holborn who is righteously furious about this and far from speechless)

Manipulation of language

This post is NOT about the merits of deregulating and privatising ACC - you can take it for granted, I'd fully support full competition for all ACC coverage and privatising ACC itself. It is a debate about language used in politics, to manipulate public opinion. It is not a manipulation confined to those I am accusing in this post either.

In the debate about ACC, those on the left consistently refer to the policy of opening ACC up to competition as "privatisation".

Yet these are two very different things. A government owned entity can remain state owned and face private sector competition without it being privatised.

How? Let's take some of the major deregulations in recent years.

- Until 1982, trucks were banned from hauling freight further than 150km (with some exceptions), with rail having a monopoly. Was opening up long haul freight to competition the privatisation of New Zealand Railways?

- Until 1983, Air New Zealand had a statutory monopoly on domestic airline routes, in that competitors were only allowed by and large if Air New Zealand granted permission. Was the removal of this monopoly the privatisation of Air New Zealand?

- Until 1989, TVNZ had a monopoly on television broadcasting, and in 1991 the television market was fully opened to anyone who wished to purchase frequencies, satellite capacity or lay cable. Was this the privatisation of TVNZ?

- Until 1998, it was illegal for anyone other than NZ Post to deliver mail for less than 80c. Was opening up the postal market the privatisation of New Zealand Post?

So why talk about opening up the ACC market to competition as privatisation?

It's simple - it is the manipulation of language for political effect.

You see most people would not disagree with allowing competition. Prohibiting competition seems to be a bad thing, as it means a monopoly can take advantage of you, can underperform, and you have no choice. It doesn't even have to expect the threat of potential competition.

The left cannot attack ACC reform based on the word "competition", because most people will go "So what? I like competition, I don't like monopolies."

Privatisation is a bogey word. It brings up images of an "asset" being sold for less than it "might be worth", of control transferring to those horned devils called "foreigners" (spit) and it not "being our's anymore", even though people complained about it when it was.

So that is why they lie, explicitly, about the proposal. To have people think it is about selling ACC - which, sadly, would not happen in this term of the government, rather than opening it up to competition, which might.

So it should be challenged, repeatedly. NZ Post has NOT been privatised, neither has TVNZ, just because both are fully exposed to competition. Why should ACC be described as privatised if it is also subject to competition?

UPDATE: Both Frog Blog and the Standard repeat the lie, blatantly.

UPDATE 2: The Standard doesn't like being challenged. Take this nasty little remark about "learning my lesson".