JEREMY CORBYN SPEAKING - MONDAY EVENING, CAMDEN

Last week I turned 58, and given how ill I was a year ago, I am lucky to still be here.  But that's another story for another day.  In my 58th year I look around me and see devastation, the town I have lived in for most of my life is but a mere shell of what it once was.  In the 1980's, the town centre had a jewellers on every corner, everyone had loadsa money and greed was good. Second hand shops were rare, and tucked away secrets shared by canny women who's mums scoured jumble sales to keep them dressed up to the nines. 

Now my local town is desolate, the jewellers have been replaced by pawnbrokers, but the gold buyers have moved on - there's nothing left. Every shop is aiming for cheap and cheaper, Poundland was gazumped by 99p world - the only other people able to maintain high street premises are large charities.

The Thatcher years of plenty were nothing to do with tory policies, they were to  do with the solid economic foundations of their labour predecessors.  Governments who ensured that the profits from the nationalised industries were ploughed back into the British economy for the benefit of the many, rather than offshore tax havens for the benefit of the few.  Moneyspinners, like air, rail, steel, coal, National Health, all carved up and shared among the super wealthy.  The unprofitable areas abandoned (local post offices), or left to run on a shoestring.  Sadly, history shows, that Labour creates tories, once people begin to prosper, they abandon their socialist roots. Otherwise known as the 'I'm Alright Jack' attitude. 

As the UK flourished, the word 'Union' became dirty.  A word to be followed by a sharp intake of breath and a spit and a cuss.  They were destroying the country, the tory red tops cried.  'Turn off the Light' if Labour get in they screeched, and the headline skimmers duly obliged by voting Tory.  Thatcher pounded the Unions, metaphorically and physically, she ground them down through sheer physical force and popular demand, she had won the propaganda war.   

Now we are seeing the tragedy.  We are seeing the zero hours contracts, the daily loss of workers and individuals rights.  The enforced free labour.  The working people no longer have anyone to fight on their behalf. 

I have lost faith in politics over recent years - all I have seen is a parade of photogenic puppets who will persuade the gullible we are all middle class now. Well we are not!  We have long since broken down into sub divisions.  There is a very real and growing underclass.  A whole generation of kids who will know nothing but unemployment and food banks.  Families with little 'Timmys' praying for a turkey from a growling Ebenezer.  My heart sank when Tony Blair recommended that anti social thugs should be marched to the nearest cashpoint and fined £100.  He and his government were obviously clueless and had never visited 'the streets' in their lives. 

Our streets are full of homeless people, kids are going hungry and shoeless and this is the 21st century!  Bah, humbug, there is no money in the pot!  In 2015, that's not just stupid, its beneath contempt!  In 1948, in the aftermath of WWII, the UK built the NHS from scratch, have we not learned or indeed, earned, anything since?  With an ageing population, the NHS should be expanding and reaching out into the community with preventative treatment.  The UK is faced with an obesity crisis and the present NHS will not be able to cope with the onslaught it faces.  Where is the British pride?  Shouldn't we be making the NHS a model of humanity and healthcare the world over, as it once was? 

Jeremy Corbyn is a breath of fresh air, a man of principle, the only one it seems ready, willing and able to take on the Goliath that is austerity.  An evil philosophy that is designed to punish the poorest and weakest in our society for the sins of the greedy bankers. And that evil philosophy is supported by a media campaign to demonise the 'underserving' poor still further.  Almost every television channel is devoted to those on benefits, they get a good telling off on Jeremy Kyle, then we gawp into their homes and lives on Benefit cheats/dogs/by the Sea or jobless and suicidal. We watch in amazement and then feel better, because we would never behave like that.

Well guess what?  Anybody could be like that, a Director of thriving company, could be in the dole queue tomorrow.  A lot of industries are getting a huge shake up by technology, including the traditional middle class professions, when money stops flowing in society, it hits everyone in the end. 

The UK needs a New Deal, it needs a leader with the guts to invest in its people and create new jobs that suit the society we now live in. We need MORE healthcare, not less.  Ditto science and education.  Get a scientist in government, someone with vision who can create the industries of the future.

We need a government with a more humane approach to our society.  One who will invest in its people and inspire them towards better lives. If the NHS were working at full capacity, it would employ thousands more.  Ditto social and frontline services that are coping with the fallout from these cruel austerity measures. 

Economics is not a difficult subject.  Where a society has full employment cash remains in transit, benefiting everyone along the way.  Try starting a business with no cash and see where that gets you. The only way out of this recession is through the creation of industry and jobs based on society's needs and aspirations.  These inhumane times need a human altruistic approach. The 0.5% of fraudulent benefit claimants did not bring on this economic disaster (and it is a disaster) and depriving them of a few pounds won't fix it. 

Society will always have its fair share of deserving and undeserving poor.  The good Lord couldn't fix it in 32 AD, and we can't fix it now, though happily (or arguably), we have stopped placing them in stocks and throwing stones at them. Some people are no better than they ought to be at every level of society and in every profession, but it is always wrong to punish an entire group for the sake of a tiny few.  There but for the grace of God and all that. Besides, those who are comfortable now cannot guarantee they will be comfortable in 5 years time, and all the signs are, they won't be. 

This cruelty has to end, and Jeremy Corbyn thus far, is the only one brave enough to tackle it head on and hopefully end it.  When something is inhumane, you find another way, you don't carry on with it.  Starving and punishing people doesn't make people behave better, it kills them.  And that shouldn't be happening in the 21st century.

Of the four leadership candidates, Jeremy Corbyn is the only one standing for the people the Labour party once represented.  He is not a left wing lunatic, he is no different to those labour party pioneers who brought us the NHS, the Welfare State and basic human rights in the workplace.  If that is radical, then radical is what we need. 

Don't be fooled by the snidey remarks of the smug tories, they are shaking in their boots. They have had an easy ride with no opposition, they fear Jeremy Corby as much as they fear taxes, they are shivering in their boots! 




Meeting details:

 meeting on Monday at the Camden Centre,  6.30pm, Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE.      

 

Jeremy Corbyn will speak along with

 

• Martha Osamor
• Owen Jones, writer and campaigner
• Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London
• Shadia Edwards-Dashti, Stop the War Coalition
• John McDonnell MP
• Cllr Emine Ibrahim
• Mark Serwotka, general secretary of PCS
• Ellen Clifford, Disabled People Against Cuts

 

It will be a huge meeting. Please be there at 5.30pm if you can.

 

If you can come, please email alank@swp.org.uk



THE RELUCTANT DIETER - Special Offer 99p

If every diet you have tried has  made you run for a Mars bar or dive into a 2 litre tub of ice cream this diet could well be the answer you have been looking for.  For the next 7 days, my book, the Reluctant Dieter's Guide to Health and Weight loss is on special offer on Amazon for 99p.

 

This is the simplest and most effective weight loss diet you will ever try, one that fits in with the life you lead, and one that gives effective, long lasting results.  It is a change for life, and one that will bring you rewards you have thus far only dreamed of.   

December 2013

 

December 2014

 

July 2015, Aged 58





I released my book, The Reluctant Dieter in January 2015, but have to admit I have been absolutely rubbish in following up my book, for the simple reason that my life has changed so dramatically I haven't had the time!  More of which to follow soon :).  Suffice to say, I haven't returned to my bad eating habits, and know that I never will again.  Why on earth would I eat something that would make me feel ill? And why didn't I ask myself that question 30+ years ago! 

Now, I no longer wait until after dark to replenish my fridge with comfort food and alcohol to numb the pain, I go out in daylight (no, I haven't melted, and thus far no flying house has landed on me), dressed up as if I am about to have a flirtatious lunch with Gerrard Butler in full 300 gear (him, not me), I shall be wearing a cute dress and a splendiferous hat

AGE 56

Almost a year ago, on the 8th August and my younger son's birthday, I realised that the best gift I could give him, his big brother and those I love, was my own strength and resilience.  All the negativity that was oozing from me was affecting everyone around me. I was the epitome of ill health, an overweight, middle aged frump that life had all but destroyed.  A heart attack or stroke waiting to happen.  I once turned up at the Doctors in 3D cinema glasses complaining about my blurred vision - I kid you not, I was a wreck.  Even my (lovely lady) GP used to give me a hug after each visit. 

I had lost the will to live and it was reflected in my bloated face and body.  For me, the answer to every question was not so much money, as more grub. Once my attitude towards food changed, the weight dropped off and it has stayed off.  I am now regularly bumping into old friends who knew me over 30 years ago, they are recognising the 'old Hut' (from a distance at least, ha ha, SAS (Smart Arsed son), says a satellite station on Jupiter), but whatever it is I am doing it is working!    

Almost a year on since I had my epiphany that anyone could lose weight if they really wanted to, I have remained svelte(ish) lol, and I haven't touched a sausage roll since :(  If my GP had said to me 30+ years ago, 'go for a walk every day', instead of handing me monthly prescriptions of antidepressants, I am sure my life would have taken an entirely different, and maybe less rocky path, doh!

Losing weight and regaining your health is not so much about food, but our attitude towards the food we eat, and our attitude towards ourselves.  We look for foods that will trigger happiness, rather than foods that will heal us mentally and physically. Cures for our minor and major ailments are all around us, they are on every supermarket shelf and getting dusty at the back of our own store cupboards!  We don't seem to realise that we don't have to give up ANY of those same taste sensations, melting moments, or hot diggidy dog kicks, we simply have to be more imaginative and inventive.  I don't say to myself 'I can't have a cream cake', I say 'there must be way, and I will find it!' ;) 

I have kind of given up eating in the same way as 'normal' people these days, though I could if I wanted, any meal can be as healthy as you want it to be, and the Law does not state your plate must be piled one mile high.  These days, I eat little and often and I try to keep my diet to 80% healthy stuff, fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, yoghurt etc, with a 20/30% leeway for passing temptations, this may have to be varied as I have just bought 3 gallons of ice cream* :() I still 'stand and stare' at the cream cake and pie sections of my local supermarket and drool and whine like a puppy at M&S food ads, but I remember how bad I felt, and how lonely I was and I head back to the fruit and veg aisle.  

My recommendations are, keep looking for the happy triggers, but be a bit more discerning.  Get your 'highs' from stuff that will give you more highs, the better you begin to feel, the less you will want to eat the Doritos and cream cakes that keep you confined to the sofa cyber shopping for a mobility scooter. A stroll around the block will put a glow in your cheeks and a smile on your face, far quicker than a handful of Prozac or a gallon of cheap cider.  I exercise, even when it hurts, maybe even especially when it hurts, because in a weird way, I kind of like it, it gives me a tangible enemy to fight. I will not be confined to an armchair, staring into space.  I think of myself as an 'old banger' - if you neglect it and allow it to sit idle for too long, all the parts start to seize up!     

When you begin to realise that ONLY YOU have control over your health, you can begin to see things differently.  No pill or doctor in the world can cure you if you continue scoffing the doughnuts and lying on the sofa like Andy Capp.  If you are getting older, of course your joints and bodily parts will creak and ache, they've been around a long time and new parts, by and large, are not generally available!  It really is a case of 'use it, or lose it'. 

The Reluctant Dieter' is a not a diet book with recipes per se. RD looks at why we eat the wrong things, what they are, what they are doing to us, and how we can change our attitude and enjoy the life we should be living.  I don't list recipes or rules (as if! rules are just made to be broken) and I don't ban anything.  When your mind is firmly set on losing weight and achieving your goal, your brain responds by making the correct choices.  When you realise how addictive the food you have been eating is, you honestly don't want to eat it, ever again.  OK, only occasionally, and in small quantities. 

When my mind was made up, I lost over 3 stone in 3 months and I did it sensibly and healthily.  I secretly wanted my GP to tell me I was eating far too few calories, but he didn't, he beamed and said 'carry on doing what you are doing'.  I am delighted to say, that my book has had a similar effect on a dear friend, she is now running marathons and her GP is recommending my book to her patients. 

The Reluctant Dieter's Guide shows you how to lose weight quickly and effectively, at minimal cost (99p as of Saturday 25th).  You don't need any fancy food or equipment, everything you need is easily to hand and available at your local shops.  If you love your grub (as I do), you will seek out and snazz up the abundance of healthy and superfoods that are all around us. Passion fruit squeezed over frozen yoghurt is every bit as satisfying as a large bear claw and it comes without the guilt.  I have plans for a Reluctant Dieter's recipe book shortly.

Meanwhile, if every weightloss diet you have tried has failed because you didn't like the foods, the points, the rules, then I urge you to try my reluctant diet, because it put you in total control. I show you painless and cost free ways and means in which to fit losing weight into your own personal lifestyle.  I discuss food and depression and the way in which they are horribly entwined.  How easy it is for your weight to spiral out of control, yet how easy it is to turn it all around.  Yes, I did say easy! 

The Reluctant Diet is a quick fix, I was dropping dress sizes by the fortnight, but it is also life changing - you learn about food as you shed the weight, and your appetite for the unhealthy stuff goes. You no longer see the pleasure in eating so much that you have to undo buttons, you want to leave a bit of space so you can try something else.  Once you begin to eat portions relative to your body's actual needs - including 7 a day fruit and veg, the tank remains full! The eternal hunger goes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RELUCTANT-DIETERS-GUIDE-HEALTH-WEIGHT-ebook/dp/B00RNV3PC4


99p for the next 7  days! 

Sadly, I am plagued by stalkers online, people who follow me constantly and rubbish my work.  If you click onto the link, I urge you to read the honest reviews.   



Excerpt from Reluctant Dieter:


Foreward

I’m not the result of a laboratory experiment or a year spent with a formidable personal trainer and a cupboard full of goji berries, simply a middle aged fat woman who took control of my life, lost over 3 stone, and got my mojo back within 3 months. It wasn’t painful, I never went hungry and I will never return to eating the harmful addictive food I ate before.

 

Best of all, I took myself out of the fat belly danger zone and brought my high blood pressure and high cholesterol back within the normal range and my Type II Diabetes has gone. 

 

High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol and Diabetes Type II, make up the huge variety of symptoms that combine to form Metabolic Syndrome, that nasty killer condition that ensures we rarely see old fat people. Our bodies simply cannot cope with carrying all that excess weight around and we are not aware that we have got it until we drop down dead. Alternately, when we haven’t got it anymore, we can see just how ill we were.   

 

At the age of 57 I had pretty much resigned myself to being overweight and unwell for evermore.  It was all part of the ageing process wasn’t it? With middle age comes middle aged spread and acceptance that all the dreams I once had now lay in my children.  I had written myself off.

 

There was no such thing as a successful diet, because as soon you return to ‘normal’ eating the weight piles back on.  As far as I could see there were two choices, an extended miserable life of lettuce leaves or a shortened life of eating the food I enjoyed.  There had to be a better way and I was determined to find it. 

 

And find it I did, and I want to share it with everyone who has ever failed at dieting, or even succeeded, because the very gentle diet and exercise routine I suggest YOU create, will be manageable, but more importantly, sustainable for life. Unfortunately, the diets drawn up by other people (experts) consist of foods we can’t afford and aren’t available in our local shop.  If you are planning the menus, you make the choices.

 

When I bit the bullet and started my diet and exercise program, I fully expected it to go on for a very long time before seeing any results. The startling fact is, the opposite was true.  The effects were almost immediate (within days), even with my ‘I really don’t want to do this’ half arsed approach, it worked. I leapt with joy at discovering how easy and pain free losing weight was going to be, but with a tinge of regret - if only I had known I could shift 3 stone within 3 months, painlessly and with minimal effort, I would have done it years ago! 

 

As cheesy as ‘if I can do it, anyone can’, might be, it applies. I’m an a stereotypical, post-menopausal Fat Fifty Female, who has tried every diet, failed and sought solace in a sausage roll. The only exercise I got was the short walk between the living room and the kitchen, with the occasional trip to the supermarket to stock up on double cream and packets of BOGOF sweet things. That I was anti exercise was a given.  

 

I lost the weight without any treadmills, without any humiliation and without ever going hungry.  That losing weight is hard is a myth, it’s not, it’s easy.  That doing exercise is painful and unpleasant is also a myth, it’s not, it’s easy and indeed fun and it doesn’t need anywhere near the amount of time and dedication that is implied.

 

Most of us are put off dieting and exercise because we are always being told how hard it is and we have horrible memories of diets that banned things. We are put off before we begin, because the results they are selling us are out of our reach. Much as we would like to run around the local park in lycra, or swim ten miles before breakfast, we can’t because we’ve got laundry to put on, kids to get to school and some explaining to do to our boss about the report we didn’t finish yesterday - and probably why we are late - again.   

 

Alternately, if we have spent the last ten years moving gently from bed to sofa to comfy chair (via the fridge), a couple of hours on a treadmill would probably kill us.  We need to take baby steps, and every little helps. 

 

The diet and exercise plan I suggest, will be the easiest and most effective you will ever do, because you will fit it around your own lifestyle. If you are eating with the family, you simply need to up the veg and decrease the proteins and fats. You wont need to go out and buy anything special.  If you are lucky, and your family are learning about food with you, they will accept the brown bread and loss of coco pops without complaint. 

 

This isn’t a dieting book per se, I’m not a health food guru and I have much yet to learn.  Its simply an account of how I did it, and the hurdles and pitfalls I faced along the way. If anything it is ‘The Reluctant Dieter’s’ Guide to fitness and weight loss, because if my half arsed approach to healthy eating and exercise worked, I am sure there are others out there who will do much, much, better!

 

RICHARD D HALL - CHARLATAN OR FOOL - Guest Blog

JJ says

Richard D Hall - Charlatan or Fool?

 

Anyone with a reasonable grasp of this case will know Bennett provided Richard D Hall with much of his “research” and Hall has repeated it parrot fashion.  By doing so he has lost all credibility because he has many of the basic core facts completely and utterly wrong.

 

It does not matter how many views he has had, Hall is either very gullible or a person intent on deliberate misinformation. 

 

Lets take an erroneous core fact about Robert Murat, as an example there are many to choose from.

 

Bennett has written time and time again that by the end of 2007 the tapas 7 had all changed their minds about seeing Robert Murat outside 5a on the 3^rd May

 

RDH states in his film that  by the end of 2007 they were all singing from the same hymn sheet and had changed their minds about RM (around 51mins in his film 4 Buried by Mainstream Media)

 

So how does Bennett, Hall or anyone else explain in April 2008 (note the date) that Fiona Payne and Rachel Oldfield gave Rogatory interviews to the Leicestershire Police where both stated Murat was outside 5a, on 3^rd May.

 

Both Payne and Oldfield stated “Murat came up to me and shook me by the hand and said my name is Robert Murat”. No mistake, no uncertainty.

 

According to Bennett and Hall, these statements never happened, but it is in the PJ files for all to read.

 

What this shows clearly is that members of the tapas 7 intended to implicate Murat, whatever it took and this is what Bennett/Hall do not want placing under a spotlight.

 

So pages and pages of guff over the Smiths, but nothing on Fiona Payne or Rachel Oldfield

 

Why, would be a good question?

 

So I would like to ask the following and I am sure Rosalinda will give RDH the right of reply:

 

Did RDH do his own research?

 

If not from where did he get it?

 

Did RDH check this research with other independent sources?

 

Did he know of the Rogatory interviews?

 

Did he read them?

 

Has he met Clarence Mitchell in a professional or private capacity?

 

Can RDH/Bennett or anybody else produce a single document which shows FP and RO have retracted their statements made in April 2008?

 

If he cannot, will he apologise for misleading people and edit or withdraw his claims?

 

RDH has made many similar type claims casting aspersions on Murat and the Smith family amongst others, based on ill founded research.  Will he withdraw any accusation he cannot support as a fact, backed by official sources. 

 

Many of his claims are polar opposite to information given by GA in his book and the PJ in their official files, so is he implying they are wrong and his and Bennetts research is correct?

 

Where did he get the specific information that the tapas group all retracted their id of Murat by the end of December 2007.

 

Bennett and Hall work the same way copious volumes of dross with an occasional nugget of interest.

 

They rely on nobody questioning or checking what they say.

 

Bennett often writes, “he who writes it should prove it” this however does not, it seems, apply to Bennett or Hall.

 

Conspiracy lurks around every corner, innuendo, supposition and lies constitute research, unrelenting denigration, to stifle any opposite view whether that is in the form of a word, a blog or rival documentary.

 

Willing unquestioning disciples hanging on their every word.

 

Charlatans are people expressing expertise and knowledge which they do not have, they make things up and pass it off as true.

 

 Is there a better description?

 

These errors have been pointed out to RD Hall and so far he has done nothing to rectify them, however, if RDH is a genuine guy, who has been badly misled he should admit it and come clean.

 

We all make errors of judgement and we have all at some time, been taken for a fool in the sad tragedy of Madeleine McCann.

 

 

 

PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE, WHERE DO WE BEGIN?

 

Tony Bennett is certain he is right and he is on a mission it seems to discredit an innocent family who did no more than report seeing a man on the night of May 3rd 2007 who looked like Gerry McCann.  Tony's mission is to blow their evidence out of the water and discredit them before or if, a trial ever takes  place in the case of missing Madeleine McCann. 

Tony believes he has the right to question and interfere with anyone he chooses.  The means are available, through his computer he has access to as much private information about his victims as he likes and the will to seek and destroy them.  He is driven by hatred, probably wakes up each morning and thinks what poor fucker can I set about today, misery is my gospel, repent and ye shall be saved. 

He is bored with Kate and Gerry, and he's never had much interest in the Tapas friends, or indeed any of the central characters involved in this case.  He is in the midst of a two pronged attack - destroy the witnesses for the prosecution and 2, destroy the enemies of himself.  He has worked way too hard to have his limelight stolen by manicured and coiffered bimbos.  I can imagine him weeping to 'It should have been me', when the very attractive DCI Wall took over the Madeleine investigation.  He uses her picture as an avatar to keep his bile bubbling away and if Verdi is his sock, he is revealing a dark, twisted sexuality that he is blissfully unaware of.

Bennett seems to have spent the last two years (at least) attacking the enemies of the McCanns, his eye is definitely not on the ball, the ball being the questionable abduction, to focus on the only credible witnesses for the potential prosecution in case members of CMoMM forgot. 

Most of the people Tony now attacks weren't even in PDL at the relevant time, but it matters not to TB.  His enemies now are those who would relieve him of his imaginary crown.  Every theory, other than his own must be stamped out, his opposition to Sonia Poulton's documentary has reached epic, paranoid, proportions.  He must convince the world, that those striving to expose the truth are the bad guys.  He forgets, there is only ONE truth, and it doesn't matter one iota how anyone gets to it.  Richard Hall gave it a good shot, but he should have done his homework.  Unfortunately, TB pitches volumes of dross, and people prefer to take his word, rather than trawl through it themselves, on the assumption that he has done so much research, he can't possibly be wrong.  A shame really, because it doesn't stand up to even the flimsiest reading, it is biased with a foregone conclusion, ergo it is worthless. 

Tony, for whatever reason, is desperate to prove that the most important witnesses in this case are liars.  He has been smearing this innocent family for over 2 years and becomes apoplectic if anyone opines that the Smith family saw Gerry on that fateful night.  We all have the power and/or ability to stalk our enemies, the internet, our lives are more public than they have ever been.  But just because we can, doesn't mean we should and happily most of us respect each other's privacy.  For Bennett, there are no moral or social boundaries, he is without conscious or empathy, one of the witnesses he is smearing was 12 years old at the time of the incident!  Why he has never faced criminal charges for interfering in a live police investigation, I will never know.  A cynic might say, any potential trial is fucked before it begins. 

Some very nasty characters have attached themselves to this case, not least Mr. Bennett, who has done as much, if not more, to keep the case of missing Madeleine on the front page of the tabloid newspapers.  This angry preacher of mob justice, has for too long been seen as the face of those who do not believe the abduction story.  His angry diatribes and physical presence in the parents home town sealed the myth that doubters were 'haters' and 'pitchforkers' - even though the majority of us were as shocked and appalled by his actions as everyone else. 

I don't think he is acting with or for the McCanns, though he may have 'threats' hanging over him for other matters.  He is disingenuous, and more than willing to lie to smear his opponents or defend himself, that he may well be putty in the hands of someone who has something on him. 

People like Tony are very easy to manipulate.  He is an easy target, ergo he is corruptible.  Why is he corruptible?  Simple, he has set himself up on a pedestal, he declares himself to be a man of faith with high moral values, he doesn't drink, smoke, party or do drugs.  He is a middle class professional in a suit, there is no white cider in his fridge or tracky bottoms in his wardrobe.  He sees himself as several notches above the rest of us on the evolutionary ladder and sadly, he has been able to convince several others beneath him, to look up to and admire the bleeding heart, religious zealot he has created.  Those a few rungs up however, merely see him as the twat he is.

Tony is playing the game of the many weeping television evangelists who have gone before him, though far less successfully it must be said.  Sadly for him, he has the face, if not the voice, for radio and he lacks a shapely, multi-(eye)lashed Babe and of course, Charisma.  Tony wants to lead an army of the people in a quest for justice, he wants to create a legacy.  Any 'cause' will do - from road signs to celebrities caught in sex scandals to a little girl who disappeared on her holiday - the causes Tony attaches himself to, come with newspaper headlines and precious television airtime for his loony beliefs - he wants to spread the word, the word of course, being his own. 

The best that can be said of Tony, is that no-one doubts his sincerity. Anyone who can argue creationism with a straight face, takes seriously deluded off the scale.  This is a man with beliefs carved in stone, there is no room for discussion or debate, he is right. End of.  You can kind of see, why he has never achieved his goals, unwieldy people in any sphere whatsoever, workplace, domestic, etc, are impossible to work with, unless of course, they achieve the tyrannical status they desire, in which case, no-one has a choice.  Tony pretends to be open minded while taking notes to use against his correspondent later - to him, everyone is a potential enemy - it is why he has to keep such close tracks on anyone who joins his forum.  He lives in permanent fear of being 'found out' - most weeping evangelists do.  We can only guess at what it is he fears, but he sure as hell fears something.  The disingenuous always do.   

I am not knocking him entirely, anyone who wants to leave a legacy (if they are honest) will do the same, from Joan of Arc leading an army to Jim Gamble cleaning up Sin City to the humble writer trying to get a break.  I used my time in the convent to get a book deal with a major publisher, but it was too honest, it didn't contain any graphic sexual violence because I didn't see any.  I saw only the cruelty and the physical violence, I found out about the sexual abuse of others after I left.  Honesty has always been my downfall and my opinions on the McCann case was the kiss of death to my writing career.  Seriously, what (sane) writer would comment negatively about the McCanns knowing that they had a book being released by a major publisher?  In 2011 (having been delayed a year), when my book came out, Kate and Gerry were virtual Saints, no-one dared to criticise them at that time and trust me, being at the top of their dossier/blacklist did me no favours whatsoever.

By 2010 (when I got my book deal), I had been commenting on the McCanns for nearly 3 years, and yes, I'm sure they have all the screenshots, lol.  Had they left me alone, I may have dropped out and moved onto other projects but they have pursued me relentlessly.  To be honest, I don't know whether to thank them for their tenacity or curse them for distracting me from other things, but without doubt, they have driven me to pursue this case to the end.  When I get my (at the moment very sore*) teeth into a subject, I am a finisher.  
 
But back to Mr. Bennett.  Clean living, quasi intellectuals and zealots can and do inspire followers - people who admire devotion, sacrifice, high moral values and quasi egalitarianism - qualities essential for all leaders and wannabe despots (on the surface at least) - they must be better than us, in order to lead us.  Our leaders must not be tempted by frivolity and sins of the flesh and we prefer that they not get high during world peace summits - though some might argue, that they should  :)  
 
Unfortunately for the clean living (I've never attempted it myself, lol), they must keep up the façade for evermore.  No-one can ever smell liquor on their breath or discover a bong in their filing cabinet.  As for off limits hanky panky, forget it.  For the holier than thou, it is one partner for life and sex is for procreation only. The truly zealous want bibles and cameras in the nation's bedrooms to ensure everyone adheres to the missionary position. 

This case has unfortunately, attracted more than its fair share of the morally righteous, from those who would never have left their babies on their own, myself included, to those want blood.  Quite literally.  They are eschewing the natural order and the law of the land by acting as investigators, judge and jury, themselves and Bennett is chief rabble rouser.  Tony will not be the hero who solves this crime, though he believes he is, and he will not be the one issuing the punishment (his orgasmic moment), the fate of the child's aggressors, is, thank God, in the hands of a democratic, cilivised society - we hope.   

I can't normally be arsed to comment on Bennett anymore, but his latest rantings against the unfortunate Smith family, dragged into this circus through no fault of their own, happens to coincide with my recovery from major dental surgery (*I had a tooth out :() and I am a bear(ess) with a bit of a sore head. 

THE INTERNET, THE POLITICS AND WHY MADDIE?

In terms of evolution the internet has taken a giant leap for mankind, for the first time in history, EVERYONE has access to information and for those who rule us that is a terrifying and dangerous prospect.  We have already seen the power of the internet in the Middle East revolutions and on the streets of our cities.  Groups, gangs, protestors can contact each other within seconds. The people now have ways and means in which congregate with lightning speed, something no major 'Power' has ever had to face before. 

Probably the biggest hit the 'authorities' have taken is loss of media control - they can no longer, edit, censor or sanction the news, the truth is always one click away.  Education is spreading, not nearly quickly enough, but it is spreading nevertheless.  We are no longer a nameless, faceless mob, we are real people and we have a voice and a means with which to check out the truth behind those sensational tabloid headlines for ourselves.  Those in the news are no longer protected by their celebrity status, social media, twitter especially, has been a great leveller. 

Sadly, most societies are built on deceit, it is, arguably, the only way in which to maintain law and order.  If those who keep the wheels of society spinning in motion had to account for each and every one of their actions those wheels would stop spinning.  It's a rotten job, but someone's got to do it. 

The problem with power, is that once you get it, you then have to spend every minute of your day (and all your days thereafter) trying to hang onto it or get it back.  Kenneth Williams as Caesar in Carry On Cleo captured it in a nutshell 'infamy, infamy, they've all got it infamy'.  History is littered with tyrants and despots (some who even set out with good intentions) who have had to be executed, hide in bunkers,  jump off yachts or be carried off in straight jackets.  Tony Blair became a Catholic.

At the moment there is a 'media war' going on.  The newspapers are losing readers in droves.  Most of us now turn to the 'net' for our news and updates and if a story catches our eye, the means to investigate it further, is at our fingertips.  We know that headlines like 'Madeleine was stolen by a swarthy paedophile gang' are rubbish, some of us are even offended that we are being treated as half wits.  Tis true to say the majority of people live such busy lives that they rarely have time to read beneath the headlines of most stories.  Governments are dependent on lethargy, its tried, its trusted, its reliable.  Most people don't care, and there is no point beating ourselves up about it, if we are living life to the full, we have to prioritise. 

The Madeleine Mystery is not a priority for most people, it is just a news story like any other.  But those of us who were gripped by it uncovered a rabbit hole full of doors with bleddy great big question marks on them. The Madeleine story may have made the tabloids millions, but it has also exposed the murky way in which 'spin' has been used by the mainstream media to manipulate public perception.  Many people are now seeing they can no longer trust the tabloids, people who would formerly have believed everything they read.  Ultimately, I believe the McCann story will cost newspapers millions of readers.  I think we are probably witnessing the fall of newsprint and the traditional media moguls, how many people still buy a daily newspaper?

Why the Need for Scaremongering?

Like their forefathers, today's 'authorities' must convince the masses that education is bad for them.  And in this context, education means internet and information.  Information equals power, and at this present time there is no way of restricting it to a chosen few.  Should a computer expert devise a system of policing the internet, within hours, a more advanced and probably younger, computer expert will discover ways in which to get around it.  Most kids snigger at parental controls.  Fact.

The only way in which to persuade people to give up their freedoms and vote for legislation to police the internet, is by persuading them that they, or more specifically, their children. are in danger.  Allowing the 'authorities' legal access to all our personal files would allow any government to arrest any citizen on any charge.  Claiming our children are 'at risk' is a back door way in which to police the internet with the public's full support.  Anyone objecting would be seen as a)having something to hide, or b)a paedophile defender. 

According to last week's headlines, there are 750,000 male paedophiles out there, or 1 in 4, or whatever sensational stats you can pull out of those figures.  These figures are not coming from psychologists or academics, they are coming from police sources and in reality they are meaningless.

750,000 men waiting to do what?  Are they on the verge of attack? Is the danger to our children imminent?  Have we entered the world of Philip K. Dick, where people who 'might' commit a crime need to be arrested and dealt with for the good of society?  Are we so short of real crime that we have moved onto thought crime?

Unfortunately for Jim Gamble and the Police Federation, Theresa May is a Capitalist with a big 'C' - she understands the power of spin and the way in which different crime areas compete for funds.  Western society is dominated by capitalism, even during the Labour years it was encouraged.  Our local Councils. actually ALL our public services are now run as businesses - that is, they are run for profit.  Their primary objective is no longer to serve the people, but to make cash (under the guise of serving people).  It has all happened so gradually most of us didn't even notice, but in retrospect, it does explain why you will get a £60 parking fine if your tyre goes 50cm onto a white line and no reply to your request for a new bin. 

The police, like every other public body compete for public funds. They are never going to say, 'things are improving, so you can give us less money next year'.  A more cynical commentator might say they have an agenda to exaggerate the scale of the problems they face and the amount of work that they do. 

Imagine for a moment that the police are not public servants, and that we live in a capitalist society where private security companies compete with each other to protect us?  Their funding being dependent on how much protecting they do?  As a society, our most precious possessions are our children, and when it comes to protecting them, money is no object and rationality flies out of the window.  Whenever there is a baying mob, sure as eggs is eggs the more hysterical will be shouting 'think of the children' - those thinking of the children being the most popular and the vote winners.

Fortunately, defenders of Freedom of Speech are in the majority and those trying to seize power of the internet (and thus get back control of the news) will always face huge opposition.  Whenever the powers that be take away our freedoms they tell us it is for our own good, our own protection. Creating imaginary danger goes back to biblical days, it keeps the mob in line, in order to stay under one safe, enclosed, protective roof, they have to obey the rules.

We all have an innate need to be protected, to pass responsibility for ourselves onto a higher power, be it a God, someone in authority and/or an alpha male/female.  We are pack animals, we prefer to be in a group, hermits are rare, or perhaps I should say were rare, because technology is creating a whole new army of hermits, people who rarely see the light of day or interact with anyone outside cyber world, but that is a whole new argument.

Most people opt for law and order, they moan about jobsworths and petty bureaucracy, but they understand the need for it, its a rotten job etc.  We have created a society in order that we don't have to look after ourselves from scratch, that is, physically do our own hunting and gathering, house building, repairing of broken limbs etc. We are no longer responsible for life as individuals. Phew. On the whole, we are happy that there are people higher up the food chain who will make our decisions for us and we trust them to make those decisions for the greater good.  If the authorities tell us the enemy is at the gate, why would we doubt them?  Kings have always needed money for armies to protect their subjects, in fact protection money makes up a large proportion of our taxes, it's something we never question.  We demand more police on our streets, we demand well equipped armies and weapons of mass destruction that can never be used. We believe everyone is out to get us, and we believe those protecting us know best.  If they tell us a Muslim guy in the deserts of  Iraq is arranging with pals in the UK to steal a British child via Facebook, why should we doubt them?

In most instances it is better not to know the truth, knowing everything would drive us insane.  However as Nietzsche said far more eloquently than I, there is NO higher power, no God to relieve us of self responsibility and those who believe themselves to be Gods, really aren't.  Sadly, those who think they are God are the ones aiming for the top jobs and so intent on their goals are they, that they usually succeed.  For some, their domain may simply be a stretch of highway with notoriously bad parkers, for others it could be an entire country.  Their confidence in themselves knows no bounds, and such is human nature, it inspires others to believe in them, the leaders that is not the traffic wardens. If a leader tells us they will take control and make everything right, we can breathe a sigh of relief, check in our baggage and go out to play.  We all have an innate desire to designate so we can crack on with what we really want to do without being bothered by boring details.

The scramble to get higher up the food chain is rarely a pretty sight because all the goodies are at the top and those who have reached it ain't letting go.  It takes a certain kind of madness to hang on in there until the bitter end.  For the majority of us, the battles rarely make any difference, one set of despots is much like any other, and unless new policy affects us directly, we do little more than grumble. It's the British way.  And it is the way in which Governments chip away at our freedoms without anyone noticing. 

Freedom of speech, or more accurately, Freedom of Information is probably the biggest threat to every government worldwide and there is very little they can do about it.  At present.  In order to gain control, they need laws to access every individual's private information.  A government that knows everything about its' people will stay in power forever.  Protesters, rebels, subversives could be rounded up in moments.  Those who say, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear are being naïve.  Whilst they may have nothing to hide under an incumbent government, that might not be the case under the next - if there is one.  They are also signing away the liberty of their children and future generations.

Governments have historically used foreign wars to maintain power over their own populations, the enemy was far away and unseen and united the people as one.  A common enemy is the foundation of many friendships and mutual admiration societies and it brings crowds together in a way that (almost) nothing else can. 

In recent years the war has been against the adjective 'terror', and the public are united against the terrorists who hide among us, dawn raids are applauded, swarthy men are marched off in handcuffs with hoods over their heads, heroes are created, terrorists don't deserve any human rights - they are terrorists!  And no government would misuse terrorist laws to arrest innocent citizens right?

This year's witches are the paedophiles and the perverts.  The gangs hiding among us plotting dastardly schemes on the internet (thus leaving a cyber trail) and single adults having the audacity to go for a stroll in the park on their own.  For most of us, fear for our children's safety overrides reason, and we believe that those higher up the food chain (professionals especially), know better than we do.  We suppress our own instincts because we lack faith in our own judgment.  We prefer to 'ask the audience' than make a decision ourselves. 

So successful has the stranger danger message been, that the public now believe all adults (men especially), unless proved otherwise, are paedophiles.  So strong is this ideology, that people automatically go into a defensive mode in order to prove they are not paedophiles themselves.  They overthink, over explain, and overcompensate by declaring how much they despise paedophiles and in some cases they will join in an attack, or set themselves up as vigilante internet warriors.  Nothing says you are not a paedophile, like punching one or hating them more than anyone else.  Asking a hostile mob not to string up an elderly man with learning difficulties for leering at schoolgirls will get you hung alongside him.  A paedophile defender is even worse. 

But lets get down to the nitty gritty, the underage images online that demand a police clampdown on the internet.  Surely the best way to protect the children being used in these images is to arrest the film makers!  I know there is a supply and demand argument, but the present approach of CEOP to child porn is comparable to the drug police arresting all the addicts and ignoring the suppliers!

The truth is, most underage images online are being sent by randy teenagers to each other, which is fair enough, their hormones are raging and its what kids do, but should one of those images accidentally end up on the pages of anyone over 18, they could, literally speaking, be charged with possessing child pornography and placed on a sex offenders register.  And if someone really wanted to arrest you, you could be done for your holiday snaps or taking a picture of your child in school play!

Because child abuse is such a taboo subject, reasonable, logical people are not getting involved in the debate.  No-one dare question the facts and figures supplied by the police and the 'experts' for fear of being accused of being defenders of paedophiles, or worse still, paedophiles themselves.  It is probably the worst accusation anyone can have against them, it destroys lives.  Thirty nine men committed suicide as a result of Operation Ore. 

Unfortunately, unless the academics,the intellectuals and those with common sense speak out, the lunatics will take control of the asylum and people will find themselves facing sexual deviancy charges for taking pictures of their toddlers making sandcastles.  Schools are already banning photographs and there are demands for lone adults to be banned from parks. The 'think of the children' brigade have thousands of followers and they have lost the power of reason - we almost saw a tragedy last week in Cyprus.

Convincing the public of the need for a rigorous child protection unit has been the subtext to the Madeleine McCann Mystery all along.  As head of CEOP JG wanted to break away from the National Crime Agency, and form his own quango - a government sponsored agency dedicated to protecting children from predators on the internet.  Jim is a gadget man, he loves technology, and he understands its' power.  Fortunately, so too do those who own the powerful social networks which is probably why CEOP remained with the NCA, and Jim moved on.

Sadly, Jim is not the only one who can see the potential of the internet.  Child protection is a very lucrative business. it's an emotive subject that unites the public and the politicians and its an area safe from financial cuts. It may even be an area the police could outsource to private companies, so kids can be extra safe. 

Madeleine McCann went missing at a time when the incumbent government were promoting a nationwide bank of our DNA and micro chipping of our newborns in the zillion to one chance that they might be abducted.  Poor Maddie was the poster child, the little blonde cherub stolen from her loving, responsible parents who were entirely blameless and also church goers.  Her's was not the face of a spotty, sullen teenager who had gone off in a huff, it was the face of an innocent, appealing toddler, snatched in the night.  Her face quite literally launched a thousand appeals. 

Her parents, as well as producing an amazing campaign for their daughter, also quickly became involved in the Amber Alert System.  Ostensibly, a way in which to quickly track stolen children, but in reality, a way in which to enforce stricter border controls. 

Gerry and Kate are typical obnoxious little Englanders, they believe themselves to be a cut above our European neighbours, which is why they have always treated the Portuguese with such disdain.  They are also part of the school of thought that believes 'if we ban everything for other people, our lives will be better', their enthusiasm for Hacked Off was above and beyond.   If people are forbidden by law from saying nasty things about them, the McCanns believe everything will be alright and they will get the respect they deserve.  And it goes without saying, that newspaper editors, journalists etc, should abide to rules similar to those doctors have to, or be thrown in jail.  I suspect the liberalism and power hungry world of the media world must have been quite a shock to them, but to their credit, they quickly got the hang of it.