Ed West

An interesting article by a councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham on 100 ways to cut council tax.
I used to live in Hammersmith, in a three-bedroom house with a small garden. I now live in a one-bedroom ex-local authority flat in looney Haringey, and the council tax is the same. 
I don’t agree with everything Phibbs says. [...]

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Mug some one in the street and you go to prison, but mug their savings and you can buy a yacht. It’s a disgrace to justice
 
Oh really?

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This is how the British economy and political system works. Advertised in today’s Guardian, a job as marketing director for registered Charity No 1014576, the Refugee Council. The winning applicant will be
Making sure we’re getting the right messages across both internally and externally, you’ll be key to implementing our new strategic plan - also taking responsibility [...]

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It’s become a cliche to talk about lost childhood. There’s no doubt that children have become sexualised at an earlier age, and are exposed to more cinematic violence, both fictional and real, from a very early age. But the trend is not so much of children growing up too early, but not growing up at [...]

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The Guardian reports today that “Middle-class anger at economic crisis could erupt into violence on streets”; on Radio 4 it was reported that fat cat bankers could be attacked.
He said that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, had become “viable targets”. So too had the headquarters of [...]

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Nice soft piece on Today programme this morning about the 75th anniversary of pressure group Liberty, best known for supporting unpopular people, such as asylum seekers, terrorists and ASBO boys. Well, someone has to in a free country. Still, no mention of their sterling work during the 1970s of supporting another unpopular group - paedos.
Incredible [...]

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That’s nothing like an in-fight at a parish church for bitterness, especially when there are political overtones that mirror the bitter division in the Catholic Church between liberals and conservatives.
This week it’s Our Lady of the Rosary, on the south-east London-Kent borders, where Fr Tim Finigan is the victim of a bit of a campaign [...]

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A Conservative club has been raided by the anti-smoking Untouchables from the local council. They must feel real satisfied when they came home from a day’s work protecting the honest citizen.
I’m not against smoking bans in theory - I’m an ex-smoker and I can testify to how much easier it makes it, but then I’ve [...]

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The Devil’s Kitchen’s wonderful Fake Charities has returned. So many supposedly disinterested “charities” are nothing more than lobbying groups, paid for by the Government, which in turn back Government policy through dubious “studies”.
Charities should never accept money from the Government, or any taxpayer-funded body. The moment that cheque is cashed they stop being charities and become agents [...]

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Daily Telegraph
February 19 2009
 

By Ed West
I knew train privatisation had gone wrong when they started referring to us as “customers” rather than passengers. One sign even used the term “guests”. What next? “Friends”? “Mates”? How about the announcers, in a new spirit of frankness, simply call us “mugs”?
“Would all mugs be aware this train will [...]

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