Turangi child sex attacker jailed 10 years

Stuff NZ
"Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch said: "Heads were shaking the breadth of the country and the community was bewildered by a crime of such severity committed on a victim so young. There was a deep sense of shame within the Turangi community and throughout New Zealand that one of our own had committed this offence on a visitor whose family had come to New Zealand to enjoy a holiday."

Why Ireland should say FU to the FU Treaty

Telegraph
"Ah, feck it, it’ll make no difference. Even if Ireland votes against the FU Treaty, it’ll be imposed anyway. It’s what happened when the country voted against Nice in 2001, and against Lisbon in 2008. Brussels won’t take ‘No’ for an answer.

This time, Eurocrats won’t even need to demand a rerun (‘go away and try again, Paddy…’) The fiscal compact has been specifically designed to be proof against ‘No’ votes: it will come into effect once 12 out of the 17 eurozone states ratify.

Still, I hope Ireland says FU to the Merkozy treaty, for four reasons. ....."

Enda Game On

Guido Fawkes
"Ireland has just tossed a mighty spanner in the EU-works. The Taoiseach has confirmed in the Dáil that the Attorney-General has advised a referendum is necessary on the EU’s fiscal union plan, “The Irish people will be asked for their authorisation in a referendum to ratify the European stability treaty”, Enda Kenny told the Irish parliament. Cameron was unable to veto a the plan but the Irish people might just be able. The last time a €urozone prime minister promised a referendum on the EU, the EUrocat dictators replaced him with unelected technocrats. That won’t happen in Ireland."

Kidnapped by America: Our laws, our freedom and our people

Daily Mail
"What is the difference between extradition and kidnapping? I used to know, but I am no longer sure. Because an emotional spasm about ‘terrorism’ caused us to take leave of our senses, we are all now at the mercy of foreign governments that take a dislike to us. In some cases we can be snatched from our homes and families because we are charged with actions which are not even crimes here. In some cases we can be hauled away in manacles on the demand of some politically driven American prosecutor. ......In short, this is an unequal treaty, of the sort made between colonial powers and their powerless vassals, or between conquerors and their victims.

Now, whenever the United States mounts its very high horse on the subject of terrorism, I think we must recall that it was the US that compelled this country to surrender to the terrorist murderers of the IRA.

It was President Bill Clinton who laundered the grisly and sinister Godfather Gerry Adams, giving him a visa and allowing him to spread his soapy propaganda and raise funds across the United States. President George W. Bush, Mr Anti-Terrorism himself, actually altered his schedule to fit in Mr Adams (who was too busy to make the original time) for a jolly St Patrick’s Day chinwag in the White House."

Rudd v Gillard: Labor set to be big loser

NZ Herald
"Increasingly, mutually assured destruction appears all but inevitable regardless of who wins Monday morning's ballot between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and predecessor Kevin Rudd, until late Wednesday supposedly a "happy little vegemite" as Foreign Minister.

Whoever is left standing will be silhouetted against the ruins of power. Even if Australian voters are prepared to forgive and forget - a dubious prospect - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will be there to remind them constantly of the self-destructive mess Labor has become. His stack of ammunition is not only all but inexhaustible, but has been provided by warring Labor factions: each has hammered the airwaves with details of the other's betrayals, incompetence and mismanagement."

Why they hate Kevin Rudd so much

Herald Sun (Australia)
"A LABOR insider lifts the lid on the Rudd Government. What he claims explains the venom of the attacks against Kevin Rudd this week.

EARLY last year, a former Rudd government insider sat down to write about the experience. The resulting document - he called it "a reflection in all seriousness once the period of madness was over" - has never been published. But in the current climate, in which Kevin Rudd's behaviour as prime minister has become the central issue in Labor's bitter leadership contest, it makes fascinating reading.The author, who operated in a key role and observed much of the discussion and decision making, says he would not have bothered to set down his recollections "except that they are such a powerful warning for future governments". His starting point is that "the Rudd government was never, and could never have been, a functional government because of the man who ran it". .....There is a section on "the culture of blame and fear throughout the government", claiming that Rudd's angry treatment of staff and public servants was very calculated.

"We all knew of advisers being 'put in the freezer' for crossing their boss. It was childish to watch - he would refuse to look at them in meetings and simply ignore anything they said until they gave up and quit or made amends.

"In this way he ensured he got obedience, but at the cost, of course, of getting proper advice."

ED: Gordon Brown mk 2

The rivals: Canberra's political hate story

Independent
"It evokes the power struggle of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But Mr Rudd did not promise his apparently loyal deputy the top job. Maybe he meant to but never had time. The factional powerbrokers that run Labor – Mr Rudd calls them the "faceless men" – decided, on the basis of a few disappointing opinion polls, that he was for the chop. .....And not a single policy issue divides Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd; the battle is about popularity, polls and who can win the next election, due by late 2013. For Mr Rudd it is also about rage, bitterness, unfinished business and a comeback."

This is the worst government in Australia’s history.

Quadrant Magazine
"The Labor member for Bendigo thinks Kevin Rudd is a psychopath and it is plain that many Labor members have distinct concerns and worries about Rudd’s temperament; why else topple a sitting prime minister in his first term whose position in the polls was hardly dire.

Apparently it is okay to put Australia’s foreign relations in the hands of a man held in such disrepute. What harm can he do? So what if he calls the Chinese “rat fuckers”; presumably they can’t understand English.

How do you follow leaders who you believe are deranged and psychotic? Well why not throw in one who combines a unique level of incompetence with an aversion to telling the truth. And there you have it; a Labor Party incapable of electing to leadership someone of sanity and integrity. Maybe it is because they have no-one? The “Mad Monk” looks pretty sound and centred compared with the lot the Labor Party has given us.

None of this would matter if they were running a Labor Party branch somewhere out in suburbia. They are running the country and seem determinedly bent on wreaking havoc; not deliberately, of course, but out of sheer unbalanced bloody-minded incompetence."

£500 for EVERY British household: UK faces added £1billion bill to bail out Greece and save crisis-hit euro

Daily Mail
#Britain expected to hand over extra £1bn to IMF rescue package
#Takes total British figure supporting eurozone to £12.5bn: £500 per home
#Sceptics fear lack of growth will see return to same situation in months
#But Chancellor George Osborne: The bailout is 'good for Britain'
#Protests planned against 'medieval' deal across country today

Mass immigration, and how Labour tried to destroy Britishness

Daily Mail
"The game was given away in 2009 by Andrew Neather, a former Labour Home Office and Downing Street adviser, who revealed that mass immigration was a deliberate policy by the Left to change the social fabric of the country and to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’.

This appalling policy was never discussed publicly because Labour strategists feared it would upset the party’s traditional white working-class support. For self-interested political reasons, the public could not possibly be consulted.

Mass immigration gratified the Left in two ways that have inflicted enormous damage on our country. It furthered the bogus notion of multiculturalism — undermining national identity and common values, and preventing the successful integration of immigrant communities into the British cultural mainstream.

-----------------------------
Two in three London babies have at least one parent born abroad as ministers pledge to end era of multiculturalism

File-sharing site Pirate Bay faces being blocked in UK after High Court rules it infringes copyright

Daily Mail
"The Pirate Bay, one of the world's most popular file-sharing websites, faces being blocked in the UK after the High Court ruled it and its users are infringing copyright. The judgment, handed down on Monday, came in a case brought by music copyright holders seeking an injunction against the website.The Pirate Bay acts as a searchable index which allows users to download files from each other. The most popular files shared are copyright films and TV series, music and software."

Just as Greece complies at last, Europe pulls the plug

Telegraph
"Officials from the EU and the International Monetary Fund made two grave errors when they swooped into Greece in mid-2010 and dictated the now hated "Memorandum". ...The regime of drastic cuts has tipped the economy into a violent downward spiral. They thought that private industry would muddle through as the state went through the austerity mincer. What the EU-IMF "Troika" did not fully understand is how many firms were really part of the state in disguise.

"The Greek government outsources everything," said one official with close knowledge of the events.

Faced with the guillotine, the state first slashed procurement contracts and then stopped paying its bills altogether. The government is now €7bn (£5.8bn) in arrears to private companies, including €3bn in unpaid VAT refunds for exporters. It is why business has borne the brunt of the fiscal squeeze, suffering 450,000 job losses, and why Greece's unemployment has soared to 21pc.

At the same time the banking system seized up. More than €60bn of deposits were withdrawn. By November, no Greek bank could issue a letter of credit accepted anywhere in the world, with calamitous implications for trade. "Greece became a leper, and is now stuck in Catch-22," said one official.

Hellenic Petroleum was unable to import basic fuel. The reason why Greece's reliance on oil imports from Iran jumped from 15pc to 70pc in a two-week period in November was because Tehran agreed to take on the credit risk."

Britain could be stripped of AAA credit rating within a year

Telegraph
"Moody’s, which changed the rating of nine European sovereigns after the markets closed in America, said Britain was exposed to “any further deterioration in European economic conditions and financial landscape.”

France and Austria were also warned that their AAA credit rating status had been changed to negative outlook. Moody’s guidelines state that a negative outlook could lead to a credit downgrade within 12 to 18 months. Italy, Portugal and Spain also had their credit ratings downgraded.

In a statement last night George Osborne said Moody’s action was a “reality check for anyone who thinks Britain can duck confronting its debts.”

Democracy is ending in the land where it began

Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"The latest contribution to this tragi-farce, it seems, is Sir Mervyn King’s decision to roll the printing presses and conjure a further £50 billion of imaginary money out of thin air. As Fraser Nelson explained in Friday’s Daily Telegraph, this will keep interest rates on annuities at rock-bottom, and thus rob Britain’s pensioners of an estimated £74 billion.

So our pensioners’ money will be disappearing into a bottomless pit of debt, not least to help save the euro, which the EU cannot allow Greece to leave, because this might set off a domino effect, bringing down in turn all those other eurozone countries that have run up debts they cannot repay, and plunging Europe’s and the world’s economy into unimaginable chaos."

Quantitative easing: Pensioners are paying the price for Sir Mervyn’s 'funny money’

Telegraph
"The uncomfortable truth is that not even the experts know for sure. Britain has become a massive laboratory for the biggest experiment in money-printing the modern world has ever seen. There are only a handful of certainties: that debtors have it a little easier, that the banks are lending a little more freely. But pensioners are retiring with far lower incomes, and millions will be poorer now and for ever as a result.

It could well be that Sir Mervyn is right in his unspoken calculation that extra pensioner poverty is a price worth paying. Mr Osborne may well be right that the Government’s squeeze on incomes is a price worth paying to avoid higher unemployment. But in a democracy, it is odd that such an orchestrated transfer of wealth from savers to borrowers can be carried out without anyone admitting what’s going on. Another banking collapse would be calamitous for Britain, and it is the Chancellor’s duty to do what he thinks is best for the economy. But it is also his duty to be honest about who is paying the price."

Jane Merrick: Mine's a pint of Everything in Proportion

Independent
"The response appeared divided along party lines: almost all the female MPs who protested were Labour, and almost all the women who defended the name and branding were Tories. This is a recurring theme: for many Labour women, themselves elected because of all-women shortlists, it is quotas that are the answer to equality. Women, it seems to them, are an oppressed minority, rather than what we are, which is more than half the population. If you start from a position of oppression, then isn't the equality argument already lost before it starts?"

Bank of England to print further £50 billion

Telegraph
"The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is set to announce on Thursday that it is expanding its Quantitative Easing programme from £275bn to £325bn."

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