The US and UK forces have so far been unable to find any WMD in Iraq but the UK appears to be awash with them. Maybe they’ve been looking in the wrong place all along.
For any prospective weapons inspector, despotic regime or international terrorists, here’s a brief guide to Weapons of Mass Destruction in the UK.
1. Faslane Naval Base
Sadam’s Scuds may have gone rusty but the UK has some of the finest Nukes money can buy. And there’s no carting these guys around on clapped out pick-ups Britain’s Trident missiles glide around the globe in state of the art submarines.
2. RAF Brize Norton
They’ve got Tornados, Hawks, Harriers, Blackhawks, the odd B52 in the mating season and if you’re really lucky you’ll catch a Stealth stopping off on its way to more exotic climes.
3. Defence Systems and Equipment International Arms Fair (DSEi)
This is an annual jamboree for all those who produce and procure weird and wonderful ways to blow people to bits or torture them slowly. There really is something for everyone at this arms expo taking place this September in London.
You may not be able to find a canister of sarin gas but you’ll certainly be able to pick up some daisy-cutter bombs which are much more reliable when it comes to dishing out death and destruction. What’s more you’ll be able to rub shoulders with representatives of some of the most repressive regimes in the world. Remember, today’s client is tomorrows rogue state.
4. Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston
The centre of Britain’s nuclear weapons industry since the 1950s they’ve seen it all here, from the heady days of the cold war to the current climate of free enterprise in the nuclear sector. If you’re after warheads these are the fellas, they’ve knocked out Chevaline, We177 and Trident in their time and will undoubtedly do a bit of custom-made work.
5. Porton Down
They’ve been in the Chemical and Biological weapons game for 85 years down at Porton Down. Once famous for their phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas they can confidently lay claim to having gassed the Iraqi Kurds before Sadam Hussein was even born. Porton was also once home to the late ‘Chemical’ David Kelly so get down there quick before more of their employees end up dead in the woods.
Pretty much any military base in the UK has some form of WMD although they don’t always call them that. A depleted uranium tipped shell is just as effective against a civilian population as a dose of anthrax, probably more so when you think that a gas mask aint a lot of good against a cluster bomb.
Saturday, August 23, 2003
Sunday, July 27, 2003
The following is a response from the Mayor of London's office to my Blog on Planning Gains:
Dear Mr Rogers
Thank you for your email to Ken Livingstone on the subject of planning obligations. You may not know this but the provisions for entering into legal agreement for the interest of good town planning were introduced into planning in 1971, now known as s. 106 of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act.
They are the principal means for securing town planning objectives that are set by elected politicians. The Mayor does not however have the power to enter into a s. 106 planning obligation but is very supportive when London Councils do so.
The use of planning obligations is defined by Government guidance called circular 1/97. In it, the Government makes clear that an obligation should be necessary (i.e. planning permission couldn't be given without it) and any benefit of it must relate to the developemnt under application is scale and kind. It is only when applications are deemed acceptable in the first place that a legal agreement can be entered into to secure provision which needs to be in place before the development can take place. The provisions are widely used for the procurement of new paving, bus infrastructure, affordable housing, public transport, land swaps etc etc.
The Mayor has published guidance on the scope of legal agreements in London which can be viewed here:- http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning/docs/planning_obligations.pdf
The Mayor's support for tall buildings is because he thinks they are aesthetically pleasing and absolutely necessary to optimise the capacity of urban land. The context is that we have a housing crisis in the city and the most expensive offive rents in the world.
I hope you will find this informative. The point is that planning permission is not 'bought' as is suggested by your email and blog.
Yours sincerely
Scott Bailey
Thank you for your email to Ken Livingstone on the subject of planning obligations. You may not know this but the provisions for entering into legal agreement for the interest of good town planning were introduced into planning in 1971, now known as s. 106 of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act.
They are the principal means for securing town planning objectives that are set by elected politicians. The Mayor does not however have the power to enter into a s. 106 planning obligation but is very supportive when London Councils do so.
The use of planning obligations is defined by Government guidance called circular 1/97. In it, the Government makes clear that an obligation should be necessary (i.e. planning permission couldn't be given without it) and any benefit of it must relate to the developemnt under application is scale and kind. It is only when applications are deemed acceptable in the first place that a legal agreement can be entered into to secure provision which needs to be in place before the development can take place. The provisions are widely used for the procurement of new paving, bus infrastructure, affordable housing, public transport, land swaps etc etc.
The Mayor has published guidance on the scope of legal agreements in London which can be viewed here:- http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning/docs/planning_obligations.pdf
The Mayor's support for tall buildings is because he thinks they are aesthetically pleasing and absolutely necessary to optimise the capacity of urban land. The context is that we have a housing crisis in the city and the most expensive offive rents in the world.
I hope you will find this informative. The point is that planning permission is not 'bought' as is suggested by your email and blog.
Yours sincerely
Scott Bailey
Saturday, July 19, 2003
Key quotes: Tony Blair's speech to US Congress
“History had better forgive us, because nobody else will…..”
Blair on ... freedom
Our ultimate weapon is not our guns but our beliefs and like Sadam’s weapons we have no idea what or where they are.
Our values are the universal values of the human spirit and anywhere, any time, ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same. McDonalds, Starbucks, Coca Cola
The spread of freedom is the best security for the free. And it’s great for capitalism.
America's role in the world
Tell the world why you're proud of America. Being American means being free, fat and illiterate. That's what makes you proud.
The 'war on terror'
In another part of the globe, there is shadow and darkness, where the Dark Lord Voldermort reigns, where not all the world is free, where many millions suffer under brutal dictatorship; where a fanatical strain of religious extremism has arisen, that place is No. 10 Downing Street and you must come round for tea some time, I rather think you’d like it.
WMDs
The risk is that terrorism and states developing weapons of mass destruction come together, rather like Britain and America.
We know there are states in the Middle East now actively funding and helping terrorism, we know because we helped and funded them. Some of these states are desperately trying to acquire nuclear weapons, but they won’t find any weapons grade uranium in Niger, the idiots, and if they want it from us they’ll have to pay for it.
The Iraq war (if Saddam was not developing WMDs)
If we are wrong, which we almost definetly are, so what. Were we supposed to tell people the truth? That he had no weapons, that we wanted the oil and a stronghold in the region. That is something I am confident history will forgive, because nobody else will.
America and Europe
To be a serious partner, Europe must take on and defeat the crass anti-Americanism that sometimes passes for its political discourse. It’s time those cheese-eating surrender monkeys and the jack-booted krauts learnt to toe the line and do what you big-mouthed fat-arsed yanks tell ‘em to.
email: soapbox_cabaret@hotmail.com
Blair on ... freedom
Our ultimate weapon is not our guns but our beliefs and like Sadam’s weapons we have no idea what or where they are.
Our values are the universal values of the human spirit and anywhere, any time, ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same. McDonalds, Starbucks, Coca Cola
The spread of freedom is the best security for the free. And it’s great for capitalism.
America's role in the world
Tell the world why you're proud of America. Being American means being free, fat and illiterate. That's what makes you proud.
The 'war on terror'
In another part of the globe, there is shadow and darkness, where the Dark Lord Voldermort reigns, where not all the world is free, where many millions suffer under brutal dictatorship; where a fanatical strain of religious extremism has arisen, that place is No. 10 Downing Street and you must come round for tea some time, I rather think you’d like it.
WMDs
The risk is that terrorism and states developing weapons of mass destruction come together, rather like Britain and America.
We know there are states in the Middle East now actively funding and helping terrorism, we know because we helped and funded them. Some of these states are desperately trying to acquire nuclear weapons, but they won’t find any weapons grade uranium in Niger, the idiots, and if they want it from us they’ll have to pay for it.
The Iraq war (if Saddam was not developing WMDs)
If we are wrong, which we almost definetly are, so what. Were we supposed to tell people the truth? That he had no weapons, that we wanted the oil and a stronghold in the region. That is something I am confident history will forgive, because nobody else will.
America and Europe
To be a serious partner, Europe must take on and defeat the crass anti-Americanism that sometimes passes for its political discourse. It’s time those cheese-eating surrender monkeys and the jack-booted krauts learnt to toe the line and do what you big-mouthed fat-arsed yanks tell ‘em to.
email: soapbox_cabaret@hotmail.com
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
TELL US ABOUT THE PLANNING GAIN KEN
So we're about to get another glass and steel phallus buggering the skyline of London, the Guardian tells us today. Nothing unusual there except that this one is causing a stink because its parked right outside the front door of our beloved Tate Modern. Shock horror how could this happen to one of the most historically important and culturally sensitive parts of London.
Our self-styled man of the people Mayor, Ken Livingstone can't wait to get the thing up and says it's all a matter of "a person's aesthetic values". He thinks it'll balance things up and make a bit more of a lovely concrete cluster. Bollocks Ken, its not about aesthetics its about money, or rather to be polite, Planning Gain.
When a site is granted planning permission it automatically gains value and a slice of that increased value can be paid to the local authority as a kind of compensation. This is called Planning Gain.
When Old Spitalfields Market was given permission to be redeveloped Tower Hamlets pocketed over 20 million quid in planning gains in the form of 118 social houses, specialist community training and other titbits. Ken was keen for that one too.
When I was sniffing around the Spitalfields development one interested party told me that Mayor Red Ken couldn't green light the big developments quick enough because he needed those planning gains effectively to pay for his manifesto pledges which he doesn't actually have any money of his own to pay for.
Come election time next year Ken and his staff on executive salaries will be busily counting up all the housing for key workers, training programmes, play schemes etc paid for by the likes of Balfour Beaty and co. and trumpeting those figures as evidence of his success.
It's time Ken was put on the spot and made to come clean about how he has effectively sold off large chunks of London to property developers in order to help himself get re-elected. And I wouldn't mind knowing who exactly these "affordable homes" that are part of the bankside development are affordable for? Certainly not the likes of me nor most people I know.
Make a handy pied-a-terre for City Hall though.
emai: soapbox_cabaret@hotmail.com
Our self-styled man of the people Mayor, Ken Livingstone can't wait to get the thing up and says it's all a matter of "a person's aesthetic values". He thinks it'll balance things up and make a bit more of a lovely concrete cluster. Bollocks Ken, its not about aesthetics its about money, or rather to be polite, Planning Gain.
When a site is granted planning permission it automatically gains value and a slice of that increased value can be paid to the local authority as a kind of compensation. This is called Planning Gain.
When Old Spitalfields Market was given permission to be redeveloped Tower Hamlets pocketed over 20 million quid in planning gains in the form of 118 social houses, specialist community training and other titbits. Ken was keen for that one too.
When I was sniffing around the Spitalfields development one interested party told me that Mayor Red Ken couldn't green light the big developments quick enough because he needed those planning gains effectively to pay for his manifesto pledges which he doesn't actually have any money of his own to pay for.
Come election time next year Ken and his staff on executive salaries will be busily counting up all the housing for key workers, training programmes, play schemes etc paid for by the likes of Balfour Beaty and co. and trumpeting those figures as evidence of his success.
It's time Ken was put on the spot and made to come clean about how he has effectively sold off large chunks of London to property developers in order to help himself get re-elected. And I wouldn't mind knowing who exactly these "affordable homes" that are part of the bankside development are affordable for? Certainly not the likes of me nor most people I know.
Make a handy pied-a-terre for City Hall though.
emai: soapbox_cabaret@hotmail.com
Monday, July 07, 2003
Comedy Terrorism
Since Aaron Barschak, 'the royal party intruder', got the party games going at Prince William's 21st birthday bash by donning a toga and sporting a false beard and promptly got arrested, his antics have been splashed over every paper in the land, caused heated debate in parliament, and now a top ranking Peeler has lost his job.
He claims to be a comedy terrorist and suddenly inteligence chiefs and newspaper editors are wondering about the nature of the previously unheard of spectre and whether it threatens to undermine the very fabric of the state.
Aaron, god bless him, has been at this for some time and has been working up the big one gradually. Hats off to him. Pierce Brosnan nearly decked him when he stormed on stage at the National Film Theatre, he deserves his moment of glory. But Comedy Terrorism this aint.
No, the first renowned Comedy Terrorist is merely a self-publicist attempting to get punters along to his gigs in the upstairs rooms of London boozers. The good news for Aaron is that he'll probably be playing considerably better venues than the Purple Turtle on Essex Road for a few months at least. The bad news for the real comedy terrorists is that they must reclaim their movement, and take advantage of the moment the laughing Osama has provided.
Comedy Terrorism is not about self-publicity.
It is based on the idea that by lampooning the powers of imperialism and oppression we will shame them. It is about having conviction and ideas. Comedy is just a tool to fight for justice and freedom.
Comedy Terrorists believe it is possible to be funny and be right.
The governance of our country is a joke.
George Dubya Bush is self-satirising.
New Labour spin is perfect for a song and dance revue.
So to engage in reasonable debate with these cretins is a waste of time, it legitimises them. The answer is to mock and lampoon.
To strike at the instruments of capital with a red nose on your face.
It must be remembered that a troupe of minstrels defeated the powerful Burgundian army at Berne in the middle ages and enjoy the freedom of that city to this day.
We must remember their lesson, and see Aaron Barschak's impressive stunt as the false dawn of comedy terrorism.
He claims to be a comedy terrorist and suddenly inteligence chiefs and newspaper editors are wondering about the nature of the previously unheard of spectre and whether it threatens to undermine the very fabric of the state.
Aaron, god bless him, has been at this for some time and has been working up the big one gradually. Hats off to him. Pierce Brosnan nearly decked him when he stormed on stage at the National Film Theatre, he deserves his moment of glory. But Comedy Terrorism this aint.
No, the first renowned Comedy Terrorist is merely a self-publicist attempting to get punters along to his gigs in the upstairs rooms of London boozers. The good news for Aaron is that he'll probably be playing considerably better venues than the Purple Turtle on Essex Road for a few months at least. The bad news for the real comedy terrorists is that they must reclaim their movement, and take advantage of the moment the laughing Osama has provided.
Comedy Terrorism is not about self-publicity.
It is based on the idea that by lampooning the powers of imperialism and oppression we will shame them. It is about having conviction and ideas. Comedy is just a tool to fight for justice and freedom.
Comedy Terrorists believe it is possible to be funny and be right.
The governance of our country is a joke.
George Dubya Bush is self-satirising.
New Labour spin is perfect for a song and dance revue.
So to engage in reasonable debate with these cretins is a waste of time, it legitimises them. The answer is to mock and lampoon.
To strike at the instruments of capital with a red nose on your face.
It must be remembered that a troupe of minstrels defeated the powerful Burgundian army at Berne in the middle ages and enjoy the freedom of that city to this day.
We must remember their lesson, and see Aaron Barschak's impressive stunt as the false dawn of comedy terrorism.