What made you feel good today

[irv_b]

WMMFGT
I went to give blood today and although I had an appointment had to wait for 3/4 of an hour. I waited quit happily knowing that people were still prepared to do altruistic things (they said so many came without appointments). Well done to the peeps of Croydon & Beckenham 

[magicrhodes]

The boiler has been on for nearly 24hrs now.... shhh but I think it is fixed!

[Graham]

The boiler has been on for nearly 24hrs now.... shhh but I think it is fixed!

Err...Is it suposed to make that clunking noise?
                           Graham.

[Forseti]

Well it's not made me personally feel good as I'm not affected, but from what I've been reading in the past on this and other forums this should certainly make a lot of others feel extremely good. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/12/stop-and-search-ruled-illegal 

[ABERS]

I expect I'm in a minority of one here, but I'm fed up with this interference by a court in another part of the world in the way we run our country. These cases are usually bought by wishy washy liberals who at the slightest opportunity cry foul and are aided and abetted by shyster lawyers on the make.

The worst thing we have ever done was to sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights, providing a charter to those that have very little interest in any issue other than their own agenda and hate campaign against the police; who, they are all too ready to run to in any situation where not 'their human rights' are infringed but their physical rights are threatened.

Rant over!  

[picsfor]

No please - do not feel you have to stop.

Human Rights Act? The only people who seem to benefit from it are Illegal Immigrants, Convicted Criminals, Career Criminals, their lawyers - oh and lest i forget, i seem to recall one Cherie Blair doing more than nicely (at the tax payers expense you should note) out of taking the UK Government to court for its breaches of the Human Rights Act - the very Act her other half had gone to great lengths to introduce across the board. I'd like to have been the fly on that wall during conversations... Conflict of interest by any chance?

There - your rant has been seconded!

[Hinfrance]

Actually guys, I think the worst thing that the UK has done in recent history is not join the Euro . . .

And I think that by and large the EU Court have got it right. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act is an abomination in a democratic society, not because such powers are never required, but because in the UK they have been used by plod as a catch all response enabling them to interfere with and arrest anyone they take an instant dislike to.

For some reason giving the UK plod and jobsworths an inch leads to them taking a mile.

I'm afraid that the House of Lords and the EU Court have become the only backstops available to the UK in political and legal matters to prevent what would otherwise have long since amounted to little more than an elected dictatorship.

The Human Rights Act doesn't seem to have the same deleterious effect on other EU countries when it comes to dealing with undesirables; no, the problem lies fairly and squarely within the UK legal system and the ridiculous interpretations they place on legislation both national and pan European. We have the same EU laws here in France as you do, but they never cause they system here the slightest problem. Why do you suppose it is that all the ne'er do wells end up in the UK? It's because they are systematically ejected without undue ceremony from the countries on the EU mainland. It's the UK legal system's interpretation of laws that had led to Londonstan.

Just as an aside, did you know that the UK's statute book is more than 4 times the size of the French one? The labour government has created more than 3000 entirely new criminal offences since they came to office, and there is no sign of a let up.

In short, you are blaming the wrong people for the ills that afflict the UK - it is all self inflicted. Blaming the EU is just a cheap excuse. And what's more a dangerous one, because as long as you allow your politicians and lawyers to avoid their personal responsibility by vaguely blaming some outside power, the less chance you will ever have of holding the b*stards to account for actions.

That's a rant from someone who had enough of being spied on by the government and left nearly ten years ago.

[picsfor]

That's a rant from someone who had enough of being spied on by the government and left nearly ten years ago.

Yes, all well and good for those who escaped in time - but of no help for those us "Generation X" members of the British community who appear to be stuck here!

[ABERS]

'''but because in the UK they have been used by plod as a catch all response enabling them to interfere with and arrest anyone they take an instant dislike to.


In short, you are blaming the wrong people for the ills that afflict the UK - it is all self inflicted.

Your belief that the 'plods' as you so eloquently refer to have hate agendas and target those they don't like is wrong. I have been to many demonstrations over the years, and in all that time only ever seen one arrest made. That was this year in Trafalgar Square, and the person arrested refused to clear an area when asked to do so. Everyone else had since it was obvious that there were two factions, that if not kept apart, trouble wouls ensue.

Everyone cleared the area except this rsole who kept shouting it was his right to occupy the space he was in. To the cheers of the crowd he was unceremoniously marched of to the Black Maria. I expect his human rights were infringed by people hating plods.

"In short, you are blaming the wrong people for the ills that afflict the UK - it is all self inflicted."

Not blaming anyone other than the British people, all I would like is for us to be left alone to sort it out ourselves, not by the decisions of some obscure court in Strasbourg, where the participants seem to have no idea about British culture.

Sorry to hear of your run in with the Government, obviously they were satisfied that you took self-imposed exile in France. It could have been worse, you could have chosen Belgium.

[Jonathan]

A handy guide for the easily confused..........

1. Being stoned to death for being raped is a violation of your human rights
2. Being detained indefinitely without trial or access to counsel is a violation of your human rights
3. Being tortured is a violation of your human rights
4. Being told you can't wear jewelery to school whether it's in the shape of a cross, star of David, crescent moon, ankh, pentagram or Sponge Bob Squarepants is not a violation of your human rights

Oh and while I'm at it...for any Americans viewing...freedom of speech means you can say what you want.  It does not mean you get to ignore other laws because you don't like them.

HTH

[Forseti]

Reading some of the responses has made me wonder as to whether I had posted the wrong link. Er, no, it appears to be correct so I am to take it then that examples such as:

to stop and search people without needing any grounds for suspicion.

it was disclosed that the whole of Greater London had been secretly designated for stop and search without suspicion since 2001.

the decision to stop and search somebody was "based exclusively on the 'hunch' or 'professional intuition' of the police officer".

Police did not even have to have grounds for suspecting such articles were present.

The absence of any obligation on the part of the officer to show a reasonable suspicion


are not considered to be unreasonable or worse still, to be considered a hate campaign against the Police?  I'm surprised to say the least   We've had our fair share of terrorist threats over the pond and managed to thwart several others thank goodness, but at least it hasn't become almost a crime to be seen carrying a camera or almost a hanging offence to carry a tripod.

[picsfor]

Yep, you've got it. Welcome to the UK.
What is worse is, if you are black you are almost likely to be searched for, well being black i suppose (according to the statistics) and if you are from the Middle East or Asia you are more than likely not to be searched for fear of infringing your Human Rights. And if you're white and English, Scottish or Welsh you have no rights!

Oh yes, and lest we forget - Arranged Marriages are banned under UK Statute unless you are a Shia Muslim in which case you can do what the hell you want because to refuse you would be a breach of your Human Rights. But that's Ok because they have their own courts that operate outside of the UK Law with blessing from the UK Law Makers... Oh yes - and for them, women are only equal if they agree to do as they're told - and that i got from a 'non' Shia Muslim!

Honestly, Monty Python could not have made this up let alone the original Spitting Image series or Not the Nine O' Clock news which in early days was also rather cutting.
But some religious folk still get upset when you talk about 'Life of Brian' or the NTNOCN sketch 'Life of Jesus'

I forgot to add, I / we are not Zenophobic. I've always been proud of the caring charitable nature of the British - it's just that over the last decade it has been severely abused and those born here, grown up here and worked here are finding ourselves being some what penalised by those who have been allowed in courtesy of the EU regulations or our charitable government!

The latest i hear is i may have to fore go retirement so my refugee colleagues and foreign workers (I think that's how they are termed by the EU) can enjoy the benefits of our Social Welfare system without making any contribution. I wonder if i could do the government for theft - because my pension has always been termed as "deferred wages" to be paid out when i wish to retire!

[ABERS]

Bring a stepladder on our next visit to Speakers' Corner Andrew. On second thoughts don't, those vicious plods may take a dislike to you and stitch you up!

[Jonathan]

are not considered to be unreasonable or worse still, to be considered a hate campaign against the Police?

Nope those are all pretty unreasonable not to say stupid and to a large extent pointless.

But I don't believe they are per se a breach of my human rights - or rather not just a breach of my human rights.  They are the police overstepping their power and/or our lawmakers making bad and unsound laws.  And they must be stopped.

But I believe that every time something that's just "wrong" gets called a "breach of human rights" it cheapens the notion of human rights.  For example, yes murdering somebody is a breach of their human right to life.  But it's also murder so we don't need to invoke the Human Rights Bill to take action.  Let's save those rights for the battles we need them for.

[picsfor]

But I believe that every time something that's just "wrong" gets called a "breach of human rights" it cheapens the notion of human rights...  Let's save those rights for the battles we need them for.

And that at the end of the day is what it should be.
Human Rights is an extremely sound and great set of principals upon which to base society.
It is the perverse causes they are being used for that is the problem. I do not think the founders of Human Rights envisaged their being used in the current fashion.

As for Speakers Corner Alan, far better orators than me preside there. I'll stick to taking pictures and trying not to get arrested or harangued for taking a picture like poor old Sandy did.