News

This is ridiculous!

War veterans banned from flying flag over fears they may hurt themselves
War veterans could be banned from flying the union flag over a town hall because of health and safety fears they may hurt themselves when hoisting the standard.

By Richard Savill
Last Updated: 5:16PM BST 25 Jul 2008

Royal British Legion members in Calne, Wilts, have campaigned for months for the right to hoist the flag over the town hall, amid opposition from councillors.

They believed they had won the battle when the council agreed to consider handing over control of the flag to the Legion.

However, the Legion says the council has now produced a 50-point health and safety document which would prevent anyone with specified physical ailments from accessing the town hall roof.

The criteria rules out most members of the local Legion branch, as they are aged over 60. Younger members are employed and the Legion said they would not have the time to do maintenance and raise the flag.

John Ireland, a local councillor, who is also the Legion branch chairman, said: “We have fought bravely and many of us risked our lives in a world war so we are perfectly capable of going up a ladder a few feet to put a flag up on a roof.

“It is absolutely ridiculous to be talking about health and safety. All the council is trying to do is find excuses to stop us flying the flag.”

Accusing the council of “sneaky” behaviour, he added: “What they gave in one hand, they took away in the other, knowing full well that none of us are fit enough to match those rules.”

Margaret Russell, the Legion branch treasurer, said: “The whole point is that we want to show the people of the town and the brave families of those who died, and troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, that we are proud of them.

“The only thing which represents them is the flag and the town hall is the best place to put that.

“The council has tried to prevent us from doing this and the health and safety rules are just the latest hurdle they have put in our way.”

Last November, the 19-member council rejected Mr Ireland’s proposal to fly the flag permanently over the town hall.

Opponents cited the pounds 80 annual cost as a concern and said the flag would lose significance if flown every day.

The council later agreed to consider handing control of the flag pole to the Legion. This meant the Legion would cover the cost.

However the council has since produced a health and safety report which members must consider before voting on the proposal.

It says the physical and psychological well-being of anyone seeking permission to gain access to the roof should be considered, and lists several ailments including heart problems, asthma, high or low blood pressure, a fear of heights, depression, poor sight, and diabetes.

The Legion said it could not get a younger non-member to raise the flag because they would not be covered by the Legion’s pounds 10million insurance policy.

A council spokesman could not be contacted for comment yesterday (Fri).

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/2459768/War-veterans-banned-from-flying-flag-over-fears-they-may-hurt-themselves.html

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Update: Thursday 26th June 2008.

Mirror: Queenie Queenie of England, how COULD Mugabe ever be a (k)nightie?

Queen: Oh, my darling…you know what the “politics” was during the 1980’s…  peoples of Africa…how could I oversee them…that’s discrimination! you know!

World Rebuke of Mugabe Grows
Please click HERE to read the article on the site of the TIME.

UK parties united against Mugabe

So…England: My question stays: WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT!!! YOU PUT THIS MAN INTO POWER!!! GET RID OF HIM!! YOU CAN, BUT…ARE YOU TOO MUCH OF A COWARD TO DO IT!?? DON’T TELL ME YOU CANNOT “interfere”, BECAUSE YOU CAN!!! LIKE YOU DID IN THE 1980’s!! YOU CAN AGAIN!!! SO, DO IT!!!

 

All three of Britain’s political parties have moved quickly to condemn Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe after his rival pulled out of Friday’s election over the weekend.
Mr Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been due to contest a second-round runoff on June 27th, but the latter exited the race yesterday complaining that the vote was neither free nor fair.

The move has resulted in Mr Mugabe’s regime receiving widespread criticism from the international community, with foreign secretary David Miliband outspoken in his condemnation.

He suggested Mr Mugabe cannot be considered Zimbabwe’s legitimate ruler in an interview with Sky News yesterday.

“I think Zimbabwe is being bossed by Robert Mugabe and by his henchmen and he remains the apex of power despite the fact that the people of Zimbabwe deserted him quite a long time ago,” he said.
We have reached an absolutely critical moment in the drive by the people of Zimbabwe to rid themselves of the tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabe. He has made, and his thugs have made, an election impossible.”

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague echoed the government’s position, saying it was now “clear beyond doubt” that Zimbabwe is suffering under a “criminal government” which should be “treated as such”.

Withheld recognition of the Harare government, widened EU sanctions against the Mugabe regime and a debate on Zimbabwe at the UN security council are among the measures

Nick Clegg will speak later today on terms of intervention in his first foreign policy speech as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He told BBC1’s The Politics Show that there is a “moral case” to intervene in Zimbabwe but said practical constraints make any military action “inconceivable”.

The opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claim some 86 people have been killed in violence leading up to the election run-off with 200,000 more displaced.

A statement from United Nations (UN) secretary Ban Ki-moon’s office claimed it “deeply regrets that, respite the repeated appeals of the international community, the government of Zimbabwe has failed to put in place the conditions necessary for free and fair run-off elections”.

White House spokesman Carlton Carroll said “the Mugabe regime reinforces its illegitimacy everyday”.

“The senseless acts of violence against the opposition as well as election monitors must stop.”

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice added that unless the UN security council acted strongly on the issue is stood to lose credibility.

Zimbabwe has been locked in a political crisis since the election of March 29th
Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/politics/20080623/tpl-uk-parties-united-against-mugabe-81c5b50.html

 18 June 2008. British Airways flight 6203 from Johannesburg to Durban skidded off the runway shortly after landing at Durban Airport. After landing in rainy and windy conditions the plane (a Boeing 737-200 ZS-OKD) went through a wet spot and went into a partial spin, resulting in one wheel ending up off the runway. Durban Airport was closed for a short while as the aircraft came to a halt horizontally positioned across the runway.
Six crew members and eighty seven passengers received counselling. Nobody was injured, and there was little or no damage to the aircraft.
Source: http://www.southafrica.to/transport/Airlines/British-Airways-South-Africa/2008/British-Airways-slips-runways.php5

Bullard fired for ‘racism’

 

The Sunday Times has stubbed out the flow of invective satire from its controversial, cigar-smoking newspaper columnist David Bullard.

He was fired this week after suggesting indigenous Africans would still not have invented the wheel by 2008 had white settlers not arrived and colonised Africa.

Nor, Bullard suggested, would black indigenous Africans have discovered gold or any other minerals. There would be no cars, roads, television, internet or telephones.

Instead, the “simple tribesmen” would have simply sat around in mud huts, content in their “rustic idyll”, drinking traditional beer breaking only to “indulge in a bit of ethnic cleansing”.

Bullard has authored the weekly Out to Lunch column for the past 14 years.

The Sunday Times de-scribes his column thus: “Week after week it states the obvious in language mercifully free of political correctness

“Bullard has been called a racist, arrogant, a snob, a sad middle-aged white man and told to return to the land of his birth if he hates this country so much. Since he thrives on insult and personal invective, this is music to his ears.”

Bullard told John Robbie of Talk Radio 702 on Friday morning that he had been told by Sunday Times editor Mondli Ma-khanya of his axing.

He added that he had been briefed to be a “controversial columnist”, but agreed his latest column had “pushed the boundaries”.

Makhanya told the Cape Argus he had spoken to Bullard on Tuesday to establish whe-ther the column had been “failed humour, failed satire”. 

“I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he actually believes what he wrote.

“I told him that it was extremely racist, inconsistent with the values of the Sunday Times and the Republic and extremely offensive.

“I can’t have someone on my newspaper who believes that.”
Source: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080411111610636C967343

 

Mugabe’s rival Tsvangirai pulls out of election

AND…I BLAME THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT FOR NOT DOING ANYTHING!!! YES, YOU COULD SEND PEOPLE (SOLDIERS) IN THERE…COZ YOU PUT HIM THERE!! IN 1980!!! WHAT’S GOING ON IN ZIMBABWE…IS TO BLAME THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT…!

 HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying his supporters would be risking their lives if they voted.
Speaking only hours after his opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop “genocide” in the former British colony.

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” he told reporters in Harare.

The MDC and Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot, have repeatedly accused government security forces and militia of strong-arm tactics to ensure a Mugabe victory in the June 27 poll.

The veteran leader has presided over a ruinous slide in a once prosperous economy. Millions have fled the political and economic crisis to neighbouring states.

Tsvangirai said on Sunday there was a state-sponsored plot to keep 84-year-old Mugabe in power. Mugabe has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

“We in the MDC cannot ask them (the voters) to cast their vote on June 27, when that vote could cost them their lives,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Mugabe who in the past has blamed election violence on the opposition.

But election authorities said Zimbabwe would proceed with next Friday’s poll because Tsvangirai had not officially notified them he was pulling out.

The MDC said it would send a letter to the electoral commission confirming Tsvangirai was withdrawing.

The opposition party said army helicopters were patrolling over Harare and Bulawayo, the second largest city, and that Zimbabwe was effectively under military rule.

More than 2,000 youth members of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PAF party were on the rampage, attacking citizens in central Harare, the MDC said.

U.S. CONDEMNS GOVERNMENT “THUGS”

In Washington, a White House spokesman said: “The government of Zimbabwe and its thugs must stop the violence now.”

“All parties should be able to participate in a legitimate election and not be subject to the intimidation and unlawful actions of the government, armed militias and so-called war veterans,” Carlton Carroll, a White House assistant press secretary, said in a statement.

Thabo Mbeki, president of leading regional power South Africa, said he would encourage Mugabe and Tsvangirai to discuss the political crisis.

“From our point of view it is still necessary that the political leadership of Zimbabwe should get together and find a solution to the challenges that face Zimbabwe,” said Mbeki who is mandated by regional bloc SADC to mediate between the opposition and the ZANU-PF.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, the current SADC chairman, said it was not possible to hold a free and fair election in Zimbabwe and the run-off should be postponed “to avert a catastrophe in this region”.

Tsvangirai, who himself had been detained by police five times while campaigning, said 86 MDC supporters had been killed and 200,000 displaced from their homes.

Mugabe has vowed never to turn over power to the opposition, which he brands a puppet of Britain and the United States. He has in the past denied that his security forces have been responsible for brutal actions.

Once Tsvangirai pull outs, Mugabe would then be sworn in for another five-year term. But he could face difficulties governing because the MDC won control of the parliament in a March election.

Former colonial power Britain said the people had deserted Mugabe.

“We have reached an absolutely critical moment in the drive by the people of Zimbabwe to rid themselves of the tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabe,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

The MDC earlier said that thousands of youth militia loyal to Mugabe on Sunday poured into an MDC rally in Harare. Armed with iron bars and sticks, they beat journalists and forced election observers to flee, the MDC said.

But Zimbabwe’s government denied this.

“We do not accept that those people were ZANU-PF. We know the MDC has been giving its thugs ZANU-PF regalia to create the impression that we are behind the violence,” Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said.
Source:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080622/tpl-uk-zimbabwe-election-43a8d4f.html