January 2009 – Obama as Lincoln......October 2009 – Obama as Nixon????

The Lovely Mrs P's Recipe For Spiced Apple Chutney

We have had a surfeit of apples so The Lovely Mrs P has made some SPICED APPLE CHUTNEY......

Makes about 2 or 3 250ml/9 fluid oz jars

• 500g/18 oz apples
• 1 medium onion
• 2 birds eye red chillies
• 250g/9oz Demerara sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice (not mixed spice)
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• half teaspoon sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 heaped tablespoon chopped or grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 350 ml/12 fluid oz cider vinegar

1. Peel and roughly chop the apples and finely chop the onion.
2. Seed the chillies and chop finely
3. Put all ingredients in a pan and bring to boil
4. Cook over a medium heat for 30/40 minutes until mixture thickens
5. Spoon into jars and, when cool, place in store cupboard

Toby Harnden Is Still The Joke He Has Always Been

Ignore Toby Harnden. How apparently shrewd businessmen like the Barclay Brothers can pay this man thousands of pounds a year to sit in front of CNN and then regurgitate their take on US politics absolutely beats me. At the very least you might have expected him to take a day or so to reflect on a range of possible outcomes for Palin after her shock resignation. But that’s not for our Toby – he jumps in feet first even quicker than Thomas M deFrank of the dying New York Daily News. After all Toby knows far more about AGIA, building codes and the Law of the Sea than “an intellectually idle, self-absorbed, overweeningly ambitious empty vessel” like Palin....

Very few of the US punditry and even fewer of the Brits (except Toby Harnden, of course) have much knowledge of Alaskan politics – it’s like asking David Frum about UKIP – so take anything they say with a pinch of salt. Just remember that Palin, although a Republican, ran against the GOP establishment and won because the good ‘ol boys were mired in corruption. Ever wonder why the Alaska GOP never defended her against the unhinged rantings of Celtic Diva and her cronies and the groundless ethics complaints? Why State Senator Ramras is pushing against AGIA? Because they were hoping that she would not stand down before 2010 and they could slide one of their own into the Governor’s Mansion via some wheeler dealing in the primaries. By handing over to Lt Gov Parnell now she gives him well over a year to get settled in office and ensures he gets a flying start in the primaries. This allows her to help like minded Palin Republicans gain some traction for the next round of legislative elections.

Until the VP nomination her relationship with Alaska Democrats was fairly relaxed. Although she had R after her name she was perceived as a kind of bipartisan Governor. This ended immediately after the Republican Convention. Her speech sucked the oxygen out of the Obama campaign. McCain’s poll numbers leapt and money poured in. Axelrod orders went out to the Alaska Democrats that Palin needed to be destroyed. The MSM was mobilised and hundreds of reporters were sent to Alaska to dig for dirt (far more than were ever sent to Chicago) and Axelrod’s efforts helped to create and sustain an avalanche of hate and vituperation unsurpassed even in the murky world of Alaskan politics.

Harnden and other commentators have made much of the recent Vanity Fair hit piece by the left wing ex NYT hack Todd Purdum. In fact it’s a shallow, poorly researched rehash of disdainful comments about Palin from anonymous McCain campaign staffers plus a handful of interviews with Alaskans who have an axe to grind about her. Like most of the Conde Nast magazine empire VF is losing circulation and advertising revenue by the bucketload. I don’t imagine many copies are bought in WalMart. But the pundits and style gurus love it so they imagine the whole of America hangs on it’s words.

What Palin chooses to do on the national scene is up to her. We do know that over the last few months she had had thousands of requests to do interviews, fundraisers and overseas engagements. I would guess that next week the local post office will have to use more staff to deliver the invitations. Republican incumbents and hopefuls will be selling their souls for her endorsement. Whatever she chooses to do about the White House in 2012 she will become the de facto leader of the GOP.

This woman is not a conventional politician. She ignores the rule book. The Beltway pundits and the party hacks can’t fit her into any pigeon hole. She makes their heads explode. But when she went to Auburn recently, a blue district in a blue state, 20,000 people turned up just to watch her take part in a charity walk. They didn’t come to see and hear the Governor of Alaska. They came to see Sarah Palin.

As Barry Goldwater Jr said of her “She's attractive. She's smart. She got the right message and she doesn't take any crap from anybody.” In an America rapidly falling out of love with an over hyped snake oil salesman from Chicago that message might just start resonating with people outside the conservative base.

Sorry, Toby – I think you might well be seeing a lot more of Mrs Palin than you think...time maybe for a liitle bit more valium?

GLENYS KINNOCK - ANOTHER IDEAL ZOMBIE FOR BROWN'S GOVERNMENT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Another corpse to join Brown’s government of the living dead. The Rule of the Zombies...it’s like an episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” but, unfortunately, according to the DT it’s really true....

Glenys Kinnock, the wife of the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, was appointed Europe minister in a move hurriedly announced by Gordon Brown during his press conference.
She will be made a peer and replaces Caroline Flint, who announced her resignation while Mr Brown was taking questions from reporters - 18 hours after endorsing him and saying she would stay put.
Mrs Kinnock, 64, has been an MEP for Wales for the past 15 years and was a party spokesman in the European Parliament on International Development.

Will she add value to this gang of deadbeats? Unlikely seeing she was reported as being one of the worst performing MEPs.

Still she will certainly fit in well with rest of the snouts-in-trough freeloaders in the Labour Government because in 2004 she had her own little expenses scam going in the infamous Sign in/Sod off extravaganza

GLENYS Kinnock was last night embroiled in an EU expenses “scam” that is costing taxpayers millions of pounds.The Euro MP wife of ex-Labour leader Neil was filmed “clocking on” for non-existent parliamentary sessions so she could claim a £175 allowance.Mrs Kinnock whose salary is £56,358 a year plus lucrative expenses is said to have made £4,550 from the practice.And she is among 36 British MEPs caught in a two-year probe in Brussels.

Even better her response obviously became the template answer for most Parliamentary fiddlers in the current fiasco.

She has broken no rules and has got nothing to hide

In other words just the sort of person we need to help Gordon sort out the expenses scandal....

THE FRIGHTENING REALITY OF NORTH KOREA

The ultimate goal of Marxism - the total subjugation of the individual. Watch this and feel the cold dark chill of fear....

MPs - We have had enough of you. Pack your bags and Go Now....

Those thoughtful chaps at The Grauniad have been chatting with other opinion formers in NW1 and have decided that The People's Voice needs to be heard. Brown must go and we the sweaty multitude can hasten to the hustings to seal the deal - after our betters have decided, of course, what is best for us.
Now what is best for us is proportional representation and fixed term parliaments and a constitutional convention and a referendum and all of it designed by a consortium of sundry academics with names like Vernon Bogdanor, glitterati like Polly Toynbee and a House of Commons where the majority of members and their spouses, parents, children and lovers have been having a whale of a time with money taken from our wallets and purses by HMRC.

Apparently we are not bright enough to make those decisions off our own bat over the next few weeks because an election now would "see Britain stumble into the future without any idea where it will lead". We need to be led by the motley crowd of crooks and spongers who have brought Parliament into disrepute.

The fact is that the chattering classes are scared witless because at this moment in time they have lost control. The absolute contempt that ordinary people hold for the political class also spreads to the media class because we know that they also knew about the scams and the lies and the hypocrisy.

So let's ignore the pathetic pleas from the Guardianistas. This stinking cesspit of a Parliament needs to slither away in shame within weeks and the next 60 days spent in getting constituency parties to either reselect or appoint new candidates and then we elect a new Parliament of clean men and women with a doctor's mandate to purge the shame.

Forget precedent - hold a general Election on the first Thursday of September - let the people speak.

Amazing Grace

The last few days of Britains Got Talent 2009 and suddenly the media is whipping up a backlash against Susan Boyle and pushing young Shaheen...but maybe the public are not buying into the hype about stage school Shaheen because in Tuesdays semi final they voted for comedy father and son duo Stavros Flatley forcing the judges to push the boy singer into the final as a last minute "judge's choice"

But the real star of Tuesday's show wasn't even one of the competitors. It was thirteen year old Faryl Smith from last years BGT who returned to do a solo spot singing Amazing Grace. She didn't win the 2008 title (she came fourth)but her career has blossomed and her recent album not only became one of the biggest selling classical albums ever in the UK but has also sold quite well in the USA.

Has Faryl got talent????


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