'Fu**ing nutjobs'

In the rush of the modern, twitter based political commentary, I've seen some half-baked and half-arsed analysis of yesterday's atrocity in London. From outright religious hatred, to blaming Tony Blair and UK foreign policy, the various crazies and loons who seem to dominate the internet have been out in force, pouring forth their nonsense as if they're holding the world on to their every utterance.

The most insightful comment I saw was, as the title of this post suggests, that the people who did this were (and forgive the language, but it's necessary on such occasions) 'fucking nutjobs'.

No doubt it will all be discussed in every little detail, pouring huge attention on to the attackers, which is what they want. Undoubtedly there are serious and legitimate questions to answer, like how do we prevent more people from being radicalised in the future, how do we tackle the preaching of hate, and extremism in general. Those things will happen.

In the meantime, lets not give this awful act the credence of a just cause, however twisted and sick decent people may find such causes which drive people to take a life. Lets not promote their message, which gives the murderers the attention they crave and the platform they did this awful thing to achieve.

The best thing we can do now is to mourn for the innocent soldier who was brutally murdered, and his family and friends coming to terms with their loss, and scornfully denounce the awful people who did such a terrible thing as the 'fucking nutjobs' they clearly are.

On the sad news of the passing of Lady Thatcher

This is the statement I have issued on behalf of Copeland Conservative Association, of which I am Chairman, following the terribly sad news that Lady Thatcher passed away this morning.

“I grew up in the 80s and 90s in a Britain very much made by Mrs Thatcher. I will forever be thankful for the example she set for people like me, showing that in spite of whom you are or where you are from anybody can, like her, be great and achieve great things. She was and will always be an inspiration to me, and I am immensely saddened to hear of her passing. Copeland and Britain are better for what she achieved. The thoughts of the entire Association are with her family and in particular her children, Sir Mark and Carol Thatcher, at this difficult time.”

The comfortably-off hippies of South Lakes are coming after our future

Emboldened by their 'success' when the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) process was rejected by Cumbria County Council, the hippies of South Lakes are coming after Sellafield.  I warned about this - that the core opposition to the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely process was plain and simple anti-nuclear - in the piece I wrote for the Sellafield Workers Campaign here.

There is now a march on Sellafield planned for this Saturday, and petitions and letters urging the Government to halt reprocessing at, and waste shipments to, Sellafield (see the Whitehaven News here). 

So, as so many of us knew, opposition to the MRWS process and waste siting in general was a vehicle to attack the nuclear industry.  It always has been. 

This amounts to nothing less than a complete and all out attack on the economy, sustainability and future of West Cumbria. The cost of their success will be to consign West Cumbria, its communities, families and people to the scrap-heap.

So, this Saturday the comfortably-off hippies of South Lakes are coming after Sellafield, and our livelihood. We in West Cumbria should tell Marianne Birkby and her ilk where to shove it.

Damaging what they aim to save

I've written a short piece on the MRWS vote tomorrow for the Sellafield Worker's Campaign.  The jist of it is that the over-hyping and scaremongering by those opposed to going any further with the geological study of West Cumbria might well be damaging the very thing they profess to want to save.

See here for the pieceon the SWC's website