June 2006 Archives

The Independent on Sunday has a creepy report about Government plans for forced mass medication in Schools, for behavior modification purposes.

Brain food: Why the Government wants your child to take Omega-3, the fish oil supplement

A tiny daily capsule can have a dramatic effect on pupils who usually play up in class, improving behaviour and work. Now all youngsters may be given them. Marie Woolf and Jeremy Laurance report
Published: 11 June 2006

Schoolchildren are to be given fish oil supplements to boost their brain power and improve their behaviour and ability to concentrate under plans being considered by the Government.

Health professionals fear that youngsters do not get enough Omega-3 in a daily diet dominated by modern convenience foods. Increasingly, they believe a lack of these nutrients can contribute to poor learning, disorder and violence in the classroom.

Now government experts are to examine whether daily doses of fish oil in capsule or liquid form might help to improve classroom behaviour and exam results.

The Food Standards Agency, the Government's advisory body on food, is conducting a major review into the effect of Omega-3 fish oil supplements on children's behaviour.

Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Education, who recently met the chef Jamie Oliver to discuss nutrition in schools, has asked to see the results. "The Food Standards Agency is currently conducting a systematic review of research looking at the effect of nutrition and diet on performance and behaviour of children in schools," he said. "This includes investigating studies that have used Omega-3 and -6 fish oil supplements in schools. While this work is not yet concluded, we will of course examine its results with interest.

"The Government is committed to ensuring that children are provided with the healthy food and nutrients they require during the school day, not just to aid their physical health, but to ensure they can study hard and behave well."

[...]

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions.

Has nothing been learned over the years from debates about forced mass vaccination, water fluoridisation, vitamin enhanced free school milk etc. ?

It is astonishing that the small scale trials cited in the article are apparently being used as the basis for NuLabour Government policy. The Food Standards Agency has a job to do regarding testing the safety and quality of food,
they will no doubt be conducting a review of existing small scale trials, but they should not be be allowed to conduct large scale clinical trials on our children.

Without such large scale voluntary trials, the Government should not even be contemplating forced mass medication, in the way in which Alan Johnson's statements imply.

This is especially so, since the positive benefit which is being hypothesised is not a health benefit, but a behavioral one i.e. this is a mild form of mind control.

"Astroturf" is a brand of arttificial sports field playing surface. It is also now used to describe a "fake political grassroots movement".

Whilst these things are common in the USA, "astroturfng" was evident during the Labour Party's last General Election campaign, where various Photo Opportunities relied on hand picked audiences and fake "members of the public" applauding Tony Blair and Gordon Brown etc. all stage managed for the media.

The Labour Party seems to have, belatedly, tried to jump on both the World Cup bandwagon, and on the growing popularity of blogs, with the notorious NuLabour spin doctor Alastair Campbell pontificating on the Labour's World Cup Blog 2006 with Alastair Campbell.

This seems to be currently under heavy comment censorship as Tim Ireland posts snippets of Alastair's public domain election expense claims.

There is also the Labour's World Cup Blog 2006 with Sadiq Khan MP

Sadiq Khan is the Labour MP for Tooting in south London.

Both of these "blogs" are hosted on the offical Labour party website.

Can the idea of "astroturf" be any more clearly demonstrated than by the obviously photo-manipulated fake image of the MP's head superimopsed on an England shirt ?

Even Labour activist bloggers are embarrassed by this manipulated photo, and by the lack of genuine two way conversation with the people who have taken the trouble to bother to comment.

UPDATE 15th June:

At last the spin doctors have finally put up a more natural photo, which really does emphasise the original "astroturf" fake:

Will this be used as an example of how not to run a political blog ?

Is this what Zach Exely is being paid by NuLabour for ?

We were going to publish this earlier, and it is not wholly complete yet, - more information is welcome.

John Prescott's belated announcement that he will no longer be the "official resident" of the Dorneywood country house reminds us of all the other "Grace and Favour" houses which have traditionally been used by senior Cabinet Ministers over the years.

We do not have a problem with the concept of a Government owned "tied cottage" which is conveniently close by a Minister's Departmental offices, on the grounds of security and cost. Some of the premises have been donated to British Government by their previous owners, and some have trust funds which pay for most of their upkeep, but others have trust funds which are subsidised by the public purse..

The massively increased security costs of such premises have cost the taxpayer millions e.g. the fitting of bullet and blast resistant windows and curtains, CCTV surveillance and intruder alarms, secure government communications systems etc.

Remember that Cabinet Ministers are Members of Parliament, and they all have at least two private homes as well, in their constituencies and in London..

The strange Cabinet re-shuffle of the 4th of May 2006 mean that the "Grace and Favour" residences are now no longer simply associated with the traditional Cabinet posts as in the past.

The BBC reports that Minister's wife takes over Ofsted

A government minister's wife has been appointed as the new chief inspector of schools in England.

Former head teacher Christine Gilbert is married to Home Office minister Tony McNulty. The Department for Education and Skills has denied "cronyism".

[...]

Is she really the only former headmaster or headmistress who could have been promoted to this job ? Did being married to a Blairite Minister like Tony McNulty really have no bearing on the appointment ?

What chance is there that anyone will believe yje independence of any of her inspection reports, into, say, the controversial Academy Schools, which are at the heart of the NuLabour "cash / loans / Government subsidies for peerages" scandals ?

Today's Observer story which alleges not just NuLabour sleaze but actual corruption in the Home Office,

Cash for asylum scandal hits Reid

Blow to Home Secretary as police investigate widespread racket claims

Mark Townsend and Jamie Doward
Sunday June 4, 2006
The Observer

Police are investigating dozens of allegations relating to a large-scale 'cash-for-asylum' racket among Home Office immigration officials, The Observer can reveal.

Scotland Yard officers seconded to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's security and anti-corruption unit have revealed they are holding inquiries into a series of claims that government officials are accepting a 'going rate' of up to £4,000 in return for residency status.

In the first indication of the extent of possible criminality among Home Office immigration staff, one Metropolitan Police officer described levels of corruption among elements of IND staff as 'endemic'. The allegations come two weeks after The Observer revealed the case of a senior IND official who was offering asylum to a Zimbabwean teenager in return for sexual favours.

Officers are currently conducting around 50 'live investigations' relating to corruption allegations involving Home Office staff, a proportion of which involve asylum applicants buying residency status to remain in Britain. So far this year alone, six IND staff have been dismissed for giving applicants 'leave to remain' status in the UK without being able to justify their decision to investigating officers.

Other recent cases include an Eritrean man who was working for the Home Office as a contractor but was convicted after police discovered he had bought a fake passport from 'a man in a pub'. Another government employee stole several thousand pounds worth of support tokens designated for asylum seekers. 'We're firing people left right and centre,' said an officer seconded to the IND unit, which is dedicated to eradicating corruption within the immigration system.

[...]

This story surely must cast further doubts on the competence of Tony McNulty, who was, incedibly, moved sideways to Policing, Security and Public Order, but not fired, as a Minister of State when he was in charge of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

The Sunday Times reports:

The Sunday Times June 04, 2006

Ex-minister ignored rule and took job as lobbyist

A FORMER defence minister has been criticised by a Whitehall vetting committee for accepting a job as a defence industry lobbyist without seeking official permission, writes Robert Winnett.

Ivor Caplin, who stood down at the last election, has taken lobbying jobs with two companies — Foresight Communications and MBDA Missile Systems — in breach of the ministerial code.

Foresight, run by Mark Adams, Tony Blair’s former private secretary, represents the £20 billion Eurofighter jet project and MBDA is an American missile company.

Former ministers are expected to inform Whitehall’s advisory committee on business appointments before accepting such employment offers. Section 5.29 of the ministerial code states: “On leaving office, ministers should seek advice from the . . . committee . . . about any appointments they wish to take up within two years of leaving office.”

The committee has criticised Caplin for accepting the appointments without seeking its advice.

[...]

Will the proposed new Corruption Bill currently going through Parliament ever be applied to these cosy arrangements, rather than the non-statutory Ministerial Code of Practice, breach of which does not seem to have any penalties whatsoever, apart from some publicity ?

Every firm of political lobbyists like Foresight Communications claims to be "ethical", but "they would say that, wouldn't they" ? What exactly does Ivor Caplin have to offer ?

Ivor Caplin, Senior Consultant

Ivor was a Defence Minister and Labour Member of Parliament for Hove until the 2005 General Election.

[...]

He is able to offer Foresight's clients genuine insights into the workings of the Government.

MBDA Missile Systems is jointly owned by EADS (Neterlands), BAE Systems (UK) and Finmechanica (Italy), i.e. three major European international Defence Contractors involved in the Eurofighter project.