Conversion Therapy – Rethink Finally

11/09/2020 By David McFarlane

Earlier this month I wrote an article (Gay Conversion Therapy – Government Cop Out) reflecting back on how long we have been raising this issue and why was the government dragging its feet over putting in place measure to stop young LGBTQ people from being mentally tortured?

I reflected back on Dr Paul Miller, on Stormont’s intransigence, and how the Westminster bullies (those in a position of power and trust) seemed to feel that LGBTQ people do not count and do not need to be protected.

So I welcome that the Northern Ireland Executive is going to take the lead and develop a strategy across a number of Departments to have legislation put in place to place a ban on reparative or conversion therapy by private operations.

As I said in my previous article, conversion therapy is nothing short of ‘brain washing’, the LGBTQ community and the people in it do not need to be converted, they need to be made to feel equal within society in all aspects!

External links:

The Law is the Law

07/09/2020 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

The law is the law, or is it? According to our Prime Minister it only applies to him when it serves his needs!

I have just read ‘The Secret Barrister’s’ article “Justice League” which was published The Guardian’s Review Magazine pages 6-9 Saturday 22 August 2020.

Law - it needs to be balanced — The Law – it needs to be balanced

This is a large mouthful to say, and even to write, but it is necessary to refer to this article and draw your attention to it, as for many of us the law and parliament are inseparable! However, they are not; according to the Judges and Parliament, …The ultimate decision remains with Parliament and not the judiciary. Ultimately, the judiciary does no more, or less, under the 1998 Act than carry out its constitutional function of interpreting and applying the law enacted by Parliament. They only have such power as Parliament gave them in the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Attorney General is the link in the chain who provides guidance to parliament and the judiciary – however, a former Attorney General, Lord Mayhew of Twysden, said:

…the Attorney General has a duty to ensure that the Queen’s ministers who act in her name, or purport to act in her name, do act lawfully because it is his duty to help to secure the rule of law, the principal requirement of which is that the government itself acts lawfully.”

In his article, the Secret Barrister refers to how part of the government and also the new media seems to think that the judiciary has attempted to interfere with parliamentary actions and decision. This is a complete fallacy, for parliament to work successfully, in order to maintain parliamentary sovereignty, be some legal limit… and that is what the judiciary provide. Judicial review is not, as politicians would have the public believe, a tool by which judges overrule a political decision that they disagree with. The questions that the courts decide are those of lawfulness, applying common law principles developed over centuries.

The Secret Barrister sums up by saying …if we lose judicial independence, we lose the rule of law. The day a judge makes a binding decision affecting the rights and liberties of one of us, not on the legal and factual merits, but with a nervous glance to the press and public galleries, or with a beady eye on political favour or punishment, is the day that the decay in our democracy turns terminal….

The day that this happens is the day that the government becomes omnipotent and Big Brother becomes the order of the day.

The government must remain accountable, and the judiciary must remain independent from government.

Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind

26/07/2020 By ACOMSDave

Source: Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind

When I read this article, I had to go back and read it again – ‘Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind’ when read properly shows that both government and big business are out to control us – does this not reflect back to ‘1984’ by George Orwell

“…“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, 1984…”

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have thoroughly detailed how to go about controlling people through ‘hudges’ and not surprisingly the big names in the digital world have listened, understood and applied it ( Jeff Bezos (the founder of Amazon), Larry Page (Google), Sergey Brin (Google), Nathan Myhrvold (Microsoft), Sean Parker (Facebook), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Evan Williams (Twitter), and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia).)

But it doesn’t stop there, there is every indication that President Trump’s election team have also applied the theory to his electioneering mechanism – and it seems to have worked!

We in the UK have also seen some of the applications with the ‘Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data breach which occurred in early 2018 when millions of Facebook users’ personal data was harvested without consent by Cambridge Analytica to be predominantly used for political advertising’ (Wikipedia).

Is it not time that the human race realised what is happening and took a stand and stopped the erosion of human rights, our rights, and make an effort to clean up politics and business?

[Read more…]

The Waiting Time – Book Review

09/06/2019 By ACOMSDave

The Waiting Time - Gerald Seymour — ***The past brings a Cold Front*** –
**The Waiting Time**

Title	The Waiting Time
Place	Europe including the United Kingdom
Publication date	1998
Pages	Large format 389
Price	£9.99
Author	Gerald Seymour
Publisher	Bantam Press
Edition
Special features (maps, etc.)
ISBN	0593042492

The Waiting Time, by Gerald Seymour, is about the past, yet it is set in today. It is about a murder during the time of the ‘cold war’, when East and West were jockeying for position and power. It happens before the ‘wall’ comes down and reunification of West and West Germany, but we follow the four main characters of Dieter Krause, Tracy Burns, Albert Perkins, and Josh Mantle through their trials and tribulations as one is chasing to prevent the truth coming out, and one is searching for evidence of the truth, and one is looking for redemption, and one is being puppet master.

This is not a whodunit as we already know who got killed, and where, and when, and by whom! It is an exploration of stamina and willpower to continue with all the odds appearing to be against you, and that includes governmental agencies.

As with most stories, yu develop a sympathy for some of the characters, what is unusual in this story, is that you have sympathy for both the hunter and the prey. The hunter is trying to protect his past and his future, whilst the prey is trying to let go of the past and to pay homage. The two ancillary characters have their own motives and it is interesting to see how they play out against each other.

I would recommend reading ‘The Waiting Time, by Gerald Seymour. It is not an easy read, but it is one which engages and which is definitely worth persevering with.

Links:

Amazon – The Waiting Time
Gerald Seymour at Amazon

Homelessness

31/01/2019 By ACOMSDave

Having just written a review of The Silver Sword, which is a children’s book about running from oppressors, and having to live rough and then finally finding a home and reconnecting with parents, I was again drawn to think about homelessness; in particular how today, to be precise at 8 AM this morning as I walking to work I saw three different homeless humps in doorways in the middle of my

I know that this is not unique, indeed the incidence of rough sleepers (and within that group homelessness) has increased exponentially since the current government’s austerity policies which have impacted on everyone both directly and indirectly

This was again brought home when I read two separate articles on the BBC News site:

1 Why some Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

2 The city with no homeless on its streets

Both articles reflect on the society they are written about In Japan people of pensionable age are taking to crime so that they have somewhere warm and free to live. Having achieved pension age, they are finding that their pension is insufficent to live on, so they are forced to become “criminals”.

Whilst in ‘Finland’s capital Helsinki rough sleeping has been almost eradicated.’ due to radically thinking outside the box to provide homes, to make people feel worthwhile and whilst they are in a home helping them to come to terms with who they are, and supporting them.

The Finnish policy is being adapted by various areas of the UK, but it cannot in itself succeed unless proper funding is put in place from the national purse. And this funding needs to be sustained, just as our Health Service needs proper funding (and not the various lip service pieces which government have said about extra funding when it is not).

I don’t know the answers, I just know that as a society and as individuals we need to do more, not just walk past these human being, for they are human beings, and deserve support and recognition as.

Civil Liberties

09/01/2019 By ACOMSDave

So when should we start worrying about our ‘Civil Liberties’?

The answer is off necessity at all times. If we as a nation are not careful then we lose our civil liberties; in the past, we have had police confiscating cameras and phones being used to cover demonstrations under the guise of ‘national security’, which was proved to be a falsehood. We have had people through the guise of rendition locked up without trial, and again later release and compensation paid.

In February 2009, Tracy McVeigh reported on a number of sold-out conferences which were about

‘The government and the courts are collaborating in shaving away freedoms and pushing Britain to the brink of becoming a “database” police state’

Have things changed and improved? That is for each of us to judge, but we need to realise it is our individual responsibility to monitor the government and hold them accountable, and that we do this be turning out to elections.

Retrospective Justice

04/07/2017 By ACOMSDave

When I read this article, and also subsequent articles from other journalists, I was of a mind that it is what government does – changes the goal posts to suit it needs – in this case retrospective justice. However, during my research, I was taken to the following publication ‘The legislative sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament‘ and the following quote

Each Parliament is absolutely sovereign in its own time and may legislate as it wishes on any topic and for any place

also

Parliament has the power to legislate retrospectively as well as prospectively. This means that Parliament can render illegal and impose penalties on actions which were perfectly lawful when they were committed. Also, actions which were unlawful at the time of commission, may be rendered lawful or not subject to any legal sanction or proceedings.

So the end result would seem to be, that governments are unique, and resolve their issues in their own way, without necessarily having to conform to what previous governments have said. However, legislation is still legislation, and it would seem to me that for an integral part of a published Act of Parliament to be changed, then it must be debated in the House and agreed by both Houses. The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 set the relevant date as being 1 January 2014, not 2017; so we must only assume from this change that ‘someone’ has something to hide.

Skating on thin ice – Retrospective Justice

So an end to donation secrecy in Northern Ireland. It’s been long awaited, but today James Brokenshire made good his party’s promise in their Northern Irish manifesto… From Hansar…

Source: End of donor secrecy (flick of a legislative wand and NI ‘dark money’ is a thing of the past)…

Education Shortfalls – for better or poorer

20/04/2017 By ACOMSDave

Britain refers to just two parts of the United Kingdom, and only one of the two parts quoted in this article. However that should not detract from the figures and the relevance it has to the future of the United Kingdom. Brexit is here, the ink of the letter is dry, and now they just have to sort out the nitty gritty and we will know what impact it will have on the country. But again it will take a fair number of years before we manage to rise up from the ashes like a phoenix, and we won’t don it with ‘education shortfalls’!

For my part I am worried about the youth of today, and those following; they have to pick up the pieces and also try to extract the country from what will be in all probability a quagmire of bureaucracy and debt, and to do this they will need education. By this I do not mean this elitist ‘grammar’ school idea of our current Prime Minister (hopefully not for too much longer), but one that has the resources across the board in terms of financial, teachers, building etc – one that can deliver a revitalised, energised group of people who will know what to do and how they can manage a country that is demoralised and fighting against each other.

This report shows that currently that is not likely to happen. I was lucky during my life to be able to achieve the educational levels I set out for, not without hard work and money (which I provided), but also with the support of parents and friends, and on occasion even employers. I can only hope that we have employers left after Brexit!

Education Shortfalls

BRITAIN is facing a chronic skills shortage as the country’s teens languish among the worst in the western World at reading and maths. A devastating new report last night claimed England and Northe…

Source: UK faces skills crisis as teens ranked lowest for literacy and maths skills

Civil Liberties and the World Wide Web

13/03/2017 By ACOMSDave

It is interesting to read this article, as it reflects the things that I have been writing and talking about over the last 20 years – of course I have been writing about Big Brother and the loss of civil liberties in part, and this is now encompassed in the world wide web and how government is using it to monitor and control what we do, see and hear. I make no bones about the fact that I distrust government in its attitude and continued use of phrases about we need CCTV to control terrorism, for your protection etc. That we don’t need personal encryption, as if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to hide, and we won’t maintain personal data longer ‘that is necessary’. There ares lots of more glib phrases, but they all come down to government control, and you losing your civil liberties

It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to build the web we want – for everyone

Source: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it | Tim Berners-Lee

Libraries need saving – NOW!!!

13/02/2017 By ACOMSDave

I am posting this article because I think there is a need for us to step back from the abyss in the United Kingdom and realise that the closure of libraries and associated resources (including school libraries) is detrimental to our future as a country and also for us as individuals. The first public library came into being with The Public Libraries Act 1850, and this gave local boroughs the power to establish ‘free’ public libraries. The Act was the first legislative step in the creation of an enduring national institution that provides universal free access to information and literature, and was indicative of the moral, social and educative concerns of the time.

Our libraries need saving now!

After nearly 170 years we are close to loosing that infrastructure for self education. The article below from Emily Prado, and in particular here paragraph just prior to the quote, ..Yet the recent election cycle and studies revealing Americans’ inability to sort clickbait from facts demonstrate how far from the truth this sentiment really is – ‘that libraries are not necessary’.

I am a long term self educationalist, with a passion for books and libraries. I access them through libraries, book shops, charity shops and also the internet. However without the library services of the past I would not be in that position today. Boys and girls require different stimuli and the libraries of the past allowed for this to happen, whether it was at school or in public libraries; now our future is looking bleak!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: