CrozierVision

2003-03-18T15:41:00.000Z

CrozierVision has moved...

...here.

2003-01-03T23:16:00.000Z

Telegraph mole strikes

It seems that the Telegraph has a "mole". How else can one explain the following words in an editorial:

"Most of the young men who carry and use guns in Britain are consumers or dealers in drugs. In that sense, any crime in which they carry a gun is therefore "drug-related", to use the fashionable term. But it would be more accurate to say the crime is "drug law-related". If drugs were not criminalised, dealers would not need to carry guns any more than brewers or distillers would feel the need to be armed today."

2002-12-15T19:35:00.000Z

CrozierVision Word of the Day

Endarkenment - comment on Samizdata.

2002-12-15T01:43:00.000Z

Torture

Looks as if it might make a comeback - in the US of all places.

2002-12-03T18:16:00.000Z

RKBA UK

It seems it's not just the Americans who have a Second Amendment. We Brits do too and it goes all the way back to the Glorious Revolution. See this letter in the Telegraph

2002-12-01T17:40:00.000Z

Vandalism and graffiti at Hiroshima's Peace Park

This is not a misprint. Asahi Shimbun

2002-11-22T19:21:00.000Z

The fire strike - don't blame the unions

The firemen (don't expect me to use the virtue fascist term "firefighters") have kicked off an eight-day strike. The Evening Standard (and I am sure a whole host of other worthies) have chosen to single out the unions for blame.

Poppycock. It is the sole responsibility of the government to provide firefighting services. If it fails to do so then it is it (the government) and no one else who is at fault. If they find that they can't sack striking firemen then that is again their fault for either signing no-dismisal agreements or making such action illegal (I am not sure which, if any, applies in this case.)

I think (but I am damned if I can find the quote) Enoch Powell once described unions as "pure as the driven snow". He was right.

In expectation of an obvious comment... Yes, I know ultimately it is our individual responsibility to provide ourselves with fire-fighting services. I do not know if it would be legal or not to do so but the fact that the state usually provides one and taxes us for the privilege tends to crowd out the alternative.

2002-11-22T18:49:00.000Z

Tokyo

Another instalment of holiday snaps. I always like to know what a city looks like. These were taken in Tokyo on 10 October.

2002-11-21T17:25:00.000Z

Crime: what London can learn from New York

Excellent article from the Telegraph

2002-11-12T20:10:00.000Z

Blogging will be light over the next few days.

2002-11-07T20:01:00.000Z

CrozierVision pejorative term of the day

National Hell(th) Service - Alice Bachini

2002-11-06T19:54:00.000Z

CrozierVision quote of the day

The implosion of the Tory party is worthy of The Office, where David Brent tries to appear competent and trendy and fails dismally at both. - The Telegraph

2002-11-06T18:18:00.000Z

BNP Watch

I have just finished watching a web broadcast by Nick Griffin of the British National Party on the sacking of their youth orgnaiser, Mark Collett (link via Liberty Log).

There are a number of things that struck me. First of all, it's not just conservatives and libertarians who see the internet as their salvation.

Second. It is difficult to work out just where Griffin is coming from. He goes out of his way to condemn Nazism but seems to have difficulty in articulating just what the BNP does stand for. If I were being charitable I would say that he is basically a traditional conservative who is uneasy with immigration without actually hating immigrants. At the same time he finds himself in a party with a large number of members who really do hate immigrants and who think that Hitler was right. He has to be careful what he says.

Third. He's a very good performer. He must not be underestimated. The market for an opposition party is very open right now. He might just fill the gap.

2002-11-05T18:45:00.000Z

CrozierVision new word of the day

Fusspotocracy - BEdBlog

2002-11-04T18:57:00.000Z

Blog roundup

I'd sort of given up on this sort of thing but it's been something of a bumper day in Blogland today. I really cannot a remember a day when there has been so much good writing.

Let us terrify those whom reason cannot reach - Natalie Solent

Vote Briffa - Public Interest

What should we learn from Diana - LPITC

To the rest of us, he seems more like a real life Inspector Clouseau - Stephen Pollard

State schools are immoral - Liberty Log

Ironically, the British left struck the best notes when it sounded like the force more devoted to conserving the social bonds and duties that their own doctrines had destroyed - Conservative Commentary

2002-11-03T16:53:00.000Z

Queer-bashing... Democrats

According to Mark Steyn in The Spectator. He also mentions how the Libertarian Party is reaching out to people of colour. Blue in this case.

2002-11-03T13:21:00.000Z

Why I don't like Ms

As in Ms Alice Bachini. (By the way, Alice, if you are reading, this has nothing to do with you directly. I don't know which title you prefer. This came from Liberty Log.)

Ms (in preference to Miss or Mrs) grew to prominence in the 1980s. The argument was that... actually I can't remember what the argument was. Come to think of it I think it was that Miss or Mrs revealed a woman's maritial status. Many women (and I agree with them) did not wish to be judged by their marital status but on their merits. Therefore, they needed a new title. Shame that they couldn't have come up with a better one but never mind.

Anyway, towards the end of the 1980s the Economist magazine got itself into trouble when it reported on the wife of the then Spanish Prime Minister, Felipe Gonzalez. It referred to her as Miss Sanchez (actually, I can't remember her real name but it illustrates the point). Queue much gnashing of feminist teeth.

The Economist made a spirited defence. It pointed out that the titles Miss and Mrs do not indicate marital status. They merely indicate whether the bearer is using her maiden or marital name. Thus the Iron Lady would have been entirely within her rights to have called herself Miss Roberts. They also pointed out that in Spain (of all places) married women keep their maiden names.

There is something rather ironic about all this. Because I am not aware of a single case of a woman using Ms with her married name. In other words Ms now means exactly the same as what Miss really means. It's just that Miss sounds better.

2002-11-01T18:16:00.000Z

The future of the Conservative Party

The kerfuffle over recent days about challenges to IDS's leadership makes me wonder what the Conservative Party's problem is.

I suspect it is paralysis. There are four directions they can go in:

Social Democratic with Ken Clarke
Liberal with Michael Portillo
Authoritarian with IDS (or at least that was the option)
Do nothing.

If they take one of the three "doing something" options they risk a definite split and probable electoral extinction. It is interesting to note that in the last leadership election each candidate got almost exactly the same number of votes.

If they do nothing they may also risk extinction but then again something might turn up.

2002-10-29T17:28:00.000Z

Guns save lives

Yet another good article on the subject in Reason Magazine. Thanks to David Farrer for the heads up.

2002-10-26T07:54:00.000Z

Estelle Morris

Estelle Morris, formerly Secretary of State for Education has resigned. She did so because she felt that she was not up to the job. She believed herself to be incompetent.

Well, of course she is incompetent. They are all incompetent. There's Gordon Brown stuffing up the economy with ever more regulation. And David Blunkett turning the country into a police state thugocracy not to mention Alistair Darling's cunning plan to spend billions to little effect on the railways and to saddle future generations with the debt.

Incompetence is what government does best. Damn it, it's about the only thing it does.

Actually, the fact that Estelle Morris is incompetent and knows she is, makes her an ideal candidate for the job. Any job.

The dangerous ministers are the ones who think they know what they are doing. These are the sorts of ministers who jam up the Commons with pointless legislation while frittering away ever greater sums of public money for ever less result.

We need far more of the Estelle Morris sort - the sort who don't think they know what they are doing. We need ministers who are fully aware of their eye-watering incompetence and act accordingly. The self-aware incompetent will make great efforts to reduce his workload. He will know that every decision he makes will be wrong so he will start reducing the number of decisions he has to make. He will reduce the size of his department, abolish legislation and cut back the budget.

Come back Estelle, all is forgiven.

2002-10-21T17:28:00.000Z

The benefits of a low crime rate

You don't have to look at government statistics to know that Japan has a low crime rate - the evidence is right there in front of you. Japan is extraordinarily clean. There is almost no litter (remember littering is still an offence, even in the UK), few fag butts and even very little chewing gum. There is some graffiti but you have to go looking for it. Vending machines are everywhere selling drinks, cigarettes and newspapers. I never saw one with even a hint of vandalism. Trains are free of the litter, graffiti and glass graffiti that commuters in the UK have learnt to treat as a fact of life. At Tokyo airport I saw people leave their bags outside as they went into the loo.

But there is another aspect of Japanese behaviour which I can't help but think is related. It is the extraordinary consideration for others that the Japanese show one another. On trains people don't have mobile phone conversations except in the vestibules. They are asked to keep phones on vibrate and they do. I was never inconvenienced by that annoying tish-tish sound from a Walkman. On station platforms people line up in neat queues by marks on the platform edge. That way there is no unseemly huddle outside the train door.

As I said, I can't help but think that a low crime rate and consideration for others are related. If this is true and human nature is universal it's pretty bad news for the idea of crime and punishment. You can punish people as much as you like but if that basic consideration for others isn't there you will never succeed.

It is also (potentially) rather bad news for my own crime manifesto. My way would be to relegalise guns, relegalise self-defence, relegalise drugs and privatise public space. Oh, and allow the owners of that public (now private) space to impose whatever law they feel like. But Japan seems to do it without any of these things. (Err, I'm not sure about the self-defence bit.)

It's a mystery.

2002-10-20T13:01:00.000Z

Don't write off the Japanese - a response

Back at the dawn of blog time - that's March this year - Brian Micklethwait wrote an article entitled Don't write off the Japanese in which be mused on Japan's future.

Now, I would like to claim that having spent a week there I know everything but of course I don't. So, I'll confine myself to a few observations which may or may not lead to some... conclusions.

One of the big themes of Brian's piece was the idea that Japan might be about to lurch in the direction of free markets. The problem is that Japan is pretty much there already. Take taxation. As I understand it Japan's taxation rate is about the same as in the United States. It has regulation, plenty of it, but what major economy doesn't?

I have a personal interest here. In 1990 I started working for Phillip Oppenheim, then a Conservative Party MP. Shortly afterwards (nothing to do with me I'm afraid) he published a book called "The New Masters". In it he demolished many of the myths surrounding Japan's success. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) was far weaker than usually supposed. Business could and did stand up to government. Taxation was low; regulation benign. Keynes didn't get a look in.

Another theme was the idea that the Japanese keep their rows to themselves. This is allied to the idea that the Japanese don't have opinions. Which is odd because I have not met a Japanese yet who didn't have stacks of opinions.

One of the most fascinating examples of this appears in the book/poem "Requiem for the Battleship Yamato" by Yoshida Mitsuru. He was a junior officer on the Yamato (the biggest battleship ever built) in 1945 when it was ordered out on a suicide mission. Everyone knew it was a suicide mission and the officers kept asking themselves "Why us?"

OK, maybe not a major league row but there has been a huge one in recent weeks. About a month ago the Bank of Japan attempted to auction off some debt - debt that was to be used to buy shares in Japan's bankrupt banks. The auction was undersubscribed. This is the first time this has ever happened.

The Bank of Japan then came up with the quite extraordinary claim that it did what it did in order to show how stupid the FSA (Financial Services Authority - another arm of government) was being. Anything but quiet. From my own specialist area I am aware that there are all sorts of rows about new roads and railway lines. And this is all rather genteel in comparison with the violent convlusions which presaged the Meiji Restoration or the rise of the military in the 1930s.

As I understand it the causes of Japan's current problems are fairly straightforward. In the early 1990s, the property market collapsed. A huge swathe of business effectively went bust under the weight of loans secured on property. But the banks wouldn't admit it so propped up the businesses. Then the banks went bust. But the government wouldn't admit it and has spent the last decade propping them up. And now the government is going bust.

It's going to be nasty when it happens but I believe Japan will sort itself out very quickly. Deep down Japan is in good shape. It has excellent infrastructure, a well-educated workforce, a low crime rate and a leading position in many high-tech industries.

People are quick to suggest that the Japanese only ever copy but already they are the main innovators in areas such as mobile phones. And anyway, this is a well-trodden path. The Americans, too, copied like crazy until one day, kaboom, and you had Woodrow Wilson telling Europeans how to run things. And where, exactly, did we get the printing press from all those centuries ago?

So to sum up (or should that be conclude?) although I think things are bleak and that there will be a crash and that Japan will recover I think it will be able to do so without any great cultural convulsion - all the elements are pretty well in place right now.

2002-10-20T01:40:00.000Z

What Would Happen If the Police Just Went Away?

by Warren Tilson on Anti-State.com.

I just love this article. I'm not sure I entirely agree with it but it says a lot about just how damaging the police can be.

2002-10-20T01:12:00.000Z

Libertarians for tyranny

Peter Cuthbertson has replied to me. Obviously his views are rather more subtle than I first thought.

What he seems to be saying is that although in principle he is in favour of drugs legalisation, at present society is in such a morally degenerate state that the consequences of a free market in drugs would be very severe indeed.

He says he wants to avoid the drugs debate which is fine by me because in fact he has initiated an entirely new one - on timing.

I have to confess that I have never really felt that there is much question about it - freedom now. But maybe there are elements of freedom that ought to be delayed. I don't think drugs is one of them but certainly when it comes to road privatisation I think things would have to be thought about. I would certainly not like see people being prevented from going outside their front door.

The reason I think drugs should be relegalised now and in one go is not because I don't think people will do some pretty stupid things - they will. My belief is that after a brief period of madness responsibility will prevail - not least because the pool of irresponsible people will have been diminished.

There is also a tactical reason. I think it is far better to get all the pain over at once. The long the pain goes on the easier it is for wishy-washy politicians to put spanners in the works.

I have one other quibble. He describes illegal drugs as "wicked". To my mind "wicked" is an adjective which can only apply to a being capable of moral choice.

2002-10-19T10:22:00.000Z

Euro lobby hires critic of currency

Well it makes a good headline. Not quite sure if it is the whole story. Spotted on Airstrip One.

2002-10-18T11:36:00.000Z

Relegalize all drugs now

Seeing as no one else is going to reply to Peter Cuthbertson I suppose I'll have to do it myself.

Cuthbertson mentions the case of a grandfather who overdosed on Ecstasy and died. His view is that this proves the case for the continuation of a ban on all drugs.

This is a truly bizarre claim (sorry Peter). This man died taking illegal drugs. The ban did not save him. This is the regime you support - not me. There are thousands like him every year who die as a consequence of taking illegal drugs.

Now, it is difficult to get into Peter Cuthbertson's way of thinking not least because he doesn't state it. Does he think that the situation will be worse if drugs were relegalised? I find it difficult to imagine how it could be. First of all the criminal element gets eliminated at a stroke. So, we can look forward to a radical reduction in crime. Secondly, the quality of drugs will be improved once they are legalised. After all, how many of us die from dodgy beer or cigarettes. Thirdly, relegalisation will allow entrepreneurs to sell weaker and safer versions. Instead of heroin many will try opium. Instead of cocaine many will try it in leaf form - just like the Amazonian Indians.

This is not to deny that some people will do some pretty stupid things. Some people will become addicts - just as they do now. Some people will overdose - just as they do now. The argument for freedom is not that things will be perfect merely that they will be less imperfect.

2002-10-18T11:22:00.000Z

You can click the photos...

and get a bigger version. The reason I have posted up thumbnails is because lots of large photos is going to cause major problems to people with puny connections - like me.

Thanks to Brian Micklethwait for pointing out the confusion.

2002-10-17T19:43:00.000Z

Spot the recession

I was in Japan last week on a study tour with the Railway Study Association. Most of the details will appear on UK Transport but there were a few general things I noticed which aren't really transport related. So, they're going to get a mention here.

We are told that Japan has been in recession or thereabouts for a decade. So, while I was there I thought I'd try to spot the evidence. It wasn't easy. Cars are new, people are well-dressed, there doesn't seem to be much abandoned property, restaurants seem busy enough, there don't seem to be any sales.

I did however spot a shanty town. This one was in Tokyo and there was a similar if smaller one in Nagoya. Even in destitution the Japanese beat us. Quite simply they have a better class of dosser. Take a careful look at the photos and you will spot that in addition to the regulation cardboard box these people also have blue tarpaulins. Pretty sensible really. I also saw plenty of coat hangers presumably so that could hang out their shirts ready for that all important interview. Japanese cardboard cities also don't smell of stale urine. How they do it I don't know because public toilets in Japan seem pretty thin on the ground.

Another feature of the destitution phenomenon is the authorities' attempts to deal with it. I kept on seeing pedestrian overbridges with the bit under the bridge and not on the road sealed off. Presumably to stop the dossers spoiling the view.

The only other evidence I could find for Japan's recession was this: OK, it's an empty carriage floor. But just a minute, the picture was taken at 1721 on a Wednesday evening on a train on the Yamanote Line (Tokyo's Circle Line). Imagine finding that amount of space on the Tube at that time of day. Not bleeding likely.

So, when do they go home? From my limited experience it seemed that the peak was between 2100 and 2200 in the evening. I also understand that many Japanese also work Saturdays. They're not paid for it but they do.

2002-10-17T19:08:00.000Z

The Rules of War

Interesting discussion on Natalie Solent about this. Personally, I am rather on the side of the soldier. If you are going to go to war make damn sure you win it.

2002-10-17T07:48:00.000Z

Conservatives back?

I have noticed a certain sniffiness in libertarian circles over last week's Conservative Conference. As I was away, I missed the coverage so it's difficult to pass comment but my prejudice was that nothing much was going to happen. Indeed, I left the party earlier this year after I came to the conclusion that IDS's leadership was going nowhere.

But, this is not a universal opinion. Indeed, good friend Paul Gray of Connect (the man who first put me in the direction of libertarianism, no less) was very upbeat. Paul, a man who is as optimistic as I am pessimistic, thinks that this was the conference where the party turned the corner.

On a vast range of policy areas the party is turning in a more liberal/libertarian direction. He points to proposals to create a voucher scheme for schools, allowing people to opt out of the NHS and the decision to end the war on motorists. He accepts that it is early days and that the party has only made tentative steps in a liberal direction but he feels these are significant.

Also significant is the way that the media are starting to be less cool to Conservatives. This is in part, he feels, because of new policies and in part because the party has started to face up to the mistakes of the past.

He also feels that IDS's apparently tepid leadership style may in fact be an advantage. The presidential style of Blair is beginning to wane and voters may eventually warm to a quieter, more thoughtful approach.

As with all things time will tell. I am still very much a sceptic. My view is that you know a leader within the first 100 days and frankly, IDS was found wanting, but it is interesting that there are other views out there. We shall see.

2002-10-16T17:36:00.000Z

Here we go again

After a lot of thought and consultation, and let's face it, orders from on high, I have decided to re-open CrozierVision. It is going to be in a rather different format though. It isn't going to pretend to be a TV channel (except occasionally) and it isn't going to be a digest blog. No, it's just going to be like any other blog - the only difference being that I am writing it.

2002-09-09T18:53:00.000Z

Suspension of service

This is to let you know that CrozierVision is being indefinitely suspended. The reason is time. I am planning on a new career and for at least the next 6 months more or less my every waking moment will be dedicated to it. This spells curtains for CrozierVision as it is something that has to be updated on a daily basis. Neither does it augur particularly well for UK Transport or This Blog has No Title. I will probably only be writing for them when I am bursting with something to say and totally bored with my studies.

Having said that I think CrozierVision or something like it does have a future. CrozierVision was supposed to be a digest blog first and a pretend TV channel only second. In recent chats with fellow bloggers it was interesting to note that people either like the digest part, or the TV channel part but rarely both.

I think the Blogosphere needs digest blogs. It needs that one blog you can go to everyday where you know you will find new material and links through to interesting articles. It would also be extremely useful for non-regular bloggers eg me who would prefer to concentrate on quality rather than frequency. But if you are going to have such a blog then either you must follow a multi-member approach so that it is constantly being updated, or you need to make it full-time - which means money which is something that no one in the Blogosphere seems to have. There is also the nagging doubt that there were at one time five Blogwatches which, I understand, have now all closed down. Why was that I wonder?

As far as the TV station goes I think that could be a scream - as David Carr today illustrates. But that requires a rather different skill set from the one required to digest which suggests to me that there would be a natural split between the two formats.

2002-08-27T08:32:00.000Z

We regret to announce that CrozierVision will be off air for the next few days.

2002-08-24T08:00:00.001Z

Saddo - go for it!

We should treat Saddam as our friend and not our enemy. That's the surprising view being put about by (probably) fictitious political analyst, Claire Berlinski. Her view is that in Mid East terms, Saddam is the least of our worries and we should get him to sort out our real problems in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Writing in Samizdata she (or is it he?) said: "Yep, you heard us right. That was the green light, just like the one you thought you got from that Glaspie woman, only this time we mean it. Take Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia too. It would take you what, three days? Go ahead and butcher the Al Sabahs and the whole Saudi royal family."

She also has an answer to old-style human rights worries. She told Saddam: "Any dissent? We know you know how to handle it, just don't tell us about the details. Let Noam Chomsky worry about it."

Human rights are for poofs.

2002-08-24T08:00:00.000Z

Other news

Don't trust GDP stats - Liberty Log
Scots Tories in trouble - Freedom and Whisky
Indie hypocrisy - Public Interest
Sleep sucks - Conservative Commentary
Economics is not moral - Samizdata

2002-08-23T10:35:00.000Z

Freedom attacked - libbies silent

The freedom to take drugs has once again come under attack from conservatives and once again the question is being asked: Where are the libertarians?

Today's attack came from Stephen Pollard who claims that cannabis is not necessary for medical purposes. This is the latest in a series of articles which have included pieces in The Edge and Conservative Commentary.

These have yet to elicit any response from any libertarian. This has led to speculation that many think there is no case to answer.

2002-08-23T10:34:00.001Z

Stop the power grab

There have been renewed calls today for people to resist attempts by politicians to smuggle in power grabs under the smokescreen of protecting children. Writing in Dodgeblog and commenting on the existence of plain evil people Mommabear said: "This fact bears repeating more than ought to be necessary, but there are too many people who will avoid understanding this or deliberately ignore this in order to further their agenda of using evil-doings as a pretense for placing more and more stupid, nasty controls on the rest of us. We are being slowly subjugated by the power-grabbing professional politicians under the guise of protecting us from evil, when the real evil is those power grabs."

The UK government is currently using the Holly and Jessica case to try to suppress the internet. The internet had nothing to do with their murder.

2002-08-23T10:34:00.000Z

Other stories

New York or California? Which will collapse first? - Samizdata
Pro-gun stats wrong - Mr Happy?
Imports, not exports, make countries richer - Liberty Log
MEP - "doesn't understand" - Freedom and Whisky
Fun in the sun - the TCS way - Samizdata
Death penalty still good - The Edge
Airport security questions to be dropped? - The Captain
"Hysterical morons" sign of the times - Public Interest
Natalie Solent is back
Mark Steyn - serious - Conservative Commentary
Iraq is likely to end up as roadkill on the third way - Airstrip One
Why is acting on the radio so crap? - Mr Happy?

2002-08-22T14:54:00.000Z

Pollard in pain

Daredevil Stephen Pollard, the man who likes to be attacked, has found one sort of pain he doesn't like - and this time it's self-inflicted. Pollard, who came through unscathed after an attack by dead sheep David Aaronovitch, found that in attempting to read Tom Nairn's "Pariah" he'd bitten off more than he could chew. He said: "I cannot remember feeling pain before when reading a book. Boredom, yes. Annoyance, yes. But not real, physical pain. Pariah, however, is so turgid, so overwritten, so trite, so predictable and above all so deeply, deeply pointless that...I began to ache, and not just in my head."

Although stopping short of demanding that that "Pariah" be classified along with heroin and LSD Pollard gave a stern warning to anyone thinking of picking up the book. He said: "Please, please don’t look at this book. With one in five of the adult population functionally illiterate, ‘Britain’ can’t afford to lose any of those of us who can read, and if you start Pariah you may, like me, start losing the will to live."

2002-08-22T14:52:00.001Z

Axe the tab tax

Proposals to more than quadruple California's ciggy tax have been slammed as ineffective and likely to lead to the creation of a black market. Writing in Give War a Chance, Hawkgirl said of the proposed $2 a pack tax: "How stupid do they think we are (don't answer that)? Do you think that I would opt to pay 50% more for a pack of cigarettes instead of taking a short drive to Mexico or Arizona? Do you think I am the only person that has considered opening a black market retail outfit of my own to fly in the face of this sort of blatant discrimination? Do you think it's going to get me to quit? Because if you do, you couldn't be more wrong. I'll quit when I'm good and ready, and for reasons of my own..."

Tobacco tax in the UK is about $6 for a pack of 20 cigarettes.

2002-08-22T14:52:00.000Z

Other stories

100 Greatest Britons - The Captain, Dodgeblog,
Tranzi storm continues - Samizdata, Junius
Cuthbertson "finds" manifesto of the unknown liberal - Conservative Commentary

2002-08-21T18:49:00.000Z

Take the CrozierVision Challenge

Bored with the debate over capital punishment? Think it's just common sense? Want a more fertile topic upon which to exercise your infinite wisdom and imagination? Well, if so, the CrozierVision Challenge is for you.

As you all know the main methods of doing away with murderers and traitors are the long drop, electrocution and lethal injection. Boring or what? It is amazing that with the vast array of technology available - technology such as elasticated ropes, mobile phones and Velcro - we haven't come up with a more innovative, interesting or - let's face it - entertaining way of getting people to meet their maker. That's the challenge. In no more than 5,000 words describe how you would do away with society's unwanted. Marks will be given for originality, use of modern technology and commercial spin-off potential. Prize? Hmm.

It's over to you.

2002-08-21T09:15:00.001Z

"Non-elitist poof Brits" - I am sorry

Hawkgirl has made an apology - but not to everyone. The unprecedented move came during a take down of Guaridian retard, Matthew Engel. She said: "Our little Engel just couldn't resist the self-righteous "in closing" bit about how superior his little dwindled empire (with apologies to non-elitist poof Brits...) is to America"

CrozierVision is trying to establish whether you have to be a poof or not to qualify for the apology.

2002-08-21T09:15:00.000Z

Hole in anti-Tranzi thinking

Chris Bertram of Junius has claimed to have found a hole in anti-Tranzi thinking. He believes you can't be against groups and for nations. Reviewing an article be Steven Den Beste he said: "It seems as if Den Beste's real (and unargued for position) is not that individuals are more important than groups but that some groups (nations, and especially nation-states) are more important than other groups (ethnic minorities within nation-states, for example)."It seems as if Den Beste's real (and unargued for position) is not that individuals are more important than groups but that some groups (nations, and especially nation-states) are more important than other groups (ethnic minorities within nation-states, for example). "

"Tranzi", a term coined by Samizdata's David Carr, is short for "transnational progressive".

2002-08-21T09:14:00.001Z

Other news

Pull yourself together - The Edge
The Mob - a waste of police time - Mr Happy?
Customs still breaking the law - The Captain
How Tory MPs are selected - secrets revealed - Conservative Commentary
Administration split on European invasion - Samizdata
On this day in 1940 - Samizdata
What kind of world is it when, in sheer self-defence, you have to Fisk your own newspaper articles? - Samizdata
Bishop's words "laughable" - The Edge
Brits invent force field - Mr Happy?
EU finds new ways to snoop - shock - Dodgeblog
Pollard attacked - "It's always fun" - Stephen Pollard
What's the point in being middle class? - The Edge
American Revolution - bad guys won - The Captain

2002-08-21T09:14:00.000Z

Toynbee slammed

Guardianista, Polly Toynbee, has come under attack for being soft on murderers. Writing in Conservative Commentary, Peter Cuthbertson said: "Motivated by a bitter contempt for her country, morality and common sense, she is shameless in her advocacy of any means to destroy conservatism. The parliamentary route seems scarcely to interest her except where she shows her distaste for it. She must look with admiration on those European Commissioners, without a vote to their name, driving small businessmen across the continent into bankruptcy with politically correct regulations."

80% of Britons support the restoration of the death penalty.

2002-08-20T12:28:00.000Z

Indie blasted

Lowbrow Leftie broadsheet, the Independent, has been blasted for trying to make political capital out of the deaf prodigy and Oxford reject who got 6 grade As at A Level. Writing in Public Interest, Peter Briffa said: "This university didn't play PC ball, unlike 'most universities' and the Indy doesn't like it. Who cares if it is the wrong or the right decision, just so long as it looks good in the brochures? It isn't her deafness, or righting an injustice that gets their goat, it's merely how things look. A sign of the times, I guess."

Getting into Oxford doesn't make you smart. Not getting into Oxford doesn't make you stupid. Getting into Oxford...

2002-08-20T12:27:00.000Z

Other Stories

Saddam is dangerous - Liberty Log
Gadaffi to head human rights body - The Captain
Students not paying enough - Liberty Log
Thick Scot, smart Paddies - Samizdata
End the dividend tax - Samizdata
Good book on buildings - Junius
Clinton snout in Enron trough - Hawkgirl
Quiz of the Day: how geeky are you? - The Captain

2002-08-19T19:14:00.000Z

Come on if you think you're hard enough

Top Tories, Peter Cuthbertson and Iain Murray have joined forces to have a go at the libertarians. The tag team owes its origins to stories claiming that cannabis is bad for you. Reacting to the news Murray said: err, nothing while his partner in purity, Cuthbertson also said nothing.

Viewers are advised that CrozierVision will be bringing you live (well, cryogenically preserved) and exclusive(ish) action from this clash of the titans. We will bring you every blow, every slam and every knee in the groin... just as soon as the Tee-total Two come up with an argument.

2002-08-19T11:09:00.001Z

Tranzis trash Zim

Zimbabwe is in crisis and it's all the fault of "tranzis". That's the verdict of Samizdata's David Carr. He said: "Mugabe has had, to all intents and purposes, the green light from the Tranzis who have been far too pre-occupied with bringing down the Great Satan (USA) and Little Satan (Israel) to waste any valuable hectoring time with the likes of Brother Mugabe..."

Note to readers. Tranzis are not sexually dysfunctional neo-nazis. They are "transnational progressives", a term coined last week by John Fonte. To have caused this much trouble is pretty good going for a bunch of people who have only just got a name.

Robert Mugabe doesn't have a penis.

2002-08-19T11:09:00.000Z

"Ooh, he's uttered his first viva voce"

With school standards seemingly in permanent decline, Our Man in Scotland, David Farrar has come up with a novel fix. He said: "I have a better idea. Every newborn child in Scotland should be given a PhD, signed by "education" minister Cathy Jamieson. All teachers can be fired; the rest of us can enjoy a huge tax cut. School buildings could be used as places where computerphobes can work out their anger."

There was a time when PhDs were given out to clever people but now they are given out to people like Jack Cunningham and Mo Mowlem.

2002-08-19T11:08:00.000Z

Other news

Alibhai-Brown ordered to pull herself together - Public Interest
Godzilla spotting - take the test - The Captain
Tebbit wrong - Dodgeblog
Greed is green - Conservative Commentary
Tebbit is Tories' Doctor Death - Samizdata
DVD region encoding to be abandoned? - The Captain
The co-ed disaster - The Edge
THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT. Scots win something - Freedom and Whisky
The case for war - Liberty Log
Abu Nidal dead - Oxblog
Joke of the Day: How many Tory activists does it take to change a light bulb? - Dodgeblog

2002-08-18T08:24:00.001Z

Other news

Long live Elvis - Samizdata
Ian slams music biz - Samizdata
Oldie (46) joins up - The Captain
The Army of the future - Mr Happy?
Concern has been expressed for The Captain's health after he said nice things about Alistair Cooke
Cannabis "immoral" - Conservative Commentary
Sarandon - brains made out of meat substitute - Tim Blair
US government killed US Airways - More Room throughout Coach

2002-08-18T08:24:00.000Z

Keane in big trub

Not satisfied with making an arse of himself in print (see The Captain), World Cup refusenik, Roy Keane has now made an arse of himself on live radio. According to James Haney: "Popular radio host Eamon Dunphy managed to get soccer star Roy Keane to say things on the air that could land him in jail."

Keane's next book ought to be called "How to lose friends and alienate people".

2002-08-17T10:08:00.002Z

Tony to become Tory?

Brit Prime Minister, Tony Blair, could end up heading up a Conservative-dominated government. That's the shock prediction of The Edge's Iain Murray. He believes that the war against Iraq will lead to a Labour split. He said: "Blair's party will probably split three ways. Leadership challenges in the Labour party are very difficult to arrange, and in the meantime he will survive with the support of the Conservatives."

2002-08-17T10:08:00.001Z

Want a degree? First change your politics

In the future university places could be for party members only. That's the implication of the experiences of Conservative Commentary supremo and recent A Level candidate, Peter Cuthbertson. In addition to his 3 proper A Levels, Cuthbertson decided to take namby-pamby "General Studies" but when he got his marks he was shocked to discover that he had been marked down for supporting private schools and opposing multi-culturalism. He said: "Now I do not care about my General Studies marks. I got offers from five colleges in the last year, all of them excluding it from the list of subjects the grades in which they were interested. But it does seem awfully strange that I can get such different grades for filling in similar papers in the same way. If these tests are really vetting for political views, it is a disgrace, and I have to wonder what the markers of the second and third papers were thinking."

In the Soviet Union all university students had to take a compulsory course in Marxism-Leninism.

2002-08-17T10:08:00.000Z

Other news

Anglosphere not all good - The Edge
Transnational progressivism slammed - The Edge
Sustainable Development "palliative" - The Edge
What would you do with nine dead hijackers? - The Captain
Cuthbertson in two minds - shock - Conservative Commentary
Rate your politics - pretty graphics - Conservative Commentary
Say goodbye to mowing the lawn - Samizdata
Big Brother won't work - Mr Happy?

2002-08-16T15:01:00.002Z

Carr slams opportunists

Bolshie David Carr of Samizdata has criticised advocates of an FBI-style force for the UK for opportunism. He said: "Will the establishment of yet another state agency lead to the discovery of the whereabouts of these two children? Will it deliver them unharmed back to their respective homes? Will it stop this kind of thing happening again? The answer in all cases is 'no' but that doesn't matter."

It is believed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was set up in the US in the late 1920s. In recent years it has failed to prevent either September 11th, Oklahoma or Clinton.

2002-08-16T15:01:00.001Z

Other news

Byers loses mojo - Public Interest
Now, it's Ayatollah Prodi - Samizdata
Mandrake takes parachute jump. Rearranges internal organs - Sgt Stryker
Why the Tories are losing - Freedom and Whisky
Women getting even more mysterious - Dodgeblog
Churchill overrated - Airstrip One

2002-08-16T15:01:00.000Z

Left plot backfires

The torrent of comment on a (not actually) possible breakaway Conservative Party has subsided but continues to threaten the integrity of some of the blogosphere's most treasured monuments.

Reacting to an anti-Rand rant in the Spectator, Tom Burroughes of Samizdata challenged the author to: "Give us some reasons why you think Miss Rand's brand of ethical egoism is wrong. After all, an egoist could justly claim that benevolence towards others is in fact often very 'selfish' since it still means doing something of value to the actor as well as the beneficiary."

Meanwhile and stifling a yawn, Paul Marks, also of Samizdata said: "I should be interested in this idea."

The story began when it was reported in the Daily Telegraph that lots of libertarian conservatives were thinking of setting up their own party. The rumour is that there aren't lots of them and they aren't libertarian.

2002-08-15T18:09:00.000Z

A Levels too easy

Stephen Pollard has hit out at too easy A Levels. In an article for Stephen Pollard he said: "Bristol University had 1800 applicants this year for 65 places in English. 900 were predicted to get three As at A-level. What use is an exam which produces that result?"

A Levels are Britain's main university entrance exam. After many years of continuous improvement they reached their zenith in, ooh, about 1983/4. It's been downhill ever since. Opinion formers are divided on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. One set believe that it represents watering down. Another set enjoy being able to say: "It's so much easier than it was in my day."

2002-08-15T18:08:00.000Z

Gagging Gwyneth - give her one for England

Tom Burroughes of Samizdata is calling on the cream of English manhood to go out and date US screen goddess, Gwyneth Paltrow. He said: " I've had enough of American women whining about why English chaps are such terrible dates. It is surely up to us, or at least those of us who are single guys, to step up to the plate, so to speak, and bury the issue once and for all."

But Dodgeblog funster, Andrew Dodge hit back saying:"What is so special about her, anyway? Yet another snotty uptight head-case American blonde who thinks men should worship at her feet."

This has led to speculation about where exactly we should worship Miss Paltrow.

2002-08-15T18:07:00.000Z

Other News

RUSI funds CND supporter - The Edge
Broadband to get a lot cheaper - The Captain
"Politics is the bastard child of morality and idealism" - Public Interest
Deregulation works - Samizdata
I think America is the best country in the world - Hawkgirl
There was no Falklands Factor - Airstrip One
All countries have entrepreneurs - it's just what they get them to entre - Liberty Log

2002-08-14T21:21:00.002Z

Labour has philosophy - shock

That's the theory of Mr Happy? pundit, Iain J Coleman. He's been closely comparing the actions of Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair with the theories of 16th century Florentine thinker, Nicolo Macchiavelli. Apparently they're almost identical.

If the story proves to be accurate, Tony Blair will not be the first world leader to take to heart the words of Old Nick. It is believed that Adolf Hitler kept a copy of The Prince by his bed.

2002-08-14T21:21:00.001Z

Go East!

East is the new West. That's the conclusion of sultry Samizdata siren, Natalija Radic. It seems that by reducing taxation and relaxation, plucky Baltic republic, Estonia is becoming the land of opportunity just like America once was to generations of entrepreneurs.

Sadly, it's not all plain sailing for the former Soviet slave state. Success has attracted its enemies. According to Miss Radic: "The political classes in places like Finland (and France and Germany) do not want the owners of capital to have access to less kleptocratic taxation within the EU as that would endanger the system of pork barrel and kick backs they depend on for their perks."

2002-08-14T21:21:00.000Z

Redistribution debate back on

After many years of thinking that the redistribution debate was over, it appears that it is back in full swing with a full-blooded debate between capitalist Brink Lindsey and wishy-washy Rawlsian Chris Bertram of Junius.

2002-08-13T20:45:00.000Z

Strength through soy

US farmers are beefing up their export markets by selling edible crayons made out of soya (Samizdata)

2002-08-13T20:33:00.000Z

Other news

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister was turfed off his flight after the captain claimed he was a security risk. Stephen Pollard.

The BBC has become the latest EU front organisation. Samizdata.

2002-08-13T20:22:00.000Z

Army to stay

Although he believes that they should get rid of everything else, Alex Singleton of the Liberty Log has called on British and American governments to hold on to their armies. Responding to calls for the complete abolition of all states and their armies Singleton said:"...leaving defence up to individuals is not really a sensible option."

The question of who guards the guardians is the one of the oldest in politics.

2002-08-13T20:13:00.000Z

Vote for nobody!

Voters should be able to vote for nobody. That is the conclusion of whacky bureaucrats at the Electoral Commission. In a desperate effort to get people out to vote they want every ballot paper to include a "None of the above" category.

Commenting on the news The Edge's Iain Murray said: "This appears to be a case of ballot papering over the cracks."

2002-08-13T20:03:00.000Z

marmaladebadger.com back on the market

Much missed internet domain name marmaladebadger.com is back on the market. According to Lionel Mandrake of A letter... it is one of a host of classics including doesgodloveme.com and a-diamond-says-i-do.com which are now on sale after their original owners went dot bomb.

CrozierVision implores readers not to think too deeply on the origins of some of these names.

2002-08-13T19:56:00.000Z

Storm over Tory splits

News that a few members of the Conservative Party are considering thinking about possibly setting up a new political party has sent shockwaves through the blogosphere. According to Peter Cuthbertson of Conservative Commentary, a "libertarian" party would be: "...a gift to Labour that would last a decade, retaining a failing, useless government in power unnecessarily." Peter Briffa of Public Interest said: "These goons are only 'libertarian' in the same sense that the Guardian is. i.e. Not at all." While Andrew Dodge of Dodgeblog felt that the whole thing was a hoax. He said:"The Portillo supporters seem to be trying to sucker the true libertarians by giving them a few carrots."

However, the not-yet-new party is not entirely without support. Arch libertarian, Paul Staines said in a post to the LAF (registration required): "Contemporary politics is boring, the mainstream spectrum is narrow. The fact that libertarian Tories are described as centre-left is a breakthrough - it means that we are no longer arguing about liberal economics, but civil liberties and the liberty of the individual."

He continured:"This is fertile territory to win over people who consider themselves left-of-centre. I can envisage a libertarian electoral coalition emerging over the next decade or so along those lines."

Ian Duncan Smith is the leader. Alan Duncan is the one who's gay.

2002-08-12T20:16:00.000Z

Rats to have rights

People and cats could be jailed for killing vermin if the anti-people lobby get their way. That's the shock conclusion of Conservative Commentary's Peter Cuthbertson. Commenting on animal rights theory he said: "One thing members of the animal rights brigade will never do is admit to the logic of their position: that killing a rat should earn the same prison sentence as murdering a child..."

Rats played a key role in suppressing free thought in Airstrip One.

2002-08-12T20:01:00.000Z

Splits rock New Labour

In a move that has split New Labour from top to bottom, Health Secretary, Alan Milburn has suggested in the Times, that if the government doesn't get its act together the Tories could actually win the next election. Commenting on the story, senior analyst, Stephen Pollard said: "The piece was astonishing not simply for its policy implications, which are in themselves enormous. It was also a not-even-thinly-veiled attack on Gordon Brown, and pinpointed the real battle lines within the government -- that between the "transformers" (of whom Mr. Milburn is a leading example) and the "consolidators" (who are led by Mr. Brown)."

The news that the Cabinet is split down the middle in the war over public services follows hard on the heels of another split over environment policy - this time with Michael Meacher against everyone else.

2002-08-12T19:37:00.000Z

Swap HMG for Heston

Britain should swap Her Majesty's Government and replace it with Alzheimer-sufferer Charlton Heston. That's the call from private citizen Patrick Crozier in an article for Samizdata. Comparing the two, he said:"It's cognitive functions are not what they were. How else could one explain its obsession with prosecuting a War on Drugs which it can't possibly win or continued membership of the European Union - the answer to a question no one asked?"

Charlton Heston, President of America's National Rifle Association, was recently diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

2002-08-12T19:28:00.000Z

The great Euro price hike

Seven months after the introduction of the Euro, Italian diners have been stung for a whopping 70% increase in the cost of eating out. And it appears that creeping Euroland socialism to blame. According to David Farrar of Freedom and Whisky:"The EU is not a capitalist project. The euro is not a capitalist currency. Under a true capitalist monetary regime - based on gold and silver - Italian dinners would not suddenly increase from £30 to £50 but would actually decline gradually in price year after year."

The Euro, the EU's monopoly currency, was imposed on most Europeans at the start of 2002. Britain, Sweden and Denmark continue to defy demands to abolish their own currency.

2002-08-12T08:34:00.000Z

Editorial - Miss Wells and Miss Chapman

We at CrozierVision like to think of ourselves as fairly hard-hearted but even we have been moved by the disappearance of the 10-year old Cambridgeshire schoolchildren Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. It must be a dreadful time for the parents. Grieving for a lost child is (as we understand it) awful but not knowing whether to grieve or not must be far worse. To be in a situation of total ignorance where hopes can be raised or dashed on the merest wisp of news and where the imagination runs riot deserves our greatest sympathy. We can only hope that these two girls are found alive.

In the meantime, CrozierVision will be doing its best to make things as easy as possible for the police and the parents. To this end we will not be sending reporters to Cambridgeshire, we will not be questioning police competence (at least not while the investigation is in full swing), we will not be asking senior policemen or the parents "How do you feel?", we will not be wasting police time by demanding information and press conferences, we will not doorstep the parents or point TV cameras at their houses, we will not have pointless "live" link ups with our man on the ground and will not be demanding that the parents appear in front of the cameras to make "emotional" appeals for their children's return.

2002-08-11T21:43:00.000Z

And finally...

Buttafly, a website has launched a nifty labour-saving device for Lefties. The Hysterical Liberal Magic Eight Ball automatically generates pre-prepared lines-to-take for those all-too-frequent occasions when Lefties find themselves stumped for an answer. A Buttafly spokesman said: "The far left is busy these days. Between whining about the country's war efforts and attending celebrity benefits for fashionable diseases, they simply don't have the time for trifles like political debate and thoughtful analysis of issues."

2002-08-11T17:09:00.000Z

Book backs call for gun reform

A new book backs up calls for the relegalisation of guns. Guns and Violence: The English Experience by Joyce Malcolm points out that when Brits were armed there was less crime.

Reviewing the book, legal bigwig Glen Reynolds said: "...the English experience provides a concrete example of American gun owners' worst fear: A patient political establishment steadily whittling firearms rights away over a period of decades through means both open and covert as circumstances permitted, in order to bring the citizenry under more complete political control."

2002-08-11T16:42:00.000Z

Hacks hacked

Reports are coming in that the government hacked into the BBC's computer.

Stop Press

Peter Cuthbertson of Conservative Commentary has called for the perpetrators to be jailed.

Adriana Cronin of Samizdata questions BBC competence: "My first reaction would be: "how the hell did you know what I just wrote on the newsroom computer?!" It seems a measure of how unquestioning of the government the BBC must be, if no one has challenged their big brother tactics. Or is it just 'cos its family."

2002-08-11T10:05:00.000Z

Riots in Iran

Up to 1,000 people have been arrested during riots in Iran according to Oxblog.

2002-08-11T09:53:00.000Z

No representation without taxation

Plans to reduce the voting age in the UK have been condemned as "political self-interest" by David Farrer of Freedom and Whisky. Warming to his theme he added: "There is no reason why government employees - our servants - should be allowed to decide how much of the people's money they can grab."

The British government is currently decided by a system known as "democracy" in which in "elections" people are allowed to decide how much of other people's money they get to steal and how much of their liberty they get to swipe. Many have condemned the system as responsible for the UK's decline over the last 100 years prompting calls for the restoration of a traditional monarchy.

2002-08-11T09:35:00.000Z

More calls for Arafat to go

Yet more calls have been made for the end of Yasser Arafat, this time from Conservative Commentary's Peter Cuthbertson. He said: "Negotiations can achieve such solutions in the case of reasonable leaders like Hussein. But they cannot work in the case of butchers like Arafat, who instead of working to end the murders, names public squares after the murderers."

2002-08-11T09:19:00.000Z

Pervert scare laws slammed

Plans by the government to swipe liberties under the cover of the latest pervert scare have been slammed by NHS survivor, Perry de Havilland of Samizdata. He said:" The sort of things being talked about to contain the perceived threat from on-line 'paedophiles' (by which people really mean pederasts) is fairly mild stuff but that is always how it starts out. I just hope that this is not used as yet another excuse for the Panopticon state to stick its proboscis ever deeper into our private on-line lives."

The latest scare began after the disappearance of two 10-year old girls in Cambridgeshire.

2002-08-11T08:27:00.000Z

Steyn: Invade now!

Mark Steyn, the Canadian political commentator, has called on Western governments to ignore calls to promote "stability" in the Middle East. He said:

Suppose we buy in to Moussa's pitch and place stability above all other considerations. We get another 25 years of the Ayatollahs, another 35 years of the PLO and Hamas, another 40 years of the Baathists in Syria and Iraq, another 80 years of Saudi Wahabbism. What kind of Middle East are we likely to have at the end of all that?

His sentiments have received support from private citizen, Tim Blair, who said: "Let's roll."

2002-08-10T11:54:00.000Z

Europeans "not living in the real world" - Cuthbertson

European policy makers have been condemned as "not living in the real world" and finding excuses in "post-modernist garbage" in a report by Peter Cuthbertson of Conservative Commentary.

Cuthbertson was responding to an article in the Daily Telegraph pointing to differences between American and European ways of thinking. In a hard-hitting report he said: "If democratic ideals are no better than socialist ideals or Fundamentalist Islamic ideals, then fighting for one over the other is so much needless killing. So no wonder blind pacifism is now dominant across Europe, which no longer has the army to fight even if it wanted to."

His remarks have added weight to calls for Britain to leave the EU and invade Zimbabwe.

2002-08-10T11:28:00.000Z

De Havilland in hospital - nation holds its breath

As Perry de Havilland, founder of Samizdata, prepared to go under the knife yesterday, a nation looked on anxiously.

Peter Briffa of Public Interest summed up the mood of many when he said: "Spare a thought for King of the Metacontext himself, Perry de Havilland. Yes, the poor sap has decided to put his life in the hands of those demented socialists and sadists, otherwise known as the NHS. He doesn't say what he's in for - maybe he's converted to Judaism, in which case our prayers are with him, but all the same, hang on in there, Pezza!"

CrozierVision will bring you constant updates as this story develops.

2002-08-10T10:53:00.000Z

Hollywood not completely crap - shock

The view that Hollywood produces nothing but statist claptrap took a beating from Libertarian Alliance strongman, Antoine Clarke today. In an analysis for Samizdata he examined four movies: Spiderman, Minority Report, Bad Company and French flick, Sur mes Levres. He said: "I enjoyed all of these movies and found them a lot better than most of the television I've watched recently."

Minority Report was singled out for particular praise. Mr Clarke said: "I don't know what kind of movies Friedrich Hayek enjoyed, but I'm sure he would have nodded approval at the script of Minority Report."