turns out

that the new regime in Reading booted the fraudster's friend, Stuart Singleton-White, off the board of Reading Buses on 12th July this year,(Cabinet minutes inform us), once the coalition had got its feet under the table, and replaced him as chair with his deputy, Dictatorship Dave "moronic members of the public" Sutton. However they put one of their own, Cllr Tom Harris, on to the board, as well they might. It does seem a little unfair of the Tories, given all the help S S-W gave them, but whatever. Presumably this was a Tory-Labour stitch-up to keep an unwanted person, probably a LibDem, off the board of that august body. In what is undoubtedly an unrelated stratagem, Cllr Warren Swaine (LibDem, Katesgrove, the very "moronic member of the public" who ousted Dictatorship Dave from Reading Borough Council (huzzah!) is quoted in that very statement (see previous post) possibly deliberately incoherently.

In an unrelated development, Cllr Azam Janjua (Con, Church) has been appointed to the board of Readibus, along with Cllrs Ruhemann and Tory Tickner. I wonder if Tickner sits with him in meetings,given that the previous Labour Group statement (Lovelock and Sutton passim) said that Janjua was not safe with women, although that did not persuade them to withdraw his taxi licence, because after all girls who get taxis at night are probably from Whitley, and certainly asking for it, hein? And the foregoing is casting no aspersions on Cllr Janjua, which I do not, but on the credibility of Lovelock and Sutton.

victim of Tory cuts!

Er, possibly. The fraudster's friend is out, to be replaced by Dictatorship Dave, see below from Reading Buses, Friday 24th September:

New Chairman

Reading Transport appoints a new chairman.

The Board of Reading Transport Ltd last night appointed David Sutton as its new Chairman.
 
He succeeds Stuart Singleton-White who chaired the meeting for the last time.  His appointment as a Director ends this month.
 
In a statement issued today, David Sutton said:  “This is a position which I neither sought nor expected, but which will be an honour to hold.
 
“I will try to continue the work of my predecessors in building a bus company and a bus service of which Reading can be truly proud.
 
“I would like to pay a special tribute to the work which Stuart Singleton-White performed as Chair in a really progressive and consensual manner which I will seek to emulate.
 
“Fortunately for me, Stuart is a close personal friend and I will be able to draw regularly on his advice.” 
 
Commenting on the appointment, Councillor Warren Swaine, also a Non-Executive Director of the Company, said today:  “David Sutton’s appointment is welcomed and will ensure a smooth transition.
 
“He will lead the Board of Directors in a very support manner as the Company seeks to provide a bus service to the people who live, work and visit Reading.”

So has the Council appointed a new board member of Reading Buses? I think we should be told 
 

needed to be said

where would I be without Norm (rhetorical question alert, whoop whoop, those men in white all in one suits on those little trucks in an underground Evil Headquarters, oh please  yourselves)

I read the editorial in today's Times (I am now behind the Murdoch Paywall of Death so I can) and was struck by it, thinking of the moral equivalence - if there is a need for an independent British nuclear deterrent, as Attlee thought, and as I think, for different reasons, then why shouldn't everyone think they should have their own, and deserve one?  Good question, hein?  Good answer, Norm, below.

From a Times leader today (£) on the need for an independent British nuclear deterrent:

The arguments advanced for Britain's independent deterrent have altered, but the essential judgment made by Attlee was right. In a world that includes hostile and bellicose regimes, and in which there is no world government capable of countering aggression, an independent deterrent is Britain's insurance against nuclear blackmail.

One way of avoiding this conclusion would be to assume that the world is safe against the possibility of nuclear threats from hostile regimes. However, to think the world is like this - isalready like this - after the experience of the last 100 years or so, you must have spent too much time listening to chants of 'Love and peace, man'. Yet for those of more pessimistic intelligence, the above argument from the Times leader has a rather dispiriting general consequence. If 'an independent deterrent is Britain's insurance against nuclear blackmail', then so, equally, would an independent deterrent be the insurance against nuclear blackmail for another country. If we consider the issue as a matter of impartial justice, therefore, every country can make the same claim with the same moral force.

On the other hand, as is well-known, the possibility of non-nuclear powers (such as Iran) becoming nuclear powers isn't looked on by the existing nuclear powers with the kind of equanimity one might expect if 'fair-mindedness' (for want of a better word) ruled in this matter. From which one may conclude that in international affairs the demands of inter-state equity reach only so far. In the circumstances prevailing this may not be a bad thing entirely, since some states are better than others.

the number of spoiled ballots is as follows...

my little poll has now closed, and I suspect it does not reflect the real result, which we shall know tomorrow.  It has Mili-D the winner, followed closely but not that closely by his bruv Mili-E (one correspondent calls them the Corsican Twins), then a long way behind by Diane Abbott, then Andy Burnham got one late vote, and, apparently only moments before close of poll, so did Mr Cooper-Balls.  So there you have it.

a Strasbourg scene

this blog might not be the best place for this, but I have just been told an on-my-way-in-to-work-this-morning anecdote today (remember we are in France) - like this: elderly woman with small dog on lead; dog gets interested in something on ground; elderly owner pulls dog away; dog gets pissed off; they tussle a bit, unequally; dog jumps at owner's face with intent to bite; owner holds dog, by lead, away from own face; dog is beside itself with rage at this point; owner spits, confidently and copiously, in dog's face; collapse of dog rage and sedate departure, side by side, of owner and dog.

in the category of (1) you what? and (2) how I wish I had seen that and had the presence of mind to switch on the video on my iPod.

fisking Basher

at least I thought I was going to, but now I think I will just reproduce this, from a letter he says he has sent out to residents in Posh Park, where he lives, and ask readers to spot the deliberate mistake(s):

Presentation to Wokingham Borough Council of the Petition.



Wokingham does not have a Council meeting in October, so the Petition, which now contains over 530 signatures in the paper and online form, will be presented to the Council. If you are available please meet at Wokingham Borough Offices, Shute End, at about 7.10pm for a photograph. The petition will be handed over at 7.30pm.

Consultation Drop In Meeting: Park Church Hall Friday 24th September

btw the letter is titled "Dates for Your Diary"

he's free

Nikolai Alekseyev, pictured, has been released, after being arrested at Moscow airport as he was about to board a flight to Geneva.  He was detained in the airport, then at a police station some distance from Moscow.  Messages were sent from his phone that he was going to claim political asylum in Belarus, which he is adamant he did not send.  The airport authorities issued a statement that he had been detained for refusing to take off his shoes at security.  He denies this and says he had already passed through security when he was detained.  Nikolai Alekseyev is a gay activist who is Not At All Popular with the mayor of Moscow, Luzhkov (who in his turn is not popular with President Medvedev), who has stated that Moscow Pride, of which Nikolai is one of the organisers, is the work of Satan.  Nikolai has an outstanding application with the European Court of Human Rights, and he says he was pressured to withdraw it, but that he did not do so.  I know Nikolai slightly, in fact I wrote the foreword to a book of his on gay marriage.  I wish you well Nikolai, and if you come to Strasbourg come and see me.  Hat-tip Chris.