Riots in the real world

As the MSM frets and bothers in the wake of the riots, the real world outside the bubble gets on with the job of clearing up. A good friend of mine works at a 6^th-form college not far from Croydon, and has some interesting observations.

Real people and their anecdotal evidence offer three advantages over journalists. They don’t have an agenda, they aren’t getting paid for their opinions, and they tend to live in the places hit worst by social unrest because they have to not, unlike many young journalists resident in Hoxton, Brick Lane and Hackney, because it’s hip. They see things happen rather than read about them on Twitter.

My friend – we’ll call him Paul – has three main observations.

Firstly, on A-level results day, the college was suddenly buzzing with student life again after the silence of the holidays [Paul works there year round]. The students had come in to get their results. More than that, though, many of them had clearly come in to show off their new acquisitions: box-fresh trainers, jewellery, designer clothing and other shiny things. Youth violence, Paul has overheard students claiming, is now increasingly about one gang trying to access the ‘horde’ of a rival gang.

Secondly, and also concerning gangs, is the revelation which disgusted me most. There are, at Paul’s estimation, 70 to 80 known gang members at the college. The teaching staff, in addition to the rest of their onerous duties, have to organise an entirely unofficial rota system to ensure that students from rival gangs don’t attend the same lessons. This wearying logistical exercise is, of course, unrecognised and unpaid.

Thirdly, Paul spoke to two rather sensible, grounded girls whose stories seemed entirely plausible. They told Paul about their area on the worst night of rioting. Two hundred or so locals had come on to the streets to defend their property and businesses. At one point, some wannabe looters had appeared on bikes and made for a local shop. One of them was quite badly beaten, in full view of the police, who took the failed looter away when the local people were finished with him. None of this made even the local newspaper. Even more than copycat rioting, the establishment fears copycat vigilantism, unless it is carried out by approved ethnic groups. As I once opined to a friend concerning Islamist terrorism, the one thing government fears more than radicalised mosques is radicalised pubs.

The testament of real people, bloggers included; accept nothing less.

Rioting, Part two.

As The Dust Settles For Now.

I don't wish to be the sole poster here. This contribution is inspired by Richard's link to this, knobhead.  Now mincer White and his socialist luvvie mates and BBC chatterati are not people I would normally give time of day to. This piece fails to build on its partial excellence because of the rabid and slavish need to score party political points. 

The only salvation we can possibly countenance is an end to adversarial politics until a future nation state becomes proven as not working with such a consensus.

Some hope. The failings of successive Governments have been continued or exacerbated. The wishes of the majority trampled under that dreadful phrase "representative democracy". How can an MP use such a term to excuse failing to bow to the majority wish. One when votes are cast in the belief that a manifesto promise is what they can expect. Neither side of this unholy Cobbleition has stuck to its beliefs. As for Pseudo Cameron, his emperor's clothes were well and truly revealed by the youngster quoted by White, "He's a knob head"! Such is the power of some of this article he almost had me admiring Coke'Ed. Until, that is, I quickly remembered that little mongrel's obedience to his previous, proven madman, of a leader.

None of these morons get it. Their part in all this debt creation, broken society, illegal wars and all the other tired, "not me Guv" cliches, is just not on their radar.

Human beings are really made up of differing qualities, abilities and DNA. Some are down right nasty, others lost in a sea of poverty and deprivation, decades of socialism have failed to improve. The loss of manual, unskilled work and outlets for the less able, is a disgrace. Add to that the importation of hordes of immigrants, unable to contribute anything but a colossal burden of sheer volume, to a small group of Islands. The bleeding obvious is phenomenal in its disregardful neglect of mention by the politicians.

If all this were not enough of a failure, we continue blindly down this enforced route to Federalism. As if our own trials and tribulations, political arses and enormous debt were not enough, we blithely volunteer to increase exponentially the very causes of our difficulties. Too much immigration, little output or economic strength. Social ghettos of disillusionment, disenfranchised, disregarded, disaffected, peoples. All the time these individuals are bombarded with Sunday Times Style magazines, celebrity excess and luxury images only a minuscule can ever attain. Ironically those selling the perfect Utopia of self indulgent excess, which so demeans its client base, gets to live those dreams on the back of the window licking populations they exploit.

When I look at what's to be done, I am drawn to my personal, many years old, despair, that only violent overthrow of this madness can work.

The soul searching by the haves, hasn't a clue what it is like to be a have not. I did, as a child. The old Labour/Union people did much to improve the lot of this Nation until they, too, were seduced by the glamour and celebrity of money and power. 

So here we are. An Oldrightie peering to the left and seeing just a small gap before the face of the fascist ghosts of Europe are visible. Moving my head slowly right to seek the commonsense that used to epitomise that direction, I see a weak, enfeebled man. One desperately trying to be all things to all men in public, whilst plotting the very downfall of a once proud people. Heir to Blair, Grandson of Heath. It's enough to make you so angry you want to break something. 

Amid the criminality of last weeks riots were genuinely angry, frustrated people. The response? More draconian policing, further blatant destruction of freedom and a faster march to that jackboot Utopia seen as a Federal Europe. Obama is licking his lips at the very thought of a Pan European supporter of his enslaved Nation. Ironic how a descendant of slavery sees little problem  with that of a whole Continent and slavishly promotes not just the politics of fear but the very exercise of that nightmare. A plague on all their houses.

Rioting.

I Do This At My Place.

Rail helplessly at the state of our Nation and the decline and fall of once proud peoples. Men and women whose parents freed the world of tyranny and Nazi atrocity forced into a straight jacket of disenfranchised helplessness. Ever since the second world war socialism has held sway and brought us to the mess we are in. Mass immigration, colossal bureaucracy and a dumbing down of educational standards and aspiration.

Let's not be gentle about what we are seeing. An economic crash for the second time in three years has brought nothing but more of the same from a political class incapable of self criticism.

Let them suffer the wrath and terror their constituents are having to endure throughout Europe and soon, America. Some hope, of course, that they will. When wondering where the police are deployed in London, look no further than the Greek tactics. Government buildings and wealthy areas were carefully targeted for protection and the deprived, gangster ridden ghettos allowed to burn. Ring any bells? Political change is coming but it will be a great deal more painful to us all than we have yet seen. Their fall back options, to protect themselves from our wrath and indignation, will be well in hand. They probably knew, or should have, that the creation of an imported underclass and tolerance of a gang culture, stretching from Eastern Europe to South America, might bring about what we see in London. One thing is for sure, they keep themselves well away from it.

Annual Eton Sports Day.

Always held In Exotic Locations.

As sad as this match turned, out my sympathies lie as much with the unnecessary loss of a precious creature as with the more readily found human volunteer. I suppose the polar bear 1, Etonian 0 half time score would always end in a draw as the bear was gunned down leaving quite possibly a wife and cubs.

This "holiday" expedition was an expensive and somewhat elite journey, more because they could than they should. That it was in the guise of the very questionable climate change obsessives' agenda makes it even more ironic.

Richard blogged on this at his place of reason. and I suspect with a similar sense of mild irritation at the futility of it all. The holiday trade is awash with Eco-tourism to all manner of places we do not belong, with our prurient and selfish need for experiences. "Where's James, today?", asks a guest at some posh garden party, "Oh," replies the host, "He's on an Arctic expedition to determine the decline of the polar bear population in the Arctic, you know? He's passionate about protecting them". He'd have been better donating £10,000 to the protection league for endangered polar bears.

Right On.

Or Maybe Not?

"Ramadan is a time of intense devotion and reflection. Its importance is emphasised in prayer and as a time when families and friends gather to remember those less fortunate. Its values remind us of the principles that we hold in common - tolerance, justice, progress and the dignity of all human beings. The key messages of selflessness, charity, and compassion are values that unite Muslims and non Muslims alike.”" - The Nation

When Somebody Tries.

"They Have Friends".

I had/have a degree of personal involvement two or so years back in this MPs Association. What was awful was to witness a marvellous constituency turned into a toy by a man devoid of decency. I regarded the author of the link a touch cranky only to subsequently discover he was the lad who cried "The Emperor has no clothes". Check out the link and weep for the loss of freedom and accountability. This ought to go viral in its implications.A real opportunity to justifiably have a good hard metaphorical slap of a guy who's sole claim to fame is he is a favoured old school chum of Pseudo Dave. Not nice, I'm sad to say, these people. Typical, of course, of The EU cabal.

Norway. The country with dignity.

Last Night’s speech by the Prime Minister of Norway.

Today Norway was hit by two shocking and bloody and cowardly attacks.
We still do not know who attacked us; much is still uncertain.
But we know that many are dead and injured.
We are all shocked at the evil that has struck us so brutally and so suddenly
This night demands much of all of us.
And the days that follow will demand even more
We are prepared to face up to this.
Norway hangs together during critical times.
We mourn our dead, we suffer with the injured, and we comfort relatives.
This is about attacks on innocent civilians, on young people at summer camp.
An attack on all of us.
I have a message to the people who attacked us, and those behind them.
This is a message from all of Norway:
You will not destroy us.
You will not destroy our democracy nor our quest for a better world.
We are a small nation, but we are a proud nation.
No one shall bomb us into silence or shoot us into silence.
Nothing will frighten us out of being Norway.
This night we will comfort each other, talk with each other, and stand together.
Tomorrow we will show the world that Norway’s democracy grows stronger when it is challenged.
We shall find the guilty and hold them responsible.
The important thing tonight is to save lives, to care for the victims and their loved ones
I would like to state my recognition for the work of the police, the medics,
and all the other people who currently do such formidable work
to help others, healing injures and saving lives.
We must never cease to stand up for our values.
We have to show that our open society can pass this test, too,
And that the answer to violence is even more democracy,
even more humanity, but never naïveté.
That is what we owe to the victims and to the those they hold dear.

A sensible and pragmatic speech.
In this country of ours, we would most likely have our Prime Minister telling us that “Lessons will be learnt”, and bombing us a raft of  further oppressive legislation.

My sympathies in this most troubling time.

As Ever.

The Gathering Storm.

I doubt he'll put his hand up when it matters!

Dodgy Dave really is heir to Bliar, just not as good at disguising his fibbing. Was he warned over Coulson, "I gave him a second chance". Did you discuss the BSkyB deal with NI. "My talks were not inappropriate. ". My own blog has discussed this blatant "liasm" pervading all our institutions. From The BBC to Gus O'Donnell and the Mandarin classes, truth is something to be traded for personal aggrandaisment and cash. Now I've no time for Tom Watson and his biased crusade. His party never read scripture or are too thick to understand "execution by stoning". Yet the mantle inherited by the Cobbleition and the passionate need for the chatterati to sup with very short spoons is still looking very dangerous dinner partying for Pseudo. If dodgy friends and even worse dodgy dossier manipulations are desired, to secure the legacy of Bliar and Brown, Cameron is well on course to be the truest inheritor of a very nasty Government. Greek yoghurts all round?

     

Here's A Thought.

Hacking Into Corruption.

How about a twelve month moratorium on civil service information wherebye any employee can produce any knowledge they hold under the official secrets act, pertaining to Government and Parliamentary corruption or malpractice? Include EU discussions for a federal completion, bankers rescue practices et al. That might be jolly and very informative. Alternatively, release MI5s dossiers on our MPs and their behaviour and scrub the hundred year lock on Dunblane. Now what was that song from John Lennon? Oh, yes, "Imagine". Part of that wish list is due in 2066, apparently. What it was like to be a Native North American!

The Surprising Inevitability.

Lost In Microwaves.

cartoon borrowed from here.

The sense of hope and relief, at the defeat of Snotty's abject failure and Labours' profligate economic paucity of competence, so quickly gone. The cycling reference I find very apt. A Cobbleition, bringing together two ostensibly OK Toffs seemed such a good idea and what the Public voted for. Yet how quickly the doubters have been proved correct. The first glimmer of a vain but consequential new and once more unelected PM was his car document and wardrobe carrying motorcade behind the pink lefty, red jacketed buffoon.

Even so it seemed set fair for a full term with the new head Boys in charge. OK, both have a dubious record as individuals. Both never held a decent job and Cleggy steeped in the largesse given to the chosen few of The EU Nazis still seemed refreshing up against the stained nappy wearing, nose picker, forebear of this now discredited office of Government. However the News International scandals swirling about ought now to see Cameron go before Cleggy. Who'd have thought that.

We need something cataclysmic to let Cameron take his fellow cycling travellers over the cliff, without us all being dragged over with them. Perhaps a great flood sweeping London into the sea would do it. Make sure every MP and sycophantic prat is in situ first, though. That would include most if not all of The MSM and The BBC and every member of the three useless parties. Time Cameron got on his bike in many a sense.

Connections

+

=

Time Traveller blogs at Adventures in Time Travel

A Blessed Relief.

BBC Journalists (auto cue readers in the main) Strike!

What a joy to not have the likes of this pair of smug, giggling, self-satisfied, spoilt and superior kids despoiling the news. Sober, unbiased delivery of facts today. No constant repetition by studio to outside broadcasters and back. "The loss of common sense is a dreadful thing. Jim, our specialist dumbo is outside Number ten. Jim, is the loss of common sense a dreadful thing?" "Why, yes Fiona. Even Downing Street agree and so do I. Back to you, Fiona in  the studio." "There you have it. The BBC and therefore you suckers out there now all agree because our bias is all that matters!".

Why not get rid of them all? Save on mega wages and no more massive, tax payer funded pensions. Simples!

A Biblical Waste.

Hardly Seven Fishes, Is It?

As our drug addled EU masters pontificate at the failure of yet another pathetic policy, dating back to 1983, famine engulfs Africa and EU fish eating populations go short. All in the name of preserving stocks. A policy warned against from day one is now depleting further an already ravaged marine supply. Now this Damascan moment has been realised, guess what? It will take years to reverse, millions of euros to have endless meetings, dubious debates and a self-interest modification to protect those who have made great profits at others' expense. "There will be hard bargaining by the European Parliament and EU member states' governments before the new policy is adopted." Note the BBC euphimism "revamped"!  

Then back in 2007! 

I also doubt that factory ships throw anything back. Mulch it all up into fish fingers and who's the wiser? 

Imagine how many tonnes this would have to dump!

Squeaky voices

If we were so minded, we could take The Independent headline and its story and rewrite them, better to reflect the reality. Rather than say that a question mark now hangs over Cameron's judgement, however, we would have to resort to the use of rather more words. Thus might we say:

After years of stumbling around in the dark, ignoring the self-evident and blindingly obvious fact that Cameron's judgement is and always has been suspect over a very wide range of issues, we have at last discovered that he is a seriously flawed man and have decided to present our discovery to you in the guise of "news", thereby assuming that you are so thick that you hadn't already noticed and that you need to pay us clever people to tell you.

Now, we admit that this does not have quite the same immediacy and striking power as a Sun headline. But then we am not clever like wot these professional journalists are, who are at the centre of things and know what's really going down.

On the other hand, we could say that the Fourth Estate, in now reporting that which most of the nation already knew, is having to deal the embarrassment of playing catch-up. And this is the best they can do.

What must be terrifying these little dears, though, is the parallel discovery that so many people had come to their conclusions unaided, without the mighty MSM to guide them. The brighter ones may even be putting two and two together, realising that most people don't actually need their clever commentary in order to know what to think.

Even then, old habits die hard. Still, they chase after that single, elusive thing that they all strive after: setting the agenda. That, they think, is where their power lies – not as yet realising that the world has changed forever. They have lost their monopoly control of information, and are just squeaky voices, competing for a hearing in the growing cacophony.

If Honour Existed.

This Would Happen Later Today.

David Cameron. 

"The events that have unfolded in the past few weeks, culminating in the closure of  The News of The World and the arrest of its former editor and my initial appointment as Press Secretary,  Andrew Coulson, I make the following statement:

It is apparent that this action, in appointing such an individual to the heart of British Politics, was a grave error of judgement. This mistake has led me to realise that my own fitness for office is now questionable. Not least by myself. I therefore, with immediate effect intend to step down as Prime Minister, after taking the necessary steps to call an immediate General Election. I shall also urge my Party to not contest that election and call upon The Labour and Liberal Democrats to do the same. My reasons for such actions are that all three parties have allowed our political system to fall into a morass of immoral, corrupt and secretive deals in all areas of Government and that this can no longer be allowed to continue. Thank you."

Jedward Miliband. 

"In light of The Prime Minister's statement I am duly bound to reply. On behalf of The Labour party I can categorically state that the behaviour of Alistair Campbell, whilst holding the post of Press Secretary to Tony Blair, was far cleverer, more devious and successful in not getting caught out, than Coulson. I therefore divorce myself from all previous dealings, over circa 18 years that my party had with News International.

The lavish parties, yachts and private jets, employed on our behalf by Rupert Murdoch, were all for the well being and good of The Labour movement. Our economic legacy proves how little influence they had on our great period in office. To this end I shall resist the call by Mr Cameron not to contest the forthcoming election. Indeed I can state at this press conference that any manifesto pledges and guarantees not to drive The Nation even deeper into debt, will be reneged upon, as soon as we enter Office once more, in order to continue the traditions of sleaze and corruption for which all British political parties are rightly famous. Thank you."

Nicklearse Clegg. 


"It is my duty to respond to the statements of my right dishonourable dear friends, The Prime Minister and the leader Of The Labour Party. This moment is a tipping point in the politics of this once great country now brought to its knees by the years of corrupt and corrosive relationships of the other two parties. Whilst their underhand and despicable governance has led us to the brink of destruction, my party, under my leadership, has kept the only hope of salvation we have alive. 


My confidential and secret meetings with our great European State has kept the door open to sacrifice our future for the good of the moral, upright and totally incorruptible Federal European States. I am therefore able to announce my party will fight the next election funded wholly by the European Commission. 


Subject to the inevitable victory, if not at the first time of asking then at the re-run, in which the financial burden will no longer permit any opposition , I will immediately close Parliament and subsume all future governance to The EUSSR. I am guaranteed that this State Of Liberata will have the extreme honour of providing the very first ever President of The EUSSR unified in the dream of a 1984 Utopian existence. Thank you."

Already?

It's Only July The Seventh.

Forget financial meltdown, political storms and violent protests. Forget job losses, bankruptcies, heartache and suffering. Already the main topic of conversation and real interest throughout the corridors of power, is the great August EU shut down. Regardless of any consequences, the real head honchos hand over the reins to the dogs body wannabees.

The truly mighty fuck off for many weeks of indulgence. Fully stuffed with their ill gotten gains, squeezed from suckers like us. The luxury yacht crews are busy readying for the orgies of indulgence, the private jets are polished and fuelled and the invitations to the pleasure domes already embossed in gold for their missive welcomes.

A new haven for a quiet raping of a compliant and desperately grateful, less surly servitude, is up and running. Corfu confined to the blazing inferno of the Greek meltdown. Since money is no object we have built a new and ever more exclusive pleasure palace and marina. Welcome all those corrupt enough to visit.

In on the beginning of this creation was Kiddyfiddler and his mates, in 2008. How it's done in that world. Just three years later we have a summary of this post. and a picture for you to slaver over.

Would I wish to or would I indulge in all of this. I can honestly say no. Such gatherings should be to celebrate a stable, decent world. Contrast it with the drought in Africa and ask if this wealth could make a difference? I suspect it could in the right hands. Such hands no longer exist, it would seem.

A Difficult Definition

What's the definition of an independent blogger?  I find it difficult to define.  From the Free Dictionary:

1. Not governed by a foreign power; self-governing.

2. Free from the influence, guidance, or control of another or others; self-reliant: an independent mind.

3. Not determined or influenced by someone or something else; not contingent: a decision independent of the outcome of the study.

4. often Independent Affiliated with or loyal to no one political party or organization.

5. Not dependent on or affiliated with a larger or controlling entity: an independent food store; an independent film.

6.

a. Not relying on others for support, care, or funds; self-supporting.

b. Providing or being sufficient income to enable one to live without working:

The vision I have is a blogger similar to myself - a member of no political party and completely self-reliant. But in truth I'm not, because I have the background support of the delightful gentleman OldRightie, who has been my guardian angel since a distressing episode some time ago. Both of us are of an independent mind yet it is possible OR could be member of a political party.  Does that make him less independent than me? I think not.

In the past year or so group blogs have popped up all over the place, some having a few regular contributers and others having regular posts by a multitude of authors. Few have profiles of their authors. Are they independent?  It's certainly much easier to keep a reasonably high profile in the blogosphere if you have a pool of authors but it raises the question of whether it's the blog or the blogger(s) who are independent.

Some bloggers are professional journalists/writers.  Are they independent when they write on a personal blog?

Like most bloggers I have my regular reading list and I have only two standard rules.  If a blog doesn't have a visible contact email address I don't read it.  Not that I intend to bombard fellow bloggers with emails, but a contact address shows me that the writer is open to his/her readership.

Another rule is I no longer comment on blogs which do not interact with their readership.  Why spend time writing a comment in response to what is a thoughtful post only to wonder if it was even read.  When I began it was my decision to acknowledge every commenter at my place.  Little did I realise how time consuming that would be, even for a small blog, but it's the very least I can do to acknowledge the time my reader has spent composing their comment and I consider it common courtesy. 

That apart, are those independent bloggers truly independent?  I suggest not because we partly rely upon each other to provide links to posts which have relevance to their own.  However that doesn't affect each and every one of us having a truly independent mind does it?

Media Frenzy.

A Terrific Diversion I Suspect.

Of course the Milly story is ghastly but just a minute. Our Nation is labelled thus. So here we go again, war, spying on people, police brutality and all the unsavoury machinery of State control, good. A newspaper mimics this behaviour and whoooah, dreadful, terrible, awful. Whatever we think of this latest scandal, watch it used to increase and create yet more draconian legislation. No doubt cheered on by our puppet masters in The EU. Also makes for "a good day to bury bad news" scenario.

George Orwell was naive when he wrote "1984", the 2011 reality is looking even worse. As for "Animal farm", we are all slowly becoming no more than pig swill!

This is what happens when you give the job to amateurs

Lovely Louise Gray over at the Telegraph is doing her bit for recycling again.

We keep sending more and more of our recycling to landfill, apparently. According to her pals over at DEFRA, it's gone up by 50,000 tons in two years: everybody involved somehow contrives to keep the total recycling figure a secret from we readers - to hide an inconvenient fact such as a drop in the percentage being sent to landfill perhaps?

Of course, it's all our fault.

"Environmental groups have blamed councils for failing to educate households about which materials to put in the recycling bin.."

= We're thick.

"Recycling has to be dumped if it is "contaminated" with the wrong material, for example smashed glass put in alongside newspapers.."

= We're thick

"Mal Williams, of the Campaign for Real Recycling, blamed the system where councils collect different streams, like paper, plastic and cardboard in one bag".

= We need to separate rubbish more and we need more bins.

"Up to 10 per cent of the material has to be dumped because it is mixed with the wrong materials, such as bottle tops and food waste".

= We're thick.

"Julian Kirby, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said that councils must make sure the material collected for recycling is processed correctly rather than dumped or burned".

= We're thick and so are our councils.

"It's not just how much recycling we do that's important, it's also how we do it," he said. Gary Porter, the chairman of the Local Government Association Environment Board.."

= I'm paid a great deal of money to state the bleedin' obvious.

"The vast majority of people do the right thing, which is great. But the slight increase in contamination rates demonstrates why it is important for councils to be able to identify and work with people who misunderstand or make mistakes when sorting their rubbish."

= We're thick - but some of us are thicker than others and will need to be sent to special re-education camps.

The real answer is to stop producing crap for which there is no purpose other than to be thrown away. Time Traveller Boy II went to the shop today to buy a product from the world's richest 'concerned environmentalist'. The product was a number which could have been printed on his sales receipt.

Instead, as you'll see from the picture above, it came printed on a card, laid into a dvd-sized tray of indeterminate material, in a cardboard sleeve...

At least TTBoyII had the good sense to decline a bag to put it in.


Time Traveller blogs at Adventures in Time Travel

Doing the honest thing

A splendidly indignant Peter Hitchens is fulminating about "Dave" doing the talking (telling the military to shut up and do the fighting), while the war dead from Afghanistan are to be sneaked out of the back gate of RAF Brize Norton when it takes over from Lyneham (a few weeks from now) as the arrival point for the fallen.

They will then be routed down side roads to avoid nearby Carterton – a town almost exactly the same size as Wootton Bassett – and make their way to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford along A-roads and bypasses. There'll be a small guard of honour near the hospital entrance (there already is) but somehow or other the cortege won't go down any High Streets, thus avoiding what has become a media circus.

All of this, however, has to be viewed in the context of the complete and utter failure of the Afghanistan campaign, typified by the experience of the Kajaki power project in Afghanistan, as narrated by the BBC's Mark Urban on yesterday's Newsnight, and repeated today in a BBC documentary.

He refers to a series of the heroic adventures, starting in 2007 and culminating in August 2008 with thousands of British troops taking part in an operation to escort a 200-ton turbine to the Kajaki Dam on the Helmand River, 100 miles north-west of Kandahar City.

The aim was to improve the hydro-electric scheme there, adding a turbine to the two already installed. This was part of a project that has so far cost more than £29 million, and was (and still is) regarded as an essential part of the hearts and minds campaign in the region.

But, three years after so much blood and treasure has been expended (albeit with the bulk of the cash being shelled out by the Americans), the third turbine lies unassembled – the parts littered about the weed-strewn site, exactly where they were left by the British military.

What makes this so desperately sad is that even the slightest knowledge of the history of the area would confirm that the project was never going to achieve its desired aim, even if it had been technically successful.

Not least of the problems was – as Booker recorded in September 2009 that the power lines and sub-stations which feed the electricity to several towns are controlled by the Taliban, who charge money to customers for allowing the juice to reach them.

So obvious, in fact, were the defects of the scheme that a year before, in September 2008, The Guardian, while acknowledging the "brilliant courage and ingenuity" of the British, dismissed it as a "glorious but dangerous folly".

The Kajaki, it said, has been a 90-metre-high, rock-filled demonstration of foreign good intentions for decades but has never delivered the promised benefits to Afghanistan - a political showpiece and always has been since it was built (but not fully completed) in the 1950s by the US to compete with Soviet projects elsewhere in the country.

Such was the delusional attachment to the scheme, however, that this brought a pained rebuttal from then defence secretary Des Browne. The project was not merely a symbol, he declared. "If it were only that, we would never have sent our people on such a risky mission".

Sense and analytical judgement, however, had been submerged in tales of derring-do, marking the self-declared "successful mission". Typical of the period, we got Lieutenant Colonel Rufus McNeil, Comanding Officer 13 Air Assault Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, declaring of those that had run the hazardous convoy, "Every one of the soldiers did fantastically well."

Well, indeed they did, but it was still a complete waste of time, money, effort – and lives. By December 2009, The Guardian was back on the case with a report headed: "Taliban stalls key hydroelectric turbine project in Afghanistan". The strap read: "Convoy diverted British troops from front but generator may never be used".

The enormous hydroelectric turbine dragged at huge cost by British troops through Taliban heartlands last year, said the paper, may never be installed because NATO has been unable to secure a 30-mile stretch of road leading to an isolated dam in northern Helmand.

To install the turbine needed, amongst other things, 900 tons of cement for new foundations, but security had deteriorated to such an extent that British troops were having to be resupplied by air drop and helicopters. Even the BBC reported the problems.

Now, with additional US troops in the region – but for a short time only – USAid, which is managing the project, remains convinced that the project is worthwhile. US aid officials are now claiming that turbine could be installed in 24 to 30 months.

This is so much moonshine. No more now than in 2003 when then current project was first mooted, is this a feasible project. It remains, as always, a testament to the vain, unrealisable hopes of the coalition forces that they can bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.

Returning to Hitchens and his indignation, one recalls an episode during the London Blitz in 1940, when a cash-strapped council in the East End, finding rather fewer houses on its patch requiring collections, redeployed some of its dustcarts – cleaned out and painted a tasteful black – as hearses to collect the war dead.

Given the quite obvious disdain in which Dave holds the military, and the utter futility of the war in Afghanistan, where lives are being thrown away for absolutely no purpose – to say nothing of our hard-earned cash – he might consider following the example of the East End council.

Thus, for as long as Dave and his cronies continue to throw away lives for no purpose, he might as well do the honest thing and hire in a dustcart, instead of wasting money on expensive hearses that the public now will not be seeing. The symbolism would be entirely appropriate and serve merely to underline what our masters are doing with our money and soldiers' lives out in Afghanistan.