Simon and Richard Sitting In A Tree

None of the chairs are plugged in.

As I said in the post about Brand and Ross, childishness has its place and time; the playground tends to be the best one. The Mail, at one end of the spectrum in that matter, often finds itself in a dilemma itself. Its political stance - particularly over immigration - is similar to the BNP. Yet, it is a love that dare not speak its name. Time after time it seeks to distance itself from the BNP yet it knows full well that many of its readers will be potential supporters.

Even Littlejohn described the party as 'knuckle-dragging scum' which is a bit rich coming from a man who described Rwandan genocide as Mbongo tribe v Mbingo tribe; and the BNP's own site has a section about the so-called Littlejohn Syndrome, where they lament the people who largely agree with them but won't openly jump on the same handcart.

It is somewhat interesting that great minds do tend to think alike.

• Whilst India can develop a sophisticated space programme, we currently give hundreds of millions of pounds to them in aid, whilst this winter tens of thousands of our old people will die because they cannot afford to keep warm.
• The next time they launch (the rocket) perhaps we can ask for the names of all the British pensioners who die this winter to be written down the side of it because that, in effect, is what it amounts to.

Simon Darby, Deputy Leader, BNP 27th October 2008

• India does not need our aid, we do ...
  

  India has just sent a rocket to the moon, part of a billiondollar space programme.
  

  Earlier this year, the Indian conglomerate Tata bought Land Rover and Jaguar for £1.15billion.
  

  Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is said to be worth $45billion and is one of London's most famous ' nondoms'. He is reported to be the fourth richest man in the world, just one of thousands of Indian multi-millionaires and billionaires.
  

  So why did Gordon Brown commit £825million in foreign aid to India at a time when that country is buying up British firms and sending rockets into space?
  

  With our economy going to hell in a handcart, we should be asking for our money back.

  Charity begins at home.

Richard Littlejohn 28th October 2008

As johnnyhead (hat tip) on the Mailwatch forum highlights, the story was first seen in January of this year so is hardly news, and secondly the apparent contradiction in needing charity while reaching for the stars is not as straight forward as the charity-begins-at-home lobby think, as Newsweek ran this story on 18th October:

• The Indian space program is already far ahead in one respect: its use of space technologies to solve the everyday problems of ordinary people on the ground. For more than 20 years, India has been quietly investing hundreds of millions of dollars in its earth-sciences program with an eye toward helping farmers with their crops, fishermen with their catches and rescue workers with management of floods and other disasters. "India is leading the way in the approach towards the rationale for earth observation," says Stephen Briggs, the head of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Earth Observation Science and Applications Department.

  Measured by the number and sophistication of their satellites, America and Europe may be ahead of India. But with an annual budget of about $1 billion—less than a tenth of NASA's—ISRO covers a lot of ground. It has built and launched 46 satellites, which provide data for at least nine Indian government ministries. Its 11 national communications satellites are the largest network in Asia, and its seven remote sensing satellites map objects on Earth at a resolution of less than a meter. These form the backbone of a series of practical initiatives that, according to a Madras School of Economics study, have generated a $2 return for every $1 spent. "We have clearly shown that we can give back to the country much more than is invested in the space program," says ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair.

It's just a rumour that Simon Darby will be shaving his eyebrows for Children In Need, where charidee begins and ends at home, on Friday and Littlejohn will writing 1000 words without mentioning Dads Army, 'elf 'n safety, political correctness, you couldn't make it up, hell in a handcart or buggery in public toilets.