Beware The Little Man

Its always the small ones isn't it?

UPDATE:

As The Daily Quail points out The Daily Mail has picked up the story and proudly shows off its readers' love of good old dictators. Despite moaning about Gordon McBroon not being democratically elected (because they have no understanding of our system) they seem to favour the liberal use of the old jackboot. As can be seen on the comments on the story here, the readers are reliable as ever in their admiration for Herr Hitler.

Pride of place goes to regular free-thinker Councillor Chris Cooke of Tamworth with this belter:

• He's not wrong. Hitler did get things done. Not what should have been done perhaps - and not in the way people might have wanted them done - but get things done Hitler certainly did. So did Ghengis Khan for that matter! As for Max Moseley leading Britain - could he be any worse than Brown or Blair, or that leader-in-waiting Cameron-de-Pinko? Anyway - Mr Ecclestone is a billionaire - he can say what he likes and damn what the media think. On balance free speech like that is a good thing.

  - Cllr. Chris Cooke, Tamworth, UK, 4/7/2009 11:37

People of Tamworth, are you mental? Cooke - like the BNP - has a strange relationship with The Mail. He complained to the PCC about the paper yet still submits his classics to it.

For anyone new to Cllr Chris's rational and sane take on life and his dalliance with the Odious BNP, a trip to the following links will be most productive. I may be tempted to set a test so make sure you do.

Councillor Sane and Rational's Official Eyebleed Site

Great Alliterative Hedgehog Article With Added Banter and Battering

Cllr Cooke On Speed

The Cooke Retort

There was quite an entertaining debate on this vanity site, I mean blog, regarding Cllr Chris Cooke's slight misunderstanding of a Daily Mail story about hedgehogs. He's another one of those people who don't so much speed-read as sprint past Usain Bolt taking in the headline only before posting their carefully researched words of wisdom.

Nothing too serious, of course, until you realise that this person is an elected local politician. He is supposed to make decisions and read long, detailed documents. No wonder he's friends to the clever people of the BNP as evidenced by the Einstein-like Richard Barnbrook.

The Daily Mail has a strange obsession with the rights of car owners and in particular, the demon speed cameras. Barely a week goes by without the paper allowing its readers the chance to vent their spleen if not their exhaust fumes on stories such as,

"New motorway speed camera blitz means thousands more will face fines" ,
"Indestructible, the speed camera that will defy bombs and bulldozers",
"Speed camera earns £5000 an hour"

The Mail has a symbiotic relationship with many of its readers; they feed off the constant harping on about stealth taxes whilst the paper gets kudos for fighting for the poor motorist. Even behaviour that would normally set Mail-ites gnashing collective teeth such as law-breaking, vandalism and non-payment of taxes is seemingly condoned.

Whilst a lot of us were gazing in awe at the Spider Spectacle of La Princesse, Liverpool was hosting the BA Festival of Science. One of the debates to come out of that was one led by Dr Linda Mountain of Liverpool University on empirical analysis of road safety statistics relating to speed cameras. Unfortunately, I was not present so am not sure how the actual talk went. However, using the Mail as a source (Yeh, I know!) we do see that,

• Speed cameras have saved far fewer lives than the Government claims, a study shows.

She continues,

'If accidents fall dramatically after the cameras are in place, it could be that the cameras have reduced accidents, but some of the fall may simply show that a run of bad luck has come to an end,' Dr Mountain told the British Association science festival in Liverpool.

'The problem is that, although some parts of the road network are undoubtedly more dangerous than others, there is also a degree of randomness in where accidents occur.'

Anyone who has studied Statistics to A Level will understand the concept of the regression to the mean. I was crap at science as my record in the local Quiz League shows, so I do not wish to go into greater detail for fear of making a prat of myself. However, suffice to say, Dr Mountain is NOT suggesting that the cameras are a waste of time or that they do NOT save lives. It seems to me that it is difficult top be as accurate as say with seat belt safety as we are dealing with actual accidents rather than potential ones.

It is hard to quantify. Perhaps a cheaper solution would be to attach flowers to railings as this tends to have the effect of making drivers slow down. In Greece, I noticed little candles in miniature shrines on winding coastal roads. Similarly it is possible to argue that other factors such as bad driving and even slow speeds can be more of a danger to pedestrians and other road users, but that's a debate for another day.

The important bit comes at the end of David Derbyshire's piece:

• 'The big difference is that when you allow for the regression to mean effect, you find a 19 per cent reduction in accidents and serious accidents,' she said.

  'I believe that cameras do reduce accidents, but not quite as much as is claimed.'

  Officially, cameras are acknowledged as saving around 100 lives a year. But Dr Mountain believes the true figure is 'around 50'.

The article brings the usual petrolheads out of their pits:

• The damn things probably cause more accidents than they prevent, as drivers brake suddenly on seeing one, and get shunted up the rear.

  - David Bourke, Rochester, Kent., 9/9/2008 16:48

So, not driving at the correct distance from the car ahead is permissable and if there is an accident, it's the fault of the camera. Interesting interpretation of the Road Traffic Accident by David.

• They're talking about 50 lives in the whole of the country, a population of roughly 65 million. Chances are if they didn't die on the roads, they'd have died of MRSA in a filthy hospital, or been stabbed by a drunken yob.
  
  If the money taxed from drivers by speed cameras was used to clean up hospitals or put more police on the streets, you may have had an argument...

  - Sick of Lie-bour, Reading, 9/9/2008 17:03

50 lives? Worthless! Totally logical argument about MRSA and murder on the streets. Imagine trying to debate with this tosser. Even thinks making an unoriginal pun on Labour will be seen as funny.

• Of course they havent.. these machines are cash cows nothing less.

  - Jacqui Weems, Southampton, 9/9/2008 18:43

No show without punch-drunk Jacqui. This is the woman who berates the Government on education but can't seem to grasp apostrophe use or grammar.

• - Charlie, Nottingham, 9/9/2008 18:58

I put that one in because often posters say nothing, but Charlie actually manages it literally.

BUT the Eric The Fish Award For Being Certain Without Evidence goes to our friend Cllr Chris for this gem:

• Actually the "experts" are NOT saying Speed Cameras have saved only half the lives. In fact they are not saying Speed Cameras have saved any lives at all. They were just expressing a BELIEF that speed cameras may have saved some lives - but far fewer than claimed by Government. For myself I am quite certain that the sum total of speed camera madness over the years has actually cost more lives. A recent report in one country without speed cameras claimed a 40% reduction in accidents - so what was that attributable to? Could it be that speed cameras can actually cause accidents and negate the positive effects of better car and road engineering over the years? Not to mention not having proper policing of our roads with people with an eyes and a brain to detect the real dangerous drivers on the roads. The whole speed camera thing was a scam - they should be scrapped.

  - Cllr Chris Cooke, Tamworth, UK., 9/9/2008 19:41

CCC has a dig at the 'experts' though does not seem to possess many qualifications in that field himself. Anyone who has survived the hallucinogenic journey through his own garish website will know that he doesn't visit medical doctors due to some conspiracy and only the real facts can be found on Google!

Still, he shows he's read some of the article this time - perhaps checking that no New Zealand hedgehogs were harmed during the study -and makes a semantic point about what the study's findings are. However, he makes the 'weaker candidate' error of suggesting that there is a difference between 'saying' and (saying what your) 'belief' (based on the evidence of the study) is.

He then makes it clear that, 'For myself I am quite certain that the sum total of speed camera madness over the years has actually cost more lives.'

Keep up the good work Agent Cooke. You and Barnbrook are doing a fine job of bringing ridicule to the BNP.

Post Script: Dr. Mountain was on Radio Merseyside this afternoon confirming that the study found that lives are saved; the only argument is with Government figures.

Cllr Chris Cooke Cocks-up Completely

This is Eric - Eric Der Igel - pictured going about his business one night in Eastern Germany. Hopefully, he is still safe and sound, and not used as a prickly projectile as this poor mite was in New Zealand.


Man faces five years in jail after hitting a boy with... a hedgehog

One of the most annoying traits of the Great Daily Mail Public is their inability to read stories beneath the headlines. Time after time we see examples of this as the morons make themselves look foolish. Of course, the Mail is well aware of this, and my view is that it plays on this when deciding on the wording of articles, allowing the frothing masses to read between the lines - even when the story eventually contradicts the tone of the bold print.

The hedgehog story has been covered in other papers, but the DM version is of note because of the comments. By paragraph 3 it establishes that the incident happened in New Zealand.

Send in the clowns.........

• Five years in prison for assault with a dead(ly?) hedgehog? Backs up completely what we read elsewhere in the Daily Mail today - that Government Ministers are concerned the police are too focused with minor offences. Five years! What a bunch of silly plonkers!- Cllr Chris Cooke, Tamworth, UK

• If the teenager has stuck a knife in the man and seriously injured or killed him, he would have been called an ASBO, get a suspended jail sentence and then paid for the lodging he didn't get by serving his time. I'm surprised the man didn't get an extra year or two for abusing a hedgehog. The UK has become a real laughing-stock... except it's not funny.- Charles, UK

• Five years for this 'crime' seems rather odd when recently two youths who kicked man to death received only four years. Good old Blair 'tough on crime'- G.Ware, York Yorks

• He should have plunged a knife into his victim's heart. You only get two years for that.- Mike A., Channel Islands

The interesting thing about this is that there is a large number of comments pointing out how stupid these people are. For example,

• And after reading the comment by Councillor Chris Cooke of Tamworth we find out who the real 'plonker' as he puts it is or does he blame the goings on in New Zealand on the British police as well?- Dave Kempton, Gloucester

I thought this was strange to see so many people castigating their fellow tut-tutters. Now, the Tamworth councillor seems to be familiar. Could he be the same Cllr Chris Cooke who has this interesting site, and who did a bit of pro bono leaflet work for the local BNP candidate. Not that he's in any way connected to them! The anti-BNP site at Lancaster Unity have their own take on this.

He also seems to have come up on the radar of Stormfront, the uber-Nazis (I won't link to them but if you google 'small penis Fascist knuckle-scrapers' you'll no doubt come across their filth.

• So I hope when the BNP come to power (note - "when"!) that they allow themselves to dig a bit deeper into such things as the NHS than just the pay of the top guys. The whole edificial empire needs an overhaul. Cllr. Chris Cooke

I was still wondering about the flak he got from DM scribblers. Then I came across this on the Press Complaints Commission site:

• Complainant Name:Councillor Chris Cooke
  Clauses Noted: 1
  Publication: Daily Mail
  Complaint:
  Councillor Chris Cooke of Tamworth complained that a comment he had posted after an online article contained an offensive sentence which he had not written.
  Resolution:
  The complaint was resolved when the newspaper – which investigated the matter thoroughly and indicated that its records showed that the comments arrived in the same form in which they were posted – removed the comments from its website.

Maybe just a coincidence. And the band played, 'believe me if you like'.