By trade I am a Hand Engraver, meaning that I carve metal with chisels called 'gravers'. If you've ever watched a wood carver at work you'll get the gist of what I do, but with metals as the raw materials of my trade instead of timber. It's a craft unchanged since ancient times in that Roman, Viking and Anglo-Saxon craftsmen coached in the trade would recognise the tools scattered around my workbench and be able to use them, and the same applies in reverse, in that I would be completely at home using their tools, because the trade really hasn't changed at all, despite the passing of so much time. I don't even need electricity other than for the labour saving devise of a polishing motor, because natural daylight is the most important tool of the trade and that comes free!

For several years I have worked from home which enabled me to spend several hours each morning, Sunday included, writing my book and getting it all clear in my own head. The trouble is, working from home and in pretty much isolation with only the radio for company, isn't much good when you need to be able to promote such a labour of love as Sheep No More is. So I'm about to make a substantial change to my work routine by taking on the small shop as pictured in the photo above and using it as both a workshop and a base from which to push SNM as hard as I can. The next time I put a picture of the shop on here it will look quite a bit different. The sign will be a combination of 'Pete Harris, Craftsman Engraver' & 'www.sheepnomore.co.uk'.

Engraving is what I do to make a living but the project is my passion because it's about the future and what our children and their children in due course, will be inheriting from us!     

In the wake of soldier Lee Rigby's murder in Woolwich.

Most people will recognise the character on the left as Abu Qatada, infamous Jordanian terrorist the legal trade has used as a business asset and made a mint of taxpayers money from whilst fighting extradition to his place of origin where serious charges await. Qatada's pal on the right is Anjem Choudary who is a known associate of one of the Woolwich murderers and who refused to condemn the barbaric killing of our soldier countryman Lee Rigby on national TV news bulletins. The pair are pinups for the Islamists they lead, followers being mindless specimens that hang on every word they utter, who justify acts of barbarity carried out by others on the say-so of their leaders, and are even inspired to carry our new atrocities as happened on Wednesday.

We have a massive problem with ultra aggressive Islamism in Britain that isn't being tackled in any serious way. Nutcases feel they can make threats at will and rely on the cloak of legal protection they enjoy, as provided free of charge to them, the treacherous, but at vast expense to taxpayers. Our government needs to get heavy both with the cancer of Islamism and with the legal trade that ought to protect Britain, its people, democracy and civilisation, but which has mutated instead into a purely greed driven money making machine. Bad politicians, civil servants, journalists and senior business people are more likely to get dragged out into the cold light of day and questioned publicly now than they were a decade ago, and we need the same to happen to legal trade operatives putting their own nation in danger for money. Those people are the most destructive breed of businesspeople in the land and its high time they were required to answer for their antics and conduct and without the option of saying no, 'how dare you question us, we are your superiors'.

Can you imagine if David Cameron were free to pick up his telephone, call Special Branch, order a few big coppers to proceed to the nick in which Qatada resides, escort him to Gatwick where a chartered aircraft awaits, in chains and very much in public, fly to Jordan where the authorities there have been informed he is on the way, and finally kick him out onto the tarmac where he is placed under arrest whilst a TV camera records the event for public consumption globally. Such a welcome spectacle would give the British reason to breathe a sigh of relief and would send a very clear message to the bad guys. All of a sudden the boot would have shifted to the other foot, and if it were to be made crystal clear there will be no more pussyfooting around those dabbling with terrorism but they will be very firmly dealt with from now on, this long festering tumour would be on course to be isolated and stabilised. That's something Brits desperately need to see happen, and doing so would turn the heat source off beneath the cauldron of fear fascists are currently stirring up. Peace and stability is what we all want for our country, and it shouldn't be that hard to achieve, only lack of courage stands in the way presently.

As to what the Jordanians do with Qatada when they get him? He's a terrorist and deserves what ever comes his way. As for the legal trade who will of course be jumping up and down because there business asset has been removed from them, they have serious questions to answer concerning the endangerment of Britain. Lee Rigby lost his life to a pair of maniacs that had been inspired by the likes of the 'pinups' at the top of this page. We'll never get at the root cause of this problem until the British Government has the courage to cut off the head of the snake, and those two amongst a small band of cancerous individuals are it.          

Final though on the matter... Lee Rigby's murderers would have been surrounded by human rights lawyers all fighting to get the gig before the pair even arrived in casualty which is sickening.




     

Scrapping of 'The Ark'

Taken through the mist, the picture shows HMS Ark Royal being towed out of Portsmouth at the start of her final journey to be torn apart in a Turkish scrapyard. Taken out of service in 2010 as possibly the highest profile victim of Cameron's austerity, it is estimated that to have kept her in service for the further decade she was more than fit enough to complete and until her replacement would be ready, would have cost the public purse £100million. Her compliment of Harrier Jump-Jets had been pretty much given away to the US Marines for peanuts when the ship was taken out of service. Kept in employment had the small amount of wit necessary to view the bigger picture been applied, could have been sailors, airmen, and countless skilled men and women who work in the craft industries necessary to maintain such an asset. But this is Britain, a land blighted by the miserable quality of its politicians, people incapable of sufficient vision to view the importance of maintaining national heart and soul. Witless ministers waste our tax money hand-over-fist on negative forms of expenditure whilst oblivious to the bigger picture, the 'Bloody Sunday Inquiry' being a clear example of waste, when lawyer businessmen were free to fleece the taxpayer of a near identical figure (£100million) over the decade they managed to string the case out over with their cleverly applied perpetual arguments and with taxpayers picking up the bill.

What the fate of the Ark represents is national decline, and that we ought to be moving heaven and earth to put the brakes on. At the nucleus of the decline in question is politics and I say that because worthy MP's and Ministers ought to be capable of distinguishing the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. Some joined-up-thinking wouldn't go amiss and the place to apply it in the first instance, would be in order to distinguish the difference between positive versus negative forms of expenditure.    

Oportunity to kill two birds with one vote

Nothing shames us more than fiddling whilst Rome burns whilst the future for generations to come goes down the tubes. Getting our act together in order to gain for our children a decent future ought to be priority number one, but instead we're like a nation of dogs chasing our own tails, which is a pointless activity and gets nobody anywhere. The political version is to argue around topics vital to the life of our nation in never ending circles, which allows them to fester and cause maximum damage. We need to stop behaving as though being our own worst enemy was something to shout about and sort the decision making process out, and on that front I've a practical offering to make.  

On18th September 2014 Scotland will vote in a referendum on 'independence' and the breakup of the UK is set to follow, simply because the nationalists are being allowed to call all of the shots currently, including the perverse idea that children with no experience of life and who courtesy of their natural immaturity can be manipulated to the advantage of the politically cynical, should be persuaded to vote. Blighting the whole of the UK meanwhile, is the issue we have with the EU and that is absorbing an enormous amount of time and effort. That matter is a festering boil that needs to be lanced so that we can get on with the job of generating for all of our children a fighting chance of a decent future.

I propose that on 18.9.2014 everyone over the age of eighteen gets to have their say in a double referendum on the matter of independence. We all get to choose between continuing membership of the EU, or the reassertion of full independence and sovereignty in all four countries of the UK, and in Scotland, the electorate vote on Alex Salmond's intended fragmentation of the UK as well. The Scots will have to think long and hard about the best way to cast their votes, because if they get separation from their cousins in the south and west, Scotland could end up with the exact opposite of what Salmond claims to be aiming for, namely full-blown subservience to the EU with the German Chancellor as Scotland's ultimate puppet master, whilst England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be on course to regain their independence; provided of course the vote goes the correct and intelligent way. I value freedom and independence and it's a fair bet many wised up Scots will share the view. 

If we were to make our politicians listen to common sense and do the right thing by putting wheels in motion to make this happen, Alex Salmond will have been bowled a googly he'll have one heck of a job to dodge. Clearly the arguments will need to be made powerfully and without faltering, but the prize could not be more vital. Saving the United Kingdom, re-establishing independence, and arrival at the point where those two festering issues have been put to bed, thus allowing us to concentrate on the future of every British girl and boy. If you agree that it makes sense, how about we start bending politicians ears and refuse to tolerate them cocking a deaf'un? Please feel free to share this posting wherever you think it may do some good.  


   

Made in China

Featured on the BBC news service yesterday was the rebalancing of the Chinese economy that all commentators agree has to be a very good thing. Their service sector is now larger that the industrial sector by a few percentage points, although manufacturing is still growing a great deal faster than anywhere else on the planet. Chinese consumers are buying Chinese made goods which is viewed as balance having been brought to their economy.

Whether or not we like the way the Chinese government runs its affairs, human rights and abuse of the environment being just two questionable features of their 'system', economically speaking the evidence of having a plan of action and sticking to it speaks for itself. The working classes are employed in manufacturing where they are able to contribute fully to the life of their nation and know that they count. There is now a vast middle class and they support the jobs of their countrymen, as well as buying high grade products from the Germans who occupy the top of the market where manufactured goods are concerned. As for the rich, they just carry on stashing their millions, much of which is obtained from British consumers and even more from Americans.

If you're old enough, cast your mind back to the 1960's which is when I was enjoying my childhood, and if you weren't anywhere close to even being a twinkle in your old mans eye back then, just take my word for it that the following is true. Fifty years ago the country was about as creative, balanced, safe and stable as it ever has been. This was the period before the trade unions took leave of their senses and set to holding the government and industry to ransom, which was the catalyst for the monetarism that became the governing philosophy of the land from 1979 onwards. Currently Britain's economy is anything but 'balanced' it is a complete and utter basket case, still reliant on casino banking, stripping out of the last assets not already given away, and cheap imports despite the evidence of exactly how unintelligent, unsustainable, and socially destructive that model for governance is. Maybe it's about time to get the blinkers off and to learn the lesson from our own past and China's present?     

Walk the Wight

By way of a change from the usual politicking I indulge, this post is of a more personal nature and is about Sunday the 12th of May's 'relaxation'. An annual event on the Isle of Wight is a 26 mile sponsored walk in aid of the Earl Mountbatten hospice. It starts at Bembridge in the east and ends at The Needles in the west and took just short of ten and a half hours to complete, but that does allow for three twenty minute stops along the way for bacon butties and tea. For the first half the weather was fine and dry although rain was forecast for the afternoon. The met office was right and once past stage five at Mottistone the weather closed in. A few miles of horizontal rain was endured and my boots filled with water from the top! Ten miles later the end came as a welcome site and it was a joy to get those heavy and sodden boots off. Today my feet are mighty sore but it was for a good cause which makes the discomfort worthwhile. Big respect to all of my fellow walkers.

I've just heard government mouthpiece Grant Shapps claim for the umpteenth time, a million jobs have been created since 2010. Lets do some contrasting and comparing...

I left school in 1972 and walked straight into an apprenticeship. Had I not liked that job it would have been the easiest thing in the world to move on, because my generation was in demand by industry. There was very little excuse not to be in full time work because jobs were plentiful, the 'Tax Credit' didn't exist to subsidise lousy wages and the need to require employers to pay the 'Minimum Wage' didn't apply because bosses knew their  people would walk if not paid reasonably. I finished my apprenticeship in '77 just two years before a certain person declared that Britain was now to be looked upon as 'Post Industrial' and run a 'Service Economy' in which Brits need no longer get their hands dirty.

Today we push 50% of school leavers into higher education which conveniently keeps them out of unemployment stats for three years. The government sponsors six month 'apprenticeships' after which a young person will quite likely be shown the door and the next taken on, which has to be as demoralising as can be imagined for those concerned. Graduates take 'Internships' for no pay with highly profitable corporations in an attempt to kick-start a career, this coming after the running up of a demoralising debt, the price of gaining a degree. Others are forced to accept zero hours contracts that actually require them to put in a full week made up of compulsory overtime and whereby sick pay, holiday pay, and maternity leave are denied and a person can be dismissed with ease. On top of these unhappy circumstances comes the tax credit scheme employers are able to manipulate whilst paying lousy wages that must then be subsidised into a 'living wage' using taxpayer funded money. As for the minimum wage, that's a bad joke and those laughing least and being used as slave labour are the under 18's. We've millions of kids abandoned to existing on sink estates and attending sink schools and an underclass devoid of a work ethic has been bred, a 'National Feature' that didn't exist when my working lifetime began.

Mr Shapps... you speak weasel words sir.