I have just returned from 4 days in Sweden with some friends, I have to say that I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Sweden is a beautiful country with many trees, lakes and mountains, the Swedish people are very friendly and they all speak very good English, which was very handy as I don't speak a word of Swedish. One of the things I noticed about Sweden was the amount of space; Sweden is 173,732 square miles and has a population of about 9.3 million and 2 thirds of the population live in the bottom third of the country. Compare this with the UK; the UK is 94,241 square miles and has a population that is over 62 million, 90 per cent of the people live in England. If you have been to Wales, Scotland or N.Ireland you will very quickly realise how crowded England really is. What I found amazing is that you can drive for miles and miles in Sweden and not see any signs of civilisation; no cars, no houses and no people, just forests and lakes and I have to be honest this made me a bit sad as I thought about the UK.
I love my country and I love so much about it, but what I love the most is the beautiful countryside; even with a large population we still have a lot of open spaces and I would like that to remain. But unfortunately as our population continues to grow so rapidly there will be more and more pressure on our already under pressure greenbelt. The greenbelt was created after World War 2 as a way of protecting the countryside, and on the whole it has been very successful, but what concerns me is we will see more pressure put on councils to find more land for houses and we will see this fantastic resource destroyed.
Many people will argue that it is important that we put people before ideology and I will agree, but I also think it is very important to protect our countryside and country from growing urbanisation. I am sure many people will have found that after spending a week or two abroad and on returning to this country they will have noticed the amount of cars, houses and roads we have. I really noticed it on my return on Sunday evening from Sweden, as we drove along the M11 with car after car filling this road, it made me wish that I could be somewhere less crowded.
I have mentioned before my problem with mass immigration and the problems that it brings, I have spoken about space before, about the economic and social problems it brings, and I want to revisit this subject. I really believe if we do not stop the huge influx of humanity coming to this country we are storing up massive problems for us in the not to distant future. As I have mentioned above, this country is very crowded and with many people, we get a lot of pressure, and I can see that this pressure will eventually build up and will explode. Many parts of the country have borne the brunt of the policy of open door immigration, and this has produced many problems which I have covered before in my blog.
In the last election when polled the issue of mass immigration came out first or second on peoples concerns, every time without fail, unfortunately none of the parties were willing to do anything about it. I have spoken to many people in the past about this problem and what I find is I get a number of different reactions. I get people who agree with me and think we should shut up shop and not allow anyone else in. Then there are people who agree but are very reticent in expressing their views for fear of sounding racist. There are the people who will argue that immigration is OK, I usually find that these people haven't thought the issue through. Then there are the people who are in favour of mass immigration and if anyone says different they must be racist. In the past I have found that when speaking to the latter group I find myself getting angry and saying outrages things, just to get a reaction. At times in conversation I have said things which have sounded racist, this has been borne out of a deep frustration with political correctness. I believe at times I have said things which have upset people and I have decided that I must calm down and explain myself in a rational way. I am not a racist, I do not hate any other group or people, what I want is open and honest debate about this subject.
Last year net immigration to the UK was 178,000; that is a lot of people. That is a lot of people coming to this country to work and live. With unemployment at 2.5 million it does seem rather stupid to allow more people in when there are many indigenous people needing work. Today the EDP has found out from leaked documents that Norfolk County Council is going to be making 25 per cent cuts. This year on our local news programmes many councils have spoken out about the pressure mass immigration is having on their local services. They have asked for more money to deal with the influx of people; as you can imagine the money has not been forthcoming and with the expected cuts this is going to mean added pressure on already overstretched budgets.
So let me ask you a question, if you were in charge of council budgets which budget would you cut? All sectors will have to make cuts, whether it be; education, emergency services, social services and with these cuts we will see many peoples quality of life get worse, especially the most vulnerable (particularly the elderly).
Many people have argued that mass immigration brings prosperity to a country (I have explored this before) but the simple truth is that there is no economic benefit to mass immigration. American economist Professor George Borgast said " There is no Gain from immigration if the native wage is not reduced by immigration"
In 2003 a study published by the Dutch Government said "GDP will increase, but this increase will largely accrue to migrants in the form of wages. The overall net gain to residents is likely to be negative"
In 2008 The Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs said "Although possible in theory, we found no systematic empirical evidence to suggest that net immigration creates significant dynamic benefits for the UK resident population"
The simple truth is this, a lie has been propagated over the last ten years about the benefits of mass immigration to this country. The wages of residents have been driven down, and living costs have been driven up. Mass immigration has brought extra demand on housing, this has produced a shortage of houses thus forcing the cost of buying and renting up (you only have to look at the prices of houses now in comparison with 10 years ago, even taking into consideration the fall in property prices). Immigration is beneficial for developing countries like the US in the 19th century, as you need plenty of people to work the land, work in mines and many other industries. It is not beneficial for a post industrial country like the UK.
I know I have written before on this subject, but when I look at this country; its size and population, its economic state, the pressure on housing, greenbelt, resources (schools, NHS, social services, local councils and their budgets), etc it really concerns me. I will continue to blog here about this subject, I will continue to talk about it, I will continue to support a party that actually has a sensible policy on immigration, I will continue to tell the truth however unpalatable. I will say this again, there is nothing we can do about immigrants from other EU countries, even with a cap on immigration it will make no difference. Let me finish with this; in 2012 under the 'Shengen agreement' (which was signed in 1985) all countries within the EU will have one common immigration policy and we will not be able to control immigration at all from anywhere; as you can imagine the Government has failed to mention this little point.
Monday, 27 September 2010
Monday, 20 September 2010
Dangerous times
If I asked a group of people what they are frightened of, I would get a wide range of answers; some people would say spiders, someone might say crime, another something totally random. I want to ask you one very important question, have you ever been frightened of your government? The answer, unless you have lived under a dictator would probably be no.
You might think this is a strange question and sounds rather extreme, and you might say the title of my posting is a little over the top. I want to tell you this, what I am about to write is something that we should all be concerned about, and, may I even say fearful about as well.
I have written about the EU on a few occasions and I have looked at a number of things that concern me about it, but what bothers me most is; the corruption, the total lack of scrutiny, accountability and democracy. So let me explain what I am talking about, firstly the EU brought into law what is called The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in January 2004, and the British Government with very little scrutiny agreed to it.
Under the EAW extradition of a British subject becomes a mere bureaucratic formality. Under the EAW there are 32 categories of offence. Some are not even specific offences under English law. The reason for introducing this law was under the pretext of fighting terrorism, as you can imagine no terrorist subjects have been extradited. Since 2004 over 1,100 people have been extradited from the UK. Most were foreign citizens being returned to their own countries, over 100 were British citizens. You might say what is wrong with this, if they have committed crimes in a foreign country they should stand trial, but let me explain this, unlike our system the European judicial system is different because you are guilty until proven innocent.
Andrew Symeou a 19 year London man was accused of manslaughter in Greece, before being extradited to Greece he went to the Appeal Court in London and it was clear that there was no case to answer and the evidence was fabricated, but they were powerless to do anything to stop it and he was extradited. He spent 11 months in the hellhole prison of Korydallos, a prison cited by Amnesty International as one of the worst in the world for its inhumane conditions. He was eventually given bail and still awaits trial.
On the 27th July the Coalition Government announced that it was opting into the European Investigation Order. This means any EU member state can investigate you even if an alleged offence is not a criminal matter in the UK. This is one more step towards total integration of all European states.
The next step on the agenda is that of Trials in Absentia. Under an EU Framework Decision Trials in Absentia must be transposed into UK law by 2011, or 2014 at the latest. This will mean that a British citizen can be tried in their absence in another EU country and if found guilty the British police will have to arrest them so they can be dispatched to imprisonment in the state concerned.
You cannot argue against it or appeal against it, so imagine travelling to Bulgaria or Romania and unknown to you, you are accused of something. The man who accused you of a crime goes to court, on his evidence you are convicted and sentenced and there isn't anything you or the British Government can do to stop you being extradited, no appeal, no nothing. You might think I am picking on the Romanians and Bulgarians, it is widely accepted that these countries are institutionally corrupt and their Governments are largely in the hands of organised crime. As you can imagine their judicial and legal systems are not up to the standard of ours. But never mind they are members of the EU and have signed up to the European Convention on Human rights so far as our Government is concerned everything is OK.
We now have situated in Hampshire a European Police College, to train senior European law enforcement officers. The new Director of the College is a Hungarian called Mr Ferenc Banfi. He reportedly wants to see a European-wide FBI style police force.
Mr Banfi was a member of the Hungarian Communist Party and a policeman under their murderous communist regime. Speaking of Europol (the European police force) he said "It is only a question of time before Europol will have executive powers; it might take five or ten years but it will happen". Europol doesn't yet have powers to arrest anyone directly but Mr Banfi thinks they soon will, I think we should pay attention to this. Under Europol's legal basis its officers have almost complete immunity from anything they do or say in the course of their duties. A privilege not even extended to the Soviet Union's NKVD during the height of Stalin's terror.
You may argue that all this doesn't really matter as long as you don't commit any crime, but don't be too sure, many people in communist states committed no crime but were arrested just for speaking out. You might think I am exaggerating, if you do not believe me, contact you local MEP or Google all I have talked about, and you will quickly realise that we are truly living in dangerous times.
You might think this is a strange question and sounds rather extreme, and you might say the title of my posting is a little over the top. I want to tell you this, what I am about to write is something that we should all be concerned about, and, may I even say fearful about as well.
I have written about the EU on a few occasions and I have looked at a number of things that concern me about it, but what bothers me most is; the corruption, the total lack of scrutiny, accountability and democracy. So let me explain what I am talking about, firstly the EU brought into law what is called The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in January 2004, and the British Government with very little scrutiny agreed to it.
Under the EAW extradition of a British subject becomes a mere bureaucratic formality. Under the EAW there are 32 categories of offence. Some are not even specific offences under English law. The reason for introducing this law was under the pretext of fighting terrorism, as you can imagine no terrorist subjects have been extradited. Since 2004 over 1,100 people have been extradited from the UK. Most were foreign citizens being returned to their own countries, over 100 were British citizens. You might say what is wrong with this, if they have committed crimes in a foreign country they should stand trial, but let me explain this, unlike our system the European judicial system is different because you are guilty until proven innocent.
Andrew Symeou a 19 year London man was accused of manslaughter in Greece, before being extradited to Greece he went to the Appeal Court in London and it was clear that there was no case to answer and the evidence was fabricated, but they were powerless to do anything to stop it and he was extradited. He spent 11 months in the hellhole prison of Korydallos, a prison cited by Amnesty International as one of the worst in the world for its inhumane conditions. He was eventually given bail and still awaits trial.
On the 27th July the Coalition Government announced that it was opting into the European Investigation Order. This means any EU member state can investigate you even if an alleged offence is not a criminal matter in the UK. This is one more step towards total integration of all European states.
The next step on the agenda is that of Trials in Absentia. Under an EU Framework Decision Trials in Absentia must be transposed into UK law by 2011, or 2014 at the latest. This will mean that a British citizen can be tried in their absence in another EU country and if found guilty the British police will have to arrest them so they can be dispatched to imprisonment in the state concerned.
You cannot argue against it or appeal against it, so imagine travelling to Bulgaria or Romania and unknown to you, you are accused of something. The man who accused you of a crime goes to court, on his evidence you are convicted and sentenced and there isn't anything you or the British Government can do to stop you being extradited, no appeal, no nothing. You might think I am picking on the Romanians and Bulgarians, it is widely accepted that these countries are institutionally corrupt and their Governments are largely in the hands of organised crime. As you can imagine their judicial and legal systems are not up to the standard of ours. But never mind they are members of the EU and have signed up to the European Convention on Human rights so far as our Government is concerned everything is OK.
We now have situated in Hampshire a European Police College, to train senior European law enforcement officers. The new Director of the College is a Hungarian called Mr Ferenc Banfi. He reportedly wants to see a European-wide FBI style police force.
Mr Banfi was a member of the Hungarian Communist Party and a policeman under their murderous communist regime. Speaking of Europol (the European police force) he said "It is only a question of time before Europol will have executive powers; it might take five or ten years but it will happen". Europol doesn't yet have powers to arrest anyone directly but Mr Banfi thinks they soon will, I think we should pay attention to this. Under Europol's legal basis its officers have almost complete immunity from anything they do or say in the course of their duties. A privilege not even extended to the Soviet Union's NKVD during the height of Stalin's terror.
You may argue that all this doesn't really matter as long as you don't commit any crime, but don't be too sure, many people in communist states committed no crime but were arrested just for speaking out. You might think I am exaggerating, if you do not believe me, contact you local MEP or Google all I have talked about, and you will quickly realise that we are truly living in dangerous times.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
The Poor
Jesus said there will always be poor people, and of course he is right. The simple truth is, in what ever society there are winners and losers, even within socialist countries there are poor people and rich people. Karl Marx wrote about communism and probably dreamed of a more equal society, but of course as we all know the reality is totally different from the dream. But this does not mean that those of us who are rich should ignore the poor, it does say in The Bible that to ignore poverty, and injustice is a sin. Within every country there are rich and poor and of course if you compare our western society to the third world we are rich, but that does not mean there are not poor in this country, it is all relative.
I believe we should all do our little bit, whatever that is. I could write about; buying fair trade and supporting charities, helping your next door neighbour or traveling to a poor country and working. I could write about many things to do with poverty but I wanted to focus on something which maybe you haven't thought about.
In every town and city you will find areas that are poor, within these areas (and lets be honest they are usually council estates)you will find drug problems, crime, single parents, and problem families. If you go to an estate which has large private houses, you will generally find these places do not have the problems council estates have, that is the simple truth. Within my town of Diss (a relatively quiet rural town of about 7500 people) we have what is called the Taylor Road estate, this is an area of council and ex council housing which has lots of social needs and my church is working on this estate to help those in need. You only have to travel about 1 minute to an estate which has lovely big detached houses and no real social problems.
Over the years I have sat and listened to many people, whether that is politicians, councillors, social workers, charity workers, youth workers, etc talking about the need to help the poor, and I believe we need to. The problem is I think we have been going about it the wrong way. Gordon Brown said he wanted to eradicate child poverty, you can't argue with that, they are great aspirations, and being a Minister in Government gave him the opportunity to do something about it. But as we can see after all those years in power he created an underclass that does not know what it is like to go to work. There are many people in this country who get more money for not working than working, so of course they don't work.
What I have always found interesting is that those who are the decision makers in our society usually come from quite good backgrounds. You only have to look at the Prime Minister (educated at Eton) and Deputy Prime Minister(educated at a private school which cost £23,000 a year) to make you realise that those who sit in power have generally never known what it is like to be poor. I am not criticising them for this but I do believe this can create problems because they have no real understanding of the problem.
One of the ways I believe people can better themselves is through education, (if you want to see what I think about our education system please go and look at a previous post written in May). And I believe the destruction of our grammar schools has been one of the worse policies ever created. Many politicians who did not go to private schools had the opportunity to be educated at a grammar school, and through this where able to better themselves. We now have the situation in which many bright children will never have that opportunity. Many people have argued over the years about equality and social mobility and have then thought about the best way of bringing this about is by setting targets for universities to take those from state schools. This to me sounds completely daft as you then reduce the quality of the intake to meet some target set be central Government. I do find it ironic and incredibly hypocritical that one of the great advocates for equality, social mobility and the destruction of grammar schools was Harriet Harmen who was educated at a private school and sends her two children to St. Paul's independent school for girls.
One of the reasons I am against the destruction of grammar schools is that generally those who have the money can either send their children to a private school or move to an area which has a good state school. This means those on low income are educated in the worse schools which means they don't get a good education and carry on the cycle of poverty. I would like to cover this in greater depth but I also want to quickly look at another issue to do with the subject of the poor.
If you have read my blog before you will know that I do not agree with the policy of mass immigration, I do not want to go over old ground but I want to quickly look at this issue in regards to the poor.
Mass immigration has brought huge social problems within our society and many people are not affected, but many people are, usually the poorest within our society, so I am going to quickly look at some issues here and then at a later date look at them in greater detail.
JOBS
Many people have argued that mass immigration has been good for our economy, this has been shown over the years to be nonsense. The majority of immigrants who come to this country are unskilled so they do the jobs that the poor would traditionally have done, they are willing to work for a low wage, and employers love this, so employ many immigrants rather than British people. British people cannot afford to work in the factories and less skilled jobs, this then creates a downward cycle of poverty. An MP, doctor, lawyer, etc does not have these problems(I have covered this issue in greater depth in an earlier post).
HOUSING
Immigrants generally live on council estates or those estates with greater social needs, I would think it is highly unlikely that an immigrant family is living in a nice middle class housing estate. This of course puts more pressure on local housing stock, thus affecting the poor who can neither afford to buy a house or rent somewhere, they are then left to live in the worse houses, this continues the cycle of poverty. In conjunction with this, many areas which have a lot of immigrants has seen the number of multi occupancy housing increase, this then puts added pressure on local services; health clinics, hospitals, social services, etc.
SCHOOLS
I have covered this above, but I wanted to add this, as I have said above, most immigrants live in the poorer areas. They then send their children to the local school which they are entitled to do, this then means that those schools end up with more pupils who cannot speak English which then puts more pressure on the teachers. This then means the time given to every other pupil is then reduced, thus bringing down the standard of education. I have mentioned in a previous post about a school in Peterborough which has as many as 27 languages spoken in it. There is of course the added expense of employing a teacher or teaching assistant who can speak Polish for example, as has happened in my sons school.
CRIME
As you can imagine crime affects the poorest and most vulnerable the most, as most people who commit crime live in the poorest areas. It is highly unlikely that an area of extreme wealth will have a drug problem. There are some estates in the UK which fire crews do not go onto without a police escort, those who are wealthy do not have these problems. Again this is not a criticism of those with money, but I do think this can create problems as those who live on these estates have no real understanding of societies problems. I was watching a programme last night in which a man was arrested for stealing a brand new car from someones drive, he was fined £100, given a 3 month suspended sentence, and 120 hours community service. This to me is not a deterrent to criminals; crime will increase unless criminals are given proper sentences in proper prisons.
The issue of the poor is a massive subject, and over the years I have watched successive governments try to do something to improve the situation. I believe that unless these issues and many others are tackled head on we will continue to see the problems gets worse. I haven't covered the issue of family breakdown and fatherless children, which is a huge subject within itself. I believe these issues need to be debated, I believe that those in power need to start listening to peoples concerns and stop accusing them of being bigoted or extremists. I think it would do many of our; MP's, councillors, judges, lawyers, top council wage earners and those who set policy some good if they went and lived with their families on one of our problem housing estates for 3 months or more. It might make them realise the size of the problem, and they might then have some understanding of the pressure so many people live under.
I believe we should all do our little bit, whatever that is. I could write about; buying fair trade and supporting charities, helping your next door neighbour or traveling to a poor country and working. I could write about many things to do with poverty but I wanted to focus on something which maybe you haven't thought about.
In every town and city you will find areas that are poor, within these areas (and lets be honest they are usually council estates)you will find drug problems, crime, single parents, and problem families. If you go to an estate which has large private houses, you will generally find these places do not have the problems council estates have, that is the simple truth. Within my town of Diss (a relatively quiet rural town of about 7500 people) we have what is called the Taylor Road estate, this is an area of council and ex council housing which has lots of social needs and my church is working on this estate to help those in need. You only have to travel about 1 minute to an estate which has lovely big detached houses and no real social problems.
Over the years I have sat and listened to many people, whether that is politicians, councillors, social workers, charity workers, youth workers, etc talking about the need to help the poor, and I believe we need to. The problem is I think we have been going about it the wrong way. Gordon Brown said he wanted to eradicate child poverty, you can't argue with that, they are great aspirations, and being a Minister in Government gave him the opportunity to do something about it. But as we can see after all those years in power he created an underclass that does not know what it is like to go to work. There are many people in this country who get more money for not working than working, so of course they don't work.
What I have always found interesting is that those who are the decision makers in our society usually come from quite good backgrounds. You only have to look at the Prime Minister (educated at Eton) and Deputy Prime Minister(educated at a private school which cost £23,000 a year) to make you realise that those who sit in power have generally never known what it is like to be poor. I am not criticising them for this but I do believe this can create problems because they have no real understanding of the problem.
One of the ways I believe people can better themselves is through education, (if you want to see what I think about our education system please go and look at a previous post written in May). And I believe the destruction of our grammar schools has been one of the worse policies ever created. Many politicians who did not go to private schools had the opportunity to be educated at a grammar school, and through this where able to better themselves. We now have the situation in which many bright children will never have that opportunity. Many people have argued over the years about equality and social mobility and have then thought about the best way of bringing this about is by setting targets for universities to take those from state schools. This to me sounds completely daft as you then reduce the quality of the intake to meet some target set be central Government. I do find it ironic and incredibly hypocritical that one of the great advocates for equality, social mobility and the destruction of grammar schools was Harriet Harmen who was educated at a private school and sends her two children to St. Paul's independent school for girls.
One of the reasons I am against the destruction of grammar schools is that generally those who have the money can either send their children to a private school or move to an area which has a good state school. This means those on low income are educated in the worse schools which means they don't get a good education and carry on the cycle of poverty. I would like to cover this in greater depth but I also want to quickly look at another issue to do with the subject of the poor.
If you have read my blog before you will know that I do not agree with the policy of mass immigration, I do not want to go over old ground but I want to quickly look at this issue in regards to the poor.
Mass immigration has brought huge social problems within our society and many people are not affected, but many people are, usually the poorest within our society, so I am going to quickly look at some issues here and then at a later date look at them in greater detail.
JOBS
Many people have argued that mass immigration has been good for our economy, this has been shown over the years to be nonsense. The majority of immigrants who come to this country are unskilled so they do the jobs that the poor would traditionally have done, they are willing to work for a low wage, and employers love this, so employ many immigrants rather than British people. British people cannot afford to work in the factories and less skilled jobs, this then creates a downward cycle of poverty. An MP, doctor, lawyer, etc does not have these problems(I have covered this issue in greater depth in an earlier post).
HOUSING
Immigrants generally live on council estates or those estates with greater social needs, I would think it is highly unlikely that an immigrant family is living in a nice middle class housing estate. This of course puts more pressure on local housing stock, thus affecting the poor who can neither afford to buy a house or rent somewhere, they are then left to live in the worse houses, this continues the cycle of poverty. In conjunction with this, many areas which have a lot of immigrants has seen the number of multi occupancy housing increase, this then puts added pressure on local services; health clinics, hospitals, social services, etc.
SCHOOLS
I have covered this above, but I wanted to add this, as I have said above, most immigrants live in the poorer areas. They then send their children to the local school which they are entitled to do, this then means that those schools end up with more pupils who cannot speak English which then puts more pressure on the teachers. This then means the time given to every other pupil is then reduced, thus bringing down the standard of education. I have mentioned in a previous post about a school in Peterborough which has as many as 27 languages spoken in it. There is of course the added expense of employing a teacher or teaching assistant who can speak Polish for example, as has happened in my sons school.
CRIME
As you can imagine crime affects the poorest and most vulnerable the most, as most people who commit crime live in the poorest areas. It is highly unlikely that an area of extreme wealth will have a drug problem. There are some estates in the UK which fire crews do not go onto without a police escort, those who are wealthy do not have these problems. Again this is not a criticism of those with money, but I do think this can create problems as those who live on these estates have no real understanding of societies problems. I was watching a programme last night in which a man was arrested for stealing a brand new car from someones drive, he was fined £100, given a 3 month suspended sentence, and 120 hours community service. This to me is not a deterrent to criminals; crime will increase unless criminals are given proper sentences in proper prisons.
The issue of the poor is a massive subject, and over the years I have watched successive governments try to do something to improve the situation. I believe that unless these issues and many others are tackled head on we will continue to see the problems gets worse. I haven't covered the issue of family breakdown and fatherless children, which is a huge subject within itself. I believe these issues need to be debated, I believe that those in power need to start listening to peoples concerns and stop accusing them of being bigoted or extremists. I think it would do many of our; MP's, councillors, judges, lawyers, top council wage earners and those who set policy some good if they went and lived with their families on one of our problem housing estates for 3 months or more. It might make them realise the size of the problem, and they might then have some understanding of the pressure so many people live under.
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