Just to let you know I have just moved house and will be without a home computer for the next ten weeks or so. This means I will be unlikely to post anything over that time. I will leave you with these thoughts:
Don't you think it is ironic that the EU supports democracy in Egypt, Tunisia, etc but has set up an undemocratic government in both Greece and Italy?
Does it not seem absolutely ridiculous to keep hoping that somehow the political leaders of the EU are going to sort out this mess in the eurozone? Surely it would be better to have an orderly breakup and let Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and France leave this economic prison? The only thing we can be sure of is that economics will eventually triumph over politics, and when this happens we will see a truly monstrous economic disaster.
Over the next few months the world is going to continue to watch as the EU leaders try to sort out this mess. Ultimately they will be disappointed and the EU idiots will fail.
The economic power house of the world is no longer Europe, this is the reality; until those in the EU realise this the better. But I cannot see this happening. The EU is an organisation that does not like reality, those in charge live in a bubble.
Imagine a family that was once fabulously wealthy that still lives in a massive mansion but can no longer afford to pay the bills or pay for the upkeep of that house. This is like those in the EU, it is crumbling around their ears but they are unwilling to admit that things have changed.
They continue to pile regulation upon regulation and they keep spending billions of pounds of tax payers money on keeping the euro afloat but eventually it will die. Unfortunately for us, the people of Europe we will be the ones who suffer, not the political elite who will walk off into the sunset with a massive pension and a house in the sun.
Anyway there are a few happy thoughts to keep you going.
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Sunday, 30 October 2011
THE GREAT DECEPTION
In the book called 'The great Deception' by Christopher Booker and Richard North they explain the history and detail of the drive to bring about a political entity called the European Union. They explain in great detail how we have moved from a Common Market to what we have now. I have to say it is probably one of the most interesting and fascinating books I have ever read. It is incredibly well researched and the authors are able to explain in a very articulate way the deception that is the EU.
So why am I mentioning this? Well, what I have noticed is that there has been a great deception performed by our political leaders and many so called business people. This deception has been this, and has been repeated time and time again: 'if we leave the EU it would be an economic disaster for Britain, and if we left it would destroy us'.
This is complete and utter rubbish and does not stand up to simple scrutiny. I know I have written about this before, but I wanted to be a little more concise. Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman has produced a pamphlet rubbishing the claims of all the doomsayers.
So here are the basics:
1. The EU sells more to us than we do to them, it would be very much in its interests to enact a free trade agreement with us. In 2009 our trade deficit with the EU in just manufactured goods was £35 billion. If you think we couldn't leave and just set up a trade agreement. Under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty requires the EU to make a trade arrangement with any nation that leaves the EU.
2. With the ascent of China, India and Brazil Britain would do well to leave a trading bloc whose share of world GDP is forecast to fall to under 15 per cent in 2020. In 1980 it was 36 per cent.
3. Britain enjoys trading relationships elsewhere in the world that are not shared by other EU countries. We send 18 per cent of our exports to the US; Germany sends only 7 per cent. The biggest external investor in Britain is America.
4. One of the reasons for the EU's poor competitiveness is over regulation. More than 100,000 regulations and directives have been imposed upon us since we joined the EU in 1973. The working time directive is estimated to cost £11.9 billion a year in lost productivity. The EU renewables target about £22 billion every year, the new part time agency workers regulation is already costing British workers their jobs, as Tesco is going to lay off 21,000 part time workers.
The Open Europe think tank reported last year that EU regulations had cost Britain £124 billion since 1998. The figure is not a partisan invention, but based upon the Governments assessments..
5. We are told that if we left the EU it would mean our influence would disappear. Our membership of the G8, our seat on the UN security council and the World Trade organisation are not dependent upon our being part of the EU.
6. We are the sixth largest economy in the world, we remain one of the top ten manufacturing nations in the world. London is the largest financial centre in the world, that is as long as the EU do not destroy this by bringing in the Financial Transactions tax.
7. Britain would not have to pay almost £8.3 billion net to the EU plus the ongoing increase which is expected to hit £10.3 billion by 2013.
8. Switzerland is the richest country per capita in Europe and possibly the world, it does 70 per cent of its trade with the EU, and is not part of the EU.
There you have eight simple points that the government and politicians like to ignore. I have not mentioned immigration and being able to control who comes here to work. So, as you can see there is no benefit to us being part of this great deception. I truly believe if we stay in this economic prison much longer it will eventually destroy this nation that I love.
So why am I mentioning this? Well, what I have noticed is that there has been a great deception performed by our political leaders and many so called business people. This deception has been this, and has been repeated time and time again: 'if we leave the EU it would be an economic disaster for Britain, and if we left it would destroy us'.
This is complete and utter rubbish and does not stand up to simple scrutiny. I know I have written about this before, but I wanted to be a little more concise. Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman has produced a pamphlet rubbishing the claims of all the doomsayers.
So here are the basics:
1. The EU sells more to us than we do to them, it would be very much in its interests to enact a free trade agreement with us. In 2009 our trade deficit with the EU in just manufactured goods was £35 billion. If you think we couldn't leave and just set up a trade agreement. Under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty requires the EU to make a trade arrangement with any nation that leaves the EU.
2. With the ascent of China, India and Brazil Britain would do well to leave a trading bloc whose share of world GDP is forecast to fall to under 15 per cent in 2020. In 1980 it was 36 per cent.
3. Britain enjoys trading relationships elsewhere in the world that are not shared by other EU countries. We send 18 per cent of our exports to the US; Germany sends only 7 per cent. The biggest external investor in Britain is America.
4. One of the reasons for the EU's poor competitiveness is over regulation. More than 100,000 regulations and directives have been imposed upon us since we joined the EU in 1973. The working time directive is estimated to cost £11.9 billion a year in lost productivity. The EU renewables target about £22 billion every year, the new part time agency workers regulation is already costing British workers their jobs, as Tesco is going to lay off 21,000 part time workers.
The Open Europe think tank reported last year that EU regulations had cost Britain £124 billion since 1998. The figure is not a partisan invention, but based upon the Governments assessments..
5. We are told that if we left the EU it would mean our influence would disappear. Our membership of the G8, our seat on the UN security council and the World Trade organisation are not dependent upon our being part of the EU.
6. We are the sixth largest economy in the world, we remain one of the top ten manufacturing nations in the world. London is the largest financial centre in the world, that is as long as the EU do not destroy this by bringing in the Financial Transactions tax.
7. Britain would not have to pay almost £8.3 billion net to the EU plus the ongoing increase which is expected to hit £10.3 billion by 2013.
8. Switzerland is the richest country per capita in Europe and possibly the world, it does 70 per cent of its trade with the EU, and is not part of the EU.
There you have eight simple points that the government and politicians like to ignore. I have not mentioned immigration and being able to control who comes here to work. So, as you can see there is no benefit to us being part of this great deception. I truly believe if we stay in this economic prison much longer it will eventually destroy this nation that I love.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Can you ever trust this lot again?
I have always wondered how politicians get away with it. I have always wondered how is it so easy to lie, and not just lie but to do it so brazenly. Imagine this, one of your friends tells you they will help you- say move house, they tell you this whilst speaking to you on camera. You then phone them up to say that you are moving house tomorrow, and could they come and help you because they said they would. They then turn round and say that they can't do it, you say to them that they promised they would help and if they don't help you will have to do it yourself. They then say that they didn't promise to help, and even if they did promise there were conditions attached.
You then play the recording of them promising to help you move and they then say 'I didn't mean that'. Would you trust them again to stick to their promise? Well you might give them another chance, but if they kept breaking promises and kept saying they never said something even though they had officially recorded it, I am sure you would never trust them again.
This is exactly what all three main parties have done in regards to many issues but in particularly in regards to the EU. So this is what the conservatives said, this is quoted directly from the conservative party website:
News story
Join our campaign for an EU referendum
Monday, April 27 2009
Ahead of the European elections on 4th June, David Cameron has launched a campaign to get Gordon Brown to honour his pledge to give the British people a referendum on the EU Treaty.
In their 2005 election manifesto, Labour promised to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution.
David stressed the Lisbon Treaty was a “re-branded” version of that Constitution and attacked Gordon Brown for having “flip-flopped”:
“First he was against the Constitution, then he was for it; one day he promised a referendum, the next he backtracked. While he has chopped and changed, our position has remained exactly the same. We are the only major party to have consistently said that it is up to the British people to decide on our future in Europe.”
David promised that if the Constitution was not in force at the time of the General Election, a Conservative Government would hold a referendum on it, urge a no vote, and reverse Britain’s ratification if successful.
He explained, “I believe that if you make a promise in your manifesto, and the country votes on that manifesto, then you are honour-bound to keep that promise.”
You can join our campaign by signing up to our Facebook page or downloading our 'EU-turn' widget
Well, that looks pretty unequivocal, I don't know about you but that looks very easy to understand. Just look at that last sentence, it doesn't look ambiguous, it is completely straight and down the line. And I suppose if you read that you would actually think they meant what they were saying!
So let us look at what Labour said about holding a referendum:
You then play the recording of them promising to help you move and they then say 'I didn't mean that'. Would you trust them again to stick to their promise? Well you might give them another chance, but if they kept breaking promises and kept saying they never said something even though they had officially recorded it, I am sure you would never trust them again.
This is exactly what all three main parties have done in regards to many issues but in particularly in regards to the EU. So this is what the conservatives said, this is quoted directly from the conservative party website:
News story
Join our campaign for an EU referendum
Monday, April 27 2009
Ahead of the European elections on 4th June, David Cameron has launched a campaign to get Gordon Brown to honour his pledge to give the British people a referendum on the EU Treaty.
In their 2005 election manifesto, Labour promised to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution.
David stressed the Lisbon Treaty was a “re-branded” version of that Constitution and attacked Gordon Brown for having “flip-flopped”:
“First he was against the Constitution, then he was for it; one day he promised a referendum, the next he backtracked. While he has chopped and changed, our position has remained exactly the same. We are the only major party to have consistently said that it is up to the British people to decide on our future in Europe.”
David promised that if the Constitution was not in force at the time of the General Election, a Conservative Government would hold a referendum on it, urge a no vote, and reverse Britain’s ratification if successful.
He explained, “I believe that if you make a promise in your manifesto, and the country votes on that manifesto, then you are honour-bound to keep that promise.”
You can join our campaign by signing up to our Facebook page or downloading our 'EU-turn' widget
Well, that looks pretty unequivocal, I don't know about you but that looks very easy to understand. Just look at that last sentence, it doesn't look ambiguous, it is completely straight and down the line. And I suppose if you read that you would actually think they meant what they were saying!
So let us look at what Labour said about holding a referendum:
"We will put it — the EU Constitution — to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a 'Yes' vote." — Labour Party manifesto, May 2005
"We will have a referendum on the constitution in any event — and that is a Government promise." — Tony Blair, The Sun, May 13, 2005
"Well, if it were necessary to hold a referendum, of course we wouldn't hesitate. I suspect that the best deal for Britain will be won, where we will get what we want, at this summit." — Gordon Brown, GMTV, June 19, 2007
"The manifesto is what we put to the public. We've got to honour that manifesto." — Gordon Brown, BBC 1 Politics Show, June 24, 2007
What do you think about that then? That is also pretty unequivocal. I don't think you could misinterpret that. So what did we get from Gordon Brown when asked to give the British people a vote on the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution? Excuses! The Lisbon Treaty is not the same as the EU Constitution he said.So is the EU Constitution the same as the Lisbon Treaty? Well Bill Wedderburn – a QC, a Life Peer and a member of the Labour Party since 1946 analysed the thousands of pages in the Lisbon Treaty, the Constitution and the commentaries about them (most of which were unavailable to the UK public before January 2008) and agrees with the vast majority of European politicians that the Lisbon Treaty contains substantially the same provisions as the draft Constitution.
The Labour government said that it was not the Constitution, just another Treaty. But, according to Lord Wedderburn, you can’t change the substance of a document by giving it new titles, a new style and form or by making it – as the Lisbon Treaty is – virtually unintelligible.So there you have it, the EU Constitution is the same as the Lisbon Treaty! So I suppose if you looked at what Gordon Brown said in 2007 and read their manifesto promise in 2005 you would think that they would follow through on that promise. Remember they are politicians, and as we know they lie for a living. So of course they are not going to follow through on what they say.
Finally our dear friends the liberal democrats. In my previous post I showed you a copy of a campaign leaflet which they published in the run up to the 2010 General Election. Since the smaller writing wasn't very easy to read I will write here some of what was on that leaflet:"It's time to give the British people a real Referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union" - Nick Clegg
It's been over thirty years since the British people last had a vote on Britain's membership of the European Union. That's why the liberal democrats want a real referendum on Europe. Only a real referendum on Britain's membership of the EU will let the people decide our country's future.Whether you agree with Europe or not, it is vital that you the British people have a real say in a real EU referendum.
I haven't misrepresented or misquoted the liberals here, there is nothing on that leaflet that is ambiguous.So what did David Cameron say in regards to having a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? I have written in a previous post the full transcript of what our dear prime minister said in the Sun newspaper. So if you haven't seen it before look at it here http://evanheasley-powertothepeople.blogspot.com/2011/08/david-cameron-and-broken-promises.html
There is nothing ambiguous in what he said. He made it clear he wanted a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. David Cameron then reneged on that promise and used the excuse that there was no point having a referendum once the things was signed. Well that does not wash for two reasons. First, David Cameron and most people with any intelligence new it was going to be signed before the tories got into power, so why promise this in the first place? And second, in 1975 we had a referendum on remaining in the then Common Market, why could we not do that now.The problem I have with the behaviour of our political leaders and so many of our MPs is their duplicity, their lying and their utter contempt for the British people. It is clear from what I have written above that all three main parties have promised a referendum on our relationship with the EU. I have not misquoted or exaggerated anything they have said and I haven't lied, I have just quoted what they said.
What we have seen here is politicians at their worse, they have used every excuse possible to not follow through on their promise. They have used legalise and other language to excuse their complete cowardice, they have used obfuscation, they have squirmed, they have decided that they do not trust us or care about what we think. They have continually lied and lied and lied. How can anyone trust this lot? How can anyone trust anything they will say again?In the next election each party will set out their manifesto, they will say what they are going to do. Well let's be honest here, there is no point in them saying anything because once they get into power they will do what they want.
There is something we, the general public can do, and that is to not vote for them, but I cannot see that happening, either labour or the tories will be elected again. And I guess that sums up the electorate, I just cannot believe people could ever trust this lot again after so many broken promises. Like I said above, if someone kept letting you down, if they kept promising to help you and did not, if they said one thing and did the opposite would you ever believe them again? I am sure you wouldn't, so why should we ever trust this lot again?Tuesday, 25 October 2011
What they really think of you!
First Labour didn't follow through with their promise to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty. Then David Cameron didn't follow through on his promise to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.Here is a poster advertising what the liberals put in their manifesto in the run up to the 2010 general elections. I am sorry if you can't read it, I couldn't get it any clearer, but having read it myself it is obvious what they are promising. There is nothing in it which could be misunderstood, it is clear what the liberals want.
No wonder people have lost faith in our political class. It just goes to show you what those in power really think of you and me.
I sat and listened to some of the debate in parliament last night on the vote to let the people have a referendum on our relationship with the EU. A liberal democrat MP stood up and said that even though the liberals did promise a referendum they promised that it would only be held under certain circumstances. He then went into a diatribe on why the liberals wouldn't back the motion to let the people have a referendum.
To say it is disingenuous would be an understatement. The above poster is pretty unequivocal. It is very clear what the liberals promised. Just like their promise to stand against tuition fees, they have reneged on that.
This highlights what our elected representatives think of us, they don't care about us! They think we are stupid! They believe they are untouchable! The more I listen to; David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and so many of their followers the more I realise they are totally out of touch with those who have elected them.
Monday, 24 October 2011
The thought police
Housing association manager Adrian Smith has been demoted and had his pay drastically reduced after he posted comments on his private Facebook page in which he said that celebrating same sex weddings in churches would be an 'equality too far'.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with gay marriage or allowing gays to marry in a church or not, surely this issue goes to the very heart of freedom of speech.
Mr Smith wrote on his private Facebook account to just his friends, he wrote it on his own computer at home. He was having a discussion about a BBC story about the government's plans to lift the ban on homosexual couples holding civil partnerships in churches.
This is what was said:
Adrain Smith:
'An Equality too far'
Gay church marriages get the go ahead. Ministers are to set out plans to make changes to the law which could enable same sex couples to 'marry' in church, it has emerged.
.........: 'Does this mean you don't approve?'
Adrian Smith:
'No not really, I don't understand why people who have no faith and don't believe in Christ would want to get hitched in church.The Bible is quite specific that marriage is for men and women. If the state want to offer civil marriages to same sex couples that is up to the state; but they shouldn't impose its rules on places of faith and conscience.'
That doesn't sound that bad, there was no incitement to go out and beat up gays, or kill; he wasn't even saying he was against gay couples getting 'married'. He just said he was against it happening in a church.
One colleague who is his friend on Facebook sent a complaint to the housing association's thought police, eg 'equality and diversity manager' who then decided to destroy this man's career.
I believe this is very scary, and goes to show you how this country is changing. Every public sector organisation has its own thought police. Depending on the size of the organisation it will employ many people to police their employees thoughts and actions.
The people who run these organisation are so wrapped up in 'diversity and equality' they cannot see outside of this warped little world they live in. They believe that we should all think the same and say the same thing. Ironically it does seem to go against the word 'diversity' which means different; surely that is the point of the word diverse, we all are diverse and have many different points of view, not the same. So if we are different we should be able to state those points of view without fear.
Of course this would not be right in the eyes of these zealots, they believe they are right and everyone who holds a different view is wrong. They are obsessed, they do not care about people, only an ideology. When we go down this road we can only end up with one view which then leads to tyranny; were everyone who speaks out against the the prescribed opinion is seen as not only extreme but actually deranged and very dangerous.
You might think what I am saying a little over the top. But I don't believe it is; to stop people stating their beliefs is the first step to stopping freedom of expression and speech. This in turn can lead to a snowball effect in which many of the things that you say can be seen as 'wrong'. Things which are not unreasonable but just a point of view start to be seen as intolerance, then can be seen as destructive and actually very dangerous. Before you know it you are being labeled a trouble maker, an extremist and thus dangerous. This then has an impact on your job and your ability to find employment. This can then impact upon your children - schools now have to record any racist, homophobic or any other incidents that are deemed extreme. In some cases children have been asked by their teachers if their parents holds certain views. This is very dangerous indeed!
Imagine sitting in a pub and you are having a private conversation and someone from your work is there, you are discussing something which our 'thought police' believe is sacred to their agenda, and you disagree with the policy. That employee then contacts your employee and then you are in front of a panel justifying your beliefs and trying to save your job. You don't think this could happen, I wouldn't be too sure.
Thankfully it seems there are some people who are standing up to this extremism. Mr Smith is taking his employer to a tribunal seeking compensation and an admission that his 'rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion have been broken'. Mr judge, who is overseeing the enquiry said 'There seems to be a culture of fear among companies who feel impelled to launch an Inquisition if anyone doesn't buy into the equality and diversity manifesto in its entirety. This witchhunt has to stop.' So there is hope.
One last point, I wonder if Adrian Smith had been Muslim and made these comments would he have been treated the same?
Regardless of whether or not you agree with gay marriage or allowing gays to marry in a church or not, surely this issue goes to the very heart of freedom of speech.
Mr Smith wrote on his private Facebook account to just his friends, he wrote it on his own computer at home. He was having a discussion about a BBC story about the government's plans to lift the ban on homosexual couples holding civil partnerships in churches.
This is what was said:
Adrain Smith:
'An Equality too far'
Gay church marriages get the go ahead. Ministers are to set out plans to make changes to the law which could enable same sex couples to 'marry' in church, it has emerged.
.........: 'Does this mean you don't approve?'
Adrian Smith:
'No not really, I don't understand why people who have no faith and don't believe in Christ would want to get hitched in church.The Bible is quite specific that marriage is for men and women. If the state want to offer civil marriages to same sex couples that is up to the state; but they shouldn't impose its rules on places of faith and conscience.'
That doesn't sound that bad, there was no incitement to go out and beat up gays, or kill; he wasn't even saying he was against gay couples getting 'married'. He just said he was against it happening in a church.
One colleague who is his friend on Facebook sent a complaint to the housing association's thought police, eg 'equality and diversity manager' who then decided to destroy this man's career.
I believe this is very scary, and goes to show you how this country is changing. Every public sector organisation has its own thought police. Depending on the size of the organisation it will employ many people to police their employees thoughts and actions.
The people who run these organisation are so wrapped up in 'diversity and equality' they cannot see outside of this warped little world they live in. They believe that we should all think the same and say the same thing. Ironically it does seem to go against the word 'diversity' which means different; surely that is the point of the word diverse, we all are diverse and have many different points of view, not the same. So if we are different we should be able to state those points of view without fear.
Of course this would not be right in the eyes of these zealots, they believe they are right and everyone who holds a different view is wrong. They are obsessed, they do not care about people, only an ideology. When we go down this road we can only end up with one view which then leads to tyranny; were everyone who speaks out against the the prescribed opinion is seen as not only extreme but actually deranged and very dangerous.
You might think what I am saying a little over the top. But I don't believe it is; to stop people stating their beliefs is the first step to stopping freedom of expression and speech. This in turn can lead to a snowball effect in which many of the things that you say can be seen as 'wrong'. Things which are not unreasonable but just a point of view start to be seen as intolerance, then can be seen as destructive and actually very dangerous. Before you know it you are being labeled a trouble maker, an extremist and thus dangerous. This then has an impact on your job and your ability to find employment. This can then impact upon your children - schools now have to record any racist, homophobic or any other incidents that are deemed extreme. In some cases children have been asked by their teachers if their parents holds certain views. This is very dangerous indeed!
Imagine sitting in a pub and you are having a private conversation and someone from your work is there, you are discussing something which our 'thought police' believe is sacred to their agenda, and you disagree with the policy. That employee then contacts your employee and then you are in front of a panel justifying your beliefs and trying to save your job. You don't think this could happen, I wouldn't be too sure.
Thankfully it seems there are some people who are standing up to this extremism. Mr Smith is taking his employer to a tribunal seeking compensation and an admission that his 'rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion have been broken'. Mr judge, who is overseeing the enquiry said 'There seems to be a culture of fear among companies who feel impelled to launch an Inquisition if anyone doesn't buy into the equality and diversity manifesto in its entirety. This witchhunt has to stop.' So there is hope.
One last point, I wonder if Adrian Smith had been Muslim and made these comments would he have been treated the same?
Arrogance
I wrote in my previous posting about the lack of democracy in this country. On top of the fact that so many of our politicians don't have a clue how to run the country and sort out the mess we are in, so many have an incredible arrogance. This is so true when we look at the issue of the EU.
In so many countries around the world politicians behave with a total disregard to the people who elected them. In many countries those in charge are not elected and don't actually give any thought or have any care for their people.
When you start to look at the issue of our relationship with the EU you will see that those in power think they know best and they think we the people are just a bunch of ignorant idiots. That may sound like sour grapes, but having listened to the likes of; William Hague, David Cameron, Nick clegg, Ed Miliband, etc stating what they think is the best for us, shows that they have complete contempt for those who elected them.
Ed Miliband only yesterday on the BBC refused to rule out Britain joining the euro. I cannot believe this! This man, who is supposed to be intelligent cannot see that the euro is doomed, it is in a complete mess and is dying and he is saying that we could eventually join the euro.
The euro and the European project is just not working, it is a political project that those who rule are determined to make work. They plough on regardless of the damage this is doing to individual countries. Greece has already received two huge bailouts and is on its way to receiving a third, even though there is no chance they will be able to pay its debt.
Italy is sinking fast and the cost of refinancing its debt next year will be £218 billion. The obvious thing to do is let the Greeks, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish leave this euro prison and devalue their currency. It makes no sense to just keep handing money over to these countries when they cannot devalue. This would then make their exports cheaper and then their economies will start to grow so they could then get back on their feet.
But the arrogance of those in power is only going to bring destruction on the people of these countries. Regardless whether the politicians want this euro project to keep going the financial markets will have the final say, and that is when this project will finally die. I watched an interesting interview with Peter Oborne - journalist on the Daily Telegraph in which he really hammers the EU, it is well worth a watch. If you want to watch it click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxPFZra8MuM
Today Great Britain's MPs will have a vote on whether we have a referendum and they will ignore the people. This does not surprise me, as many are more concerned about their own political career rather than the people they are supposed to represent.
The simple fact is we, the British people have never been given the opportunity to have a say on whether we want this European Union, NEVER! In a series of polls, within the last year shows that given an 'in' or 'out' referendum, half of Britons would vote to leave. Whilst a quarter would vote to stay in. This highlights the total rejection of democracy by those we elected! This shows their complete arrogance! This shows how far this lot are removed from the people they are supposed to represent! And this highlights why so many people feel totally disenfranchised from the political elite!
The government admits that half of British laws with a significant economic impact come from the EU. Be it home affairs, health and safety, tourism to tax from national security to social security. Bernard Jenkins MP was on the BBC this morning stating that the EU costs the British economy upwards of £60 billion a year. The EU dictates to us in so many areas; every year our parliament is forced to implement 3,000 regulations which originate in the EU. Not once in the last 32 years has Britain received more than it paid into the EU. We have a trade deficit with the EU - basically they sell more to us than we sell to them. There is no economic sense to being part of the EU. I could go on and on.
It is about time the British people had a say in who governed them, that does not sound unreasonable. The British government, whether it be this one or the previous one, or the one before that has continually handed more and more power to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. They have never asked us if this is what we want. They have continually lied, they have promised they will give us a referendum, but have never followed through with that promise.
This is why I believe they will never do anything about the EU, and that is why, if the British people really care about this country and are really bothered about who represents them they need to vote for a different party. One that truly represents them and the views of the majority of the people of this country.
In so many countries around the world politicians behave with a total disregard to the people who elected them. In many countries those in charge are not elected and don't actually give any thought or have any care for their people.
When you start to look at the issue of our relationship with the EU you will see that those in power think they know best and they think we the people are just a bunch of ignorant idiots. That may sound like sour grapes, but having listened to the likes of; William Hague, David Cameron, Nick clegg, Ed Miliband, etc stating what they think is the best for us, shows that they have complete contempt for those who elected them.
Ed Miliband only yesterday on the BBC refused to rule out Britain joining the euro. I cannot believe this! This man, who is supposed to be intelligent cannot see that the euro is doomed, it is in a complete mess and is dying and he is saying that we could eventually join the euro.
The euro and the European project is just not working, it is a political project that those who rule are determined to make work. They plough on regardless of the damage this is doing to individual countries. Greece has already received two huge bailouts and is on its way to receiving a third, even though there is no chance they will be able to pay its debt.
Italy is sinking fast and the cost of refinancing its debt next year will be £218 billion. The obvious thing to do is let the Greeks, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish leave this euro prison and devalue their currency. It makes no sense to just keep handing money over to these countries when they cannot devalue. This would then make their exports cheaper and then their economies will start to grow so they could then get back on their feet.
But the arrogance of those in power is only going to bring destruction on the people of these countries. Regardless whether the politicians want this euro project to keep going the financial markets will have the final say, and that is when this project will finally die. I watched an interesting interview with Peter Oborne - journalist on the Daily Telegraph in which he really hammers the EU, it is well worth a watch. If you want to watch it click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxPFZra8MuM
Today Great Britain's MPs will have a vote on whether we have a referendum and they will ignore the people. This does not surprise me, as many are more concerned about their own political career rather than the people they are supposed to represent.
The simple fact is we, the British people have never been given the opportunity to have a say on whether we want this European Union, NEVER! In a series of polls, within the last year shows that given an 'in' or 'out' referendum, half of Britons would vote to leave. Whilst a quarter would vote to stay in. This highlights the total rejection of democracy by those we elected! This shows their complete arrogance! This shows how far this lot are removed from the people they are supposed to represent! And this highlights why so many people feel totally disenfranchised from the political elite!
The government admits that half of British laws with a significant economic impact come from the EU. Be it home affairs, health and safety, tourism to tax from national security to social security. Bernard Jenkins MP was on the BBC this morning stating that the EU costs the British economy upwards of £60 billion a year. The EU dictates to us in so many areas; every year our parliament is forced to implement 3,000 regulations which originate in the EU. Not once in the last 32 years has Britain received more than it paid into the EU. We have a trade deficit with the EU - basically they sell more to us than we sell to them. There is no economic sense to being part of the EU. I could go on and on.
It is about time the British people had a say in who governed them, that does not sound unreasonable. The British government, whether it be this one or the previous one, or the one before that has continually handed more and more power to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. They have never asked us if this is what we want. They have continually lied, they have promised they will give us a referendum, but have never followed through with that promise.
This is why I believe they will never do anything about the EU, and that is why, if the British people really care about this country and are really bothered about who represents them they need to vote for a different party. One that truly represents them and the views of the majority of the people of this country.
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Democracy?
Have you ever wondered what world our politicians inhabit? So many do not really care about anything, I believe they would say anything to stay in power. They are so far removed from the reality of everyday life they are like the old Emperors of China or the Tsars of Russia. They do not understand anything except politics and staying in power.
Labour were truly awful ,they made such a mess of this country; I don't think the 'The Monster Raving Loony Party' could have done any worse. The likes of; Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman are lecturing this government on what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing. But they were part of the last government and they could not have been worse.
Let us use this analogy. Imagine asking a builder to build you an extension and you provide the finance and materials. They start off okay, but very quickly they start to make a mess of it, and after 13 years not only have they not built the extension they have left your house in a mess. They have ruptured water pipes, made holes in your roof, knocked down walls they shouldn't have, disconnected your electric and also given the keys to a bunch of Romanian Gypsies who are now living rent free in your basement. And you cannot remove them. You then ask another builder to sort out the mess, and the builder who got you in this mess sits and lectures them on what they should be doing to sort it out.
I have written before how I believe that out politicians do not know what they are doing, and the more I listen and watch them the more I realise they don't have a clue how to run the country. They do not even believe in democracy. The government lectures other countries on democracy and even goes to war over it but ignores the people of this country. They promise so much in the run up to elections but when they get into power they forget those promises and carry on as if the people do not matter.
The government decided they would bring in a semblance of democracy by allowing a debate in parliament if 100,000 people signed a petition on the government's e-petition website. This sounds good but the reality is the government will ignore what the people want and vote against it anyway. Let's take the latest example of 'democracy'; the government are going to have a debate and vote on letting the people have a referendum on our relationship with the EU.
David Cameron has ordered every Tory MP to vote against a referendum, he has said that if any minister votes against the government they will be sacked from government and if any Tory MP votes against them that will be the end of their career. So much for democracy! Labour are no better, they will vote against the proposal, and I don't need to say anything about the extremely pro EU Liberals.
This highlights the complete arrogance of the governing class and how they care about the democratic feelings of the people who elected them. David Cameron has nailed his colours to the mast, he has shown that he does not believe in anything and will doing anything to keep power. He stated in 2007 that he would give the people a referendum on our relationship with the EU but then reneged on that promise. Nick Clegg is even worse; part of his manifesto promise was an in out referendum, that promise has now been dropped. I cannot take anymore of the excuses of having to compromise within a coalition; this just gives them cart blanche to do anything and ignore all their promises.
But let's look at two issues to see what they really think about the people and democracy. Immigration is continually ignored, even though the majority of people want some sort of controls on who comes to this country. Execution, whether you agree or not in this, there is a majority who favour a return to the death penalty. But none of this fits in with how our liberal ruling elite think. They do not care, it is as if we the people are a minor distraction and irritation on their backside that needs to be brushed off, or if it cannot be brushed off it is just ignored.
Whether you believe we should leave the EU or not, or whether you believe in execution or controlling immigration surely these are such big issues that the people should have a direct say over. I believe in our parliamentary democracy, it has worked for years, I know that everything could not go to a referendum, it would not be practical. But surely if there are things that are major issues and the government is not willing to listen to the people, the people should have a direct vote. If a party was voted in on the basis of its manifesto promises but fails to follow through on very little of those promises what is the point of having a manifesto. They could say anything to get elected. Is this then true democracy?
Add to all this, those who walk the corridors of power in Brussels you will quickly realise that there is very little in the way of true democracy in so many countries. Just look at what happened in Germany recently when the German parliament voted in favour of handing more German tax payers money to the Greeks. A majority of Germans did not want to do this but those in power ignored them. The IMF, ECB and EU are now telling the Greeks, Spanish and Italians how they should govern, they are telling them to cut public spending (which they probably need to) or else, That's democracy for you!
The EU ignored the French and Dutch in 2005 in regards to the EU constitution, the Irish in 2008 and made them vote again on the Lisbon Treaty, they got their way. The Slovakian parliament has voted against handing more money to the Greeks, but will have another vote. You could argue that at least they are voting and surely this is democracy. But I cannot see that it is, continually making someone vote until you get the answer you want is not what I call democracy.
This brings me back to our politicians and what world they live in. I do not believe they really understand, nor do I believe that many of them really care about the people who elected them. I do not believe that anything is ever really going to change as long as the people of this country continue to vote for the usual suspects. Until the people start to look elsewhere and vote for someone who really understands and who really cares nothing is going to change.
Labour were truly awful ,they made such a mess of this country; I don't think the 'The Monster Raving Loony Party' could have done any worse. The likes of; Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman are lecturing this government on what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing. But they were part of the last government and they could not have been worse.
Let us use this analogy. Imagine asking a builder to build you an extension and you provide the finance and materials. They start off okay, but very quickly they start to make a mess of it, and after 13 years not only have they not built the extension they have left your house in a mess. They have ruptured water pipes, made holes in your roof, knocked down walls they shouldn't have, disconnected your electric and also given the keys to a bunch of Romanian Gypsies who are now living rent free in your basement. And you cannot remove them. You then ask another builder to sort out the mess, and the builder who got you in this mess sits and lectures them on what they should be doing to sort it out.
I have written before how I believe that out politicians do not know what they are doing, and the more I listen and watch them the more I realise they don't have a clue how to run the country. They do not even believe in democracy. The government lectures other countries on democracy and even goes to war over it but ignores the people of this country. They promise so much in the run up to elections but when they get into power they forget those promises and carry on as if the people do not matter.
The government decided they would bring in a semblance of democracy by allowing a debate in parliament if 100,000 people signed a petition on the government's e-petition website. This sounds good but the reality is the government will ignore what the people want and vote against it anyway. Let's take the latest example of 'democracy'; the government are going to have a debate and vote on letting the people have a referendum on our relationship with the EU.
David Cameron has ordered every Tory MP to vote against a referendum, he has said that if any minister votes against the government they will be sacked from government and if any Tory MP votes against them that will be the end of their career. So much for democracy! Labour are no better, they will vote against the proposal, and I don't need to say anything about the extremely pro EU Liberals.
This highlights the complete arrogance of the governing class and how they care about the democratic feelings of the people who elected them. David Cameron has nailed his colours to the mast, he has shown that he does not believe in anything and will doing anything to keep power. He stated in 2007 that he would give the people a referendum on our relationship with the EU but then reneged on that promise. Nick Clegg is even worse; part of his manifesto promise was an in out referendum, that promise has now been dropped. I cannot take anymore of the excuses of having to compromise within a coalition; this just gives them cart blanche to do anything and ignore all their promises.
But let's look at two issues to see what they really think about the people and democracy. Immigration is continually ignored, even though the majority of people want some sort of controls on who comes to this country. Execution, whether you agree or not in this, there is a majority who favour a return to the death penalty. But none of this fits in with how our liberal ruling elite think. They do not care, it is as if we the people are a minor distraction and irritation on their backside that needs to be brushed off, or if it cannot be brushed off it is just ignored.
Whether you believe we should leave the EU or not, or whether you believe in execution or controlling immigration surely these are such big issues that the people should have a direct say over. I believe in our parliamentary democracy, it has worked for years, I know that everything could not go to a referendum, it would not be practical. But surely if there are things that are major issues and the government is not willing to listen to the people, the people should have a direct vote. If a party was voted in on the basis of its manifesto promises but fails to follow through on very little of those promises what is the point of having a manifesto. They could say anything to get elected. Is this then true democracy?
Add to all this, those who walk the corridors of power in Brussels you will quickly realise that there is very little in the way of true democracy in so many countries. Just look at what happened in Germany recently when the German parliament voted in favour of handing more German tax payers money to the Greeks. A majority of Germans did not want to do this but those in power ignored them. The IMF, ECB and EU are now telling the Greeks, Spanish and Italians how they should govern, they are telling them to cut public spending (which they probably need to) or else, That's democracy for you!
The EU ignored the French and Dutch in 2005 in regards to the EU constitution, the Irish in 2008 and made them vote again on the Lisbon Treaty, they got their way. The Slovakian parliament has voted against handing more money to the Greeks, but will have another vote. You could argue that at least they are voting and surely this is democracy. But I cannot see that it is, continually making someone vote until you get the answer you want is not what I call democracy.
This brings me back to our politicians and what world they live in. I do not believe they really understand, nor do I believe that many of them really care about the people who elected them. I do not believe that anything is ever really going to change as long as the people of this country continue to vote for the usual suspects. Until the people start to look elsewhere and vote for someone who really understands and who really cares nothing is going to change.
Monday, 17 October 2011
It's about the economy!
Every week I watch as the western economies continue to struggle. The eurozone is a disaster waiting to happen, Britain and the US are seeing very little growth and unemployment continues to rise. Yet our politicians do not know what to do.
The Bank of England have just announced £75 billion worth of 'quantitative easing', or in layman's language, printing more money. This seems rather desperate, and shows that those at the reins of power; both politicians and finance chiefs do not know what to do. If something isn't done, and done quickly our economy is going to disappear down an economic plug hole.
We are in a mess, every week unemployment continues to rise; the latest figures for June to August show that unemployment rose by 117,000 to take it to 2.57 million. Today Philips, the Dutch electronics and lighting group has announced 4,500 jobs cuts. The independent forecaster Ernst and Young says the Bank of England's new quantitative easing bout is unlikely to prompt recovery. They have also downgraded its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) to just 0.9% this year, well below the 1.4% it predicted three months ago.
The latest rescue attempt for the euro - a £385 billion bailout fund falls far short of the estimated £1.75 trillion needed to stop contagion spreading from Greece to Italy and Spain. Confidence isn't very high that any of what our politicians are doing is going to work.
Politicians carry on trying to patch up this sinking ship with sticking plaster in the vain hope that it will stay afloat. The simple fact is it isn't working, it would make more sense now to jump out of this boat and swim to safety, rather than sink and die. We have been told that if we don't save the euro the world economy is doomed and we will go into an even greater recession. It is quite obvious the euro is doomed; if Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland stay in they will just need more and more taxpayers money, and eventually it is going to run out. They need to leave, if they leave now there will be pain, but eventually that pain will become easier as they will have been able to devalue and rescue their own economies. If they stay it will mean disaster for all of us, and long term pain.
What should the UK do? Well we should leave the EU, we should cut immigration, deregulate, cut tax and encourage manufacturing.
If we left the EU would it be a disaster for us? We are told our economy is so entwined in the EU that to leave would be economic suicide. Is this true? No of course not! We hand over in hard cash about £20 billion every year, add to that the £12.32 billion the British tax payer has spent so far in trying to save the euro. Taking the £3.09 billion that was handed over via the IMF that still leaves over £9 billion we have handed directly to the EU.
Our EU membership also brings hidden costs; the Common Agricultural policy, the Common Fisheries Policy (since joining the Common Market ten's of thousands of jobs have been lost in the fishing industry alone), green regulations, which burden business with extra costs and the thousands of regulations which stifle growth.
Brussels is trying to stop Britain from vetoing the Financial Transaction Tax on the City of London. To put it simply this would be a disaster. At the moment the City accounts for 70 per cent of financial services business in the EU area. It accounts for about 10 per cent of the UK's economic output and contributes about £124 billion to the UK economy. This tax would be a disaster and destroy our economy in an instance.
Politicians argue that we need to stay within the EU because of the trade issue; to put it simply this would make no difference as we could still trade outside of the EU, as Switzerland and Norway have shown. The argument doesn't stand up to any scrutiny, they need us more than we need them. If we left would the Germans stop selling us BMW's, Mercedes, etc? Would the French stop selling us wine, cheese, Renault cars? Would the Italians stop selling us Fiats? Would the Swede's stop selling us Volvo's? Would the Finns stop selling us Nokia mobile phones? Would they not want to trade with us and buy JCB diggers and Triumph motor cycles? Of course not! It is just plain daft to think that they wouldn't trade with us.
If we wanted to leave there is nothing they could do to stop us, they need us more than we need them, as I have already written we hand over billions every year with no obvious benefits. What would the EU do without our money? After the Germans we are the largest contributor to the EU coffers.
We could also cut immigration meaning we could get British people back to work. We could stop the many hundreds of thousands of foreign workers coming into this country ever year, thus putting the British worker first in the queue for jobs. If you don't think British people want to work let me relay this story. I was listening to BBC radio 4 last week and there was a lady being interviewed who had lost who job in the public sector, she had applied for 120 jobs and not even got an interview. People want to work, but there are no jobs, were is the sense of importing more and more foreign labour when there are not the jobs for the indigenous population?
We need to encourage manufacturing, just look at the economies that are growing, they all make things. China, India, Brazil, South Korea, etc are continuing to see economic growth. They must be doing something right, why aren't we copying them?
We need to cut regulation, it hampers business and stifles growth! That is obvious, it does not take a genius to work that one out. The recent decision to implement an EU regulation on petrol pumps has meant that 1800 petrol retailers have had to replace their petrol pumps. This idiotic diktat was brought in for a negligible reason, and if you argue that the oil companies can afford it, what about the independent petrol retailers? Can they?
I could go on, but I am sure you get the idea. Something needs to be done, many of the answers are very simple and I have only covered a small part of what could be done. The economy is something that needs to grow, it provides jobs and security and pays for all those things we have come to rely on like the NHS and the welfare state. If we want to keep them and continue to maintain a good standard of living something has got change. Unfortunately our politicians are either too incompetent or just do not care so things are unlikely to change.
The Bank of England have just announced £75 billion worth of 'quantitative easing', or in layman's language, printing more money. This seems rather desperate, and shows that those at the reins of power; both politicians and finance chiefs do not know what to do. If something isn't done, and done quickly our economy is going to disappear down an economic plug hole.
We are in a mess, every week unemployment continues to rise; the latest figures for June to August show that unemployment rose by 117,000 to take it to 2.57 million. Today Philips, the Dutch electronics and lighting group has announced 4,500 jobs cuts. The independent forecaster Ernst and Young says the Bank of England's new quantitative easing bout is unlikely to prompt recovery. They have also downgraded its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) to just 0.9% this year, well below the 1.4% it predicted three months ago.
The latest rescue attempt for the euro - a £385 billion bailout fund falls far short of the estimated £1.75 trillion needed to stop contagion spreading from Greece to Italy and Spain. Confidence isn't very high that any of what our politicians are doing is going to work.
Politicians carry on trying to patch up this sinking ship with sticking plaster in the vain hope that it will stay afloat. The simple fact is it isn't working, it would make more sense now to jump out of this boat and swim to safety, rather than sink and die. We have been told that if we don't save the euro the world economy is doomed and we will go into an even greater recession. It is quite obvious the euro is doomed; if Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland stay in they will just need more and more taxpayers money, and eventually it is going to run out. They need to leave, if they leave now there will be pain, but eventually that pain will become easier as they will have been able to devalue and rescue their own economies. If they stay it will mean disaster for all of us, and long term pain.
What should the UK do? Well we should leave the EU, we should cut immigration, deregulate, cut tax and encourage manufacturing.
If we left the EU would it be a disaster for us? We are told our economy is so entwined in the EU that to leave would be economic suicide. Is this true? No of course not! We hand over in hard cash about £20 billion every year, add to that the £12.32 billion the British tax payer has spent so far in trying to save the euro. Taking the £3.09 billion that was handed over via the IMF that still leaves over £9 billion we have handed directly to the EU.
Our EU membership also brings hidden costs; the Common Agricultural policy, the Common Fisheries Policy (since joining the Common Market ten's of thousands of jobs have been lost in the fishing industry alone), green regulations, which burden business with extra costs and the thousands of regulations which stifle growth.
Brussels is trying to stop Britain from vetoing the Financial Transaction Tax on the City of London. To put it simply this would be a disaster. At the moment the City accounts for 70 per cent of financial services business in the EU area. It accounts for about 10 per cent of the UK's economic output and contributes about £124 billion to the UK economy. This tax would be a disaster and destroy our economy in an instance.
Politicians argue that we need to stay within the EU because of the trade issue; to put it simply this would make no difference as we could still trade outside of the EU, as Switzerland and Norway have shown. The argument doesn't stand up to any scrutiny, they need us more than we need them. If we left would the Germans stop selling us BMW's, Mercedes, etc? Would the French stop selling us wine, cheese, Renault cars? Would the Italians stop selling us Fiats? Would the Swede's stop selling us Volvo's? Would the Finns stop selling us Nokia mobile phones? Would they not want to trade with us and buy JCB diggers and Triumph motor cycles? Of course not! It is just plain daft to think that they wouldn't trade with us.
If we wanted to leave there is nothing they could do to stop us, they need us more than we need them, as I have already written we hand over billions every year with no obvious benefits. What would the EU do without our money? After the Germans we are the largest contributor to the EU coffers.
We could also cut immigration meaning we could get British people back to work. We could stop the many hundreds of thousands of foreign workers coming into this country ever year, thus putting the British worker first in the queue for jobs. If you don't think British people want to work let me relay this story. I was listening to BBC radio 4 last week and there was a lady being interviewed who had lost who job in the public sector, she had applied for 120 jobs and not even got an interview. People want to work, but there are no jobs, were is the sense of importing more and more foreign labour when there are not the jobs for the indigenous population?
We need to encourage manufacturing, just look at the economies that are growing, they all make things. China, India, Brazil, South Korea, etc are continuing to see economic growth. They must be doing something right, why aren't we copying them?
We need to cut regulation, it hampers business and stifles growth! That is obvious, it does not take a genius to work that one out. The recent decision to implement an EU regulation on petrol pumps has meant that 1800 petrol retailers have had to replace their petrol pumps. This idiotic diktat was brought in for a negligible reason, and if you argue that the oil companies can afford it, what about the independent petrol retailers? Can they?
I could go on, but I am sure you get the idea. Something needs to be done, many of the answers are very simple and I have only covered a small part of what could be done. The economy is something that needs to grow, it provides jobs and security and pays for all those things we have come to rely on like the NHS and the welfare state. If we want to keep them and continue to maintain a good standard of living something has got change. Unfortunately our politicians are either too incompetent or just do not care so things are unlikely to change.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
If you don't hate the EU, here is at least one good reason to do so
This is just a short posting. As regular readers of this blog will know I hate the EU; not because I have some irrational hatred of Europe or any European nation. It has nothing to do with Europe, it has to do with an organisation that was set up to control the European people, and it brings no benefits to us or many countries in Europe. We only have to look at what is happening within the eurozone and the disaster it has inflicted upon Greece, Italy, Portugal, etc.
One of the things the EU likes to do is promote how wonderful it is; it will state that it has brought prosperity and united the peoples of Europe. With a little research you will find that the EU is a massive organisation that is hugely bureaucratic, unaccountable and anti-democratic.
On the theme of being anti-democratic, we only have to look at what is happening in Slovakia. They have voted no in their parliament to bailing out the Greeks, for genuine good reasons, but of course this is not what their EU masters want to hear. They will be made to vote again, and this time as usual the EU will get their own way.
That is not the main reason for this post, here is a link to a journalists blog. He mentions the Common Agricultural (CAP) policy and how damaging it is. http://singletonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/10/the-eu-isnt-just-killing-economic-growth-it-is-killing-africans.html
It is only a short piece, but if you are really interested in the reality of the EU, just spend a little time researching this hideously grotesque policy and you will see that they just do not care. The CAP has brought disaster and misery to many millions. It has pushed up food prices to the consumers of Europe. It is massively wasteful but will never be reformed, and that sums this lot up.
One of the things the EU likes to do is promote how wonderful it is; it will state that it has brought prosperity and united the peoples of Europe. With a little research you will find that the EU is a massive organisation that is hugely bureaucratic, unaccountable and anti-democratic.
On the theme of being anti-democratic, we only have to look at what is happening in Slovakia. They have voted no in their parliament to bailing out the Greeks, for genuine good reasons, but of course this is not what their EU masters want to hear. They will be made to vote again, and this time as usual the EU will get their own way.
That is not the main reason for this post, here is a link to a journalists blog. He mentions the Common Agricultural (CAP) policy and how damaging it is. http://singletonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/10/the-eu-isnt-just-killing-economic-growth-it-is-killing-africans.html
It is only a short piece, but if you are really interested in the reality of the EU, just spend a little time researching this hideously grotesque policy and you will see that they just do not care. The CAP has brought disaster and misery to many millions. It has pushed up food prices to the consumers of Europe. It is massively wasteful but will never be reformed, and that sums this lot up.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
They don't know what to do!
We are now about 18 months into this coalition government and the simple question has to be asked, are they doing a good job? I believe they are not, for these reasons.
Things are not getting any better; you could say things are not getting any worse, but that does not mean they are doing a good job. I know that Labour left this country in a complete mess; I have to be honest, I truly think the last government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was probably one of the worse governments to ever run Britain. They made a complete mess of things and blamed everyone but themselves. They wasted billions of pounds on failed projects -£12.7 billion on a computer system for the NHS which has now been scrapped and £500 million and rising on Regional fire controls for the fire service. These are just two of many examples of politicians arrogance, ignorance and vanity; they decided on these projects without proper consultation, and when they were clearly not working they continued regardless.
This government are no better, they carry on with their projects and continue to waste money just so it makes them look good. One of these things is overseas aid; now you could argue that giving money to those who are in need is good, I cannot argue with that. You could say that we are a rich country and in some way have an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than us, I can see that reasoning.
Britain, this year will spend more than £8 billion on overseas aid, and that is going to increase to about £11 billion by 2015.
But the reason I am against foreign aid is because a massive percentage is wasted and actually goes to propping up ruthless and tyrannical regimes. The governments own Independent Commission on Aid Impact has stated that 27 per cent of aid goes directly to corrupt or tyrannical regimes - to spend as they seem fit.
There is evidence that much aid money is being misused. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has stated that last year about £1 billion of UK aid has been involved in fraud. Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricketer has blamed aid for making his country's endemic corruption far worse.
This country is struggling, unemployment has now risen to 2.57 million, the private sector is getting smaller - 20,000 private companies have gone to the wall since May 2010. We are hemorrhaging work to other countries, we are giving £20 billion a year to the EU for no discernible benefit. The bank of England has just printed another £75 billion to put into the economy, this seems to me that they just don't know what to do. And we continue to hand £300 million in aid to the likes of India, which spent £1.5 billion on its nuclear program last year and continues to see growth in its economy. This seems completely bonkers.
The government are trying to do something, but in reality do not know what to do. The reason I believe they do not know what to do is simply because they have never run their own businesses, and many ministers have done nothing else except be involved in politics. They do not really understand what it is like for many businesses at this moment. I know some people who run their businesses and they state that things are very difficult at the moment. But the government, with the help of the EU are doing nothing to stimulate business, they continue to pile one piece of regulation on top of another, thus stifling growth.
I have mentioned before about Bombardier - the train manufacturer, and how they lost out to German company to build trains and carriages for this country. This highlights the complete lack of understanding and arrogance of our politicians.
I honestly believe we are in for an almighty financial crash. Today's jobless figures show that things are continuing to get worse. Britain's jobless total now stands at 2.57 million, a rise of 117,000 between June and August. I do believe if something radical isn't done we are going to sink under our immense debt.
I know my postings are generally quite negative, but the reason for this is, I sit and watch day after day how our leaders make one bad decision after another. They do not seem to know what to do, they are so far removed from the reality of everyday life. They carry on in the vain hope that something is going to happen, but do nothing to help. The EU leaders keep pumping more and more money into the euro, but it is not working. The EU parliament have just voted for a 4.9 per cent increase for their budget, and no-one is shouting about this.
They hamper business with more regulation, hand billions to corrupt regimes, they cannot stop the tide of mass immigration (I don't think they would do anything about it if they could). They have watched as our manufacturing disappears and do nothing to stop it. Why is it that every other country which makes things is continuing to see growth and we are not? Is it not obvious to these complete IDIOTS that what they are doing is just not working.
Everyone I speak to says we should start making things again, and change our focus from the service sector back to manufacturing. It's working for China, India, Brazil, etc, I am sure it would work for us as well. But don't you worry I am sure this lot will carry on regardless and drag us down deeper and deeper into debt. Just remember this when your pension disappears and your savings are worthless; David Cameron George Osborne and the rest of this bunch of complete incompetent, supercilious, self righteous cocks will be alright.
If you don't think this is true just look at David Cameron's hero Tony Blair and how much he has made since leaving parliament. You can be assured David and his friends will be okay.
Things are not getting any better; you could say things are not getting any worse, but that does not mean they are doing a good job. I know that Labour left this country in a complete mess; I have to be honest, I truly think the last government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was probably one of the worse governments to ever run Britain. They made a complete mess of things and blamed everyone but themselves. They wasted billions of pounds on failed projects -£12.7 billion on a computer system for the NHS which has now been scrapped and £500 million and rising on Regional fire controls for the fire service. These are just two of many examples of politicians arrogance, ignorance and vanity; they decided on these projects without proper consultation, and when they were clearly not working they continued regardless.
This government are no better, they carry on with their projects and continue to waste money just so it makes them look good. One of these things is overseas aid; now you could argue that giving money to those who are in need is good, I cannot argue with that. You could say that we are a rich country and in some way have an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than us, I can see that reasoning.
Britain, this year will spend more than £8 billion on overseas aid, and that is going to increase to about £11 billion by 2015.
But the reason I am against foreign aid is because a massive percentage is wasted and actually goes to propping up ruthless and tyrannical regimes. The governments own Independent Commission on Aid Impact has stated that 27 per cent of aid goes directly to corrupt or tyrannical regimes - to spend as they seem fit.
There is evidence that much aid money is being misused. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has stated that last year about £1 billion of UK aid has been involved in fraud. Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricketer has blamed aid for making his country's endemic corruption far worse.
This country is struggling, unemployment has now risen to 2.57 million, the private sector is getting smaller - 20,000 private companies have gone to the wall since May 2010. We are hemorrhaging work to other countries, we are giving £20 billion a year to the EU for no discernible benefit. The bank of England has just printed another £75 billion to put into the economy, this seems to me that they just don't know what to do. And we continue to hand £300 million in aid to the likes of India, which spent £1.5 billion on its nuclear program last year and continues to see growth in its economy. This seems completely bonkers.
The government are trying to do something, but in reality do not know what to do. The reason I believe they do not know what to do is simply because they have never run their own businesses, and many ministers have done nothing else except be involved in politics. They do not really understand what it is like for many businesses at this moment. I know some people who run their businesses and they state that things are very difficult at the moment. But the government, with the help of the EU are doing nothing to stimulate business, they continue to pile one piece of regulation on top of another, thus stifling growth.
I have mentioned before about Bombardier - the train manufacturer, and how they lost out to German company to build trains and carriages for this country. This highlights the complete lack of understanding and arrogance of our politicians.
I honestly believe we are in for an almighty financial crash. Today's jobless figures show that things are continuing to get worse. Britain's jobless total now stands at 2.57 million, a rise of 117,000 between June and August. I do believe if something radical isn't done we are going to sink under our immense debt.
I know my postings are generally quite negative, but the reason for this is, I sit and watch day after day how our leaders make one bad decision after another. They do not seem to know what to do, they are so far removed from the reality of everyday life. They carry on in the vain hope that something is going to happen, but do nothing to help. The EU leaders keep pumping more and more money into the euro, but it is not working. The EU parliament have just voted for a 4.9 per cent increase for their budget, and no-one is shouting about this.
They hamper business with more regulation, hand billions to corrupt regimes, they cannot stop the tide of mass immigration (I don't think they would do anything about it if they could). They have watched as our manufacturing disappears and do nothing to stop it. Why is it that every other country which makes things is continuing to see growth and we are not? Is it not obvious to these complete IDIOTS that what they are doing is just not working.
Everyone I speak to says we should start making things again, and change our focus from the service sector back to manufacturing. It's working for China, India, Brazil, etc, I am sure it would work for us as well. But don't you worry I am sure this lot will carry on regardless and drag us down deeper and deeper into debt. Just remember this when your pension disappears and your savings are worthless; David Cameron George Osborne and the rest of this bunch of complete incompetent, supercilious, self righteous cocks will be alright.
If you don't think this is true just look at David Cameron's hero Tony Blair and how much he has made since leaving parliament. You can be assured David and his friends will be okay.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
So many issues
Those of you who view this blog regularly might be wondering why I haven't written much lately (then again you might not be), it is simply because I have been too busy. There are many things I could write about; the economic situation, the euro crises, the BBC and its decision to drop AD and BC. I will probably look at those issues later, but I wanted to look at something that really irks me and should be reformed.
ADHD and Disability Living Allowance (DLA), this is something which many hundred's of thousands of people claim every year. In some cases there might be a just reason for people to receive this allowance, but in many cases there is no justification for this payment.
Currently the government spends £192 billion every year on welfare; an astronomical sum that is beyond comprehension. £12 billion of this £192 billion is paid out in DLA. You could argue that those who claim DLA must need it, and wouldn't receive it if they did not deserve it. But this simply cannot be true, there cannot be that many people in this country who are in some way disabled and need this benefit.
One of the things you can claim for is a car through this scheme; currently 575,000 people receive a car and out of those, 3,200 families with someone with ADHD receive a car. The questions have to be asked; do they really need a car? And is there such a thing as ADHD? To both of these questions I am going to say NO!!!!!!!
Firstly I do not believe there is such a thing as ADHD; I do not care whether someone says their child is hyperactive and cannot sit still, cannot concentrate or gets in trouble at school. I will never believe in this excuse to drug children.
ADHD as an 'illness' was practically unheard of 20 years ago. Those claiming welfare for someone with ADHD has gone from 800 a decade ago to 99,000 today. In 1991 2,000 prescriptions for Ritalin - which suppresses the symptoms of this so called 'illness', today it is close to 350,000.
I cannot believe that, in this modern day we can dish out so many drugs that changes and stifles the brain. The majority of those who receive this drug are male and children.
We look back at the likes of Lord Shaftsbury who fought to stop child labour with awe and respect. We look back at the creation of the welfare state and applaud this wonderful institution. Successive governments have brought in legislation to protect children and vulnerable people. Many children are taken into care every year for their protection. Many public sector bodies run compulsory courses on child protection. Anyone who goes near children in the course of their work have to have a CRB check to make sure they have never been convicted of any crime to do with children. All schools, youth clubs, scout groups, etc have child protection policies, but every year we feed children drugs that we do not really know or understand what the long term impact will be upon them.
This seems almost tantamount to abuse. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a teacher who said she has a child with ADHD in her class. This boy, she said was very disruptive, but is now no longer disruptive because he is now receiving 'treatment', in the form of drugs. I asked her, did this not concern her? And she said no, she said she was now able to teach the rest of the class without any problems and he was a lot calmer. I was a little shocked by this answer, I said 'if anyone was drugged it would surely have an impact upon the individual, just because their symptoms seem to be better, it does not mean that it is solving the problem.'
There is no way of scientifically diagnosing ADHD, it is a tick box exercise. Has anyone looked into the long term impact of drugging hundreds of thousands of children? Does anyone truly understand the workings of the human brain? Why are the majority of those who are diagnosed with ADHD boys? Why have the numbers of children being diagnosed with ADHD increased so much in the last twenty years?
I believe there are many reasons why we have seen an increase in diagnoses of a made up illness. Part of it might be bad parenting, another might be children being kept inside in front of the television (especially from an early age). The likes of Cbeebies might be great for harassed parents, but some children are just dumped in front of the TV all day from an early age, surely this cannot be very beneficial and physically stimulating. Many children now have all sorts of gadgets which they can sit in front of and not move anything except their eyes and hands; Wii's, play stations, etc. Has anyone looked at the impact upon the development of children's brains of so much of this type of visual stimulation?
Many children do not get much physical stimulation because of parents paranoia around children being hurt, and being abducted. Also our education system has been feminised, so boys are made to sit down and read and write, but not given much chance to run around and use up all that excess energy. I have two boys and a girl, and I know there is a massive difference between boys and girls. For years we have been told that boys and girls are just the same and it is society which says dictates how they turn out. But this is utter rubbish, boys are different to girls, they need to run around and climb trees and do the things that boys need to do.
In many of our schools there are no male teachers, or even any male members of staff. In my children's infant and junior school there is not one male member of staff; the teachers, teaching assistants, admin staff, cleaners, catering staff, even the person who comes into teach after school football is a woman. I believe this brings many problems and a total imbalance, likewise if there was a school which had all male members of staff there would be problems as well.
Just one other point on this, many of the women teaching are overweight and the thought of running around would be alien to them. Because they do not do any exercise they are unlikely to understand what it is like to have excess energy to burn off. This then means boys are left to sit around, and that is why many end up getting into trouble and being disruptive.
I believe this issue will have repercussions for our future, and I also believe that drugging children with massive quantities of drugs that effect the brain is totally wrong. It is about time someone took this issue seriously and decided to tackle rather than ignoring it.
ADHD and Disability Living Allowance (DLA), this is something which many hundred's of thousands of people claim every year. In some cases there might be a just reason for people to receive this allowance, but in many cases there is no justification for this payment.
Currently the government spends £192 billion every year on welfare; an astronomical sum that is beyond comprehension. £12 billion of this £192 billion is paid out in DLA. You could argue that those who claim DLA must need it, and wouldn't receive it if they did not deserve it. But this simply cannot be true, there cannot be that many people in this country who are in some way disabled and need this benefit.
One of the things you can claim for is a car through this scheme; currently 575,000 people receive a car and out of those, 3,200 families with someone with ADHD receive a car. The questions have to be asked; do they really need a car? And is there such a thing as ADHD? To both of these questions I am going to say NO!!!!!!!
Firstly I do not believe there is such a thing as ADHD; I do not care whether someone says their child is hyperactive and cannot sit still, cannot concentrate or gets in trouble at school. I will never believe in this excuse to drug children.
ADHD as an 'illness' was practically unheard of 20 years ago. Those claiming welfare for someone with ADHD has gone from 800 a decade ago to 99,000 today. In 1991 2,000 prescriptions for Ritalin - which suppresses the symptoms of this so called 'illness', today it is close to 350,000.
I cannot believe that, in this modern day we can dish out so many drugs that changes and stifles the brain. The majority of those who receive this drug are male and children.
We look back at the likes of Lord Shaftsbury who fought to stop child labour with awe and respect. We look back at the creation of the welfare state and applaud this wonderful institution. Successive governments have brought in legislation to protect children and vulnerable people. Many children are taken into care every year for their protection. Many public sector bodies run compulsory courses on child protection. Anyone who goes near children in the course of their work have to have a CRB check to make sure they have never been convicted of any crime to do with children. All schools, youth clubs, scout groups, etc have child protection policies, but every year we feed children drugs that we do not really know or understand what the long term impact will be upon them.
This seems almost tantamount to abuse. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a teacher who said she has a child with ADHD in her class. This boy, she said was very disruptive, but is now no longer disruptive because he is now receiving 'treatment', in the form of drugs. I asked her, did this not concern her? And she said no, she said she was now able to teach the rest of the class without any problems and he was a lot calmer. I was a little shocked by this answer, I said 'if anyone was drugged it would surely have an impact upon the individual, just because their symptoms seem to be better, it does not mean that it is solving the problem.'
There is no way of scientifically diagnosing ADHD, it is a tick box exercise. Has anyone looked into the long term impact of drugging hundreds of thousands of children? Does anyone truly understand the workings of the human brain? Why are the majority of those who are diagnosed with ADHD boys? Why have the numbers of children being diagnosed with ADHD increased so much in the last twenty years?
I believe there are many reasons why we have seen an increase in diagnoses of a made up illness. Part of it might be bad parenting, another might be children being kept inside in front of the television (especially from an early age). The likes of Cbeebies might be great for harassed parents, but some children are just dumped in front of the TV all day from an early age, surely this cannot be very beneficial and physically stimulating. Many children now have all sorts of gadgets which they can sit in front of and not move anything except their eyes and hands; Wii's, play stations, etc. Has anyone looked at the impact upon the development of children's brains of so much of this type of visual stimulation?
Many children do not get much physical stimulation because of parents paranoia around children being hurt, and being abducted. Also our education system has been feminised, so boys are made to sit down and read and write, but not given much chance to run around and use up all that excess energy. I have two boys and a girl, and I know there is a massive difference between boys and girls. For years we have been told that boys and girls are just the same and it is society which says dictates how they turn out. But this is utter rubbish, boys are different to girls, they need to run around and climb trees and do the things that boys need to do.
In many of our schools there are no male teachers, or even any male members of staff. In my children's infant and junior school there is not one male member of staff; the teachers, teaching assistants, admin staff, cleaners, catering staff, even the person who comes into teach after school football is a woman. I believe this brings many problems and a total imbalance, likewise if there was a school which had all male members of staff there would be problems as well.
Just one other point on this, many of the women teaching are overweight and the thought of running around would be alien to them. Because they do not do any exercise they are unlikely to understand what it is like to have excess energy to burn off. This then means boys are left to sit around, and that is why many end up getting into trouble and being disruptive.
I believe this issue will have repercussions for our future, and I also believe that drugging children with massive quantities of drugs that effect the brain is totally wrong. It is about time someone took this issue seriously and decided to tackle rather than ignoring it.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Mindless optimists or completely deranged?
In the middle of the biggest recession our country has known in years the Westfield Stratford City has opened its doors - 300 Shops, 70 restaurants, three hotels, a bowling alley, the countries biggest casino and 14 screen cinema.
Now call me cynical, but doesn't this seem somewhat naive, if not down right stupid. One of the reasons we got into this mess was because of people going out and buying things and building up massive debt. This was one of the top stories on the BBC news, they chimed about how wonderful this was; how it was creating lots of jobs, how it was bringing massive benefits to one of the most deprived areas of England and how it was going to bring many flocking when the Olympics arrived.
I am not going to deny that this has brought jobs, it has rejuvenated a very run down area of Britain and, of course when the Olympics does arrive many will shop there. I believe there will be a lot of economic benefits in the short term. But having watched what has happened over the last few years I cannot see this benefiting many in the long term.
If you think about it, this building is not generating anything except revenue for a few shops and a few wealthy people. The question has to be asked has there ever been any long term benefits to opening a new shopping centre? Some would argue that people spending will mean that this will get the economy going, but it would be interesting to find out how many of those who are spending are actually spending their own money or just building up more credit.
Surely what is more important for any economy is to create jobs that are going to bring long term benefits, and are going to be long term jobs. If you go back; forty, fifty, a hundred years you would generally find that if someone went into a certain job their children would follow them; mining for example.
I cannot see this happening today. When Margaret Thatcher decided to focus on service industries rather than manufacturing she destroyed a way of life. She shut many of the coal mines and factories that were the focus for that town or village, and with this she destroyed whole communities. Now I do not believe that everything she did was bad, (she needed to do something to get our economy going), but I believe she did not think about the long term impact upon many of the communties that saw mines and steel works disappear.
What we have now is a large soulless retail outlet that only generates income for those that work there, the owners of this shopping mall and the owners of the shop. Most of the money that is generated in this place will not bring any benefits to those that live locally, it will only create more debt.
I remember talking to a friend of mine who grew up in a Nottinghamshire mining village and she said; 'the one thing she remembers from that time was the sense of community.' She said if her parents were busy one of the families in the village would take her in for tea.' Do you think the same could be said about the area around that shopping mall? Do you think this temple to mammon will generate a sense of community? And do you think this place will bring lasting benefits?
What will happen after the Olympic is gone? What is going to happen over the next few years as the government's austerity measures start to kick in? Where is the money going to come from to keep this place running? You could try and sell the benefits, but I see little, except more debt. Would it not have made more sense to invest some money in the local high street, and encourage local businesses to open up? This would have meant that the money spent in the local community would have stayed within the local community. Much of what is spent in this place will just go into the pockets of shareholders and big business.
I have listened to this government talking about creating jobs, but they have done very little to prove that they really care about helping business grow. Three quarters of all businesses in this country are small to medium size, but every week, month and year more and more regulations are piled upon business which stifles it; much of it comes form the EU. I can blame the EU for a lot of things, but unfortunately for us our civil servants and bureaucrats are only too willing to add to the regulations that come out of Brussels. If you go to other countries around Europe you will probably find, if the regulation does not bring any benefit they will ignore it.
If this or any government wants to stimulate business they have to realise that when we talk about business and jobs we are actually talking about people. It is people who benefit from jobs and thriving businesses, people and business pay tax which then pays for our welfare state and our local services. Business is the foundation which helps the state function -I know; family, the church, marriage, community, etc are the foundation of a well rounded society. But without a strong economy with strong businesses we would not be able to function as a country.
As the recession starts to bite, and more jobs are lost. I only hope that those who run our country start to realise that what they are doing isn't helping, and start to think about the people they are supposed to be serving.
Now call me cynical, but doesn't this seem somewhat naive, if not down right stupid. One of the reasons we got into this mess was because of people going out and buying things and building up massive debt. This was one of the top stories on the BBC news, they chimed about how wonderful this was; how it was creating lots of jobs, how it was bringing massive benefits to one of the most deprived areas of England and how it was going to bring many flocking when the Olympics arrived.
I am not going to deny that this has brought jobs, it has rejuvenated a very run down area of Britain and, of course when the Olympics does arrive many will shop there. I believe there will be a lot of economic benefits in the short term. But having watched what has happened over the last few years I cannot see this benefiting many in the long term.
If you think about it, this building is not generating anything except revenue for a few shops and a few wealthy people. The question has to be asked has there ever been any long term benefits to opening a new shopping centre? Some would argue that people spending will mean that this will get the economy going, but it would be interesting to find out how many of those who are spending are actually spending their own money or just building up more credit.
Surely what is more important for any economy is to create jobs that are going to bring long term benefits, and are going to be long term jobs. If you go back; forty, fifty, a hundred years you would generally find that if someone went into a certain job their children would follow them; mining for example.
I cannot see this happening today. When Margaret Thatcher decided to focus on service industries rather than manufacturing she destroyed a way of life. She shut many of the coal mines and factories that were the focus for that town or village, and with this she destroyed whole communities. Now I do not believe that everything she did was bad, (she needed to do something to get our economy going), but I believe she did not think about the long term impact upon many of the communties that saw mines and steel works disappear.
What we have now is a large soulless retail outlet that only generates income for those that work there, the owners of this shopping mall and the owners of the shop. Most of the money that is generated in this place will not bring any benefits to those that live locally, it will only create more debt.
I remember talking to a friend of mine who grew up in a Nottinghamshire mining village and she said; 'the one thing she remembers from that time was the sense of community.' She said if her parents were busy one of the families in the village would take her in for tea.' Do you think the same could be said about the area around that shopping mall? Do you think this temple to mammon will generate a sense of community? And do you think this place will bring lasting benefits?
What will happen after the Olympic is gone? What is going to happen over the next few years as the government's austerity measures start to kick in? Where is the money going to come from to keep this place running? You could try and sell the benefits, but I see little, except more debt. Would it not have made more sense to invest some money in the local high street, and encourage local businesses to open up? This would have meant that the money spent in the local community would have stayed within the local community. Much of what is spent in this place will just go into the pockets of shareholders and big business.
I have listened to this government talking about creating jobs, but they have done very little to prove that they really care about helping business grow. Three quarters of all businesses in this country are small to medium size, but every week, month and year more and more regulations are piled upon business which stifles it; much of it comes form the EU. I can blame the EU for a lot of things, but unfortunately for us our civil servants and bureaucrats are only too willing to add to the regulations that come out of Brussels. If you go to other countries around Europe you will probably find, if the regulation does not bring any benefit they will ignore it.
If this or any government wants to stimulate business they have to realise that when we talk about business and jobs we are actually talking about people. It is people who benefit from jobs and thriving businesses, people and business pay tax which then pays for our welfare state and our local services. Business is the foundation which helps the state function -I know; family, the church, marriage, community, etc are the foundation of a well rounded society. But without a strong economy with strong businesses we would not be able to function as a country.
As the recession starts to bite, and more jobs are lost. I only hope that those who run our country start to realise that what they are doing isn't helping, and start to think about the people they are supposed to be serving.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
I am still here
I haven't been posting anything for a little while because I have been writing a paper on immigration. I will publish it here soon. Just to let you know that it is my definitive view on what should be done about this very important issue.
Just a few other thoughts; it looks like we are coming to the end of the farce which is the euro. Greece is now in a position in which she will have to leave the euro and default. The simple problem is those in charge of this idiotic project are holding on for dear life. The European Central Bank (ECB) is the only one buying Greek bonds, and this is how the Greeks are managing to stay afloat.
The Greeks will run out of money in October, and the ECB will continue to hand over money for a little while, but this just cannot continue. The Germans have finally realised this cannot continue and are no longer going to continue to bail this lot out. All we need now is for the Euro bureaucrats to finally admit that this whole euro project just cannot continue.
Whether they like it or not they will have no choice and the markets will decide for them. Soon it is going to happen, what is going to happen to the world's economy is anyone's guess, but what ever happens we are in for a bumpy ride.
David Cameron continues to stick to his principles; which basically means that he hasn't got any. He jumped into bed with the Liberals and has continued to allow them to dictate the direction of his party. He has reneged on most of his parties manifesto promises so he can stay in power.
He introduced the 'localism bill'; this bill was meant to hand more power to local councils and people. We have very quickly seen that this man has no integrity or principles, he is planning on making it easier for developers to concrete over what is left of this beautiful country. After saying he was going to give more power to local people and councils he is now going back on this promise. That, I am afraid sums this man up.
He has stated the reason for this decision is to try and stimulate the economy, but we know that is utter rubbish. If he really wanted to support our economy he wouldn't have handed a contract to build trains for a British railway contract to a German company, as he did with Siemens of Germany. This sums this unprincipled man up.
Going back to David Cameron's fight to deregulate the planning process and making it easier for developers to build houses. I wonder how many of the Conservatives backers are developers and builders, it would be interesting to find out.
Anyway there's just a few thoughts to keep you going.
Just a few other thoughts; it looks like we are coming to the end of the farce which is the euro. Greece is now in a position in which she will have to leave the euro and default. The simple problem is those in charge of this idiotic project are holding on for dear life. The European Central Bank (ECB) is the only one buying Greek bonds, and this is how the Greeks are managing to stay afloat.
The Greeks will run out of money in October, and the ECB will continue to hand over money for a little while, but this just cannot continue. The Germans have finally realised this cannot continue and are no longer going to continue to bail this lot out. All we need now is for the Euro bureaucrats to finally admit that this whole euro project just cannot continue.
Whether they like it or not they will have no choice and the markets will decide for them. Soon it is going to happen, what is going to happen to the world's economy is anyone's guess, but what ever happens we are in for a bumpy ride.
David Cameron continues to stick to his principles; which basically means that he hasn't got any. He jumped into bed with the Liberals and has continued to allow them to dictate the direction of his party. He has reneged on most of his parties manifesto promises so he can stay in power.
He introduced the 'localism bill'; this bill was meant to hand more power to local councils and people. We have very quickly seen that this man has no integrity or principles, he is planning on making it easier for developers to concrete over what is left of this beautiful country. After saying he was going to give more power to local people and councils he is now going back on this promise. That, I am afraid sums this man up.
He has stated the reason for this decision is to try and stimulate the economy, but we know that is utter rubbish. If he really wanted to support our economy he wouldn't have handed a contract to build trains for a British railway contract to a German company, as he did with Siemens of Germany. This sums this unprincipled man up.
Going back to David Cameron's fight to deregulate the planning process and making it easier for developers to build houses. I wonder how many of the Conservatives backers are developers and builders, it would be interesting to find out.
Anyway there's just a few thoughts to keep you going.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Clueless!!!
I have written a number of times about immigration, and you might wonder what else can be said about this issue. Well, even though I have explored this issue in depth, and explained why I am against the mass uncontrolled immigration that we have in this country I feel that I must write something else about this subject.
The reason, is because today I was thinking about the recent unemployment figures and net immigration and something obvious which I hadn't thought about before hit me (I will come to that in a little while).
So let us look at some facts (forgive me if I am repeating what I have written before, but I wanted to give some general background to what I am saying before I explain what I was thinking about today).
The government released figures last week which showed that net immigration into this country had increased over the last year from 198,000 to 239,000. Over the past year 400,000 jobs have been created; out of these 400,000 jobs three quarters went to foreigners. Now that seems bad enough, but when you then break these figures down even further you will find that the majority of those British people getting jobs in the last year are over 65 and can claim their pension.
The figure we should be looking at is the figure for those between 17 and 64; when you then look at that group and how many managed to get a job in the last year and how many foreigners took jobs you will find that 90 per cent of jobs went to immigrants. This means that nothing has really changed under the Con/Dems. Even though jobs are being created British people are not getting the jobs.
This is when it hit me, this simple thought. Because we have uncontrolled immigration (it doesn't matter what the government says they cannot control the influx of foreigners), it doesn't matter how many jobs are created, the simple fact is unemployment is not going to go down. This is because the tide of immigration is going to continue and employers have made it quite clear they would rather employ a foreign worker, so British workers (regardless of whether they are hard working and reliable) are always going to stand less of a chance than a foreigner. This then means that unemployment is never going to go down but continue upwards.
So it doesn't matter what our government does, they cannot control immigration, so unfortunately nothing is going to change. That sounds rather depressing, but that is the reality! It does not matter what the government does, it does not matter how many jobs they create or are created (I can't imagine the government are actually creating many jobs, as they seemed determined to destroy what manufacturing we have, and are continuing to stifle business with regulation), the simple fact is the majority will go to foreigners.
If you think that is an exaggeration, it isn't the facts speak for themselves, and to be honest I cannot see this changing. This seems so obvious, I can't for the life of me understand why this lot in charge can't see it. Then again I think they can, but I just think they either don't care or are more concerned with maintaining their so called status quo in which they can keep power and never upset their coalition partners. I have previously written about the liberals, and the more I read about them the more I realise that they truly are living in a world of their own.
So what can be done about this situation? Well, again I have written about that before and until something radical is done; and the tide of immigration is halted and reversed, the benefit system is totally overhauled, and those who do not want to work are given no option except starve or work, nothing will change.
So there you have it, I don't suppose anything will change, and I have now said it twice before and I am going to say it again. Until there is a total sea change in politics and people start to realise that the three main parties are not really going to change anything, nothing is going to change. So, if you want change please don't look to these clueless bunch of numb skulls and hope that something is going to happen, it isn't and that is why I believe we need to look at a totally different party.
The reason, is because today I was thinking about the recent unemployment figures and net immigration and something obvious which I hadn't thought about before hit me (I will come to that in a little while).
So let us look at some facts (forgive me if I am repeating what I have written before, but I wanted to give some general background to what I am saying before I explain what I was thinking about today).
The government released figures last week which showed that net immigration into this country had increased over the last year from 198,000 to 239,000. Over the past year 400,000 jobs have been created; out of these 400,000 jobs three quarters went to foreigners. Now that seems bad enough, but when you then break these figures down even further you will find that the majority of those British people getting jobs in the last year are over 65 and can claim their pension.
The figure we should be looking at is the figure for those between 17 and 64; when you then look at that group and how many managed to get a job in the last year and how many foreigners took jobs you will find that 90 per cent of jobs went to immigrants. This means that nothing has really changed under the Con/Dems. Even though jobs are being created British people are not getting the jobs.
This is when it hit me, this simple thought. Because we have uncontrolled immigration (it doesn't matter what the government says they cannot control the influx of foreigners), it doesn't matter how many jobs are created, the simple fact is unemployment is not going to go down. This is because the tide of immigration is going to continue and employers have made it quite clear they would rather employ a foreign worker, so British workers (regardless of whether they are hard working and reliable) are always going to stand less of a chance than a foreigner. This then means that unemployment is never going to go down but continue upwards.
So it doesn't matter what our government does, they cannot control immigration, so unfortunately nothing is going to change. That sounds rather depressing, but that is the reality! It does not matter what the government does, it does not matter how many jobs they create or are created (I can't imagine the government are actually creating many jobs, as they seemed determined to destroy what manufacturing we have, and are continuing to stifle business with regulation), the simple fact is the majority will go to foreigners.
If you think that is an exaggeration, it isn't the facts speak for themselves, and to be honest I cannot see this changing. This seems so obvious, I can't for the life of me understand why this lot in charge can't see it. Then again I think they can, but I just think they either don't care or are more concerned with maintaining their so called status quo in which they can keep power and never upset their coalition partners. I have previously written about the liberals, and the more I read about them the more I realise that they truly are living in a world of their own.
So what can be done about this situation? Well, again I have written about that before and until something radical is done; and the tide of immigration is halted and reversed, the benefit system is totally overhauled, and those who do not want to work are given no option except starve or work, nothing will change.
So there you have it, I don't suppose anything will change, and I have now said it twice before and I am going to say it again. Until there is a total sea change in politics and people start to realise that the three main parties are not really going to change anything, nothing is going to change. So, if you want change please don't look to these clueless bunch of numb skulls and hope that something is going to happen, it isn't and that is why I believe we need to look at a totally different party.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Lemmings/Eurofanatics
One of the things I have come to realise over the years is that so many of our leaders do not have a clue about the reality for so many people. Whether it be business, banking or democracy. They are either; too stupid, too ignorant, too arrogant, naive or they just don't care, I think it is a mix of all these.
Now I know my posting are usually negative and if you read them you might think the world is a dreadful place, but I generally don't think this. I suppose I feel very frustrated by the decisions made by a very small group of people and how so many of these idiotic, ill thought out; laws, regulations and diktats massively affect us and our lives.
I also believe that the reasons for many of the changes in our laws and the rules that are forced on us are done for more sinister reasons. I have mentioned before The Lisbon Treaty; this treaty is massive and incredibly destructive, it removes the ability of nations to make their own decisions and basically destroys democracy. This treaty was drafted by Eurocrats, and its author, former President of France Giscard d'Estaing openly admits that it was written so it would be incomprehensible.
What concerns me most about all of this is that the majority of the population are ignorant of what is going on, and this has been a deliberate ploy by the politicians and the broadcasting media. I wrote about the BBC before and one of the things you will notice if you have ever watched it is, they very rarely, if ever criticise the EU.
Over the years the EU has grabbed more and more power. If the people of a certain country were given the opportunity to have a vote on a treaty and they rejected it they were made to vote again. The eurofanatics have driven on relentlessly in their euro dream of complete political union, and they are determined that nothing or no-one will get in their way.
This determination to take all power and to take total control is now starting to bring disaster to many countries. The euro was never going to work, as any semi competent economist will tell you there has never been a successful currency unless it is underpinned by fiscal and political union. The European Central Bank is currently buying 'bad debt'; they are buying Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish bonds because no-one else will buy them. They have done this to try and save their economies but it isn't going to work, the ECB has only a limited amount of money and cannot continue to spend billions every week on this bad debt. On top of this Europe's banks are under immense pressure and the ECB is expected to help them as well. This just cannot continue; regardless of whether you are the most ardent eurofanatic, the ECB and the countries of Europe just do not have the money.
Unfortunately for us this lot in charge do not care, they only care about one thing, and that is continued integration and the continued dream of complete political union. Well, whether they like it or not the simple fact is the euro dream isn't going to happen, it eventually is going to collapse, and I believe it is going to happen very soon.
Yesterday it emerged that Angela Merkal's coalition was in crises as she no longer had enough votes to secure backing to her and Sarkozy's Eurozone 'rescue' plan. Merkel's Bavarian sister party the CSU have rebutted the Franco-German plans and said that EMU countries in crisis should be allowed to default.
So the country that holds the power and money has basically had enough, this means the euro as it stands cannot continue. I have to be honest I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand I am happy about the euro collapsing as this may start to bring an end to the insanity of the euro fantics dream, but on the other hand it will bring misery to many millions and millions of people.
I hope that what is happening in Europe will eventually give David Cameron a reality check, but I think it unlikely. He is in partnership with the complete eurofanatics, and if you read my previous post you will see what I think of them.
Let me highlight the idiocy of the eurofanatics, and the EU. The EU has brought out a regulation that will force about 1800 petrol stations to change their petrol pumps. The reason for this regulation is to stop these pumps releasing tiny amounts of chemicals into the atmosphere. Instead of ignoring this EU diktat (which any other country in the EU would do) our supine leaders will just enforce this regulation regardless.
This to me shows that those in charge really do not have a clue. As our economy continues to see no growth our politicians and civil servants continue to hamper business with more and more regulations which heap more and more cost onto many businesses, thus hampering growth.
The recent example of the government handing a multi-billion pound contract to build railway carriages for the Thameslink project to a German company highlights the complete idiocy of those in charge. I don't think anything will make these people change, I suppose the only thing that could make them change is if something happened to affect them personally. But until they are going to lose their jobs or houses nothing will make them change, and this is because they are totally insulated from the reality of everyday life. My only hope is that we start to see the people of this country wake up and elect a party that really cares about the people it is supposed to represent.
Now I know my posting are usually negative and if you read them you might think the world is a dreadful place, but I generally don't think this. I suppose I feel very frustrated by the decisions made by a very small group of people and how so many of these idiotic, ill thought out; laws, regulations and diktats massively affect us and our lives.
I also believe that the reasons for many of the changes in our laws and the rules that are forced on us are done for more sinister reasons. I have mentioned before The Lisbon Treaty; this treaty is massive and incredibly destructive, it removes the ability of nations to make their own decisions and basically destroys democracy. This treaty was drafted by Eurocrats, and its author, former President of France Giscard d'Estaing openly admits that it was written so it would be incomprehensible.
What concerns me most about all of this is that the majority of the population are ignorant of what is going on, and this has been a deliberate ploy by the politicians and the broadcasting media. I wrote about the BBC before and one of the things you will notice if you have ever watched it is, they very rarely, if ever criticise the EU.
Over the years the EU has grabbed more and more power. If the people of a certain country were given the opportunity to have a vote on a treaty and they rejected it they were made to vote again. The eurofanatics have driven on relentlessly in their euro dream of complete political union, and they are determined that nothing or no-one will get in their way.
This determination to take all power and to take total control is now starting to bring disaster to many countries. The euro was never going to work, as any semi competent economist will tell you there has never been a successful currency unless it is underpinned by fiscal and political union. The European Central Bank is currently buying 'bad debt'; they are buying Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish bonds because no-one else will buy them. They have done this to try and save their economies but it isn't going to work, the ECB has only a limited amount of money and cannot continue to spend billions every week on this bad debt. On top of this Europe's banks are under immense pressure and the ECB is expected to help them as well. This just cannot continue; regardless of whether you are the most ardent eurofanatic, the ECB and the countries of Europe just do not have the money.
Unfortunately for us this lot in charge do not care, they only care about one thing, and that is continued integration and the continued dream of complete political union. Well, whether they like it or not the simple fact is the euro dream isn't going to happen, it eventually is going to collapse, and I believe it is going to happen very soon.
Yesterday it emerged that Angela Merkal's coalition was in crises as she no longer had enough votes to secure backing to her and Sarkozy's Eurozone 'rescue' plan. Merkel's Bavarian sister party the CSU have rebutted the Franco-German plans and said that EMU countries in crisis should be allowed to default.
So the country that holds the power and money has basically had enough, this means the euro as it stands cannot continue. I have to be honest I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand I am happy about the euro collapsing as this may start to bring an end to the insanity of the euro fantics dream, but on the other hand it will bring misery to many millions and millions of people.
I hope that what is happening in Europe will eventually give David Cameron a reality check, but I think it unlikely. He is in partnership with the complete eurofanatics, and if you read my previous post you will see what I think of them.
Let me highlight the idiocy of the eurofanatics, and the EU. The EU has brought out a regulation that will force about 1800 petrol stations to change their petrol pumps. The reason for this regulation is to stop these pumps releasing tiny amounts of chemicals into the atmosphere. Instead of ignoring this EU diktat (which any other country in the EU would do) our supine leaders will just enforce this regulation regardless.
This to me shows that those in charge really do not have a clue. As our economy continues to see no growth our politicians and civil servants continue to hamper business with more and more regulations which heap more and more cost onto many businesses, thus hampering growth.
The recent example of the government handing a multi-billion pound contract to build railway carriages for the Thameslink project to a German company highlights the complete idiocy of those in charge. I don't think anything will make these people change, I suppose the only thing that could make them change is if something happened to affect them personally. But until they are going to lose their jobs or houses nothing will make them change, and this is because they are totally insulated from the reality of everyday life. My only hope is that we start to see the people of this country wake up and elect a party that really cares about the people it is supposed to represent.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Incompetent idiots
I have written a number of times about this issue, I have stated facts and figures, I have stated why I am against it and still it continues. And that is mass uncontrolled immigration!
If you are a regular reader of this blog you might ask yourself, what else can be said? I have written many times about this issue and why I am totally against mass immigration. If you want to know what I think and what I believe should be done about it please look back at my previous postings.
The government announced yesterday that net immigration has increased into this country in the last year, up from 198,000 to 239,000. This is after they stated they were going to reduce it to the 'tens of thousands from the hundreds of thousands.' We can now see that there is nothing they can do about this issue, without taking some radical steps. This isn't going to happen, even if David Cameron had the balls to do something about it, he can't because he is in a coalition with immigration loving liberals.
I have always wondered what world the liberals live in. And I have come to the conclusion that it is a complete fantasy land were everything is; rosy, nice, pink, lovely, squidgy, beautiful, soft, gentle; basically a land were normality does not exist.
If the liberals were in power and had their way they would allow complete uncontrolled immigration (we do have a little bit of control at the moment, not much mind you). They have stated that they would allow anyone who wants to come into this country to do so. How they would stop the more crowded parts of this country becoming even more crowded is to encourage them to go and live in the least crowded parts, like the north of Scotland.
If you think I am making this up, I am not! They stated this quite openly in the run up to last years general election. So let us look at the massive flaws in this ridiculously ill thought out and bone headed policy. Firstly, we cannot force anyone to move anywhere they don't want to, so you can encourage them as much as you want but if they don't want to move you can't make them. Secondly, people go where the work is, there are reasons why the north of Scotland is sparsely populated, it is because there is no work and nothing to do. Thirdly, there are currently 2.5 million people unemployed, why do we need more people coming into this country to do work that isn't there?
On this point of work, government figures have shown that 98 per cent of jobs created under Labour went to foreigners, this government have continued this tradition and two thirds of jobs created in the past year have gone to foreigners. The government have stated that they have created 400,00 new jobs in the past year; that may be true but as you can see the majority have gone to foreigners. That is why unemployment is not going down!
The reason I titled this post incompetent idiots, is because I simply believe that the people running this country are that. We have men and women sitting doing jobs that they have no qualification to do, or if they have the relevant qualification they have no experience in doing the job, but somehow end up in charge and running a government department and making decisions that effect millions of people.
Just because someone has a qualification in something doesn't necessarily mean they will be any good at it. I am a fireman and I have worked with someone who had the right qualifications, they completed the right courses and then they were put in charge of a fire station and firemen. And you know what, they were completely useless, they were so bad, firemen refused to work under him; he eventually had to be moved into an office job.
There are other examples I could use, and this is my point. Many are given the opportunity to prove themselves as able politicians but are simply not suited to do it. Gordon Brown went to university and achieved a good level of education, but made an almighty mess of this countries finances. And the same could be said of many, many politicians, they try new initiatives, they make grandiose promises, but when it comes to the crunch many, many times they make a complete mess and fail. So maybe this shows that many in charge should not be, and are just not competent to be in charge.
If you wanted a new central heating system put in your house, who would you call? A plumber of course, you call the right man for the job. But many of our politicians end up doing work they are just not suited to be doing.
And this brings me back to the issue of immigration. David Cameron and his colleagues are insisting they are doing something about this issue, but the facts speak for themselves and show they are not, they are in fact getting worse. David Cameron cannot control immigration and is lying to us over this issue, he is insisting that things are going to change, but they won't. So, as far as I can see he is not able to do the job he was elected to do, he has promised many things, and has failed to follow through on those promises (by the way he has just broken another promise to shut down all social media sites during riots; he can't do this because of the human rights act). So he has shown, like his predecessor that he is unable to do the job, so surely he should be sacked.
If you employed a builder to build you a house and he kept promising that he would build it by a certain date, but never followed through with what he said, would you employ him? And this is the problem, many politicians promise much but deliver little, most of the time I think it is down to sheer incompetence. Is it not about time we started to look at a different party, maybe if people took a bit more interest in politics they would look at a totally different political party. As far as I can see the three main parties have had their way for so long and have only made a complete mess, surely it is about time we had change, I am sure someone else couldn't do any worse.
If you are a regular reader of this blog you might ask yourself, what else can be said? I have written many times about this issue and why I am totally against mass immigration. If you want to know what I think and what I believe should be done about it please look back at my previous postings.
The government announced yesterday that net immigration has increased into this country in the last year, up from 198,000 to 239,000. This is after they stated they were going to reduce it to the 'tens of thousands from the hundreds of thousands.' We can now see that there is nothing they can do about this issue, without taking some radical steps. This isn't going to happen, even if David Cameron had the balls to do something about it, he can't because he is in a coalition with immigration loving liberals.
I have always wondered what world the liberals live in. And I have come to the conclusion that it is a complete fantasy land were everything is; rosy, nice, pink, lovely, squidgy, beautiful, soft, gentle; basically a land were normality does not exist.
If the liberals were in power and had their way they would allow complete uncontrolled immigration (we do have a little bit of control at the moment, not much mind you). They have stated that they would allow anyone who wants to come into this country to do so. How they would stop the more crowded parts of this country becoming even more crowded is to encourage them to go and live in the least crowded parts, like the north of Scotland.
If you think I am making this up, I am not! They stated this quite openly in the run up to last years general election. So let us look at the massive flaws in this ridiculously ill thought out and bone headed policy. Firstly, we cannot force anyone to move anywhere they don't want to, so you can encourage them as much as you want but if they don't want to move you can't make them. Secondly, people go where the work is, there are reasons why the north of Scotland is sparsely populated, it is because there is no work and nothing to do. Thirdly, there are currently 2.5 million people unemployed, why do we need more people coming into this country to do work that isn't there?
On this point of work, government figures have shown that 98 per cent of jobs created under Labour went to foreigners, this government have continued this tradition and two thirds of jobs created in the past year have gone to foreigners. The government have stated that they have created 400,00 new jobs in the past year; that may be true but as you can see the majority have gone to foreigners. That is why unemployment is not going down!
The reason I titled this post incompetent idiots, is because I simply believe that the people running this country are that. We have men and women sitting doing jobs that they have no qualification to do, or if they have the relevant qualification they have no experience in doing the job, but somehow end up in charge and running a government department and making decisions that effect millions of people.
Just because someone has a qualification in something doesn't necessarily mean they will be any good at it. I am a fireman and I have worked with someone who had the right qualifications, they completed the right courses and then they were put in charge of a fire station and firemen. And you know what, they were completely useless, they were so bad, firemen refused to work under him; he eventually had to be moved into an office job.
There are other examples I could use, and this is my point. Many are given the opportunity to prove themselves as able politicians but are simply not suited to do it. Gordon Brown went to university and achieved a good level of education, but made an almighty mess of this countries finances. And the same could be said of many, many politicians, they try new initiatives, they make grandiose promises, but when it comes to the crunch many, many times they make a complete mess and fail. So maybe this shows that many in charge should not be, and are just not competent to be in charge.
If you wanted a new central heating system put in your house, who would you call? A plumber of course, you call the right man for the job. But many of our politicians end up doing work they are just not suited to be doing.
And this brings me back to the issue of immigration. David Cameron and his colleagues are insisting they are doing something about this issue, but the facts speak for themselves and show they are not, they are in fact getting worse. David Cameron cannot control immigration and is lying to us over this issue, he is insisting that things are going to change, but they won't. So, as far as I can see he is not able to do the job he was elected to do, he has promised many things, and has failed to follow through on those promises (by the way he has just broken another promise to shut down all social media sites during riots; he can't do this because of the human rights act). So he has shown, like his predecessor that he is unable to do the job, so surely he should be sacked.
If you employed a builder to build you a house and he kept promising that he would build it by a certain date, but never followed through with what he said, would you employ him? And this is the problem, many politicians promise much but deliver little, most of the time I think it is down to sheer incompetence. Is it not about time we started to look at a different party, maybe if people took a bit more interest in politics they would look at a totally different political party. As far as I can see the three main parties have had their way for so long and have only made a complete mess, surely it is about time we had change, I am sure someone else couldn't do any worse.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
David Cameron and broken promises
I just wanted to add to my list of David Cameron's broken promises, and particularly what he said when he promised the British people a referendum on the Lisbon treaty/EU Constitution. So here it is, this is what he said on 26 September 2007 in The Sun newspaper. He picked The Sun deliberately because he knew it had the most readers of any paper and would have the most influence over the outcome of an election.
'I’ve got a couple of simple questions for Gordon Brown.What makes you think you can break your promises to the British people? And what makes you think you can change the way our country is governed without asking the British people first? There’s a simple answer to both questions: Arrogance. And when it comes to Europe, arrogance is what we’ve seen from Labour time and time again. It’s the arrogance that says: “We, the powerful elites, know best.”It’s the arrogance that puts more and more decisions in the hands of bureaucrats that no one’s ever heard of and no one can ever get rid of if they do a bad job. And it’s the arrogance that Gordon Brown displays when he says we don’t need a referendum on the European constitution.
Labour’s last Election manifesto could not have been clearer on the EU constitution. It said: “We will put it to the British people in a referendum, and campaign wholeheartedly for a Yes vote.”And just two months ago, Gordon Brown said: “The manifesto is what we put to the public. We’ve got to honour that manifesto.“That is an issue of trust with me and the electorate.”Now he’s done a massive EU-turn.
I think this kind of shameless arrogance is the big cancer eating away at trust in politics. Who can be surprised that people have less faith in politicians if they break their promises so casually? Why should anyone bother to vote if the real decisions that affect our lives are made somewhere else? This is the 21st Century. People are demanding? and getting? more and more control over their lives. Many decisions that once used to be made by the “powers that be” are now in your hands? And that’s a great thing.
These days, no one should have to take what they’re given any more. That’s why I believe so strongly that we should have a referendum on the European constitution. Because it would transfer power from our elected Parliament to the EU’s unelected bureaucrats, I would campaign for a resounding NO vote. And because it includes the power to transfer even more power from Westminster to Brussels, without even the need for a new treaty, this could be our last chance to stop the EU juggernaut. Gordon Brown should be in no doubt: If he’s got the courage to hold an early election, as he should, our referendum pledge will be right there in our manifesto, giving the British people a clear choice.
But we shouldn’t have to wait for a General Election to get the referendum we need. Today we are launching a new campaign, “Don’t Let Brown Let EU Down” to keep the pressure up. Labour MPs in Parliament today were elected on a manifesto promise that their Government would hold a referendum on the European constitution. So let’s hold them to it. By going to our website, conservatives.com Sun readers can see if their local MP is Labour, then send them a letter asking them to tell Gordon Brown to keep Labour’s manifesto promise.
When Parliament returns in the autumn, we will hold a vote demanding the Government gives Britain a referendum on the European constitution. Sun readers will then be able to judge whether Labour MPs and Gordon Brown can be trusted. When he took over as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown told us he would be “humble” and that he would listen to the people. Well, if he breaks his referendum promise now, everyone will know that was just the same old spin from a Labour Party that hasn’t changed.'
Well there you have it, I think we can pretty much say that David Cameron is just the same as Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, if you needed proof there it is, in black and white.
'I’ve got a couple of simple questions for Gordon Brown.What makes you think you can break your promises to the British people? And what makes you think you can change the way our country is governed without asking the British people first? There’s a simple answer to both questions: Arrogance. And when it comes to Europe, arrogance is what we’ve seen from Labour time and time again. It’s the arrogance that says: “We, the powerful elites, know best.”It’s the arrogance that puts more and more decisions in the hands of bureaucrats that no one’s ever heard of and no one can ever get rid of if they do a bad job. And it’s the arrogance that Gordon Brown displays when he says we don’t need a referendum on the European constitution.
Labour’s last Election manifesto could not have been clearer on the EU constitution. It said: “We will put it to the British people in a referendum, and campaign wholeheartedly for a Yes vote.”And just two months ago, Gordon Brown said: “The manifesto is what we put to the public. We’ve got to honour that manifesto.“That is an issue of trust with me and the electorate.”Now he’s done a massive EU-turn.
I think this kind of shameless arrogance is the big cancer eating away at trust in politics. Who can be surprised that people have less faith in politicians if they break their promises so casually? Why should anyone bother to vote if the real decisions that affect our lives are made somewhere else? This is the 21st Century. People are demanding? and getting? more and more control over their lives. Many decisions that once used to be made by the “powers that be” are now in your hands? And that’s a great thing.
These days, no one should have to take what they’re given any more. That’s why I believe so strongly that we should have a referendum on the European constitution. Because it would transfer power from our elected Parliament to the EU’s unelected bureaucrats, I would campaign for a resounding NO vote. And because it includes the power to transfer even more power from Westminster to Brussels, without even the need for a new treaty, this could be our last chance to stop the EU juggernaut. Gordon Brown should be in no doubt: If he’s got the courage to hold an early election, as he should, our referendum pledge will be right there in our manifesto, giving the British people a clear choice.
But we shouldn’t have to wait for a General Election to get the referendum we need. Today we are launching a new campaign, “Don’t Let Brown Let EU Down” to keep the pressure up. Labour MPs in Parliament today were elected on a manifesto promise that their Government would hold a referendum on the European constitution. So let’s hold them to it. By going to our website, conservatives.com Sun readers can see if their local MP is Labour, then send them a letter asking them to tell Gordon Brown to keep Labour’s manifesto promise.
When Parliament returns in the autumn, we will hold a vote demanding the Government gives Britain a referendum on the European constitution. Sun readers will then be able to judge whether Labour MPs and Gordon Brown can be trusted. When he took over as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown told us he would be “humble” and that he would listen to the people. Well, if he breaks his referendum promise now, everyone will know that was just the same old spin from a Labour Party that hasn’t changed.'
Well there you have it, I think we can pretty much say that David Cameron is just the same as Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, if you needed proof there it is, in black and white.
The BBC and left wing, politically correct bias.
One thing I and many people have noticed is how left wing and politically correct the BBC is. This was highlighted by a recent event that many in this country were rejoicing about; England thrashed the Indians at cricket to become the number one side in the world. You might think this rather unimportant, but many people love this sport (myself included) and think this is something that should be celebrated.
Not the BBC of course, in its sports coverage the BBC didn't show any of this series and only gave about a minute to it on its news bulletins. Newsnight (the BBC's flagship news programme) gave a lot more time to this event, and what was Newsnight's response to this great success? Did they highlight the fact that only ten years ago England were the laughing stock of world cricket, languishing at the bottom of the world rankings? Did they look at how England have restructured its whole set up to bring us to this pinnacle of excellence? Did it celebrate a magnificent four nil thrashing of the number one cricket team in the world? Of course not!
Newsnight gave a substantial amount of airtime over to asking why there were no Asians in the team. There then followed film footage from Birmingham and the studio with comments bordering on racism. We heard Asians blaming class discrimination, lack of facilities, bigotry by cricket clubs and the fact that the England cricket team was packed with ex-public school boys (many like Tim Bresnan and Matt Prior did not attend public school).
Maybe the simple fact is that many are not good enough, or many do not feel English and wouldn't want to play for England anyway. What I do find strange is that one of England's captains (Nasser Hussien) was born in India, maybe they should have highlighted that FACT! Rather than focusing on something which is someones politically correct, left wing, liberal opinion.
Unfortunately this does not surprise me; I have watched many programmes and news bulletins and witnessed a bias in favour of left wing dogma, even when talking about so called factual subjects. I have watched a news report by the BBC, and later watched the same story on ITN or Sky and seen that it has been reported differently with no left wing bias.
I used to watch Question Time on a regular basis, but got so fed up with the left wing bias I very seldom watch it. I am amazed that the BBC, which is supposed to be an unbiased, neutral organisation gets away with this, but I am not surprised. One of the problems we have with the BBC, politicians, all public sector bodies is that they are 'institutionally left wing'.
A number of years ago Lord Macpherson looked into the case of the mishandling of the Stephen Lawrence murder case. A black boy was murdered in London by 5 white men, and for whatever reason, probably incompetence more than anything they walked free from court. The government commissioned an inquiry into this appalling miscarriage of justice and Lord Macpherson who chaired it came up with the conclusion that the Metropolitan Police was 'institutionally racist'.
Likewise if a commission looked into the behaviour of the BBC, they would come to the conclusion that this publicly funded body is so biased towards a left wing point of view that the majority of their output could be called left wing propaganda. I believe this to be a problem for this simple reason that the BBC holds massive sway over public opinion and has a responsibility in its news broadcasting to inform the general public of facts not opinion. The left wing politically correct agenda of the BBC is most obvious when reporting on; Israel, immigration, climate change, education, the EU, the recent riots; basically anything!
Now I do not have a problem with the BBC airing programmes in which they let people air their opinions, this is what the BBC is for. But what I do have a problem is when anyone who appears on a current affairs programme; Question time or Newsnight for instance and states a point of view that does not go along with the politically correct, left wing consensus is harangued and verbally abused. I have watched many times as someone states a perfectly reasonable point of view which is right of centre, and the reaction from those watching is complete shock.
The problem with the BBC promoting this left wing, politically correct agenda is that so many people who hold a point of view that is different to this believe that their viewpoints are in the minority and somehow extreme. I have sat and spoken to people about the issue of immigration and their concerns and they have started to automatically speak in a whisper, as if what they are saying is wrong, dangerous and subversive and if they were overheard they could end up in prison, or at the very least sacked from their job for holding such a point of view.
The BBC has a responsibility to bring balance but unfortunately they do not, and this is the problem. Many who work for this organisation only work and talk to those who hold their point of view and anyone who holds a different view point are seen as wrong, so they will always be seen as extreme, so will very rarely be given the opportunity to bring balance. This is why the BBC should be reformed, but unfortunately this left wing balance runs through government so it is unlikely to change.
Not the BBC of course, in its sports coverage the BBC didn't show any of this series and only gave about a minute to it on its news bulletins. Newsnight (the BBC's flagship news programme) gave a lot more time to this event, and what was Newsnight's response to this great success? Did they highlight the fact that only ten years ago England were the laughing stock of world cricket, languishing at the bottom of the world rankings? Did they look at how England have restructured its whole set up to bring us to this pinnacle of excellence? Did it celebrate a magnificent four nil thrashing of the number one cricket team in the world? Of course not!
Newsnight gave a substantial amount of airtime over to asking why there were no Asians in the team. There then followed film footage from Birmingham and the studio with comments bordering on racism. We heard Asians blaming class discrimination, lack of facilities, bigotry by cricket clubs and the fact that the England cricket team was packed with ex-public school boys (many like Tim Bresnan and Matt Prior did not attend public school).
Maybe the simple fact is that many are not good enough, or many do not feel English and wouldn't want to play for England anyway. What I do find strange is that one of England's captains (Nasser Hussien) was born in India, maybe they should have highlighted that FACT! Rather than focusing on something which is someones politically correct, left wing, liberal opinion.
Unfortunately this does not surprise me; I have watched many programmes and news bulletins and witnessed a bias in favour of left wing dogma, even when talking about so called factual subjects. I have watched a news report by the BBC, and later watched the same story on ITN or Sky and seen that it has been reported differently with no left wing bias.
I used to watch Question Time on a regular basis, but got so fed up with the left wing bias I very seldom watch it. I am amazed that the BBC, which is supposed to be an unbiased, neutral organisation gets away with this, but I am not surprised. One of the problems we have with the BBC, politicians, all public sector bodies is that they are 'institutionally left wing'.
A number of years ago Lord Macpherson looked into the case of the mishandling of the Stephen Lawrence murder case. A black boy was murdered in London by 5 white men, and for whatever reason, probably incompetence more than anything they walked free from court. The government commissioned an inquiry into this appalling miscarriage of justice and Lord Macpherson who chaired it came up with the conclusion that the Metropolitan Police was 'institutionally racist'.
Likewise if a commission looked into the behaviour of the BBC, they would come to the conclusion that this publicly funded body is so biased towards a left wing point of view that the majority of their output could be called left wing propaganda. I believe this to be a problem for this simple reason that the BBC holds massive sway over public opinion and has a responsibility in its news broadcasting to inform the general public of facts not opinion. The left wing politically correct agenda of the BBC is most obvious when reporting on; Israel, immigration, climate change, education, the EU, the recent riots; basically anything!
Now I do not have a problem with the BBC airing programmes in which they let people air their opinions, this is what the BBC is for. But what I do have a problem is when anyone who appears on a current affairs programme; Question time or Newsnight for instance and states a point of view that does not go along with the politically correct, left wing consensus is harangued and verbally abused. I have watched many times as someone states a perfectly reasonable point of view which is right of centre, and the reaction from those watching is complete shock.
The problem with the BBC promoting this left wing, politically correct agenda is that so many people who hold a point of view that is different to this believe that their viewpoints are in the minority and somehow extreme. I have sat and spoken to people about the issue of immigration and their concerns and they have started to automatically speak in a whisper, as if what they are saying is wrong, dangerous and subversive and if they were overheard they could end up in prison, or at the very least sacked from their job for holding such a point of view.
The BBC has a responsibility to bring balance but unfortunately they do not, and this is the problem. Many who work for this organisation only work and talk to those who hold their point of view and anyone who holds a different view point are seen as wrong, so they will always be seen as extreme, so will very rarely be given the opportunity to bring balance. This is why the BBC should be reformed, but unfortunately this left wing balance runs through government so it is unlikely to change.
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Unemployment and excuses
The government has released the latest unemployment figures and these have shown that there has been a rise of 38,000, and it doesn't look like there is going to be a fall in the near future. There are a number of reasons for this increase, and I think the main one is the simple fact that we are in a recession.
The government, Labour and many other people are stating the reason for this are many reasons, but one thing isn't being debated is the effect immigration is having upon our economy and unemployment figures.
I truly believe we are sitting on the edge of a precipice of immense proportions, and if something isn't done about it and done soon these riots that have occurred are going to look like a picnic in comparison to what could happen. What do I mean? Well let's look at some facts, under Labour we had massive economic growth and many jobs were created, mostly in the public sector, but 98 per cent of all jobs created went to immigrants. There were three main reasons for this, those coming from abroad would work for less so employers would employ them on this simple basis. Two, the government increased benefits so much many were better off if they didn't work. And three, many of those on benefits became lazy and didn't have any work ethic.
The number of immigrant workers has reached a record high of 4.1million according to figures from the Office of National Statistics. In the last year 100,000 British people have lost their jobs, but nearly 300,000 foreigners have found work. This is a horrendous statistic and is just not being addressed.
It is feared that unemployment is going to rise by a further 150,000 over the next year. A report by the British Chamber of Commerce released yesterday stated that many school leavers and graduates are unemployable and warned 'In general, younger people lack numerical skills, research skill, ability to focus and read, plus written English.'
Nearly half of 2000 small firms being polled by the BCC said they would be 'fairly or very nervous' about hiring someone who had just finished their A-levels. I think this is appalling, this year for the 29th year in a row has seen an improvement in A-level results, this should raise alarm bells. Only a few years ago if someone went to college, worked hard and managed to get themselves 3 A-levels they were deemed intelligent and very employable, that doesn't seem to be the case today.
There are two issues here; one is the fact that we are continuing to see a rise in unemployment among British people and an increase in employment amongst foreigners. And secondly many people in this country are unemployable.
The simple fact is there is nothing we can do about about employers employing foreigners, as long as we are part of the EU; I have spoken about this before, and until we leave nothing will change. The issue of unemployable British people can be addressed; currently we have a situation in which many have no need to work, this needs to change. Employers argue, and rightly so that they should be able to employ whoever they want, and if the British worker is not capable or willing to do the work they should be able to employ a foreigner. And I agree, if I was running a business I would employ the best person for the job. But this does not solve the fundamental problem of unemployment and unemployable British people.
So what is the solution? As I have stated above there are many who do not need to work so don't, there needs to be a fundamental change in how these people look at life. Many think the world owes them a living, and do not feel they need to take any responsibility for their own life or their families. They pay no rent, pay no bills, pay nothing for their food, they get it all for free off the tax payer. And this is the problem, they take no responsibility and don't need too, well I have a simple solution, if someone does not take a job that is offered to them and has no genuine reason for not doing that job take all their benefits away from them, and their council house, they either starve or work. You might think that sounds harsh but I believe this is the only way someone will work.
The issue of school/college leavers not having the basic skills in reading, writing and maths is a travesty and an outrage, and successive governments, particularly the previous one has to be held to account for this. The government and education system has failed hundreds of thousands of young people, and this needs to be addressed, but until there is a fundamental rethink and change in how we educate our young people nothing will change. The reason I think things are unlikely to change is, I was listening to a debate about the recent riots and a governor of a local school who was a local councillor stated basically that everything was great in her school and nothing needed to change.
The fact that there are many people who are incapable of working doesn't mean that is the same for everyone that is unemployed. And here comes the crux of the issue with immigrant workers; there are many young people, middle aged and older people who are capable and able to work but the simple fact is there is either no jobs or employers who are only willing to take on British workers. The fact of nearly 300,000 foreigners gaining work and 100,000 British losing their jobs speaks for itself.
The public sector is going to continue to cut workers, this means even more looking for work. Whether the government or employers like it or not this issue of immigration needs to be addressed or we are going to end up in a hole we cannot climb out off. We will continue to see a growth in an underclass who will never work and sees work as totally abnormal. We will see a growth in social problems as those who would love to work not being able to simply because there are no jobs or employers who are not willing to because they are British, and see no future. We will see more disenfranchised people who have no hope, so do not care about their community and then descend into crime and then riot. This all sounds rather depressing but the roots of the issue are not being addressed and until they are I cannot see things changing.
The government, Labour and many other people are stating the reason for this are many reasons, but one thing isn't being debated is the effect immigration is having upon our economy and unemployment figures.
I truly believe we are sitting on the edge of a precipice of immense proportions, and if something isn't done about it and done soon these riots that have occurred are going to look like a picnic in comparison to what could happen. What do I mean? Well let's look at some facts, under Labour we had massive economic growth and many jobs were created, mostly in the public sector, but 98 per cent of all jobs created went to immigrants. There were three main reasons for this, those coming from abroad would work for less so employers would employ them on this simple basis. Two, the government increased benefits so much many were better off if they didn't work. And three, many of those on benefits became lazy and didn't have any work ethic.
The number of immigrant workers has reached a record high of 4.1million according to figures from the Office of National Statistics. In the last year 100,000 British people have lost their jobs, but nearly 300,000 foreigners have found work. This is a horrendous statistic and is just not being addressed.
It is feared that unemployment is going to rise by a further 150,000 over the next year. A report by the British Chamber of Commerce released yesterday stated that many school leavers and graduates are unemployable and warned 'In general, younger people lack numerical skills, research skill, ability to focus and read, plus written English.'
Nearly half of 2000 small firms being polled by the BCC said they would be 'fairly or very nervous' about hiring someone who had just finished their A-levels. I think this is appalling, this year for the 29th year in a row has seen an improvement in A-level results, this should raise alarm bells. Only a few years ago if someone went to college, worked hard and managed to get themselves 3 A-levels they were deemed intelligent and very employable, that doesn't seem to be the case today.
There are two issues here; one is the fact that we are continuing to see a rise in unemployment among British people and an increase in employment amongst foreigners. And secondly many people in this country are unemployable.
The simple fact is there is nothing we can do about about employers employing foreigners, as long as we are part of the EU; I have spoken about this before, and until we leave nothing will change. The issue of unemployable British people can be addressed; currently we have a situation in which many have no need to work, this needs to change. Employers argue, and rightly so that they should be able to employ whoever they want, and if the British worker is not capable or willing to do the work they should be able to employ a foreigner. And I agree, if I was running a business I would employ the best person for the job. But this does not solve the fundamental problem of unemployment and unemployable British people.
So what is the solution? As I have stated above there are many who do not need to work so don't, there needs to be a fundamental change in how these people look at life. Many think the world owes them a living, and do not feel they need to take any responsibility for their own life or their families. They pay no rent, pay no bills, pay nothing for their food, they get it all for free off the tax payer. And this is the problem, they take no responsibility and don't need too, well I have a simple solution, if someone does not take a job that is offered to them and has no genuine reason for not doing that job take all their benefits away from them, and their council house, they either starve or work. You might think that sounds harsh but I believe this is the only way someone will work.
The issue of school/college leavers not having the basic skills in reading, writing and maths is a travesty and an outrage, and successive governments, particularly the previous one has to be held to account for this. The government and education system has failed hundreds of thousands of young people, and this needs to be addressed, but until there is a fundamental rethink and change in how we educate our young people nothing will change. The reason I think things are unlikely to change is, I was listening to a debate about the recent riots and a governor of a local school who was a local councillor stated basically that everything was great in her school and nothing needed to change.
The fact that there are many people who are incapable of working doesn't mean that is the same for everyone that is unemployed. And here comes the crux of the issue with immigrant workers; there are many young people, middle aged and older people who are capable and able to work but the simple fact is there is either no jobs or employers who are only willing to take on British workers. The fact of nearly 300,000 foreigners gaining work and 100,000 British losing their jobs speaks for itself.
The public sector is going to continue to cut workers, this means even more looking for work. Whether the government or employers like it or not this issue of immigration needs to be addressed or we are going to end up in a hole we cannot climb out off. We will continue to see a growth in an underclass who will never work and sees work as totally abnormal. We will see a growth in social problems as those who would love to work not being able to simply because there are no jobs or employers who are not willing to because they are British, and see no future. We will see more disenfranchised people who have no hope, so do not care about their community and then descend into crime and then riot. This all sounds rather depressing but the roots of the issue are not being addressed and until they are I cannot see things changing.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Hopeless, incompetant and useless.
Over the past couple of years I have watched in amazement as our politicians and leaders have lurched from one crises to another. As you may have realised the world is staring at a very dangerous economic situation and unfortunately for all of us those in charge don't really know what to do.
What I have realised over the years is that so many of those who reach the pinnacle of power do so because of how they look, whose palm they have greased and what they say and how they say it. They do not get there through ability and competence, if they did I think we would have a totally different looking government.
How I have come to this conclusion is very simple, I just look at the decisions many of our politicians make and weigh it up against good old fashioned common sense and I have found that they are somewhat wanting. I have mentioned Gordon Brown in the past and looked at many of his decisions he made whilst Chancellor and Prime Minister and a lot of what he did was down right stupid. Here are some examples of his stupidity (and I don't choose these with the benefit of hindsight, I thought they were stupid at the time).
1. Selling 395 tonnes of gold at its lowest price for twenty years; that same amount of gold sold at today's prices would be have raised approximately an extra £13 billion.
2. Taking away the dividend tax relief on private pensions, thus destroying one of the best private pension systems in the world.
3. At a time of massive economic growth instead of paying off the national debt and putting some aside for a rainy day he spent and spent and spent.
4. Handing billions of pounds in benefits to the poor, thus creating an underclass that didn't need to work so they didn't.
There's four quick examples, I am sure if I spent more time I could come up with a lot more. But let's not be too harsh on poor old Gordon he did at least do one good thing and that was to keep us out of the euro, I have to thank him for that. Unfortunately for Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland their politicians didn't do the same. The simple fact is these countries are in a mess of immense proportions and their politicians and those running the EU will not admit that the only option for these countries is to leave the euro zone and devalue their currency. But those in charge of the nut house (or EU) are more concerned with carrying on with their dream of total political union and they are damned if they will let these countries leave the euro.
The reason I believe our politicians don't know what to do is because I believe many don't have a clue, this is because most have only ever lived in the political world and have never done any other type of work. Many leave school, go to college then to university and then they work for some political organisation and then become an MP or MEP. They have never spent anytime working with normal people so they have no understanding of what the reality is like for you and me.
You only have to look at the 3 main leaders of the 3 main parties, then look at those who sit at the top of these parties and it doesn't take long to realise that most have come from very privileged backgrounds. Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against people from privileged backgrounds doing well but I believe that we have an imbalance. I also believe that many who run the EU are doing so for themselves rather than for the people of Europe, this is borne out by the euro crises. If any of these europhiles had any intelligence or compassion they would allow the southern European countries to leave the euro, but they won't. They would rather the people of Europe suffer massive unemployment and economic stagnation than admit that maybe they have got it wrong.
They will blame everyone else but themselves, they will make excuses, they will bluster and even say that those who state the blindingly obvious, that the euro in its present form is dead in the water are 'anti-European'. And this is the problem, these are the people making the decisions and I have said it before and I will say it again 'THEY DO NOT CARE'.
So how do we get out of this mess? I could sit here and state my opinion, but it is such a mess it is very difficult to know what to do. I don't think closer political integration, as some are calling for is the answer, this would give to much power to Germany to dictate the direction of those within the euro zone. This would mean a death of democracy, and if you take the ability of the people to set their own destiny we will see the rise of extreme nationalism and that can only lead to war.
I believe there has to be a fundamental change within the leadership of these countries, too many of those in charge are not willing to listen to the people and unfortunately because of this we will continue to drift towards economic oblivion. I have stated before what I think should be done and if you want to see what I think click on this link http://evanheasley-powertothepeople.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-fix-our-economy.html
I don't want to sound arrogant and I don't think I have all the answers, but I believe that our politicians, economists, bankers and so called financial experts have made an immense cock up of things surely I couldn't do any worse.
What I have realised over the years is that so many of those who reach the pinnacle of power do so because of how they look, whose palm they have greased and what they say and how they say it. They do not get there through ability and competence, if they did I think we would have a totally different looking government.
How I have come to this conclusion is very simple, I just look at the decisions many of our politicians make and weigh it up against good old fashioned common sense and I have found that they are somewhat wanting. I have mentioned Gordon Brown in the past and looked at many of his decisions he made whilst Chancellor and Prime Minister and a lot of what he did was down right stupid. Here are some examples of his stupidity (and I don't choose these with the benefit of hindsight, I thought they were stupid at the time).
1. Selling 395 tonnes of gold at its lowest price for twenty years; that same amount of gold sold at today's prices would be have raised approximately an extra £13 billion.
2. Taking away the dividend tax relief on private pensions, thus destroying one of the best private pension systems in the world.
3. At a time of massive economic growth instead of paying off the national debt and putting some aside for a rainy day he spent and spent and spent.
4. Handing billions of pounds in benefits to the poor, thus creating an underclass that didn't need to work so they didn't.
There's four quick examples, I am sure if I spent more time I could come up with a lot more. But let's not be too harsh on poor old Gordon he did at least do one good thing and that was to keep us out of the euro, I have to thank him for that. Unfortunately for Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland their politicians didn't do the same. The simple fact is these countries are in a mess of immense proportions and their politicians and those running the EU will not admit that the only option for these countries is to leave the euro zone and devalue their currency. But those in charge of the nut house (or EU) are more concerned with carrying on with their dream of total political union and they are damned if they will let these countries leave the euro.
The reason I believe our politicians don't know what to do is because I believe many don't have a clue, this is because most have only ever lived in the political world and have never done any other type of work. Many leave school, go to college then to university and then they work for some political organisation and then become an MP or MEP. They have never spent anytime working with normal people so they have no understanding of what the reality is like for you and me.
You only have to look at the 3 main leaders of the 3 main parties, then look at those who sit at the top of these parties and it doesn't take long to realise that most have come from very privileged backgrounds. Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against people from privileged backgrounds doing well but I believe that we have an imbalance. I also believe that many who run the EU are doing so for themselves rather than for the people of Europe, this is borne out by the euro crises. If any of these europhiles had any intelligence or compassion they would allow the southern European countries to leave the euro, but they won't. They would rather the people of Europe suffer massive unemployment and economic stagnation than admit that maybe they have got it wrong.
They will blame everyone else but themselves, they will make excuses, they will bluster and even say that those who state the blindingly obvious, that the euro in its present form is dead in the water are 'anti-European'. And this is the problem, these are the people making the decisions and I have said it before and I will say it again 'THEY DO NOT CARE'.
So how do we get out of this mess? I could sit here and state my opinion, but it is such a mess it is very difficult to know what to do. I don't think closer political integration, as some are calling for is the answer, this would give to much power to Germany to dictate the direction of those within the euro zone. This would mean a death of democracy, and if you take the ability of the people to set their own destiny we will see the rise of extreme nationalism and that can only lead to war.
I believe there has to be a fundamental change within the leadership of these countries, too many of those in charge are not willing to listen to the people and unfortunately because of this we will continue to drift towards economic oblivion. I have stated before what I think should be done and if you want to see what I think click on this link http://evanheasley-powertothepeople.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-fix-our-economy.html
I don't want to sound arrogant and I don't think I have all the answers, but I believe that our politicians, economists, bankers and so called financial experts have made an immense cock up of things surely I couldn't do any worse.
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