Is our money spent wisely?

We are always being told that we are going through austere times yet Cameron found  £40 million to add to the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic games to show Britain at its best, how can this be when it is staged managed and is not a true reflection of the British. Just as five days of rioting are not a true reflection of Britain but that may be nearer to the truth.The Olympic games have cost so far an estimated £9.3 billion that would have been better spent on social housing. How many people involved in the physically building the Olympic stadium and other venues for the games?That  is mainly for the benefit of  London and a little of the surrounding district. If that money had been spent on social housing and improving the infrastructure throughout the country it would also have provided more jobs in  the building industry for brickies, joiners, plumbers. This would have been more beneficial for the country not for a games that is only for the glorification of a few athletes who if they win gold will turn themselves into wealthy people and corporate hangers on.with no benefit whatsoever for the rest of the population who funded the money for the games.,

Who is the winner?

Britain may now be out on its own in Europe, Cameron has used his veto to protect the city of Lindon's financial institutions, but has he been out manouvered by Sarkozy. Be that as it may has Cameron failed in protecting the banks? The Tobin Tax could be introduced through other means, through the back door under majority voting. The French are corrupt, if things don't go their way, they used the veto to prevent Britain joining the European Union in 1963 and 1967 on both occasions it was used by the French to protect their financial interests especially those concerning the Common Agricultural Policy that was always to the French advantage, so the words kettle, pot, black, pan, spring to mind. Also the EU budget hasn't been signed off for the 17 years. Fraud within the EU is now running at £1.6 billion up 25% from last year. the UK is the fourth largest contributor to the to the EU's funds. This new proposed pact will cede further legal, financial and political powers to unaccountable institutions that are renowned for corruption. Perhaps some of these countries that are in the Euro Zone should look more closely and see what Sarkozy and some of his friends are really up to before it is financially to late. Cameron made a mistake using his veto Britain's  voice needed to be heard  even if its to warn against this growing corruption that is going un-investigated as the past 17 years proves. As for Germany they have the past that still weighs on their conscience and I believe that they are trying to do the best for Europe whilst France is trying to do what is best for France, as they always have.

Advantage lies......?

David Cameron's gesture to defend the financial institutions of the city of London's, institutions that helped get us into this financial mess in the first place  may be the biggest mistake of his political career, but more importantly the future of Britain in the eyes of not only our European partners, but the world. Something that we may never be able to recover from. Whilst in the future the other 26 leaders will be feasting together at the same table he will be dining on his own, and for more years than are good for Britain. His gesture may well turn out to be a futile one. Perhaps he should remember that the advantage always lies with those on the inside, and any influential advantage he may have had he's thrown away, and he may well now feel the cold shoulder from Europe for years to come, and any co-operation in other areas may be hard for him. Perhaps Nick Clegg who is pro-Europe should have told him that if he used his veto and left Britain alone and out on a limb with the rest of Europe, that he would withdraw the Lib Dems support for the coalition government and force a general election. With Cameron's attitude we are loosing what little influence we once had in the world let alone Europe. We even have people like Bernard Jenkins MP and Lord Oakshot of the Lib Dems disagreeing on policy openly on Newsnight so no body knows which way to jump but if Cameron has jumped the wrong way then Britain is in serious trouble and we can't rely on Europe to help us in the future. The really sad part is that Sarkozy has stitched Cameron up. Perhaps Cameron should have told Sarkozy that he might have supported the financial proposes if France was prepared to re-think the Common Agricultural Policy that has always been to Frances advantage and seen what Sarkosy would have said to that? I think that there would have been a resounding Non. So much for unity Europe has always to put up with what does best for France. As for the Germans I do have a little sympathy they are providing most of the finance and therefore have certain rights to lead, as for France their financial institutions are in as much trouble as the PIGS. 

Euro zone and Britain.

Cameron says that he will fight and not let any more powers be ceded to Brussels, whilst plenty of people in Britain may agree with him and in some cases I agree with him on certain things. Britain fixing its own interest rates or dealing with our own laws that go back over 900 years and still apply today. We all want to see the Euro survive, and if Europe wants to implement a new treaty then this has to be agreed by all 27 European Countries not just the 17 Euro zone members. No body knows what will happen this weekends meeting, but one thing is sure that Germany being the strongest member and in many cases the driving force within the European Union, France may be batting above its weight and may also want to save the Euro, but the most important thing for Sarkozy is the influence that he wants to rule Europe. He wants to be top dog and will try anything to get that position. That is one of the reasons why the European Union is flawed and always will be because deep down the Tricolour is more important to France and the French people than the European Flag., and deep down the Union Flag is more important to the British people than the blue flag with the 27 gold stars of Europe, and like wise I believe that this applies to the other members of the Union no matter what their leaders may think Country before Union and this will always apply even when the 17/27countries are working together. Country first Union second. Perhaps fifty year from now when this generation is replaced by the youth or still unborn people of Europe, who will be brain washed into putting the Union before country as history is distorted with certain things being left out. Take the Spanish who are trying to forget the Franco era. or the Germans for the Nazi era, although with all respect to the Germans they have not tried in many cases to hide the guilt of the Nazi era, and is on open display at Bergen Belsen and other such camps. The Germans are I believe the country that does really believe in the Union before country more than any other of the 26  countries. But as  to paraphrase Edmund Burke. Evil only triumphs when good men do nothing. Lets hope that the good men of Brussels are doing it for the correct reason, first and foremost  the people of Europe, and not fore there self glorification.     

Germany or France?

Germany and France are meeting to see if they can come up with a solution to the Euro crisis, but surely the 17 members of the Euro zone should be meeting to discuss the problem. When two of the members meet to discuss what affects them all, is this not the start of how secret societies decide what is best for everybody. Again  this is not true democracy at work. If this affects  all 17 members then they should all be in discussions and decide what to do not just the alleged big two. Again I have sympathy for Germany and the German people as the largest contributor to the bail out, but France is not in a strong position financially. Its banks could be  in trouble, and Sarkozy is up for re-election within the next couple of months so will his mind be on the Euro crisis or on his election prospects. This man is and has for a long time been boxing above his weight, and like previous French leaders he will do what is best for France not the European Union that is why the Union will always be flawed, country and flag before European Union. Not, one for all, and all  for  one, that's only in fairy tales.    

Britain and the EU.

Cameron has been told to choose between EU and the city of London. People may think that the banks have let us down and been responsible for the economic problems yet Britain need the financial centre as it provide thousands of jobs and brings in billions of pounds in revenue.Whilst the Euro is in turmoil and most economic experts are undecided in which way to turn we don't need the likes of Jose Barroso. I don't think that Britain can pull out of the EU nor would I want it to and perhaps there may be a valid point in Britain at some time going in with the Euro. We most certainly have to help defend it through this turmoil. Borroso is not an elected person, he and the commission has laid out a plan telling all Euro zone countries that they have to submit their national budgets to Brussels for their approval. Why? is this not the same commission that brought Greece into the Euro without checking the financial credibility of this country, and other Eastern block countries that have joined the Euro, who's financial credit are now suspect. Should Barroso not have made more stringent checks on these countries before allowing them to enter the Euro zone.This man is not only getting to big for his boots but is incompetent. This is the problem when you get somebody in a position of power that is not elected by the masses he is holding sway over. The bottom line is that the unelected leaders in Brussels are basically corrupt., and why because they are not answerable to the 430 million people in the EU. All we get it treaty after treaty and when they don't work, these leaders spend more billions talking and forcing through another treaty Remember France and Ireland rejecting a treaty. Then being told by Brussels to have another go because the population of these two countries didn't like what they were voting on. But at the end they had to vote the way Borroso and Brussels wanted. I'm quite sure that is not the democracy that millions of people want but as Europe's unelected leaders get more power they listen less and less to the masses. Its time for the masses to have their voice heard not Borroso and the other leaders who are drinking from the same chalice.    

Hip Dip Pen and Ink

Hip Dip Pen and ink, or is it one potato two potato three potato more..., these are the kind of things we did when we were children to pick sides. Perhaps we should use this when we decide or the politicians decide if we should join the Euro or not, because at the end of the day nobody knows which way to jump and this applies to the so called financial or economic experts because like the average citizenen, they may be a little more educated on the subject, but when the truth is known they haven't got a clue. You have only to listen to them on Newsnight disagreeing with each other as the put forward their cases for being in or out, if they can't agree what chance has the average citizen?  The one time when it does affect the average  citizen is when they are trying to get the best exchange rate for their holiday money. For the rest of the year it doesn't seem to concern them. To the business person that may be a different thing especially when dealing with the exchange rate for their goods, but if we were in the Euro then this wouldn't affect them only when dealing with the American market. I have to be honest and say that I was against joining the Euro, but if the Euro recovers and the French and Germans and the Benelux countries and Austria and Finland and perhaps Sweden get even closer together then Britain will have less sway on what happens in the European Union Britain's voice will be drowned out with these countries not wanting to know what Britain thinks even if we have positive comments to make. On these grounds alone I think that we should join the Euro. But again what do I know not being a financial or economic student, but like everybody else I have a gut feeling that....  

Growing youth unemployment with little prospects of getting employment.

On Newsnight on Tuesday we saw David Miliband and Chris Grayling the Employment minister putting over their points of view about the youth of today 16-24 year old's who haven't got jobs Its now reached 1,016,000, and all they could do was criticise government policy or the last governments lack of action. We have Future Job Funds an Apprentice Forum talking about getting youths into work, or how to fill out a CV, this isn't getting them jobs. Then we have the old adage that if you have no experience then you can't get a job and if you can't get a job you can't get experience. The point is that 90% of ministers in government or in opposition have never had jobs at the lower level. Jeremy Paxman spoke to youths who said that they had come out of college or university with degrees but couldn't find employment. The one thing he never asked them was what their degrees were in? Only one girl said that she wanted to go on a song writing course but it was cancelled at the last minute. If the girl had any talent for song writing she wouldn't need to go on a course her talent would get her through. Had she never heard of Lennon and McCartney, or Paul Simon, and Art Garfunkel, Neil Diamond. The problem is that jobs are getting scarcer especially in manufacturing because third world countries have  now taking over. And people like Dyson who is always telling the government what to do, took the manufacturing of his products abroad because he could get them made cheaper. Greed on his part, if these jobs had stopped in this country it would have meant at least 3000 jobs. Even the aerospace industry is cutting back on highly skilled engineers and even if BAE Systems gets the order for Typhoon aircraft from India much of them will be built their. As each year passes and as more people leave school the unemployment figures will only increase because we are not creating enough jobs to fill this growing trend. And if the predicted growth in births is correct and in the next 16 years the population will reach 70 million what will be the number of unemployed then be?

European Union Democracy or Dictatorship?

As the debacle over the Euro increases in Europe both the Greece and Italian governments and possible other governments are having technocrats getting more power. Technocracy- a theory or system of society according to which government is controlled by scientists, engineers and other experts in this case economists but they are unelected and this at a time when the western governments and other democratic countries are telling the Arab countries who have been under dictatorships for half a century or more to embrace democracy with free elections. Yet the west is heading towards dictatorship in some ways. Isn't this what Hitler did, he used the ballot box to get elected and take control of Germany then did away with elections. The 450 million people in Europe are slowly but surely having their lives controlled by unelected people who are driving their own agenda, that the people will end up paying for if these unelected people get it wrong.,and it will be the politicians who will say that its not their fault. Yet by allowing it to happen they are responsible., but by then they will have creamed off the goose that laid the golden egg for their own self leaving us with the broken shell, and years of more poverty and austerity.

Who can we Trust.

As each week passes it would seem that the people who are running the country are more and more inept. We had a tragic accident on the M5 and straight away we are trying to find out if it was due to fog, wet road conditions, or smoke from a bonfire No matter what the cause of the ttragic accident the drivers involved in the accident should have been driving to the road conditions? We have the debacle over the Euro each night we hear from the so called experts who keep telling us how to get over the problem. The only problem with this is that they all come up with different solutions so if these experts don't know, how are the people of Europe supposed to know who is right and who is wrong. Then we have the on going trouble over the boarders issue. We have lost 124,000 illegal immigrants then we have the debacle about what Therese May is supposed to have told Broady Clark the director of boarder control who not only is paid a fantastic salary also received a bonus of £15,000. He's suspended  then he resigns and intends to sue Theresa May because again the public don't know who is telling the truth. When all it needs is for the letter's or e-mails to be published then we can all find out who is telling the truth and who is lying, or will they be written in such a way that they will be ambiguous. So no winner no looser apart from the country as a whole.

Three line whip or blackmail

So David Cameron imposed a three line whip on the members of his party. This from a prime minister who wanted open and transparent government who said that he would open debates up to the general public by opening E-Mail petitions. This proves that he is just a prime minister who is all talk  and no action. Whats the point of E-mail petitions if you may allow  discussions  in parliament but no further positive action. But to put a three line whip on your party is an abuse of freedom of speech especially as those MP's who opposed you who were only carrying out the wishes of their constituents. But the really sad part is that all the main parties have promised to have a referendum on whether the British people want to continue being in Europe. My own view is that we have to stop in Europe but only for such things as trade and defence issues, and even then how do you carry out defence requirements if there is a conflict of intrests between certain members. Human Rights, and law issues should be left to the parliament of this country. Even union legislation should have nothing to do with Europe. British workers work longer hours than in Europe only because wages are lower here than in Europe for similar type jobs. Will the government increase British wages to come in line with European wages, I dont think so because the manufactures say that that makes us more uneconomical, and businesses would have to go abroad, another lie that is impossed on the British, that doesn't seem to happen on the continent.   Cameron is not a democratic leader he's another person who has gained power by the ballet box just, but doesn't want to know what the will of the vast majority of people of this country now want.  As for Nick Clegg he's been a European minister so no wonder he doesn't want to change because we all know where his loyalties lie. Till the people of Britain get a real voice we are stuck with the same old rhetoric, the times not quite right for a referendum, so when is it right this year, next year, or some times never. 

Cameron the energy saviour I dont think.

So Cameron has had a meeting with the big six energy companies and come up with absolutely nothing. Check, switch, insulate, this isn't always possible for thousands of people for various reasons. I like thousands of other people live in a caravan how do I insulate it? Some people can't switch because they do not have a computer, or for older people it is to complicated and not always for older people either. The government is always going on that we need more suppliers to challenge the big six. What a load of rubbish it just goes to show how out of touch he is with the needs of people in the real world reduce the prices thats what people want and need. In 2000 there were 21 electrical suppliers and 19 gas suppliers, what happened to them they were either put out of business or gobbled up by the larger suppliers. So if Cameron is saying that we need more competition then he's only to look back to then to see what would happen again. Till people in power realise that these big six are a cartel then nothing will happen. Then again we have the government saying that we have to lead the world on the green agenda. Another load of rubbish. Britain's global output of carbon emissions is about 2% of the worlds emissions.  China and America put out 40% and have no intention of cutting it, as it would impact on their industries. Again the experts say that by meeting the green agenda and providing green energy will cost the average household another £300 a year on their energy bills every year, and that on top of what ever their bills will be by 2050. So its God help our children and grandchildren. Then we are now being told that we will have to pay out for all the infrastructure new pylons new gas mains and every thing else. The one other thing that bothers me amongst other problems is that if we are paying for this then shouldn't I (we) be entitled to a dividend every year from the billions that they are or will make in the future rip offs. I don't have any shares in these companies like millions of other people but we are footing the bill for this never ending expansion. Therefore am I and all the other consumers not entitled to a return on my money?    

  

How long will the British public put up with being lied to

The energy people who keep lying to the public about the price of energy. They have to get their gas  from the fluctuating world markets  that is now being caused by China and India who are now after gas that is why the prices are escalating yet these same increases that the consumer has to put up with here don't seem to be happening as much in Europe. These energy companies who supply Britain consumers also supply the European consumers so who is telling lies. Then we have the great Tesco £500 million drop in prices, yet this offer that has cost Tesco £10 million in advertising seems to be over all a scam as prices have in many cases been increased before the deal started only to see them decreased as the deal started and in many cases they are now dearer than before the offer started. It would seem that Tesco just like the energy companies are lying through their back teeth, at a population that is being squeezed by corporate greed. Perhaps people should  stop frequenting Tesco and try one of the other supermarkets, that do have more genuine deals and a more honest board. As for the energy companies sadly we need their gas and electricity, as for Cameron talking to them don't hold your breath, prices wont come down and the government wont impose restrictions on them no matter what Cameron or Huhne say.  

Does this not prove that we are being ripped off

Ofgem has said that the energy companies are making £125 per customer per year profit over the past few months this is an increase from £15 per customer per year four months ago. The government has said that it wants more companies to challenge the big six main suppliers. This is absolute rubbish, the truth is that these six are operating a cartel yet they will deny it and the government is to spineless to challenge them. Its funny how the big supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury Morrisons,  Aldi and Netto are competing for our business and reduce prices. If they had to increase their prices in the same way that the energy companies are doing there would be an outcry, screams of price fixing and cartel monopolies and any other remarks that would mean foul play. But when it comes to the energy companies the government does nothing why? Are ministers in bed with them.Whilst you think about it you are getting poorer and poorer as the energy companies get richer and richer, not because they are efficient but because they are stealing from the public. A crime that is going unpunished. and government does nothing. 

Liam Fox Debacle.

Does the on going debacle over Liam Fox not raise a fundamental issue that if anybody no matter which party they stand for or no matter what their previous job was, be it in the financial, or military or as a barrister or lawyer that they give up all connections with their previous occupation, then they can devote all their time to the people of their constituency that elect them. The job as an MP must be even more difficult if you are given a ministerial position. There are only so many hours in the day, but more importantly it will stop what is occurring to Liam Fox from happening. If you stand for parliament one has to presume that you do it because you basically want to help the people of the country, surely that is your first requirement. If you can't give your previous occupation up and devote yourself fully to being an MP then don't stand for parliament. But who do we believe when we hear MP's complaining that they are over worked or under stress,or that they deserve more money because of the job they are doing,  how many complain that in the city they were earning three or four times the salary they receive as an MP. How sad, they chose to be an MP its not compulsory. They know what the salary was before they stood as prospective MP. Or is it that these MP's accept the job so that they can further their financial interests or business connections, doing something for the community or the country is the furthest thing from their minds. As the expenses fiasco proved. Self before country in many cases but not all. Perhaps the qualification for future MP's is just that country not self comes first, then lets see how many would stand. That also applies to those MP's who write in our papers putting over their views, but when they are questioned by the likes of Jeremy Paxman they fail to answer his questions by dodging the issue. We have the likes of Louise Mensch MP who put her point of view about other things wanting social networking during the recent riots shutting down but when she was one asked whether she had taken hard drugs at university she couldn't quite remember. I'm sure that most people who have taken drugs in their younger days could remember, but isn't it strange how people like her suddenly have amnesia, but they are quite lucid when they want to put over their point of view no matter how long ago it was formulated.

Inspirational leader, who's he kidding.

Cameron says that we need is an inspirational leader, well I've got news for him he's not one. In fact he should be in a circus because he's done more back peddling since he came to power than a trick cyclist. He even had to re-write some of his final conference speech, because he had got it wrong last night. Perhaps he hasn't seen the latest survey that puts Britain as the worst place to live in Europe. France and Spain came out on the quality of life index with Britain coming tenth in the league table covering working hours, VAT, spending on health and education, we also came bottom on another table that covered cost of energy, food, alcohol,, cigarettes and life expectancy. All higher than any other country in Europe. We also have the least holiday entitlement and the highest retirement age. Is it any wonder that one in ten said that they were giving serious thought to emigrating. But not to worry he has saved the average household £72 per year by not increasing the council tax. I'm going to book a holiday I don't think. This man is completely off his head. If he wanted to get households to spent more to help get the country moving perhaps he would have been better telling the energy companies to hold their price increases to round 1.5 % that the governments in other European countries have done. But I suppose, the energy companies have obeyed their governments because the energy companies are owned by companies based in these countries and not wanting to upset them it's much easier to get the British to pay any increases because this government has no idea. If they had stopped these obscene increases people may have had £500 or so to spend. People are not spending because if they have any small savings they are holding on to them  to pay for their gas and electric, especially if we have a severe winter that is being forecast. It,s not only the elements that are conspiring against us, but the government and Cameron in particular.      

Time to leave the EU.

Jose Manuel Barroso is suggesting that the banks have another tax levied on them to help the euro and he has said that it won't just be confined to the euro zone meaning that British banks will have to pay this tax and as British banks are one of the largest dealers in Europe that Britain will have to pay the largest tax bill. We already pay £12.5 billion to help bail out the euro, now another £20 billion is being sought from us. If we tax the banks more then this money should  be used to help the British economy. Again this is European unelected leaders  trying to make laws without the consent of the population. Even German people are now beginning to realise that they are being made to pay a  price for failures that was  not a  fault of their making  or ours. If we have to tax the banks that money comes to us to reduce our deficit. Its  now about time that Britain thought hard about pulling  out of this undemocratic organisation that is a failing organisation an organisation that was set up for the benefit of a few thousand rich and influential people not for the masses. This organisation makes rules then changes them when they think that is not working.This again is bureaucracy not being thought out logically before these programmes are put in place, the vast majority of them without the full support of the European people. 

Nimby, Numby, Nomby, or should it be Numpty

Most people know these acronyms but as the big six energy suppliers inform us that the more people complain about not having new power stations or new power lines and pylons in in their areas. Then these companies say that the longer it takes to sort out these planing permissions all it does is push up the cost to the consumer. It's all well and good these people complaining that they are unsightly and that they are destroying the green belt is just a pack of lies. The truth is that they want the electric but not coming to them via new power stations or overhead lines in their vicinity. Its OK to build them in other areas but not in their  back yard, but they want the electric. Well if they  have that attitude then its a pity we can't cut these people off. They would soon change their minds if they could no longer get the electric to power their homes. Its all well and good to say that they want cables burying in the ground as opposed to pylons when the cost for a mile of overhead cable costs £1.6 million per kilometer compared to £18 million per kilometer to bury it. If these people want that then let these people foot the bill. My electric bills are steep enough as it is now I don't want any extra burden just so that these arrogant peole can have a nice view over the country side near them. Its the same as the people who don't want a third runway at Heathrow airport because it may impact on their environment, I'm sorry for that but don't buy a house under a flight path.  But again these same people who are against the runway don't bother when they are jetting off for their holidays by air. Then its OK, their  only grumble then will be the congestion due to a shortage of runway capacity. These people may be Nimby or Numbys or Nombys or the new one Bananas build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything. The voices of the new Luddites. or numptys who may have more money than common sense., and may be rich enough to incur an extra few hundred pounds on their electric bill. Well I've got news for them there are millions of people who don't have any spare capital to fund  this unnecessary burden.

No Common Sense

No body seems to care in government or parliament about the waste that they have made the British public incur over the past years. We have  or had a computer system for the NHS that would hold the records of 40 million patients. It cost £12 billion and it has been scrapped even before it was used. Now we have the debacle over the PFI scheme that has incurred costs in the region of £11.4 billion, that is to be paid to private companies who built some of our hospitals. That is now being questioned in some areas as hospitals may have to close wards and cut staff to pay this escalating costs. This bill is estimated to cost the tax payer over £70 billion by the time is is up in 2040, and the public will then own these new hospitals that will be over 25 years old. The increase in  cost is due amongst other thing  to inflation. We have seen how this has greatly increased some of the MoD's astronomical costs that have in some cases seen contracts terminated Nimrod is a perfect example, would you have thought that these Whitehall mandarins who are supposed to be the elite would have had fixed price contracts to stop runaway inflation costs and make these organisations who benefit from PFI schemes more accountable. But is that to simplistic a thing?  

Mixed up broken Britain

It doesn't matter what is going on in the world, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan troubles in Libya or pirates off the coast of Somalia. Britain is in both a financial and political  state, and the bottom line is that the people in power haven't got a clue how to mend it. We have the car manufacturer Jaguar announcing that they are going to build a plant for £350 million to build greener engines that will create 750 new jobs, that's great news for the manufacturing industry. Yet we have a manufacturing company that employs directly or indirectly thousands of jobs, and creates wealth for the country in the billions of pounds. What is it, its British Aerospace Plc. Yet we have the bleeding hearts who criticise this company and the arms trade. The arms industry has never made a gun or a devise that kills people, it is the finger on the trigger or on the button that does the killing not the weapon. Yet these people who want the arms industry abolished keep saying that if that were to happen, that the people in the arms industry could be redeployed. Where? If these hypothetical jobs that these people fail to mention where they were coming from where to appear then we could redeploy the 2.5 million unemployed into these hypothetical jobs, and reduce unemployment at a stroke. Its about time that these do gooders came into the real world. Again its OK for these do gooders to take the moral high ground over the abolition of the arms trade but its not their jobs on the line. Then we have the 100 or so activists who are supporting the illegals at Dale Farm in Essex, this is an illegal establishment where a group of 51  have lived and constructed structures without planning permission that the rest of the law abiding population  have to live with, and obide by. Again why has it taken ten years to get to this situation, because we go through the planning process and legal requirements that cost millions of pounds to the  tax payers  Then again we have the bleeding hearts who complain about the building of atomic power stations or the construction of electrical pylons that are blighting our landscape. They may well be unsightly to most people, but most people want electricity. If we bury these cables  underground which is quite feasible but at what cost? The National Grid is digging a 2.6 kilometer trench in the Wye Valley to bury a cable at a cost of £20 million per kilometer, ten times the cost to string an electrical cable from pylons. Again its OK for Chris Huhne to say that its up to the transmission companies to take more care of the environment and local peoples concerns about it, and more money will be found to reduce the visual impact of new lines on the environment,- money that will be added to the users bill. Thats you and I, as if we are not paying enough for our electricity now. Once again this is a rich minister who is totally out of touch with reality of real life for the average person. Then we have Vince Cable  the Business Secretary who says that the rich will have to bear more of the burden, that board room bosses will have to curtail their big bonuses especially those who fail or have failed yet pay themselves for failing. These are all well and good making platitudes like this to try and pacify the public at large but the the public  know that at the end of the day nothing will come of it, and why? Because these bosses and ministers  are all related by business connections somewhere down the line. Do people for one minute believe that Cameron, Osborne, Huhne, and the like, for all their hand ringing and mea culpas don't invest their wealth in tax free areas even though they have talked about closing or making some of these off shore banking facilities illegal. No body is talking about penalising  these entrepreneurs, its the bankers and such that have made millions for themselves,  in two word by dodgy deals that have left the rest of the counrtys hard working masses picking up the bill for their, in many cases corporate greed

     

The Arrogance of out of touch Huhne.

So Chris Huhne thinks its the fault of the lazy consumers for not being bothered to shop around to find the cheapest energy deals. This from a person who has increased the average bill by introducing a green tax that will do nothing to ease the problem. All this will do is build up the government coffers. Does he think  for one minute that the population is fooled into believing  that this tax will be for wind farms and solar panels. These constructions may be built by some energy company but they will be funded by even more higher energy bills. The sad part is that these companies should be taken back into state control, where their billion pound profits can be used for the good of the population not the share holders. The share holders would be paid for their share what they paid for them when these companies were floated on the stock market. They wouldnt' loose any money because they have also received dividends each year on their shares. The people who may loose out are the people in Europe. Why because sadly these companies are now mainly owned by European companies, who are ripping the British consumer at the expense of their European customers. Gas prices are on average 18% and electric prices are on average 11%. compare that with Europe. In Germany electric prices have been held at 0% whilst gas prices are being held at 11% . In France electric prices have increased by 3% and gas has been held at 0%.In Spain electric prices can't be increased more than 1.5% as set by the Spanish Government, gas at 0%. In Italy there have been no increases in both gas and electric prices. These energy companies supply about 11 million consumers in Britain. But Scottish Power, EDF, npower, E.on are owned by French, German and Spanish companies and do not increase their domestic consumers anywhere near as high as their British consumers. This isn't the fault of the Europeans is the fault of the weak British Government and the spineless energy secretary Huhne. He has said that he is in absolute favour of people making lots of money in a fair and competative market, again this remark from an arrogant millionaire. Then he goes on to say I'm absolutely against people making money by abusing a dominant position. Isn't that what the big six energy companies are doing If Huhne was honest he would say that these companies are all in a cartel but no body in authority will say that or challenge them. We all know that when one company puts is prices up the others will all follow in a few weeks at the latest. And he says this isn't a dominant market where people are making obscene profits. We all agree that companies have to make profits to survive, to reinvest etc, but where is the line to be drawn between profit and greed. I believe that is where a company says that is has made £1.5 billion for the first quarter of the year then announces large percentage increases. But the really said thing is that Huhne has said that these companies are justified in these obscene increases, but is he saying it because he believes it or is he saying it because he is cosying up to them and will expect a job with them in the future if he leaves politics or when he looses his seat. And who can trust a man that is alleged to have asked his ex wife to take his penalty points for speeding. This has still to be decided and the CPS have all the evidence but for some reason according to the police they are hanging back. Why? Could it be that as a government minister it will be hushed up wink, wink, nod, nod, you know what I mean? No body in power today especially members of this government or parliament can be trusted they are now amongst the most corrupt people in the country. At least the people who stole during the riots did it in a way openly. These people do it behind closed doors and try their best to make sure that it remains behind closed doors by trying to ban the media from publishing it.

Me, Me, Me,

A few years ago somebody once told me that he could write a 500 page weekly paper telling of all the good in the world and it would hardly sell a copy because today's generation are more celebrity obsessed. You have only to turn on your TV sets and see the absolute garbage of poor game shows were the brain dead enter to flaunt themselves in their stupidity. But can we blame them when they see other so called and in many cases talentless people telling us on chat shows and sadly their own shows how good they are. We have today read about Tamara Ecclestone talking about spending £1 million on a crystal bat for her £100 million pound mansion in America. Money that the father made. We see Jordan launching a magazine that is all about her and her tattoos and life style, come and look at me, and all my wealth that you have got me by buying my trash. Why is this generation obsessed with these false icons could it be because the media is bombarding us with ninety second updates every few hours on what is going on in Hollywood, or what this film star is doing, who is screwing who, who is divorcing who, and how much money can they get. Or the low life's in our society who are being paid six figure sums by the Red Banner newspapers to tell all. Even if half of it is untrue they have to embellish the story to sell papers. In a world where it would seem that every footballer or model have to adorne their bodies with some of the most grotesque tattoos, and when they get fed up with them they will have them removed. Yet the average person who is stupid enough to get a tattoo and then decide that he or she wants them removing will not have the money to have it done and will probable ask to have it done on the NHS because it is causing them stress in their everyday lives. Yet there are thousands of people who  have facial handycaps through birth defects or accidents that can't have it done. Then we have the people who want breast implants to make their breasts larger because they want to show off their bodies for vanities sake. Yet again there are thousands of people who require  cosmetic surgery because of  bodily defects that may have occurred during birth or an accident. We today are going down the road of me,me,me and sadly this is even applying to many of our parliamentary leaders and their partners, from all parties. You can see them on Come Dancing, Nancy Dell'Olio demanding an extra two iches on her stilettos, personally I hope she brakes an ankle becaus of it. The sad part would be that she would probably sue the BBC and if she won it would be my money that would help pay the damages because of her vanity and stupidity, and she is a lawyer, but obviously not one with much common sense.  Then we have the  X-Factore with mostly talentless people and all the other programmes that are turning this country into a population of brain dead people, or is that what the leaders want, because they do not want the population asking the more serious questions such as why are utility prices allowed to rise at the extent that they are, why are food prices escalating, why are  fuel costs going up faster that what it is on the world markets. Pensions benefits are decreasing. The average pension pot is in the region of £30,000, but the wealthiest pensions pots are now worth on average £500,000. Things are being increased not because of shortages but because of greed by certain organisations and people, but sadly our leaders walk in the same shoes as these people. It is truly time for the people of this country to waken up, because all that is facing you is penury, but by the time you come to your senses and realise it and start to complain those who got us into this debacle will be living it up on their multimillion pound yachts, or living on some exotic island away from it all and all  at your expense.        

Britain an Island of What?

Britain once knew where it stood in the world, we have politicians who still think that we are a world power and yet we can't run our own institutions>We have parents who don't send their children to school for whatever reason schools can apply to the courts to have the parents fined£50 if they don't send them this amount can be raised to £100 if they fail to pay within 42 days if they still refuse to pay it can be raised to £2000 and they can be sent to jail These institutions that are already at bursting point. Many parents refuse to pay and the courts are reluctant to send them to jail so they get off scot free. Weak laws carried out by weak government. Now there is talk about stopping their child benefits of £20.30 per week for the first, and £13.40 for the other children. Again a sop because nothing will come from these proposals. Why because of weak government, that has lost control Now we have talk about removing children from families where the parents are obese and so are their children.These children will be put into care and may never see their real parents again another idiotic proposal from a government that doesn't know how to handle the problem of obesity that is affecting a growing number of the population. Poor diet and junk food is one of the reasons. This may be true in part but who can afford to eat at McDonald's a couple of times a week? And as food prices increase this problem will only get worse.As poorer families suffer. But the biggest insanity of this country must be the report of a Para who lost both his legs and suffered brain damage in a road side bomb attack who was told that his compensation of one million pounds has been capped at just half that amount. Yet an RAF typist who suffered a repetitive strain to her thumb is set to receive £484,000. How these people can come up with an amount of compensation of that magnitude just beggars belief. But sadly this is how this country is now being managed. Is it any wonder that we are becoming the laughing stock of the world. The bigger the law breaker you are, the people who flout the law are not made to pay, but a man who served his country will suffer because of some brain dead bureaucrat who will save a few pounds on cutting his compensation but gives away millions to the scroungers and scum of the country. A country fit for heroes, the name hero should be replaced  with the words dead beat and scum. And that's being polite.The more we read about these atrocities with our monies the people of this country should rise up and tell their members of parliament that enough is enough. But sadly they or most of them have their noses in the trough that also covers their ears making them deaf to the real problems that are affecting the average honest hard working people of this once proud country.

Abortions

Whether you believe in abortions or not, it has to be to the detriment of the counrty that Britain has the worst record on abortions in the Western world and certainlt in Europe. Yet we spend millins of pounds of tax payers money on sex education and free contraception, yet we still have the highest numbers of children born to young mothers and not all out out of wedlock, even though conception in marrage is an old fashion concept. If we spend all this money on sex education and free contraception why have we the highest numbers of abortion in the western world? It's the womans right to decide, without consulting the father who may want the child, we are being told, or its a to easy  easy way to get rid of an unwanted child,  it doesn't matter what the reason. Then we again have the  so called experts who say that these women who have abortions will face long term mental problems in the future, it can't be guilt because many of these women have more than one abortion so it can't be because of a one night stand mistake. In 2010 there were 189,574 abortions these can't all be because of a one night stands or a drunken evening. These are mainly due to women and men who can't be bothered to take precautions. It doesn't matter what the statistics are, it is due to a lack or morals from a society that couldn't care less so long as the individual is ok. Lack of moral judgement in a society that is now governed by greed and self. The youth of today have little guidence from the leaders of todays society, many are our members of parliament or their wives  who scramble to get what they can an indulge and bath in the limelight of celebraty.

As I see it.

We are going to have the latest revelations next week from Alistar Darling the former chancellor. This in just a long line of past members of Tony Blair's, and Gordon Browns  governments. These people who are now out of government then  publish their memoirs,  telling  us how it was in cabinet. It would seem that they spent most of their time writing  for the day they were ousted. Their views are so contradictory to those of the other members of the cabinet it must make people wonder if they were all sitting at the same meetings. With the back stabbing, the snide remarks, and innuendos that went on it must make the average member of the public wonder how the country was run. Well we all know that without the revelations from these people, bloody badly. The one thing that does come out from all these peoples memoirs is that can you trust any of them to tell the truth, again the answer to that is no. But the really sad part is that these people who left the country in a financial mess receive hundreds of thousands of pounds, some times even running into millions of pounds for their memoirs even before they have sold a copy, and some go on lecture tours spouting their memories and speeches to the gullible foreign public when we got their lies for nothing, over thirteen or so years.. 

No Body Knows

No body knows least of all the average person in the street, but again it would seem neither do the so called economists. Now some are predicting a double dip recession that will throw the world into another financial crisis worst than the one we are just allegedly coming out of. We have all sorts of predictions and recommendations or suggestions how to avoid these things occuring. Now some are saying that the German  Government should reduce VAT  and impose higher taxes on savings to get the German people to stop   saving and encourage  the German people to start spending. The Germans are not a frugal nation but again they are not a nation that spends for the sake of spending like the citizens of certain other European Countriesa that have got Europe and other parts of the world into this financial situation. Germany has the lowest unemployment in the EU and the stronger wage growth. Germans are failing to carry their weight in the global economy because they don't consume enough, according to a report to be published this week by Fathom Financial Consulting. Germany has run a net trade surplus of 3.4 percent of GDP. If it were to switch that surplus into a defecit  of the same magnitude it would raise the level of non-German eurozone GDP by 2.4 per cent. If Germany is doing better that other EU countries because the Germans do not spend on items that they do not want, why should we critisise them, and want them to do so? So that they can pull the rest of Europe out of the self inflicted mire because of their greed. Because these nations citizens wanted to be like Viv Nichols to spend, spend, spend. That may be well and good if you have the money, but to continue to spend, spend, spend, when you dont have the money is rank stupidity, and to ask the German people to join that camp is even more criminal. This is like saying to them we are in a mess so please come and join us. I dont think so. 

The Runaway Gravey Trains

We the people were promised  a new and dynamic government with this coalition. Cameron was going to sweep away the Bonfire on the Quangos, it hasn't happened, we now have more people with over the top  salaries that the average person can only dream about. We have government ministers literally spending billions of pounds on their gold credit cards over 170,000 of them funded by the public. They are to numerous to mention, but its not only government ministers the police have credit cards funded once again by the tax payer, where the police spent £51.60 on designer lingerie, £1,258.94 on a lawn mower trips to Edinburgh Zoo £163.80 the list is endless, again this is running into millions of pounds. When the military is cutting back on defence spending or so we are being told where front line soldiers are being made redundant, what are the top brass doing.Nothing they are using helicopters for a trip of 16 miles costing £659, this is just one of the abuses by these overpaid Air Marshals and Admirals and Generals who have the use of aircraft chauffeur driven cars costing the tax payer millions of pounds this is their cosseted life style, that Cameron was going to curtail, but again it was only talk, why? because he like many of our ministers and senior people in the military, financial and diplomatic circles all eat at the same table, drink from the same poison chalice and piss in the same putrid pot, of their making, whilst the masses get poorer and poorer. Whilst many are now going to suffer over the coming months to pay their increased  fuel bills Cameron is off on his fifth holiday this year whilst many people can't afford one holiday. After the riots we have Cameron saying how he is going to fix it, then we have Tony Blair sticking his ten pence worth in. When his New Labour Government policies had more to blame for these troubles than Thatcher's  policies of 30  years ago. Policies that served Blair very well, can anybody name one of Thatchers policies that the Labour Government when in was in opposition said they would repeal. Not one. The government may change the policies or promised policies will change, but never do and those that do only benefit the rich and the criminal element in our society, as for the average honest tax payer. Keep paying because nothing will happen that will brighten up your daily lives. Oh yes we have the Olympic Games coming in 2012 that may brighten up some peoples faces for ten days or so, the only people who will benefit apart from the athletes are some businesses in the capital and surrounding areas as for the rest of the country keep paying your taxes because this is just another white elephant, that the government hopes you will enjoy because it deflects peoples view of what is really going on in the country.     

      

Energy Prices

We see today that Npower is to increase gas prices by 15.7% and electric by 7.2% and this after they announce increaes in profits. This is the fifth company of the six major energy companies to announce increases, and they say that they are not a cartel. It's about time thay parliament investigated these companies. We are seeing an increase in wind farms and turbines that cost in excess of a million pounds each and we are being told now that these costs will have to be passed on to the public over the next twenty years. Then prices will fall and if you believe that then you will believe that the moon is really made of cheese. If the government and parliament don't do something now then they will have troubles on their hands that will make last weeks riots seem like a picnic. There are going to be an estimated 12 million people heading for fuel poverty this year and that figure could increase if we have a severe winter and the government is completely oblivious to these peoples needs, believing what these companies when they say that its market forces that are causing these increase when in truth it's one word. Greed.  

Riots and who to blame.

With the riots now over hopefully and 1700 people have been arrested and the trials going on, its now that the blame mongers come out of the woodwork. Its due to poor housing, poor job prospects, hooligans, bad parenting gangs, people have a grudge against the police for what ever their reason rightly or wrongly. There is one thing that these "experts" seem to forget for every person they blame for many of the above reasons they forget the men women and children who live in these same conditions and do not cause any trouble, who live good honest lives and try to bring their children up to respect authority and law and order, but more importantly what is right and what is wrong. There is one thing for sure that we do not get much leadership from the top. We still have politicians who are only looking after themselves, who are still claiming expenses for items that they could pay for out of their salaries. We have recalled parliament to discuss the riots, we've had enquiries into the still on going phone hacking, yet parliament doesn't seem to want debate things that are more important to the average citizen. The increase in Utility bills the increase in fuel prices even though the price of oil has fallen. When parliament starts to debate these things then perhaps people will again start to have some respect for our leaders. We had David Starkey on Newsnight being berated for saying what he thought, caused some of the troubles he was called a racist, yet he's not. Then a few nights earlier we had Darcus Howe giving his point of view yet this is a man who has was given a  three month prison sentence in the sixties for assaulting a police officer going about his lawful duty, he has had three wives and has seven children by four different women, and said amongst other things that having children by various women was part of the Afro Caribbean culture. Yet he wasn't criticised, could it be that the authorities are scared of such people who don't know right from wrong. There is one thing for sure the Britain that the world thinks we are has gone for ever thanks to Tony Blair and his clique and others Britain is now heading down the path of a third world banana republic.    

Self Publisist

Today we seem to live in a world where certain people who have reached the publics eye try to maintain their position by apperaring in mundane game and quiz shows. This kind of thing is prolonged by these people going from show to show. The Chat shows are the worse, you come onto mine and I will come on yours so that the fickle public are having their brain cells destroyed by these people. Now we have the commons speakers wife Sally Bercow wanting to appear on Big Brother another show for failed or failing stars. In her case the last three letters of her surname say what she really is. Cow. 

Cameron the liar

When Cameron came to power he said that there was going to be a bonfire of the quangos, this has turned out to be a damp squib.The MoD has made 520 people redundant yet have hired another 1573 people? The Foreign Office has made no body redundant but has taken on another 295 people the list is endless so far 1570 people have lost their jobs but 4538 have been hired. Charlotte Cane a quangocrat has just left her job as director of resources at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, what ever that is? with a £225,000 payoff, then steps straight into another job at Engineering UK. The list is endless of people who are getting financial remunerations for doing next to nothing that benefits the country as a whole. With figures like this getting banded around the government then tells us that in the first ten months Whitehall budgets have been cut to the tune of £3.75 billion. Who do you believe when in the next breath former aid to Tony Blair Sir Michael Barber was paid £5,505 a day to advise the government on dolling out its vast foreign aid budget, after consultation his pay has now been reduced to ££4,404 a day. Four other consultants have been paid £910,000 for 250 days work. This at a time when British workers are having their salaries cut or frozen. This is only the part of the iceberg that we see what goes on behind closed doors? Again this from a government and prime minister who promised open and transparent government but all we get are more lies. Surely this is time that the people of this country started to do something instead of taking all this crap. 

Phone Hacking Again

Now that parliament has gone on holiday till September will the phone hacking debacle go away. The obvious answer is yes, one thing for sure is that the population has lost interest in it. Apart from certain tabloids and magazines that have nothing better to print. I wish that parliament would spent as much time debating  the things that concern the majority of the population, not just a minority of 4000 or so people. The rising prices in domestic fuel bills when at the same time the utility companies are raising prices and crying how their profits are down due to the increases in the world markets. How do the people who are affected by these increases sustain such increases when they are being told that they can,t have a pay rise because the country is in trouble financially, and this is not as a result of their incompetence but the previous governments and the banks. People want answerer's to these problems not phone hacking. We know that we have corrupt politicians and some police officers at senior levels, as well as certain Lords who mix with the super rich yet don't want the public to know about that.These are the people who are trying to form a New World Order, you have only to look at the European Union to see how corrupt these  leaders are. They are the minority of people who hold sway over 360 million people in Europe, yet they are changing slowly what the EEC was originally intended for, that was going to benefit the whole of Europe. The European Economic Union.that principal has been eroded over the past fifty years. So that the power is now with a few hundred people and many of these people are not accountable because they have never been elected. These people meet in secret and behind closed doors to drink from the same chalice, and piss in the same pot. Then tell us that we have open and transparent governmental leaders  

Corruption and the Police

With the investigation by parliament into the phone hacking scandal and the police officers who have resigned could drag on for years and its not this first time that officers have been investigated with senior officers being sent to jail. In 1977 Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Drury was sent to jail along with 12  other officers for corruption and bribery others resigned. Today its senior officers not just cosying up to the media but to leading figures in society who have political influence. To much goes on in this country behind closed doors with people in political and social domain meeting for dinner parties and the like. The public never get to know what policies are being made that affects their lives. Policies that should be made and discussed in parliament not on the social circuit.

Phone Hacking Debacle

The on going phone hacking scandal is bringing up more information and resignations every day. It could be on the same scale as Watergate in 1972 when the affair brought about the imprisonment of the former Attorney General John Mitchell and the impeachment two years later of President Nixon. In 1963 we had the Profumo affair that saw the then minister for war John Profumo having to resign from parliament for lying to parliament, about his affair with Christine Keeler. Months later it brought about the downfall of Harold Macmillan's government. Though Profumo resigned from parliament he also resigned as a privy councillor, so as to save the queen being embaressed due to the fact that she would have had to revoke his position as a privy councillor. Today we have the phone hacking scandal that is bringing about possible prosecutions and the now resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson head of the Met. Yet we have a prime minister who took on Andy Coulson of the News of the World newspaper even though he was advised not to because he was carrying baggage from that paper over the phone hacking from four years previously. Perhaps it would be an honourable thing for this prime minister to fall on his sword as he is tainted with some of his dealings with at least some dubious people within his circle of acquaintances. Again I want my leaders to be like  Caesar wife above reproach and this I believe does not apply to the Prime Minister David Cameron. Who I believe should be tried if only for treason for the way that he has decimated Britain's Armed Forces, at a time when they are dealing with at least three on going major conflicts in the world. Its quite obvious that this person knows nothing about the history or the military of this country. 

Parliament and Priorities

With Parliament now spending time looking into the phone hacking debacle wouldn't it be more important for parliament to spend more time looking into things that affect more people than the 4000 who may have had their phones hacked into, of course this is wrong and it has opened up a can of worms that is involving people from all walks of life. Its showing that some of our police officers may be on the take which is illegal, so if they are committing criminal offences who can the public trust? Then we have the so called great and the good who have had dealings with Rupert Murdoch, go to his parties wine and dine with him or his cohorts, a minority of people who are not elected yet who hold to much power, and not for the good of the masses. But more importantly shouldn't parliament be spending more time looking into the cartels that supply our energy needs. They will not say that they are cartels but in all honesty who believes them when they put their prices up all within a percent or so of each other. Thatcher opened the industry to competition, but that does not happen. In any other free competition, such as super markets they reduce prices to get our custom. The utility companies put their prices up and say that it is due to world prices, then in the next breath announce profits in their billions. Not through efficiency but through theft. There are now or are going to be an estimated 12 million people in fuel poverty, or will be especially if we have another severe winter. We see recommendation being discussed in the European Parliament that will impact on the people of this country yet we see little debate bu our Parliament. The Bombardier contract is one thing that would not have happened in Germany or France, because their politicians are more astute to anything that affects their workers. Here politicians just shrug their  shoulders and say that they  are playing to the rules then watch as thousands of workers join the dole queue. We see Europe slowly trying to pass laws that make this country even poorer than it is. Migrants to receive British pensions when they haven't contributed to the system, Britain has protested but in the end European Law will over rule Parliament. British teams will have to display the European flag on their kit, they sat that this is only a proposal. Proposal today law tomorrow.  Now Brussels plans for Europe to take over our coastguards under some thing called harmonisation another word for them to take control of something that is British and one of the most reliable of such organisations in Europe as it is. Again European Bureaucracy getting out of control or to powerful for the betterment of the people. These things are called the Salami effect. keep taking little slices till they have the whole thing then it is to late to do anything. Wake up Britain, but wake up Parliament. 

Corruption at all levels of society.

As the on going debacle over Rupert Murdoch and his media empire drags more and more people into its web who can the people trust? We have senior police officers making excuses over the way they handled it. We have Andy Hayman who first looked into it, taking a job with the Times newspaper two months after retiring from the police, when there are probably plenty of reporters or journalists who were better qualified to work on that paper, but was he promised a job? We have senior ministers and MP's who are now criticising Murdoch, who only a few months ago were wining and dining with him. These same ministers and MP's are quite happy to take money for writing  articles for his papers. These same people who drink from the same cup and piss in the same pot as Murdoch and his cronies. These senior politicians who were quite happy to party with him, can they be  trusted yet they believe that they are the great and the good of society, when the truth is that they are as corrupt as the people in the criminal underworld. 

Ethiopia

This week it's 16years since the Live Aid concert for famine relief in Ethiopia. It raised an estimated £150 million. Today in the same country and other areas of the Horn of Africa we now see a reported 9 million people going hungry who are heading for a Relief camp in Kenya.Kenya is alleged to be suffering as well yet thousands of tourist go to this country and eat and drink well.Are these tourist oblivious to what is happening a few hundred miles away.But more importantly what did the £150 million that was raised all those years ago do did it help to provide wells for fresh water did it provide means for these people to grow their own food and provide declinations plants. Just giving them food was only a short term operation, that has come back to haunt this area of the world.

Pension Protests.

Its reported that over 750,000 demonstrated taking time off work and closing some government departments and schools. Yet all we seem to hear about are the so called well paid whinging teachers. One of them saying that they hadn't had a pay rise for two years well wake up and smell the coffee, so have millions of other workers. Then we had one who said that she didn't have to pay more into her pension to support the people with  private sector pensions. Again is this the calibre of teachers we have today? People in the public sector have pensions paid at around 13% contribution by the public, more than private sector employees are paying to their workers. 84% of public sector workers are in a pension scheme compared to 34% in the private sector. I think that that says a lot about who is getting the better pension deals. Again its the teachers who are complaining how hard they are done to. Lloyd's bank is getting rid of another 15,000 employees by 2015 this brings their numbers redundant to 45,000. In the public sector we have police officers and council workers loosing their jobs. How many teachers have lost their jobs due to financial cuts? Then we hear their union leaders say that teachers will leave the profession in droves. Where are they going to find employment when thousands of better qualified people are loosing their jobs? Once again doesn't this show how out of touch with reality many teachers are they live in an ivory tower, their pension has been protected year on year now they are going to have to contribute towards the pain we are all having to suffer.   

NIMBYISM

Britain today is becoming a country of self centered people. The £34 billion high speed train that is planned to go from London to Birmingham has hit the buffers if you'll pardon the pun because of the people with wealth who do not want it running through their gardens, these self centered people who don't bother when thousands of people have had their housed demolished to make way for motorways. These similar self centered people who are opposed to the third runway as Heathrow airport, who cancellation is prompting British Airways to move its operations to Madrid in Spain who's airport has four runways. These same people who are opposed to the third runway because it may impede on their lives with noise and disturbance to their tranquil way of life. These same people who don't bother about all this when they are jetting off on holiday to America or the Bahamas. These same people who leave in one year a carbon footprint that most people don't leave in twenty years. These are the people that are driving Britain to become a third world country, let alone a third world power. Other countries are driving their economies into the twenty first century these nimby people in Britain are driving us back into the nineteenth century. 

I'm alright Janet and John.

So hypocrisy isn't just left to the members of parliament and the CEO's of large institutions. Now the secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) appropriately initialled named as Christine Blower has taken an increase of £9,000 taking her pay up to £103,000 a rise of 10% as teachers start to go on strike to protect their pensions from government cuts. The union said that the pay increase was because she had moved up the pay scale and because of her length of service. MP Nicholas Boles accused her of "breathtaking  insensitivity" I think she is just waving two fingers at the people she is supposed to represent. Again its just arrogance on the part of another  over paid union leader, out of touch with the country and the working masses. 

MP's and pensions

Its reported in today's paper that MP's are proposing to ring fence their pensions as 750,000 public sector workers are pay more.Mp's pay up to 11% in pension contributions, An 11.9% contribution entitles MP's to retire on their full salary of £65,738 if they work for 40 years.Very nice. We will just see what goes on and whether MP's are looking after the country and the people as a whole or are again just making sure that they are well looked after.

NHS and costs

We keep hearing how the NHS is short of money yet we spend £3 billion on the treatment of drug adicts £730 million on providing methadone £1.7 billion on benefits to these adicts and a further £1.2 billion looking after their children. We spend millons on free contraception and sex education yet we have the highest pregnancy rate of single girls in Europe. We spend millions on medication to wean people of alcohol and tobacco. Yet at the end of the day no matter how much the state spends on these treatments the only thing that will make these people stop are the people themeslves and that comes from will power and that doesn't come in a package or a medicine bottle. We spend millions of IVF treatment, that was unheard of 25 years ago. Now I am sorry for people who can't have children through natures way but perhaps that's how nature works and if we tamper with it it brings other problems. We are spending over £2 billion treating the third world with preventative medicine with mass immunisation agains certain diseses. We hope to save the lives of an extra over 4 million children by 2015, all well and good, but this means an extra 4 million mouths to feed in an area of the world that is struggling to feed itself now. Europe sees mass immigration from underdeveloped countries with people looking for food and jobs in a world that no longer requires mass labour because of automation and robotics in industries that a few years ago were labour intensice. We see things increasing in price countries that have nenver known want now see the possibilities of going short of these things especially with fuel and food becoming more scarce. When these commodoties become even scarcer the people won't bother where they come from they will demand that their governments  go and get them no matter the cost  even if it means military force to get them. We are living in very sad but more dangerous times.

Money for immunisation programme.

Its all well and good Cameron giving £814 million for an immunisation programme to try and rid African countries of pneumonia and diarrhoea in children. We are giving more money than any other country in the world USA £275 million,  France £89 million, Germany £45 million. The programme hopes to save between 1.9 to 4 million lives by 2015. The programme has to be applauded.  In a world where one in seven children will go to bed hungry where one in four live in poverty, the statistics are endless. But now in a world that politicians and experts are saying that there is going to be a possible food shortage especially with the worlds climactic changes etc. Will these countries that now have trouble feeding their population be coming back in the future and be asking for food aid etc, when they have another 4 million mouths to feed. Perhaps we should first of all try and help these countries to increase there own food production  and provide them with desalination plants, in areas of drought. This will cost billions and I'm quite sure that Bill Gates will help as he is providing billions of dollars for this immunisation programme and other projects. 

How thick are the British?

The law of the country are now under attack it would seem from every position. There are now worries that the legal system concerning jurors is now getting to a state were certain jurors are using the Internet to contact friends and relatives to see what they think that the person they are trying may be guilty or not. Some have even e-mailed their friends on facebook to say that they are bored with jury service or that they have found the person guilty even before they have heard all the evidence. These things are against the jury system. Jurors are forbidden from discussing the cases even with close family and friends. The one way to stop such things happening is to inform jurors that if such a thing were to happen not only would they be found in contempt of court but they WOULD face a long term of imprisonment to deter such things. Then we now have the law saying that Britain cannot deport crooks and illegal immigrants because it might impact on their human rights. 102 killers and thugs have won the right to stop in this country because deporting them would impinge on their rights to a family life even though some of them have no families.One Bolivian criminal even escaped deportation because he owned a pet cat. Blackpool council evicted a family because they were terrorised their neighbours over a number of years. Now the family have won legal aid to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights They are expected to possibly win a huge payout in compensation even though they have admitted using abusive language and even death threats. They claimed that Blackpool council breached their "rights to respect for private and family life." Has this country gone completely insane? What about the "rights to respect for private and family life" for their neighbours. This country is now becoming a laughing stock to the rest of the world. Its about time that Britain removed its name from these insane Human Rights Acts, and brought in a Human Rights Act using Common Sense.  

Europe needs a leader.

According to Tony Blair Europe needs an elected leader, but will the 336 million people of the 27 European countries elect this person or will it be left to the countries leaders to do it? He said that it would give Europe a clear leadership and enormous authority on the world stage. "The rational for Europe today is about power not peace" something Blair has always wanted power. He says that there is five areas where Europe should forge closer links.These are tax policy; social reforms; forging a common energy policy; a common defence policy; and a common immigration and organised crime policy. These are areas that would be hard to implement NATO is under threat from the Americans who are saying that member states should be paying more and not relying on America to fund the biggest part of the costs. Immigration has failed with the Schengen agreement of open boarders, that now allows people from non EU countries to flood into Europe, as certain member states allow thousands of these immigrants EU documentation especially when the immigrants say that they want to go to Britain. He says that Europe can't compete with the growing economies of  China, India, Brazil and Indonesia. This is possible quite true, when the governments of these countries do not respect their populations wishes, or force through policies that the EU countries would not tolerate. Poverty  wages, forcing millions of people of their land and out of their houses to build things like the  Gorges dam  project in China. India spends £10 billion on armaments and £I billion on trying to put a man on the moon when there are billions of Indians living in poverty. The EU can never compete with these countries till they are placed on a fair footing in wages and social mobility, and democracy at the Western countries have. The one thing that Blair does in speeches like this is to try and find more power for himself. This from a man that left Britain nearly bankrupt with his policies, who left office only to turn himself into a multimillionaire. With speeches and writing, and working for the big institutions. Yes Blair wants this but not for the good of the 336 million people of Europe but for himself and his clique. 

Food poverty as N Europe hit by drought.

What are governments doing as the climatic weather conditions are changing throughout the world, or seem to be. Northern Europe is facing the worst drought for over 35 years. In France water restrictions have been put in force in certain areas,Germany has had twice as many hours of sunshine than it would normally expect in the spring. They have had just 5% of their normal standard rainfall France also said that if they do not get substantial rain then their nuclear power plants may have to shut down because there will not be enough water to cool the reactors. Germany has also said that after the nuclear accident in Japan that it is going to permanently close their nuclear reactors and rely more on wind power, 22% of Germany's electricity comes from nuclear, they will now face massive increases in electricity prices as new power cables will have to be laid across Germany to carry the electric from these wind turbines that are going to be built in the North Sea on  the Northern coast of Germany to the industrial regions of the south of Germany. But whilst this happens they may have to return to coal fired power stations, this at a time when the world is talking about the green economy. In Britain is this just another way to raise taxes on something that may never happen on the scale that certain people anticipate. Food, Electricity, Gas, all these commodities are going to increase in price over the coming years. Europe it would seem is going to feel not only the credit crunch but poverty on a mass scale, this will certainly divide the continent and at a time when governments keep giving moneys to third world countries whilst at home people see their living standards slowly eroded will cause the people to riot and demand that their governments look after them first. I believe that this will start in the European Union when the individual members citizens demand of their governments that they come first, not the other .countries of Europe.

 

Sharon Shoesmith and Baby P.

"A child dying does not equal a department in disarray" Sharon Shoesmith said, this week  and she may have a small point but it does go to show that social service heads haven't learnt from past tragedies. When Maria Colwell was murdered by William Kepple her stepfather in 1973 he was given eight years in prison later reduced to four years on appeal.  there was a national outcry not only in the media but throughout the country at her death. People in authority ringing their hands saying that this tragedy should never happen again in a caring society. Since then we have child abuse and deaths on a regular occurrence. We have had child abuse throughout history, but since 1945 we've had Dennis O'Neil aged 13, Toddler Holdsworth 2, in 1956, Michael Buckingham 18 month old in 1967. Since Maria Colwell we've had 20 month old Martin Nicoll in 1991, we had 8year old Victoria Climbie, in that same year we had Lauren Wright 6 years old. The list is endless. What do the people in authority do? They have a judicial enquiry they have endless reports costing millions of pounds. Yet at the end of these expensive reports and reviews, nothing happens the abuse still goes on and people like Sharon Shoesmith greatly over paid says that there is nothing that will stop this kind of happenings occurring again. With that  kind of attitude is it any wonder that these abuses and deaths continue. She and people like her sit in their ivory towers overpaid looking out on the world but do nothing positive, and leave the dirty work to low paid over worked social workers. If nothing can't be done to stop this kind of abuse isn't the system at fault? In the last eight weeks of baby Peters life he suffered repeated injuries even though he was visited 60 times by social workers, police officers and doctors. Surely  some of these so called professional people should have spotted something. Or again were they just going through the motions? Did  any of these people having the slightest inclination that baby Peter was in danger not pass their concerns on to people higher up the chain of command or again are there to many levels of bureaucracy before you reach some body that has the power to act. Sharon Shoesmith  for example. What has angered people about her is her arrogance and her remark about "I don't do blame, I'm not in the blame game." No not blame but responsibility, she was paid big money and that big money was to take responsibility for what went on in her department and as such she failed. Perhaps Ed Balls went about dismissing in the wrong manner  but most people would agree that he was correct in dismissing her.

Which side of the fence do they sit on?.

With the on going debacle over injunctions and superinjunctions why should we take any notice of the judges that have issued them? Mr Justice Eady has issued 11 injunctions, but when he was a QC he defended tabloid newspapers to expose the private lives of public figures. Then we have Mrs Justice Sharp, as a barrister acting in libel cases she would frequently criticise the privacy orders she now dispenses. She has now upheld seven injunctions. It looks like these are the kinds of people who have ridden  with both the hounds as well as the foxes. Who says that the leopard can't change its spots, or does it really depend on which side of the judiciary you now sit on.It looks like the law means nothing to them, when it comes to more power and status

What open and transparency.

I see at the question and answer session at No 10 Downing street when the BBC reporter Nick Robinson asked the prime minister amongst other things, in fact it was the first part of his question about the sending of Apache helicopters to Libya, he completely  ignored answering that part of the question So much for open and transparent government Again it's, I'll only answer what I want to and ignore the parts of the question I don't want to. 

Chris Huhne

With the debacle going on over Chris Huhne's alleged memory about not knowing if he was driving on the day in question can any body truly believe him? Unless he has that many driving offences that he can't tell one from another. I have been done twice for speeding offences and they are both clear in my mind now as the day I committed them, even though there is over twenty odd years between them. The first was  23 years ago and it was on Ascension Thursday, the police officer was standing in the road with his hand up. I had been clocked speeding by the machine in his car. I went back to his car and he showed me the reading 59.9 mph in a 30 mph area, he informed me that if I had been doing 60 mph I would be facing not only a fine but a  three month ban. I had to take all my relevant documentation to the police station and my driving licence was sent away to have the 3 penalty points endorsed on it. As I sat in the police station I remember the officer coming in to the station, his book under his left arm his cap balanced on the back of his head. "I've had a great evening" he said when asked by the desk sergeant what his night had been like, then he saw me and smiled bidding me a good evening as he disappeared behind the desk door. The other speeding offence was in Germany when a speed camera flashed me doing 5 kilometers over the 50 kilometer limit, I received notification of my cars number plate and a photograph of me behind the wheel of the car, there was no possibility of me saying that I wasn't the driver of the car. I received a 30 Euro fine but no penalty points. Both instances are as clear as daylight so I don not believe for one minute when Huhne says he cant remember. If he can't then in my opinion he shouldn't be in the position he is because its quite clear that he can't be trusted to tell the truth on more serious matters in government.

Super injunctions

The media is still filed with the talk about super injunctions and the rights of celebrities to have their private lives kept out of the media. This is all well and good but when these celebrities court the public lime light, "come and look at my home, see what I've got "etc. When they want to show off, its a different matter though when they commit an indiscretion and they take out these injunctions so as not to upset their families is a load of rubbish, they should have thought about their families before they set out to betray them for their own selfish ends. Do we want parliament to discus it and perhaps pass laws that forbid the media to check out these stories, I don't think so. Can we trust parliament, again I don't believe so. If laws were passed by parliament would we ever find out about their dalliances and goings on,. Would the media have been able to find out about the financial scandals over MP's misappropriation of public moneys. I don't think so. But more importantly now as the people in power in both government and big business become more and more greedy in their business dealing with finances that reach into billions of pounds with corruption at nearly every level of government and business, the public has not only a need to know but a right. We read today about a high ranking former civil servant who has been given and taken gifts in the region of £250,000 whilst dealing with the NHS department. We read of civil servants who have  Gold credit cards issued by the government were over £1 billion has been frittered away on trips to adventure parks, buying pizzas and boxes of wine, this seems to be happening in most government departments as a perk, and this at a time when we are all been told that things are get even tighter for the electorate.  It would seem that the country needs a free press more now than at any other time in our history. Corruption, greed and self indulgence,  seems to be on the increase by the people who think that they are better than the rest of us. Its not being nosie its been informed about the abuse by these people be they politicians or celebrities. Perhaps they should remember that the more they try to avoid the scandal the longer it goes on  and more it sticks when it does come out. Today's headlines are tomorrows chip papers,. But perhaps these people  would be better remembering what The Duke of Wellington said when he was being blackmailed, Publish and be Damned.

    

NHS Funding Debacle.

We have ten hospitals in the North West now facing repayments of over £100 million this year because of the Labour Parties PFI scheme. PFI has paid out an estimated £11 billion to build hospitals and some schools the tax payer not the government will have to pay over £66 billion in interest on these commitment. That is why some hospital trusts may have to be taken over by private companies because they are basically bankrupt. PFI schemes were schemes that would make private companies rich at the expense of the tax payers. Anybody with a modicum of sense could see that moneys borrowed would have to be repaid. When they were introduced didn't the government of the day realise that these schemes were to make money for the investors not for the benefit of the people, i.e. you and me as tax payers. Again this was a scam for the rich to get richer at the expense of the people, endorsed by a government that has never been fit to run the economy. Things can only get better so Tony Blair told us in 1997, well he should have sang Things can only get better for me. He helped to leave this country on the verge of bankruptcy, he got out in time leaving the ex-chancellor to become prime minister who is as much to blame as Blair for the mess we are in to carry the can. Now there is talk about that wooden top taking over as the head of the IMF, God help us all if he gets the job.

Right Wrong Rich Or Poor

There has been much debate over the past weeks coming to a head with Liam Fox saying that there should be a fresh look at the overseas aid budget. Whilst most people would agree that we should be helping the underdeveloped countries of the world to help their starving millions. At a time when the British people are facing austere measures, when as many as 25% of the population are expected to be in fuel poverty before the end of the year and again perhaps even more if we suffer another cold winter, like last year. India is estimated to have at least half a billion of its population below the poverty line Britain is giving in excess of £280 million to a country that has more billionaires and millionaires than we have. A country that is spending in excess of £10 billion on military weapons. There are people like Barbara Stocking of Oxfam who says that giving this money boosts our standing in the world, perhaps she is quite correct. There are those who say that giving money to these countries may encourage them to buy British goods. If that is true then I hope that India buys the British Built Euro Typhoon Fighter over the French built Rafal, but then we would get Barbara Stocking probably condemning this. Again if we are talking about the rights and wrongs and the moral issues is it morally correct for the India Government to spend over £1billion a year on their space programme, when they have so many starving citizens? We are kept being told that Britain can afford to give this money 0.7% of GDP yet we are facing severe cuts to local authorities, the police forces of the country, the armed forces are suffering cuts to men and equipment even as we face  continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and now in Libya. We here and read about government waste in billions of pounds in the MoD with projects overspent or cancelled. We see now that the NHS's computerised system for patient records is increasing from a £3 billion cost to a final estimated cost of £10 billion, and there are some people who say that it will not work anyway. Perhaps we have to many civil servants in jobs that fail at every level of costing and procurement, yet nobody is accountable or sacked for gross incompetence. It's all kept quiet to give  the Gaelic shrug of the shoulders, as some incompetent  in authority is quietly shuffled off to another department and with a substantial pay rise. Perhaps before we continue to give overseas aid we would be better off sorting out our own house, save billions of pounds of tax payers money here at home, then we could give more in overseas aid and the public would not be as unhappy at what they deem as  waste.