Why no pay freeze ?

We are being told by Gordon Brown that senior civil servants, dopctors etc will have to show restraint with a 1.5% pay increase next year, when we are told that inflation is near zero.

So that's a real terms pay increase at times of national economic crisis.

Surely the only responsible thing would be a pay freeze ?

Or perhaps, like the Bank of England's pension fund, they know inflation is coming back ?

Or perhaps the rising CPI inflation has them spooked ?

Any way you put it we are either being conned or lied to.

Lib Dems - claiming here !

OK the expenses bun fight is one where all parties are going to have embarrassing revelations, but I especially enjoyed this one from Guido that shows that Lib Dem MPs have the highest claim rates !

So armed with my Fib Dem handbook of starting scales at any point that suits me and trying to engaged in fake outrage I came up with the graph below. ( Hey local Fib Dems you remeber when you put out that election literature that claimed Conservative Surrey CC had made cuts of £50million, without telling people that Labour had cut Surrey's grant by the same. Or when you put leaflets through peoples doors saying Councillor **** wants to know your views - when they aren't a councillor in that Conservative Ward. Well this is just a little payback. And that's before you get me onto dodgy bar charts comparing votes from different elections etc .)

Nice to know the Lib Dems are winning at something !

MP Expense claims have shown the Lib Dems, on average, claim the most.

PS Just to save the yellow ones the effort of commenting I recognise it most likely to be because their MPs are based as far from London as almost possible ( but not as far as we'd like ! ).

Can Brown survive beyond June ?

Catch Matthew Parris in the Times:

It's about Mr Brown. He isn't any good. He's failing. He's embarrassing. He's dreadful. His colleagues know this. Yet they are gripped with a terrible fatalism, sliding towards election defeat as though catastrophe were unavoidable.

Will Labour try one last coup before the end ?

[ Much more work needed today, so let me leave you with that. ]

Is Brown planning to boost housing debt just as interest rates may have to rise to save his skin ?

The Telegraph has one of those deeply depressing articles today. They report that Gordon Brown just hasn't listened to anyone, least of all Dan Hannan, over the last week.

He's planning on trying to "get the mortgage market going again". Yes its time for more Debt everyone, because it worked so well last time.

Combine that with the warning yesterday that interest rates will have to rise fast and aggressively if inflation gets worse than it is ( and remember it is still way over target with major inflationary events yet to work their way through - you can't trust what you hear from the Beeb on economic, they are just too desperate to keep Labour in power.)

What should start to worry all of us is the constant talk about the housing market and consumer confidence. When did we ever learn to accept that those where the main indicators of a healthy economy.

What about the balance of trade and the national debt. The Daily Mail yesterday had a truly frightening projection of the national debt under Brown.

I've called for criminal prosecution of key ministers for what they are doing, and I'll do so again. We should try to prove they are acting in personal and party interest and not national interest. And then put them in cells to reflect on the lies they told and mysery they have inflicted.

PS Man in a Shed is reading up on Peter Schiff these days, and is trying to recall his 'O' level economics. I have a fealing that we are being decieeved about the long term consequences of government actions and our current state of true wellbeing again, and I'd like to be able to express it.

Update Or to put it another way see the Cartoon here.

Capitalists@Work: How long before a UK gilts strike?

Here's an explanation as to why yesterdays short term gilts sale worked when the long term didn't.

You won't have heard it on the BBC. But then telling the public the Quantitative Easing is also just handing money out to the banks won't advance the cause of the re-electing a Labour government will it ?

Capitalists@Work: How long before a UK gilts strike?

PS I note "Insanity Brown" is now trying to mention that he's reduced interest rates, before coming on to his failure in "Fiscal Stimulus". So the Bank of England was never independent then eh Gordon ?

What wouldn't Brown do to stay in office ?

Because I'm beginning to wonder. Just consider some of the evidence:

1. Sell out our ability to control our own banking system ( he's been volunteering that if only the EU will give him good publicity at his G20 election rally ).
2. Sell out his country to the EU ( Tick - done when signing the Lisbon treaty ).
3. Enslave the whole population to more debt than was run up fighting the Nazis (Tick - Pretend help now - Real pain later. )
4. Refuse to reform public services in case it damages his plans to become prime minister and allows him to annoy Tony Blair (Tick - the NHS now kills people by the plane load at some hospitals ).
5. Send our forces to fight, but refuse to provide them with the equipment to do the job - but just lie about it hoping people won't notice (Tick ).
6. Destroy the English Constitution to try and get back some Catholic votes lost when the organised murder of unborn children and experimentation on human embryos and creation of Frankenstein hybrids was authorised, along with outlawing Christian morality on human relations and treating Christian couple who want to adopt/foster as criminals (Just working on it with the palace as we speak on the first part - Tick everywhere else).
7. Fund Islamic extremism with public money (apparently to stop Terrorism !!) and completely fail to enforce the law on immigration leading to millions of people who are now starting to form colonies in the country rather than integrate (Tick - as long as they vote Labour he doesn't care about the future ).
   

The costs of Gordon Brown's mistakes from the pre-election bride at Rover, through selling gold at the low in the market and the pathetic minor (but expensive ) adjustment to VAT and the billion upon billions spent on Scottish banks to be paid for by English people and their children and their children.

As I've said elsewhere the mood on Labour and Brown is turning ugly. If I was a Labour MP I would go out in disguise on the streets for the shame of being associated with Gordon Brown and the pathetic party that puts its own expense accounts ahead of the good of the country.

Advertising on your blog

Last week Economist had an article on the impending doom of services such as Twitter who haven't figured out how to make money yet. ( Whilst I'm a happy Twitter user I can't really see it lasting that long in its current form ).

This got me thinking about if services such as Blogger, which we don't pay for, shouldn't carry adverts.

For what its worth Blogger is a great service, but it occurs to me that it must be hard to make it pay. And ultimately things that don't pay stop. So I'm wondering about running google adverts here.

Any thoughts ?

I used to take the view that having adverts on your blog was a bit much, but now I'm coming round to the idea that perhaps it would be more consistent with my view of the world to either pay for a blog service or run adverts.

The Iraq inquiry timing

Yesterday the gap year student who is interning as the Foreign Sectary, David Miliband, indicated that the long awaited Iraq inquiry would start after UK troops are pulled out of Iraq in July.

The BBC reporters hinted that the main issue here could be the general election, and Labour wanting to set the terms of the inquiry but not have it report till after the election.

This would achieve two things:
1) The stop a Conservative government giving the inquiry its terms of reference - which could be disastrous for Labour.
2) It avoids the inquiry concluding before a general election.

But I was just wondering if in fact some in Labour might like it before and general election and to report before that election, to avoid any fall out during the leadership election in Labour that will follow their impending defeat.

After all its Labour party members who are some of the angriest people about the decision to go to war with Iraq.

Surely Miliblogger isn't that devious is he ?

What you will never see on the BBC

Subject of conversation are allowed in the BBC radio at 8am in the morning that mean I have to turn it off to protect my children. Even the BBC's kids channels have sketches about how disgusting birth is (watched in horror by my daughter - you'd think your kids were safe with a dedicated TV channel for kids) [ for the Beeboids monitoring it was the bit with the presenter and the Cactus puppet "Oucho"]. That kids TV then turns into Youth TV (aka BBC 3) and programmes like weird eating disorders at 7pm if you don't rush to the TV to pull the plug. ( Again just what I want my Daughter watching. )

But trashing peoples lives, morality is fine for the BBC. The type of TV interview above, however, will never happen.

And I have to pay a TV poll tax for this left wing immoral propaganda.

Your running out of our money !

Dan Hannan puts the knife in. Good man, but I fear its all too late. Brown is on his insane campaign to try to get other people to join his election bribe borrowing binge fiscal stimulus plan.

Even the Queen's worried. She had the governor of the Bank of England in yesterday, a very unusual move. The governor, Mervyn King, went on to warn about further borrowing at the Treasury select committee.

I wonder if the Queen might consider dissolving Parliament if Brown's fiscal policy looks like ruining the country for the next 50 years, on the basis - that I have argued - that he has no popular mandate to do so. Cameron should try and find out.

Update 15:22 25 Mar 09: Dan Hannan's speech is becoming a Youtube hit and has been posted almost in unison by bloggers ( see Plato Says here ). Guido is claiming some influence in getting it onto the Drudge report . The Daily Telegraph, suddenly reaslising the star on its payroll has a link on its web page and the stats are mounting fast.

Political Betting is reporting people placing bets on Dan Hannan for next Tory leader .... At 200/1 I'd say those odds look good.

Of course the BBC is ignoring it.


I attach the above screen shot to remeber this happy moment when America is introduced to what we really think of Brown.

Update 26 Mar 09

Dan Hannan's speech is now going mainstream in the US with Fox news and Rush Limbaugh making it a key issue. Still not a squeak out of our media (esp the BBC - except for the bloggers screaming in the comments section ), but over 2/3 of a million viewers of his speech so far !

This is going to be one of the most fanous replies to a speech ever made ( no one will remeber what Brown droned on about ).

And of course I should have added a link to Dan's own blog report on this event. Notice how he credits being outside the EPP as giving him the opportunity to speek !

The First Post has also caught up with the sudden star status of its regular contributor.

Further Looks like the BBC has finally had to admit defeat as it can expect to be reminded of this omission for years to come. But its doing so a grumpily as possible.

In the mean time a Labour voting friend of mine has just "told me" about the Dan Hannan reply, since he's been emailed by friends int he US who are telling him to have a look.


The BBC News web site now has a link which looks like its to the speech, but is really just the hatchet job The Daily Politics did on it ( this is being done grudgingly ). They also fail to put a link to the Youtube speech - preventing BBC readers from making up their own minds with out BBC reporter chaperoning and prefixing any debate with "hardly known", just of interest to obsessives etc.

More hypocrisy from Gordon Brown over MPs pay

So Gordon Brown is trying to deflect the bad publicity which his minister, Tony McNulty, who has been exposed claiming £60k allowances he didn't need by "calling for an inquiry". And to make sure there will be plenty to smear the Tories with, wants to include other jobs.

But hold on doesn't he have another job as well as being an MP ? Well two actually:

• Gordon moonlights as the Prime Minister ( a job he gained in a bloodless coup against the elected prime minister Tony Blair ).
• He's also Leader of the Labour party !

But of course he only means jobs that might connect MPs with the real world, ie "outside" jobs, and preferably ones he can use to attack the Conservatives with, since they have the unfair advantage of having people with real talent as MPs.

"Human rights abuses" in war

Predictably the UNHRC is reporting a few incidents of Israeli human rights abuses during its military action in Gaza.

My guess is that even if they aren't true, others probably are. I base this on reading Max Hastings accounts of the end of the second world war with Germany and Japan, which especially focus on individual experiences. Nothing that happened in Gaza comes close to the terror and whole scale murder that occurred in both those conflicts. And Max Hastings is careful to point out that the excesses were not just on the Axis side, though the stories of the Battle for Manila or the starvation of the Netherlands and of course the Holocaust make it clear where the bulk of the vast blame lied.

The truth appears to be that under the stresses of battle people do unexpected things and their primal nature come to the fore. In an event when you expected survival can be measured in minutes or seconds, the pressures of civilisation can fall away or prove stubbornly hard to move. ( On the western front many allied soldiers never aimed their weapons as they had an aversion to killing, leaving advances to be achieved by overwhelming artillery).

Reading these accounts also makes me realise that I can't know for sure how I would behave until confronted with the threat itself. The mass and systematic rapes of the Red Army look horrific, but then so where their conditions of service, life expectancy and the blood price the Russians paid to reach Berlin ( a price the armies of the democracies where clearly not willing or able to pay ). The behaviour of German, and especially SS units appears to have been just evil. But who can be so sure they would not have joined in if they had been born in Russia or in Germany in those days ?

I have also met Israelis and Palestinians. Some, many, are civilised and good people. But some have a visceral hatred of each other. Put those people in uniform, arm them, and put them in fear of their lives and very nasty things are going to happen. There are few armies in the world from the British, through to US via Canadian and French and even Dutch who can reflect with 100% satisfaction about the behaviour of all their soldiers over the last 60 years.

Little mention seems to appear in the media of the use of UN facilities by Hamas, its own use of human shields, its regular attempt to kill random civilians and its execution of Fatah supporters in hospitals as they lied in bed.

So I conclude that UNHRC is mostly engaged in ambulance chasing with a specific agenda to pursue.

War is ugly. High explosives do horrfic things to human bodies, and cornered frightened soldiers and militiamen cannot be relied upon to be always saints.

We all know this when we think about it. If UNHRC wasn't reporting human rights abuses, it would be a safe bet they took place, as they do in almost every conflict int he world. ( The Lady from SriLanka who headlines the report might like to return home to see how her own military is behaving with its own civilians. )

But what is really happening is that this is political theatre to attempt to weaken Israel.

If the world cared about those who live in Gaza it would send in military forces to police the area, save the people and guarantee peace. But that's not the real agenda of those who make so much fuss. They too are using the suffering of civilians to advance their own agenda - and is that not a war crime itself ?

PS It is of course right that crimes carried out in war are reported and if possible punished. My point is that we cannot act surprised that they happen given the nature of such conflicts, and we should question those who are so keen to allow the policy of using the people of Gaza as a mass human shield to advance their own agendas, which is surely also a war crime.

So what is going on with national statistics ?

I'm not a little confused. On other occasions I spend a few interesting hours looking round the Office for National Statistics ONS's web site. A good place to go for the latest inflation figures for example.

So not quite remembering the web address I tried google and came up with:

1. The ONS site ( ok that's what I was after ).
2. UK National Statistics Hub ( A what ? )
3. UK Statistics Authority ( Who ? )

And that without really trying.

So my taxes are being well spent eh ?

The double standards of our politicians

Here we go again. This time is Tony McNulty. Can you believe it ?

He's an effective defender of the indefensible on TV and radio, one of Labour's last stonewallers. He certainly tries to give an impression of being a man of the people.

So surely he knew that the £60k for a second home a few miles from his first was wrong ? Wasn't the allowance to allow parents to stay close to Parliament ?

Its been said many times before, but what strikes me is that if any one of us Non-MPs/Political class did this we would be looking at an appearance in county court and even prison.

If Mr McNulty had any sense of shame he would stand down as a MP.

But he won't because the gravy wagon is just too good to get off.

Soon he'll be back on our radios defending the Labour government and trying to sound like a man of the people again. He'll know the button to push, the focus group tested phrases to deploy and fake anger and plain rudeness to use against his opponents. but remember he's Mr £60k - your £60k which you would go to prison if you didn't offer up as a tribute to New Labour.

Time to sober up

I've just watched the news for the first time today on BBC's news 24. The BBC is ecstatic that Ken Clarke has indicated that reducing inheritance tax may not be the first priority an incoming Conservative government, given the disastrous state of the public finances.

Add this to the row over the 45p tax rate, with David Cameron saying it will be necessary to help repay the debts Brown is running up.

Both these are very uncomfortable for many Conservative supporters. The 45p tax rate was just a ploy by Labour, it won't bring in the money. And David Cameron's accepting it is also mostly a signal. Yes its a step back to excessive taxation of the past, but the excessive spending of the present makes for difficult choices.

These things are anyway small beer compared to the savaging of peoples finances and net worth that is currently occurring due to pension funding collapse, Brown anti-Private sector stealth pensions taxation, near zero percent interest rates ( for savers ) and the debasement of our currency that the Bank of England is carrying out to buy government debt, and give the large boast to inflation that will rob by stealth more of the middle classes.

Its time to sober up. No one is going back to the Brown/Bush Ponzi scheme of the last ten years. ( Yes Mr Bush should have known better also. )

Recently David Cameron apologised for not grasping the nature of the economic car crash Gordon Brown has created. That might be tactical, but it could perhaps also be genuine. He may be horrified about whats coming.

The future is going to be about the hard facts of life that New Labour was all about pretending don't apply. We have economic and social collapse under the deluded narrative of New Labour, that far too many of our fellow citizens accepted at face value.

It could also be that Ken Clark's comment s make a election tax bribe either paid for by yet more insane borrowing or printed by the Bank of England harder to carry of by the shameless Labour government.

We're heading for hard times, and the sooner we accept this, the sooner we can get on with finding our way through, and fixing the out of control state Labour has created.

Just some comments

Blogging's going to be light over the next few days or even week since I have a deadline coming up and my internet connection has some sort of problem.

But a few brief notes on current events:

1) Very glad to see David Cameron starting to grasp the nettle of the financial mess and destitution Labour will leave after the next election.
2) Disappoint, but not surprised, by Yvette Cooper's knee jerk reaction to 1). Show she just thinks of politics not the country.
3) Why is little the government says coming to pass ? They said they were bringing forward capital projects, but yesterday we heard they were not providing the money for some academic building programs that they have in principle authorised. Doesn't that mean really the money is running out ? ( Or in reality the capacity to raise and support debt is running out ).
4) National debt is sky rocketing and with 2 million heading to 3 million is going to get far worse. From personal observation I've seen a lot of middle class people losing their jobs, and that will have a large impact on tax revenues.

On my internet connection interestingly my tweetings have come to the attention of Virgin Media who I guess are in the process of figuring out how to use a tool like twitter. If your reading guys my advice would be to use it as a way of broadcasting local servicing issues to geographic groups - eg a @WokingVirginMedia to broadcast service issues, if any. Speaking for myself the most annoying thing about any outrage is not knowing what caused it or when it will end. ( The cause of my issues has yet to be determined and may be the cable modem itself or something on VM's system. But of course I'll have to wait for it to fail again before chasing it up. Intermittent faults are the worse kind to track down. )

[Sent via email]

Humfrey Malins to stand down at next election

I just picked this up from the Blug Blog ( via Iain Dale) where Sir Humfrey Malins announces his plan to stand down at the next election.

Whilst his reasons make perfect sense, I'm a bit shocked nether the less.

Croydon's loss has been Woking's gain in getting an independent minded, capable and honourable man as MP, who has worked hard for the whole community and the greater good.

He'll be missed.

IMF poised to print billions of dollars

Is it just me or do you get a great sense of foreboding when your read that headline also ?

( Full headline "IMF poised to print billions of dollars in 'global quantitative easing' " in DT 18Mar09, Edmund Conway )

It looks like no one will stump up the cash for the IMF, so the IMF will be allowed to create it. (Given a similar dilemma isn't that what our government is doing ? ) In reality this just steals it from those who hold cash. A form of global wealth redistribution. Must be Gordon Brown's idea.

Holding notes with the words "I promise to pay the bearer on demand" is getting more and more risky.

"I think it's essential that Labour wins the next election for the sake of the country," Gordon Brown

Personally I subscribe to the opposite view.

Why should anyone believe they have the answer for the future when its now a simple matter to demonstrate they either they had no idea what they were doing since 1997, or they have worked deliberately to bring the countries economy to its knees ( take you pick, because both interpretations fit ). Even Blair says the period of economic stability was luck ( we'll it was worse than that - it was false and borrowed on the future, a debt we are all now picking up ).

Surely even Labour supporters can see that Gordon Brown is deluded ?

Ref: Guardian interview by Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour over at the left's favourite tax optimising bonus paying Guardian.

Educated in debt

Today two headlines awaited me on my yahoo email account:

Strict laws for credit card firms

The Government is planning to introduce tougher laws for credit card firms to reduce the temptation to get into debt, it has been reported.

Study suggests university fees rise

The first looks like Labour finally waking up to the disaster of personal debt in this country ( I guess its almost impossible even for the deluded New Labour project to ignore now). The two suggestions are sensible and indeed welcome enough, though very small beer.

Then we have a call ( though the Universities spokesperson on R4 denied he was doing that a few minutes ago - certainly looks like it to me) for higher tuition fees for students. Now I'm old enough to remember the massive row over student loans for living expenses under the last Conservative government - with all the lefties now in government lined up on the other side of the argument.

But it strikes me that the two are linked.

We have started launching people from University (which now bizarrely means about 40% of the population) in debt. Add to that credit cards and bank accounts that don't stop at zero, but are a continuum. When Man in a Shed went for a drink at Uni he got a fiver out of the cash machine (yes it was that long ago ) and when it was spent the night and beer where over. With electronic cash no such limit now exists, and with state enforced debt you no longer feel bad about it.

Add to that the until last year received wisdom that the bigger a mortgage you could grab the richer you'd be in the end through inflating house prices and you can see how personal debt has got into the problem we're in now.

Its hard, since now the government is taking out a loan in all our names -the value of which currently varies between £20k and £40k depending on who you talk to, but it needs doing.

We need to save more, which also means use debt less.

The politicians seem to be slowly grasping their way towards this point. Our religious leaders, especially the Church of England, might like to ask themselves why they haven't taken a stronger line on all this .

The Universities desire to be funded by loans needs to be seen in this light. Perhaps a graduate tax would be better to avoid the perception of debt - even if the Lib Dems have been in favour of it in the past.

Further: I note the plan to restrict mortgage lending by the FSA ( and therefore the government ) to three times salary. Well its a start. I was impressed that till recently property prices in Brazil where far lower as they had no mortgages, but have unfortunately for them just introduced them.

Remember the current crisis was causes by foreign savings looking for somewhere to be deployed. This gave us the asset bubbles and unmanageable debt that have brought us to our knees. ( It amazing how few TV/radio reports point out this now widely accepted fact ).

However all this measures can be filed under : Stable door closed after horse bolted and should have been enacted far earlier by a government that understood our economy and wasn't relying on the debt bubble to get reelected.

Engineering contributes a third to our overseas revenues

The message on Labour's serial failures is starting to get through to trade journals, as the editorial (extract below) by Les Hunt for DPA magazine shows. Remember these are the hard headed people who only pay attention to measurable reality and bottom lines, and are immune to Labour spin and announcements.

In my view its particularly significant that Gordon Brown's relationship with his "Banker friends" is so clearly identified. We have enslaved ourselves in debt to save the bankers, but the engineers offer a large contribution to our economy. How do we get repaid - with a dumbed down and disastrous education system ( see GCSE Physics and weep ), no credit to small companies (despite the announcements ), and large helpings of bullshit about the green economy whilst not even taking the measures to keep the lights on over the next few years.

The political class in general needs to wake up to reality, as dealt with on a 24hr basis by UK Advanced Engineering plc.

Buddy, can you spare a dime?

12 March 2009

Engineering – to be more precise, advanced engineering - was in the news last week as trade & investment minister, Lord Davies of Abersoch reminded us that our advanced engineering exports accounted for a whopping third of the UK’s total annual overseas revenues – some one hundred and nine billion pounds, in fact, according to 2007 figures.

Speaking to an invited audience gathered at the great hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, the recently ennobled Lord Davies (a labour peer and a member of Gordon Brown’s coterie of ex-banker friends) was launching yet another government initiative to promote British engineering prowess overseas.

So, was this yet another plate of sops proffered to our floundering engineering sector and a lot of expenses-paid trips for company executives to exotic climes (apparently including Brazil, Russia, India and China, this time around)? It is clearly important that we undertake these trade missions and one hopes for positive outcomes, but it is difficult not to be cynical about their promotion, particularly at a time when manufacturing infrastructure remains in such a precarious state back home.

Lord Davies mentioned companies like Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover as leading the drive overseas. He also said that many companies in the UK sector are small and medium sized businesses that form a vital part of the global supply chains for firms such as Boeing and Airbus. Quite so, but aren’t these businesses also currently those that are now crying out for help, simply to keep afloat?

Perhaps Lord Davies would be better off going back to his masters to persuade them that charity, first of all, begins at home, and that unless the government is minded to put some fiscal measures into effect now to shore up the Jaguar Landrovers of this world, not to mention their many suppliers, that is the erstwhile viable, hi-tech companies that have simply become victims of circumstance, then we’ll have little advanced engineering to peddle at home, let alone overseas.....

Les Hunt [ The rest is avialble at DPA Magazine "Buddy can you spae a dime" here ]

London from the top of a bus

I had a fun afternoon on the top of a open top London Bus on Saturday, taking my son on a tour of London. The only problem was that seats on the top deck where in slightly short supply.


All in all a good day out and introduction to London. I'll recommend it, with a warning about potential crowding.



PS Blogging to resume once I've caught up with some pressing work issues.

Gordon Brown's sorry - not

H/T to Spoilt Ballot.

The BBC take on spinning the knife stats story

Its that old compare and contrast question again. Spot the state run broadcaster with guaranteed tax payers money (for that's what the TV poll tax is) year on year, and which has numerous of its employees going to join the Labour party and being generally very left wing ....

Exhibit A: The Press Association (click to enlarge )
Exhibit B : The BBC (Click to enlarge - but be perpared to rench at the toadying )
There is only one solution - break up and privatise the BBC.

So why aren't we made as hell about Brown destroying Lloyds ?

Iain Martin has a good article about Brown's culpability for the destruction of Lloyds bank and the effective rape of its shareholders by Gordon Brown.

I recommend reading his article and asking just why isn't this the key issue in politics right now ?

See also my earlier post on why corporatism is to blame for our current crisis not free markets and capitalism as every Left wing luvie is repeating like a mantra on every broadcast they can get on - and its a lot.

How long before Brown subverts and steals private pension schemes also ?

It can't be long now. It will of course not be described as what its is. Something on the lines of the government has added the innovation for pension scheme to invest of the safe haven of government debt. But it will mean Brown gorging himself on the last remaining supply of cash in the private sector.

The Conservatives need to take radical action now to stop him.

My suggestion is this:

To state that beyond June 09 a future Conservative government will not honour debt taken out by the Labour government, unless a general election is called.

This can be justified as by no stretch of anyone's imagination does Brown have a democratic mandate for the enslavement of the nation that he is busy arranging now.

At last our departure from the EPP looks imminent

A while ago I resolved that I wouldn't vote for the Conservative euro list if the party was still in the EPP at the time of the Euro elections.

It would be the first time in my life that I'd have voted for another party, and wasn't something I was looking forward to having to do.

But the good news is that its looking like the Conservatives will have pulled out of the EPP by the time of the June elections.

Fantastic.

See also Reuters:Conservatives confirm plan to launch new EU group

The Devil doesn't sleep

Like everyone else I've been revolted by the murder of at least three innocent men, carried solely to buy the headlines and fear that its perpetrators desire.

I'd like to say I'm surprised, but I'm not. One branch of Irish Republicanism has always had a taste for blood, and its has hungered over the last decade. Now its awakening to feed again.

Who knows what the exact relationships between the various groups, their evil US supporters, and the various people calculating how they can use current events for their own advantage.

One thing is clear, and only one, morality has again broken down in part of society, because, for all the excuses and manipulated grievances ,this is what its about - morality.

But there is still justice and judgement. Eventually the unrepentant killers will join the one who whispers in their ears and whose urged actions they rejoiced in carrying out ...

See also: Simon Heffer in Wednesday's Telegraph.

Remember its Corporatism and Statism that has delivered this crisis, not Capitalism

[The following post was started on 28th Feb after listening to the ritual attacks on Capitalism made by opportunist left wing commentators ont he BBC, tidying up done on 10th March, motivated in part by a similar argument from Iain Martin in his blog in today's Telegraph].

Listening to Any Questions on Radio 4 this afternoon I was suddenly alarmed at the socialist snakes who wish to pin the economic disaster we are experiencing on Capitalism.

They are up to their new found tricks of putting it into a narrative, which means it must true.

There are two things that have made the current crisis lethal:

1) Corporations like RBS and HBOS that like the Titanic are too big to fail run as near dictatorships by hardened careerists who main talent has been to elbow those with any knowledge of banking out of the way. They were warned, and those who warned were either fired or in the case of the FSA and Bank of England told to shut up by the Corporatists friends in government. ( So regulation didn't fail except to the extent that its warnings where able to be ignored by corporate and state governments. )

2) The State has expanded to a level that is unsustainable. That has been very clear for some time to anyone who cared to think about it. The Statists embraced the corporatists as they both have common enemies in the upstart capitalists and independently minded smaller companies and individuals.

Labour has been the constant friend of corporatism, in the past in its union and state nationalised form but more recently in the form of unaccountable quasi governmental and business bodies.

The individual has been lied to, spun to, and is now being crushed and enslaved for future generations by the current Labour corporatist government. By running up such astronomical debt they ensure that the state corporation survives as well as the new quasi government controlled economy through regulation and ownership of the means of doing business.

I am tired to the attacks on Capitalism and by implication the Right.

Its the Left and its friends in Corporatist government and business who are to blame.

England voted against Labour at the general election, but got a Labour government and the EU constitution. My wife voted against the Lloyd's HBOS merger as I warned her what would happen (and it has), but she has still had her wealth confiscated.

No one has even bothered to ask me if I want to save all the non-retail depositors in our banking system by enslaving myself and my family for the rest of our lives to being used to underwrite state debt.

Capitalism didn't fail, government did and is compounding the insult with enslaving our future to corporatist indentured debt slavery. If there is a lesson from the current disaster it is large corporations (state and private) are a threat to our lives.

Further: Iain Martin is trying to draw peoples attention to the scale of the Lloyds disaster brought on by Brown and his culpability.

I especially like this quote....

"Corporatism is what happens when big government does sweetheart deals with big business. It results in a conspiracy of powerful elites against the interests of consumers, shareholders and voters."

...to right Iain.

Has the MSM woken up to "Common Purpose" ?

There's a BBC 5 broadcast tonight on:

Secret society?

We shine a spotlight on a nationwide networking organisation with influence in high places.



“Common Purpose” has been described as a politically correct version of freemasonry.

Prominent supporters include the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick, BBC Business Editor Robert Peston and numerous top public sector officials.

We investigate whether there is any substance to the rumours about its hidden influence and agenda.

I have my doubts about how good such a programme can be given that a large number of BBC staff are Common Purpose graduates. But anything that raises the public awareness of the treat of such organisations is to be welcomes. Listen tonight at 8pm or on the BBC's iPlayer.

Common Purpose has plenty of lawyers as well as police officers, judges, politicians and even soldiers in its ranks , so it will be interesting to hear what the programme has to say about it.

Having listened to the piece I would have to describe the inquiry as less than serious. There we're lots of hints for the listener that the people who question Common Purpose are a bit wacko. ( Mentions of Lizards, conspiracy theorists and right wing at the appropriate moments ).

CP obviously felt they finally had to put someone up for interview, but again they were hardly forth coming.

The point was made about the large amount of public money and the secretive nature of CP's networking organisation. The CP rep also pointed out about people being open about their mistakes etc with each other, which had a sort of cultish edge to it.

The investigative reporter admitted at the end that he had been invited to speak at CP events in the past ( so hardly impartial ). A little attempt was made to state the degree to which the BBC itself is involved in CP - even though such information is easily available via the CP web site.

The article itself is a little over half way through the programme ( for one week available here ). As an exercise substitute Freemasons for CP whenever their name comes up and you wouldn't have quite the light hearted approach that John Maitlands tries to convey.

I'd be more interested ina Dispatches investigation. ( I suspect its too much to hope for that the BBC's Panorama would do a good job ).

The impression I left with is that of an attempt to lance a boil of a conspiracy theory by the report, rather than a serious attempt to get to any objective answers. A number of organisations that bother the government ( and hence the BNP ) make claims about CP, and the article seemed like an attempt to difuse the use of the CP issue, rather than to answer hard questions.

But all in all the more investigations there are into CP the happier I'll be. I'm not 100% convinced they are a sinister problem, but they are certainly a problem for a democratic society as is evidenced by the inability of the MSM to be able to investigate them effectively.

"The sad truth is that pensions savings are going to be what pays the price for these efforts to bail out the economy in the short term."

One of the effects of the shock waves of the Bank of England decision to start increasing the money supply, by supply the money, looks like being drastically damaging private pension schemes - as the price of annuities becomes very unfavourable. This may in turn kill of the remaining final salary pensions schemes.

Add to that the worries over the re badged Norwich Union Aviva solvency - well it worries me as much of my pension is with them - and only the public sector gold plated pensions are standing.

Perhaps the government is going to need those troops on the streets after all.

What we are seeing is the systematic confiscation of private wealth by the government, though future taxation to repay debt, tax on pensions, devaluation of annuities and the low interest rates. No wonder Gordon smiling so much.

I'm not sure any of us will be able to afford to grow old.

* The quote in the post title is from Tom McPhail of Hargreaves Lansdowne from an article in the Telegraph.

Is something up ?

There are reports of the MOD buying up riot gear and tear gas and of military personnel being asked if they would fire on UK citizens.

Rumour, maybe.

But what would cause such unrest ?

Remember the miners strike of 25 years ago and poll tax where handled by the police.

What could cause such unrest that the Army would need to be drafted in and potentially need to fire on civilians ?

Personally I just don't buy the economic / banking crisis argument. Its bad - there may be demonstrations, big ones and maybe violent like the mayday protests. But the police can cope.

What would cause the need for such emergencies ? Here's my list:

1) The Asteroid threat. Ok one just passed, but maybe there's more.
2) A Pandemic is already under way, but news being suppressed.
3) Declaration of a state of emergency, perhaps as a prelude to European Government ( this is the case where the loyalty of military forces would be most in question ).
4) A wider ranging Nuclear, Chemical and Biological war/attack is expected - maybe focused on the Middle East.

Okay everyone getting jumpy these days, but that doesn't mean nothing is cooking.

There's little difference between the greedy bankers and the greedy government

Both groups ignored warning ( vilifying and sacking those who did) because the current moment and their personal positions outweighed the needs or concerns of the future.

Just look at Phil Woolas's attack on the ONS for releasing the information that 1 in 9 people living int he UK were born else where ( something achieved by the Labour party in government ). There will be a reckoning for this int he future - but Mr Woolas will be enjoying his fat public sector pension when it comes, so he doesn't care. Just as long as his personal career and snout stays attacked to the trough of public money for a bit longer.

Just as it was obvious that their was a debt bubble building ( and some of us did warn ) so its obvious that a demographic time bomb is now ticking under this country which if action isn't urgently taken will lead to the horrors of the Balkans re-enacted in England.

This isn't racist, its a responsible warning from someone who wants our country to be at peace with itself and all the people who live here to get along well. Just as they used to in Lebanon and Sarajevo.

In my view there is no difference between Fred the Shred and what he has done to RBS and Labour government ministers and what they have done to the cohesion and balance of our country.

The headlines should all have been about 2009 DD45.

The BBC reports that on Monday a previously untracked asteroid passed within the distance of the moon's orbit that was large enough to cause an explosion of 1000 atomic bombs on impact.

Re-read that sentence a few times and see where your imagination leads you.

Such an event has happened in the recent past in Siberia, 1908, fortunately it was a mostly uninhabited area.

This really should have grabbed more headlines, and must now concentrate minds.

Think - where were you on Monday afternoon and how different your day could easily have been.2009 DD45 intersects Earth's orbit just as Earth is passing. A close shave gromit. (H/T to JPL Small-Body Database Browser here ).

Not a clever Trevor

Trevor Phillips is try to suggest that Parliament needs people who fit into the categories he arbitrary announces are important. ( That's the same as racism to you and me. ) For some reason his categorisations are more important than any I might come up with, or anyone else for that matter.

There are already a number of MPs who owe their position to the tokenism they represent. They are tolerated solely because of the group they belong to.

This is how the "Diversity" ploy works. You assign certain categories and then use the new state religion of "Diversity" to insist that client groups certain individuals have to be employed/elected. ( Never mind that they will share very similar backgrounds with those making the arbitrary decisions ). These people will owe their positions to their identity as a token, not their ability and hence they will defend the gravy train of "Diversity". In the mean time we will get more place people, less independence and no choice whom we elect.

Only those in charge will find it easier to give the appearance of democracy, rather than suffer the indignity of having their wisdom questioned by capable people.

So its no clever at all is it Trevor. By the way are you a token equality quangocrat or one who got the post on merit ?

PS See how well Labour's Quisling caving in to Muslim extremist threats has worked for the popularity of Geert Wilders - who now tops the electoral polls in the Netherlands.

People don't like being told what to think or who they can listen to and vote for.

Which news organisation favour's Labour most ?

[ Click on image to enlarge ]

So you either believe the Press Association's take or the "its the green shoots of recovery" BBC version.

Perhaps BBC journo's need to be reminded that its going to be a good decade before they can get all the hangers on jobs in any post economic disaster Labour administration - if we ever have one again.