Of course maybe Brown doesn't have to cut spending ...

Everyone seems to assume that the only way to resolve the public sector finance disaster is to cut spending ( except Gordon Brown & co of course ).

But hold on a minute folks - Brown could keep spending going and no cause a financial collapse as lenders refuse to fund him if ....

..if Brown raises TAXES.

Why is no one thinking of this ?

My guess is self censorship - everyone assume that no one would be suicidally stupid enough to raise taxes yet further when the productive part of the economy was already on it knees.

But I'm not so sure.

Socialism benefits from misery and destitution - and this plan would create much more of both. You can see why Labour might favour it..

Don't say I didn't warn you.

David Melding AM is right - federalism can save the Union

Just saw this article from a tweet from StGeorgeIsCross from Conservative assembly man David Melding, which reports on a book where he has suggested federalism for the UK, with England getting its political rights as a home nation.

This runs counter to Labour EU inspired balkanisation of England strategy and David Cameron's appeasement of Celtic nationalism strategy.

The reason is should work is that it creates symmetry, easily comprehended justice and equality of respect between the home nations.

The sooner it Conservative policy the better as far as I'm concerned.

Labour's plans are Evil and are intend to take us all for fools

I just heard Lord Mandelson's broadcast on R4's Today this morning ( because it was more of a broadcast than an interview - despite the PoD complaining about Evan Davis trying to get him to focus on the question - Labour have never done this since New Labour started it, part of their plan for deceit and undermining democracy through lies and spin. They are now clearly the Evil party ).

Mandelson issued the new view of reality which explains why you shouldn't have the normal spending review before the general election in case it provides information to the electorate about what you are really going to do ( making the lies, smear, deceits and scheme's that his pupil Gordon Brown intends to rape our democracy with impossible to achieve - remember Labour are Evil .)

How do they intend to carry this off ?

By issuing a series of unfunded "rights", which will take longer than the period that the next general election must be held within to prove to be unfunded (evil).

By using economic activity and unemployment as an excuse after the general election for having to make the 7% across the board departmental cuts their own figures show to be needed. This allows them to deny their own figures till after the electorate has been conned to vote for them (evil).

By bearing false witness about other peoples plans. Specifically the Conservative who as a first pass have used the governments own figures from the budget ( something Labour seem unwilling to do ). ( evil and direct breach of one of the 10 commandments ).

But then when you make the unelected Prince of Darkness effectively Prime Minister to hold up the defeated and unelected winner of the gutless coup what do you expect?

There will be some Labour party members who would support Labour if they made Pol Pot their leader, but there must still be some with a conscience and at least some decency who will put country before the careers of the demons in charge of Labour right now. There time to act is now.

PS I should add at one point in his R4 party political broadcast, because that's what interviews with Labour demons ministers now are, he accused the Conservatives of entering into a Faustian pact. Nice to see the PoD has a sense of humour ...., or was its a Freudian slip ?

Update: It seems a Treasury spokeswoman ( was refered to in BBC radio and online reports this lunch time see here ) has refused to confirm that the spending review which everyone believes will force cuts on any government will be delayed beyond the general election. Was Mandelson speaking without authority or is either Darling or Brown getting cold feet about the whole "lie to the electorate" thing ?

Weakness invites intimation - and the Labour government is very weak

The history of the Iranian revolution is punctuated with taking advantage of weak foreign players, for domestic advantage.

So we had President Carter being humiliated with the US Embassy hostages, the UK and Royal Navy humiliated with the sailors who lost their iPod's disaster and now the harassment of the UK embassy and arrest of what I assume are Iranian nationals employed by the UK Embassy.

At the time of the US embassy invasion it was said that nobody would have dared interfere with the then Soviet embassy as they would have responded with spectacular and probably nuclear vengeance.

The UK responds with the gap year student David "Banana's" Miliband. You can see why the Iranian regime might think its on a winner with playing the UK's Labour government for fools again. ( After all what happened after the humilation of the Royal Navy ? )

These humiliations are a sign of the lose of face and respect that the run down of our defences and pathetic no entities that occupy Labour cabinet ministerial positions have left us with.

Labour are now hurting our country with every minute they shame us all by clinging to office with.

What about the legitimate pressure for self-government in England Mr Cameron ?

David Cameron is doing one of those mea cupla type things that are all the rage amongst our political classes these days.

He has told a BBC documentary (to be shown in Scotland only of course ) - "But I think where we went wrong was we should have spent more time in government thinking, how do we give legitimate help to those people within our United Kingdom who want to have a greater expression of self-government?"

So what about England then Mr Cameron ? Where the vast majority of people consistently tells pollsters they want an English Parliament ?

Swine flue looks like its about to take off in the UK

I was looking at the reasonably good Fergus on Flu blog on the BBC, specifically this post which show the escalation of cases in different countries.

It occurs to me that the UK is seeing the sharpest rise, with an accelerated exponential like increase.

Having looked at some of the epidemic escalation profiles this looks ominously like the start of the first big wave of the outbreak.

Perhaps the heat wave etc will knock it back, but I'm not so sure.

I wonder why the UK has such a sharp rise in cases now - compared to other countries ?

More lessons to be learnt perhaps.... lets all hope it continues to be mostly an inconvenience.

The anonymous briefings and smears against the Bank of England Governor

So what's changed since Damian McBride was allowed to resign instead of being sacked ?

Not much - same Labour same dirty tricks, same willingness to destroy the country for their own selfish careers. ( They perhaps hope to bully Mervyn King into silence about the debt disaster that the arrogance of Gordon Brown has sold our lives and those of our children into. )

See the Daily Mail on the campaign against the one man in public office who has an interest in our country that goes beyond June 2010, Labour are so desperate and vindictive that they will even strip the Bank of England of its remaining powers to give them to Gordon Brown's monster FSA that failed the country so disastrously over the last two years just out of vicious spite.

I think we should be considering putting current ministers on trial for treason if they are shown to be destroying the country for party political or narrow selfish interest.

They are destroying the future for their present. They should be made to pay for it personally through the justice system - if new laws are required for that then fine lets have them.

Update: It seems to me that an independent Bank of England is fine whilst it agrees with Brown and Labour, and when it doesn't its needs to have powers stripped from it. That isn't indepenent at all !

Is Ed Balls telling a Brownie about the money he's cutting from the Education budget ?

At about lunch time I wondered, on hearing radio 4 explain how Capita had a contract to enforce run the National Literacy and Numeracy scheme if saving money might also be a motive for Labour.

But then I heard Ed Balls being interviewed and my memory of that interview was he promised to pass the money ( which would be "ring fenced" on to schools to do the same job ).

Now I'm not quite sure what teachers need to spend the money on, but the Daily Mail tells this story as the government saving £100 million on spending on consultants.

Could Ed Balls be telling us a Brownie ?

The signs will be other government projects that involve consultants being cancelled as the money runs out. The Government has approved just 13 of 144 frozen further education projects – and every one in a Labour seat. The rest are swinging in the wind.

The money is running out, but being the shameless Labour party with the moral courage of sewer rats they may be dressing up what they have to do as a great initiative. Of course the Unions will love it - maybe they'll even help the Labour party out with its funding problems ?

This one needs watching closely - they have past form on this.

PS Also note that they rubbed Speaker Bercow's nose in the dirt by announcing to the media ( as they always have - only the shameless Labour party has done this - it has nothing to do with "the News cycle made me do it" excuse dished up by the back after scandal Peter Hain last week. Same old disgusting Labour types ruining our country as usual ).

Labour's adoption of Conservative education ideas is driven by electoral tactics not education strategy

The Gordon Brown election fighting blue print is leading to a rerun of his standard election tactics.

Reduce the gap between the parties by copying as many of the Conservative policies as you can, and leaving a few chosen dividing lines.

Hence on education Ed Balls has been trying to create the equivalent of the Russian Concordski copy of the Tory Education Concorde.

Groups of schools are to be allowed to remove themselves from LEAs and now the national plans for teaching national strategies are being dropped.

Labour must know that the public is very dissatisfied with the current state of education with failing schools and worthless qualifications which 12 years of "education, education, education" have produced.

I suspect there is also a wish to smash the controls of state rather than hand them over to a Conservative government.

This is in part the explanation for why the Conservatives have kept much of their manifesto under raps. Brown just copies much of it and leaves his big lies to win the day.

Politics aside this looks like a good idea - if and only if - schools are given real control over their staff. I was talking to a teacher a week of two ago who told me that two teachers in their department were so hopeless that they weren't teaching any pupils, but because of the closed shop practices and Union domination in education couldn't be sacked. Hence the school and most of all the children are made to pay for left wing unions refusal to accept the norm int he productive sector of the economy that you do the job or you leave.

Personally I think Labour will fluff this necessary part of the reforms and leave a powder keg of Union resentment and educational inefficiency to go off on the Tory's watch. ( Like much else they are messing up and destroying right now. )

Referendums combined with general elections are a dirty trick and should be banned

There have now been two suggested referendums to be combined with the next general election.

In both case ( electoral reform and Scottish independence ) its not the referendum question that's the motivation, but a desire to hold up the Labour vote.

It shows you the lengths that Labour will toy with to hang onto power.

The answer should be that no referendum is necessary with parties seeking election on manifesto's ( which could themselves include plans for subsequent referendums ).

The Conservatives should refuse to be bound by any such results and bring in laws to outlaw such cheap tactics in future elections.

Tax credit fiasco carries on - wasting my time

Gordon Brown fiendishly complicated and bizarre Tax Credits scheme - designed to turn the middle classes into government hand out junkies just like the core support Labour abuses so happily for its votes - just gets worse each year.

First there were the happy adverts with "its money with your name in it", then came the mildly threatening adverts, now they just threaten to withdraw the tax rebate if you don't spend hours redoing your tax return ( but using gross rather than net figures - unlike your tax return ).

The fact that changes in circumstances are very hard to keep track of is another worry. So this morning I've been trying to phone them up to give them and estimate of this years income ( very different and a lot down on the previous year ). You can't get through - due to high demand - the recorded message then goes on to tell you the office hours during which they should, but won't be answering the phone.

Dear Mr Osborne - I suggest you just abolish the whole system on day one. Avoid the over head of gathering the money ( and paying people and their gold plate pensions to do it ), and then paying another army of people ( and paying for them and their gold plated public sector pensions to do it ) and annoying me every year as I have to spend hours getting my figures together (unpaid - pension losing 15-18% per years thanks to that insane economic criminal Gordon Brown).

Public sector employees get four times bigger pensions than private sector employees

I think the interest in Ayn Rand's John Galt is only starting.

Apparently the Pru calculated that for the same pension contributions public sector employees can expect to gain four times higher pensions.

The stories on pension funding I've been reading over the last week are truly scary.

My own money purchase pensions have put in returns between -15 and -18% this year. Gordon Brown's stealth taxation and destruction of wealth is starting to be noticed.

How is a society going to insist on lavish taxpayer funded extortion to fund gold plated public sector pensions when those who earn the money we all spend in doing the productive things live out their retirements in poverty ?


Update: See Also John Redwood on "The death of the final salary pension fund - for the private sector"
Also note the government has just backed down on raising taxpayers contributions to MPs pensions - already some of the most generous in existence.

Banning the Burka and the BNP - the edge of tolerance

Mr Sarkozy certainly knows how to stir things up. For a number of political reasons his statements about the form of dress from Afghanistan used to enforce visual apartheid between men and women ( mostly at the expense of the women - only Japanese Ninja's seem keen on covering up. If the visual sight of someone's face is such a problem how come its always the women who have to walk around in an inverted sack ? ).

Sarko has his argument thought through to some extent, pointing out that the burka didn't exist in the time of the religion of Islam's prophet Mohamed, which points out the hypocrisy nicely of some of the Islamacist movements people who's first question on anything is "What did Mohamed do ?" - which outlaws music, TV etc but not apparently RPG's or Kalashnikovs.

His logic appears to have been accepted by the UK pressure group the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) who counter in terms of feelings and perceptions, rather than an argument about their scriptures. After all this line of self generating grievance, where the self appointed victim can say their feelings are beyond question and must mean changes to everyone else's behaviour. One of the obvious counters to this is for the person with the opposite view to present themselves as a victim also with perceived hurt feelings - but all this does is put all sides into the power of the state to which the appeal to use its arbitrary overwhelming force to support their case ( note this is an anathema to a free society ).

Personally during the last elections I saw a woman covered from head to toe int he form of dress popular in Saudi Arabia come into the polling station. I found it intimidating and threatening, and yes I thought much less of Islam as a result. It made me think about if where the limits on toleration are.

Notice we have two competing forces here. Emotion made law - the perceived injustice case as argued by the MCB. A common minimum national standards - for example its still illegal to walk down the street naked.

At some point a nation may make laws which mean that some people in that nation find it intolerable to continue to live there. The case of covering women in cloth to hide them will either make life intolerable for Muslim women who don't wish to do so who are easily singled out and other people who live in Muslim areas, or some Muslim women who have genuine devote reasons for covering up may find an insistence not to do so intolerable.

It strikes me that the only answer to this is different nations in different locations with people free to move between the two.

Due to its history and heritage, which was clearly understood by voluntary immigrants over the last 500 years I would put England down in the non face covering category. There is no way everyone can be satisfied here and giving the impression that everything is to play for just encourages a whole series of grievances and counter grievances that will work against the cohesion of our nation.

What of applying the same argument to the move to neuter the BNP by applying new equality laws to its membership and employment strategies ?

I personally find the use of the law here very disturbing as the idea is to prevent a political party from being able to operate as it wishes. But using the same logic as before the UK has, in principle if not always practice, been a race blind country. Its a point that would be at the edge of our tolerance, in just the same was a Islamic female apartheid is. Perhaps the difference is that there are no other nations for the BNPs supporters to go of and live in.

In an ideal free society both forms of dress, peoples reactions to them and the political beliefs and how they wish to organise them would all be free. But we know that freedoms impinge on each other, and that obligations matter also.

If the BNP and Islamic separatist/colonists were minor issues with small number the English answer would always be as it started tolerance. But now the freedoms of others are being impinged by the actions of these groups.

I have no idea if Nicholas Sarkozy's statement will be enacted - denying some people either freedom of dress - or if the BNP will be closed down by legal action - denying its members their democratic right. But we are approaching the edge of tolerance, and these will be difficult times.

Update: See Saira Khan's take on this. She sees the Burka as an instrument of oppression .

The Unionist case for an English Parliament

A bit busy today, but let me recommend the article by Andrew Morrison over on Conservative Home who moves towards making a Scottish Unionist argument for an English Parliament.

I think this is an important point, and not addressing it potentially one of the greatest mistakes we may make if we win power at the next general election.

My comment to the article is repeated below:

Andrew - I think your article has a number of key insights and provides a warning to an incoming Conservative government.

The Unionist argument for an English Parliament is not heard often enough. It provides equality of respect between the home nations and a sense of natural justice.

It also removes one of the key drivers for the breakup of the UK which is the assumption that the now devolved administrations are different from the normal state.

The trap David Cameron is currently walking into is that of again sacrificing English interests to appease Scotland. It will fail on two levels - first the injustice to the English and second the insult to the Scots who sense they are being bought off by someone who is willing to sell his own nation short.

There is a great opportunity for the Conservatives to engage in UK wide constitutional reform, and establishing federal home nation parliaments should be part of that reform. And that means an English Parliament.

It will certainly be better than waiting for the next socialist administration to try its hand, as they will be far more vindictive due to their natural conceit about knowing what's good for people.

Daily Telegraph confused by child seat safety laws

Now this is embarrassing.

The DT, Matthew Moore, is saying that most parents don't know the law on child seat usage.

They say:"All children under the age of 12 or less than 4ft 5ins tall must be sitting on a raised seat when riding in a car "

But the law is that children must use these seats "until they reach EITHER their 12th birthday OR 135cm in height"

Those of you with a knowledge of logic will realise they are different things.

For example a child of 11 who is 6ft is required to have a child seat according to the DT's version.

I assume someone will point this out to them ( I seem to have been banned from comment on their pages - must have been asking why Mary Riddell writes for the Telegraph one too many times ;-) ).

But it also shows that the quality of the output and checking from the Telegraph is dropping along with the increase in their pro-Labour stories. Could the two be related ?

"Poor Gordon Brown - lets feel sorry for him" - new Labour deceit plan

The smoke and spin coming out of Number 10 has just increased dramatically. Someone else is trying to pull the wool over the electorates eyes and help destroy the country by continuing the most disastrous premiership since Neville Chamberlain for a few more despicable and staggeringly expensive days.

Simon Lewis is to try to extent the country's suffering using his skills.

Its like a horror move where the monster is never dead. You think you've woken up and its all over, but then articles start appearing in papers to reposition Brown ( even Cherie Blair chipping in - what can have motivated her to do that ? ;-) ).

Brown claims he could walk away and become a teacher ( yeah right ). We have Roy Hattersley on the radio this morning complaining about prime minster's questions ( a form of debate that Labour manipulated in 97 to make it more favourable to their man ). We have the setting Brown up as the underdog strategy.

And all the while the country sinks further and further at an ever accelerating rate weighed down by Gordon Brown's millstone of debt just so selfish PR people can try for a triumph over the electorate.

Still Peter Mandelson achieves his mission of keeping out the Conservatives till Lisbon is ratified by the bullied Irish.

Spot the difference

Just answer the bloody question !

Like almost everyone else, or at least those who aren't life long Labour supporters who are in some sort of catatonic denial of the facts, I've had enough of the refusal to answer questions from crown ministers who put loyalty to party far ahead of their duty to the country they are supposed to serve.

Labour have a whole set of standard ways of avoiding answering questions. Radio and TV interviews with Labour ministers are now nothing of the sort. They area series of questions followed by what Jeff Randal describes today as "replies" rather than answers.

And don't even start me on Brown at PMQs....

I certainly seem to remember it was never this bad in the past. There were certainly occasions, such as Michael Howard's stone walling of Jeremy Paxman in the Major government years. But I'm sure it was never this bad.

Its a serious issue as our democracy just can't function without conscious debate aimed at the electorate. If marketing, spin focus groups and mood music combined with the narrative succeed then we have ll become enslaved.

I'd like to propose an ongoing blog titled "Just answer the bloody question" devoted to the failure of our politicians ( of whatever party ) to do just that.

The way I see it working is a number of co-authors for the blog with most articles cross posted from the bloggers normal blogs. The blog would work as a campaign for say 6 months or so, much as the 4 David Davis 4 Freedom worked. I'm open to ideas or other suggestions.

I just think its a bloody outrage that in this time of extreme financial peril we're not getting proper information and answers from Crown Ministers.

Anyone interested then let me know in comments or via email.

The knock on effect of the outing of NightJack

There are some great blogs written under pseudonyms out there which give us insight into a world that the state tries to hide from us.

Obvious examples are:

Civil Serf
Nightjack
NHS Blog Doctor
and To Miss with Love

Lets be clear the establishment ( which for the effective life time of the blogsphere has meant to left wing establishment of the Govt, BBC, Labour party, and much of the MSM ) didn't want you to ever hear what these people had to say.

But when you read what they tell you you realise why. They are the confirmation about how we are deceived and mislead.

Whilst the government says it protects whistle blowers, it really hounds them down. In exposing Night Jack the Times has done their dirty work for them and spread fear as can be seen here from Miss Snuffleupagus.

Better read her blog before the thought police come for her as well ....

Brown unable to stop EU takeover of the City

Is Brown now unable to stop the EU demanding control over the City of London ?

The French seem to think he is ..... see

Bloggers4UKIP: Telegraph: UK 'powerless' to stop EU regulation

Are you ready for .....

Hard Disk failure ?

I just ask as my Mum was on the phone complaining her PC wouldn't boot and was making a nasty clicking noise. Sounded like her HDD had shuffled of its mortal coil.

Just a thought for today.. Do you have your critical information backed up ( and just as importantly do I ? ).

Could happen to anyone .... ( Though its the first time its happened to someone I know ).

PS I've told her about the possibility of getting data recovery from the disk - as a price.

Alistair Darling ducks the public spending cuts question with more weasel answers

Another morning, another Labour minister trying to mislead the public. This morning's turn was Alistair Darling.

He was asked about cuts to education but answered with the weasel's formula of "What I'm saying to you is ...." and then went on to speak about something else.

He also tried the misleading line that spending will go up. This might be true, but after inflation, rising social security payments, higher demand on the NHS, and vastly higher debt repayments are taken into account the amount for departmental spending will go down by about 7%.

This is of course what most of Today's audience think of as government spending, a fact that Darling shamelessly exploits.

The interviewer whilst trying the odd half hearted trap failed to nail him for this attempt at deceit.

But one thing is sure - the markets won't be fooled. And I think they underestimate the voters also....

The phoney recession is nearly over for the public sector

A major financial earth quake has occurred with those in the private sector losing the jobs, large amounts of their pensions, the value of their houses and having their savings stolen by Brown's stealth inflation and taxes.

The carnage is everywhere, I have friends who have worked for the same company for over twenty years looking in vain for new employment.

But a thousand miles away there is a paradise island where the occupants have had great pay rises ( ruinously large in the case on many quangocrats and Doctors ), super gold plated pensions which hold the whole country top ransom through the taxation system to allow retirement at ages so young that those in the earth quake zone can only dream of such lavish provision.

But that earthquake has set of an underwater landslide and the tidal wave of debt is running towards this paradise island.

The chief of the island doesn't want to tell the people. He wants to get re-elected about 5 minutes before the tidal wave strikes. Indeed he tells them that paradise and all the lovely subsidies for their life style will continue for ever under his wise leadership. His witch doctor Balls-up runs round telling everyone its only the kitten murdering Tories who think cutrs will be needed.

However some of the islanders have heard what is happening on the radio. Some know he must be lying, others -in Unison - believe the leader could be the great new King MacCanute and stand at the sea shore as the title wave of debt comes in and just order it back in the name of socialism.

Yes the islanders have heard about the recession on the BBC, and worried a little for what they've heard ( but those who are hurt were probably only Tories anyway ).

But the tidal wave is coming what ever they do or say ...... the Tsunami called debt.

Brown's broadband poll tax

For a number of years Labour has been salivating over the idea of taxing the internet more. So look Brown created the "Broadband poll tax" - starting at only £6/household ( but we remember what happens next as year on year the levy increases far above inflation - at least in England ).

For a shorter period of time Labour has worried about the independent thought that the internet allows. They want to stop free expression, they want to control it all - after all they are socialists. The first step here is the plan to cut people of for file sharing. Once the infrastructure for that's in place it won't be long before they want to regulate and control further - just wait.

The Conservatives should pledge to repeal both measures.

PS Its about time we started drawing up a list of laws imposed under Labour that we need to repeal. Perhaps a great reform act could be passed wiping out the decade of oppression and waste caused by Labour as one of the first acts of a liberating Conservative government.

Update: And guess what ? Scotland is to enjoy being subsidised by English phone poll tax payers !!

The general election countdown

For a few weeks I've been running a countdown clock for the time till the polls must open for the general election, ( see top right ). Looks like the Conservative party have caught on (see above).

Looks a bit flash ( no pun intended ), but I guess imitation is a form of flattery. I'll have to try and add a few bells and whistles to mine over the weekend.

Update: I should add that I'm pleased they agree within a second of each other ! ( No I didn't adjust mine ). Right must get some work done this afternoon ....

Ed Balls takes the voters for fools

I've just heard Ed Balls on Radio 4's The World at One.

And it was an almost unbelievable performance, except our expectations have been lowered so much by the pond life moral standards of this Labour government.

Presented with the simple proposition that Labour's own figures showed they were going to have to make large cuts, most likely in Education, Balls kept banging on about a misuse of taxpayers money he had cooked up to try and make the Michael Gove look bad.

Balls, a real thug amongst politicians that he is, always interrupted Mr Gove and I'm afraid Martha just couldn't hold the ring with him - letting him off her first and key question.

But worse of all was Ball's misuse of language to mislead, obscure and misdirect the listener. When the show is put up on listen again and I have a few minutes I'll put some of it up here.

Fraser Nelson warned us a few days ago that Labour's plans for the general election were to just keep lying all the time - even when they were found out. He wasn't wrong.

---

Summing up on The World at One 15 Jun 09 ( Martha is speaking live before a recording of Ed Ball's comment made earlier in the program ).

Martha Kearney "The schools secretary has defended plans for funding schools Ed Balls and has Denied that Labour would also have to cut spending"

Ed Balls - "I won't admit that. Of course there are going to have to be tough choices, of course we are going to have to be more efficient. What I said today is it will depend on what happens to the economy and to unemployment and debt interest, but I that with tough choices we can see real rise in the schools budget and the NHS budget in future years."

Just look at the words Ed Balls has used. Marta says he's denied Labour will cut education, but that's not what Mr Balls said - though he said it in a way that easily leads to that mistake ( ie very misleading ).

Remember Balls is trying to deny the Labour budget. What do these "tough choices" mean ? They are of course money being spent in one place and not another - and that boys and girls - is mostly going to mean cuts.

The caveats he uses are his get out clause on the cost of unemployment and the cost of debt ( yes that's interesting - Labour are perhaps more worried about their ability to run up the nations debts on the elect Gordon campaign than they admit - a bit of a Freudian slip there perhaps ). Of course these have commonly accepted assumptions, with inflation and welfare costs also, which give just the figures that result in the 7% real terms cut in departmental budgets that Labour are trying not to admit - but the rest of the country know are the most likely outcome ( from of course reading Labour's own budget ).

Then the most disgusting weasel bit of Ed Balls' words - the vague promise that schools budgets and NHS will rise in "future years". Which exactly ? Could be 2050, 2200, when pigs fly ?

What we have is a statement that is the very opposite of what an honourable man would give if he was honestly trying to inform people about his policies.

But then Labour aren't honourable at all. ( See this from Iain Dale about the vile smearing that Hattie Harman is trying on to drag more peoples money back to help the bankrupt Labour party).

There is no plan any time soon to be honest with the people of the country by Labour. Instead they intend to try the dirty tactics that Brown used in 2005. There are rumours that Damian McBride is out there working for Labour. ( So yet another example of the complete fecklessness of Gordon Brown and the Labour party about their faked outrage over the smeargate scandal and Gordon taking tough measures "because he's very angry about this ").

Labour are now clearly an amoral party that either just couldn't tell the truth if it tried or has entered a pact with the devil to lie in exchange for power and a few more years as parasites of the taxpayers of this country.

Update note: Thats starting to look like a key observation. Guido reports that banks are having to be paid to desperately try to sell government debt - bypassing the Debt Management Office Gordon Brown set up ! Perhaps the key moment of the crisis isn't far away. ( If so I would expect Labour to call a general election first as that might stablise the debt sale problem with the markets thinking a Conservative government is coming in to clean uip the mess, whilst saving Labour from being found out about have badly they have betrayed us with their finaicial waste and unaffordable spending )

Men discriminated against by cancer services

Apparently men are 16% more likely to get cancer than women and 40% more likely to die from it.

Just imagine the uproar if those figures were true of women instead !

But don't worry a bit of conjecture about men "asking for it" with our unhealthy life style makes it OK.

Listen to Frank Field and despair of our future !

This weeks Any Questions sounded like a good line up. From the left we had an unreformed union dinosaur, and from the right we had three - yes that's 3 right of centre commentators. Can that really be the BBC ?

Only one of those I'm counting on the right was Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead.

And Frank has what we might call "bad news" to tell us all.

In fairness Andrew Langsley must get credit here for setting the ball rolling on bursting our national self deception. We've got an excuse - the government has been misleading us in what they say for a decade - but as they say buyer beware, and that goes double for electors.

Phil Hammond did his bit. He wouldn't provide the details that the chairman, Jonathan Dimbleby (and honoury left wing member), was trying so hard to get the headline for Labour about specific evil kitten drowning Tory cuts, but Mr Hammond did labour on about the figures being Labour's own.

The woman from the think tank confirmed 7% cuts in departmental budgets was a reasonable assumption, from the Labour governments own figures, and our friendly postal trade unionist tried to sound all outraged about public spending - so I think we've got accepted facts here.

But for the enormity of their impact you had to listen to Frank Field. The man put into the then department of social security to think the unthinkable ( and then rumoured to e sacked at Brown's bequest ), is breaking the unthinkable to the rest of us.

In short debt is massive, building and unsustainable. That means that government will have to do less - there's no choice about what needs to be done, just how its done and its timing and management. The alternatives are planned cut backs, or crisis cuts made as Frank put it before the markets open at 8am one day. ( If we're lucky the crisis will be over a weekend so at least some thought will have gone into the measures that the current government is in denial about ).

We've heard all this before, but hearing it from Frank as his suggestion that now was the time for radical ideas really brought it home. ( As did his savage proposals on Pensions and his attempt to explain to the audience about the eventual failure of public sector pensions. )

Untill very recently we had a broad political consensus, built up from three Conservative defeats as the Conservatives ran a platform with some uncomfortable truths for the electorate. And the consensus was to give the electorate whatever they wanted.

But we now know what a terrible disaster that may have been. Certainly financially, and perhaps in terms of education and morals also.

The key imperitive for politicians who love their country is now how to deliver this news to the general public and to present plans for the management and choices of the savage reduction in public spending.

Frank also took all sides to task about their allowing unlimited immigration into the country despite it being the clear wish of the population that this shouldl be stopped. ( I think the truth here is that Labour thought they would build a natural polictial majority out of immigrants, so they had a vested intrest in selling their country out ).

Don't be surprise if when the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse turn up to collect from Gordon Brown if one of them looks a lot like Frank Field.

Getting us spending again is dishonest and won't work anyway

Yesterday I was looking over statistics from the Council of Mortgage lenders quoted in an article for the Telegraph..

I was a little suspicious of some of the recent headlines about mortgage lending being up 16% this month and other "good news - so go out and start spending again" stories.

What makes my antenna twitch is the comparisons being used. Instead of comparing April 2009 with April 2008 the compare April with March. They also use a narrow definition of just first time buyers.

I've cut and pasted their figures to the end of this post you'll see that for all mortgage lending the country is down by (26008-10400)*100/26008 % = a reduction of 60.1% on last year.

And yet the figures quoted are for a rise in demand between months that probably has more to do with pent up demand for people who have to find somewhere to live and those disposing of estates for people no longer with us.

What are they trying to do to us ?

The answer is to get us spending again. But we are so overburdened with debt, and our country is drowning in it and getting worse with every day the general election is delayed.

The Brown boom years weren't a natural boom. Its the public sector that boomed, and debt recycled through the housing asset price bubble that fuelled it - which is why government debt is now needed to keep things roughly level.

But neither form of economic activity - the asset fuelled spending - or the government debt fuelled spending is sustainable. And the longer things are put of the worse it will be when the economy finally has to go cold turkey.

Saying this was the "Credit Crunch" is like saying a drug addict has a supply problem when they can't get their next fix, rather than a drug problem.

Its a Debt crisis ( not even the recession or the banking crisis are the key underlying points ).

And who is the UK's prime Debt pusher ? Gordon Brown.

PS See this headline - its one you have to read very carefully to avoid a false impression. They are trying to talk up the market, without addressing the debt crisis - that is little short of a crime in my view.

Mortgage lending increases as 70 per cent of borrowers opt for a fixed rate deal...from today's Telegraph. If you look at the article you'll spot some caveats about three para down, but it reads like the marketing stuff that's getting pushed through my letter box by Estate agents these days. [ If your like me then the first time you scanned that title you might have read "Mortgage lending increases at 70 per cent .....", and easy mistake to make. I have no way of knowing if thats intentional or not - but as I said at the start of this post my antennae are twitching ]

Who is going to save our country from this short termism when the ultimate threat of lifelong debts (personal and national) threatens to enslave us all ?

---

. Table 1: Gross mortgage lending . . All loans . Total . £m . Year . 2000 119,798 . 2001 160,123 . 2002 220,734 . 2003 277,338 . 2004 291,221 . 2005 287,921 . 2006 345,119 . 2007 363,679 . 2008 257,642 . . Quarter . 2006 Q1 73,889 . Q2 85,952 . Q3 92,864

. Q4 92,371 . 2007 Q1 83,943 . Q2 93,789 . Q3 98,535 . Q4 87,412 . 2008 Q1 75,146 . Q2 74,130 . Q3 61,799 . Q4 46,567 . 2009 Q1est 32,974 . . Month . 2008 Apr 26,088 . May 24,445 . Jun 23,597 . Jul 24,820 . Aug 19,648 . Sep 17,493 . Oct 18,838 . Nov 14,181

. Dec 13,548 . 2009 Jan 11,685 . Feb 9,906 . Mar 11,383 . Aprest 10,400 est=estimated . Source: CML Research, Bank of England . 1. Total gross lending gives the total value of loans secured on dwellings that are newly advanced by institutions in the period. All the figures were sourced from the Bank of England except the estimate for the most current month. . 2. The CML estimates of gross lending for the latest month were based on the lending figures provided by a sample of lenders that represent around 80% of the mortgage market. The aggregate of these figures were scaled up to represent the whole market.

Why Labour are really in favour of PR - their fear of England

Screen shot from Labour Home

Its all about trying to keep Labour in power .... The First Post's Mole made a similar point yesterday here...

This shows the straight dishonest about Labour's purpose. The current system that has allowed them absolute power for 12 years is about to kick them out, so they want to change the rules. Typical shameless Labour.

As it happens I think they are wrong. Any system of politics will establish and equilibrium.

If the desire of the English people to have their own parliament was honoured then a new type of Labour party - one with English rather than Celtic roots would emerge. It would win support in England and surely one day be in government. Events in Welsh and Scottish devolution have shown that even an established dominant party can be displaced within a home nations politics.

The fourth estate is all the stands between the general public and Brown's lies

There is much praise for Phil Hammond in the Conservative blogsphere today for his appearance opposite government apologists over the 10% cuts that are programmed into the current governments financial projection, but which they refuse to admit to ( they are essentially just lying straight to people's faces ).

The Mandelson/Brown plan now looks clear. They want to run the same campaign Gordon always runs, good Labour against evil Tories who want to cut Nurses / Doctors / murder fluffy kittens etc.

To do this they need the story that the Conservatives will make cuts ( which will be 'opposed' by all those affected ) vs vague hints Labour might raises taxes peppered with examples of number involving millions that will go up over the next few years. They will talk of tough choices, but mention no specifics - except of course the ones that make up about Conservative proposals. If pushed they will try to suggest that Gordon purely pitiful raise of top tax to 50% was a tough choice, where as we all know it was a stupid choice as it will actually reduce the tax take ( except it wasn't a financial decision at all but one from the spite and bile of Brown dark heart as he reaches out to stab at his enemies regardless of the cost to the people he claims to represent ).

There are a few blocking tactics Labour can use to filibuster interviews from people who know what they are talking about in terms of the government fiances:

1) Just talk about past 'investment' (unfocused spending on consumption to you and me that will actually reduce future spending on public services due to the debt that must be serviced).
2) Talk about Tory cuts - as if your implying Labour might make cuts surely the Conservative ones will be greater ?
3) Bluster with Tractor production stats.
4) Deny the figures and claim those asking the hard questions don't understand them. Discussions on Net vs Gross, Capital spending etc etc amortisation, inflation costs - attack the "assumptions" ( unemployment rates etc etc ) meaning those figures can't be right ( but of course their own invented ones that prove monstrous Tory cuts are ).

For this tactic to work it relies on the collusion of the unofficial branch of our governing system, the Fourth Estate, The Media, or the MSM to us bloggers.

In 97 many journalists had grown up during the Thatcher years and saw it as their sacred duty to bring down the Conservative govt. Radio 4 leaked to Labour HQ, and Labour HQ told the media what to say. Everyone was loyal to the sacred "project".

Perhaps up to the war launched on a lie (Iraq) the media were in Labour's pocket. The BBC especially. After 97 Radio 4 stopped doing the sort of interview where Government minister met their opposite numbers in the studio ( after all who cared about the Tories ). If an 'opposition spokesperson ' had to be included there was always the Lib Dems - who win most of their seats from the Tories, so that all helped the Project also.

But I suspect it is no longer the case.

Last night the BBC expert commentators supported the Conservative line that government published spending plans supported the claim of a 10% cuts in departmental spending away from the NHS and overseas development.

Conservative home reports that much of the media just won't play along with Labour's lies this time. If you want to see a truly pathetic attempt to mislead the public and betray the interests of the people who elected you listen to the worm of a man Liam Byrne slim and smear his way around the simple proposition that Labour were going to have to make large cuts. [ You can listen again here 2:10 min in aprox - though the articles from 2:00 are worth listening to as they directly contradicts what Byrne says latter and show more Labour minister just lying ]

Labour have studied media interviews, and expensed the tax payers to train their ministers never to answer questions in a way that passes on any useful information.

The real question is, once the dust settles from the local and Euro elections and Brown straight lies to the camera and a room full of people who knew for a fact he was lying about wanting to keep Alistair Darling as Chancellor fade, will the media do its job or will the revert to their loyalty to the project ?

If its the latter then all that stands between our country and a conspiracy between the lies of Gordon Brown and the collusion of the MSM will be the new media.

This is going to get very nasty indeed.

See also Steve Green's The Daily Referendum post which deals with Brown's lies at PMQs on spending and refers to Fraser Nelson's article "The truth behind that 10% cut" on this subject at the Spectator Coffee house ( now is that MSM or new media I wonder ? ). Fraser is one of the journlaists who is not letting Brown's Liebour of the hook, and ideed may have started this whole debate about the 10% cuts. Intrestingly he thinks that blogging may make it much harder for Labour to get away with the lies as more people are intrested int he details that the MSM used to worry would put their mass readership off - see clip from his article below:

"Little did I imagine, when I calculated that the Tory spending parameters would involve a 10 percent cut in non-NHS departments, that it would attract such an audience. Brown repeaed it on Marr, as if it were an official Tory figure. But when Andrew Lansley mentioned it this morning as an official Tory figure then, I guess, it becomes Tory policy. A great battle ensured in PMQs: whose cuts are they? Tory cuts or Labour cuts? Real or fake? Brown loves such battles, thinking that no journalist can be bothered to go do the maths by themselves. He will be wrong here, I suspect, as the maths is pretty easy."

Full article over at the Spectator Coffee House.

See also Stephanie Flander's blog Stephanomics post today that includes the following:

"Given the Treasury's own forecasts for inflation and the IFS's forecasts for spending on social security and debt interest over the period, these new figures confirm that if you freeze the NHS and DIFD budgets in real terms from 2011-2013, other spending will see a 10% cut in real terms.

That's what Andrew Lansley should have said to the Today programme this morning, had he not tripped up on the question of spending for education and whether it was protected.

The bottom line is that the government's own numbers imply a 10% real cut in spending on other departments between 2011 and 2013, if the NHS and DIFD are protected."

Full article at Stephanomics blog here.

Credit where credit is due - Stephanie's blog post and her comments on BBC TV yesterday is the Fourth estate doing exactly what is has to do for our democracy to function. I don't believe she is sympathetic to the Conservative cause, and I'll be shocked if she has ever voted for us - but she has done her job which is to use her expertise to give the public some insight into an issue where one party is deliberately muddying the waters.

Updates:

See Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money with his post "Electors Have A Clear Choice - Truth Or Lies", and he knows what he's talking about.

Iain Dale is asking if "Tories Should Not Be Defensive About Spending Restraint" - but I think Iain is missing the point. We first have to pin Brown for lying and expose his deceit for what it is to the whole country. Only then can an honest and informed debate take place.

Dizzy has done his home work here - there's a consensus in the blogsphere developing here .

William Hague puts Brown's democratic renewal smoke screen in its proper context

H/T To Fauty's blog where I first saw this ( so good it has to be shared ).

Brown moves to protect Labour ministers from freedom of information - whilst talking reform to fool the voters

As always with Labour - you need to watch what the left hand is up to when the right hand is trying to distract you.

Today we had the Mandelson/Brown plan to eat up the media's time before the general election. Its the usual tactical nasty stuff designed to create short term advantage for the ego of one Gordon Brown whilst sacrificing the long term stability and democracy of the country.

So that needs watching right ? ( Ans for those who wonder: Of course it does ).

But in the mean time whilst pretending to extend the freedom of information act to private organisations he doesn't have to pay the bills for Brown just adds that certain Royal and Cabinet minutes would be more clearly protected. ( H/T to someone at the BBC for pointing this out ).

This means that Brown will be safe from freedom of information requests that might land him and his cabinet colleges in the clink in the Hague, or trouble for the other things they have done which we haven't caught them out for yet.

And like the true coward that Brown really is he tried to rap it up as also being part of a move to protect the royal family ( which we know from recent events he has no respect for whatever ).

Brown is shameless, useless and gutless. The sooner he is also unemployed the better.

Labour are going to try to bounce the country into changing the rules to help them

So the most shameless government in history plans to do try to add to its reputation by changing the rules of our democracy to benefit itself and the personal careers of the soon to be defeated Labour political class.

At least that's what you have to conclude from the make up and nature of the so called "National Democratic Council" - a concept that would make East German communists blush.

This is an outrage in the making ....

Update: The Mole suggests its driven by a very gloomy (for Labour) view of their future prospects. ( Yes loyal Labour youngsters - the current gutless spon merchants have destroyed your futures. After all kicking away the ladder isn't just for the education system ;-) )

Further Update after Brown's commons statement:

Based on PMQ question Cameron is clearly concerned Labour intend to fix the electoral system.

Brown is pushing proportional representation - Cameron says its because he's going to lose on the current system.

Brown just can't help but be very political....

A fixed consitution will be very hard to get agreement on. I can't help feeling its Labour trying to fix the system so that it can't be reversed when they are out of power for the next 15 years.

He's just mentioned no 10 petitions - wonder if Cameron will come back on the most popular petition there - to get rid of him.

Will Labour try to fix the next election ?

The stalinist sounding "National socialist council for democratic renewal" apparently meets today, according to banana man on R4 this morning whilst he was try to pass of being a total wimp and putting his own career ahead of the country's interests.

Its a very Brownian type idea - like the citizens juries Labour used tax payers money to bribe people to turn up to.

Brown's underlying problem is people who disagree with him. Which makes negotiating with the opposition a complete non starter ( evidence the shouting of Brown at Cameron over MPs expenses that was so bad that Clegg had to end the meeting ).

Lets be clear this council is Brown's idea and has one selfish tactical aim - more Labour MPs after the next election, and less Conservative.

That amounts to fixing an election - we will no longer be a democratic country if any change to our electoral system is made before a referendum after the next election.

What the Euro elections tell us

1. The EU is pretty unpopular and getting more so.
2. Labour's core vote is collapsing, staying at home or voting BNP.
3. The Conservatives have weathered to expenses/allowances issue as a party so far ( the impact on individual MPs may however be more extreme ).
4. UKIP could keep Labour and Lib Dem MPs in their seats in a few cases.
5. These elections don't tell us very much about the behaviour of the only interested in politics and vote at general election time butterfly swing voters - which is a shame as they are the ones who effectively choose the government of our country by their impact in marginals. I suspect these people are very different from the people who left Labour to vote National Socialist BNP.
   

OK its late now, I'm off to bed.

I'm disappointed that Brown has been allowed to disgrace our country as PM for a few more months as he will do more lasting damage in that time. However from the point of view of the Conservatives its good news.

As I blogged earlier Labour had the opportunity of a dream set of events to control the media agenda and bury its mistakes and they fluffed it.

Thoughts on the Euro Election results

Just a few thoughts on the Euro elections in the UK.

Conservative: A solid result in circumstances that could have tested and even reversed David Cameron's momentum with Lord Tebbit's call for protest votes. This is to a large extent by David Cameron's quick, but well thought through leadership. He acted first, he acted correctly. This is a good sign for Mr Cameron as a future PM.

UKIP: It was UKIP's night. They have achieved a remarkable result - which if it wasn't for the Greek tragedy going on in Labour and the BNP sneaking in would have been the main headlines. But this is their high water mark. They must make far better use of their Euro MEPs this time round. They must also accept that the main beneficiaries of their activities in a general election will be the uber-Federalist Lib Dems. ( Vote UKIP - get Lib Dem ).

Lib Dems: Ouch. Those results will really hurt, and delivered from their beloved PR system as well as the FPP council elections. They're only relief is that nobody has really noticed. Yes the Lib Dem vote is only slightly down, but its shifted. Shifted away from being competitive with the Conservatives to being anti-Labour. Unfortunately for the opportunist party this isn't where the opportunities lie. They must now brace themselves to lose many of their MPs to Conservatives, whilst picking up a few ones from Labour.

Labour: If they don't force Brown out today then they have everything they so richly deserve coming straight to them. They are going to be desperate. Expect lots of initiatives which are all about getting more votes for Labour ( PR, AV votes, Postal votes etc ) as unemployable Labour MPs discover that their salaries really are way over the top for people of so little talent in the outside world - once cut off from government influence.

Greens: The new home of anti_labour protest, which is going to be a real problem for the yellow party.

BNP: No real improvement in their vote ( though as a percentage its up ). They have their opportunity for more publicity, but are likely to have a number of their favourite foxes shot by the major parties over the next few years. ( For example Labour won't try to smear the Conservatives on immigration at the next election. ) My personal feeling is that they are a very nasty party, but who have an argument of sorts to put forward that represents very genuine concerns of many people that the political establishment has refused to listen to. I suspect this will change and the BNp will decline.

SNP: Another top party in Scotland moment for the SNP. They will more than fancy their chances against a UK Conservative govt. They are on track to achieve their ultimate aim of separation and so far none of the UK wide parties have an answer to them. ( Whilst Labour and Conservative policies are essentially sacrificing the English to help bribe the Scots I don't think this can change. )

Eng Dem: Patchy performance. Devolution is off the front burner. They will have to bide their time and make sure they don't succumb to getting a bad reputation from less reputable people joining their ranks. (Update: The BBC reports their vote has doubled and ios steadily increasing, so this assesment may be unfair ).

I also think it was a bad night for PR. People don't understand how the Labour vote can drop like it did and they still pick up MEPs. I also think the BNP breakthrough is going to be one of the main arguments used against PR in all its forms. PR is not necessarily Labour's get out of Jail Free card. It will encourage the BNP greatly, and help defuse the Conservatives UKIP problem is the south.

OK these are just pre-lunch ramblings - anyone got anything to add / disagree with ? Might add something to all this later ( unless Brown gets thrown out in which case this blog will switch to "Hey Hoe the Witch is Dead" mode ).

The Labour spin line du jour

Is to blame "Expenses" and "the World economic crisis" ( at least they've learnt to stop smearing the US ). This must be in todays "what words to come out of your mouth" email.

Its typical. I've never seen a half honest assessment of election results from a Labour politician since New Labour came into existence. They just read out what their pager (remember the days ?) and blackberry tell them.

The interviewer asks the question "What do you think ....? ", but with Labour its never answered as what you get is what they can remember of the party line today.

This sort of mindless obedience, which is enforced by the vicious bullying operation run by Gordon Brown's associates, seems to carry on in government also. We know Blair just saw the whole cabinet as window dressing round his sofa. Brown swore he'd change that, but obviously is still very dismissive of members of his government.

One of the reasons for the paralysis of Labour's government ( as evidenced by the very light legislative programme ) is the lack of independent thought from an ever shallower pool of talent ( which is in part why Labour now has to appoint people to the Lord's to cover up the inadequacies of the people it has as MPs and their lack of talent - or worse in Labour eyes- their lack of dumb loyalty to the Dear Bully ).

Labour are sinister and it is now clear that most of their MPs are cowards who put keeping a general election away and money flowing from the tax payer into their pockets far higher as a priority than the country they claim to serve.

Its time for Conservative commentators to start pocking fun at the lack of free thought int he Labour party and its slavish devotion to the spin that comes from Downing street and its dark heart.