Youth uneployment

Here's the thing - pension ages are being pushed back. Education will soon be compulsory to 18 with a targeted 50% wanting to continue to at least 21, and youth unemployment is back with avengeance.

News night last night was on the subject with a audience meeting Paxman, Chris Grayling and a me me me look at me David Miliband (who was trying to channel Nick Clegg and his sickly crawling to the audience lines ).

Some of the young people made some sense. Most of them were good at saying what had happened to them, but very poor at understanding why.

One or two showed that they might understand that a media studies degree might not have been a good idea in hindsight. But the majority showed how domesticated by the state system they had become.

Where's the help ? Where are the course and training after University ( mentioned by one young man apparently oblivious to his having been in full time education since the age of 5 for 16 years ! - why did he think a few more months would help ? ) Why can't the state just make more jobs ? The govt must do something !

This is what happens when you raise these poor victims in a socialist theme park that our education system has become. The sense of entitlement and diversity training are there - but the grip on reality is just missing.

Over 75% of jobs go to immigrants in the UK ( almost all of whom didn't have English as a native tongue ). 90% of new jobs created went to immigrants.

The question is why ?

Round where I live plumbers and cleaner advertise themselves as being Polish - as their reputation is so good.

My brother tells me of a friend of his who runs a car wash in Liverpool and employs immigrants as the local unemployed youth don't turn up to work, scare the customers, don't work hard and are a general pain in the neck. ( Perhaps the vast amount of time and money we all spend on education needs to address these issues ).

Its time for a more radical overhaul of how we educate and train our young people.

I have a lot of sympathy for the young people on newsnight last night. They are the victims of socialism and left wing muddled education, and they lack the self awareness to even know it.

A swipe at Nick Clegg's game show technique

34 mins in on Thursday's Newsnight.

So that's my 5 secs of fame used up.

Having said all that I think the 80% EU immigrant things mistake by Clegg is the biggest gaff of the debate.


PS Thanks to @jo_beckett, @CaitlinCornwall & @rogthornhill for pointing it out and @Clipso1 for remembering it.

Labour launch a FUD attack

In the software world there was an infamous tactic used by one of the dominant players to stop new competitors from winning market share. They didn't win by arguing their product was better, if that had been true the upstart would have got nowhere, or that they were better value for money, though that line was no doubt tried. The winning argument was the FUD attack.

FUD stands for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.

And that looked like the tactics being deployed by Brown henchmen Alistair Darling and Liam Byrne yesterday.

Of course is absurd for Labour to go on about unfunded spending - given as government they refuse to look beyond the Bank of England printing presses halting but make loads of spending pledges each time Gordon Brown draws breath. They know that part will misfire. But they are trying to drag the Conservative party into the same hole. Its a classic FUD attack, as could be seen from the disgraceful performance of Liam Byrne on Newsnight last night. He just kept his linguistic programming type answers - never answering a question - just smearing with each slimy word that slipped from his mouth.

There will be a lot more of this.

Where is disappoints is that people like Liam Byrne and Alistair Darling are ministers of the Crown - and have a duty to the Crown and the people that their lies and betrayal is a direct conflict with. They are betraying the country with their failure to carry out the responsibilities of their offices and the smears and untruths they throw about just to hold onto power for a few more days. In the end the job of the Conservative party is to make people see this, because the FUD attack made the software company that used it very unpopular ( but it had the advantage of still selling something people want and need ) - Labour have nothing we want or need and the electorate should be persuaded to take their revenge on those unworthy ministers who have disgraced their offices and betrayed the country.

Boris vs Paxo on Newsnight last night

Paxo was playing the BBC game of "manufacture the Euro split" with Boris.

Watch how many ways Boris comes up with for batting the question away.

Fantastic stuff Boris !



PS Beware of the Leftie Trolls on Youtube - a few comments need voting on if you go to the Youtube version..

Are Labour trying to silence John Redwood ?

Today in his blog John Redwood outlines the Labour spin operation over Rover and how successful it has been in diverting attention form government failures over Rover.

He also points out that this is only possible due to the considerable influence New Labour still has over journalists and editors. ( I would say especially at the BBC. )

He then goes on to say how he had been put on standby to appear on Newsnight, and asked not to accept any other offers for media appearances, but then his appearance was cancelled due to orders from higher up.

Could it be that there's a view on the credit crunch that the BBC wishes to suppress ?

This just goes to show that the BBC is hopelessly politically compromised and must be disbanded by an incoming Conservative Govt.

John Redwood wins Newsnight

Finally the BBC invites John Redwood onto Newsnight.

We had some ex-member of the MPC, followed by Angela Eagle and the ever BBC present Red Vince Cable - giving variations on how wonderful things are - but not explaining the problem to the public.

Then came an quietly angry John Redwood.

First he explained that he was the only one of the 4 people being interviewed to take a different line from the govt ( good side swipe at the BBC there John ) and how where we are today is a result of people like him not being listened to. Kirsty Walk tried to give Angela Eagle a chance to knock that down, but John was having none of that - he wanted to make his point.

And his point was the banks aren't lending because another branch of the government - the regulator - is telling them not to.

A point of such power that immediately everyone else had to agree with it - although Red Vince did his best to distance himself from the brand of John Redwood.

What struck me about this was:

1) At last an angry right win commentator wins through by being forceful.
2) A basic and key point about the crisis was being hidden by the BBC film introduction and all three left of centre commentators. A point they all had to acknowledge once it had been made.

Well done to John Redwood - I'd like to see more of this sort of aggressive and insightful debating style. Angela Eagle was made to look wooden and Vince Cable out of his depth with the BBC looking complicit in a pro-Govt stitch up.

A good nights work.

Update: A full report is available on John Redwood's blog here.

Is Stephanie Flanders a bit of a lefty ?

After her red dress in the Cameron interview on Newsnight and the pointed question she asked about single parents ( she apparently is one, but not married ) I started to wonder about her.

Having just seen her on Newsnight trying her hardest to do Labour's job for them on the inheritance tax proposals from the Conservative party I'm getting suspicious. She makes some very strong assertions.

Now from internet sites it appears she was a speech writer for US Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, members of the Clinton administration . And then worked for the New York times ( now I believe they are seen as left of centre ).

Odd the BBC employing someone with a left wing view point - surely not ;-) .....

Maybe I have this wrong, but the tone of her voice when discussing Conservative proposals suggests to me she has a strong opinion.

Update: Here are a few article by Ms Flanders for Prospect magazine - should gave a few clues to her line of thinking.

Purple Cameron - thanks "unbiased" BBC !

Just watching the BBC's attempts to take credit for killing of David Cameron on TV. The BBC One news at 10 had a quote where the reporter ended saying they will of course try to spin different parts of this to different papers - fine comment - all the parties do it, but the BBC only says it of the Conservative party.

But the initial reaction is the lighting - David Cameron has shadows on his face that come across as purple - when none of their precious interviewers have them. The control room must see this. I don't believe its credible to ascribe this to incompetence - in my view it must be deliberate.
The BBC is a great danger to democracy in the BBC due to the institutional political bias of its news staff.

As it happens he's doing well under hostile questioning - especially from Newsnight's political reporter - bet he's never voted Conservative in his entire life.

Now they are trying the single parent ploy .....

Update: David Cameron did well - given the hostility of some of the questioning. The think is a Labour minister - let alone Gordon Brown - would never try to answer the questions the way Cameron did. They would just repeat the banal message their blackberry had given them in the morning.

Newsnight needs to check its facts: Ethiopia is a Christian country.

Just watching a Newsnight special (BBC news prog) on Islam.

Quick point on their map: Ethiopia is primarily a Christian country and Nigeria is equally split (it might have an Islamic majority).

Its a shame that a prog trying to provide insight can't get its basic geography right.

No doubt the Ethiopian embassey will be in touch.

Update: The CIA relgious demographic figures are contested and there seem to be different views. See the discussion on Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ethiopia#Demographics.

It is possible that as the government of Ethiopia is dominated by Christians that the Muslim population is underestimated. But either way it is clearly in doubt. Since the worlds largest Muslim country ( by population ) is India the News night map is still rather odd, contentious and still probably wrong.