EU TARGETS OUR WAGES.

European Union leaders, meaning an amalgam of MEPs and unelected commissioners and ambassadors, have reportedly voted to restrict bankers' bonuses. "Good" you might say but, actually, what have the pay arrangements of private companies got to do with politicians and civil servants ? What, indeed, have the pay arrangements of companies based in the UK got to do with the European Union at all ?

 

Today it's 'bankers' bonuses', what will it be tomorrow ? While restrictions on bonuses may be seen as a good thing by many, even though the disbenefits for the UK are potentially substantial, will they think the same when the EU introduces restrictions on the pay of everyone else ? What if they decide that £100,000 a year is enough for anyone ? Or £50,000 ? What if they decide to introduce rules about minimum tax rates ?

 

Bankers' bonuses are the thin end of a very large and intrusive wedge which we should all be kicking against. It is for individual companies and their shareholders to determine rates of pay and bonuses, not for politicians and certainly not for foreign politicians. How much more of this foreign interference in our internal affairs are we going to stand for ? VOTE UKIP !

UKIP MAY HOLD THE KEY TO EASTLEIGH BY-ELECTION.

Today, the good people of Eastleigh in Hampshire are trotting off to the polls to elect a new Member of Parliament, someone who will replace the disgraced Chris Huhne. They seem to have a huge choice to pick from, there being 14 candidates though one suspects that most will earn no more than a handful of votes, a bit of local publicity and a lost deposit.

 

Up at the sharp end of the poll are the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Labour and UKIP. Although Eastleigh is an old railway town that should really be meat and drink to Labour, it's been a Liberal Democrat seat in recent years and before that was staunch Tory; Labour's chances of victory today, which are not helped by their choice of candidate, are vanishingly slim. From the outset, it was said that the real fight would be between the Tories and Liberal Democrats though it seems that events may be turning against both.

 

Added to the Liberal's embarrassment over Huhne, we now have a sexual scandal involving a former chief executive of the party and which has spread to embrace other senior party members who appear to have failed to act appropriately when they became aware of allegations some time ago. Tension between the Liberals and their Tory coalition partners allied to the ongoing financial mess in which the country is mired is hardly helping either side though Labour have been unable to exploit any of this.

 

The real 'fly in the ointment' has been UKIP. Given our financial mess, something as much to do with 13 years of Labour government as with any 'greedy bankers', the general dislike of the European Union and disillusionment with all 3 main political parties, it's perhaps no surprise that voters have been looking elsewhere. The beneficiaries have, without doubt, been UKIP, which has polled very strongly in recent days and they are now reported to have the support of more than a fifth of the electorate.

 

UKIP will certainly take a chunk of their votes from the Conservatives and may well stop that party from winning a seat that they should. The Liberals, who appeared to be on the way to a narrow victory a few days ago, may yet find that the current scandal stops them from winning it, too. If that happens, perhaps the Tories might just sneak home or, astonishingly, could UKIP pull off one of the biggest shocks in British electoral history ?

 

By this time tomorrow, all will be revealed. I haven't been this interested in a by-election for decades !

MILIBAND TO RAISE TAXES IN TRUE LABOUR STYLE.

Ed Miliband, the alleged leader of the labour Party, has told us his solution to our economic woes - increase taxes on what he terms the rich and give the money to all those 'hard working families' who he thinks are more likley to vote for him come the next general election.

 

No doubt, there will be many people who fall for this nonsense despite the fact that Labour always tries the same thing and always creates major problems for us. The high tax and high spend policies of the Wilson governments of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in us going cap-in-hand to the IMF; the result of the Blair-Brown years was the worst financial mess since the 1930s, when we'd also had far too much socialist intervention in our economy.

 

Miliband has indicated that if Labour is elected in 2015, he would hope to be able to reintroduce the 10% starting rate for income tax, though only for basic rate taxpayers, and that he would pay for this handout by introducing a new tax on high value property. Thus, he plans to bring back one policy that the previous Labour government abandoned and introduce another which he's stolen from the Liberal Democrats. So much for forward thinking radicalism.

 

Fiddling with tax rates is nothing other than window dressing; the financial benefit would be minimal and could be achieved far more effectively by simply raising the personal allowance, the policy being followed by the current government. Bringing in a new so-called 'mansion tax' which would be levied on any home valued at more than £2m would be another assault on those very many people who have accumulated a relatively small amount of wealth, added to all the other raids on their income and capital that already exist. Miliband has very deliberatel and disingenuously used the term 'mansion', knowing that many of his audience will automatically think of large country estates while having no idea that many relatively modest homes in London and the south-east would be caught even though their owners may be of relatively limited means; exactly how the tax would be structured and assessed has not been explained.

 

Miliband's approach will, of course, find favour with those who see anyone who has anything as being undeserving. Anyone with any intelligence will see it as nothing more than a piece of electioneering. It would be nice to think that the second group will outweigh the first, but I have my doubts.

STAFFORD : SYMPTOM OF FAILED NHS.

Anyone's who's ever worked in the NHS knows that its status as the 'sacred cow' which cannot be criticised is wholly unjustified. The regular claims that it's the envy of the world are such balderdash that I hear myself groan loudly every time some imbecile trots out this favourite mantra of the left.

 

The truth is that the NHS is very little different to any other monolithic organisation; the central control exerted by successive governments has made it all but unmanageable. The huge and exponentially increasing demands placed upon it simply cannot be met and disasters such as has happened in Staffordshire are endemic, if largely hidden in mountains of paperwork and statistics.

 

NHS managers, of whom there are undoubtedly far too many although their numbers are dictated by the ridiculous expectations of central government, work their socks off trying to cope with a system near collapse. Doctors, who come in all varieties from excellent to extremely poor, frequently are nowhere to be seen. Nurses, who we are told are wonderful, caring angels, are really no different to the rest of the workforce; they work for the money they get at the end of the month. Admittedly many hospital wards are short staffed and the doctors and nurses are hard pressed, but the appalling lack of care and attention that I've witnessed on several occasions and at different hospitals has little to do with this; the staff actually don't care very much at all.

 

Our NHS is not the envy of the world, it's not even close; our adherence to this ludicrous notion makes us a laughing stock. The NHS is an outdated institution which consumes vast resources while delivering 'care' which is often wholly unacceptable. It is a mess and that mess has been created by the meddling of politicians over the last 50 years. Astonishingly, the Government is currently in a tizz over the question of horsemeat in our food and has set up crisis meetings and 'summits' in order to reslove this insignificant matter while doing nothing at all about the much greater crisis affecting the NHS. This is, of course, what politicians do, making a huge fuss about insignificant things while ignoring the much more important issues for which they have no solutions or for which the solution is considered unpalletable.

 

The NHS is well passed its 'sell by date';  our whole healthcare system needs a complete overhaul but, sadly, there isn't a politican in the land who has the guts to either say so or to make it happen.

HYPOCRITICAL TORIES TO INCREASE INHERITANCE TAX.

Before the last General Election, the Conservative Party made a lot of noise about raising the threshold for the payment of inheritance tax to £1m, a change which would bring some fairness to the system given how far the current threshold of £325,000 has fallen behind inflation. Sadly, not only have they now reneged on this plan but they are also about to announce that the existing threshold is to be frozen until at least April 2018.

 

We pay tax on everything. Our income is subject to tax and national insurance, most of the things we buy are subject to VAT and there's a huge range of other taxes and duties which hit us at every turn. For those who manage to save something or to buy a house, there is then the spectre of inheritance tax at the last, an iniquitous tax that tries to steal what little is left.

 

The Government is apparently going to claim that its action in freezing the threshold at its current level is necessary to fund its new give-a-way scheme about paying for social care; anyone wo falls for that one needs their brain looking at. This is just another tax increase imposed by a hypocritical government run by people who have the private wealth and means to avoid the tax themselves; once again, the only people who will pay are those in what has been termed 'the squeezed middle'.

 

As a member of this hard pressed group, I am close to despair. Year after year governments of every hue headline tax cuts and benefit increases while actually doing exactly the opposite - increasing taxes and reducing benefits. Our state spends, or rather wastes, such a huge proportion of the nation's resources that it's no wonder we are stuck in a financial crisis from which I see no escape. We are heading down a very narrow road to penury; there's no room to turn around and nowhere to turn off. This latest tax increase is just another pothole along the way.

HORSEMEAT SAGA GALLOPS ON.

Initially, the 'Horsemeat' story seemed to be little more than a bit of nonsense that would quickly vanish from our minds, but now it's assuming much greater proportions.

 

The revelation that some offerings of frozen lasagne, marketed as being based on beef, were almost entirely made of horsemeat is a very different finding to the previous discoveries of minute traces of horse DNA as a contaminant in an assortment of products. We now seem to have a full-scale scandal on our hands, quite possibly involving major criminal activity.

 

In recent years our supermarkets have taken over from small local shops partly through convenience and partly through pricing. More and more they've introduced 'own brands' and 'value ranges', both being euphemisms for 'cheap and cheerful'. Very often such products are of poor quality, meat concoctions being 'bulked-up' with water and an assortment of other fillers in order to keep costs as low as possible. To some extent, the discovery that horsemeat has been used as a cheaper filler, and even as an alternative, to other meats is not that much of a surprise. It's also a direct consequence of the supermarkets' policies of keeping costs as low as possible to the exclusion of all other considerations.

 

I've never tried eating horsemeat but would have no particular objection to giving it a go. I would be a little annoyed, actually rather incandescent, if I bought a packet of beefburgers and subsequently found that they contained no beef; on a very simple level, that would be fraud. On a higher level, there may be people who would have serious objections to ever eating horse just as others would object to eating cat or dog; the issue then becomes one of labelling.

 

One hopes that the perpetrators of the probable fraud will be tracked down and imprisoned, though I'm not holding my breath. That we will then find a huge increase in the costs associated with food testing and labelling is something that will affect all of us as supermarkets spread the increase across their entire ranges. The one thing they won't do, though they should, is to reduce the amount of extraneous muck that is routinely added to their cheapest lines of sausages, burgers, meatballs and prepared items.

 

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose !

 

 

EU BUDGET CUT IS VICTORY FOR DAVE.

Good Old Dave !

 

For the first time in the history of the European Union, or so the media tells us, the cabal of bureaucrats who aim to rule over Europe have agreed to  a reduction in their budget over the next few years. Perversely, I' ve also heard that the contribution made by the UK will still rise - there's a conundrum.

 

Cameroon and his pals have already claimed a huge victory in their struggles with the Union but have also been remarkably silent about the UK's contribution. Apparently, it will rise by up to £500m, but I suppose they consider that too little to worry about in these days of trillion pound debts.

 

Given the profligacy of the EU, a budget reduction is hardly something to get excited about, in fact one would hope that our political masters would have automatically looked for major reductions in times of financial hardship all over the continent. Of course, the fanatical socialists who do run the EU don't actually think in such terms and look only for ways of stealing more of our money in order to squander it on themeselves and their mad schemes. Getting them to accept a cut in their spending is no mean achievement.

 

For once, I have to say that Dave has probably achieved something positive, though I also wonder how it came about. One suspects that the iron fist and monetary clout of Germany was probably more significant in the final analysis than was anything said or done by Dave but I mustn't be churlish. It was Dave who made the running and came home with the catch.

 

Well done, son !

CAMERON ENSURES MY VOTE IS LOST

David Cameroon says that he's proud that 'same-sex love' is to be 'equal'.

 

What his words actually mean is debatable. Whether 2 men or 2 women can 'love' each other in the same way that a man and a woman may love each other is impossible to determine; what is indisputable is that homosexual relationships have tended to be fleeting in nature. What is also indisputable is that 'same-sex' relationships can never be the same as heterosexual relationships; 2 men most certainly cannot produce a child and, although 2 women can with the help of medical intervention and a willing male donor, it is clearly not the same as a normal conception.

 

The claims about the legalisation of 'gay marriage' merely addressing previous discrimination against homosexuals is unbelievably naive and stupid. There is no discrimination against homosexuals in this respect - marriage is about men and women, not about men and men or women and women. What this lunacy will lead to is more nonsense such as demands that quotas are introduced in every walk of life in order to ensure that every tiny minority is 'fairly' represented. The result will be chaos.

 

The world is not equal. Men and women are not equal. We cannot have things simply because we want them. This 'gay marriage' rubbish is an attempt to deny logic and common sense and has achieved one thing.

 

I will never vote for a Conservative party led by David Cameroon or any party that supports this decadent nonsense.

HUHNE : THE HIGH AND MIGHTY FALLEN.

So now we know that yet another politician is a liar. Chris Huhne, one-time would-be leader of the Liberal Democrats, has admitted that he did, indeed, pervert the course of justice by getting his then wife to accept a speeding points penalty for an offence committed when he was actually the driver.

 

Huhne was born to a wealthy lifstyle and became even wealthier through various business ventures in the City. He subsequently tried to enter politics, first in 1983 when he failed to win a seat, and again unsuccessfully in 1987. In 1999, he managed to get into the European Parliament and, finally, in 2005 he became MP for Eastleigh in Hampshire. He became, very quickly, one of the party's most high profile members and challenged Sir Menzies Campbell for its leadership within months of becoming an MP; on that occasion he was beaten easily but he was a much more serious challenger in 2007 when he lost to Nick Clegg by only a few hundred votes. A handful of votes different and he may well have become Deputy Prime Minister rather than Clegg.

 

Sadly for Huhne, in 2003 he was prepared to try to avoid a speeding points penalty by arranging for his then wife to say that she had been driving; she now says that he coerced her, though how has yet to be revealed. Regardless, the revelation of these events led to a police investigation and both Huhne and his wife being charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, a charge that Huhne initially denied vigorously but now accepts and which may well see him spending time in prison. He has already resigned his parliamentary seat and must know that his political career is over. This can only be seen as yet another example of someone in authority believing themself to be above the law; if he had admitted his offence at the outset, he would still be a man of influence, instead he is just another convicted liar.

 

The by-election which will now have to be called in his former constituency will be a fight to savour. For the first time, the coalition partners will go head-to-head and there is the added bonus that UKIP may also decide to join in. This could be an election which tells us a great deal about what the British people really think of the crooks and liars who rule over us. For creating this opportunity, perhaps we should all actually thank Huhne, while also being very glad that at least one of them has gone for good.

LET'S ALL MARRY A GAY HOODIE !

David Cameron wants us all to 'Hug a Gay' or 'Marry a Hoodie' or have I got that wrong ? Is it, perhaps, that he wants us all to marry a gay hoodie or hug a hoodie gay ? Whatever, he's a moron.

 

It was suggested that the Cameroon and his pals would try to placate those in his own party who object to his plans for 'Gay Marriage' by coming up with some sort of tax breaks for proper married people in the forthcoming budget, but apparently this has been ruled out. It seems that while Cameroon is all in favour of marriage, he's not prepared to put his (or our) money where his mouth is, while expecting us all to fall over backwards in support of his other weird and wonderful neo-conservatist (=socialist) nonsense.

 

Cameroon is typical of those of his ilk - while professing one allegiance he actully pursues another. He pretends to be a Conservative while really being a Liberal, in much the same way as did Anthony Charles Lynton Blair - who in god's name calls their child 'Lynton' ?. Blair was, of course, no more a socialist than am I, and neither is Cameroon, but neither are either anything but self-serving politicians; neither has any belief other than what will, hopefully, win them the next election.

 

Cameroon's mad and utterly incomprehensible pursuit of 'Gay Marriage' is beginning to throw up problems; what grounds for the divorce of a pair of queers might be acceptable, for instance ? What will count as 'consumation' of a homosexual or lesbian relationship ? As with so much. Cameroon and his leftie entourage have charged forward with ill-thought out ideas that are now beginning to fight back. Another is the wholly politically correct notion that inheritance of the crown should go to the first born child, male or female, rather than following the old-fashioned idea of primogeniture. Laudable, in some ways, that the proposal may be, the wider implications are only just beginning to surface.

 

Cameroon is a perfect example of a well educated idiot, a person who has all the education and none of the knowledge of the real world. His family have been isolated from reality for decades at the very least and he has no idea whatsoever of ordinary life; he also has no idea of what ordinary people think or fell about anything. He has never had to worry about whether or not he would be able to find a job or feed his family; he is, in fact, a highly abnormal representative of our society.

 

Sadly for us, most of our representatives fall into exactly the same group as Cameroon, hence we get such vast amounts of government action directed at things which the people either have no interest in or any desire for. 'Gay Marriage' is one such. Those who oppose it will be labelled as backward thinking or, worse, homophobic, regardless of their reasoning, by all 'right-thinking' (=politically correct) people. The fact that it is simply a nonsense has already been skipped over by the intellectuals who inhabit the 'centre ground', wherever that may be.

 

Cameroon is an idiot but so are the others in high political office, at least in terms of running the country. In their own terms and in pursuit of their own greater glory they are the enlightened and the ones who have been tasked with leading the plebs out of the darkness and into the promised land; they are certainly the ones with the money so perhaps they aren't so stupid after all . 

 

What we need is recuing from them but since no one else is likely to do this, GOD HELP US !

SECOND FALKLAND'S WAR ON THE HORIZON ?

More than 30 years after the 'Falkland's War', the Argentinian government is still banging on about their claim to what they call 'Las Malvinas'. The current incumbents in Buenos Aires seem wholly reluctant to enter into realistic discussions and give every sign that they actually want to take us back to the dark days of 1982.

 

The British government had offered to host tripartite talks between representatives of the Foreign Office, the Argentinian government and members of the Falklands Islands government; but this offer has been rejected out of hand by the Argentinian Foreign Minister, Hector Timerman, on the spurious grounds that "The international community does not recognise a third party in this dispute".

 

That Mr Timerman refuses to recognise that the Falkland Islanders should have a voice in this matter shows just how bigoted and intransigent his country's government is. It is quite obvious that the Falkland are an independent group of people who must have a say in their own future; their geographic location matters not one jot. There are small territories all over the world which look to distant foreign powers for aspects of their security or other governance, and it is ludicrous for the Argentinian government to lay claim to these islands purely on the basis of their location. Of course, the real reason, which is nothing to do with supposed Argentinian occupation of the islands before the British 'invaded' them, is mostly to do with the discovery of oil in the depths below the south Atlantic, which they want to control.

 

The people of the Falklands want to remain tied to the United Kingdom, just as do the people of Gibraltar. That anyone should suggest that the people of territories such as these should not be party to discussions about their futures and should not, in fact, have the major say in their eventual disposition, is not only ridiculous, it has all the hallmarks of dictatorship.

 

Given the stance of the Argentinian government and notwithstanding the views expressed at the United Nations, the UK should now tell the Argies to get lost. Argentina, or at least its current leadership, is backward looking and should be spending its time and money on internal affairs rather than stirring up ancient conflicts. Instead of sending troops to Mali, the UK government should be making sure that its own territories are secure and safe from foreign threats and invasions. One cannot help but suspect that a second 'Falkland's War' may not be far away.