US ADMITS SPYING ON ALL OF US, ALL OF THE TIME.

Listening to the self-righteous self-justification of US spymasters really does make one want to throw up. One of these egregious individuals actually had the temerity to claim that the activities of his agency had been entirely legal and that no laws had been broken - presumably, he meant that no US laws had been transgressed.

 

The astonishing arrogance of these paranoid maniacs has to be seen to be believed. It appears that ANYTHING goes when it comes to serving the interests of the USA and the laws of foreign nations, as well as all concepts of decency and friendship are ignored. Simply put, the US will ride rough-shod over anyone and everyone in order to achieve its own ends.

 

In the UK, we continue to mutter about our 'Special Relationship' with this nation of madmen, while the rest of the world becomes increasingly anxious about their activities. Our political masters might do well to heed the words of Longfellow's 'Prometheus': "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad" 

USA BUGS MERKEL AND WHO ELSE ?

SHOCK ! HORROR !!

 

Mrs Merkel, the dumpy German Chancellor, seems to have discovered that those friendly Americans from across the 'pond' aren't so friendly after all. In fact, it appears that they've been systematically bugging her telephone.

 

Unsurprisingly, Mrs Merkel is not happy about this and has been making some very pointed remarks about the supposed loss of trust that the revelations have caused. The extent of the American surveillance of foreign leaders is now a major question on the news wires and people are asking who else is being bugged.

 

The answer, of course, is EVERYONE. Mrs Merkel and her colleagues in the club reserved for heads of state and government are all being bugged by the Americans and are most probably all responsible for the bugging of most of their 'friends' too. 'Friendship' in the murky world of international politics is not what ordinary people understand the word to mean. From a government perspective, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' is about as close as any of them ever get to true 'friendship'.

 

We all know that the Americans are the most paranoid nation on earth and that they have the biggest and most sophisticated surveillance network; they habitually spy on anyone whom their paranoia sees as a potential threat to them, and that means they spy on almost everyone. America has one aim and one aim only - the protection of itself by any means deemed necessary and at any cost. Their is no room for international friendships in such a nation. 

 

However, this is not to say that other countries don't do the same, though most simply don't have the resources or technical ability to carry out their espionage activities on the same scale as does the USA. The simple fact is that they're all at it, all of the time and they all know it; why we have a sudden upsurge of indignation from the Germans now is an open question.

ENERGY PRICES SOAR AGAIN.

The near 10% price rise announced today by British Gas will come as a nasty shock to their millions of customers. How it can be justified is a question that will be much-debated in the coming weeks and months, as the other major suppliers of gas and electricity also increase their prices.

 

With wages rising at little more than 1% and general inflation at around 2.7%, a 10% increase in energy bills is unwelcome. British Gas, and no doubt all of the other major companies, will claim that much of the rise is out of their control as it's a consequence of the wholesale cost of gas, increased transport costs for both gas and electricity and the effective surcharges demanded by Government for the introduction of 'smart meters', better insulation and 'green' energy schemes.

 

Whatever the truth, many people will be looking for ways to make savings. 'Shopping around' is one avenue, but it's always best to wait until all of the companies have announced their latest price rises before acting; otherwise, one may easily go from bad to worse. Secondly, ensuring your property is well insulated can be a huge saver as can the installation of a modern boiler; double glazing and loft insulation added to changing boiler can easily cut hundreds of pounds from an average bill. Don't leave electrical appliances on standby or even plugged in; if your washing machine is programmable, run it overnight on a lower tariff plan and do the same for any tumble drying. Switch lights off when they're not needed and be prepared to wear thicker clothing rather than sit in shirtsleeves in a sweltering house.

 

There must be many more ways of keeping costs down and we all need to use them because, whatever Miliband minor says, prices are going only way and that's up, not down.

 

 

DIANE ABBOTT : WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE.

Ed Miliband's shuffle (I refuse to say reshuffle for obvious reasons of English usage) of his shadow cabinet have included the sacking of Diane Abbott, formerly his shadow Minister for Public Health. I have rather mixed feelings about this.

Ms Abbott is a committed socialist and I'm not; indeed, I am fairly opposed to most of her views as to how our society should be organised, managed and run. However, I do respect her opinions. She comes across as an honest politician, one of the few, and does not appear to be a glory-seeker. As such, I do have to wonder why she has been sacked; it seems that she committed a cardinal sin and spoke against Party Policy on the subject of bombing Syria, Libya or some such place.

Diane's appearances on the superb "This Week" on BBC 1, were a joy; sat beside Michael Portillo she said what she believed, as does "Polly", and it was impossible not to like both her and the wonderful relationship between the two of them. That they have known each other since their school days was, perhaps, not a surprise given their obvious camaraderie.

Abbott's departure from the Labour frontline may well signal her return to "This Week" and a few injudicious revelations about what goes on in the Miliband inner circle.

Whoopee Doo !

PS I was at the same all boys' school and in the same class as Portillo, while Diane was down the road at the local girls' school; both state, but both a little bit 'elitist', too !

TRISTRAM HUNT : MAN OF THE PEOPLE ?

I may well be incredibly stupid, but how can the likes of Tristram Hunt, a privileged boy of of the Blairite school, be any sort of socialist representative for the parents of todays' schoolchildren ?

As the newly appointed shadow Secretary of State for Education, Hunt is the man to whom parents unhappy with the current state of our education system are expected to look. Given that he is the son of a Labour Peer who went to Westminster School and himself went to an independent (= private) school, how can he be expected to have a clue about ordinary people and their educational needs ? Today, he's been making statements about various things to do with education but it's all smoke and mirrors to say the least; at worst it's a load of total bollocks.

Why is it that so many of the Labour hierarchy, who claim to be so connected with "the people" are from such privileged backgrounds ? Could it be that there is a load of money to be made from being a politician, whether it is local or national ? Socialism is a wonderful thing as long as you only profess
it for others; God forfend that you don't practice it for yourself.

BOAT PEOPLE HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME.

Various political figures and organisations are getting their rather nanny-like knickers in a right old twist about people drowning in the Mediterranean. Recent events in which numerous boat passengers have perished while attempting to cross from North Africa to Italy have caused such a stir that demands for 'something to be done' are issuing from every quarter.

 

If I chose to walk across Dartmoor without a compass and in inadequate clothing, it would be no one's fault but my own if I got lost, fell down a hole and died; certainly, no one would start shouting that 'something must be done' in order to prevent such 'tragedies' in the future. However, when hordes of assorted asylum seekers make a similar choice by embarking in large numbers on barely serviceable boats, and end up sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, the world gets all weepy.

 

It may well be that the people in question have endured difficult, even horrible, times but taking ship was their idea; the consequences are on their own heads. There can be no justification for the vast amount of hand-wringing that's going on and certainly no justification for governments and international organisations to be expected to provide hugely enhanced search and rescue services. If anything needs to be done, it's in the countries from which the escapees are fleeing, not by the ones to which they are travelling.

 

Oh what a crazy world we live in.

YELLEN APPOINTMENT MEANS MORE OF THE SAME.

While the appointment of Janet Yellen as head of the US Federal Reserve appears to be a foregone conclusion and stock markets have welcomed the news, the long term outcome for the real world may well be more pain.

 

Yellen comes from a coterie of 'born again Keynesians' who all believe that the answer to our recent woes is to borrow and spend still more. They are believers in state intervention in every aspect of our financial lives and believe that simply making the money revolve around the system ever-faster is the way to ever-greater prosperity. More recently, they've discovered a new wheeze which is the creation of large amounts of money for injection into the economy via the mechanism of 'Quantitative Easing'; what the ultimate effects of this will be are wholly unknown.

 

I don't claim to be an economist of any sort, and I know a lot less than the likes of Yellen and her Keynesian colleagues (2 of whom are Nobel Prize winners) but I still think they're wrong. When the major western economies, not least the USA, are labouring under vast mountains of debt, the way to salvation cannot be to borrow more. If I, as a private citizen, get into debt, I may try to borrow my way out of trouble but I'll eventually go bankrupt; so it is with countries. The current crisis over the existing 'Debt Ceiling' in the US tells us that there are many who are already very unhappy with the state of play and Yellen is unlikely to tighten any belts for a long time yet. It's even reported that her stance may be even more lax than that of her predecessor, Ben Bernanke.

 

There is one difference between a private bankruptcy and a state one; the state bankruptcy takes longer to arrive but is ultimately much worse. Keynesians of the world should all take note - when you're in a hole, stop digging.

USA INVADES LIBYA AND SOMALIA : WHERE IS THE UN ?

So here we go again. The peace loving Yanks have invaded more countries and claim that it's all perfectly legal.

 

Today, American forces have carried out two operations which involved landing troops in Libya and Somalia for the purposes of capturing supposed terrorist suspects. While I have no problem with catching terrorists, I have to wonder what right the Americans have to do it in foreign countries from which they've received no agreement to act.

 

The Libyan government has apparently asked for an explanation of the US action while there's been no published comment from Somalia as yet which, given the state of that country's government, is hardly surprising. Nonetheless, what US troops were doing in Somalia, uninvited, is a question that needs answering.

 

In Libya, the invaders captured a claimed Al Qaeda 'leader' whom they now say is 'lawfully detained outside of Libya'; whose law they are applying would be nice to know, though I doubt that anyone actually has the balls to ask. That this arrogant and overbearing action by the USA is wrong is self-evident but, given the current western paranoia about Islamic terrorists it's unlikely that anyone in the West will complain - it may be a bit different in more eastern parts.

 

The USA has set itself up as the self-appointed arbiter of what is right and wrong in the world. As such, it makes arbitrary decisions, entirely based on what is perceived to be good or bad for the USA, and acts on these; some will recall that it actually invaded the British territory of Grenada in the 1980s on some spurious grounds of defending itself. For no known reason, the rest of the world, as represented by the United Nations, simply stands by and accepts this utterly Imperialistic attitude and, apart from occasional comments from Russia, China and one or two others of rather inconsequential standing, does nothing.

 

The problems in the world today are many but the USA is one of them. It is a nation run by fanatics; they still believe in the law of the 'wild west' and many are fundamentalist Christians who are just as insane as the fundamentalist Muslims whom they despise; the only difference is that the US has much more powerful weapons and surveillance systems. Once the other lot catch up, all hell will be let loose, and that's why the Americans loonies don't want the Islamic loonies to have access to an atomic bomb.

 

Why doesn't the United Nations do anything about it ? Answer - because the UN is run  by the US and is nothing but a useless waste of money, time and space. We, the majority of the people of the world, are on our own.

MILIBAND v THE 'MAIL' : A LOVE - HATE RELATIONSHIP !

The spat between the Milibands and the 'Daily Mail' and 'Sunday Mail' newspapers really is a bit of a storm in a teacup as well as being a politically inspired piece of largely irrelevant bilge. The real issue is one of perceived right-wing newspapers being pilloried by wealthy, yet supposedly committed, socialists.

 

Journalists have frequently dug up dirt on public figures and splashed it across their front pages. When the subjects of such abuse have been figures from the right wing, little has been said; one needs only to recall the abuse heaped on Margaret Thatcher throughout her time as Prime Minister, during her retirement and even at the time of her death, to see this. The left wing of political thought was cruel and inhuman in much of its coverage of Thatcher's life, notwithstanding that she did more to save this country from disaster than any Labour politician ever has. As far as the socialist left is concerned, anyone espousing right wing views is fair game and can be abused in the most grotesque fashion.

 

When it comes to making comments about left wing figures, matters are somewhat different. The left flies into high dudgeon at any suggestion that their heroes may have had feet of clay. That Ralph Miliband was a Marxist is a simple fact, and that Marxists are the enemies of freedom and democracy follows from any minor consideration of the modern histories of the Soviet Union, China and numerous other totalitarian states. Whatever is claimed by his devotees, Karl Marx was no supporter of traditional British values or society. If Ralph Miliband was a supporter of Marx, then his support for British values and society must also be open to question.

 

The left scream that this is all wrong and that Adolphe Miliband, who later changed his name to the more politically acceptable Ralph, was a man who truly loved 'his country'; the fact that he was actually a Belgian, of Polish extraction, who only came to England in order to escape the NAZIs in 1940 is generally glossed over. Another piece of manipulation by the left is the claim that Miliband must have loved this country because he fought for it in World War 2; yes, he joined the Royal Navy but he served in what was then a 'Belgian section', raising possible questions about which country he actually believed he was fighting for. Additionally, for a committed communist to be fighting against the NAZIs was hardly something unusual or deserving of particular praise in either case.

 

In later years, Miliband maintained a steadfast Marxist approach to politics, finding the Labour Party of Harold Wilson far too moderate; he supported a revolutionary socialist philosophy which he maintained to the end of his life and which was surely something unfriendly to traditional British ways. Along the way, he followed the traditional approach of high-profile left wingers by becoming rather wealthy.

 

The 'Daily Mail' has written that Ralph Miliband did not love Britain and this has caused an uproar from the left and from Ed Miliband in particular. Does anyone really care and does it matter in any context other than a purely political one ? I think not. 'Miliband Minor' is simply using this as a tool in his campaign to become our next Prime Minister and the sooner the manufactured row is consigned to the dustbin of history, the better.