A sense of entitlement

30th of November will be a momentous day for some, it's my good lady's and my first Granddaughters birthday, though I suspect a lot of people in the UK will associate it with another attempt by the left leaning public service unions to keep the publics cash flowing in their direction.
You have to wonder a little at the seeming right of entitlement by the public sector workers to the publics cash to top up their pension schemes. In effect they are trying to protect what I suppose is a state of status quo in which people like me who work in the private sector are being asked to support those who can retire early on an index linked pension whilst the rest of us who earn less and are going to be forced to retire at 67 sooner than we like and get poorer pensions to boot.
They seem to believe they'll have overwhelming public support (unlikely) and that somehow or other the government will just magic up the means to pay them, after all that's what the government to in the weird and wacky world of the left where money just grows on trees and doesn't come from the pockets of those who actually produce something rather than
*Can't really see a problem with this at all...
BBC.

More than one million public sector workers in England, including teachers and civil servants, are set to strike on Wednesday over changes to pensions.
About 90% of the 22,000 state schools in England are likely to be closed, the government said.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said public sector workers had seen a "triple assault" on their pensions.
The government said the cost of public service pensions had risen by a third in a decade so changes were needed.
The impact of the strikes will be felt across the country, with some flights expected to be delayed, health and care services affected and many public buildings closed. 

Oh I'm sure there's a case to be made about honouring a contract for those who joined the public services, I'm also sure the unions will screech on about nurses, policemen, firefighters etc and quietly ignore the diversity co-ordinators and five a day supervisors who also suckle at the public teat and whom tales of startling inefficiency, absenteeism and plain old skiving often come to light in various surveys. Not that the private sector is immune from such things, just it is usually swiftly dealt with and rarely endemic.
I expect both sides to claim a victory tomorrow, though I suspect that a lot of careful analysis of the protests will also be done by both sides to see what the general level of support is.
Either way, the only losers will as ever be the long suffering public.

*Caution, use of irony in progress.

And plan C is?

The Chancellor will be telling us (again) that due to Labours attempts to ruin the country as an act of wanton spite knowing they were going to lose the election he's going to borrow more (and spend more). He's calling it sticking to plan A and will take up to 2017 to pay off the debt. He could do it quicker, but he still wants to spend our money on non-essentials such as giving African nations up to a billion to fight global warming, climate change, global climate disruption. As well as increasing the foreign aid budget.
Mail.

'We must stick to Plan A': Osborne to outline measures to boost Britain's shrinking economy as UK debt 'won't be paid off until 2017'

• £380m to double free nursery places for toddlers
• Rise in fuel duty will be postponed
• Rail fares capped at 1p above inflation next year
• £30bn programme of public investment and infrastructure spending to boost growth
• Rise in pension age to be brought forward
• Ed Miliband: 'I hope the Chancellor, in the interests of the nation, will change course today'

George Osborne will today outline plans to boost the economy amid gloomy predictions of a double-dip recession caused by the eurozone debt crisis.
The Chancellor will warn that Britain faces more years of austerity as it is forecast that the deficit will not be eliminated until 2017, two years later than planned.
It is the toughest challenge yet for Mr Osborne, who has come under criticism for refusing to consider an economic 'Plan B' which would slow deficit reduction in order to promote growth.
His Autumn Statement comes just a day after the OECD predicted that the UK could slip back into recession over the next few months.
Measures the Chancellor is expected to announce today include a huge investment in infrastructure, a freeze in fuel duty and a doubling of nursery school places. 

Nowhere does either plan seem to include taking a chainsaw to the state and massively reducing the functions this and previous governments have saddled us with. Nowhere does there seem any plans to rid us of the crippling climate levy and nowhere is there any real plan to get industry and trade going by the subsequent tax reductions cutting back on what the state does would give us. Simply declaring that any company setting up would pay zero tax for 5 years in the UK if they took on ex public servants and turned them into productive citizens would be a start. Though no doubt there's some sort of EU regulation preventing this, still if we left the EU that would save us a small fortune too. Anyone else see the advantages of offering businesses a chance to set up cheap on the outside of the EU looking in without having to pay their ridiculous tariffs? After all a lot of their business could be done online and the EU exports a lot more to us than we export to them so they're not going to crap in their own nest and stop trying to sell us stuff.
No, Osborne is going to play the same tired old game with the same results, high taxation, high government spending and a long cruel recession thrown onto the top of all that. Being on the inside he really doesn't see that the problem is the state and that the solution is to reduce it and its powers.
But then again he wouldn't, would he?

Dark days

My father was diagnosed with having an untreatable cancer today, he's in good spirits, but the experts reckon on about a year. He's off to see some more specialists next month for chemotherapy to see if they can contain it, though sadly not get rid of it.
On top of this one of my good Lady's brothers also has an inoperable tumour, nothing they seem to be able to do is having an effect on it. He's not doing so well either.
Seems I'm going to be doing some travelling over the next few months to a year.

Goodbye's are so very hard.

This isn't saving us anything

I don't know if it's the MSM or politicians, possibly it's both who seem to think that we're stupid when they trumpet headlines saying "George Osborne to announce pain relief plan for 'squeezed middle'" Then when you read through it looking for details, you find there's nothing of the sort, just a load of hot air.
Telegraph.

The Chancellor will attempt to give families and firms some relief from rising prices and stimulate the economy amid a backdrop of continuing gloom and falling growth.
He will use his Autumn Statement on Tuesday to appeal to the key political constituency of the “squeezed middle” — hard-pressed families on middle-to-lower incomes whose votes will decide the next general election.
He will announce changes to a funding formula that would have seen rail ticket prices rise by more than eight per cent from January.
The rise — affecting season tickets and peak fares across Britain, as well as the Tube and buses in London — will now be just over six per cent. George Osborne is also expected to confirm there will either be a freeze or delay in a 3p rise in fuel duty, again planned for January.
Motoring groups have said the planned rise, combined with an annual inflation-linked increase due in August, would lift the cost of petrol by 8p a litre from next summer.

Can you see any money coming back into your own pockets there? Damned if I can, all that's been announced is he might no allow planned "increases" which to me isn't a saving at all. I like many others in the private sector got no pay increase this year, yet our costs went up, council tax, fuel and the associated knock ons with fuel increases such as higher food prices as well as goods and services. To add insult to injury the government despite the ever increasing evidence that it's a scam and we know its a scam are continuing with their green levy's as well as announcing that by 2016 all houses built must be carbon free and run carbon free energy wise thus making sure that the price of a new home goes up possibly by 2/3rds, yet they still intend to use our money to guarantee the mortgages for those places.
So what we have is an example of soundbite politics, it's not even a good soundbite either because once you look past the headline, the "squeezed middle" will still be feeling squeezed, just not as much as those greedy morons running the country had initially planned on doing.
We need a revolution now, to get us back to sound fiscal government who run the country for the people, not their own vanity projects, we need to take a chainsaw to the state and those who suckle at the teat of the state. We need to make sure after its done and dusted and the last of them have breathed their last at the end of a noose, that the next government will never ever be in a position to increase our taxes without asking us by referendum first.
It's definitely time for change.

Back

Well I'm back and refreshed from a couple of days down in Bournemouth and the New Forest, a pretty quiet time for myself and my good Lady.

Bournemouth was unusual in that I had it in my minds eye that it was some sort of seedy coastal resort which had seen better days and was full of retired people. To my amazement it was full of young people, looked very affluent and we had the unusual experience of being the oldest people in a cinema (we're in our very low 50's) by a hell of a margin I don't think anyone else was over 25. We didn't feel threatened even wandering about with a street map and looking like tourists and people were friendly and very helpful, it was like going back in time 30 plus years without the appalling fashion sense. Recommended restaurant Coriander, a Mexican restaurant that's very, very friendly, recommended pub, The Goat and Tricycle, for a fabulous selection of real ale.
It was the trips out and the walking that we were really there for, visiting Lulworth Cove and walking along the clifftops to the Durdle Door.

Lulworth Cove

Durdle Door

We also walked in the New Forest, a truly beautiful place and found a superb pub too with incredible doorstep sandwiches.

Lyndhurst Parish, New Forest

Good pub, good beer, good food, heaven on Earth.

So, I'm back, I've ate too much, drank too much and had too good a time, but will turn my eye back to the world tomorrow, to see what I can see. Until then, life is good.

Back today

Back today, but not blogging

The anger resumes tomorrow.

Still away #2

Is this what happens to us all in the end?




I hope not, I'm still fighting.

Still away

More from Frank, summing up my darker moments.

Parish notice

I'm off gallivanting with my good Lady for a few days in the glorious English countryside/coastal areas. Will be back Saturday evening, but probably wont resume blogging till Sunday.
Till then, enjoy this, which encapsulates part of my outlook on life.

Money, money, money

Four headlines and four attempts for either the government or others to get hold of our money via the government.
BBC.

Eighteen Church of England bishops have signed an open letter, criticising the government's proposed welfare changes.
In the letter, in The Observer, the bishops express concerns about plans to limit the amount any household can claim in benefits to £500 a week.

£500 a week? Dear Lord! What planet are they living on? As the only working person in my household I bring in just above that and work 4 on 4 off 12 hour shifts and these Bishops say that people who are on benefits should be able to claim more than someone on the average wage and who works for a living actually brings home. They just don't get it do they? What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. Basic morality really though these Bishops seem to have forgotten that principle.
Telegraph.

The Prime Minister and his deputy, Nick Clegg, will unveil proposals to help first-time buyers of new homes by carrying part of the risk of their mortgages.
They also propose subsidising the construction of 16,000 homes by giving £400 million of taxpayers’ money to property developers.
In a further move, ministers are working on a scheme under which billions of pounds of money in pension funds will be used to finance the construction of power stations, wind turbines and roads.

Have these morons not heard of the federal mortgage protection agency that became known under the friendly acronym Fannie Mae? This was the organisation in the USA which did exactly the same thing that Cameron and Clegg are proposing to do, it went bankrupt and American taxpayers are having to pick up the results of that. As for the windfarm rubbish, I'm with Prince Philip on that one all the way.
Express.

FIRMS should get cash handouts from the Government for offering jobs to poorly-qualified British youngsters rather than migrants, the country’s top business leader said last night.
The astonishing suggestion by John Cridland, director-general of the Confederation Of British Industry, threatened to ignite a fresh “British jobs for British workers” discrimination row.
“If we gave employers £1,500 as a cash subsidy to take on a 16-year-old, they might take on a 16-year-old with lack of work experience and sometimes poor qualifications rather than a migrant worker or a mature worker who has got those skills,” he said in an interview on the eve of the CBI annual conference, which opens today in London amid growing calls for radical action by the Government to stimulate economic growth.

Or how abouts we actually come up with an education system that doesn't deposit semi-literate 16 year olds out into the big wide world? Get rid of all the crap about racism, the environment, religion that kids have to go through and actually make the little buggers learn something. Set up apprenticeship schemes by all means but drop this get everyone into uni nonsense  only the top 10% should be going there and if they were it should be ok to make it free. Sort out the education system and the CBI should stop asking for our money.
Get us out of the EU and stop immigration... Sorted.
Mail.

Toll lanes to relieve the congested road network are to be built as part of a major Government drive to kickstart the economy.
Firms will be asked to construct dedicated ‘express lanes’ alongside busy sections of motorways and trunk roads.
Drivers using the lanes would be billed per journey, with the profits going to the private sector.

I can see why the Tories think this is a brilliant idea, they won't have to pay for it or maintain it, the problem I foresee is road rage as those of us who cannot afford to pay up are stuck in congestion whilst those who can get pranged by others who resent the £50 billion in motoring taxes of which only £7 billion are spent on roads and don't see why we don't have the best roads in Europe for our hard earned cash being spent on things it's not supposed to be.

And they wonder why we hate and despise them?

There's no fool like an old fool.

You can tell the EUphiles are getting desperate when they start wheeling out the likes of Michael Hesletine to try and salvage their position. hen again I might be wrong and it's the EUsceptics who let him have his rave as it certainly will not have done the EUphile cause any good at all, still I think I'll apply Occams razor and assume Hesletine thought he might actually be doing his cause some good.
Express.

FORMER Cabinet Minister Lord Heseltine fuelled Tory tensions over policy on Europe yesterday by ­insisting that Britain will join the euro.
The Tory peer, who is an adviser to David Cameron on economic growth, claimed the ailing single currency will survive the present crisis and grow stronger, eventually leading to the UK scrapping the pound.
And he further infuriated Conservative Euro-sceptics by describing the European Union as a “remarkably ­successful adventure”.
His outburst, in a BBC interview, came amid new signs of Tory splits on policy towards the EU.
London Mayor Boris Johnson, seen by some as a future Conservative leader, rubbished the Prime Minister’s call for a “big bazooka” euro solution.
The controversy left senior party ­figures again at odds over Europe.
Lord Heseltine said: “I think we will join the euro. I think the chances are the euro will survive because the determination, particularly of the French and the Germans, is to ­maintain the coherence that they’ve created in Europe. “My guess is that they will find a way through. I hope they will, because the downside for the British economy of the euro going under is catastrophic.”

 Utter bollocks of course, even his later assertion that the EU prevented war is an outright lie, what prevented a war was American troops on German soil and a very dangerous Soviet Union poised to gobble up the European states if they collapsed. Now there's no Soviet Union, few if any American troops and Germany is suddenly flexing its economic muscles again despite or because of the EU, it makes no difference, Germany is the EU's economic powerhouse, its will, will prevail eventually as Greece and Italy have suddenly found out. The other sniggeringly hilarious detail Hesletine appears to have forgotten is that the UK would require a referendum on joining the €uro, unless of course our politicians decide not too, though I suspect even those parasites know their heads would go into the noose if they did.
Can anyone imagine the UK voting to drop the pound and join the €uro? Even in their wildest federast dreams, the EUphiles know they wont get away with that one.

Following the money

Just when the enviroloonies think they've gotten into the clear with their global warming, climate change, global climate disruption scam along comes another bit of evidence linking those who promote the scam to brown envelopes stuffed with cash to grants from the Climactic Research Centre who were at the eye of the storm when the CRUtape leak was uncovered. Step forward Roger Harrabin the BBC’s ‘environment analyst’ who accepted bribes grants from the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to fund an ‘ad hoc’ partnership he ran with a friend.
Mail.

A senior BBC journalist accepted £15,000 in grants from the university at the heart of the ‘Climategate’ scandal – and later went on to cover the story without declaring an interest to viewers.
Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s ‘environment analyst’, used the money from the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to fund an ‘ad hoc’ partnership he ran with a friend.
Mr Harrabin, an influential figure who both broadcasts and advises other BBC journalists, later reported extensively about Climategate. The scandal erupted two years ago when emails were leaked from the Tyndall Centre’s sister department, the Climatic Research Unit at the same university.
The leaks left the scientific community in dis-array after claims that key data was manipulated in the run-up to a major climate change summit.
An official inquiry later found that although there had been no scientific fraud, there was ‘a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness, both on the part of CRU scientists and on the part of the UEA’.
In none of Mr Harrabin’s reports on the subject were the grants that he and his friend Dr Joe Smith had received from UEA ever mentioned. However, BBC insiders claim that the use to which the money was put – annual Real World seminars for top BBC executives on issues including climate change – had a significant impact on the Corporation’s output.
‘The seminars organised by Roger and his friend were part of a process which has effectively stifled all debate within the BBC about man-made global warming,’ said one senior journalist. ‘As far as the high-ups are concerned, the science is settled.’

Ok, grants are a legitimate part of research and promotion of a position, however when working on something promoting an issue it's customary to have to declare an interest, though in today's climate (no pun intended) this seems to have evaded the political classes as witness the recent flurry of Labour MP's not declaring the fact that they were paid cash by Unions to amend legislation. It's the same with the higher ups at the BBC too, as far as they are concerned the science is settled so what's the odd bribe grant here and there as it doesn't matter anyway the planet is going  boil in a decade or so or we're all going to drown unless we go back to living like medieval peasants (except for environmentalists, politicians and the rest of the political classes)
Still it's one more section to the web of lies we've been fed over the last decade or so and sooner or later I expect the political classes will try to come up with a new scam.
Seems even Prince Philip is in the know now...
Telegraph.

In a withering assault on the onshore wind turbine industry, the Duke said the farms were “a disgrace”.
He also criticised the industry’s reliance on subsidies from electricity customers, claimed wind farms would “never work” and accused people who support them of believing in a “fairy tale”.
The Duke’s comments will be seized upon by the burgeoning lobby who say wind farms are ruining the countryside and forcing up energy bills.
Criticism of their effect on the environment has mounted, with The Sunday Telegraph disclosing today that turbines are being switched off during strong winds following complaints about their noise.
The Duke’s views are politically charged, as they put him at odds with the Government’s policy significantly to increase the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines.

One of the advantages of not having to please political opinion is the ability to speak the truth, I may not like all he has to say, but by God I'm glad he does say it, unlike his moron of an eldest son.

Is it cos he's black?

First, let me be clear, I do hope that those who murdered Stephen Lawrence do finally face justice, though I do have some very severe qualms at the lengths that the police seem to want to go to prosecute someone for this crime. Currently the cost of bringing another trial to attempt to prosecute the current defendants has reached well over £10 million including the Lawrence Inquiry plus various other attempts to place the perpetrators at the scene of the crime.
Wikipedia.

Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Eltham, southeast London, who was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993.
After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but never convicted. It was suggested during the course of investigation that the murder had a racist motive and that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race, leading to an inquiry.
In 1999, an inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson examined the original Metropolitan police investigation and concluded that the force was "institutionally racist". The inquiry has been called 'one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain'. The report of the examination's work and conclusions was published in 1999 as The Macpherson Report.
On 18 May 2011, it was announced that one of the original suspects, and another man, are to stand trial for the murder in the light of "new and substantial evidence" becoming available. A jury was selected on Monday 14 November 2011, and the trial started on the following day.

I cannot remember a more sustained campaign to find justice for a young man, though I was more than a bit surprised to learn that he had a plaque marking where he died, I know he's famous (for a given value of famous) but not in the respect that a plaque should be awarded, such is the politically correct frenzy surrounding the manner and means of his death and its supposed racist connotations. Yet I cannot help wondering if there were to be the same sort of outcry and sustained attempts to jail anyone if Lawrence were in fact a white teenager.
Guardian.

On a mild November evening in 2003, 14-year-old Charlene Downes kissed her mum goodbye and walked with a friend to visit the Carousel bar on Blackpool's North Pier. When she failed to come home by the following morning, police circulated her description.

Last year, the trial of two men accused over Charlene's murder was halted when the jury failed to reach a verdict. The subsequent retrial collapsed owing to concerns over a key prosecution witness. Both men were cleared of the charges. The case is still open. 

Rumour still has it that Charlene was fed into a mincer and fed as kebabs to unsuspecting punters. The two convicted eventually got compensation from the state for winning their trial, the police however aren't looking for anyone else.
Democracy forum.

Nineteen-year-old Gavin Hopley and his two friends were making their way home to Rochdale after a night out in Oldham when they inadvertently wandered into the Muslim-dominated 'no-go' area of Glodwick and were chased and attacked by a gang of, at least, ten Muslim men and youths.
Unfortunately, though his two friends escaped, Gavin was cornered and brutally beaten by the gang with his head stamped on repeatedly by his assailants. After the attack, a kindly elderly Muslim lady called the emergency services and covered the unconscious teenager with a blanket. He never regained consciousness and later died in hospital.
Six men were eventually jailed for violent disorder and theft following the attack in February 2002 on Gavin Hopley, but no one has been successfully prosecuted for his murder. All of them now walk the streets of Oldham, ostensibly free men, but the abolition of the double jeopardy law which prevented repeat prosecutions can put that in doubt should fresh evidence emerge.
At the time, Gavin's parents issued a public condemnation of certain members of the Muslim community in Oldham for protecting the culprits.
The killers of Gavin Hopley got off, just as those of black teenager Stephen Lawrence did. But how many people know about and remember Gavin Hopley?

Again, the police are not looking for anyone else, as far as they are concerned the case is closed.
So I'm wondering if justice in the UK is based on the colour of your skin, certainly appears to be the case in the Lawrence trial where the police after the Macpherson report on the Lawrence murder accused them of institutionalised racism, but the two I've mentioned have yet to get any justice, there are others out there too let down by a system that seems now to be designed that only if you're not white will you get justice and expenditure on your death.
I do hope that those who murdered Lawrence get justice, but I am truly saddened by the fact that there are so many white murder victims by coloured people who will not.

Pot, kettle

In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black Labour have accused the government of intending to borrow more than they originally intended. This would be the same Labour party behind the tax and spend initiatives which have pretty much left the country bankrupt and needing to borrow in the first place.
BBC.

The government could borrow over £100bn more than it planned to up to 2015, according to Labour.
The party compared Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts from November 2010 with the latest estimates.
Labour said it showed the government's plans were "reckless" but Economic Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said the claims were "nonsense".
Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband will later urge ministers to change course away from economic austerity.

So we have a case for Labour accusing the government of borrowing more and the leader of the Labour Party calling for an end to austerity economics, which I suspect would mean the government borrowing more.
Fact of the matter being, we are where we are economically because of massive Labour overspending and a new government far too weak owing to the vacillations of its leader before the election to effectively tackle the overspending by taking a chain saw to the state budget and shifting the public spending over into tax relief for any employer taking on ex public servants. The Labour government were also responsible for the massive increase in uncontrolled immigration putting a further burden on our public services by their insistence that they did not have to integrate but that the state would enforce measures to allow them to remain separate with translation services and various other means which pandered to the alien societies within our midst.
I realise that it's the oppositions job to oppose the government, but really when it comes to economic statements, the Labour Party should really just keep its mouth firmly shut.

Not so quietly abolished

Suckling at the state teat has become a truly outlandish business for various "experts" in all sorts of fields where they can pronounce their current bias against anything the public seem to enjoy doing. Of course, when a new government gets in and starts threatening the finance you can hear the squeals in the press, even if it was supposed to be something supposedly quietly abolished.
Telegraph.

A panel of advisers on tackling obesity has been disbanded over claims the Government was too sympathetic to the food and drink industry.
Members of the advisory group, which was set up under Labour, said the Government preferred to consult food and drink firms than scientific experts over Britain's obesity crisis.
The decision to dissolve the panel was taken some weeks ago but was not revealed until this week, according to the Financial Times.
Experts were disappointed with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's approach to "nudge" people to make better lifestyle choices.
Klim McPherson, a member of the panel, told the FT: "Ministers were more inclined to involve food and drinks companies than scientific experts."
He said the health issue was as big a problem as global warming, adding: "An obesity epidemic cannot be prevented by individual action alone and demands a societal approach."

I suspect the food and drink industry has its own scientific experts too, considering how likely it might be that they'll get sued if they cause problems with peoples health. But the main reason that this lot had to go was the fact that it really isn't the governments job to hector people over what they eat, it should also not be the governments job to hector people over what they drink or smoke either, but we're still working on that one.
Another clue that the people involved are just placemen was the raising of the old shibboleth of "global warming" clearly someone has not been outside in the real world for far too long otherwise they'd know that the warmist industry has had to change its tack to "climate change" and then "global climate disruption" or whatever it is they're trying to scare us with these days.
I wonder how much these panelists were claiming, I suspect it was far more than the minimum wage, I suspect it was far more than the average wage. I doubt we'll miss them, the IQ of the various public services probably went up a notch or two when they were disbanded. 
Still, that's only one down, probably thousands to go, but good riddance all the same.

Cold comfort

Many of us in the blogging world have railed for years against the depredations of the Green religion pointing out the fallacies behind their predictions and the inevitable end results of their policies as enacted by politicians who do not have the best wishes (or intentions) of the people they are supposed to represent simply seeing the Green agenda as another way to screw more money out of the taxpayer.
Express.

ENERGY bills are set to soar by 60% bringing financial pain to millions of people already struggling to pay.
In a bleak prediction, industry analysts warn that annual electricity prices could rocket by 60 per cent, with gas increases of 54 per cent because of rising wholesale costs.The steep hike could result in total energy bills in excess of £2,000 a year.
Experts blame the upward trend on the green agenda which will force suppliers to invest in new technologies that consumers will have to pay for.
The experts warn that average electricity bills could rise £300 a year to £800 in the next 10 years and gas prices could increase from £845 annually to more than £1,300 – a leap of £455.
The predicted price rise “could be catastrophic for many households”, said Thomas Lyon of price comparison website uSwitch.com. He said consumers had already been “knocked for six” by this year’s hikes.
Among a panel of experts for SmartestEnergy, the UK’s leading purchaser and supplier of energy generated by the independent sector, 90 per cent predicted a rise, with one third saying it would be 60 per cent. The average increase predicted was 43 per cent by 2021 which would see electricity bills alone rise by more than £200 a year.
Robert Groves, chief executive of SmartestEnergy said: “While it is impossible to forecast with any certainty what will happen, it is clear that many in the industry are bracing themselves for significant increases.”
The Daily Express reported last month that more than 2,700 older people died over a 12-month period from illnesses caused by not being able to afford to heat their homes.
Higher energy bills and freezing weather could see the figure soar this winter.

Saying I told you so is very much a cold comfort to me, because even now we're not in a position to hang the arch traitors and various other enemies of the people from the lampposts including energy secretary Chris Huhne and anyone else in authority who gave the ok to ruinously expensive "green" energy projects. These are also the people trying to stop the production of shale gas extraction as cheap energy is anathema to their creed and their ultimate goal of depopulating the planet and setting the majority of us back (who survive) to a medieval struggle for survival, no doubt lorded over by a technocracy living high on the hog in their guarded compounds.

There is no need for energy to be so expensive, we should drop the green levy on power generation, stop building bird mincers and subsidising them, stop subsidising solar power and build lots of cheap gas power stations and train apprentices up to engineering standards to help run them.

But we wont, we'll just carry on down the same path to economic self destruction until we finally snap, probably during a power cut during the X factor finals knowing just how dumbed down our population has become.

No you won't

"Big Man" Cameron was spouting nonsense at the annual foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, I really don't know if he believes the guff he comes out with or he's simply hoping that we believe it (or will swallow it like the moronic MSM do)
Mail.

I'll get powers back from the EU, says Cameron: Prime Minister's vow to rebellious MPs in Lord Mayor's speech
Vows to refashion EU to best serve nation's interests

• Remarks at odds with that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• Says leaving EU is not in the British interest
• Boris Johnson questions Government's willingness to boost IMF
• George Osborne hits out at plans for financial transaction tax

David Cameron last night said the EU was ‘in peril’ and described the debt crisis as an ‘opportunity’ to claw back powers for Britain.
After being rocked by a Tory MP rebellion over Britain’s future in the EU, the Prime Minister cast himself as a ‘sceptic’, attacking ‘grand plans and utopian visions’ and vowing to ‘refashion the EU so it better serves this nation’s interests’.
He accused the EU of being out of touch and attacked its ‘pointless interference, rules and regulations’.
His remarks are diametrically at odds with those of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called yesterday for the EU to focus on building a ‘political union’ as she warned the continent faced its biggest crisis since the Second World War.

The EU is in peril, but it's a self inflicted peril and if like a disease we don't isolate ourselves away from it, it might just take us down with it. We aren't in the €uro, we can still be outside and trade with them and frankly we don't need them, their ways are not our ways, their laws rub across everything we (used) to hold dear such as the rights of freeborn men to do what we wanted so long as a law did not prevent it, rather than the authoritarian European way of permission being granted if a law allows it.
Cameron even had the nerve to add at one point "we sceptics" truly a monumental lie if ever there was one as he also stated "Leaving the EU is not in our national interest," he will argue. "Outside, we would end up like Norway, subject to every rule for the single market made in Brussels but unable to shape those rules." Which to my mind says that Norway isn't subject to any of those rules save only what Norway wants to subject itself too. We can still trade with Europe, heaven knows they'll still want to trade with us it's just that we'll also be able to trade far more cheaply with the rest of the world by applying their standards to whatever they want rather than have overbearing EU standards to meet simply because we're in the EU. No more tariffs either, no more Common Agricultural Policy, no more Spanish fleets hoovering the seas off our coast, our ancient rights and freedoms returned to us (no doubt after we hang all the lawyers)  Our country, run by our people for its people rather than by EU regs designed for Italian or Greek olive growers but fitted into a one size fits all package rubber stamped by the fools at Westminster.
We should leave and seek our own destiny again, this is why Cameron is wrong, this is why he has to go!

Catastrophic for whom?

Seems phoney Tony was spouting a lot of nonsense about the collapse of the €uro being a catastrophe for Europe, though I suspect he really meant it would be a catastrophe for the politicians who backed the €uro and back the EU.
BBC.

Former prime minister Tony Blair has told the BBC the collapse of the euro would be "catastrophic" - and Europe must get behind it.

Mr Blair said he hoped it would not collapse, but European leaders faced "very difficult and painful" choices.

A "long-term framework of credibility" was needed, he said, which included "strong fiscal co-ordination".

Chancellor George Osborne told the BBC there must be more co-operation on tax and spending in eurozone countries.

Don't know why Osborne thinks co-operation on tax and spending will help either, it was co-operation on tax and spending that caused the €uro to come about in the first place. Not that it was helped by certain EU members lying about their GDP to get into the €uro, but that's what politicians tend to do when they are in pursuit of a pet project. I doubt very much that a collapse of the €uro would affect ordinary people too much either as we'd have politicians scrambling to save their hides by reintroducing "old" currencies very quickly to prevent them from being lynched, though admittedly it depends on just how badly they try to stave off what seems inevitable. I suspect crops will still be grown, people will make things and industry will continue, international industry will probably do reasonably well as they'll simply switch the currency they use for transactions, Swiss Franc anyone?
Blair also went on to say...

"The myth that the Italian and German economies were the same - that ten-year myth has now evaporated."

The only people who appeared to believe that myth were politicians, certainly no economists, I'm fairly sure the ordinary guy in the street didn't either, though they appear to be the ones stuck with paying back for political incompetence and ruinous borrowing by the various Eurozone governments.
Rule 1) in (my understanding of) economics is that you cannot buck the market, something that seems to be wiped from the memories of politicians, bureaucrats and various apparatchiks of the political classes. You can certainly ramp up your credit and borrow against future growth, but like all forms of gambling you also have to take the chance that prices can go up or down in other words if you bet the family silver against a sure thing, you'd better have a plan B if the nag loses the race and that's where the political classes of the EU have failed woefully. They did not believe they could fail despite the warnings, despite the accounts not being signed off, they literally thought wishful thinking would buck market trends. Well now the bailiffs are sniffing around after their money back and guess who's being stiffed with the bill.
It's going to be a little bit like one of those domino rallies now as one country topples taking the next with it and who knows where it will end.
But a catastrophe, well only if you believe in or work for the EU perhaps.

At the going down of the Sun and in the morning

On a cold November Sunday morn, an old man sits a while
Looking though old photographs, he can’t help but smile
They’re all there, all the boys, with hair cut short and neat
Uniforms of khaki, strong black boots upon their feet.
They met as strangers but soon became like brothers to the end
Smiling at the camera, there could be no truer friends.
They all took the Queen’s shilling, went off to fight the hun,
Soon learnt the pain of loss once the fighting had begun.
So many never made it home, lost on foreign shores
Many more were injured and would be the same no more.
The old man’s eyes mist with tears as he remembers every face
Each of his fallen brothers and the killing which took place
He proudly dons his beret, his blazer and his tie
For today he will remember the ones who fell and died.
On his chest there is a poppy, a blaze of scarlet on the blue
He steps out into the cold, he has a duty he must do
Once at the cenotaph he stands amongst the ranks
Of those who marched to war and those who manned the tanks,
He bows his head in reverence, as the last post begins to play
And he wonders what will happen at the ending of his days
Will anyone remember? Will anybody care?
About the lads so far from home whose life was ended there?
I wish that I could tell him, that he should fear not
For this soldier and his brothers will NEVER be forgot
We owe a debt of gratitude that we can never pay
And this country WILL remember them, on each Remembrance day.

Maria Cassee

An odd day out

Yesterday, I and others were in London to pay our respects to those who died in service of their country, there was no intent on our part to cause any trouble, indeed the police and the home secretary appeared to have removed any threat to the ceremony with the banning of Muslims Against Crusades along with a raid against its leader the previous night.
Nonetheless, it was decided a day off and a ticket already bought should not go to waste so I and several hundred others from the EDL and other patriotic groups converged on London to pay our respects, wearing our poppies with pride and sadness as we we stood silently at 11 minutes past 11 no disruption, no chanting, just an eerie silence with occasional traffic noise in the far background, this had been preceded by a spontaneous round of applause to the veterans standing in Whitehall.
Afterwards I and a few others then went to look in the grounds of Westminster Abbey at the row upon row of poppies laid out by the various forces to remember their dead a truly emotional moment.
It was then that things got weird. We heard a lot of sirens going on and reports started to come through that the bulk of the EDL who were well dressed, no colours, no flags, no chanting had been surrounded by the police where they were standing and forced back into the Red Lion pub.

The picture really doesn't do it justice, but the police presence was very large and very aggressive.

Any attempt to approach the area and you were warned off, no-one was getting in or getting out, though apparently a few did manage to slip away before the "kettling" became 6 deep in places. Apparently the Dept of pre-crime The Met Police had decided to act upon a facebook rumour that the EDL were going to march and attack the Occupy London camp at St Paul's. If the EDL were, then it was news to the EDL and the various groups of other EDL members who were wandering around knew nothing of it, there were certainly enough of us to go to St Paul's if we wanted, though none of us really give a damn about them.
2 hours after the initial "kettling the police began dragging individual EDL members out and arresting them to "prevent a breach of the peace" not for actually doing anything, simply because of suspicion, a suspicion I know not to be true as the amount of texts flying about from EDL members showed their utter confusion as to what was going on. One of the guys dragged out from the pub also had a heart condition and his treatment triggered an attack, the video here shows it at about 1 minute in...
You'll note that he was dragged past 2 police first aiders who ignored him and when they realised he was not too well, they simply de-arrested him and told him to get lost, no ambulance called etc. He ended up in hospital seriously ill as a few other EDL watching did call an ambulance.
By that time though I and the others I was with had dispersed back to our homes wondering just what has happened to our society, when people peacefully respecting the fallen can be caged, arrested and then released with no charges 7 hours later when there had been no intention other than to show respect.

This land was built from Blood and Tears
The sacrifice of 2000 years,
The Romans came, the Vikings, too,
So why would we be afraid of you?

But mark my words and mark them well,
It was 1066 since we last fell.
When it comes to a fight, we hate to lose,
So Respect our Men or leave……
you choose.

For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

 Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

MAC have been banned and have said they will not go (cowards) but I will be there to add my respect to those who fell in their countries service.

So why don't we just leave

It sounds simple and simply by revoking the original charter signed away by Ted Heath we could be out of the EU tomorrow. Yes I know our treacherous politicians will wait until the last minute in the hope that something may turn up from the débacle that is the EU and the collapse of the €uro, one of the greatest political and economic blunders of recent times. For too long the EU apparatchiks forgot that what they had was only a monetary union, not a fiscal one in other words Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and possibly even France "borrowed" the credit rating of Germany to finance their way up in the world, which was fine only so long as there was a buoyant economy, now the recession is here, the debts are being called in and there's no possible way they can be repaid. That's not to say those countries are bankrupt, they still have wealth it's just that the state can no longer act as guarantor of the loans save by taxing the living hell out of their people, something that might just have the politicians having a squeaky bum moment at the thought of it.
Yes it will certainly affect us, the UK's banks were involved after all, however if we pull out now, yes it will hurt, but at least we'd recover and we wont be dragged screaming into a 10 year (at least) slump with high taxation and no growth.
Sad thing is, people like me and far more wiser heads than me were warning of this years ago, saying I told you so is now cold comfort indeed at the prospects of picking up the tab of our reckless, feckless politicians greed and ambition.

EDL 1 : 0 FIFA

Despite the scurrilous claims of a few utter morons, Islamic's and white poppy wearers, the Red Poppy is not a political symbol of militarism or imperialism, it merely reminds us of those who laid down their lives serving their country in our armed forces. It does not matter if the war is just, legal or not, that's a matter for politicians, not for those who serve and we do well to honour them at this time of the year.
This is something that FIFA cannot grasp as they applied petty rules about England having an embroidered poppy on their football strip for their match against Spain this Saturday,
Mail.

FIFA has insisted the rules will not be bent to allow England to wear poppies on their shirts against Spain.
The Government piled the pressure on FIFA by writing a letter pleading for the symbolic flower to be allowed on shirts at Wembley on Saturday.
But football's governing body has again refused to make an exception for the FA over the request to add the poppy to mark Remembrance Sunday.
The world body have now issued a 'final statement' rejecting the plea.
A letter from FIFA to the FA sent read: 'We regret to inform you that accepting such initiatives would open the door to similar initiatives from all over the world, jeopardising the neutrality of football.
'Therefore, we confirm herewith that the suggested embroidery on the match shirt cannot be authorised.

FIFA’s rules on its member nations do not allow adorning their shirts with ‘commercial’, ‘political’, or ‘religious’ symbols or messages. The poppy is none of those, yet FIFA would not change their minds and so provoked a reaction from the EDL.
Telegraph.

Two members of the English Defence League climbed onto the roof of Fifa's headquarters in Zurich with a banner protesting against the ban.
A Fifa spokesman confirmed the protest is ongoing and that Swiss police were in attendance.
The two protesters displayed a banner with two poppies on which read: "English defence League. How dare Fifa disrespect our war dead and wounded. Support out troops."

The Telegraph actually has it wrong, there were actually 6 EDL involved, but no matter, they also have the usual drivel from a "Hate not Hope" troll decrying the fact that someone reminded FIFA about the symbology about the poppy.
The EDL will also be in London this Friday along with other patriotic groups in an attempt to stop the imbeciles of Muslims Against Crusades burning another poppy outside the Royal Albert Hall sometime between 10 and 12am. Followed by a march to the FA headquarters to highlight the England football teams issues with Fifa concerning them not being allowed to wear our poppy on their shirt on Saturday when they play against Spain. We believe it is disgusting and disrespectful of Sepp Blatter & co to treat our national team like this hence why we will be popping over to Soho to show our support to the National Team and to urge each and every player to wear their poppy with pride the next day when they smash Spain regardless of Fifa`s Decision.
FIFA, MAC, Hate not Hope and Unite all fascists (UAF) should remember that disrespect begets disrespect.
Update, Mail.

An FA statement read: ‘The FA can confirm that FIFA has today agreed that the England team will now be permitted to wear a poppy on the black armbands the players will wear during Saturday’s match with Spain.

Though only on their armbands, not their shirts.
Well done the EDL!

He's not listening...

I don't know what it is about political leaders and not actually listening to what they're being told, seems that unless it comes from green energy idiots or brazen EUrophiles then it's a case of "la la la I'm not listening"
Mail.

Collapse of Euro 'would leave Britain BETTER off but if it stays we will see 10 years of austerity'

• Bailout contribution could rise to £40bn
• Get tough on Europe IDS tells Cameron as Tories hold crisis talks
• Cost of Euro collapsing will be 2 per cent of GDP
• UK's IMF liability is currently £29.4billion - and moves to raise it have sparked fury among Tory backbenchers

The collapse of the euro would ultimately lead to a strengthening of Britain's economic position, a think tank predicted today. Despite resulting in a short recession and costing the economy 2 per cent GDP, the end of the European single currency would ultimately be beneficial, the study showed. The Centre for Economics and Business Research also said that if the euro survives the current sovereign debt crisis with the help of bailouts, Britain could face a decade of austerity measures. The study will add further pressure on David Cameron who will today hold crisis talks with Cabinet eurosceptics as it emerged that Britain’s exposure to the International Monetary Fund could rise to £40billion. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson will tell the Prime Minister he needs to toughen his stance on Europe, setting out a clear timetable for clawing back powers handed to Brussels. There is increasing concern that core EU nations are planning to use the debt crisis to join forces to ‘bulldoze’ over British interests, leaving the UK marooned in a permanent voting minority as they integrate further. Alarm on the Conservative benches deepened last night as Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander, a keen Europhile, confirmed that Britain’s contributions to the IMF could rise to £40billion and said he would have no problem with more money being loaned to Greece.

Yup, that's right,  the Centre for Economics and Business Research has pointed out the obvious that if the €uro collapses we'll be better off, if it doesn't we're in for 10 years (at least) of penury. You even have imbeciles such as Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander saying he would have no problems loaning more cash to bankrupt Greece, doubt somehow he means his own cash though, which is ever the problem with our politicians loosing sight over just whose cash they are playing with.
The warning signs have been there almost from the start as the EU has grabbed ever more power to itself that was overreaching itself to such a degree that the slightest mishap (global recession anyone?) would start the collapse of their house of cads cards. The ever more desperate attempts to somehow shore it up in the face of the markets reluctance to support the €uro is only prolonging the agony, the EU states and their economies are too disparate to survive under a monolithic state, not even the USA does that with the Dollar, leaving a lot of control to the states themselves in how they set prices and taxes. The only way it could survive is the one path they cannot take, that is to allow individual members to control their own economies as that would sound the death knell of the EU superstate.
I just wonder how much damage will be done before it collapses.

I'm surprised it's only 8 out of 10

People think England is crowded, though a quick check of land usage for buildings only has about 3% of available land built upon. What is crowded is actually our cities and towns where immigration, high birth rates amongst immigrants and a low level of expansion in building infrastructure at prices people can afford means that expansion is not happening and you're ending up with too many people in one place. At the moment we're heading for a possible 70 million population with the majority of it in England, this isn't sustainable unless we're either trading to accumulate wealth by producing jobs or services others want (fat chance with us being in the EU) or we have enough land to feed ourselves (we clearly don't)
Express.

ALMOST eight out of 10 people in England think the country is overcrowded.
The support, which also reveals that more than a third believe England to be “very crowded’’, will pile pressure on ministers to keep their promises to slash immigration.
The petition survey was conducted by YouGov for the MigrationWatch UK think-tank.
It was launched on the Government’s website last Tuesday and had collected more than 90,000 signatures by yesterday, making it one of the fastest- growing appeals on the site so far.
Petitions have to be considered as the subject for a Commons debate once they gain 100,000 names.
The MigrationWatch petition condemns the “mass immigration’’ permitted over the last 10 years and voices concern at official projections that the UK’s population will rise from 62.3 million last year to 70 million by 2027.
Two-thirds of the rise stems from immigration with the rest due to rising birthrates and increased life expectancy.

This accelerated over the last 15 years owing to the previous governments opening the floodgates to immigration to "rub the rights nose in multiculturalism" and has lead due to multiculturalism a fragmented non homogeneous nation, a sure recipe for a civil war at some future stage. Not that the current government done much to stem this, they've admittedly had to deal with a recession plus a lot of the crap that Gordon Brown left as minefields in the economic system to cause the new government a lot of problems (sheer spite) and just another reason why I wish fervently that Labour will never ever get into power ever again.
The problem we have now of course is that we have them (immigrants) and are either going to have to integrate them or remove them, the longer it goes, the more chance there will be that someone will unite the people and say enough is enough and wholesale forced repatriation will begin. Personally I don't want to live in a country that would do that, but unless this problem is nipped in the bud, it will happen.

A deep ongoing cultural malaise

An energy watchdog has announced to the UK that our energy bills will probably rise something like 30% in the next 5 years, pushing ever more people into fuel poverty and causing many of the rest of us to ration our heating and power usage during what will probably be some quite harsh winters with the inevitable "dying off" of our sick and elderly  accelerated by government policy and the idiocy that is green energy and the environmental tariffs placed upon our bills to support the madness that is low carbon efficiency.
Express.

HARD-PRESSED households will see their gas and electricity bills rise by 30 per cent within the next five years, according to a senior industry watchdog.
Given current trends, she believes that energy prices will have risen by nearly a third by 2016.
That comes on top of the 21 per cent rise in energy prices over the past 12 months that has left families and pensioners struggling to find, on average, an extra £224 for heating and with a bitterly cold winter said to be on the way, rising energy prices will have “dangerous consequences” and put people’s health at risk, says Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at price comparison website uSwitch.
Research by uSwitch found that 23 million households, or 89 per cent of the population, will ration their energy usage this winter, either by keeping their heating on low or turning it off altogether to save on fuel bills.
That would indicate four million more people than last year will be rationing their heating.
“As the cost of our energy bills escalates people are being forced into making potentially dangerous choices,” Ms Robinson said.
“Whether they sacrifice something else to keep the heating on or turn the heating off to pay for something else, there is a modern-day Russian roulette going on in homes up and down the country.”
Last winter more than half of all households went without heating at some point to keep their energy costs down, risking their health and wellbeing. Additionally, 6.3 million people were pushed into fuel poverty by energy price increases.
As well as worries about the health implications of going without heating, uSwitch’s research found that households are going into debt to pay their bills.
More than one in three has turned to borrowing to cover their household bills, with 20 per cent owing £500 to £1,000 and 17 per cent owing between £1,000 and £2,000.

All this to pay for "renewable" energy sources that are inefficient and expensive to run, that frequently don't work when the weather is at its coldest and that have to be subsidised (by us) to be economical compared to other energy supplies that work. We're even sitting on a potentially massive energy source in shale gas production, but this is being delayed by envirolunacy in the Dept of Energy and Climate Change and the Lib Dem idiot Chris Huhne as it might cause earthquakes in Blackpool. We're even sitting on about 300 years worth of coal for Gods sake! That's stored energy in an easy to use form, we can even use lean burn recovery systems on it to reduce pollution! But no, we build sodding bird mincers that are expensive and don't work if there's no wind and also if there's too much wind as well. That are expensive to maintain, are occasionally out at sea and suffering from marine corrosion (salty air and electrics don't mix)
Our people, those who are most vulnerable are going to die because of envirolunacy, perhaps we should declare it some sort of mental disease or psychological condition, because for the life of me that's what it appears to be.

Action speaks louder than words

I wonder what will come of this little spark of genius from Chris Grayling the Employment Minister, seems he's deciding as to whether or not it will be worth trying to sue the EU for trying to flood our country with benefit claimants from the Ukraine and North Africa.
Mail.

The Government will take unprecedented legal action against the EU to prevent ‘benefit tourists’ from the Ukraine and north African countries coming to Britain to collect benefits without working.
Employment minister Chris Grayling said he planned to sue the European Commission to block millions of people who could arrive on UK shores to claim state pensions and benefits.
He said he believed EU officials were trying to create a system where people from either inside the EU or from countries bordering it, were able to come into Britain and start claiming benefits.
In a newspaper interview, the minister said the EU had launched a ‘land grab’ and ‘pre-emptive action to stop this’ was now necessary.
He said: ‘We are concerned about benefit tourism, we want tighter rules. We want the rules changed and they are just not listening.

The problem he has and cannot seem to grasp (a bit like most politicians) is that the EU doesn't have to listen or sort anything out for us at all if it isn't in their interests too. What they will be thinking is that the UK will be some sort of magnet for the sort of people whom they don't want emigrating to their own countries. We could resolve it quite easily simply by leaving and taking back control of our own borders and destiny, though no-one in the government with any real power to do anything about it seems to relish that possibility either.
Thing is, pretty much every time the UK government has gone up against the EU, we've lost, they operate on a completely different set of rules and laws to the UK system and once something is settled with them then all have to fall in line, or just ignore the rules or in the case of France make any attempt to get into their system as long winded and damn near impossible as they can.
It's the UK's ever increasing folly in that with the EU we tend to follow the rules to the letter, something no other EU country seems to do, this is because before we were in the EU our rules few as they were suited us and were easy to follow.
Grayling mentions further down the article that he was sympathetic to the calls from back-bench Conservative MPs for a referendum on Britain’s EU membership and that ‘renegotiation’ of the relationship was now necessary.Save only that sympathy isn't going to win us anything from the EU, only leaving that monstrous system will ever resolve the UK's problems, or at reast put the resolution of the problems back into our own hands.

Rip(a)e for scrapping

Ripa, the Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act, brought in by Labour ostensibly to keep an eye on terrorists, but so loosely written that local councils found it a handy tool to spy on what people were putting into its bins comes in for criticism again.
Mail.

The astonishing extent of Britain’s surveillance society was revealed for the first time yesterday.
Three million snooping operations have been carried out over the past decade under controversial anti-terror laws.
They include tens of thousands of undercover missions by councils and other state bodies which are not responsible for law enforcement.
Cases include a family who were spied on to check they were not cheating on school catchment area rules and so-called ‘bin criminals’.
The campaign group Justice is demanding the hugely controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act – under which all the operations were authorised – be scrapped altogether.
Since the Act was passed, there have been:
More than 20,000 warrants for the interception of phone calls, emails and internet use;
At least 2.7million requests for communication data, including phone bills and location information;
More than 4,000 authorisations for intrusive surveillance, such as planting a bug in a person’s house;
At least 186,133 authorisations for directed (covert) surveillance by law enforcement agencies;
61,317 directed surveillance operations by other public bodies, including councils;
43,391 authorisations for ‘covert human intelligence sources’.
In total, the report says there have been around three million decisions taken by state bodies under RIPA, not including authorisations given to the security and intelligence services.
Yet fewer than 5,000 of these – just 0.16 per cent – were approved by judges.

There are times when you can honestly believe that someone took George Orwell's novel 1984 as a template for the future of the UK. Even the language is twisted in the same way as newspeak where a new Protections of freedoms Bill means anything of the sort. The problem has always been that people in authority will use the tools available to that authority in ways the lawmakers never envisaged. This with the coupling of the EU Code Napoleon (where a law is required for permission) into various areas of UK justice (where if there isn't a law against it, it's legal) has put the UK public under ever more scrutiny even for mundane things than at any time in our history.
The most damning thing of all though is the fact that only 5 thousand of the 3 million undercover investigations ever came before a judge and worst of all, none of the 3 million were authorisations given to the security and intelligence services.
We are snooped on, spied upon and told constantly that it's for our own safety, yet the system itself is frequently used to target those whom the state see as inconvenient, people such as the leader of the EDL.



He's had his business destroyed, investigated by the taxman, been held under bail for over 18 months, had an attempted 10 year ASBO thrown at him, his wife arrested, constantly followed by special branch officers.In the end, he was given a 12 month suspended prison sentence, a 150 hour community order, and must pay £200 costs after being found guilty of assault, despite the fact that the guy who was aid to have been assaulted refused to press charges or appear as a witness for the prosecution.
Indeed as for the ASBO, the judge Peter Ward refused the application and said he did not believe it would have been submitted but for the defendant's links with the EDL.
Everywhere you go people who have stuck their heads above the parapet to question the states judgement or even request something the state is unwilling to give or simply doesn't believe them are targeted and lives investigated and occasionally destroyed.
We need to temove RIPA, we need to go back to the days of UK justice based upon ancient traditions and those who abused (in a very real sense) the provisions of RIPA should be sacked and/or imprisoned for their authoritarian abuse.
It's time to start trimming back the state, both financially, in size and in powers. Our freedom depends on the state having as little power over our lives as possible!

Greed

The public sector unions and their members who voted to go on strike are taking the piss, despite the improved offer from the government, which as far as I'm concerned is still mostly coming out of the taxpayers pocket. No, I'm not saying they don't deserve a pension, but, what I am saying is that if they do want something better than the state pension they should be funding it themselves and not asking the rest of us to cough up.
Express.

BRITAIN is set to be crippled by strike action after union leaders yesterday rejected a massively improved deal to reform bloated public sector pensions.
There was outcry last night at the damaging union move to deny any attempt to reform the system to help solve the country’s debt crisis.
The union refusal came despite the Government offer of concessions worth billions of pounds.
Under the offer announced by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, pensions of low and middle earners would be as good or better than now. Around a million workers within 10 years of retiring would not have to work longer and would keep their final salary pensions. There would be no more reform for 25 years.
A teacher on £37,800 would get a pension of £25,200 a year under the deal, compared to £19,100 now. A nurse on £34,200 would get a pension of £22,800 compared to £17,300 now.
Unions welcomed the improved offer but will press on with plans for a mass walkout on November 30 following demos in June.

Nowhere in private industry would you expect to see such pensions, they are simply unsustainable without massive contributions from the workers themselves. Only in the deluded world of the socialists controlling the public sector unions would you expect to see the rejection of such generous terms and still have the meally mouthed gall to claim that public sympathy would be on their side carefully mentioning nurses, teachers and policemen whilst carefully avoiding any mention of diversity co-ordinators, racial awareness officers and healthy living administrators who also expect those of us who create wealth to pay for their long term comfort whilst struggling to make ends meet today never mind saving for their old age.
Yes I realise there are certain professions that have short term lifespans owing to the physical nature of the job, but by and large most civil servant and public servants could cope quite well with working to 65+ like the rest of us poor buggers paying their way.
The unions should simply be told that it's take it or leave it, any strike will be a breach of contract and grounds for automatic dismissal, followed by re-application for the jobs at sensible contributions, oh and in a union free environment.
People need to learn, if you want something then you pay your way to get it, you should not expect anyone else to dip into their pockets to pay your way, ever.

Cultural enrichment

Muslims are funny sorts, lot of rules and regulations as to how to live your life all based around the ravings teachings of a desert bandit about 1500 years ago and spread around the world sometimes by the sword occasionally by assimilation. Problem being of course times change, but owing to the peculiarities of their holy book they can't as it's unchangeable. Add into the mix certain tribal customs transported in from the northern Indian sub continent, coupled with UK societies idiotic multiculturalism/political correctness and you have a recipe for trouble.
Mail.

A young Asian bride was drugged and held prisoner by her family after she broke off an arranged engagement to her first cousin and secretly married another man, a court heard today.
Naila Afsar, 23, was also threatened with death, assaulted and abused by angry close relatives after they discovered she had wed Afsar Saddiq without telling them, it was alleged.
She was given a milky drink laced with a prescription-only sedative in a bid to put her to sleep while they took her back to the family home - and away from her new husband, it was said.
Mr Saddiq, meanwhile, was visited by Naila Afsar's family, who told him his new wife would not be returning before stealing his mobile phone to stop the couple keeping in contact, a jury heard.
Naila Afsar's mother Shamim Akhtar, 58, father Mohammed Khan, 57, her elder brother Shamrez Khan, 34, all from Bradford, West Yorkshire, and her sister Saima Mahmood, 30, and her brother-in-law Zahid Mahmood, 36, both of Accrington, face a string of charges.
They all deny false imprisonment, kidnap and two charges of administering the drug lorazepam with intent, in January last year, after claiming in a police interview they were trying to help Naila 'resolve a domestic situation'.

Usual use of Asian to hide the fact that these are Muslims of Pakistani descent you'll note and the usual Muslims of Pakistani descent approach to dealing with a domestic situation involving a female of the family ie. threats and violence. That's the problem you get when you introduce an alien culture to a new place and then allow it to refuse to integrate, keep its customs and generally foster the worst aspects of that culture with its culture of shame (dis)honour and misogyny. Naila Afsar I suppose is lucky she didn't end up like Shafilea Ahmed, or Tulay Goren, though it's not just women affected.
Yet for years our police ignored this as they also did with the Islamic paedophile gangs in the name of community cohesion and fear no doubt of being accused of racism. So we have a festering malignant custom frequently brushed under the carpet by the community involved, compounded by the off time intermarriage between close relatives and increased many-fold by the previous governments ridiculous immigration policies and multicultural edicts.
The law is supposed to be upheld without fear or favour, yet to the same of our senior police and politicians, kidnappings, murder and violence all thrive within Islamic communities all hushed up within those communities and ignored unless it's blatant outside them. They don't feel as if they are doing anything wrong, which makes it all the more terrible, you don't resolve a family dispute by threatening and drugging the objects of the dispute.
But try telling that to some Muslims.

Well there's a surprise

There are times when my contempt of the legal profession knows no bounds, particularly those sucking on the teat of taxpayers largesse aka human rights lawyers, who seem to do rather well for themselves by doing good.
Mail.

Lawyers defending the Dale Farm gypsies have been handed £6million of taxpayers' money in just five years, it emerged today.
Leeds-based Davies Gore Lomax cashed in while villagers living beside the Essex campsite had to fund their own campaign to evict the travellers.
The firm, which specialises in helping the 'vulnerable and disadvantaged', pocketed more than £1.1million in legal aid in 2008, The Sun has revealed.
It then received a further £1.1million last year from taxpayers through the Legal Services Commission.
The firm's website reads: 'Whether you are a privately paying client or eligible for representation under the legal aid scheme, we offer the same high level of service and specialisation.'
Of the Dale Farm case, the company said: 'It is a wake up call to all councils to provide the sites that are needed.'
But the firm's founding partner Keith Lomax told the newspaper that their work for gypsies only made up 'a tiny fraction' of their lucrative business.
He added: 'It is very good value for money and the fact that there are still lawyers prepared to work for such low pay to assist vulnerable people should be celebrated.'
Another leading law firm specialising in helping travellers has also netted millions in legal aid, The Sun discovered.
Birmingham's Community Law Partnership, whose funding also covered housing and asylum cases, earned £4.8million between 2006 and 2011.

Now the rights and wrongs of the Dale Farm travellers case don't really concern me, I've seen comment on both sides of the case and thought simply at the end they were taking the piss big time, but as their lawyers were milking the public, no wonder. Most people who were defending themselves in such circumstances would have simply cut their losses well before bringing in the U.N. and filing objections simply to prolong the case itself.
My concerns are that the legal battle itself rather than be for the benefit of the travellers, strayed over in being to the benefit of the legal firm. After all, if you know that legal aid will cough up no matter what, you'll milk it for all it's worth. Nor am I suggesting however that people should not have access to the legal profession, simply that there should be limits. One case and one appeal should be the norm and only extra access should be granted if there is new evidence prejudicial to the verdict, not simply new evidence and not simply withheld whilst the case was ongoing to gain further access to the legal aid teat. Either that or a cap is set on expenses that can be claimed. Nor would I expect this to move legal firms away from such cases, after all the money would still be there, just that the pursuing of a case to the bounds of idiocy will have been removed.