Protests

A strike is a protest by other means and it is clear that unless the protesters have a real passion for what they are protesting about that repeated protests about the same issue will eventually just fizzle out. So in such cases employers and governments have to hold out until the protesters get bored. So it is with those BA cabin crew of whom many do not believe they have a cause and are embarrassed by the greed demonstrated by their colleagues. So it is with the tube train drivers who know that not only are they well paid but that the change in working practices Transport for London want to introduce are reasonable and make sense. So it is with with the students who pretend that they are going to be greatly disadvantaged by the introduction of the new tuition fee regime - they say the poorest students will not be able to afford tuition fees whilst knowing full well that they do not have to make any payment until they are earning £21,000 a year and then only a minimal amount a year until their debt is paid off. If students do not understand that then how the hell did they manage to pass any exam to get into a University in the first place? It seems that some of the students are schoolchildren and other protesters are not students at all and are old enough to know better. The decision of LibDem MPs to abstain or vote against the introduction of the tuition fee changes is pathetic. Are they representatives of all their constituents or just a mandate for their supporters? What does their constitution say about giving a specific pledge on an issue that many of their candidates did not support? Furthermore it seems that LibDem policy on tuition fees was in the course of changing at the time of the election from one against to somewhere in favour. They gave a hostage to fortune and are now being hoist on their own petard. Surely they have someone amongst their ranks that is intelligent enough to wriggle them out of the ridiculous position they are now in and save Vince Cable from looking like an idiot by proposing legislation which he then votes against.  

Wikileaks and Iran; the Autumn Review

So far it seems that the leaks have been pretty much a damp squib. Hardly news that Saudi Arabia amongst other Middle East countries, including Israel, have been urging the United States to take out Iran's nuclear plants. A number of western countries have no doubt being urging the same course of action. Let's hope that the hack into the nuclear plant's computers has left a sleeping virus which can be reactivated at a moment critique and stop the Iranians dead in their tracks as they are about to use the weapons grade uranium to arm a missile.

George Osborne made a most interesting announcement in Parliament today which should help bring significant benefit to the economy over time and in particular to the North of England and Scotland. The idea seems to be that revenue earned from intellectual property generated as a result of research and development carried out here will only be taxed at 10%. GlaxoSmithKline Chief Executive was asked his views about this proposal on Jeff Randell live this evening and was rather complimentary saying that now there was a level playing field GSK would be looking to take advantage of the opportunities that would now be available at home including opening plants in the UK. This will be good for private sector jobs but it is disappointing that the Office of Budget Responsibility has today forecast that the number of public sector jobs that will go will be 330,000 and not 490,000 as previously forecast. This is a disappointment because as we all know it is the private sector that makes the money that pays the public sector wages out of taxes and too big a public sector means that the private sector has too big a burden to cope effectively. Our economy would be a power house if the public sector was cut in half and of course it could be without any danger to front line services.    

Human Rights

Let us hope that this Government introduces legislation to replace the Human Rights Act with the UK's own version which, inter alia, will ensure that people like Learco Chindamo can be expelled from this country without any exemption. Let us also hope that the replacement Act amends the Data Protection Act as well so that victims like Mrs Lawrence can be told the area where released prisoners like Learco Chindamo will be living. Murder after all should be punished and one of the punishments should be a cap on human rights. We British are full of common sense and I am sure a form of wording can be worked out which the judges will not be able to overturn. If Blair had not hated the British constitution or was so ignorant of our history there would have been no need to introduce the Human Rights Act. Our own protections evolved over centuries were more than adequate and the mark of a most civilised country. Europe should have adopted our common law and we should not have agreed to Napoleonic civil law being imposed on us.

Happiness

It is a quite extraordinary idea for a government to waste spend money on finding out how happy we all are. What will the government do if it discovers we are all unhappy? Is it it going to prescribe prozac? I vacillate every moment between worry and a semi comatose state and imagine everyone has the same kind of experience. At which point is happiness to be measured? When one is feeling chipper or when one is feeling depressed? What will be done with the results and will they be used to try and improve our lot? Will that make us happier and if not why not? Or is this announcement one of those politician's ideas that dies as we all get on with our lives? Rather than the taxpayer having to stump up the cost of this exercise why doesn't the "Big Society bank to do so? The "Big Society" bank is the bank to be set up by Barclays, HSBC etc to finance good causes at lower rates of interest than ordinary banks charge. No doubt there will be many applicants for funding good causes - themselves.    

The EU Parliament

Iain Dale has a fascinating video on his blog today of how democracy works in the EU Parliament. It shows a UKIP member being ejected for calling a socialist europhile a fascist! The EU Parliament is a fig leaf for the Monnet/Schuman project to abolish European countries and to construct another country in its place. No matter that the citizens of most European countries do not want to become citizens of another country without being asked. Monnet and Co, not untypically of the French intelligentsia, believe the likes of you and me  too stupid to know what's good for us so the transfer of our citizenship from our native lands to 'Europe' must be done behind our backs without further ado. Monnet and Co together believe that eventually all us proles will one day wake up, realise our resistance to the whole idea was misconceived, or at worst futile, and thank God for what these visionaries have done for us, or at worst sullenly accept it. I think Monnet and Co fail to understand human nature. Why is the EU Parliament a fig leaf? Because it has virtually no powers and it seems its decisions can be overruled by unelected officials (watch Channel 4's Dispatches http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3139895 for 15 November 2010, about 14 minutes in).

Danger

We have been reminded today that the world remains a dangerous place. It seems that the Irish bailout is not going as planned, that the EU's comments about the dangers of an early Irish general election will be ignored and that the EU will have to negotiate with a new Government which might take a different line to the current one. If this happens will the new government reject the straight jacket of euro membership and set itself free? What a turn up for the books that would be! We were also reminded today why we need our military. North Korea for whatever crazy reason (and it is easy to suggest that it is part of the leadership handover process from father to son but who knows) has launched an unprovoked attack on South Korea. How does the rest of the world deal with a mad dog like North Korea? If it were a dog it would quietly be put out of its misery but it will be fascinating to see how the only world power will deal with the threat. Bummer Obama's initial 'outrage' response has not been 'helpful' and demonstrated his lack of credibility where foreign affairs are concerned. As the world power mantle slips from America's shoulders everyone will be looking to China to whip the North Koreans into line. But how will China carry out that task and will we ever know when it has done so? Do not bank on it.  What a complicated world we live in! Crises though bring opportunities and if our politicians are clever they will use the euro and North Korean crises to boost our influence in the world, shake off the dead hand of the EU and rejuvenate our economy. 

A Sad Day

Ireland's heroic efforts to sort out their finances have come to naught. They have been forced to apply for a bailout despite the fact that they had sufficient funds until the middle of next year to pay for interest on Government borrowings etc.. John Redwood seems to think that the reason for insisting that Ireland take a bailout is because the European Central Bank (ECB) would prefer to lend to the Irish Government rather than continue making advances to Irish Banks, which because of their parlous state the ECB has been supporting for months now. The Irish Banks concerned presumably have still not worked out what their losses on sub-prime etc. are, which if true is unbelievable.

A sad day also to learn that the New Zealand miners have still not been rescued. What is happening? Why are the rescuers taking so long to find out if any of the miners are still alive. It is astonishing that no one has been inside the mine to investigate. Considering the poisonous gases swirling around in the mine it is a given that anybody who did go inside would have to be wearing breathing apparatus. Surely though some attempt to make an exploratory expedition into the interior should be made even if, as has been reported, there is a small fire. Is the real reason why nothing is happening one of UK type health and safety regulations? I sincerely hope not.  It would be dreadful to think that people are dying who could otherwise have been rescued but for health and safety reasons.

There is no reason why taxpayers should support any political party. That is why a week or so back I was glad to hear that the Coalition had decided to stopped further payments to the Union Modernisation Fund.  It is widely believed such payments  were used by the Unions to support Labour. I had also thought the Coalition had stopped payments to the Union Learning Fund but I gather that taxpayers are still paying into this fund to the tune of £14 million a year. This is an outrageous scam as it is the cynical opinion of many that the money is again being filtered through to the Labour party. If the Unions want to learn anything they can pay for it out of their own pocket although there are plenty of bodies like the Adam Smith Institute that I imagine would be more than willing to teach them something about economics. 

Condoms

We English are a mighty tolerant lot. We have not complained about the Roman Catholic takeover of 5 Bishops, other clergy and congregations nor about the rude things they say about the dear old Church of England. Indeed we have wished the departed well in their new found religion. We have said very little about Sharia law being used here (what the Archbishop of Canterbury has said was rather welcoming in fact) and neither has any real fuss been made about shops selling us hallal meat without telling us. I do hope the respect we show others of different religious faiths is not seen as a sign if indifference on our part although it seems the respect we give them and their beliefs is hardly reciprocated, save by the Jews. It is odd though that the Pope should now be condoning the use of condoms in certain circumstances. Will the condoms that Roman Catholics are to use be sold like candles in Roman Catholic churches and blessed by the priests beforehand? It is to be hoped that they will not be used by those too many priests when abusing choir boys and girls.   

Torture

I have been thinking about George W Bush's admission that he authorised 3 waterboarding 'events' after he was told by White House lawyers that waterboarding did not constitute torture. A definition of torture states that it involves the action of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. Let us assume that those ordered to carry out the waterboarding were not doing it for their own enjoyment. Let us also assume severe pain means severe physical pain. That then leaves us with the question as to whether or not waterboarding is torture. Does it inflict the severe pain required by the definition? Difficult to say without what those who have suffered waterboarding letting us know how they felt when subjected to the process. We have been informed though that waterboarding invokes a drowning sensation and can cause psychological problems. Its purpose must be to cause extreme anxiety and thus to 'persuade' the victim to give up information in exchange for no more waterboarding. Is extreme anxiety the same as severe pain? If it is then waterboarding is torture whether it causes severe physical pain or not. If it's not then waterboarding is not torture or the definition of torture is inadequate and should be changed to cover psychological torture.          

Conspiracy Theory?

Unless there is a little misreading between the lines are certain bloggers, John Redwood for example, suggesting that the EU is talking up a storm about the ability of Ireland, Portugal and Spain to meet their debt obligations without help in order to manipulate voter opinion in the EU in favour of further centralisation? In other words is all the fuss in the media about what is said to be a very serious crisis just another EU stealth step on the way to the United States of Europe? Is it credible? Would the EU be up to such a trick? There is no doubting that they would be capable of such deception since the EU project has 'advanced' (if that is the right word) on the back of lies, corruption and dubious and undemocratic means. One only has to recall how on its proposed constitution being rejected they re-introduced it under a different name and ensured that no referendum on it was held by any country. Although hardly a surprise it is nonetheless quite shameful that voters can be treated in such an arrogant way by an unelected elite that believes it knows what's good for the rest of us. Even if they are right there are many of us who quite simply refuse to be treated in this way and want to be left alone to make our own mistakes. It is also most worrying that no matter which party is in power here in the UK the government does not cry foul and do the necessary to expose the miscreants in the EU and depending on a referendum vote either re-negotiate our terms of membership or withdraw us altogether from this cesspit.  

The Deepening Crisis

We live in interesting times. Will the euro still be around in ten years and what will the consequences be if it is or if it isn't? If it is still around will taxpayers in the eurozone be content to be run by an entity over which they have no real control and which will dictate how their economies are run, the level of taxation they will pay and so on? Make no mistake about it complete control over all eurozone economies is going to be the outcome of the bail outs being put in place for Ireland, Portugal, Spain and probably Italy. The EU is run by an unelected clique whom it is impossible to vote out of office if voters deem them to have failed. A good many continental taxpayers may be used to this kind of thing but not all and certainly not in recent years. When one eurozone country can no longer support the straightjacket to be imposed on them and whose people are crying out for a change of governance what will be the outcome? There will be revolution and quite possibly war. The only way out of this crisis is for the euro to be abandoned. Yes it will hurt various countries in the shorter term but a stitch in time saves nine. If the euro is not around in ten years then will this mean that the EU will have disappeared or that it will have changed to become a different, hopefully more democratic animal, something perhaps more akin to the European Free Trade Area? Either would be better than the existing Greater Germania (with particular emphasis of course on the 'mania').   

William and Kate

This is not a blog about William Shakespeare and his play The Taming of the Shrew. Kate Middleton is no shrew and Prince William is no Shakespeare - at least not as reported by The Sun. The announcement today of the Royal engagement is a very happy and welcome one. It will give lots of members of Kate's sex masses to talk about and on the Wedding Day itself a chance for those of William's sex to play a little golf or whatever - assuming, of course, that the Wedding Day is a bank holiday. Was the day of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Di a bank holiday? In any event hopefully by then President Van Rompuy's prediction about the collapse of the Euro leading to the collapse of the EU will have come true. Bring it on! Events often go in threes so would it be too much to hope that at the same time the whole climate warming business will have been exposed as the pseudoscience scam it is? These three items have all been the subject of blogs today. See for example the blogs of Archbishop Cranmer, Daniel Hannan and James Delingpole. What a celebration there will be even if only it is the Wedding we have to celebrate!

Ireland - a war by economic means

There are any number of Irishmen who believe their country joined the Euro simply because the UK did not do so. If the UK were to change it's mind about assisting the Irish bail out with a €7 billion contribution it will be seen as a tit for tat gesture by these same Irishmen and probably by the rest of Ireland. This would be wrong though. Why should the UK, which is not a member of the Eurozone, make any contribution to the bail out fund? Yes, we want strong trading partners but the result of the present EU policy will produce weaker buyers for our goods. It is thus in the UK's interest for the Euro to fail and we should be doing all in our power to bring this about as soon as possible so that the whole mess gets sorted out with the minimum delay. Coincidentally it is more important for Ireland and indeed Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy to leave the Eurozone since to stay in will result in levels of unemployment and tax rises that will leave them impoverished, and possibly in danger of revolution or extreme left goverments, for years. Each of them will recover more quickly outside the Eurozone. The only reason why the Eurozone is so keen for them to stay in is to save the French and other European banks, that have bought Irish, Greek, Spanish etc bonds, from being forced into liquidation - a real danger if Ireland et al default on their bonds. If that were to occur France and the governments of the other countries with shaky banks will have to rely on themselves to sort out their own mess and not on the citizens of those Eurozone countries least capable of doing so. It seems that the current policy being pursued by the EU is being done solely for the benefit of the more stable European economies such as Germany. Is this a war by economic means and in the hope that Ireland et al will become vassal states? Sure seems like it. 

Political Correctness and Freedom of Expression

The Labour Government in 2003 passed an innocent sounding piece of legislation called the Communications Act. In it is a pernicious section making it a criminal offence to send offensive or indecent messages. Apparently this covers sending what are clearly joke messages over Twitter for pity's sake. The legislation, unlike Acts of Parliament of the early twentieth century, will have been poorly written - what after all does 'offensive or indecent' mean? It can be so widely interpreted that it could cover everything or nothing depending entirely on your point of view. The police will have interpreted the wording as covering anything as they are probably obliged to do but who would have thought a judge worthy of his or her salt could fail to distinguish between a joke and a threat. Is this because like in practically every other sphere (Susi Leather of the Charity Commission springs to mind) the Labour Government appointed only Labour apparatchiks were to the bench despite being entirely the wrong person for the job? The Labour Government we know thoroughly enjoyed making all sorts of things criminal offences - the figure of 3000 new offences springs to mind. We also know that many of these offences are of the type to be tried by a judge alone. The exclusion of trial by jury  is another example of the vandalism committed on our precious constitution by the Blair/Brown years. It is extremely doubtful that a jury would have found Paul Chambers guilty of any criminal offence for his message about blowing up Robin Hood airport, they would have had too much common sense. It is also extremely doubtful that if the case against Gareth Compton for his message about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown were to be tried by a jury he would be found guilty of any offence. What he said was clearly a joke. Freedom of expression is being crushed by political correctness and the Coalition should bring in legislation to abolish the stupid new criminal offences introduced by Labour and to ensure that trial by jury is enhanced not reduced. When considering these two cases it brings to mind the restrictions imposed on Aung San Suu Kyi for being released from house arrest. Ms Kyi will have to walk on eggshells to stay free which means she will have to talk in code. We should not have to do the same thing here.     

President Van Rompuy

Just in case you had forgotten Mr Van Rompuy is the President of the EU. Why does the EU need a President? After all it is not a country. But you will say that it has a constitution whatever the likes of Gordon Brown may pretend. Is it therefore a constitution in search of a country or is it in fact a constitution of an actual state? The evidence suggests the latter since we have this President Van Rompuy and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Baroness Ashton and are about to have a whole series of Ambassadors spread worldwide. (What does the word 'Security' in her title mean by the way? It must have some meaning. Is she not only EU Foreign Minister but also EU Minister of Defence?) I am not aware that any of us were asked if we wished this country to become a province of a different state. I think that if we had been asked that a majority of us would have said 'no'. I also think Van Rompuy has a bloody cheek saying as he has today that the time of the homogeneous nation-state is over. It is simply not true although for him as a citizen of Belgium, a failed nation state, it may look that way. His logic, like his looks, is also awry. There is no imperative in this globalised world for homogeneous European states to merge into one country. It is perfectly possible to live as an independent state in harmony with one's neighbours with whom one has trade and other treaties. To me that is a far more satisfactory solution than being bullied into being a part of some superstate which is very far away from being the type of democratic entity that I can recognise.
 A superstate which for reasons of corruption and incompetence cannot even get its accounts sorted out. I am so glad though that Van Rompuy has identified that there are Eurosceptics lurking in many other member states of the EU. It gives me hope that all Eurosceptics throughout the EU will one day band together to change it to an outward looking trading block. The Berlin Wall eventually came down although I doubt that the collapse of the EU will take that long. Certainly not after more speeches like that of President Van Rompuy.

Revolting Students

Students are presently involved in a violent demonstration outside and even inside 30 Millbank where the Conservative Central Office is housed. Yet again poor Londoners are being subjected to gridlock on their streets for miles around Westminster - as if the ridiculous congestion charge was not enough. I have no objection to peaceful demonstrations but those which descend into violence are an unacceptable infringement of the freedom of the law abiding citizenry. The perpetrators must be arrested, charged and tried. The perpetrators are of course of the hooded kind and thus difficult to identify. This leads one to think that no demonstrator should be allowed to hide their faces at any lawful demonstration. Perhaps also there should be a specific venue out in the country with easy access from all directions where all demonstrations must take place and nowhere else. The venue would be armed with TV cameras to transmit the events as they happen and if the demonstrators would pay for them even with panes of glass and other breakables for the smashing thereof. Depending on the nature of the demonstration the venue's name could be changed from the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Demonstrations to the Karl Marx Centre for Demonstrations or perhaps to the Big Brother Centre for Demonstrations. The demonstrators would have to be charged for using the venue but at a subsidised price with the subsidy coming from everybody's council tax. One can but dream.

Immigrants/Political Correctness

It has been drummed into us that we must tolerate, indeed accept, even those incomers who detest us and  would do us harm. Furthermore we are obliged by law to override our suspicions and put our instincts on hold when it comes to matters to do with immigration. This is, according to our betters, for our benefit and in order to ensure that all incomers to our country can feel safe. This is despite evidence that we would never be treated in the same way in the countries of the incomers. This leaves incomers unsettled because they do not sense that we have any true value of our own worth and confuse our welcome with weakness or indifference. This feeling is made worse by the condescension they perceive in us in allowing them equal ranking to ourselves.  It leaves them feeling contempt for us and that they can  in due course dominate us. Why else are there those incomers who, for example, feel they can introduce a foreign law here? How have we not seen that the attitudes we have been forced to adopt by the hypocrites of the left have led us into this blind and dangerous alley. We are a naturally tolerant people but it should be made absolutely clear to all incomers, including those from the EU, that unless they are equally tolerant of us, there will come a point where we will say enough is enough. Having to pay a disproportionate amount into the EU is one of several cases in point.

Muslim Terrorists

There is an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today about Muslim terrorists. Like any ordinary criminal they are eligible, after they have served half their sentence, for release on terms which if breached mean they get sent back to prison again. Such terms include restricting the Imams and Mosques that they can contact or go to to those that are Government approved. One hopes that these terrorists have only had contact with Government approved Imams whilst in prison and that such Imams have done their best to persuade the terrorists of the errors of their ways. Perhaps such Imams have had their successes but perhaps not since there are apparently some 800 ordinary Muslims that have been 'radicalised' whilst incarcerated at Her Majesty's pleasure. It would be interesting to know on what early release terms these 'radicalised' Muslims are being released and whether it is possible to release them on terms that include the terms imposed on Muslim terrorists. It would be even more interesting to know what is being done to stop such ordinary Muslim criminals from becoming 'radicalised'.   

Phil Woolas

At some Labour Party conference today Ed Balls apparently led a round of applause for Phil Woolas. Presumably it was to show appreciation for all Phil Woolas has done for the Labour Party over the years and not a comment on the guilty verdict delivered yesterday. It does not sound like a reprehensible action, indeed some might say that it would have been reprehensible on the part of Balls not to have led a round of applause. Woolas has always demonstrated by his actions that he is a truly tribal member of the party even though some of his actions during the last election were found to be in contravention of the law. Ed Balls is a fully paid up member of the Labour tribal section and now that Brown has disappeared into the ether, he will have become leader of that section. Now he is no longer an MP will Woolas do a Dubya and eschew all further involvement in politics? Apparently Dubya is shortly to be seen on the Oprah Winfrey show being interviewed about his autobiography during which he confides in Oprah that he has no further interest in politics. Apparently also his book lavishes praise on Blair. There was something dysfunctional about Dubya as there is about Bummer Obama. Bummer announced on his arrival in India today that $10 billions worth of business deals have been set up which will create 50,000 jobs back in the old US of A. Sounds a little fanciful. What are the jobs? Call centres in places like Detroit?   

Trust

Voting for a politician involves a certain amount of trust unless one is prepared to vote for a donkey. Few people will vote for a politician that they simply do not trust and Ed Miliband should have taken this into account before appointing Woolas to his Home Office team. Following today's decision Miliband's appointment of Woolas now looks wrong and will have damaged public trust in Miliband himself. Trust is much more important than many politicians appreciate. Even if they do appreciate its importance the majority of them treat trust in a cavalier fashion. Why were Churchill and Thatcher such outstanding PMs? because people trusted them to a greater degree than otherwise.Why was Thatcher so hated by those who disagreed with her?  Because they believed/trusted her to do what she said she would do. Why did mostly everyone eventually suss out that Blair was a charlatan? Because he could not be trusted. Will Cameron be trusted? I hope so but the jury's still out. Despite the belief of too many politicians voters are not fools. Although being a generous lot they give the politicians the benefit of the doubt or simply ignore the deceits in the belief the other side are more deceitful they can nonetheless see through the veils, aided and abetted as they now are by the likes of Guido Fawkes (http://order-order.com/), Iain Dale (http://www.iaindale.blogspot.com/), His Grace Archbishop Cranmer (http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/), Wat Tyler (http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/) and other bloggers. The insight bloggers provide into our politicians, warts and all, is something else. Such insight did not and does not exist to nearly the same degree in the press or television, probably since, unlike bloggers, journalists are part of the same system as the politicians through the lobby. This golden internet age is a boon to voters and can only become more significant in the years to come.         

The BBC Strike

So the BBC journalists, engorged on our licence fees, pandered to by politicians who are too frightened of them to enforce impartiality, have now shown their true credentials by striking. It makes a welcome change to listen to something different than the same old leftist claptrap you know is coming whenever a BBC journalist opens his mouth. That is why Sky News is so refreshing, Jeff Randall in particular.  It would be wonderful if the strike would continue for longer than the stated 48 hours. It would give an opportunity perhaps to others to open a chink in the BBC market and subject it to some much needed competition where previously the private sector has been squeezed out. The BBC has demonstrated though that it has no interest in allowing competition by joining in the complaints about News Corp's proposed acquisition of the 60% of Sky it does not already own. If the BBC really had to compete on a level playing field then perhaps more of its journalists would appreciate that even they had to make their share of sacrifices forced on us by the excesses of the Labour Government they loved and supported.

Is Cameron Concentrating?

Cameron played a blinder in assembling the Coalition. He took carefully thought out risks and succeeded. Has his concentration waned since then? There are niggling examples of a retrenchment into a comfort zone where the excuse for inaction is blamed on the LibDems. If, pace William Hague, Parliament is sovereign why is the Government not introducing a bill to override the ECHR ruling on votes for prisoners or at least promising to do so with the date of commencement retrospective to the ECHR judgment date? When will the Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 be introduced and what about the annulment of the Universal Jurisdiction law, a pernicious anti-sovereignty enactment if ever there was one? The lack of progress on these and similar matters is disturbing. Reform of these issues must not be kicked into the long grass.   

The Tea Party

It seems the Republican Party has been celebrating its victory in the Mid-Terms at a tea party. Has Messiah Obama now become Bummer Obama? Unless he can tack to the centre over the next couple of years it seems he will have a hard struggle to retain the White House. Whether he does so or not will equally depend on whether the Republicans can assimilate the Tea Party people comfortably into their ranks and produce a manifesto that appeals at the Presidential Election to the American grass roots. I am envious of the Americans that they still have the ability to choose. Where is our choice in the EU where a secretive elite decide what is good for us without any democratic input from the people. The Constitution imposed on us all without a vote that is leading to even greater centralisation of power in Brussels is now to be amended again without any democratic input from voters to impose central control over borrowing, tax rates and spending of each member state. We had the oldest, most sophisticated, successful and envied form of governance in the world but have sleep walked into arrangements that ignore our history and belittle us. Our politicians of the three main parties have let us down. We have been made to feel guilty about our glorious past, particularly by those on the left and in the BBC. This has so enfeebled us that we have failed to defend our interests in any other theatre than war. The fascist/socialist regime in Brussels will inevitably increase our taxes, impose stifling regulation, reduce our ability to trade and to grow and otherwise drag us down. I have every confidence that at some point we will say that enough is enough. I am though impatient to have our own Tea Party now although to be effective we will first have to have open primaries to select all Tory party candidates. That is the lesson of the Tea Party, which is that to be effective you must be part of a main stream party and not a different entity like UKIP.       

Votes for Prisoners

It seems no one complains that the civil rights of convicts have been transgressed if their liberty is removed as part of their punishment - at least not yet. Why, if as part of that punishment their right to vote is withdrawn should anyone complain? Only nutters it seems, having listened to the frankly barmy argument used by someone representing some Human Rights organisation on Radio 4 at lunchtime today. This idiot's argument was that the withdrawal of voting rights was quite arbitrary and as such must be an infringement of a convict's human rights. Ignoring the question whether the right to vote is a human right it is quite clear that the withdrawal of the right to vote is not arbitrary as it is the existing law of the land.  No one would be having this discussion if that busybody, charlatan of the first order and his henchmen had not passed the Human Rights Act 1998. Sadly the Human Rights Act 1998 will not be revoked until the Tories rule by themselves and even then perhaps not. Cameron is not exactly proving to be a champion of this country in the way he represented he would be.

Cameron's Missed Opportunity

Cameron I am sure has been very well brought up in the best British tradition not to make a fuss. He has though not always demonstrated this in his clashes in Parliament and other places. Why therefore is he being so polite in his dealings with Europe who decidedly need to be told a thing or two about our country's attitude to the fascist, undemocratic and corrupt institution called the EU. Is Cameron not making a fuss because he's concerned it would go down badly with the other heads of government or does he have a plan he has not yet shared with us to stop the EU in its tracks? We should hope for the best but plan for the worst which means we should lobby our MPs for an exit from the EU as we know it. The EU is an out of date concept that is far too small a stage for the UK which has always been a global player of the first order. The UK should in no way be constrained by an EU Foreign Policy. Why are Cameron and Hague being so pusillanimous or are they preparing the groundwork for a knock out blow? We shall see and whether those like me who believe an opportunity has been missed are wrong.