Clegg's NHS

Clegg thought the changes he asked for to the proposed Government reforms of the NHS were a victory for the LibDems. It seems though that some LibDems do not accept that he has nailed the problem they perceive on the competition front and want the bill amended further. For a party which supposedly has a liberal, free market history it is depressing to learn that they do not want more competition but less. Only  competition improves services and if the LibDems do not understand that then they should change their name to some title that does not include the 'liberal' word. Perhaps Socialist or something like that would be better. By not wanting more competition they clearly do not want a better outcome for patients and so it must be assumed they want the NHS run for the benefit of its employees just like any other government department. I do hope that this time the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley stands his ground. The NHS is in desperate need of reform and the watered down bill following Clegg's changes can only be the beginning with the rest to follow after the Conservatives win the next General Election on their own. Such a win is needed in order to ensure that the right changes are brought in not only to the NHS but also in other areas where the LibDems are acting as a brake on desperately needed reforms such as taxation including local taxation.

Miliband the Limp

If I were a Labour supporter I would be somewhat dismayed by Ed's opening salvo of the new political season. He is demanding a vote on the issue of reducing police numbers when we know that the police have overstaffed the back room and could easily reduce their numbers without affecting front line services. Why did Ed not instead attack on the economy and the need for growth or attack on jobs? Oh dear, I suppose he could not attack on either of these issues as (a) the other Ed's suggestion to cut less and over a longer period has pretty much been proven wrong and (b) the private sector has been creating jobs as Osborne said it would. Due to the last Labour government's decisions though something like 90% of such new jobs have gone to foreign workers. Why doesn't Miliband attack the minimum wage which of course stops employers taking on more staff in tough times? But of course he could not do anything sensible like that as the minimum wage was introduced by Labour. Why doesn't he at least demand the minimum wage level be reduced or even for certain categories of unemployed abandoned altogether? I suppose that would smack of pragmatism rather than ideology and might lead to shouts of u-turn if he were to make such a proposition and he would not want that. Has he no thoughts for how things might be improved that would put the government on the back foot? What about a radical shake up of taxation starting with the abolition of all the stealth taxes his party introduced whilst in office? That would open up an interesting debate.    

Immigration

The numbers born in the UK to mothers who themselves were not born here is astounding - 25% of all babies born here in 2010. By number we have suffered the greatest influx of immigrants into this country in our history and all this was a secret policy of the Blair government. Yet another disaster to lay at Saint Tony's door although the previous Tory government was also guilty by agreeing to a free intra EU jobs market. We have never been allowed a debate on this issue nor given a vote as to whether or not we are happy with the inevitable and significant resulting changes to our native customs, culture and laws. Already the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that we will have to accept the introduction of certain aspects of Sharia law. The Archbishop is out of date, Sharia law is already being practised here whether in relation to loans from Islamic banks or in relation to family matters and there is even a move afoot to allow polygamous marriages in this country for muslims. When I grew up we were always told that when in Rome you should do as the Romans do. As far as I'm concerned if those from elsewhere want to live here then they should accept the same dictum. There would be much less inter religious, inter cultural and inter law strife if all immigrants were decent enough to remember this and act accordingly. Not for one minute am I suggesting that they should change their religion but to do as we do in all other respects. After all we allow them to enjoy all the benefits of our society and it is little to ask for as a quid pro quo. Should we though allow more immigration? I think we have had enough at least for now.

The Weather and other Ephemera

So the hurricane was not quite as bad as expected in New York and the weather here in London has, apart from one very short sharp shower, been like a nice autumnal day. Someone said in April when we were sweltering in the sun "this is our summer so make the most of it as it will rain all July and August". How right they were. It was worse in the cinema where yesterday I saw The Skin I Live In, a bizarre, some might say sick, Almodovar film which keeps your attention the whole way through and makes you laugh from time to time for its preposterousness. Today I saw the Guard which did not really grab me until towards the end with the last twenty minutes or so, if you are prepared to wait until then, well worth having bought a ticket for. Sounds Irish? Well it is an Irish film. Odd though that both before the film yesterday and today instead of showing the usual British Board of Film Censors' Certificate categorisation of the film we had the Irish equivalent. Have we contracted out our film censorship categorisation work to the Irish or was it simply a mistake? Manchester United beating Arsenal 8-2 was also worse than the advertised weather. What is happening down at the Gunners? Has Wenger lost it or is this just a blip? I don't really care as I am not a footie fan but I have no time for Manchester Untied and its deeply unpleasant boss and lead players like Rooney. At least England beat Ireland yesterday in a so called Rugby friendly.      

Whilst in the car yesterday I turned on the radio to listen to Radio 2. The time was about a quarter past midday and I listened to two women having a discussion about obesity as a result of some report on fatness that had just been made public. Jeremy Vine was adjudicating. We, the listeners, were given the names of the two women later and their jobs. Both were described as broadcasters and one of the women also did something else apparently. Despite the somewhat dull subject matter the discussion generated some heat but the most extraordinary thing that was said was by the woman who was described as only a broadcaster. This lady announced  something like "I know it sounds right wing but I think....". What is it about the BBC or indeed the media class that they think that anything right wing is something to be ashamed of and derided? It must be because of the relentless propaganda that tells us fascism and nazism are right wing and that Hitler was a worse dictator than Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot. Fascism and nazism are not right wing ideologies as they would have believed in democracy and free markets if they were. Instead they believed in nationalisation and total control from the centre just as did the communists. Those of the left have gulled most of us into believing that there was a difference between communists and nazis or fascists. This is a pernicious lie and has been propagated to deflect blame from the left onto the right for most of the butchers of this world. Funny isn't it that Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Assad, Mugabe etc., etc. are all socialists. To redress this calumny the BBC must be broken up and proper competition in the broadcast media must be allowed. Only then shall we have real choice and respect for those of the right that is their due. People who believe in free markets, the freedom of the individual, democracy and the sanctity of mankind. In other words conservatives.

Dirigisme at its LibDem Best

If ever there was a good example of why we should not be in the EU it is the fact announced today that the Government has had to adopt the anti job directive to give employees working for employment agencies the same rights as employees working directly for British companies. This has happened despite no agreement being reached between the government, the CBI (representing employers) and the Unions. Under EU rules because there was no agreement the Unions had the last say and the directive has thus become law. This is literally unbelievable but true and just goes to show how slanted to the left is the whole EU project. The Unions, thank God, are a dying metabolism in this country but all they had to do on this occasion was to do nothing in order to get want they wanted. This piece of legislation welcomed by the LibDems will, it has been estimated, cost us £1.8 billion a year for no advantage to man or beast. Is it any wonder organisations like the British Chambers of Commerce are spitting blood and senior conservatives are furious. Which bloody idiot thought up this idea in the first place? It really is time that until we leave the EU that we know the names of the faceless eurocrats who dream up each new directive and other bits of red tape so that they can be at least made to answer justified questions on this kind of madness. Without democracy the EU is nothing but a nasty little fascist state, a state that continental countries love as it merely extends their dirigiste past. Dirigisme is not a British tradition for good reason so what the hell are we doing participating in the EU. We should never have believed those who told us that the last world war had killed the european dirigisme disease. How naive we were.  

Thoughts on the Libyan Revolution

For how long will the fighting go on? Have the rebels run Gaddafi to earth in a block of flats not far from the famous Rixos Hotel and did he get there by tunnel from his compound? Are the SAS really helping and how many other countries have Special Forces involved in trying to smoke out Gaddafi? All intriguing stuff as was the Sky News item about the Gaddafi regime hoarding of enough food for 4 million people and medical supplies for the whole Libyan population for a year. At least now the plea from a doctor struggling for oxygen and blood can be answered without having to await supplies from overseas. It is a curious war and reminds one of the fighting in days of yore when military campaigning would cease when he soldiers needed to return home to bring the harvest in. In Libya it is not the harvest but Ramadan which effectively dictates that fighting stops when night falls and does not begin again until the afternoon as the combatants need to rest after their fasting during the previous day's sunlight hours and the late night dining after the sun has gone down. Although the rebels seem to be totally indisciplined they none the less come across as very brave and it has to be said quite effective. What has happened to Gaddafi's soldiers who were trained by the SAS as part of Blair's sweeteners to bring the then rogue state back from the brink and nearer to the West? When will they join the fight? One can only hope they give up together with the rest of Gaddafi's still loyal troops in the next day or two.  

The Public Sector

We both employ too many public servants and pay them too much. Indeed it seems that the number employed by the government itself has increased over the last year. This is outrageous when so many of those we come into contact with seem to be quite content to work at a pace that would never be accepted in the private sector. There is a senior local authority servant that I know who not only has generous holidays but is also frequently to be found some afternoons down at the golf club practising. I accept that every now and then he has to stay late and sometimes has to attend on his political masters in the evening in the pub and at the restaurant but the early afternoons are compensation for that. He does not need a salary way in excess of what the Prime Minister gets. Am I jealous? Of the pension he'll receive, yes, but not otherwise as it seems to me his job is somewhat dull. It does though go against the grain when Councils are stopping rubbish collections, probably the one thing everyone demands of their Council and believes their council tax should cover, rather than providing the services they should provide by reducing their costs which they could easily do by sacking all their officers in non jobs such as diversity, change, equality and health and safety. Councils could also reduce the salaries of many of their staff to reflect those of employees at similar grades in the private sector. It is not the business of government to pay trade unions nor to create jobs in the public centre in the hope their employees will vote for them at the next election.

Hayek v Keynes

I have just watched the LSE Hayek v Keynes debate on the Adam Smith Institute blog. It seemed to me that the Hayekians won the argument. Hayek believed in the free market whereas Keynes believed in government intervention but, we learned, that is not to say that Hayek would not have agreed with quantitive easing. He would though have been against allowing the money generated by QE to have been sat on by the banks. He would also not have bailed out insolvent banks nor would he have pursued a loose monetary policy that eventually led to a boom and then inevitably to a bust. The Keynesians only seemed to have a concern about how to deal with a bust to which problem they had but one solution which was for government spending through something like the green bank that the government is in course of setting up. The Hayekians also called for the abolition of the central banks. I imagine that the Hayekians do not like central banks or the government's new green bank because all governments are notoriously bad at business of any kind. Hayek we were told did not say that markets were perfect but that they were to thing which worked best. The Keynesians gave examples of the beneficial effects of following his policies but these were easily refuted by the Hayekians. It was a fascinating debate but what was not clear was exactly how the Hayekians would proceed from here but whatever is their plan Osborne should follow it. Keynes is clearly not the answer.

Don't Mention the ERM

I have been away in deepest Dorset where connections to the outside world are somewhat antiquated making it impossible to use a mobile 'phone. I have the same problems in Northamptonshire and in Kent when I go to visit relies in those counties. This is supposed to be a developed country for God's sake so why no signal masts in those and any number of other rural areas? If we can waste huge sums of money on building useless windmills surely we can build enough signal masts to give coverage over the whole country. Talking about useless windmills I was very glad to see that Republican would be presidents are beginning to question the climate change fanatics. If only one of them wins and stops the crazy expenditure on these useless pieces of kit then perhaps we can, despite the promotion of climate change fanatics by the BBC, have a sensible debate on the subject. I long for the day the green fascists get the come tuppence they so richly deserve. Climate change is the one issue with which I seriously disagree with Cameron. He and Hague have played a blinder on Libya. I also believe Guido's prediction this morning that this government will be a one term Conservative one is wrong. The Conservatives have every chance of winning outright at the ext election. Who will vote for Miliband who is now discredited on so many fronts including Libya, the Riots, the Economy, the Police and the Cuts. Following Blair's intervention in the Riots debate the contrast between him and Cameron could not be more marked. Whereas Blair has re-written history yet again Cameron has told it how it is. The next headline issue as a result of Merkel's comment that greater commitment is needed from the UK to help stabilise the euro problem is another major problem for Cameron to deal with. This is also a golden opportunity for us to renegotiate our status within the EU but as we cannot even afford what we have already agreed to give to help save the euro we certainly cannot pay anymore and the Germans should understand that. Besides they refused too support us prior to our fall out of  the ERM.      

Are Germany and France Stupid Or Do They Think We Are?

The general view seems to be that Tuesday's Merkel and Sarkozy show has solved nothing, that neither is a sufficient statesman to produce a solution for the euro mess they find themselves in and that it will take another couple of crises in euroland before there is any chance that a workable result will be hammered out, if then. One of the re-hashed solutions M&S came to was the Tobin tax, not just for the eurozone though but for the whole EU. (Calling them M&S is not my idea but I forget who first coined this most inappropriate acronym for the two less than statesmen as it represents the very reverse of the idea behind the original M&S which was quality and price or value for money.) It is difficult to understand why M&S want the Tobin tax to extend to the whole EU other than that they think the non-euro countries should share the eurozone pain although if I were a conspiracy theorist I would be claiming it is because they want to do us down. We have the largest foreign exchange market in the world and would therefore pay more Tobin tax than any other country. Not only that we would see our financial services sector decimated as exchange business was moved away from London to other financial centres outside the EU. It is hardly surprising therefore that MPs and MEPs are lobbying the government to issue a resounding 'no' to M&S. Germany and France are not that stupid that they cannot see that we could not possibly agree to the Tobin tax so I guess that they must be setting us up as a whipping boy. Well screw them.

Sentencing and Policing

It is odd to say the least of it how quickly we forget the horrors of a week ago. If the sentences given to Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan had been passed last week would there have been the same reaction as we are seeing today or would all the do gooders have complained anyway? I think the do gooders probably would have complained anyway but they would have been given less airtime for their views. Now of course it's open season to second guess those with a real idea of what needs to be done to ensure these riots do not happen again. I think the government must make it clear that the approach of the do gooders to miscreants has failed and that they have been quite wrong to treat criminals as victims rather than those on the receiving end of illegal actions. The government must hold its nerve on this and ignore the diatribes of the LibDems and others such as the Prison Reform Trust and the Howard League for Penal Reform. I imagine the police support the sentences being passed on rioters since one understands that they are often demoralised by sentences which they see as undoing all the hard work they have put in to first catching a criminal and then obtaining a conviction. Talking of the police it is a scandal that Bratton was unable to apply for the job of Met Commissioner simply because he is an American. The list for applicants closed at noon today and includes Sir Hugh Orde. It will be a travesty if this man gets the job. No one at the head of a trade union should become head of any governmental type institution. There is simply too big a conflict of interest and it is unbelievable that he should have applied for the position.

Impatient for Good News

Do you have the feeling that events are piling up against Cameron? What with the aftermath of the riots including the announcement by Clegg that a commission and a victims panel will be set up to investigate into what happened, the announcement that France and Germany are proposing a collective government for the eurozone, the Labour party withdrawing support for any cuts, the increase in the cost of living, the rise in train fares and energy bills, the downward revision of growth forecasts and the continuing hacking saga I would say Cameron has an awful lot on his plate. Will he be able to break free? Will there be some good news in the meantime to make us all feel a little better than we do now? One glimmer of good news on the horizon is the likely breakthrough by the Libyan rebels. Other possible good news could come tomorrow from Osborne although it is a pity he is likely to limit his announcement to the setting up of enterprise zones and not tax reductions and a real and deep red tape cut. Beggars should be grateful for small mercies but the tight jacket imposed on us by the last government does make one angry and frustrated that the mess we were left with seemingly cannot be restored more quickly and easily. This frustration could well tell against the government at the next election if growth is still only a light at the end of the tunnel in 18 months time. Mind you I do not know who else one could vote for - Miliband, despite surgery to make his voice less unattractive, is hardly someone who inspires any confidence and it is doubtful that his policies will attract either.

Cameron v Miliband

Naturally I would support Cameron over Miliband, as you might well think. Indeed I do on this occasion because it seems self evident to me that the reason why we are in the mess we are in is down to the policies pursued by the establishment ever since Crosland's unbelievably misguided education reforms. The criminalisation or prohibition of what are man's natural instincts has led to this sorry state and must be reversed. Miliband's enquiry is not needed. The abolition of competition in schools and for school places, the prohibition on discipline both in the home and at school and the encouragement of single mothers, the blame culture, human rights culture and health and safety issues have all conspired to bring us to where we are today. These are all issues on which considerable thinking on how to reverse them has already taken place and the only point of an enquiry would be to delay the introduction of the worked out solutions. Nothing knee jerk gimmickry about that. By proposing an enquiry we must assume that Miliband opposes the necessary reforms. Hardly a surprise as almost without exception the policies which got us onto this mess were all proposed by the Labour party and its acolytes like the BBC and the Guardian. Cameron must stick to his guns on these issues and on the reform of the police. He should also take the opportunity to break up the BBC to allow true competition in the UK for Radio and TV. Contrary to Cameron Allister Heath http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/allister-heath/cameron-s-police-and-euro-blunders#.TkjgnQ5BmPM.twitter does not agree that the police numbers should be reduced and neither does he think we should be supporting the integration of the eurozone into a sovereign state. I agree it is not in our interest to support such a new state and maybe I am clutching at straws but I think the strategy is to show support for what the eurozone countries seem to want and use the generated goodwill to negotiate the terms we want in any new arrangement. I doubt the government believe the eurozone state will happen.       

David Starkey, Newsnight and Guido Fawkes

I have just watched a clip of David Starkey on Newsnight chaired by Emily Maitlis on Guido Fawkes's blog  http://order-order.com/ and voted 'no' in his poll on whether or not one thought Starkey was racist. Starkey was trying to make a point which sadly he was never able to complete. He was trying to point out I think that there is a Jamaican gang culture in London which is followed by both back and white kids which is something to be worried about as it glorifies violence and the kind of rioting we saw on our streets last week. Furthermore I think he was going to go on and say that Jamaican gang culture would have encouraged the looting which he called 'shopping with violence'. Difficult to know if my assumptions are right since as I said Starkey never got to finish what he wanted to say which was infinitely more interesting than anything said by Owen Jones who could only mouth platitudes of the anti race establishment. The other 'guest', Dreda Say Mitchell, was hardly more interesting than Jones but did make the valid point that we live in a materialistic world, our children are told that success equals money and the looting was all about materialism.

Rioting Golfers

There were 9 of us having a coffee in the bar at 7.15 this morning working out who was going to play with whom and in which order we would tee off. Naturally the conversation turned to other issues including the riots and the way the police had handled them. The perception of us all was that the police had shown weakness in not trying to stop the rioters in Enfield last Saturday night and that it was this which gave others the green light to try the same in other parts of London over the next two nights. It was also our view that the police had only gone for a more robust response last Tuesday night as a result of instructions from on high even if the police had themselves decided to increase their numbers on the streets massively. All agreed though that since Tuesday the police have acted extremely well but that the force needs reforming and that it is a pity that Bill Bratton is not going to become the new head of the Met. Orde is regarded as a prize prat and unfit for purpose. The last point discussed before we departed to change into our golf shoes was the BBC. We all felt it needs to be cut down to size and that it is a great pity the News Corp bid for the rest of Sky it does not own has not gone ahead. Interesting that this evening Harriet Harman's newly elected MP husband, Jack Dromey, ex trade union deputy leader, is demanding that Cameron not appoint Bratton as an adviser and to stop undermining the police. Dromey is also, like the good trade unionist that he is, demanding that police numbers be maintained presumably on the basis that the police force is for the benefit of those employed in it and any reform is unnecessary. Of course his understanding of the affordability of what he proposes is somewhat lacking.

France and the Short Sellers - a misanthropic tale

I read somewhere this morning that France believes the UK has been up to its old tricks again trying to destabilise the euro. The French are truly paranoiac if they believe that. Their state of health is though worrying if they think that banning short selling of bank shares will help their banks survive. The government tried that here in order to protect HBOS which it said was perfectly sound. Shortly thereafter HBOS had to be bailed out. Brown's government was clearly lying then and it is fair to assume that the French government and the governments of Italy, Spain and Belgium which have also banned short selling of bank shares are now trying to pull the wool over the eyes of investors. It will not work since everyone and his dog knows that the euro and not short selling is the problem and until and unless someone takes the kind of appropriate action suggested by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard more and more good money is going to be thrown after bad. Either the euroland countries have to become one country or Germany and its acolytes must leave the current eurozone. Germany and its acolytes can then if they wish set up their own monetary union leaving France and the rest to run the original euro version which will help breathe life into them all following the inevitable devaluation of the euro as we currently know it. Surely the Treasury know this and surely they will have passed their thoughts on to Merkel and Sarkozy or is it an issue that can't be spoken about for fear of giving offence or worse for fear Germany and France will simply dig their toes in because we have dared think it. The idea of the current eurozone becoming one country does not seem a likely runner since someone has pointed out that Germany has still not properly assimilated East Germany and is unlikely to do so for a rather long time. The cost to the  Germany being in the same country as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, France etc would I believe be unacceptable to the German taxpayer.  

The Commons Today

Cameron acquitted himself very well in the Commons today. Even my elder brother who views all politicians as the lowest form of pond life thought so, although I do not rely on his opinions as there was a time he thought Blair was good news. My one concern about Cameron's statement though was the reference to looking at closing social sites where there is evidence that they are being used to encourage criminality. The ability to do this is a nail in the coffin for freedom of speech. Something akin to telephone tapping of social sites is one thing but closure is quite another. Osborne also acquitted himself well with his statement on the economy. Balls spewed forth his usual rubbish about cuts being too fast and too deep. He really should change his tack because there is a real danger if the euro goes down the tube that we will no longer be seen as a safe haven and will have to bring forward the cuts and make them deeper. Osborne's plan must be to show solidarity with the eurozone rather than crow 'I told you so' to our EU partners so that if either the euro does implode or we have to agree to treaty changes to allow the eurozone to become a sovereign state our negotiations on our change of status can be carried out in an atmosphere of goodwill. This must be right although it is difficult to resist a smile when one learns that France is in danger of being downgraded from AAA status. It is also difficult to resist a smile when one learns that Germany's Credit Default Swap rate is today higher, albeit by a smidgen, than the UK's.    

Will the Riots Change Anything?

16,000 policemen on the street last night obviously had the desired effect and something of the same needs to be done tonight in the other trouble spots around the country. I am going to stick my neck out and say we have seen the worst of this display of criminality, for which there is no excuse. The result is going to be a change of attitude to disturbances of this kind since we have learnt the lesson that by being sentimental about the undeserving poor does not bring respect but the opposite with knobs on. Cameron gave a good speech again today but Boris let himself down by questioning the need for police reform. The police need to go back to their roots and for a start need to drop their ridiculous logo. They are not here to serve the public but to protect them and their property. They can easily reorganise themselves to ensure more of them are seen on the street. As the focus on the riots dissipates over the next day or so we can look at other issues that effect us of which the euro is the most significant. Lord Flight has written an excellent piece about these two issues on the ConservativeHome blog http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2011/08/lord-flight.html .  That these are the two most important issues facing us today has been recognised by the government as the debate tomorrow in Parliament is not only about the riots but also about the economy.

Centre For Social Justice Take on the Riots

Below is a press release from the Centre for Social Justice which contains a well thought out and difficult to disagree with reason for the riots.

Subduing the Riots

So far we have avoided using rubber bullets and water cannon when dealing with rioters on our streets. This though has become the lead option in an opinion poll currently being run by the Spectator. At the time of writing my preferred option, more police on the street, is a distant second. If you want to vote the link is here http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7154298/coffee-house-poll-what-is-the-best-method-for-quelling-the-riot.thtml. I prefer more police on the street as nothing has happened so far that is a game changer which requires us to abandon our traditional ways of dealing with riots, other than of course the use of twitter, blackberry messaging etc. by rioters to inform  others of their ilk of the latest go to spot to loot, burn, start a fire and fight the police and firemen. If the extra 10,000 police on the streets using more robust force as in the days of yore does not do the trick today then I agree we should deploy water cannon and rubber bullets tomorrow. Regretfully I will have been wrong. Contrary to others I thought Cameron's statement to the media after the Cobra meeting he chaired this morning was pitched about right. I also thought Boris's article in the Evening Standard today was pitched about right as well. Can you imagine the smarmy crap we would have had to listen to if Blair or Obama were Prime Minister! Can you imagine the embarrassment if Brown were still in charge? Cameron has had a tough first year but in general has so far acquitted himself well and his recall of Parliament is a deft move. We'll see who turns up and what MPs like Chris Williamson, who tweeted that it was all the fault of the Government, have to say.         

The London Riots 2011

Wat Tyler, a fellow Kentish Man, led men from Kent in 1381 in a riot known as the Peasants' Revolt. It was a riot against what was seen as an unfair tax imposed by Richard II where peasants employed by Lords were taxed less than those employed by lesser beings. Not only the peasants took part but also those owning smaller landholdings. The feudal system was breaking down as a result of the plague with workers in short supply and thus able to demand higher wages. More powerful landowners wished to stop the market in the provision of labour and return to the old feudal ways. The Peasants' Revolt was by all accounts a bloody affair, one of the bloodiest ever in this country but which ended with Wat Tyler being killed in front of the King. There was a reason for the Peasants' Revolt with which one can sympathise but I can see no reason for the riots that are going on in London even as I write. I can see why there would be a protest against the police for killing an unarmed man. This has happened all too often and there are serious question which arise as a result - Why are the police so trigger happy? Should they continue to be armed? Should their terms of firearm use be changed? These questions are a legitimate reason for a peaceful protest but the development of the protest into a riot is completely unforgivable and can only have happened because the protest was taken over by those who wanted a riot for their own ends. Their own ends being the most ignoble of all, the stealing of other people's property and the destruction of their homes. It is a pity there is no penal colony to which the perpetrators can be sent.

Sarah's Key

There is a new film that has just come out called Sarah's Key with Kristin Scott Thomas in the lead role. It is the best film that has come out for ages and is based on a journalist's research into what happened to a little Parisian jewish girl whose parents were gassed by the Nazis. It is a reminder that there is still anti-semitism in the world and that there is a continuing need for vigilance and action against it. The timing of the film is apposite in light of the upcoming Durban 111 conference sponsored by the UN which is inherently anti-semitic according to Benjamin Weinthal in a most interesting article in the Commentator today  http://www.thecommentator.com/article/353/where_is_europe_in_the_fight_against_un_sponsored_anti_semitism_. The UK should follow Canada's example and pull out of the conference. One wonders how, unlike Canada, we came to attend Durbans 1 and 11 in the first place. It surely can't be because we had a Labour government then. Talking about the Labour government reminds one of mad dog Gordon Brown. He has an article in the Independent today in which he says he warned EU leaders about their bank debt levels but they ignored him. Pity he didn't take his own advice.    

Have you noticed how different the EU parliament works compared with the House of Commons? The EU parliament looks stilted with no real debate. MEPs like Farage and Hannan make rude remarks about von Rompuy and others to their faces but there never seems to be a reply. Perhaps it's because all I see are short clips taken from YouTube and posted on either UKIP's or Hannan's web/blog. Only on two occasions have I seen a response or perhaps some intervention, one by a Dutch or Belgian europhilic MEP and the other by Cohn Bendit who had accused UKIP of being fascists but of course who having been an extreme leftist or communist in his youth would know all about democracy in the modern or British sense. Presumably the EU parliament is based on some continental version. This is a great pity as I have never seen the chamber full. One based on the Mother of Parliaments would I feel give us a greater feel for the heart and lungs of the EU but as it is one just has the feeling that MEPs are merely going through the motions as they know the exercise is pointless - even being rude to the likes of von Rompuy, however satisfactory and amusing it is for those of us who watch the YouTube clips. As the EU parliament has virtually no powers I suppose it is not at all surprising that one should feel it is a total waste of time. Yet another reason for turning our back on the whole dangerous but outmoded and useless charade that is the EU.      

Bits and Pieces

1. If you haven't done so read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's piece in the Telegraph today. He makes the point that either it is announced straightaway that €2 trillion is to be made available  to the EFSF (the EU's equivalent of the IMF) or that the EU is going to be abandoned in an orderly fashion. He says the choice is for either a spiralling crisis in the southern part of the euro zone that will cause a catastrophic financial collapse crisis or for Germany and its satellites to withdraw immediately from EMU so that the other states led by France can continue with the euro at a devalued rate. Will the pigmy eurocrats follow this advice? Seems unlikely as it is too sensible.
2. We all know the BBC hate the Republicans in general and Sarah Palin in particular but should they have allowed  Richard Bacon on his BBC 5 show to tell people to watch a video of Doug Stanhope (a comedian apparently) making remarks about Sarah Palin's Down's Syndrome suffering son that the Down's Syndrome Association has described as abhorrent? Yet again the BBC has let us down. It can never be put in its place whilst we continue financing it in a manner which may have been acceptable when it first came into existence but which today is wholly inappropriate. The BBC belongs to those who pay for it and not to the people who work in it although you'd never guess that that was so.
3. The government is considering reducing the 50% tax rate to 45%. I can see the political reasoning behind this reduction but although a 40% tax rate was once considered cutting edge other countries have passed us by so if we want to regain our position we should reduce our rate to no more than 35% and our capital gains tax rate to 20%.

We need Growth

Today's gloom cannot be blamed on the weather. The realisation of the risk of a double dip recession in the US and the relentless creep of the euro disaster from the periphery to the centre which resulted in the  significant drop in the various share indices across the world is the culprit. It is always thought that nothing happens in August because the rainmakers are say on holiday but sadly that is an illusion - horrible things often begin in August and this year looks like being no exception. How exactly is this mess going to play itself out? How are we going to promote growth? Surely we have to reduce taxes and national insurance as we should have done last year. Surely we should at the very least postpone the hideous cost of the green energy policies. We will also have to make some real cuts in the public sector. As John Redwood says we should have stopped taking on new staff so that the total number employed in the public sector would reduce over time through retirement and resignations happening in the ordinary course of events. As he says one would only need to replace those working on the front line like doctors and nurses. The Treasury I'm sure will be looking at all of this intently and hopefully taking note of and consulting with those who write for the Adam Smith Institute, Taxpayers' Alliance and similar blogs. I respect George Osborne's intelligence and the way he has handled the economy thus far but does he have the ability to ensure that we don't get landed in a depression? He needs to go hell for leather to get growth and to have the spine to ignore the siren calls of idiots like Ed Balls - one of the main reasons we are in this deep hole.  

ePetitions

Just in case you believed the hype put out by the eurocrats we have today been reminded of reality by the increase in Italian and Spanish bond rates to close to 7%, the magic number which brought about the bail outs for Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Gold has risen to an all time high and the Swiss have had to reduce interest rates to stop the Swiss Franc rising even further whereas the rates for German bonds have fallen to a low not seen since 1990. Part of this has been caused admittedly by sentiment in the US following the drop in their consumer spending in almost two years and the fear that they are about to experience a double dip recession. Things are looking a little black at the moment and yet the EU pretends that nothing is really wrong. It would be risible if it were not so serious. How could we have got ourselves into a position where these [expletive deleted] people have any control over our lives. How could we have got into a position where the last Labour government entered into contracts in our name for an IT system for the NHS estimated to cost £7billion on which £2.7billion has already been spent and of the benefits of which the Public Accounts Committee is uncertain and recommends the government to think about using the remaining £4.3billion elsewhere. Whilst on the crazies who govern us how could they have introduced a system whereby a convicted murderer - Mr Levi Bellfield is able to claim £30,000 as a result of a low grade attack by another prisoner. It is a hot and sticky day in London and I know all the woes of the world can be laid at our day, if you believe the BBC and other similarly minded people, but I don't believe we ave done anything to deserve these idiocies. The solution is in our own hands and we should take it. ePetitions are a good beginning.    

J K Rowling and Obama

There are two stories in the Telegraph today which make for blood boiling. The first is about J K Rowling who says that because she was a single mother the last Conservative government made her feel a hate figure and a bogeyman. This is a monumental misrepresentation. The last Conservative government was talking about teenagers who deliberately played the system by becoming pregnant in order to get a home of their own and without any intention of trying to make a living, preferring to live on benefits instead - women like Karen Matthews, who went one further by attempting to kidnap her own daughter for the ransom money, being a good example. Ms Rowling was not one of those single mothers the Tories were rightly worried about - very much the reverse. Ms Rowling's hatred of Tories is palpable but she should not let it allow her to tell any old cock and bull story about the Tories. By so doing she demeans herself rather than the Tories as does her desperate support of the awful Gordon and Sarah Browns. The other story that curdled the blood is the one about Osama bin Laden. An unnamed US special operations officer has apparently told a New Yorker correspondent that the intention all along was to kill Osama bin laden and not to capture him. I have already blogged before on the question of assassination and nothing I have heard since has changed my mind. Only a weak man like Bummer Obama would even contemplate such an action even if assassination is a US policy. Such a policy demeans the US though and I for one shall cheer when and if Obama is tried for murder.

Cameron as PM

Although I voted for Cameron to become Tory leader and although I have tried to understand him there are moments when he has left me puzzled. Why for example would he want to be the heir to Blair, one of the worst prime ministers we have suffered under. Blair had no principles as was made evident by his dealings with people like Ecclestone, by his choice of 'friends' and advisers, by his acceptance of freebies and his easy lies. I do not think Cameron is principle less nor, with the possible exception of Coulson, has he chosen friends and advisers that I despise and neither do I think he is a bare faced liar. He has to that extent earned my admiration but I wish I knew more about what he truly believes in. Is he really a eurosceptic? Is he really a supporter of the deficit plan, the reform of the NHS, the military covenant, reform of the Human Rights Act, the destruction of DNA samples of innocent people held by the police and so on? Somehow with the various u-turns I'm not sure any more that he has any deep rooted principles or has the guts to say 'this is me, this is where I stand and if you don't like it vote me out of office next time'. People will respect him for that and a majority will vote for him as a decent person as a result. As I say he is a puzzle. I wish though he could be more sceptical about climate change. I appreciate this would demonstrate a change of view on his part but to me this would have shown reasonableness in light of the scientific evidence ranged against the seriously flawed hockey stick theory. He has not resiled though from his view and indeed has made matters worse by supporting the awful Ms Gillard's carbon tax which definitely both puzzles and aggravates me.