Rescuing Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected Dictatorship
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Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the Government's
chosen method of communication. Ordinary people are dangerous. Ordinary
people might ask a question which throws a politician 'off message';
the Cabinet member might reveal himself or herself to be a human being
like us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she might
tell the truth.
Ann Leslie - Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Blair wants to leave his
mark on history - looks more like a stain to me.
Peter Thorndyke, Diss,
Norfolk - Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
I know I'm me - why do I
need an ID card?
"Sorry, officers, I
don't have an ID card. I never applied for one. It seemed a bit steep
at 300 quid. I do have my free passport, my driving licence and my
London freedom travel pass, each with my photograph. I have my NHS
medical card, with its lengthy number, given me at birth, my RAF
service book with my Armed Forces number, and a chit authorising me to
wear a few gongs -including a General Service Medal with Malaya bar,
for fighting communist terrorists on behalf of my country, or so they
told me.
"I've also got various credit
cards and store cards, all with my signature on the back, generally
good for buying the everyday requrements for life as well as the odd
luxury. If you decide to arrest me, I suppose I'll have to be
photographed and given another number, besides my PINs.
"I'm afraid I haven't got a
pension book; it was taken away."
"By thieves, sir?"
"No ... well, not exactly. By the
Government. By the way, may I see your warrant cards please, gentlemen?"
Oh dear, they've disappeared. E.
Harry Gumer, Romford, ESSEX - Daily Mail, June 1, 2005
NO means NO
When does NO mean MAYBE?
When it's not the answer the EU wants. With the courageous French
NON resounding in their ears, shabby, undemocratic self-interested
leaders of Europe propose ignoring the part of their precious
constitution that requires ratification by all members and
continuing without one of the biggest founder members to
prevent derailing the gravy train.
As in Ireland,
they refuse to accept any NO votes, ignoring the will of the people,
and re-stage votes until they can engineer the 'correct' answer. Sadly,
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dances to their tune like a puppet on a
string. With tactics such as these, how can anyone really believe the
EU has our interests at heart. Letter from Steve Penny, Kingsnorth, Kent - Daily
Mail, June1, 2005
Surely
the French result makes the £1million the EU recently spent on a
treaty signing ceremony seem a trifle premature and extravagant. Letter from Keith Wiseman, Bury, Lancs. - Daily Mail,
June1, 2005
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Britain has
traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors to the EU
because we do not get as much money back from Brussels in farm and
regional subsidies as our rivals.
According to
Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average contribution
taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion, or £43.55
per head of population.
The French -
the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed £1billion a
year or £16.08 per head of their population.
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Tony
Blair should know that respect comes by example - from the
top. If a country's leader has no respect for the rule of
international law and no respect for the truth, how can
he expect anyone to have respect. Letter
from P.J.Atkinson, Ashford, Kent - Daily Mail, January 12,
2006
The
Chancellor's single greatest act of vandalism in almost
nine years in office has been his wanton destruction of
Britain's private retirement industry. By slapping a massive
tax on pension funds, now worth
£7.3billion a year, he has helped to turn
the best private retirement industry in Europe into a basket-case
in perpetual crisis. Together with the adoption of European
accounting rules - which make it much riskier to operate
a company pension scheme - hundreds of firms have shut their
final salary plans to new employees and slashed benefits
to existing staff. From
Allister Heath: "I've seen the future and its grey"
in THE SPECTATOR - April 15, 2006
Nine
years ago the British people were sold a fantasy of clean
and competent government of principle and honesty. Its shiny
wrappings stripped away, the product now reveals its true
nature: Personal greed, arrogance, incompetence, shamelessness,
rash warmongering and an inability to accept - as is clear
to almost everyone else - that it is time to go. Editorial
- The Mail on Sunday, May 28, 2006
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November
16 2006 (1281 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2863 US - 125 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
November
29, 2006 (1294 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2885 US - 126 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
Consulting
the Oracle on Blair's appalling legacy
John
Edwards - Daily Mail, December 6, 2006
The
business of Government now is making Blair look good when he quits.
It is called securing his legacy. That is some job. People in
Downing Street paid by taxpayers are trying to fix things. Blair
sits in an office there listening to ideas. The best so far is
he should travel the country shovelling money into projects like
the money was actually sand. Watch for this as his time gets close.
It
that's what it takes then we have a Prime Minister ready to buy
his way into history. A billion is nothing if they spell your
name right. Only the legacy counts.
Christmas
lights were shining and spreading down the marble avenues of The
Oracle shopping centre in Reading. But not as much as they did
before. Christmas is getting to be an offensive celebration, There
could be riots.
Blair's
half-crazed torrent of quangos and sparrow-brained council officials
mostly where Labour rules, direct that minorities could feel threatened
by the sight of a crib, a lighted cross or the sound of angels
singing. Hark the Herald Angels is the new Deutschland Uber Alles.
Back
to Blair and his legacy. The Oracle is the centre of life. It
draws customers from every social layer. Super-rich from the Bentley
villages behind the weeping willow Thames. And the poor living
six floors up on some threatening local estate. They all walk
into the blender and come out just as shoppers in the Oracle.
Royal
Berkshire splits roughly equal between Labour and Tory. This is
the place to ask about Blair's legacy. Women first. The question
is: what do you think Blair's legacy is going to be?"
The
first woman had a bad face-lift which made her eyes stretch across
her face. She came right out. "Blair will be remembered mainly
as a liar. He caused people to distrust and disbelieve everything
he said." There were four more 'liars' between HMV and House
of Fraser.
Another
woman said he would be remembered as the man who 'wrecked the
old tradition of Britain' with his open-door immigration policy.
The next one said since he was apologising to everyone for something
or other, he should 'apologise for himself and the way he has
destroyed the country."
So
one one side of the mezzanine it ended with five 'liars', two
'ruined the country' and one 'for landing us with that money-mad
wife of his'.
On
Blair's side was one woman who said she was 70 and now had free
travel passes the Conservatives never gave her. On the other side
of the mezzanine, one woman said she 'loathed' Blair and blamed
him for 'every single death in Iraq'. That's what he would be
remembered for.
Then
two more 'liars'. One said he had turned the education system
into 'a joke' and it was costing her thousands to send her daughter
private to get 'any kind of decent education at all'.
Now
a woman said she would like him to take her to one of the hospitals
he says is a model of good NHS practice and the envy of Europe.
"I don't know of one," she said. "And what about
dying from what you catch inside hospital rather than what you
go there to be treated for? I'd never heard of MRSA before Tony
Blair became Prime Minister."
These
were just people walking with shopping bags. They weren't picked.
One woman was standing outside a shop called Parchment. The first
rack inside the door was Christmas cards. And the nearest had
the message: 'Happy Christmas to my Wonderful Partner'.
"That's
what Blair and his Government have done for the family, My wonderful
partner indeed! Let me enjoy myself. Don't spoil it asking me
about that horrible man."
At least that's different from calling him a liar, she
was told. "Oh, he's a liar as well," the woman said
in a brutal voice.
Men
were mostly about Iraq. Here's a selection:
"He
wanted to look good in America and fill his pockets there afterwards."
"He
thought it would make him look strong like Thatcher after the
Falklands."
"Blair
finished off most of the traditions of his country. His legacy?
The worst ever Prime Minister."
Surely
someone around here must have voted for his party? A few had.
Now they mostly thought they had been wrong. "I'd like to
know why a single driver would ever support him or the rest of
his half-wits again? He's declared war on us."
"Gambling
day and night, drinking all hours ... I wonder who got a nice
drink for pushing that through? It will be one of them, I guarantee.
Back-handers will be Blair's legacy."
"I
can't think of one thing good to say about him. A legacy? Arranging
it so about half the kids who leave school can't read or write."
"Not
giving a toss about the old ones like me. The only way to get
looked after is to leave the country and come back as an immigrant."
Read
the opinion polls and they show you only numbers. What counts
as much are the reasons behind the numbers. At The Oracle, Reading,
the other day, Blair couldn't even have bought his way into getting
a decent legacy. He had been found out, nearly everyone said.
And
they didn't give it much chance to get better under Gordon Brown
either.
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