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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April 17, 2006 (1073 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2376US - 104UK - >60,000? civilians - 25 media
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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
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100
FREED EARLY TO RAPE AND MURDER
And
the man in charge says this means the system is working!
By
Ben Taylor - Crime Correspondent - Daily Mail, April 17, 2006
A
hundred prisoners a year commit serious crimes after being freed
early. The figure means offences including murder and armed robbery
are being carried out at a rate of more than two a week. At least
20 of the 100 convicts will have been freed despite a probation
service assessment that they are 'high or very high risk'.
Yet
the man in charge of monitoring the system says the figures prove
it is working. Andrew Bridges, Chief Inspector of Probation, said
he considers 100 a 'tiny number' when there are 200,000 people
under probation supervision at any one time.
Freed
to kill
Comment
- Daily Mail, April 17, 2006
From
Probation Service's watchdog comes a damaging admission.
Andrew Bridges, Chief Inspector of probation, says that
100 early release prisoners a year will commit 'dreadful
crimes' - murders, rapes, violent assaults.
In
the Alice in Wonderland world of our criminal justice
system, Mr Bridges believes that's a figure to be proud
of. But then this is a man who regards the word 'punishment'
as 'a bit emotive' and is more comfortable 'helping' offenders.
Try
telling that to the families of jeweller Marian Bates,
financier John Monckton, teacher Robert Symons - all murdered
by violent thugs release early from prison, as almost
all criminals are nowadays because there aren't the cells
to hold them.
The
prime duty of any criminal justice system must be to protect
the public. The Government's dogmatic refusal to build
jails means it is failing in that duty.
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His
remarks, in the wake of a series of high-profile murder cases,
prompted outrage and accusations of complacency from MPs and crime
victims. Lynn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression,
said: "For the victims, just one serious is too many. I am
appalled that he can appear to take this so lightly. It smacks
of complacency in the criminal justice system."
Tory
spokesman Edward Garnier said: "The Parole Board is no longer
adequately resourced to undertake face-to-face interviews with
potential early release prisoners so that far too many dangerous
individuals have been set free before the end of their sentences
and have, not surprisingly, gone on to commit further serious
offences." He said public safety should be a 'paramount priority'.
Verna
Bryant, whose 40-year-old daughter was murdered by serial sex
attacker Anthony Rice while he was living at a Hampshire probation
hostel in 2005, said: "Even one death is simply too many.
These people should be kept locked up. If you look at the amount
of distress and cost of a murder, it would be cheaper in the long
run, anyway." Mrs Bryant added: "They should start building
more prisons."
At
present most prisoners are eligible for parole at the halfway
point of their sentences. But new schemes designed to bring down
the prison population - now at a near-record 77,000 - means that
some can be released even earlier if they agree to electronic
surveillance.
Mr
Bridges revealed the figures after the publication of his damning
report into the case of Damien Hanson, who was out of probation
when he stabbed financier John Monkton to death and almost killed
his wife during a burglary at their home in Chelsea, West London,
in November 2004. Hanson had been freed halfway through a 12-year
sentence for attempted murder.
Mr
Bridges concluded there were 'serious deficiencies' in the way
the killer had been managed by probation staff. But he insists
his figures show the probation system is not failing. He said:
"Of about 200,000 offenders under supervision at any one
time, about a hundred in a year will commit a further serious
offence. That is less than half of one percent. Every one of the
100 is bound to be experienced as an extremely distressing failure
and it would be wrong to play that down. But when one is saying
'surely probation can stop people from doing this?' you have to
know that of those 100 offenders, about 20 will be from the 15,000
who were assessed as high, or very high risk. So locking up all
15,000 for ever would stop only 20 serious offences. It still
leaves 80 offences from people who were not previously assessed
as being high or very high risk."
But
Mrs Bryant, a mother of three from Winchester, Hampshire, said
the system was obviously flawed. She said: "Anthony Rice
was released after serving a life sentence and managed to escape
from his hostel without anyone knowing what was going on."
The
report into the murder of her daughter, Naomi, also written by
Mr Bridges, is due to be published shortly. It is understood to
pinpoint specific failures and is said by Home Office insiders
to make 'sobering and appalling reading'. Other recent cases to
have fuelled alarm include the murder of teacher Robert Symons
at his home in Chiswick, West London, in 2004.
Yousef
Bouhaddou, a 28-year-old crack addict, killed the father of two
just five weeks after being released from jail. He had been considered
a 'low to medium risk'.
Last
month it also emerged that four of the killers of Reading schoolgirl
Mary-Ann Leneghan were under the supervision of the probation
service after being given community sentences for earlier offences.
Probation
unions say a lack of funds and serious staff shortages - especially
in London - have contributed to the problem. Cutbacks have forced
the Parole Board to start assessing prisoners' applications on
paper or after running them through a computer. Hanson,
who is now serving a 36-year sentence for Mr Monkton's murder,
was judged to have a 91% risk of re-offending but was still let
out.
Home
Secretary Charles Clarke will this week launch a shake-up of the
way violent offenders are treated. It will establish a system
of 'dangerous person orders', imposing curfews linked to electronic
tags. In a further move to prevent more deaths and serious crimes,
the Home Office will increase the number of 'face-to-face' interviews
with parole applicants.
Mr
Clarke is to make his announcement on Thursday, but sources in
his department last night rejected suggestions that thousands
of offenders currently out of probation were likely to be recalled
to jail as a result of the crackdown. A Home Office spokesman
said the report on the Rice case would be published 'in the near
future'.
Mr
Bridges made his comments in the Society section of the Guardian
newspaper.
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