Silent Majority Speaks

Rescuing Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected Dictatorship

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.

April 17, 2006 (1073 days since war ended)

Death Toll: 2376US - 104UK - >60,000? civilians - 25 media

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

STOP PRESS

On-the-spot fines denounced by JPs

By Steve Doughty - Social Affairs Correspondent - Daily Mail, April 17, 2006

Magistrates yesterday launched a withering attack on the use of on-the-spot fines by police to punish criminals. They claimed that officers are using their new powers to massage crime figures and that offenders who get them are unlikely ever to pay up.

The system will mean that many crimes will never show up in the statistics and that the courts will get the blame for failing to 'collect the uncollectable' when fines - usually £80 - go unpaid, they said.

The Magistrates' Association, which represents the majority of the 30,000 lay JPs in England and Wales, published the accusation in its magazine, Magistrate. It represents sever criticism of police chiefs and the Government from an organisation which has traditionally had close links to the Home Office and the Department for Constitutional Affairs. Ministers are pushing for an estimated million criminals a year to be kept out of the courts through a system by which police officers dispense summary justice.

The idea depends on the growing use of cautions to allow burglars, drug users and some violent offenders to escape prosecution, and the extension of the use of penalty fines imposed by police. On-the-spot fines are now being used against shoplifters who steal goods valued at up to £200 and vandals who cause criminal damage worth less than £500.

The protest came in a letter from Lancashire JP Ann Turnbull, published in the magazine. "We have a situation where the due process of law for a criminal offence has not been adhered to," she said. "The police are fining people with no reference to their previous behaviour or their ability to pay and we, the courts, are left collecting the uncollectable."

The letter added: "To add insult to injury, the theft statistics will drop, as these offences do not go on an offender's record, and we will in turn be criticised because our outstanding fines escalate. How can all this be justified and, more importantly, can anyone tell those of us who impose the law and, especially, the general public, how this appalling state of affairs has arisen?"

The accusation that police are using the on-the-spot fines system to manipulate crime figures echoes the view of some crime experts. They say the explosion in the use of cautions and fixed penalties will be used to make it look as if crime is going down.

The Magistrates' Association has harboured concerns about the process of dealing with criminals outside the courts from the start. Its leaders have made clear their view that keeping offenders out of the magistrates' courts, which handle the bulk of criminal cases, risks unfairness.

Earlier this year, association chairman Cindy Barnett said that the organisation 'firmly believes that defendants charged with an offence must be dealt with fairly and impartially, and that what might seem a very straightforward case at the outset often turns out not to be when it appears in court'.

She added: "Great caution must be given to removing cases from the judiciary."

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