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
|
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.
|
|
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
|
August
18, 2006 (1210 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2601 US - 115 UK - >300,000? civilians - 25 media
August
23, 2006 (1215 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2613 US - 115 UK - >300,000? civilians - 25 media
After
all Labour's tough talk on crime, Reid's new guidance for magistrates
...
Don't
put suspects in jail, use bail
By
James Slack - Home Affairs Editor - Daily Mail, August 28, 2006
Magistrates
have been urged to free thousands more suspected criminals on
bail instead of sending them to jail. John Reid - who talked tough
on crime when he became Home Secretary four months ago - wants
to see more suspects electronically tagged.
His
officials have written to every court in the country telling them
to use tagging as an 'alternative to remand in custody.'
Not
the answer
Comment
- Daily Mail, August 28, 2006
Has
Home Secretary John Reid learned nothing from the scandal
that helped bring down Charles Clarke? Instead of deporting
foreign criminals when they had complete their sentences,
Mr Clarke simply let them walk free. He put the public
at needless risk - and now Mr Reid is doing the same.
This
week, he is to give magistrates new advice on how to treat
criminal suspects awaiting trial. His suggestion? You've
guessed it: set more of them free.
Mr
Reid urges the courts to make greater use of electronic
tagging as an alternative to remand in custody. Yet he
knows very well that tagging offers nothing like the same
public protection as prison bars. Every
day more offenders remove or destroy their tags before
going out to commit further crimes.
He
knows, too, that even when tags stay in place, they tell
police nothing about an offender's whereabouts when he
absconds.
How
many more crimes will be committed as a direct result
of Mr Reid's advice? It is no coincidence that the new
guidelines come at a time of an acute shortage of prison
places. But whose fault is that?
Mr
Clarke paid with his job for his failure to put public
safety first Mr Reid, who so bullishly pledged to 'sort
out' the Home Office, had better come up with an alternative
solution to the cell shortage or he will deserve the same
fate.
|
Critics
say the move is just another attempt to ease prison overcrowding.
Around 10,000 suspects are currently remanded in custody, mainly
accused of violence, sex offences, robbery, burglary, theft and
drug dealing.
If each of the country's magistrates
decided to release one extra remand prisoner on a tag, it will
put 30,000 more suspects on the streets.
Tory
home affairs spokesman Edward Garnier said yesterday: "This
looks like yet another consequence of the desperate overcrowding
in our prisons. Due to the Government's failure to provide enough
capacity, suspects who are either dangerous or unlikely to show
up to court will be let out onto the streets when they should
be locked up."
Courts
are advised to use tagging in a Home Office circular 25/2006,
due to be officially issued on Friday (September 4, 2006). Offenders
wearing tags have committed murder, as have those on bail. The
guidance, sent to all court managers and Clerks to Justices, says:
'The intention of the Home Secretary in making tagging more available
is that it should be used as alternative to remand in custody'.
The eight-page report, dated September 1, 2006, makes a series
of promises intended to put magistrates' minds at rest when they
set suspects free.
It
says: 'The Crown Prosecution Service and Association of Chief
Police Officers have given assurances they will take vigorous
action in respect of anyone who breaches conditions while tagged
on bail.'
But
it is forced to admit tagging is well short of the level of protection
offered to the public by prison. The document says: 'Tagging is
not tracking. It does not provide continuous information on the
whereabouts of the subject.'
If a subject ignores his curfew, police
are notified and told to track the offender down - but there is
no guarantee they will be caught.
The
request is the latest in a series of Government steps to ease
jail overcrowding, which has reached record levels. Last Friday,
the prison population reached an all-time high of 79,213.
The
number of cells has been increased over the past two weeks, by
repairing those which were out of use, but there are still only
700 places remaining. These could be full within weeks. Other
plans include letting up to 30,000 criminals walk free ten days
before their sentence reaches even the halfway point. It is in
addition to the automatic 50% discount they get on the sentence
handed down by the courts.
Anybody
serving more than four weeks but less than four years will be
considered. It creates the farcical scenario of a convict failed
for 30 days, walking free in five.
Ministers
remain desperate to avoid implementing the policy, with Downing
street afraid it will inflict yet more damage on Labour's damaged
promise to be 'tough' on crime. The most likely candidates for
tagging are burglars, thieves, drug offenders and other nonviolent
suspects. But officials have previously said even murderers could
qualify if the courts were satisfied, in cases such as mercy killings,
that there was not further risk to the public.
In
a memo to MPs, sent last year, the Home Office said 'people should
be remanded in custody only where there is a danger to the public
or a significant risk of absconding'. It added: 'In the latter
case, the risk can be managed by making tagging a condition of
bail.'
Norman
Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: £"If
someone is suspected of a serious crime that warrants custody
to protect society, then that's where they should be. It is not
the public's fault if there are too many people in prison."
Other
critics of the tagging policy include Victor Bates, whose wife
Marian was killed in a bungled armed robbery on their Nottingham
jewellery shop. One of her killers, serial criminal, Peter William,
had removed his tag only days before the robbery. Mr Bates said
it was 'frightening in the extreme' to suggest tagging crime suspects
as an alternative to prison.
Last
night the Home Office insisted the final decision on who should
be tagged remained with the courts. A spokesman said the guidance
was an update of existing advice, despite it coinciding with the
current prison overcrowding crisis.
At
least 7,500 offences have been committed by tagged offenders since
1999. These include 833 of violence, 18 sex offences, 337 burglaries,
and 100 robberies. There were 134 assaults on police, including
one which caused actual bodily harm. Last year 2,695 prisoners
released early removed or damaged their tags - seven a day.
Overall,
250,000 people have been tagged since the scheme started in 1999.
No figures are available for the number of crimes committed by
suspects who are on bail, but it is believed to run into thousands.
Britain is the burglary capital of Europe, a survey suggests.
The
UK tops the continent's league table for break-ins - with a rate
more than twice the European average. The figures have been revealed
by European Union research which also shows that Britain is the
second more crime-ridden country. More than one in five people
said they had been the victim of crime in this country.
Only
Ireland has a worse record. The survey was based on interviews
with 28,000 people in 18 countries, including 3,6000 in Britain.
The research concluded: "Levels of crime have been declining
in the United Kingdom since 1995, but not to the extent as in
some other EU countries. The UK remains a high crime country."
Other
categories in which Britain topped the EU league were assaults
and car theft. According to the study, 36% of Britons have fitted
home alarms - again the highest in Europe. But the study also
revealed that burglars in this country are best equipped at dodging
sophisticate security systems.
If you have
suggestions for additional subjects, or material to include in the
pages linked to the subjects listed, please contact the webmaster.
