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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May
6, 2006 (1092 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2417 US - 108 UK - >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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We’re too nice to expel foreign crooks
Tom
Stacey, a prison visitor for 30 years, says that jails devote
scandalous resources to 'diversity'. No wonder the Home Office
has so little time to manage deportations
The
Spectator - May 6, 2006
Political
defenders of Charles Clarke insist it’s unreasonable to expect
ministers to be acquainted with ‘every nook and cranny’
of the department they are responsible for, especially one as
cumbrous as his. It’s hardly his fault, they say, that 1,023
foreign prisoners were freed without being considered for deportation.
And
true enough that the Home Secretary cannot be familiar with everything
that’s going on. He’s only human. One aspect of the
Prison Service that he may not be familiar with is the earnest,
not to say saintly, work done by governors and warders to ensure
that foreign criminals leave prison feeling thoroughly at home
there, not despite their foreignness but because of it.
Forget
deportation. The large London penitentiary where I have been a
prison visitor for three decades has established, at New Labour’s
behest, an elite team of warders and probation officers who, in
their own words as displayed on notices all over the prison, are
‘passionate about Diversity and Equality’.
These
officials make up the ‘Diversity Team’, and most of
the 130 or so penal establishments in England and Wales have set
up their equally devoted teams, all committed to making our foreign
national offenders snug and valued in Blighty, at least for the
time being. The Diversity Teams are naturally proud of their role
in life, which they describe in laminated notices wherever there
is space on the prison’s walls. The Diversity Team’s
notice in my prison is worth quoting in full:
‘Our
aim,’ it announces to all who can read English, ‘is
to provide information, advice, support and guidance to the senior
management team, staff and prisoners, thus ensuring HM Prison
–— provides an effective professional and responsible
service in this area.
‘We
will act as a local focal point for issuing, developing, implementing
and monitoring policies in the field of Diversity.
‘As
the catalyst for Diversity, we will assist the senior management
team in ensuring HM Prison –— lives up to its commitment
to embrace and value Diversity.’
This
notice is followed by a declaration from the prison governor himself:
‘I will oversee all matters relating to Diversity. The Diversity
Team and I will work closely to ensure HM Prison –—
is a working environment that promotes and encourages good working
relationships.’
Naturally
enough, each member of the Diversity Team has his or her specific
function for his or her diverse charges. In my nick there’s
a team leader (a black woman) called ‘Diversity Manager’,
another black woman called ‘Equal Opportunities Officer’,
a third called ‘Foreign Nationals’ Co-ordinator’,
a white woman called ‘Administration Support’, and a
chap called ‘Disability Liaison Officer’. That must
all be pretty reassuring if you are a benighted foreign national
in the clink. True, there may not be an actual Diversity Team
member explicitly allocated to help you to disappear into the
community rather than face deportation — a ‘Deportation
Evasion Co-ordinator’, for example — but you’re
nonetheless getting a feel of where the heart of the system lies.
The
annual Diversity Awards dished out by the Home Office to Diversity
Teams from all over the country (at a national ceremony held at
the London School of Economics) actually have an award category
called ‘Innovation: an area which is often neglected’.
I hope Mr Clarke won’t mind if I suggest a new award in the
category: ‘Advice on How to Disappear into the Community
at End of Sentence’.
The
fact is that the Prison Service has the strangest priorities.
A few weeks ago my jail was shown by Channel Five’s MacIntyre
Investigates to have punished no fewer than 170 prisoners for
possessing drugs and 230 for having illegal mobile phones in 2005;
to have had more than 100 drug parcels lobbed in over walls; and
to have saved the careers (on the insistence of the Prison Officers’
Association, the unreformed warders’ union) of various named
warders known to have smuggled in drugs and alcohol and sold favours
to prisoners. Plenty has been going wrong, in other words: more
than enough to keep prison staff busy, you might think. So it
makes one gulp to see so much time and effort devoted to feelgood
pap.
The
inner surfaces of Britain’s prisons these days are plastered
with boastful notices signed by the governors and other key members
of staff. It’s all part of the national spin culture. Anti-bullying,
belief in visits, the right to harvest benefits — they all
get their space. Here’s a notice on race that has appeared
in my nick:
‘This
prison does not tolerate any form of racism or unlawful discrimination
on the basis of race, nationality, culture, religious belief,
sexual orientation, gender, age, disability or any other improper
grounds. Our
policy is one of race equality and diversity, celebrating diversity
of different cultures and beliefs.’
The
notice carries the facsimile signatures not only of the governor
but the deputy governor, the governor’s adviser on diversity,
the acting head of operations, the head of learning and skills,
the head of finance, the head of estates, the head of resettlement,
the head of the safe prison team, the head of health services,
the foreign nationals co-ordinator, the chairman of the Prison
Officers’ Association, the head of psychological services,
the head of human resources, the race relations liaison officer,
the chaplain, the functional manager and the assistant race relations
officer.
Live
and let live by all means. But do we have to ‘celebrate’
everything we encounter? I have confronted some decidedly weird
beliefs, cultures and orientations from around the world in this
particular prison, the ‘celebration’ of which would
have the parents in my street keeping their children firmly indoors
if engaged in the neighbourhood.
The
nine aims which follow the declaration on race come as a bit of
an anticlimax. Three of the less riveting are:
‘To
promote and develop training programmes to include training and
any other related training’ [sic];
‘To
audit and oversee the implementation of all national, local and
statutory policies in respect of Race Relations’; and
‘To
ensure that all those who work, reside in, or visit the prison
are given all reasonable means to make use of the facilities provided.’
You
can see how taxpayers’ money is being spent at a time when
‘lack of resources’ is cited as the main excuse for
the foreign prisoners scandal. You can see why members of Mr Clarke’s
Prison Service are too busy to talk to the Immigration and Nationality
Directorate. And you can also see how they might consider that
they had wasted their time — having devoted so much care
to foreign nationals while they were behind bars — if they
were actually deported on their release.
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