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 answeer 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
|
May
11, 2005 (741 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,610 US - 88 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
May
31, 2005 (761 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,657 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
June
3 , 2005 (765 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,670 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
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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Taming
yobs is simple Mr Blair, just give them a sporting chance
Jeff
Powell - Daily Mail, June 6, 2005
The
night my father Jack took me for my first half of bitter at our
local pub in London's East End, the only way he could dissuade
a burly docker from swearing incessantly in my hearing was to
punch him through the stained glass window of the saloon bar.
It
was a bloody, but stunningly effective, way of teaching both that
foul-mouthed drunk and my 14-year-old self to respect others.
For my next lesson, Jack dug out a pair of his old boxing gloves
from a cardboard box under the bed and took me to the local gym,
there to learn how to look after myself whenever such emergencies
arose in the future.
Tony
Blair could do worse than pay Jack a visit. The Prime Minister
might learn a thing or two of considerable help to his campaign
to curb anti-social behaviour and drive gangs of yobs off the
streets.
To
begin with, respect for society is rooted in respect for authority.
That can be taught in the home, the school or the courts, but
it relies on the prospect of respect being enforced by punishment.
Secondly,
sport is essential to the youth of any nation. Especially one
degenerating into a morass of violent crime, binge drinking and
juvenile delinquency, all with the aid of the most grotesque ally
of immorality, indolence, indecency and self-indulgence at the
expense of the working majority.
Political
correctness does not have much time for sport. It smacks much
too heavily of competition for the liking of those who'd prefer
to give foreign holidays to young muggers, university places to
the illiterate, grants to anti-British terrorists, homes to fraudulent
asylum seekers and other people's babies to homosexual couples.
As
for competitive sport, our Government is only paying lip service
to that until London's 2012 Olympic bid is won or lost. Meanwhile,
New Labour continues to concrete over playing fields as quickly
as Gordon Brown's taxation policies close down small businesses.
It is also withdrawing funding from sport as fast as Kimberly
Quinn's lovers head for the back door.
The
hardest man I know - even at 85 - might explain to Mr Blair that
if he really means what he says about 'cleaning up street gangs'
then sport can do more to help him that all his spin doctors rolled
together. There's nothing like football, rugby or cricket for
uniting boys - and girls now - in a common cause and inspiring
in them the spirit to fight for each other.
There
is nothing like representing your school or youth club at anything
from swimming to running, tennis to trampolining, judo to bike
racing for inculcating a sense of responsibility. As for boxing,
no other sport instills so powerful a sense of discipline, brings
out such courage or inspires such respect for opponents.
The
best way to clean up the streets is to drag the riff-raff off
them and into sports halls, swimming pools and the playing field
dressing rooms, although that would be easier, of course, if more
of those were available. It would also be cheaper to build sporting
facilities than to protect - by massive policing and interminable
court hearings - everywhere from the inner cities to leafy villages
from the villains, drunks and the vandals. That is the simple
truth which successive governments have failed to grasp.
They
have also been hypocritical in making the propaganda jump on to
Olympic and World Cup bandwagons, while refusing to invest adequately
in sport. If Mr Blair truly wants to make out towns and cities
safer he should insist that National Lottery money is spent on
sport, rather than poured by loony quangos into the begging bowls
of the deliberately non-working classes.
There
is nothing like the dream of representing their county for keeping
youngsters off drink and t drugs. It is out of boredom, as much
as ignorance and evil, that gangs of kids end up killing grown-ups
for kicks or amusing themselves by trying to lynch a five-year-old
child.
A
significant part of the answer - along with reversing the dumbing
down of the education system and involving parental responsibility
- is to make daily sport compulsory in all schools and then provide
the playing fields and indoor arenas for them to continue competing
as teenagers and young adults.
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