Silent Majority Speaks
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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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
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July
8, 2007 (1499 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3605 US - 158 UK - >1,000,000? civilians - 25 media
July
25, 2007 (1516days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3637 US - 163 UK - >1,000,000? civilians - 25 media
This
site has had 
visitors
Brown
must give us a vote on EU treaty, says Hague
By
James Chapman - Deputy Political Editor, Daily Mail, July 24,
2007
Gordon
Brown must hold a referendum on the revived EU constitution, the
Tories will demand today. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague
will insist the new EU treaty - unveiled yesterday with the aim
of securing agreement in just 12 weeks - will transfer power from
Britain to the EU 'in spades'.
What's
in the treaty (and was in the Constitution)
British
veto abolished in more than 40 areas, including migration,
energy and transport.
Obligation
on national parliaments to 'contribute actively to good
functioning of the Union'.
EU
to get single 'legal personality', with right to sign
international treaties like a single country
Creation
of an EU foreign affairs supremo, who will represent EU
at the United Nations.
Creation
of an EU president, serving a two-and=a-half year term
End
to each member state appointing its own EU commissioner
Creation
of an EU public prosecutor, with the right to initiate
legal proceedings
New
powers for the EU court of Justice over UK criminal law
EU
solidarity in the event of an energy supply crisis
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The
Tories believe a referendum is the only way to restore trust in
politics as fears grow about the shifting of power to Brussels.
Last night Europe Minister Jim Murphy, dismissed the Tory offensive,
along with claims the treaty is simply a relabelled version of
the rejected 2005 constitution.
In
a significant hardening of the Government's position, Mr Murphy
dismissed calls for a public vote as 'frankly absurd'. He told
MPs the Government had secured all its 'red lines' on policy areas
where it was not willing to give away power.
And
the Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference that
the 'constitutional concept' of the original treaty had been 'abandoned'.
As long as Britain's 'red lines' were maintained, Mr Brown added,
'then there's no need for a referendum'.
But
analysts poring over almost 150 pages of a draft agreement published
last night - only in French - claimed
it went even further than had been feared. Neil O'Brien, of the
Open Europe think-tank, said the treaty committed member states
to develop a common defence policy and gave European courts jurisdiction
over policing and criminal justice for the first time.
"We
never expected that they would simply bring back all the text
from the old constitution," he said. "All they seem
to have done is renumber the articles. From this point forward
it's going to become absolutely impossible for Gordon Brown to
resist a referendum, because this is almost exactly the same text
that he promised a referendum on before. If Brown now tries to
carry on pretending that this is somehow a different document,
it will be one of the most audacious political lies in the last
couple of decades."
In
a keynote speech, Mr Hague will announce the Tories would hold
a referendum on the treaty, claiming Mr Brown will further undermine
public trust in politics if he does not offer a vote. Labour pledged
in its 2005 election manifesto to call a referendum on any new
version of the EU constitution, which foundered after being rejected
by voters in France and the Netherlands.
The
strategy is a high-risk for Tory leader David Cameron, since it
risks infuriating the dwindling band of strongly pro-European
Tories led by former Chancellor Ken Clarke. But Mr Cameron has
calculated that the campaign will help shore up the party's core
vote and appease restive MPs on the Eurosceptic Right of his party,
as well as putting Mr Brown under pressure.
Mr
Hague will today highlight remarks by a host of EU leaders - and
the Prime Minister's new trade minister Lord Jones - suggesting
the treaty is indeed the 'constitution repackaged'. "The
Government have absolutely no mandate to agree to this treaty
without the British people's express permission," he will
tell the centre-Right think-tank Policy Exchange.
"The
2005 Labour Party manifesto did not say that the Government would
bring in 90% of the EU constitution under another guise if another
country rejected it before the British people had had the chance
to have their say. Yet, in an act of extraordinary cynicism, Gordon
Brown's government is proposing to do exactly that. We have heard
a lot this month about trust and consultation. But how can the
British people trust Gordon Brown if he begins his time as Prime
Minister with a flagrant breach of a solemn manifesto promise?"
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