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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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
Blair's
ID card plan undermined by security breaches
JAMES
KIRKUP - POLITICAL EDITOR - THE SCOTSMAN - August 26, 2006
TONY
Blair's plan for a national identity card has been dealt a fresh
blow by the revelation that several government officials have
been sacked for breaching security around the databases on which
the scheme will be based.
Unauthorised
users have got around information technology defences at the Home
Office's Identity and Passport Service on at least four occasions
in recent years.
The
IPS holds personal data about every British passport holder, including
date of birth, mother's maiden name and other information that
could be used by criminals.
It
is understood that three IPS officials were dismissed after the
database security breaches were uncovered and Home Office managers
moved to contain the scandal.
MPs
and technology experts have repeatedly expressed fears that the
new National Identity Register, which will ultimately store the
most sensitive details of more than 40 million people, will be
a honeypot for hackers and identity thieves. Phil Booth, national
co-ordinator of the N02ID campaign, said the breaches showed the
"terrifying" vulnerability of the scheme.
A
Home Office spokeswoman last night confirmed the database security
breaches at the IPS, and that three staff involved had been sacked
as a consequence.
She
insisted that none of the security breaches involved "hacking"
by outside criminals, and said that a "whole range of protocols
and procedures" are in place to protect Home Office databases
from unauthorised staff use
*
Whitehall internal audits reveals number of missing security passes
* Passes allow armed forces to access military sites and Whitehall
offices
* Potentially embarrassing figures released during 76-day summer
break
Key
quote
"These figures are worrying in these days of heightened
concern about security. The Ministry of Defence in particular
- but other departments as well - should be concerned that so
many official documents allowing entry to sensitive sites are
lost or stolen" - SIMON HUGHES, LIBDEMS
MORE
than 24,500 government security passes giving access to military
sites and sensitive Whitehall offices have gone missing in the
past three years, fuelling fears about the British state's vulnerability
to terrorism.
The
startling number of government identity documents unaccounted
for has been revealed in a series of internal audits conducted
by Whitehall departments and seen by The Scotsman.
Since
last week's foiling of an alleged UK terrorist plot to bomb US-bound
airliners, all government facilities have been placed at a high
state of alert, and opposition MPs said the loss of so many security
passes was deeply troubling.
The
majority of the missing security passes were issued by the Ministry
of Defence to members of the armed forces. In all, the MoD has
lost track of 22,731 forces passes since the start of 2004. More
than 4,600 military passes have gone missing since the start of
this year alone.
The
MoD's civilian staff are also understood to have lost hundreds
of identity passes, but the ministry has admitted it does not
keep a count of how many of its civilian ID cards have been lost.
Official
figures show that staff at several other major Whitehall departments
have also mislaid identity passes.
The
passes have the legal status of official government documents
and anyone finding them is obliged to hand them to the police,
but many never are.
The
Cabinet Office, which houses several intelligence-related bodies
and adjoins No 10, mislaid more than 50 passes in a single year.
In all, the department's staff lost 20 passes during 2004 while
another 31 were reported stolen.
In
less than three years, staff at Gordon Brown's Treasury headquarters
have lost 62 passes. Another four have been stolen from officials
on the Chancellor's staff.
Among
the other government departments that have mislaid passes according
to official internal counts:
•
The Department of the Environment, Food Rural Affairs has lost
382 passes. Another 37 have been stolen.
•
The Department of Trade and Industry reported losses and thefts
of 582.
•
The Department for Constitutional Affairs - lost 713, stolen 52.
•
The Department for International Development - lost 105, stolen
five.
The
ministries were forced to tally and disclose their lost passes
by Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat president, in a string of
parliamentary requests.
Illustrating
the sensitivity of the figures, several of the departments chose
to issue their answers to Mr Hughes' questions in the last days
of the parliamentary session last month, when ministries traditionally
try to slip out potentially embarrassing information.
The
MoD waited until parliament had actually begun its 76-day summer
break before publishing its figures, meaning even MPs would have
little access to the data until October.
"These
figures are worrying in these days of heightened concern about
security. The Ministry of Defence in particular - but other departments
as well - should be concerned that so many official documents
allowing entry to sensitive sites are lost or stolen," Mr
Hughes said.
Patrick
Mercer, the Tory homeland security spokesman, said: "Identity
passes are a vital security tool and their loss is likely to compromise
the efforts of the police and others to safeguard British national
security."
In
a written statement, Tom Watson, a defence minister, downplayed
the risk. "Identity cards carry a photograph of the holder
and other features that inhibit their fraudulent replication,"
he said.
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