Silent Majority Speaks

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

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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.

May 15, 2006 (1101 days since war ended)

Death Toll: 2443 US - 111 UK - >60,000? civilians - 25 media

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

STOP PRESS

Illegal migrants 'ignored to help meet Blair's targets'

By Home Affairs Correspondent - Daily Mail, May 20, 2006

Immigration officers are allegedly refusing to turn up when police arrest illegal migrants because Government targets mean they are interested only in deporting failed asylum seekers. A police whistleblower has told the Daily Mail of his colleagues' growing frustration over the lack of support from immigration officials - to the point where police officers often no longer bother to alert them when suspicious foreigners are detained.

Nine years on, there can be no excuses Comment - Daily Mail, May 20, 2006 One week's headlines reveal a fiasco beyond parody in a Government that promised to be 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'. SUNDAY: Leaked Home Office figures reveal that offenders on probation commit 10,000 crimes every month. MONDAY: In the wake of rows over freed foreign prisoners, Afghan hijackers and a rapist let loose to murder, a rattle Tony Blair suggests amending the Human Rights Act - the law he rushed through without a thought for the consequences. But it is immediately clear that the prospects of effective action are nil. TUESDAY: After four Home Secretaries, two Lord Chancellors and 43 major crime Bills, the system is in such chaos that Gordon Brown is drafted in to oversee improvements at the Home Office. WEDNESDAY: Some hopes. The top official in charge of deportations admits he hasn't 'the faintest idea' how many illegal immigrants are living here. THURSDAY: Police chiefs warn of 'a tragedy for British policing' over plans to replace 25,000 properly-trained officers by cheaper 'Blunkett's bobbies'. FRIDAY: In a positively surreal development, illegal immigrants are caught working at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, the department responsible for expelling them. Meanwhile, it is reported that New Labour's ill-judged plans to merge police forces would cost up to £600million and mean loss of thousands of officers. TODAY: We reveal that legal aid to prisoners facing parole boards has soared tenfold under the Human Rights Act. Then Home Secretary John Reid says he may shelve the contentious police merger plans after all. What a shambles. Will it be any better tomorrow? Dream on. This week reveals a system in near meltdown. And after nine years of New Labour, the excuses have run out.

The insider revealed that immigration officers had been ordered to focus almost entirely on meeting Tony Blair's key target of throwing more failed asylum seekers out of the UK. But that political priority is causing massive distortions, with officials forced to ignore other vital problems of immigration.

The Home Office is expected to claim success in meeting Mr Blair's 'tipping the balance' target next week, with the number of failed asylum seekers being deported finally exceeding the number of new bogus claims. This means the massive backlog of 265,000 cases has stopped growing.

But news that the target is undermining work to tackle other immigration offenders will take the gloss off the Prime Minister's claims of success - especially following the outrage over the foreign prisoner deportation scandal.

While the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate has doubled in size to 14,000 staff since Labour came to power and has £2billion to spend, it has been crippled by budget problems and complaints have mounted over the failure of staff to turn up when police arrest suspected illegal immigrants.

The insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "It's been an issue for a long time, but now it's getting crazy. The reason is simple. Immigration officers don't want to turn up because if the person isn't a failed asylum seeker, he or she will claim asylum straight away. That will harm Tony Blair's target, rather than helping."

The whistleblower adds: "If the Immigration Service turn out out every time the police caught somebody, the whole service would grind to a halt. There are hundreds every day in London alone. Increasingly, police don't bother to check someone's immigration status because they're fed up with being told there are no immigration officers available. The knock-on effects from the failed asylum seeker target are crippling other parts of the system. No wonder they haven't got time to deport foreign prisoners."

The Home Office accept the IND had to focus limited resources as best it could,m but insisted it was 'not policy' to ignore illegal immigrants other than failed asylum seekers. Ministers yesterday ruled out an amnesty for the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the UK. And the Home Office said it had stopped using a cleaning company which sent five illegal immigrants to work at the IND.

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