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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June
29, 2006 (1146 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2529 US - 113 UK - >60,000? civilians - 25 media
July
15, 2006 (1162 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2545 US - 114 UK - >60,000? civilians - 25 media
X-ray
machine to stop illegals is switched off at nights and weekends
By
Deputy Political Editor - Daily Mail, July 31, 2006
A
machine which detects the heartbeats of illegal immigrants hiding
in lorries bound for the UK is being switched off at weekends
and at night to save money. Officials say they do not have the
cash to fund the £40,000 unit, based at the Belgium port
of Ostend.
A
fitting monument
Comment
- Daily Mail, July 31, 2006
In
the Belgian port of Ostend stands a remarkable £40,000
machine that can detect illegal immigrants hiding in lorries
bound for Britain. Properly used, it could be a powerful
tool in helping secure our notoriously porous borders.
Instead
it is another symbol of an immigration and asylum system
beyond parody. For months, the machine hasn't worked properly
because - unbelievably - Britain hasn't paid the bill,
as it promised, to make the system effective.
Meanwhile,
port authorities switch it off at nights and weekends,
because they don't have the staff to keep it running.
So the illegals are free to keep on coming.
At
the same time, we learn of a secret Home Office report
warning of the increasing strains on schools, housing
and welfare services caused by the influx of workers from
Eastern Europe. So much for Government assurances that
immigration is under control. It admits it has no idea
how many illegals are already here. It does nothing to
stop more being smuggled in, at £150 a head.
No,
it just presides over the highest wave of immigration
in our history, without even the pretence of honest debate.
Doesn't that machine standing idle in Ostend serve as
a fitting monument to an administration that has lost
control?
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Scores
of illegals are thought to have slipped through the net undetected
since the machine was installed more than two years ago. The equipment
was fitted in Ostend, where lorries board up to 13 ferries bound
for Britain daily, at the UK's request with a pledge that we would
pay for it.
But
Ronald Kreps, the harbour master, said the machine was switched
off between 3 am and 8 am as well as weekends because the port
cannot afford the extra staff. "We simply do not have the
resources to use it 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he
told the Sunday Telegraph. "The money's not there to have
it on all the time."
Even
when the machine is switched on, it does not work properly because
suppliers are refusing to carry out essential maintenance until
the Home Office has settled the bill for the unit. The revelation
comes only days after Home Secretary John Reid announced a fresh
crackdown on illegal immigrants. Rudy Bollaerts, the port's police
chief, said: "We are doing everything we can to stop illegal
immigrants going to Britain, then we learn there is a huge hole
in the system."
A
Home Office spokesman said: "We always try to pay our invoices
promptly but we do not discuss individual cases."
The
disclosure came as an official report revealed illegal immigrants
are being smuggled in from France for less than £150 a head.
The alarming finding, by the Government's Serious Organised Crime
Agency, suggests the fee for so-called 'people smuggling' is far
lower than previously thought.
Its
report said: "The costs to migrants vary substantially. Some
pay less than £150 to enter the UK from France clandestinely.
Chinese migrants may be charged up to £20,000. Some Sri
Lankan migrants pay £5,000 to £1o,000."
Sir
Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch think-tank, said
of the £150 figure: "This is extraordinarily cheap
- not much more than the usual fare. It suggests it is incredibly
easy to get people into Britain clandestinely."
Keith
Best, director of the independent Immigration Advisory Service,
said: "I'm very surprised by this figure, and highly sceptical.
I would have thought the figure would be in the high hundreds,
if not the thousands."
Old
customs are best
I'm
a retired customs officer, once responsible for the East
Anglian Division of the national Customs Coast Preventive
Service. Members of the service patrolled the coastline
of the area in which they lived in marked cars, looking
out for smuggled goods, drugs, weapons and people.
This
was abandoned in the Seventies, and there was a considerable
loss of local intelligence. I was initially relieve when
Home Secretary John Reid announced the creation of the
Border Patrol Service, but I'm alarmed that it will operate
only at ports and airports.
The
movement of small craft and fishing vessels into the hundreds
of small ports will go unchecked, as will flights into
disused landing strips or small private airfields by light
aircraft or helicopters.
We
need a joint immigration, police, customs and security-based
service with the power to deal with organised crime and
terrorism.
Letter
to the Daily Mail from Ron Sanders, Leeds - July 31, 2006
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