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 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
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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
June
17, 2005 (779 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,716 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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The
truth about the NHS . . . by a surgeon who can bear it no longer
Penpushers
who infect our NHS
Simon
Heffer - Daily Mail, June 18, 2005
After
working for the NHS for 21 years, leading consultant and bowel
cancer specialist Mike Lavelle is leaving his job because he is
disgusted at the way the Health Service is run. His resignation
letter to the chief executive of the Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals Trust included a scathing condemnation of the huge numbers
of non-medical staff it employs and the hopelessly inadequate
condition of the medical units.
The
chaotic situation he depicts will come as no surprise to anyone
on an NHS waiting list, or who has spent hours queueing in a casualty
department or for an X-ray. However, it apparently does surprise
Labour ministers. They believe the NHS is a great triumph, despite
their policy of using precious resources and increased taxes,
creating hundreds of thousands of useless jobs for potential Labour
voters, instead of spending the money 0n front-line medical staff
and vital equipment.
Bureaucrats
now soak up £16billion of the NHS's annual £62billion
budget. When Labour came to power, the average family was paying
£347 a year towards the costs of NHS management: the cost
today is £647. While there has been a 66% increase in the
numbers of senior managers, there has been a rise of only 23%
in the numbers of nurses and 29% in doctors.
The
truth is that there are now almost as many administrators in the
NHS as there are clinically qualified staff. What Mr Lavelle calls
the 'grossly overmanaged' hospital services are not, of course,
the only things wrong with the NHS. Earlier this week, it was
claimed that GPs in some rural areas have to cover an 80-mile
wide patch. Also, doctors say the Government is trying to eliminate
single-handed surgeries and replace them with distant, impersonal
'super-practices'.
Moreover,
a British Medical Association conference this week was told GP
cover at evenings and weekends was so bad that foreign doctors
had to be flown to Britain from as far away as Budapest to do
emergency shifts. Quite clearly, while there are countless wonderful
and selfless front-line workers in the NHS, the organisation itself
is not only being 'grossly overmanaged', but grossly mismanaged.
What
is the answer? The failure to admit that the delivery of health
care is a business, and therefore should be run like one, is at
the root of the sort of chaos that Mr Lavelle described. While
leaving the NHS free at the point of use - as it is required to
do by law - the government should take the courage to contract
out the provision of all NHS hospital services to the private
sector.
No
private sector company, in health care or anything else, would
ever tolerate levels of overmanning and inefficiency that are
now routine in the NHS. Instead of pouring more cash into the
NHS to be wasted, the decision to contract out would ensure that
money went on equipment, doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff
rather than on pen pushers.
Of
course, none of this will happen because Government is in thrall
to the unions, whose members include this army of unnecessary
workers who believe that the NHS exists as much for the benefit
of the staff as for those it seeks to treat.
Tragically,
it will take action by many more honest men like Mike Lavelle
before the current administration is prepared to admit the need
for radical change.
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