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.

December 28, 2005 (959 days since Iraq war ended)

Death Toll: 2,172 US - 98UK - >>30,000? Iraqi - 25 media

January 16, 2006 (978 days since Iraq war ended)

Death Toll: 2,219 US - 98UK - >>30,000? Iraqi - 25 media

March 18, 2006 (1043 days since war ended)

Death Toll: 2317US - 103UK - >>6,164? Iraqi - >>17,300? 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

STOP PRESS

A missing pensions inquiry

Alex Brummer - City Editor - Daily Mail, March 23, 2006

The most notable absence from Gordon Brown's lengthy budget presentation was pension reforms. Aside from one cursory reference to a future White Paper, he deemed it unnecessary to mention one of the most critical issues facing this and future governments.

There are two reasons for Brown's silence. The first is that any mention of pensions, as Opposition leader David Cameron observed, might remind the public of the measure in his first budget which he never talks about. This was the decision to remove £5billion of tax credits (annually) from private pension schemes. His move was based on the belief that retirement schemes were sitting on huge surpluses and if they weren't they soon would be as the stock market went onwards and upwards. This, we now know, was a mistake of calamitous proportions and one with which no future Prime Minister would want to be associated.

The second reason is that Brown does not much like the larger part of the report by Lord (Adair) Turner. It proposes a shake up of state pensions provision - with the gradual elimination of means tested pensions credit, except for the very poorest of the poor. As the budget report makes clear, Brown believes that any reform of state pensions must be fair and must be affordable.

With the public finances already under pressure, he is not ready as the budget describes it to put the public finances at risk. A huge rift is plainly opening in government between Brown and those who want to implement Turner wholesale, a group which includes Pensions Secretary John Hutton and the Prime Minister. Hutton had better be careful. As the storm clouds gather over Number 10 and power seeps away from Tony Blair, it becomes inevitable that Brown will prevail.

The question then is whether the Chancellor will fully support a National Pensions Savings Scheme of the kind Turner proposed. Brown has supported pensions tax simplification and he was also the creator of the stakeh0lder scheme. So he may like the Association of British Insurers, believe that underpinning stakeholder is the way forward.

One of the problems with Turner is that the report has to be taken as a whole and the NPSS has been carefully constructed to fit in with changes in the state system. Far from clarifying issues, the budget makes it less likely that we will see radical pensions reform soon, whether Tony Blair wants it or not.

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