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
August
1, 2006 (1193 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2579 US - 115 UK - >60,000? civilians - 25 media
Labour
'worse than Maxwell' on pensions
By
Jane Merrick - Political Correspondent - Daily Mail, August 4,
2006
Ministers
presided over a pensions scandal 'more momentous' than Robert
Maxwell's plundering of millions of pounds from retirement funds,
a senior Labour MP said yesterday. Tony Wright launched a scathing
attack on the Government's failure to warn the public about chronic
risks to their pensions.
Worse
than Maxwell
Comment
- Daily Mail, August 4, 2006
This
Government is presiding over a pensions scandal 'more
momentous' than the fraud perpetrated by the Crooked Robert
Maxwell ....
That
devastating verdict doesn't come from the Mail (though
once again we agree) but from a senior Labour MP. Yet
savage though the indictment is from Tony Wright, of the
commons Public Administration Committee, isn't it richly
deserved.
There
is no excuse for the way 120,000 victims were misled into
believing their pensions were safe by Ministers who knew
it wasn't true. It is even less excusable to ignore Parliamentary
Ombudsman Ann Abraham and refuse compensation.
Where
to begin, in this catalogue of bad faith? The
Treasury tax raid on pensions funds has blighted the retirement
hopes of millions. Gross maladministration
now makes a bad situation worse. This scandal grew out
of the way New Labour weakened safeguards for workers
paying into company pensions funds. Ministers were repeatedly
warned of the risks but - as usual - ignored expert advice.
Instead,
they insisted there was no problem. But when hundreds
of firms went bust after the shares slump of 2000, staff
faced huge pension losses.
The
Ombudsman says the Government is to blame. Pensions experts
agree and now so does the PAC. But the politicians (who
incidentally enjoy gold-plated pensions funded by the
rest of us) won't accept any responsibility.
Maxell
would be proud of them.
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He
also criticised ministers for refusing to compensate 120,000 workers
who lost an average of £7,000 a year from the collapse of
their final salary schemes in the crisis. Mr Wright, chairman
of the Commons Public Administration Select Committee, also warned
of 'constitutional' issues raised by the Government's rejection
of a watchdog's damning findings into the scandal.
Parliamentary
Ombudsman Ann Abraham found the Treasury and Department for Work
and Pensions guilty of maladministration earlier this year over
their failure to warn victims. Following a 17 month investigation,
he report said official information on the security of final salary
schemes during Labour's time in office had been 'inaccurate, incomplete,
unclear and inconsistent'.
But
the Government rejected the findings - in a move campaigners said
reached new heights in Labour's contempt of the parliamentary
process. Mr Wright, MP for Cannock Chase, said yesterday: "There
is a good argument for saying this is actually more momentous
than Maxwell really in terms of its implications.'
The
body of Maxwell, owner of Mirror Group Newspapers, was found off
Gran Canaria in November 1991 after he vanished from his yacht.
Within weeks, his looting of £400million from the Mirror
Group Pension fund was discovered. It was one of the worst financial
scandals in recent history, hitting thousands of employees.
Mr
Wright told Radio 4's Today programme: "We are in new territory
now which is unsettling. I think this raises constitutional questions
because the whole point about the ombudsman is that this is an
independent investigator set up by Parliament to look at public
bodies, Government departments. So she has a right to expect her
findings of maladministration to be respected."
Mr
Wright's committee claimed this week that some victims had been
abandoned and found Government action 'at best naive and at worst
misleading.' The Government has extended a pension fund assistance
scheme, but not all victims will benefit. The scheme has paid
out only £718,000 to 200 workers.
Pensions
Reform Ministers James Purnell, a Blairite, outraged campaigners
by insisting action had been taken. He denied there was an endless
pot of money. Shrugging off responsibility, Mr Purnell said: "These
are schemes where the company has gone bust. These were not Government
schemes. If we had underwritten them, the situation would be very
different."
But
former welfare minister Frank Field yesterday claimed the Government
could still use unclaimed assets of banks and building societies
- not taxpayers money - to help victims. He said: "We have
got a collapse in confidence about pensions and about savings,
and currently they are half what the savings were when we came
to power. What's more important, is not saving our face, but saving
these people who have lost these pensions."
More
than a million workers have seen their company pensions schemes
closed and replaced with less lucrative ones since Labour came
to power.
More
than 120,000 workers have lost their retirement funds after being
told by the Government their pensions were safe. Despite paying
into company pension schemes for up to 40 years, their savings
vanished when the 400 firms they worked for went bust.
Campaigners
say ministers are responsible because they did not warn the public
to save more in case companies failed. Official leaflets reassured
employees that their final salary pension schemes were reliable
- without mentioning they were tied to the financial security
of their firms.
And
pensions ministers reassured the public that schemes offered 'ironclad
guarantees'. In 1997, pension scheme members were told funds were
safe under the 1995 Pensions Act. The Financial Services Authority
issued a leaflet to the public in 1999, but failed to mention
the dangers of pension scheme wind-ups.
Ministers
were warned six years ago that the public were under the wrong
impression that their pensions would be safe - but the Government
continued to ignore the warnings. It was only in May 2004 that
the Government finally offered limited compensation to those who
had lost their money.
In
November 2004, Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham started a probe
after receiving more than 200 complaints from MPs over collapsed
schemes. But ministers have refused to accept responsibility for
their part in the fiasco.
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