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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November
29, 2006 (1294 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2885 US - 126 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
December
10 2006 (1292 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2928 US - 126 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
Pensions
hit by double whammy
War
veteran of 81, Albert Venison, challenged the Chancellor yesterday
over the Government's disgraceful treatment of the elderly. Great-grandfather
Albert read out his letter to Gordon Brown on Radio 4's Today
programme, which invited him to respond. After hearing the pre-Budget
Report, Mr Vension said there was nothing in it to make him think
matters would improve. Here is his letter :
Dear
Chancellor,
My
name is Albert Venison, living in Axminster in Devon and 81 years
old.
On
D-Day, 6th June 1944, I was a 19-year-old artillery officer landing
on Sword Beach. As trite as it may sound today to most politicians,
I and thousands like me were doing our bit for our country.
I
was demobbed in 1948 and returned to a country that was economically
bankrupt. I, and thousands like me, sought to rebuild our lives
and in doing so established what is now boasted as the fourth-strongest
economy in the world. I paid my national insurance, contributed
to a private pension and managed to put away some savings. I wasn't
expecting to live in luxury in my retirement, but at least be
able to enjoy life. I ran my own small business until I retired
at 69 and then invested in an income bond to provide a small monthly
income to go towards holidays.
Your
actions over the past ten years have resulted in my council tax
increasing from £752 a year to £1,574 a year and the
prospect of a further increase of 5% in April 2007. Two years
ago I changed my oil-fired central heating boiler to a gas-fired
one. The cost was £2,000, which had to come out of savings,
never to be replaced. In the last six months my cost of gas has
risen by £7.50 a month. Electricity charges have gone up
by 35%, costing £25 a month. After paying the highest water
charges in the country, my water over the next 5 years is to cost
me another 35%. All charges rise by well over the rate of inflation,
the figure used to increase my pension, that over the past 10
years has gone up by about 37%.
Your
Pension Credit scheme is a complete nonsense. Yes, you have lifted
over 2million pensioners out of poverty, but the scheme discriminates
against 70% of pensioners who fall outside the threshold and do
not qualify. You are causing these people to become poorer and
poorer every year. A second pension and savings should not be
taken into account when judging the level of what is required
to exist on.
Pension
credit and the associated benefits amount to £154 a week.
In reality you yourself are saying that this is the minimum required
for a single pensioner to exist on. This should be the minimum
basic state pension for all, regardless of any other income derived
from other sources because of actions taken by the individual.
I
and many other pensioners regard you as the worst Chancellor we
have had in our lifetime since you destroyed a pension system
which was the envy of many other countries. Your pre-election
promise, and I quote, 'I want the next Labour government to achieve
what in 50 years of the welfare state has never been achieved
- the end of means testing for our elderly people', is an empty
boast.
At
81 I feel that there is no chance of this happening and feel it
is poor reward for the efforts of my fellow pensioners and myself.
Yours
sincerely,
ALBERT
VENISON
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