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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May 31, 2005 (761 days since war
ended)
Death Toll: 1,657 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
June 26, 2005 (788 days since war
ended)
Death Toll: 1,737 US - 89 UK -
>6,164? Iraqi - >17,300? civilians - 25 media
July 6, 2005 (798 days since war
ended)
Death Toll: 1,751 US - 90 UK -
>6,164? Iraqi - >17,300? civilians - 25 media
August 24, 2005 (847 days since
war ended)
Death Toll: 1,869 US - 93 UK - >>6,164?
Iraqi - >>17,300? civilians - 25 media
September
29, 2005 (883 days since war ended)
Death Toll: 1,928 US - 96 UK - >>6,164?
Iraqi - >>17,300? civilians - 25 media
October
11, 2005 (895 days since war ended)
Death Toll: 1,956 US - 96UK - >>6,164?
Iraqi - >>17,300? civilians - 25 media
October
20, 2005 (904 days since war ended)
Death Toll: 1,986 US - 97UK - >>6,164?
Iraqi - >>17,300? civilians - 25 media
October
25, 2005 (909 days since war ended)
Death Toll: 2,001 US - 97UK - >>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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December
14, 2005 (959 days since Iraq war ended)
Death Toll: 2,150 US - 98UK - >>30,000?
Iraqi - 25 media
Pensions
- why things can only get worse
Commentary
by Martin Vander Weyer, Business Editor of The Spectator
Daily
Mail, December 21, 2005
Rentokil,
best known for its pest control products, slipped a little rat
poison into the office party punch yesterday. The decision to
close it final salary pension means a poorer or later retirement
for staff who thought their pension rights would accrue on a predictable
basis as long as they worked for the company.
Now,
barring miracles, those rights will be frozen on the day the scheme
is closed and augmented thereafter only on whatever less generous
basis the company feels it can afford. With its pension fund already
in deficit by £349million, Rentokil feels it has to be the
first FTSE 100 company to make this painful choice to avoid even
bigger black holes.
But
its financial straits are neither unusual nor extreme. The vast
majority of final salary schemes have already been closed to new
entrants; behind Rentokil we can expect a stampede of closures
for existing members. The pensions crisis has just got a lot deeper,
and at this stage there is nothing employees can do about it except
contemplate Lord Turner's proposal that we will all have to work
until we are 67 or 68.
Whose
fault is this fundamental downshift in our future expectations?
Experts tell us it is partly the inevitable result of the way
the world has changed, both medically and economically.
First,
we're all going to live longer than previous generations and the
ratio of workers to retired folk is falling, which means supply
and demand for pension money is increasingly out of kilter.
Second,
economic power has shifted to China, India and other places where
labour costs are so low that we no longer have any hope of competing
across a wide range of industries, making it difficult for our
own economy to generate the prosperity that keeps pensioners in
comfort.
But
there are other factors which are still within our own control
or influence, more particularly that of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Those whose expectations of secure retirement have
just evaporated (that is, all of us outside the public sector)
are right to direct much of their anger at Gordon Brown, whose
notorious £5billion-a-year raid on pension funds in 1998
will go down in history as the most devious and damaging of all
his stealth taxes.
His
impositions of a mountain of red tape and additional corporate
tax burdens - such as the 2003 increase in employers' National
Insurance contributions - have taken another slice out of the
profits which are the source of employers' pension fund contributions.
But
these are merely the tip of the iceberg of economic mismanagement.
The most fundamental problem of the British economy is one of
poor productivity, which makes us more vulnerable to the impact
of rising longevity and global competition. Our gross domestic
product per hour worked is the worst of all the G7 industrial
nations except Japan; our GDP per worker trails 24% behind that
of the Us and well behind even the French.
Needless
to say, the least productive part, the increasingly bloated public
sector, has consumed more than 80% of all additional national
income generated over the past five years. Resources have been
poured into public sector wage settlements, consultants' fees,
unwanted regional government initiatives and infrastructure projects,
while fat-cat civil servants continue to look forward to generous
fixed pensions from 60. Arguably, not a penny of this has improved
productivity.
Likewise,
Brown's attempts to make us save for our own retirement have comprehensively
missed their targets. Remember stakeholder pensions, which were
supposed to appeal to 5 million people earning £20,000 a
year or less? The level of take-up has been embarrassingly low
amongst groups it was aimed at, but higher among the canny middle
classes who spotted it as a nifty tax break.
More
recently, the Chancellor's U-turn on the inclusion of residential
property in self-invested pension plans has left thousands in
confusion and disarray. And yet it could all be made so much more
simple.
If
you want people to save more, let them keep more of their earnings.
Tax them less.
If
you want people to invest more in their own skills, offer them
straightforward tax incentives.
And
if you want the whole nation to have a more prosperous future,
Gordon, stop throwing our money at an unproductive, inefficient,
over-cossetted public sector.
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