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

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

June 26, 2005 (788 days since war ended)

Death Toll: 1,737 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300? civilians - 25 media

WWW silentmajorityspeaks.com

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.

STOP PRESS

Pensions chief attacks Brown's £5bn/year raid

By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent - Daily Mail, July 4, 2005

Labour's pensions tsar took a swipe at Gordon Brown yesterday over his tax raid on pension funds. Adair Turner declared that the collapse of lucrative final salary pension schemes had 'definitely accelerated' in the late 1990s. This followed the Chancellor's controversial move in 1997 to stop pension funds reclaiming around £5billion of tax from dividend payments each year.

"I think in retrospect there are a variety of policies that one might not have pursued if one had known the result at the time," declared Mr Turner, who is head of the Government's Pensions Commission.

His comments will do nothing to reduce disquiet over Mr Brown's role in creating the £27 billion-a-year pensions black hole - the gap experts believe has opened between what Britons are saving for retirement and what they need to be saving to ensure a comfortable old age. Around three out of four final salary pension schemes have now closed to new members.

And the National Association of Pension Funds warned last month that every final salary scheme could be wound up within 5 years - hitting nine million workers who thought they had 'guaranteed' pensions. Mr Turner, a former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, also warned that people would have to work longer and the retirement age would 'undoubtedly' have to rise to ensure they had enough money in their old age.

At the same time, he said a long-term solution to the crisis was 'bound' to involve both higher taxes and workers saving more. If action is not taken, he warned, it would be middle-earners who would be hit hardest by poverty in retirement.

Asked how much damage Mr Brown's tax raid had caused, Mr Turner told Sky News: "In terms of the pension system, the amount of pension provision of employers has gone down a lot in the last ten years. If you see the movement away from final salary schemes to defined contribution schemes, actually that began way back in the Seventies. It's a gradual trend. It probably accelerated - well, it definitely accelerated in the late 1990s."

Mr Turner argued that the decline in final salary schemes was also fuelled by the slump in the stock market, which made many companies realise their pension schemes were unaffordable. But his comments reveal his unease about the tax raids which began in 1997.

Turning to the challenge facing Britain, Mr Turner said any reforms must involve three key elements. "Those are that we increase the average age of retirement. That will undoubtedly happen. It's beginning to happen already. Or, we have to have higher taxes to pay for pensions for a larger number of pensioners. Or people have to save more themselves in addition to what the state does for them. Any solution that we propose is bound to be some mix of those three things."

And he warned that the middle classes will be hit hardest if the pensions crisis is not tackled. "Those at the bottom, of course, they will be the poorest, but they will probably be looked after as well as they were before," he said. "It's people in the middle where what can happen in the future is going to be most different from the past."

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