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
1, 2005 (946 days since Iraq war ended)
Death Toll: 2,114 US - 98UK - >>6,164?
Iraqi - >>17,300? civilians - 25 media
Terrible
legacy will last years
Analysis
by Geoffrey Lean - Daily Mail, December 12, 2005
The
initial official assurances that the black cloud belching out
of the Buncefield fuel depot (near Hemel Hempstead) is not toxic
should be taken with a large pinch of chemically contaminated
salt. Nobody yet knows exactly what the smoke contains, but it
is clear there is an immediate threat to asthmatics and others
with respiratory problems - and over the long term it poses a
cancer hazard.
The
perils arise because fierce fires are actually burning the fuel
inefficiently, causing dangerous pollutants to go, literally,
up in the smoke. Much of the problem is caused by the dense soot
which makes the cloud black. The soot particles - coated with
toxic materials and chemicals - attack the respiratory system
and hospitals across the South East are racing themselves for
an influx of patients with asthma attacks.
Professor
Warren Lenney of the British Lung Federation - himself a consultant
at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire - says: "You
breathe them in, get irritation and start coughing. The irritation
can cause swelling of the throat and upper airways, and if the
swelling carries on you will have difficulty breathing."
The
longer term cancer threat is, if anything, even more worrying.
It comes from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, such as benzene
and pyrene, also emitted by incomplete combustion. When breathed
in, chemical changes occur in the body, releasing free radicals
that cause cancer. The disease takes a long time to take effect,
so it will be decades before the full toll of yesterday's disaster
is known.
Geoff
Charlton of the consultancy Disaster Advice says of the cloud:
"We know it's toxic. If you went anywhere near it and started
to breathe in, it's probably the same as smoking 400 cigarettes."
The
key factor is the weather. The accident took place on a still,
clear, cold and frosty morning with a temperature inversion. Whereas
the air normally gets colder the higher you go in the atmosphere,
an inversion causes cold air to be trapped near the ground by
a warmer layer above it. This acts like a cap, trapping the cold
air and preventing the pollution it contains rising harmlessly
up in the sky. So it stays near to the ground where people can
breathe it.
The
same effect ensured the sound of the explosion spread outwards
rather than upwards, causing it to be heard widely over South
East England. The lack of wind makes things even worse. Instead
of being blown away, the pollution has been able to slowly diffuse
over a wider and wider area.
The
official Environment Agency expects that, unless conditions change,
it will eventually spread over most of South-East England, and
even across the Channel. Yesterday the Met Office said light rain
this morning could cause another hazard, by turning the cloud
into a black rain that could contaminate farmland and affect people.
Forecaster
Peter Kidds said: "This is going to affect grazing animals
because the grass could be contaminated. It might stop milk from
the South-East of England being usable. It will make people dirty
and those with respiratory problems are likely to suffer.
As
if this was not enough, there is yet another danger - that fire
fighting effects could cause even more pollution. The Environment
Agency fears that using water or foam to try to douse the flames
could flush poisonous chemicals into rivers and streams, and perhaps
even contaminate water supplies.
There
is, however, one saving grace. Britain has 11,000 officially designated
'major hazards' such as the Buncefield depot, where an accident
could seriously endanger people, and environment beyond the plant's
boundaries.
Yet
yesterday's explosion, though massive, is only the fourth really
big one in Britain in more than 30 years. The 1974 Flixborough
disaster was followed by blasts at a refinery at Milford Haven,
South Wales, in 1994 and at a Humberside refinery in 2001. The
Flixborough catastrophe cause a major overhaul of safety regulations
which has helped ensure there have been so few repetitions. Official
government bodies, including the Environment Agency and the Health
and Safety Executive, are already preparing their investigations
into yesterday's blast.
It
is vital that they uncompromisingly work out what went wrong,
and that ministers do no shirk from imposing any necessary tightening
of safety rules and controls to ensure that such explosions -
and the polluting clouds that they can release - remain extremely
rare.
It
is fashionable to decry regulation, and there is indeed no sense
in preserving rules that burden business and ordinary people,
while bringing them no benefit. But, at times like this, we should
also remember that good laws and regulations protect the public
- and that they should be cherished for doing so.
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