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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March
5, 2007 (1375 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3173 US - 133 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
This
site has had 
visitors
Cameron
vows to back marriage with tax breaks
Family
breakdown is the chief cause of society's ills, says the Tory
leader
By
James Chapman - Deputy Political Editor - Daily Mail, March 5,
2007
David
Cameron launched an impassioned defence of marriage last night,
saying that family breakdown is the chief cause of society's ills.
The Tory leader vowed to support marriage with tax breaks if he
wins the next election and said children from single-parent families
did worse at school and were involved with more crime.
"We
support marriage and will back it through the tax system,"
he insisted. "Some people say it's wrong to single out marriage
in this way. I don't care."
In
a keynote speech to the Tories' spring conference in Wales, Mr
Cameron insisted he was not arguing that single parents 'do a
bad job'. "They do the hardest job in the world." He
added. "It's simply saying that kids do best when mum and
dad are both there for them. And we shouldn't ignore one compelling
fact: nearly one in two cohabiting parents split up before their
child's fifth birthday, compared to one in 12 married parents."
The
family champion
Comment
- Daily Mail, March 5, 2007
It
isn't enough for politicians to think the right thing.
They have to say it too. Yesterday, David Cameron did.
He spoke up for the family and its importance to the country.
The
Tory leader made it clear he was not attacking single
parents, many of whom do a great job. But, he said, 'kids
do best when mum and dad are both there for them'. So
they do, as every statistic shows.
Mr
Cameron was brave enough to use the kind of direct language
that has for too long been taboo for politicians when
he stated that '70% of young offenders come from lone-parent
families'.
And
he promised that there would be tax breaks to encourage
parents to stay together, though he made it clear that
alone is not enough.
At
last Tories are recognising a new attitude to marriage
is needed - not from the millions of couples who know
it's fundamental importance, but from the politicians
who have denied it for too long.
The
speech Mr Cameron made yesterday may well turn out to
be one of the most important by any politician for years.
He not only identified the big problem but showed he is
committed to tackling it.
Now
Labour must say what it will do.
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One
likely Tory move to support marriage is a transferable tax allowance
which a parent who decides to stay at home could pass on to their
spouse. Mr Cameron said family breakdown was 'the central factor
in the social breakdown we see in our country today.'
"Take
crime," he said. " Seventy percent of young offenders
come from lone parent families. Take school. Children who have
suffered family breakdown are 75% more likely to suffer educational
failure."
The
Tory leader said a recent spate of shootings of children by children
- and a UN report warning Britain is the worst place to grow up
in the developing world - should mark a 'turning point'.
His
proposals to reinstate tax breaks for married couples - axed by
Labour in 1998 - have been condemned by ministers. Tony Blair
insisted yesterday: "It's hard to see why you would want
to support a married couple without children rather than a lone
parent whose husband may have left her through no fault of her
own and who is trying to bring up two children."
Family
campaigners have warned of the 'death of marriage' and latest
figures put official unions at their lowest level since records
began. Labour's refusal to countenance tax breaks for married
couples opens up clear battle lines for the next general election.
Mr Cameron said the Tories would speak up for people who are sick
of living in a country that is 'economically rich but socially
poor'.
He
claimed Britain was heading for 'social breakdown', comparing
it with the economic collapse it faced before Margaret Thatcher
came into office. Mr Cameron argued that fathers who run away
from their family responsibilities should be made to feel 'the
full force of shame'.
Britain
needed a 'culture change in favour of families' that could not
be fostered by the Government alone, he said. Businesses would
have to do more to help parents balance their work and family
life.
"In
particular we need to crate the right social pressures, applying
the full force of shame to fathers who run away." He said.
"The point I'm making is a common-sense one, which is that
children to better on the whole when mum and dad are there to
bring them up. It's not an issue about morality or religion. It's
just based on the evidence."
Mr
Cameron told his party it had won the argument about how to run
the economy and it should now move on to the 'next great battle
instead of yesterday's war'.
"Tony
Blair and Gordon Brown, who opposed everything Margaret Thatcher
did in the 1980's, now admit they were wrong," he said. Mr
Cameron delighted the party faithful by paying tribute to Lady
Thatcher, contrasting her courage and determination with Mr Blair's
attempts to secure a political legacy.
"Do
you think for one moment that she spent her time in office fretting
about her legacy?" he asked. "Do you know something?
She achieved more for this country in ten weeks than Tony Blair
has achieved in ten years."
Stephen
Timms, Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, insisted the
Conservative leadership was sending out mixed messages. He said
the party had 'no idea' now its pledge for tax breaks for married
couples would be financed.
Maurice
Fitzpatrick, of accountants Grant Thompson, said a transferable
tax allowance - current set at £5,035 - would cost around
£1.5billion a year.
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