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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September
27, 2006 (1250 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2708 US - 118 UK - >300,000? civilians - 25 media
October
4, 2006 (1257 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 2736 US - 119 UK - >300,000? civilians - 25 media
How
Labour's schools policy has betrayed a generation, by Blair's
teacher
By
Laura Clark - Education Reporter - Daily Mail, October 4, 2006
Tony
Blair's favourite teacher attacked Labour's education record yesterday,
declaring that it had failed a generation.
Sir
Eric Anderson, the prime Minister's former English teacher, said
the talents of millions had been sacrificed to old party dogma
which outlaws selection by ability in state schools. Labour's
comprehensive school revolution had left a devastating legacy
of 'watered down intellectual education' and 'permissive'
teaching theories which allowed pupils to ignore grammar and
spelling.
Large
swathes of the population struggled to read and write thanks to
failed experiments with trendy teaching which valued 'creativity'
over the 3 R's. The 70-year-old taught the Premier at Fettes College
in Edinburgh in the Sixties, and was the Prime Minister's housemaster
at the school.
Three
decades later, in a cinema advert produced by the Teacher 'Training
Agency, Mr Blair said Sir Eric was the teacher who inspired him
most.
Sir
Eric said the current Government had not done enough to reverse
the damage inflicted on the school system by the switch to all-ability
teaching from the mid-1960's. Instead
it had clung to the 'ideological' rock of no selection', plaguing
teachers with bureaucracy and presiding over an explosion in lightweight
degree courses.
Sir
Eric, chairman of governors at Eton College, urged a return to
selection in schools to prevent Britain falling further behind
our economic rivals. He warned that the brightest pupils will
continue to be held back in comprehensives while the less able
are condemned to an 'educational underclass' unless ministers
act.
Sir
Eric, who was headmaster of Eton when Tory leader David Cameron
was a pupil, delivered his verdict on the state of education in
a speech to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, representing
250 public schools. Speaking yesterday at the HMC's annual conference
in Manchester, Sir Eric said the comprehensive revolution had
failed in its key stated aims of improving the prospects of poor
children and creating a 'grammar school education for all'.
Sir
Eric, who also taught Prince Charles at Gordonstoun, declared:
"It was quickly evident that in
many places, especially the inner cities, a secondary modern education
for all was nearer the mark. It looks as if we replaced an education
system which selected from ability with one that selects by social
neighbourhood or by wealth. The trouble with that old model of
unselective neighbourhood schools is that they reflect their neighbourhood
- fine if it is a leafy suburb, not so good for a bright youngster
on a blighted tower-block estate."
He
added: "A wrong turning was taken
40 years ago. The time has come to have this debate again. I do
not believe we can cocoon ourselves from the rest of the world,
or afford the luxury of an unselective system which allows other
countries to press ahead of us while we stagnate."
He
called on ministers to imitate successful features of independent
schools such as giving teachers greater freedom to do their day-to-day
jobs. He said that by one estimate secondary schools had received
547 pieces of guidance from ministers since 1997. A primary head
told him that 19 Government initiatives had landed on his desk
in a term.
He
also hit out at 'university degrees in almost anything for almost
everybody'. He said: "British universities now have 735 courses
in TV studies, 314 in leisure studies, 206 in computer games and
31 in social exclusion.' He declared that Mr Blair's flagship
education reforms designed to give state schools more freedom
would only produce 'marginal benefits.
"The
one thing the Bill specifically outlaws - the selection of pupils
- is the one thing which could bring about real change for the
better,' he said.
Sir
Eric, whose official title at Eton in Provost, called for 'specialist
schools', each with its own mission. Some would specialise in
education the most academically able. Others might develop expertise
in teaching music or sport.
He
insisted he was not advocating a return to the 11-plus but a more
sensitive system taking into account pupils' performance over
several years and teacher recommendations. "Nothing major
can be done unless the government is prepared to consider selection
and schools of choice," he added.
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