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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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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January
21, 2007 (1332 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3046 US - 130 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
January
26, 2007 (1337 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3067 US - 130 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media
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It
was wrong to close grammar schools, admits Blair's education guru,
Adonis
By
Tim Shipman, Political Correspondent - Daily Mail, January 25,
2007
One
of Tony Blair's closest allies yesterday admitted Labour's obsession
with the comprehensive system had 'destroyed' many good schools.
Education Minister Lord Adonis conceded the closure of grammar
schools in the 1960s and 1970s was a backward step that 'reinforced
class divisions' rather than helping those less well off.
The
comments are a stunning repudiation of the 'one size fits all'
education policies which Labour clung to for decades and many
MPs still support. His words effectively admit that Labour has
failed an entire generation of schoolchildren.
Critics
last night said Lord Adonis should go further and call a halt
to the destruction of grammar schools. Labour has recently ordered
the closure of selective schools in Northern Ireland.
In
an interview
with the Right-of-Centre Spectator magazine, Lord Adonis denounced
the 'comprehensive school revolution, which destroyed many excellent
schools without improving the rest.' He said he deplored the end
of grammar schools, a move 'carried out in the name of equality
but which served to reinforce class divisions.'
In
withering comments about the Left-wing education policies that
many in Labour still cling to, Lord Adonis said: "If I could
redo the 1960s and 1970s education policy, I'd do it very differently."
And
in a move guaranteed to enrage Gordon Brown, he admitted the Tories
are on the way to winning back power, praising the education policies
of David Cameron and his frontbench spokesman, David Willets.
Lord
Adonis's intervention was seen as a last-ditch bid by arch-Blairites
to shape the future of Labour policy once Mr Blair stands down
in the summer. The Minister has repeatedly attracted controversy.
Previously, Tony Blair's education adviser in Downing street,
he was handed a peerage so he could act as an education minister
in the Lords. He attracted criticism when it emerged that he considered
sending his children to a private German-speaking school, which
charges fees of £3,000 a year.
He
was also the architect of Mr Blair;s City Academies scheme in
which businesses invest £2million in failing schools. But
the schools in question still languish near the bottom of exam
league tables, prompting criticism that Labour has removed the
right of heads to select pupils on the basis of ability.
Jenny
Jones, secretary of the National Grammar Schools Association,
said: "It is encouraging to hear a Minister acknowledge the
mistakes made by Labour in the 1960s and `1970s, but those mistakes
continue. Having acknowledged that it was a negative step to close
grammar schools, the Government should put their money where their
mouth is, back selective education and stop closing those grammar
schools that do remain. Exam results show time and time again
that grammar schools are the leading state schools in the land."
Tory
MP Rob Wilson, who sits on the Commons education committee, added:
"This is a stark admission by Lord Adonis that the Labour
Party has failed a whole generation of schoolchildren. What Lord
Adonis is trying to do is reintroduce selection by the back door
but Labour have to maintain the pretence that they are propping
up the comprehensive system. Labour's latest education reforms
do not do as much as grammar schools to provide disadvantaged
children with a ladder out of poverty."
Lord
Adonis made clear in his interview that Labour would not 'turn
back the clock' to reopen grammar schools. But his intervention
will be regarded as decidedly unhelpful by Education Secretary
Alan Johnson, who has battled to win the support of Labour MPs
for new Trust Schools, Specialist Schools and City Academies,
which can select 10% of their pupils.
Lord
Adonis also said the Prime Minister should have gone further in
shaking up the failing comprehensive system. "My critique
of the Blair years will be that we had all of the right ideas
but we could have been constantly bolder with the pace of implementation."
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