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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May
23, 2007 (1453 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3432 US - 149 UK - >1,000,000? civilians - 25 media
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site has had 
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Tax
credits fiasco
Brown
may have to write off £5bn paid in error
Tax
credits were his flagship scheme
By
Ian Drury - Political Reporter - Daily Mail, May 22, 2007
Gordon
Brown is set to write off £5billion wrongly paid out in
the tax credits fiasco, it was claimed last night. The staggering
sum was said to have piled up over just four years - wither overpaid
to millions of hard-pressed families or simply stolen by fraudsters.
Now
the Treasury is expected to waive it all.
The
amount was calculated by the Liberal Democrats from official figures.
They accused Ministers of covering-up the real scale of the fiasco
that overtook Chancellor Gordon Brown's flagship scheme.
Sources
at the national Audit Office, Britain's official spending watchdog,
are said to consider the LibDem calculations to be 'sensible and
reasonable'. The figures emerged as it was revealed that the Treasury
took 38,000 families to court in a bid to claw back overpayments.
Damning
Government figures, to be published today, are expected to show
that some two million of the country's worst-off families were
plunged into hardship after bureaucrats mistakenly paid out nearly
£6billion in tax credits between 2003 and 2006 - then demanded
the cash back.
The
report will confirm that fraud and error cost at least another
£1.3billion in 2003-04, the first year of the tax credit
scheme. Ministers are expected to admit that about £2billion
- enough to pay for 80,000 nurses - will never be recovered.
But
the LibDems claim the write-off will eventually be significantly
higher than that. Using official Treasury figures, they said HM
Revenue and Customs overpaid £5.8billion in child and working
tax credits. Another £3.6billion was paid out through fraud
or error - making a total of £9.4billion lost.
Revenue
estimates of how much money would be lost in the first year of
the scheme were so inaccurate that a total of £4.7billion
would now never be recovered, said the LibDems. Last year the
National Audit Office refused to sign off the Revenue's accounts
because the errors were so huge.
David
Laws, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, said last
night: "This is shameful. The tax credits system has turned
out to be an administrative shambles. There have been few government
programmes of this scale which have led to more personal distress
or more wasted taxpayers money."
Tax
credits were launched in 2003 in an attempt to encourage people
to work. The cash is paid directly to families and those with
jobs and can top up their earnings by as much as £5,500
a year. Claimants must predict their income on the basis of last
year's wages, but payments are clawed back if they start to earn
more.
Now
it has been revealed that 38,000 families have been threatened
with prosecution as the Treasury tries to recover as much of the
overpayment as it can. Most have been told to repay about £1,000,
but some have faced sudden demands for several thousand pounds.
The average demand has been for £2,260.
Many
tax credit recipients have been taken to court or been made subject
to court orders which allowed bailiffs to visit their homes and
confiscate televisions, stereos and other goods in lieu of payment.
Earlier
this month MPs on the Public Accounts Committee blasted ministers
for failing to tackle the 'unacceptable flood' of tax credits
overpaid or lost through mistakes and fraud. Shadow Chancellor
George Osborne said:"The raw truth is that his chaotic administration
of the tax credit system has drained billions from the public
purse."
A
Revenue spokesman said last night: "We don't recognise the
various figures being put around today. They are speculative and
nothing more than scaremongering."
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