Silent Majority Speaks

Rescuing Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected Dictatorship

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

WWW silentmajorityspeaks.com

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.

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

October 9, 2006 (1262 days since war ended)

Death Toll: 2744 US - 119 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media

October 28, 2006 (1279 days since war ended)

Death Toll: 2811 US - 120 UK - >650,000? civilians - 25 media

STOP PRESS

Bungle puts billions more into quangos

By Sam Fleming - City and Finance - Daily Mail, November 2, 2006

The government is spending tens of billions of pounds more on unelected quangos than it previously admitted. A huge accounting bungle resulted in spending between 2002 and 2004 being understated by an extraordinary £67billion.

That means the government splashed out over £475billion on quangos in the past four years alone, adding up to nearly £20,000 for every household.

The disclosure will fuel the growing alarm about the amount of taxpayer money vanishing into unelected, unaccountable bodies. Standing for QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations, groups such as the Gambling Commission and the Home-Grown Cereals Body are consuming vast amounts of cash.

Payrolls have been growing steadily despite labour claims that it will consign quangos into the 'dustbin of history'.

The accounting fiasco emereged from a Conservative Party investigation into the Public Bodies Directory, published by the Cabinet Office. Researchers discovered that civil servants had logged incorrect figures for NHS Trust spending in the report. No formal annoucement was made even after the error was discovered. Instead, bureaucrats quietly updated the numbers on the Cabinet Office web site.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: "Gordon Brown is losing control of public spending. Our figures show that in the last four years he's spent £67billion more than he's admitted on government quangos - and because they are quangos it makes it much more difficult for the public to hold him to account for how this money has been spent. It's time we had less spin and more truth from our Chancellor of the Exchequer."

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: "As soon as this error, which has cost no public money, was recognised it was corrected on the public records."

The scale of the error raises further serious questions about the quality of the government's financial management, amid a series of mishaps. Over the past two months, official statisticians have had to correct three major data releases because they contained significant errors.

B A C K

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