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Wednesday 30 March 2011

self entitled careerist labour MP, Unelected government minister and the BNP all oppose democracy.

As the Yes and No Campaigns about the referendum on AV hot up the no campaign have been more than a little dishonest. As an example Baroness Warsi has claimed that BNP would be boosted by AV. This is completely untrue as it may increase their votes slightly but popular parties would have an even greater increase and as you need a real majority to get elected it would mean significant losses in the European elections (a spring board for all extremist parties) for the BNP and other extremists. The BNP’s official position on AV is “The AV system is obviously a sleight of hand which is directed against the BNP and is not aimed at improving democracy in Britain. Rather, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg’s sudden conversion to AV are an indication that they have now fully comprehended the meaning of the BNP’s surge in vote totals in last week’s election — and are desperate to undermine democracy even “The AV system is obviously a sleight of hand which is directed against the BNP and is not aimed at improving democracy in Britain. Rather, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg’s sudden conversion to AV are an indication that they have now fully comprehended the meaning of the BNP’s surge in vote totals in last week’s election — and are desperate to undermine democracy even further.” IT is the last paragraph in the article.
When a self entitled careerist labour MP, authoritarian racists like the BNP and unelected Cabinet minister’s team up to say no to AV then you can be sure that AV is something that improves democracy making it harder for the extreme the corrupt and the undemocratic to gain power.
I am linking to a significant no to AV site. They have promised to provide a reason for no every week. As they do not allow comments, which is no surprise for an anti democracy site, I will be providing a response every week to them. There first that i am aware of was repeating Baroness Warsi’s fear mongering and outright lie that AV would benefit the BNP which has been answered in this post by pointing out the BNP oppose AV as it doesn’t benefit them.

Rattled David Cameron loses the plot has mini temper tantrum at Ed balls.

David Cameron dubbed shadow chancellor Ed Balls "the most annoying person in modern politics" during angry Commons exchanges. "I wish the shadow chancellor would occasionally shut up and listen to the answer," said Mr Cameron. This is rather immature of the PM and is a classic example of not having answers to his questions. Rather than say "I wish the shadow chancellor would occasionally shut up and listen to the answer," answer him again if it is a good answer he will look bad. But by acting the way he did he ends up looking bad because it looks like he is avoiding the question. This is not way a Prime minister or national leader and certainly not a British one should behave. Ultimately he looked out of his depth and rattled, No Wonder Ed Balls was grinning at David Cameron’s reply.

Arts cuts not at all chilling.

The Independent has a slightly dishonest headline “Funding cuts 'chilling' says arts chief” When it’s actually the Shadow Culture Secretary who said it. It’s a massive leap to call them a chief. Also whilst it is disappointing they have arts cuts it is by no means essential spending. The only things we should be spending much money on are education, the courts and police, healthcare, job creation and lastly defence. Everything else is frivolous and should be subject to big big cuts until the economy is back on its feet and tax revenues increase. Whilst people are losing their jobs and are going into debt spending much if any money on the arts is a slap in the face to those who are suffering due to the economic climate.

How can Bush be a great leader when he didn’t lead anyone at the end?

The Telegraph has an amusingly childish piece trying to claim that George Bush was a more effective world leader than Barrack Obama. It would seem the author of this story has not got the first clue about good leadership. He claims that George Bush’s gung ho policy is far more effective than Obama’s one of listening to others. First an effective leader cannot lead without listening to those they lead he doesn’t always do what they want but he should always listen or he will lose his leadership position. By ignoring the majority of world opinion George Bush immediately stopped being a leader and become a loner with few friends. Like an ineffective school bully most ignored him and only a few weaklings and sycophants like Tony Blair followed him.
Take football as an example of leadership. There is a saying that a manager has lost the dressing room it basically means the managers has ignored his players opinions for so long that they no longer want to play for him. The manager is no longer a leader and either has to take great steps to be respected again or loss his job. Bush was not a great leader because he wasn’t a leader at all by the end of his presidency. After 9/11 he threw away the greatest amount of worldwide good feeling and sympathy towards America that there has ever been that is failed leadership right there.

Monday 28 March 2011

Failure of the anarchists

In what is becoming a more and more common theme violent anarchists hijack a peaceful protest to go on pointless rampage. Nothing says failed philosophy like using violence because you are unable to convince people you are right. Anarchism seems to attract bitter and self entitled individuals who have a might makes right philosophy not dissimilar from Ayn Rand’s one of irrational, selfish, self entitled behaviour.

Real protester organisers need to be on the lookout for these people in the future they must confront them, remove there masks and inform the police of their presence. Whilst no one except the Tory jester Boris Johnson believes that these anarchist where anything to do with the TUC’s protests protest organisers need to out the trouble makers for their own protest to be taken seriously.

Sunday 27 March 2011

Petrol stations pocketing the 1p fuel duty cut

Petrol stations are not passing on the chancellors insultingly small cut to fuel duty. The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) says many garages will delay implementing the cut until stocks of existing, more expensive fuel are gone. This is complete rubbish the duty is paid by the customer not the petrol station. They buy the fuel at a cost and then add VAT and fuel duty on afterwards for the customer to pay they don’t pay it themselves and any rise or fall in fuel duty makes no difference to what they pay. It is time to accept that deregulation or self regulation of industry does not work and cannot work. No business is going to put the customer above squeezing every last penny it can out of its customers and they will continue to do so until an independent regulator is created.

A Glimmer of hope

The BBC reports a glimmer of good news for the future of humanity. According to a report religion may well become extinct in 9 countries surveyed for too long belief in the supernatural has damaged humanity and caused untold suffering in the name of fictional gods. It provides evil people a tool to control others and make them believe in evil things.
It is time to oppose those who believe they have the right and responsibility to control others because their imaginary friend said this is the way they wanted them to behave. I will leave you with this excellent video of Veena Malik shaming a Muslim cleric.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

The path of protest

The guardian has published and extremely interesting timeline of protests and revolution that have been happening throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Whilst it is interesting not sure why they have included UAE, Kuwait and Israel in there unless they think that they will be next to experience protests and revolution.

Friday 18 March 2011

Kaddafi forces declare immediate cease fire then immediately break it

Libya's government has declared an immediate ceasefire after a UN Security Council resolution backed "all necessary measures" short of occupation to protect civilians in the country.
However reports from Aljazeera indicate that Kaddafi’s forces are still active against the Libyan rebels.

Tory MP Greg Hands wants to waste government time and money

Tory MP Greg Hands seems to believe that there is nothing important going on in the UK or world. He has asked ministers to take the completely unnecessary step of declaring Foxes vermin.
Mr Hands said "Last summer a number of my constituents were attacked in their own homes by urban foxes," “Could you liaise with the Communities Secretary (Eric Pickles) to see if we could change the law so that urban foxes could be treated as vermin in the same way as rats and mice are?" This is a complete waste of time it is lawful for people to kill foxes by shooting, snaring or trapping them in a baited cage - although poisoning is not allowed. Declaring Foxes vermin would make no difference to this whatsoever and would just waste government time and money.

UN resolution imposes no fly zone in Libya and goes further

The UN has finally voted for a no fly zone over Libya in fact it is more than a no fly zone the UN resolution authorises "all measures necessary" short of sending in ground troops. This means that not only will Khadafy not be able to use his airforce against the rebels but that the UN forces can attack Khadafy’s ground assets this makes the situation much more even removing Khadafy’s main advantages his airpower and armoured forces. If the rebels guingly have popular support against Khadafy then
Resolution 1973 imposes a "ban on all flights in Libyan airspace" except for aid planes. It also authorises member states to "take all necessary measures" to "protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack". Excludes occupation force and toughens the arms embargo by calling on all member states to "inspect, in their territory, vessels and aircraft bound to or from Libya". It also widens asset freeze to include Libyan Investment Authority, Central Bank of Libya and Libyan National Oil Company among others.

Thursday 17 March 2011

Labour MP opposes Democracy wants to keep small parties small.

Labour MP and Shadow Cabinet member Caroline Flint has decided to oppose her newly elected leader Ed Milliband and launch an unofficial labour no campaign to AV. Most telling is her comments at 0:55 in this video from the BBC “It’s about not allowing fringe parties to have more a say in our elections and i think that is very important” That is disturbing and Sounds like someone does not want small minority parties to ever have the chance of growing without one of the big two collapsing. We nearly have effectively a two party system like in the USA and ultimately that results in a complete lack of ideas resulting in malaise and apathy. Then you end up with the situation where personality counts more than policy. We are not far off from presidential style elections where it is all about making the other person look bad.
Caroline Flint has a history of opposing democratic and open governance. After the expenses scandal she was one off 98 MPS who voted in favour of legislation that would have kept MP’s expenses secret truly disgraceful. Caroline Flint would appear to a classic example of the self entitled careerist who we need to remove from parliament
The AV system is far from perfect but is a damn site better than the current situation.
According to a YouGov poll yes to AV is slightly ahead of no by 37% to 32%. 24% are unsure how they will and 7% saying they will not vote in the referendum. Expect these figures to change as we get closer and more people learn what AV is and change their mind or make their minds up. If you are unsure what AV is and what you will be voting for here is a guide.

Monday 14 March 2011

Clegg pledges to defend NHS

Deputy prime minister spoke at the lib dem party conference Saturday vowing to protect the NHS from privatisation.
This is a pledge that Nick Clegg must keep to we do not want an American style system where health care is provided to only those who have money and at a far greater cost than what we currently pay.

Friday 11 March 2011

Compelling footage of the Libyan revolution

Amazing footage of Libyans fighting for their own freedom and survival. The footage comes from sky news with a warning that the report you are about to see by Alex Crawford, camerman Martin Smith and deputy foreign editor Tim Miller shows graphic images of warfare as the battle unfolded. This is the bleeding edge of revolution as the rebel Libyan forces successfully repel an attack by Gaddafi loyalists against the town of Zawiyah. The pictures really do speak for themselves on this report and this probably some of the most compelling footage taken of the Libyan revolution.

we need to end super injunctions

The telegraph reports that John Hemming, a back-bench Liberal Democrat MP has revelead that Fred Goodwin the disgraced former boss of RBS has obtained an in juction. John Hemming said: "In a secret hearing Fred Goodwin has obtained a super-injunction preventing him being identified as a banker.

"Will the government have a debate or a statement on freedom of speech and whether there's one rule for the rich like Fred Goodwin and one rule for the poor?"

As a result of this west of westminster has started a pettition to David Cameron to us his full poweres to stop this injunction and remove hir rewards for failure. The text fo the pettion is below click it to go to the petition.

We the undersigned ask the government to strip Fred Goodwin of his Knighthood as he has damaged RBS and the economic welfare of this nation. Remove this gross injunction against telling the truth and if it is within government power remove his £200000 a year pension there should be no reward for failure especially the degree to which he failed creating hardship and suffering for many in this nation. This is important for the financial welfare of this country there should be rewards for success not failure. Fred Goodwin failed yet he still keeps his reward of a knighthood and 6 figure pension. This sets a terrible precedent and encourages incompetent behaviour from executives.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Alternative vote referendum


In two months time there will be a referendum on new voting systems. You can find out what is being voted for here and how the parties stand here.

Which way are you going to vote? I’m in favour as a step towards stronger democracy. Altough we need a non of the above option as well.

Light grilling on the One Show

Former Blue peter presenter and current One Show Co-Host Matt Baker really shocks the prime minister with his question "How do you sleep at night" take a look at the video below everyone is a little shocked. While it’s always nice to see TV personalities being tough with politicians it’s a shame he couldn't be a bit more focused with his question. The PM does deal with it quite well after the initial surprise i guess he was expecting only soft questions. It’s also a shame that he couldn't defend his policies better and instead takes the question literally. Still a bit of political amusement to brighten the day.

Attempts to privatise health care

Politics.co.uk reports on a worrying piece of legislation that would promote competition to the NHS and could end up privatizing health care in this country. This would further increase the level of middle managers who cost a lot but add no value to the patient. Quite possibly the best quote about this is from Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of council at the BMA "The role of the regulator should not be to enforce potentially damaging competition but to ensure comprehensive, high quality care and to protect patients” Regulators should not be there to promote one group over another they are there to ensure high standards nothing else. If a group needs to be promoted (i.e. private health companies) over another so that they are competing on an equal footing then there is something drastically wrong with that group.

Private health care is already competing and losing against the NHS it costs more and delivers the same because private companies have an greater obligation to shareholders than to customers (the patients) this legislation is just there to help prop up a business sector that is profitable enough anyway and worringly is a from of social engineering to make it easier bring in healthcare privatisation so we have a second rate system similar to the American model of health “care”.

Yellow journalism

Former Daily star reporter accuses the paper of yellow journalism. I am completely surprised that a low grade tabloid would resort to misinformation and demonization of a minority to increase sales. It really is time for some sort of honesty law to compel newspapers to tell the truth and present evidence for their stories or they have a good sized banner declering that they are infact writting fiction. No good comes from yellow journalism and all our papers practice it at some point to improve sales and revenue.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Big brother watch or Big Baby?

I recently came across a site that at first glance seemed very positive Big Brother Watch a site dedicated to fighting big brother the nanny state in general a fine principle. However they do seem to have that childish even hypocritical blind spot I often see in American politics in that they are unable to recognise the difference between public and private.
If you believe that CCTV in public is an invasion of privacy then you must also believe that people being able to see you with their own eyeballs in public is an invasion of your privacy. Ultimately how is this different from having a lot more police on the streets or someone reporting a crime they see happen in person? The only difference I see is that CCTV is more reliable as evidence whereas a skilful and deceitful lawyer can shred the best eyewitness testimony.
Also on the same site they have this article that is in favour of companies placing tracking cookies onto computers without asking, now that is Big Brother.
It’s this contradictory behaviour that means they end up looking as stupid as those green protestors who protested against the most fuel efficient ship in the world because it was also the biggest. Protest against genuine invasions of privacy not CCTV in a public place and don’t be in favour of genuine invasions of privacy as you cannot be taken seriously and end up looking like a plant to make Pro privacy advocates look bad and as a result Big Brother Watch, sadly can not be taken seriously.

Pension shakeup proposed



Iain Duncan smith is proposing reforms to the pension system, designed to simplify the system and encourage younger people to save for retirement. Mr Duncan Smith said: "We have to fundamentally simplify the system. And we have to make it crystal clear to young savers that it pays to save." The trouble with that statement is it does not pay to save as hardly any bank accounts pay much if any interest anymore and pensions offer an even worse return. This low to no interest payment is a deliberate policy to discourage saving and encourage spending to stimulate the economy.
Looking at my parents and the private pensions they have they have barely made any money and would have made near double this in ordinary bank accounts so investment is not a good option either as the investors take the lions share. Unless you are earning well above the national average it is not worth saving as you will have very little to show for it at the end. In addition it may not be possible to save anything at the moment as I have personally found out I now have spend the vast majority of my money on simply having somewhere to live and to get to work. I am unable to invest or save as there is little to no money spare after bills. Whilst it is laudable that the government wants to simplify pensions and save money. At the very least the government needs to help to make saving and investing possible before they make such changes to the pension scheme.