Triumph for George W Bush

The Guardian headline of half an hour ago says it all really, see here:

Iraq elections: Polls close as security clampdown keeps violence at bay

No reports of serious violence as millions of Iraqis go to polls in elections considered crucial test of democracy

Sobering comments from San Francisco.

"Can European Countries really go bankrupt?" is the title for a good review of the frightening facts in the San Francisco Sentinel, linked here. Some quotes regarding the UK and the concluding paragraphs follow: Take the example of Great Britain. The country is on the brink of financial ruin. Real estate is overvalued, private households are overly indebted and its vast financial sector has been badly hit by the crisis. Confidence in Britain’s ability to overcome the economic turmoil is sinking by the day, as evidenced by the precipitous decline of the pound, which has almost reached parity with the euro. Just 13 months ago, it was worth €1.40...............

Iceland, for its part, is already as good as bankrupt. In Eastern Europe, a number of countries are wobbling — Latvia has already had to request aid from the IMF and the Eastern European Development Bank. In the capital city of Riga, 40 people were injured in a violent protest that took place on Jan. 13.

Great Britain is also in trouble. And if it weren’t for the protection that their membership in the common currency provides them with, some euro zone countries would be fighting for financial survival right now. America, on the other hand, is banking on the fact that it is still considered stabile despite it’s enormous problems — and that the Chinese still hold a huge chunk of their currency reserves in US bonds.

So will things get better? It would be an illusion to believe that countries have learned from their past mistakes, US economists Reinhart and Rogoff warn. In fact, another state could go bankrupt at anytime and take its people down with it.

In this crisis, nothing is unimaginable anymore. Yet the man in charge in an interview in the Daily Telegraph today says all the country needs is confidence! Seeing Brown performing in front of the international financial criminals at Davos to the nonsense world issue questions posed by the fawning Ms Amanpour it was clear that he had lost contact with any trace of reality.

Image that epitomises the EU

Click here for the definitive image of what the EU thinks of Britain as captured by the Ross Perry Agency in Immingham on 30th January.

The rage is here at last.

Janice Turner has a first class article on the Lindsey Refinery strike in The Times, linked here which concludes with the sentence of this posting's title. The article is titled 'Total stupidity makes British patience snap'. Other coverage of the EU contrived outrage underway within Britain is 'Jobs Fury' in the Express, EU Britain strike San Diego , 700 Grangemouth workers out The Herald. Workers at Britain's nuclear facility at Sellafield are reported to be considering joining the protest next week according to the BBC.

Confused thought on Immigrant Labour

Philip Johnston ( link) in the Daily Telegraph writes: The problem for the British workers who fear for their jobs is that the foreigners to whom they object are EU citizens, and therefore perfectly at liberty to travel to, settle and work in the UK. BUT, but, but, but, but, these workers did none of those things! These are EU slave labourers, without rights, moved from site to site, displacing local skilled labour forces, who, to gain employment in the future must become part of a similar shiftless gang of migrant workers tossed around the continent of Europe at the whim of the bureaucratic filth who set the rules while reaping the dividends of their deeply embedded corruption. Protest how you may, one idea is in the post below!

Boycott Total Service Stations

Protests continue to mount against the continuing disgusting discrimination against Britain by other large EU countries directly resulting from the incompetence and neglect of Britain's own government ministers over many years. Read the latest report from here. If you feel it is time to express your own disgust at the constant putting down of your own country and support the protesters then why not boycott Total service stations this weekend and possibly beyond... that Company is the only entity which can control this particular situation. Britain is bankrupt due to the stupidity of its politicians and exploitation by the EU!

EU Aggression

The protest at Immingham has been continued this morning with reports of sympathy walkouts at the huge Wilton works on Teesside and at the BP petrochemical plant at Grangemouth in Scotland. The main problem began with French multinational Alstom at Staythorpe, read a report here from Contract Journal, and according to this other report in the same publication has now spread to 12 other sites, linked here together with a video report from the Grimsby Telegraph on yesterday's Lindsey picket. The principle goes way beyond the question of whether EU citizens be granted equal employment opportunities across the EU. According to a Unite Union leader interviewed on Radio 4 this morning the dispute arises because a contractor has brought in gangs of foreign labourers (mostly Italian and Portuguese) accommodating them afloat in structures which look similar to prison ships and as a condition of their contracts - absolutely and point blank refuse to consider ANY British workers. Such activities would of course be entirely in line with the direction the EU has been headed for years as has been constantly warned on this blog. The EU is an oppressive, democracy destroying conspiracy which will not rest until dissent of any kind is completely suppressed. The Times has now caught up on this news item, read here. British workers wanting employment in the future will be expected to be formed into gangs, transported around the Continent at their employers whim and housed in prison-like accommodation away from their families and homes. Why else destroy democracy? Maximum profit for a self-selecting elite.

Immingham strikers portend future EU Conflicts

Straws are blowing on the wind along the Humber Estuary of England today as oil workers vent their anger at being displaced by foreign workers in times of rising unemployment and approaching depression. One report is here.

More Unanswered questions from Gordon Brown

A couple of unanswered questions to the PM of note from yesterday again given little coverage in the media: Q4. [251629] Mr. Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con): Last week, the Prime Minister tried to cover up the expenses of Ministers. This week—

Hon. Members: Oh!

Mr. Speaker: Order. The hon. Gentleman must withdraw that remark. It is not a proper thing to say. Try to rephrase the question in another way.

Mr. Stuart: I withdraw that remark, Mr. Speaker.

This week, Labour peers stand accused of selling the law of the land for cash. Does the Prime Minister still claim, like his predecessor, that Labour is whiter than white?

Strange that the above is not a proper thing to say - after all as this blog reported at length that was exactly what occurred in the Commons last week. How about this other cracker of a question though for the clearly demented Prime Minister: Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle) (Con): What is the sterling value of an ounce of gold today, and what was it when the Prime Minister started selling our gold reserves in July 1999? The Treasury's gold sales between 1999 and 2002 netted an average price of $275 an ounce , according to The Guardian here. The Sterling price today is 616 pounds an ounce or 881 US Dollars a loss of $606 an ounce which on 395 tonnes gives indication enough why Brown ran scared from this question as well! Nor even did proper reply come to this question which came earlier: Q10. [251635] Andrew Selous (South-West Bedfordshire) (Con): If all our problems come from America and the rest of the world, why is the pound falling so sharply against the dollar and the euro? The pound just dropped beneath $1.41 so that $606 per ounce loss on the gold is now costing four hundred and thirty pounds sterling an ounce!

IMF Uncertainty

The two most startling aspects of yesterday's IMF report seem to me to be the sharpness of the change to their November figures which after all were produced a mere two months ago and the implicit message in so far as the UK is concerned that it is the measures taken during the crisis which seem as much to blame as the equally disastrous policies in the ten years leading up to the crash. Writing in The Independent this morning Sean O'Grady states "The IMF's latest missive, however, is an entirely different matter. It means not that we'll just get richer less quickly than we thought, but that, as a nation, we will become poorer, faster than in any year since Clement Attlee was at Number 10" making that paper the first of the MSM to catch up with this blog which made a similar comparison some time ago. Given that the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats supported the bungled actions over Northern Rock and the re-capitalisation of the banks that has left the Treasury bare and the Bank of England bereft of weapons to now fight the slump as it hits the real economy, to whom and where can England now turn? Until these facts similarly become a commonplace amongst the MSM and the chattering classes we will find no answer to that question and things can only continue to worsen. If things do continue to deteriorate for Britain at the same rate as determined by the IMF for the past two months then come June the 2009 contraction forecast by the IMF will be around 13 per cent for the full year. Incredibly a Government Treasury spokesman on TV yesterday (the one with the awkward chin) seemed to wish to stick by his bosses ludicrous projection in the pre-Budget statement that growth will be returning to the economy at that point. Almost as incredible as the buffoonish complacency of Ken Clarke now re-installed on the Tory front benches to remind each of us of the all-encompassing ghastliness of Britain's ruling classes.

Plans afoot to break Nice Treaty Rules on EU Commission

A move to break the Nice Treaty provisions regarding the formation of the next EU Commission in an attempt to get the non-ratified Lisbon Treaty to prevail has been long expected and is now underway, read here. Once again we have proof that there is no ploy nor illegality to which the EU will not stoop to override the stated will of the people of Europe. The article amazingly enough has the nerve to state the following: “If the Commission is invested before 31 October, according to the treaty, its mandate is five years. So the EU would be stuck with a small, Nice, Commission for five years,” said a senior official, adding: “This would not honour the promise to the Irish that each member state is guaranteed a commissioner.” This senior official is apparently content to now state that the EU would for five years be " stuck with a small Nice Commission" yet streamlining the Commission was the principle raison d'etre for the Laeken convention and resulting Constitutional Treaty! How devious can warped minds become?

Brown is the Pits - IMF report shows!

The following from the BBC passes on the evidence of the IMF that Gordon Brown is the worst in the advanced world - Kick Him Out!

World economic growth is set to fall to just 0.5% this year, its lowest rate since World War II, warns the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In October, the IMF had predicted world output would increase by 2.2% in 2009.

It now projects the UK, which recently entered recession, will see its economy shrink by 2.8% next year, the worst contraction among advanced nations.

The IMF says financial markets remain under stress and the global economy has taken a "sharp turn for the worse". (Link)

Killing off the Common Market

Remember the Common Market? It was the excuse to get 27 European sovereign nation states to sacrifice their democracies and independence for the illusion of free trade and its resultant wealth. Instead we got corrupt and voraciously incompetent appointed leaders, never-ending regulation, bureaucratic petty tyranny and a formative authoritarian state otherwise known as the EU. Well the EU marches along as the Lisbon Treaty still stalking the landscape gives proof, but what of the Common Market? Look at this wheeze from the Germans as quoted here in the FT: Car dealers reported that customers had filled the showrooms after the government announced plans, effective from January 14, to issue certificates worth €2,500 ($3,300, £2,360) for those who scrap cars at least nine years old and buy new or almost new ones. Can I get $3,300 worth of euros to trade in my car in France from the Germans? Must I then buy a German car or can it be for a Nissan from Sunderland? No, apparently not for later in the same article it goes on to explain:

France had also seen an upturn in sales after the government introduced a bonus of €1,000 at the beginning of December for people scrapping a car at least 10 years old and replacing it with a new vehicle with carbon dioxide emissions of less than 160g/km.

The French government claims its scrapping bonus will lift car and van sales by 100,000 in 2009.

So when the detail of Lord Mandelson's car rescue package announced last evening eventually becomes clear, how much will the UK Government give me for an old banger? From the piffling amount mentioned, probably not much more than a bag of sweeties in the glove pocket, hardly a giant incentive to buy a Jag or a clunking great Land Rover is it!

So is this still a Common Market for cars? Seems less than an even playing field to me! I trust none of these moves will in any way distort competition!

New German challenge to Lisbon Treaty

EU Observer has the report on another possible nail for the Lisbon Treaty's coffin, linked here, a quote:

The new legal action, running to over 200 pages, is concerned with economic as well as political issues, which the complainants say are not addressed by the Lisbon Treaty.

They argue that a prognosis on European integration given by the country's constitutional court in a 1993 judgement on the Maastricht Treaty - which paved the way to the euro - has turned out to be false.

Instead, EU integration has been characterised by "continuous breaches of the stability pact, a presumptuous over-stepping of power by the European Commission, unaccountable leadership and dissolution of the separation of powers," say the authors in a statement on Monday(26 January), according to German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

They say that the constitutional court cannot approve the Lisbon treaty because it "strengthens the current practice of dismembering the division of powers and mixing of competences."

The complaint is being brought by Markus Kerber, a commercial lawyer, Dieter Spethmann, a former chief executive of Thyssen, former MEP Franz Ludwig Graf Stauffenberg and economist Joachim Starbatty.

Top Lloyds Bankers Beg fo More Pay

Present or past shareholders in Lloyds Bank who have watched their investment destroyed over the recent past will be astounded to read this report in today's Guardian, some tasters:

Lloyds Banking Group has sounded out shareholders about a change in its executive remuneration plans that could generate pay rises for its directors despite being bailed out by the taxpayer.

The bank, in which the government holds a 44% stake, is understood to have approached big City investors between a month and six weeks ago with outline proposals for a modified pay package for the executive team of the bank ......

...Eric Daniels, the Lloyds chief executive, is currently paid a basic salary of £1.03m.

The bank's other five executive directors before the HBOS takeover was announced had a basic salary of between £590,000 and £680,000.

They also have short- and long-term incentive schemes that include annual bonuses of up to 200% of basic salary, with the exception of Daniels, who can boost his salary with a 225% bonus payout.

New US Treasury Secretary would go straight on EU-wide Criminal Database

Timothy Geithner, sworn in yesterday as US Treasury Secretary, had he to bear one of the most ignominious events possible in the 21st century, namely having had EU citizenship involuntarily thrust upon him, would have to go straight onto the oppressive and totalitarian Europe-wide ECRIS, on which I blogged yesterday, linked here, as during his confirmation hearings it became clear he had been guilty of 'tax offences' by not declaring earnings from the IMF. Will the EU leaders now refuse to meet or deal with Mr Geithner, of course they will not, the ECRIS is solely for the disenfranchised and oppressed general citizenry of the EU! Elsewhere corruption and dirty dealing rule unchecked and supreme therefore the EU leaders will not be phased one jot! The following quotes are from Bloomberg, linked here:

Yesterday's Senate vote was closer than anticipated; the tally last week in the Senate Finance Committee was 18 to 5. In his confirmation hearing before the finance panel, Geithner was grilled on his failure to pay almost $50,000 in taxes. He accepted responsibility, saying his errors were “careless” and unintentional.

'Difficult Issue'

“In another time and another place this probably would have been a far more difficult issue for him to get over,” said Kevin Petrasic, a former congressional staffer who is now an attorney at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, a law firm in Washington. Lawmakers “had to really think hard before deciding that somebody with his credentials was not the type of person we needed” during a financial crisis.

Nevertheless, the tax errors that prompted at least some of the votes against him will reduce his effectiveness, said Peter Wallison, who was Treasury general counsel under President Ronald Reagan and is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“He just won't carry the same moral authority,” said Wallison. This blog considers it odd that this would have been a more difficult issue in another time and place, to my mind nothing should come before restoring trust (as my post on the corrupt House of Lords tried to make plain this morning) and stating that the present mess should excuse officials having laxer standards than should normally prove acceptable flies in the face of logic.

Britain's Rotten Parliament

Cash for Answers

If the House of Lords loses its credibility then it loses its legitimacy.It is time that the half finished job of reform was completed

The power of the House of Lords is entirely dependent on its credibility. =================================================== I have directly pasted and copied the opening of the Leading Article in The Times this morning as it appears on its web site. Note the IF! Britain's general populace HAS lost all TRUST in both Houses of Parliament. END of - as they say - but what next? 70,000 jobs lost across the world yesterday is the same paper's headline. Such losses can only accelerate as service and manufacturing industry halt and MUST spread eventually even into the dark decaying corners of public employment! What better place to start than with any British legislator who has been in receipt of any income from third parties who might in any way be affected by British or EU legislation. A decaying body, if it is to be salvaged at all, must first have the maggots removed! The entire editorial is linked here, as the whole thing is concerned with CORRUPTION, why it is headed Questions for Answers, defeats me.

Czech President Klaus publishes book on Lisbon Treaty

President Vaclav Klaus, the last leader within the EU retaining any grasp on reality with the sole possible exception of his Polish counterpart, yesterday published his response to the Czech Constitutional Court declaring the Lisbon Treaty as in line with the country's constitution. Report here. The book is available in an English version and when excerpts are available I will link them from this blog! Last week I reported that President Klaus will challenge other aspects of the Treaty not yet raised in the court when AND if the Treaty is ratified in both houses of the Czech Parliament.

European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS)

European Council Framework Legislation of the EU Criminal Data Base (link here in pdf format) has been recently issued with the pretty clear intention of criminalising us all, just look at these few examples I have selected from its Annexe A on the Categories of crimes: Destroying or damaging protected fauna and flora species Unintentional environmental offences Unintentionally causing minor bodily injury Failure to offer aid or assistance Insults, slander, defamation, contempt Insult of the State, Nation or State symbols Tax offences Revealing a secret or breaching an obligation of secrecy Avoiding a road check (by unknowingly taking a route without such check perhaps) Unlawful employment Offences relating to working hours and rest time (not taking a tea break?) Other unintentional offences (This will get anyone not nabbed by the page long lists of other offences!).

Brown abandons Sterling

The IHT reports the latest speech by the odious Gordon Brown (self-serving implied by The Times on which Guido also has a say here) as follows: Britain does not target exchange rates, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday, giving a clear signal that the government is unlikely to take steps to stem the pound's slide.... "British policy is not based on targeting the exchange rate. It is based on targeting interest rates through inflation and it is our low inflation that is absolutely central to the policies that we are pursuing," he said.... The problem for the disgraced and incompetent UK Government as they preside over the rubble of the economy (2,500 jobs to go in steel making and Barratts Shoes on the High Street being this mornings tally) is that they have allowed most of the nation's tangible assets to be gobbled up by their EU neighbours while accepting huge payment obligations denominated in strengthening euros as the price for the EU Parliament's subsidies of their corrupted party or their self-glorifying antics an a wider stage. (If you personally incline towards the former explanation then see my blog and other coverage on the tip of the iceberg revealed yesterday by the Sunday Times regarding the House of Lords and consider why just recently reporting on the Labour Party's enormous financial deficit seems to have been confined to history!) So if sterling continues to fall will the Danegeld of Britain's EU payments be either desirable or affordable - especially given that the UK is now wrecked so there remains little left to ravage? Afterthought! This from Rudyard Kipling:

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,

For fear they should succumb and go astray;

So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,

You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,

No matter how trifling the cost;

For the end of that game is oppression and shame,

And the nation that pays it is lost!"

Gordon Brown or Thomas Jefferson?

Which of them might prove the wiser considering the following: Brown warns against 'pessimism' BBC News - 1 hour ago The economic crisis should be treated as "the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order", Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to say. Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. Thomas Jefferson My money is on Jefferson!

Looking Back - Number three

In February 2003, as part of a longer post, I concluded, on the topic of democracy and tyranny which was the spark for my starting my first blog, as follows: Europe's intellectuals continue their determined assault on the Continent's democratic traditions and the drive towards tyranny continues apace. Remember this quote from Professor Bertrand Badie's paper entitled "The Nation State One Player Among Many" "The advent of citizenship has conferred on the national political community the status of a community with voting rights. In the context of the 19th century, and in the major part of the 20th, this was necessary for forging and perfecting democracy. There is no choice today but to admit that national political communities have fewer and fewer voting rights because the major decisions are no longer taken by the national political communities. Some of them are taken by the European Union, or even at world level........The national level will remain the citizen's level, but his freedom of debate will become totally illusory." Note, we are not just to lose our right to vote, but also the freedom to debate. When will some of these poltical theorists explain why democracy, parliamentary or otherwise, is unsuitable for Europe. My very ability to type this page, which instantaneously becomes available to be read by every internet connected citizen across the globe, let alone just within the existing or proposed EU, makes that position a nonsense. From here, within minutes I can register a vote on countless different websites expressing my opinion on pretty much every subject under the sun. The technology exists all we lack is the will! The full post may be read from here, the longer and more detailed post on the same topic which was refused publication on the EU regular discussion forum where I had previously been an active participant title DEMOCRACY OR PAN-EUROPEAN TOTALITARIANISM is here.

Insanity from the Independent on Sunday

A so-called panel of experts, in fact a group of journalists employed by the New Labour donating paper itself, asks twenty questions about the sterling collapse and Britain's bankruptcy among which is this particular nonsense:

Can we afford present levels of public spending?

The real question is can we afford not to spend on big infrastructure projects?

Naturally enough the panel does not answer, nor even attempt to consider the centuries old dilemma for the poverty stricken - namely how do you spend money you do not have and which NONE will lend?

Purchasing Peers - Democracy's Death Knell

The lead story in today's Sunday Times on the availability of mostly Labour Peers in the House of Lords to amend legislation for huge fees must surely mark the end of not just this corrupt government but our present methods of governance. A few quotes:

Truscott — a former Labour MEP who was a government minister until 18 months ago — made it clear he had exactly the right credentials.

In the course of their short tea-time conversation he agreed to help them amend a government bill that was harmful to their client, in return for cash. He said he had done similar work before. He said he had intervened on the Energy Bill — a piece of legislation he had been responsible for as a minister only months earlier. His fee was seemingly modest by peers’ standards, but probably not for most people outside the house. He charged £2,000 a day, which would have added up to £72,000 for the three-day-a-month one-year contract he later proposed....

The House of Lords is supposed to be an important check on the power of the Commons, where mature and independent peers bring their experience to bear on proposed legislation.

However, we found that four Labour peers were willing to help amend laws for a fee.

Busted Britain

There is increaasingly less point in this blog posting on the UK economy as the mainstream media have finally and belatedly grasped the extent of the disaster, read Matthew Parris in the Times here and the Telegraph here, which concludes: However, everything now depends on trust: that trust will return to the beleaguered financial system; that investors will start to trust the Government again and that Britons trust that there will be life after the recession. To restore trust a change of Cabinet is essential, how can that be achieved?

New challenge to Lisbon for Czech Court - Lisbon update.

The report is here. The German Constitutional Court has set aside two days in February to consider whether the Lisbon Treaty meets the Basic Law. Clearly any half way decent democratic constitution would find the Lisbon Treaty totally unacceptable but the progress of the present abhorrent EU is so clearly in German interests that a finding that it is unconstitutional seems likely to go the same way as other earlier challenges to the onward march (probably a "Goose Step") of the EU. Poland's Parliament has passed a motion urging their President to ratify the Lisbon Treaty which he has so far refused to do pending clarification of the Irish ratification. Former Spanish PM Aznar has come out in Le Figaro against second referenda such as that imposed upon the Irish, link here in french.

Lying Ministers

Cameron wants politicians to be respected according to the Daily Telegraph this morning yet he does not do his job by holding Minister to account. This from The Times this morning: In a written Commons statement last month, the Defence Secretary said that construction of the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, would be put back a further one or two years in line with the expected delivery of the Joint Strike Fighter, the combat aircraft designed to replace the Harrier. The fighter project has been running behind schedule.... Lockheed Martin, however, confirmed to The Times that it had been ready to provide the combat aircraft by 2014 but had been told by the Ministry of Defence to deliver in time for a 2017 initial operating capability. All expense gorging over-salaried non-democratic EU craven Members of Parliament carry their share of the blame for Britain entering this huge recession, shortly to be a slump, which officially happened today. I have already blogged today on the scandal regarding the expenses of the idle self-serving individuals who are the majority of those who sit upon Westminster's green benches, The Times blog has more on that, linked from here.

Progressivism = Marxism

In the article linked in my first posting of today (and again here) discussing the Leader of the Oppositions extraordinary awakening to the depths of Britain's problems and his totally ignorant proposals for their remedy the article on David Cameron concludes: Mr Cameron quoted reforming Labour figures like Alan Milburn and said it was important that people accepted most politicians of all persuasions were in politics for the right reasons. Is this a prelude to Cameron accepting a post in a National Government under the leadership of a highly placed Blairite such as Milburn? New Labour - new speak ........ Progressivism = Marxism!

Maggot Members of Parliament

Members of Parliament continue to try to cover up their expense claims, these quote from Hansard are from yesterday' debate: Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): What the right hon. and learned Lady has just said is of great interest. Many of us believe that if the scheme and the audit proposals had been in place three years ago, the matter would not have gone to the tribunal and the High Court, and we would not have the unholy mess that we now have. However, the fact is that the right hon. and learned Lady is proposing a scheme of publication that falls short of that full disclosure that the High Court has determined is correct—[HON. MEMBERS: “It does not.”] I am sorry, but it falls short of the full disclosure that the High Court has determined must be the case under the existing scheme. Is the right hon. and learned Lady suggesting that that should be tested again through the information tribunal and the courts, or does she plan to introduce an alternative scheme of full disclosure to full receipt level? If she intends to leave the matter where it is, and if someone makes an application, whether that goes to the tribunal and what the decision is will be left to fate.....(Link) 2.22 pm Dr. Tony Wright (Cannock Chase) (Lab): I fully expected to be on the losing side today. My understanding was that the dark forces on both sides of the House had conspired—[Interruption.] Well, my colleagues on both sides of the House had come together to persuade the Government to remove the House and Members of Parliament from the scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act in relation to detailed spending. That was the proposal that we were to be presented with today, and because I have learned over the years that the dark forces normally get their way, I imagined that it would be carried. It is only because I thought that it would be carried that I suggested to a colleague we might try to recover the situation. I know that amendments have not been taken, but the point of our proposal was to say to people who had worries about the retrospective nature of the provisions that we could at least decide prospectively that we wanted to sign up to what the court has told us to do...... The problem is that, since then, large numbers of Members of Parliament have sought to extricate themselves from the onerous provisions that they passed. I can understand why they, we, I would want to do that. The implications of the Act can be extremely irritating. Newspapers can foment mischief and misinformation about what we spend money on. Our political opponents can use the Act simply to cause all kinds of trouble and to spread misinformation. All of that is true, and I have enormous sympathy with those who make such points, but the remedy is not to say that we should find a way in which, uniquely, Members of Parliament can be removed from the provisions....

“The ACA system”—

the additional costs allowance system—

“is so deeply flawed, the shortfall in accountability so substantial, and the necessity of full disclosure so convincingly established, that only the most pressing privacy needs should in our view be permitted to prevail.”

When the High Court went over the same set of issues, and was asked to do the same balancing exercise, it said in its judgment:

“We have no doubt that the public interest is at stake. We are not here dealing with idle gossip or public curiosity about what in truth are trivialities. The expenditure of public money through the payment of MPs’ salaries and allowances is a matter of direct and reasonable interest to taxpayers…they bear on public confidence in the operation of our democratic system at its very pinnacle, the House of Commons itself. The nature of the legitimate public interest engaged by these applications is obvious.”

That is a coruscating verdict on a system that we have allowed to continue over the years. That is why I say that the abuses were waiting to happen.

Let us be clear: the effect of the withdrawal of the proposal overnight is that we are now back in the situation that the court judgment brought about. We are going to have an expanded publication scheme, and I welcome that. It is a good thing, but we are now also subject to the decision under FOI law that the details of our expenditure should be published. I am not sure whether this is an example of the dark forces still being dark, but there is clearly still a feeling among some hon. Members that if we can only agree to an expanded category of items to be published, we will somehow be able to extricate ourselves at the eleventh hour from the decisions that have made the publication of our expenditure inevitable. I say to those dark forces that that is not the case.

"Progressive Conservatism"

The following was posted on my blog "Teetering Tories" this morning: Cameron warns of National Bankruptcy - WHY ONLY NOW? The newspaper article is linked here. WHY? Only now? The task of an opposition is to frame policies for problems ahead. Many, including this blogger, have seen this coming for years! Why? Progessive, is the code word used by New Labour for the problems which have been the cause of the problem? In the same article Cameron refers to "Progressive Conservatism". I quote the extraordinary passage which proves him unfit for either the party or the post he holds within it: "Progressive conservatism" was best placed to address the problems of social exclusion, he said. It would also help build a better civic society, address the economic problems the country faces, and protect public services. My blog "Ironies Too" will continue to spell out the alternative way forward, which alone can return the nation to prosperity. Among the essentials - a return of assets today being squandered by the EU, individual responsibility, parliamentary democracy and rooting out greed and punishing the exploiters of recent years.

Looking Back - Number Two

On 22nd June 2004 I blogged this post on Ironies on the EU corruption of Britain's state broadcaster, a fitting day to remember as the foul-mouthed and bullying Jonathan Ross returns to BBC TV screens tomorrow evening: EU Subversion of Britain's State Broadcaster I am grateful to the anonymous correspondent who sent the information for this report. A question people must ask themselves; 'Am I susceptible to propaganda?' The only way you can honestly answer this question is to study both sides of the argument with an open and informed mind. The EU's de Clercq Report 1993 devised initiatives to ensure that: "...European identity must be 'ingrained in people's minds' as a 'good product' using marketing techniques and that certain social categories, particularly 'women and youth', should become 'priority target groups'. More controversially, it suggested that newscasters and reporters must themselves be targeted, they must themselves be persuaded about European Union...so that they subsequently become enthusiastic supporters of the cause." A comment on this report and its implications is available from this link to the Bruges Group from here. The above ties in with a parallel report by the Commission's Media and Culture Directorate, which showed that money has been made available for the media to promote "a more positive line towards Europe". According to the BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2002/2003 which may be read from this link to a pdf file, there are two outstanding loans from the European Investment Bank to the BBC totalling £91 million. ====================== Page 117. The European Investment Bank has made two loan facilities available to BBC Commercial Holdings. The first, for an amount of £66million, is available for drawing until March 2005 and must either be repaid in full as a single repayment by March 2013 or on an amortising basis by March 2015.The second, for £25million, is available for drawing until November 2003 and is repayable in one single instalment by November 2007.The interest rate applicable on both facilities is determined with reference to the European Investment Bank's own funding cost and carries no margin above this funding rate. At 31 March 2003 nothing was drawn down under either of these facilities. ====================== Watch this space, and in the meantime cast your mind back to the totally pro-EU bias of nearly every BBC anchor and correspondent over recent years - not noticed by yourself perhaps, well maybe now you have read this it will become more noticeable. Still not convinced then ask yourself why any organisation would make funds available at their own cost of borrowing, it is an impossible feat that defies all known laws of economics - were it truly achievable. But it is not, rather this is a blatant propaganda subsidy and YOU are the target - more EU anybody? (Open Europe on present day EU communication facts, linked here)

Buddy Holly Tribute - Two

Raining in my heart and It doesn't matter anymore 45 rpm.

Criminal activity within Lloyds Bank

The CNN report of the $350 million fine agreed by Lloyds Bank stated the following on 10th January:

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"For more than 12 years Lloyd's facilitated the anonymous movement of hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S.-sanctioned nations through our financial system," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich.

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"Lloyds stripped identifying information from international wire transfers that would have raised a red flag at U.S. financial institutions and caused such payments to be scrutinized," he said.

Although the money must be forfeited, under terms of the deal Lloyds will not presently be prosecuted because it accepted responsibility and has vowed to abide by the U.S. laws. After two years the U.S. will forego prosecution and formally drop the criminal charge.

In a statement, the bank said: "We committed substantial resources to a thorough internal investigation, the results of which were shared with U.S. investigators and regulators.

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The British Prime Minister asked yesterday, 21st January, eleven days after the widespread report of this fine, by a Member of his own Party about the absence of any prosecutions or inquiries into this matter in the UK, quoted here, replied:

My hon. Friend is making very detailed allegations. Our sanctions policy against Iran has been one of the toughest in the world. It is tough on banks, tough on oil companies and tough on other institutions. I will of course look at the allegations that he has made, but I can tell him that we and other countries are leading the world in the sanctions against Iran. As reported by Robert Peston, BBC Business Correspondent, on his blog on 17th September, 2008 it was the Prime Minister who appears to have been the facilitator for the takeover by Lloyds of HBOS read here from which I quote: UPDATE 10:32AM: I am hearing that this deal has been negotiated at a very high pay grade level, with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, talking to Sir Victor Blank, chairman of Lloyds TSB, about how helpful it would be if Sir Victor could bring himself to end the uncertainty hanging over HBOS by buying it. Does not the apparent ignorance of the Prime Minister of the huge fine levied against Lloyds as conveyed by his reply in the House of Commons yesterday not then appear quite extraordinary, as does the non-reporting of the question in the UK media a silence as deafening as the absence of reporting on the fine itself by the majority of the media since 10th January 2009 when it was announced? Many wonder what has gone wrong with British banking under the regulatory regime imposed by Gordon Brown and subject to a speech by Lord Turner last evening, read here. My posting of 18th September last year titled "The Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds" raised many concerns still unanswered. Many deeper questions are raised than those Lord Turner chose to cover last evening as yesterday's parliamentary exchange and the media silence vividly illustrates. They would seem to go to the heart of Britain's system of governance.

British official debt worst since 1978

1978 and another dreadful Labour Prime Minister. Don't remember? Then read this from Wikipedia: a break down with the unions occurred again in 1978, leading to the Winter of Discontent, and eventually leading to the end of the Labour Government, then being led by Jim Callaghan. The extreme industrial strife along with rising inflation and unemployment led Britain to be nicknamed as the "sick man of Europe." This however is from a newspaper report this afternoon which ignores much of the country's real debts: The UK’s net debt reached £697.5bn at the end of December, equivalent to 47.5pc of gross domestic product. That is the biggest proportion since 1978, when net debt was 49.1pc of GDP, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Lloyds Bank $300 million fine raised at PMQs

Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) (Lab): Were the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Financial Services Authority or our security and intelligence services fast asleep, or were they part of a cover-up in relation to Lloyds TSB’s illegal handling of money from Iran to get round sanctions? Surely we need a statement about why this bank—and no individual has been prosecuted in the UK—laundered in America $300 million of Iranian money and money from London that related to the Sudan. I think we should be told.

The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is making very detailed allegations. Our sanctions policy against Iran has been one of the toughest in the world. It is tough on banks, tough on oil companies and tough on other institutions. I will of course look at the allegations that he has made, but I can tell him that we and other countries are leading the world in the sanctions against Iran.

See my post of 10th January on this topic, from here.

MP expenses must be declared

If, like me, watching PMQ now induces the strong urge to vomit, today's example having been particularly obscene - then sign up to this Facebook campaign to get them to vote against further concealment of their expenses, linked here.

Gordon Brown- Cadaverous Cadaver Carver!

Britain's Prime Minister should go immediately, only his party or the Queen can accomplish that, but left in charge he is now destroying the parts of Britain's economic corpse (his sole creation) that are essential for any recovery. Simon Heffer spells it out in greater detail in today's Daily Telegraph, linked here.

President Obama

This blog wishes the new President the very best of luck in the tremendous task ahead and a happy retirement to President George W. Bush.

Kaka gives verdict on Britain. Brown doomed, Hope ahead.

I summed up my feelings on British banking on 18th September read here, yesterday's market plunge of banking shares was thus predictable as is the end of this government. Foreigners will now have the next say in how Britain is governed and by whom. As usual yesterday, David Cameron, in choosing a new entrant to the economic team of his Shadow Cabinet between Ken Clarke and John Redwood opted entirely the wrong way. This does not bode well for the National Government which will soon have to be formed given the growing potential for default and/or downgrading of Britain's debt and consequent necessity to borrow in a harder currency to offset the worst consequences of a bankrupt economy. Kaka turning down the huge amount of sterling for his footballing talents (100 million seems the generally accepted transfer number) shows his skills go beyond the football field. A new start will soon be possible for Britain, bringing to an end some six years of pessimism for this blog and its forerunner. Huge talents still remain in the country as typified by the Skycar Expedition adventure on which I blogged earlier. We must hope that someone worthy of the nation now emerges from the background to marshal and unleash those national abilities.

Skycar back on track

Well into yesterday evening repairs were completed and the expedition now resumes its journey to the Atlas Mountains and beyond! This blog wishes them all bon voyage!

Skycar Expedition in the Charente

Our quiet corner of the French countryside is having an exciting couple of days as the Skycar Expedition from London to Tombouctou passes through the Charente. Read the details from here and press reports here. Unfortunately the car suffered a breakdown between Poitiers and Angouleme when a bolt failed and damaged the main drive belt for the rear mounted propeller. Repairs are underway and it is hoped will be completed later today allowing the expedition to continue on its way towards Spain and the Straits of Gibralter. I took the following pictures of the task in hand this morning and hope to have some pictures of the finished job later this afternoon.

Finally an MP spells out the debt disaster!

John Redwood, Conservative MP for Wokingham and in any sensible nation either Chancellor of the Exchequer or Shadow Chancellor today spells out the truth behind the impossibility for taxpayers to bail out the banks. Read it here. A must read quote:

When the Government effectively nationalised RBS, it took over a bank with a 2,000,000,000,000 (pound) liability. It’s a huge number – 2trillion (pounds), yes, trillion.

Not so long ago, billions sounded like big numbers, now it is trillions.

How long before we are counting our debt in zillions? Two trillion pounds is more than every UK person and business together earn in a year. It’s four times the annual tax revenue of the country.

Elsewhere in the same paper one of these bad loans to a Russian former billionaire is reported linked here. As in all other Sunday papers the fact that the government is about to announce another huge banking bailout, mostly estimated at two hundred billion pounds, also makes the headlines. Read the column by John Redwood and consider the fact that this next 200 billion pounds will not be the end - then telephone or e-mail your MP and make it plain this move will not have your support. The small amount of money now left in the country for governmental discretionary spending must be retained for helping the victims of history's worst ever economic depression!

The Disastrous Rowing Ethos

The 800th anniversary of Cambridge University this weekend is a good opportunity to return to the damaging obsession with the rowing analogy instilled by our senior universities and spreading across all levels of British society. Interestingly Matthew Parris comments on the effect of this problem in his column in The Times this morning, linked here. I blogged on this topic earlier this month, read here, with a very pretty picture of an idyllic rowing scene on the River Cam. The reality of the ingrained fear to stand out from the establishment consensus or state one's individual views when one can see a disastrously wrong course being steered is the penalty NOW being paid by Britain for decades of this false philosophy. As Matthew Parris so accurately puts it: What troubles me is the suspicion that discretion in public is accompanied by discretion in private, discretion to the point of gutlessness.

For courage rarely surfaces until retirement. Just how brave is our British habit of staying tight-lipped about unfolding policy calamities while still part of the policymaking team - and then, after a decent pause and a garnish of ermine, swinging about in the Upper Chamber with a “my Lords” here and a “my noble and learned friend” there, to pronounce on all the mistakes you apparently saw coming for years? How proud should a man or woman be of that?

There will always be disingenuous hindsight; but all too often the retired luminary is being honest when he says that he knew at the time a doomed policy was doomed......

It sometimes seems that we all trudge down a long road we suspect is leading nowhere, nursing our private doubts and keeping our mouths tight shut.

This is exactly the problem. I feel sure we have all been guilty at one time or another of falling into the trap spelled out in the paragraph immediately above. If we are to come through the present economic collapse where a fresh start is so urgently needed we must all speak out against the disastrously mistaken route of enormous borrowing now being undertaken by Brown and Darling!

An apt question from the Shropshire Star!

Questions over EU treaty powers

LETTER: The arrogance of the political class appears boundless. It has been reported that the European Union is now trying to take control of our North Sea oil reserves, apparently under secret powers written into the Lisbon Treaty.

This raises two vital questions.

What are these supposed secret powers?

The Lisbon Treaty was available for public scrutiny, are we now to understand that further documentation exists hidden from the public and Parliament?

Additionally the Lisbon Treaty, although ratified by our (seemingly anti-British) Parliament, does not come into force until all member states ratify it. As the Irish have not ratified the treaty, how can powers be taken from a mechanism that does not exist?

John Galloway

Shrewsbury

US Pension Contributions Shocker

US Capitalism is the world's wealth driver. Many Americans most direct contact with this reality lies in their 401 (k) retirement fund accounts where their annual contributions are often matched by their employers. Opening their January statements this year has frequently been a gut wrenching experience. After ofte zero or worse return last year the question now becomes are further contributions worthwhile this year AND according to this report will employers still be prepared to put up their matching contribution, link to abc report. Results from Bank of America, bailed out again by the Government after their ML losses incredibly came in at 15.3 billion for the fourth quarter, were awful and require a further input of 118 billion of federal funds. Estee Lauder off some 15 per cent this morning is more startling surely when women stop buying cosmetics things must really be dire. Never mind all that in London - things must be fine if the Leader of the Opposition can waste time on live internet links pontificating on greening up the National Electricity Grid while avoiding any policy to generate such electricity in the future.

Anglo Irish Bank Nationalisation

It has been announced that the Irish Government will nationalise its third largest bank, read here. On 2nd October last year I posted the following:

Euro Currency insanity now clear for all!

Follow the logic of the two year Irish guarantee of its bank deposits. In spite of French re-assurances it is not available elsewhere. Therefore looking at the approaching abyss will savers across Euroland not seek the security of that Irish guarantee? Read the latest mess of Gordon Brown, here, who announced a rise to fifty thousand sterling with no commencement date thus causing another crisis. (Note the Telegraph headline actually labels this as a panic! I am keeping that word for the real thing). What will Ireland do with all that cash? They will not obtain realistic market returns with a similar two year guarantee so the chances will get ever greater that the banks will indeed fail, drowned in a sea of un-investable cash, and that the Irish taxpayer will have then to compensate any euro investor, an idea so clearly preposterous that in a normal world it would beggar belief. Yet that is the situation within the EU this very morning. I repeat "an idea so clearly preposterous that in a normal world it would beggar belief." Yet here we are, would an Icelandic Government bank guarantee for its depositors who lent twenty time that nation's GDP be worth a lot? How much is an open-ended Irish Government guarantee worth or more pertinently up to what level of exposure? With Brown's daily billion pound promises of expenditure, how much is a commitment by this British Government worth - or again more pertinently up to what level of commitment? My guess looking at recent pledges and the rapidly cratering tax receipts he has already passed the point where funds can be relied upon - next stop the IMF and/or default!

Buddy Holly Tribute - Rave On

On 3rd February it will be 50 years since Buddy Holly was tragically killed in a plane crash. In the run up to that sad anniversary, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, I will be posting some tributes, the first my personal favourite - Rave On!

Weep for England

Two conflicting items from this morning's news radio: First - Harriet Harman is taking steps to ensure Members of Parliament do not have to fully disclose their expenses: Second - due to the provisions of a little reported Private Members Bill passed through Parliament, from today, employers can be jailed for breaking the plethora of regulations regarding so-called Health and Safety. Typical of the vermin infesting the green benches of Westminster, grab all you can get and keep it quiet and criminalise and jail those in society trying to give work to their fellow citizens in the face of the growing depression. Jailing any MP who voted for the above Bill and claimed expenses over and above a very restrictive limit would be a saner action it seems to me.

St George's Holiday - Hit Rate Grows & Mad as Hell

This evening the signatories have grown by some 25,000 compared to yesterday to reach: 134,857. Please sign up if you have yet to do so. May be it will be a signal that you are just feeling a little bit narked not necessarily: Mad as Hell

Heathrow Runway another non-announcement!

Like the earlier two giant aircraft carrier announcement from the UK Government a couple of months ago and so many offers of billions here and billions there ever since - today's announcement that the Government will go ahead with a third runway for Heathrow airport is meaningless. The British Government will soon default on some of its debt or be incapable of raising more and will thus be unable to live up to basic welfare commitments let alone any of these fancy and hugely expensive spending commitments. They remind me of bankrupt high spenders setting out on a final binge when the bailiffs are camped at the door, what matter their promises they are doomed anyway. The next phase of bank failures today seems to be gathering pace across the Atlantic and where that will leave the money printing Gordon Brown few can easily contemplate. Heathrow is already the pits and most people I know avoid it at almost any cost. The depression will see off many of the airport's users so people should avoid getting too hot under the collar over what will soon be seen as a farcical non-event!

Czech EU Council President attacked for insufficient Lisbon support

Thanks to Dan Hannan MEP:

Chilling news for Lloyds HBOS Shareholders and Taxpayers

Gordon Brown's grotesque creation, Lloyds S?U?P?E?R?Bank, which will not have its proper shares traded on the stock market until next week has nevertheless already had a portent of the likely reception these will receive from the ghastly losses of its parents' shares over the past days and this leak on the Builder website, linked here:

The newly merged Lloyds HBOS bank will set up a toxic vehicle for its housebuilding and commercial property investments, Building can reveal.......

The source said: “This is just like what banks have done elsewhere in isolating their toxic debt. The idea will be to get maximum value from the portfolio either through a sale or more dedicated management of the assets.”

The portfolio includes investments in housebuilders Crest Nicholson, Miller, Gladedale and Tulloch Homes. It also has stakes in retirement housing specialist McCarthy & Stone and social housing specialists Keepmoat and Apollo.

The vehicle will also include HBOS’ commercial property investments.

It is understood that the carrying value of the vehicle on the new bank’s book will be nil.

Let me repeat the valuation NIL, yes folks a big fat ZERO!

The perils of printing money

A simple arithmetic lesson for our woefully ignorant leaders.

Britain's threatened energy supply

The "Resistance" newsletter put out by New Alliance is available in pdf format from this link and covers the threat from both Government incompetence and the EU. David Cameron's Conservative Party policy on energy is, unbelievably enough, even worse than the Government's policies! Nuclear is the ONLY place for government investment or subsidy and co-incidentally will also thankfully shut-up the insufferable carbon emissions lobby if the economic depression has not see them off first!

State Grammars outperform Fee Paying Schools

As I was ranting at the beginning of this week, here, the disaster befalling the UK is planned and built upon the destruction of a decent national state education system allowing closet Marxists and Bullingdon style bullies to rule the roost for their own ends. Proof comes today in a report in The Times, here, also given extensive coverage elsewhere in the MSM on the superior results of the few brave Grammar Schools that have survived the political onslaught perpetrated by the two main British political parties! (The comments to the Times report are worth reading as well!)

Patrick McGoohan RIP

In "The Prisoner" he foretold our futures now being delivered courtesy of Blair, Brown and the EU neither protested nor resisted by today's youth!

State aid for a new UK Car undustry

The Times reports this morning that taxpayers may be asked to fund loans for consumers to purchase cars. (Also in the Telegraph, here, so there is some substance behind the lunacy!) The even greater insanity of direct state aid to motor manufacturers has not been ruled out! The only state aid for the motor industry should be for research and start-up manufacturing aid for electric driven Smart sized vehicle production which will be the only vehicles permitted within urban connurbations from a specified future date. Power will be available from the new generation of muclear plants I proposed in my first post of yesterday. The DEPRESSION has changed the world: GOVERNMENTS must change their mode of thinking! All the old rules and objectives MUST be jettisoned!

Looking back 1 - The Greenspan Standard

I am today starting a new series looking back over some six years of blogging on Ironies and Ironies Too. The following was posted on 17th September 2004 and seemed apt (linked here) as I just mentioned Greenspan's successor in the posting immediately below. The Greenspan Standard I find it interesting that the US deficit is running at eye-boggling levels of indebtedness yet the interest rate in the USA for their 10 year bond hovers around 4 per cent. I explain this to myself as having to be due to the dollar being linked to something of greater intrinsic value than itself, which I choose to explain as the Greenspan standard. Although re-confirmed in office as Chairman of the Federal Reserve for another term, eventually even Alan Greenspan must fade away - what then will underpin the free-world's economic system? I believe the chosen interviewers should perhaps pose this question to the two Presidential candidates in the upcoming televised debates. Would each of them, at some point in the future, favour a return to the Gold Standard, or perhaps tie the value of the dollar to some other precious but even rarer metal? Or will they risk it being set loose to the whims of world opinion once Greenspan is gone?

St George's Day Holiday - Update 2

The Facebook cause has today surged through the 100,000 mark standing presently at 110,700 signatories.

LIBERTAS ADVERTISING INTERNSHIPS

The anti-Lisbon Treaty organisation seeking to run candidates across the EU in the coming June election is advertising internships under the supervision of veteran Danish EU critic Jens-Peter B0nde details here.

Fed Chairman's London speech translated.

The US Federal Reserve Chairman, heir to Greenspan, gave a speech in London yesterday - what he meant may be read from this link to The Market Ticker.

Build new nuclear plants now!

There is a Depression in the UK. There is a looming energy shortage. Throwing money at banks has not worked, any more is money down the drain. Building is labour intensive. Houses and factories are not needed in the global slump. Emergency legislation will be required to eliminate planning delays. Sites should be chosen before the spring and construction by British nationals only should commence in the summer. Nuclear energy is clean, safe, secure and the only way forward for the future of any advanced society.

St George's Day Holiday - Update

The total of signatures received now stands at: 86,456 Join here.

"Ancient lords - not quite tyrants" -YET

Benjamin Kuris, Czech journalist, founding member of a new Czech eurorealist party at its launch. More here. There is a growing awareness in many member countries that the politicians are beginning to behave like ancient lords and...not quite yet tyrants, but we may get there if we don't stop them, and disregarding the will of the people. As has been shown in Holland and France during the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty, and has been shown again in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty.”

UK trade deficit at 8.3 billion is worst EVER

Never since records began in 1697 have things been so bad. Even those of us who lived through the dreadful days of past Labour incompetent Premiers and their constant Balance of Payments and other economic crises can have seen nothing like this. The lies are familiar though, witness Alistair Darling on Sky last evening, links from this link, who again and again refused to accept any Government responsibility nor offer any apology for the Government's actions. The remorseless flow of foreign controlled data will eventually tell the truth, anybody else share a wry smile at official figures issued this morning which showed house prices as down 8.6 per cent last year! Wow really! British exports were not helped by the crippled pound the trade figures show: Total exports of goods fell by 6% in November, while imports fell by just 2%. The entire Government, Opposition and administrative machinery in the UK is dysfunctional and incompetent. NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

Seminar in Prague slams anti-democratic Lisbon Treaty

The report is linked here. The following is a quote:

The EU reform Lisbon treaty will bring more power to European officials who are not under democratic control, critics of the document agreed at a seminar in Prague.

They say they see a solution in the rejection of the current treaty and drafting of a new document.

Ukraine stops Russian Gas again!

Unacceptable transit conditions are the latest reason given for the interruption in resumed gas deliveries from Russia for Europe. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise for it seems only something drastic such as a halt in domestic gas deliveries will bring home to the ill-informed British public the real risk from the Lisbon Treaty and the grave dangers the country already faces thanks to the contempt and neglect of their political class!

Poland's President under French Pressure over Lisbon.

The Russian gas interruption is being cited as further cause for pushing through the Lisbon Treaty which is understandable enough as once signed Britain loses control of its North Sea hydrocarbon resources just as surely as it was duped out of its fish. The report of fresh pressure on the Polish President to sign may be read from this link. Meanwhile in the FT today David Cameron's pathetic apology for a policy on the EU is hinted at in all its confusion, read here. I ask you what can be made from these quotes: David Cameron, leader of Britain's opposition Conservatives, has vowed to wreck the EU's Lisbon treaty if he emerges victorious from any early general election in the first half of this year.... The Tories believe the treaty - which would create a new EU president and foreign minister and simplify the Union's decision-making procedures - would have the effect of transferring too much power to Brussels.... Mr Cameron says his party is united in its approach to Europe, which includes breaking off its alliance in the European parliament with French and German centre-right parties. How can the Treaty be OK if it is already ratified when he takes power when it "would have the effect of transferring too much power to Brussels"? How can the party be "united in its approach to Europe" when a weekend poll showed 35 per cent of Conservative supporters felt none of the parties reflected their view on Europe and there is a group of his own MP supporting a referendum whether or not Lisbon has been ratified. Truth is his party is united in funking the issue in the vain hope they will gain the perks of Government even knowing the powers have been lost - a morally reprehensible standpoint as it demonstrates they are only in politics for the money and perks! Just like the Labour Party! We must now look to foreigners to salvage our democracy - Irish, Poles, Czechs and YES even the French - after all it was the latter who were the first to reject the EU Constitution and they have not as yet had their final say!

Social Mobility killed off in the UK!

A report just released illustrates what all thinking people have known for decades - social mobility ended with the deliberate destruction of the Grammar Schools. Both parties have connived at this result and no greater evidence is needed of their personal lack of integrity, sickness of minds and evil intentions towards the people of the nation for their own selfish ends, the Labour Party so that it can continue to be re-elected on lies and the Conservative Party so that it can maintain the class divide for its own benefits (witness the number of Etonians in the Shadow Cabinet etc.) Is any party supporting education according to ability even today - NO, of course not, yet that is the sole means social mobility will ever be achieved. I speak as a product of private and state primary education and Grammar School and Public Boarding School secondary education. I know the truth and I have known for decades that our politicians of both parties have deliberately been destroying the opportunities of Britain's youth, a policy today seen completed in the dreadful institutions that British universities have become. Note the debt-laden (and frequently drink-sodden) undergraduate drones who have yet to raise a whimper of protest at the deliberate destruction of the economy and thus all their futures - Pathetic! Here endeth the day's rant!

Massive support for English Public Holiday

Making St Georges Day a Public Holiday has gathered massive support on Facebook - over 67,000 signatories since the start date on 8th January. Link here. A full report is on The Cross of St George Blog, linked here. Is something finally turning in the desperately sick British political situation in England? I hardly dare hope!

Shareholders give resounding NO to Brown's S?U?P?E?R?Bank

Lloyds shareholders accepted 0.5 per cent of the offered shares in the new bank double the 0.24 per cent take-up by HBOS shareholders. It seems a miracle that Brown's New Labour can muster significantly higher figures in opinion polls - a fearsome indication of the extent of Brown's government paid client state of drones who must be ruthlessly culled before Britain can recover!

Brown's excuses and disgraceful US blame game blown!

The Independent on Sunday, so-called but nevertheless staunch supporter of New Labour, has a columnist today, a Mr Chris Watling, who is described as Chief Executive of Longview Economics, who writes under a headline predicting Britain as bound for the wilderness, amongst other perceptive nuggets the following: It should be noted that our crisis was not born out of America's sub-prime lending, but was of our own making. As the five big British banks made loans at a rapid rate, their combined balance sheet ballooned from a mere one times GDP in 1999 to four times by 2007. While not as bad as in Iceland, where banks' balance sheets reached 10 times GDP, it is still a frighteningly large number. While some of that growth reflected global and domestic acquisitions, most related to domestic lending.

Gas thefts begin - Britain faces cuts!

The Sunday Times reports less than a week's supply for the UK and raises the prospects of cuts, linked here. The following is a quote from their report: Suppliers were forced to dip into reserves last week after energy companies began siphoning gas out of Britain to supply other parts of Europe.... (Ireland's) Energy regulator CER said on Tuesday that Ireland could be indirectly affected if the Russia-Ukraine crisis persisted. “Obviously if that continues to develop over the next couple of months and gas from the North Sea is directed into Europe, it could affect us that way,” a spokesman said..... My other posts on this topic from earlier in the week may be viewed by scrolling down the page, this in particular gives some background.