Diana regretted marrying into a German Family.

An interesting article is in this morning's Sunday Times, linked here. I hope it stems from a concern over our loss of self-governance rather than an urge to increase sales through reference to the Princess and therefore contributed the following comment: The question of the place of birth or deemed nationality of Britain's (and even earlier England's) monarch was never of great importance as the country became a constitutional monarchy and democratic nation state. Now such has ceased to be the case, the manner and method by which this disaster has been allowed to transpire makes the apparent similarity between the nationality of the Royals and our new senior ruling power a burning issue for the future. The fact that the EU now rules the nation through the exercise of the Royal Prerogative in the EU Council I hope is the main underlying reason for this article appearing today.

My comment to The Times

Martin Cole wrote:

The British electorate was effectively on trial yesterday and after six hours of near vomit inducing testimony it was found guilty. Three times this despicable creature was elected. Three heirs to this duplicitous slitherer still run the country: Brown; Mandelson and Straw. In the wings wait two leaders of the main opposition parties apparently selected because of their likeness to the unprincipled former Labour leader who so blithely talks of regime change while bearing the burden of the destruction of the sovereignty and democracy of one very old and formerly respected nation state.

January 30, 2010 8:04 AM GMT The article concerned is here.

An irony too far!

As we speed towards chaos and the deeply cynical and self-serving natures of those who have shaped our world for the past few decades are daily ever more horrifyingly revealed, the recording of ironies, the original purpose of these blogs, seems ever less meaningful. Yesterday, however, two news events came together, the irony of which could not be allowed to pass. The first was the emergence from the shadows of one of the sinister figures who today control the fate and the future of our once British Isles, Axel Weber, head of the Bundesbank and tipped to soon replace the Frenchman Trichet at the ECB, appeared on Bloomberg TV and other media outlets, to make clear Greece and such other suffering southern EU nations will get no aid from Germany, itself responsible for the over-valued Euro. On holocaust day the world remembered, or more accurately ignored, the 65th anniversary of the Auswitch Concentration Camp horrors having been revealed to the world. Read a typically brief BBC report here.

Britain's system of Government stinks!

In simple terms this post's headline carries the message of a report, available today, from a group of senior civil servants and government advisers. They inform us all, as if the point has not already been well proven over recent months, that our elected politicians are a motley bunch and our system of governance has failed. Most significantly, I would have thought, are the careers of those who are the signatories to this report, listed here. These are the men who have uncomplainingly served their political masters in return for vast salaries, undeserved honours and huge index-linked pensions while parliament was neutered and degraded and our sovereignty handed to the EU. Glance at some examples I have selected from the resources of Wikipedia from whence also comes the one telling image:

Frederick Edward Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, KG, GCB, CVO, PC (born 3 January 1938) is a retired British civil servant, now sitting in the House of Lords as a life peer.

He had a high profile career in the civil service from 1961 to 1998, serving as Private Secretary to five prime ministers. He was Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service from 1988 to 1998.

Lord Butler is shown here in the robes of a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter

Full Wikipedia entry is here The Rt. Hon. Sir John Chilcot, GCB, PC (born 22 April 1939) is a privy council member and former civil servant. His appointment as chair of an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath was announced in June 2009.^[1]

He was educated at Brighton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read English and languages. A career civil servant until his retirement in 1997, he served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, Deputy Under-Secretary at the Home Office in charge of the Police Department, and a variety of posts in the Home Office, the Civil Service Department and the Cabinet Office, including Private Secretary appointments to Home Secretaries Roy Jenkins, Merlyn Rees, and Willie Whitelaw, and to the Head of the Civil Service, William Armstrong.^[2]

His honours include CB (1990), KCB (1994), and GCB (1998). He became a Privy Counsellor in 2004, and was a member of the Butler Review of the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He acted as "staff counsellor" to MI5 and MI6 from 1999 to 2004, "dealing with private and personal complaints from members of the intelligence services about their work and conditions."^[3]

He is described as "a mandarin with a safe pair of hands", though some doubt his forensic skill. International lawyer Philippe Sands is reported as saying "Having some familiarity with Sir John's questioning ... it is not immediately apparent that he will have the backbone to take on former government ministers."^[4] Sands also commented specifically in The Observer, on Sir John’s questioning of attorney-general Peter Goldsmith during the Butler inquiry:

“He [Lord Goldsmith] gave evidence on 5 May 2004. The uncorrected transcript shows some members of the inquiry pressing him [Goldsmith] hard. By contrast, Sir John's spoonfed questions give every impression of being designed to elicit a response from the attorney general that would demonstrate the reasonableness of his actions and those of the government.” ^[5]

Full Wikipedia entry is here. No image is necessary, he can be seen on television on most days at present, today co-incidentally in view of the quote above, with Lord Goldsmith. Sir Richard Clive Mottram, GCB (born April 23, 1946) is Chairman or a Board member of a number of private and public sector organisations, many with international links.He is Chairman of: Amey plc; the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl); and the UK Advisory Board of Employment Services Holdings; and a Board member of: the International Advisory Board of GardaWorld; Ashridge Business School; and the Ditchley Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He was formerly a British civil servant, who retired in 2007 from his most recent senior post as Permanent Secretary, Intelligence, Security and Resilience in the Cabinet Office.

Full Wikipedia details are here. (Can you believe the nerve of a former "Permanent Secretary at the Department of Defence, DWP and DETR and Chairman of JIC" considering the shambles the MOD has recently proved itself to be, accepting all these important posts (some apparently with defense links) and thereafter putting his name to a report on "better governance"?

The list continues, but I believe my point is made!

Iceland again and the ongoing banking crisis.

The second day when the Online Times refuses to publish a comment of mine on the Iceland affair (see post below). Less surprisingly today perhaps, as my ire was raised by this nasty slur at the start of Mr Hattersley's article upon which I commented, linked here: "Icelanders are, by nature, intrinsically unreasonable." Hattersley states in his first sentence. At least The Economist recognises the significant aspects of the Icelandic situation which The Times chooses to ignore - Read here. MEANTIME - ANTICIPATING REJECTION - I today copied my exact comment to the Hattersley tripe in The Times, which was as follows: Mr Hattersley, as has been his habit down the years, is completely wrong on this matter. The Icelandic refusal, if confirmed in their referendum (wot that?), to repay deposits lost outside normal EU interbank guarantees are showing the way for ordinary people everywhere to eventually escape the results of the banking fiasco and the present government's policy of the printing of vast sums of useless money under QE. Brown and Darling will eventually be found to have acted illegally in the banking bailout as confirmed by the NAO on the last day of the parliamentary sitting in June last year. When they are eventually jailed (if such is possible under Scottish Law), or otherwise brought to account, then I feel sure small property owning English taxpayers will be as reluctant as the Icelanders to pick up the tab for the profligate commitments made without benefit of parliamentary approval by these two incompetents. A blow by blow account of the HBOS Lloyds RBS fiasco is available in these blog archives as well as the illegality of the bailout as stated by the NAO last June. The illegal conspiracy has now been compounded by Parliament's inaction on this matter since its return. The depth to which this law-busting conspiracy has spread across large parts of the British establishment was again illustrated last evening on the Jeff Randall programme when, from Edinburgh please also note, a funds manager refused to explain why he had deliberately thrown millions down the sewer at the behest of Brown and Darling and contrary to the obligations of his office and interests of his policy and share holders.

Globalisation or Fragmentation!

I hope my readers have a happier 2010 than I can presently possibly envisage for them. The referendum called by Iceland's President on his country's individual citizens having to accept liability for their nation's incredible debt is a grim warning for us all on what now lies ahead. The West's major currencies have been trashed by self-serving and often corrupt politicians desperate to spend ever more in a thoughtless pursuit of the continuance of their positions for what appears the sole primary purpose of maximising their perks and pensions. This seems particularly true of UK parliamentarians and almost all in the employ or "supposed service" of the EU. Gordon Brown and his now apparently bullied and servile cabinet think nothing of committing ever more fantastic sums in pursuit of projects they have no potential to ever see completed. The EU with no responsibility for raising the funds it blithely commits for its scary social schemes and restrictive legislation now possesses a President who appears intent on going even further in this clearly wrongheaded direction. Western currencies are becoming ever more worthless as those responsible for their expenditure become ever less accountable to the small property owners who will eventually, I believe, stubbornly refuse to support committing their hard earned savings to the sewer. Iceland will be a beacon of hope as this New Year begins. Maintaining an ever more global monetary means of exchange and commerce will require pan-totalitarianism. The likely alternative of unplanned national fragmentation already largely accomplished in Belgium and well underway in the U.K., is scary but might carry the best chance for future individual liberties. (A shorter comment to this effect on a news item on the Iceland crisis was rejected for publication by the online edition of the London Times yesterday. I thought the point should be aired somewhere, hence this rare post).