Question That.

Now the centre piece for the Christmas table has been sorted (it's a model of Our Lord in silver glitter which has a face alarmingly similar to that of Jeremy Clarkson) I can begin to relax and try to express some of the anger which has been building up inside of me.

Firstly, I am rather glad that UKIP don't take part in free holidays for MEPs at the expense of the tax payer European Parliament delegations. Because had they been then Nigel Farage would have been in India with all the other MEPs and the most eloquent voice on British withdrawal from the EU could have gone bye byes.

But it seems that if a big disaster happens then questioning what people were doing in the situation in the first place isn't allowed. It's insensitive, or some such bullshit. The reason I know this is because I dared to suggest that I wasn't surprised that the MEPs in Bombay were staying in the most expensive hotel in the city I was met with people making that stupid sucking in air noise.

'You can't say things like that when they could have been in danger'

I fucking can.

What did they think they were doing there in the first place? A load of MEPs on the International Trade committee, most of whom don't know the first fucking thing about International Trade because I've sat through hours of listening to them praise trade tariffs and compensation schemes to inefficient businesses in the past. They go to a country they have no reason to go to, stay in the most expensive hotels, go out to fancy restaurants and get taken round all the sights and guess who pays for it.

Yup, that's right. You and me: Johnny and Jane Tax Payer.

Do we get asked if we want these people to fanny around in India? Do we bugger. We don't even get told that the trip is happening, who is going, what they are doing and how much it is going to cost. We don't get told how little power they have, how the trip was essentially a jolly and that the power is all in the hands of the European Commission.

And apparently, because no one in the European Parliament thought it was a dumb idea going to India to interfere in things they shouldn't only days after air strikes in Pakistan when there was a high alert on AND stay in the most obvious tourist target, we're supposed to feel sorry for them.

I'd be sad if the one MEP I like who went got hurt but apparently because lunatics ran around with guns being demented fundamentalist shit heads, we're not supposed to question why they were there, wasting our money. But the rest, well, they are no better to the other people who suffered in the violence. In fact, in my mine they're somewhat down my list because they had a choice whether to go and were costing me money in doing so.

Of course, if they hadn't have been in that pickle, would we have heard about it at all? I doubt it, for there was nothing there they could have done which would have made any difference which begs the question, why were they there at all?

I don't want my trade policy to be made by the EU. Hell, I don't want any decisions to be made by the EU as I have said a squillion times before. But trade is particularly important because it's so key to our wealth and the wealth of other countries. India is very important in British trade policy because it's one of the countries which we should be engaged in free trade with as a Commonwealth country.

And I resent being told that I can't comment on how my money is spent and how I am being governed because of outside forces. You might not want to say anything but I'm not PC like you. So you can nibble away at your fingernails and bite your lip and wonder if you're allowed to say what you are feeling. But question what kind of democracy we are supposed to live in where there's a moral code on what you think.

Strength through Unity etc.

How did the government not know? Saggy Tits Smith is the Head of the organisation affected by this leak as well as being in charge of the police.

I simply don't believe that the Government didn't know. Let's face it, why should we expect them to be honest? It would be breaking the habit of a lifetime.

They want us to be tagged like livestock in the ID card system only them and their puppet police support.

They refuse to let us have a say on the future of our country despite promising it and choose to lie to us in order to avoid not getting their own way.

The war in Iraq; hell, even as a student I managed to find the documents proving it was illegal and unjust. (UN website, terribly tricky).

etc.



V where are you? We need you right now.

Xanax country

Trixy wasn't the most well behaved girl at school and her mind often wandered in lessons, except her economics lessons at which she did actually pay attention. And in one of those lessons we pig-tailed girlies were taught that the definition of a recession is two or more quarters of reduced GDP. Hence now, year of our economically illiterate government 2008, we are in one.

A depression is therefore defined as a sustained period of declining GDP.


So, if I look at that graph I can see that we are now officially in recession as we've had one quarter (Q2 2008) of no growth whatsoever and one of negative -0.5% in Q3.

Anyone unfortunate enough to listen to that fool Darling on Monday would know that his growth predictions for 2009 are between -0.75 and -1.25 which is another contraction of the economy and four quarters of reduced GDP. Which could be construed as more than a recession and quite possibly even a depression.

At its worst point, unemployment in America soared to 25%. A decade of easy credit created a false sense of prosperity, while farmers struggled under heavy debt and declining farm goods prices. The ensuing market correction in 1929 evaporated the fortunes of many, with the entire population suffering as consumer demand dropped, jobs disappeared, and factories shuttered against declining orders.

Now swap 1929 for 2008 and tell me that, apart from perhaps the 25% unemployment, would you be so surprised to read that in the Mail in a few years time? Obviously there would have to be some blame on immigration for a decline in house prices to make it realistic, but that's easily introduced into the entire article.

Given the debt we are to be saddled with and the anticipated further drop in house prices which has been allowed, following the legislation by Lawson and Greenspan I will add, to turn into a housing stock market and which did back up the debt culture by making people feel asset wealthy, I don't see 2010 being much better.

The government are rightly concerned about deflation and as such the PBR was one designed to counter that. Once our economy is one of inflation rather than deflation let's hope that whoever is then Chancellor gets on with the job of cutting taxes.

But until then, I think we're in a bit of a stinker which will take more than a jog and a happy pill to shake off. And remember who put you there.

Yes: Most of us.

Trixy is confused

I know they're politicians and thus many find it quite difficult to tell the truth when they think it's going to cost them votes. Actually, scrub the last part of that sentence: many find it quite difficult to tell the truth but, given their constant battering of bullshit stats on how education has 'improved'*, do they not think it's an anomaly that we wouldn't therefore be able to do basic addition and subtraction?

this spending will help put money into the economy in the coming months.
But to prevent the recession deepening, we also need to take action to put money into the economy immediately.
I have looked at a range of ways which might achieve this.
I have decided that the best and fairest approach is a measure which will help everyone.
To deliver a much-needed extra injection of spending into the economy right now.
I therefore propose to cut VAT from 17.5 to 15 per cent until the end of next year.
This VAT reduction will come into effect next Monday on December 1st.

Okay.
But wait:

The reduction in VAT lowers the amount of tax paid on tobacco, alcohol and petrol.
In addition, petrol prices have come down, by 7 pence a litre last month alone.
So I will offset the VAT reduction, by increasing all these duties by an amount which should keep the overall cost to consumers the same this year.

Okay, so keep milking the goods with inelastic demand and raise duty by 2.5%? Or just not cut VAT on those things? Oh...

5.111 The Government will increase the overall duty on alcohol from 1 December so that the total VAT and duty remain broadly unchanged following the reduction in VAT to 15 per cent. The increase in duty will be maintained when the VAT rate is returned to 17.5 per cent in January 2010.
5.112 Maintaining high levels of tax on tobacco helps to reduce overall tobacco consumption. Tobacco duties will, therefore, be increased from 6pm on 24 November to ensure that the overall level of taxation on tobacco remains broadly unchanged following the reduction in VAT to 15 per cent. The increase in duty will be maintained when the VAT rate is returned to 17.5 per cent in January 2010.

I am genuinely bemused by this. Given that the duty on tobacco and alcohol went up last night and VAT is not changing until Monday, the 4% increase on tobacco is a 4% increase on the current price which is going to be more than a 2.5% cut.

For example:
Say fags cost £5.97 then a 4% increase is an increase of 23.88p bringing those cigarettes up to 620.88p

Now, as tobacco went up last night and VAT isn't being reduced until Monday, that means the 2.5% will be on the new price of 620.88p This will mean a reduction of 15.25p. This makes the new price, if the costs and profit margins of the retailer are kept the same, of 8.63p per packet which is only just under a 1.5% increase on the original price.

So how is that keeping the price the same?

Or is it just that it's another tax rise based on the fact that ZaNu Labour hate anyone having a choice, especially on activities they disapprove of (but should probably try so they chill the bugger out)?

If it's the latter then combined with the downright dangerous ID card proposals (I'm not bloody getting one: I didn't when I lived in Belgium and I shan't here) then may I suggest, should you not be aware of how we simply cannot have another Labour government if we are to exist as a free peoples, that should you debate voting Labour it might be better off stapling your hand to an immovable surface instead of doing so.

Just to keep us safe.

*for 'improved' read 'had money chucked at it

Ha!

A widget via The Kitchen says:

We think http://more-to-life-than-shoes.blogspot.com is written by a man (74%)

Not quite.

The country can't afford Labour

FORTY FIVE PER CENT.

Why don't they just go on the TV and say 'We hate you and we certainly don't want you to work hard to earn more money.'

They're certainly doing their best to bankrupt the country.

I have two questions:
1) How long can the country afford a Labour government
2) How long can the country afford to stay in the EU?

Huge thanks and a clarification

Firstly, just enormous thanks to everyone who has donated money so I can have my mouth drilled. I am quite simply overwhelmed with the generosity of people out there and, well, I really don't know what to say but 'Thank you so much'.

I'd just like to clarify something, though:

When I attack 'benefit scrounging scum' I'm not attacking

1) The Poor (for I include myself in that) they are not synonymous. In fact, the people I'm talking about on benefits seem to have a high disposable income so they can buy their children all those pairs of trainers

2) People who are on benefits because they are unemployed but not through choice.

No, the people I'm attacking and am generally not a huge fan of are people like this:

Never in our history have we supported so many wastrels, intent on spending their entire lives sucking at the teat of the Welfare State. We have families where generations have not worked or intended to work. We have children in schools, being (poorly) educated at a cost of over £75000 each, that absolutely no intention of pursuing any form of career. We have a growing army of ignorant, lazy fucktards happy to sit on the sofa, Stella can in hand, watching their daily dose of Soma.

I’m fascinated in the concept of this growing army. Everywhere I go, I see sallow faced mongs, scrabbling over a £5 wrap of crack. The streets are full of bloated land whales pushing the prams of miserable offspring with snotty noses and inbred scowls on their faces.

Not people who have jobs and might find themselves unemployed and claim until they find themselves a new job, because I actually think in a society that is a good thing. Rather like universal education because education is a merit good which we should all, theoretically, benefit from.

People who don't want to work, who never plan to work. Those people I hate, I object to paying for and at times like this when I am struggling financially, I really, really find repulsive. As was written on CiF the other day:

Last week I visited (as a doctor) a family in a council estate. The mother was concerned about her 12 year old son. She was very pleased that her older son was now on incapacity and would therefore do well for himself in terms of money. There is nothing wrong with this older boy that makes him incapacitated, but that is another story. She also had a 14 year old daughter, who while I was there, constantly argued with her mother demanding money for cigarettes. The three children had three different fathers, all absent. The kids, while I could see were still children, gleamed with malignant insolence. I can see them turning into damaged adults. I feel sorry for the trap they are in – the trap created directly by the welfare state whereby the family, and all those in the neighbourhood, see welfare as a lifestyle option. They live in squalor but have more wealth than most people I knew in India; they certainly have more material comforts than I ever had growing up in Delhi.

I chose not to claim when I didn't work and it was also my choice to take a lower paid job because I decided I wanted to have a job where I felt I could make a difference. I am financially much worse off for it but mentally much better off and happy in the knowledge I am helping people. Mea Culpa. However I didn't anticipate being landed with such a huge bill because I thought I'd covered myself, via taxes and insurance, for these eventualities. I didn't realise that my teeth weren't considered part of my body.

Once again, huge hugs. And if you don't like the fact that I chose to voice my anger at my situation, tough. Because for every one like me who decides to get angry and write about it there are more people who don't and choose not to have that treatment and whose health suffers. And I don't think that's right which is why I have decided that this project is one I am (excuse me) going to get my teeth into.

£20 billion for an NHS computer system but people pulling their own teeth out with pliers?

Falling numbers of NHS dentists are forcing many patients to go without treatment or even try pulling out their own teeth, a study found today.

Almost a fifth (19%) of those questioned in the biggest patient survey of its kind revealed that they had missed out on dental work they needed because of the cost.

The research, involving more than 5,000 patients in England, also found that as many as 6% had even resorted to treating themselves because they could not find a dentist.

No. Wrong.

No light at the end of the tunnel

Okay, a quick summary.

I've just been quoted a huge amount of money for urgent medical treatment which I can't afford to pay because all my savings and every penny I can save in the next few months is going to pay my tax bill so some benefit scrounging scum can have the same treatment for free.

That's the reality of live in Brown's Britain. And it will be the same in Cameron's Britain or Clegg's Britain.

I really haven't been so scared and desolate in a long time. I can't afford £800 for specialist root canal treatment to remove an infection which is eating away at my jawbone. Because it's the second time around it only has a 60-70% chance of success so there's another huge risk that should that not work I'll have to fork our thousands of pounds to have a replacement tooth fitted, should I choose not to have a large gap in my mouth like some extra in Eastenders.

I've written to the Health Secretary and copied in the Prime Minister and my MP (who is a good bloke who actually cares about his constituents which is probably why the Tory party were allegedly trying to replace him) because they really should know what a fucking mess they've made of this country and our health services. They have provided a breeding ground for lazy, stupid gangs of knuckle scrapping fools who are, day by day, proving Darwin wrong.

I had a look at the Dept of Health website to find out about NHS dentists and stumbled across this rather interesting, and yet rather unsurprising, list of people who don't have to pay for their dental treatment:

You also do not have to pay if – when the treatment starts or when you are asked to pay – you:
• are getting, or your partner is getting, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or Pension Credit guarantee credit
• have, or your name is on, a valid NHS tax credit exemption certificate
• have the right to full help under the NHS Low Income Scheme (i.e. you are named on a valid HC2 certificate).

Needless to say, because I have a job and work hard I am none of these things. I don't claim any benefits, I don't have children who use the state school system, I didn't use it myself because the schools in my area were terrible. The only medical treatment I've been getting recently I've had to pay for myself because the NHS doesn't cover it and my medical insurance doesn't cover it because hardly any medical policies do, what with the cost of private dental treatment being so expensive it's not financially viable for insurance companies to offer it. In fact, it's over two years worth of my premium for just the first part of my necessary treatment.

But if I didn't have a job, or had a child I would be laughing because people like me would pay for the treatment. Chances are, I'd also have a house.

How have things been allowed to get so bad? To the stage when someone who pays thousands and thousands in tax every year is sitting, sobbing, wondering how they are going to pay to ensure their jaw doesn't get eaten up?

The state of finances in this country is a mess: my loan could get called in at any time and yet my savings can vanish and from banks which I'm bankrolling through my taxes which don't really provide me with anything. I'm all in favour of a strong armed forces but even they are being sent to Iraq for a war which is illegal and unnecessary. I have never had a chance to vote on whether I want to be part of the EU and yet that costs tax payers in this country billions of pounds in direct payments without even counting the costs in loss of efficiency through excessive regulations and downright dumb laws and rulings. My food prices are higher than they should be because of the Common Agricultural Policy, my money is being wasted on an energy policy which will have the country flooded with darkness in a few years time and every nice part of the countryside covered in fucking windmills whilst the people who own the land are paid for these monstrosities sitting on their land. Council workers are being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to oversee failing services which allow children to be tortured and murdered, every time you move you're at risk of breaking a law and yet people who commit the worst crimes are getting sentences which in no way seem to compensate for the awful crimes they've committed and the danger to society that they are.

It seems to me that the harder you work, the more the government hates you. And I'm terrified and, more so, I'm in an awful lot of pain and in a predicament which I can't see any way out of besides not paying the rest of my tax and spending it on something I really need.

Of course, if I did that, if I spent the money I earn ensuring my physical wellbeing, then I'd be taken to court.

What a cataclysmic mess.

And what am I going to do?

BNP: More hypocrisy

Regarding that faux outrage by the hard left socialist freaks where Simon Derby was using the media to send threatening messages to his former chums and trying to make us think he was 'thinking of the Chiiiiillddreeeen':

UKIP leader Nigel Farage points out that whilst they've been jumping around talking about calling the police over the data protection act, the party themselves are being investigated for the way they use membership lists.

"It's the classic case of the biter bit. They've had no compunction about using parts of our database which they managed to obtain to contact our members directly. In fact the Information Commissioner is still dealing with our complaint of last summer about this misuse.

As Mr Farage said to me, "I'm the one that gets the 88 year old war veteran asking me why those people are writing letters to him at his house."

Well, quite. I suspect that they think that's okay because it's them doing it.

Back to the statement:

It says it all about the BNP that so many of those on their database seem to be worried about being revealed as members. Who would join a party where membership is a social and professional embarrassment? And finally, how ironic is it that the BNP leaders are bleating about their position under the Human Rights Act, something they claim they want to abolish.

Still, it's the BNP. Anyone expecting rational thought is looking in the wrong place there.

Did you expect any different?

So Simon Derby has blamed 'groups aligned to the "Labour party' for putting lives at risk and endangering members' children.

Seriously, that's what he has said. Without a hint of irony. If I may just interrupt at this point and suggest that

1) If children need such careful protection then why did the BNP include them on such a contentious document?

2) Perhaps children shouldn't be members of politican parties?

That last point, brought about by this 'family membership' option (and I am, once again, eternally grateful that my parents aren't mouth foaming bigots who would have inflicted such a trauma on me) would naturally make the brain washing of young, future voters more difficult.

What do the young ones do? Practise marching songs and go camping whilst the girls learn to cook?

So may I suggest that your faux 'think of the chiiiiiildren' is, really, a bunch of arse which is laughable in its stupidity and transparency.

I shall write about the data protection stuff later when I have all my ducks in a row...

quick chuckle to myself as I read 'People' in The Times today. Adam Sherwin describes George Osborne as Lady Mandelson's 'cruise chum'.

Whispers surrounding some of the people involved in that little saga which have reached my shell-like make me think that's sailing pretty close to the wind.

Or it could be nothing.

The balloon's gone up

You may well ask why I am sitting here surrounded by bits of torn, bitten and shredded newspaper. It's because I couldn't cope with the draft of economic detritus being described on the front page.

These people who are paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to govern the country; a system which allows them houses, travel, subsidised food and drink as well as a nice salary and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that they have done a fucking awful job. I'm trying to think of how they could have made it any worse, even if they'd tried.

The banks are insolvent, hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs, there has been no improvement in schools and the NHS, we're engaged in a war in Iraq we had no reason to be in which has cost many lives, public borrowing is at a mind blowing level, the lights will go out in a few years time because we have some greenieweenies who think running around with a child's windmill on a stick will power the country and, even worse, millions of people will still vote for the cunts which shows a serious lack of intelligence and survival instinct in the voting population.


The other Miliband today outlined the new UK energy policy which will ensure the UK doesn't break the mad EU rules on carbon emissions

Tax cuts would be a wonderful stimulus to the economy in just the right place. Forget government spending because there are so many examples of the nauseating waste which occurs every day with our money: NHS computer systems costing £40bn according to some and the Olympics to name but two. This isn't a good way to redistribute income and add an injection into the National Income equation because it's just been thrown around rather than allocated to companies who are efficient.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, spoke of the need for “structural adjustments later on” and Mr Brown himself accepted that the Pre-Budget Report (PBR) stimulus would be “temporary”.

Their remarks reflected the strong Treasury view that next week’s tax cut and spending package from the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, must be accompanied by evidence that he intends to get soaring borrowing back on course over the medium term. That should mean tax rises, spending cuts or both.

Once again, they completely fail to see the point of tax cuts.

They aren't supposed to be used for short term vote winning, you arse, they are used because people are better at spending their own money than the government is, and as such when you cut taxes you increase revenues to the Treasury because the country as a whole does better off. Which is why this concept of 'when things are better we'll stick them up again' makes me want to run around sticking sharp things into people who are trying to ruin our lives for us. They've said themselves that tax cuts are a stimulus so why oh fucking why would they not want that to continue?

Is what we have here the definitive evidence that Nu Labour hates us and wants us all to die in abject misery with no food, shelter, jobs or lights just a van from the government occasionally driving around like some statist ice-cream van delivering occasional sustenance?

And Cameron. What the fuck is he playing at? No unfunded tax cuts? Listen, sunshine; with the debts we've been saddled with for bailing out these banks; and why is the British tax payer having to fork out for, say, HSBC branches in other countries? Why not just UK deposits? we won't be having any 'funded' tax cuts for many years to come and that just highlights that the Tories, once the party of the economy, now have no right to lay claim to that legacy.

They have shat on Thatcher's work and clearly have been taken in by the NUT lobby proclaiming from the rooftops that her reforms, which made this country a success, were 'terrible'.

It's time to set the emigration plans in motion: when I live in a country whose Treasury Bills have a higher risk rating than a bank they're bailing out, I know we're fucked. And not in the 'passionate love making with David Miliband' kind of way.

I am struggling to grasp how even people as mentally deficient as EU Commissioners could have this one so badly wrong.

I mean, what the fucking fuckity fuck are you guys playing at? Do you want the globe to dive into a depression? Really? Because if you don't may I suggest that you all not just resign but jump off a tall building to make doubly sure you can't be given a role which has anything to do with international trade ever again.

Chinese candle exporters will be hit with extra charges when selling in Europe to punish some producers for selling below cost, the European Union said Saturday.

The EU imposed antidumping charges for six months from Saturday after European candlemakers complained that they were losing business to cheaper Chinese products.

The EU said Chinese candles sell for around 9 percent less and make up about one third of the European market.

Well done everybody! Unemployment is rocketing, economic growth is facing the wrong direction and people are concerned at the run up to Christmas* so the EU decides to slash an area where shops can make a profit and increase prices for consumers. Well fucking done.

Retailers such as Ikea and the British Retail Consortium — which represents supermarket chains Tesco and Marks & Spencer — said the EU was wrong to claim that stores could easily absorb the price hikes. It said retailers would probably have to slice profit from other items to compensate.

The EU claims large chain stores make a profit of up to 70 percent on candles but the BRC said they can make as little as a 6-percent profit.

"This is particularly shocking as this new tax is imposed before Christmas, at a time when consumers have never been so short for disposable incomes," said Alasdair Gray of the BRC.

Well, BRC, you guys all have a vote at the next European Elections so how about you send a strong message.

We have an amateur in charge of the trade policy for 27 diverse countries, a woman who only got her job, as far as I can see, because she's a competent and convincing liar, and if you want to have the directly elected British government making these decisions you have to vote to leave the EU.

Mr Farage queried whether she was equipped to take on what, he said, was the most important trade brief in the world at a time of growing economic instability around the globe.

"Now is not the time for a novice," he said.

"We need a big hitter. Looking at your CV, you have no relevant experience to take on this dossier at a difficult time."

Baroness Ashton, a former economist, said she was qualified to do the job and would argue the cause for free trade against the forces of economic nationalism.

"The question is do I have the ability to go and negotiate on behalf of the European Union, bearing in mind that I want stability and economic growth," she told MEPs.

She didn't take long to answer that one, then.

Letter in the post to MEPs and Mr Farage in particular apologising for this latest cock up? I doubt it. It'll be the usual 'protecting european businesses and jobs' which once again demostrates that David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage is not even close to being understood by our hapless and, frankly, dangerous Euroweenies. Look, sweetie; if China want to sell us nice, cheap products which allows British workers to do something they are more efficient at then that is a good thing for us.

They've proved themselves time and again to be completely in the pocket of the protectionist countries. Next week in Strasbourg the European Parliament is voting for yet more of you tax money to be spent proping up inefficient european businesses who can't compete with globalisation via the Globalisation Adjustment Fund.

whereas Italy has requested assistance in respect of four cases concerning redundancies in the textile sector in Sardinia, Piedmont, Lombardy and Tuscany

It's something you'll just have to get a grip on understanding. Want free trade? Leave the EU.

*although maybe it'll do those chavs who live off social security and yet always seem to get the most at Christmas

Possibly the best letter ever written

As flagged up by that Miserable Old Git Holborn.

This should be sent to every elected politician in the country. (no, not the pointless drivel by Lynne Featherstone, the succinct note by someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Silly.)

Dear Ms Featherstone

I think the people who should truly say sorry for such events are the opinion leaders of the Guardian. Please allow me to explain.

Last week I visited (as a doctor) a family in a council estate. The mother was concerned about her 12 year old son. She was very pleased that her older son was now on incapacity and would therefore do well for himself in terms of money. There is nothing wrong with this older boy that makes him incapacitated, but that is another story. She also had a 14 year old daughter, who while I was there, constantly argued with her mother demanding money for cigarettes. The three children had three different fathers, all absent. The kids, while I could see were still children, gleamed with malignant insolence. I can see them turning into damaged adults. I feel sorry for the trap they are in – the trap created directly by the welfare state whereby the family, and all those in the neighbourhood, see welfare as a lifestyle option. They live in squalor but have more wealth than most people I knew in India; they certainly have more material comforts than I ever had growing up in Delhi.

The Guardian describes such families as poor. The Labour party wants to throw money at the family. The Guardian readers blame Margaret Thatcher for this state of affairs, smug in their modern pieties, their intellectual laziness, and their stupidity masquerading as sanctimonious concern. I used to work with slum children in Delhi; they had very little, but even the most physically disabled amongst them made an effort.

There is no hope for Britian. Civilisations dont die, they commit suicide. And before they commit suicide, they read and believe the Guardian.

I truly and deeply feel sorry for all the children who are the victims of the welfare state. Things are much, much worse for the slum children in India, I saw more dignity among them and certainly greater hope.

I am not sure if you will understand this message. I am too tired to explain further. Either you will get or you wont. Either way, it will make no difference to anything.

ADMIN

I'm not sure if people in the BNP can read; certainly they're not very bright. But here it is again for you.

I am not having this blog, MY blog, being turned into a forum for your rather pathetic views, complete with outdated insults. It's very boring, I am sick of getting your e-mail notifications full of ranting bullshit so I have blocked you.

Fuck off.

Simple enough?

Oh really

Via Mark Wadsworth I notice some fucking hypocritical socialist undemocratic Irish wanker of a politician has been criticising Klaus for addressing a dinner last night and talking about the EU Constitution. It's 'not helpful' apparently.Or, in his words, an "inappropriate intervention". Well, quite. How dare peope make their opinions heard on a relevant and vitally important issue. They've had their chance to speak, they got it wrong and it was duly ignored. Now, if you wouldn't mind terribly shutting the fuck up and let us decide without reference to your views?

No doubt this is because Declan Ganley was there. And yet I can't see the eurofanatics getting so wound up when Klaus is over on the Emerald Isle again, this time with Sarkozy who wants to bulldoze Lisbon through. Thing is, only mention of that meeting, and the one in Paris also with the Irish PM, that I've even heard mentioned is on internal FCO e-mails. Now, why is that?

This is good for the European Parliament and trust in politics

Says Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies in reference to the news that Tory MEP BenDen Dover is going to have to pay back half a million pounds and is no longer a Tory Party MEP.

He was accused of paying about £750,000 in staff and office allowances to a family owned firm HP Holdings, thus directly benefiting his wife and daughter.

It emerged on Wednesday that an investigation by the secretary general of the European Parliament concluded that Mr Dover's behaviour had constituted a conflict of interest.

The case has been referred to the European Parliament's fraud unit.

Of course, he's still an MEP claiming £61,000 a year at a time when the country is in a recession and people are losing their jobs every day.

And let's not forget Giles Chichester:

revious leader of the Tories in Brussels, Giles Chichester, quit the role earlier this year after admitting he broke expenses rules.

Mr Chichester paid thousands of pounds in staff allowances to a firm of which he was a paid director.

He broke the rules but the European Parliament didn't find him guilty of wrongdoing and actually apologised for taking so long to give him the all clear. But as I have said before, these are the people who cleared Tom Wise of any wrongdoing even though he was kicked out of his own party who knew he was a wrong 'un.

As Bruno Waterfield wrote at the time:

A letter has been sent from Harald Rømer, the powerful euro-fonctionnaire who runs the Parliament's administration, to the former Conservative leader here in Brussels. In it, Mr Rømer apologises to Mr Chichester (er, wasn't he the one who had broken the rules?) for "the delay in bringing this matter to a positive conclusion".

"I can inform you that I have come to the conclusion that although your contract with that company constituted a potential case of conflict of interest, you have had no personal financial benefit from that contract, and that no conflict of interest has ever materialised," writes Mr Rømer (my emphasis).

"It is clear that all the allowances received have indeed been used to pay the salaries and fees of your employees and related overhead expenses."

"In view of the above, I am content that there was no personal gain arising out of a conflict of interest in breach of the relevant rules and that the use of the money received from your parliamentary assistance allowance has been fully justified by the extensive documentation that you have presented." (my emphasis).

At least he won't be getting a nice cushy job as he's now deselected, (unless some pal makes him a director of a company or two) but what about the others? And here's not forgetting that he's had years of a nice income which could have enabled him to make money from the interest, increase his investment portfolio, maybe his daughter was able to buy a house when the rest of us are struggling to save up a desposit. It's still rotten but of course the party he was elected for and the people he was elected by do not have the power to kick him out now.

So whilst Chris Davies might talk about wanting to clean up politics, his comments show me that he's happy to paper over the cracks because his true love is not fairness and transparency but an EU state.

What did we expect from a man who, according to UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom "seems unable to grasp the fact that public spending comes from the tax payer."

Nuff said.

Brown: he can't even add up properly.

The economy is fucked...

The Bank of England says the UK has probably entered a recession in the middle of 2008 and is likely to continue to contract well into 2009.

in a way which will take more than some wanky Keynesian demand management to cure.

The number of people out of work in the UK in the three months to September jumped by 140,000 to 1.82 million - the highest in 11 years.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.8%, up from 5.4% in the previous quarter, according to official figures.

So, chaps. Two more clear indications that that cunt Brown has not only stolen your pension, your wages and made every past time virtually illegal but he has monumentally shat on everything you've worked for. Your business, your career, your home and your investment portfolio.

So, here's a thought. How about you don't vote for him anymore?

We will remember them

n.b. The author is not Trixy

Armistice Day is one of those increasingly few occasions when the British public rises above Daily Mail-led fits of self-righteousness, and bottom-feeding obsession with reality TV. Failure to respect the two minutes’ silence is most unusual, and the sobriety and emotion of the event transcend superficial post- Diana public outpourings of grief to represent genuine loss and respect for those who have died in the service of their country. The British have been ever supportive of the Armed Forces and November 11 stands as a splendid monument to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of British servicemen, with the well-documented horrors of the trenches of Flanders serving as a universal symbol for the unpleasantness of war.

For a soldier, Armistice Day is a nexus of the year as we remember our fallen. As a Royal Welch Fusilier, my regiment is the most documented infantry battalion of the First World War after the tomes of Robert Graves and Seigfried Sassoon amongst many others, and the sufferings and magnificent achievements of the 23rd Foot in that war are recorded in unprecedented depth. 9,972 Royal Welchmen gave their lives between 1914-18, with tens of thousands injured. Our knowledge of the achievements of our forebears and the annual reminder of their ultimate sacrifice ensures that the weight of history hangs heavy on our shoulders on Armistice Day. In last year’s parade, the privilege of carrying the colours, those flags on which are borne our myriad battle honours, which symbolise the history and spirit of the regiment, under and for which so many have given their lives, stands as a high point in my Army career. My fellow ensign and I made a pact beforehand to release the colours and let them fly as we marched off the parade square, and it made for a glorious sight in the Cyprus wind.

As a serving soldier, however, those losses closest to me were foremost in my mind during the two minute silence yesterday: the five members of 2 Mercian Battlegroup who died whilst I was with them on Op Herrick 6; and most significantly Second Lieutenant Jon Bracho-Cooke, who died in Iraq in 2006, and Major Lex Roberts, who died in Afghanistan in 2007, both from my company at Sandhurst. I am not ashamed to have shed a small tear in their memory. Although given in unpopular wars in which the scale of British casualties does not begin to approach those of some previous conflicts, their deaths assume a particular significance in that they were not given for the immediate benefit of our own country (although in our country’s service); instead, these soldiers gave their lives that others in distant lands might have a better tomorrow. Although the death of a colleague gives true cause for lamentation, in our grief we should not forget to be heartbreakingly proud of their sacrifice. For that reason, with the Armed Forces still embroiled in two wars abroad, the bittersweet remembrance of Armistice Day remains more important and relevant than ever.

Pip pip

Strangely Brown

Make mine a large one

So MPs have published a report on binge drinking: hands up how many of you are surprised. Anyone?

Their plans to tell supermarkets how to price their products are unacceptable and nothing to do with them. Which MP included that in their manifesto? Have they ever thought that maybe, the reason we drink so much as a nation (apart from the distortion created from the Scots) is because the political classes, and in that - include MPs, MEPs, Councillors, commissioners and their policy wonks who have made our lives as dull, antiseptic and painful as possible.

I like to have a drink firstly, because I prefer a gin and tonic to a glass of sqaush and second, because it helps numb the pain of how these vile, hideous, gorgons have drained any fun or risk out of life. They won't be content until they, for they know best, have us gormlessly chained to our worker drone station, eating the food they provide us to eat, not drinking, not smoking and all jogging home in one huge group, aparachiks whipping us should we fail to keep up or get our knees up high enough.

Imagine your worst fears of a boarding school and that'll be a luxury holiday destination you dream about, when you're not begging for alzheimers to kick in.

But not in the Houses of Parliament, of course. Cheapest bar I fucking know. Wonder if they'll stop subsidising that? Or that fat Tory councillor I met yesterday, boasting about his luxury travel quaffing champagne and smoked salmon on a tax payer funded jolly? Will he suddenly join in with this whole notion of abstinence to combat 'yob culture'?

Will they bugger: it's do as I say and not as I do, but for most people in this country, sleepwalking into this Orwelliam nighmare, they deserve it for never putting up a fight.

Lest we forget

I have been working in Cardiff all weekend so I couldn't make it to the Cenotaph today (but at least the South Africans beat the Welsh). However, there is a ceremony on Armistice Day at the Cenotaph where the last three remaining from the First World War will each lay a wreath and also the Silence in the Square

Join us in Trafalgar Square from 9.45 am on Tuesday 11 November 2008 to stand shoulder to shoulder in a rarely silent London. Together we will reflect in silence on the human cost of conflict.

The Royal British Legion invites people of every age, race and religion to come together to mark the 90th Anniversary: Two Minute Silence at 11am in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday 11 November.

The Two Minute Silence has been observed on Armistice Day since the end of the First World War; but with troops on active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots around the world today, the Two Minute Silence remains as relevant today as ever.

This year is the 90th Anniversary of the end of the 'War to end all wars' and so I thought I would write up a section from a book I have been reading at the moment which, when I read it, reduced me to tears.

If you were on that commuter train, you now know why there was a girl sobbing.

'Samson lay groaning about twenty yards beyond the front trench. Several attempts were made to rescue him. He had been very badly hit. Three men got killing in these attempts; two officers and two men, wounded. In the end his own orderly managed to crawl out to him. Samson waved him back, saying that he was riddled through and not worth rescuing; he sent his apologies to the company for making such a noise...

At dusk we all went out to get in the wounded, leaving only sentries in the line. The first dead body I came across was Samson's, hit in seventeen places. I found that he had forced his knuckles into his mouth to stop himself crying out and attracting anymore men to their death.'
From Robert Graves' 'Goodbye to All That'. David Cameron's favourite book, but don't let that stop you from reading it if you haven't already.

Hopefully that should remind anyone yet to buy a poppy to do so and, most importantly, wear it with pride.

Can we get on with the real issues?

Watching Question Time last night, particularly when I am a tired little bunny, was in hindsight a bad idea. Not only was I wound up by the fact that there were two from the world of arts when Nigel Farage had been shifted to this one because they wanted an economist on instead of him last time round:

UKIP leader Nigel Farage was supposed to be on QT this week, live from a church hall somewhere ghastly, I should imagine. But they called him up to say that they were moving him to another date because of the financial news and they wanted an economist...Note who they kept on, though:
David Dimbleby will be joined in Birmingham by Jacqui Smith MP, Charles Kennedy MP, Janet Street-Porter and two other guests to be confirmed.

But despite there being a Minister and a Shadow Minister the only person to actually come out with something constructive on President Elect Obama was the leader of a minor political party who gets dismissed as a one-trick pony.
Have a look for yourself and try not to scream when you realise the chap who rants about how bad global markets are is a) applauded and b) has a vote the same as someone who understands economics.
From a BBC report:

Mr Obama has pledged to renegotiate America's trade deals to include greater protection for workers and the environment, partly in order to level the playing field and reduce the flow of American jobs abroad.

The President of the European Council is Sarkozy who is a protectionist. The President-elect of the US is Obama who is a protectionist. The world is facing an economic slow down and yet no one seems to have learnt that the worst thing to do is to get all protectionist on your bad self, or whatever the kids are saying these days.

The severity and length of the Great Depression of the 1930s was exacerbated tremendously by import tariffs and other protectionist measures which were a response to domestic unemployment. This caused unemployment overseas so they imposed protectionist measures. This caused more unemployment in the countries they imported from and lo! Everyone is worse off.

Now, unemployment in the UK is rising, as in most other parts of the world. Economic growth is slowing down and our government is seeking to rectify this situation with meausres out of the Keynesian Demand Management textbook, despite the fact it's been proven not to work. It's like the 1970s never happened and maybe the reason for these cycles every 40 years or so is to do with generations not understanding what happened before and why.

Back to the point: Can we please stop treating Obama like the new Messiah. I know he's half Kenyan but we're all the same underneath and electing someone because of the colour of their skin is, I think, just as bad as not electing someone because of the colour of their skin.

The fact is, whether he be black, white, pink, purple or technicolour kitten coloured, he's a protectionist: bad enough during economic good times but cataclysmic during a slump. So can we all stop raving on and get a grip, because with him and Sarko, we look to be a lot worse off.

Due to unpleasant, offensive and tedious comments by various members of the BNP (who took to calling me bigoted) I have removed the post about the BNP writing a press release and using RBL comments given to a national newspaper, without asking their permission, to try to make their party look patriotic.

I'm far too busy and exhausted to sit there reading these trails of detritus flung across my screen and these people are so deeply unpleasant it's making me sick reading them.

However, I'm sure you are all aware of how vile and hypocritical the BNP are and now you know that they also like to misrepresent charities.

I am also aware that, because they don't appear to get irony, there will be more comments following this. Just to warn you: I will just block you should you continue.

The impression I get is that they sit there in little groups gossiping to each other about what they're going to write and then watch the screen waiting for it to appear.

Just bugger off, will you. I don't like you, I don't agree with you, I am offended by you. If you don't like what you read here there's a simple solution: don't read it. I'm not making you.

I have, however, kept all the information on this should you decide to fuck me off again at a time when my life is more calm.

Nuts ahoy!

This

Until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.

has me shaking with rage, even in my exhausted state.

I don't care what you think about what bloggers write. I don't do it to seek your approval. The reason I write is because there are so many things happening which simply aren't addressed,such as EU legislation, people being stopped for wearing outfits the state doesn't approve of and because the legislation being passed is so utterly retarded, dangerous and exactly the opposite of what a good government should be doing that unless I write how I feel I will probably have a nervous breakdown. I also feel that people out there should be aware of what is happening in the country they live in.

Don't like it, don't read it. If you don't want people to write about scandals and hypocrisy there's a simple answer to that: behave yourself. If you want to counter the accusations, engage with blogs. Engage, not ban.

But moaning because people want to write how they feel about legislation, want to get engaged with the political system and want to expose hypocrisy and lies is frankly disgraceful.

We're not stopping people getting engaged in the political system, you guys are. You are alienating voters because there is such a huge gulf between how you legislate, what you legislate and the level of control you want over our lives which we don't agree with. I would even go so far as saying that the medium of blogging is actually engaging more people in politics than any government propaganda system because the only people who seem to hate bloggers are the politicians being held to account.

So how, Hazel, is that a bad thing?