Hi all,
Well, it's that time again.. the general election has been announced for the 5th of May. As no-one else has blogged about this.. well maybe the odd couple of thousand, but hey.. it's my blog, and I can't think of anything else to write about.. I thought I'd add my views to those already committed to the ether.
One thing that really confuses me is the insistance on the importance of personalities. It shouldn't matter to domestic politics whatsoever, although I suppose there is an argument for a certain air of appeal when forging friendly links in the international arena. As far as we in the UK are concerened, it should be all about policy.
Now the first thing to remember, is that it is only really those more marginal of seats that will really make any tremendous effect on the outcome of the election. A sudden urge to singularly vote Labour in the Henley-upon-Thames constituency isn't likely to change the outcome any more than a Tory vote would in the Liverpool Riverside constituency.
Those voting for the Liberal Democrats are, with a few exceptions, only going to change the fortunes of Labour and Conservative chances at the election also.
So, what do they all stand for. This prompts me to paraphrase Tony Benn, (as I can't find the original quote) and in this case I whole-heartedly agree with him when he states that..
I think that this is one of the biggest strengths in a democracy, and a fundamental right of the people of this country. It means that at any time, with the consent of the people, a law or regulation that has outlived it's usefulness in these changing times can be negotiated or even struck from the law books, should the need arise.
With this in mind, consider the control that the powers that be in the EU already have over us. Our own laws are being dictated to us by faceless polititions sitting in Europe. Remember the red lines that Tony Blair said were set in stone, over our taxation systems? Did you know that we already have mandatory minimums on taxation levels imposed by Europe? Well we do, and we have to abide by them.. although with the amount of tax that this government takes from us, you'd never see these, as it's highly unlikely that Gordon Brown would ever get into trouble for not taxing us enough.
We also have minimum thresholds set by Europe on immigration and border controls.. again a red line set in custard.
Lets consider the most unlikely election result first.. namely that the Liberal Democrats win by a large enough majority to form the new government on May 6th. With their, admirably honest admission, of intending to throw us onto the rails and thus head on into the headlights of the gravy train known as the European Federalist Superstate, that will be the last time that any domestic election will make any difference whatsoever. From that moment on, there will be NO meaningful policy for this countries electorate that doesn't hail directly from Brussels. There is no turning back from it, as without a complete withdrawal from the EU; we will have little, or no, effective control on domestic policy whether we like it or not.
A vote for the Lib Dems will be your last democratic vote ever.. end of story.
Lets now turn our attention to New Labour. I make this distinction because along with many, I fail to see any real connection with the Labour party of old.. except for the government thinking that they can invade every facet of our lives, because they are under the mistaken impression that they know what is best for us in everything that we do, be it concerns of work, family life or any other matter that makes up our daily lives.
Their only real success as Tony Blair will agree, because he is the veritable scratched record on the subject; when questioned on all points of failure in his dismal premiership, is the strong economy.
An open letter from me to Gordon Brown..
What else have we got.. the council tax. This all came about from the community charge, which it still is.. a thorn by any other name. I remember the days of the supposedly dreaded poll tax, as I'm sure most reading will. That was a good idea run badly. The householder of a three bedroom house with Mum, Dad and three grown up children, will pay exactly the same council tax bill per dwelling as a 65 year old female pensioner living on her own in the old family home. Who do you think should pay more?
The poll tax, although badly engineered attempted to level out this anomaly by billing all people over the age of 18 equally. This meant that in the former example, the large grown up family would effectively pay five times the money that the pensioner would. If we take a sample figure of £900 per annum under the current scheme, this would mean that under the old scheme, all things being equal, the pensioner would be paying only £300 or a third of the current bill. The five occupants of the family house, using in effect, five times the services would be paying £1500 pounds a year between them. And that was deemed to be an unfair tax? Of course there would be no payment for those still in full time education etc, but I think that it was.. in principal at least.. a good idea. The protests in the '80s were largely based on all people who'd never had to pay a household bill in their lives suddenly being asked to pay, if I remember correctly, around £300 a year that they never had to before pay.
Yes I realise that there are various credits that can be applied for, but this is basically nothing short of an admission that too much tax is being taken from us. They take all our money, and then grudgingly give back as little as possible, when they have to.
Of course, even though they are much more deceitful in their intentions than the Lib Dems, New Labour are slowly but surely moving us closer and closer to a federal Europe, where once in, we can't get out. It is after all, Tony Blair's dream, and his only possible legacy to get us into Europe and go down in history on the back of it. He's got little else that, in years to come; he could in his own twisted mind look back and be proud of.
So, who are the alternative? Well I can see only one party that at least want to stop us spiralling ever deeper into a United States of Europe, and that's the Conservatives. Tony Blair always warns us of the eighteen years of Tory government that supposedly wrecked this country. Anyone remember the late '70s? Probably the darkest days of this country. Margaret Thatcher, for all her faults, turned this country from a failed socialist state, where the unions had more power than any other single body, including the Labour government, into one of the most powerful and respected economic powers in the world. Not everything went right, but what we were left with in 1990, was a world economic power.. then we had John Major. That was the start of the downfall of the Conservatives, mainly due to this being around the time that the European Socialist Agenda started to roll on a grander scale than seen previously.
Remember when interest rates went up to 15%, for a day? We got thrown out of the EMU. This is shown as a bad thing by both the Lib Dems (no surprise) and also New Labour. I think it was probably the luckiest get out in modern history. Since then, through no fault of his own, the current chancellor has been able to just sit back and take our money. It was only our escape to monetary independance back then, that we still have some modicom of control over this country's budget. We've still paid tens of billions of our hard earned money into Europe in the last few years.. that's several thousand pounds per person, that you've paid to feed this ever enlarging almost completely unnaccountable regime.
If you don't want us run entirely by the EU, then I see that there is only one real choice, because whatever they do, they at least want to wrest some semblance of control away from Europe, and give the British people the chance to do for themselves, rather than be dictated to. Didn't millions of people have that very thought just 60 years ago? They didn't give up their lives for our freedom, only to see it flushed down the pan for their grandchildren.
For those that would like to think that the union of European nations has given us the longest era of peace ever seen in Europe, think again. Russia lost far more than any other country. They decided that it would never happen again, and became the strongest military in the world. They were never going to give up the lives of another 25 million of their people. That was the start of the cold war. The very real (at the time certainly) threat of Russia and the US going to war was enough to stop any piddling country in Europe wanting to join in.
I feel as though I've been writing this for ever.. well I have.. :)
I'm now going to sign off as it's my Birthday today, and I've got a new toy to play with. A wireless tablet to draw lots of pretty pictures with.. I'll see if I can get it up and running quickly enough to post my first one here this evening. I have yet to install it, let alone know how to use it.. :)
Cheers
Liam
ps. As you asked, I'm 38 today. So in true style, I'll mark the occasion with a pint for each year. It may take a week to do, I'm not as young as I was.. but I'll do my best.. :)
Well, it's that time again.. the general election has been announced for the 5th of May. As no-one else has blogged about this.. well maybe the odd couple of thousand, but hey.. it's my blog, and I can't think of anything else to write about.. I thought I'd add my views to those already committed to the ether.
One thing that really confuses me is the insistance on the importance of personalities. It shouldn't matter to domestic politics whatsoever, although I suppose there is an argument for a certain air of appeal when forging friendly links in the international arena. As far as we in the UK are concerened, it should be all about policy.
Now the first thing to remember, is that it is only really those more marginal of seats that will really make any tremendous effect on the outcome of the election. A sudden urge to singularly vote Labour in the Henley-upon-Thames constituency isn't likely to change the outcome any more than a Tory vote would in the Liverpool Riverside constituency.
Those voting for the Liberal Democrats are, with a few exceptions, only going to change the fortunes of Labour and Conservative chances at the election also.
So, what do they all stand for. This prompts me to paraphrase Tony Benn, (as I can't find the original quote) and in this case I whole-heartedly agree with him when he states that..
..no government should have the power or the right to introduce any law or regulation that cannot be repealed by a future administration, if the country so decides..
I think that this is one of the biggest strengths in a democracy, and a fundamental right of the people of this country. It means that at any time, with the consent of the people, a law or regulation that has outlived it's usefulness in these changing times can be negotiated or even struck from the law books, should the need arise.
With this in mind, consider the control that the powers that be in the EU already have over us. Our own laws are being dictated to us by faceless polititions sitting in Europe. Remember the red lines that Tony Blair said were set in stone, over our taxation systems? Did you know that we already have mandatory minimums on taxation levels imposed by Europe? Well we do, and we have to abide by them.. although with the amount of tax that this government takes from us, you'd never see these, as it's highly unlikely that Gordon Brown would ever get into trouble for not taxing us enough.
We also have minimum thresholds set by Europe on immigration and border controls.. again a red line set in custard.
Lets consider the most unlikely election result first.. namely that the Liberal Democrats win by a large enough majority to form the new government on May 6th. With their, admirably honest admission, of intending to throw us onto the rails and thus head on into the headlights of the gravy train known as the European Federalist Superstate, that will be the last time that any domestic election will make any difference whatsoever. From that moment on, there will be NO meaningful policy for this countries electorate that doesn't hail directly from Brussels. There is no turning back from it, as without a complete withdrawal from the EU; we will have little, or no, effective control on domestic policy whether we like it or not.
A vote for the Lib Dems will be your last democratic vote ever.. end of story.
Lets now turn our attention to New Labour. I make this distinction because along with many, I fail to see any real connection with the Labour party of old.. except for the government thinking that they can invade every facet of our lives, because they are under the mistaken impression that they know what is best for us in everything that we do, be it concerns of work, family life or any other matter that makes up our daily lives.
Their only real success as Tony Blair will agree, because he is the veritable scratched record on the subject; when questioned on all points of failure in his dismal premiership, is the strong economy.
An open letter from me to Gordon Brown..
Dear Prudence,
you were given the purse strings to the strongest economy in Europe, and the fourth strongest in the world. You would have to have been a pretty poor chancellor to screw it up, especially when most of your successes have been in the main, due to relinquishing the government's powers to set interest rates, and let an organisation.. namely The Bank of England.. who know what they're doing manage that vital part of fiscal arrangements. This was a good thing, but once done, you've not really had that much to do, except to tax us to the hilt twice a year, and any day with a Y in it just to make absolutely sure. Oh, and due to measures brought in early on in your first term in office where you removed the tax benefits from pensions, we have seen a reduction of more than £50billion in funds and lost double that in investments.
Yours sincerely
The old and skint..
What else have we got.. the council tax. This all came about from the community charge, which it still is.. a thorn by any other name. I remember the days of the supposedly dreaded poll tax, as I'm sure most reading will. That was a good idea run badly. The householder of a three bedroom house with Mum, Dad and three grown up children, will pay exactly the same council tax bill per dwelling as a 65 year old female pensioner living on her own in the old family home. Who do you think should pay more?
The poll tax, although badly engineered attempted to level out this anomaly by billing all people over the age of 18 equally. This meant that in the former example, the large grown up family would effectively pay five times the money that the pensioner would. If we take a sample figure of £900 per annum under the current scheme, this would mean that under the old scheme, all things being equal, the pensioner would be paying only £300 or a third of the current bill. The five occupants of the family house, using in effect, five times the services would be paying £1500 pounds a year between them. And that was deemed to be an unfair tax? Of course there would be no payment for those still in full time education etc, but I think that it was.. in principal at least.. a good idea. The protests in the '80s were largely based on all people who'd never had to pay a household bill in their lives suddenly being asked to pay, if I remember correctly, around £300 a year that they never had to before pay.
Yes I realise that there are various credits that can be applied for, but this is basically nothing short of an admission that too much tax is being taken from us. They take all our money, and then grudgingly give back as little as possible, when they have to.
Of course, even though they are much more deceitful in their intentions than the Lib Dems, New Labour are slowly but surely moving us closer and closer to a federal Europe, where once in, we can't get out. It is after all, Tony Blair's dream, and his only possible legacy to get us into Europe and go down in history on the back of it. He's got little else that, in years to come; he could in his own twisted mind look back and be proud of.
So, who are the alternative? Well I can see only one party that at least want to stop us spiralling ever deeper into a United States of Europe, and that's the Conservatives. Tony Blair always warns us of the eighteen years of Tory government that supposedly wrecked this country. Anyone remember the late '70s? Probably the darkest days of this country. Margaret Thatcher, for all her faults, turned this country from a failed socialist state, where the unions had more power than any other single body, including the Labour government, into one of the most powerful and respected economic powers in the world. Not everything went right, but what we were left with in 1990, was a world economic power.. then we had John Major. That was the start of the downfall of the Conservatives, mainly due to this being around the time that the European Socialist Agenda started to roll on a grander scale than seen previously.
Remember when interest rates went up to 15%, for a day? We got thrown out of the EMU. This is shown as a bad thing by both the Lib Dems (no surprise) and also New Labour. I think it was probably the luckiest get out in modern history. Since then, through no fault of his own, the current chancellor has been able to just sit back and take our money. It was only our escape to monetary independance back then, that we still have some modicom of control over this country's budget. We've still paid tens of billions of our hard earned money into Europe in the last few years.. that's several thousand pounds per person, that you've paid to feed this ever enlarging almost completely unnaccountable regime.
If you don't want us run entirely by the EU, then I see that there is only one real choice, because whatever they do, they at least want to wrest some semblance of control away from Europe, and give the British people the chance to do for themselves, rather than be dictated to. Didn't millions of people have that very thought just 60 years ago? They didn't give up their lives for our freedom, only to see it flushed down the pan for their grandchildren.
For those that would like to think that the union of European nations has given us the longest era of peace ever seen in Europe, think again. Russia lost far more than any other country. They decided that it would never happen again, and became the strongest military in the world. They were never going to give up the lives of another 25 million of their people. That was the start of the cold war. The very real (at the time certainly) threat of Russia and the US going to war was enough to stop any piddling country in Europe wanting to join in.
I feel as though I've been writing this for ever.. well I have.. :)
I'm now going to sign off as it's my Birthday today, and I've got a new toy to play with. A wireless tablet to draw lots of pretty pictures with.. I'll see if I can get it up and running quickly enough to post my first one here this evening. I have yet to install it, let alone know how to use it.. :)
Cheers
Liam
ps. As you asked, I'm 38 today. So in true style, I'll mark the occasion with a pint for each year. It may take a week to do, I'm not as young as I was.. but I'll do my best.. :)
posted by Liam | 6:33 PM
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