The arrogance of the political class

This is an article i wrote recently for the TaxPayers' Alliance website:

Why can't politicians be trusted...

Because they don’t trust you!

Such is the image Simon Milton, head of the Local Government Association, gives off today. He’s paraphrased in Peter Riddell’s article in the Times this morning arguing against direct democracy and localised public services because voters could get “confused”. For Simon Milton to criticise direct democracy in favour of a system with numerous cabinet positions, committees, Area Forums and the shady power of council officers, shows a great lack of judgement.

But should we be surprised, it’s Mr. Milton’s job at the Local Government Association to defend the pork-barrel of local government. Local government publicity runs into a half-a-billion-pound taxpayer-funded industry. Your council tax lines the pockets of councillors up and down the country. They’re having a laugh at your expense! Do you seriously think he will argue for reformed, cheaper, effective, efficient public services tailored to the taxpayer and not the politicians when they’re on such an easy ride at the moment? This is why our campaign is as important as it ever has been! We've got to hold them to account to prevent the disgraces such as this story from Northumberland...

The leader of Northumberland County Council took it upon himself to unilaterally increase the bloated pay of high-ranking council bureaucrats at a time when the council has got to make service cuts and increase your taxes. Here the article exposes the disgusting waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when Council Tax bills are set to soar yet again:

“Council leader Peter Hillman unilaterally granted the payments at a time when the authority is seeking to slash £4.7million from budgets.

Chief executive Mark Henderson, who was on around £150,000 a year, deputy chief executive Jill Dixon, who was paid about £110,000, and finance director Steven Mason, who earned around £100,000, have been receiving the extra wages since October.

Mark Henderson's wage will now have increased to about £180,000, which relates to around £15,000 a month. He earns in one month about the same as the average north Northumberland resident earns in one year.

Jill Dixon's wage will have increased to about £132,000 and Steven Mason's to £120,000.”

Needless to say you should hold this councillor to account and ask him precisely why he unilaterally decided to award these overpaid bureaucrats thousands of pounds of your money more a year!

If you wish to contact Cllr. Hillman, you can reach him at the following:
Telephone: 0191 2372249
Email Address: phillman@northumberland.gov.uk

Let’s stand up and hold these councillors to account. Remember this is your money and your campaign. It’s only as strong as your efforts to achieve lower taxes. So get involved. We’ve named ‘em, now you shame ‘em.

If they can undermine this country, they will

From the Express today:

"Children should not be taught to be patriotic at school, researchers said.The Government has called for history lessons to help children develop a sense of their British identity and a love of their country.

But academics at the Institute of Education in the University of London warned that pupils should not be encouraged to love Britain for its "morally ambiguous" history.

The report, by Michael Hand and Jo Pearce, said patriotism should be taught - but as "a controversial issue".Dr Hand said:

"Gordon Brown and (Tory leader) David Cameron have both called for a history curriculum that fosters attachment and loyalty to Britain."But the case for promoting patriotism in schools is weak. Patriotism is love of one's country, but are countries really appropriate objects of love?

"Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. "Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it's an open question whether citizens should love their countries."

The researchers questioned more than 300 teachers in London secondary schools and pupils aged 13-14.Three-quarters of the teachers felt they had an obligation to alert their pupils to the dangers of patriotic sentiments. Only 9% of teachers thought schools should actively promote patriotism"

What a bunch of idiot 'researchers'. Teach kids to be patriotic then they might have some respect for this country and other people. This country has been built by the blood, sweat, toil and tears of generations whose only wish was for their children to have a better life than they had. But the trendy political classes want to abolish Britain in a Federal EU, demolish our borders into nothingness and eliminate our history as an evolutionary nation state.

Are we facing the death of Britain? We will if this continues. Every aspect of our lives is undermined by the government. British history can harm your health. Freedom to smoke, drink or have a fry-up needs to be monitored by Nanny. You can't drive anywhere without being recorded, watched or spied upon. Our borders are a myth. 70% of our laws come from a foreign government.

There's the symptoms. So do we just wait for the inevitable or do we do something to save this country?

I'm back!

In looking at a few conservative blogs peddling the right view on politics, society and economics, I decided to start my blog again to add to the voice resisting the Satlinisation of Britain. Looking through you’ll find 150-odd musings, comment pieces and rants about anything from Big Brother to non-runners in the Republican Presidential race. You’ll get that variety again folks.

Not much has changed, but some circumstances have. For the record, I now support Governor Mike Huckabee to be the next President of the Unites States, whose widget you can see on the sidebar. The Republicans need to regain working-class conservatives and blue-dog democrats they lost in 2006. Huckabee can win them back.

Domestically, I’m where I have been for my whole political life. No flip flopping here Mr. Swift Boat. Working at the TaxPayers’ Alliance has turned me ever more against big government because it gets far more wrong than it gets right. You wouldn’t believe the stories I hear and the examples of government waste I see day in day out. Just go to the campaign section at www.taxpayersalliance.com to see how wasteful government can be.

In that context I am even more against the European Union than I used to be, it seems my loathing for all higher political organisation gets more intense as the days go by. Unsurprisingly, I do think we should have a referendum, not just on the EU constitution, but on getting out altogether. On tax, I’m starting to support anarchist levels of taxation so much so that I was overjoyed to see in the TPA’s annual tracking poll you – the British taxpayer – support levels of taxation last seen in 1912.

So do keep reading, linking and discussing my thoughts in the comments section. Conservatism in this country needs a revival, through movement organisations like the TaxPayers’ Alliance, Young Britons Foundation and The Freedom Association. It needs a renaissance of thinking unbound by political correctness and timidity. It needs us to fight back, for ourselves, our families and our country and it’s my aim to do my bit for the cause.

My non-apology

I refuse – got that – just plain refuse to apologise for the slave trade. This whole cult of apology is getting out of hand. I struggled to keep my breakfast down as Red Ken bled his crocodile tears while he apologised for the slave trade. Clearly someone’s started their re-election campaign early. But why should I apologise?

The only people who apologise for the slave trade are your white liberals with more guilt on their conscience than common sense. And I can see where this is going. First there’s Blair’s “regret” over the slave trade. Then our girlie-man Mayor of London blubs away whilst apologising for the trade. What next? Reparations? Probably. Yes, we’re likely to see the idiotic demand for taxpayers’ money to be used for reparations for the slave trade.

Find me a living slave taken from Africa (with the compliance of many tribal leaders, mind) and enslaved during the slave trade and I’m sure we have a case for compensation. With the laws of nature being what they are, I reckon the last slave died over two centuries ago.

What we have with the hysteria over the ‘slave trade’ cult of apology and self flagellation is to ratchet up more white guilt in the establishment. This apology is just another way to torture white middle class liberals – as fun as that may be, it’s also painful to watch.

With every debate over this we hear more cries of ‘institutional racism’ by self appointed community leaders (our modern day witch-finder generals) that detract from the real debates. Say there should be no apology over the slave trade – RACIST. Argue that institutional racism doesn’t exist (yes, the institutions themselves, a sweeping generalisation if ever there was one) – then you’re a RACIST. If you think reparations for the slave trade are a big nonsense – OHMYGOD…RACIST.

Slavery happened. It is bad and wrong and history. Thankfully civilisation has learned from it. Need we keep placing blame on people with no attachment to the slave trade? No. Should we talk about extending opportunity and freeing the economy to allow more people to benefit from our modern civilisation and free society? Yes. Let’s leave these petty debates behind and get on with the real issues facing us today.

Constitution and Anarchy

Gordon Brown’s looking to face his own 'Maastricht Revolt'. If the Unions, Labour backbenchers, Tories and Lib Dems all back the call for a referendum on the EU Constitution, then Brown will go the miserable way of John Major. Not that I’d cry over that, but we need a say on this constitution and to reject it.

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More front pages report yet more shootings. For God’s sake people, control yourselves. And someone wake up our mannequin of a Home Secretary. Children killing each other with guns, gangs of yobs roaming the streets and law and order collapsing make a crisis that needs to be addressed. I’ll repeat what I said yesterday – give the police extensive powers to break up these gangs, have regular patrols of armed police (if necessary) to stop gun crime and a curfew in these cities that are becoming the graveyard for a generation of children caught up in this anarchy.

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What have the Tory frontbench and England footballers got in common? They’re both shit at one job and good at the other they have. I’ll let you decide which.

Boycott Amnesty International

From LifeSite.net on the appalling behaviour of Amnesty International:

"Since Amnesty International officially reaffirmed its pro-abortion policy last weekend, an English bishop has withdrawn his support, thereby signaling that Catholics should begin a boycott of the organization.

Amnesty International, the world's largest human rights organization, definitively threw away its last chance to rescind its recent abortion advocacy policy at the International Council meeting in Mexico City last weekend. At the end of the meeting on Friday, the organization said that it would continue to promote its new policy of decriminalizing abortion in cases of rape or danger to the mother's life.

In an August 17 press release, Amnesty stated, "With the prevention of violence against women as its major campaigning focus, Amnesty International's leaders committed themselves anew to work for universal respect for sexual and reproductive rights."

It continued, "Amnesty International committed itself to strengthening the organization's work on the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and other factors contributing to women's recourse to abortion and affirmed the organization's policy on selected aspects on abortion (to support the decriminalization of abortion, to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion and to defend women's access to abortion, within reasonable gestational limits, when their health or human rights are in danger), emphasizing that women and men must exercise their sexual and reproductive rights free from coercion, discrimination and violence." (To read the August 17, 2007 Amnesty International press release visit the organization's webpage: http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGORG500412007 )

In light of the organization's stubborn commitment to abortion advocacy, Catholic Bishop Michael Evans, head of the church in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, has decided to resign after being a member of Amnesty for 31 years.

Bishop Evans told the BBC, that "If Amnesty International becomes an organization which affirms the right to abortion, even under certain circumstances, it is free democratically to do so."

He stated emphatically, "But it cannot expect those of us who are just as passionate about the human rights of the unborn child to feel at ease being part of such an organization."

He continued, "It is this move away from neutrality that is causing the problem."

Since Amnesty considered embracing abortion, Catholic bishops, lay organizations and Vatican representative Cardinal Renato Martino have all strongly urged the organization to change its abortion stance or else Catholics would have to withdraw their support. Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, warned earlier in June, "I believe that, if in fact Amnesty International persists in this course of action, individuals and Catholic organizations must withdraw their support, because, in deciding to promote abortion rights, AI has betrayed its mission."

Amnesty International should be standing up for all lives in danger, including the unborn. Human lives are just as vulnerable in the womb as they are in Darfur and Zimbabwe. If we are to forge a culture of life, respecting life and giving life dignity again, we need to stand up for all vulnerable lives - and that includes those in the womb.

Vote Brownback!

Disgrace at the BBC...again

Trust in the BBC is non-existent. Its most popular programmes were recently rumbled, exposing a widespread phone-in scam that fleeced thousands of license-fee payers who thought they were taking part in legitimate competitions. They were even caught out in the Telegraph this morning by digitally generating parts of their ‘factual’ programming.

The BBC name is now associated with left-wing bias, incompetence and mistrust. So, our readers will be incensed to hear that the BBC has gone on a bonus-spending-spree, handing out £20 MILLION worth of bonuses to its employees. In a shocking INCREASE on last year’s bonuses, the equivalent to 143,000 license fees were handed to BBC staff in what has been assumed to be its worst year on record.

Are we getting value for money? Not in anyone’s books.

In the real world – usually outside the domain of government subsides and state monopolies – when someone fails miserably, they don’t receive a bonus. But things are different for the Beeb. They argue their bonuses are part of the staff’s “contractual entitlement”, meaning there is no incentive whatsoever to provide high-quality programming, impartial news and worthwhile entertainment.

This is what happens when there’s no competition on the box. We have to pay a tax to even be allowed to watch TV – a levy going to subsidise the BBC who quite clearly aren’t worth the money. Let’s scrap the TV tax and see if the BBC survives on subscriptions from those who actually want to pay for the BBC. If it’s good for other TV stations, it’s good for the BBC too.

The BBC...again!?

It’s been a very bad week for our state broadcasting station. As an 'impartial', government run, taxpayer funded outfit, it’s been accused of bias (again) and today’s papers expose another phone-in competition scam at the BBC. This comes barely days after Blue Peter admitted fixing one of their competitions. Today BBC Director General Mark Thompson held his hands up and confessed there were deceptions and that six shows deliberately rigged their competitions.

The issue now is not whether heads will roll, but how many. Thompson has warned staff they face the sack if they trick the public in future. As noble a gesture that is, perhaps there needs to be a complete clear-out at the BBC. Why even stop there? Let’s jump on the bandwagon and call for a complete transformation of the BBC – taking it out of the state’s hands and putting it out to compete.

People should be free to pay the license fee if they wish to subscribe to the BBC. But at present it’s illegal to have a TV without paying the license fee, making it a defacto TV-tax.
How much more evidence do we need to wake people up to the incomprehensible nature of the BBC? You pay for it and it scams you. You can’t watch anything else without paying into BBC the pot.

The BBC is an unwieldy throwback to an age where the state knew best and could control everything. We have better, more competitive and popular TV channels out there in touch with our viewing needs. The BBC should prove its worth in competing without state handouts. Perhaps then it will earn its place on our screens.