Vicky Pryce-More Lib Dem Hypocrisy

While I strongly believe that those who commit crime should be rehabilitated the case of Vicky Price stinks of hypocrisy and double standards. You may remember she was the missus of Chris Huhne who went to chokey for lying about taking his speeding points for him. It went on for a long period of time and only came out when he buggered off with another woman and Ms Pryce wanted to vent her spleen, or drop him in it.


Vince Cable, often seen as the most effective leader of the opposition in the current parliament, has taken her on as a government advisor. So a loony like Cable, whose instinct is to pass ever more interfering, nanny state laws that he expects the rest of us to obey, is happy to be advised by a jailbird. (Full story)


At a time when confidence in politicians is as low as it has ever been, and confidence in our democracy is at a similar low, what kind of idiot invites her back as a government advisor? An idiot Lib Dem like Vince Cable.

UKIP-Nutjob Alert

When I first heard Tories proclaiming that a vote for UKIP would let Miliband and Labour in I wondered if that was the best they could do. But UKIP do have a habit of proving that they are truly on the lunatic fringe. Well, look at Nigel Farage for starters. Somebody who tries so hard to be 'a character' only proves himself to be a completely mad, egocentric, attention seeking berk.

Now UKIP councillors in Norfolk have proved that this problem is apparent throughout the party. The nutters UKIP councillors on Norfolk County Council have gone into alliance with Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems and a Labour leader has been installed. The Tories are the largest group on Norfolk County Council.

Forgive me but I am not aware that supporting that motley crew of statist misfits is very libertarian, which UKIP claim to be. Did the people of Norfolk who voted UKIP really expect to find their county council led by a Labour councillor because of the support of UKIP councillors? I doubt it.

Furthermore, on Twitter I saw a UKIP member asked what the party's position was on the legalisation of marijuana. The UKIP member replied that the party would hold a referendum to find out what the populace wanted. Oh right, so would they hold a referendum to find out if 51% of the population wanted murder legalised? What a cop out to avoid answering a question on a controversial issue. Again, if UKIP was truly a libertarian party it would support the legalisation of marijuana, and be honest about that.

Like wanting out of the EU but wallowing on the gravy train, UKIP are just proving themselves to be the most cynical of the political parties rather than an alternative. Making the right noises to attract protest votes on a range of issues, but offering nothing of any substance. Their policy of massively increasing state expenditure, but cutting taxes, would bankrupt the country faster than you could say Gordon Brown. They aren't bright and I would warn anybody to look beneath the surface if you think these nutjobs are a credible alternative to the LibLabCon.

David Ward Lib Dem MP and Holocaust Memorial Day

Another twat MP. Thank you Bradford!

Well what an utter turd David Ward really is.

He accuses "the Jews" in Israel of "inflicting atrocities on Palestinians...on a daily basis".

According to him he was "trying to make clear that everybody needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust".

The Lib Dems have "condemned his use of language".

Mealy mouthed shits Ward and his party aren't they? But what do we expect from Lib Dems?

Holocaust Memorial Day is 27 January!

It would be awful to think that Ward was merely ingratiating himself with the Muslim population of his constituency. Surely Lib Dems aren't such political whores?

Democracy

I'm feeling a little unsettled at the moment about the nature of democracy. I'm not sure whether I just don't understand what democracy actually is, or whether my idea of democracy has changed over the last however many decades.

I know there isn't a simple definition of democracy, and that some of the most horrendously barbaric dictatorships in history have called themselves 'democracies', usually 'people's democratic republic' or similar. I also know that our idea of democracy in action differs from many countries in the world who we would regard as 'democratic'. It isn't simple is it?

So to a large degree this week, with the Lib Dems attempting to hijack the word 'democracy' to justify a botched attempt at reforming the House of Lords, the nature of democracy seems to have become defined by voting. I'm not sure about this. If we had a vote on whether to slaughter the first born in every household, and 51% voted in favour, is that democracy in action so get on with it? If our unelected monarch said: "Whoa, one's not keen on that idea, I refuse to sign the act." Would that be an unelected head of state subverting democracy?

In rexcent years there has been a proliferation in the number of elected posts in public life. Many cities now have elected mayors. I don't know why, I don't see the point. Do elected mayors make our system more democratic? I don't see how when they seem to be nothing more than an expensive add-on to already elected, and very costly city councillors.

Our cities have police authorities made up of people from a range of bodies and elected councils. They are accountable to the populace. So why do we need costly elected police commissioners? I honestly don't see the point. Especially when commissioners, like elected mayors just seem to be washed up politicians jumping on a shiny, new, very well funded gravy train.

Are supporters of this move to ever more elected public officials really saying that prior to these innovations there was a huge democratic deficit? There obviously wasn't, as I've explained above.

If Clegg and Cameron are so convinced that the ballot box is the root to true democracy then how can they justify not having a rteferendum on the European Union? A referendum on the death penalty? If an unelected House of Lords is undemocratic why is only electing 80% of it democratic? Why do we have an unelected head of state? Are Clegg and Cameron closet republicans or are they just being intellectually inconsistant? Or are they being intellectually dishonest?

I'll be perfectly honest, I don't see plonking a X on a ballot paper every five years as being the be all and end all of democracy. Not when our politicians then ignore us, and what they promised in their manifestos, and foist a bastard government like this on us. Then proceed to ignore what we want until they next have to tempt us to vote for them by publishing manifestos full of even more lies.

So what's the alternative? I'll have to think about that. But would an unelected leader/government that actually listened to what the populace wants, a kind of benign dictatorship, be any less democratic than our current revolving dictatorship?

Lib Dems and the House of Lords

The best way to reform Parliament would be to cram as many Lib Dem MPs, MEPs and councillors as we possibly can into the House of Lords, then blow it to kingdom come.

Nicky Clegg seems to think tinkering with the House of Lords is crucial for our democracy, after all we can't possibly have unelected people involved in law making can we? No, that won't do will it? If you elect people they all behave impeccably don't they? Acting in our best interests, never getting anything wrong and never fiddling their expenses. Don't they?

Just look at our glorious elected leaders. We had Blair and Brown. We now have Cameron, Osborne and Clegg. Paragons of virtue?

So Clegg, and this bastard government, wants to have most of the House of Lords elected and to bung them £300 a day for turning up when elected. Oh yes, and they'll be elected for fifteen years! That's not another gravy train for politicians is it?And let's face it the Lib Dems love a gravy train more than most.

Personally I like the idea of the House of Lords being made up of people who are there on merit. In fact isn't 'meritocracy' the other big word in your average Lib Dem's vocab? I don't see electing idiots, with no qualfications for the job, particularly meritocratic. Especially when they will all have political axes to grind.

Furthermore, the House of Commons is s4/ubservient to the House of Commons, it is a scrutinising chamber. Who will be first 'Peer', elected for fifteen years, to shout to an MP: "You were only elected for five years, people think I'm bettter than you"? Bingo, constitutional crisis.

Maybe if some of the criteria for standing in a House of Lords election were practical things, such as the person can prove they have never been a member of a political party and have never before held elected office, I might see some point. But while it is obviously just another gravy train for politicos stuff it.

Apathy And The Right To Vote

Our politicians have become so bland, uninspiring, sometimes corrupt, often disingenuous that they are driving people away from involvement in politics. In millions of cases they are driving people to abstain from voting.

We didn't have local elections last week, but all the friends and family I've spoken to who did have elections live in Manchester, and they didn't vote because they didn't have a candidate or a party standing for election that they trusted. In Manchester city centre ward turnout was just 13 per cent. Manchester as a whole had a turnout of 26 per cent, Salford 27 per cent.

In 35 of the 215 wards across the Greater Manchester councils fewer than one in four people bothered to vote and in 134 wards the turnout was under 33 per cent. Only three wards registered a turnout of over 50 per cent, and they were all neighbouring wards in Oldham. The highest average turnout was in Trafford with 37 per cent.

Yesterday I heard somebody attacking those people who didn't vote, using the hackneyed old argument that people died in wars for our right to vote. No they didn't. I doubt many soldiers have marched into war thinking they were doing it so that those who survive them can vote. Many may have gone into battle to defend democracy, our way of life, our territory or simply because their government told them to, but not so that I could vote for Fred Smith in my local council elections.

The right to abstain is as much a part of democracy as the right to vote. I have no wish to vote Conservative, Tory or Lib Dem. Is it really democratic to force me to hold my nose in an election and vote for a party I don't believe in when there are no credible candidates?

Unless I have a candidate or party I can trust I will also be abstaining in future. It seems to me that one of the greatest contradictions in a so-called democracy is compulsory voting. Compulsory voting is the only way rotten politicians can give themselves a veneer of democracy.

Watch out, they're looking at tax-payer funding of political parties because we don't want to financially support them on a voluntary basis. Compulsory voting will be next.

Local Elections 2012

A strange few days, especially as here in North Lancashire we didn't have any elections despite having more than enough elected representatives. We have town councillors, borough councillors, county councillors then MPs and MEPs. But I still stayed up far too late on Thursday night watching the results come in. I'm not going to ramble on too long here, there is more than enough coverage in the media, but I'm bound to chip in my two penneth.

UKIP bombed again. I begin with them as I know them best having stood in three parliamentary elections for them, numerous locals and a European election. Although they gained a reasonable percentage of protest votes in places, they just cannot convert that into seats, and their London mayoral candidate couldn't even muster 2% of the vote. They got no seats in the London Assembly.

Elsewhere I heard Farage, more of a problem for UKIP than he is an asset, claiming they didn't win seats because their support is not concentrated enough. More bullshit from the bullshitter-in-chief. They don't win seats because they have no coherent local or national policies other than getting out of the EU. It's like a form of Tourette's, UKIP candidates can't fight in a local election without blurting out Brussels, the European Union or that certain vote loser the 'EUSSR', which does set most ordinary people's nutter alert off. Even the dimmest voter knows a local councillor can do bugger all about Brussels.

Where UKIP, or any other party does well locally, is where they fight hard and long, not just popping a leaflet through the doors at election time. UKIP rarely do that although they have had some success, for example in Staffordshire Moorlands, where they did campaign hard and long on local issues. With the resources they should have at their disposal, one of their main reasons initially for taking their MEP seats, they should be running highly effective campaigns. But their MEPs have gone native, another huge problem.

The other problem for UKIP is that they claim to be a libertarian party but aren't. If most of their members looked at what libertarianism actually is they would be horrified. Of course to many people today libertarianism is a nice flag of convenience, that is the case with UKIP. Apart from the EU the membership would split down the middle on any other serious issue. That's why it is, and will remain, a single issue party.

Miliband needn't get too carried away, Labour did well despite him not because of him. Labour would be in terminal trouble if they hadn't done as well as they did on Thursday. It doesn't mean they can win a general election, otherwise they would have sent the Tories into terminal decline which, despite good results, they didn't. Deep down people know that the bankers were a contributory factor to a Labour economic mess, they aren't stupid enough to fall for Labour blaming it all on the bankers.

Despite tying Clegg up, gagging him and sticking him in the cupboard under the stairs for a fortnight the Lib Dems got bombed. Ironic as most parties look to emulate the kind of local campaigning the Lib Dems have always excelled at. But they've paid the price for selling out. Can't say I'm sorry. They may have been the best local campaigners over the years but they have lacked fundamental honesty at a local level, often prepared to sell their grannies for a few more votes.

It's the price the Lib Dems are paying for actually getting involved in power instead of just sitting in the House of Commons griping and whingeing. For years the Lib Dems have been all things to all men, but now they are in government and can no longer hide. What people are finding out is that they are a party of misfits, with the likes of Vince Cable, Chris Huhne and David Laws showing them in their true colours in the national spotlight.

So to the Tories. I liken them to the Church of England. They liberalise and lose support. So they liberalise a bit more, and lose a but more support and so on. Cameron couldn't win a general election when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, I doubt he could win one even with Miliband leading the Labour Party.

Cameron has a huge problem, he doesn't seem to actually believe in anything. He seems to be a chief executive reacting to circumstances, whereas we really need a captain who can actually set a course and fight his way through the storms and the choppy seas to get us to our destination. He seems to have the kind of faith in Osborne that Blair had in Brown, and look what a shambles Brown made of the finances. He has no real vision, just woolly waffle about 'big society' and.... Oops, can't think of anything else.

The Tories need to start listening to real people, including their real members, rather than the media luvvies and metroplitan elite they seem to be obsessed with. I've lobbied enough Tory conferences in recent years to know that their members, on the whole, don't like Cameron's policies but see him as the best of a bad bunch, their equivalent of Tony Blair. At least they're back in Downing Street so they are holding their noses at the moment. When their best hope for winning the next election is that Miliband remains Labour leader you know they aren't confident in their own leader.

So what the Tories need to do now is to learn from Thursday and toughen up. Yes they got a mid-term thumping, but they can avoid a general election thumping next time around by reconnecting with the traditional conservative support that has turned its back on them in the past two decades. But that leads to the next problem. The Tories aren't overly blessed with potential leaders are they?

Nick Clegg And The Lib Dems Must Go!

After years of sitting in the shadows coming out with pie in the sky twaddle, the Lib Dems are now in a position to show us what they are all about, and it's not very pleasant. They seem to be the world's first ever political party that is desperately working to bring itself down rather than its opponents.

Nick Clegg's motley crew of misfits, and I include Cameron and his Tory wets in that description, are now trying to stitch up future elections by nationalising political parties. By calling it 'state funding' they think they'll get away with it. Clegg has even reassured taxpayers that their taxes won't go up to fund political parties. Maybe not, but when that small local library closes just remember that it has gone to bail out the ludicrous Lib Dems. We're not the idiots you take us for Clegg, we know that 'state funding' means taxpayer funding.

In these times of economic hardship, when services are quite rightly being cut, doesn't it say it all that reality has bypassed the European Union who, rather than cutting budgets, are thieving at least 2% more from UK taxpayers? And now the Lib Dems are planning to grab tax money to pay for their election campaigns, which would represent a 100% increase. No wonder the Lib Dems love the EU more than they do the UK.

Why should my taxes go to pay for political parties I totally disapprove of? The BNP, the Lib Dems, Labour, Tories, UKIP or anybody else. If you aren't popular enough to raise your own money then bugger off and don't expect me to pay. The first test of your fitness to stand in an election is the ability to pay for your campaign. If you can't you don't stand.

With taxpayer funding of parties, just like football's Premier League stitch up, the most well funded parties would be the Tory/Lib Dem/Labour coalition, thus further guaranteeing their current stranglehold on power for years to come. It is already difficult for new parties to get a serious foothold, indeed the only newish party that has made real progress is the Green Party. OK one MP, but it's something no other party has achieved for a long time. State funding will guarantee that smaller parties remain small and ineffective.

The latest proposals also plan to restrict personal donations to political parties to a maximum of £10,000. So when I win my rollover lotter jackpot I will not be allowed to spend the money as I see fit. The state will restrict my financial support to a party I approve of, but will grab my taxes to fund a party I do not approve of.

How very socialist.

Baroness Jenny Tonge-The Dark Side Of The Lib Dems

I've been working on a script about the Lancashire witches today and made the mistake of having BBC Radio 2 on in the background. My radio became a twenty-first century broomstick and carried the vile Lib Dem witch Dame Jenny Tonge into my living room.

She shouted down James Delingpole with her irrational hatred of Israel while supporting Iran's possible development of nuclear weapons. I always find it annoying when people defend the actions of an anti-semitic nutcase like the President of Iran by constantly attacking Israel. Remember, Tonge was defending a man who has threatened to "wipe Israel off the face of the earth".

I remember when Tonge was condemned by her own Lib Dem colleagues for stating about Palestinian suicide bombers: "If I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself."

Lovely people these Palestinian lovers aren't they?

Vince Cable Proves He's Chief Lib Dem Clown-Again!

Cable tries to tune himself into the real world.

What I like about Vince Cable is the way he works so hard to prove that we are correct in thinking  our politicians are clowns and idiots who just can't be trusted.

Don't forget he's the government Business Secretary who was recently fined for not paying his VAT. A fine example of 'do as I say not as I do' as he hectors and bullies businesses into paying ever more tax for the government to squander on vanity projects, or bailing out Eurozone countries. Oh yes, don't forget, if the Lib Dems had their way we would be in the brown stuff alongside Greece and the others now too, they would have sold their souls to get us into the Euro.

Now the clown could be facing a fine of up to £500,000 if found guilty of breaching data protection laws after confidential papers were found in bins outside his constituency office in Twickenham. Surrey council were recently fined £120,000 when found guilty of similar offences. However, as a cabinet minister I believe Cable should be made an example of. But, in these days when the establishment see politicians as our masters rather than servants, I suspect he'll get off lightly to carry on bullying businesses.

I'm not ancient but I do remember the days when politicians, especially government ministers, resigned over such matters. I suspect it would take a lynch mob to drag as dishonourable a self-serving egomaniac as Cable from his office. That's what you get with Lib Dems sharing power unfortunately.

Concerned about the growing database and surveillance state? Visit the No2ID website.

Full story from The Guardian

More Scandalous Lib Dem Behaviour

"Och you're not Mr Smith, you're my Lib Dem councillor!"

Throughout many years in politics I have been ceaselessly amazed by the crass hypocrisy of the Lib Dems, or the 'Holier Than Thou Party' as many of us know them. So I am always happy to prove that they are actually mere mortals, guilty of foible and weakness just like anybody else, regardless of what they may claim.

I'm pleased to introduce the following tale from north of the border, just to prove them human:

Gordon Leslie, Lib Dem councillor for Bridge of Don on Aberdeen City Council, has been suspended after planning to stand as an independent against his now former Lib Dem colleagues.

Mr Leslie was arrested and charged in February under the Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Act 2007 for loitering in the city's harbour area - a well known red light district - found guilty and fined £200 in May of this year.

Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor John Stewart said: "Councillor Leslie has been suspended from the Liberal Democrat group with immediate effect.  It should have been clear that his conviction would have a bearing when the matter of approval came up.  But rather than accept the decision of his local party, he has sought to sit as an independent in opposition to former colleagues.  There was no alternative but to suspend Councillor Leslie."

Mr Leslie has yet to comment.

I'll bet Mr Leslie has yet to comment!

Report from newsnetscotland.com

Why Nick Clegg's A Clown-He's A Lib Dem In A Nutshell!

Another Monday morning and more patronising pap from Comrade Clegg and his ever dwindling band of Lib Dems. You know him, the useless failure who managed to lose the Lib Dems seats at the general election but ended up as Deputy PM. I suppose that's what he calls equal opportunities in practice.

Today he's whingeing about free schools and profit. He thinks profit is socially divisive. He doesn't seem to understand that the only reason government has money is because people, somewhere, somehow make a profit. Then up pops the likes of Clegg to steal a chunk of it. How divisive is that? And what they can't thieve off us they go out and borrow, from other people who make money.

There's a difference between equality of opportunity and uniformity. Comprehensive education is sameness. The old system of selection was true equality of opportunity. Every child sat an exam at eleven and went to the school most suited to his/her talents, regardless of social background. Let's face it we're not all academic and we aren't all budding mathematicians. Fact. So why pretend we are all the same when it comes to education?

Let's take Clegg and his Lib Dems nonsense about equality to the logical conclusion. There should be at least one fat bald fifty year old playing for Manchester United, a sixteen year old girl and somebody with a disability.

But let's face it, Premier League football clubs are probably the most elitist employers in the country. Which is why it's the best league in the world. That's just logic.

How Very Lib Dem

Personally I'm all for very harsh sentences for looters and yes, if birching was brought back I would be prepared to administer the punishment myself.

But I had to laugh when I heard Sir Menzies Campbell's contribution to the debate about the suitability or otherwise of harsh sentences:

"....politicians should neither cheer nor boo...."

How very Lib Dem.

More Lib Dem Hypocrisy

Has there ever been a bigger bunch of hypocritical toads in politics than the Lib Dems? Clegg's at it now:

In 2009, they (the Lib Dems) approved a policy of “stopping the establishment of new schools which select by ability, aptitude or faith”. They followed this in last year’s election manifesto by saying it would require faith schools to develop an “inclusive admissions policy”.

But Clegg looks like sending his kids to the Catholic London Oratory School rather than his local Catholic comprehensive. Here's how he explained away this stunning piece of hypocrisy:

“My kids are more precious to me than anything else in the world and the fact [is] that my wife is Catholic, I married in the Catholic church and my children have been brought up by Catholics and go to a Catholic state primary school".

Well actually Clegg, most kids are precious to most parents, even those you would deprive of choice. And a Lib Dem using his wife. Where've we heard that before?

Report from the Telegraph.

Lib Dems-Political Roadkill!

I had a bit of work in Liverpool today, which meant a crack of dawn start, a lot of hanging around, get in and do the job then home. It gave me plenty of time to read the newspaper and a terrific article by Benedict Brogan in the Telegraph.

In recent weeks I've had a bit of a go at the Lib Dems and, in the immortal words of Corporal Jones, they don't like it up 'em. They do get personally nasty and vicious when they are criticised, but it's very strange because the angrier they get the camper they become. It got to the stage where it felt a bit like having Larry Grayson, John Inman and Graham Norton lined up to throw wet sponges at me. So the following quote from Benedict Brogan's article, about their recent hammering in the polls, particularly resonated:

It is difficult to exaggerate the shock felt by the Lib Dems at the defeat. They complained at the ruthlessness of the Tory operation and the single-mindedness with which Mr Cameron demolished their Yes campaign, and in doing so revealed the naivety of a party that has proved adept at playing dirty in local politics, but never experienced having the favour returned in spades at a national level. Their pain was compounded by the anger they found on the doorstep at their decision to drive through tuition fee increases when the Lib Dem manifesto had made promises not to do so.

The article explains how the voters have told the Lib Dems what they think of them, but the Tories have to keep using them, which they are doing very effectively, until they are confident that the Lib Dems will be wiped out at the next general election thus paving the way for a Tory victory. The other part of the article I particularly liked was:

The Conservatives have their tails up; Ed Miliband is drifting into insignificance; the Lib Dems, meanwhile, are the political roadkill that no one troubles to glance at. From the windows of 10 Downing Street, it looks like a Tory spring.

Interesting times ahead and a particularly accurate and honest assessment of the current situation. I'm not confident that the Tories offer much hope, but anything has to be better than another Labour government or longer Lib Dem involvement in government than is absolutely necessary.

Here is the full article.

Foreign Aid-Government by Idiots

The government's development secretary reckons we will one day be as proud of pouring money down a plug hole in Africa as we are of the Queen and our Armed Forces. Oh no  we won't you idiot. The idiot is Andrew Mitchell, Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, not even a Lib Dem which maybe says it all about the modern Tory Party.

Years ago, back in the late seventies and early eighties, I had a great friend from Sierra Leone who was extremely angry when I talked about foreign aid and how much the UK gave. His view was that part of the reason he was unable to return to his home was because foreign aid helped to bolster tyrants such as his president in Sierra Leone. In a way he was talking tough love, and if you look at Africa government aid has achieved little.

That doesn't mean we should turn our backs on Africa, but I would much prefer to give money voluntarily, which I do on a regular basis, to organisations whose work I know is effective. You only have to look at government waste in this country to imagine what is wasted when millions are shipped out to third world countries on our behalf.

If you want an idea how pathetic this government is at the highest level, especially the Lib Dem part of the Coalition, I suggest you read this article from the Guardian. Then tell me you think sending millions and millions of our tax money abroad will one day make us as proud of throwing money away as we are of the Queen and our Armed Forces.

Vince Cable-A Typical Lib Dem Buffoon

Just when you think a Lib Dem minister, and Vince Cable of all people, has seen the light, you find that yet again it's nothing more than a mirage. They are so used to talking the talk they forgot a long time ago how to walk the walk.

Today Cable has had a go at the dinosaurs of the GMB Union, the good old General, Municipal and Boilermakers' Union. Of course he was heckled for seemingly taking a hardline and warning that a series of strikes this summer could lead to tougher laws to restrict the disruptive powers of the unions. But when you look at what he actually said it is more typical mealy mouthed Lib Dem, or specifically Vince Cable, waffle. Here is what he said:

"The usual suspects will call for general strikes and widespread disruption. This will excite the usual media comments about a summer or an autumn of discontent, and another group of the usual suspects will exploit the situation to call for the tightening of strike law".

Yet again Cable is coming out with something but not actually standing up for what he believes in, if indeed he actually believes in anything other than personal advancement. He is not saying that he, as Business Secretary will take any action, oh no, he is yet again passing the buck and hiding behind what "the usual suspects" will be calling for. That way he can waltz around with the trappings of power, but claim to his lefty pals that any legislation wasn't down to him.

The man has a spine of jelly and should never be allowed near a government department.

Government Still Lying And Cheating About Immigration

Since the Coalition seized power very little seems to have changed, and it's not all because the Lib Dems are pathetic pinko slobs, the Tories are little better. We are now bombing Libya, following a blood lust policy started by Blair, and we now hear that immigration is still out of control. But is anybody really surprised?

Like the last lot the Coalition bullshit the electorate with talk of controlling non-EU immigration, when it is the vast numbers of EU immigrants that needs to be checked. But we all know our EU masters won't allow us to do that, so Cameron thinks we'll fall for the Blair line that the inability to control immigration is nothing to do with the EU.

But even worse than that, and to prove what a huge bureaucratic monster of a government we are oppressed by, they have effectively given illegals, or "failed asylum seekers" an amnesty. It gets worse. They've done it to clear a backlog of files in a government department. It gets even worse. The govenment boasts that it no longer has a backlog of asylum seekers because, unlike Labour, it has dealt with the problem. More bullshit! We want the people/population problem dealt with not the filing system. 

I wonder if the government would let me off with my tax bill if I told them I had binned all the relevant paperwork to deal with a backlog?

John Hemming MP, Another Lib Dem Buffoon

Lord knows there are enough already, but John Hemming has now added to the number of known Lib Dem buffoons. MPs are elected to represent us and to legislate, not use the House of Commons to indulge their insatiable egos.

If you don't know Hemming is the MP who abused parliamentary privilege to name Ryan Giggs as the footballer who had his privacy protected with a superinjunction. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the superinjunction, and I think they are pretty horrendous, why should MPs of all people be allowed to flout the law and get away with it? If MPs can flout laws they don't like then why can't I? My view of Ryan Giggs is that he's been a fool, should have taken his medicine and got on with it. If he had done that the embarrassment would have been over weeks ago.

Of course the problem with Lib Dems is that they seem to think they are morally superior to us mere mortals, hence Hemming pulling a cheap stunt like he did. Hence why Chris Huhne is making such a fool of himself. Hence why Vince Cable is making such a fool of himself. Hence why the Lib Dems were wiped out earlier this month in the local elections, and will be slaughtered at the next general election.

Interesting to see that it has taken a member of the House of Lords to confront the issue of superinjunctions with dignity. Lord Wakeham has written the following letter which appears in the Telegraph:

Dear Sir,

The Prime Minister is right to say that the current situation with regard to privacy injunctions is “unsustainable” and to highlight that the problem is not one of the judiciary’s making because they are simply interpreting the law as it stands.

At the time the legislation was going through Parliament, I predicted that this intolerable state of affairs would inevitably flow from the way in which the European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into our domestic law through the Human Rights Act. It was clear to me that because Parliament was relinquishing control of the issue, the resulting law would inevitably go further than we wished – despite the fact that Jack Straw, when Home Secretary, said that the legislation was not intended to create a general law of privacy – because the Courts would be forced to hand out increasing numbers of injunctions. And the reason for that is that in privacy matters, unlike in libel, the Courts inevitably err on the side of the applicant when considering whether to grant an injunction, and not on the side of a newspaper. That is the root of the inherent “unfairness” the Prime Minster referred to, and why this shambles has arisen.

Section 12 of the Human Rights Act attempted to enshrine in law the PCC’s common sense Code of Practice which protects an individual’s right to privacy as well as defining the public interest which justifies intrusion, with a view to cases being sorted out by the Commission and not the Courts. It has clearly failed to deliver that goal and the problem needs urgently addressing.

There are no palliative routes. The Courts cannot sort this matter out on their own. Nor is the answer simply in “strengthening” the Press Complaints Commission, which already has considerable powers but is often unable to deploy them because it is too frequently bypassed for the Courts in high profile cases. Instead the Human Rights Act may have to be amended, possibly by limiting the role of the Courts to dealing with issues that impact only on public authorities and the State (as the drafters of the Convention envisaged). That would leave the media outside the direct supervision of the Courts on privacy issues and enable the PCC – which can react much more swiftly to changes in newspaper technology than the law will ever be able to do so - to reassert its primacy in this area, as Parliament always intended.

Yours faithfully
Lord Wakeham
(Chairman, Press Complaints Commission, 1995-2001)
House of Lords, London, SW1

So of course the Lib Dems want to wreck the House of Lords:

The Liberal Democrats are another party whose desire to radically reform the House of Lords goes back a long way.
They were the last government to seriously reform the House of Lords when the passed the 1911 Parliament Act, which dramatically reduced peer power.
In their submission to the Royal Commission they set out plans for a directly-elected "Senate" made up of 261 members.
The Senators would be elected from across the UK using the massive constituencies used in the European elections.
Elections would be held every two years with a third of the senate being elected at each poll.
Predictably for the Liberal Democrats the elections would be held under proportional representation.

From the BBC website.

No wonder the few remaining Lib Dem activists are foaming at the mouth about their party joining the Coalition, now they are in the full glare of publicity, being junior partners in government, we can all see what they are really like.

Latest Private Eye-What A Wonderful Front Page!

Link to the Private Eye website.