Category Archives: Politics

Police Cuts

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It was reported earlier this week that a Gloucestershire woman in her 80’s was attacked and punched in the mouth by a young male whilst out walking her dog. The cowardly thug, clearly expecting no resistance, got a shock when the woman grabbed hold of his testicles causing him to fall to the ground in agony, allowing the woman to make good her escape.

It was fortunate that no serious injuries were incurred, at least on the part of the woman, although one could obviously have wished for greater harm to the young thug.

The main cause for concern other than the sickening attack on a vulnerable member of society is the knowledge that our government, carrying on the policies of its predecessors, is continuing to cut down on the funding of law enforcement by actively closing down local police stations and taking police officers off the beat.

Whilst public spending cuts are understandable, further budgeting on the police (not to mention the courts) is misguided and ill-advised. Until there is an urgent review and a reversal of this policy there are likely to be more crimes of this nature with some having a less happy ending than that of the heroic old lady from Gloucestershire.

Crisis in Calais

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Many of the last week’s news headlines related to the ever-present and, seemingly ever-worsening migrant crisis in Calais where thousands of people, mainly young men, are attempting to enter the UK illegally via the Channel Tunnel.

It is undoubtedly a serious and sad humanitarian crisis and one cannot fail to have sympathy for those people fleeing war, oppression and torture in their own countries to seek a better life elsewhere. However, not all migrants are political refugees and many are clearly opportunity seekers who see the UK as a soft touch where successive governments have handed out taxpayers’ money, housing and medical care to all and sundry.

The present government, at last, are showing a more sensible approach and are seeking to reduce benefits and, at least partially, to close the door. It is a difficult problem, of course, and as a civilised nation we should not (and must never) turn our back on the suffering of others. That has to be balanced with a tough and pragmatic immigration policy where those seeking to enter should be individually screened and interviewed and each case decided on its merits.

The fact that thousands of potential immigrants are seeking to force or trick their way into the UK is a sad indictment on the lack of policy and direction of both the United Nations and the European Union. If the United Nations had done its job in taking action in the world’s trouble spots then half of these humanitarian crises would not exist in the first place. The only utterance made by the UN last week on the escalating crisis was the less than helpful criticism by a politically correct spokesman/person of our prime minister for accurately describing potential immigrants as “swarming” over the barricades at Calais. Apparently, this was akin to comparing the migrants to insects!

The UN and the EU should cut the rhetoric, stop prevaricating and do something about the crisis and accept that it is a world problem and certainly European rather than just something to be resolved by the UK and France alone. In the meantime, we should continue to tighten our borders and deliver a message that the UK, whilst fair and civilised, is not El Dorado and those found to have entered illegally (and without passing all tests for political asylum) will be fed and briefly accommodated before being shipped back to whence they came.

That is undoubtedly politically incorrect and some might say it is brutal or ultra right-wing but it is not, it is common sense, pure and simple.

Changes at the Beeb?

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There has been much speculation recently over whether or not the BBC should continue to charge a licence fee, currently standing at £145.50 for a year’s viewing. There is talk that the Corporation can instead make its income by selling a package similar to Sky TV or by even showing advertisements though the 1922 founding fathers would turn over in their graves at the thought of such heresy.

Other television companies seem to get along alright relying on advertisement revenue so why should the BBC be any different? Some will complain that one of the great attractions of the BBC is that there are no commercial breaks during its programming but does it really matter that much?

May be it’s a sign of age but I quite enjoy ITV’s commercial breaks giving me the opportunity, as they do, to make myself a drink of coffee or nip out to the little boys’ room!

On balance, perhaps people would prefer to save themselves the £145.50 and put up with the commercial breaks as long as there is no loss of quality in the programmes. And as for revenue well, commercial organisations are prepared to pay top dollar for adverts at peak viewing times so that shouldn’t be a problem. From the Government’s point of view, all that revenue is going to mean some hefty tax bills so it seems a winner all round.

The Government You Deserve

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Thomas Jefferson, founding father and 3rd president of the USA, is credited with saying “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”

England is a conservative country and has elected a Conservative government so, for England at least, we have the government we deserve. The same cannot be said of Scotland, which is now predominantly represented by the Scottish Nationalist Party, a militant and socialist organisation diametrically opposed to English conservatism.

The implications for the new government are clear, do nothing and Scotland will inevitably head towards independence causing the UK to collapse. To preserve the UK, changes will have to be made by either giving Scotland further devolved powers or by altering the whole set up of the UK and creating a US style federation. None of this must be funded or underwritten by the English taxpayer and this has to be driven home to the Scottish Nationalist Party leadership.

Talking of which, Alex Salmond, the former Scottish Nationalist Party leader, stated this morning that “the Scottish lion has roared”. Maybe, but I would hope that Parliament’s other members, outnumbering his party by 12 to 1, will convert that roar to a mew. I doubt it though and  I think we had better prepare ourselves for five years of whingeing and disruption by the Scottish Nationalists until they get what they want.

Spending What You Haven’t Got

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Austerity is a word we have heard much of over the last few years. It is derived from the word “austere” which my 1984 Collins dictionary defines as “stern”, “forbidding” or “showing strict self-discipline”.  Austerity itself  is defined as “tightened economy, as from shortages of goods”.

The reason the word is so familiar nowadays is that the Coalition Government used the term to describe the actions they would need to take (and, of course, did take) to deal with the country’s severe debt which existed when they came to power in 2010. The word is now used as a weapon by opponents of the Government’s economic policies.

In the run up to the general election barely a day has gone by without some politician or other appearing on our television screens to tell us that his or her political party is going to spend £10 billion on this or is going to save £12 billion on that. They rarely tell us how they going to afford to do so.

Even a child knows that if he wishes to buy a packet of sweets costing £1 and he only has 70 pence he will have to wait and find the extra 30 pence before he can buy those sweets. You cannot spend money that you haven’t got. A good lesson in life.

You can always borrow the money of course but you will have to pay it back at some stage. That is common sense, pure and simple. It’s a pity that it is lacking in so many of our politicians. Unless, of course, they are telling us a pack of lies – surely not?

Another Waste of Public Money

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Last  Friday, following the acquittal of four journalists brought to trial for allegedly paying public officials for information, the Director of Public Prosecutions,  Alison Saunders, announced that charges against nine other journalists for similar offences have now been dropped.

The charges were brought following Scotland Yard’s Operation Elveden which many critics referred to as a “witch-hunt” and an attempt by the Government to gag the free press. In other words, it was politically – and possibly even personally – motivated.

Journalists argued that under certain circumstances it is in the public interest to pay public officials for information and this was clearly the view of the jury last Friday.

What particularly grates is the fact that the operation cost the taxpayer an estimated £20 million, money that would have been better spent, for example, on counter terrorism or other serious crime.

Minority Rule

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It’s frightening to realise that a minority political party representing a fraction of the British electorate could effectively render the country defenceless. That is the nightmare scenario facing the UK at next month’s general election.

With two major political parties it used to be the case that the party with the majority would form the government and for the next  5 years would effectively rule the country according to its election manifesto. However, with an increase in the number of minority parties that is no longer the case, as the last 5 years of coalition government have clearly demonstrated.

In effect, the party supported by the largest proportion of the electorate will not be able to put their policies into practice. A clear indication of this was provided yesterday when the Scottish Nationalist Party (the SNP) announced that in spite of the fact that both major political parties, Labour and Conservative, wish to maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent the SNP do not. If the SNP do form part of a future coalition government they have made it quite clear that they will end our nuclear capability.

Unfortunately for the majority of the UK electorate, who clearly do wish to maintain a nuclear deterrent (and imagine trying to hold off somebody like Vladimir Putin without one) the danger is that the SNP, with possibly 5 or 6% of parliamentary seats, could end up being king-maker and coalition partner to a weakened Labour party and thus achieve their aim.

So, not only do the SNP wish to lead Scotland to independence and break up the UK they also wish to emasculate us. If that doesn’t convince the undecided on how to vote on May 7th then nothing will.

The Truth, at Last

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I enjoyed, if that’s the right word, hearing a former apologist for multiculturalism in Britain admit last week that it had been a failure. He said, in a television programme presented by him,  that the policy, carried out extensively by Tony Blair’s New Labour government had not just failed to bring different races and communities closer together but, conversely, had led to greater segregation culminating in atrocities such as the July 2007 London bombings by Muslim extremists and other outrages across the country.

The man concerned was Trevor Phillips, the prime architect of multiculturalism under Blair. He concluded that they had got it all wrong and that it was, after all, acceptable to admit to racial stereotyping and indeed necessary if society is to come to terms and deal with its undoubted differences. He admitted that it is alright to tell the truth and to state racial facts such as, most London pickpockets are Romanians and most victims of murder are black and most of the perpetrators are black also. Of course, he was only saying what anybody with a slight degree of common sense and honesty has always said.

Phillips said that this overriding desire to force multiculturalism on the British people had backfired and in some cases had led to suffering and even death. He gave several examples, one being the case of the poor black child, Victoria Climbie, systematically tortured to death because none of the social workers had the courage to highlight the abuse because the child’s guardians were black. In other words, political correctness and the fear of being accused of racism trumped the life of a child.

Similarly, he admitted what we all know but rarely say (although this blog has referred to it on more than one occasion), that the UK child grooming scandals are the result of sexual and violent crimes committed overwhelmingly by Pakistanis on young white girls. Again, he stated that the fear of accusations of racism prevented authorities (politicians, police and social workers) over a period of as much as ten years from taking action to prevent the commission of the crimes. Yet more innocent lives ruined because of political correctness.

At last, a politician and a decent one at that, with the courage to speak the truth and the courage to (finally) put truth and common sense above political correctness. It helped that Trevor Phillips is black because I suspect that the liberal, left-leaning media would have been outraged if the programme had been presented by a white man. Still, at least it’s a start.

Defenceless

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It is widely agreed among politicians, historians and military experts that the world is now a far more dangerous place than at any time since the height of the Cold War back in the early 1960’s.

The Western world faces not only the ever-present danger of Islamic fanaticism but also the threat of a resurgent and brutal Russia under Vladimir Putin. Add to the mix the threats of rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, to name but two, and the danger becomes clear for all to see.

The British response? We fail to commit ourselves to the minimum Nato target of an allocation of 2% of our gross domestic product (GDP) towards defence but do, however, commit ourselves (the British taxpayer) to spending 0.7% of our GDP, some £10 billion, on overseas aid.

Nobody could begrudge the giving of money and aid to alleviate poverty and suffering, but when that aid goes to countries with larger defence budgets than our own (and in the case of Pakistan, a far bigger army) you have to question our sanity.

Election Battleground

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As campaigning gathers pace ahead of May’s  General Election it is becoming increasingly clear that one of the most important battlegrounds will be the National Health Service. The major political parties seek to assure us that the NHS is safe in their hands and that if voted into power funding will be increased.

That is well and good but the vital question is how exactly is the money to be spent since in recent years we have grown used to seemingly endless tales of bungling and incompetence within the NHS.

Politicians need to convince the taxpayer that his or her hard-earned cash is not simply going to disappear down a black hole of bureaucracy but will instead be used to promote efficiency, increase medical staffing and thus improve the patients’ experience.

The NHS is something that we should all be proud of and most of us, I’m sure, cannot speak highly enough of the care and professionalism of our excellent though overworked doctors and nurses. The trouble is, they are hampered by incompetent leadership, a shortage of staff and in some cases by out-dated equipment. They deserve better and so do we, the public.