Category Archives: Politics

Pie in the Sky

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Today, September 5th, is the anniversary of the final break-up of the Soviet Union or USSR in 1991. The Russian leader presiding over this long awaited event was Boris Yeltsin, a man who (not least because of his alcoholism and eccentric behaviour) often seemed one of the more human leaders of what Ronald Reagan called the “Evil Empire”.

Following the Soviet break-up, and clearly in one of his more lucid moments, Yeltsin said “Let’s not talk about communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky”.

Such a pity that millions had to lose their lives before that truth was finally accepted and articulated.

What do the English think?

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The Scottish referendum is only a few weeks off and in the midst of the usual reporting from the “Yes” and “No” camps came a report last week on English views on the future of the United Kingdom, the possibility of Scottish withdrawal and the position of England within the Union.

It appears that although the majority wish to preserve the Union many of those questioned by pollsters want the English to be more vocal on their wishes instead of perpetually remaining the silent majority. We have, of course, heard much of Scottish independence, even though the Scots already have their own Parliament, and some talk about further Welsh independence even though they too have separate representation in the form of their own Assembly.

By contrast, the English have no separate representation with neither their own parliament nor assembly despite the fact that they are by far and away the single largest entity within the Union and therefore the largest financial contributors. Instead, English MPs sit at the UK’s Parliament in Westminster alongside Scottish MPs who are all able to vote on English matters while the English cannot vote on theirs. This seems to be both unfair and anti-democratic.

A further grievance is the fact that English citizens pay the NHS £8.25 for their medical prescriptions whilst the Scots get theirs free of charge and Scottish children receive free university education whilst English children and their families pay thousands of pounds each year for theirs. All of this is despite the fact that England bears the lion’s share of the cost of running the Union. This cannot be right.

Even if Scotland decides to stay in the Union, and I hope they do, some English politicians are now talking of setting up their own Parliament just like that of their northern neighbours. And why not? After all, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Youth Club Closures

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Last week it was revealed that over the last 2 years some 350 youth community centres and youth clubs in Britain have been closed down through lack of funding. If this is true then it is surely a misguided and foolish policy by both central and local government.

Evidently one club in a rundown area of Manchester, the Hideaway Youth Project, Moss Side (which opens 5 days a week and has 900 members) is in danger of closing down if it doesn’t raise £50,000 by March of next year, the year it should be celebrating its 50th birthday.

How sad that so many youngsters from broken families in deprived areas, with little to do and little chance of finding jobs are going to lose one of the few areas of stability in their lives. These clubs mean so much to them and as one member said, when interviewed, they represent an escape and a refuge, a place that youngsters can call their own. Another said that the club keeps him and many others off the streets and out of trouble. It makes sense as any policeman, social worker or criminal lawyer will vouch.

Surely, it can’t be beyond the powers of government to raise the money to not only prevent the closure of the clubs but even to set up new ones? In the short term it can only benefit the youngsters and in the long term help to make them valuable members of society rather than just another statistic of social deprivation and decay.

Vote Winner

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Last week the Labour Party announced that, should it be returned to power after next year’s general election, it was considering the imposition of a financial levy on English football’s Premier League. Sport and politics are usually best kept apart but these proposals will, I’m sure, resonate with many of us.

Almost daily we read of the mind-blowing figures involved at the highest levels of sport and particularly football. For example the Premier League recently entered into a three season contract with the big television companies whereby the League will receive £3 billion in viewing rights. Add to this the fact that certain top players are receiving up to £250,000 a week just for playing the game it is easy to see why there is a certain (putting it very mildly!) disaffection with the game.

The backdrop to this is the continued sale of sports playing fields by local authorities, a distinct lack of funding, a lack of facilities throughout the land and a lack of emphasis on sport and personal fitness in many of our state schools. Indeed, it was estimated that last year a mere £5 million was spent by local authorities on the maintenance of football facilities nationwide – put another way, less than half of what some of the top Premier League footballers were paid in the same period.

So the Labour Party’s proposal to take some of the money from the top level of the game and spend it at grass-roots level appears to be a good one. In addition they are considering a further tax on the betting industry which evidently turns over in excess of £6 billion each year.

One doesn’t have to be a socialist to relish the thought of money being taken from fat capitalists to be spent not on fast cars and luxury yachts but on the construction of facilities for disadvantaged children in the poorer areas of our country. A vote winner, for sure.

Bigotry in the Classroom

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This week it was established beyond doubt that Birmingham City Council were complicit in the infiltration of the city’s schools by Muslim extremists. At best the councillors simply turned a blind eye to the overwhelming evidence that a substantial number of the city’s schools had been taken over by these fanatics (both school governors and teachers) who were bent on indoctrinating their pupils with bigotry and a hatred of all things western.

The Government-led inquiry revealed that children were taught, among other things, that–
– All non-Muslims will go to hell when they die.
– White children are lazy and white women have no morals.
– Women are inferior to men and wives are the property of their husbands to be used as their husbands see fit.
– Homosexuality is a crime against God and those who practice it should be jailed.
– The murder of the British soldier Lee Rigby and the Boston bombings last year were a fabrication of the truth by western governments.

In addition boys and girls were segregated in the classroom and some teachers insisted on teaching their classes Sharia Law insisting that it was superior to and should replace the law of the United Kingdom. Any teachers who objected to this indoctrination were paid off with sizeable severance cheques and made to sign non-disclosure agreements before leaving their employment.

Unsurprisingly, the nationwide response has been one of outrage that schoolchildren have not only been exposed to this blatant racism and bigotry but also anger that those who should protect them did nothing to prevent it whether through complicity, fear of the extremists or just through the muddled politically correctness of not wanting to offend a religious minority.

Perhaps the greatest irony in the whole sorry tale is that those councillors, who in a misguided attempt to show tolerance of the extremists and avoid claims of discrimination, will actually have achieved the opposite effect. The publicity generated by this scandal will not only add fuel to the fire of political parties on the extreme right but it will also have the effect of turning many previously mild and tolerant British people against Muslims. This would be unfortunate since no one doubts that the majority of Muslims are, like the rest of us, decent people who simply want to live in a climate of peace, tolerance and understanding.

Predictably, the Government has stated that this must never be allowed to happen again and that, in future, all schools throughout the land will be carefully monitored and regularly inspected. We must hope their actions are successful since no form of extremism, political, religious or otherwise, can have any part to play in the education of British children.

Unnecessary Interference?

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Most of us in the free west instinctively oppose any measures taken by government to interfere unnecessarily in our lives. Over regulation and micro management smack of Big Brother in George Orwell’s chilling novel “1984” and are abhorrent to free thinkers.

The key word in the preceding paragraph is “unnecessarily” and the question has to be asked is when is government interference necessary and therefore acceptable?

As I write these notes there is considerable controversy over the British government’s decision to force through legislation to increase surveillance of communications meaning, among other things, that our private emails will be private no longer – though I wonder, with all the technology at the government’s disposal, if they ever were private in the first place.

Many critics have called the legislation a “Snoopers’ Charter” and have referred to the measures as draconian and an example of unnecessary (that word again) “State Control”.

I sympathise with that viewpoint and the last thing I want is for my life to be controlled by the State. However, I also want to stay safe and I want my loved ones, my friends and fellow citizens to stay safe too. On balance, if the government remains fully accountable (a prerequisite) to the electorate and its measures succeed in preventing lives being lost to terrorist acts won’t a loss of privacy be a reasonable – and necessary – price to pay?

Knowing Nothing

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It’s strange isn’t it, that as youngsters, we know everything but then somehow, the older we get, all that knowledge just disappears!

Perhaps age brings with it a certain kind of wisdom and as Socrates, the Greek philosopher, said way back in the 5th century BC, the “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”.

On the same subject another great thinker, Albert Einstein, once said “Any fool can know. The point is to understand”.

Funny that neither of those great men became politicians!

Falklands Republic

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Last week Argentina’s football team posed for a photograph in front of a huge professionally prepared banner stating in Spanish that the Falkland Islands (or Las Malvinas as Argentina refers to them) are Argentine property.

Legally and factually this is incorrect since the islands, through the democratic decision of the occupants, remain British territory. In spite of this the fact remains that Argentina’s age old claim to the south Atlantic islands is alive and well.

In 1982 Argentina seized the Falklands by force and were then swiftly defeated and removed by a British task force. Since then the islanders have reaffirmed their desire to remain with the UK. This clearly doesn’t impress Argentina and the danger remains that some hot-headed dictator in a desperate bid to gain popularity might try to invade the islands just as General Galtieri did in 1982.

Since 1982 the UK’s military power has been dramatically reduced and it would be a lot harder to win back the islands by force as we did back then. Perhaps more significantly I doubt whether there would be the political or public will to take any action at all. So, assuming that this is true what is to be done to avert possible catastrophe?

Well, short of threatening to bomb Buenos Aires or sell the islands to Argentina (both extremely unlikely!) it seems to me that the best way forward would be to hand the problem over to the United Nations. This could be done by the Falklands declaring themselves an independent republic (whilst remaining part of the Commonwealth) and then, on the basis of a feared invasion by Argentina, request that the UN sends in a peace-keeping force to protect them. That should make the Argentines think twice!

Tolerating Equality

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Last week a woman in Pakistan was stoned to death for marrying against the wishes of her family. This act of barbarism took place outside the courtroom where the woman, who was three months pregnant, was being tried for the crime of marrying the man she loved rather than the one chosen by her father. What made it even worse is that the murder took place in front of the local police, who made no attempt to intervene and prevent the crime.

Also last week, in neighbouring India, two young girls were gang raped and then hanged with two policeman arrested as prime suspects. In Sudan, last month, a young woman was sentenced to death by a Muslim court for refusing to renounce her Christian beliefs. The sentence was suspended for two years so that she can spend time with her newly born daughter and husband.

And it was only a few weeks ago that nearly three hundred schoolgirls were kidnapped by Muslim thugs in Nigeria because the education of women is against their religious beliefs. They still haven’t been released.

So what can we do about it? Probably very little other than make official protests to the governments of these countries and threaten economic sanctions or the withdrawal of financial aid. Some may wonder why we provide aid in the first place.

What we can do and what we must do is continue to lead by example and show, that in the United Kingdom our laws provide complete equality for all citizens irrespective of sex or religious belief. We should continue to welcome all peoples of the world to our country and give them the full protection of our laws but only on the express condition that they accept and obey those laws.

In spite of what some of our more liberal politicians and church leaders have said to the contrary we must never tolerate any religion that does not share our fundamental belief that all men and women are equal. We are a civilised country and must remain so.

 

European Backlash

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There is no doubt that the smug, complacent grandees of the European Union took a big hit earlier this week when the electorate in virtually all member states voted against their policies.

In Britain, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) won more seats than any other political party, leaving the big two parties shell-shocked and the pro-Europe Liberal Democrats on the verge of extinction.

Democracy doesn’t always work but the message sent out loud and clear by the people of Europe to the European Union is this; we don’t like your policies, we have had enough of being patronised and are tired of being told what is good for us by clueless and corrupt politicians. We are sick of policies based on idealism rather than common sense and if you don’t listen to us and give us what we want we will vote for those who will.

The unfortunate downside to all of this however is that people, almost in desperation, are turning towards extremist political parties, such as the far right in France, and that has to be a cause for concern. For example, control of mass immigration is acceptable and logical but racism and violence are not.

The pendulum needs to swing away from the idealistic and out of touch liberals who run the European Union but it must not swing too far the other way. Europe requires positive action, not reaction. There is a difference, as students of pre-war German history know only too well.