What is it? Is it to protect the people and to act as an independent voice of law, or is to provide millions of jobs and a pension scheme?
“Hundreds of thousands”of people are striking today, because the Government is planning to:
>So I’ve been digging through my old emails, and found this:
Many thanks – it is really heartening when people write in and clearly “get” what I am on about! Can I add this to my web blog section I will be launching on my web site tomorrow??
This was sent on 28/09/2005 by David Cameron MP; it was sent in response to the following email I sent him, half an hour earlier:
Having discovered the results of the ballot as regards to the method of election of a new leader, and further read the potential contenders for Mr Howard’s position as leader of the Conservatives, I feel the need to encourage you further to enter the leadership contest. You will probably have held numerous discussions with your friends, family, and confidants over the issue, but as a 21 year old student, I feel you are the man to take this phoenix, and rise from the ashes. Reading your speech over the future of the Conservative party made me proud to be a member. You are honest and forthright in your view of not necessarily needing to score political points. We all have the one goal: to make Britain a wonderful place to live for all. It does not matter who is leading the country, Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens, or even the Monster Raving Loony Party! If one party – that party I believe to be the Conservatives, leads the way, does what is just and right for the British people, makes our society a healthier and happier place to live, to be economically strong, to wake up in the morning, and think… yes, this is a fine island, then we will all be happy.
Mr Cameron, I also believe in your ability to “modernize” the party. Is it modernizing? Is it advancement? Or is it merely the changing of the world that means we evolve? I believe it is the latter. Evolution. That is what our party is doing, needs to do, and will do.
Personally, the issue of personal responsibility is the key. It is the sad reflection of Blair and Brown’s Britain (Hereby known as Triple B – Also could be seen as Bloody Bad Britain?) that we have people claiming £30,000 a year and more on benefits, when they show no inclination to work. that we have parents blaming schools, the police, the government for doing them wrong. To them i say NO. Whilst potentially controversial, it is the parents obligation to their children to love them, to care for them, to protect them. Now I’m not saying it is possible to do anything about this issue – it may be the case, it may not – but either way, yobbish behaviour, though around for many years now, has evolved. From the hippies of the 60′s, the punks of the 70′s, the ravers of the 80′s and to now – young thugs, male and female, attacking the elderly, the disabled, those of a different religion or colour. There was that word again, evolve. Evolution.
Mr Cameron, you are an evolver. Your thoughts, whilst not entirely as radical as people may think, do form the necessary requirements that will take our party forwards. Under Labour, society has deteriorated drastically. Although I was only 12 years old when Labour were initially elected, I remember life before that being safer, being less aggressive, being conservative.
Yes, I am aware how pretentious/sickening I sound, particularly with regards the ‘phoenix’ and ‘evolver’ analogies, however there are some parts of what I wrote that remains true:
David Cameron once said:
“Britain will do best if we apply our trusted Conservative principles of limited government, personal responsibility, sound money, toughness on crime, strong defence, and national self-government.”
Shame that he hasn’t applied any of these principles to his Premiership.
In today’s Daily Telegraph, Abhijit Pandya claims that “No Decent Tory Should Vote UKIP” – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/9199348/Why-no-decent-Tory-should-vote-Ukip.html. I’m not one for following a party line, but Abhijit Pandya’s article, is, bluntly, rubbish.
1) Neil Hamilton was *elected* (by members) onto the UKIP NEC.
2) Christine Hamilton is not on the NEC, nor has she been visible at a UKIP Conference.
3) UKIP know you can’t leave the EU via their MEPs; they do know that it’s the best way to gain familiarity which in turn can achieve the goal of winning MPs.
4) The ‘blanket ban’ on immigration is a lie; short-term work permits would still be issued whilst true appreciation of public sector workloads were undertaken.
5) An English Parliament would not render the UK obsolete. It would strengthen democracy, reduce the number of politicians, and allow the Home Nations to be much more self-reliant, and hopefully ending the left-wing monopoly in Wales & Scotland, thanks to their handouts. Want a large public sector? Raise the taxes in your Country to fund it.
I’m loathe to go down the route of labelling Abhijit Pandya a disgruntled UKIPper, but he’s not just a ‘former advisor’ – he stood as UKIP’s candidate for Harrow East in the 2010 General Election, and the Leicester South 2011 by-election where he caused a mini-firestorm: http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Leicester-election-candidate-s-anger-criticism/story-12083104-detail/story.html
This coming year, the UK Government is predicted to spend £111bn on welfare. Only pensions (£129.3bn) and the NHS (£123.8bn) are estimated to receive a higher sum of public funds.
Similarly, the UK Economy is almost flat-lining once more, interest rates are fixed at 0.5% and there is to be yet another round of money printing which will only benefit the banks. Businesses are failing nationwide, unemployment is constantly rising, the young are starved of work experience due to the collapsing economy, the minimum wage and the over-riding emphasis on memorising for examinations, as opposed to truly learning in our schools.
Whilst scrapping the minimum wage, reforming the way both our education system works and how we judge a successful school, and scrapping regulations and taxes that destroy the natural British entrepreneurial spirit are all options that I wholeheartedly subscribe to, what if there was a way to boost the economy, get people off benefits and into work, and save £111bn this coming financial year?
For a while I’ve tinkered with this idea, and I want to outline first and foremost – I do not claim this to be perfect, nor do I claim to have factored in all costs and the administration required.
Imagine, if you will, a large factory. Within this factory, several hundred people are working hard, on a 9-5 basis. They work safely in the knowledge that their family are cared for, their children are in school, and they have no real financial difficulties. They have access to work-based training, career advisors, and have a contract in place that allows them to leave the place of employment at any time.
Now factor in that they live ‘on-site’. Their family lives with them in a clean, safe flat, they have their 3 meals a day, they may have access to various leisure facilities, a library, a fitness room, a swimming pool. Education is provided through a ‘free school’ set up by businesses, where work experience is also offered.
My idea is that rather than people living on welfare, people who are made redundant, or who are out of work, are able to work, for bed and board, for businesses.
This is the ‘workfare scheme’ with the volume turned up to 11.
Businesses would be able to operate in the UK at a much more flexible level; employee costs would fall, businesses would be able to expand, the UK would be able to export much more, and the economy would grow.
BUT WAIT! I hear those on the left cry, surely this would simply mean a race to £0.00 salaries! Who would be able to buy things? The economy would wither and die!
Not quite. Firstly, not all businesses could adopt this model. I can hardly envisage high street shops following this, nor can I see hospitals, newspapers, architects, and the general non-manufacturing/textile industry being able to have either the room or reason to adopt this model.
Similarly, I anticipated outrage at the likelihood of those comparing this to a sweatshop. Again, not quite. Here, you would have competition. People and their families would be free to compare differing ‘welfare’ providers. It would be in the businesses interests to provide high quality living and working environments. Indeed, if you imagine the current scenario on the minimum wage: a factory employing 100 people, all on the minimum wage, must pay approximately £1.5m pa on staffing costs. That outlay for one year could adapt or expand the workplace to suit this model, and then costs per annum would plummet.
I don’t profess to be the saviour of the welfare state and UK enterprise. What I simply offer is an idea for debate and to recognise that our net debt is over £1 trillion, and that everyone in work’s equal share of this totals £35,000.
I believe all drugs should be legalised.
What might this reform look like? I was intrigued to read about Silk Road this morning, a sort of anonymous eBay for online drug sales. It uses eBay-style seller ratings to avoid scams like bad drugs being sent, or no drugs being sent at all after a payment. The site seems like a relatively cost-effective and safe way for people to buy drugs. Good.
If something similar to this could be legalized for the sale of certain drugs, then many of the fears that people have about drug legalization could be avoided. Let’s keep street selling illegal, but let people buy them from licensed sellers online and only use them on private property. Ugly scenes of drug dealers on the streets, like in Lisbon where drugs are decriminalized but not legalized, would be avoided, but people who want to take drugs would still be able to do so in the privacy of their own homes.
That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right… The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
Is a shambles, a farce, a gigantic mess of planning failure.
Never before has a bad idea turned out worse than anyone could have expected. Slicing and dicing a roundabout to make it resemble a hamburger to lessen the congestion hasn’t worked, and will not work. A happy meal? No chance.
I’ve done some digging. It turns out that *somewhere* a Council representative, in discussions with the developer, authorised the roundabout.
To try and find the person responsible for the mess, I’ve put in a freedom of information request. I’ll post an update when it’s received, no later than December 21st.
UPDATE: ‘Blame the Government’
A letter sent to the Chester Chronicle & Standard:
I do wish Phil Tate (Labour activist & Council candidate) would stop trying to re-write history.
Last week he claimed that the ‘Tory-led Government’ (A contender for most childish political phrase of the century?) were trying to take credit for the 0.5% base interest rate that Labour installed in March 2009. Firstly, no Government can set the base rate since Labour gave the Bank of England independence. To suggest that Labour controlled an independent body does not portray the Labour Party in a positive light. Indeed, Labour’s claim that the Tories are cutting the deficit too far and too fast is nonsense, particularly with reports coming through that there would only now be 3 years difference between Labour and Tory plans.
Similarly, Mr Mosley should not take great delight at the 0.5% interest rate. It is basic mathematics and economics that the lower the interest rate, the greater the borrowing, and in turn the more likely there is to be yet another credit fueled boom and bust. Moreover, a 0.5% interest rate severely affects those who used their money wisely, and saved for a rainy day and their retirement, and does not encourage prudent investments, simply encouraging those looking to make a quick profit.
The economy is a mess. Labour want to drag it out for another 10 years, the Government is too scared to accept immediate pain for public long-term gain. Given the choice between a painful decade, ending with a true bust, or accepting the failures of Government now, and starting to rebuild our economy, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories are too scared. They’re too concerned with being in power, as opposed to doing what is right for the people.
Government bailed out the banks, Government got us into this mess, and the Coalition Government is most definitely not sorting this out.
As some/most of you will be aware, I’ve had a pretty successful time losing weight this year: I started on Monday, January 3rd 2011 with the following stats (at 6ft 4in):
Weight: 245lbs (17.5st)
BMI: 29.8
Body Fat: 30%
Neck: 18.5″
Chest: 48″
Waist: 38-40″
This looked like:
Yes, I’ve (much) less hair, I’ve spent a fortune getting a new wardrobe (2 installments!) but I feel happier, and, in all honesty, think I look it too.
Some have asked if I’ve been ill(!), had an extreme diet, or gone crazy exercising. The truth is, none of the above. I used MyFitnessPal which has an app for Android and the iPhone, where you track what you eat. I started off looking for 2lbs a week weight loss, needing a net 2,000 calories a day.
A recent occurrence/trend on Twitter, is for the Tories to say that a vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour, and a Labour Government is a by-product of UKIP’s popularity, and there’s only room for one “centre-right” Party.
Really?
If closing your eyes, covering your ears, repeating “LA LA LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” does the job for you, go for it.
Alternatively, allow me to provide some alternative reasoning:
1) UKIP have been around for 18 years; UKIPs strongest electoral performance resulted in a “Tory-led” Government.
2) The Tories are not right-wing.
3) I see no real difference between the two, particularly when it was only 3 years ago that the Tories promised to match Labour’s spending plans.
4) The Lib Dems have had a much stronger electoral performance than UKIP in the time we’ve been in existence, and during this time Labour won 3 elections outright.
5) You’re running scared, because you know UKIP are taking votes from the Tories because the Tories aren’t appealing to the voters they once were, and UKIP are gaining popularity.
6) We’re different Parties – deal with it.
7) If we’re truly a single-issue Party, you could easy pull the rug from under us by advocating EU withdrawal or at very least promise a referendum.
Labour win elections because people vote Labour.
9) There is no need for a Labour Government. You are Labour now that you are subsidising mortgages for people, with the tax payer left to take the hit.
10) They should stop complaining about UKIP and look at their leader and their policies.