Happy New Year

Thanks for the follows, thanks for the comments, thanks for the debate and thanks to all my fellow bloggers. Here's to a peaceful, contented and prosperous 2012 for all of us. Yes, I know, I don't expect one either, but let's not spoil the moment :)



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A Wise Man Once Said...

There's been a bit of a personal meltdown here in Muswell Hill Towers in the past week so I'm going to put my blog out of its misery and close it rather than keep it on hold until the good times roll.  Blogs are like children, they need nurturing and mustn't be left to fend for themselves.

If you're incredibly bored one evening you can check the archives to find out about smart meters, report-back computers in cars, the infrastructure, the cameras, the censorship, the arming of the police, what you can grow in your garden, what you can give to relatives and friends, what's approved and what isn't, and what's under global attack. If you're not already aware, you can read about how they did it and how we ended up with a one-party State that takes direction from an unelected foreign entity.  You'll also find this:

from Dmitry Orlov and there's more HERE.

There are many good, independent blogs around; if I could give you only one piece of advice it would be to put on your thinking cap and read them (you'll find a good selection in the sidebar). You may not like the language but there's a truth in them that you won't find in the mainstream media.

When I began this blog I was startled to discover how behind the times the msm actually is, and how much they cover up with half-truths. The msm are enablers so if they tell you something, double-check it for yourself. If you feel the need to contribute to their comments sections: don't. They're always filtered and moderated, no matter what they say, so it's best to start your own blog. If you haven't checked through the Essential Links, it's worth doing that too. There's so much information on the internet that you only need to check into the msm now and then to see what they're reporting and how out of sync they are.

It gives me no pleasure to see what I've been predicting come about, and I'm nobody - I'm just someone who took the time to look at the political and financial world, check out sources and use my own judgement.  You can do it too.

For our government and for the EU:
]

Well, that's it from me.  Take care, thank you for reading and commenting and, DV,  I'll see you on the other side of the barricade.

Oh yes, the Wise Man.  He said: "So long, and thanks for all the fish".

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Furedi: Renouncing The Politics Of Representation

Renouncing the politics of representation

Extracts only:

"The tendency to depict democratic accountability as a deeply flawed, unpredictable thing is based on the belief that ordinary people lack the intellectual resources to deal with the complicated challenges facing policymakers. According to the traditional aristocratic version of this argument, since people will inevitably react against taking difficult decisions, it makes far more sense simply for someone else to take those decisions on their behalf.

In recent decades, this claim has been supplemented by a new thesis: that ordinary people are so misguided by the media or the church or some other institution that they simply do not know what is in their best interests anymore...

...Contempt for the intellectual and moral capacities of the multitude invariably leads many self-proclaimed ‘enlightened’ commentators to distrust the public. Such anti-public sentiments are often expressed by environmentalists, who regard ordinary folk as far too selfish or too in thrall to consumerism to vote for policies that will require them to make the kind of sacrifices that might ‘save the planet’...

...Thinkers who argue against democratic political accountability often assert that representatives of the people are far less able to deal with complex issues, certainly in comparison with technocrats and experts. Of course, every modern political institution requires and depends upon the advice and input of scientists, engineers and experts. But what the advocates of the current technocratic turn demand is not simply that politicians consider such advice, but that they defer to it, that they bow before the wisdom of the expert. In its more caricatured form, this technocratic turn assumes the character of an expert-dominated polity. So Joschka Fischer, the former German foreign minister and grand old man of the Green Party, has talked about the need for an ‘avant garde of the United States of Europe’.

Fisher’s avant garde would consist of 17 leaders of Eurozone countries who would de facto constitute a government of Europe. The main accomplishment of this scheme would be that ‘parliamentary powers of control would be taken along to Brussels from the European capitals’. In this way, the pretence of national accountability could be maintained while the brave 17 could govern Europe without the hassle of having to deal with political arguments and pressure. This proposed model of insulated decision-making is probably at the top of every EU technocrats’ wish list...."

A really good article worth ten minutes of your time.

H/t @WhiteWednesday

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Sunday Reflection

Oh, the irony! The Queen has become Patron of the Magna Carta Trust which is preparing to commemorate the signing of the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta in 2015.


FionaNUFC

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GP: Brazil 1980

Motorsports History TV

Final laps (8mins)

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Germany Calling

Germany has many of the problems that we do in getting people to wake up to what's happening. Karl Schachtschneider ('bless you') is Professor Emeritus in public and civil law at Nuremberg University. In this video he explains about the death penalty, military rearmament and debunks the EU's claim that it is responsible for, and promotes, peace in Europe. He warns his audience that, on the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty, the death penalty will be applicable in the event of riots, rebellion or facing the threat of war.

We're not alone but we need a pan-European movement to oppose the EU, perhaps we can then be called "Sour Little Europeans" by Cameron et al.




Here is Schachtschneider's wikipedia page and here is his website, if your German is up to it.

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An sent Coe hamewart, tae think again

An sent Coe hamewart, tae think again

"So the good news is that Historic Scotland has said "no" to the preposterous idea of massive Olympic rings being placed on our castle."

Scots wha hae!

UPDATE: MPs refuse to allow pics of 'Olympic heroes' to be beamed on to Parliament

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What If?

It's happening in front of our eyes. The mechanisms are in place in the form of loosely-worded, ever-changing and open to interpretation 'laws', regulations and directives. Thanks to the doctrine of spin, state education, a public sector that comprises more than 50% employment and a lickspittle media, we're truly fracked.


A tip of the trident to Fausty

What if Nigel Farage is our Ron Paul?

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Threat Of The Day

'It is necessary to force countries against their will.'

"Recent experience has shown that a member state normally wants to avoid a programme until the very last moment," he said in the EU capital. "This has caused the situation to worsen in the meantime both for the country concerned and for the whole euro area and increased costs to other member states and increased the financing needs as well. There are no volunteers for an EU-IMF programme...

... If the commission does not like what it sees, it can demand changes to the budget, as well as other mid-term plans a government may have for its economy...

... All eurozone states would also be forced to create independent fiscal councils - bodies of 'experts' unaccountable to parliaments - who would issue budgetary and economic forecasts.  A country's budget would in turn have to be based on the reports of these fiscal councils.

For countries in deeper troubles and facing serious financial difficulties, Brussels could send teams of inspectors - akin to the 'Troika' monitors sent to member states that have received bail-outs.

The overseers could be sent to any state that the commission decides, even if the county has not requested any international assistance.

The not-so final word goes to Barroso:

Questioned by journalists over whether the moves do not insulate decision-making from elected chambers, commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he did not wish to engage in "philosophical debates".

The solution to the eurozone's fiscal nightmare is, unsurprisingly, the failed  proposal the EU pushed for all twenty-seven member states: full fiscal union with budgetary oversight. Softly, softly...

I wonder how far this government's newly-created Office for Budget Responsibility meets the EU guidelines of  "All eurozone states would also be forced to create independent fiscal councils - bodies of 'experts' unaccountable to parliaments - who would issue budgetary and economic forecasts."

It looks like the UK is ahead of the EU game, as usual, yet successive governments have the nerve to pretend to be 'eurosceptic' and want to repatriate powers from Brussels; we're in it over our heads and probably leading the way.  Great Britain but, in particular, England, is the testing ground, the experimental zone, for one-world governance and coffee-coloured multiculturalism.

Source

PS:   George Osborne's leaked letter click to enlarge:

Pic from @chadnoble


UPDATE:  It was announced today that Italy's unelected government under Mario Monti, will also be creating an Office of Budgetary Responsibililty.  It seems the EU think Osborne & Cameron have done well and will be rolling out the trial across euro-zone member states.
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Happy Thanksgiving

To all American readers

Happy Thanksgiving Animations provided by MUDTRAP.COM

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PMQs Video

I'm sorry for the lack of PMQs this week; I just didn't have the patience to sit through it when I came home. On the plus side, I do have a rather lovely pair of earrings to show for today's venture and shopping beats PMQs hands-down any day of the week.

I'll add the usual 'toad/independent thinker' & 'topics raised' tomorrow when I'm feeling more kindly. It doesn't help that I've recently seen the House of Cards trilogy for the first time and it seems only too plausible. I don't know why I missed it first time round - I was probably out somewhere, being young.


UK Parliament

UPDATE:

Your MP: Toad or Independent Thinker?
Andrew Bingham, Con, High Peak;  Richard Ottaway, Con, Croydon South;  Anne McKechin, Lab, Glasgow North;  Simon Kirby, Con, Brighton Kemptown; Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru, Dwyfor Meirionnydd; Edward Timpson, Con, Crewe & Nantwich; Malcolm Wicks, Lab, Croydon North; Mark Menzies, Con, Fylde;  Chris Bryant, Lab, Rhondda; Louise Mensch, Con, Corby;  Tom Greatrex, Lab, Rutherglen and Hamilton West;  Alan Reid, LibDem, Argyll & Bute;  Alan Whitehead, Lab, Southampton;  Stewart Jackson, Con, Peterborough; Helen Jones, Lab, Warrington North; John Whittingdale, Con, Maldon;  Gordon Marsden, Lab, Blackpool South;  Stewart Andrew, Con, Pudsey;  Jim Shannon, DUP,  Strangford.

Issues raised:
Public sector strikes; turnout in strike ballot; women's unemployment rate; Brighton council tax increase; stalking; housing shortage/localism/planning; Northern Rock; enterprise zones; unemployment;  public sector strikes; call for Inquiry into collapse of Arch Cru investment fund; cuts in military defence/police & Faslane; local authority contracts;  Thomas Cook; NHS; TPA report on motoring taxes; new penalties/protection for War Memorials; Children in Need/Pudsey Bear; withdrawal from Afghanistan.

HANSARD

In case anyone was wondering 'Where's Wally?', here he is - in the BA lounge at Lagos airport on the 17th.

Pic courtesy of @eyespymp

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The Pro and The Con

The Pro:

Note the change of iconography (Cameron as Henry V, 'jousting', 'crusade', 'portcullis' - albeit with a Union Flag which didn't exist in those days - good old BBC) and tone.

Sopel: But isn't the real eurosceptic thing to do, which is what David Cameron and George Osborne will do is... to say 'we are fighting for Britain's interests within Europe and trying to get the best deal possible..."

After decades of reviling 'eurosceptics' the BBC is now carrying Cameron's torch that it's okay to be a eurosceptic and that we're no longer 'fruitcakes, nutjobs and Little Englanders' (even if you were Scottish, Welsh or Irish).  They're still one step behind the rest of us who know full well that there is no chance of renegotiation within the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, or any of the treaties our governments have signed on our behalf.

I'm unsure who the two commentators were because I didn't watch the programme. One is called Sarah, who smirked as Farage answered a question, and the other, I think (going by his voice and, if it is him, he's put on a bit of weight and grown a beard), is James Somebody-or-Other, an LBC radio phone-in host who is so pompous and arrogant that he never lets others finish their sentences and always interprets their views - "What you're saying is..." "What you mean is...").

Here's the Con (Artist):

Britain will have to join the euro, says Michael Gordon Richard Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine

"People have no idea of the scale of money British banks are owed by European banks. If the European banks start going it will be our banks that are on the line, our government on the line."

Oh, I think we do have an idea; we do know. We know the scale involved and we know you will make us pay for it. We also know that our taxes shouldn't be used to prop up bankers or governments. Nothing should be too big to fail.  The views of this failed and bitter politician are irrelevant.

Government has become far too big and unwieldy.  The government's proposal to cut 10% of MPs doesn't go far enough - that's only 50ish MPs lost (maths isn't their strong point).  You only have to look at the House during PMQs to see them fighting chunky haunch by well-fed jowl for a seat on the benches.  They're all tucked in very cosily and those who fail to find a place must elbow for room around the Speaker's Chair or in the doorway, shoulder to chippy shoulder.  Personally, I think it's become so rotten and corrupt that I'd like a clean break - slash it back to one MP for one County and re-build it from there.  I don't think that proposition is any more ludicrous than the system we now have in place.

Added Value: THIS, from 2006:

Mr Cameron also condemned the "ignorance" of English people about Scots and Scotland and the "embarrassing" English insensitivity on matters ranging from the acceptability of Scottish banknotes to "the inevitable aggressive Glaswegian drunk" in TV programmes.
"If I become the prime minister of the United Kingdom, I'll never, never take Scotland for granted," Mr Cameron said.
He also pledged to take on "sour Little Englanders" who wanted rid of Scotland. "I'll fight them all the way," he said.

 Well, at least the Scots weren't taken in by him.

By the way, I keep meaning to find the link but ... Voting rights in the EU are determined by the population count.  Nod/wink.

UPDATE:  Here's Heseltine talking about the great "European adventure". with an insert about the events of Black Wednesday:



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Sunday Reflection

"Arrival to the Oxford market": Anonymous (XIII century)
MLpossible

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Jeux Sans Frontieres

Immigration into the UK has hit ludicrous proportions and impacted on England in particular. I just want to put these two graphs and a couple of links here for the record.

The Daily Mail So, let's hear it for the three main political Parties, the Lib/Lab/Con con-artists who've been in office for too long and put us way up there with Bangladesh and Rwanda. And it's not over yet -

Cecilia Malmstrom, EC Commissioner for Home Affairs, writes:

"The EU needs to boost its relationships with non-EU States to better reap the mutual benefits migration can bring. Although migration is high on the European Union’s agenda, the Arab spring and events in the Southern Mediterranean in 2011 has highlighted the need for a coherent migration policy for the EU. That is why today the European Commission proposes to strengthen dialogue and operational cooperation with non-EU partner countries in the area of migration and mobility."

For anyone not yet up to speed on EU-speak, the 'Southern Mediterranean' is what used to be called North Africa.

The International Organization for Migration is one of the 'actors' it's working with. It was originally set up after the Second World War to help the displaced people of Europe. When it had finished, rather than say 'job well done' and disband, it changed its name, found itself another role and continued to grow.

There are also ongoing discussions with Russia about visa-free travel across borders.
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Another blogger (Kevin Townsend) has a quote from Peter Kellner (Mr Cathy Ashton) and this graph:

It isn't clear whether the voters were English or just people living in England.  Yes, there is a difference and 'Yes', it does matter.
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THIS, by AN Wilson, is a great article.  He takes apart education policies and the demise of our manufacturing base over the past decades and offers suggestions for revitalisation.

If a Stoke pottery had taken on foreign workers in those days, it would have been considered mad - not for xenophobic reasons, but because everyone knew that British potters were the best in the world. The same would have been said in Sheffield about steel workers, or in Newcastle and Belfast about shipbuilders, or in so many other parts of the country...
...The working classes of Britain were the source of its power and wealth as a great trading nation. From them came the energy and resourcefulness which created our exports. And all over Britain, in working-class communities, there was a powerful sense of solidarity and community.

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Meanwhile, back at the EU, victory has been declared in the battle of the budget. The increase has been limited to "only" 2% . However,

"...while agreeing to limit their contributions to the EU budget to 129 billion euros next year, governments gave in to the European Parliament's demands to allow EU spending commitments next year to go up to 147 billion euros."

So they're going to have an increased budget of 129bn euros but commit to spending 147bn. That sort of budgeting explains why their accounts haven't been signed off for seventeen years.
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In other news Basil 'Dolly' D'Oliveira, RIP - a great cricketer, despite never playing for Yorkshire.

UPDATE:
See where the money goes: 'EU Budget at a glance'

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