Italian Elections
Piece written for an Italian paper about the elections…
Il Sole 24 Ore, a financial paper
Boris says:
“Why not bung it on the blog to show I am alive?
Yesterday we all climbed Vesuvius!”
[Ed: With our apologies as we have now been asked to remove this piece from the site]
140 Comments
“they are now entitled to bang you up for an indefinite period on trumped up evidence and … do not suffer the dreadful inconvenience of having to compensate you for your trouble”
I heard this on the News and my jaw hit the floor. Amazing what a good GWOT can bring about by way of new rules for our ‘protection’. Blair ‘understands’ these things and realises that ‘the rules of the game have changed’. Funny how we didn’t think they needed changing.
Rate This:
0 
0
One of the reasons given for the aforementioned, utterly outrageous principle was that our wonderful government believes it unfair that victims of crime are given less compensation than victims of miscarriages of justice; this change aims to rectify the apparent imbalance. This former statement is a perfect example of a ‘specious’ argument. i.e. something which, on the face of it, sound reasonable and sensible, but on proper examination is a pile of &%*$! (pick expletive)
The government is in no way obligated to compensate victims of crime. Such ‘victims’ are covered (one hopes) by insurance or, depending on the circumstances, by the mechanisms laid out in the civil courts (assisted, if they are poor, by legal aid). Thus, unless the government is the criminal, (more and more feasible these days, I’m sad to say) they are unlikely to pay anything to said victims except dole money while their kneecaps grow back (perhaps). In the other instance, however, where some unsuspecting member of the public has been wrongfully thrown into chokey on the basis of evidence procured by the government’s representatives (the police) our illustrious and learned government seems to wish to evade its responsibility to compensate this poor individual.
Apparently, all this only applies if our ‘victim’ wins their appeal at the first attempt. WHAT SORT OF LAW IS THAT!!
You’ve now proven you’re innocent, spent 18 months slopping out and/or getting buggered, and, on almost effortlessly proving that you shouldn’t been there in the first place, get told: “Sorry pal, even though it’s obvious to a retarded slug that the evidence was a pile of shizen, your appeal went through far too easily so we’re not going to compensate you. Sorry about the house, car wife kids, job and all that. Ta, see you around. Drop us a line sometime, maybe.”
When, oh when will it all end?!? It’s getting to the point where you can be arrested for wearing a loud shirt in a residential area after 11:00PM. I mean, we already know that you can be shot for wearing a padded jacket and fiddling with your mobile phone in Stockwell tube station.
Boris, you and your mates are cocking this whole thing up!! For Christ’s sake, tell your school chum to stop fannying around with this prat at Prime Minister’s questions and stick the boot in.
Preferably before we live in a police state which would put Stalin to shame.
Rate This:
0 
0
Just found this on the Sky News website (where I heard about this travesty)
“…The changes have been described as “awful” by the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation, which said it can take up to 10 years to get an appeal hearing.
“Are we then to say (victims) cannot get a penny?” its spokesman asked.”
Apologies for all the expostulations and swearing, I can’t remember the last time I was as angry about a government proposal (and this is up against some pretty fierce competition, recently)
I’m starting to think, the only way to stop the Labour government from eradicating all of my hard won civil rights is to become a terrorist!
Rate This:
0 
0
Is it only me or does anyone else think that Charles Clarke looks like the alien villain in a science fiction movie?
A ‘Vogon’ perhaps.
Imagine the time they’d save by not having to do any of the usual makeup.
Rate This:
0 
0
Joe Mental:
Welcome to the club!
;o)
Psi
Rate This:
0 
0
You know, it’s a sad state of affairs for Britain when the most powerful positive statement we can make about our government is “Our home secretary is uglier than yours!”
Labour consistently chastise David Cameron for being a “political chameleon”. I readily concede that Labour invariably maintains only one colour in all of their policies, unfortunately it’s bilirubin.
Rate This:
0 
0
Their colour has caused me , several times over the years, to become nauseous.
The present bunch no less than the previous emetic crowd of red flag waving champagne swilling, so called,Labour Party.
Rate This:
0 
0
I used to be anti-Labour because I felt they were incompetent; now it is a matter of survival because they are dangerous. (Joe M)
I agree. And I’m not a fan of John Pilger, but he’s worried too.
Freedom dies quietly
People ask: can this be happening in Britain? Surely not. A centuries-old democratic constitution cannot be swept away. Basic human rights cannot be made abstract. Those who once comforted themselves that a Labour government would never commit such an epic crime in Iraq might now abandon a last delusion, that their freedom is inviolable. If they knew.
The dying of freedom in Britain is not news. The pirouettes of the Prime Minister and his political twin, the Chancellor, are news, though of minimal public interest. Looking back to the 1930s, when social democracies were distracted and powerful cliques imposed their totalitarian ways by stealth and silence, the warning is clear. The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill has already passed its second parliamentary reading without interest to most Labour MPs and court journalists; yet it is utterly totalitarian in scope.
It is presented by the government as a simple measure for streamlining deregulation, or “getting rid of red tape”, yet the only red tape it will actually remove is that of parliamentary scrutiny of government legislation, including this remarkable bill. It will mean that the government can secretly change the Parliament Act, and the constitution and laws can be struck down by decree from Downing Street. Blair has demonstrated his taste for absolute power with his abuse of the royal prerogative, which he has used to bypass parliament in going to war and in dismissing landmark high court judgments, such as that which declared illegal the expulsion of the entire population of the Chagos Islands, now the site of an American military base. The new bill marks the end of true parliamentary democracy; in its effect, it is as significant as the US Congress last year abandoning the Bill of Rights.
more…
The Conservatives and Liberals really ought to be declaring as an election manifesto priority that they will revoke every single piece of Labour’s totalitarian legislation. They ought to be shouting very loudly about it. They ought to be damn well screaming.
But, of course, they aren’t…
And we still have as a Prime Minister a man who lied his country into war, who shows not one iota of regret for this, and who has said that he will step down, but shows absolutely no sign of doing so.
Rate This:
0 
0
I’ve been discussing this in various places for some months now (including here!), but there is such apathy in this country it has proven a waste of time. Democracy is dead, accept it, and leave the country – taking as much wealth with you as you can. Seriously. This is going to be no place to be very very soon.
Blair claims to be a socialist. Wasn’t Hitler a “socialist” too? It isn’t just the banning of smoking the two of them have in common, or the invading of other (sovereign) nations.
You may feel there is no comparison between Blair and Hitler. I can see it, though, as Pilger has. And we are hardly alone.
It is also worth remembering that the economy in this country is screwed (despite Brown lying to the contrary), and it will become very apparent very soon. Sell up now, you will get the best price. Delay, and you will be trapped in the 21st Century equivalent of pre-war Nazi Germany.
I am not kidding.
I’m even selling my shares in tin-foil helmets, inc.
Run!!!!
(
Psi
Rate This:
0 
0
Oh, and whilst on thread topic changes, and taking into account The Bozzer’s stand on ID cards, I paste the following:
< No2ID is calling for mass passport renewals next month to create a spike in
the system that shows the government how unhappy people are with its plans
to have everyone clocked in an identity database.
Guy Herbert, general secretary of No2ID, said: “If everyone renews their
passport now, that inconveniences their plans to get everyone on the
register.”
The May renewal date is also good for people who want to delay having the
government store their fingerprints, mugshots and eye-scans.
Biometric passports of a sort are being rolled out already in time for an
August switch over. From then on all passports issued will include chips
that store a scanned photograph of their holder. By October, the US will
insist people apply for visas if they want to cross its borders without a
photo-chip passport.
By 2009, when the government hopes its identity card system is up and
running, and just a year before the compulsory imposition of identity cards
on anyone who renews a passport, the EU will require fingerprints on
passports as well.
The system set up to record people’s biometric details for the new
passports, including 69 interview centres across the country later this
year, will become the basis of the identity card system.
A Home Office spokesman said there were no plans to use passport information
to populate the national identity register (NIR), the database that will be
the engine of the ID system. “The NIR will be a clean database,” he said.
Yet there is growing concern about a host of government databases that No2ID
said in the Scotsman today was creating a system of “cradle-to-grave
surveillance”.<
Rate This:
0 
0
I have an extensive ‘comic’ collection (graphic novels to the cogniscenti) one of which is a seminal work in this field, “V for Vendetta” which, I understand, has recently been made into a movie.
The backdrop to this work of utter genius, by Alan (we are unworthy to speak his name) Moore, is a dystopic future England in which the loony left got back into power during the 80′s and effected their promises for a nuclear (missile) free Britain. The consequence of this was that when the nukes were flying about during another world war (started by some lunatic Yank), Britain was ‘mercifully’ spared any direct hits although subjected to famine, disease and all the rest of the aftermath.
Enter stage left a super right wing, neo-fascist party who turn Britain into something that would make Stalin weep with envy. More or less the only thing Alan got wrong was the laterality.
It’s a left wing party.
Rate This:
0 
0
There IS no leftist party in British politics. They are all, to a greater or lesser degree, Yuppieist, bourgeois, or capitalist; take your pick, they all mean the same thing in practice. Tony Blair’s Labour Party is essentially a market-based entity. Every few years the market switches from dollars to votes, but it’s the same mindset. There is no collectivism in these people’s brains or hearts; none whatsoever. If the current scandals have clarified anything, it is this.
The failings are the failings of a party that will sell (or rent) itself to the highest bidder; they are not the failings of a socialist party. So I’m still blaming this on the Torys!
(want to see the math? To beat the Torys, Labour moved to the center, dropped its socialist ideals and became a slavering vote-whore; subsequent to the election and right up till it feels the next coming on, it turned into a slavering cash whore. See, it’s all the fault of the Conservatives)
Rate This:
0 
0
Democracy is dead, accept it (Psimon)
I don’t see it as entirely dead, myself. Unlike in America, we still have a fairly honest electoral system (although Labour’s push towards postal voting threatens that as well).
Blair is a neocon loony. And the Labour party are a bunch of spineless no-goods. But what bothers me most is the absence of outrage in the Tory opposition. Is this because they are quite happy with all this totalitarian legislation Labour are pushing through? I wrote to my Tory MP to tell her I thought the anti-smoking legislation was ‘totalitarian’, and she didn’t even bother to reply.
Our parliament is an uncanny reflection of a US congress and senate which rubber stamps everything Bush wants, and whose Democrats mount only the feeblest of opposition to him.
Is this a coincidence, or are we already the 51st state or something?
Rate This:
0 
0
‘For Christ’s sake, tell your school chum to stop fannying around with this prat at Prime Minister’s questions and stick the boot in.’
(Joe Mental)
Love it, absolutely love it Joe.
Rate This:
0 
0
This isn’t the first bit of draconian legislation they have introduced.
What about the Crime and Disorder Act 1998?
’1. – (1) An application for an order under this section may be made by a relevant authority if it appears to the authority that the following conditions are fulfilled with respect to any person aged 10 or over, namely-
(a) that the person has acted, since the commencement date, in an anti-social manner, that is to say, in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as himself; and
(b) that such an order is necessary to protect persons in the local government area in which the harassment, alarm or distress was caused or was likely to be caused from further anti-social acts by him;
and in this section “relevant authority” means the council for the local government area or any chief officer of police any part of whose police area lies within that area.’
ALARM OR DISTRESS? What does that mean? If we do move much futher down the present path of becoming some kind of weird, authoritarian, socialtist, soft on real criminals, police state imagine all the things they could ban you from doing (or saying) because it causes some lefty ‘alarm or distress’!
Rate This:
0 
0
“Lefties” are alarmed and distressed, I assure you. By Blair and his bloody legislation. Not by mini-delinquents!
Rate This:
0 
0
Why do they keep voting for him then? Maybe they should hold their noses next time and get this lot out of power. I have nothing against trade unions or a labour party that represents the interests of normal working people (like me) but this lot seems more bothered about people who can’t be bothered to work and think its OK breed like rabbits while everyone else picks up the bill!
Rate This:
0 
0
< Why do they keep voting for him then?<
From what i can understand (from talking to people), it comes down to two things:
1. People still resent Thatcher, and seem to be under the impression that she is still running the Conservative Party
2. There are a lot of VERY stupid people with a vote.
Didn’t I read somewhere that, in terms of most votes actually received, the Conservatives actually WON the last election? It’s only some stupid system that allows 4 sheep worriers in Scotland to have an MP each that let the Liebore party in again. Or something.
The Scots have their own parliament, the Welsh and the N. Irish have their assemblies…it’s only England that isn’t allowed to have a say in how it is governed.
As the Welsh, Scots, and Irish ALL hate the English…
Also, I expect my elected Member to stand up for what he/she believes – that being why I vote a particular way. Party whips should all be hung, drawn, quartered, marinated in sewage, and flung into the sea. Party politics is NOT democratic politics!
Furthermore, if a party is elected on a particular manifesto, they should not be allowed to push that manifesto further. (eg. Liebore calling for a partial ban on smoking, then making it a total ban AFTER they are elected)
Furthermore, politicians who deliberately lie to the country (eg. Bliar, WMD, Iraq) should be liable to prosecution and imprisonment. THEN we’ll see how many honest people there are in Parliament!
Still waiting for Bliar to sue me for libel for calling him a lying murderer. I assume it’s because he knows he will lose…
;o)
Psi
Rate This:
0 
0
He wouldn’t want the publicity of suing you Psimon.
I heard that the Tories polled more votes in England as well, but I think you’re going a bit far saying all of the Scots and the Welsh hate us.
They do however seem to hate the Tories, and what you say about regional assemblies is very true. It is unfair the government can push through laws that only affect England on the strength of votes from parts of the UK that are not affected by said law.
I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of people voted on the strength of their house prices as well. It strikes me as mad that a chancellor can blatantly say that there will be no inflationary pay rises before an election, at a time when household bills are rising so fast, and not suffer a backlash.
Surely wage inflation would solve a lot of our problems at the moment. It’s simple enough, you sack all the people in public sector non-jobs, give all the proper public sector workers a higher than inflation pay rise. Eventually the private sector has to give bigger pay rises to compete better, yes the price of food, clothes etc goes up a bit, but it will not affect oil prices. Next thing you know more people can afford houses, their gas bills, petrol etc.
All this talk by labour of ‘boom and bust’ has made people afraid of inflation. I’d love to see some wage inflation myself. Perhaps some higher interest rates to encourage saving and let average salaries catch up a little bit with property prices. The pound becoming a bit devalued against the Euro and the Dollar would mean exports and manufacturing would not be too badly affected either, whereas the higher interest rates might attract more investment. I’m no economist, far from it, but I can’t see why a bit of inflation from time to time is such a bad thing.
What I really can’t believe is that people still voted for him after he plagiarised that 10 year old students thesis about Iraq’s weapons.
Rate This:
0 
0
Psimon is a very bright boy:
Rate This:
0 
0
I have always wished, as have most people, that the IQ cutoff for “Human being” be set just below their level.
Rate This:
0 
0
Just stop spongers voting
Rate This:
0 
0
I believe the primary reason people still keep voting for Labour is, simply, that when they put their votes behind Bliar, they don’t see a twisted, mendacious, authoritarian warmonger; they see a nice affable sort of chap who they would like to have round for tea.
Hague didn’t get elected directly for the reasons Psimon cites. Howard was (and is) a pompous, inflated, self-righteous buffoon (as Boris himself discovered). Cameron is in with a chance if he becomes firm about issues and I don’t mean the recent tawdry posturing about NHS finances. Debating the state of the NHS is an indoor sport for politicians and the NHS will always be delinquent in some aspect no matter which government holds the reins.
Three things are destroying Britain at the moment: Political Correctness (cultural Marxism), the inexorable erosion of our civil rights and the complete lack of any real support for small to medium enterprises.
This recent Bullsh*t about not compensating the victims of state incompetence is iniquitous. The other 700 odd acts of repression formulated and enacted by this (evil) regime need to be re-examined by any subsequent government and dealt with appropriately. As idlex states “The Conservatives and Liberals really ought to be declaring as an election manifesto priority that they will revoke every single piece of Labour’s totalitarian legislation. They ought to be shouting very loudly about it. They ought to be damn well screaming.” This is a concept which enjoys my wholehearted support.
And raincoaster, I would actually blame the Yanks for Labour’s recent success. According to Sir Christopher Meyer (ex-British ambassador to the US), Bliar hijacked a few of Clinton’s campaign staff for his first election and bought heavily into US electioneering. This finally ushered in the age of spin and Vaudeville to British politics.
If the Conservative party can’t drill these utter w***kers at the next election I’m leaving the country.
I’m serious.
Rate This:
0 
0
I’ll want to leave too Joe
Rate This:
0 
0
It seems to me that the only ones screaming their rhetoric an all fronts is the Lie boor Party.
We are approaching the local elections, in fact there are but few days left for electioneering; however, not one word , either spoken or written , have I heard or read from the Conservatives.
In contrast ,the others, almost daily, either knock on my door , or bombard me with more & more shiny faced , expensive paper, extolling their virtues , and telling me what ‘they’ are going to do for my ward. whereas in reality,all they seem to do is waste the revenue from the Council Tax on unnecessary projects.
Despite all this, where once, for years and years ,this whole borough was true blue , now the quickly mutiplying Pauls of this area, are more than happy to rob the rapidly diminishing number of Peters; thus keeping the incompetent leeches in power.
When will ” Dandy Dave ” come up with a believable, wholly Conservative policy manifesto , radically opposed to this Government’s taking away the last vestiges of self respect from the man / woman on the street, and allow an adult to be responsible for his / her purely human foibles?
It is time to stop rewarding the greed of those who WILL not work, and make a start towards rewarding the wealth makers; the savers, and generally normally independent citizens.
Rate This:
0 
0
raincoaster
(want to see the math? To beat the Tories, Labour moved to the centre, dropped its socialist ideals and became a slavering vote-whore; subsequent to the election and right up till it feels the next coming on, it turned into a slavering cash whore. See, it’s all the fault of the Conservatives)
I dispute your assertion that Labour have dropped their socialist ideals; they’ve only mutated them into something more appealing to the proletariat. Unfortunately they had to start an ideological war with the middle east to make it more appetising.
Socialism is founded on inter alia the state controlling anything bigger than a Hoover. 20th century greed has made this unpalatable to our ravening consumers (inconveniently, the voting public) who demand their DVDs and home appliances and in no way see these as less important than dialysis machines or trains. So, our heroes have stealthily introduced three cunning vehicles to implement the desired control levels under the radar so to speak:
1) Political correctness (cultural Marxism) by which mechanism we are obliged to mind our P’s and Q’s and not speak openly; Further, this allows them latitude to dictate what is or is not politically correct. Nice! And the best part is our community and friends become the regulators of the party line. This is so cunning it you could stick a trench coat on it and send it to MI6. It’s Orwellian in the truest sense of the word.
2) Authoritarian (nanny) legislation: No smoking, don’t eat too much fat, don’t say anything nasty about anyone else’s religion or you’ll get a smacked bum!
3) Greater powers of arrest, detention and public scrutiny. All introduced under the guise of protecting us from terrorists who are the spill over of a war they (Labour) started. Brilliant, a stroke of genius. If I didn’t want to personally disembowel Bliar and his cronies I would have to admire them.
It’s absolute, uncontaminated, refined, 24 carat CRAP! And it has to stop. There is a line, and they have reached it; it’s time to move onto the offensive, with pickaxe handles if necessary!
And, just for the record, it’s mathS over here.
Rate This:
0 
0
Yeah Raincoaster, if you had to pay tax to this lot and what it get re-distributed New-Labour-style, you would be in no doubt that they are on a far left agenda.
They love people to become solely dependent on the state so they cannot vote any other way but for them.
Earlier this year, before he did a runner without paying rent or bills, my flatmate was explaining to me about ‘tax credits’.
Check this out: I was working a 32 hour week at £6 per hour. He was working a 40 hour week (which he managed to keep up for all of 6 or so weeks) at £5.15 per hour. So he is earning more than me, but because he spends at least 6 months a year on state benefits (working cash in hand) and his declared income is lower than mine he gets ‘tax credits’.
Give or take a few quid, all the tax I pay went straight in his pocket. Where did he used to spend this cash? Getting stoned! Did he vote Labour? You bet!
He doesn’t have kids or anything, just makes sure as far as the revenue are concerned he earns as little as possible. He even explained to me that now you can have sickness benefit paid directly into your bank account, some people he knew would work 6 months, get tax credits, go on the sick and bugger off Thailand (where UK sickness benefit is a good wage to live on) for 6 months!
He picked his things up and left (with his pregent girlfriend, yes he is bredding chaps) soon after a magistrates court bailiff came looking for some unpaid fines.
‘He can’t arrest me, he explained, so they can **** off, they’re getting nowt’
I’d support a coupe d’etat to get rid of this lot, they are ruining the country. If only they hadn’t sent the army abroad!
Rate This:
0 
0
There is nothing new under the sun apparently: read what that waspish dwarf,(in body only),Alexander Pope wrote:
Prophesy of pension theft???
Pope, who died in the first half of the 18th century, although no Nostradamus, must, I believe, nonetheless have had the power of prophesy. He wrote what amounted to a vision of possible happenings in later centuries.
Pope wrote:-
“When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we are old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed”.
I would say that his prophesy was correct .
Precisely what he prophesied came to pass when Prudence Brown , the New Labour Assyrian , descended, like a self satisfied , but nonetheless ravening, wolf on the ‘fold ‘, raiding pension funds, thereby depriving future pensioners of their savings by means of legalised theft.
Conversely, it seems almost ironic , that those who do not save ,having gone through life , as it were, according to a ” carpe diem” concept, live in comparative comfort.
Labour obviously live by the concept , ” carpe argentum”
Rate This:
0 
0
Before I (reluctantly) returned (more or less) full time to the UK, I spent an extended period in South Africa from where I am writing this right now (in a hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg). I probably spend about 20-40% of my time here now, in my twilight years, and take the super-taxi back to the UK every couple of months. I have to say that, over the past year or so, I have dreaded the inevitable return flight more and more as it draws ever closer. Unfortunately, the dreadful weather is the least of my concerns these days.
But I digress. The point I wish to make, with reference to Simon L’s posting about his scrounging ex-flatmate, is that I believe in a welfare state; I believe that those with wealth, power and education have a responsibility and, more importantly, an obligation to assist those less fortunate through the difficult periods of their lives. That is, to assist people to get back on their feet when times are tough. This, contrary to popular opinion, is diametrically opposed to going out of one’s way to help them stay flat on the backs/arses in the pub by (basically) paying them to stay out of work!
In South Africa, there is virtually no machinery for a ‘welfare state’. If you’re out of a job you are up the proverbial creek sans paddle. Everyone knows this, and consequently, in the event of retrenchment (redundancy) or unemployment it’s necessary, as they put it here, to “make a plan”.
I met a guy yesterday afternoon working in a car park. He had a degree in mechanical engineering and 20 years experience in mining equipment design, however, the company he worked for had just been bought by some Chinese consortium which immediately kicked out all the incumbents. So, was he crying into his beer? No! He was working 18 hours a day watching people’s cars (because of the inordinate crime in SA) while they went shopping. He got paid about +/-20p per car. I reckon he might have pulled about 20 quid per day (on a good day). Was he complaining? Nope, just got on with it and spent what little free time he had writing job applications. I know there’s there’s a slight overlap here with Norm Tebbit’s (tawdry) bicycle homily, for which I apologise. My story has the advantage of being true.
Conversely, an ex-employee of mine just e-mailed me to say that he’d quit his job (in Britain) and gone back on the dole because he had more spare cash when he was on benefit than when he worked full time. For interest’s sake I add that he worked as an administrator in a government department.
Britain’s economy has moved almost entirely to agriculture and service industries. We don’t make anything anymore (because the Japs do it better and the Chinese/Indians do it cheaper). The only thing the British seem to do well these days is run up debt; speak English (I may be wrong) and sort out paperwork; a service we seem to be offering to the rest of the world to the exclusion of all else.
I can only think of three words to describe this state of affairs: “imminent economic meltdown”. After the inevitable implosion, the Labour party will be free to dispel the last vestiges of democracy and introduce full blown Marxist Socialism unencumbered. After all, by then, Britain will resemble the communist Soviet Union by then far more than the Britain of memory.
Rate This:
0 
0
To some extent I agree with your comments about welfare Joe.
But if you had lived with the three complete and utter wastes of space I have this year you’d feel more inclined to agree with Herbert Hoover about welfare.
The way welfare is administered now encourgaes state dependancy, it does not encourage individuals to better themselves.
Rate This:
0 
0
I agree completely Steven, and if that isn’t the message my missive conveys I will need to rewrite it.
My concept of welfare revolves entirely around assisting people who need help to get through a bad patch, not pandering to indolent slackers who can’t be bothered to make an effort and, regardless of how much assistance they receive, will simply ‘sponge’ it up with no nett benefit (no pun intended).
Rate This:
0 
0
Psimon said:“As the Welsh, Scots, and Irish ALL hate the English…”
Steven L said: “I think you’re going a bit far saying all of the Scots and the Welsh hate us.”
And nobody commented otherwise.
But more to the point:
Why has nobody mentioned that, under the Irish system of proportional representation, Blair would not be in government now? Surely it’s daft to have a party in power that got only 36% of the vote, and you’re all debating why people voted Labour??
Rate This:
0 
0
All this talk by labour of ‘boom and bust’ has made people afraid of inflation. I’d love to see some wage inflation myself. (Stephen L)
I think it was Enoch Powell who declared that inflation was ‘a fraud upon society’ (or something to that effect). About that, at least, I agreed with him.
Macarnie says we should be rewarding, among others, savers. And I am one of those savers. Partly because I am not particularly acquisitive, I have always managed to set a little aside for the proverbial ‘rainy day’, and when those rainy days have come, I’ve always fallen back on my savings, rather than look for a state handout. I’m actually eligible for a state handout at the moment, but I’m not taking it, because I don’t need it.
But inflation makes nonsense of saving. As the value of money dwindles away, your pile of savings grows steadily more worthless. And so, save as I might, I’m always seeing my savings becoming slowly worthless.
Our society is, it seems, made up more of borrowers than savers. And there’s a simple reason for this, which is that in inflationary times, it’s rather smart to borrow and spend money now, because you’ll only be required to repay it in worthless money in a few years time. So our credit card society depends on inflation, but it’s an inflation which destroys savings, and makes nonsense of saving.
Rate This:
0 
0
Can’t agree with you, when I was a kid under Thatcher and we had high inflation I got 14.5% on my Post Office savings account. My bank now? 0.1%, what a joke!
Rate This:
0 
0
Idlex : the rainy day you mentioned is not , (and indeed they plan it that way), an issue for those about whom I rant so often.
This rather stark conclusion includes, amongst others , certain politicians , about whom we have already heard too much.
Eat , drink and be merry, tomorrow is our retirement from the dole queue, we’ll be looked after by Nanny State.
Rate This:
0 
0
MACH-IV (Test of Machiavellianism)
(I thought this thread might need this!)
http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/09/13/machtest/index.html
Joe Mental: You say you are an employer? Got any jobs going? Currently unemployed, not in receipt of benefits, reserves falling fast…
;o)
Psi
Rate This:
0 
0
We only maintain a small team in the UK, most of our sites are overseas; we do have a few vacancies in SA and possibly one in Australia if you are genuinely interested.
Getting a work/residency permit for the former is tricky and for the latter nigh on impossible.
We do banking systems (and charge like wounded buffalos, so our customers tell me)
Rate This:
0 
0
Joe:
Genuinely interested.
Don’t want to put my contact details on here, but hopefully Melissa can put us in touch?
Not hugely interested in Australia, but Africa has always felt like home (although, of the 10 countries i have spent time in on the Dark Continent, SA wasn’t one of them…)
Melissa…can you pass my e-mail on to Joe? (Damned cheeky of me to ask, as i’m sure you are very busy! But if you don’t ask…!)
Psi
Rate This:
0 
0
JOe: Shockingly, we again disagree.
Who saw THAT coming?
And yet, as with your very first post, we also agree.
Labour is completely America’s whore. Absolutely, in every way and to their very toenails. And the current American government, which is right-wing if it is anything, is the largest in history. More Americans are employed by the government to administer America than at any time in history.
If you define lefty-ism as “living off the people” then the US is way deep into lefty-ism. And yes, absolutely, ever decision that the Blair government has made comes with the bald eagle stamp of approval.
I don’t consider them leftys; I consider them opportunists.
Rate This:
0 
0
JOe: Shockingly, we again disagree.
Who saw THAT coming?
And yet, as with your very first post, we also agree.
Labour is completely America’s whore. Absolutely, in every way and to their very toenails. And the current American government, which is right-wing if it is anything, is the largest in history. More Americans are employed by the government to administer America than at any time in history.
If you define lefty-ism as “living off the people” then the US is way deep into lefty-ism. And yes, absolutely, every decision that the Blair government has made comes with the bald eagle stamp of approval.
I don’t consider them leftys; I consider them opportunists.
Rate This:
0 
0
Delighted though I undoubtedly am regarding your disagreement raincoaster, I have to concede that I’m a bit blank on what you disagree with.
I define “lefty-ism” as socialism and this should not be confused with the tree-hugging community.
[Aside:
I heard someone comment the other day that "Not all Moslems are terrorists, but all terrorists are Moslem." I would say, not all lefties are tree-huggers but all tree-huggers are lefties. By the way, before I am corrected, Prince Charles doesn't hug trees he talks to them.]
All governments are, by their very nature, parasitic; a necessary evil until humanity at large grows up and stops subcontracting its responsibilities to vague metaphysical forces. I don’t associate “living off the people” as a unique characteristic of left-wing governments, they all do it to a greater or lesser extent (I’m intrigued to know why “living off the people” is in quotes, by the way, because I didn’t say it).
What I do associate with left wing governments is a weakness in dealing with (dare I say it) the scummier exponents of our society (the scroungers and the indolent) because, it appears, that it’s this group that provides the backbone of Labour’s support. Heaven forefend that they tell these scamps to get off their ring-pieces and get on with some honest toil, they might not get elected again!
I’m not as right wing as Boris. I believe that making everything based on supply and demand is ultimately dangerous because of criminal psychopaths such as Milken and other piranhas of his ilk. I do believe commerce, industry and entrepreneurs deserve as much support as the government can reasonably give because these institutions create wealth and (for better or worse) money is the only tool by which one can build schools, hospitals, public transport systems and utilities.
As I hope I’ve made abundantly clear, I firmly believe that there is an obligation to assist people who are out of work. This shouldn’t ever be confused with people who do not want to work. I also believe that the future of Britain lies with well educated (and well disciplined) school children. Whilst I’m not an advocate of bringing back the birch, I don’t think there is anything wrong at all with corporal punishment in schools (providing it isn’t administered by the same set of sadists who set about me on a number of occasions). Labour, it seems, has done everything in its power to create a generation of the most unruly thugs since the last Viking incursions into East Anglia.
I don’t have a problem with immigrants, they add life, interest and colour to a bland society. I have an enormous problem with multi-culturalism because it leads to a ghetto mentality which invariably engenders fear and distrust in the rest of the community. Again, Labour seems to wholeheartedly support this blight.
These are the problems I associate with ‘lefties’. One of the fundamental things the Conservative Party needs to address in forthcoming elections in this country is the eradication of the concept that Labour represents a caring society and Conservatives are a bunch of money grabbing, self-centred elitists.
It’s the other way around.
Rate This:
0 
0
Ah, Joe, you will be distraught to hear that we are as of one mind. The indolent, the welfare mindset-throngs, are the LEAST LIKELY to vote, and so they are the most ****-over-able of any group of voters. And this has not gone unnoticed by Labour. I put it to you that Labour has seen this, has taken advantage of this, and is moving forward in the knowledge that none of these people will do a goddam thing about it.
Back in the sixties the French government commissioned a study. They were worried that having an extremely educated, yet under- or un-employed class would cause instability. What they found, instead, was that the state of unemployment itself caused apathy and depression so that the unemployed could not be effectively mobilized.
Rate This:
0 
0
Psi
Have linked you up with great pleasure and with great reference too! Let me know how it goes
Rate This:
0 
0
the scummier exponents of our society (the scroungers and the indolent) because, it appears, that it’s this group that provides the backbone of Labour’s support. Heaven forefend that they tell these scamps to get off their ring-pieces and get on with some honest toil, they might not get elected again! (Joe M)
You and the Ancient Submariner are clearly of one mind on this. Set them to work!!! Make them Do Something!!
I’d like to put in a good word for the scroungers and slackers of the world. They at least are the minimal contributors to the global warming which is, in part, due to our feverishly hyper-active society, in which everybody must work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, doing some pointless job simply to justify their existence.
I leave you with this quote:
We find all the no-life-support-wealth-producing people going to their 1980s jobs in their cars and buses, spending trillions of dollars’ worth of petroleum daily to get to their no-wealth-producing jobs. It doesn’t take a computer to tell you that it will save both Universe and humanity trillions of dollars a day to pay them handsomely to stay at home.
(Buckminster Fuller. Critical Path 1982)
If I read that right, it’s a call to pay people to stay at home, which is all that these scroungers and slackers are doing.
Rate This:
0 
0
It doesn’t take a computer to tell you that it will save both Universe and humanity trillions of dollars a day to pay them handsomely to stay at home. (Buckminster Fuller. Critical Path 1982)
This is interesting ; not so much for what it says ; rather for what it does not say.
The people about whom this was written went to work in cars, and bought petroleum products with which to power them. Not the description of the layabout parasites about which, almost daily , there are horror stories in the press.
The ones in the quote, exhorted to stay at home for the sake of the planet, would, in this electronic age, more than likely be able to work from home , especially since the decline of the British manufacturing industries.
If not , from which fabled source are the trillions of dollars to be garnered? I stopped believing in the money tree at the same time as I stopped believing in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.
Like someone said; the inevitables of this world are death and taxes.
Rate This:
0 
0
If Psi lands the job you should totally do a press release about it, All Hail the Power of the Blogosphere, etc etc.
Rate This:
0 
0
Now that this thread no longer has any subject, I do believe that it is what is called an ‘open thread’, and you can post whatever the heck you feel like posting.
Not that the subject has ever deterred us anyway.
Rate This:
0 
0
True enough.
Look! More Narnia Raps!
Rate This:
0 
0
Hilarious Bush impressions :
here
Rate This:
0 
0
Well this is so off-topic, it’s off-continent.
The Canadian Tory government has just abolished the policy whereby the flag was lowered on the Peace Tower to mark the deaths of Canadian soldiers overseas.
They appear to have done this solely to differentiate themselves from the previous Liberal government.
I’m not exactly sure what specific language is permissible on the site, so I am just going to confine my remarks here to those above. I have been wordier elsewhere.
Rate This:
0 
0