The enquiry under Sir John Chilcot set up in 2009 has yet to report. The total expenditure since 2009 is £7,479,400, and of course worth every penny! That from the Chilcot Inquiry’s own web page. This enquiry was the 4th attempt to establish the “truth” behind the UK government’s reasons for the Iraq invasion. The other 3 enquiries were so discredited, by the press and others, that “they” thought, they had better have another go. Sir John Chilcot said, in 2009, that
Ed Miliband as leader of the Labour Party? Ed Miliband has never found his way into our hearts since becoming leader of the New / Old / Labour party. The labour party faithful just cannot accept that he is simply not leadership material. He sounds odd and looks weird. If that seems unkind, well tough, it’s simply true! Not PC but true. Millibean’s latest desperate pronouncement on not supporting a referendum just shows how incapable of rational thought he is.
China’s economic miracle is to be feared Everywhere I look in today’s news, I see that few see China, as one of the biggest problems in our globalised world. But, most commentators see China’s “economic miracle” as something to be admired! In my view, China’s miracle is an example to be feared and then understood. Then dispatched to the history books as a colossal error by the human race. I see, as does dear Robert Peston, who has done his
Ariel Sharon’s recent death marked the end of what was the last slim best chance for a solution to the Israeli / Palestinian turmoil. Sharon was hardly a great beacon of hope for the region, but his last few actions were moving in a positive direction. Age might have been slowly bringing wisdom to this former soldier and enthusiastic, Arab bashing Zionist hero of the 1967 Arab Israeli war. Sharon, in 2006, just before his terminal stroke. As Prime Minister he
Air traffic requirements for Britain are today’s PoliNews*1 subject and, for once, Boris is right. Follow the link to the Guardian website because the arguments put then are even more real now! (Added in 2025) Dave Cameraman is wrong as usual and incapable of vision. This blog, and my book ‘The Normal Curve‘, are largely about how and why the party political system is incapable of rational thought. We need, instead, a system of infrastructure and resource planning that can
I was going to pontificate on each conference but slowly lost the will to live as the weeks went on – and on. The same old policy messages from the flawed decision making format enforced by the party being the most important consideration. No conference mentioned the public finance debt or deficit – both of which have actually increased since 2010. The Tories want to give £200 a year to married couples (yawn) and they want to artificially inflate the
Party conference poppycock 2013 Part 1 – the Lib Dems. Vince Cable Business Minister, remember him? He ‘s the chap who foresaw the banking crash, the credit crunch and says that George Osborne is wrong about signs of economic recovery. He is still seen by everyone as someone who has principles and vision. Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, remember him? He’s the chap who lied about his principles to students and forever lost any trust the public might have had.
Can it really be that politicians are listening to the people? It may just be so here in the UK perhaps even so in the USA?. Pity about France … I hope Congress and President Barak Obama have the balls to say “No” to any more intervention in the Middle East. Let us instead promote the values and reason of the European Enlightenment upon which the USA was founded and wait 500 years while the Middle East catches up (yes
It must be true – I read it in the Daily Mail … 😉 This week Tony Blair has been trying out new destroyer class super-yachts (including the Pelorus, owned by U.S. music mogul David Geffen, pictured), but still has been unable to refine his latest choice about which has the best drinks fridge and best mounting platform for cruise missiles. One of his spokespersons said that “Tony was feeling a bit left out after being ejected from New Labour
Supreme Court of Wisconsin (1890) “There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter into our civil affairs, our government soon would be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe.” (Supreme Court of Wisconsin,
… Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd say they will contribute nothing to Magdalene Laundry survivors’ compensation. Vatican and the Magdalene Laundry survivors The four orders of nuns that ran the notorious Magdalene Laundries in Ireland have said they have no intention of contributing anything towards the compensation fund set up by the Irish Government. The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of
Muslim nutter calmly murders soldier Those chilling words spoken to camera by the calm murderer of a British soldier in Woolwich, London needs very careful interpretation. Islamic extremism engenders nationalist extremism – neither is the way to go, but how on earth can we stop it? There is no quick or easy solution but surely the education of Britain’s children is a solid place to start? Those with a voice, i.e. the government, the Muslim Council of ‘g’reat Britain and
Apart from being good news for the £ (of which more later*), the lack of a majority for any one Italian party, in yesterday’s general election, is giving the political classes the same lesson that they failed to learn in 2010. “We the people” have nobody credible to vote for. When an Italian comedian can get 25% of the vote, then I think we may say that conventional political parties have been rumbled as the comedians. The lesson that “we
Special relationship? Pah There is no special relationship In meBook, sadly as yet unpublished, I explain in some detail that the USA has never really been a friend to Britain and has in fact treated us as an easily exploitable business asset, occasional cannon fodder and for the rest of the time just screwed us in every business / economic deal we have ever made with it. The fabled “special relationship” lives only in the minds of politicians and some
I speak as a Parish Councillor, the lowest cog in the administrative wheel that is local government in England. We receive many daft letters from our district council leaders and the latest on “Localism” is a classic of ineptitude and time wasting. I recently spent several hours spread over many days, with another Parish council, trying to understand the “requirement” for Parish Councils (PCs) to formulate and write a “Neighbourhood Plan” (NP). District Councils have to create a “Local Plan”
EU now says it wants a federal Europe, controlled by the EU Last December I said there was no more to say about the ridiculous EU; just lately I have had to say more, mainly after José Manuel Barroso said the EU needs to become a Federation urgently! Baroso former PM of Portugal with a stupefying record of economic incompetence is now in charge of the EU project … words fail me … If you, like me (a few years
May I present the latest example of the blitheringly obvious being missed by politicians and their slimy attempts to blame anyone but themselves! First Group’s winning bid was based on revenues growing by 10% per annum for years to come! That was headline news some weeks ago. To any first year student of politics, accounting or indeed anyone who lives, or has lived, in the real world this was obviously bollocks nonsense! Oh, and by the way, this is going
The GCSE exam debacle continues. Many pupils who had been expecting a C grade were given a D as a result of the grade boundary changes made half way through an academic year! Students are to be ‘allowed‘ to resit the exam instead of having their grades automatically brought in line with January 2012 results says £138,000 / annum Glenys Stacey. This is yet another sordid example of public sector highly paid self important bean counters getting it completely wrong.
Sorry – no jokes in this article – just had to write it because I cannot believe the shallow incompetence of the Tory coalition policy claptrap – grrr. The think tank Policy Exchange says “Social housing in expensive areas of England should be sold off and the money used to finance the building of new homes in cheaper areas” Neil O’Brien, (PPE Oxford – say no more…) director of the think tank Policy Exchange, said he does not believe anybody “has
“Evil & corruption was everywhere” says the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele This naïve yet probably honest man actually thought that by exposing corruption in the Vatican. He exposed the two faced underhand power struggles in the Vatican elite. He thought he was doing the Roman Catholic Church a favour – he even thought the Pope and Cardinals would be pleased! The Vatican has confirmed Saturday, May 26, 2012, that the pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele, he holding the umbrella, was
“The Lords Reform Bill is dead.” says Cameraman Senior. “Oh no it isn’t!” says Cleggy Minor … The rowdy delinquents are at it again – no parental controls in place as Clegg minor & Cameraman major battle out their respective class captain campaigns for the next two years. Although Cleggy Minor’s dad (Lord Steel) has tried to calm down his errant offspring by calling him “petulant”*2 Once again these silly little boys are spending all their time, our money, on
Bob Diamond resigns as CEO of Barclays Bank which itself has been, so far, fined an estimated £200 million by the UK’s FSA and USA institutions as a direct result of the senior management team fraudulently fixing the LIBOR interbank lending rate. In three separate penalties, Barclays will pay the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.K.’s Financial Service Authority a total of $454 million. In the CFTC’s settlement, Barclays traders – with the assistance of senior management
Baldrick: “What I want to know Sir, is, before there was a Euro there were lots of different types of money that different people used. And now there’s only one type of money that the foreign people use. And what I want to know is, how did we get from one state of affairs to the other state of affairs” Blackadder: “Do you mean, how did the Euro start?” Baldrick: “Yes Sir” Blackadder: “Well, you see Baldrick, back in the
This is yet more madness delivered by visionless, asset stripping, incompetents (AKA the Tory party) …first OUR water, then OUR electricity grid, etc. etc. and now, our roads. How can a private company doing the job be cheaper? Let me think, … Ah yes … Cut wages costs & therefore quality? Cut materials costs & therefore quality? Keep public sector pension provision levels? HeHe, err … noooooo … Charge the users? YES – that’s the way to do it !! There are NO OTHER
Margaret Thatcher had a secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch at Chequers weeks before his 1981 purchase of the Times newspapers, newly released files show. What a surprise ?! I can’t believe it! Murdoch actually denied the meeting, on several occasions, I really can’t believe that such a decent businessman could have forgotten the meeting! He wasn’t old then was he? Oh I think get it – he is a devious lying egocentric ba$tard – that must be it. The fact that the
Osborne’s gone NATS, selling our air to Germany Thatcher sold our water supply in 1989 which means that there can be no sensible policy to share out UKs water supply from the areas of plenty (the West & North West) to the areas of need (the South and South East). Those who now own the water do not live here so they just don’t care. The list of idiotic, incomprehensibly incompetent “policies” dreamt up, mainly by the Tories, continues. Now
Here we go again, what is it with our politicians How can they be so consistently stupid? Privatisation may be good for some activities but not for soft public services like education, health etc. How can the profit motive provide a better police or health service at a cheaper cost to the public? The answer is not blowing in the wind – it is simple, ‘it cannot be’. That politicians are congenitally incapable of rationality which is explained in my
Almost daily now, on the BBC, we hear religious leaders droning on about the importance of faith in our lives and the dangers of aggressive secularism. Now ‘we’ are sending Baroness Warsi to the Vatican, accompanied by 7 cabinet ministers, to join forces with the Pope to speak out against so-called ‘aggressive’ secularism which I would simply describe as reason and common sense! I find this government mission frankly deeply misguided and almost unbelievable – and who on earth sanctioned that
Here is the latest in the long tradition of cock-ups by those who are paid to know better than ‘we the people’, you know, Government Ministers …sigh The ‘Feed in Tariff’ green initiative started by the last unspeakable Labour government (don’t get me wrong, this one is dreadful too – I’m not being partisan!) and continued by the coalition (subject to a current legal challenge). What is so infuriating to me is that most people think that the ‘excess’ energy
Name that gnome -> I am so very fed up with the utter nonsense that our political leaders are spouting about the damn EU – day after boring day. Clegg – a disappointment – a disaster of a man – wake up you idiot! Cameraman (no- not a spelling mistake) – out of his depth – a shallow man with no understanding or clue. Osborne – sigh Milliband – a tragic mistake in Labour’s history (as was Brown, as was
I have no money but take my body if you must says David Cameraman … In Berlin today Merkel will still ask for a 5% increase in the Euro budget and in the same breath tell Cameraman that she can’t afford to bail out the weaker members of the Eurozone – “Well my Dear …” (I can hear him saying), “you can’t have it both ways!” He should also remind Chancellor Merkel where all the money came from to rebuild
Yes, I agree with you dear reader, the title of this piece is as unattractive and offensive as is this disgraceful woman’s opinion of Britain. She is cynically shameless and has obviously been corrupted by the power, position, privilege and title of which she might have once been worthy – but no more. Can you believe this crap? It appears that she is to be allowed to repay the £100,000 she has fraudulently claimed (still unpaid after 18 months!) from her future
Update January 2025: I originally posted this in 2011 which was about ministerial corruption in government. This ‘news’ was the story that started me writing this blog. I have been researching and writing about party politics and the dangers of faith schools and religion ever since. This is my post from 2011:- Sir Gosh O’DontAskMeDifficultQuestionsPleaseImAbout ToRetire Meanwhile, and in an alternate reality (the one you and I live in) somebody wrote “Today, a soon to retire, civil servant wrote an
I find David Starkey an interesting man in many ways and admire his perspective on today’s events. I love hearing his “but of course, we have seen all this before …” routine. I am not with him on his love affair with the monarchy. In almost all other respects he is largely in agreement with me. <ahem>. He sounds far too posh which makes him an easy target, but the man is right! White is the new Black Starkey was
The AAA rating, by Mr Micawber’s definition (and that of reality and your grandmother) is earned when your income just exceeds your expenditure and that future prospects are stable. Neither of these simple criteria apply to any country in Europe, including Germany, and certainly not to the USA or to Great Britain. So why all the excitement when the USA which has not met these criteria for years (as indeed, we have not) loses the AAA rating? Politicians have been lying their
This is the first of a new series of posts pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of politicians that most people don’t have time to spot – I do, so here is a classic example. The following article appeared in the Guardian on 21st December 2010. A humbled and diminished Vince Cable was tonight allowed to cling on to his cabinet post as business secretary, but was stripped of all responsibility for media policy after it emerged he had told undercover reporters that he had
All “bail outs” of failed economies in the Eurozone are prohibited by EU law, but … Did you know that when Italy and Greece joined the Euro, they failed several of the main criteria set up for countries joining the Euro? You may have heard that we (residents of Great Britain – the UK …) are in a bit of financial bother and that for every £4 we spend we have to borrow £1, at around 3.0% from China. This is
The main theme of my book is that “party” politics corrupts the decision making process in government thus ensuring that unforgivable errors are made in managing Britain’s resources. The last few days have made me glad to be grumpy – my cup runneth over with material for a grump-fest not seen since Blair made the BBC apologise for telling the truth about his mad, bad, god inspired decision to invade Iraq. “Politics” (original meaning = ‘of the people’) has come to mean (‘of the
Remember this from our mate Dave? (Tory Conference – October 2009 – full text here) “It means showing that we’re all in this together, which is why we’ll freeze public sector pay for all but the one million lowest paid public sector workers for one year to help protect jobs. And it means showing that the rich will pay their share which is why for now the 50p tax rate will have to stay and child trust funds for those on
Sub-title: Sell your Chinese ‘Emerging Market’ stocks soon – you heard it here first. 😯 It hasn’t rained much this year. In fact it is looking like being one of the driest years ever and the trend is probably going to continue. The UK water supply should be owned by the UK A significant majority of British people believe that the water supply is so vital that it should be run as a not-for-profit public service. However, the Westminster establishment
There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter into our civil affairs, our government soon would be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe. (Weiss v. District Board, March 18, 1890)
Republic’s goal is simple: replace the monarchy with an elected head of state and more democratic political system. Instead of a king, we want someone chosen by the people, not running the government but representing the nation independently of our politicians.
A monarchy should not exist in a democratic society. The majority of us believe in democracy, and think democracy makes for a fairer, more prosperous society. Who of us think the British version of democracy is working well?
Too much power in the hands of government, it’s too difficult to hold people to account We see corruption and cronyism everywhere, especially the Lords and in the honours system.
