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The Island Of Idiots
Saturday, March 27, 2010 At 07:27AM
'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' Albert Einstein
Tom and Dusty once sang of an Island of Dreams. Today, it looks like we're living on a island of idiots. The latest poll to emerge shows the greatest proportion of respondents now favour Labour over any other party as best placed to manage the economy. Yes, you weren't dreaming, ladies and gentlemen. The party that unleashed a credit flow of unprecedented proportions, sold off our gold at flea market prices, presided over the biggest increase in economically inactive people in our history, that couldn't be honest in its Budget presentation has now moved ahead of all competitors on the question of economic sound management.
My anger here is not the position of Labour relative to the Conservatives. The latter clearly have some presentational issues to sort out (although they'll get my vote irrespective). It's the position of Labour relative to everybody. When their narrative of 'Labour investment versus Tory cuts' hit the public consciousness, the Conservatives' ratings began to fall. However, Labour have now promised to make deeper cuts than the first Thatcher government and suddenly - according to this poll - they are the professional economic custodians. Spot the contradiction, anyone? Are the people of this country drugged on the narcotic of Left-wing rule? Are they determined to plunge this country down the international tables until it reaches the status of a former Warsaw Pact member? Are they that bloody stupid they're prepared to see this fat, horrible, personality-bypassed slug and his coterie of Unite sponsored MPs destroy what Britishness is left in our land? The answer to all these questions must be 'yes'. Edmund Blackadder once told Baldrick that idiots weren't entitled to vote. Wouldn't it be better, on the face of this poll finding, if we could go back to that system?
General ElectionRON PAUL TEACHES ECONOMICS TO BERNANKE
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 05:34PMFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went before the House Financial Service Committee yesterday where he was blasted by Ron Paul over the Fed's increasingly mad monetary policy. This is part of what he said:
What the Federal Reserve still fails to realize is that intervention in the economy is always harmful [...] the Fed only sees what is seen, the superficial results of its policies, and not what is unseen, the effects of its monetary intervention throughout the economy. Monetary inflation leads to malinvestment and causes the boom phase of the business cycle. Once the malinvestment is realized the bust phase occurs, and these malinvested resources need to be liquidated in order for the economy to recover.
But the Fed actively works to prevent this liquidation and does everything in its power to continue inflating in order to prolong the boom. The first act of intervention begets the second and subsequent interventions, each bigger than the first, as each economic bust gets larger and more severe [...]
The Soviet Union's economy failed because of its central planning, and the United States economy will suffer the same fate if we continue down the path toward more centralized control.
Rightly, he didn't say that the Soviet economy collapsed because of bad decisions by central planners, but that it did so simply by the fact that it was centrally planned. With each government act, with every intervention "begetting second and subsequent interventions" (which they always do, because they never work) we submit more and more to that same state central planning.
Black Eyebrows And All!
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 12:13PM
I believe that this editorial by Andreas Whittam Smith on the Independent just about sums it all up for our Scots 'Old Guard' Chancellor.
I especially liked the slice right at the end of the essay, which pointed out :-
"He is also a ruthless politician brought up in a hard school. There is no distinction between Mr Darling and the rest of the political class. He wants to acquire power and retain it. Nothing more and nothing less. He relishes the perks that go with high office. He thinks the electorate is to be used and plucked according to necessity."
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 11:14AM
It's disturbing to read that the useless Baroness Ashton - the most highly paid female politician in the world lest we forget - is allowing France to grab control of the soon to be all-powerful EU Foreign Service.
"Agreed by European foreign ministers next month, the French power grab could leave Lady Ashton as a figurehead in charge of a powerful EU foreign service controlled from Paris.
Under the proposal, the EEAS's secretary general will be in direct "day-to-day" command of the EU's intelligence, military and crisis response bodies.
Pierre Vimont, Nicolas Sarkozy's current ambassador to Washington, is the favourite for the job, giving France a powerful lever for its ambition to create a European army.
The French "Sec Gen" would control secretive Brussels bodies, including the EU's military staff, the civil-military planning cell and the Situation Centre, a clearing house for intelligence gathered by national secret services.
In a separate line of command, Christine Roger, another French official, will be in charge of strategic political and security and coordination, giving France a dominant position."
Ashton, Gordon Brown's key nominee to this imperial post, is proving hopeless, one more manifestation of just how inept his judgement has been and a more danger sign of what lies in store with this posy-Lisbon EU.
ORANGE BNP?
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 11:01AMI see that a leading member of the Orange Order is to stand for the BNP in the general election.
Nick Blake, a district master of a Lodge in Devon, England, has been selected as a candidate for the BNP. The news comes in the aftermath of the Grand Lodge in Ireland issuing a statement this week vocing its opposition to a planned visit to the UK by Pope Benedict XVI in September.
According to the Irish News, a spokesman for the Grand Lodge refused to comment on the development. "It's a matter for the grand lodge of England and not a matter for the grand lodge of Ireland at all," he said. "People stand for all sorts of political parties."
He has a point. The BNP is a legal Party and being a member or indeed a candidate is not a crime. One can equally view being a member of a terror-related political party such as Sinn Fein to be much more repugnant but that does not gather so much as a whimper from the media. The Orange Order has members that stand for many political parties and it cannot be a surprise that someone ends up standing for the BNP.
I see that South Belfast Alliance MLA Anna Lo seeks to have the Orange Order "take action" against Mr Blake. Why? Shall they "take action" against any OO members who support Alliance? Ms Lo should start practising the tolerance she piously preaches.
BNP, Orange OrderON THE ROCKS....
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 10:47AM
Did you read that the Irish economy shrank at a record rate in 2009, according to figures from the Republic's Central Statistics Office?
Preliminary figures suggest Gross Domestic Product fell by 7.1% from 2008 and Gross National Product was down 11.3%. As GDP includes profits made by US multi-nationals based in Ireland, many economists focus on GNP. There was no let-up in the slump at the end of the year when GDP and GNP were down 2.3% on the previous three months. Construction output fell by 32.3% and capital investment dropped by more than 28% on the previous year. Consumer spending was 5.2% lower than a year earlier.
This is what a REAL recession looks like! The Republic got itself caught up in a property and spending boom built on poor Banking practices. It all becameutterly unaffordable but money was still spend as if tomorrow would never come. But it did. I wonder if those Northern Ireland nationalist politicians that were urging NI to link itself closer tot the "Celtic Tiger" still seek this economic union???
The Irish economy is in a mess but the Government is trying to do something about it and that's where I feel Brian Lenihan is at least trying unlike Alistair Darling who remains in denial. Ireland entered the recession first and it will emerge first.
THE REAL ECONOMIC REALITY...
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 10:34AMThe stark fact is as follows; "More than 10p in every pound of tax Britons pay will within four years go straight on the Government's ballooning debt interest bill, according to figures underlying the Budget calculations"
At this level – 10.6pc of total tax revenues – debt interest payments would be at the highest level since the 1980s, when Nigel Lawson was still gradually reducing the scale of Britain's national debt.
The news is likely to cause consternation in the markets – as well as among households – since many of the ratings agencies regard a country as being in growing danger of a fiscal crisis, and a likely downgrade, once its debt interest payments exceed 10pc of tax revenues. The Treasury had previously forecast that debt interest payments would peak just below this threshold in four years' time. It will also be highly embarrassing for the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, who has refused to publish the Government's detailed spending forecasts – which would include its projections on debt financing costs – until after the election.
The last sentence is salient. Labour is seeking to con the public and trying to hold off on what it provides to the markets by deferring projections until AFTER the election. That's because Labour's entire economic policy is a charade and it will not withstand any scrutiny.
Fiscal Policy, LabourNOT SO HOT IN ICELAND!
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 10:27AMDid you see that Iceland has banned striptease shows, making it an offence for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.
Iceland's legislature, the Althingi, passed the ban, with just two abstentions and no votes against, although almost half the country's 63 lawmakers were absent. Both opponents and supporters of the bill said it was a European first. With the exception of the Vatican and tiny principalities like Andorra, strip clubs operate across the continent.
The vulgarisation of our society continues apace and so it is interesting to see Iceland take this stance. The key driver of this seems to revolve around whether women are being forced to partake in such activities. Iceland says that they are. I have to say that I find such establishments sleazy, playing to base feelings, and they deface wherever they are found.
So, well done to Iceland, and the sleaze merchants can go elsewhere!
IcelandON PART TIME PETE...
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 10:22AMGiven that DUP leader has insisted he will continue to double job if re-elected in East Belfast...
"The DUP leader's double jobbing comments drew swift responses from his two unionist rivals for the east Belfast — Tory-UUP candidate Trevor Ringland and David Vance of the TUV.
Mr Ringland welcomed what he termed the “capitulation to pressure applied by the Conservatives and Unionists on the scandal of double jobbing”.
Mr Vance said East Belfast voters will be presented with a clear choice. He asked: “Do they want a part-time MP who will only turn up to Parliament sporadically on days when he has nothing better to do or do they want someone who will ensure that East Belfast has a vocal, full-time voice in the Commons?”
East Belfast.Its For Your Own Good!
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 09:59AMWe, as a Nation, should have become accustomed to the weirder and deceitful ways of this present government. I give you a few ‘for instances’
- As a result of the terror bombing attacks on London, the Labour bunch rushed through various anti-terror legislative Acts. You may not be surprised to hear that the main effect of these laws, apart from having ‘Control Orders’ struck down by the courts, is that any photographer may be arrested if he even thinks about photographing any uniformed clown!
- Anti-Social Behaviour orders were hailed by this Government as a measured response to youths who terrorised neighbourhoods. Do you think that this particular proposed ASBO was warranted? Or even this one?
- The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 allows surveillance by just about every local council and national civil servant to be undertaken for the purposes of intercepting and preventing would-be terrorists from harming or killing British people. The wide use of these ‘catch-all’ powers have so far been used by Local Councils to find out how bins are being placed, or parents being placed under video surveillance to establish if they are able to register their children for a particular school.
- Traffic cameras, allegedly placed for ‘Accident prevention’, are being used to prosecute parking and traffic offences.
I could go on and on, but I hope that you get the picture; laws established for a particular purpose, are broadened and used against law-abiding British people because we are a soft target!
The latest example has been disclosed here, under regulations to be made Law within a few weeks, which will allow ANY letter, parcel or packet sent or received within the borders of this United Kingdom, to be opened without warning or agreement, by either H.M. Customs, or any member of the Royal Mail Postal Service.
Last time I read about that sort of activity was in East Germany, under the steadfast gaze of the STASI!
HERE COMES THE TAXMAN...
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 09:38AMThe taxman is forcing recession-hit businesses to the wall, critics said yesterday as Revenue & Customs was implicated in the collapse of the Jarvis engineering business and the Scottish airline Highland Airways.
HMRC, which the Chancellor said on Wednesday would extend the Time to Pay scheme to help businesses affected by the recession, also issued nearly a third of all winding-up petitions in England and Wales last year as it clamped down on late taxpayers such as Portsmouth Football Club.
Stephen Alambritis, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “We have sensed a harsher approach towards businesses. This is at odds with what the Chancellor said in the Budget. ”
The lack of understanding by HMRC towards struggling SMALL business is reprehensible. I believe it is important that all due tax IS paid but a level of consideration is required. Under Labour, there is none.
PENSION RAID TWO....
Friday, March 26, 2010 At 09:28AMOne of Gordon Brown's first acts when Labour came to power was to raid UK pensions funds so causing unlimited damage to the pensions of millions of people, in particular in the Private sector, that sector so loathed by Socialists.
Now I read that priveate sector workers will take a £4.75billion hit to their pensions to pay for the economic recovery - while public sector workers will escape cuts. In further evidence of a pensions apartheid, public sector workers have avoided a raid on their gold-plated schemes. They will simply have a limit placed on contributions to stop them building up huge pots so quickly - saving the public purse around £1billion a year. By contrast, the Treasury will make several times this amount through sweeping reforms to strip tax breaks from top earners at private firms.
This is the final malicious act of a wicked socialist Government seeking to further punish those of us who DARE to work for ourselves - rather than the over-arching all powerful State.
HE'S GOT FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES...
Thursday, March 25, 2010 At 09:49PM
Tyrant Fidel Castro has declared passage of American health care reform "a miracle" and a major victory for Obama's presidency, but couldn't help chide the USA for taking so long to enact what communist Cubaachieved decades ago. "We consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of his (Obama's) government," Castro wrote in an essay published in state media, adding that it would strengthen the president's hand against lobbyists and "mercenaries.
Hat-tip Petr.
GETTING PRIORITIES WRONG...
Thursday, March 25, 2010 At 08:43PMSo, where can Government CUT expenditure and not harm delivery of front end services?
The number of NHS bureaucrats is soaring six times as quickly as the number of nurses, according to official figures.
While the number of health service managers went up by an astonishing 12 per cent in just one year, the number of nurses increased by less than 2 per cent - and the number of health visitors plummeted.
The figures show that since Labour came to power, the number of managers has almost doubled, partly as a result of the need to monitor stringent Whitehall targets on waiting times.
This is back to front logic. Investment SHOULD go to the front end. Instead it has flowed to ensure control freakery, so typical of this administration. Anyone in favour of the bloated bureaucracy?
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