Here we go again - by Richard... Friday, July 09, 2010

Here we go again - by Richard... Friday, July 09, 2010

We sort of did it yesterday, and I was rather touched by the e-mails from readers who mistook the title – taken from the famous, if rather ribald rugby song – as a statement of fact. Anyhow,The Daily Mail has returned to the story today, with a long comment piece by Harry Phibbs. 

This is sterling stuff as he rails against "Our masters in the European Union", who are apparently fed up with our insolence and ingratitude. They are fining us £150 million for failing to display the EU flag with sufficient regularity, prominence and enthusiasm, he writes, all under the title: "The more flags the EU run up their flag poles, the fewer salutes they get."

However, The Daily Telegraph also picks up the story (pictured), reporting: "Several schemes that received European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) money were also penalised for failing to use the EU flag on letterheads."

So far so good, except for one minor detail. The EU, this paper says, "completely denied the report." So, here we go again, with shades of the egg story. And in this case, both newspapers can't be right. The story is either true or it isn't ... or what?

I spose we ought to leave it to the professionals. We have a serious blog to write here, and when they've sorted it out, we might return to it.

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The noose tightens - by Richard...

Been a little bit busy yesterday – with results to be seen on Sunday. In the meantime, as one of our forum members rightly insists, Ambrose is a must read. 

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A failure to communicate - by Richard... Thursday, July 08, 2010

h/t Subrosa. Mind you, anyone tried phoning Paypal recently?

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Meanwhile - by Richard...

Nothing changes. There are still those poor deluded fools who think that, just because we have had a general election, we got a new government. But, as we kept saying, time and time again, the faces may change, but the laws go on just the same - given to us courtesy of our masters in Brussels.

Thus we see the report that little Georgie Osborne has announced that landfill tax will increase every year, making it even more expensive for councils to dispose of rubbish in holes in the ground. Now Gary Porter, chairman of the LGA Environment Board, tells us that the combination of the landfill tax and the fines from the EU, for not meeting our targets (despite the landfill tax) will add £50 to the average council tax bill every year. 

And, each year the slime from the "Customer Services Department" of the Council are there with their hands out, regular as clockwork. Behind them are the courts, and the faceless ranks of officials, rubber-stamping summonses and orders. Behind them are the bailiffs and behind them are the thugs in uniform that we mistakenly call the police. And if you don't pay, you go to prison. If you resist, they break down your doors and drag you out. And then you go to prison.

You can rob a granny, rip-off the local supermarket or beat up a completely innocent stranger in the street, and you won't go to prison. But, even if you are a guiltless, 70-year-old pensioner, if you don't pay the slime, you go to jail. You don't pass go and the pathetic excuse for the magistrates (Justices of the Peace, they used to call them – what a joke), wring their hands and bleat "we don't have any option."

This system makes a mockery of democracy, accountability and even the idea that we are free men and women. If you think about it - and so few do because it takes them out of their comfort zone - it reverses the fundamental relationship between the person and the state. As property owners or occupiers, we are free only so long as we pay a license fee to the slime each year. Effectively, with that annual payment, we buy our freedom. This is not freedom by any commonly-held measure. The very idea that we live in a "free" country is nothing more than a sick joke.

And at the top of this vile, putrid, festering, stinking dung heap of a system is little Georgie and his boss David Boy Cameron, he who thinks we should be in Europe and not ruled by Europe. One would like to take his landfill tax and do unspeakable things to his person with it, especially – asWitterings from Witney points out - the Boy seems intent on taking us for fools.

One day, we will destroy this vile creation – or our successors will. It is only a matter of time. You can count on it. History tells us that the worm always turns. I just hope I'm around to enjoy the moment.

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Afghan turning point - by Richard...

The British withdrawal from Sangin was formally announced yesterday by defence secretary Liam Fox in parliament.

This is the first major contribution by the Cleggeron administration to the conflict in Afghanistan, and one which represents a major turning point, possibily the beginning of the end for British forces in the country.

Read more in a heavily updated and extended commentary on DEFENCE OF THE REALM

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I'm out of work and on the dole ... - by Richard...

... you can stick the blue flag up your hole ... if it makes you feel better. But it will cost you £150 million in fines from the EU.

Please can we rise up and slaughter them give them a group hug now?

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Armageddon imagined - by Richard...

I was talking to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard some time ago about the need to paint the picture of what might happen if the euro did collapse. He and I both agreed it was necessary, but such a task was easier said than done. It has taken an expert team at the Dutch bank ING to work out the most credible scenarios, which they do in a new report called: "Quantifying the Unthinkable".

Ambrose has been quick to write it up, telling us that "a break-up risks global deflation shock that would dwarf [the] Lehman collapse."

In fact, he writes, a fully-fledged disintegration of the eurozone would trigger the worst economic crisis in modern history, devastate every country in Europe including Germany, and inflict a deflationary shock on the US. There would be no winners, warns 

The Financial Times is amongst the others who have also written about this report. Its piece is headed, "The fall of eurozone would cause chaos", which rather goes to prove that this isn't just Armageddon Ambrose strutting his stuff. This is for real.

Jill Treanor in The Guardian also offers quite a decent write-up. She tells us of Mark Cliffe, ING's global head of financial markets research, who stresses that he is not trying to predict the probability of an EMU break-up, but merely considering what would happen if the once "unthinkable" were to happen. 

"We do not address the potential long-term pros and cons of dismantling EMU," he says. "However, the initial trauma outlined in this report is sufficiently grave to give pause for thought to those who blithely propose EMU exit as a policy option." Treanor's opening makes it sound like a nuclear winter. Gulp!

The Independent does not seem to have done a report and, as for The Times, who cares? It has retreated behind its paywall and its opinion is now irrelevant. I suppose that's the way to hide bad news now. Give it to The Times. No one will ever know it has happened.