Monday, 3 October 2011


Never knowingly misinformed - by Richard... Monday, October 03, 2011

Ian Cowie, personal finance editor of the Failygraph tells us that freezing council tax, "as Chancellor George Osborne proposes to do today", will not only save the average family £72 a year but help bring home a fundamental difference between the Coalition Government and its Labour predecessor.

But, actually, this is not the case. Even if we were to concede the propaganda point of this being a "saving", the announcement assumes a 2.5 percent increase in council tax. The average CT in 2010/11 is £1,439. Thus, the "savings" in 2012/13 for 5.7 million households in Band A – the largest of the bands - will be £23.98. Only the 130,000 households in the highest banded properties – H – will "save" £71.97 pence.

And that is why we buy the Failygraph (not) – a paper which truly lives up to its motto … "never knowingly misinformed". They simply do not realise how crap they are. Or perhaps Cowie really believes that the "average family" lives in a Band H house.

COMMENT: "SAVING MASSA GEORGE" THREAD

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Fake Tories - by Richard...

Our political class exists in a bubble so remote from reality there is just no point taking their witterings seriously any more, says Dellers. In particular, he has a go at that stupid womanTheresa May, and her posturing on the Human Rights Act.

She would have us believe that she wants to "axe the Act", except – as Dellers points out – the UK cannot withdraw from the ECHR without also leaving the EU. And May's master-in-crime ain't going to allow that. The whole thing is conference fluff.

And illustrating exactly the point Dellers makes, we see the Taxpayers' Alliance on the conference fringe. They have assembled Matthew Elliott, "Chief Executive", Douglas Carswell, Patrick O'Flynn, "Chief Political Commentator" of the Daily Express, Tim Montgomerie and Priti Patel, all to tell us: "We need to talk about Europe".

No … really? I'd never have worked that one out.

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Saving Massa George - by Richard...

There could perhaps be no better example of "above the line" behaviour than Massa George graciously reaching down to us plebs, nowdeigning to inform us that, in his wisdom and generosity, he is going to "save" us £72 by not charging us extra Council Tax next year – a tax that has more than doubled since 1997.

No doubt he will be expecting us to rush out and buy flat caps so that we can doff them in gratitude, when his well-guarded visage sweeps past in the armoured limousine so thoughtfully provided by his grateful subjects. Perhaps they may even be able to afford some knee pads, so they can kneel in homage as the limousine sweeps past in the Chaika Lane.

Undoubtedly, Massa George believes we are as stupid as the editors and journalists of the newspapers he reads, and that we will accept that, despite public borrowing being at a record high, he has suddenly, miraculously discovered an "underspend" of £800 million.

It is this, incredibly – or so we are told - which will enable him bribe local authorities not to put up their headline rate of tax, and thus damp down the inevitable protests that would otherwise arise.

It goes without saying that the cerebrally challenged MSM fail to understand that far from actually "saving" money, Massa George is simply shunting the proceeds of one tax into another pigeon-hole, to avoid the nascent rebellion that is building over this administration's predatory tax policies.

What seems to have escaped the dim little brains of the MSM, though, is the simple fact that local authorities are being given another "fix" of public money. Their cash habit has not been curtailed in any way, and they will be there with their hands out for more when this current bung runs out.

Further, it has not dawned on the MSM (nor even the Treasury, it would seem), that local authorities are becoming extremely inventive in devising new revenue streams, and milking the existing funds. Not only are they taking from central government, they are also clawing back every penny they can find, all to feed their insatiable cash habit.

Once again, though, it is difficult to know what to be most offended about – the fact that Massa George is taking us for a ride, or that he thinks we are stupid that we actually believe his vapid little press releases. 

Thus does Progessive Contrarian note, we must make our views known, by becoming a thorn in their side. For sure, the MSM isn't going to. They hardly seem to know the time of day.

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A perfect storm? - by Richard...


Much play was made recently of a Greek granny on the street in Athens, begging. At the time, though, I wrote that no one should run away with the idea that such poverty was a phenomenon confined to Greece. And here we have some confirmation that the UK is not very far behind, with the situation markedly deteriorating (above).

But this is not the only sign of distress. We see here a report from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) about notices being sent out by HMRC to an estimated 1.2 million people who paid too little tax last year due to errors in the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) system. 

It is predicted, the report says, that this figure includes up to 160,000 pensioners who could face repayments of up to more than £1,000 each. The charity is concerned about the impact of these repayments could have on these pensioners.

Then comes the "money quote" (or lack of money quote). Older people contacting the charity who reached the state pension retirement age during 2010 owed an average of £21,370 in unsecured debt, and had an average of just £85 left over after meeting basic living expenses each month.

The charity's director of external affairs, Delroy Corinaldi, said: "With so little available at the end of each month as it is, these unexpected tax bills could have a serious impact on the ability of some pensioners to repay their debts".

This is but one of the many additional issues that indicate stress points, this report warning of the possibly effects of changes to the Council Tax Benefit (CTB) payments, which are set to increase the number of Council Tax defaulters. And, on top of all that, we see that recent changes to law on the treatment of private sewers are going to have a dramatic effect on next year's water bills – which are already grossly inflated.

Another sign of the times is that the Resolution Foundation think tank is saying that more than twenty percent of workers now earn less than a "living wage, exacerbating the squeeze of the lower earners.

With councils then becoming more aggressive in the collection of Council Tax, and more readily employing fraudulent private bailiff companies, as well as ratcheting up summonses and liability order fees, we may be beginning to see the conditions set for personal debt to reach "perfect storm" proportions.

As fast as consumers cut back debt, it increases elsewhere, despite attempts to rein in spending, with Tescos announcing a fall in UK sales for the first time in 20 years. Stresses are building up in the system from all directions. Something is going to have to give.

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Of democrats and autocrats - by Richard... Sunday, October 02, 2011

It seems to have been a long journey since we started this blog – and I still write "we", even though my erstwhile co-editor has departed to her own blog. Writing here is very much a team effort, with much of the content guided and informed by the forum and the torrent of e-mail and Skype messages I get each day – to say nothing of the long and valuable telephone calls and the face-to-face political discussions in the local hostelries.

That it has been (and continues to be) a journey implies a beginning and an end, with a specific destination. At the outset, that destination seemed obvious – a United Kingdom free from the malign grip of the European Union. But that is no longer the case. It has become merely a way-station in a much longer journey.

The change of destination, I hope, explains what might otherwise appear to be an amount of incoherence on this blog. The change has not come easily or quickly, and we have spent many years realising that the EU is not the problem, or even part of the problem. The EU is merely the symptom of a much larger problem which starts and ends in the minds of people, and those who would wish to rule us.

But if the EU is just a symptom, identifying the problem has not been that easy, and I am still not sure we are there, with the completeness of understanding that we would prefer. There is, though, enough to set out some observations, which seem to make some sense.

Here, I rely on my own potted version of history, which I have sought to articulate in pieces such as this and this, all pointing to how we are seeing a re-alignment of politics. The line which once marked the division between left and right has now rotated ninety degrees. We are no longer left or right, but above the line or below it.

With that, the journey becomes more of a process, a task – ultimately to remove that line, or to re-align it, so that there are more egalitarian divisions in society. Such divisions as there are should be between ideas, rather than determined by status, position and wealth, with the dominance of a permanent ruling class perched over us.

Thus, my political world is divided not by left and right but by "above the line" and below it. And, in many senses – from my position firmly "below the line" – that is how I see the world. That is how I distinguish friends and allies from political foes.

Some of my readers express puzzlement as to why I attack people who would appear to be our allies - the egregious Daniel Hannan, for instance. As a self-professed "eurosceptic", he would seem to qualify as our ally in a common cause. However, I see him and many like him as "above the liners". For sure, Hannan would replace the autocracy of the EU – but with an autocracy of his own. He is, therefore, no friend of the people.

But what about "The Plan"? Thus do you ask about the famous offering from the Hannan and Carswell stable, which would bring us a new dawn of enlightenment, peace and prosperity? Except that it would do no such thing.

Like many of their ilk, this pair have stopped thinking. These are clever people so it is not that they are incapable of so doing. It is just that they have stopped doing it. Thus, they wrongly believe that "democracy" is a matter of having more and more tiers of elected officials – from tea ladies to mayors and police commissioners. 

By this means, these people have lost sight of the essence of democracy – which is power to the people. Electing officials without having power over them is not democracy. It is simply an elective dictatorship. Turning this round, if we have power over our officials, it often becomes irrelevant whether they are elected or not. Elections are not a necessary condition for democracy and, even if they were desirable, they are certainly not sufficient.

As a very small example, you have to ask whether our representatives would be any better or any worse if they were appointed by a randomly selected jury who interviewed prospective candidates and chose them on the basis of merit. Or would our parliament be any the worse if our MPs were picked at random by computer?

On the other hand, it was "democratically elected" MPs who took us into the Common Market, and "democratically elected" MPs keep us in the EU. If we, the people, forced them to pull the UK out, by marching on Westminster, ransacking the parliament and putting to the sword the denizens - that would not conform with most people's idea of an election. But it would be democracy.

So it is that my pursuit of a more egalitarian and democratic society rests on the pursuit of power – for the people. I do not hold with the premise dear to the heart of the "above the liners" that the people cannot be trusted – and that we must elect only the pre-selected few to guide us to the path of righteousness and enlightenment. Nor do I accept that more elected officials is any answer.

In particular, I have far greater trust in the sense of the people than I do in the good faith of the ruling élites. My fundamental premise is that, in a society where people truly have power, they will grow into their responsibilities and use their power wisely. Even if they do not always do so, they can do no worse than our élites, who periodically "guide" us to war, famine and disaster, all in the name of peace and stability.

Democracy, therefore, is the destination. We seek democracy, in its true sense, not the pastiche that masquerades as such.

That then leaves us with the minor problem of how to achieve this desirable state but, here, we are beginning to formulate some principles of our own. Firstly, we take at as a given that the EU has reached it point of no return. The battle is not yet won, but the collapse of the "project" is now inevitable. In fact, it always was inevitable, as we wrote in The Great Deception in 2003. It is just that it is more obvious now.

Secondly, the collapse will make no great difference to us. Given our current governmental structure, our unaccountable ruling élite is quite capable of making a mess unaided. It does not need the EU. As we said, the EU is a symptom not the cause.

Thus, the real battle lines are over the shape of a post-EU United Kingdom. But we can't really talk about "restoring" democracy. In truth, we've never really had it. We need to take the next step towards the goal of achieving it, there having been no real developments since the Chartists took us towards universal suffrage. 

As a result, the third principle we come to is the famous Tip O'Neill aphorism, that all politics is local. For democracy to work it must, in the first instance, be exerted locally. And here, we have a real problem. Not only did Heath destroy central government by taking us into the Common Market, he destroyed local government with the Walker "reforms" and the 1973 local government reorganisation.

Even before then, we had a top-down government, weak councils and excessive power at the centre. Over the years since 1973, this has got worse, with the accountability made even more fragile by the introduction of cabinet government, and the Bains Report dictum of all-powerful chief officers and delegated powers.

Thus, to bring democracy, we must address it first at a local level, altering the balance of power between local and central government. That is not "localism" - it is democracy. Democracy is local, first and foremost. Thus, it is a necessary part and parcel of a democratic state than we have a vibrant democracy at the lowest tiers of government.

It goes without saying, though, that it is not safe to give local councils more power until we have more power over those councils. And that means money. We must control the purse strings … the essence of the Referism concept. As long as we have "masters" who decide year-on-year how much we must pay them, and our choice is only how we pay them, there can be no democracy.

There lies the battleground – in my view. We perhaps need to be more formal, in setting out our lists of demands, as did the Chartists. And then we set out to make ourselves ungovernable until our demands are met.

Free people do not have rulers. Their governments are servants. We, in this benighted country of ours, have rulers – the "above the line" autocrats – in our town halls, in Whitehall and in Brussels. We will not be free until we clear out the lot of them and take control. Getting rid of Brussels is only a start, and by no means enough.

Autonomous Mind says it superbly. We must re-draw the line. Only then can we continue the march our forefathers started - towards real democracy.

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The dream turned to nightmare - by Richard...


Booker in a reflective mood talks about the five stages of the "fantasy cycle", as it applies to the EU … with the "colleagues" locked into the "nightmare stage", awaiting nemesis. For the Hague, though, Booker is going to have to re-structure his theory. He is still trapped in the fantasy stage, the tragic puer aeternus who will move straight from there to nemesis without transitioning the other stages.

Nevertheless, says Booker, we are witnessing the unfolding of one of the great archetypal patterns that shape human affairs, one we can compare to the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. 

The EU's leaders frenziedly rush about trying to stop their magic broomstick running amok, as it fills their house with ever more buckets full of debt. The hapless victim of the old fable was eventually saved by the return of the sorcerer, who knew the magic spell that could avert final disaster. 

In the case of the EU, there is no sorcerer. There seems to be no means by which Europe's leaders can halt the chaos that now threatens to bring down the euro, much of the world's financial system – and, ultimately, even the EU itself. But since this must happen, the sooner the better. We really need to get this over and done with.

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Are we at all surprised? - by Richard... Saturday, October 01, 2011


This is the man once labelled by Peter Oborne as "a well-known Eurosceptic". Does anyone still take Oborne seriously? Is there any intelligent being anywhere on this planet who really believes that Hague is a eurosceptic - or ever was?

Not to be outdone, though, we have Cameron - another of Oborne's "eurosceptics".

Posted by Britannia Radio at 15:04