Lite blogging - by Pete... Friday, November 11, 2011

Lite blogging - by Pete... Friday, November 11, 2011

Ok, so my excuse isn't quite as good as open heart surgery, but I have things to do this weekend so there will be light blogging, unless Helen surfaces and hasn't actually taken her bat home. There is also the outside chance of RN getting his lazy ass out of bed and getting back to work.

P.S. Mum respectfully asks "no late phone calls". She's knackered!

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The whole point is that we don't - by Richard...

Those with memories slightly longer than those of a demented gnat will agree with the sentiments articulated by Witterings From Witney. It was also Cameron who started down with path of brand detoxification, and set apart the "modernisers" as something special and different. It was he who made it clear that traditional Conservatives were something not wanted on passage. Despite our considerable reservations, it was he that dumped as - not the other way around.

And, today, now he has the Gall to tell us: "We stand together to honour the incredible sacrifice that generations of men and women who have given their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy today".

The point is that we don't stand together. A man who so easily ceded yet more power to the EU, Cameron has made it clear he does not represent us and does not reflect our values. And nor do we want him to. He is a shallow, vain man who has not even the gravitas to acquire the mantle of office that goes with his assumed rank. To this day I cannot think of him as a prime minister.

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Gripping – and frightening - by Pete...

"It’s the question that is gripping – and frightening – Tory backbenchers: does the Government actually have a policy on Europe?" says Iain Martin in theTelegraph.

Of course it does; to do whatever it is told, to say nothing of it and to silence the people who speak against it. But as we speak, the party faithful are tugging their forelocks.

Within their party, there is a great deal of unease about this. Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and his ally Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, have told the Prime Minister that he really must start applying himself to the issue. For if closer integration among the 17 members of theeurozone does happen, it will mean that the interests of the 10 EU members not in the single currency need to be defended and advanced. If the eurozonecollapses, it will necessitate a return to a much looser collection of nation states. Either outcome will require Britain to provide leadership, and offer a strong counterpoint to Germany and France.

Defended and advanced? Our interests were never defended or advanced. It's a little late to start pretending now, and the last thing this needs is the intervention of the Boy. For all the influence this pygmy has, we would be better off sending a scarecrow.

What I take from this is that the Tories haven't realised we have long since been written out of the script. Our opinion was never sought, only our obedience and our wallets, in or out of the Euro. Whichever bag of cement we send to the table, it's game over.

When the Euro does go the way of the pterodactyl, it won't matter what they command because those wooden blocks on the map are just wooden blocks. The bunker is sealed, the cyanidecapsules are being handed out and all that remains is to pull the trigger before the mob arrives at the gate.

It is no longer, if ever it was, within their capacity to control. Everything they have thrown at it has been swallowed whole and the beast has asked for seconds. We may as well be firing pea-shooters at a Tiger tank.

If there is a plan B for Europe, there is no dynamism, personal or economic, left in the UK. In all matters but currency we have been the first lemming in the rush over the cliff. It is difficult to think of a single industry we have not voluntarily sabotaged in the name of co-operation or sacrificed on the altar of global warming. Why does Martin think Europe would value the input of one David Cameron? Just because we were not in the bank hall when the robbery occurred does not mean we weren't willing accomplices waiting outside with the engine running.

Furthermore, when the meekrob does hit the fan, Cameron will not last in office long enough to forge "a new Europe". "It is not the job of a British Prime Minister to get foreign leaders to like him." says Martin. Just as well really.

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The tax the unelected are desperate to have - by Pete...

Another guest post today, this one byGreg Browne. The topic of the "Robin Hood Tax" is one which keeps coming back and it seems like good time to give it an airing. You can tax the banks all you like but it is always we who pay, one way or another, as Greg points out...

The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), Tobin or Robin Hood Tax, what ever you want to call it, is gaining more and more supporters. However few seem to be commenting on the real reason that would be world leaders are pushing for this tax. Of course, in 2005 Dr North, told us that similar moves were “in effect a proto-European tax, the Holy Grail of the integrationalists, who see such a move as the ultimate answer to their liberation from perpetual reliance on member states for funding”. The FTT does promise much, such as:

A tax to overcome the perceived lack of an adequate insurance facility for the global economy, according to the IMF. A new global authority, based on the 'international common good' rather than on 'individual national interest'. The Oct. 24 publication of a 20-page document by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace advocated this.

The Roman Church's stance followed from its 2009 “encyclical letter caritas in veritate” in which the pope stated:

Para 67. In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. (My emphasis)

Which is surprising since in 1920, in the encyclical, Bonum Sane Pope Benedict XV warned:

"The coming of a world state is longed for, by all the worst and most distorted elements. This state, based on the principles of absolute equality of men and a community of possessions, would banish all national loyalties. In it no acknowledgement would be made of the authority of a father over his children, or of God over human society. If these ideas are put into practice, there will inevitably follow a reign of unheard-of terror."

Infallibility is temporary, or so it seems.

Fidel Castro, from his 2001 speech to the U.N. World Conference on Racism summed up the feelings of many on the left.

[He] “advocated the Tobin Tax specifically in order to generate U.S. financial reparations to the rest of the world. He declared that "the tax suggested by Nobel Prize Laureate James Tobin" should be imposed in order to generate "one trillion US dollars annually to save and develop the world."

The IMF, with the UN in the background, began to see the opportunities and started to get involved in this great revenue raising scheme. At the 2009 Pittsburgh meeting of the G20 the truth began to emerge, according to aim.org:

The "Leader's Statement" endorsed by President Obama and released at the event declares on page 10 that "We task the IMF to prepare a report for our next meeting with regard to the range of options countries have adopted or are considering as to how the financial sector could make a fair and substantial contribution toward paying for any burdens associated with government interventions to repair the banking system."

The term "fair and substantial contribution" is code for a global tax. Other misleading terms for global taxes include "innovative sources of finance" and "Solidarity Levies."

By 2010, the IMF had started drawing up plans:

The IMF is set to propose new taxes on global financial institutions. The double-tax plan, which was leaked in Washington yesterday, proposes one levy, a Financial Stability Contribution (FSC), to fund any future government support, and another, a Financial Activities Tax (FAT), that will place a tax on the profits and pay at financial institutions. ... "The recognition that banks should make a contribution to the society in which they operate is right," said Alistair Darling. "Any agreement has to be international and that unilateral attempts would simply risk being undermined."

But back to the real reason that this tax is so 'popular'. As Bruno Waterfield, reminded us in June in his article £3 billion a year in 'stealth taxes' to be levied on Britain:

Janusz Lewandowski, the European budget commissioner, wants tax raising powers to shift EU funding from national government transfers to EU-wide taxation on energy, travel or banking. "I have as an objective a future budget being fed two thirds, 66 per cent by member state contributions, and own resources, one third, or 33 per cent,"

Like Lewandowski, the unelected in regional or global governance positions must find a way to generate revenue that is not at the whim of nation states to withhold, or as Lewandowski put it euphemistically, "We want to make it less politicised" and as Dr North put it in 2009:

One of the restrictions against which the "colleagues" in Brussels chafe is the need always to go cap-in-hand to the member states for their funding. As long as the purse-strings are held in this way, the member states at least have some control over the wilder ambitions of the project.

The FTT, FAT or whatever you want to call it, can be levied by the UN, IMF or EU or all three and suddenly the cries of No Taxation Without Representation begin to strike home in a meaningful way. Of course, these taxes will be minuscule to start with, but once the principle is established and the mechanisms are in place, what is to stop other innovative taxes being imposed and slowly ratcheted up. But, of course, it will be all for the common good of mankind, wont it? The FTT is only an opportunity for the financial sector to repay the global community for all the benefits it has accrued in all these years of globalisation.

Dr North, from 2005 again:

And there you have it… little bit, by little bit, the ratchet tightens and, once the "ice is broken" the way is clear for a "European tax", which can then be extended from its hypothecated base to cover broader expenditure issues. As we said, this is definitely one to watch.

And from the european tax to an international tax, which of course will eventually need an international currency, which will require international financial governance and...

(Note: The FTT idea started life more than 30 years ago)

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A hard days work for the Easter Bunny. - by Pete...

It's a good job there isn't an international monetary crisis or anything like that. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to throw money away. Especially since we have better things to do.

But at least we now know where the BBC stands on the matter...

I know there is a battle being waged behind closed doors in Whitehall over the cost and direction of energy policy and the obvious anger of some environmentalists is probably stoked by a belief that we gave succour to the "enemy".

Meanwhile, Guardian reading property owners are not happy. The cut to green energy subsidies will "hit the poor". Apparently. The good news is that the elderly can give the poor their money back, and thanks to global warming, they won't need it.

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Missing the point. - by Pete...

If you've been following the blog this year you'll have noticed the steady rise in council chief executives taking home offensive salaries and benefits. Not a week goes by without (at least) one of these reports crossing my desk. While Wiltshire has ditched its own parasite in what appears to be a purge of such useless suits, the looting continues elsewhere unabated.

While we welcome any move to contain this vile, corrupt epidemic, the TPA has again missed the point with its offerings.

The Bath branch of a national campaign group has launched a drive to cut the pay of the city’s next council chief executive. A petition has been started by the Bath TaxPayers’ Alliance group aimed at persuading Bath and North East Somerset Council to follow the example of a London borough in reducing the salary of the top position at the Guildhall.

It is not that we pay them too much. It is that we pay them at all. If an elected council is not its executive, what is the point of having them?

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