QT Review

Impressed with the fat man ( Lord Falconer), who faced down a hostile audience, and defended Tony Blair convincingly .What I really relished though was that , for once , that the Conservative Party had a rep who was not an embarrassment . David Davies was contemporary ,smart and likeable , Melanie Phillips on fine form, and even that bleeding heart Richard Stilgoe to the Guardian reading world, Marcus Brigstock was good.
I was disappointed that with all the enthusiasm for ceding more responsibility to Scotland no-one mentioned that this makes the equal voice Scots have on our affairs, even more of an imbalance.It is quite obviously Labour gerrymandering , has been from the start.

On the Environment there was some disagreement about whether ice is growing or receding. It is in fact growing in the Antartic but receding in the Arctic . This , if you think about it is exactly what you would expect if you turned a freezer off . Where it is on land the ice grows as more moisture is allowed not the atmosphere , where it is in water , it acts like ice in warming water , and melts . Democracy does much the same thing dipped in Socialism

That’s the problem with the global warming people , they may well have a good point but they use anything to hand .Why on earth did Brigstock not have the cojones to tell all the ijits that Cumbrian floods are called '50 year floods 'because it happens every fifty years ,.., its called the weather . If Environmentalists continue to use anything to hand true or false , then they cannot complain if people do not believe them .Similiarly the Snows are not melting from Mt. Kilimanjaro , deforestation has reduced moisture in the air .

Red Tory....I Hope

Comment I made over at Hopi Sen`s nest of vicious socialism

Red Tory

"£150,000 of its funding is Tescos which I believe poet and linguist AB would identify as ironic. I detect in this more symbol than matter but then I value symbol and regard technocrats as under suspicion of being hired liars for people who follow symbols .I have not had a close look yet but from what I gather it is an evolution of radical right wing thought of the sort embraced by the Green shirts with their social credits , a sort of One Nation extremism .Sunder`s only interest would be in what he thinks is a blink, ie the sort of collapse of morale in the opposition that is part of the seed bed for social change . South Africa for example , its not as if there were not enough guns , you also have to partly believe you deserve to fail. That’s Sunder , always plotting , always in the shadows , probably in league with the devil.
I am not overly concerned that it makes little sense in your terms or his . In your terms a Country makes no sense which is why you would prefer it was abolished . In your terms family makes little sense when there are quite clearly Government agencies infinitely better qualified to bring up a child and ( Godwins law alert ) this made no sense to Hitler either“When my opponents say we We won’t join you”, just say, ‘”Your children are mine already “
Religious belief is also irrational and in a fact any loyalty of love potentially an obstacle to the proper ordering of affairs. What I hope to find is something like the mediaevalist revolt against the industrial revolution , the arts and crafts movement a reassertion of the romantic sensibility against the classical and an inspiration for a new age that tries to say difficult things even if it says them badly.
So there."

Gordon Brown Is Right

Its all a matter of perspective isn’t it .I have been reading articles making this and that case for so long now, that the whole process is starting to be “Frightened out of its sense”...or deconstructed, as New-Labour would prefer (to Shakespeare .)
Yesterday I noticed Alan Johnson arguing for his DNA bank, on the basis that people didn’t like finger prints once .They didn’t like eugenic death squads once either , your point is ?
His point is that by taking a 200 year perspective today`s power grab will appear diminuished . Then,with admirable brass neck he did ,“The Science Bit”, . This is only weeks after the Nutte fracas misrepresented as a demarcation dispute ,but was actually about sexing up -plus , a report ( on drugs of course .......no not him I mean about drugs ).
This science bit shows that fears about the Big Brother State are unfounded, just as ,topically, the Civil Service produced reports showing that WMD`s were pointed at my back garden . Well thats alright then . Is there a standard box of tricks ,a sort of liar-ator ? Perhaps there is
Peter Oborne described how the Borg managed to get every indicator ,across the country, pointing the right way ,in election material, by varying the time scale ,the region, and the subject, until they found one that worked . It is clear then that distortion is endemic , and the spectrum from lie to prsentation is abused.
On the only issue that matters , the economy ,lets get a few things nice and clear...
“Without action the UK`s budget deficit may exceed £200,000 billion in 2010 /11 more than 14% . In 2010 /11 total managed expenditure ,if not cut , is likely to exceed 50 % of GDP . On current tax and spending plans , UK government debt may exceed 100% of GDP , in 2013/14 (even excluding the Nationalised Banks ).At the time of writing there have been eight straight months of deflation , interest rates are at an all time low , much of the banking sector has been taken into state ownership and the economy is still in the deepest recession since the Second World War”
(Policy Exchange )Is this Brown’s fault ? Well quite obviously yes it is . In 2000 Govt Expenditure was about 35% below the G7 average at just below 37%. By 2005 we are on our way to 40% with the G7 average still down at 36% and a bit . Now we are over 46% while the G7 average is about 40%” . In as much as such a thing can possibly be blamed on one man Brown is to blame . Politically he ought to be in tiny pieces but he lumbers on...god knows how . Perhaps because as we enjoy our hearty breakfast of swollen demand borrowing and printed money , we forget the noose
Well while we skip lightly into what will be a blood bath whoever wins the next election Labour and Conservative are swapping “narratives” about fine tuning of cuts and taxes as if there was any alternative to huge Public Sector cuts . There is not .Brown knows this , long long ago he used to say some sensible things :
“ During the 1990s the National Debt has doubled . This year alone the tax payer will pay out 2.5billion in interests Payments on debt , more than we spend on schools . Public finances must be sustainable over the long term. If they are not then it is the elderly , the poor and those on fixed incomes who depend on public Services that will suffer most”
Gordon Brown is Quite Right sadly this was the 1997 Budget , since then he has been wrong

Oh Go On

Listen to this genuine answer phone message from Oz , love the last line . Go on its funny honest

Time For Tim

When I read La Toynbees fresh green opine today I suspected that Mr. Worstall might need a sit down and cup of tea to ward off an anuerism . He has not let me down and I want to keep his work here for me .Read it if you like....only if you want to. I don`t want to pressurre you or anything ...hallo ?

PREY

I am not a political obsessive but I felt like one this weekend . I strode out with the lad a-delivering leaflets on behalf of the popular and likeable PPC Jason Sugarman. It was a bit bracing but a pleasure to watch the little chap distributing evil Tory propaganda . But , oh dear , the jaunty swagger was brought up short by seeing the Observers front Page . Conservative Lead down to 6 % it shrieked, and today the Guardian is busily examining the possibility of Lib lab pacts . As Jackie Ashley gloatingly puts it , the Liberals are equidistant,“…except that Cameron is a million miles away in Europe , electoral reform and the role of the State. Ideologically a Lib Lab arrangement is the likelier out come of a hung Parliament” . Quite ,why stop at four pacts when you can have five.
Larry Elliot points out “The threatened rise in Unemployment will not materials until after election day…people feel a lot more cheerful about their finances …”. In the Telegraph Cameron struck the right note saying we will have to fight for the victory but he is ,I fear ,being to candid with talk of emergency budgets . That says bad news and I feel a bit 'Sir Humphrey-ish" about his bold integrity .... .
This is what La Toynbee had to say prior to the beatification of Saint Tony…”Labour …have abandoned their view of the voter as a decent sort and adopted the Tory model of the voter as a selfish lying bastard …the only way we can win is to lie and cheat about taxes …”. it’s a thought although she has also , said the opposite , of course .
So where are we then , desperately in debt ,and due a Government in hock to the Unions who has been about the most ruthless authoritarian deceitful and socialist British Politician I can think of . To think this man will have unfettered access to my bank account for five more years , will there be anything left ?
Thinking gloomily along these lines I have been trying to come up with a voguish acronym for those who regard five more years of Brown with all the consanguinity of three little Pigs socially obliged to show their faces at the Annual Wolf’s ball …why thank you , Mr. Big -Bad , most kind …. Gulp!
What about People Responsibly Employed and Y -Chromosomal


PS NewPoll ...phew

Jaw Jaw Jaw

Been arguing here are some bits ...
….migration was in balance until the mid eighties the net inflow then increased to 50,000 a year. Since 1997 British emigration multiplied by four . Net foreign immigration tripled from 107,000 in 1997 to 333,000 in 2007 .It is therefore cobblers to suggest that ”tendencies” under any Conservative Government can be used to demonstrate anything all about the last ten years .

….amongst the Conservatives who wanted ties with the Commonwealth strengthened as a post Empire free trade area was one Enoch Powell. Your logic then would require you to believe had Enoch Powell been running immigration Policy it would have made no difference to the last ten years . ..These are the specific policy measures you feel Enoch Powell would have trundled on with….
Embarkation controls abolished -The Primary Purpose Rule - ended - ( it imposed a requirement that the applicant should show "that the marriage was not entered into primarily to obtain admission to the United Kingdom". Immigration by spouses has increased by 50% since 1997.) ..The number of work permits issued has trebled since 1997. ….Eastern Europe 50,000 migrants could have been expected in the first four years. Only wrong by a factor of ten …
….Globally, the percentage of world population who are international migrants has only increased from 2.5% in 1960 to 3.0 percent in 2005 if you are interested . Without immigration, Germany, Italy and Spain would decline sharply in numbers.

……Mr Blunkett, 2002."I have doubled the number of work permits this year to 150,000. We have opened up new immigration routes ….In other words, there is a massive social as well as economic agenda. But to sell it to the British people and to avoid the fear of change and flux which always creates tension and the danger of racists exploiting it, we need to do that effectively and legally. We need to have integration programmes that work."
Mr Blunkett 2003 that there was "no obvious upper limit" to the number of immigrants who could settle in the UK. This was the period Andrew Neather was talking about …

A Location Famed For Its Cosy Intimacy...

England’ is already the most crowded country in Europe except Malta although the Netherlands are also more crowded if you only count land area .England’s population density is 1,010 people per square mile and we come 25th on the most crowded list .If you take a close look , however , with one or two eye popping exceptions, we are about as squished as it gets .Monaco, San Marino Jersey Gibraltar Nauru and Tuvalu for example, push us down six places but have a combined population slightly less that that of Croydon . The majority above us are City States with only three true countries more claustrophobic (Bangladesh Taiwan and South Korea ) Otherwise there is no country above us as large as London. If , more reasonably you compare us with France they have three and a half times as much space each
So how bad is it ….

1-The population of the world last year was 6.69 billions

2-The countries more densely populated than England total 263 million .

3-Therefore 96% of the world has more space per bod in their country than we do

To what question was ... “ An open door immigration policy” , ..the answer ,I wonder ?