threegee

.... Ed however is playing the jealousy and envy card for all it is worth, banking on the fact that most of his voters are totally clueless about things like non-doms, NHS funding, and a host of other issues. That's why none of the local Labour crowd want to publicly debate any of these things - Labour thrives on prejudice, jealousy, envy, and total ignorance of the issues! As a TU official you must be more clued up than most Tony - so, explain to me exactly what a non-dom is, why Ed is attacking their status, and why any of this would actually help the common man?

Correct link: http://www.northumbria.police.uk/news_and_events/news/details.asp?id=106248

The Tories have just lost their Hull West and Hessle GE candidate to Ukip. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11517900/Conservative-candidate-defects-to-UK-Independence-Party.html I probably forgot to mention that Labour Party Chairperson, Harriet Yeo - who wasn't going to go for political office this time around - is now standing as a Ukip MP in Folkestone. This rather scotches Labour official's claims that she hadn't actually joined Ukip, but had merely expressed support for their European policy.

Not arguing Merc, but I'm sure I read that claim somewhere prominent. Maybe the get-out would be to include the word outright? Anyway, the Beeb reports that the Greek finance minister has just said that Greece intends to meet all its debts, and that sweeping and necessary reforms will be introduced. Suspiciously contrite that! Maybe he's going to place emphasis on the word intends. I must look up the justification Harold Wilson deployed. The "public interest" defence?

So any mention that Miliband was funded through university by wealthy Jewish donors, and there's absolutely no visibility about where his present millions have come from is "pure anti-semitism - nothing more, nothing less"? Well... knock me down with a copy of The Guardian! Excuse me but the link to Bilderbergers was in connection with the EU and crony capitalists... ...and, I never even mentioned that he was a Jew. In fact I had to spend quite a while to find a balanced link to the Bilderbergers, because the Internet is teeming with sites pouring out invective and the very "creating some sort of New World Order" conspiracies you mention. Click on that link and read what it says following "Is Bilderberg a secret conspiracy?". The question about loyalties, and following the money trail, is a perfectly valid one. It's one I've asked about The Telegraph and HSBC recently too, and I'm sure you'd have given me permission to go there. The purpose of the thread was to flag up his hypocrisy of repeatedly attacking hedge funds to uninformed Labour supporters whilst taking lightly laundered hedge fund money to fund his campaign. He was slagging off hedge funds again during the "Leaders Debates" the other night for good measure. So, no, I'm not saying he's involved in wittingly creating your new world order (Semitic, Gentile, or any combo) - I'm simply saying that he's as tainted as the rest of LibLabCon, and already as up to his neck in international crony capitalism as the rest of the establishment politicos. The dumb trade unionists think that they are pulling his strings, but - like PC left-wing debate - the range of possibilities was severely pre-limited to create the illusion of democratic choice. If he gets power he's going to be yet another crushing disappointment to tribal Labour supporters - particularly those who still haven't worked out that the Labour Party they support died in 1995, and what replaced it is essentially no different from new Tory or new LD. The trivial difference in emphasis doesn't matter two beans to ordinary working people; it's working against their own interests, and is once again an illusion of democratic choice. I hesitate to call them turkeys voting for Christmas, but I can't think of anything more succinct.

The world financial system is now a ponzi scheme, but how long can it keep going? I think that there's so much vested interest in it that it will likely last beyond the lifetimes of most people here, but the Euro is a different matter. To borrow from Churchill, I think what we are about to see is not the demise of the Euro but the end of the beginning of the demise of the Euro. You could argue that this might trigger bigger things, and that wouldn't be an unreasonable suggestion, but I think there are now enough stops in place to limit the damage of a Greek default this year. However, there has never been a default on an IMF loan before, so we are into uncharted territory.

The Leaders Debate didn't really tell anybody anything new, except... well, I might just go into that on another thread, but I think I possibly picked something up from David Cameron that the political pundits completely missed. In touting his careful stewardship of the economy he quipped that he'd been careful not to expose us the Greek debt. He was implying that practically all the other EU governments are heavily exposed, and that he fully expected that both Miliband and Clegg would surely have gone there. It could be that he's even had cabinet rows with the LDs about this. But it was a strange thing to offer in a point scoring debate, because Greece has not defaulted, so how could it be relevant to a voting public? Well my guess is this. It's on his mind because he's recently been involved in Treasury meetings that have been planning for a mega default in the Euro and to limit the fallout for the UK. He can't say what he knows, but I think that behind closed doors the European banks are currently in panic mode. They've been so profligate in doling out money to prop up the failing EU that they fear a second global financial meltdown triggered by a Greek default. That the Euro has been so volatile in recent weeks, and losing out to the dollar and Sterling, backs this thought - people in the know have surely been moving vast sums around. If I'm right - and that Dave knows a lot more than he's currently saying, or can say - then we'll all know fairly soon too. Watch this space (and don't be in any hurry to buy those Euros for your holidays)!

What Jewish question would that be Sym? If someone was inserted into public life (particularly someone who is now a millionaire with no visibility as to how that status was achieved) by US Neocon money, and was asking for our nuclear button, I'm sure you'd be asking questions about the "influence" of their paymasters. As quite a few Neocons are Zionists too things must be getting rather tricky for the PC left these days. Is there a PC Leftie Handbook available (from The Guardian bookshop?) to resolve the demonise/worship dilemma? If not then there's your path to certain fame and fortune; get scribbling!

The April fool is anyone who is suckered into believing that Miliband + Balls will be any different to Blair + Brown. Though I'd bet that they will regret putting the two Ed's in a lot lot quicker than they did the last time around. Ed M now has to show a return on the Jewish money that put him through university quite quickly now I'd imagine - it's patient money, but not that patient! Is that money connected back to the Bilderbergers? I've no idea, but you can be sure that the "influence" is. Interesting that politicos are always talking about that nebulous thing called "influence", and that this crops up most frequently in connection with the EU. Concidentalliy I'm just reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11507993/A-toxic-lack-of-trust-is-blighting-Tory-and-Labour-campaigns.html Which concludes with.. . and seems to just about sum it all up.

You can be sure that this is one story you aren't going to read in The Guardian! http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2015/03/20/labours-mystery-600k-donor-martin-taylor-revealed-as-mayfair-hedge-funder/ What it amounts to is that the third biggest contributor to Ed Miliband's election campaign is linked to international capital in the shape of a hedge fund! Yes, one of those "evil" hedge funds that Ed is so keen on demonising. It gets even more interesting: Yesterday (just as I predicted in the Cameron -v- Miliband thread) Miliband dropped the last thin pretence that he'd ever allow a referendum on the EU. He claims that this is because British business would be damaged, but he knows that this isn't the case - the only businesses that would be net disadvantaged by a EU withdrawal are the international crony capitalists who exploit cross border transfer pricing, cheap immigrant labour, and tax havens - particularly those Bilderberg people! Yes, Miliband & Balls ambitions are bought and paid for by international capital, just like Dodgy Dave, Teflon Tony and the whole of the LibLabCon game! They are wedded to international capital and the EU for subtly different reasons, but the best interests of ordinary native Brits feature nowhere! None of them have any intention of stemming the immigration tidal wave. This suits international capital hugely, because it depresses wages to all except the elites, and those the elites wish to buy. It would be interesting to hear what local Labour Party members have to say about this?

No it's not merc. I'm not exactly well at the moment - hopefully fully recovering from the big C - and so I do a little of what I can from afar. That might not always be true, but quite frankly there are some excellent and enlightened people in our town, and I'm not in the slightest bit irreplaceable.

Can't have been X22 bus threatening man? Naa.. he's obviously an Ashington lout.

Calculator now to hand: I think we are going to see a 75%+ turnout this time - hopefully more. But let's say it's only 70% and a 65% split shared between Lab-Con, that's 48.75% and says you are wrong. But, that misses my main point in that people need to know why they are voting which way they are; they should even know why they aren't bothering. "why does an intelligent person have to watch a largely scripted tv debate to get the picture?" because life is full of surprises, and politicos are only "economical with the truth" part of the time. Second hand observation is little better than second hand thinking. Or, to put it more glibly: the script is never the movie!

There's always been a section of the population that's opted out of politics, but it's always a minority. Sorry if I disregarded them. Check the raw data and you'll appreciate that the ONLY significant fall in political engagement occurred after Tony Blair was elected. It's not hard to appreciate why that would be. http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout45.htm But since 1997 people have clearly been becoming increasing more politically engaged. No one has to watch the "debate", but I'd imagine anyone who'd visit this topic is at least curious. My bet is that this topic will be well down on the site's hit list, but that's no reason not to run it, and invite the opinion of those who did. I'm really sorry you find me "smug and superior", but at core that's exactly what I'm not! I believe that everyone has the capacity to change their life for the better, and that there's generally very little difference between our thinking ability. That's a humbling thought that we all need to take on board. However I believe that there are a class of people who step forward to do that thinking for us; that their motives are generally suspect, and that our town has cruelly suffered as a result. I'm generally not talking here about the people who stuck with the place and who's names are sometimes preserved on our place names, or even significant figures in the early Labour party. This is much more a modern phenomena. I don't accept the popular belief that formal "education" is the solution to everything, and a path to universal advancement. And, I don't believe that ability to communicate clearly is in any way indicative of ability to think. Life has taught me that creative and independent thinking is only possible if you turn your own brain on, and that nature rewards INDEPENDENT thinking. Too often formal education is used as an a cypher for indoctrination and conformity. i.e. I'm just an average lazy Joe with a tiny few luck breaks who, through life experience, is urging other average Joe's to stop accepting the spoon feeding of a elitist class who parasitically advances themselves by direct lies and pandering to populist myths. That's a major reason why I don't engage directly in politics myself, but that doesn't mean that I'm opting out - anything but! If this comes over as smugness or a superior attitude to you, then hard cheese! I will continue my crusade to better the lot of everyone in Bedlington until my dying day, and hopefully beyond. I don't expect any kudos, or formal recognition, or indeed want any; I do this simply because I owe it to my hard working, humble, and amazing ancestors, who were also committed to self advancement of all in Bedlington. Thank you for providing the opportunity to formalise my late-in-life mission statement.

Nope, I just want to e-x-t-e-r-m-i-n-a-t-e the LibLabCon.

Well, if there was no interest in the "debates" the broadcasters wouldn't bother either - simples! Something like 65% of the country are still going to vote for either Cameron or Miliband, so an intelligent person would want to try to fathom out why! No one is going to change anything by moaning, or standing in the rain shouting slogans. If they can't get your vote they'd rather you opted out, so essentially simply moaning about the current order is playing their game. They love people like Brand, who diffuse and disperse opposition, but don't threaten their monopoly on power in the slightest. But, get even a few percent of the electorate to wake up to an alternative, and then they're genuinely listening. None of this they'll admit to of course, but it's the reality of the present very closely run situation. In a place like Bedlington, which has been systematically impoverished by being taken for granted for decades, this is particularly relevant.

There's a very good reason why the representative public panel judged Cameron had won the "Leaders Debate" by 5:1 (and other public polls came to similar conclusions) - yet, straight after the event the media decided that overall Miliband had edged it. It's very simple: the media were looking at presentation, nuance, and who faked sincerity better, whilst the public were actually listening to what was said. Cameron was his usual smoothie self, and did what he was always going to do - present himself as a safe pair of hands to complete the recovery. It wasn't impressive, and we know that when his lips move it generally indicates he's lying. He'd obviously not put much time into rehearsing either - such is the job of being PM. On the other hand Miliband was super rehearsed. That didn't prevent two of his answers being genuinely disturbing. Firstly, when a member of the public asked him about the EU, any pretence to democracy went right out of the window. He believes his voters are stupid enough to be fooled by the "if there are any major changes we'll have a referendum" crap, but then practically tells us that he'll never ever allow one whatever. This goes over the heads of the Eurocentric media that's bought and paid for by the EU, but intelligent voters aren't fooled for a nanosecond. Secondly, and even more damning, were Paxo's questions about immigration levels. Ed candidly admits Labour's huge blunder of allowing too many immigrants into the country. He's so sorry, but does he really mean this? So... Paxo asks what's the maximum acceptable population in this small island - 70 million - 80 million - 90 million - 100 million? As each number is progressively called Ed looks like a rabbit frozen in the headlights, but glancing in all directions for an escape route. He adopts a sideways posture; his lips quiver but nothing is heard; this is simply not a fair question! Eventually he recalls a few of the pre-rehearsed avoidance strategies. Unfortunately none of the obvious follow up questions are asked, and he's off the hook. The media mark him for presentation, but the public has seen his true colours - allowing the flood of migrants to continue apace. He's not the remotest bit sorry, and has absolutely no intention of controlling immigration.

LOL! If you can remember it was ITV and not the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. Interesting that many of those politicos got nowhere, and many are even now hard to identify. An ageing Heseltine though is still spouting his Europhile nonsense, with ever less people giving him any credibility. http://www.itv.com/news/2015-02-11/spitting-image-team-reunite-for-spin-off/ I think they can save their money on the Cleggie clone: by the time they launch he'll likely be ancient history.

It's always back! The very occasional non-availabilities are when the IP lease expires, and our software takes a short while to catch up with the newly acquired one. Doesn't occur too often but blame BT. It is going on the "Chat" page in early to mid May, unless there is significant opposition from members. You'll see why. One of the biggest software upgrades we've ever had then. I think you'll like it as the site will be much easier to use for those who presently struggle a bit. Update: We are looking into the possibility of getting a fixed IP assigned to the camera - just for you. No promises quite yet.

British foreign policy in the Middle East is really rather simple... I nicked this from may2015.com but think they nicked it from some other publication. It's credited to Aubrey Bailey, from Fleet in Hampshire. I suspect there's a similar extremely simple explanation of present-day UK foreign policy toward Russia. Anyway, bring back the Cold War when everyone knew where the nuke was due in from, and we all had an approximate idea of who our allies were.

Well, I'd ask third parties to watch the webcam and decide who they agree with here. Hey, the play write Shakespeare didn't even exist, but that never stopped Stratford for one minute! And, it's one building we haven't completely vandalised - yet. I said specialist shopping; there's been brave individual attempts but no synergy has been encouraged. Tesco was trying to compete with like out of Town.

Actually the through traffic is pretty heavy, but there's never been any vision to do anything other than get rid of it at the earliest possible second. Spend a short while watching the webcam of the Market Place, and then mentally add in the top of the town traffic, and also that skirting round past the police HQ. Specialist retail should have been our aim, but individuals that have attempted it simply haven't had the support or encouragement at the civic level. There has never been any vision to capitalise on our past either. We are the actual birthplace of BOTH the railways that span and transformed the entire world, and the guy that kicked off international communications. We also have a world famous name. None of this you'd know because the politics of those historic people didn't suit a socialist mindset. And, many of the people we still mindlessly elect have other towns they consider more politically expedient to favour.. Yes, the political mindset has always been to encourage larger enterprises. Hence we have the empty acres at Cramlington, which were supposed to encourage intermediate industry. It sometimes comes and gives the politicos a photo op; generally it doesn't find the cheap labour it is looking for and turns the place into a warehousing or - after the grants run out - closes down completely. The public money is spent and the expected sustainable jobs don't materialise. Attempts at smaller industrial units generally fall well short of the mark, and are awkwardly zoned and overpriced. I've known a number of people who take these on and spend most of their productive time travelling because the support services they need are so spread out over the region. There's a basic lack of understanding of the needs of small enterprise - how tiny job-creating enterprises used to thrive in the town, and still do in other countries. What we are now about is transferring a welfare dependency culture in the region to one of EU grant dependency. Here the parallels with the Melanesian cargo cult are telling. Big shiny EU plane no come folks - you have to start to think for yourselves!

You really should start thinking for yourself Tony, and not have it all pre-digested for you by your union bosses. The Labour party as you think it still is died 20 years ago (Easter 1995 to be precise). That was Labour's "Clause Four Moment" when all that you still believe in was rejected in a raw bid for power. Yes, I'm quoting from that font of all wisdom Socalism Today! Go read the article - I don't agree with the conclusions or the mad Marxism, but much of it is gospel truth. The problem is, in selling out completely to international capital (much of it in the form of the EU) Teflon Tony has sold out his own country and all traditional Labour supporters to boot. Labour has gone from the frying pan right into the fire - another epic blunder! Miliband isn't a return to traditional values, he's a shill that will be ditched by Blairite Labour at the first opportunity. He's the fairy on the international (Euro) capitalist Christmas tree. Labour has nothing to offer working people but competing with ever grateful immigrants for the lowest paid jobs - and, once again, the North East will be taken for granted and totally ignored whilst they pander to the new cosmopolitan metropolitan class they've set out to create. Paradoxically the party that you mindlessly pan is the only remaining party which holds many of your core beliefs. It's certainly the only one which is at all genuinely interested in the problems of our town and our area. Ukip is interested in what worked well in the past, and blending it with what will work in the future without all the doctrinaire rubbish. Even renationalising the railways is being seriously considered and, if the best option in that case, will be adopted as core policy. Can you imagine Labour even permitting discussion on that matter? Yes, the majority of Ukip members believe in capitalist principals, but in domestic controllable and readily taxable capitalism, not in tax dodging international mega-corporations. Those who switch their industry to the source of the lowest labour cost, and abandon them at the drop of a hat. How can you believe that Labour is any different today from the Labour party you elected in 1997? If anything it's going to take us further down the international capitalist route and trash any traditional values we still hold in common!

Agreed, but it's the way things are done in Dave's brave new world. They are going to sack him later today, and aim to replace him with Chris Evans. Only real question is will the turbo twins follow him out the door? The phone will be ringing right now - Netflix, ITV, Sky? Probably the lot, and more. The title of the new show might incorporate the letter 'V'.