threegee

I think we've picked up one of those too on the homepage! Didn't know we had Guardian writers living locally! It's either "Bedlington" or simply use the definite article journos!

Tony, I don't seem to be able to get this through to you: It doesn't make a scrap of difference if you vote either Labour or Tory, we are in deep doo doo. After the election the cuts will be massive, they simply have to be! This is Gordo's globalisation and it's shaping up really badly. There is no room for either Labour or Tory to manoeuvre. Miliband and Balls can spout all the empty rhetoric they want but their hands are totally tied. Ditto the Tories. They are both trying to buy votes with our own small change, and taking the public for fools. It's all PR and spin; if you vote tribally you buy into that spin. If Miliband gets elected the honeymoon won't last the usual year or two; you'll realise you've been had again by the Westminster elites within a few weeks - whether you vote Labour or Tory! You can't believe a word Labour or Tory or LD say, all they will do if re-elected is to try to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. The Euro area is certainly going to break up, and even though we have been sane enough to stay out of the Euro its failure is going to make things even worse for us. Just about every economy in the world is balanced on a knife edge. On a worldwide scale things have never looked so economically precipitous. Forget all the Labour -v- Tory crap, it's completely irrelevant to what is happening. It's a sideshow put on for fools who don't know what century they are living in. We need to distance ourselves from the EU ASAP. We need to slash the foreign aid budget massively. We need to pull back forces from overseas. And, we need a complete rethink about how this country is run. If we don't act fast the scale of the economic disaster that is going to overtake us will be like nothing you or anyone else has ever seen. It's the 21st century, so leave 20th century politics where it belongs - in the history books.

That's nothing to do directly with the EU Tony. The £12M we've agreed to pay the French towards their policing costs of the channel ports is a drop in the ocean here. This is the EU taking a huge sum of money off us and handing it on to France and Germany for no reason other than their economies are performing poorly. It's is an out-of-the-blue demand for an extra £30 or so for every man, woman and child in this country! It's on top of the £55M we pay to Brussels every day of the year for telling us what to do. Add to this our ridiculous foreign aid budget, the huge sums we pay for doing other nation's policing for them, and we are the biggest soft touch in the world. It's something our politicians have always gone along with because it buys them "influence". We'll, King Influence has no clothes. When we are about to be forced into huge cutbacks in public services it as to stop, and stop quickly. Not on Cameron's time scale with the national debt still soaring, but on the time scale the British public demand. Both Labour and the Tories aren't coming clean with voters. The scale of the cutbacks that have to come soon are truly massive. I will put you a few figures together, but believe me we are still living in a dream world. The current level of government spending is totally unsustainable, and things are rapidly coming to a head now. Malcolm has touched on this many times here, but it's now worse than I ever though possible.

Now that there's new management we are into throw in the kitchen sink territory. So, all the skeletons will quickly be located and trotted out for everyone to tut-tut over. This will make any recovery look a far better bit of magic, and inflate the reputation (and salaries) of the new lot when they move on to their next lucrative "rescue" job. All part of the great merry-go-round that is big business. Mind you it's still a lot more transparent than big government, or - even worse - the legal profession! Normally now would be the time to think about investing in Tesco shares for the recovery, but to anyone who was thinking that way I'd say stop and think again. The 25%'ish margins enjoyed by big food is a thing of the past. Things..... can only get tougher! I've kept the contents of my own piggy bank completely out of retailing for many many years, and haven't regretted this at all. Yet another example of the great British public wising-up, and long may this trend continue.

After being told to go hang when we suggested we wanted to place some sane controls on immigrants fleeing from the failing EU economy, we now have to suffer another outrage. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/526713/EU-demands-1-7bn-from-booming-Britain To add further insult to injury Brussels is going to hand this extra money form our intolerable EU burden straight to a failing France. Penalising success and rewarding failure is stock in trade for the Brussels mandarins. This is about the amount Labour is proposing to raise from their "mansion tax" over a whole year. A tax that will be totally counter productive, because it will cause quite a number of foreign investors to quit the UK, and will itself depress the very property prices it 's intended to leech on. Whatever is wrong with this government it hasn't embarked on a something-for-nothing nonsense of Hollande's bankrupt socialist France, but that's the same economic stupidity that Miliband and Balls is trying to sell to voters. We need out of this sinking political experiment now, and not in five or ten years time. The only sane thing to do is to vote Ukip to achieve this. It may not produce a Ukip government, but Ukip is setting the agenda now, and the Peoples Army has the London liberal elitists on the run. We can easily stand on our own feet in the world and prosper. This isn't being a little Englander or trying to wind the clock back, it's good business and plain common sense. When politicians warn of "losing influence" what they mean is them losing influence, and the prospect of a cushy exit from domestic politics to a gravy-train job in Brussels. Influence doesn't pay the bills. They are pedalling a meaningless concept because they have no real-world arguments to justify their own self-serving views. If we stay in the failing EU - an EU we never agreed to in the first instance - we will sink with it. Any dalliance is going to cost us mighty dearly!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ukip-Calypso/dp/B00OG4HPDQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1414086922&sr=1-1&keywords=ukip+calypso Get your copy before the establishment lean on Amazon to pull it too! The BBC refuse to play it. Your Italian Job one could be great for our Ed. Isn't he the guy that was "entirely comfortable" with immigration less than a fortnight ago? But today he's no longer comfortable: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11182300/Ed-Miliband-promises-immigration-crackdown-within-weeks-of-winning-power.html Amazing how Labour was in total denial of any undermining effect of immigration on lower paid workers just days ago. It's the Ukip U-turn effect, and there's more of them to come from establishment parties, and not just from Labour. I'm now waiting for Cleggy to stand up and say that the EU was the biggest mistake we've every made (and BTW the LDs have been trying to tell us this for years!)

Is this another UKIP song which the "impartial" Beeb will refuse to play?

Well now is the time to press for a hand-back, because they have far bigger things on their minds at the moment, and the incoming executives won't want any more bad PR. This begs the question what our council actually intends to do?

I sent him an email at the HoC several months ago carefully explaining that I was one of his constituents. It took his office a month and a half to send out a standard reply saying that he could only deal with emails from constituents. At that point most people would simply give up; I certainly did!

Does this say something about society then, or about society today? I think your answer might correlate with your age. I'm appalled that Mike Read was heavily and repeatedly leaned on about the quite innocent UKIP Calypso, but politics had much more of a hand in it than sensibilities. Never mind, the PC mob will pay in the polling booths where people can't (yet) be gagged or monitored. I noticed the appalling PC Maria Miller at PM's Question Time yesterday. Seems she's trying for a come back. I suspect that she's the biggest single reason why Cameron won't win the next GE, and likely he quietly suspects the same.

A mosque? http://www.mosque-finder.com/

...or the threshold level will be increased rather a lot. Because, Miliband is starting to realise just how many of his never-a-real-job-in-their-lives socialist buddies (mainly living inside the M25) now own properties worth over £2M. Ruling class turkeys only ever vote for someone else's Christmas.

Had to share this one:

You hit the edit link at the bottom of the appropriate post. If you are in a mess then just leave a note to a moderator on the thread and they will clean everything up for you, MODERATOR: Please delete my first duplicate post. --- sort of thing. ...OR Personal Message (PM) your chosen moderator with the request. Looks like you'll need to upload a profile photo again, it seems to have got trashed.

Yes, but everyone is capable of redemption, and reformed poachers make the best gamekeepers. Personally I'd draw the line at Oxford PPE graduates and old Etonians, but as it is only former EDL, BNP, etc. are barred. Anyway, the BNP seem to be finding a cosy new home in the Labour Party, so no need even to feel sorry for lonely fascists!

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From the Local Government Chronicle:

Well, well, if anyone was in any doubt that Ukip with its (so far) one MP wasn't calling the agenda now, then read up on yesterday's debate and Commons vote: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/11169431/Britain-is-lighting-a-fire-under-the-European-Union-says-Philip-Hammond.html 293 votes to zero and Miliband frozen in the headlights with, on one side europhile Cameron threatening the parliament act if Labour tries to block a referendum using Tony's Cronies in the Lords, and on the other Miliband's own senior MPs telling him he's out-of-touch, undemocratic and wrong, and shouldn't try the Labour blocking stunt a second time. Plus Tory MPs telling Cameron to defy the LDs and just do it anyway. Whatever happened to the excuse that a referendum was impossible because of the coalition agreement? So where are the LD's in all of this? After all we've been told ad infinitum how important the EU is, but it seems Cleggy and the entire LD front bench had more important things to do than to advance their own position. The single LD who attended the debate either didn't vote or voted against core LD policy. You simply couldn't make this up! Together with Carswell pinning Cameron on the MP recall bill earlier, it's looking like something resembling a real democracy is in the offing. If Ukip can achieve this with just one MP, imagine the shake up 100 Ukip MPs would bring! .

The problem is to think about the issues that underly those underlying issues. If you don't do that then you don't appreciate how you are being manipulated. It's a game of chess, and if you don't see at least as many moves in advance as your opponent you are screwed right from the very first move. My guess is that with rising educational standards (though people don't actually have much more knowledge than their parents, and in some cases have lost valuable knowledge) they can at least think one more move in advance, because life is now demanding that. That extra move is what will do for the liberal elites, because they really haven't seen as far as they think they have. What do you mean by extreme? Could that simply mean thinking outside the box (an expression I'd normally cringe at)?

I will have half of Russell Brand and half of Johnny Rotten then, but the opposite halves from the terminally stupid Polly Toynbee. You really have got to get out more than reading Guardian drivel Sym! BTW Johnny hadn't even heard of UKIP until Toynbee advised him they were a party that didn't have a red rosette on the package. He has no idea about policies either way - just a typical dumb tribal Labour voter really.

If you'd suggested that memories could be inherited a short while back you'd have likely have been ridiculed, but it seems there's hard evidence for this now. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10486479/Phobias-may-be-memories-passed-down-in-genes-from-ancestors.html I think a lot of "science" these days is actually pseudo-science, because you can't separate it from politics without really hard evidence. Without that evidence science follows as much of a political agenda as everything else. This becomes especially damning when a group really wants to believe something, and has an emotional or ideological inclination and/or economic incentive to do so. Then emphasising what suits that belief-set and de-emphasising, or trying to explain away, what doesn't suit becomes the name of the game. But that game isn't science as it was previously represented to us; science is simply being used as a cloak. Most politicians aren't bright enough to see this. As a result we get into crazy behaviour like building windmills all over the landscape to provide part-time power, and not getting on with further developing what we know provides reliable power compactly and economically. Is this group-think behaviour much different from the ancients building stone circles and pyramids?

We name this fine vessel Mandleson because the name is now synonymous with: Hidden agendas.The EU Project.The original "spin doctor"."Actively encouraging" immigration. He says he's regretful - but!Elitism and barely concealed contempt for the British public.Belief that we will join the Euro quite soon - but he can't be made to actually say this.Having no visible means of support, yet somehow more wealth by the year."the post-democratic society" (did he coin the term himself?).Belief that if you keep hitting your head on the wall then one day it won't hurt.Membership of several secretive clubs that promote, well.. we plebs aren't allowed to know what.Pulling the levers of power from behind the curtains.When actually in power displays of mind-numbing incompetence.(PC Waiver: At no time were ethnic origins even hinted at! Some of my best friends are..)But... we could have just as easily have called her one of a dozen other appropriate fine names. No matter! She is the flagship of The LEL (The Liberal Elite Line). =================================== Entering a new chapter I have to report that the cracks previously mentioned below the waterline are quite evident now. This has allowed the entry of the first Looney Fruitcake. I know we said it would never happen - even laughed at the absurdity - but everything is under control, and this vessel is totally unsinkable. We'll have him out at the General Election and the hull will be patched as good as new - you have Captain Cameron's cast iron guarantee on this!

OK, so I sort of misunderstood you. You are simply pointing at past performance. I will borrow a few words from present day financial boilerplate text: http://distractionproofadvisor.com/2012/07/past-performance-is-not-an-indicator-of-future-results/.

Wow, just suppose our ancestors - who risked and many who lost their lives for this country - could read that cynicism Malc! It's more than likely that future generations will see it though. To them I'd like to say that I don't think it represents the majority of British people at this time, and certainly not me. Is the EU a plot to get by stealth what couldn't (twice) be got by military domination? The answer to that all depends on how you define plot. There's no Bond style cat-stroking villain plotting world domination, and the German bankers aren't saying to themselves which country do we subjugate next. Nor, like many people on the left actually believe to be the case, do I attribute evil intentions to Bilderberg, though the EU links are undeniably there and quite strong. What's there is much more subtle, as likely Maggie detects. It's the expansionism that is in Germanic genes, combined with unenlightened self-interest, further combined with learning the wrong lessons from two world wars. I suspect a couple of other influences too but won't go into those at this time. Whatever, it's no less dangerous for being multi-layered, and not wilful militaristic domination. The Ukraine problem is just a tiny foretaste of what is to come. That, I do believe - and there's lots of evidence out there - was deliberately stoked up by Western influences. By the time the European superstate starts building a military force it's going to be far too late for British, Winston Smith! We must distance ourselves from all this, hold on to what military capability we still have, and not break our ties with the USA. We also need to try to undo some of the damage politicos have done to our links with the Commonwealth; not in order to try to wind the clock back though, but in order to fulfil the original intention; it's in the name! If we can turn the EU back into the Common Market then so much the better, but I don't hold out much hope of that, and we'd be daft to pin anything but the most tenuous hope on meaningful reform. Cameron is the last person we should trust to even attempt this - well no, the other two dummies would be even worse!

...except between those dates there were no elections in Germany. The last one was 1938 - I forget who "won"! It's interesting how people will except huge compromises in some things yet stubbornly dig their heels in on relatively minor matters. The EU is not perfect - bit of an understatement there then? Our membership is based on a lie - we were all told it was an economic union but there would be absolutely no loss of national sovereignty. Since then - and despite more promises to the contrary (Lisbon Treaty etc.) - we've been given no say by the elites who control our country's affairs. All we've seen is creeping federalism. The standard answer is that you get to choose which party policy you support; that's "representative" democracy. Well... it might be democracy but it's not representative of me, and according to opinion surveys it's not representative of the bulk of UK citizens. Hobson's choice is no choice! If the Tory/Labour/LibDem elites thought they could get their way we'd have a referendum on this failing political experiment in a matter of weeks, but there's always a lame excuse. Remember Cameron's "cast iron guarantee" of one? Support for ANY party that consistently won't give the electorate a choice on their own sovereignty is more than bloomin compromise - it's meekly accepting that we don't have a democracy at all, and acceptance of class dictatorship. Our country has been stolen from under our very noses - in more than one way too. We want it back, and by golly we are going to get it back! One of the first things Carswell is doing is helping a former colleague to reintroduce his right-of-recall bill to allow electors to remove MPs they loose faith in. That's a very good start towards something resembling TB's popular democracy.