Political Economy

The Conservative, Labour and Liberal-Democrats do not want to give the people of England their own Parliament. The reasons they give are varied. Some, such as Straw and Prescott are quite happy to insult the English cultural identity and care not that this is a deeply racist action, under the Race Relations Act, and also offensive, confident that their position will give them protection.

Some of them mutter on about England being 80% of the population of the UK and therefore do not need a separate parliament. This argument is either based on an ignorance of Pareto’s principle or an attempt to manipulate people by misquoting it (see my blog at http://www.politicaleconomy.me.uk/2010/01/only-english-mps-voting-on-english-matters/).

None of them mention democracy. liberty, equity, dignity, rights, fairness, self-determination, birth-right, entitlement. All words one would expect a serious and committed parliamentarian to use with respect to this issue. But notice how in this election campaign they have promised “fairness for all” in order to get your vote! How dishonest can they be?

You will, therefore, probably not be surprised that the real reason why they do not want a parliament for England is quite different from the one they give, and infinitely grubbier. Yes, it concerns money, lots of your money and my money, in fact £2,000,000 of our money. Money that they do not deserve, money that they are happy to scam off you and I, just as they did with their expenses

They are trying to kid us that they have cleaned up the financial systems in Parliament, that they are squeaky clean, that it will never happen again. What is “it”? Quite simply “it” is the same greed that made them unable to tell when a rule is immoral, dishonest, or unethical. Remember that MPs caught out ‘flipping’ their houses to make untaxed capital gains off the taxpayer, or claiming repairs to their boyfriend’s house? All said “We were only following the rules” (see my blog at http://www.politicaleconomy.me.uk/2009/10/how-the-rich-and-powerful-scam-the-rules-for-their-own-benefit/ .

Well here is another big, fat, round £2,000,000 rule they are quite happy to follow even though in doing so they are taking money they have not earned, money that comes from me and you, money that they should not be getting. Not that is if they were men and women of integrity.

Many of the plum jobs as Secretary of State or Minister in the Westminster cabinet are for devolved matters. That is those that matters such as Education, Health, Justice and Transport to name a few. These matters have been devolved to national parliaments or assemblies either in part or whole. Westminster Secretaries of State basically administer only England in these matters. They should get paid the same as their equivalent in the Scottish Parliament. In the case of a secretary of state this is £44,000 less, of a minister £24,000 less if they were in an English Parliament (they would also get £7,000 less for their salary). There are around 70 of these plum jobs to be handed out after the 6th May adding up to excess pay of around £2,000,000.

Now you get “it”, the real reason why they do not want an English Parliament. Men of Honour? I do not think they know the meaning of the phrase.

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Over the past few weeks I, and on occasions my fellow canvassers, have walked a fair number of Stevenage Streets. I have knocked on many hundreds of doors and spoken to  several hundred people.

One story in particular kept coming back, from a number of angles such as council house tenants, construction industry workers and others.

One lady for example was pleased to hear her council house was to be decorated. She was less happy when the workers came to do the job. Not only were they unskilled, but they were messy, never spoke to her in English but spoke only in their own language and left a load of shoddy workmanship.

One son of an incapacitated mother told how he had had to throw the workers out telling them to leave the paint behind and he would do the painting, so concerned was he for their shoddy workmanship and attitudes.

Another, a black immigrant of long standing, told of poor quality of work, falsification of measurements on gas pipe work and thievery of personal tools on sites.

In all cases the same group of immigrants were identified as being behind the problems. I cannot believe that the government, employers, the council or the police and the unions are not aware of this, however much they may claim otherwise.

It is quite clear that the Labour government’s immigration strategy has been aimed at driving down the wages of workers, creating a large pool of unemployed who are forced onto benefits by reducing the job opportunities available to local workers. It is also clear that the Council, a Labour Council, has bought into this strategy in a big way.

Forty-five years aga I was an industrial civil servant, an apprentice in a Ministry of Defence explosives factory. When I think back to the trade unionists I knew then I can think of not one that would have put up with what is happening today. That is why I am incandescent. Not one of the people, all of whom receive big salaries, in the institutions that once did, but now only brag about being for the working man, has the courage to do their job. Not parliament, filled as it is was with sleaze riden crooks, not the Labour party or the unions pimped up as they are on fat salaries and expenses which they do not deserve and not the labour controlled Councils.

That is why I am incandescent. A lazy, bigoted, over-paid establishment with little or no integrity has turned out to be just a  facade, “a big girls blouse” if you will that has failed to do its job of protecting its citizens and with that done England real harm.

If you want out of this vote English Democrat.

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Well it would have to be since I am a teacher. I have taught for 20 years. I feel worried for the system I have been part of for all these years.I have seen what various administrations have tried to impose on education. I have seen the imposition of the National Curriculum. On the whole a good thing as it determined what should be taught. Good schools did it already. The only regret here is that it stopped with core subjects. Testing was needed to get the standards going in the right direction. But we should have prepared teachers and schools for picking it up and used resources available to develop this assessment. A missed opportunity in my view.

Many talk of initiative overload and to be fair they have a point. It is not so much the initiatives; it is that they are not joined up. On their own they seem like a good thing but they seem to exist in a single issue kind of world. Each one vying for time and favour independently. No wonder staff get confused.

Targets on the whole are a good thing. However what no one knew was that politicians and other mandarins did not understand that targets are what you aim for, they are aspirational. There is no recognition that if the targets are good and challenging enough then sometimes they will not be achieved. As a school you always need to meet your targets. Failure is bad. So a game is played. If the outcomes meet whatever the current criteria is then all is well. Forget the children.

Circumstances in school have changed over the past 20 years. I teach in a large comprehensive in a ‘inner city’ type environment. The nature of the students have changed. Families have changed in their composition. Children’s status in the family has changed. Parenting skills are lacking in many cases. Children are often lacking in emotional skills. We are however at least beginning to recognise that we need to support families if we are to support children better. We work with outside agencies to support the child. The Every Child Matters agenda is probably the best thing that has come out of the system in a long while. If all our efforts are child centred we will at last be able to educate children to be able to take part in the world of work.

However we are in transition between these two world views and this makes for difficulties. It takes time to change the traditional views of teachers, parents and the media. Authority in school is earned. (Just the same as it is in society) The safety in challenging unfairness is taken for granted. Everyone knows their rights. Teachers can no longer say ‘because I say so’ and hope to remain unchallenged. The family changes mean that children do not see their parents or other adults as remote beings. We need to re-think our ways of dealing with students who fall foul of the system in school. We need to understand that creating folk heroes (for bad behaviour) does not serve any one well. We are not in the punishment business but in the education business. Creating tomorrow’s future has always been what we are or should be about.

I am still excited about education and I can see what the future vision is about. I am worried that the current financial problems will put all this on hold for a long time. We will revert to a two tier system: those who can afford private/independent education will succeed; those who have to take a state route will face the luck of the draw with their school. All children deserve the best education we can give them. It is all our futures! I am desperately hoping that we will be able to support all that is good and not falter now.

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Standing behind a pasting table draped in the English flag and carrying English Democrats election material is an interesting experience. Even if the location is draughty and there is no sun.
Nature, being the perverse entity she is, ensures that when you are walking the streets it is sunny, hot and windless!
It is at times like this that you need cheering up. And the people of Stevenage have never failed to come up trumps.
During a very hot afternoon this week I was delighted to be invited in for a cup of tea. Thank you Edward.
My election address was delivered this week and today, Friday, a number of people stopped by the stand and said how much sense it made. One even said they had voted for me on their postal vote!
So a big thank you to the people of Stevenage. I hope you give me the opportunity to return the favour!
Posted from my Palm Pre using the ‘Poster’ application.

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I received the following email message from Frank Roseman, the English Democrats prospective parliamentary candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster (http://www.voteenglish.org/london-candidates/). Interestingly it looks as though Gordon is a snob, always toadying up to the wealthy.

“Just a few interesting facts about Gordon Brown

1 – We used to have 6 independent regulators to regulate the different
divisions of the financial services industry, including our Banks.

(Margaret Thatcher knew what the Banks were like and in the 1988
Finance Act she bound the Banks up in regulation to prevent them from
being reckless!!!)

Then Gordon Brown became Chancellor on 6th May 1997

Gordon’s banker friends said “We want all these regulators to go. We
don’t want regulators watching everything we do”

AND GORDON SAID OK

So, Gordon announced on the 20th May 1997 (2 weeks after becoming
Chancellor) that the six regulatory bodies would be broken up and a
new Financial Services Authority would replace them. The FSA had
virtually no powers over the Banks and he also took away the powers
from the Bank of England to enforce regulation on them.

The result is the devastation we are all suffering today.

————————————–

2 – We used to have a Monopolies and Mergers Commission

Then Gordon’s banker friends said we don’t want the Monopolies and
Mergers commission telling us who we can and cant “Take Over”

AND GORDON SAID OK

So, in 1998 Gordon scrapped the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and
created a replacement called the Competition Commission, with very
much reduced powers and different ideas of what used to be regarded
as a “Monopoly”.

The result is the Massive Corporations we have today who are ruling
and shaping our lives for their own benefit and profits. Not to
mention the massive Monopolies held by some of these corporations
through the forced purchases of all their competitors

————————————-

3 – We used to have pension regulations, which for many decades had
included something called “The Pensions Cap”

The pensions cap set a limit on how much pension any scheme member
(including directors) could get from an occupational pension scheme,
irrespective of how high their earnings were. It was there to protect
the ordinary members pensions, and to prevent Directors paying
themselves obscene salaries and then draining the pension funds with
huge pensions.

Then Gordon Brown’s banker friends said that they wanted the pensions
cap removing so that they could get pensions related to their obscene
earnings.

(The whole Pensions industry gave him warnings of the effects it would
have. Even the Inland revenue put forward objections)

BUT GORDON SAID OK

Because Gordon never likes to disappoint his banker friends

So Gordon took away the Pensions Cap in 2005 and then some of his
friends were able to leave their boardroom positions with huge
pensions!!!

For example Fred Goodwin [ex CEO of RBS] was apparently entitled to a
pension of over £700,000

If Gordon had left the pensions cap in place that would have been a
mere £125,000

Well done Fred and your mates!!!

(The Superannuations Division of the Inland Revenue have kept a record
of what it should be, in readiness for when we get a new chancellor
who sees fit to re-instate it. George Osborn has pledged to do that).
The record of Pensions Cap limits are available to view on the
Revenue’s website

The result of this is that along with Gordon’s “Tax Raid” on pension
funds starting July 1997, over four thousand UK company pension
scheme’s have closed their doors to new members and many of them have
had to close down altogether, leaving millions of workers without any
pension provision.

This man Gordon Brown “professes to be a socialist and “for” the working man

The working man’s main form of long term financial security had for
many years been his company pension scheme, something to look forward
to at the end of a life of hard work, his reward, light at the end of
a long dark tunnel.

Gordon has put an end to that by destroying the most valuable asset of
the average British worker.

*****************************

IT IS ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAVESTIES OF JUSTICE THAT THIS MAN WHO
PRETENDS TO BE “FOR THE WORKING MAN” HAS IN FACT BEEN HIS WORST ENEMY
FOR THE LAST THIRTEEN YEARS AND WILL LEAVE A LEGACY THAT WE WILL STILL
BE CLEARING UP FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.

THE REAL INJUSTICE IS THAT ITS ALL BEEN DONE IN AREAS WHICH ARE
TOTALLY OUT OF SIGHT TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND BEYOND THE
UNDERSTANDING MANY

GORDON RELIES ENTIRELY ON PEOPLES IGNORANCE TO GET AWAY WITH HIS INDISCRETIONS

GORDON’S MOTTO OF: “DENY EVERYTHING AND ADMIT NOTHING”

SEEMS TO BE WORKING QUITE WELL FOR HIM SO FAR!!!

—————————————-

4 – LASTLY, WHAT GORDON LIKES TO CALL THE “GLOBAL BANKING CRISIS”

Have you noticed that we were the first to be in it and are the last
to be out (and whether we are out is very speculative!!!)

As he has openly admitted, The Royal Bank of Scotland was the worlds
biggest bank.

So when RBS and HBOS were about to go BUST in October 2008 and they
had to be bailed out overnight so they did not take the entire country
down with them, (that by the way was almost certainly a decision made
by the hierarchy in Whitehall for which

Gordon loves to take the credit)

As the worlds leading banks now all lend money to each other on a
collosal scale, isn’t it obvious that the worlds biggest bank going
down would have a devastating effect on all the others it dealt with.

This “worlds biggest bank” had also sold bad mortgage books to other banks.

Most of the Banks in Europe which ran into crisis were dragged into it
because of the crooked dealings of our big Banks. A fact that both
Germany and France were quick to remind Gordon Brown of at the G20
emergency meeting shortly after the crisis.

There are many other of Gordon’s indiscretions, far too many to list
here, but perhaps the few biggie’s shown above will give some insight
into how Gordon operates.

By the way have you noticed how he has suddenly become interested in
Social issues now an election is looming and seems to be able to
promise the world when, as Alistair Darling put it a few days ago,
there is not a penny left in the bank!!!

Think very carefully before casting your vote for this man who is
probably the most extreme capitalist of the past century while
pretending to be
“for the working man”.

GORDON WORSHIPS THE SUPER RICH AND POWERFUL AND CANNOT SAY NO TO THEM

Please pass this on to all you can, the whole population should know
these few facts before the election.”

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I currently find myself, somewhat late in life, a prospective parliamentary candidate in the Stevenage, Hertfordshire constituency for  the election on the 6th May 2010 for the English Democrats Party (EDP). The EDP are an English party that occupies broadly the same political position in England as the Scottish Nationalist Party in Scotland or Plaid Cymru in Wales.

Being part of a small, fairly new party, the EDP are eight years old, means that you have to do pretty much everything yourself. As a result my wife I found ourselves a week ago on Sunday, with the EDP candidate for Broxbourne, at a car boot sale to raise funds for our campaign. We were onsite and fully decked-out with four England car window flags fluttering in the wind, election posters on the car and our table covered in a large England flag.

The car boot sale proceeded as car boot sales proceed with one exception. We were amazed at the number of  people who came up to us and told us how brave we were to do what we were doing! I was shocked. The individuals all spoke in low voices and were clearly afraid to speak up. How could this be? We were in England flying the flag of England. What could be more normal? And yet to these people, we were doing something dangerous, something that required fearlessness and courage, something that made a forbidden statement, that broke the law, that was somehow illegal, in England!

“There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND.” said Winston Churchill, himself, by birth, half English and half American. Being English you see is not a matter of genes or skin colour. It is a matter of the heart. Say those words again but this time imagine a stream of people coming up to you and whispering how brave you are into your ear. If you are not beginning to be afraid then you have not understood what is happening.

Five days later I was on my own manning a stall in the Town Centre of Stevenage. Once again the table was dressed with bunting and posters. No one came up to say how brave I was. Instead three foreigners, two Irishmen and a Spaniard came and all indepe

ndently said much the same thing. “Its about time this is happening, good for you”. “The English allow themselves to be pushed aside too often. Well done for what you are doing”. “This is a good day for England. You English suffer from a totally make-believe guilt. Why, I do not know. What you are doing is good”. Notice that they were foreigners. They had no problem being upfront about telling the truth as they saw it. And most importantly no one could blame them for it. They had no reason to be afraid to raise their voices.

Whilst at the University of Chicago in the late 60s studying for an MBA at the business school  I took time out to attend two course in political science given by Professor Hans Morgenthau. Morgenthau was a remarkable teacher. A German Jew who left Europe before the second world war he was a charismatic man whose lectures attracted huge numbers. Given in the largest lecture hall of the time, at the university, you had to get there early if you wanted even a space to stand let alone sit. Applying Morgenthau’s analysis to England to-day the result is clear. We have real problems in our democracy, a major group not only feel but are disenfranchised, violence is existential. It will take just a match to light the powder keg.

Sounds overly dramatic? Think again. A major group do feel frightened and disenfranchised. It is not only I who have noticed it but three different people from elsewhere have as well. The effect is not imagined. What is more, it is happening as a direct consequence of government policy. This is not a mistake. It is real and it is being done on purpose as a piece of viciousness that is difficult to believe. The analysis is valid and credible. I say credible because for a thousand years the only way the English have been able to protect their freedom from the ruling classes has been by violence. And this is not something that happened a long time ago. Only in the last century the women suffragettes, at the start, and the poll tax protestors at the end, had to fight for their freedoms. So it will happen, again.

The people responsible for allowing this state of affairs to happen are, without any doubt, those who have held seats as Members of Parliament (MP)  for English constituencies. Not Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish MPs, but English MPs. It was their job to make sure this didn’t happen. Why did they not do their job to protect democracy? We now know the reason. Those very few who did stand up for their principles were beaten down and overlooked for important positions. More profitable instead for MPs to ripp-off the taxpayer with their expense claims without, apparently, the integrity to know that it was wrong. Many have claimed that they were merely following the rules, forgetting perhaps that by blindly doing so they were showing themselves open to being corrupted by anyone who chose to create a bribery machine that had ‘rules’. They also showed they were not up to the job. They failed, without apparently even knowing they were being tested. They were totally unsuited to the task, lacking the morale fibre, the power of independent thought and backbone needed by someone in their position.

So I say Shame! Shame on you Mother of Parliaments! Shame!. Bow your head in Shame! I live for the day when you will bow your  knee to the People of England! And by the Grace of God, and the votes of the people of England I will see that day!

As the English Democrats say “Isn’t it Time to Put England First”. Yes it is and a vote for the EDP will do that. So vote English Democrat and if you do not have an EDP candidate standing in your constituency vote for a party that is a member of the “Alliance for Democracy” – there are over 260 Alliance candidates, enough to be the largest party in parliament. If enough of us are voted in to Parliament we may even be able to head off the gathering storm! But that is the view of an optimist. Hans Morgenthau was a realist, his life taught him that!

If you want to know more, and especially if you would like to make a donation go to www.hertsengdem.org. In the mean time as you vote say, to yourself or outloud, the EDP mantra: “Not Left, Not Right, Not Black, Not White, Just English!”

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