politics

Oh dear, this old fairy tale again. It is the tale of the British people, whose courage during the Blitz forced Hitler to call off the invasion of England Britain (thanks, we know the US has long tried to destroy our union, pack it in). Hitler never intended to invade Britain, nor did he want a war with Britain. Britain turned down many offers of peace from 1939 till 1941. Heck even as late as 1943 when Churchill was asked by a reporter while going to meet Roosevelt in Quebec if they had considered offering peace terms with Germany he replied "...

So Dr Starkey has found himself in a spot of bother over his remarks he made on Question Time last night. Basically when asked if he supported having a public holiday for Saint George's day: "If we decide to go down this route of having an English national day, that means we become a feeble little country, just like the Scots and the Welsh and the Irish." and "We don't make a great fuss about Shakespeare like the Scots do about that deeply boring provincial poet Burns"...

So the government's plans to sell off about 30% of Royal Mail are again getting attention.  Most of the newspaper world are of course siding with the government on this. The Sun says that this "shambolic" operation should of been sold off long ago.  I say The Sun newspaper should of been thrown in the bin ages ago, and Rupert Murdoch sent down into our underground sugar caves. I'd also suggest that this would be a good time to try and push your Sun-reading friends over to better newspapers....

Today I informed the General Committee of the Yeovil Labour Party that I would likely be moving outside of the Yeovil constituency to Guildford once Catherine finishes university later this year. As I do not think it would be practical for me to fight an election with a two and a half hour train journey in the way I decided to step down so the constituency could select somebody else to carry on....

So Darling in his pre-budget report announced that VAT (sales tax for those non-UK readers) will be cut from 17.5% to 15% from the 1st of December. Good. We'll see if in a few weeks time I'll have people asking if all our £39.99 products are now £39.14 or there abouts. I'm sure a lot of retailers will be keen to soak up the decrease, especially as it so small and easy to hide....

The Times reported yesterday that Margaret Beckett is considering proposals similar to what the Chartered Institute of Housing came up with last month. I hope her considerations involved quickly moving the proposals from her desk to the bin. Booting people out of their homes because their "circumstances have improved", be they a slightly better paying job or their kids moving out is unacceptable, and so is offering them friendly advice on cheap home ownership or private renting with a wink and nudge, and then threatening them with higher rents or booting them out which is what these proposals basically call for....

Not everything is going well on the political scene in the United States, three states, Florida, Arizona and California banned gay marriage, this brings the total number of states to 40, although some still allow civil partnerships. From the NYT: "It was a great victory," said the Rev. James Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego County and a leader of the campaign to pass the California measure, Proposition 8....

The following article is from the October issue of the Yeovil CLP newsletter, due to how rapidly the situation is developing I've decided to publish it here too. The current situation we see in the financial system is no accident. For years we were told that the invisible hand of the free market will sort out the difficulties that market economies face. We see short term profits and bonuses put before long term stability as a result....

Look for an extra £60 in September, and another £10 a month for the next six months in your take home pay. This is part of the chancellor's plans to help those that lost out under the abolition of the 10p rate, but it won't only benefit them. It will help another 15 million or so other people, including ones who benefited when the basic rate was lowered from 22p to 20p....

The BBC asks. The answer is yes. It also needs to reassess its ties with the United States. One American reader on the BBC websites writes: The contempt and dislike for America by Europeans continues to amaze me. So go right ahead and give Russia what it wants. First, S Ossetia and Abkhazia, then the Crimea. The population of the Crimea is mosty Russian, and if they were to demonstrate their desire to rejoin Russia, then they should have our support....