GORDON BROWN’S POLITICAL HEALTH AND RECOVERY POSITION
Posted by Caledonian Jim in Daily Posts
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured above, the forced grin as unconvincing and nauseating as ever despite the fact he’s just been told to pay back £12,000 he overclaimed in expenses and ongoing doubts about his health) has suggested that opposition Conservative party policies could plunge Britain into a Japanese-style recession lasting for a decade. In a speech in which he confirmed “asset sales” worth £16 billion (a.k.a. selling off what little is left of the nation’s family silver) , the PM claimed that Conservative plans for drastic public spending cuts would stop the economy growing – and that growth was a key part of his strategy to bring the deficit under control. Brown said that the government would be publishing a new “growth strategy” later this year, at the time of the pre-budget report. And he contrasted his approach with that favoured by the Conservatives who, he suggested, were advocating policies that would “end the recovery and tip the British economy back into recession”. Which begs the question please Gordon – WHAT recovery ?
Here we go again with crazy proposals for climate change taxation. In the UK motorists should pay higher taxes in the form of a national road-pricing system to cut CO2 emissions (above), according to the Government’s climate change advisory body. And the speed limit on all motorways should be strictly enforced and may have to be reduced to 60 m.p.h. to help to meet the Government’s legally binding carbon reduction targets. The Commitee on Climate Change (CCC), which devised the targets and advises the Government on how to meet them, says that a “step change” is needed in emissions reduction. In its first annual report to Parliament , the committee says that emissions cuts since 2003 have been “far slower than now required to meet (carbon) budget commitments”. Emissions fell by an average of 0.5% in each of the 5 years to 2008. The committee says that emissions cuts of 2-3% a year are needed every year from now until 2050 to meet the targets.
The CCC’s most controversial recommendation is that the Government should consider imposing road pricing as an additional tax on motorists. What a great idea in the middle of a recession – raise taxes, raise inflation and bump up factory prices whilst reducing corporate competitiveness and employment opportunities. Is this committee living in the real world? Ministers had previously proposed a revenue-neutral road-pricing system, with the sum raised in per-mile charges offset by reductions in fuel duty. The Government abandoned this idea 2 years ago after 1.8 million drivers signed a petition opposing road pricing on the Downing Street website. Well it looks like we’re all going to have to sign a new petition to stop this latest nonsense too. And while we’re at it, we should have another petition to scrap this committee of eco-fascist dreamers who if they have their way will tax us back to the medieval horse and cart – while they still fly first class around the world going to junkets and futile conferences and drive around in ministerial gas guzzlers, of course.
Amother in our occasional series : medieval religious nonsense. A dead Roman Catholic priest whose work in a previous century with leprosy patients been likened to the efforts of those battling the stigma of AIDS has been elevated to sainthood. Former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI has honoured 19th-century Belgium-born Jozef De Veuster, also known as Father Damien (pictured above), along with 4 other deceased Roman Catholics. Father Damien died from leprosy in 1889 after contracting the disease while working with ostracised patients living on Molokai island, Hawaii. No doubt he’ll be very happy to receive the posthumous honour. What puerile rubbish – and what a bloody cheek the Roman Catholic church has got, likening this bloke’s work to AIDS relief today, when the Vatican is perhaps the greatest cause of the spread of AIDS because of its bigotted ban on contraception – and the sexual exploits of its paedophile priests.
And more parliamentary nonsense. This time it’s that epitome of banal incompetence, even by the inept standards of New Labour, former UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith (pictured above), who has escaped with just a slap on the wrist despite the House of Commons sleaze watchdog deciding that she DID break the rules by designating her sister’s house as her main home. The set-up meant that Ms Smith was able to claim £116,000 in “second home expenses” on her family house in Redditch where her husband and children live. After a 6 month probe, the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said yesterday that she had “clearly breached the regulations” and ordered her to apologise to the House of Commons. But in a move that will anger the public, who are already incensed over the wider MPs’ expenses row, she was not ordered to pay back a penny. It was also decided there was no need for any further action over her claim for 2 porn films watched by her husband. The committee said Ms Smith had already acknowledged the claim for the films was unallowable, had apologised and returned the money. Oh well that’s all right then – after all, she only fiddled £116,000 of taxpayer’s money. What does it take to get an MP referred to the Fraud Squad or the police ? Murder with larceny ?
The devolution of policing in Northern Ireland is the best way to beat dissidents looking to wreck the peace process, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (above centre) has told Ulster’s political leaders. After a meeting in Belfast’s Stormont Castle with the region’s First Minister Peter Robinson (above left) and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (above right), Mrs Clinton hailed the progress already made in the last 15 years with the Northern Ireland “peace process” as a model for reconciliation around the world. And speaking at Stormont yesterday she pledged to do all she could to support Northern Ireland’s political leaders as they continued their journey towards a more peaceful future. Doubtless that peaceful future will have been helped by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) announcing yesterday that it was renouncing violence. What wasn’t reported was the rumoured £7 million bribe paid by the UK government to the INLA in return. A Peace Process or an Appeasement Process ? You pays your money and you takes your chances.
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