Telegraph
"The litany of failure began with his attempt to pass a modest gun control bill in the wake of the Newtown massacre. The vast majority of Americans were favourable (if probably uninterested), the media backed it and – in the aftermath of that bloody horror – it seemed inevitable. Yet the President couldn't garner the votes. The problem wasn't just the Republicans being mean or the NRA being surprisingly smart, it was that Obama's 2012 victory had come at a price. He'd so slandered, slammed and irritated his opponents that they refused to work with him. And so the lame duck presidency became a dead duck. .....Syria. Presidents rarely have trouble sending Americans to war. There's a
tradition that it's the executive's prerogative and Congress usually
defers to the hawks. But on this occasion Obama first said he'd go to
the Congress, then declined even to do that, then allowed all talk of
war to slide into silence. Again, his nervousness about seeking approval
wasn't just down to Republican partisanship (on this occasion, the GOP
establishment queued up to back him). It was because Obama had weakened
the case for war through incompetence. ........Finally, there was Obamacare. This
was the most important screw-up of all because it related to the
biggest proposal of the first term: universal healthcare coverage.
It was promised that people could keep their old insurance plans, that
costs would fall, that the system would be easy to navigate. On the
contrary, millions risked higher premiums and losing their old plans.
And the website – the basic nuts and bolts of the operation – functioned
less professionally than a 13-year old's tumblr of cute looking cats.
To be fair, many of these problems have been addressed. But the damage
is done. Obamacare looks overambitious and poorly conceived. ..........But rarely has a presidency been so damned by its own president. He has
alienated much of the Congress, run a foreign policy based upon a
conscious rejection of world leadership, spent too much, expanded the
welfare state, and failed to ensure that his administration is at least
functional."
Tuesday, 31 December 2013
Saturday, 23 November 2013
A million of our young out of work, dictatorship by Brussels and why Mr Cameron can no longer ignore the people on immigration
Daily Mail
"In less than six weeks, unless there is a decisive Government U-turn, Britain, as required by the European Union, will throw open its jobs market to the 29 million citizens of Romania and Bulgaria. It’s a development which could have the most considerable implications for the Prime Minister, British society and, most importantly, this country’s one million unemployed young people. Yet David Cameron and his ministers are approaching January 1 with a head-in-the-sand insouciance which is so sadly typical of a political class that is increasingly remote from the lives and concerns of ordinary voters. Incredibly, the Government has refused to estimate how many migrants will arrive. .......Salford University research reveals Britain already has one of the largest Roma populations (which includes migrants from Romania and Bulgaria) in Western Europe — with about 200,000 living here. That figure, typically, is four times higher than the Government’s own estimates. Worryingly, MigrationWatch UK chairman Sir Andrew Green, whose research has proved painstakingly accurate over the past decade, is predicting 50,000 arrivals every year from Romania and Bulgaria from January 1. Over five years, that is the equivalent of the population of a city the size of Hull."
"In less than six weeks, unless there is a decisive Government U-turn, Britain, as required by the European Union, will throw open its jobs market to the 29 million citizens of Romania and Bulgaria. It’s a development which could have the most considerable implications for the Prime Minister, British society and, most importantly, this country’s one million unemployed young people. Yet David Cameron and his ministers are approaching January 1 with a head-in-the-sand insouciance which is so sadly typical of a political class that is increasingly remote from the lives and concerns of ordinary voters. Incredibly, the Government has refused to estimate how many migrants will arrive. .......Salford University research reveals Britain already has one of the largest Roma populations (which includes migrants from Romania and Bulgaria) in Western Europe — with about 200,000 living here. That figure, typically, is four times higher than the Government’s own estimates. Worryingly, MigrationWatch UK chairman Sir Andrew Green, whose research has proved painstakingly accurate over the past decade, is predicting 50,000 arrivals every year from Romania and Bulgaria from January 1. Over five years, that is the equivalent of the population of a city the size of Hull."
The death of Microsoft
Zdnet
"Operating systems are commodities that are free or almost free - like device drivers are today. Say goodbye to Windows revenue. Servers and tools will become more important as apps, computes and storage move to the cloud - public or private - to enable powerful mobile user capabilities. But MS has to move cross-platform or lock themselves out of the fast growing Linux server space. MS isn't going to win the ad battle against Google. Stop trying. Office will be the 8-track tape of business apps in 10 years. Few people need what it does - file compatibility is the sales driver, not features - and as Google Docs and other apps proliferate at much lower cost, more people will leave."
"Operating systems are commodities that are free or almost free - like device drivers are today. Say goodbye to Windows revenue. Servers and tools will become more important as apps, computes and storage move to the cloud - public or private - to enable powerful mobile user capabilities. But MS has to move cross-platform or lock themselves out of the fast growing Linux server space. MS isn't going to win the ad battle against Google. Stop trying. Office will be the 8-track tape of business apps in 10 years. Few people need what it does - file compatibility is the sales driver, not features - and as Google Docs and other apps proliferate at much lower cost, more people will leave."
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Here's the evidence that QE has harmed the UK economy
Telegraph
"Bit late on this, but a report this week by the management consultancy McKinsey has attempted to quantify the distributional consequences of central bank asset purchases (so-called quantitative easing) which I referred to in my column this morning. Pretty terrifying reading it makes too, hammering home the point that QE has been extremely beneficial to indebted governments and other borrowers, but on the whole very damaging to households, particularly elderly ones reliant on fixed income forms of saving. ........QE has resulted in a massive transfer of wealth from households the governments. And they say central banks are meant to be independent."
"Bit late on this, but a report this week by the management consultancy McKinsey has attempted to quantify the distributional consequences of central bank asset purchases (so-called quantitative easing) which I referred to in my column this morning. Pretty terrifying reading it makes too, hammering home the point that QE has been extremely beneficial to indebted governments and other borrowers, but on the whole very damaging to households, particularly elderly ones reliant on fixed income forms of saving. ........QE has resulted in a massive transfer of wealth from households the governments. And they say central banks are meant to be independent."
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Resist green tax suicide like the brave Poles
Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"Wholly predictable last week was the ghoulish eagerness of the warmists (including David Cameron) to blame the Philippines typhoon disaster on “man-made climate change”. Those sceptics who actually consult the evidence wearily pointed out that in recent years tropical storm activity, including Pacific typhoons, has been less intense than for decades; and that Asia was hit by even worse typhoons in the past, notably in the late 17th century, at the height of the “Little Ice Age” when the world was much colder than it is now.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw, 10,000 officials and climate activists are gathered under the auspices of the UN, in yet another desperate attempt to agree that we must all be taxed and regulated into further reducing our “carbon emissions”. An innovation this time, however, was a 50,000-strong mass demonstration nearby, in support of a “counter-conference” sponsored by Solidarity and other Polish groups, to protest at how the UN’s bogus science is being used to “deceive the world”. As the country that relies more on coal for its electricity than any other in Europe, Poland is leading the way in resisting the pressure for the EU to commit economic suicide by raising its insane “carbon-reduction targets” even higher — pressure led by our own Government.
When can we hope to see 50,000 people turning out in Britain to protest that we have the most idiotically self-destructive energy and “climate” policies in the world?"
"Wholly predictable last week was the ghoulish eagerness of the warmists (including David Cameron) to blame the Philippines typhoon disaster on “man-made climate change”. Those sceptics who actually consult the evidence wearily pointed out that in recent years tropical storm activity, including Pacific typhoons, has been less intense than for decades; and that Asia was hit by even worse typhoons in the past, notably in the late 17th century, at the height of the “Little Ice Age” when the world was much colder than it is now.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw, 10,000 officials and climate activists are gathered under the auspices of the UN, in yet another desperate attempt to agree that we must all be taxed and regulated into further reducing our “carbon emissions”. An innovation this time, however, was a 50,000-strong mass demonstration nearby, in support of a “counter-conference” sponsored by Solidarity and other Polish groups, to protest at how the UN’s bogus science is being used to “deceive the world”. As the country that relies more on coal for its electricity than any other in Europe, Poland is leading the way in resisting the pressure for the EU to commit economic suicide by raising its insane “carbon-reduction targets” even higher — pressure led by our own Government.
When can we hope to see 50,000 people turning out in Britain to protest that we have the most idiotically self-destructive energy and “climate” policies in the world?"
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Obamacare: a great way to demonstrate to millions Obama lied
Andrew Bolt,Herald Sun (Australia)
"Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies."
"Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies."
Saturday, 2 November 2013
The Fed is locked in a QE prison of its own making
Telegraph
"It wasn't meant to be like this. When the Fed launched QE, this policy experiment was supposed to be limited to an ex nihilo monetary injection of $600bn (£377bn). Even if the tapering had started in September, as was widely expected, the total would have topped $4,000bn by next spring."
"It wasn't meant to be like this. When the Fed launched QE, this policy experiment was supposed to be limited to an ex nihilo monetary injection of $600bn (£377bn). Even if the tapering had started in September, as was widely expected, the total would have topped $4,000bn by next spring."
European law created this tax racket that robs us of billions
Telegraph
"The EU has completely destroyed the sovereign right of national governments to levy tax in a country where income is earned ..... It all stems from the “four freedoms” laid down in the founding treaty of the European Union, especially the freedoms of “capital” and “establishment”, which entitle firms to move all their income to the country where they want their tax base to be, to give them the smallest tax liability. This has completely destroyed the sovereign right of national governments to levy tax in a country where income is earned. Google, Amazon, Apple and the rest can thus quite legally channel all their earnings wherever tax rates are lowest.
In 1992, a further massive loophole was opened up by the Maastricht Treaty, which, in preparation for the single currency, extended the “freedom of capital” to countries outside the EU, including tax havens such as the Cayman Islands or Jersey, with even lower tax rates. This is how, for instance, our water companies manage to pay so little tax, despite making profits averaging at 30 per cent a year. They have also learnt the cleverest trick of all, which is to borrow huge sums from their tax-haven-based owners, at artificially high rates of interest, which can then be offset as a business expense against their profits, shrinking their tax liability still further. Even more disturbing is the way no one ever publicly admits that this is what makes such a colossal racket perfectly legal."
"The EU has completely destroyed the sovereign right of national governments to levy tax in a country where income is earned ..... It all stems from the “four freedoms” laid down in the founding treaty of the European Union, especially the freedoms of “capital” and “establishment”, which entitle firms to move all their income to the country where they want their tax base to be, to give them the smallest tax liability. This has completely destroyed the sovereign right of national governments to levy tax in a country where income is earned. Google, Amazon, Apple and the rest can thus quite legally channel all their earnings wherever tax rates are lowest.
In 1992, a further massive loophole was opened up by the Maastricht Treaty, which, in preparation for the single currency, extended the “freedom of capital” to countries outside the EU, including tax havens such as the Cayman Islands or Jersey, with even lower tax rates. This is how, for instance, our water companies manage to pay so little tax, despite making profits averaging at 30 per cent a year. They have also learnt the cleverest trick of all, which is to borrow huge sums from their tax-haven-based owners, at artificially high rates of interest, which can then be offset as a business expense against their profits, shrinking their tax liability still further. Even more disturbing is the way no one ever publicly admits that this is what makes such a colossal racket perfectly legal."
The Obamacare meltdown continues: New report says most top hospitals won't accept Obamacare
The Hockey Schtick
" Most of the 18 hospitals on this year's U.S. News and World Report's Honor Roll will accept insurance from just one or two companies selling plans on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) insurance exchanges, according to a Watchdog.org investigation."
" Most of the 18 hospitals on this year's U.S. News and World Report's Honor Roll will accept insurance from just one or two companies selling plans on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) insurance exchanges, according to a Watchdog.org investigation."
Thursday, 31 October 2013
'Green Dave’ Cameron as much to blame as 'Red Ed’ Miliband for energy crisis
Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"But what few people yet realise is how far this catastrophic mess we are in was not only predictable, but has also been quite deliberately brought about, through the Government’s own policies. Their central aim, though never openly explained, has been twofold. One leg has been to build, by 2020, some 30,000 wind turbines, so ludicrously expensive that we must pay double or treble the market rate for the power they so inefficiently produce. The other leg is that, to make this seem competitive, we should also eventually be made to pay twice the going rate for all other forms of electricity: hence the “carbon tax” on coal and gas, and the colossal price we are to pay for power from Hinkley Point and other new nuclear power stations (four times the cost of nuclear, estimated by a Royal Academy of Engineering study only nine years ago)."
"But what few people yet realise is how far this catastrophic mess we are in was not only predictable, but has also been quite deliberately brought about, through the Government’s own policies. Their central aim, though never openly explained, has been twofold. One leg has been to build, by 2020, some 30,000 wind turbines, so ludicrously expensive that we must pay double or treble the market rate for the power they so inefficiently produce. The other leg is that, to make this seem competitive, we should also eventually be made to pay twice the going rate for all other forms of electricity: hence the “carbon tax” on coal and gas, and the colossal price we are to pay for power from Hinkley Point and other new nuclear power stations (four times the cost of nuclear, estimated by a Royal Academy of Engineering study only nine years ago)."
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say
Washington Post
"According to a top secret accounting dated Jan. 9, 2013, NSA’s acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency’s Fort Meade headquarters. In the preceding 30 days, the report said, field collectors had processed and sent back 181,280,466 new records — ranging from “metadata,” which would indicate who sent or received e-mails and when, to content such as text, audio and video.
The NSA’s principal tool to exploit the data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency’s British counterpart, GCHQ. From undisclosed interception points, the NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants.
The infiltration is especially striking because the NSA, under a separate program known as PRISM, has front-door access to Google and Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved process."
"According to a top secret accounting dated Jan. 9, 2013, NSA’s acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency’s Fort Meade headquarters. In the preceding 30 days, the report said, field collectors had processed and sent back 181,280,466 new records — ranging from “metadata,” which would indicate who sent or received e-mails and when, to content such as text, audio and video.
The NSA’s principal tool to exploit the data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency’s British counterpart, GCHQ. From undisclosed interception points, the NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants.
The infiltration is especially striking because the NSA, under a separate program known as PRISM, has front-door access to Google and Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved process."
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
US to curtail spying on allies
SMH
"The snooping scandal is a direct result of disclosures of US secrets made to media organizations by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor now living in asylum in Russia. ....After Obama and Merkel spoke by phone last week, the White House said the United States is not currently tapping her phone and will not in the future, begging the question of whether it had been done in the past....The Wall Street Journal reported the NSA ended the program that involved Merkel after the operation was uncovered in the White House review that began in the summer. The program also involved as many as 35 other world leaders, some of whom were still being monitored, the report said. ....."
"The snooping scandal is a direct result of disclosures of US secrets made to media organizations by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor now living in asylum in Russia. ....After Obama and Merkel spoke by phone last week, the White House said the United States is not currently tapping her phone and will not in the future, begging the question of whether it had been done in the past....The Wall Street Journal reported the NSA ended the program that involved Merkel after the operation was uncovered in the White House review that began in the summer. The program also involved as many as 35 other world leaders, some of whom were still being monitored, the report said. ....."
Monday, 28 October 2013
Obamacare Website Violates Licensing Agreement for Copyrighted Software
TheWeeklyStandard
Healthcare.gov, the federal government's Obamacare website, has been under heavy criticism from friend and foe alike during its first two weeks of open enrollment. Repeated errors and delays have prevented many users from even establishing an account, and outside web designers have roundly panned the structure and coding of the site as amateurish and sloppy. The latest indication of the haphazard way in which Healthcare.gov was developed is the uncredited use of a copyrighted web script for a data function used by the site, a violation of the licensing agreement for the software.
The script in question is called DataTables, a very long and complex piece of website software used for formatting and presenting data. DataTables was developed by a British company called SpryMedia which licenses the open-source software freely to anyone who complies with the licensing agreement. A note at the bottom of the DataTables.net website says: "DataTables designed and created by SpryMedia © 2008-2013." The company explains the license for using the software on that website [emphasis added]:
DataTables is free, open source software that you can download and use for whatever purpose you wish, on any and as many sites you want. It is free for you to use! DataTables is available under two licenses: GPL v2 license or a BSD (3-point) license, with which you must comply (to do this, basically keep the copyright notices in the software).
Healthcare.gov, the federal government's Obamacare website, has been under heavy criticism from friend and foe alike during its first two weeks of open enrollment. Repeated errors and delays have prevented many users from even establishing an account, and outside web designers have roundly panned the structure and coding of the site as amateurish and sloppy. The latest indication of the haphazard way in which Healthcare.gov was developed is the uncredited use of a copyrighted web script for a data function used by the site, a violation of the licensing agreement for the software.
The script in question is called DataTables, a very long and complex piece of website software used for formatting and presenting data. DataTables was developed by a British company called SpryMedia which licenses the open-source software freely to anyone who complies with the licensing agreement. A note at the bottom of the DataTables.net website says: "DataTables designed and created by SpryMedia © 2008-2013." The company explains the license for using the software on that website [emphasis added]:
DataTables is free, open source software that you can download and use for whatever purpose you wish, on any and as many sites you want. It is free for you to use! DataTables is available under two licenses: GPL v2 license or a BSD (3-point) license, with which you must comply (to do this, basically keep the copyright notices in the software).
Friday, 25 October 2013
Foreign aid can pay for cut in energy bills
Daily Mail
"Why not take the money to fund the cut in green taxes from the swollen £11billion-a-year overseas aid budget, which is being lavished on corrupt kleptocracies and nations with their own space programmes? With average energy bills close to £1,500 a year, nothing could be more strongly in the ‘national interest’ than preventing our elderly and vulnerable from freezing to death this winter."
"Why not take the money to fund the cut in green taxes from the swollen £11billion-a-year overseas aid budget, which is being lavished on corrupt kleptocracies and nations with their own space programmes? With average energy bills close to £1,500 a year, nothing could be more strongly in the ‘national interest’ than preventing our elderly and vulnerable from freezing to death this winter."
Monday, 14 October 2013
The sun is setting on dollar supremacy, and with it, American power
Telegraph
"Serious alternatives to the dollar, such as a global reserve currency, are still a long way off, but the latest shenanigans on Capitol Hill have given the search for them renewed and added momentum. The US is wrecklessly throwing away its future."
"Serious alternatives to the dollar, such as a global reserve currency, are still a long way off, but the latest shenanigans on Capitol Hill have given the search for them renewed and added momentum. The US is wrecklessly throwing away its future."
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
The Financial Apocalypse Is Due Next Week
Now I don’t want to worry you unduly, but apparently the United States is running out of money.
To cut a long story
short, American politicians can’t agree on their country’s spending and
whether they should increase the level of their so-called debt ceiling…
…so the US Treasury may become unable to borrow any more cash and then have to default on its debts.
Default Day is in
fact set for Thursday 17th October. Circle the date in your diary, just
in case, as the market might be in for a rough time between now and
then.
To give you a flavour of what could be in store, here is an extract from a recent Bloomberg article:
“Failure by the world’s largest borrower to pay its debt – unprecedented in modern history – will devastate stock markets… blow up borrowing costs for billions of people and companies, ravage the dollar and throw the US and world economies into a recession that probably would become a depression.”
Apparently the US debt is 23 times the liabilities owed by Lehman Brothers when the investment bank went under during 2008. (The Motley Fool UK)
Sunday, 6 October 2013
Charge of the Referendum Light Brigade
Autonomous Mind
"Having been derided for his aspiration of leading the Conservative Party, Adam Afriyie, has now determined how he plans to exact revenge – declaring via the Daily Mail’s RightMinds section that he will force David Cameron to hold an in-out referendum on EU membership ‘now’. This really is a new charge of a light brigade, misguided and doomed to failure. While it may elicit excitement among Eurosceptics, an early referendum would almost certainly be lost and the UK would be shackled to the twitching corpse of the EU, for decades to come or until the whole ediface comes crashing down under its own weight. The facts are these. The Eurosceptics are in appalling shape and nowhere close to ready to fighting the kind of campaign required to win public support for an ‘out’ vote. We would face a biased and distorting media where the selected voices on our side will be those who will undermine us with undecided voters and where, with the exception of the Express, even the supposed Eurosceptic press like the Mail and the Telegraph will support continued EU membership and push the false ‘renegotiation’ meme. Add in to this the fact that Afriyie is not really pushing an early referendum to hasten UK withdrawal from the EU, but for narrow party political considerations."
"Having been derided for his aspiration of leading the Conservative Party, Adam Afriyie, has now determined how he plans to exact revenge – declaring via the Daily Mail’s RightMinds section that he will force David Cameron to hold an in-out referendum on EU membership ‘now’. This really is a new charge of a light brigade, misguided and doomed to failure. While it may elicit excitement among Eurosceptics, an early referendum would almost certainly be lost and the UK would be shackled to the twitching corpse of the EU, for decades to come or until the whole ediface comes crashing down under its own weight. The facts are these. The Eurosceptics are in appalling shape and nowhere close to ready to fighting the kind of campaign required to win public support for an ‘out’ vote. We would face a biased and distorting media where the selected voices on our side will be those who will undermine us with undecided voters and where, with the exception of the Express, even the supposed Eurosceptic press like the Mail and the Telegraph will support continued EU membership and push the false ‘renegotiation’ meme. Add in to this the fact that Afriyie is not really pushing an early referendum to hasten UK withdrawal from the EU, but for narrow party political considerations."
Thursday, 3 October 2013
There's a reason British youngsters aren't working, Dave. It's called immigration
Telegraph
"Cameron's desire to bar under-25s from claiming unemployment benefit once again sees the British government turn on our abandoned youth. We are already the generation set to inherit the colossal debt piled up firstly by Labour and now the Coalition and that's bad enough in itself. But the more immediate issue is the one of mass uncontrolled immigration and just how badly it has hurt the prospects of our young – something I've never heard Cameron speak about, let alone act upon."
"Cameron's desire to bar under-25s from claiming unemployment benefit once again sees the British government turn on our abandoned youth. We are already the generation set to inherit the colossal debt piled up firstly by Labour and now the Coalition and that's bad enough in itself. But the more immediate issue is the one of mass uncontrolled immigration and just how badly it has hurt the prospects of our young – something I've never heard Cameron speak about, let alone act upon."
Monday, 30 September 2013
Blair Force One: Millionaire former Prime Minister is travelling the world in plush £7,000-an-hour private jet
Daily Mail
"When he was Prime Minister, plans for a presidential-style ‘Blair Force One’ jet were rejected as too expensive. But now Tony Blair appears to be footing the bill for his own £30million private plane. The former Prime Minister has been seen stepping out of a £7,000-an-hour bespoke aircraft complete with stateroom, lounge, kitchen and bed. Mr Blair, 60, is reported to have regularly chartered the top-of-the-range Bombardier Global Express private jet as he travels the world in his new roles as business consultant and public speaker, according to The Sunday Telegraph. The former Labour leader has been seen disembarking in Bangkok, Sardinia and New York state, and it has also been seen in Switzerland, Ukraine and Israel on dates which matched Mr Blair’s visits."
"When he was Prime Minister, plans for a presidential-style ‘Blair Force One’ jet were rejected as too expensive. But now Tony Blair appears to be footing the bill for his own £30million private plane. The former Prime Minister has been seen stepping out of a £7,000-an-hour bespoke aircraft complete with stateroom, lounge, kitchen and bed. Mr Blair, 60, is reported to have regularly chartered the top-of-the-range Bombardier Global Express private jet as he travels the world in his new roles as business consultant and public speaker, according to The Sunday Telegraph. The former Labour leader has been seen disembarking in Bangkok, Sardinia and New York state, and it has also been seen in Switzerland, Ukraine and Israel on dates which matched Mr Blair’s visits."
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Ed Miliband can’t freeze those bills he himself sent through the roof
Christopher Booker,Telegraph
" Arriving in London on Tuesday to see blazoned across a newspaper front page Ed Miliband’s promise of a 20‑month freeze on energy bills, I clapped my hand to my head in disbelief. There is no one else in the country, I and many others must have thought, who has done more to drive Britain’s energy bills through the roof than Mr Miliband: the man who, in 2008, shortly after becoming our first secretary of state for energy and climate change, passed his Climate Change Act, easily the most expensive law ever put through Parliament, committing us to cut our “carbon emissions” by four fifths in 40 years.
In 2009 it was this column that revealed, thanks to the assiduous Peter Lilley MP, that Miliband’s own department had estimated that this Act would cost us all up to £18 billion every year until 2050. When, in 2010, he became Labour leader, I called him “the costliest politician in British history”. And the reason is that it is under this Act that successive governments have committed us not only to spending well over £100 billion on building tens of thousands of useless wind turbines, producing electricity at twice and three times the going rate, but also to introducing other measures, such as the “carbon tax”, which will also soon double the cost of the electricity from coal, gas and nuclear power stations that still supply more than 90 per cent of our needs. All this in the name of giving Britain a “low carbon economy”. Yet the man who sent us down this disastrous path now wants, by law, to stop electricity prices rising, just when our energy companies must spend billions of pounds to bring his mad dream to fruition."
" Arriving in London on Tuesday to see blazoned across a newspaper front page Ed Miliband’s promise of a 20‑month freeze on energy bills, I clapped my hand to my head in disbelief. There is no one else in the country, I and many others must have thought, who has done more to drive Britain’s energy bills through the roof than Mr Miliband: the man who, in 2008, shortly after becoming our first secretary of state for energy and climate change, passed his Climate Change Act, easily the most expensive law ever put through Parliament, committing us to cut our “carbon emissions” by four fifths in 40 years.
In 2009 it was this column that revealed, thanks to the assiduous Peter Lilley MP, that Miliband’s own department had estimated that this Act would cost us all up to £18 billion every year until 2050. When, in 2010, he became Labour leader, I called him “the costliest politician in British history”. And the reason is that it is under this Act that successive governments have committed us not only to spending well over £100 billion on building tens of thousands of useless wind turbines, producing electricity at twice and three times the going rate, but also to introducing other measures, such as the “carbon tax”, which will also soon double the cost of the electricity from coal, gas and nuclear power stations that still supply more than 90 per cent of our needs. All this in the name of giving Britain a “low carbon economy”. Yet the man who sent us down this disastrous path now wants, by law, to stop electricity prices rising, just when our energy companies must spend billions of pounds to bring his mad dream to fruition."
Saturday, 21 September 2013
Over 2million UK passports handed to foreigners since 2000: One immigrant is made a British citizen every two and a half minutes
Daily Mail
"More than two million immigrants have been granted British citizenship since 2000, it can be revealed. In the past year alone, a record 204,541 requests for a UK passport were rubber-stamped by the Home Office, official figures show. This is the equivalent of one migrant being given citizenship every two-and-a-half minutes – the fastest rate in history. It means the total number given out since the turn of the century now stands at 2,053,396. Campaigners say the face of British society has been changed for ever in just 13 years. .......Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said the figures were ‘the inevitable consequence’ of Labour’s deliberate policy of mass immigration. The majority of those currently being given passports arrived in 2008 or earlier. Normally, they qualify for citizenship after living and working in the UK for five years, with officials only able to block those engaged in criminality. Sir Andrew said: ‘Some four million foreign immigrants have arrived since 1997 of whom, so far, half appear to have qualified for citizenship."
"More than two million immigrants have been granted British citizenship since 2000, it can be revealed. In the past year alone, a record 204,541 requests for a UK passport were rubber-stamped by the Home Office, official figures show. This is the equivalent of one migrant being given citizenship every two-and-a-half minutes – the fastest rate in history. It means the total number given out since the turn of the century now stands at 2,053,396. Campaigners say the face of British society has been changed for ever in just 13 years. .......Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said the figures were ‘the inevitable consequence’ of Labour’s deliberate policy of mass immigration. The majority of those currently being given passports arrived in 2008 or earlier. Normally, they qualify for citizenship after living and working in the UK for five years, with officials only able to block those engaged in criminality. Sir Andrew said: ‘Some four million foreign immigrants have arrived since 1997 of whom, so far, half appear to have qualified for citizenship."
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Barack Obama’s Syria speech was an incoherent mess – he is outperforming Jimmy Carter as the most feeble US president of modern times
Telegraph
"This was a desperate speech from a president who has dug himself into a hole after carelessly drawing a red line in the sand, and then finding himself in the position of actually having to do something about it. Obama knew full well he was heading for a humiliating defeat in Congress, with just 26 Members of the House of Representatives confirmed as supporting him on Syrian strikes. This speech was above all a delaying tactic, designed to give him breathing space while his advisers think of how to get him out of this mess. In the meantime the White House is content to let the Russians, staunch ally of Assad, call the shots on the international stage, with Washington leading from behind.
The American people are overwhelmingly opposed to President Obama’s plans for a military intervention in Syria, what John Kerry likes to refer to as an “unbelievably small” strike against Assad. Just 29 percent of US voters back Obama’s handling of the Syria crisis according to a new poll this week. This speech will do nothing to assuage their concerns. "
...Comment:"A Time magazine chief editor was just on Lateline suggesting that Obama’s approach to Syria is that of law professor, not that of a President. You see, his problem is not one of stunning incompetence, but of over-intellectualization. He’s too smart for his own good. No, really."
"This was a desperate speech from a president who has dug himself into a hole after carelessly drawing a red line in the sand, and then finding himself in the position of actually having to do something about it. Obama knew full well he was heading for a humiliating defeat in Congress, with just 26 Members of the House of Representatives confirmed as supporting him on Syrian strikes. This speech was above all a delaying tactic, designed to give him breathing space while his advisers think of how to get him out of this mess. In the meantime the White House is content to let the Russians, staunch ally of Assad, call the shots on the international stage, with Washington leading from behind.
The American people are overwhelmingly opposed to President Obama’s plans for a military intervention in Syria, what John Kerry likes to refer to as an “unbelievably small” strike against Assad. Just 29 percent of US voters back Obama’s handling of the Syria crisis according to a new poll this week. This speech will do nothing to assuage their concerns. "
...Comment:"A Time magazine chief editor was just on Lateline suggesting that Obama’s approach to Syria is that of law professor, not that of a President. You see, his problem is not one of stunning incompetence, but of over-intellectualization. He’s too smart for his own good. No, really."
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
White House Working With Jihadists To Help Them Take Over The Middle East
Real Science
"Just in case you had forgotten whose side Barack Hussein Obama is on."
"Just in case you had forgotten whose side Barack Hussein Obama is on."
Monday, 9 September 2013
The election of Australia's new PM Tony Abbott is clear evidence that genuine conservative policies can win elections
Daily Mail
"Something truly astounding has happened. The best political candidate for a country's future has won a general election. In fact, even more astonishing is the fact that this achievement was something David Cameron and his inner circle had given us to believe was as impossible as . . . well, being reincarnated as an olive. So what is this miracle? That a true conservative has won a general election on true conservative principles.This has just occurred in Australia, where the leader of the Liberal (conservative) Party, Tony Abbott, has been elected Prime Minister by a landslide. As head of the Liberal/National coalition, he unseated a Labor government which had been in power since 2007. But here's the rub: Mr Abbott stands for all the things which, in this country, the Cameroons repeatedly claimed would make the Conservative Party unelectable. An Oxford-educated devotee of the late Lady Thatcher, Mr Abbott wants to cut taxes and is against gay marriage, thinks man-made global warming theory is bunkum, wants to reduce immigration, and intends to end increases in overseas aid. He also displays a robust understanding of the current threats to the West, and just who are its true allies and true enemies."
"Something truly astounding has happened. The best political candidate for a country's future has won a general election. In fact, even more astonishing is the fact that this achievement was something David Cameron and his inner circle had given us to believe was as impossible as . . . well, being reincarnated as an olive. So what is this miracle? That a true conservative has won a general election on true conservative principles.This has just occurred in Australia, where the leader of the Liberal (conservative) Party, Tony Abbott, has been elected Prime Minister by a landslide. As head of the Liberal/National coalition, he unseated a Labor government which had been in power since 2007. But here's the rub: Mr Abbott stands for all the things which, in this country, the Cameroons repeatedly claimed would make the Conservative Party unelectable. An Oxford-educated devotee of the late Lady Thatcher, Mr Abbott wants to cut taxes and is against gay marriage, thinks man-made global warming theory is bunkum, wants to reduce immigration, and intends to end increases in overseas aid. He also displays a robust understanding of the current threats to the West, and just who are its true allies and true enemies."
Friday, 6 September 2013
Sorry Minister, computer says NO: Why can't the 'Rolls-Royce minds' at the DWP come up with an IT system that, for once, is 'fit for purpose'?
Daily Mail
"Labour wheeled out Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne to pour scorn on IDS’s handling of the project and accuse him of wasting taxpayers’ money. This would be the same Liam Byrne who, as Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, left a note informing incoming Coalition ministers that there was ‘no money left’. Ha, ha, ha. The same Liam Byrne who, as Labour’s immigration minister, presided over a system which had no idea how many people were entering or leaving Britain, who they were or where they came from. Nor cared less. The same Liam Byrne, indeed, who belonged to a government that encouraged more than six million people to languish on assorted ‘out of work’ benefits Labour has no grounds for smugness when it comes to IT projects. It blew £12 billion on an NHS computer system which never worked and had to be written off. There have been other IT fiascos at the Home Office, the Passport Office and the Borders Agency. Former Labour Home Secretary John Reid remarked memorably that his entire department was ‘not fit for purpose’. .....Civil servants always adopt a ‘fortress mentality’ to cover up their mistakes, whether overspending on ill-considered IT projects or presiding over unnecessary deaths and ill-treatment of patients in NHS hospitals. Nothing in the public sector ever comes in on budget, but no one involved appears to care. Taxpayers’ money is nobody’s money. The Civil Service doesn’t have to worry about anything so grubby as profit and loss."
"Labour wheeled out Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne to pour scorn on IDS’s handling of the project and accuse him of wasting taxpayers’ money. This would be the same Liam Byrne who, as Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, left a note informing incoming Coalition ministers that there was ‘no money left’. Ha, ha, ha. The same Liam Byrne who, as Labour’s immigration minister, presided over a system which had no idea how many people were entering or leaving Britain, who they were or where they came from. Nor cared less. The same Liam Byrne, indeed, who belonged to a government that encouraged more than six million people to languish on assorted ‘out of work’ benefits Labour has no grounds for smugness when it comes to IT projects. It blew £12 billion on an NHS computer system which never worked and had to be written off. There have been other IT fiascos at the Home Office, the Passport Office and the Borders Agency. Former Labour Home Secretary John Reid remarked memorably that his entire department was ‘not fit for purpose’. .....Civil servants always adopt a ‘fortress mentality’ to cover up their mistakes, whether overspending on ill-considered IT projects or presiding over unnecessary deaths and ill-treatment of patients in NHS hospitals. Nothing in the public sector ever comes in on budget, but no one involved appears to care. Taxpayers’ money is nobody’s money. The Civil Service doesn’t have to worry about anything so grubby as profit and loss."
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Pupils pay the price for migration taboo
Daily Mail
"Children starting school this week will experience one of the most dramatic and worrying consequences of the biggest demographic upheaval in our history. After the uncontrolled immigration of the Labour years, thousands of four- and five-year-olds are being packed into overspill ‘bulge’ classes, many housed in temporary schoolrooms or rented offices. Meanwhile, record numbers are in oversized classes, with nearly 72,000 five-to-seven year-olds learning in groups of 31 or more – up from 31,265 in 2010. Adding to the difficulties, of course, are the problems of handling growing numbers of pupils who speak little English. Indeed, how can any teacher, faced with a class that speaks dozens of different native languages, hope to convey the basics to any pupil? Truly, these youngsters, of every ethnic background, are victims of the taboo that for decades prevented politicians from challenging reckless migration policies, for fear of being branded as ‘racists’. As the pressure intensifies – on schools, the NHS, housing, transport and jobs – a weekend poll found that 60 per cent believe immigration has damaged Britain.Yet disturbingly, the latest figures show a surge in net migration to 176,000 last year, exposing the hollowness of the Government’s efforts to cut the net inflow below 100,000 by 2015. And this is even before we throw open our borders to Romanians and Bulgarians next January. Last week, when they rejected the plan to attack Syria, MPs spoke for the people. How much longer before they treat with the same seriousness the public’s concerns about migration’s threat to our well-being and national identity? "
"Children starting school this week will experience one of the most dramatic and worrying consequences of the biggest demographic upheaval in our history. After the uncontrolled immigration of the Labour years, thousands of four- and five-year-olds are being packed into overspill ‘bulge’ classes, many housed in temporary schoolrooms or rented offices. Meanwhile, record numbers are in oversized classes, with nearly 72,000 five-to-seven year-olds learning in groups of 31 or more – up from 31,265 in 2010. Adding to the difficulties, of course, are the problems of handling growing numbers of pupils who speak little English. Indeed, how can any teacher, faced with a class that speaks dozens of different native languages, hope to convey the basics to any pupil? Truly, these youngsters, of every ethnic background, are victims of the taboo that for decades prevented politicians from challenging reckless migration policies, for fear of being branded as ‘racists’. As the pressure intensifies – on schools, the NHS, housing, transport and jobs – a weekend poll found that 60 per cent believe immigration has damaged Britain.Yet disturbingly, the latest figures show a surge in net migration to 176,000 last year, exposing the hollowness of the Government’s efforts to cut the net inflow below 100,000 by 2015. And this is even before we throw open our borders to Romanians and Bulgarians next January. Last week, when they rejected the plan to attack Syria, MPs spoke for the people. How much longer before they treat with the same seriousness the public’s concerns about migration’s threat to our well-being and national identity? "
Monday, 2 September 2013
Is there no end to Blair's hypocrisy?
Daily Mail
"Is there no end to this man’s hypocrisy? It is precisely because of Mr Blair’s illegal war in Iraq that Parliament – reflecting the view of an overwhelming majority of the British people – was so reluctant to back British intervention in yet another ghastly foreign conflict. Mr Blair speaks of ‘errors in intelligence’ about Saddam’s arsenal as if they were merely honest mistakes. In fact, they were deliberate exaggerations – a cynically concocted case for war, reinforced by a dodgy dossier of fraudulent evidence. No wonder the public is so suspicious this time around."
"Is there no end to this man’s hypocrisy? It is precisely because of Mr Blair’s illegal war in Iraq that Parliament – reflecting the view of an overwhelming majority of the British people – was so reluctant to back British intervention in yet another ghastly foreign conflict. Mr Blair speaks of ‘errors in intelligence’ about Saddam’s arsenal as if they were merely honest mistakes. In fact, they were deliberate exaggerations – a cynically concocted case for war, reinforced by a dodgy dossier of fraudulent evidence. No wonder the public is so suspicious this time around."
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
The £170bn secret raid on your savings: How keeping rates at a record low is a government ploy to pay off its debts
Daily Mail
"The Government has debts of £1.2trillion and households owe £1.4trillion. But, just as with money in savings accounts, every penny of this is worth less when the country has inflation. If the cost of living rises by 2.9 per cent, all this debt loses is a bit of its value. Essentially, £34.8billion of national debt and £40.6billion of personal debt is wiped out. You only need to look at the housing market to see how this works. A mortgage of £39,000 would have bought the average home 20 years ago. Today you would have to borrow £127,500 to buy the same property. Suddenly the debt of £39,000 seems tiny, even though it would have bought you exactly the same thing. Of course, all money borrowed is growing at a rate of interest - but even so, a substantial proportion will still be wiped out because of inflation. And it’s savers’ cash that is being used to fund this gap. Renowned economists have also noted the sneaky way in which governments use inflation as a form of secret taxation. Milton Friedman, for example, observed that ‘inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation’. And John Maynard Keynes said: ‘By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.’
"The Government has debts of £1.2trillion and households owe £1.4trillion. But, just as with money in savings accounts, every penny of this is worth less when the country has inflation. If the cost of living rises by 2.9 per cent, all this debt loses is a bit of its value. Essentially, £34.8billion of national debt and £40.6billion of personal debt is wiped out. You only need to look at the housing market to see how this works. A mortgage of £39,000 would have bought the average home 20 years ago. Today you would have to borrow £127,500 to buy the same property. Suddenly the debt of £39,000 seems tiny, even though it would have bought you exactly the same thing. Of course, all money borrowed is growing at a rate of interest - but even so, a substantial proportion will still be wiped out because of inflation. And it’s savers’ cash that is being used to fund this gap. Renowned economists have also noted the sneaky way in which governments use inflation as a form of secret taxation. Milton Friedman, for example, observed that ‘inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation’. And John Maynard Keynes said: ‘By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.’
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Economic recovery 'will take 20 years', warns Britain's top civil servant
Daily Mail
"‘This is not a two-year project or a five-year project. 'This is a ten-year project, a 20-year generational battle to beef up the economy in ways that we have not seen for many, many decades,’ he said."
"‘This is not a two-year project or a five-year project. 'This is a ten-year project, a 20-year generational battle to beef up the economy in ways that we have not seen for many, many decades,’ he said."
Monday, 1 July 2013
Obama’s / Washington’s Paranoia Leads To An Isolated America…US Foreign Policy Disintgrates
NoTricksZone
"If it had not been Snowden, then it would soon have been someone else. If Washington was trying to shed its image that it is corrupt to the core, it didn’t do itself any favors with this affair. A country that spies on its own citizens and allies on such a massive scale needs to ask itself some serious questions."
"If it had not been Snowden, then it would soon have been someone else. If Washington was trying to shed its image that it is corrupt to the core, it didn’t do itself any favors with this affair. A country that spies on its own citizens and allies on such a massive scale needs to ask itself some serious questions."
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Europe In Shock Over NSA Activity…”Beyond Comprehension…Methods Used By Enemies During The Cold War”
NoTricksZone
"Today I’m going off topic to write about an explosive issue – the NSA. Spiegel has uncovered and reported explosive material that for now is only being superficially reported back in the States. Obama, and the free world, have a mega-crisis on their hands.In Europe, especially Germany, the NSA scandal is taking on ever increasingly huge dimensions with each passing day. While the American media are pretty much low-key or even silent on the NSA scandal, in Europe it is taking on alarming dimensions and threatening to become a foreign policy catastrophe. News magazine Spiegel has received documents revealing that NSA activity also included bugging European offices, including the Chancellor of Germany. .......Washington’s and London’s relationship with mainland Europe is now so damaged that they are being compared to the Cold War. This is not a foreign policy scandal, rather it is a foreign policy debacle of historical proportions."
"Today I’m going off topic to write about an explosive issue – the NSA. Spiegel has uncovered and reported explosive material that for now is only being superficially reported back in the States. Obama, and the free world, have a mega-crisis on their hands.In Europe, especially Germany, the NSA scandal is taking on ever increasingly huge dimensions with each passing day. While the American media are pretty much low-key or even silent on the NSA scandal, in Europe it is taking on alarming dimensions and threatening to become a foreign policy catastrophe. News magazine Spiegel has received documents revealing that NSA activity also included bugging European offices, including the Chancellor of Germany. .......Washington’s and London’s relationship with mainland Europe is now so damaged that they are being compared to the Cold War. This is not a foreign policy scandal, rather it is a foreign policy debacle of historical proportions."
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why
Money News
"So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies? After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized. It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%. One such person publishing this research is Robert Wiedemer, an esteemed economist and author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock."
"So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies? After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized. It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%. One such person publishing this research is Robert Wiedemer, an esteemed economist and author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock."
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Britain's foreign aid madness: Cuts at home, but we STILL hand out more than every other G8 country
Daily Mail
"Tory MP for Shipley, Philip Davies, a longstanding critic of the Government's foreign aid commitments, said: 'Other countries are making more sensible decisions about their priorities given the tough economic times we are in. We are now the mugs of the world. We're spending money we haven't got."
"Tory MP for Shipley, Philip Davies, a longstanding critic of the Government's foreign aid commitments, said: 'Other countries are making more sensible decisions about their priorities given the tough economic times we are in. We are now the mugs of the world. We're spending money we haven't got."
Friday, 14 June 2013
Barack Obama is leading from behind in Syria - and can't see where he is going
Telegraph
" So slow has Mr Obama been to act, however, that there is a worse danger: that Russia and Iran will be quite happy to see America sink to its neck, humiliated by ever closer association with the jihadists who are supposed to be its sworn enemy. This is the nature of asymmetrical warfare. Could Mr Obama have acted any differently? Perhaps the world was still not ready after the George W. Bush years for America to take the lead in the Middle East. The terrible option can still be better than all the others. But it remains the case that if you consciously lead from behind, as Mr Obama wants to do, you sometimes cannot see where you are going."
" So slow has Mr Obama been to act, however, that there is a worse danger: that Russia and Iran will be quite happy to see America sink to its neck, humiliated by ever closer association with the jihadists who are supposed to be its sworn enemy. This is the nature of asymmetrical warfare. Could Mr Obama have acted any differently? Perhaps the world was still not ready after the George W. Bush years for America to take the lead in the Middle East. The terrible option can still be better than all the others. But it remains the case that if you consciously lead from behind, as Mr Obama wants to do, you sometimes cannot see where you are going."
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Labour still won’t admit that it got us into this mess
Telegraph
"The shadow chancellor has refused categorically to apologise for Labour’s fiscal indiscipline. He has admitted that not every pound was spent judiciously and – a separate point – expressed regret for the last government’s inadequate regulation of the financial sector. But (in the Prime Minister’s eyes) Balls personifies Labour’s collective refusal to accept that they spent too much, borrowed too much and left the Coalition with a structural deficit that will take at least two parliaments to wipe out."
"The shadow chancellor has refused categorically to apologise for Labour’s fiscal indiscipline. He has admitted that not every pound was spent judiciously and – a separate point – expressed regret for the last government’s inadequate regulation of the financial sector. But (in the Prime Minister’s eyes) Balls personifies Labour’s collective refusal to accept that they spent too much, borrowed too much and left the Coalition with a structural deficit that will take at least two parliaments to wipe out."
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Revealed: Google and Facebook DID allow NSA access to data and were in talks to set up 'spying rooms' despite denials by Zuckerberg and Page over PRISM project
Daily Mail
- Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page both issued blustery statements over recent media reports they gave the National Security Agency officials access to their troves of user information
- Now sources say both tech giants were in discussion about specific ways to give U.S. officials access to their data using virtual classified information reading rooms
- Companies are all compelled by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to hand over any information requested under the law, but they're not required to make access easier
- PRISM data-mining program was launched in 2007 with approval from special federal judges
- Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and PalTalk are involved in spying program
- The UK has had access to the PRISM data since at least 2010
- Details of data collection were outlined in classified 41-slide PowerPoint presentation that was leaked by intelligence officer
Inside America's $1.9billion data mine: How all your private details will soon be stored in this vast NSA nerve center in Utah Valley
Daily Mail
"The personal data and private online conversations that the National Security Administration is accused of mining could be stashed in a one million square-foot, $1.9 billion facility in the Utah Valley. Concerns over what the government will store at the Utah Data Center have been reinvigorated by the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other information to track people's movements and contacts. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and the lesser known Internet company PalTalk are all involved with the PRISM program, which the government insists is for national security. The Utah Data Center which is being constructed on Camp Williams on the Salt Lake-Utah County line will be completed in October - but officials have been tight-lipped about what will be stored there."
"The personal data and private online conversations that the National Security Administration is accused of mining could be stashed in a one million square-foot, $1.9 billion facility in the Utah Valley. Concerns over what the government will store at the Utah Data Center have been reinvigorated by the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other information to track people's movements and contacts. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and the lesser known Internet company PalTalk are all involved with the PRISM program, which the government insists is for national security. The Utah Data Center which is being constructed on Camp Williams on the Salt Lake-Utah County line will be completed in October - but officials have been tight-lipped about what will be stored there."
Friday, 7 June 2013
PRISM scandal: Big Obama is watching you browse the web. Even Bush wasn't this power mad
Telegraph
"No one is suggesting that this all began under Obama. Nixon had his dirty tricks, Teddy Kennedy was an enthusiast for wiretapping mobsters, and George W Bush’s administration created most of the apparatus currently being exploited by Obama’s. But we should reserve special anger for Big Barack for the following reasons:
1. He was for surveillance before he was against it. Obama opposed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the 2008 primaries when he was trying to look all civil libertarian. Once he had the nomination in the bag, he was suddenly for it.
2. He’s a liberal and liberals aren’t supposed to do this sort of thing. That’s presumably why the New York Times – the New York Times! – has produced such a hurt-sounding op-ed stating that he’s “lost all credibility” on civil liberties.
3. Obama has broadened the scope of the Bush plan. Take phone record surveillance. Bush used it to unearth phone calls overseas with the specific goal of tackling terrorism – and when his misdeeds were exposed he created a new programme with judicial oversight to appease liberals. By contrast, Obama’s administration has been monitoring all Verizon domestic calls with an indiscrimination that is an abuse even of the authoritarian Patriot Act.
Finally, Michelle Malkin raises a very good question. On the one hand, Obama recently declared that the War on Terror was basically over. On the other hand, he has stepped up efforts to carry out domestic surveillance. So, why the contradiction? Malkin concludes that while it’s possible that the NSA has a counter-terrorism motive, its moral cause is undermined by the attacks on political enemies and the crazy scope of the snooping. Big government likes power – and it wants more."
"No one is suggesting that this all began under Obama. Nixon had his dirty tricks, Teddy Kennedy was an enthusiast for wiretapping mobsters, and George W Bush’s administration created most of the apparatus currently being exploited by Obama’s. But we should reserve special anger for Big Barack for the following reasons:
1. He was for surveillance before he was against it. Obama opposed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the 2008 primaries when he was trying to look all civil libertarian. Once he had the nomination in the bag, he was suddenly for it.
2. He’s a liberal and liberals aren’t supposed to do this sort of thing. That’s presumably why the New York Times – the New York Times! – has produced such a hurt-sounding op-ed stating that he’s “lost all credibility” on civil liberties.
3. Obama has broadened the scope of the Bush plan. Take phone record surveillance. Bush used it to unearth phone calls overseas with the specific goal of tackling terrorism – and when his misdeeds were exposed he created a new programme with judicial oversight to appease liberals. By contrast, Obama’s administration has been monitoring all Verizon domestic calls with an indiscrimination that is an abuse even of the authoritarian Patriot Act.
Finally, Michelle Malkin raises a very good question. On the one hand, Obama recently declared that the War on Terror was basically over. On the other hand, he has stepped up efforts to carry out domestic surveillance. So, why the contradiction? Malkin concludes that while it’s possible that the NSA has a counter-terrorism motive, its moral cause is undermined by the attacks on political enemies and the crazy scope of the snooping. Big government likes power – and it wants more."
Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge
Washington Post
"The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley."
"The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley."
Internet Giants 'Tapped Into' By US Security
Sky News
"The Obama administration's secret surveillance programme allegedly extends to the monitoring of Americans' activity on the web."
"The Obama administration's secret surveillance programme allegedly extends to the monitoring of Americans' activity on the web."
Leak of NSA order against Verizon could cause irreversible harm to national security, says top intelligence officer
Daily Mail
"At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an 'ongoing, daily basis' the records of its customers' calls. Separately, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported Thursday the existence of another program used by the NSA and FBI that scours the nation's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other information. .......When the first revelation in the case came out Wednesday night about the order against Verizon, The American Civil Liberties Union put out an immediate statement calling for an end to the program - which is scheduled to run until July 19 - and a investigation into the order. 'From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming,' ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. 'It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents. 'It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.'
"At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an 'ongoing, daily basis' the records of its customers' calls. Separately, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported Thursday the existence of another program used by the NSA and FBI that scours the nation's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other information. .......When the first revelation in the case came out Wednesday night about the order against Verizon, The American Civil Liberties Union put out an immediate statement calling for an end to the program - which is scheduled to run until July 19 - and a investigation into the order. 'From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming,' ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. 'It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents. 'It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.'
Thursday, 6 June 2013
Analysis: covert collection of phone records could be devastating for Barack Obama
Telegraph
"The Obama administration will be bracing itself for a torrent of hostile questions this morning following the apparent revelation that the National Security Agency has been data-mining the phone records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans."
"The Obama administration will be bracing itself for a torrent of hostile questions this morning following the apparent revelation that the National Security Agency has been data-mining the phone records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans."
Sunday, 2 June 2013
There's a problem within Islam, says Tony Blair. He should know. He helped create it
Telegraph
"... Blair's ministers and their courtiers in the police poured countless millions of pounds into subsidising some of the very Islamists whose influence they needed to contain. Please, Mr Blair, return to the Middle East, where your mission as a "peace envoy" is yielding what might politely be described as modest results. You've done enough damage here."
"... Blair's ministers and their courtiers in the police poured countless millions of pounds into subsidising some of the very Islamists whose influence they needed to contain. Please, Mr Blair, return to the Middle East, where your mission as a "peace envoy" is yielding what might politely be described as modest results. You've done enough damage here."
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Obama administration calls London terror attack 'senseless violence' – the same language President Obama used over Benghazi
Telegraph
"It’s time for President Obama to acknowledge reality. This is a global war between the free world and the forces of Islamist terror. These are not acts of “senseless violence.” They are acts of brutal terrorism aimed against Great Britain, the United States and all who defend the principles of liberty, freedom and Western-style democracy. It is important that political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic identify exactly who the enemy is, what their aims are, and why they must be emphatically defeated."
"It’s time for President Obama to acknowledge reality. This is a global war between the free world and the forces of Islamist terror. These are not acts of “senseless violence.” They are acts of brutal terrorism aimed against Great Britain, the United States and all who defend the principles of liberty, freedom and Western-style democracy. It is important that political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic identify exactly who the enemy is, what their aims are, and why they must be emphatically defeated."
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Barack Obama is rapidly losing his halo
Telegraph
"Mr Obama has superficially liberal credentials, but it turns out his administration has launched more leak prosecutions than all previous administrations combined. Add to this his distinctly authoritarian record on drones, and this becomes about more than hacks with noses out of joint. It starts to look pretty fundamental. Dana Milbank, The Washington Post columnist, makes the same point, only more emotively calling the Rosen affair “as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of.” You might dismiss all this as media back-biting or petulance, but even if that’s the case, it matters because when Obama is losing liberal allies like the NYT editorial board and Washington Post columnists then – to borrow that apocryphal phrase of LBJ about Walter Cronkite’s support for Vietnam – he’s in serious danger of losing the war."
"Mr Obama has superficially liberal credentials, but it turns out his administration has launched more leak prosecutions than all previous administrations combined. Add to this his distinctly authoritarian record on drones, and this becomes about more than hacks with noses out of joint. It starts to look pretty fundamental. Dana Milbank, The Washington Post columnist, makes the same point, only more emotively calling the Rosen affair “as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of.” You might dismiss all this as media back-biting or petulance, but even if that’s the case, it matters because when Obama is losing liberal allies like the NYT editorial board and Washington Post columnists then – to borrow that apocryphal phrase of LBJ about Walter Cronkite’s support for Vietnam – he’s in serious danger of losing the war."
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Failures
Real Science
- Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
- SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
- Solyndra ($535 million)*
- Beacon Power ($43 million)*
- Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
- SunPower ($1.2 billion)
- First Solar ($1.46 billion)
- Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
- EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
- Amonix ($5.9 million)
- Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
- Abound Solar ($400 million)*
- A123 Systems ($279 million)*
- Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
- Johnson Controls ($299 million)
- Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
- ECOtality ($126.2 million)
- Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
- Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
- Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
- Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
- Range Fuels ($80 million)*
- Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
- Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
- Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
- GreenVolts ($500,000)
- Vestas ($50 million)
- LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
- Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
- Navistar ($39 million)
- Satcon ($3 million)*
- Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
- Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)
Monday, 20 May 2013
Obama's Counsel Was Told of IRS Audit Findings Weeks Ago
WSJ
"Of the controversies dogging Mr. Obama, including the terrorist assault in Benghazi, Libya, and the Justice Department's seizure of phone records of Associated Press journalists, the IRS case "is the most nuclear issue of all," Mr. Davis said. It involves the "misuse of the IRS" and "anyone who knew about this a few weeks ago and didn't tell the president shouldn't be in the White House," Mr. Davis said."
"Of the controversies dogging Mr. Obama, including the terrorist assault in Benghazi, Libya, and the Justice Department's seizure of phone records of Associated Press journalists, the IRS case "is the most nuclear issue of all," Mr. Davis said. It involves the "misuse of the IRS" and "anyone who knew about this a few weeks ago and didn't tell the president shouldn't be in the White House," Mr. Davis said."
Strassel: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top
WSJ
"The Obama call for scrutiny wasn't a mistake; it was the president's strategy—one pursued throughout 2012. The way to limit Romney money was to intimidate donors from giving. Donate, and the president would at best tie you to Big Oil or Wall Street, at worst put your name in bold, and flag you as "less than reputable" to everyone who worked for him: the IRS, the SEC, the Justice Department. The president didn't need a telephone; he had a megaphone. The same threat was made to conservative groups that might dare play in the election. As early as January 2010, Mr. Obama would, in his state of the union address, cast aspersions on the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, claiming that it "reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests" (read conservative groups). The president derided "tea baggers." Vice President Joe Biden compared them to "terrorists." In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. "Nobody knows who's paying for these ads," he warned. "We don't know where this money is coming from," he intoned. .."
"The Obama call for scrutiny wasn't a mistake; it was the president's strategy—one pursued throughout 2012. The way to limit Romney money was to intimidate donors from giving. Donate, and the president would at best tie you to Big Oil or Wall Street, at worst put your name in bold, and flag you as "less than reputable" to everyone who worked for him: the IRS, the SEC, the Justice Department. The president didn't need a telephone; he had a megaphone. The same threat was made to conservative groups that might dare play in the election. As early as January 2010, Mr. Obama would, in his state of the union address, cast aspersions on the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, claiming that it "reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests" (read conservative groups). The president derided "tea baggers." Vice President Joe Biden compared them to "terrorists." In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. "Nobody knows who's paying for these ads," he warned. "We don't know where this money is coming from," he intoned. .."
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Barack Obama's Presidency Is Imploding
Business Insider
"Political analyst Michael Barone warned back in October 2008 of what he called “The Coming Liberal Thugocracy,” referring to then Senator Obama’s call for his supporters “to get in their face” when confronting Republicans and Independents. Barone argued at the time that “Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Mr. Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech they don’t like and seem utterly oblivious to claims this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment.”
Barone’s predictions have been proved correct. As I’ve noted in previous pieces, this is a nasty, brutish, imperial-style presidency that is highly intolerant of dissent, and which goes out of its way to target political opponents. It is ironic that one of the journalists threatened by the Obama White House in recent months has been Bob Woodward, one of two Washington Post reporters who originally broke the Watergate scandal, and who was immortalised in the 1976 Oscar winner All The President’s Men, where he was played by Robert Redford. Woodward was warned back in February by White House economic adviser Gene Sperling that he would “regret” remarks he made on the sequester issue. Other writers, including Bill Clinton’s former special counsel Lanny Davis, have faced similar threats.
....This week, thanks to unprecedented levels of Congressional and mainstream media scrutiny of the actions of the Obama administration, the American people have been given a powerful insight into the way in which this presidency has operated. For far too long, the Obama administration has acted like an imperial court rather than a government that is accountable to the nation. The White House’s culture of arrogance and impunity, coupled with a deeply unpleasant vindictiveness, is increasingly there for all to see. Suppression of political dissent, a callous disregard for the loss of American life in Benghazi, and the relentless rise of big government – these will be three of the most of enduring images of Barack Obama’s imperial presidency."
"Political analyst Michael Barone warned back in October 2008 of what he called “The Coming Liberal Thugocracy,” referring to then Senator Obama’s call for his supporters “to get in their face” when confronting Republicans and Independents. Barone argued at the time that “Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Mr. Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech they don’t like and seem utterly oblivious to claims this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment.”
Barone’s predictions have been proved correct. As I’ve noted in previous pieces, this is a nasty, brutish, imperial-style presidency that is highly intolerant of dissent, and which goes out of its way to target political opponents. It is ironic that one of the journalists threatened by the Obama White House in recent months has been Bob Woodward, one of two Washington Post reporters who originally broke the Watergate scandal, and who was immortalised in the 1976 Oscar winner All The President’s Men, where he was played by Robert Redford. Woodward was warned back in February by White House economic adviser Gene Sperling that he would “regret” remarks he made on the sequester issue. Other writers, including Bill Clinton’s former special counsel Lanny Davis, have faced similar threats.
....This week, thanks to unprecedented levels of Congressional and mainstream media scrutiny of the actions of the Obama administration, the American people have been given a powerful insight into the way in which this presidency has operated. For far too long, the Obama administration has acted like an imperial court rather than a government that is accountable to the nation. The White House’s culture of arrogance and impunity, coupled with a deeply unpleasant vindictiveness, is increasingly there for all to see. Suppression of political dissent, a callous disregard for the loss of American life in Benghazi, and the relentless rise of big government – these will be three of the most of enduring images of Barack Obama’s imperial presidency."
The truth at last! Peter Mandelson admits Labour 'sent out search parties' to bring migrants here after losing the votes of the working class
Daily Mail
"Mandelson, together with the ruthlessly ambitious young men and women who would subsequently form the nucleus of New Labour in the mid-Nineties, concluded that if they could no longer take the support of the white working class for granted, they would have to import a new working class from overseas. Yet they have always denied that the mass immigration unleashed after Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide was a deliberate policy driven by naked political self-interest. Until now, that is. .....It was an astonishing admission, the first time someone at the very heart of the New Labour project has confirmed that Britain’s border controls were cynically dismantled. When former Labour adviser Andrew Neather said three years ago that mass immigration was a ploy intended to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’ his claims were categorically rebutted by Labour leaders. Mass immigration was never once mentioned in any Labour manifesto. No one voted for it. A policy which was to change the face of Britain irrevocably was smuggled in under the radar purely for long-term electoral and short-term economic advantage. The assumption was that the new arrivals would all become naturalised and return the favour by voting Labour."
"Mandelson, together with the ruthlessly ambitious young men and women who would subsequently form the nucleus of New Labour in the mid-Nineties, concluded that if they could no longer take the support of the white working class for granted, they would have to import a new working class from overseas. Yet they have always denied that the mass immigration unleashed after Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide was a deliberate policy driven by naked political self-interest. Until now, that is. .....It was an astonishing admission, the first time someone at the very heart of the New Labour project has confirmed that Britain’s border controls were cynically dismantled. When former Labour adviser Andrew Neather said three years ago that mass immigration was a ploy intended to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’ his claims were categorically rebutted by Labour leaders. Mass immigration was never once mentioned in any Labour manifesto. No one voted for it. A policy which was to change the face of Britain irrevocably was smuggled in under the radar purely for long-term electoral and short-term economic advantage. The assumption was that the new arrivals would all become naturalised and return the favour by voting Labour."
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Immigrants now make up 13% of the British population as it’s revealed more Europeans arrived in the UK in the past decade than in the previous 50 years
Daily Mail
"7.5million people born outside of UK now live in Britain, 2011 Census found Huge numbers came from Europe in past ten years - majority from Poland 3.4million people born outside the UK had British passport in 2011"
"7.5million people born outside of UK now live in Britain, 2011 Census found Huge numbers came from Europe in past ten years - majority from Poland 3.4million people born outside the UK had British passport in 2011"
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Obama Campaign Chairman Used Illegal IRS Documents, And Said They Were From A “Whistleblower”
Real Science
"One of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). In early April 2012, NOM published documents which it said showed this leaked confidential information did not come from a “whistleblower” but “came directly from the Internal Revenue Service and was provided to NOM’s political opponents, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).”
"One of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). In early April 2012, NOM published documents which it said showed this leaked confidential information did not come from a “whistleblower” but “came directly from the Internal Revenue Service and was provided to NOM’s political opponents, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).”
Scandals crowd in on Obama as 'secondterm-itis' strikes
NZherald
"Most people expected the all-too-familiar Washington disease to set in, but few predicted the symptoms would appear so quickly. Six months after his triumphant re-election, "secondterm-itis" has struck President Barack Obama, beset by simultaneous scandals that could scotch his already slender hopes of driving legislation through Congress. The turnaround is all the more startling in that previously the Obama White House had been almost eerily scandal-free, the only blemish being a failed solar energy company named Solyndra. But Republicans failed to show that US$400 million ($490 million) of taxpayers' money poured into Solyndra was anything worse than a high-tech bet gone sour. However, the Administration is suddenly on the defensive on three fronts: its handling of the aftermath of the Benghazi attack last September, the targeting by US tax authorities of conservative political groups, and now the secret seizure by the Justice Department of phone records for reporters at the Associated Press, in its pursuit of a leak of information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year."
"Most people expected the all-too-familiar Washington disease to set in, but few predicted the symptoms would appear so quickly. Six months after his triumphant re-election, "secondterm-itis" has struck President Barack Obama, beset by simultaneous scandals that could scotch his already slender hopes of driving legislation through Congress. The turnaround is all the more startling in that previously the Obama White House had been almost eerily scandal-free, the only blemish being a failed solar energy company named Solyndra. But Republicans failed to show that US$400 million ($490 million) of taxpayers' money poured into Solyndra was anything worse than a high-tech bet gone sour. However, the Administration is suddenly on the defensive on three fronts: its handling of the aftermath of the Benghazi attack last September, the targeting by US tax authorities of conservative political groups, and now the secret seizure by the Justice Department of phone records for reporters at the Associated Press, in its pursuit of a leak of information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year."
White House Illegally Obtained Koch Brothers Tax Records In 2010
Real Science
"The tax records of Koch Industries — a private company – would not have been public information and therefore should not have been known to Goolsbee. At the time, the Obama team backpedaled and said the information was made public in two places – which turned out to be untrue. Then the Obama administration said Goolsbee had misspoken and that he had guessed the company’s confidential tax information. At the time, the IRS had promised to look into the Goolsbee gaffe but a report was never publicly released."
"The tax records of Koch Industries — a private company – would not have been public information and therefore should not have been known to Goolsbee. At the time, the Obama team backpedaled and said the information was made public in two places – which turned out to be untrue. Then the Obama administration said Goolsbee had misspoken and that he had guessed the company’s confidential tax information. At the time, the IRS had promised to look into the Goolsbee gaffe but a report was never publicly released."
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Praise Giles, and save victims of the “stolen generations” myth
Andrew Bolt (Australia)
" Adam Giles doesn’t like being racially typecast as the first indigenous Chief Minister, yet his heritage gives him license to tackle the ”stolen generations” myth that has left so many Aboriginal children in danger - and led to some being raped or killed: NORTHERN Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles says he will remove neglected Aboriginal children from their parents and place them in adopted homes if necessary. Mr Giles, Australia’s first indigenous state or territory leader, said governments had failed Aboriginal children because of fears they would be accused of creating a new Stolen Generation, but he would not be put off by such accusations… Mr Giles said despite the federal intervention, only one Aboriginal child had been adopted in the past decade. “There are situations in the Northern Territory where nobody has been prepared to support a permanent adoption of a child for fear of Stolen Generation...”
I have tried to warn of this for years, and been called a racist for it:..."
" Adam Giles doesn’t like being racially typecast as the first indigenous Chief Minister, yet his heritage gives him license to tackle the ”stolen generations” myth that has left so many Aboriginal children in danger - and led to some being raped or killed: NORTHERN Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles says he will remove neglected Aboriginal children from their parents and place them in adopted homes if necessary. Mr Giles, Australia’s first indigenous state or territory leader, said governments had failed Aboriginal children because of fears they would be accused of creating a new Stolen Generation, but he would not be put off by such accusations… Mr Giles said despite the federal intervention, only one Aboriginal child had been adopted in the past decade. “There are situations in the Northern Territory where nobody has been prepared to support a permanent adoption of a child for fear of Stolen Generation...”
I have tried to warn of this for years, and been called a racist for it:..."
Big Government rounds up its critics
Andrew Bolt (Australia)
"Astonishing. The US Internal Revenue Service singled out conservative political groups for treatment, demonstrating how easily Big Government can be turned against critics of the politicians who promote it: ......"
"Astonishing. The US Internal Revenue Service singled out conservative political groups for treatment, demonstrating how easily Big Government can be turned against critics of the politicians who promote it: ......"
What Obama Does And Doesn’t Know
Real Science
Things Obama doesn’t know :
Things Obama doesn’t know :
- He doesn’t know that he was running assault rifles to Mexican drug lords
- He doesn’t know that he was using the IRS to attack political opponents
- He doesn’t know that he has been wiretapping the press
- He doesn’t know that he let Ambassador Stevens die, and then lied about it the families of the victims
- He doesn’t know that he has tripled the deficit
- He doesn’t know that he is the most divisive president in US history
- He doesn’t know that his pastor of 20 years in an America hating racist
- All scientists agree that CO2 is going to kill us all
Benghazi stinks – but it won't be Obama's Watergate. Unfortunately
Telegraph
"I've just been watching the riveting live coverage of Congress's investigation into the Benghazi disaster in which US ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered by Al Qaeda affiliates while the Obama administration stood by and let it happen. What becomes clearer than ever, listening to the testimony of America's most senior surviving man on the ground Greg Hicks, is that the whole business reeks of the most concerted presidential cover up since Watergate. .......Can you imagine how differently the Benghazi story would have played had it been on Dubya's watch? Let alone Nixon's? It would have been the scandal that destroyed the presidency. And properly so. Yet the way the US media has responded – with notable exceptions like Fox and talk radio, of course – you'd think that the murder of Ambassador Stevens and three of his staff by terrorists, and subsequent cover-up operation, was an event of no consequence in a far off country of which we know very little and would be better off knowing even less."
"I've just been watching the riveting live coverage of Congress's investigation into the Benghazi disaster in which US ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered by Al Qaeda affiliates while the Obama administration stood by and let it happen. What becomes clearer than ever, listening to the testimony of America's most senior surviving man on the ground Greg Hicks, is that the whole business reeks of the most concerted presidential cover up since Watergate. .......Can you imagine how differently the Benghazi story would have played had it been on Dubya's watch? Let alone Nixon's? It would have been the scandal that destroyed the presidency. And properly so. Yet the way the US media has responded – with notable exceptions like Fox and talk radio, of course – you'd think that the murder of Ambassador Stevens and three of his staff by terrorists, and subsequent cover-up operation, was an event of no consequence in a far off country of which we know very little and would be better off knowing even less."
Monday, 13 May 2013
Barack Obama’s top ten insults against Britain – 2013 edition
Telegraph
"Since first taking office in 2009, the Obama presidency has displayed what can only be described as a sneering disdain and contempt for America’s most important ally, an approach which has continued into Obama’s second term. Barack Obama has been the most anti-British US president of modern times, even kicking off his first term with a decision to remove a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and send it packing to the British Embassy. He followed this with a sustained campaign against Britain’s biggest company, with his press secretary Robert Gibbs threatening to put a “boot to the throat” of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill of 2010.
The Obama administration has also sided with Argentine president Cristina Kirchner in calling for UN-brokered negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, and flat out refuses to back the Falkland Islanders’ right to self-determination despite the recent referendum which showed that 99.8 percent of the inhabitants of the Falklands wish to remain a British Overseas Territory."
"Since first taking office in 2009, the Obama presidency has displayed what can only be described as a sneering disdain and contempt for America’s most important ally, an approach which has continued into Obama’s second term. Barack Obama has been the most anti-British US president of modern times, even kicking off his first term with a decision to remove a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and send it packing to the British Embassy. He followed this with a sustained campaign against Britain’s biggest company, with his press secretary Robert Gibbs threatening to put a “boot to the throat” of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill of 2010.
The Obama administration has also sided with Argentine president Cristina Kirchner in calling for UN-brokered negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, and flat out refuses to back the Falkland Islanders’ right to self-determination despite the recent referendum which showed that 99.8 percent of the inhabitants of the Falklands wish to remain a British Overseas Territory."
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Nice but dim: Voters' damning verdict of Ed Miliband who they do not think will take the unpopular decisions that Britain needs
Daily Mail
"Voters believe Ed Miliband’s Labour party is ‘nice but dim’ and not capable of taking the tough decisions needed as Prime Minister, damning new polling reveals. The Labour leader is seen weaker, less charismatic and worse in a crisis than David Cameron, as pollsters warn he will have to ‘defy history’ to take power after just one term in opposition. But the most damaging revelation is that voters see Mr Miliband as more like Harry Enfield’s character Tim Nice But Dim than a future Prime Minister."
"Voters believe Ed Miliband’s Labour party is ‘nice but dim’ and not capable of taking the tough decisions needed as Prime Minister, damning new polling reveals. The Labour leader is seen weaker, less charismatic and worse in a crisis than David Cameron, as pollsters warn he will have to ‘defy history’ to take power after just one term in opposition. But the most damaging revelation is that voters see Mr Miliband as more like Harry Enfield’s character Tim Nice But Dim than a future Prime Minister."
Spain is officially insolvent: get your money out while you still can
Telegraph
"...All this leads to the conclusion that a big Spanish debt restructuring is inevitable. Spanish sovereign bond yields have fallen sharply since announcement of the European Central Bank's "outright monetary transactions" programme. The ECB has promised to print money without limit to counter the speculators. But in the end, no amount of liquidity can cover up for an underlying problem with solvency. Europe said that Greece was the first and last such restructuring, but then there was Cyprus. Spain is holding off further recapitalisation of its banks in anticipation of the arrival of Europe's banking union, which it hopes will do the job instead. But if the Cypriot precedent is anything to go by, a heavy price will be demanded by way of recompense. Bank creditors will be widely bailed in. Confiscation of deposits looks all too possible. I don't advise getting your money out lightly. Indeed, such advise is generally thought grossly irresponsible, for it risks inducing a self reinforcing panic. Yet looking at the IMF projections, it's the only rational thing to do. PS. I don't include creditors of the British arm of Santander in this warning, who are ring fenced from the mothership back bome in Spain, theoretically at least."
"...All this leads to the conclusion that a big Spanish debt restructuring is inevitable. Spanish sovereign bond yields have fallen sharply since announcement of the European Central Bank's "outright monetary transactions" programme. The ECB has promised to print money without limit to counter the speculators. But in the end, no amount of liquidity can cover up for an underlying problem with solvency. Europe said that Greece was the first and last such restructuring, but then there was Cyprus. Spain is holding off further recapitalisation of its banks in anticipation of the arrival of Europe's banking union, which it hopes will do the job instead. But if the Cypriot precedent is anything to go by, a heavy price will be demanded by way of recompense. Bank creditors will be widely bailed in. Confiscation of deposits looks all too possible. I don't advise getting your money out lightly. Indeed, such advise is generally thought grossly irresponsible, for it risks inducing a self reinforcing panic. Yet looking at the IMF projections, it's the only rational thing to do. PS. I don't include creditors of the British arm of Santander in this warning, who are ring fenced from the mothership back bome in Spain, theoretically at least."
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
My immigrant family were proud to assimilate. I despair that too many today expect Britain to adopt THEIR culture
Daily Mail
"Like most people, I did not see 9/11 coming. But the moment the Twin Towers collapsed, I realised the West was facing something different from ordinary terrorism or war by one state on another. This was more akin to a cancer in the global bloodstream. It had to be fought with all the weapons, both military and cultural, at our disposal. ‘This is where the world divides,’ I wrote. ‘Are you for us or against us? Are you prepared to do everything it takes to stand against terror, or are you going to succour it by word or deed? ‘Liberal values will be protected only if Christianity holds the line as our dominant culture. A society which professes neutrality between cultures will create a void which Islam, with its militant political creed, will attempt to fill.’ But I knew the West would flinch from this fight. It had lost its moral compass. It no longer recognised the difference between good and evil or the validity of preferring some cultures to others, but had decided instead that all such concepts were relative. It would most likely take the path of appeasement rather than the measures needed to defend itself from the attempt to destroy it. And so it has proved."
"Like most people, I did not see 9/11 coming. But the moment the Twin Towers collapsed, I realised the West was facing something different from ordinary terrorism or war by one state on another. This was more akin to a cancer in the global bloodstream. It had to be fought with all the weapons, both military and cultural, at our disposal. ‘This is where the world divides,’ I wrote. ‘Are you for us or against us? Are you prepared to do everything it takes to stand against terror, or are you going to succour it by word or deed? ‘Liberal values will be protected only if Christianity holds the line as our dominant culture. A society which professes neutrality between cultures will create a void which Islam, with its militant political creed, will attempt to fill.’ But I knew the West would flinch from this fight. It had lost its moral compass. It no longer recognised the difference between good and evil or the validity of preferring some cultures to others, but had decided instead that all such concepts were relative. It would most likely take the path of appeasement rather than the measures needed to defend itself from the attempt to destroy it. And so it has proved."
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Stupidity of Cameron's priorities: gay marriage, foreign aid and wind farms. No wonder Tory voters feel closer to me
Daily Mail
"Does he consider himself more of a real Tory than Cameron? ‘Good Lord yes,’ he chunters. ‘He’s not a Tory, he’s a socialist. Tory voters feel much closer to me than their own leader. ‘His priorities are gay marriage, foreign aid and wind farms. They’re not mine.’
"Does he consider himself more of a real Tory than Cameron? ‘Good Lord yes,’ he chunters. ‘He’s not a Tory, he’s a socialist. Tory voters feel much closer to me than their own leader. ‘His priorities are gay marriage, foreign aid and wind farms. They’re not mine.’
Monday, 22 April 2013
A sitter for Miliband, but he still can’t score
Telegraph
"An Ipsos Mori poll in Thursday’s London Evening Standard found that an overwhelming majority of voters, 66 per cent, do not think the Labour leader is ready to become PM. Only one in four believes he is up to the job. What is his problem? Why can’t he smash the ball into the net? The answer, perhaps, was delivered 24 hours later in the Independent newspaper, which reported: “Labour bets the house with pledge to outspend Tories”. That is, of course, a legitimate policy, but it will gain little traction until the party tells us by how much and on what. ..... Between 2003 and 2007, in what we mistook for boom years, Labour borrowed £160 billion. Its leaders were reckless in a time of plenty. If it is to be given a second chance, we need to see the small print. Is it higher taxes to fund more spending? Or will it be even more borrowing? And if there are to be cuts, whose heads are on the chopping block? We know that what Mr Brown called “Labour investment” was, in part, “Labour consumption”."
"An Ipsos Mori poll in Thursday’s London Evening Standard found that an overwhelming majority of voters, 66 per cent, do not think the Labour leader is ready to become PM. Only one in four believes he is up to the job. What is his problem? Why can’t he smash the ball into the net? The answer, perhaps, was delivered 24 hours later in the Independent newspaper, which reported: “Labour bets the house with pledge to outspend Tories”. That is, of course, a legitimate policy, but it will gain little traction until the party tells us by how much and on what. ..... Between 2003 and 2007, in what we mistook for boom years, Labour borrowed £160 billion. Its leaders were reckless in a time of plenty. If it is to be given a second chance, we need to see the small print. Is it higher taxes to fund more spending? Or will it be even more borrowing? And if there are to be cuts, whose heads are on the chopping block? We know that what Mr Brown called “Labour investment” was, in part, “Labour consumption”."
Monday, 15 April 2013
Business news and markets: live
Telegraph
"Breaking news from the business world as China's economic growth slows to 7.7pc in the first quarter of 2013 and gold falls to its lowest level in two years."
"Breaking news from the business world as China's economic growth slows to 7.7pc in the first quarter of 2013 and gold falls to its lowest level in two years."
Thursday, 11 April 2013
EMU plot curdles as creditors seize Cyprus gold reserves
Telegraph
"First they purloin the savings and bank deposits in Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus, including the working funds of the University of Cyprus, and thousands of small firms hanging on by their fingertips. Then they seize three quarters of the country’s gold reserves, making it ever harder for Cyprus to extricate itself from EMU at a later date. The people of Cyprus first learned about this from a Reuters leak of the working documents for the Eurogroup meeting on Friday. It is tucked away in clause 29. "Sale of excess gold reserves: The Cypriot authorities have committed to sell the excess amount of gold reserves owned by the Republic. This is estimated to generate one-off revenues to the state of €400m via an extraordinary payout of central bank profits." This seemed to catch the central bank by surprise. Officials said they knew nothing about it. So who in fact made this decision?"
"First they purloin the savings and bank deposits in Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus, including the working funds of the University of Cyprus, and thousands of small firms hanging on by their fingertips. Then they seize three quarters of the country’s gold reserves, making it ever harder for Cyprus to extricate itself from EMU at a later date. The people of Cyprus first learned about this from a Reuters leak of the working documents for the Eurogroup meeting on Friday. It is tucked away in clause 29. "Sale of excess gold reserves: The Cypriot authorities have committed to sell the excess amount of gold reserves owned by the Republic. This is estimated to generate one-off revenues to the state of €400m via an extraordinary payout of central bank profits." This seemed to catch the central bank by surprise. Officials said they knew nothing about it. So who in fact made this decision?"
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Margaret Thatcher Was Freakishly Correct About Why The Euro Would Be Such A Big Disaster
Business Insider
"Margaret Thatcher was an incredibly polarizing figure, but everyone should be able to agree that she was absolutely spot on about why the Euro would be such a disaster. As Peter Oborne reported in the Telegraph In 2010, Thatcher's two autobiographies, "The Downing Street Years" (1993) and "The Path To Power" (1995) discussed the tactics she would use to argue against the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union), which she wanted no part of. Basically, she outlined the problems with the euro perfectly, that Germany would chafe at the inevitable need for greater inflation, and that the poorer countries would inevitably be uncompetitive and need bailouts that would not easily be forthcoming. This paragraph is from "The Path To Power," where she discusses conversations with John Major (her successor) about negotiating with the rest of Europe. She just totally nails the inflation and competitiveness angles."
"Margaret Thatcher was an incredibly polarizing figure, but everyone should be able to agree that she was absolutely spot on about why the Euro would be such a disaster. As Peter Oborne reported in the Telegraph In 2010, Thatcher's two autobiographies, "The Downing Street Years" (1993) and "The Path To Power" (1995) discussed the tactics she would use to argue against the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union), which she wanted no part of. Basically, she outlined the problems with the euro perfectly, that Germany would chafe at the inevitable need for greater inflation, and that the poorer countries would inevitably be uncompetitive and need bailouts that would not easily be forthcoming. This paragraph is from "The Path To Power," where she discusses conversations with John Major (her successor) about negotiating with the rest of Europe. She just totally nails the inflation and competitiveness angles."
Lest we forget how terrible things were: The woman who saved Britain - the verdict of three historians
Daily Mail
"Britain was on its knees on May 3, 1979 when Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister. Ever since World War II, politicians had made it their priority to manage what they considered to be its inevitable decline. Mrs Thatcher was having none of that. Her priority was to make Britain powerful again, economically, if not strategically. And by 1983 — the end of her first term — it was clear she had succeeded. It is hard to exaggerate the pitiful state of Britain in the Seventies. The reckless economic policy of Mrs Thatcher’s predecessor as Tory leader, Ted Heath, who between 1970 and 1974 printed money as though it were going out of fashion, had left a legacy of high inflation, peaking at 27 per cent in 1975."
"Britain was on its knees on May 3, 1979 when Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister. Ever since World War II, politicians had made it their priority to manage what they considered to be its inevitable decline. Mrs Thatcher was having none of that. Her priority was to make Britain powerful again, economically, if not strategically. And by 1983 — the end of her first term — it was clear she had succeeded. It is hard to exaggerate the pitiful state of Britain in the Seventies. The reckless economic policy of Mrs Thatcher’s predecessor as Tory leader, Ted Heath, who between 1970 and 1974 printed money as though it were going out of fashion, had left a legacy of high inflation, peaking at 27 per cent in 1975."
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Helicopter QE will never be reversed
Telegraph
"Readers of the Daily Telegraph were right all along. Quantitative easing will never be reversed. It is not liquidity management as claimed so vehemently at the outset. It really is the same as printing money."
"Readers of the Daily Telegraph were right all along. Quantitative easing will never be reversed. It is not liquidity management as claimed so vehemently at the outset. It really is the same as printing money."
No, comrades. Welfare reform isn't about hurting poor people. It's about trying to make them richer
Daily Mail
"The Left’s language is now so twisted that words have lost their ordinary meanings. The ‘bedroom tax’ is in fact a re-allocation of housing benefit away from people with spare rooms towards people without. Whatever else we call it, it’s not a tax. Yet the reduction in top-rate tax — which really is a tax — is called ‘writing a cheque to millionaires’.Liam Byrne, the former Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury, even has the gall to describe the 45p top rate of tax as ‘a bonanza for the rich’. But what was the rate during all but the final month of Labour’s 13 years in office? Forty per cent."
Labour's addiction to welfare hurts us all
"The Left’s language is now so twisted that words have lost their ordinary meanings. The ‘bedroom tax’ is in fact a re-allocation of housing benefit away from people with spare rooms towards people without. Whatever else we call it, it’s not a tax. Yet the reduction in top-rate tax — which really is a tax — is called ‘writing a cheque to millionaires’.Liam Byrne, the former Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury, even has the gall to describe the 45p top rate of tax as ‘a bonanza for the rich’. But what was the rate during all but the final month of Labour’s 13 years in office? Forty per cent."
Labour's addiction to welfare hurts us all
Monday, 1 April 2013
DAVID STOCKMAN: We've Been Lied To, Robbed, And Misled
BusinessInsider
"Then, when the Fed’s fire hoses started spraying an elephant soup of liquidity injections in every direction and its balance sheet grew by $1.3 trillion in just thirteen weeks compared to $850 billion during its first ninety-four years, I became convinced that the Fed was flying by the seat of its pants, making it up as it went along. It was evident that its aim was to stop the hissy fit on Wall Street and that the thread of a Great Depression 2.0 was just a cover story for a panicked spree of money printing that exceeded any other episode in recorded human history."
"Then, when the Fed’s fire hoses started spraying an elephant soup of liquidity injections in every direction and its balance sheet grew by $1.3 trillion in just thirteen weeks compared to $850 billion during its first ninety-four years, I became convinced that the Fed was flying by the seat of its pants, making it up as it went along. It was evident that its aim was to stop the hissy fit on Wall Street and that the thread of a Great Depression 2.0 was just a cover story for a panicked spree of money printing that exceeded any other episode in recorded human history."
Shock News : Bank Bailout Was A Fraud
Real Science
"Of course, history shows that our markets and economy would have been better off had the system been allowed to correct. Most of the “too big to fail” institutions would have survived or been broken into smaller, more resilient, entities. For those that would have failed, smaller, more responsible banks would have stepped up to replace them – as happens as part of the natural course of a free market system:..."
"Of course, history shows that our markets and economy would have been better off had the system been allowed to correct. Most of the “too big to fail” institutions would have survived or been broken into smaller, more resilient, entities. For those that would have failed, smaller, more responsible banks would have stepped up to replace them – as happens as part of the natural course of a free market system:..."
Friday, 29 March 2013
'Turn immigrants away to save British jobs': Politicians say closing the border would bring down unemployment
Daily Mail
"Britain’s borders should be closed to immigrants while the country’s own citizens are struggling to find jobs, a group of MPs said last night. Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, chairmen of the influential Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration, said the Government should be able to block immigration during periods of high unemployment. The two MPs, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said Britain is facing an influx of people at an ‘unsustainable level’ despite the Coalition’s measures to reduce immigration.Mr Field is a Labour MP who served as Welfare Minister in Tony Blair’s first Government and Conservative Mr Soames was Defence Minister under John Major. They said David Cameron specifically needs to tackle the EU - which they described as ‘the elephant in the room’. And they said next year’s expected wave of immigration from Bulgaria and Romania means that the need to tackle the issue ‘could not be more stark’."
"Britain’s borders should be closed to immigrants while the country’s own citizens are struggling to find jobs, a group of MPs said last night. Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, chairmen of the influential Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration, said the Government should be able to block immigration during periods of high unemployment. The two MPs, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said Britain is facing an influx of people at an ‘unsustainable level’ despite the Coalition’s measures to reduce immigration.Mr Field is a Labour MP who served as Welfare Minister in Tony Blair’s first Government and Conservative Mr Soames was Defence Minister under John Major. They said David Cameron specifically needs to tackle the EU - which they described as ‘the elephant in the room’. And they said next year’s expected wave of immigration from Bulgaria and Romania means that the need to tackle the issue ‘could not be more stark’."
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Cyprus has finally killed myth that EMU is benign
Telegraph
"The punishment regime imposed on Cyprus is a trick against everybody involved in this squalid saga, against the Cypriot people and the German people, against savers and creditors. All are being deceived. It is not a bail-out. There is no debt relief for the state of Cyprus. The Diktat will push the island’s debt ratio to 120pc in short order, with a high risk of an economic death spiral, a la Grecque. Capital controls have shattered the monetary unity of EMU. A Cypriot euro is no longer a core euro. We wait to hear the first stories of shops across Europe refusing to accept euro notes issued by Cyprus, with a G in the serial number."
"The punishment regime imposed on Cyprus is a trick against everybody involved in this squalid saga, against the Cypriot people and the German people, against savers and creditors. All are being deceived. It is not a bail-out. There is no debt relief for the state of Cyprus. The Diktat will push the island’s debt ratio to 120pc in short order, with a high risk of an economic death spiral, a la Grecque. Capital controls have shattered the monetary unity of EMU. A Cypriot euro is no longer a core euro. We wait to hear the first stories of shops across Europe refusing to accept euro notes issued by Cyprus, with a G in the serial number."
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Julia Gillard to leave Australians in $165 billion dollars worth of debt this term alone
Herald Sun (Australia)
"GILLARD Government debt levels are forecast to blow out by 60 per cent to $165 billion in this term alone - equal to more than $14,000 for every working Australian. Analysis of Budget documents reveals that between the 2010 election and Federal Treasury's update in October last year, the 2012-13 net debt estimate rose $54 billion to $144 billion. ....Ahead of the budget, the Coalition is honing in on a number even larger than net debt - the total value of bonds and other securities issued by the Government, or gross debt, which has ballooned from $151 billion at the 2010 poll to $267 billion now. In the last budget the Government raised the gross "debt ceiling" from $250 billion to $300 billion. ....To repay the debt, cuts were required "almost everywhere", Professor Madsen said, and the GST rate could need to be raised. Mr Eslake said not only would spending have to be reined in, but the current $111 billion a year in tax concessions could have to be wound back."
ED:In 2007 before the Rudd/Gillard Labor Govts Australia had NO debt
"GILLARD Government debt levels are forecast to blow out by 60 per cent to $165 billion in this term alone - equal to more than $14,000 for every working Australian. Analysis of Budget documents reveals that between the 2010 election and Federal Treasury's update in October last year, the 2012-13 net debt estimate rose $54 billion to $144 billion. ....Ahead of the budget, the Coalition is honing in on a number even larger than net debt - the total value of bonds and other securities issued by the Government, or gross debt, which has ballooned from $151 billion at the 2010 poll to $267 billion now. In the last budget the Government raised the gross "debt ceiling" from $250 billion to $300 billion. ....To repay the debt, cuts were required "almost everywhere", Professor Madsen said, and the GST rate could need to be raised. Mr Eslake said not only would spending have to be reined in, but the current $111 billion a year in tax concessions could have to be wound back."
ED:In 2007 before the Rudd/Gillard Labor Govts Australia had NO debt
One of the nastiest and most immoral political acts in modern times
Daily Mail
"People who rob old ladies in the street, or hold up security vans, are branded as thieves. Yet when Germany presides over a heist of billions of pounds from private savers’ Cyprus bank accounts, to ‘save the euro’ for the hundredth time, this is claimed as high statesmanship. It is nothing of the sort. The deal to secure a €10 billion German bailout of the bankrupt Mediterranean island is one of the nastiest and most immoral political acts of modern times. It has struck fear into the hearts of hundreds of millions of European citizens, because it establishes a dire precedent. .....The fact that Cyprus is a rackety semi-gangster society made it madness ever to allow the island to join the eurozone, rather than an excuse, as now, for stealing its citizens’ money. The Germans, who effectively control and bankroll the whole single-currency system, acted recklessly by signing on Cyprus — and Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. None of these countries had economic convergence with northern Europe. But Berlin chose to pretend that they did, because it thus became enormously profitable for Germany to trade with them in an undervalued common currency rather than a sky-high Deutschmark."
"People who rob old ladies in the street, or hold up security vans, are branded as thieves. Yet when Germany presides over a heist of billions of pounds from private savers’ Cyprus bank accounts, to ‘save the euro’ for the hundredth time, this is claimed as high statesmanship. It is nothing of the sort. The deal to secure a €10 billion German bailout of the bankrupt Mediterranean island is one of the nastiest and most immoral political acts of modern times. It has struck fear into the hearts of hundreds of millions of European citizens, because it establishes a dire precedent. .....The fact that Cyprus is a rackety semi-gangster society made it madness ever to allow the island to join the eurozone, rather than an excuse, as now, for stealing its citizens’ money. The Germans, who effectively control and bankroll the whole single-currency system, acted recklessly by signing on Cyprus — and Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. None of these countries had economic convergence with northern Europe. But Berlin chose to pretend that they did, because it thus became enormously profitable for Germany to trade with them in an undervalued common currency rather than a sky-high Deutschmark."
Labour hires “Obama’s Backroom Brit” as it seeks to make 2015 the Digital Election
LabourList
"The Labour Party have hired Blue State Digital – the people behind both of Obama’s online presidential campaigns – to advise the party on digital communications. In particular, that means that Matthew McGregor (dubbed Obama’s “Backroom Brit”) will be working out of Labour’s Brewer’s Green HQ. Until recently Matthew directed Digital Rapid Response at Obama for America, and led the all-important online rapid rebuttal team."
ED: All they need now is some policies 'n stuff.
"The Labour Party have hired Blue State Digital – the people behind both of Obama’s online presidential campaigns – to advise the party on digital communications. In particular, that means that Matthew McGregor (dubbed Obama’s “Backroom Brit”) will be working out of Labour’s Brewer’s Green HQ. Until recently Matthew directed Digital Rapid Response at Obama for America, and led the all-important online rapid rebuttal team."
ED: All they need now is some policies 'n stuff.
Monday, 25 March 2013
Success - we like it white
The Black Steam Train (Australia)
"Perhaps, what is most disappointing, is the fact that when we question this lack of black faces among those receiving assistance in the name of Aboriginal Equality, we're called racist, or perpetrators of Lateral Violence. Whilst taking part in the 'Aboriginal or Not' SBS program, Greg Lehmann stressed the point that those of us questioning the motives of those like him were guilty of Lateral Violence and responsible for much of the infighting amongst Aboriginal people. A pretty comfortable position to take when you're on the blackfella dollar at Oxford, bruz."
"Perhaps, what is most disappointing, is the fact that when we question this lack of black faces among those receiving assistance in the name of Aboriginal Equality, we're called racist, or perpetrators of Lateral Violence. Whilst taking part in the 'Aboriginal or Not' SBS program, Greg Lehmann stressed the point that those of us questioning the motives of those like him were guilty of Lateral Violence and responsible for much of the infighting amongst Aboriginal people. A pretty comfortable position to take when you're on the blackfella dollar at Oxford, bruz."
Saturday, 23 March 2013
SATURDAY ESSAY: Why we on the Left made an epic mistake on immigration
Daily Mail
"One of the liberal elite’s myths is that we are a ‘mongrel nation’ that has always experienced high inflows of outsiders. But this isn’t true. From 1066 until 1950, immigration was almost non-existent (excluding Ireland) — a quarter of a million at the most, mainly Huguenots and Jews. Post-World War II immigration has been on a completely different scale from anything that went before. These days, more people arrive on our shores as immigrants in a single year than did so in the entire period from 1066 to 1950, excluding wartime. Much of this happened by accident. When the 1948 Nationality Act was passed — giving all citizens of the Empire and Commonwealth the right to live and work in Britain — it was not expected that the ordinary people of poor former colonies would arrive in their hundreds of thousands. Nor was it expected after 1997 that a combination of quite small decisions would lead to 1.5 million East Europeans arriving, about half to settle. But come they did, and a net immigration of around four million foreign-born citizens since 1997 has produced easily the most dramatic demographic revolution in British history. Yet there was no general discussion in the New Labour Cabinet of the day about who Britain wanted to let in and in what numbers; no discussion about how the country could absorb them without pressure on public services."
"One of the liberal elite’s myths is that we are a ‘mongrel nation’ that has always experienced high inflows of outsiders. But this isn’t true. From 1066 until 1950, immigration was almost non-existent (excluding Ireland) — a quarter of a million at the most, mainly Huguenots and Jews. Post-World War II immigration has been on a completely different scale from anything that went before. These days, more people arrive on our shores as immigrants in a single year than did so in the entire period from 1066 to 1950, excluding wartime. Much of this happened by accident. When the 1948 Nationality Act was passed — giving all citizens of the Empire and Commonwealth the right to live and work in Britain — it was not expected that the ordinary people of poor former colonies would arrive in their hundreds of thousands. Nor was it expected after 1997 that a combination of quite small decisions would lead to 1.5 million East Europeans arriving, about half to settle. But come they did, and a net immigration of around four million foreign-born citizens since 1997 has produced easily the most dramatic demographic revolution in British history. Yet there was no general discussion in the New Labour Cabinet of the day about who Britain wanted to let in and in what numbers; no discussion about how the country could absorb them without pressure on public services."
Monday, 18 March 2013
Cyprus banks euro tax bail-out is a small-scale smash-and-grab compared to Britain’s slow-motion bank robbery
Telegraph
"Outrage about the Cyprus banks euro tax bail-out should not be allowed to obscure the fact that millions of savers in British banks have already lost much more of the real value or purchasing power of their money to prop up financial institutions closer to home. Savers in British banks and building societies have been stealthily robbed of more than £43bn of the real value of their savings since the Bank of England froze interest rates at 0.5pc four years ago. That's the total shrinkage of bank and building society depositors' purchasing power caused by inflation exceeding frozen interest rates, according to calculations by the pressure group Save Our Savers, following similar calculations by Yorkshire Building Society that the average saver has lost £2,500 in real terms since the credit crisis began. Both figures have got much bigger than they were a couple of years ago, as inflation has continued to run ahead of interest paid on deposits. Pensioners have suffered even more because higher than average proportions of their fixed incomes are spent on food and fuel. They are the largely silent victims of the Bank of England's policy of running negative real interest rates. But this slow-motion bank robbery is more difficult to describe than the short, sharp, smash-and-grab in Cyprus. So, despite the best efforts of this column to blow the whistle, more attention will be given to smaller losses for fewer people in Cyprus than millions of savers and pensioners who have lost much more in British banks and retirement funds."
"Outrage about the Cyprus banks euro tax bail-out should not be allowed to obscure the fact that millions of savers in British banks have already lost much more of the real value or purchasing power of their money to prop up financial institutions closer to home. Savers in British banks and building societies have been stealthily robbed of more than £43bn of the real value of their savings since the Bank of England froze interest rates at 0.5pc four years ago. That's the total shrinkage of bank and building society depositors' purchasing power caused by inflation exceeding frozen interest rates, according to calculations by the pressure group Save Our Savers, following similar calculations by Yorkshire Building Society that the average saver has lost £2,500 in real terms since the credit crisis began. Both figures have got much bigger than they were a couple of years ago, as inflation has continued to run ahead of interest paid on deposits. Pensioners have suffered even more because higher than average proportions of their fixed incomes are spent on food and fuel. They are the largely silent victims of the Bank of England's policy of running negative real interest rates. But this slow-motion bank robbery is more difficult to describe than the short, sharp, smash-and-grab in Cyprus. So, despite the best efforts of this column to blow the whistle, more attention will be given to smaller losses for fewer people in Cyprus than millions of savers and pensioners who have lost much more in British banks and retirement funds."
Sunday, 17 March 2013
Guido’s Warning to Liberal & Progressive Bloggers: Royal Charter Aims for Tabloids and Guido, It’ll Get You Too
Guido Fawkes
"Schedule 4, Point 1 of both the government and the opposition’s versions of the Royal Charter will bring blogs under the regulator’s control: “relevant publisher” means a person (other than a broadcaster) who publishes in the United Kingdom: a. a newspaper or magazine containing news-related material, or b. a website containing news-related material (whether or not related to a newspaper or magazine)”
"Schedule 4, Point 1 of both the government and the opposition’s versions of the Royal Charter will bring blogs under the regulator’s control: “relevant publisher” means a person (other than a broadcaster) who publishes in the United Kingdom: a. a newspaper or magazine containing news-related material, or b. a website containing news-related material (whether or not related to a newspaper or magazine)”
Monday, 11 March 2013
Super Injunction on Guido Fawkes ?
Its very odd that Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) never mentions Jemima or Zac Goldsmith these days, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Goldsmith's have a 'super injunction' banning Guido from making any comment. Funny that. Just a thought. ...doh! forgot to use Google again... Guido says no super injunction....But..."2.03pm: The [Leveson] inquiry has resumed and Paul Staines, AKA blogger Guido Fawkes, is Staines says he was injuncted in three different jurisdictions by Zac Goldsmith and Jemima Khan at a court in Dublin." Link Here Must have seen them off then ... or did he?
Opinion:
Guido Fawkes has done much good work as an investigative journalist exposing the hypocracy and wrong-doings of the political classes. This blog especially supports the investigation of the highly debatable relationship MP's have with the so called "green energy" industry. Should an MP or an individual use their wealth and position to stop (gag) someone like 'Guido Fawkes' making that investigation, which is very clearly in the public interest, then the public should be alarmed. (Updated 13.03.13)
Opinion:
Guido Fawkes has done much good work as an investigative journalist exposing the hypocracy and wrong-doings of the political classes. This blog especially supports the investigation of the highly debatable relationship MP's have with the so called "green energy" industry. Should an MP or an individual use their wealth and position to stop (gag) someone like 'Guido Fawkes' making that investigation, which is very clearly in the public interest, then the public should be alarmed. (Updated 13.03.13)
Monday, 4 March 2013
Barack Obama a 'dithering, controlling, risk-averse' US president
Telegraph
"Barack Obama is a "dithering" president whose controlling tendencies and extreme risk-averse attitude to foreign policy has damaged US interests in the Middle East, according to a new book by a senior former State Department adviser."
"Barack Obama is a "dithering" president whose controlling tendencies and extreme risk-averse attitude to foreign policy has damaged US interests in the Middle East, according to a new book by a senior former State Department adviser."
Friday, 1 March 2013
CASH GRAB: Inactive bank accounts to be seized
Adelaide Now (Australia)
"HOUSEHOLDS face losing up to $109 million from savings as the Federal government moves to seize cash from inactive bank accounts. After legislation was rushed through parliament, the government will from May 31 be able to transfer all money from accounts that have not been used for three years into their own revenues. This will mean that accounts with anything from $1 upwards that have not had any deposit or withdrawals in the past three years will be transferred to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. The law is forecast to raise $109 million this year as inactive accounts for three years or more are raided by Treasury. The money can be reclaimed from ASIC but the process can take months. Experts warn this will have a negative impact on people that may have put money away in a special account for their children's education or decided to put an inheritance in a separate account for a rainy day."
"HOUSEHOLDS face losing up to $109 million from savings as the Federal government moves to seize cash from inactive bank accounts. After legislation was rushed through parliament, the government will from May 31 be able to transfer all money from accounts that have not been used for three years into their own revenues. This will mean that accounts with anything from $1 upwards that have not had any deposit or withdrawals in the past three years will be transferred to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. The law is forecast to raise $109 million this year as inactive accounts for three years or more are raided by Treasury. The money can be reclaimed from ASIC but the process can take months. Experts warn this will have a negative impact on people that may have put money away in a special account for their children's education or decided to put an inheritance in a separate account for a rainy day."
Gillard's $15b black hole
Adelaide Now(Australia)
"THE Gillard government has been left facing the prospect of a $15 billion budget blackhole as businesses struggle with the end of the mining boom and the slowdown in spending, economists warn."
"THE Gillard government has been left facing the prospect of a $15 billion budget blackhole as businesses struggle with the end of the mining boom and the slowdown in spending, economists warn."
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
The great lie of our times: The Left wail about 'ruthless' cuts. But the reason Britain's credit rating was downgraded is that government spending hasn't fallen by a penny
Daily Mail
"Ever since George Osborne became Chancellor nearly three years ago, it has been the received wisdom, thanks to shroud-waving unions and the Left-wing establishment, that he and his Treasury team have imposed ‘ruthless’ cuts on the state sector. The constant cry from Labour, the public sector unions, local authorities and many commentators is that the cold-hearted Coalition is engaged in a ‘slash and burn’ policy that will end in the wholesale destruction of the welfare state. It is a cynically dishonest analysis which aims to make us believe that the reason Britain is suffering a painful period of austerity is because of the draconian effect of ‘cuts’ to welfare payments, the NHS and all manner of public services, from libraries to the arts. The truth is that this is utter nonsense. In fact, Britain’s monstrously swollen state still devours almost half the nation’s output. Total state spending and borrowing has not been cut in absolute terms at all. Indeed, the burden of debt, the accumulated amount of borrowing made by governments down the years, is rising relentlessly. It was an understanding of this stark truth that led to Britain losing its AAA credit rating last week. The world’s market monitors finally lost patience with our inability to control our borrowing and lack of economic growth. As the credit analysts at Moody’s point out, Britain’s burden of debt will keep rising until 2016, when it is expected to reach a staggering peak of 96 per cent of GDP of total output. Even that horrifyingly large sum will not be the true figure. For the Government is guilty of a sleight of hand by trying to make the statistics look more healthy by boosting the Exchequer’s ledger (with the help of an unexpected windfall worth billions from the Bank of England’s policy of printing extra money). This amounts to a piece of accounting trickery that makes the volume of debt look smaller than it really is. The fundamental truth remains that most areas of state spending — particularly welfare payments and social security — are still growing uncontrollably."
"Ever since George Osborne became Chancellor nearly three years ago, it has been the received wisdom, thanks to shroud-waving unions and the Left-wing establishment, that he and his Treasury team have imposed ‘ruthless’ cuts on the state sector. The constant cry from Labour, the public sector unions, local authorities and many commentators is that the cold-hearted Coalition is engaged in a ‘slash and burn’ policy that will end in the wholesale destruction of the welfare state. It is a cynically dishonest analysis which aims to make us believe that the reason Britain is suffering a painful period of austerity is because of the draconian effect of ‘cuts’ to welfare payments, the NHS and all manner of public services, from libraries to the arts. The truth is that this is utter nonsense. In fact, Britain’s monstrously swollen state still devours almost half the nation’s output. Total state spending and borrowing has not been cut in absolute terms at all. Indeed, the burden of debt, the accumulated amount of borrowing made by governments down the years, is rising relentlessly. It was an understanding of this stark truth that led to Britain losing its AAA credit rating last week. The world’s market monitors finally lost patience with our inability to control our borrowing and lack of economic growth. As the credit analysts at Moody’s point out, Britain’s burden of debt will keep rising until 2016, when it is expected to reach a staggering peak of 96 per cent of GDP of total output. Even that horrifyingly large sum will not be the true figure. For the Government is guilty of a sleight of hand by trying to make the statistics look more healthy by boosting the Exchequer’s ledger (with the help of an unexpected windfall worth billions from the Bank of England’s policy of printing extra money). This amounts to a piece of accounting trickery that makes the volume of debt look smaller than it really is. The fundamental truth remains that most areas of state spending — particularly welfare payments and social security — are still growing uncontrollably."
Monday, 25 February 2013
Labour is responsible for AA Britain
Telegraph
"Sadly, Britain deserves to lose its AAA rating. The Moody's downgrade is the delayed fallout from Gordon's Brown fiscal bubble. Whether he believed his own propaganda or was just steering state patronage to Labour voters in public services, the elemental fact is that he ran a budget deficit of 3pc of GDP at the top of the cycle. He must have been told many times that Britain has a highly cyclical economy and tax system, leveraged to the ups and downs in the global economy. The boom flattered tax revenues. The apparent success was a sham. Other countries ran budgets near balance or in surplus at the peak. Spain had a surplus 2pc of GDP, and Finland even higher. This is why Britain is now in deep trouble. Brown was gunning fiscal policy at 5pc of GDP over the safe speed limit, and he did so long enough to embed an unsustainable structure into the economy. His fiscal excesses made the household credit bubble even worse – not helped by 120pc mortgages, home equity withdrawal of 4.5pc of GDP each year, and other idiocies – leaving the economy with a deleveraging crisis that will grind onto into the 2020s."
"Sadly, Britain deserves to lose its AAA rating. The Moody's downgrade is the delayed fallout from Gordon's Brown fiscal bubble. Whether he believed his own propaganda or was just steering state patronage to Labour voters in public services, the elemental fact is that he ran a budget deficit of 3pc of GDP at the top of the cycle. He must have been told many times that Britain has a highly cyclical economy and tax system, leveraged to the ups and downs in the global economy. The boom flattered tax revenues. The apparent success was a sham. Other countries ran budgets near balance or in surplus at the peak. Spain had a surplus 2pc of GDP, and Finland even higher. This is why Britain is now in deep trouble. Brown was gunning fiscal policy at 5pc of GDP over the safe speed limit, and he did so long enough to embed an unsustainable structure into the economy. His fiscal excesses made the household credit bubble even worse – not helped by 120pc mortgages, home equity withdrawal of 4.5pc of GDP each year, and other idiocies – leaving the economy with a deleveraging crisis that will grind onto into the 2020s."
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Trade protectionism looms next as central banks exhaust QE
Telegraph
"Officials at the US Federal Reserve may be more worried than they have let on about the treacherous task of extricating America from quantitative easing. This is an unsettling twist, with global implications."
"Officials at the US Federal Reserve may be more worried than they have let on about the treacherous task of extricating America from quantitative easing. This is an unsettling twist, with global implications."
Nigerian president 'spent $1million of aid money meant for poverty-stricken country on star-studded festival featuring Beyoncé and Jay-Z'
Daily Mail
"The Nigerian president spent $1million of aid money to entice international popstars such as Beyonce and Jay-Z to perform at a music festival in the poverty-stricken country, a media source reported. A letter stamped and signed by Bayelsa State officials in 2006 revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan, then the Governor of the state, released 150million Nigerian Nairas from the state’s poverty alleviation fund for the inaugural ThisDay Music Festival in the city of Lagos in 2006, according to SaharaReporters. The document surfaced after reality TV star Kim Kardashian was reportedly paid $500,000 (£329,695) for a fleeting appearance in Lagos last week, angering Nigerian commentators."
"The Nigerian president spent $1million of aid money to entice international popstars such as Beyonce and Jay-Z to perform at a music festival in the poverty-stricken country, a media source reported. A letter stamped and signed by Bayelsa State officials in 2006 revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan, then the Governor of the state, released 150million Nigerian Nairas from the state’s poverty alleviation fund for the inaugural ThisDay Music Festival in the city of Lagos in 2006, according to SaharaReporters. The document surfaced after reality TV star Kim Kardashian was reportedly paid $500,000 (£329,695) for a fleeting appearance in Lagos last week, angering Nigerian commentators."
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Owen Paterson has taken control of the EU meat crisis
Telegraph
" The real drama behind the ongoing story which for the past two weeks has been leading the news across Europe has been almost wholly missed. From the moment when, 10 days ago, Findus told the Food Standards Agency that it had found horse meat in beef lasagne packaged in Luxembourg, from meat processed in France after being bought from an abattoir in Romania, Owen Paterson, our Environment Secretary, has played a blinder.
While everyone else floundered about, chasing every little new bit of the scandal as it came to light from one end of the EU to another, Mr Paterson was the one politician who immediately grasped the nature and scale of the problem. He saw what needed to be done and he marshalled all the key players, right up to the time when he instigated a top-level emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday evening, for himself and six European food ministers, to agree with the relevant EU Commissioner a Europe-wide plan of action that he was proposing to address the crisis.
What Mr Paterson recognised from the start, unlike any other politician in Britain, was that the root of the problem lay in what had followed when, a decade ago, the EU took over all “competence” to make food law from national governments. It promptly introduced a new set of rules across Europe, to replace the old dependence on regular inspection and testing of foodstuffs with a radical new system. The EU’s version of what is known as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is based on a trail of paper, whereby any food product, as it passes along the chain from one firm to another, must be acccompanied by a piece of paper certifying its nature and contents. "
" The real drama behind the ongoing story which for the past two weeks has been leading the news across Europe has been almost wholly missed. From the moment when, 10 days ago, Findus told the Food Standards Agency that it had found horse meat in beef lasagne packaged in Luxembourg, from meat processed in France after being bought from an abattoir in Romania, Owen Paterson, our Environment Secretary, has played a blinder.
While everyone else floundered about, chasing every little new bit of the scandal as it came to light from one end of the EU to another, Mr Paterson was the one politician who immediately grasped the nature and scale of the problem. He saw what needed to be done and he marshalled all the key players, right up to the time when he instigated a top-level emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday evening, for himself and six European food ministers, to agree with the relevant EU Commissioner a Europe-wide plan of action that he was proposing to address the crisis.
What Mr Paterson recognised from the start, unlike any other politician in Britain, was that the root of the problem lay in what had followed when, a decade ago, the EU took over all “competence” to make food law from national governments. It promptly introduced a new set of rules across Europe, to replace the old dependence on regular inspection and testing of foodstuffs with a radical new system. The EU’s version of what is known as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is based on a trail of paper, whereby any food product, as it passes along the chain from one firm to another, must be acccompanied by a piece of paper certifying its nature and contents. "
Saturday, 16 February 2013
'We want to get into your country before someone locks the door': Shocking investigation into the coming wave of immigration from Romania and Bulgaria
Daily Mail
"Under a loophole in EU immigration rules, Big Issue sellers can claim ‘self-employed status’, thereby gaining a National Insurance number and, with it, an instant legal foothold in the British labour market. .....after New Year’s Day 2014, when all 29 million citizens of Romania and neighbouring Bulgaria will gain full rights to live, work and claim benefits in Britain under EU ‘freedom of movement’ rules. .......Last year’s census revealed Britain is now home to 1,114,368 Eastern Europeans, and Polish is our second most popular language. So could history be about to repeat itself with Romania? The Government won’t — or can’t — say. But 40,000 Romanians are currently moving to the UK a year thanks to the ‘self-employment’ loophole and allowances for certain industries. A recent study by the think-tank MigrationWatch UK estimated that number will increase to 70,000 in January, and stay elevated for the next five years, increasing our population by ‘the same as a city the size of Plymouth or Newcastle’.
"Under a loophole in EU immigration rules, Big Issue sellers can claim ‘self-employed status’, thereby gaining a National Insurance number and, with it, an instant legal foothold in the British labour market. .....after New Year’s Day 2014, when all 29 million citizens of Romania and neighbouring Bulgaria will gain full rights to live, work and claim benefits in Britain under EU ‘freedom of movement’ rules. .......Last year’s census revealed Britain is now home to 1,114,368 Eastern Europeans, and Polish is our second most popular language. So could history be about to repeat itself with Romania? The Government won’t — or can’t — say. But 40,000 Romanians are currently moving to the UK a year thanks to the ‘self-employment’ loophole and allowances for certain industries. A recent study by the think-tank MigrationWatch UK estimated that number will increase to 70,000 in January, and stay elevated for the next five years, increasing our population by ‘the same as a city the size of Plymouth or Newcastle’.
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