The Power of The State
Some people worry about the State collecting data, but it's already too late, everybody in the UK has got a National Insurance number which records details of employment, benefits, and contributions. This is shared with other government departments, such as the Inland Revenue and the Pension Service. The National Health Service keeps your medical records, and the DVLA has details of your driving licence and insurance. When you are born a birth certificate is issued; when you marry you get a marriage certificate and if you get divorced you get another document. Your education and occupation are certificated and when you die you get a final piece of paper which enables you to be buried.
Every part of your life is recorded from the cradle to the grave. The bank knows how much money you've got, the supermarket knows what you had for breakfast, the transport authority knows where you go, your telephone provider knows who you talk to, the hospital knows what you are suffering from, Amazon knows what you read, Facebook knows who your friends are, the police have access to all of this information and you are constantly monitored by CCTV.
Most people are only worried about their banking details, but the so-called libertarians amongst them are paranoid about their data. They think that Big Brother is watching them, but it's difficult to imagine our blustering prime minister as O'Brien, the sinister character from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. Boris Johnson is a self-promoting liar and a cheat but, as far as we know, he is not a sadist.
Before the First World War most people had little contact with the State. There was no income tax, except for the wealthy. There was no National Health Service or retirement pensions, cars were few in number and television hadn't been invented. The State existed to wage war on its neighbours and develop the colonies. But today things are very different. The State controls every aspect of our lives. As Benito Mussolini said: "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."
After decades of shrinking state control, Joe Biden recently told Congress that only the State could manage great projects such as the Mars landing or the national vaccination program. His $6 trillion spending spree is bound to lead to inflation but he is determined to restore the American economy following the Coronavirus pandemic. Capitalist corporations will still produce the goods and services but the State will take the lead
This will outrage the 'libertarians' who resent big government, but the State, and the Market, needs to know who they are dealing with. Those who don't like it should go and live in the woods and fend for themselves.
Government Defeats Amendment to Protect Cladding Leaseholders For Third Time - Vic Sarson
It is noteworthy that it was a Conservative government that introduced 'Right to Buy' yet abandons the victims of it. It was members of the present government that eased restrictions on building safety regulations that made the Grenfell inferno possible.
The Monopolies and Mergers Commission Report of the 1980s (Lord Young) introduced leases (Head Leases) in place of tenancies for public house licensees with major breweries. The stock consisted of old Victorian pubs in need of roof and major structural repairs and Jerry built 1950-60s properties that were also a liability to the breweries. The heavy financial burden was shifted from the breweries to the hapless licensees. A scam if ever there was.
When lead was removed from petrol it was replaced by various substances with the advanced knowledge that it would result in a massive rise in asthma in the population, especially among young children.
Politicians and governments should be held criminally accountable for their deliberate misdeeds when in office. Genuine mistakes are one thing - criminal acts are another.
Bribery and Corruption
The decoration of Boris Johnson's flat at 10 Downing Street is another example of bribery and corruption. We remember the Cash For Questions scandal of 1994 when MPs Ian Hamilton and Tim Smith were bribed by Mohamed al-Fayed to ask questions in parliament. But such crimes are nothing new. In 1911 GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc wrote 'The Party System' which revealed the full extent of parliamentary corruption:
The ordinary method of replenishing the Party Funds is by the sale of peerages, baronetcies, knighthoods and other honours in return for subscriptions. This traffic is notorious. Everyone acquainted in the smallest degree with the inside of politics knows that there is a market for peerages in Downing Street, as he knows that there is a market for cabbages in Covent Garden; he could put his finger upon the very names of the men who have bought their 'honours' . Yet the ordinary man is either ignorant of the truth or only darkly suspects it. And most of those who know about it are afraid to bring the facts to light by quoting names and instances, because the administration of our law of libel weighs the scales of justice heavily in favour of the rich, and because a particular case could only be proved if one were able to do - what one would not perhaps be allowed to do - to subpoena the party managers and demand that the party accounts should be brought into court.
Perhaps the most infamous case of corruption involved Maundy Gregory (pictured) who acted as a broker for prime minister David Lloyd George. Gregory served in the Irish Guards and claimed to work for MI5. He was implicated in the Zinoviev Letter, the disappearance of his enemy Victor Grayson MP, and the death of his platonic girlfriend Edith Rosse. Gregory was not attracted to women. He made a fortune out of corruption but he went too far when he started selling honours that he couldn't deliver. He was sentenced to two months imprisonment under the Prevention of Abuses Act and made bankrupt in 1933. He fled to Paris but when the Germans invaded France they arrested him and he died in an internment camp in 1941. However, the sale of peerages continued and is still a thriving business.
A Personal View - Mark Webb
Well it's looking like it's going to be a Summer of global war. China seems set to invade Taiwan. As a result Japan and the Aussies are on a war footing, expecting violence towards them to break out at any minute. Putin seems intent on a total take over of Ukraine. It looks like he's planning a straight up WW11 style mass tank led invasion force type of attack. Iran as always is testing the US. The Iranians may not have the best tech in the world but their SF are tested and proven and they have millions of combat ready and equipped troops, militia and home guard. The Syrian war drags on with the big players now intent on stealing land. Turkey in particular is trying to cut itself a big slice of the cake. Turkey and Israel are set to clash at some point, the build up to war between them is plain to see. Iraq is still a war zone. Afghanistan will spiral into a civil war; Taliban vs ISIS vs Government Forces vs Alliance Forces. I predict a wave of car bombings, suicide attacks etc in the capital and across Afghanistan. There's a policy of ethnic cleansing in Brazil. The natives in the rain forest have been labelled as subhuman by the current government and are being hunted and killed.
The Saudi and UAE vs Yemeni war has seen mass death from direct violence, cholera (which has killed 1 million Yemenis and infected 12 million more), starvation, untreated COVIS, and it's suspected that both chemical and biological weapons have been used on the Houthis and the general populayion, This has left some 28 million people in the country needing aid, assistance, food, medication and above all water.
The Russians and the Chinese are being very clever, they are painting the North Koreans as the bad guys and pointing at them as being the most serious danger to world peace. The North Korean state is just a house of cards. China wants resources and Russia wants resources, they are getting on pretty well together and if they co-ordinate attacks then the West will be overwhelmed and unable to respond.
Both Russia and China have increased internal repression. In Russia dissidents are being locked up for years on trumped up charges and in China tens of thousands of Uighurs are imprisoned, raped, tortured, and re-educted in Xinjiang Province.
In the UK the concern is home grown violence from a renewed IRA, ANTIFA, BLM, Neo-Nazis, XR, Muslim converts, organised drug gangs and an emerging far-left movement.
Recently the UK saw many murders, all teenagers, stabbed and shot.
With these issues (and more like them) at home, the UK government have taken their eyes off the international ball. Global war is coming. That's the only realistic prediction for the near future, war, more war, endless war. Wars for oil, water, rare minerals (needed in computers and tech based machines) and for large areas of land for growing wheat. Fighting has broken out between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over water supplies, There's over thirty failed states globally that are simply lawless and play no part in the international community. From Syria to Sudan, from Myanmar (a country that seems to have declared war on its own people) to Venezuela.
Too many people and not enough resources. Covid has created a situation of hugely increased food insecurity. Things were bad pre-Covid, but the virus has pushed things over the point of no return.
The only possible outcome - global war.
Fish and Chips
Our patriotic prime minister Boris Johnson, who always has two British flags as a backdrop, has closed down our fishing industry by insisting on the exclusive use of our waters. He has not only upset the EU but also Norway, Iceland and the Faroes. They have responded to his aggression by banning our trawlers from their fishing grounds. This is a rerun of the Third Cod War of 1975-76 which resulted in an Icelandic victory when the World Trade Organisation ruled in their favour. This is the same WTO that the Brexiteers pin their hopes on.
We can still grow potatoes for making chips but the silicon ones used in computers are in short supply. The Coronavirus pandemic has caused a massive rise in the use of home computers and disruption to the supply chain from Taiwan and South Korea has resulted in a global shortage.
After 48 years of food stability in the EU we have forgotten what its like to have shortages. We remember the crisis of 1973 when oil prices trebled as a result of the Yom Kippur War. But there have been other shortages due to events beyond our control.
I used to look after a beautiful tortoiseshell cat called Jenny who liked to eat pilchards, but the local supermarket had none on its shelves. I asked the manager: "where are the pilchards", he said: "You can't get them Sir. There's a war out there." I said: "Where", he replied: "Out there where the pilchards come from."
Supermarket managers don't need to be experts on world trade but our prime minister should be better informed. Daily Mail readers will support a ban on foreign imports but they shouldn't be surprised when they are reciprocated.
We need sensible trade agreements with our neighbours as opposed to short-sighted nationalism. And we should manufacture our own essential components such as semiconductors. It is a national disgrace to have run out of fish and chips.
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"We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with
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