New biog section for website shaping up...

Have taken this week off from my conventional job, primarily to work on new website material to compliment the new edition of my book that I'm champing at the bit to promote. My Sheep No More website is two years out of date now and has to be sorted before I can really start punting the book around. The Gods in their wisdom however, decided to give me a hard time of it by putting my back out which is infuriating as sitting on a conventional chair at my PC to write is spectacularly uncomfortable. Feels like being plugged into the mains each time it spasms and that just ain't funny. Nevertheless progress has been made.

I think the site will be more attractive and effective if it can be made to look more like a redtop newspaper, with more pictures and punchy wording. A short and sweet biog section will be added to incorporate the snap above alongside this wording...

BIOG

On the outside... Ordinary British bloke of 1956 vintage born Clapham South London. Early years were spent in a village near Felixstowe, Suffolk until the age of five when the family moved to Herne Hill which isn’t very far from my birthplace. Attended Saint Saviours primary and Kingsdale comprehensive schools and enjoyed a stable, happy and content childhood. Then in 1972 began a five year apprenticeship at R.H. Wilkins Engravers of London’s Hatton Garden, and still today I remain working in the industry having become self employed from 1984 onward. Married and bought a house back near Felixstowe where my four kids, all of the sugar and spice variety entered the world. Then in 1994 we moved to the Isle of Wight where my girls did their growing up. Have worked like a Trojan, always paid my way, done my utmost to bring my kids up properly, and am proud of the way they’ve turned out.

Inside at the core...  Seething fury pretty much at the way Britain and everyone living in it has been let down by what passes for leadership. Whilst myself and every responsible mum and dad in the land have worked damned hard to bring their children up properly, every government to have held and wielded power throughout my adulthood has failed me, my family, and us all. From 1979 to date, no government has given me the impression they care about ordinary families or about our great history and heritage that they have been content to preside over the trashing of. I for one am not prepared to put up with it, and despite being one of the ordinary ignorable masses, am determined to have my say because I know the predicament of the country is ‘A’ unacceptable ‘B’ explainable, and ‘C’ retrievable.  

 

Monetarism; Global v Local/National

Thatcherism/Monetarism and my questioning of the 'wisdom' has been at the heart of my writings since the idea for Sheep No More first came to mind more than a decade ago. Some people don't like my criticism of the 'Iron Lady' and point out that she took on and defeated the unions when they were out of control and behaving irresponsibly, the dead being left unburied immediately prior to her coming to power often being sited. Quite so and disgusting that was, but also true is that the monetarism she was happy to lend her name to back in the day, is still the only game in town where todays politicians are concerned, meaning that thirty-five unbroken years of it is responsible for the condition of the country now. Deindustrialised, deskilled, bust, under the control of overseas politicians, bureaucrats and business interests, asset stripped, public services in meltdown, and the social fabric in tatters, she and her cronies legacy; FACT!

If we compare Britain now to how it was pre-monetarism and before the circumstances that propelled Thatcher into Downing Street came to dominate, the dead left unburied etc, the difference is startling. In the mid 1960's Britain was highly creative, we had full employment, millions of high quality jobs, no benefits culture, no reason to fear the country was insecure, migration was controlled with criminals denied entry, no dictation from Europe, and those are just some of the features that helped make the country feel safe and stable. No one is claiming heaven on earth, of course not, but if the happiness and contentment of the population then could be measured and compared to that of today, there would be no comparison. Put it this way; had Alex Salmond tried to play the separatist card fifty years ago, Scots would have told him what to do with it and that is an undeniable truth.

It has been suggested that fighting globalisation is undoable, prices regarding the likes of grain, oil, platinum, plutonium etc being set on world markets and there being precious little we can do about it. Maybe so, but, what's to stop you buying your daily loaf of bread, pint of milk, potatoes and cabbages from your local farm and artisan baker rather than Tesco? Nothing! If you want to fight globalisation at that level at least, you can.

If we can fight back at the base level why not take the fight a stage further? The picture at the top of this blog depicts what is quite frankly a perversity of monetarism we should be questioning and demanding an end to forthwith. What is criminality? Is it a social disease we need to find a cure for or is it a money making opportunity to be exploited by businessmen? Plainly it is a victim creating social disease to which treatment/cure must be striven for. Make crooks into business assets instead, and we are guaranteed the problem will grow and grow because it is in the interest of boards of directors that it should be so. What is the mantra of the business model we live under? Growth, which in this case is sick.

If we concentrate on the globalised model it is easy to be daunted and become defeated. However; at the most local level we can fight back and if we refuse to accept such a perversity as crooks treated as business assets and the stealthy way in which the NHS is being privatised, the fight is very definitely on!  



       

Sigh of relief following the Scottish referendum

Sunday September 21st, three days on from Scotland's referendum and boy, has it been manic! Social media has been in meltdown and the airways buzzing with the aftermath of this historic event. My view is the correct side won and thank goodness for it, though I must comment on the nature of the win which was not as it should have been.

The word 'no' on its own is negative when compared to the 'yes' of the separatists and implied holding back versus going forward which gave Salmond an immediate advantage. Had the words been 'unity' versus 'division' or 'separatism' maybe his 44.7% could have been knocked back somewhat? Who knows, it's all history now anyway and the UK has a stay of execution that must not go to waste.

Amongst the vocal and often quite militant whose side didn't win, plenty have claimed the election was rigged and that dodgy dealings were employed. Video of supposedly underhand counting has been posted on FB, which purports to be genuine but may be staged by those who're just sore losers. I myself stood as an independent candidate at the last general election and recall that at the count, photography was strictly banned so how come this footage? I'm not convinced, but if there is genuine evidence, lets have it fully investigated.

Bizarrely and unjustly, those who voted 'no' and who thankfully won the day, have been portrayed as 'stupid or gullible' by the militant 'yes' lot. The accusation is that they swallowed the establishment's line and behaved as if sheep and by doing so have propped up the government. Many of those who voted no will have done so out of fear of a future adrift from the UK with King Alex at the helm, which to my mind would be a truly frightening prospect. If I was resident in Scotland and had been able to vote on Thursday, I would have voted 'no' not out of fear, but in the name of unity with my countrymen UK wide and because I ultimately expect to see significant change in the peoples best interest in the years ahead. It would not have been a vote to prop up the establishment, but to refuse to be separated from those who are my English, Welsh and Irish first cousins and who must stand together in order to rid us all of the brand of politics Cameron, Miliband and Clegg represent. Divide and Rule is a nasty devise that has been used very successfully against the peoples of the UK for decades too long already.

I have personally had grief from those who expected and wanted the Union to collapse on Thursday and are furious that it didn't. My answer to those people is this; I want rid of the Westminster establishment and the coming of a new, inclusive and constructive political philosophy based upon enterprise and family values. The best way to get that, is to unite the diverse peoples of Britain in a common cause. Retaining the ability of the UK to come together and work towards a set of worthwhile prospects, has to be the foundation upon which a better future is built. Unity amongst the ordinary populous is a million times more important that how corrupt the political establishment is. There is already a huge amount of disunity which benefits those taking advantage, of that there can be no doubt. I though believe the damage can be repaired, and it has to be.

Ask yourself a simple question in order to determine which is the more important issue. Who has most to gain from the disunity of the people? Answer: THE ESTABLISHMENT. Alternatively, who has most to fear from the unity of the people and attention becoming focused on just how bloody useless and corrupt leadership is? Answer: THE ESTABLISHMENT. So to those banging on about how stupid the no voters were, you are wrong, if that is you want real change in this country.

This blog was originally intended to be about monetarism/globalisation as I have been questioned about my view on the matter regarding the referendum. As this particular blog is already more than long enough, I'll post it, grab a cup of rosy, and set about a second one on that topic. Two in one day; not much painting and gardening getting done around here!

Thursday 18th September 2014 will be the day the UK dies or is left hanging by a thread.

We're days away from Scotland's referendum on 'independence' and the result is going to be close. Those for the tearing apart of the UK have become offensively shouty-shouty; as illustrated by SNP old timer Jim Sillars throwing his dollies out of his pram as he boiled over with aggression during a Radio 4 interview concerning BP and North Sea Oil over the weekend. As for the 'better together' establishment responsible for 'A' letting the country degrade to the point whereby breaking up isn't just possible, but likely, and 'B' being in charge of the 'no' campaign; they've been pathetic. If the Union does survive the vote, it won't be thanks to a great campaign mounted by Alistair Darling and his clique of all-party establishment cronies, because they have failed entirely to give Scots positive reasons to vote no.

Regardless of the result on Thursday 18th, there has to follow a Political Inquiry in order to understand how Britain was destabilised and the people become so disillusioned and unhappy that the Union itself ceased to be valued. If the worst happens and the separatists get to uncork their undeserved crate of bubbly, that Inquiry must become a Political Autopsy as well, to determine exactly how the UK was allowed to die.

Whether an Inquiry alone, or a combined Inquiry/Autopsy, the Conservative, New Labour and Liberal Democrat establishment must answer to the people for the disaster that is entirely of their making.

From my perspective, I know where and when the rot set in, it was 1979 and the coming of Thatcherism/Monetarism, a corrupt and lazy philosophy and economic model that has in the thirty-five years since, generated a deeply unhappy and unstable country in which the 'glue' that used to bind our nation together became neglected as if of no importance and ultimately failed.

As to what the most poisonous elements are, that have since the coming of monetarism killed our nation's spirit and sense of 'togetherness'...
An economy run exclusively to suit 'Big Business' and which ignores ordinary families and communities:
Full scale deindustrialisation and the resultant benefits culture that inevitably followed:
Loss of national creativity also commercial and industrial diversity:
Asset Stripping each and every element of our once rich treasure trove of state assets, formerly owned by us all but since handed over to businessmen on a plate for a one-off payment:
Uncontrolled migration with no requirement to integrate, and no bulwark against crooks and terrorists applied:
Decimated public services:
Crooks and the vulnerable viewed as 'business assets' to be exploited by ruthless businesspeople:
Ineffective education:
Student debt:
No jobs:
'Internships' for no wage for the educated and minimum wages amounting to slave labour for the bulk of the workforce.
Political sovereignty surrendered to foreign politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen:
Our much loved and valued NHS being privatised by stealth:
And they are by no means all of the poisonous elements responsible for what has gone wrong, there are plenty more.

From day 1 the monetarists actively set out to achieve one goal, and that was to aid the rich to get richer. However; all those by-products as listed above have been the consequence of lazy thinking generated by those in control. We all need respite and a fresh start; not just the Scots.

The autopsy when it begins is going to be a messy affair for sure. Monetarism has killed Britain and now those responsible must answer for it from Friday the 19th onwards.

New Introduction for Sheep No More...

This is the  new Introduction section to included with the revised version of Sheep No More. Sets out my stall neatly I think.

INTRODUCTION

If not me, then someone had to write this book because the future for our children and generations to come is being flushed down the tubes whilst no one does anything about it. Brits have lost the plot and our national backbone has gone with it, as proven by the fact that we’re behaving as if helpless spectators at our own demise rather than fight back and put the brakes on the decline politicians are content to preside over.

Dare to imagine what those who are babes-in-arms today will be inheriting when adults and responsible for the nation a generation or two hence (bearing in mind those most active politically tend to be well into their middle age). What will be left for them by the middle of the twenty-first century if we don’t put our house in order now? We’re bankrupt in all but name, a reality the powers that be would have us believe can be disguised with fiddled figures, whilst in social terms the fabric of society is being torn to shreds; yet no plan of action exists or effort is being made to get a grip on either count. On the contrary, there is only one game in town as far as politicians can see and sheepishly adhere to it, and that is to persist with the very same philosophy and economic model Mrs T was happy to put her name to and that has wreaked havoc since 1979. The rich have got richer whilst the rest of us have been impoverished, and the country has been run to benefit a ruthless minority at the expense of the robbed blind majority, which is simply a statement of fact. With that in mind, does it make any sense to continue with the very same model responsible for trashing the British way of life; or is it time to kick the cancerous mindset into touch and pursue some new, fresh and constructive thinking?   

If this is to be a full frontal assault on monetarism and what it has done to the country, which it is, does that mean the author must be some sort of a rabid socialist lefty seeking to wage class warfare on the knobs? Nope, I believe in free enterprise, democracy and meritocracy. Posh or poor, black or white matters not a jot to my way of thinking, I simply want yours and my kids to be allowed to grow up in a stable and progressive land in which they can thrive. I want to see developed an enterprise based economic model, purposely designed to support the interests of the majority, one that is skills based at the top end and which as a result of its earning capability, can support the rewards of a well run economy. As to what the ‘rewards’ in question are, I’d say high quality public services run not for profit but in support of a civilised society rate as being both desirable and achievable.

Why shouldn’t we be able to enjoy such a radical change of direction for the better? No reason at all as far as I can see, it’s all down to mindset and what we are willing to either put up with or strive as a unified and cooperative people to break away from and dump.

In order to make plain what the author is against and would very much like to see the back of, this pile of dung is what passes for ‘leadership’ in long suffering Britain and is entirely responsible for the mess we’re in...

Millionaire public schoolboys ‘born to lead’ insulated from, and dismissive of, the peasantry...

‘Yes men’ backbenchers and county councillors who’ll rubber stamp whatever gets put before them, because they know what side their bread is buttered...

Hoards of bureaucrats producing nothing of any use whilst binding us all in red tape...

Casino bankers responsible for losing our nation its shirt and still today carrying on regardless... 

Business leaders that have pimped their own history and heritage and pocketed the loot without shame...

Ambulance chasing lawyers urging all to sue, sue, sue, and a legal trade shamelessly exploiting crooks and their victims as ‘business assets’...

Enough is enough; it cannot be beyond our collective wit to build a society purposely designed to serve the best interests of the majority, which in a nutshell, is what this book is about.

Only the sensibilities of the politicians and senior business people responsible for degrading this once great country have been harmed during the making of this book. They’ve got it coming and deserve both barrels metaphorically speaking. 

New edition of Sheep No More sees the light of day

This is the new cover design for the revised edition of my 2012 self-published book that is more, not less relevant now than when first published. This version contains three changes that help it shape up and become more reader friendly.

The old cover that depicted a gravestone had to go because to some it represented 'curtains' and implied 'game over' for Britain, which was most definitely not what I had intended. This cover cannot be viewed as anything other than positive, the message seeking to be conveyed being... fight back, it's not all over, our kids deserve a future and it's up to us as their parents to insist that they get what their birth-right entitles them to.

Inside, the introduction is new, punchy and to the point. The meat of the content remains untouched as I still stand by every word of it. At the end is a new 'Last Word' section to sign off. That too is uncompromising in its language and allows me the opportunity to comment further and update topics tackled within the main text.

I cannot thank Brian Cantwell enough for knocking the book into shape from a technical perspective. He took care of the formatting and rearranged the typesetting to tighten it all up with the result that Sheep No More is almost eighty pages shorter, whilst not a dot or comer of text has been lost. It's more compact, easier to read, more pleasing in paper form or on a Kindle (well it will be just as soon as a printed version arrives hopefully in the next few days so I can check it through and make the new edition live online) and I confess myself to be well chuffed with the result. It's a better book and it has the potential to make an impact.

In paper and ink form it is available from Feed-A-Read now with the price set at the minimum the company will allow me to fix it at. When the new version goes live as an eBook on Amazon any day now, the price will be set at under £3 because I want to get volume.

I've just checked the Amazon, Waterstones and WH Smith sites and they're still showing the old version at the mo but it shouldn't be long until the new filters through. Now, I'd better set to work on new website material so if you'll excuse me...

Simplistic versus Big Picture (HMS Queen Elizabeth)

On the one hand... 'should never have been built, should be spending the money on feeding the poor, and funding the NHS etc'.

On the other... 'lamentation of our loss of greatness, this purchase restoring some much needed pride'

My own opinion... the pocket carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Invincible should not have been scrapped but kept in service, and sufficient money spent on a decent number of state of the art frigates and destroyers instead. The project to build the two new carriers should have been put off until the economy has been repaired and they could be afforded. But here's the rub... our politicians don't have a plan to repair national finances and wellbeing, but are continuing with the very same economic model to have done all the damage in the first place; meaning the two new ships should not have been built until common sense prevails and a new economic model has been intelligently developed.

One or the other of the simplistic views at the top of this blog, are about as far as thinking is allowed to go in todays shallow minded Britain. It would be very helpful indeed if the politicians responsible for commissioning such an expensive and important project, were to make clear the bigger picture, to which there are both positive and negative elements. My opinion is that the positive far outweigh the negative which is why, even with our economy in tatters, I believe the Navy and the country do need these ships. As to why the 'great and the good' don't promote the 'bigger picture' they almost certainly aren't aware of it, but it does exist and can be viewed.

To design and build such assets as these supports tens of thousands of livelihoods across a whole range of industries. From steel making through the building process and all the way to the careers of the sailors, marines and airmen who'll crew the ships once in service, all are high quality jobs the country desperately needs. Almost every one of the adults concerned will be a head of household and parent, and therefore be responsible for bringing up the next generation. What better role model could any girl or boy have, than a parent who is playing a part in such a project of national importance as this is? Whole communities are involved and these are supported and allowed to thrive when the lifeblood of cash-flow is present. Money radiates outwards from those directly employed and this helps support the livelihoods of others. The alternative to supporting industry is to pay people NOT to work and abandon communities to fester.

So is the argument to build the ships not already powerful enough without the need to add icing to the cake? Well forgive me but I'm going to pile it on anyway!!  

It is vital to restore the psychology of the country, especially for young Brits, because since the monetarists took command, our nation has been locked into a downward spiral of decline which has been utterly relentless. The national psychology has in actual fact been battered, as every aspect of life in the UK has been hammered.

Deindustrialisation... loss of livelihoods... ridiculous house prices... perpetual debt... indebtedness for higher education... low skill economy... wholesale destruction of public services... selling every scrap of the family silver... political correctness... risk averseness...  alien terrorists running amok... crooked politicians... shallow celebrity culture... even the Union itself brought to the point of breaking apart. That pile of dung is what has become of life in Britain under the regime in place since 1979 and those items represent only the tip of an enormous iceberg named 'decay'. Each is a direct product of the monetarists or is a symptom of their rubbish, minority serving economic model. It's been non-stop-decline and then all of a sudden HMS Queen Elizabeth ceases to be a bunch of computer animations and actually exists! The ship and its sister ship need to be completed and enter service and then the money has to be found to operate them. The only way to do so, is to dump monetarism and start afresh with a new economic model deliberately designed to run a majority serving creative economy. We need rid of obesity through eating cheap crap, food banks, benefits culture, youth hopelessness through having no future prospects and the likes, and the way to do it is to rebuild our nation's culture of creativity and industriousness.

I imagine Her Majesty must have been chuffed to break that bottle of finest Highland Malt Whiskey on the hull of her ship. Makes a mighty big change from her being expected to name foreign owned, built and crewed glorified gin palaces designed to factory farm tourists, on the quayside at Southampton, which is all she's been expected to do for the last three decades.

Looking forward to the next launch of HMS Prince of Wales although I think ARK ROYAL would be a better name!

Britain - China subjugation. Sorry... 'trade deal'.

"...The Prime Minister, David Cameron, said: "The UK is the most popular destination in Europe for Chinese investment with more Chinese investment into the United Kingdom in the last eighteen months than the whole of the last thirty years combined..." Quote copy / pasted from BBC news service.

Trade 'deals' with China worth in the region of fourteen billion pounds have been announced but let us be in no doubt about it, the vital element of 'balance' is entirely absent; this is a sell out by politicians incapable of running a whelk stall. British registered, but under the control of all sorts of foreign stakeholders company 'BP' are to supply LPG to China, whilst the High Speed 2 rail link will submit to Chinese control as will the building of Nuclear Power Stations alongside the French company EDF. Whenever a selling off of the family silver occurs, which is precisely what this 'deal' is, it strikes me that Britain's Commercial Sovereignty is taking yet another hammering resultant with our country's fiscal enslavement. As to why journalists and commentators never question the trashing of this vital element to our sovereignty that has resulted in Britain being under the cosh of foreign business interests? Those in question must either be as unimaginative as our useless politicians, lack courage to speak out, or are in tune with the establishment and intent upon 'business as usual' carrying on uninterrupted. Either way; by not questioning Cameron & Co, our journalists prove themselves to be part of the problem.

The PM quoted more Chinese 'investment' in the last eighteen months than in the past thirty years combined. There's a practical reason for that. 30-35 years ago Britain threw in the towel on our former creativity and determination to remain independent when lazy monetarism became the governing mind-set and philosophy here. Two major and highly destructive elements of which are the wholesale deindustrialisation complete with the benefits culture that displaced hard work for fair pay, and the selling off of every scrap of the family silver to have taken place since the early 80's necessary to fund a failed nation and keep up a pretence of normality. In China at PRECISELY THE SAME TIME policy to build industries aimed at becoming a global economic superpower kicked in.

In Britain politically driven failure. In China politically driven success. In Britain we pay people to do nothing all day whilst our homes are now jam-packed full of Chinese made merchandise; the precise reason they are rich and calling the shots whilst we are poor and in a position to be subjugated. A nation is its 'people' and they are its prime resource. Their work ethic (or lack of it as a result of being under siege for 30-35 years) is what drives a nation and makes it fail or succeed. In Britain, our politicians are oblivious to this simple truth and prefer to use smoke and mirrors to dress up failure as something better, whilst in China hard work has put that nation where it now is; in control!

That man Cameron and the entire political establishment he represents are the problem here. They cannot see beyond the ends of their own noses and make no attempt to do so.    

Education not Indoctrination

In the light of the disturbing goings on in Birmingham, it is plain that the French are absolutely right to ban religion from being taught in schools and we ought to follow their example.

British kids spend a minimum of eleven years at school the aim of which ought to be, they come out at the end of it able to think for themselves and be capable of exploring their own imaginations, and exploiting their own potential; with a little help from the adults around them and in whose interest it is that their children are able to get the best from life. Young people who can think independently are the last thing those out to hijack the school system in and around Birmingham want; they're after sheep without the ability to question what has been drummed into them, but to instead think what they're told to think, when they're told to think it, as if not humans but mere, and sad, biological robots.

Those posing as men of God are nothing of the sort, they warlords, agents of warlords and bigots with nothing better than slavery, hate and barbarism to offer, whilst those atop the jihadist dung heap stay well out of harms way themselves. They; are more than likely to be knocking back booze and watching kiddie-porn whilst issuing their orders to the gullible. There should be no pussyfooting around these ultra-dangerous people, but instead a policy developed to promote forcefully the values of freedom, independence of mind, democracy, meritocracy, fraternity and nationhood. Ram that down the throats of the jihadists and deny them the raw material they're out to generate for the next generation of walking bombs.

Democracy beats into a cocked hat slavery as a code for life, and the Muslim children of Britain deserve better than to be manipulated and abused by the super cynical. 

As far as parents are concerned, if you want to indoctrinate your daughter or son with religion, do it in your own time. School is where they should be educated; end of.

The school building pictured is not one of those under the microscope, is nowhere near Birmingham, and does not have a problem with religious bigots, it's just included as representing a state school.

Progress expected...

Am champing at the bit to get back to writing up the 'Band-Aid Manifesto' as I've taken to thinking about it, and will do so shortly. Finding the time I need to bash out the mass of material accumulating within the old cranium, is proving difficult of late, mainly due to the pressure of my every day job and the need to pay the mortgage. However; progress has been made in an important area, and this afternoon I have a meeting with a desktop publisher who is going to upload a lightly revised version of Sheep No More to Amazon and Feed-A-Read who print the paper and ink version. Yesterday afternoon I put together the new sales pitch for the book which reads as follows...

"Sheep No More is about Britain and the mess economically, industrially, and socially our once great and stable land has been allowed to sink into. Brits need to know how we got to ‘where we’re at’ because to do so and make a good job of it, marks the place to begin repairing all the damage done since 1979, when the author asserts the rot set in and rapidly spread to every pore and sinew of national life.

Tackling such a seemingly daunting subject could make for a very tedious read were it to be done by some learned member of the establishment, so it’s just as well Pete Harris is a blunt speaking, everyday working bloke who is unafraid to call a spade a spade and does not take prisoners. The result is a fast moving, informative and thought provoking read.

Our children deserve a future, but at the moment all they’re set to inherit is our mess, so best we sort it out."     

The pic has no relevance to this post, its just bright and cheerful like me!

Common Sense and Logic Party (doesn't exist as yet) 1st draft MANIFESTO

There is less than a year to go until the General Election of 2015 and no plan of action aimed at restoring national stability and direction is on offer from any of the politicians who expect us to vote for them. Conservative, New Labour and Lib-Dems view the existing monetarist philosophy and economic model as being the only political game in town. To continue with the very same model that wrecked the country is both wrongheaded and lazy and needs addressing.

Can UKIP offer a sensible alternative? The power and influence they've gained as a result of May's twin polls, is drawn from their stance on the EU and uncontrolled migration, but beyond that pair of interconnected issues, all the party has to offer is an adherence to the same monetarism the other three parties cannot muster the wit to think outside the box of. If there's not an alternative to 'more of the same' then we have reached the point of 'game over' both for Britain as a nation, and for our hard won civilisation, which plainly isn't an acceptable situation any of us should be prepared to put up with. There must be a sensible alternative and is.

 What Britain needs rid of

For thirty five years the interests of the majority has been ignored whilst the wants and demands of Big Business have been slavishly adhered to. As a result, all the family silver has been sold off, we've a tax system designed to suit giant corporations and that gets run rings around by their clever accountants, the country has been utilised as a very productive 'cash cow' to the benefit of those calling the shots, and the rich have become ever richer, often by helping themselves to wealth that once belonged to us all. Alongside the minority serving economy, three and a half decades long in duration thus far; minimum wages, zero hours contracts, unpaid internships, debt for students and the mother of all benefits cultures has been imposed on the majority. The system stinks, is morally wrong, has bankrupted the country and made it dysfunctional.

What Britain needs instead

The most important resource ours or any other country must aim to get the best out of, is its people, and in this regard British politicians long ago lost the plot. The people exist not to be exploited, abandoned and abused, but must be given every assistance and opportunity to blossom and bloom, and this is especially true where the young are concerned. At the top end of the social structure, we need senior management to reconnect with the populous, simply because we are all in this together, a fact senior British management has entirely lost touch with over recent decades. Those abandoned to existing on sink estates, and attending sink schools, must be offered a way out of those places through the existence of real job opportunities. We need our traditional creativity and entrepreneurial spirit to be revived and the tidal wave of imports presently crashing in upon us to be held back. Some years down the line we must aim to balance the books and become an exporting country again, not of tat, but of high grade products. We need entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and our skills base currently hanging by a thread to be revitalised. Our farmers must be assisted to get back on their tractors and we need our fields to be filled with crops and not houses. As a second tier of commerce that ought to be viewed as being the worthy version of a 'service economy' health, education, banking and the likes must be sensibly governed and properly resourced. Finally the areas of national life that add 'quality' to the lives of all must be put back to rights. Social services, child protection and care of the elderly and vulnerable.

None of the above is on the radar where the policy makers of the top three, now four, parties are concerned, yet all are vital to the restoration of Britain's heart and soul, and all are achievable with the right set of attitudes in place and then empowered.

The 'Common Sense and Logic Party'

The common sense party doesn't exist at present but maybe it should, and if it did the following would be items on the manifesto. All are just one liners presently in need of being fleshed out and will be in the coming weeks and months.

Manifesto

To be continued when a little less knackered...

Post Euro election - pre result.

On Thursday 22nd May just gone, we voted in the Euro Election and just hours from now,73 lucky individuals will get the phone call they've dreamt about, namely a first class ticket to board the European Gravy Train where £100K or there about per year will be come there way courtesy of taxpayers. Hundreds of candidates placed their names on the ballot paper and who can blame them, the prize being lots of undeserved money for rope Britain doesn't need and the majority of our population don't want. As to how great the resentment against continuing subservience to the EU actually is, we'll find that out when the results get announced and a grinning Nigel Farage remains plastered across our newspapers and TV screens.

I 'voted' in as much as I registered a protest by spoiling my ballot paper. I drew a line through all the names and wrote across it words to the effect of 'will not vote for the least worst/damaging of a rotten lot'. Since making that known, I've had a bit of grief from some folk who think it should be compulsory to vote and to not do so betrays the sacrifices made for democracy by generations gone before. My reply is that we need to be able to vote positively, for a candidate who can be expected to work hard and repay the trust placed in them. I'm clearly not going to endorse a 'yes man' nor an individual who doesn't believe in the same things I do, therefore, and because no candidate appeared on the paper I could trust, I felt compelled to spoilt it.

At the General Election a year from now I'll probably have to do the same again (not for the first time) which irks because I want to be able to cast a positive vote and should my candidate win, let she or he get on with it! I've no objection to an individual earning good money provided they work hard and reward my political sensibilities by reassuring me that whilst I'm hard at it, pulling my weight, doing my bit as a citizen by working hard and raising my family to have high standards, my political representative is doing the right thing by the community and country, reassuring me that she/he is on the case and standing up for my interests. To my way of thinking that's the whole point of electing 'representatives' the trouble is, it ain't happening, not in terms of national politics and certainly not at that jamboree / beano / endless cocktail party in Strasburg.

As to why a Euro sceptic like me couldn't bring myself to vote UKIP? Other than where the need to shake off the European straitjacket and control sensibly our borders, the party worries the hell out of me. They've no meaningful policies aimed at repairing our broken economy and society, but what they do talk about is more selling off of what's left of the family silver, and then of course are all the fruitcakes associated with the party 'Nige' could no doubt do without, but who are present and more than happy to demonstrate stupidity when a journalist with a microphone / camera are close by. Very worrying.   

The problem with Nigel; a major contradiction.

This morning at 3.30ish I found myself rudely awoken by none other than Nigel Farage who had got inside my head and was causing an upset!

There's a problem with Nigel and it's a glaring one that is for some strange reason being ignored. The issue in question is a contradiction that journalists and political commentators ought to address and demand an answer for. Central to UKIP's argument is that the British people were never asked for their permission in what is supposed to be a 'democracy' prior to fitting us up with an EU straitjacket and that forty years in, we've an absolute right to give a verdict on what has happened to the country since. As a result of membership for which permission was not sought, political sovereignty has been surrendered and the same fate has befallen our legal sovereignty as a result of lawyers binding us into the European Court of Human Rights. So now we answer to foreign politicians, bureaucrats and judges, all of which is wrong, and all of which Nigel reckons he's on the case about.

A country's COMMERCIAL SOVEREIGNTY is every bit as important to the life of the nation as is political and legal sovereignty, and yet, Nigel has nothing to say on that crucial matter. On the contrary, he's on the record for saying the NHS should be privatised and so presumably should the BBC. Who would buy our precious NHS? Hard bitten American, Chinese, Russian business interests with a view to utilising the sick people of Britain as business assets to be exploited to the maximum that's who.

We can be certain that will happen because that is exactly the fate to have befallen every other formerly owned by us all state asset, shipped out and into the portfolios of overseas business interests, management, and shareholders.

Nigel grew up a child of Thatcher and makes plain he is her greatest fan. As a City of London dealer operating at the heart of the casino culture monetarism 'gifted' our nation, he made plenty of cash from the sell-offs that began in the early 1980's and continue to date (The history and heritage of the Royal Mail having just been destroyed at a stroke of Vince Cable's pen and the process of a foreign takeover taking place currently) My question to Nigel is... If the surrendering of political and legal sovereignty is wrong (which it plainly is) how can it be right to wilfully hand over control of our commerce on which so many livelihoods depend, and which provides the nation with so much in terms of identity; to foreign control? Come on Nige, what's the answer?   

Easter Sunday and a week spent writing begins.

Happy Easter! The picture doesn't have a lot of relevance to the content of today's blog but it's bright, cheerful, and seasonal which is the only reason I selected it.

I'm taking the week off work to get stuck in to material for the Sheep No More website which is now out of date. We're a year away from the next General Election and yet despite the dreadful and worsening state of the country, not one politician that I'm aware of is offering a scintilla of hope for the future. What we are getting plenty of, is bull and delusion that austerity is working and we should all be slapping our political masters on the back and telling them what fine fellows they are. The numbers in work and supposed 'growth' cuts no ice with me because it's all smoke and mirrors, sufficient only to fool those with a vested interest in 'believing' or who are too stupid or cowardly to question the garbage being force fed them at every news bulletin.

Sheep No More 'the book' is to get a bit of a makeover and the material is ready to upload to Amazon and Feed-A-Read who produce the paper and ink version. A new cover featuring a signpost design will replace the gravestone a number of people have criticised because it comes across as a tad negative, which wasn't the original intention. I understand the criticism and have decided to act on it, hence the new design. It's called listening; something politicians appear incapable of. Inside will be a new Introduction that if I say so myself, is the dogs dangly bits and the best thing I've ever written probably. I would have liked a foreword independently written by a person I admire and who shares a similar mind-set, but it hasn't been forthcoming so far, so I'll go ahead without and add one in later as and when. The bulk of the book will remain as it is currently because I'm still happy with it, and if anything the passing of time is making it more, not less, relevant.

The new website sections will be short, punchy, to the point and original. No politician or journalist that I am aware of, is tackling any of these topics, at least not in a way that they need to be meaningfully and forcefully dealt with. These are the new sections...

2 principles politicians should have at the forefront of their thoughts. The first is the need to maintain national integrity and put in the work necessary to guarantee full Border control, Political and Commercial Sovereignty, Environmental protection, Security of Food and Power supplies etc.. The second principle is to ensure the running of a Stable Economy to benefit not multinational corporations, but the people and our skills base. 

Meritocracy - Democracy - Equality; fight for it!  

Globalisation; are we winners or losers? If we're losers do something about it.

Use of every tool in the kit and trick in the book to stabilise society and give the young a future.

Heart and Soul; politicians happy to preside over decline and endlessly pummel the spirits of our people. Sell everything, ignore the millions abandoned to 'life' on sink estates, privatise the NHS by stealth, decimate the armed services etc.

Senior Management; THE PROBLEM. Our people want to work and we've a national need to maintain skills and run a creative economy but we've a major issue to deal with. Britain's senior management is crap! The worst of any nation on earth, fit only to asset strip and look after No1, being fully insulated from the rest of us. It means the country is commercially leaderless which must be addressed.

Wasted Energy; in that all the British are good for now is arguing, and that whilst we stand toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball snarling at each other and not cooperating, society is being torn apart around us. Time to wise up and smell the coffee!

Those are just a few of the issues we must get our heads around because if we don't the game is up. One thing you can be certain of is that NONE of them will feature in party political manifestoes other than by lip service. There really isn't any just reason not to get a grip and sort this country out so that our children can have a future so if you'll excuse me good people I'll crack on. Do we need a revolution of ideas and some backbone restored or what?



 

First ad!

This week I placed for the first time, an ad in my local paper the Isle of Wight County Press, so now would be a good time to give the gist of what Sheep No More is about.

Decades ago I began gobbing off at any and every opportunity, mostly on radio phone-in programs, about the state of decay Britain was falling into, and the lazy, unintelligent, dishonourable, self-serving and visionless politicians handicapping the country and us all. Writing letters to newspapers took up my Sunday mornings as well, but none of it actually achieved anything other than vent a bit of spleen on my part. And no amount of outpourings from countless others in a similar vein have made the slightest difference to the way politicians operate. They do whatever their policy devisors / think tanks / ear benders demand, and they couldn't care less us about the hopes and fears of ordinary people.

I first had a go at writing my book a decade or so ago, after figuring all the energy spent crafting letters to editors was a waste. It would be better to direct that energy into the writing of a book, and so the first of many drafts of Sheep No More began. It was dreadful at first but slowly improved as I got the hang of the writers art. Along the way, I stood as an Independent Candidate for the Isle of Wight at the General Election of 2010 and polled 175 votes. I'm proud of that effort, and very grateful to those who voted for me, but I never had a dogs chance of winning and knew that from the moment my hat went into the ring. I went for it because to merely observe whilst our way of life went down the tubes and children's future with it, wasn't acceptable to my own ideas about right and wrong.

The day after the General Election I took the bull by the horns and sat down at my PC in order to bash out the book. It took a couple of years, absorbed much, if not most of my free time, and was self published on Amazon as an eBook and Feed-A-Read in paper and ink 2 years ago. Since then I haven't been able to get off the work treadmill and spend time doing promotion, so am now trying to summons up extra time from God knows where to do so. Have to give up sleeping probably!

We're now a year away from the next election and our situation is JUST GETTING WORSE. The same politicians responsible for screwing the country up are still in positions where maximum damage can be wrought, and they haven't got any sort of a plan to put the county back on its feet. Window dressing failure as if it was success and weasel words are plentiful, but not one ounce of genuine effort is being made to address serious issues, which just goes to make the case for the relevance of a book such as mine. Sensibly examining the monetarists mind-set to figure out what went wrong, and practical solutions aimed at countering their cancerous philosophy and economic model, is what SNM exists for.

A voice in the wilderness I may have been, but I have at least made clear my objections to lousy politicians and business leaders, doing their own thing whilst ignoring the interests of ordinary British families.

The recently opened shop is dual purpose. On the one hand, it is a conventional workplace out of which I can ply my trade, that of carving metal, mostly for silversmiths. The other side to the enterprise is to provide a shop window and base for Sheep No More, because we have to start fighting back. 14 months from now those same political monetarists to have spent 35 years destroying Britain, will be promising you MORE OF THE SAME, and you'll be expected to vote for the spivs!  

A bit of spit and polish for Sheep No More

Having had the best part of two years to mull over my book Sheep No More and take on-board the comments / constructive criticisms of some of those who've read it and whose opinions I respect, I've come to the conclusion that a few quite minor alterations could improve it a lot. The bulk of the text will remain exactly as it is because I'm still happy with it and stand by every word. The alterations to be made are regarding the cover, introduction, and ideally the insertion of a foreword written by someone who gets what this project is about and can see the potential it has.

Two people said pretty much the same thing about the cover which currently depicts a gravestone carrying text that laments what we've lost; democracy, industriousness and even handedness etc. 'Just two readers and you're altering the book as a result you may be thinking; can the bloke be that easily persuaded?' I agree with them which is why I'm biting the bullet on this particular issue. Both said the present cover is clever, but the gravestone gives off a negative vibe, which was not my intention and so must be addressed. When I asked others to be honest about it, opinions were split about 50/50. That set me thinking about an image that couldn't be mistaken as anything other than positive and after much mulling over, a pretty neat idea has come to mind that I'm set to get worked up by a professional book cover artist.

A new Introduction has been written that if I say so myself, is the dogs dangly bits and will replace the current one.

The first version only has a bit of musing on my part where a proper foreword ought to be, so now I'm going to address that issue and seek to gain the endorsement of a person with clout I've a great deal of respect for. The man I'd love to write it has been approached and all I can do is wait and see if he responds. A paragraph or two, or ideally a whole page would do it! The person concerned is a personal hero of mine and played a part sparking this whole project off, so to gain his approval would be a dream come true.

We're in a shocking mess as a country, with no genuine or even window dressing effort being applied towards the task of allowing generations to come a worthwhile future. My book has a lot to say on that account and could only do good if I can get it into circulation and make people aware of what we could, and should, be doing about it. It's about fighting our own and our kids corner at the end of the day.

The new intro is ready, the artwork is clear in my minds eye and just needs to be drawn up properly, and I'm pretty certain the foreword writer I'd love to do it will get where I'm coming from if I can just get his attention. I really need to crack on with this and will be placing small adds in carefully chosen newspapers and magazines to promote it. All it will take is one high profile celebrity, journalist, or businessperson to take an interest and the blue touch-paper will have effectively been lit. There is no reason we shouldn't sort this country out and give our children the future they deserve.

Wasted energy...

Every other Tuesday I get to co-present a phone-in programme on internet radio station www.vectisradio.co.uk  the aim of which is bring a positive mindset to a range of problems and instead of tolerating 'more of the same' and deepening decline, look instead for solutions.

One of the regular callers to the programme is a woman called Clare whose favourite topics are the EU, Immigration, and Islamists/Jihad. The response she gets to her points are about equally split between supporters and opponents which to my way of thinking just goes to show how much energy Brits waste finger pointing and rowing rather than focusing on the issues themselves and dealing with them meaningfully.

Take the EU for instance. For decades the row about continuing membership has gone on whilst politicians stir the pot every now and again and keep it simmering. Why? Is it because powerful vested interests are tickling our senior politicians under the chin, whispering in their ears 'let the peasants row on' because as long as they continue doing so we can carry on business as usual? If we truly did live in the democracy so many sacrifices were made for by our forebears, our politicians would want to lance this energy wasting boil and settle the matter one way or the other. Most of us know of course what the result of such a vote would be, which is why we're not being given the democratic right to have our say and the collective view once made clear, acted on. That said, if the vote did go in favour of keeping the EU straitjacket on and the result was unchallengeable having been transparently fair, as a democrat I'd have to accept it. But that won't happen and the powers that be know it, hence the reason the issue festers on and is set to continue doing so.

Immigration, Islamism and Jihad figured large on Clare's programme as was inevitable and resulted with the expected division of comments via emails and Face Book. All of these seemingly unsolvable problems could be settled in a fair and democratic way but sad to say the hour was gone in a flash and the aimed for constructive approach never had a chance to be aired. I've been thinking about it a lot in the hours since and will make those thoughts the subject of the next programme.

Benefits Street

Benefits Street on C4 has created quite a stir since it first went to air and has become the most commented upon TV programme of our time. People are hopping mad at the on-screen antics and the certain knowledge that each and every taxpayer is footing the bill for it.

Anyone that hasn't seen the programme I would urge to force themselves to sit through an episode, but look beyond the people to the surroundings and circumstances they exist with. It's not hard to imagine what that very same street would have looked like a generation or two ago when it unquestioningly would have been clean, tidy and respectable. The area of Birmingham in question is, or was, mixed residential/industrial/commercial and this street just as the others close by, would have housed the labour force for what had been an industrial powerhouse of a city.

When MG/Rover collapsed in 2005 six thousand workers lost their jobs. At its peek that company alone employed at least ten times as many, and these were all 'head of household' standard jobs. Not minimum wage in need of tax credits to subsidise lousy wages jobs, but proper self-supporting ones. Some will no doubt argue the company was over-manned and bound to go bust eventually. To counter that I'd say, how come the Germans can employ vast workforces and make their enterprises profitable, despite the cost of labour in their country being the most expensive in Europe? The difference is one of attitude. German leadership has a can do and must attitude, whereas Britain has been for three to four decades at least, blighted by the standard of leadership in command with the inevitable consequence that we are now up to our necks in the mess of their creation.

MG /Rover was just one company amongst a multitude of others that residential roads such as James Turner Street, Birmingham, B18 housed the workforces for. Now the majority of those industries are gone, replaced by minimum wage shelf stacking jobs, or benefits paid out for no return of labour at all; and we wonder why society has gone so wrong?

We are all guilty of allowing ourselves to lead by the nose and encouraged to snigger and sneer at the feckless whilst shaking our heads in disgust at their goings on. The national news follows close behind the program, which is where the real villains of our time can be viewed. Politicians and senior businessmen who like to lead the head shaking and display mock disgust, when they are the ones responsible for letting the country get into such a state in the first place!

All those who feature on Benefits Street are victims. They are for the most part simple folk who need the stability only proper leadership can provide, but which is entirely absent and has been for many years. Saddest of all are the children who really don't stand a chance and they remember; are the future. 

Potholes, apt metaphor for the state of Britain in general.

Not that many years ago, driving a car or riding a motorcycle / pushbike around the roads of Britain could be, and for most of us was, a pleasurable experience. Now we have to contend with highways in a shocking state of disrepair as a result of little if any maintenance for a decade at least.

Driving today has ceased to be a pleasure because we must be permanently alert for holes and ruts which is an unnecessary hassle no motorist or cyclist ought to have to worry about. My own driving style has changed and adapted because of the new circumstances and now includes swerving to avoid holes some of which resemble small craters. Its a common technique to be seen wherever a line of traffic is attempting to cover ground without damaging their pride and joy and without getting hurt. Fail to spot a pothole in time on an unfamiliar stretch or road, or in the face of an oncoming vehicle making avoidance impossible, we slam in. A wrecked tyre, buckled wheel, broken spring may result and in the worst scenario, a motorist or rider may be thrown out of control with perhaps serious consequences.

As a matter of interest, the snap above was taken in June 2013 on the B3330 Calthorpe Road, Isle of Wight close by my house. Someone had marked the damage with white paint presumably for repair purposes. All this while later in January 2014, no one has been near it with a bucket of tar but on the contrary, months or torrential rain and one or two freezes have reduced the road to a moonscape for a quarter of a mile either side of the spot. Its a 'road' that is quite frankly now suited to donkey carts and little else, and still there is no sign of the repair men attending.

Quite a metaphor for the country isn't it? Our roads are broken because this part of our infrastructure has been starved of cash. Such irresponsible governance was always going to catch up with us and now it has. Don't invest enough into education / health / social services / defence etc and watch the whole system grind to a halt and go down the tubes. Ultimately don't invest in the up and coming generation and unless that matter is addressed and put right, the generation we're all expecting to take over responsibility for the country in due course will inherit what exactly?

Address this mess we must, and to do so will require an entirely new set of attitudes especially where the mind-set of leadership is concerned.      


    

Former US defence secretary Robert Gates's comment.

Viewed through the mist from close by my home on the Isle of Wight, this was the day in May 2013 when HMS Ark Royal was dragged by tugs out of Portsmouth and hauled away to be scrapped in Turkey. She still had at least a decade of good service in her but once reduced to razor blades, of no use at all to the defence of Britain.

 

Yesterday former United States defence secretary Robert Gates made clear his concerns at the decimation of Britain's defence capability which is leaving us vulnerable and will make us incapable of operating as a partner in world policing operations. He is of course right. Mr Cameron meanwhile dismissed what had been said and claimed all is hunky-dory. It just goes to show how handicapped we are by our own self-deluding politicians.     



2014... drifting towards ever deeper chaos, or making the effort to get a grip?

2013 was a funny old year that seemed to race past in a flash and didn't allow me the time I've enjoyed and made the most of in previous years to write and compile material for this project. During the summer period the decision was made to take on some premises and utilise them as 'dual purpose' both to work from at my conventional job and as a base from which to promote SNM. Fitting the place out and getting it up and running, pretty much wiped out the second half of the year but at least that task is done now. Signage was completed in mid December which just leaves the grotty peeling paintwork to tidy up and make the place look respectable. I'm pleased with the stencilling on the windows but it needs some dark fabric or mesh behind it to make it stand out and be readable for motorists sat at a red traffic light directly outside and that I'll attend to this week.

2014; what will it hold? Our borders have just been thrown open to Romanians and Bulgarians and caused a frenzy both in the media and amongst the citizenry. Watching the left and the right jumping up and down has been quite frankly, and will continue to be no doubt, really quite depressing. The right are very predictable but more interesting are the overly idealistic left, always on a hair-trigger to point the finger and scream 'racists and bigots' at anyone daring to complain at the destructive ridiculousness of open borders, they operating from the false belief that they occupy the moral high ground, which they don't. My own view is straightforward, I believe membership of the EU long ago ceased to benefit Britain's best interests but serves those of a powerful minority determined to have their way, and that majority rule and interests should apply which must lead ultimately to escape. Lets have a vote on it, it's called DEMOCRACY. An independent nation has the right and duty to control its own borders, which would lance this nasty festering boil and allow stability to return. I don't object to foreign born citizens living and working in Britain but they should be thoroughly vetted before entering and be subject to work visas. If you've got a criminal record or cannot prove a healthy work ethic you don't get in. And should you come to the attention of the law or expect to claim undeserved benefits whilst here, your leave to remain is questioned and you can expect to be asked to leave.

In September Scots will vote on so called 'Independence' that is in reality nothing of the sort because Alex Salmond will be fully and firmly under the thumb of the EU. We're just nine months away from the UK being potentially torn apart whilst still, even now at the eleventh hour, the powerful argument against fragmentation based around the concept of 'divide and rule' isn't being fired up but must be.

We're just 18 months away from another General Election which means 2014 will be vital in determining what will happen. Presently Cameron and Osborne think they're going to win and probably will unless the British wake up to reality. They're claiming to have sorted the economy out, which is fantasy. Millions working for peanuts, millions more abandoned with no hope existing on sink estates and attending sink schools, a trade deficit that tells the truth about our broken and non-creative economy, the entire economy run according to the demands of the very same financiers who pinned Britannia down over a barrel and have been shafting her since Thatcher's monetarism took hold a third of a century ago, our civilisation dismantled, the cost of servicing the vast debt Thatcher is ultimately responsible for; success? Cameron and Osborne deserving another five years? They deserve the boot as do the whole political establishment all of which handicaps us and a fresh outlook on politics be empowered.

I've a gut feeling that by the end of 2014 our national decline and acceptance of failure may be at last have started to be arrested and some common sense on these and other vital issues will be in the air. Mine is just one voice in the wilderness at present but there are plenty more like me, and if we can begin to sing from the same song sheet we will become capable of being heard and ultimately make one hell of a noise.  It must happen!