Oportunity to kill two birds with one vote

Nothing shames us more than fiddling whilst Rome burns whilst the future for generations to come goes down the tubes. Getting our act together in order to gain for our children a decent future ought to be priority number one, but instead we're like a nation of dogs chasing our own tails, which is a pointless activity and gets nobody anywhere. The political version is to argue around topics vital to the life of our nation in never ending circles, which allows them to fester and cause maximum damage. We need to stop behaving as though being our own worst enemy was something to shout about and sort the decision making process out, and on that front I've a practical offering to make.  

On18th September 2014 Scotland will vote in a referendum on 'independence' and the breakup of the UK is set to follow, simply because the nationalists are being allowed to call all of the shots currently, including the perverse idea that children with no experience of life and who courtesy of their natural immaturity can be manipulated to the advantage of the politically cynical, should be persuaded to vote. Blighting the whole of the UK meanwhile, is the issue we have with the EU and that is absorbing an enormous amount of time and effort. That matter is a festering boil that needs to be lanced so that we can get on with the job of generating for all of our children a fighting chance of a decent future.

I propose that on 18.9.2014 everyone over the age of eighteen gets to have their say in a double referendum on the matter of independence. We all get to choose between continuing membership of the EU, or the reassertion of full independence and sovereignty in all four countries of the UK, and in Scotland, the electorate vote on Alex Salmond's intended fragmentation of the UK as well. The Scots will have to think long and hard about the best way to cast their votes, because if they get separation from their cousins in the south and west, Scotland could end up with the exact opposite of what Salmond claims to be aiming for, namely full-blown subservience to the EU with the German Chancellor as Scotland's ultimate puppet master, whilst England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be on course to regain their independence; provided of course the vote goes the correct and intelligent way. I value freedom and independence and it's a fair bet many wised up Scots will share the view. 

If we were to make our politicians listen to common sense and do the right thing by putting wheels in motion to make this happen, Alex Salmond will have been bowled a googly he'll have one heck of a job to dodge. Clearly the arguments will need to be made powerfully and without faltering, but the prize could not be more vital. Saving the United Kingdom, re-establishing independence, and arrival at the point where those two festering issues have been put to bed, thus allowing us to concentrate on the future of every British girl and boy. If you agree that it makes sense, how about we start bending politicians ears and refuse to tolerate them cocking a deaf'un? Please feel free to share this posting wherever you think it may do some good.  


   

Made in China

Featured on the BBC news service yesterday was the rebalancing of the Chinese economy that all commentators agree has to be a very good thing. Their service sector is now larger that the industrial sector by a few percentage points, although manufacturing is still growing a great deal faster than anywhere else on the planet. Chinese consumers are buying Chinese made goods which is viewed as balance having been brought to their economy.

Whether or not we like the way the Chinese government runs its affairs, human rights and abuse of the environment being just two questionable features of their 'system', economically speaking the evidence of having a plan of action and sticking to it speaks for itself. The working classes are employed in manufacturing where they are able to contribute fully to the life of their nation and know that they count. There is now a vast middle class and they support the jobs of their countrymen, as well as buying high grade products from the Germans who occupy the top of the market where manufactured goods are concerned. As for the rich, they just carry on stashing their millions, much of which is obtained from British consumers and even more from Americans.

If you're old enough, cast your mind back to the 1960's which is when I was enjoying my childhood, and if you weren't anywhere close to even being a twinkle in your old mans eye back then, just take my word for it that the following is true. Fifty years ago the country was about as creative, balanced, safe and stable as it ever has been. This was the period before the trade unions took leave of their senses and set to holding the government and industry to ransom, which was the catalyst for the monetarism that became the governing philosophy of the land from 1979 onwards. Currently Britain's economy is anything but 'balanced' it is a complete and utter basket case, still reliant on casino banking, stripping out of the last assets not already given away, and cheap imports despite the evidence of exactly how unintelligent, unsustainable, and socially destructive that model for governance is. Maybe it's about time to get the blinkers off and to learn the lesson from our own past and China's present?     

Walk the Wight

By way of a change from the usual politicking I indulge, this post is of a more personal nature and is about Sunday the 12th of May's 'relaxation'. An annual event on the Isle of Wight is a 26 mile sponsored walk in aid of the Earl Mountbatten hospice. It starts at Bembridge in the east and ends at The Needles in the west and took just short of ten and a half hours to complete, but that does allow for three twenty minute stops along the way for bacon butties and tea. For the first half the weather was fine and dry although rain was forecast for the afternoon. The met office was right and once past stage five at Mottistone the weather closed in. A few miles of horizontal rain was endured and my boots filled with water from the top! Ten miles later the end came as a welcome site and it was a joy to get those heavy and sodden boots off. Today my feet are mighty sore but it was for a good cause which makes the discomfort worthwhile. Big respect to all of my fellow walkers.

I've just heard government mouthpiece Grant Shapps claim for the umpteenth time, a million jobs have been created since 2010. Lets do some contrasting and comparing...

I left school in 1972 and walked straight into an apprenticeship. Had I not liked that job it would have been the easiest thing in the world to move on, because my generation was in demand by industry. There was very little excuse not to be in full time work because jobs were plentiful, the 'Tax Credit' didn't exist to subsidise lousy wages and the need to require employers to pay the 'Minimum Wage' didn't apply because bosses knew their  people would walk if not paid reasonably. I finished my apprenticeship in '77 just two years before a certain person declared that Britain was now to be looked upon as 'Post Industrial' and run a 'Service Economy' in which Brits need no longer get their hands dirty.

Today we push 50% of school leavers into higher education which conveniently keeps them out of unemployment stats for three years. The government sponsors six month 'apprenticeships' after which a young person will quite likely be shown the door and the next taken on, which has to be as demoralising as can be imagined for those concerned. Graduates take 'Internships' for no pay with highly profitable corporations in an attempt to kick-start a career, this coming after the running up of a demoralising debt, the price of gaining a degree. Others are forced to accept zero hours contracts that actually require them to put in a full week made up of compulsory overtime and whereby sick pay, holiday pay, and maternity leave are denied and a person can be dismissed with ease. On top of these unhappy circumstances comes the tax credit scheme employers are able to manipulate whilst paying lousy wages that must then be subsidised into a 'living wage' using taxpayer funded money. As for the minimum wage, that's a bad joke and those laughing least and being used as slave labour are the under 18's. We've millions of kids abandoned to existing on sink estates and attending sink schools and an underclass devoid of a work ethic has been bred, a 'National Feature' that didn't exist when my working lifetime began.

Mr Shapps... you speak weasel words sir. 

This ladies dad, ex Chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson has stated publicly 'we need out of the European Union'. Obviously I agree but the timing is interesting. Less that a week after UKIP's taking of 25% of the votes at local elections, the Tories have got in a panic, phone calls have been made, and Lawson has been chosen as the man to wrestle the issue back from Nigel Farage & Co. Next up, Euro fanatic Nick Clegg in an even bigger panic, makes the bog standard claim that 3.5 million British jobs depend on our staying in, which is 'A' false, and 'B' amounts to a threat of what will be done to us if we leave, which is no way to run any sort of a relationship worth being in.

How about we come at this so called threat to our jobs from another angle... How many German jobs do we support bearing in mind that country dominates the marketplace for high-end engineered products and a great deal more? It's my guess that 3 million or so German jobs rely upon what they sell us. How many French jobs likewise? Italian? Spanish? Lets grow up, bury this specious argument and accept that the Germans and French etc are not going to cut off their noses to spite their own faces on the matter of jobs; lets get real. If on the other hand some of the jobs in question are those of the tier upon tier of bureaucrats come to blight business and daily life over the 40 year long period during which this failed experiment has been allowed to run; those we would be better off without. 

As regards the picture accompanying this posting, I was going to include a snap of Lord Lawson but he's no oil painting, his daughter though is. Bet she's glad her mum provided the genes for her looks.

Don't tolerate failure, fix it.

If the system you live under is broken don't tolerate it, fix it.

Plainly we have a big problem with a ruling political elite that doesn't listen to the electorate, couldn't care less about our hopes and fears, and will continue to serve its own wants and demands until made to do otherwise. The dismissal of this unworthy breed has to be the most desirable option, but in order to do so at a ballot ideally sooner rather than later, a workable alternative must become available.

Very often I am struck whilst observing conversations and occasionally partaking on social media, that weather a contributor comes from a left-wing or right-wing point of view and perspective, we generally all want the same thing ultimately. Stability, peace of mind and an absence of fear is what nearly all want, so that we can get on with the job of bringing our kids up to fulfil their potential and enjoy a reasonable quality of life. If I'm right (and I'll eat Bernard Manning's pants if I'm wrong) agreeing to cooperate and having the intelligence to meet on the common ground to the benefit of the majority, is the best option we ought to aim for. Some will disagree and insist that until the country is run exactly as they want it to be, prejudices and all, they'll continue to jump up and down and make a lot of noise. I reckon their sorts are a minority that will never go away entirely, but that in a stable and refocused country will become such an insignificant minority, they can be safely ignored. Agreeing to cooperate is the key.

  

Sheep No More and how ordinary people like myself might go about fixing 'Broken Britain' may have dominated my thoughts for a number of years now, but the events of the past couple of months and the last week in particular, make it feel as though a significant beginning is upon both me and the country I care about. Other than a minority of overly insulated from reality twits atop the pecking order, individuals whose attitudes highlight them as being central to 'the problem' and therefore irrelevant to the cure to its many ailments the country needs, most of us know we cannot carry on as we are but must find a way out of the mess we're in. Obviously I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, and searching for sensible answers to our many problems is what SNM exists to do. Of course we can get ourselves out of the mess bad leadership has allowed us all to sink into. 'More of the same' is not acceptable when we're capable of so much better.

Two months ago I was asked to consider standing for a seat at the County Council election held last week and agonised as to what to do for the best. I really would have liked to have given it a shot, but in the end decided no, because of the time and effort needing to be invested. Had I stood and enough of the electorate placed their trust in me, promoting SNM would have been forced to take third place to earning a living and serving on the council and to be frank, promoting this project is where my heart is and where the contribution to society I can make has the most potential, provided that is, the formula is correct and can be made to work. Only time will tell on that score.

On the Isle of Wight where I live, Independent Candidates have made a massive breakthrough taking almost half of the seats and have broken the stranglehold, bog standard, self-serving, jobsworth, mainstream politicians held, abused, and have messed the Island up with. I take my hat off to the sorts of women and men coming forward and getting involved in politics now, people who refuse to put up with and more crap, think for themselves, and wont be whipped. Good on you guys! Nationally UKIP have frightened the wits out the political establishment by taking 25% of all the votes cast. I'm not a UKIP supporter but I understand entirely where they are coming from as regards the EU and open borders, two major problems requiring the will of the people to be listened to and acted upon.

I have just completed a new booklet to compliment this project and that is currently being proofread, the community I am a member of has a spring in its step following the election result, Cameron is shitting a brick as a result of UKIP's surge and I am now ready to start pushing hard this project. Interesting times!