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?