2006 April 04 | eurealist.co.uk

Insulated Political Elitism

Today, as the leaders of the Conservtive and Labour parties, meet to discuss ways of stealing our taxes, Dr North at Eureferendum comments on the Hannan article in the Telegraph. Truth be told all the political parties are clamouring to jump on the bandwagon and demand that we the taxpayer support them, why would they not, for them its is free money, that will have the affect of freeing the central parties from their roots and entrenching political elitism and a them and us system.

"To rely on the constituencies and their funding means getting in touch with your grass roots, asking what people think, listening to them and then acting on what they say. In other words, the political classes have to respond to their own local parties, instead of running their own agendas.

And it is this that the central office control freaks find so difficult to do. For them who want to dictate rather then respond, such reliance is an anathema. It is much easier, therefore, to tap up a few rich men and corporate sources, to enable them to run their own campaigns, sucking up to the Westminster media village (who are just as out of touch as the politicos) and laying down the law to the locals.

Combine that with the inherent and almost insufferable arrogance of that group of people collectively known as "Tory boys", who labour (if I can use that word) under the impression that they have any value to society at all, and who insulate themselves so successfully from the real world that they feel the need to talk only to themselves, and you have a self-referential society that has lost the art of listening and responding.

Thus, although we can take it from Hannan that state funding would widen the gap between government and governed, the real problem is that that gap already exists – it has already been created by the party machines and the current funding crisis is a symptom rather than a cause of the problem."

Filed under : Political Humbug, The New Privileged Class
By Ken
On April 4, 2006
At 12:22 pm
Comments : 0

Britain’s new secret police

I have reservations about the new police force which has begun operations in Britain. The Serious Organised Crime Agency will not actually be a police force, Its members will not be constables but agents. SOCA Agents working directly for the home office minister, can direct other law enforcement agencies or commandeer their facilities, they will exercise any of the powers of police, customs officers, revenue inspectors or immigration officials, they will have the power to demand information from a vast variety of sources without judicial warrant, under statutes ranging from the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to the Identity Cards Act 2006, and pass it on to whomsoever they choose. Yet they will not have to take the oath which every other police office must and will not bound by their rigorous code of impartiality and confidentiality.

What this government have set up with SOCA is nothing less than secret police force, with powers that are greater than any other government agency in the country, reporting directly to the home sectary of the day, and which is accountable only to the holder of that post.

Smaizdata has a post, from which I nicked all the above information

Say hello to Britain’s new secret police

I was rather tickled by a comment:

On the bright side, the fact they haven’t sworn or signed an oath is an affirmative defense for shooting them, as you can argue that they are “impersonating a law enforcement officer”.

Another avenue you can take is something that’s been done with some success in various areas of the US: get one of your folks elected sheriff, and have him arrest any one of these fake cop. Here the sheriff requires all federal officials claiming police powers to register and be deputized for the specific task they wish to perform in his jurisdiction. If they don’t comply, they can be arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer.

Posted by Mike Lorrey

Filed under : We used to live in a Democracy
By Ken
On
At 11:51 am
Comments : 0

Whiter Than White

Guido Fawkes` Blog is covering a money laundering operation story; the Government is apparently donating tax payer’s money through the DTI to the Unions to the tune of 10 million, for union modernisation?

This amount oddly, just about balances the funding the labour party receives from the unions at 11 million, thus saving union members a cool 10 million, which they would otherwise “supposedly” have to pay for the “modernisation” of their own unions.

I do not know what arguments have been forwarded by the DTI to back up its decision to spend our taxes on supporting unions, or what checks are being made by the government to ensure that the Unions are actually spending and extra £10 million on modernisation. It would be interesting to find out why the Labour Government should think that donating 10 million pounds to the unions would be a benefit to the countries taxpayers. The unions are after all nothing more than workers organisations, which of course have every right to support any political party they wish with the money donated their members. The taxpayer has no part to play in a private arrangement between the Union leaders and the Labour party, as one commenter on Guido Fawkes` Blog says:

The unions funding Labour is fine if that is what their members want. The taxpayers subsidising the unions is a new development started this year. The £10m bung “for modernisation” is equivalent to the support the unions give Labour. It’s a subsidy to the Labour party from the taxpayer with the money washed through the unions.

I can only agree with the sentiment, if this were happening in any other sphere of public life, I am quite sure as voters we would be demanding an explanation.

How the Labour Party Washes Money from the Taxpayer via the Unions