Buy Gold

I had never realised until recently that governments could solve so many financial problems by printing money. To my simple mind, it always seemed to be a too simple remedy fraught with all kinds of problems. But now they are all at it. We have printed £75,000,000,000 of extra cash and we are about to follow up with some more. But this is as nothing compared with the USA - where things are always bigger and better. They have started on the massive task of churning out $1,750,000,000,000, which should be enough to keep things going for a while. The European Central Bank has decided to join in as well. Why not? Even the boring and very prudent Swiss are at it; the money supply in Switzerland is increasing, so I am reliably informed, at the rate of 30% per year. That should cure many problems. Of course, Swiss banks have some spectacular black holes in their accounts which have not yet been fully revealed - so you can't be too careful.

I never studied economics, so I was never under any illusion that I understood economics. But surely this can never work. Are all these countries competing with each other to see which can devalue its currency the fastest?

The Chinese want a new reserve currency. It 's not surprising. If they have so much money invested in the west, they do not want it to end up like Monopoly money and quite valueless. I think buying gold will be a wise move.

Bank Holidays

Monday was a Bank Holiday and, of course, it was raining. I do not quite know what this Bank Holiday celebrates. It used to be Whitsun, the day following the seventh Sunday after Easter - or Pentecost; the day that the Holy Ghost came down on the Disciples and 50 days after the Resurrection. This year that day is on 31st May or one week later. We have a May Day Bank Holiday - this year on 4th May - which was a rather odd introduction by the Labour government in 1978. It could have been a simple celebration of the approach of summer - as it had been in pre-Christian days. But Jim Callaghan's government tried to tie it to Socialist traditions and revolution. In the public mind it had more to do with Communism and military displays. Most likely, the extra holiday was no more than a vain attempt to persuade the public that things were all rather good, when the economy was in a mess [as usual] and half the nation was threatening to go on strike. Of course it was a failure. The May Day Bank Holiday in 1978 was cold and wet and many tourist spots, wary of the weather, remained closed. And then came the winter of discontent with everyone on strike and another Labour government headed for the rocks.

But we still have this Late May Bank Holiday that slots into school half-term holidays but I can see no other reason for it. Why not add it onto the Christmas batch of bank holidays -say January 2nd and avoid the pointless disruptions. Nobody bothers about the weather then. We expect rain snow or hail and nobody cares what the Meteorological Office forecasts unless they suggest snow 10 feet [3.048 metres] deep and all the roads blocked. If they say it will be cold and wet, we expect it. If it turns out fine, we enjoy it. That's the best approach to weather.

/

Eric's mum thinks it would be better if we could each fix our own Bank Holidays to suit our individual needs. Some may suggest that we already do. We call them sickies.

Parliamentary Reform

As every day passes there are more revelations about the extraordinary expense claims that have been made by MPs over the last six or seven years. One of the latest is another rich Tory, Sir Peter Viggers, making claims for the upkeep of his country estates. Over a period of 3 years he obtained £30,000 of tax payer's money for gardening costs, which included £500 for manure and £1,645 for a floating "Stockholm duck house" on his garden lake. Sir Peter, the MP for Gosport in Hampshire, had agreed to stand down at the next election.

Tory MP Jonathan Djanogly, shadow Business Secretary, claimed £5,000 for automatic gates on his rather large home in Huntingdon. He also claimed £27,000 for cleaning and gardening in a period of 4 years. Jonathan Djangoly is the son of the founder of Coates-Viyellas, a man thought to be worth over £300 million.

Apart from juggling between primary and secondary homes to make maximum claims, maximum profits and minimum taxes, the claims made by Labour MPs are for more modest matters such as mending paths and hedges and installing patios and conservatories.

And the revelations go on. The whole sorry saga continues. Yet, it seems that there are many in the House of Commons who still do not get it; they cannot see that the mess has to be cleaned up permanently. And this means changes to the whole structure of parliament and representation of the people. It is now time for a new 1832 Reform Act to bring parliament into the 21st century; to provide us with true representatives who are properly paid and compensated for doing a proper job on behalf of their electorate. They must not be automatons, devoid of ideas and controlled only be party whips. The Commons committees must be given proper powers to examine and examine again the legislative proposals of the government. They must not be fixed by whips to ensure they do the "right" things.

As we watched Speaker Martin earlier this week, marching through the corridors of Parliament with all his finery and theatrical costumes, I was reminded of nothing more than Gilbert & Sullivan and the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe

Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!

Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses,

Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses,

But who will be the Mikado's Lord High Executioner? And who will he have on his list?

We have a once in a lifetime opportunity for total reform. It must be followed through. Never again should we have a government that controls the country when it has only received the support of 24% of the electorate and the vast hordes of MPs left with nothing much to do except to concentrate only on self-enrichment.

Who that is untainted can lead us out of the mess?

A Den of Thieves

It seems that there is at least one man who understands the magnitude of public dissatisfaction with the House of Commons. I read his speech to the House in full.

"It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

"

In the name of God, go!"

"

Unfortunately, this address to the House was made by Oliver Cromwell on 20th April 1653.

Rule By The Rich

This country is in a mess; it is a mess that has developed over many years but it is a mess nevertheless. I will repeat my view that the government of Blair and Brown has been the worst in my life-time. Mrs Thatcher was wrong about many things but at least she stood for something. John Major had his problems but apart from privatisation of the railways he did not indulge in too many madcap, money wasting schemes. Throughout the time in office of Blair & Brown they have swamped us with a tidal wave of pointless legislation which has increased national bureaucracy. But there is precious little benefit to show for all the money that has been spent. They have attacked and destroyed our civil liberties in the name of anti-terrorism - a situation exacerbated by their involving us in unnecessary wars. Even as government debt mounts Brown continues to pursue the needless costly indulgence of ID cards. This government has failed - miserably - to control the excesses of the financial sector of our economy, both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown giving the City a free rein to do as they wished. They have courted the favours of the very rich, the gamblers, the celebrated and the notorious and looked on while ludicrous pay packages were handed out not just to CEOs but to all and sundry in financial institutions. While this has been going on MPs of all parties have milked a system of expenses, apparently secure in their misguided belief that they too deserved extreme pay packages. It is quite amazing that numerous MPs - particularly government ministers - have become seriously rich while in office and have acquired impressive property portfolios. The Financial Services Authority [FSA] has failed to regulate the City while MPs have been left either unregulated or actively encouraged to milk the system of expense payments.

The public has had enough. Our savings pay us no interest. Even as they are bailed out with our money, the banks arrogantly treat their customers and saviours with contempt. Their central obsession is to pay themselves obscene amounts of money and our MPs complain about their pay and fiddle their expenses. Together bankers and MPs avoid the taxes that we must pay. Together, it is the rich who govern this country and they are getting relatively richer and richer. Together they have ignored the needs and wishes of ordinary people. Governance rests with a cartel of MPs and the super rich that brooks no moral constraints - but they do so now at their peril. We can return to riots in the streets.

One of the most extensive and impenetrable clouds that still hangs over this Labour government is that of their record on pensions. Do they hate pensioners or do they truly just hate the poor? Mrs Thatcher changed the basis on which the state pension was calculated each year. She moved from a calculation based on average wages to the one based on the RPI. This has resulted in much smaller increases in the state pension over the last 20 years than would otherwise have been the case. The Labour government could have changed this back again in 1997. They chose not to do so and still have not. The values of private pensions decline year by year and the state pension is now almost the lowest in Europe. At 18% of average earnings it is lower than it was when Lloyd George introduced the pension 100 years ago; then it was set at 25% of average wages. Pensions provided for government employees [including MPs] are impressively generous and will require considerable inputs from tax payers to finance payouts in the future. While bankers make millions, MPs reward themselves and a pensioner is asked to get by with just £95.00 per week plus some means tested state supplementary benefits. It is blot on the record of any Labour government. Is there any more powerful evidence that Labour has lost all contact with every single part of its roots.

`

Keir Hardie and Clement Attlee and Aneurin Bevan will be rolling in their graves?

`

Is our democracy safe with Labour? I think not.

The Governance of Britain

In my investigations for my family history, I have learned much about the social history of Britain over the last three hundred years. Sometimes it is surprising how little actually changes. In the 19th century, as now, we had government by the rich. The system then was totally undemocratic, of course, and before 1832 there were rotten boroughs that sent members to parliament, even though they had next to no electorate. Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 11 men with the vote and elected two MPs. Even after 1832, MPs were elected by a small number of wealthy adult males. In this context a man could have the vote if he owned property worth £10.00 per year. At a time when all of the working classes earned next to nothing and owned nothing at all, few actually had a vote. Total electorate was about 650,000 out of a population of 11 million. Constituencies were of very unequal size; 35 had less than 300 electors, while Liverpool had 11,000. Since so few people had a say in government, the unrepresented masses could only make their opinions known by rioting in the streets. Constantly, the governing classes were careful to maintain a large standing army to quell riots. There was a constant fear of revolution. It was never a serious possibility. The masses wanted representation not revolution and even when they had a powerful case they were ready to negotiate and compromise.

In 2009, of course, the system allows all adults over the age of 18 to vote. But never have those in parliament been so remote and out of touch with the people they represent. Over recent general elections there has been a steady decline in voter turn out from 84% in 1950 to 60% in 2005 and a dramatic increase seems an unlikely prospect. With the recent furore about MPs expenses, parliament and our representatives are held in very low esteem. Next month we will be asked to vote in an election for members of the European Parliament. We have little interest in Europe anyway and frequently have no idea who is our local MEP, so there is little doubt that this election will be used to indicate our disatisfaction with the main parties in Westminster and there will be massive abstentions and/or big votes for minority parties. Our democracy is at risk and without clean-up action renewed rioting in the streets is a serious possibility.

Tatty Ties

Is it a sure sign of aging that I think all school children look scruffy. Male and female they come wandering out of school finished for the day in the early afternoon and all looking like they have fallen off horses and been dragged backwards through a hedge. I understand that the Health & Safety Executive has taken a hand in smartening them up. They will no longer be allowed to wear old fashioned knotted ties with unofficial knots; ties which can hang loose or be offset to one side or the other, the shirt unbuttoned. Apparently, it is now considered that these ties are a hazard. Some bully could grab the tie, slide the knot up tight on the neck and pull it so hard that it cannot be removed. The implications are horrendous - school and teachers sued, child dying of strangulation, blood in the playground, Dept of Education sued, etc. It cannot be contemplated. So from now on, all ties will be clip-on type and as a bonus they should look smarter. Want to bet? Is this dumbing down or just lunacy?

Please Clean My Moat

As I was saying, yesterday was a bad news day. The headline news was all associated with the Daily Telegraph revelations about MPs expenses. Not only is the matter scandalous but it was made worse by MPs first rushing to bluster out their justifications and when this failed, pulling out their cheque books, offering to pay back various sums they have claimed over the last six years or so. Even the antics of the Speaker and others in trying to suppress the information over many months serves only to emphasise their collective guilt. But it was bound to come out eventually. As Sir Humphrey Appleby - that defender of democracy - told us, "Never try to keep secret something that people can find out by other means." Even now after a disastrous week for parliament too many members still do not seem to see just how bad things have become. I am starting to reach the conclusion that the whole of our society is in crisis. Fundamentally it is a crisis of greed; a consequence of the increasing gulf between the wealth of the very rich and the rest of society.

On Question Time last night, the audience heckled the politicians almost continuously and more than I have ever seen before on this programme - and the politicians deserved it. Menzies Campbell sought to justify his expenditure of £10,000, including the use of a designer to tart up his flat in London, on the basis that MPs were badly paid and if he had remained a barrister he would be earning far more. This is humbug. We cannot pay MPs or anybody else on the basis of what they could have earned in an entirely different profession. As leader of the Lib-Dems at the time, it may have been justified to allow his expenditure. But he defended having made an admission of guilt. Similarly, Margaret Beckett tried to justify her multiple claims on the basis that pay was poor - and was even less convincing.

Our MPs are paid at about average rate for MPs in countries in Europe. Maybe they should be paid a little more, but not massive amounts more. Expenses wholly incurred doing their jobs should be paid but surely that does not involve property dealing, tax evasion, moat cleaning, mole strangling, wisteria trimming, mending the tennis courts, grass cutting etc.?

The collection of old Tory grandees collecting their hand-outs as revealed on Wednesday made me and others start to believe that not only were David Cameron's attempts at reform of the party largely cosmetic but also that the 1832 reform of parliament had never happened and we were looking at established, comfortable members from the old rotten boroughs.

I feel that the electorate will take their revenge on all MPs with dodgy expenses - of whatever party - when they come to seek re-election. There is a disgust with the behaviour of Honourable Members that will not easily be expunged. I hope only that a functioning democracy can survive.

Bad News Day

Yesterday, Thursday, 14th May 2009, was a bad day for News. Not bad in the newspaper sense of no news. It was a bad day because there was so much bad news. One striking bit of bad news was reported only in the middle pages of most newspapers. Four more dead soldiers were driven in hearses through Wootton Bassett as they returned from Afghanistan. The local people lined the streets as they now always do; some saluted; some just hung their heads; flags were lowered. It seems that the inhabitants of this village have taken on the role of official mourners on behalf of the nation every time more dead soldiers arrive back at RAF Lyneham. The fact that the event was not unusual does not diminish the sacrifices made by these men. There was a time when four soldiers arriving together would warrant front page news - but not yesterday. How long will it go on? Why are we in Afghanistan? It seems clear that our soldiers are sent out with inadequate equipment - guns, vehicles, telecommunications, etc. and asked to do an almost impossible job. We pay them so badly and they get killed. And the reason that even in death they cannot make the front pages is because yesterday all of that space was used up by reports of MPs fiddling their expenses.

MPs are paid £65,000 per year [more than 3 x the pay of a junior soldier] and it is clear that many of them are boosting their incomes by all kinds of ludicrous scams. In the whole of my life, I don't think that I can remember a single event in politics that has so riled the whole nation, from the single mother in downtown Salford to the comfortably off in rural Berkshire, like this matter of expenses. While young men are being killed trying to do an almost impossible job imposed on them by parliament, our MPs are hard at work feathering their nests and asking us to pay for everything from second [and third] homes to cleaning the moat and trimming the wisteria.

There is something is rotten in the state of Britain

No To ID Cards

I see that this ghastly government - will no-one rid us of this useless administration? - has decided that, in spite of a national debt of spectacular proportions, a borrowing requirement that is almost unimaginable and a string of problems that could stretch from Lands End to John O'Groats, they feel the need to press ahead and chuck more money down the drain by introducing ID cards. Not only am I utterly opposed to ID cards on principle but also I know that the benefits the government claims will accrue from their existence will turn out to be mere fantasy and that the cards will contribute nothing to providing solutions to the problems of terrorism and international crime. ID cards will do one thing and one thing only; they will provide the government and police with a digital record of all the people in this country. Forget the idea that they will be voluntary; possession will be mandatory and carrying them everywhere for proving who we are will become essential. The government will deny this but already in their test run in Manchester they are demanding that all pilots carry ID cards and MPs are to be asked to vote to make the carrying of the cards non-voluntary. The foundations of a police state are being reinforced. The police are now much disliked, distrusted and often despised and we have a government that has attacked civil liberties like no other since Magna Carta [Libertatum]. Their obsessive control freakery must be resisted at every step. Day after day they demonstrate their total contempt for this country and its people and address us with a patronising arrogance that is insufferable. I fully support the airline pilots who are refusing to co-operate. We should all do the same.

Many years ago, in 1964, Harold Wilson began his first term as prime minister. He told us that his government had many problems that had been left behind by "13 years of Tory misrule". In a year's time, the Tories will be able to say the same about Labour. But Harold Wilson's problems are a mere little local difficulty compared with the problems we have now. Can this nation be allowed to become Great Britain again?

Abandoned Ferret

What makes News? In these days of financial crises, dodgy expense claims by MPs, showbiz and politics - Patsy gives Immigration Minister a rollicking - and when will Gordon give up, what we need is something really different. So, with no dog bites man story available, up comes "Abandoned Ferret Found by Binmen". The bin men in Crowborough, East Sussex said that they suspected something was not right with the green top wheelie bin because the lid was not closed properly. And there, inside, was an abandoned ferret - looking desperate - how does a ferret look when desperate? The ferret now named Wealden Will, was taken to Jarvis Brook Depot, Crowborough, where a member of staff applied for adoption. "Look dear, I decided that it would be nice to have a pet ferret", said Binman Jones who took the animal home to his wife, who realised immediately that it was something that they had always needed. The RSPCA has quite rightly condemned the person responsible for dumping the animal in the bin. Why would anyone decide to buy a ferret in the first place and then dump it? Was it a ferret with behavioural problems? They are not animals that one thinks of as affectionate and they do have a rather nasty bite. But surely the past owner knew that at the start. It's an odd world.

Car Cleaning

I have my car washed about once per week. I say have it washed because I pay for the service while I am shopping in Asda. The charge is £5.00 and it is a very convenient service. One of the team of cleaners in the car park now recognises my car and comes across to offer his services whenever I go to the shop. Many people doing this sort of work are East Europeans - mainly from Poland - and I assumed that he was as well. The last time he cleaned my car I came back before he had quite finished and I started to talk to him. He was not in fact from East Europe. He was from Iran. In our simple way we do tend to think of Iranians as Arabs which is not the case. They are a very diverse nation and only about 3% are actually Arabs. Thus my car cleaner did not look even slightly Arabian.

His car cleaning is not exactly lucrative work. On a good day he can clean 9 or 10 cars - ie £50. But often it is only 7 or 8 cars and if it is raining no-one wants their car cleaned at all. He works seven days per week and pays £400 per month for rent of a one bedroom flat. He takes almost no holiday but next month he is going to Doncaster for a few weeks. He has been here for four years and has been cleaning cars all that time. He owns no car and needs £30.00 per day [net] for his rent, food [and household bits] and cigarettes. It is not a life of excess. He has a girl-friend, Polish, who also cleans cars and they would like to get married. I assume that they live together - which will dramatically improve the rent situation - but, as he rightly points out, they have no money. "Is this better than living in Iran?" I asked him. He told me it was because conditions were more rational and stable. Cleaning cars might not be much but it was continuous work. My car cleaner wants to apply for British citizenship but he seemed to think that would take a few years. He is probably right.

I am no great enthusiast for immigration and I wonder why we need to employ a man from Iran to clean cars when we have more than 2 million people unemployed and collecting job seekers allowance - which is a lot less money than can be earned cleaning cars. But the reality is probably that a man from Iran will come here and work seven days per week to make a living and many of our long-term unemployed will not.

I have to wish my Iranian friend the very best of luck. He works hard and makes a good job of cleaning my car. Compare his efforts with a trader in an investment bank who has to get by on £1,000 per day and who, if he cocks up, will be bailed out by the state so that he can get back to earning his £1,000 per day as soon as possible.

The split between the super-haves and the have-nots is rather wide in this post-Thatcher society.

Olympic Games

In my thoughts yesterday about government spending, I said nothing about the 2012 Olympic Games. I have been against this mad project from the beginning. Whatever a country's financial situation, these games are a waste of money. In the present condition of government accounts spending a few billion pounds on 2 or 3 weeks of school sports is crackers. For any country that involves themselves in this quadrennial nonsense the costs are now astronomical. There are many who will, of course, do very well out of the project as they are paid to provide the buildings. goods and services to get the job done. It seems to have been acknowledged that the cost will reach £9.5 billion, yet every week we hear of more costs. The new press centre and the security seem set to cost £2 billion and there is no indication where this extra money will come from. The final bill will be, as I have said before, something nearer £20 billion than £10 billion. It is likely that numbers will be massaged and spun to make it look as though £9.5 billion was enough. But even if the costs remain within the budget the amount is still ridiculous.

Another matter that has come to my notice is that the IOC [International Olympic Committee] is lobbying for the UK government to introduce legislation to make use and possession of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs [PEDs] a criminal offence. At present it is only an offence to supply. They want such action to be taken prior to 2012. Pressure is being brought to bear from other quarters as well - specifically the American DEA. Various British governments have taken the view that criminalizing the violation of rules in a sporting event is not their responsibility. The government should not be charged with the prevention of cheating. They do not do this in any other area. The responsibility of government within the prescription of the Misuse of Drugs Act is to prevent damage to health and/or social cohesion. The evidence that PEDs cause serious problems of any kind is limited - and tiny compared with legal substances like alcohol and tobacco - and action against users would be a severe over-reaction. At the same time, I do not feel that it is acceptable for the IOC to try to dictate UK policy on this or on anything else. Nevertheless, there has been a world-wide over-reaction to steroids - particularly in the USA, where they have gone totally OTT - and I am not hopeful that the British government will continue to resist the demanded change.

Take into account all the chaos and disruption to day-to-day living and all-in-all, having the Olympic Games in London is not an attractive prospect.

Balancing The Books

In the last few days as Gordon Brown's administration has revealed the plan to borrow more money in the next 2 years than all the previous British Governments since the Act of Union in 1707 - not just more than any previous single government but more than all the previous governments put together. It is an extraordinary achievement that should, if nothing else, secure Gordon Brown a place in the Guinness Book of Records - the government that saddled the country with the most massive, astronomical public debt in history. Now, assuming that during their period of quantitative easing [printing money], for their next trick they do not finally bankrupt us, we will have to work out a scheme to get the country's balance sheet back on a firm footing. So what do we do?

On this matter Gordon Brown and his crew are strangely reticent. Addressing the blindingly obvious first: the government will have to stop spending money. Now, whenever anyone suggests such a thing we are told it means fewer nurses and doctors. It does not. First we tackle the monster wastes. Let us start with the nuclear submarines. No Trident replacement. We do not need nuclear submarines capable of launching monster bombs that can destroy the world. It is doubtful if we ever needed these weapons, although, I suppose that as long as we maintained the posture of a world power, they were a virility symbol. They are irrelevant now. Second. do not build the two huge aircraft carriers. Even now, no one knows why we needed them. Third, do not get involved in any more wars except where we really are defending Britain. Iraq and Afghanistan were not essential wars for the defense of Britain and, indeed, have made our home security worse.

On the Home Front : No more vast data bases; no ID cards; no more surveillance; and concentrate on a vast simplification of administration. This last is vital. This government, more than any in our history - another first - has complicated everything and generated more bureaucracy. I understand that our tax manual - guidance notes - stretches to 10,000 pages. This another World Record. How can this be? It is bureaucracy gone totally mad. About 26 years ago, the former leader of the Liberal Party, Jo Grimond, wrote an article in The Guardian in which he suggested that the Thatcher government would do us all a service if they promised to introduce no new legislation for ten years. They would have to introduce an annual budget and tinker with tax rates etc., but new legislation would there be none. This would [a] save money and [b] allow everybody to get to grips with running the system without the constant tinkering - most of which served little purpose anyway. The existing government could take this on board and save us countless billions spent incorporating the numerous changes and shifting paper about. It would be good for the environment, as well.

So there are some ideas. Taxes will have to rise but I think I would save the country a few hundred billions of pounds. But will it happen? No, of course not. This government will spend us into oblivion employing arms of consultants along the way. Will David Cameron be better? I doubt it. He needs to be elected on a manifesto full of blank pages and that really would be a challenge for a politician.