Swivel-eyed loon?

Debating an issue anywhere, but especially on twitter, has taught me that resorting to insults means you have lost the argument. Completely and unequivocally.

If wanting a Government that takes account of and then properly represents the people it serves, makes me a swivel-eyed loon, count me in.

If having perfectly legitimate concerns and views on issues that affect everyone in the country, like the EU, makes me a swivel-eyed loon, I'm your man.

If articulating my views and concerns in a civil, cogent and respectful way, with reasoned argument, factual content and serious issues, not based on what's in it for me as an individual, but on real problems facing not just British people but ordinary people throughout Europe makes me a swivel-eyed loon, then I'm happy to wear that badge.

What I am not prepared to do is to be called a swivel-eyed loon by a fucking chinless wonder who has never had to do a day's work in his life; who has no idea what it's like to count the pennies to provide for his family.

You cannot dismiss us any more Lord Feldman. We're coming after you. And for Dave, and Nick, and Ed.

And we're doing so calmly. With reasoned arguments and views. Issues will be highlighted and examined. Promises will not be forgotten. We are, finally, more powerful than your old boys network. Be very afraid.

So who's still fighting the last war?

This cartoon was in yesterday's Times newspaper. Presumably our august Journal of record agrees with the sentiment that Nadine Dorries and Nigel Farage are still fighting the last war, almost 70 years after it ended - and 70 years to the day, since the Dambusters' audacious raid which saw the Mohne and Edersee Dams breached by bouncing bombs and the subsequent catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr Valley. Nice one Peter Brookes (whose cartoon this is). 

Trouble is, it's the EU that is still fighting the last war - and actually, if you look closely enough, winning it, on behalf of Germany.

The EU is a 60 year old institution created to solve a 70 year-old problem; an institution that has subsequently become - oh bitter irony - the tool being used by Germany to achieve the takeover of Europe that Mr Hitler couldn't quite manage through force, during the last unpleasantness.

The irony doesn't end there: This time the German approach has been to lend poor people (countries) money; watch them waste it (as was entirely predictable) and then lend them some more, until the poor countries are hopelessly, uncontrollably indebted to Germany. Banks, instead of tanks, if you will. You have to wonder where on earth those crafty Germans ever got this idea from.

Or maybe you don't.

You may think that this is all a bit strong ('old chap') but do me a favour and consider the following:

Do you think Germany didn't know that the Greeks pay hardly any tax; have 5 hour lunches, retire at 52 and enjoy sunshine, wine and ouzo, before they (the Germans) made the EU's cheap money available to them (the Greeks)?

And if you lend money that is not paid back, why would you lend even more, unless you had an ulterior motive? 

Do you think Germany didn't know that, with a single currency eliminating the possibility for weaker countries to devalue and rebalance their economies, German companies would 'eat the lunch' of their southern European rivals and at the same time enjoy a 30% exchange rate advantage compared to where they'd have been with the Deutchmark - effectively fucking UK industry as well as the rest of the Eurozone? German companies are currently buying up Spanish, Greek and Portuguese businesses like it's going out of fashion; Germany is booming while there's 30% unemployment in Spain.

Mr Brookes and the Times think UKIP and it's supporters are still fighting the last war. You know what? I hope they're right, because unless more people take up the fight against this German takeover of Europe, the millions who died in the last war will have done so in vain. 

And then we'll all be German. And none of us will be allowed, or have the time, between sleeping, working and death, to enjoy even a small amount of that Greek lifestyle. Old chap. 

Thanks for reading.

Mark 

tumbleweed

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UKIP - A welcome spanner in the works?

I'm sure that cleverer people than I could get the following sentiment into 140 characters. Just about everyone, then, but I cannot, hence a quick and hopefully short blog on the success of UKIP and the pulling of UK politics to what people (usually with a left-leaning agenda) call 'the right'.

It would be completely disingenuous of me, having advocated that people should vote for UKIP in order to kick the other parties; to raise the issue of the EU much higher up the political agenda; to try to get the voices of 'ordinary' voters heard, and to 'force' call-me-Dave into shifting his ground, if I were now to criticise him for doing so.

Whether, in his heart of hearts he really believes in a more Ukipian stance: lower taxes, smaller Government, fewer laws and regulations, an exit from the disaster that is the EU, is largely irrelevant to me: If he doesn't believe in these traditional 'Tory' values, even though the majority of the population does, (48% voted for Tory or UKIP against 29% for Labour this week) then we need a way of forcing him into it. They supposedly work for us after all. (I know that's laughable but hey ho).

People will say that the traditional parties have MPs and UKIP does not; that they (the existing main parties) have publicly and democratically mandated policies, so they have the voters 'on side'. But where is the choice? None of the main parties was offering an anti EU option at the last election. Even though it was a front and centre issue for many people. And to say, as they endlessly and infuriatingly do, that you voted for us so you must accept everything in our manifesto, is just bollocks. People vote for people, leaders in the main and the general stance of the party, rather than local MPs, or every single detail in the manifesto. So to say 'it was in our manifesto' as a catch-all, get out of jail free card drives me potty.

The fact is that Dave is so far out of step with traditional Tory values that he might as well be Blair's successor. Yes they're doing things about Welfare and the NHS, MOD funding and equipment levels that were woeful under the last lot; Gove is taking on the dinosaur teaching unions at last, and there is a fairly half-hearted attempt to get UK finances back under control after the almost criminal ineptitude of the last Labour Government.

But there's no 'vision'. No route-map to getting the country back on its feet. No recognition of the biggest threat we face in my opinion, which is the Germanification of Europe - not just to the detriment of the UK, but the potentially fatal damage being done to our friends amongst the ordinary populous of Southern Europe.

I am not anti-Europe in any way: I am European. I have worked in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Scandinavia. I have friends there. I love the culture and lifestyle of many of those countries. I would fight for their freedom - as we did as a nation twice during the unpleasantnesses of the last century. So why are we standing by while they are oppressed by the EU as Germany's current agent in its quest for European domination? (Think that's too strong? Think about it carefully, objectively, then get back to me).

So enter UKIP. A welcome voice for people who have no other outlet on this issue: Is defending people who are struggling to feed their kids in Spain, Greece etc., right wing? Is it nasty? While fat Eurocrats enjoy a lifestyle that would make Solomon blush? Is stealing money out of people's own bank accounts something we should applaud? What if it was your account?

So if UKIP's success can force Dave to change his stance in the right direction, can help to change UK policy on the EU, can, by making our eventual exit more likely, help the struggling people of southern Europe in particular (if we leave the EU will crumble even more quickly than it will naturally imo - they need us more than we need them), then it's a good thing. Possibly a great thing.

So, as I see it right now, UKIP can be an effective spanner in the works that gives us more of a say on the EU and that forces Dave to move to the right for his own survival. Ultimately, if they won't listen to voter's views or do what's right for the country over what's right for their party, they will, if faced with losing their own livelihood and career, have to do what keeps them in a job.

That's not how it should be. Not how most MPs would describe their motivation, but it is the reality of modern-day political office. Just as the Eurocrats will do anything to keep their extremely well-paid jobs, including selling out their own people without hesitation, so UK MPs will do whatever it takes to keep their cushy jobs. It's time to use this power we have over them, to force them to do what we want them to do. There's no other way it seems to me.

UKIP is doing us all a service in this regard and long may they continue to do so. And it's not just the Tories who are under threat. The Lib Dems are pretty much toast now thankfully, but even Labour's stance on Europe, on borrowing, on immigration is being swept away by the sense being talked by UKIP imo. The political landscape is changing. At last. And that's a good thing. UKIP is healthy for our democracy because it is challenging the status quo and it is not simply a protest party. It has momentum, leadership, vision, charisma. You might not like it, but it's true.

Final point, just so as not to seem to be entirely Machiavellian about this, Frage is a Tory to his roots. I'm not sure Dave is. So who knows what the future may hold?

Thanks for reading.

Hold your nose if you have to, but vote UKIP, just this once

I tweeted the following yesterday but just wanted to expand, briefly on what I mean:

They won't (yet) get my vote in a Gen Election but on the basis of what's good for the country, I hope #UKIP does well on Thursday. 

It's a rare opportunity to tell Dave et al that we've had enough of EU bullshit. Almost a mini-referendum imo. Don't waste it. #no2EU

A vote 4 Dave says 'it's all going OK' when it isn't. For Ed it's a vote 4... well what exactly? No ideas or policies. A UKIP vote= #no2EU 

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Of course all the parties will 'spin' Thursdays results once they're in: 

The Tories (who will probably do surprisingly well given where we are in the electoral cycle - mid term - and given the state of the economy) will tell us that what they're doing is working and that their vote has held up well (most of the seats being contested are in the south though, remember). But they will lose significant numbers of councillors just because they are starting from such a high base - or from Labour's lowest ever base when these seats were last contested. 

I think Labour will do much worse than they should be doing at the stage in the cycle for geographical reasons and because they currently offer very little in the way of reasons to vote 'for' them. No policies, no big ideas, no charismatic leadership from Mr Miliband. The spectre of McCluskey and the unions pulling their strings. Their crass and complete economic failure when they were last in power and for which they have still not taken responsibility or apologised. 

Ed Balls.

Not much has been said during the build-up about the Lib Dems, but I think they are quietly dreading Friday morning. I think Thursday will be disastrous for the Lib Dems. I think they have moved from the forgotten party that could say anything because they would never have to implement it in reality, to one which has had its hands on the levers of power and been found woefully wanting. Oh for a quiet life eh Nick? Still Simon Hughes will be wheeled out to put any kind of gloss that he can on things. Good luck with that Simon.

So, UKIP then. I think and hope that they will do well. Not because I am a UKIP member or supporter, but because if they do, it will shunt what I believe is the biggest issue facing all of us at this time - that's all of us in the UK and in Europe - further up the political agenda to the point where it cannot be virtually ignored by politicians as is currently the case. I am of course referring to the EU.

I have blogged about the EU many times. About how it is an organisation established in the 1950s to address a problem of the 1930s and 40s. How it is unaccountable, undemocratic. How it is effectively a German takeover of continental Europe, using banks and not tanks this time, but the end result will be the same unless we do something to stop it.

That may sound a bit strong, but before you dismiss the notion, consider the issues and the facts that are going on right under our noses - here.

While the unelected fat cats of the Eurocrasy are enjoying their fabulous lifestyles and pissing €billions of our money up the wall, real people, across the whole of Southern Europe are struggling to eat. Germany is booming because it has  the double economic benefit of lower exchange rates than would be the case if it had its own currency (making it massively more competitive in the world and damaging other EU members' competitiveness and indeed the UK's ability to compete against German industry and services) and much lower borrowing costs because it is effectively the central bank for the Eurozone. Meanwhile all other EU economies are struggling, some are openly bust and some, like France, are hanging on in quiet desperation, wholly subservient to Germany for its economic continuance.

They say that all politics is local, and the coming elections are 'local' after all. So how does moving the seat of government further away, to a place where they don't even speak your language, let alone understand your local issues, help matters? And how does it help if the people making decisions which affect all of us are effectively unelected and unaccountable to ordinary voters.

The EU has shown recently that it can steal your money, from your own bank account - money that has been legitimately earned and on which tax will already have been paid - in order to bail-out failing banks and to recoup money loaned by the ECB (European Central Bank) to borrowers in southern Europe, for example, whom they knew would piss it up the wall before the loan was originally made.

Do you think Germany didn't know that Greeks work a few hours a day, retire at 52, enjoy the sunshine and the wine and don't pay much if any tax, before they got them into financial hock (pardon the pun) by giving them cheap money? And then, when they couldn't pay the first lot back, gave them even more money to the point where they now have no hope of ever paying it back?

And that's not being critical of Greeks, just stating the reality. Given the choice between their lifestyle and that of a German - or British - worker, I know which I'd choose, if I could get away with it and sustain it. 

The trouble is that now they're tied in to the Euro these southern European countries cannot devalue their currencies in order to rebalance their economies and become more competitive with Germany. And by the same token, Germany has established a playing field whereby its efficient industries are competing with laughably weak counterparts in the south. No wonder Germany's booming. A captive market that cannot possibly dream of competing with them. German companies are currently buying up southern European businesses like it's going out of fashion. 

A free trade area, which is what we signed up to via Ted Heath's trickery in the early 1970s, is all well and good but 'Union'? That was never voted on by anyone in Europe. It has just been, 'slowly slowly' and 'step by step' imposed from the centre. By Germany in reality. And it's bumbling failures and silly laws have been put out there to the point where many people just ignore the EU as a silly ineffective joke of an organisation. While behind the buffoonery, the sinister, carefully planned, Machiavellian process of taking over all aspects of European governance and control has been relentlessly going on.

The EU makes laws we cannot rescind in the UK even if our democratically elected Government wishes to do so. The EU spends 120m a year just moving the whole circus between Strasbourg and Brussels to appease the French. The EU is unaccountable, its annual budgets have been rejected by auditors for the last 18 years in a row. They have never been signed off as accurate and accountable, but it's our money.  It is trying to make Spanish, Greek, Cypriot, Portuguese, Irish people 'German' in their outlook and behaviour. It is effectively creating a single super-state that will control every aspect of our lives.

It's time, in my view that we had a vote on this stuff. A proper vote not just some mealy-mouthed half-baked excuse that will change nothing. The European Union project is fundamentally flawed and is more likely to create conflict and war than to achieve its original aim of making European wars less likely in the future. It is unfair to its citizens and it's time to dismantle the machinery before it's too late. it might already be too late.

One thing's for sure, voting for Dave and telling him it's all OK really, will not make any difference to his approach to the EU. Telling Ed that you believe in what he stands for (and if you do, I'd be grateful if you could let me know what it is), will similarly have no effect on the EU. Telling pro-EU Nick Clegg that he's doing a good job, might just shock him into changing, but I doubt it.

It's UKIP then. I'm not suggesting that you sign up, become a member or a lifelong supporter. I'm not suggesting that you make a donation. I'm not even suggesting that you study their manifesto and investigate their policies on bananas. I am suggesting, just this once - and hold your nose if you have to - that you vote for them. Only through a great performance by UKIP on Thursday will this vote have any impact on our stance on Europe. Only then will Dave et al have to acknowledge that the EU is a massive issue for the UK population and only then will we get the proper debate and the proper investigation and yes referendum that we so desperately want and need in this country.

It's a local election, not a general one. I'd suggest that you treat it as a mini-referendum on the EU. I know it's not billed as that, but a vote for UKIP would effectively make it so. It would be a clear signal to Government. No other vote will have anything like the same impact of effect.

So do go and vote. Hold your nose if you have to, it's not a permanent and binding contract, just a cross on a piece of paper. But it will send a clear message to Dave and Van Rompuy et al, that enough is enough. Vote UKIP just this once and then let's see, on Thursday.

Thanks for reading.