I absolutely agree. Brown raided the pensions and splurged the money on extra public servants, many of them in the NHS. What has been done to sort out this particular mess? Nothing except tinkering. One of the truest things that the now ennobled Ms Chakrabarti said when she was heading that NGO (Liberty I think) was that passing an act of parliament was the new spin. Blair was adept at this. Pass some legislation and the problem has gone away. Never mind that there was absolutely no enforcement afterwards. We have foreign aid and HS2 both crying out for stopping and Hinckley Point is not far behind although that project was a bit further advanced when May took over and she didn’t want to offend the Chinese. We do need to spend more money on defence but someone with knowledge needs to get in among the vested interests with a scalpel (or an axe) For example I have read that we have more officers of brigadier rank and above than the American marines which are much larger numerically than our army. This approach needs is always obvious. When I was in industry and cuts had to be made it was always the front line which suffered, the back office functions tended to remain untouched. This is exactly what has happened with the MoD and services as exemplified by the fact that the navy has far more admirals than ships.
As an ex-police officer I could not agree more. There is not nearly enough accountability in this country on the part of the police. For too long they have benefited from the “Dixon of Dock Green” image. The new Met Commissioner, Clarissa Dick was in charge of the operation which resulted in the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian electrician. When Boris Johnson wanted to appoint the ex police chief of New York, who had a proven track record, he was overruled by Theresa May who favoured Dick. And don’t get me started on the subject of senior police officers getting bonuses!!
Yes you are right. I had forgotten that! I remember one small shop on the border which could only be accessed from the North as the border was a stream running past the front door with a footbridge over it.
Exactly. I was stationed in South Armagh for 2 years in the RUC. Smuggling was a way of life and we would chase them during the day and drink with them in the evening. Everything was smuggled which had a price disparity on one side or the other. I particularly remember mustard and bicycle tubes being a favourite at one time and, of course, cattle always. The whole thing has become a red herring. I seriously doubt that there is any appetite for renewed violence over there now. A retired senior Irish Civil servant writing in the Telegraph yesterday says thar Varadkar has been mani[ulated and used by the EU.
Absolutely agree. How about adding a few tax paying years in as well.
You are right. I grew up in Northern Ireland and went to a Catholic primary school. I never came across a word of Irish even though, for example, it was the geography and history of Ireland which was taught as distinct from that of the British Isles. It is very much a minority language in the Republic and has been kept alive because in past years (I don’t know the present situation) you had to have the equivalent of an O level in Irish before you could get any public sector job. There is an excellent article by Ruth Dudley Edwards in today’s Telegraph on this. The whole thing is a complete red herring.
I don’t disagree with you on certain things. On hunting I have no affinity with those who hunt. Indeed I am rather reminded of Oscar Wilde’s description of it as the “unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable”. My real gripe with the Hunting Act was that it was a completely cynical gesture by Blair towards his left wing The prime motivation was not the welfare of the fox but it was seen as putting the boot into the so-called toffs which was why there was such a huge parliamentary attendance when the act was going through. It is also interesting that the only other European country to have banned hunting was Hitler’s Germany. I am not so sure about your assertion about RSPCA income. In fact I have read that it went down after some scandals about little old ladies being hounded about their pet cats or something similar. .
Yes but I worked in a very tough industry in the private sector so I am well aware of economic reality. I am afraid however that the charitable sector is becoming more like the public sector in being divorced from that reality. How about the RSPCA spending over £300k pursuing hunt supporters?
Probably get bonuses too like Chief Constables etc .
The vast majority of 16 year olds are idealists and therefore leftists which is why Corbyn and crew look favourably on the idea. I would actually raise the voting age so as to ensure that people paid taxes for a certain period of time before being allowed to vote. OK I am being facetious but there was an old maxim of ‘no taxation without representation’ and votes for 16 year old would mean representation without taxation, a fine state of affairs indeed. This woman was useless in office and even more so now.
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Opus