Terminal Symptoms Of The Ultimate Banana Republic?

We have stated repeatedly that, in our opinion, the "New" Labour administration, now well into its second term, is populated with inexperienced barristers, young women, incompetents, who show little evidence in experience of managing a business or organisation of any consequence, in their lives. A favourite comparator of those now "in charge" of huge state enterprises such as Law and Order, Education and the National Health Service, is that we would would not employ them to run as much as a whelk stall or a corner shop. Little better can be said of the Conservative Party which has shown with its "we this . . ." and "we that . . . " to be a party of reactive short-term electoral opportunism. For years the British people have suffered from the vagaries of a system of Law and Order, with its carefully framed legislation, and from a politicised, bureaucratised Police Force; an environment, in which victims have been all too often frightened or deterred from defending their property against intruders. Individuals who have dared to do so have been forced to endure months of worry, financial loss, fear of being arrested, detained and even being themselves charged. Vulnerable to the machinations of the C.P.S. ("Criminal Protection Society" - sorry! - Crown Prosecution Service), and even the prospect of finding themselves defendants in court because the intruder is entitled to sue them for assault or injury under Human Rights or Equal Opportunities legislation. Now, after a couple of high-profile murders at the hands of intruders, despite a string of brutal attacks on the elderly and infirm over many years, we hear of a Chief Constable (at last!), advocating the right of property owners to defend themselves, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (D.P.P.) reported, in The Daily Telegraph, of 9th September, 2004, as stating that "We must be able to fight off burglars". In the light of this longstanding public disgrace we now find the Conservative Party jumping on the same bandwagon as they smell a promising electoral issue, with their cynical "we this . . ." and "we that . . . " platitudes. So where have these great defendants of Middle England been all this time, that they have suddenly stumbled upon this enormous injustice? How squalid can one get? As a tailpiece, here is letter from Mr Gareth Boote on just one of several permutations of the problem.. Under the heading "Missing police", it appeared in The Daily Telegraph of 8th December, 2004:

The constabulary's blessing on the use of force on intruders is simply a signal that the police service is so inefficient that we can no longer rely on it in times of emergency. Five weeks ago, I was roused from my bed by my neighbour's cries for help. When I arrived next door, in my pyjamas and bare feet, I found that a number of youths had hurled a paving stone through the glass panel of his front door and taken his car keys. The youths ran away (minus the car), when my house lights came on. It was as well that we were unable to engage the enemy, because the response to five 999 calls was a lone police-man, who arrived twenty minutes later. Well, over a month afterwards, an officer rang to ask what I could remember and told me police had "flooded the area". That night, I had gone out in my car in search of the culprits. I saw nothing but a fox trotting down the pavement.

Perhaps Mr Boote and his neighbour should count themselves lucky. Could the month's delay have been due to the time taken by the C.P.S. and the stress and emotion industry in deciding whether or not to bring them to court for causing mental distress or infringing the democratic rights of the youths concerned for pursuing them? But we must move on to another area and an institution, that of Parliament that once, we are told, made us the envy of the rest of the world. The Guardian of 7th December, 2004, devoted precious newsprint to a report headed "Women M.Ps. bullied and abused in Parliament". Surely this had to be tongue in cheek, but apparently not. With the world in turmoil, with the economy, the dollar, pension schemes and the rest collapsing around us, with genocidal campaigns being waged in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa, Professor Joni Lovenduski of Birkbeck College, Margaret Moran, M.P., and researcher Boni Sones (who pays their salaries?), have produced a survey of "Westminster's antediluvian attitudes" towards female M.Ps. Apparently it contains startling testimony about such practices as male M.Ps. asking to 'roger' colleagues, juggling imaginary breasts and crying 'melons' as women try to speak in the Commons".

All we can say as humble members of the electorate who pay their salaries is that we are the ones being "rogered", so "melons" to you, too!

Police State Beneath the Veneer Of Democracy

Dr Arpad Pusztai is the Hungarian-born Scottish-based scientist who, in 1998, lost his job with the Rowett Research Institute and was targeted by the Scientific Establishment when he demonstrated that Genetically Modified (G.M.), potatoes caused cancer in rats. At the time the Institute was on record as beneficiary of a £140,000 grant from the American Monsanto Corporation. We are now told by Jose MacDonald of Farming and Livestock Concern that, when she invited Dr Pusztai to attend a high-level conference at the European Commission in Brussels (where Monsanto maintains a permanent lobby), on Genetically Modified (G.M.) material, he replied that he was unable to do so. His explanation was that he had sent his research papers to the Commission and had since received a 5-page letter from the Commission instructing him that the content was to be discussed with no one, and that failure to abide by this ruling would risk action under the Official Secrets Act. We may recall that this same Act was invoked to muzzle veterinary officers during the disastrous Foot and Mouth Disease Crisis, in 2001. It is also embodied in the Medicines Act, Section 118, to "safeguard" the interests of the Pharmaceutical Industry.

The freelance journalist Felicity Arbuthnot, as our subscribers will know, is an expert on Iraq and campaigned for a dozen years after the Gulf War, of 1991, against the genocidal, draconian sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations; in effect, by the United States and the United Kingdom. When welfare worker Margaret Hassan, revered throughout Iraq, was taken hostage shortly before the American-led Coalition Forces launched their massacre in Fallujah in October this year, Felicity Arbuthnot was widely consulted by the Media at home and abroad as a personal friend of Margaret Hassan, and who had worked with her in Iraq. Margaret Hassan had held Irish and Iraqi passports. As she had when working with the Dutch-based Paul Bigley, brother of another ill-fated hostage, Ken Bigley, Felicity Arbuthnot was well aware of two vital factors. One was the extremely tenuous and dangerous chain of contacts that had to be used to reach the kidnappers themselves. The other was that publicity about the possession by either victim of a United Kingdom passport could place them at serious risk as this would automatically associate them in the minds of the kidnappers with the British Government, so with the Coalition and the puppet Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Hallawi. Shortly after the suspected execution of Margaret Hassan, Felicity Arbuthnot telephoned On Target to say that she had just received an angry telephone call on Sunday afternoon by no less that John Williams, Press Secretary at the Foreign Office, in which he warned her to desist from this line of argument.

The Strange Case Of Margaret Hassan

The kidnapping of Margaret Hassan involved a strange paradox. She had been snatched from her car by those supposedly associated with the more extreme of the various factions of the Iraqi resistance. It was also when the British Government was poised to authorise the despatch of the Black Watch to support the United States assault on Fallujah. To have used Margaret Hassan, effectively "one of their own", as a bargaining "card" against the move of the Black Watch, would logically have been counter-productive for the Iraqi cause. When Margaret Hassan was finally, tragically said to have been executed, we were informed that a badly mutilated body was to be flown home for D.N.A. testing to confirm the identity. Nothing of this seems to have been heard since. At the same point, of the assault on Fallujah, it was reported that a cousin of Prime Minister Iyad Hallawi had been kidnapped along with two female relatives; later that the two women had been released. Logically, this episode should have been grounds for serious concern for both Allawi and for the Coalition. Again, we appear to have heard nothing since. We may reasonably argue, therefore, that those associated with the Coalition could well have kidnapped and executed Margaret Hassan to discredit the Iraqi resistance at a crucial time, and that the "kidnapping" of Allawi's close relatives was a "blind"; a Diversion.

The "Them" and "Us" Of The Political Scene

The ever vigilant Bob Wydell wrote to the Shropshire Star of 29th October, 2004, under the title "This is an opportune time for a complaint".

An "Opportunity Society" is New Labour's carrot to persuade us to give them a third term in office - some carrot. We will be given the "opportunity" to lose our benefits and go back to work, our children will be given the "opportunity" to go to university and get into debt. Many thousands of us whose pension funds have collapsed will have the "opportunity" to retire in poverty and watch those who have done nothing about the Pension Fund crisis enjoy the most generous pension settlements in the country. We will also be given the "opportunity" to work until we are 70. A tiny minority of us will be given the "opportunity" to get elected and enjoy an M.P.'s salary, the £100,000 expenses allowed, the generous milage allowance, the £33,000 paid to a defeated or retiring M.P. to cover the costs of completing his/her outstanding duties, or even the £57,000 retirement allowance to cover the cost of "adjusting to non-parliamentary life". An even smaller minority will get the honour of joining the House of Lords and the "opportunity" to claim £290 per day in attendance allowances. Ask your nearest pensioner couple how all that compares with their "weekly" pension.

Sovereignty And Prosperity Two Newsletters To Back

Sovereignty is an 8-page newsletter published monthly in A4 format. It deals with a wide range of National and European Union questions. Prosperity is a 4-page newsletter published in similar format to the same frequency. It specialises in financial and economic matters and generally reflects the views of the Bromsgrove Group for Monetary and Economic Reform. Both newsletters are published by Alistair D. McConnachie from 268 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR. The cost for each for 12 issues is £15 annually. Contact: Tel: 0141 332 2214; Fax: 0141 353 6900; E-mail: <admcc@admcc.freeserve.co.uk>